Development Update 4 - September

[LeoBartlet]

New SRV types have been leaked years ago, there's nothing new under that sun.

That's the thing with Odyssey, it basically contains what's been leaked in 2018, but less. We've been waiting YEARS for that WITHOUT ANY UPDATES, knowing what Frontier was working on the next big era that would revolution Elite.

People EXPECTED things like planetary base building (or at least managing) since the first time we found evidence of ARX customization regarding bases in the files. Atmospheric planets? Sure, but these are the same old ones (but better looking, I admit) with a new skybox... I bet that's not what people expected. We wanted Kamino style ocean planets with maybe some small islands, earth like lush forests planets, gaz giants we could fly through... Right now, atmosphere doesn't even change the way ship handles as we only have thin atmo, and there are no cool-looking atmo entry effects!

Same for SRV, we knew something was coming. Surely I expected more than ONE type of SRV, and a multiplayer combat oriented one at that... At least, if you want to do a combat oriented variant, make some kind of armed VBT, ala Alien with the Sulaco ground vehicle, something we could transport players with (and why not friendly NPCs?) to battle in conflict zones or whatever.

And spacelegs... Well, what's the point of spacelegs without ship interiors? We could have had boarding, manual repairs, ship stealing, that cool looking ship boarding we saw on the Krait commercial and so much more, but all we had was ground combat. Sure, it's a step in the right direction and a great addition, but such a tiny step compared to what Odyssey COULD have been with more ambition. And honestly, I don't understand why Frontier passed on such a massive source of income! Think about it, everything we have right now in ARX store is kind of lackluster, but I bet people would have been ready to pay big to customize their ship interiors! I wouldn't mind throwing several dozens or hundreds of $$$ to have a ship that looks more unique from the inside and that I could brag about in multicrew and make people tour, just like in Star Citizen

Come on Frontier, let me (and others) throw more money at you by giving us more options!

Taking a peek at game files and then posting your results online is a surefire way to create hype but also invariably leads to disappointment.

A few years ago (2017 actually) someone took a peek at Sims 4 game files and discovered references to horses and the community naturally got hyped up over the idea of horses coming to the game. 2021 and still Sims 4 is horse-less.

 

[Factabulous]

That's the thing with Odyssey, it basically contains what's been leaked in 2018, but less. We've been waiting YEARS for that WITHOUT ANY UPDATES, knowing what Frontier was working on the next big era that would revolution Elite.

Well, no. If you look in the News section they post stuff every few months. Like this very thread - look at the start - new stuff.

It's just some twonks* spoil surprises by looking in the files and then shouting 'ARE WE THERE YET?' from the back seat constantly

* mainly streamers: remember OA posting early takes on the NPC mission givers a couple of years ago, the SRVs from Yamiks, DTEA getting punked over a faked Panther Clipper ... ugh

 

[MikeonLinux]

Taking a peek at game files and then posting your results online is a surefire way to create hype but also invariably leads to disappointment.

A few years ago someone took a peek at Sims 4 game files and discovered references to horses and the community naturally got hyped up over the idea of horses coming to the game. 2021 and still Sims 4 is horse-less.

That's absolutely true, but as Frontier refuses to communicate further than a few weeks ahead, leaks are the only way to get a remote idea of what might be coming next and not dump that game in favor of literally any other space game that has more content and meat and more than one update in 3 years.

I largely prefer the Star Citizen method of promising loads of awesome things, even if you know they won't come before 10 years, at least we know we'll have them in some form at some point. With Elite, we never know what to expect, and usually when content drops it's very dull compared to what official trailers would lead us to think (I know that's kind of the point of trailers to make things look better than they are, but still, in Elite it often feels you were adverstised a brand new Porsche and end up getting a used Lada).

 

[MikeonLinux]

Well, no. If you look in the News section they post stuff every few months. Like this very thread - look at the start - new stuff.

