News Development Update - 15th Jan

[Harbinger]

I wasn't aware FD had previously stated planet landing and walkabout mode would be paid DLC, but if it was detailed as such in the kickstarter I've only myself to blame for not knowing. Did they give any indication on the pricing for each one?

No indication on pricing, all we really have to gauge the potential price of an individual DLC is that they were charging £35 for a lifetime expansion pack up until 6 months ago.

Planetary landing is definitely going to be a paid DLC but I think certain FPS aspects may well be included for free such as walking around on your vessel and maybe limited movement on space stations as these will likely be considered basic functionality whereby exploring planets or within the habitat ring of Orbis starports would likely require a lot of extra work.

 

[Loskene]

No indication on pricing, all we really have to gauge the potential price of an individual DLC is that they were charging £35 for a lifetime expansion pack up until 6 months ago.

Planetary landing is definitely going to be a paid DLC but I think certain FPS aspects may well be included for free such as walking around on your vessel and maybe limited movement on space stations as these will likely be considered basic functionality whereby exploring planets or within the habitat ring of Orbis starports would likely require a lot of extra work.

Well that doesn't sound too bad really. Funny that I feel more like giving them money the more I hear they're giving away for free.

 

[Mechanoid]

Planetary landings - this is what I want. I wanted it in the original Elite, and I still want it now. Great to hear this game is going to be worked on for (hopefully) years to come. I can't even imagine how great this could be in 5 years time! Good up the good work & thanks to David & all the team!

 

[darshie76]

So how do you feel about WoW? Pay for updates and a monthly subscription.

Wait, you can't be serious right? WOW is not a beta I am against any kind of monthly subscription, when you already pay for a game. If the hassle to maintain your data center is too high, and you need to ask monthly fees, then just close and sell hot dogs

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Ok. I will not play anymore until march.

Makes no sense to get bored with the actual state of the game, there is no way to have a decent multiplayer experience.

I'm also quite sure when I will be back to play in 2 months half the players will have dropped elite and will be playing something.

Got bored of waiting for a complete game, you got a lot of money from us, hire double the developer finish the game and give us a decent product!

Good luck.

Well, then you need to buy EA products That's not how it works nowadays with crowd-funded projects.

You give them money? They want more; it is only logical! Why step back when you already put in the game 300 dollars, or 100, or 40?

Take it as joke, as long as customer buy stuff, more stuff gets made; and to make more stuff, you need more money, that comes from.....customers!

 

[darshie76]

There is no mystery in what they consider a paid expansion, it has been known since the days of the kickstarter (over 2 years ago) that they would release a core game and then add major game updates like planetary landings, walking around on stations/planets, EVA (space walking) etc. in the form of DLCs. This is how the server costs will be met instead of having a monthly subscription fee.

Just because they are working on future DLCs it doesn't mean that they'll suddenly stop working on improving the core game for free. Wings has already been confirmed as a free update so there is nothing to fear on that front.

There is no denying that the current core game is in definite need of improvement, even the most devout white knight will concede as much. However it is a little soon to come to the conclusion that the £39.99/€49.99/$59.99 entry fee is bad value for money because you're paying for a game which will evolve and expand over time and not some static game which has little to no replay value. I personally expect that by the time the first paid DLC comes along the core game will have improved significantly and all for no extra cost.

FDEV should definitely consider releasing the Single player Combat Training as a "try before you buy" demo now that the game has been released, I'm sure it would help some of those on the fence if they could trial the combat prior to purchase.

Well, the core game is the same game as 30 years ago, with few add on and nice graphic....you may agree that people had different expectations.
Planetary landing and FPS mechanics are almost a given, and we know that they will come at cost of extra money (unless you purchased the pass during beta; and I seriously hope that they won't think to put a major feature in a release and charge also the backers that paid for the expansion pass during beta, because at that point you won't see posts anymore but people outside Frontier's offices).

There is no plan to improve anything on the "core" game; this is what it is; we may speculate that it is impossible that this is all that we will get; but that would be mostly denial.

