Elite is not Doomed

[VR jefranklin18]

You put it better than me, that's kind of what I meant. "Low tide" seems to describe it. The problem is that I don't see an "high tide" coming at any time during the next 12 months, unless they start leaking 2020 stuff very deliberately in order to make the hype train chug along. And I wonder if there's a good slice of people who're silently calling it quits, and I'm not sure if the 2020 Messiah Update will be enough to bring them back.

This is my concern (in bold). This 2020 update has been built up to epic proportions by parts of the playerbase to the point where it is now a Robertsian update that will make it the BDSSM ever. If it fails to live up to those (unfounded) expectations, then there will be a combination of gnashing and wailing from those that feel aggrieved and mockery from those that like to troll.

Frontier could avoid all this by being more open in their communications, but that is brick wall that is not worth talking to again.

 

[starman]

You are right. Elite is not 'Doom'. Got Doom on sale steam . Pretend ur battling thargoids in FPS

 

[VR Golgot]

Since forums, a speculation would be the season pass when it was sold had a strong association with a timeframe as well. It may have been that frontier worked out they simply cannot produce enough patches to justify a higher priced (at the time! now its bog standard) season pass and only deliver 2 patches in it. Im sure they would have wanted to take a fee every year if they could deliver. There have also been various issues of splitting the playerbase vs microtransaction income.. if frontier wanted to keep earning money over time from ship skins, building on a base that would just exclude anyone who didn't buy the expansions is just killing the audience for those monies.. so maybe adding another horizons have and have nots wasn't the desired way forward.

I think the LEP bang for buck thing is on their mind for sure. And definitely think they intended to do sequential PDLCs, not freebie seasons. (Stuff like this certainly suggests so anyway: Sandy: We will need some form of voice acting and Voice overs, especially from update 2 onwards (when interiors and first person is available).

Best guess: Beyond, and this un-named period, are all part of the transition away from Seasons.

Yeah communications an interesting one. That was completely frontier. They just dropped off end of 2017 / 2018 onwards. I'm pretty sure we didn't scare them, they just were doing something else, and have never woken up since. It could have been around the time frontier added more game projects and the key figures left for other games.. a better frontierist may have better memories.

FDev have been working multiple projects in parallel since launch. Hell, just look at this back during the ED launch dev period:

During the Initial Dev Run:

Their overall staffing ranged from approx 240 to 270 over that period. They had 5 prior projects on the go:

We worked on five projects of varying sizes for our two key clients, and two of these games were released in the financial year 2013–14.

• Zoo Tycoon (Xbox) - Nov 2013
• Coaster Crazy Deluxe (WiiU / iOS) - Nov 2013
• Tales from Deep Space (Kindle Fire etc) - Nov 2014
• Screamride (Xbox) - March 2015 (After which they moved straight on to Planet Coaster)
• (Not sure on the fifth project. Poss failed?)

Given that JWE scaled up to 75-100 staffing, you'd imagine those three other park games took up significant resources.

I don't see 2017/2018 as particularly different or telling on that front. Sure a few guys that we know of migrated (Brooks & Sandy from the more managerial end, at least one of the audio guys etc). But plenty of the same guys are still here. Dav's still here. Rejoice

I think the reduction in GAAS-style content is a stronger candidate. There was just less to talk about. More resources were being folded into the future DLC etc.

 

[Lordxenu]

The total silence is what gets to me.

We currently have only three official announcements: Major update 2020 and next Interstellar Initiative in June, as well as three minor updates until 2020.

We have no official word on what to expect in 2020, all we think we know is from a leak that has proven to be correct on some other subjects, but is not officially confirmed in any way. Neither do we have any information at all about when or what the next of the minor updates will be.

While waiting I'm playing Black Desert Online. Developer communication there is completely different. They have just recently announced their plans for the entire summer and even some beyond that. There are no fixed whens and no 100% guarantee everything announced will make it on schedule, but usually it does. And I'm pretty damn hyped for some of that new stuff.

I find it interesting that i know more about halo infinite (a series i have little interest in) than i do elite ( my most played and loved game of all time)

 

[Dutchman141]

ED is neither doomed or dead and won't be for at least a couple years imho.
That doesn't say anything about it's degrading quality though or bolster expectations for the future.

Fdev's silence is only oil upon the fire, many players are discontent about the state of the game, content wise and unresolved bugs wise, the announcement of nothing substantial coming untill at least late 2020 without any communication at all doesn't realy increase trust or expectations imho.

But hey if that's the way they want to do things then that's their prerogative, just don't expect me to like it or feel any sympathy for their methods.
Fdev's become a very dissapointing company over the years, especially when it comes to communication and the way they treat their playerbase.
Dangling carrots in front of our noses each and every time is insulting and disrespectful towards their customers imho.
I've seen quite a few examples of devs handling things a lot better and more respectful.

 

[VR Golgot]

While waiting I'm playing Black Desert Online. Developer communication there is completely different. They have just recently announced their plans for the entire summer and even some beyond that. There are no fixed whens and no 100% guarantee everything announced will make it on schedule, but usually it does. And I'm pretty damn hyped for some of that new stuff.

Have they told you about next Summer though?

That'd be a fairer parallel.

(Honestly, as much as FDev definitely seem to be on the cagier end of the reveal scale, I don't think they're broadly that unusual. Lots of bigger publishers don't do sneak peaks of actual dev work or roadmaps years in advance etc - beyond info-free teasers just showing a title or whatever).

 

[Riverside]

It is a shame to read that so many are just waiting for the next update & not currently playing.