It's just some twonks* spoil surprises by looking in the files and then shouting 'ARE WE THERE YET?' from the back seat constantly

* mainly streamers: remember OA posting early takes on the NPC mission givers a couple of years ago, the SRVs from Yamiks, DTEA getting punked over a faked Panther Clipper ... ugh

Absolutely, and that's the thing, it really looks like these leaks we had years ago are what we are getting, or that we even have less than that. People would surely expect that a few years later, we would get MORE than the sneak peak we had, but it turns out the sneak peak was actually ALL the content...

Edit : I don't call saying "we have no updates yet" / "Nothing new to tell you" / "Wait and see" once every few months during 3 years giving updates...

 

[Riverside]

Well, no. If you look in the News section they post stuff every few months. Like this very thread - look at the start - new stuff.

It's just some twonks* spoil surprises by looking in the files and then shouting 'ARE WE THERE YET?' from the back seat constantly

* mainly streamers: remember OA posting early takes on the NPC mission givers a couple of years ago, the SRVs from Yamiks, DTEA getting punked over a faked Panther Clipper ... ugh

We know nothing about the next season/DLC/PDLC though. Looking forward to an update on that kickstarter plan, it's long overdue.

I'm assuming most of what's in the OP of this thread was stuff intended for initial release but delayed because of other priorities at the time. Looking forward to Carrier social areas (to enable physical multi-crew), fingers crossed for a salad shop on carriers too.

 

[LeoBartlet]

That's absolutely true, but as Frontier refuses to communicate further than a few weeks ahead, leaks are the only way to get a remote idea of what might be coming next and not dump that game in favor of literally any other space game that has more content and meat and more than one update in 3 years.

This is the way.

I largely prefer the Star Citizen method of promising loads of awesome things, even if you know they won't come before 10 years, at least we know we'll have them in some form at some point. With Elite, we never know what to expect, and usually when content drops it's very dull compared to what official trailers would lead us to think (I know that's kind of the point of trailers to make things look better than they are, but still, in Elite it often feels you were adverstised a brand new Porsche and end up getting a used Lada).

I fixed that first sentence for you there.

 

[Factabulous]

Planet Zoo has their recent DLC moved forward in time because some twonk streamer under NDA leaked it. fdev weren't happy. It doesn't seem like it makes for fun when you know your job is to announce stuff people had leaked to them years ago. I do feel for the CMs when every new announcement is met with 'finally' rather than excitement. Though it would be nice if things then worked when they went live

 

[LeoBartlet]

Planet Zoo has their recent DLC moved forward in time because some twonk streamer under NDA leaked it. fdev weren't happy. It doesn't seem like it makes for fun when you know your job is to announce stuff people had leaked to them years ago. I do feel for the CMs when every new announcement is met with 'finally' rather than excitement. Though it would be nice if things then worked when they went live

Why would a streamer burn a relationship like that?

 

[MikeonLinux]

This is the way.


I fixed that first sentence for you there.

You have to admit that Star Citizen is slowly delivering and checking more and more boxes on that HUGE promises list. Very slowly that is, but we have more and more content and mechanics. I am not worried, CIG proved they have the necessary knowledge (and they actually SHOW US what they are working on very early, things like fire spreading, door breaching and everything else we might not see for years in the actual game but have video proofs of working concept) and basically unlimited money as they just have to release a new ship and every whale will happily buy it

Sure, it won't release before years, but I'm already happy with the current state of the alpha and having a blast every single time I play, alone or with friends. That's the very reason I can't come back to Elite for more than an hour before getting fed up of all these artificial limitations!

The thing is, with Star Citizen, I can say "I can't wait for the day we'll be able to do X or Y". With Elite, I just have no way of knowing if this is even considered to become a thing in some distant future, and hearing things like "Yeah, no, ship interiors will get boring after a while" from the very community manager (or at least stream host?) makes me furious. How dare you judge what would be fun and what wouldn't? My fun is not your fun. That's why we NEED as many options as possible. At least Star Citizen understands that by trying to be everything and the kitchen sink, and that's exactly what I expect it to become in the distant future.

 

[Factabulous]

Why would a streamer burn a relationship like that?

I think they told a friend (who leaked it) rather than stream about it themselves. NDAs don't count with friends - you can tell them, right?

