Dear Frontier Development,
I love Elite: Dangerous and of the over 400 computer/video games I have, it is one I keep coming back and playing a lot. I had spent 7 weeks, 3 days, and 18 hours of in game time to reach triple elite and still have kept playing. I have been playing since slightly after the wings update of version 1.2.6 was released. And I am angry about how things have been going lately.
Firstly, you change the crime and punishment system in a noble attempt to stem problems with unconsensual Player versus Player combat but end up overly punishing any mistakes made by those who are playing lawful combateers. You couple these changes to the C&P system with bugs only recently fixed that errantly give them wanted status, thus making it not worth the risk to bounty hunt for me, one of the things I really like to do.
Secondly, you conduct version update beta tests for very large mechanic changes and then don't budget much time to fix many of the game breaking bugs that the beta finds before releasing the new version. And then depending on what aspect of the game the bugs impact, some of us have to wait months or even multiple full version updates to get our favorite activities working as intended. The issue mentioned above about bugs causing wanted states in error only seemed to be removed from known issue lists during the beta for v3.4 and was introduced during v3.1 ... a full 3 beta tested versions and most of 2018 till it was fixed. Other multiple version lasting bugs include the bringing an NPC's powerplant to 0% not having any effect. Things seem to be getting worse as the v3.4 beta lasted 5 weeks, had two thousand three hundred some bug reports, and was given only one measly week to correct issues before being released. And when it was released v3.4 was so starved for bug fixes that many people could not even get the game to run without crashing to desktop. I know you guys were under pressure from the accountants and shareholders to make the Q4 2018 release deadline but releasing a product that has so many issues it doesn't work for substantial parts of the user base will only hurt future revenue and alienate fans. Compounding this fiasco, was the fact you rushed the update before several major holidays and so your QA team and anyone who could fix the worst issues were on holiday leave, making it so your many fans who encountered game breaking bugs could not play the game over a major end of the year sales generating holiday season. There will definitely have been cases of people receiving the game as a gift during the holidays who have returned the game for a refund as it didn't work when they got it. Even now that the holidays are over you have yet to release any hotfixes or patches past the first small one released before the holidays. What makes me even angrier about this whole situation is the bug report forum has almost as many threads as the beta, and a month after release you haven't even bothered to post a known issue list, a step that would at least let the community know that things are being worked on in an organized fashion.
Thirdly, you've start major story-line altering community events that many who are interested or invested in won't be able to participate in due to the many unfixed game breaking bugs caused by your rush to get the v3.4 update out the door before the end of Q4 2018. Seriously, you decided now was a good time to start a community event that looks like it will decide if the Empire goes into civil war that requires participation in combat zones. The combat zones that are at this moment suffering from game breaking bugs such as the "CZ keeps moving away" bug and the "Conflict Zones are Empty" bug which are currently QA-staff sticky threads in the bug report forum. Add to this the bugs causing crashes, lost data, lost control settings, intermittent game freezes, keyboards suddenly not working in game, etc... who thought it would be a great time to start this event instead of after hotfixes address the worst issues? It is insulting to those of us who pay attention and want to contribute to the storyline to have these events take place when there are multiple issues preventing them from contributing. Its not like there are many who look forward to going through the support process to get back ships and crew that get destroyed or killed due to bugs.
I know this has been a rambling vent of anger but I want you to know I'm only angry because I love this game, I have invested a lot of time and considerable money with this game, and I am angry about whats been happening to it. Please Frontier, for the sake of your many loving fans and playerbase, do better. Take longer to make sure a major version update is ready and won't break things upon release. Prioritize bug fixes over new features and release bug fixes when they are ready instead of waiting to release them along with a major version update. And communicate more with your fans about what you are working on, what you are planning, and the reasons behind them. Don't keep doing what you are doing now where a large part of the changelog is a suprise when the changelog is posted.
Sincerely from a fan,
Commander DNYI
I love Elite: Dangerous and of the over 400 computer/video games I have, it is one I keep coming back and playing a lot. I had spent 7 weeks, 3 days, and 18 hours of in game time to reach triple elite and still have kept playing. I have been playing since slightly after the wings update of version 1.2.6 was released. And I am angry about how things have been going lately.
Firstly, you change the crime and punishment system in a noble attempt to stem problems with unconsensual Player versus Player combat but end up overly punishing any mistakes made by those who are playing lawful combateers. You couple these changes to the C&P system with bugs only recently fixed that errantly give them wanted status, thus making it not worth the risk to bounty hunt for me, one of the things I really like to do.
Secondly, you conduct version update beta tests for very large mechanic changes and then don't budget much time to fix many of the game breaking bugs that the beta finds before releasing the new version. And then depending on what aspect of the game the bugs impact, some of us have to wait months or even multiple full version updates to get our favorite activities working as intended. The issue mentioned above about bugs causing wanted states in error only seemed to be removed from known issue lists during the beta for v3.4 and was introduced during v3.1 ... a full 3 beta tested versions and most of 2018 till it was fixed. Other multiple version lasting bugs include the bringing an NPC's powerplant to 0% not having any effect. Things seem to be getting worse as the v3.4 beta lasted 5 weeks, had two thousand three hundred some bug reports, and was given only one measly week to correct issues before being released. And when it was released v3.4 was so starved for bug fixes that many people could not even get the game to run without crashing to desktop. I know you guys were under pressure from the accountants and shareholders to make the Q4 2018 release deadline but releasing a product that has so many issues it doesn't work for substantial parts of the user base will only hurt future revenue and alienate fans. Compounding this fiasco, was the fact you rushed the update before several major holidays and so your QA team and anyone who could fix the worst issues were on holiday leave, making it so your many fans who encountered game breaking bugs could not play the game over a major end of the year sales generating holiday season. There will definitely have been cases of people receiving the game as a gift during the holidays who have returned the game for a refund as it didn't work when they got it. Even now that the holidays are over you have yet to release any hotfixes or patches past the first small one released before the holidays. What makes me even angrier about this whole situation is the bug report forum has almost as many threads as the beta, and a month after release you haven't even bothered to post a known issue list, a step that would at least let the community know that things are being worked on in an organized fashion.
Thirdly, you've start major story-line altering community events that many who are interested or invested in won't be able to participate in due to the many unfixed game breaking bugs caused by your rush to get the v3.4 update out the door before the end of Q4 2018. Seriously, you decided now was a good time to start a community event that looks like it will decide if the Empire goes into civil war that requires participation in combat zones. The combat zones that are at this moment suffering from game breaking bugs such as the "CZ keeps moving away" bug and the "Conflict Zones are Empty" bug which are currently QA-staff sticky threads in the bug report forum. Add to this the bugs causing crashes, lost data, lost control settings, intermittent game freezes, keyboards suddenly not working in game, etc... who thought it would be a great time to start this event instead of after hotfixes address the worst issues? It is insulting to those of us who pay attention and want to contribute to the storyline to have these events take place when there are multiple issues preventing them from contributing. Its not like there are many who look forward to going through the support process to get back ships and crew that get destroyed or killed due to bugs.
I know this has been a rambling vent of anger but I want you to know I'm only angry because I love this game, I have invested a lot of time and considerable money with this game, and I am angry about whats been happening to it. Please Frontier, for the sake of your many loving fans and playerbase, do better. Take longer to make sure a major version update is ready and won't break things upon release. Prioritize bug fixes over new features and release bug fixes when they are ready instead of waiting to release them along with a major version update. And communicate more with your fans about what you are working on, what you are planning, and the reasons behind them. Don't keep doing what you are doing now where a large part of the changelog is a suprise when the changelog is posted.
Sincerely from a fan,
Commander DNYI
