Elite is a disaster and creators couldn't care!

[Dextio]

Isn't Twitter the preferred mustering grounds for hysterical witch hunting mobs these days? I'm getting old, so I can't quite keep up.

You're not old ;-). There's just hysterical witch hunting everywhere nowadays.

 

[Tikanderoga]

Once Star Citizen is a full game, I'll probably kick its tires. But correct me if I'm wrong on the following: Star Citizen has been under development for over a decade, at a cost of $300,000,000 from its backers. One could fairly expect more than an Alpha considering the staggering time and financial investment.

I think the big difference is, SC is sold as an Alpha. You install and fire up SC, you know there will be bugs and it's an unfinished product. Not marketed as a finished DLC.

ED up and to Horizon & beyond was good, despite its very shallow content. EDO added just a mess to it, far from what it was advertised as.

I'm taking a break from EDO atm, playing the current season of Diablo 3, farming the new Ethereals. I know it's a grind, but the excitement for drops is what the game is about. I know I'm just running rift after rift, but the thrill of finding better gear is what keep people playing for months on end. Pushing the limits, farm new gear.
This is something that's lacking Elite.
I keep saying, make some modules drop from enemy ships, something to salvage and have fitted by an engineer, a module with unique stats, or innate engineering, that can be fitted by an engineer to your ship. Add some interesting mission to it.
Salvage some module from a derelict ship in space, and FSD for example, lug it to Felicty, she can make something out of it for your ship. Special modules, that could jump to a different stellar body not just the main sequence star for example.
Even the cannon fodder troops could be dropping stuff to collect. Just saying..
Would reduce the grind and maybe even get players to do some of it.

So many ideas that could be done, so many wasted opportunities.

 

[Mersozz]

This video was from my exploration run yesterday.

Nothing fancy.... I was about 2500 Ly outside the bubble and decided to record a couple landings.

My system is pretty middle of the road.... GTX 1660 Super, 16 GB RAM, and a Ryzen 3 which punches above its weight. I was able to run on Custom settings (High with FXAA), at 60 fps (capped/monitor).

Nobody will mistake me for Stanley Kubrick, but people can watch this for themselves and judge whether Odyssey is unplayable.

Source: https://youtu.be/jz_vSolAYb0

 

[dreyone]

It may be broken but at least they are attempting to fix it and they gave us CM-Sally. They should make a monument of patience is a virtue with her out of Iron and put it in front of Fdev office.

I'm very critical, I wasn't happy with the way the release went down. It was a long wait, I was excited. People should come here, vent, give some bad reviews to let Fdev know it ain't right. But once that's out of your system and the moral obligation to call out shady stuff is out of the way its time to move forward. If you love Elite and want to continue its the only choice. Even when its collapsing under its own weight, it does something special, something I cant get anywhere else. I may get frustrated, I may step away for months and months because the glacial pace left me bored, but there's just enough life to keep me coming back. But I cant lie, Odyssey release and the build up of excitement I had for any kind of new content was probably my biggest disappointment in gaming in my adult life.

I really wish Fdev would learn from their mistakes also. They say third times to charm, but fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. No more blind faith, no more purchases till I see a commitment to the game and the community. I see the beginnings of that, I want to be reaffirmed that there is life beyond prepping and polishing up Odyssey to roll out a console launch.

TLDR

Spoiler

I'm still going to give them a chance.

No offense but CM-Sally hasn't done anything for this game as far as I'm concerned. I have nothing against them personally but these CMs aren't doing much "community management" at all, in my view. If they were, we wouldn't have so many players quitting because of how toxic the community is. I've even reached out to that CM in the past about community issues and was basically just given a generic sounding response and run-around.

Fdev has not been trying to fix the problems I and other players reported for 7 years. They've gone on to "fix" other things nobody asked them to fix, and add new features, many of which do not work properly, while core problems with the game and community remain unaddressed. They even ban players from this forum just for speaking out about some of these issues. Based on the fact that this has been more or less the state of affairs for the duration of this game's nearly decade-long life, it likely will remain this way until the game dies for good.

 

[Far Beyond Driven]

No offense but CM-Sally hasn't done anything for this game as far as I'm concerned. I have nothing against them personally but these CMs aren't doing much "community management" at all, in my view.

Fdev has not been trying to fix the problems I and other players reported for 7 years. They've gone on to "fix" other things nobody asked them to fix, and add new features, many of which do not work properly.

Its the start of people representing Frontier listening to players and interacting with them and letting them know their grievances are heard. Its happened before and kind of fell off, well see if it sticks around this time. But its a good thing in my opinion.

To the rest all I can say Is I feel your frustrations.

 

[Mersozz]

I think the big difference is, SC is sold as an Alpha. You install and fire up SC, you know there will be bugs and it's an unfinished product. Not marketed as a finished DLC.

ED up and to Horizon & beyond was good, despite its very shallow content. EDO added just a mess to it, far from what it was advertised as.