There will be fixes, minor tweaks; but until a major update; forget about any change.

If ain't broken, there is no need to fix anything.

Why would the single player combat be useful, to evaluate this game? There are at least 4-5 games that were made a decade ago, that are space shooters and are still fun nowadays for almost free....a potential ED player is the one that wants exploration, mining, and all the things that you can read on the promo material; and I would dare FD to put out a demo of ED that show what you actually do, when engaged in these activities It would act as detrimental instead than positive, toward a potential purchase. Let's face it: this is nostalgia galore; most of us are the little guys that played Elite so long ago; we don't need a trial to buy this game...we just buy it
Now I am curious to know how many non nostalgic players, did purchase the game.

 

[Anas]

I am new to this series, I've never played an Elite game before, and didn't notice this one until release. But, once I discovered it, I just put all the other games I had waiting to be done in a drawer, bought a HOTAS System and jumped into this amazing world that is our Galaxy.
Keep up the good work Frontier, we'll be waiting for future updates and major expansions.

 

[ollobrains]

I am new to this series, I've never played an Elite game before, and didn't notice this one until release. But, once I discovered it, I just put all the other games I had waiting to be done in a drawer, bought a HOTAS System and jumped into this amazing world that is our Galaxy.
Keep up the good work Frontier, we'll be waiting for future updates and major expansions.

and remember to implment the DDA in a complex but interactive way ie colony expansion and so forth.

 

[Harbinger]

There is no plan to improve anything on the "core" game; this is what it is; we may speculate that it is impossible that this is all that we will get; but that would be mostly denial.

Wings is a free improvement to the core game, certain aspects will be free but others will be part of paid DLCs. You are correct that it is merely speculation as to what aspects will be added for free. Nobody outside of FDEV knows for sure. To be honest I have no issues either way, I backed at the DDF level way back in the kickstarter campaign so lifetime expansions are already covered as part of my pledge level.

Why would the single player combat be useful, to evaluate this game?

Even if the potential purchaser's gameplay would not necessarily revolve around combat the Single Player Combat Training still has value. Some people may find it useful to get a feel for the flight mechanics or test their joystick ahead of making a purchase. I've seen many potential customers ask if there is a playable demo in Twitch streams for this exact reason. The Single Player Combat Training also ceased to have a purpose when the pre-order players came into the fold, these tutorials are included as part of the core game and accessible via the main menu. Why not retask the Single Player Combat Training for potential customers at this stage?

 

[Chioxin]

Not sure if the DEVs are still reading this but... as for "Navigation."

I'm quite fine with the 100 LY navigation stuff. In fact, that restriction forces me to look at my immediate vicinity to see if there's anything interesting. So that isn't at all the issue. My biggest pet peeve about navigating exploration missions is just that it takes FOREVER for the galaxy map to map out to the 100 LY point I want to get to... So most my time is staring at the screen until it gets there and finally says "Oh ya, you can route to here!" If you want my personal opinion on navigation, this is what I'd like to see?

1.) When I designate a star with a marker, that means I want to go there. Your pathing algorithm should take this into account and IMMEDIATELY try to path there and stop trying to path to other locations. [Tons of work honestly that I the player don't care about or even look at. Why does it do that anyway?]

2.) I'd like to have a "NAV" panel of some sort that tells me exactly what the route is I've chosen and the points a long it that I will be hyper spacing too.
2.a) It would be nice if when I highlight a point, it tells me what stars are there, just like it does in the galaxy map. That way I don't have to load up the galaxy map to make sure I'm going somewhere I can fuel scoop!

3.) Setting up waypoints. I might want to go 100LY, but maybe there's another star along the way that interest me! I'd like to mark it as a middle point, and have the mapper route me there first, then to the end point I've chosen!

