News Development Update - 15th Jan

Manfriest · Jan 15, 2015

Thanks Mike. Fun times ahead!

Are there any plans to share a release schedule for additional ships?

juchtelbursche · Jan 15, 2015

Francik Zelozko said:
OK, my reasons for calling it late alpha/early beta:

1. Multiplayer options best described as a joke in game advertised as MMO.
2. USS mechanics, often defended here in forums as it's 'only a place holder for future functionality'.
3. Critical bugs like AI suddenly deciding it will stop and stand there for a while in a middle of a fight (without any damage to hull or modules, just stops).
4. Sound buffer issues & graphical glitches & disconnects (ok, here I can agree it can be called simply bugs, just a bit too many for my taste in a 'ready product').
5. Support model, that I will politely only mention.

Characteristics of Alpha: Functionalities are not final yet.
Characteristics of Beta: No major feature changes, bug fixing work and in case of games - balancing work.

With all respect to people who decided to help FD and pay for early access to get this game going - I do value your efforts and I recognize that it's only thanks to you that I can play it. But I believe your love for the game got you blind for its weak spots - and I believe that pointing the weaknesses helps to fight them.

As a customer that did not wish to participate in early access, just buy a ready product, I feel that FD has simply lied in the adverts about the game, releasing a beta as a full product.
And now they dare to ask for money again, so that people can help test features that I personally feel should have been there already. Testers are paid for their work, they do not pay the companies, that very idea is simply ridiculous.

+totally agree

Scruluse · Jan 15, 2015

Michael Brookes said:
V1.1 will also have a significant increase in the maximum distance for the route planner. We’re currently looking at extending this to 1,000 light years!

Glad I ordered that new gaming machine with 16gig of RAM and an i7 processor! It takes 100ly long enough to compute, especially when setting nav for distance rather than economy.

Steve50 · Jan 15, 2015

So.. When can we Alpha backers get this new beta to test?

Rhaedas · Jan 15, 2015

Steve50 said:
So.. When can we Alpha backers get this new beta to test?

First post. Michael said first week of February.

Steve50 · Jan 15, 2015

Thank you.

Zarlok · Jan 15, 2015

Please dont change the inaccuracy of supercruise, its more fun. So far apart from not being able to join up and Co Op with a mate, its a good space sim.

Serpentstar · Jan 15, 2015

For those of you wanting an Autopilot... I also suppose you want your ship to exit hyperspace, scoop fuel, work to avoid all interdictions, approach the station, exist SC, request docking permission, and dock for you as well, right???

Eve already has bots that perform those functions already. You could go watch it play the game for you...

Kranium · Jan 15, 2015

Commander Dini said:
This kind of attitude is why I wish I were not human.

<Sigh> I think there are a few over reactions on both sides. At this stage of the product lifecycle is it system testing not beta and the company will be paying a number of its own staff to do exactly this 37 hours per week.

In a game of this magnitude it does help if a few 1000 players are willing to participate and highlight things the professionals missed or couldn't check (especially the effect of load).
Now I think it is great that people are passionate enough to want to volunteer - good luck to you all. I just think it is rather unusual to ask people to pay to system test an already released product.

Slugsie · Jan 15, 2015

Surfinjo said:
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.

What on earth are you talking about? The BPC works just fine. There has been no sabotage.

Cmdr Eagleboy · Jan 15, 2015

Kranium said:
<Sigh> I think there are a few over reactions on both sides. At this stage of the product lifecycle is it system testing not beta and the company will be paying a number of its own staff to do exactly this 37 hours per week.

In a game of this magnitude it does help if a few 1000 players are willing to participate and highlight things the professionals missed or couldn't check (especially the effect of load).
Now I think it is great that people are passionate enough to want to volunteer - good luck to you all. I just think it is rather unusual to ask people to pay to system test an already released product.

I think it is just because Beta didn't get much perks, and it was very costly during Kickstarter and after that. Also bear in mind that FD already have lots of willing Beta testers, they don't need new ones. But they won't restrict access if someone really wants to and wants to shell out some money. It wouldn't make sense business wise.

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

Slugsie said:
What on earth are you talking about? The BPC works just fine. There has been no sabotage.

I suspect it is just not as profitable as it was before - for some mysterious reason

Robert Maynard · Jan 15, 2015

Kranium said:
<Sigh> I think there are a few over reactions on both sides. At this stage of the product lifecycle is it system testing not beta and the company will be paying a number of its own staff to do exactly this 37 hours per week.

In a game of this magnitude it does help if a few 1000 players are willing to participate and highlight things the professionals missed or couldn't check (especially the effect of load).
Now I think it is great that people are passionate enough to want to volunteer - good luck to you all. I just think it is rather unusual to ask people to pay to system test an already released product.

As I pointed out above - there are already over 8,000 players with Beta from the Kickstarter alone and probably double that overall (if not more). Offering newer players the opportunity to buy Beta access is probably to pre-empt requests from some newer players to be allowed to buy in to Beta. Players who have no interest in this offer need not buy it, of course.

SirKiwi · Jan 15, 2015

PLEASE give us a sell all exploration data button, or something similar. I love this game but clicking thirty thousand times is not healthy for my fingers :/

CMDR Crustatious Cornelius Pig · Jan 15, 2015

Ulysses_W said:
It's a good job we alpha & beta testers didn't think this way. You might not have had a game at all. Just sayin'

have some rep!!!

Maiq · Jan 15, 2015

The autopilot would be nice just for automating the process of jumping through several systems in order to reach the destination. Nothing less, nothing more.

I don't want it to pilot the ship for me. I don't want it to avoid interdictions for me. I don't want it to combat for me. I just want it to help me with the tedious, repetitive, boring process of jumping one system after another after another... until I reach the destination several jumps away.

If some people don't like it, the solution is simple: don't use it. But please give the rest of us that option. It's pretty simple, isn't it.

Kris · Jan 15, 2015

Robert Maynard said:
As I pointed out above - there are already over 8,000 players with Beta from the Kickstarter alone and probably double that overall (if not more).

Frontier has said that there were over 200 000 preorders. My guess is maybe ~100k Beta players.

In my opinion making updates beta available for purchase is only good thing. This is the way i want them to earn money.

CMDR Crustatious Cornelius Pig · Jan 15, 2015

RealNC said:
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 is what it is. agree or not it makes no difference.

QziQza · Jan 15, 2015

Bojamijams said:
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.

I see no gun pointed at you, how would the current beta payers feel if they now opened the testing to everyone for free? Aside from the extra beta payers supporting the increase of users within the beta system, it will also help keep those numbers manageable.. not to mention the fact they are a business, turning a profit is not a dirty thing, it benefits the game and ultimately us, the player base. i dont think your melodramatic response to this situation is really warranted, nor deserved.

Pizz001 · Jan 15, 2015

HI, quick question , as i'm a alpha backer i should be able to test this but i can't seem to see a way of downloading /running or turning on the beta client, I've logged in to the store etc and checked the game options on lunch and ingame ?
ok i give can i have a clue

klh · Jan 15, 2015

Thanks for the updates, Michael. As you can see, this community is licking its lips for any news of new features and developer progress.

I wonder if the dev team knows how BIG a hit they're working on.