I'm taking a break from EDO atm, playing the current season of Diablo 3, farming the new Ethereals. I know it's a grind, but the excitement for drops is what the game is about. I know I'm just running rift after rift, but the thrill of finding better gear is what keep people playing for months on end. Pushing the limits, farm new gear.
This is something that's lacking Elite.
I keep saying, make some modules drop from enemy ships, something to salvage and have fitted by an engineer, a module with unique stats, or innate engineering, that can be fitted by an engineer to your ship. Add some interesting mission to it.
Salvage some module from a derelict ship in space, and FSD for example, lug it to Felicty, she can make something out of it for your ship. Special modules, that could jump to a different stellar body not just the main sequence star for example.
Even the cannon fodder troops could be dropping stuff to collect. Just saying..
Would reduce the grind and maybe even get players to do some of it.

So many ideas that could be done, so many wasted opportunities.

I think Frontier has many options.

I mentioned this elsewhere, but I look at Neverwinter Nights of a great example of how to keep a game going.

Short answer: allow for community content. If a future expansion allows players to build their own bases on planets (or in orbit), and then customize them, it would be a major draw.

 

[dreyone]

Its the start of people representing Frontier listening to players and interacting with them and letting them know their grievances are heard. Its happened before and kind of fell off, well see if it sticks around this time. But its a good thing in my opinion.

To the rest all I can say Is I feel your frustrations.

I very strongly disagree with the notion that "Its the start of people representing Frontier listening to players". I've interacted with these CMs. They pretend to listen, but they don't really care, and nothing changes. Nothing. I have tickets open with Frontier that have remained unaddressed since January, and Frontier has no plans to address them. They just basically ghost the customer

"we've reviewed your report and taken action"

except they didn't. Do nothing, send a generic canned response, and call it "case closed."

 

[Far Beyond Driven]

I very strongly disagree with the notion that "Its the start of people representing Frontier listening to players". I've interacted with these CMs. They pretend to listen, but they don't really care, and nothing changes. Nothing.

I've worked in customer service. I have stood in front of the most aggrieved people on the planet and taken it for some corporation that didn't give a care for me. It made the customer feel better though.

Taking on a thread of the Odyssey derailed gravy train head on and dealing with people (Us) non stop was impressive. If that doesn't move you at least a little bit then there's nothing further I may say to you about that. I've said my peace. Its a big difference compared to echoing silence. So you either have to move forward in baby steps towards progress of which this is or you don't. Like I have said we've seen it before, Fdev can change as soon as they want. This is yet another chance.

 

[The Roofus]

I very strongly disagree with the notion that "Its the start of people representing Frontier listening to players". I've interacted with these CMs. They pretend to listen, but they don't really care, and nothing changes. Nothing. I have tickets open with Frontier that have remained unaddressed since January, and Frontier has no plans to address them. They just basically ghost the customer

Mate, they've got 1000s of customers just like you all demanding different things - what makes you so special that they should drop everything and deal with your problem over someone elses?

 

[dreyone]

Mate, they've got 1000s of customers just like you all demanding different things - what makes you so special that they should drop everything and deal with your problem over someone elses?

Sorry for expecting them to enforce their game's rules and take appropriate corrective action against a group of players who have terrorized the community for years, harassed players IRL after players went through the effort to compile journal logs and screenshots, and then waited 7 whole months for Frontier to ultimately do nothing.

Also, the ticket that we filed wasn't just signed by me, it was signed by thousands of other players.

 

[Tikanderoga]

I mentioned this elsewhere, but I look at Neverwinter Nights of a great example of how to keep a game going.

Short answer: allow for community content. If a future expansion allows players to build their own bases on planets (or in orbit), and then customize them, it would be a major draw.

Of course. But If you look at the track record of Fdev, they don't like player content. They don't even like a community designed paint job. And it wouldn't be rocket science to implement some nice paint job instead of the atrocities we are presented with every week.

I know Neverwinter nights, very well too. Had plenty of fun with some of their modules, adding PRCs and lots of extra content.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

You can compare it to Star Citizen but at least Star Citizen doesn't claim to be a finished game

When asked about a 1.0 release by Gamestar in 2017, Chris Roberts said What do you mean 1.0? We have 3.0 coming out soon!

In another statement in 2020 Chris Roberts talked about a "playable now narrative"

CR clearly considers the game released.

Neither FD nor CIG claim their games are "finished". One puts a release label on things and takes the flack for bad releases. The other hides behind a shield of ITS ALPHA while pretending its a fully playable game.

 

[dreyone]

When asked about a 1.0 release by Gamestar in 2017, Chris Roberts said What do you mean 1.0? We have 3.0 coming out soon!

In another statement in 2020 Chris Roberts talked about a "playable now narrative"

CR clearly considers the game released.

