E3 - 2019

Frontier have been clear in the past that features they want to do like legs and co, atmospheric landings and other things would take time.

It's better that they take the time with new content instead of rushing stuff out then spending a year or so to flesh it all out like they had to do with horizons.

Sure, but then they decided to work on completely different updates instead that nobody asked for and barely work as intended.

Six years is a long time.
 
Sure, but then they decided to work on completely different updates instead that nobody asked for and barely work as intended.

Six years is a long time.
I guess you are talking about CQC and PP? I doubt they took as much time as it takes to develop space legs and atmospheric planets.
 
I didn't say that.

But if you take CQC, PP, MC, Engineers 1, Engineers 2, etc. it starts to add up at some point.

My point was Frontier said they're heading in one direction and then went in another. People have been waiting a long time now and patience is running low.

Or large parts of the community decided to become toxic just for the sake of it. Maybe it's that.
 
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Well imho Fdev have never rushed anything, we're over four years in and most features are still half developed.
And I'm not even talking about the bugs that have been there for ages.
I think the main issues with FDev development hasn't been the amount, but what they have developed. Lets take a look at SLF with your NPC crew member. Instead of making that fully featured, they added lots of other small parts to the game, such as the passanger missions, new engineers etc etc, what they should have done is concentrate on the SLF and NPC crew. Have a fully featured NPC crew system and I doubt many would have complained about updates.

The same goes for most of the other updates, lots of little bits added at one time, when I think they should be concentrating on one big item at a time and make it as fully featured as possible.

They have developed and added a lot of stuff, but most has very little depth because it is just one small aspect of the update.

Horizons for example, I think that season of updates should have all be about what you can do on planetary surfaces, not things such as SLF or multicrew or an avatar builder.

I hope FDev have learnt from this and try to make one fully featured updates instead of lots of little bits of an update.
 
I guess you are talking about CQC and PP? I doubt they took as much time as it takes to develop space legs and atmospheric planets.
Probably not, but they took development time away from the aforementioned items.

Thing is, Frontier don’t always get it wrong by a long chalk, but they don’t always get it right either.
 
I think the main issues with FDev development hasn't been the amount, but what they have developed. Lets take a look at SLF with your NPC crew member. Instead of making that fully featured, they added lots of other small parts to the game, such as the passanger missions, new engineers etc etc, what they should have done is concentrate on the SLF and NPC crew. Have a fully featured NPC crew system and I doubt many would have complained about updates.

The same goes for most of the other updates, lots of little bits added at one time, when I think they should be concentrating on one big item at a time and make it as fully featured as possible.

They have developed and added a lot of stuff, but most has very little depth because it is just one small aspect of the update.

Horizons for example, I think that season of updates should have all be about what you can do on planetary surfaces, not things such as SLF or multicrew or an avatar builder.

I hope FDev have learnt from this and try to make one fully featured updates instead of lots of little bits of an update.

This is what I meant.
So many features, Thargoids, Guardians, SLF and npc crews, Planetary activities, Multicrew, etc.
All very nice additions but once you scrape the surface off these features there's nothing left.
Instead of creating a new Era it would've been nicer if they brought more depth to the existing features.
I'm afraid this new "Era" thing whatever it may be will suffer the same half developed state.
Spacelegs, yay, you can walk around in your ship or shoot some stuff fps style, but then what.
Base building, I can't even think of where Fdev would go with that.
Atmospheric landing?

If Fdev is working on the 2020 cahuna as they've been working on previous new features then, yeah, my expectations dwindle rather rapidly.

Sorry for my pessimistic view but through the years I haven't seen much to be very optimistic about.
I was quite hyped by certain features comming to ED in the past but their half developed state lead me to an eventual disappointment in the end.
 
This is what I meant.
So many features, Thargoids, Guardians, SLF and npc crews, Planetary activities, Multicrew, etc.
All very nice additions but once you scrape the surface off these features there's nothing left.
Instead of creating a new Era it would've been nicer if they brought more depth to the existing features.
I'm afraid this new "Era" thing whatever it may be will suffer the same half developed state.
Spacelegs, yay, you can walk around in your ship or shoot some stuff fps style, but then what.
Base building, I can't even think of where Fdev would go with that.
Atmospheric landing?

