News Development Update - 15th Jan

[Commander Dini]

Really REALLY not liking this idea. Why should we have to PAY you to HELP you? I know of no other game that does this. You limit the number of people that can test things, you divide your playerbase and not to mention, you just plain old screw your customers.

Seriously, this isn't like early access. Game is out. This is seriously, deeply concerning and makes me question supporting you and any future endeavors in the future.

No one is twisting your arm. They have plenty of testers already. Would you prefer it if they slammed the door down?

The nature of a Beta test is that you can't have all 300,000 or whatever players testing. It has to be done with a smaller sample of players. How would you prefer it chosen? At random? Only the coolest people?

It's a simple way to ensure that those testing are serious about testing, and makes perfect sense. There is nothing wrong with it.

 

[ste]

Indeed, the sense of entitlement and just plain rudeness is fairly breathtaking at times..

Yep. No longer a surprise now. Its expected. Embarrassed to be a part of it.

 

[Commander Dini]

To say that I'm disappointed would be an understatement. While I have been the first to defend the premature release of Elite thus far, it is outrageous that it is still going to be until mid-march before we can meaningfully interact with our friends in game.

I think you exaggerate. It is possible to meaningfully interact now. It may not be all you want it to be, but there is nothing to stop you working with other players right now. One thing that can help is to join one of the many teamspeak servers.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

You honestly see no problem with this? I want to help them, a lot of people want to help them, they should want a LOT of people to help them, but before they can help them, they have to give them additional money?

W.T.F.?

Seriously.. NO OTHER company does this because it is in VERY bad taste. Every MMO and even just multiplayer games (BF4 for example) has a PTR (Public Test Realm) that is free to all gamers to download and try out the new content, give feedback, bug reports, etc.

Define bad taste. For me it is having a huge multitude of unfiltered people trying out a new version of the game and then complaining and moaning about every little thing and predicting the end of the universe as we know it.

Or are you going to tell me that won't happen?

 

[rtho782]

Happy to pay for Beta (or even Alpha!!) access, but I want those exclusive benefits that there is no other way to obtain, i.e. insurance discount.

 

[halo jones 101]

The latest sabotage by Frontier of Slopey's BPC tool is immature and stupid.

It is no more than the facilities that might be provided by a newspaper's business page and it is free to anyone who cares to use it.

ED will not be the first popular game to go under because of these petty childish antics by the developers.

Can i ask how you know its Deliberate Sabotage... rather than the latest update changing something that might been a bug fix?

 

[Draxs]

Can also get the people who bought the PreOrder Beta access? It would be gread....

Regards

 

[jimgiraffe]

As an Alpha backer you got the lifetime expansion pass. So no.

Nice couldn't remember whooo

 

[Adept]

Indeed, the sense of entitlement and just plain rudeness is fairly breathtaking at times..

Exactly what I was thinking. I started to type a reply to some of the vitriol, then just stared for a while and hit cancel. Michael's calmness is a thing of wonder.

 

[Slugsie]

1,000Ly jump calculations.

AWESOME!



That is all.

 

[DeathRaye]

We aren't planning an autopilot.

Michael

Thank the stars above!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dumbest idea ever... We think there is a lot of crying over pirates now, just wait till something like that gets put into the game....

DeathRaye

 

[derekdavidkent]

We aren't planning an autopilot.

Michael

I guess that makes sense.

In the year 3000+ I'm sure they wouldn't have anything as complicated as autopilot in space ships.. Considering they have it in airplanes currently.

 

[Slugsie]

I'm sorry...... Did you really just say that you want us to pay in order to be able to test your game for you?

Really?!

You mean *exactly* as a few HUNDRED THOUSAND commanders did prior to 16th December? Wow, who would have thought such a thing possible?

 

[VegaCZ]

great !!! thank you - 1000Ly

 

[Kzak]

I put this in the Suggestions forum earlier:

If you, in the galaxy navigation screen, target a star system, it should be bumped to the top of the queue where route calculation is concerned. This should make short work of the waiting time we're presently having.

 

[Commander Dini]

Oh wow. OK. Looking for victims, it seems. I remember beta testing games; I obviously didn't have to pay anything, that would be absurd. No matter how I look at it, this seems like an extremely shady practice. I'm baffled that they are doing something like this. Who in his right mind...

I was gonna volunteer to help them, but no thanks. That's seriously messed up.

I'm opening a new business btw, looking for employees. You can work for me if you pay me 15 bucks an hour.

It has to do with improving the quality of the participants for a beta test, because you really want people who are going to be just that little bit more serious about their testing.

This approach is especially valid where the testing is, you know, fun, which is what the point of games is. Yes, people enjoy testing a game that is fun. You are paying to try out a new fun feature, because you are excited about trying out the feature.

This is very different from working in the industry as a tester, where you have to spend all day trying to reproduce a bug that happens once every few hours for instance. Yes, if you want to be paid as a professional tester, go get a job as a tester. Hour after hour of going through test plan checklists, 8 hours a day. It's not fun, after you have played the same scenario being debugged fifty times.

And 15 bucks an hour? Are you serious??

[ Look you even got me to add an extra ? there. Now you know I am serious ]

 

[Rhaedas]

I guess that makes sense.

In the year 3000+ I'm sure they wouldn't have anything as complicated as autopilot in space ships.. Considering they have it in airplanes currently.

You're right. In fact, they wouldn't have human pilots at all. That would be a fun game to play, where you log on to see what your robot player has done recently.

A lot of us play this game so we can fly the ships.

 

[Commander Dini]

You're obviously not familiar with common Kickstarter reward tiers?
Seriously, I see this argument a lot and it makes no sense to me. If testing a game is so horrible and tedious that in fact, you should be paid for it, then why are people complaining about having to pay? If it was such a horrible job, nobody would care?
The only reason you are complaining is because you actually want to test the thing. If you want to test it then that has value to you. Just as it had value to the original KS backers who incidentally would be being shafted if this was just granted gratis to anybody who wants it now. Also incidentally without KS there would be no game at all.

Much logic here. Unfortunately, it is often accompanied by a wooshing sound.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

Welcome to Bait and Switch.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -



Given their history, I wouldn't be surprised if they find a way out of this promise as well.

The cynical discontent is strong with this one.

 

[Rall]

Thanks for the updates and feedback!

I'm off to buy yet another paintjob for my Viper to help support your efforts.

 

[Gorodd]

Wings coming!!!

Thanks ED Team.

 

[Harbinger]

I guess that makes sense.

In the year 3000+ I'm sure they wouldn't have anything as complicated as autopilot in space ships.. Considering they have it in airplanes currently.

What do you propose an automatic pilot should do in the event of an interdiction attempt? Perhaps it should also successfully fight off the interdiction attempt or maybe even fight your battles for you so you never have to do anything aside from buying and selling cargo in complete and utter safety.