Neither FD nor CIG claim their games are "finished". One puts a release label on things and takes the flack for bad releases. The other hides behind a shield of ITS ALPHA while pretending its a fully playable game.

The game is not released lol. It's an open alpha. This is just nonsense

Elite is a "finished game." When I bought it in 2020, it was not in an alpha state (though the game code was clearly still not refined to a state where the game was truly ready for release) It was not marketed as an in-development game. It was marketed and sold as a finished product - a base game and its completed expansion Horizons. I never bought Odyssey and never will.

 

[Far Beyond Driven]

I think the big difference is, SC is sold as an Alpha. You install and fire up SC, you know there will be bugs and it's an unfinished product. Not marketed as a finished DLC.

ED up and to Horizon & beyond was good, despite its very shallow content. EDO added just a mess to it, far from what it was advertised as.

I'm taking a break from EDO atm, playing the current season of Diablo 3, farming the new Ethereals. I know it's a grind, but the excitement for drops is what the game is about. I know I'm just running rift after rift, but the thrill of finding better gear is what keep people playing for months on end. Pushing the limits, farm new gear.
This is something that's lacking Elite.
I keep saying, make some modules drop from enemy ships, something to salvage and have fitted by an engineer, a module with unique stats, or innate engineering, that can be fitted by an engineer to your ship. Add some interesting mission to it.
Salvage some module from a derelict ship in space, and FSD for example, lug it to Felicty, she can make something out of it for your ship. Special modules, that could jump to a different stellar body not just the main sequence star for example.
Even the cannon fodder troops could be dropping stuff to collect. Just saying..
Would reduce the grind and maybe even get players to do some of it.

So many ideas that could be done, so many wasted opportunities.

I hate to derail but I really liked D3 till the higher level rifts turned into bullet hell one or two hit survival games. Trying to keep track of a demon porqipine quill on a screen covered in spell effects stopped being fun.

I loved it up to that point though.

 

[varonica]

I think Frontier has many options.

I mentioned this elsewhere, but I look at Neverwinter Nights of a great example of how to keep a game going.

Short answer: allow for community content. If a future expansion allows players to build their own bases on planets (or in orbit), and then customize them, it would be a major draw.

Neverwinter Nights was designed from the ground up for player provided content, the two games aren't comparable on any level imaginable.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

The game is not released lol. It's an open alpha. This is just nonsense

Better tell CR then.

 

[Mersozz]

Neverwinter Nights was designed from the ground up for player provided content, the two games aren't comparable on any level imaginable.

Different games, but the concept of allowing for player made content is not impossible. It's not like we are talking magic here. BioWare simply gave players access to the tools to create and mod custom items.

Another idea would be along the lines of Doom's SnapMap, which allowed players to create their own maps. Something similar could be made available for players who wanted to design their own bases, for example.

 

[Dextio]

Almost makes a semi-rant-y post, having not read the thread in entirety, trying to depict an environment where one is working on a videogame where the sky is the limit, only to realize that "the sky" can be awfully high, and the limit is abstract. Spoiler alert: protagonist gets freaked out by the possibility that he/she/they can't model the universe and give a full immersive space sim experience entirely (turns out it's a f-ing hard job). Enter: crisis. Enter: angry customers that believed the same thing you believed just a minute ago, only they don't/can't see what you see and you can't prove it to them because you're under an NDA.

Potential Entrance: Compassion; as "reaching for the stars" might be something we all dream/aspire to do sometimes, only to be disillusioned with the harsh reality that we are limited, as human beings

Actual Entrance: motions around

Conclusion: Narrator realizes that they might be drunk, and posting might not be the best idea but...

Meh...

 

[varonica]

Different games, but the concept of allowing for player made content is not impossible. It's not like we are talking magic here. BioWare simply gave players access to the tools to create and mod custom items.

User created content in Neverwinter Nights can be shared between specific players, ED is an online MMO where all players have access to the same content, no not wildly different expect in concept, creation and application.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

User created content in Neverwinter Nights can be shared between specific players, ED is an online MMO where all players have access to the same content, no not wildly different expect in concept, creation and application.

I am not saying FD will, or even want to do this but I could imagine a cool hybrid game where most of the context was server side but some of it could be local maybe sharable between a limited group of players in a PG.
That way players could have their own base on a planet surface which they build themselves and not have to be tracked server side and it could still be the same as it is now.

Example of how it could work? On a planet surface.we have out personal signal source (again possibly sharable by small group). Possibly We could only enter it when the instance is clear of randoms (try to do it with a random on your tailcand your ships computer refuses to let you drop out as it will reveal base location). Or we just drop in and then essentially log out of open......

This way there could be all sorts of narrative content added running along side what we have now .... It could even have a limited local BGS and galnet.

**** I am biased and what may be non issues to me could be show stoppers to others. Personally I think FD made a mistake going full MMO and think the game would have been WAY better keeping the scope as limited number multiplayer with much more trust put on our local machines.