If Fdev is working on the 2020 cahuna as they've been working on previous new features then, yeah, my expectations dwindle rather rapidly.

Sorry for my pessimistic view but through the years I haven't seen much to be very optimistic about.
I was quite hyped by certain features comming to ED in the past but their half developed state lead me to an eventual disappointment in the end.
It's also one of my fears. Hopefully they will have learnt from their mistakes.
 
In this specific case people were asking for things promised during the kick starter, so compatible to the original vision of the game and not something else.
FDEV changed direction working on something else that no one asked or expected. They tried something different and the feedback was not positive. That is an important sign that you can't ignore.
In this case, and only in this case, the solution would have been easy: I would have make one step back and return on the original plan.
CQC, Powerplay, Engineers, Multicrew skeleton, etc.
Sure, but then they decided to work on completely different updates instead that nobody asked for and barely work as intended.
Six years is a long time.
Exactly!

The same goes for most of the other updates, lots of little bits added at one time, when I think they should be concentrating on one big item at a time and make it as fully featured as possible.
I hope FDev have learnt from this and try to make one fully featured updates instead of lots of little bits of an update.

Good point, during the Beyond Chapter 4 contents live presentation people asked if there were exploration missions included in the exploration update. Adam replied "not at launch". This is something that they should have included in game in the same update. They could've made a good bundle with the new FSS and the new stellar phenomena... but NO.
 
Six years is a long time.
For a single player campaign game like SQ 42 yes. For a constantly evolving mmo like Elite its really not.

It is a long time indeed. Elite Dangerous has a 10 years development plan. We're already "beyond" the half and most of the "exciting" features discussed during KS are still missing (walking in ships and stations, legs, atmospheric planets, gas giants, boarding other ships)... and most of the ones that we have (Power Play, BGS, C&P) are still broken and the Thargoid plot has never been updated.
 
I wouldn't focus too much on the '10 year' bit. I fully expect Frontier will continue to support and develop Elite for as long as it's profitable.
I agree, but one thing is to make a complete game (according KS descriptions) in 10 years and support it further.
Another point is making a partial game in 10 years and extend it to another XX years to maybe complete it.
 
Good point, during the Beyond Chapter 4 contents live presentation people asked if there were exploration missions included in the exploration update. Adam replied "not at launch". This is something that they should have included in game in the same update. They could've made a good bundle with the new FSS and the new stellar phenomena... but NO.
Yup. Chapter four could have just been a big exploration update. It wasn't bad, but it could have been so much more with lots of different interactions and info you can gather from the different anomolies/POIs, maybe add space biomes, what do these things feed on and does anything feed on them and so on.
 
I agree, but one thing is to make a complete game (according KS descriptions) in 10 years and support it further.
Another point is making a partial game in 10 years and extend it to another XX years to maybe complete it.

There is a real problem if the game remains profitable in it's current underdeveloped state.
When the 2020 update brings a new boost to ED's profit then what motivation is there for Fdev to do something about the rest of the half developed features?

The 2020 update will definitely bring new players into the game which means new profits, no matter what state the game or the new update is in.

What ED needs imho is a realistic competitor but it doesn't seem like there will be anything anytime soon.
 
What's this? The opposite of a dooooom post? A .... we're they're rich! post! Incredible :)

Heh lol, well I never said ED was or is doomed, it's still profitable to Fdev I think, lest they would've thrown in the towel already.
If ED wouldn't be profitable anymore two things could happen, either Fdev wakes up and tries to make the game engaging again or they just shut it down an use their resources on other better running projects, I fear it would be the latter though.

Somehow there's just no drive for Fdev to finish what they start and leave features under developed but rather jump onto the next feature.
Why they're not on top of fixing the new and longstanding bugs is still a great mystery to me.
Wouldn't it be a lot better to expand on a game that runs well?

All in all I think a lot of the players are already or will become tired of the bugs and shallow features and with a period of more then a year untill anything substantial will be released many will just move on.
Which is a shame imho, ED could be "that" game if it had more depth and quality.
 
What ED needs imho is a realistic competitor but it doesn't seem like there will be anything anytime soon.

You mean... FD are the leader in this field as there is no competition? ;)

And if you look at what the competition has achieved over the same timescales... Yeah, I'd give FD the Kickstarter money again... And again... And again...
 
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