 

[zikolach]

@Arthur Tolmie, I had an expectation from yesterday stream with UI developers to get some questions answered. As a community we surely appreciate huge amount of work done by UI team and have no doubt that Elite developers exist. Being a developer I certainly understand the complexity of such a rework. But unfortunately there was no attempt to answer any question from the chat. It is surely very hard to maintain online chat, while streaming to large audience, but there are services which allow to successfully manage Q&A sessions. Could you please dedicate some time on future streams to interact with community? It would be also ok to collect a list of questions via dedicated forum thread published a day or two before the stream. Thanks!

 

[LeoBartlet]

I think they told a friend (who leaked it) rather than stream about it themselves. NDAs don't count with friends - you can tell them, right?

Lost a business relationship with a games company possibly with other companies and maybe a friendship.

Wonderful

 

[MikeonLinux]

We know nothing about the next season/DLC/PDLC though. Looking forward to an update on that kickstarter plan, it's long overdue.

I'm assuming most of what's in the OP of this thread was stuff intended for initial release but delayed because of other priorities at the time. Looking forward to Carrier social areas (to enable physical multi-crew), fingers crossed for a salad shop on carriers too.

Exactly what I want. WHERE are these promises? Are they even worked on? Or at least considered? Or were they dropped altogether? WE NEED TO KNOW!

Could we have a roadmap? (without even dates, just make it like Microsoft Flight Simulator where we have rough idea of what's coming in what order for freaking years to come, even if there is not always a date attached to it)

 

[LeoBartlet]

@Arthur Tolmie, I had an expectation from yesterday stream with UI developers to get some questions answered. As a community we surely appreciate huge amount of work done by UI team and have no doubt that Elite developers exist. Being a developer I certainly understand the complexity of such a rework. But unfortunately there was no attempt to answer any question from the chat. It is surely very hard to maintain online chat, while streaming to large audience, but there are services which allow to successfully manage Q&A sessions. Could you please dedicate some time on future streams to interact with community? It would be also ok to collect a list of questions via dedicated forum thread published a day or two before the stream. Thanks!

Pedantic of me perhaps but technically the stream was never advertised as a Q&A.

That being said I'd like to see a Q&A with the UI team at some point.

 

[MikeonLinux]

Pedantic of me perhaps but technically the stream was never advertised as a Q&A.

That being said I'd like to see a Q&A with the UI team at some point.

Correct, but what's the point of doing a stream compared to YouTube video if you're not going to interact with your audience?

 

[LeoBartlet]

Correct, but what's the point of doing a stream compared to YouTube video if you're not going to interact with your audience?

I learned a lot from the stream last night that might not have been possible had they spent the hour addressing every single gripe someone had about the UI. Like I said I'm not opposed to a Q&A style stream but given it was the UI teams first appearance it's good to get to know them before they get bombarded with questions.

 

[LeoBartlet]

Exactly what I want. WHERE are these promises? Are they even worked on? Or at least considered? Or were they dropped altogether? WE NEED TO KNOW!

Could we have a roadmap? (without even dates, just make it like Microsoft Flight Simulator where we have rough idea of what's coming in what order for freaking years to come, even if there is not always a date attached to it)

Frontier got burned with the Horizon roadmap so are unlikely to want to repeat it.

Funny really as dates slip and slide with SC and the community lap it up but delay a Frontier patch by a week and the whole world loses its mind.

 

[Riverside]

Correct, but what's the point of doing a stream compared to YouTube video if you're not going to interact with your audience?

Perhaps they were anticipating or avoiding awkward questions like 'why didn't you plan for this years ago when designing the old UI'?

All I saw in chat was a lot of requests for colour changing.

 

[Rat Catcher]

Removed solo in Update 8!

oooo you scamp

now you've done it

He had to choose Solo...
If Open had been chosen it would have been met with a "Oh, OK, no loss"...

 

[Rat Catcher]

All I saw in chat was a lot of requests for colour changing.

Alongside the multiple "What about consoles?", of course