4.) Lasting Markers. Even if I can't ROUTE to the nebula 5000 LY away, I'd like to be able to put a bookmark on it as a location I'm trying to get to! Rather than having to scroll all the way out there again to find a point to go to within it. [Honestly, I'd love to be able to PIN locations on my galaxy map as locations of interest... Like... "This is my Trade Hub" so I can remember that while I go explore or mission somewhere else for a short time.]

 

[Lingus]

OSX

Frustrating search engine....Any idea if the OSX client will be free for those that have already purchased the PC variant?

 

[Tinman]

Frustrating search engine....Any idea if the OSX client will be free for those that have already purchased the PC variant?

Yes, it will be free.

This is taken from the store:

Mac Version

Elite: Dangerous will be coming soon to Apple Macintosh computers.

Whichever version of Elite: Dangerous you buy you will get access to the PC version now and then access to the Mac version too when it is ready

https://store.elitedangerous.com/eur/elite-dangerous.html/

 

[Lingus]

There you have it.

Yes, it will be free.

This is taken from the store:

Guess I should have caught that. Reading is fundamental...

Thanks!

 

[CMDR Reza Malin]

Will you consider forwarding ship audio to the galaxy map? Then we ccould plan routes/wait for routeplaner to finish while scooping fuel, without risking to be dead/seriously damaged when returning to the cockpitview?

If you are attacked while looking at galaxy map, it automatically closes the map. I scoop fuel all the time while looking at the map.

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Not sure if the DEVs are still reading this but... as for "Navigation."

I'm quite fine with the 100 LY navigation stuff. In fact, that restriction forces me to look at my immediate vicinity to see if there's anything interesting. So that isn't at all the issue. My biggest pet peeve about navigating exploration missions is just that it takes FOREVER for the galaxy map to map out to the 100 LY point I want to get to... So most my time is staring at the screen until it gets there and finally says "Oh ya, you can route to here!" If you want my personal opinion on navigation, this is what I'd like to see?

1.) When I designate a star with a marker, that means I want to go there. Your pathing algorithm should take this into account and IMMEDIATELY try to path there and stop trying to path to other locations. [Tons of work honestly that I the player don't care about or even look at. Why does it do that anyway?]

2.) I'd like to have a "NAV" panel of some sort that tells me exactly what the route is I've chosen and the points a long it that I will be hyper spacing too.
2.a) It would be nice if when I highlight a point, it tells me what stars are there, just like it does in the galaxy map. That way I don't have to load up the galaxy map to make sure I'm going somewhere I can fuel scoop!

3.) Setting up waypoints. I might want to go 100LY, but maybe there's another star along the way that interest me! I'd like to mark it as a middle point, and have the mapper route me there first, then to the end point I've chosen!

4.) Lasting Markers. Even if I can't ROUTE to the nebula 5000 LY away, I'd like to be able to put a bookmark on it as a location I'm trying to get to! Rather than having to scroll all the way out there again to find a point to go to within it. [Honestly, I'd love to be able to PIN locations on my galaxy map as locations of interest... Like... "This is my Trade Hub" so I can remember that while I go explore or mission somewhere else for a short time.]

Dont want to insult your intelligence, but i have to ask. Are you selecting 'fastest' for route selection and not 'economical'? I noticed the economical selection is a real pain.

The bookmarks are a real good idea.

 

[Harbinger]

If you are attacked while looking at galaxy map, it automatically closes the map. I scoop fuel all the time while looking at the map.

Being interdicted may automatically bring you back to the cockpit but taking heat damage won't return you to the cockpit. I've only had this happen once myself as I was distracted doing other things and left the game on the galaxy map whilst hovering at 30m/s at the 100% point for about 60-90 minutes. The first thing I knew of the damage was the ship destruction animation, fortunately there was a transaction error at the time of destruction so it didn't register it.

It's certainly a highly unlikely scenario when you know the safe scooping distance that you can hover at but you definitely get no warning that your ship is being cooked to the point of destruction if you're in the galaxy map.

 

[Daedalus1116]

Waiting for this week's update.

 

[Michael Brookes]

Closing thread as there is a shiny new update.

Michael