I like the game a lot, it is just my kind of thing, and what many (in other threads) describe as boring grind is generally the parts of the game I like - achieving big goals by breaking them down into chunks & getting on with it.

I play nearly every day for several hours at a time if I can, it is my go-to thing to do when I don't have anything else that needs doing. I explore less than I did before the 3.3 update and I now have more money than I know what to do with just from playing the game in my normal way, which has reduced the motivation to work harder to achieve some goals (saving up for a new ship for example).

Fundamentally I enjoy playing the game & hope I can continue to be able to for a long time. The 3.3 update put a dent in that, but there are plenty of other things to do - I still haven't tried the new mining stuff for example. Being able to continue to enjoy the game is my main motivation for sharing my views at all, because it does seem that FDev do not have that same goal, or at least are influenced by people that don't - people that bought a game they don't like & want to change it into the game they want it to be.

However I also paid in advance for future stuff at a time when development was at a decent rate, dev motivation seemed high and community interaction between the company & customer base was good. I feel I have seen no benefit from this in nearly four years now, it is disgraceful to think that FDev think it is fine to treat customers this way. But if someone didn't pay for an LEP in 2015 I'd say they have little to complain about as far as the delay is concerned.

There are a lot of issues that are not being addressed, or don't appear to be. I want to be optimistic but FSS FDev, give me a reason. Dealing with the 5-for-1 exploit was probably the last time FDev seemed to care that I can recall.

 

[Daiyus73]

For me Elite Dangerous is one of my fall-back games. I might not play it for 3-6 months at a time while I play other stuff, but I always come back. There will always be that itch that only Elite seems to be able to scratch.

It sometimes seems to me that many players expect Elite Dangerous to be the one game they play, at the exclusion of all others, and for it to always be fun, engaging, interesting, challenging, etc. To be honest there aren't any activities that can be done exclusively for extended periods of time. At some point you'll get burned out and need to do something else, no matter how good the game/activity is. Heck, I get that with just gaming in general sometimes. There's times where I go for weeks without booting a game; I'll read, watch TV series, join a new club etc instead.

Maybe I'm just more casual than many here, but I'm still happy when I play Elite Dangerous. I've still got milestones that I'd like to achieve. I doubt I'll achieve them before the next big update, and then there will be more for me to do. The game won't die for me any time soon.

 

[Crimson Kaim]

Category A: Casual crowd


Category B: Everyone who values gameplay

Ah right, fair point. But in my opinion it's true. For those that do enjoy jumping into Elite and taking nothing more than a couple of screenshots out of it, Elite does its job good and sufficient. But for those of us that do not value screenshots (alone) and expect other things suc has a high quality, major bug free experience, Elite fails miserably. I can't even play with my friends without restarting the client multiple times per hour.

 

[Cmdr Eratosthenes]

Liar...

 

[Dutchman141]

It is a shame to read that so many are just waiting for the next update & not currently playing.

I like the game a lot, it is just my kind of thing, and what many (in other threads) describe as boring grind is generally the parts of the game I like - achieving big goals by breaking them down into chunks & getting on with it.

I play nearly every day for several hours at a time if I can, it is my go-to thing to do when I don't have anything else that needs doing. I explore less than I did before the 3.3 update and I now have more money than I know what to do with just from playing the game in my normal way, which has reduced the motivation to work harder to achieve some goals (saving up for a new ship for example).

Fundamentally I enjoy playing the game & hope I can continue to be able to for a long time. The 3.3 update put a dent in that, but there are plenty of other things to do - I still haven't tried the new mining stuff for example. Being able to continue to enjoy the game is my main motivation for sharing my views at all, because it does seem that FDev do not have that same goal, or at least are influenced by people that don't - people that bought a game they don't like & want to change it into the game they want it to be.

However I also paid in advance for future stuff at a time when development was at a decent rate, dev motivation seemed high and community interaction between the company & customer base was good. I feel I have seen no benefit from this in nearly four years now, it is disgraceful to think that FDev think it is fine to treat customers this way. But if someone didn't pay for an LEP in 2015 I'd say they have little to complain about as far as the delay is concerned.

There are a lot of issues that are not being addressed, or don't appear to be. I want to be optimistic but FSS FDev, give me a reason. Dealing with the 5-for-1 exploit was probably the last time FDev seemed to care that I can recall.

I used to be like you, almost 3000 hours in but after the initial release of planetary landings Fdev dropped the ball for me personally.
As time passed more and more features got added but only in a half finished state and they remained that way, plus through time the bugs just kept stacking up.
The result, a declining enjoyment and boredom kicking in more and more, new features and content involving certain grinds instead of engaging gameplay didn't help either.

Then the beyond series were introduced which was meant to upgrade the core gameplay.
To me personally bug fixing should've been a big part of that plus working on a deeper gameplay of excisting features.
It failed in both respects imho and still there is a huge amount of bugs and half developed features.
New ships and headlight indicators wasn't what was needed in my opinion.

And now after all this we get the announcement that we shouldn't expect much untill late next year without any information whatsoever except that their so incredibly excited about it.

Yeah that leaves me disgruntled and disappointed, ED used to be my favorite game of all times and it could've been my dream come true, the ultimate itteration of Elite '84 which I loved and played so much.

I've got my money's worth no doubt about that, considering the many hours I got out of it, but does that mean I can't hope for more?
I'm not entitled to anything, Fdev can do as they please, it's their game, but does that mean I can't have an opinion?

I'm definitely not "waiting" untill late 2020, I found other games that do give me enjoyment but I also wouldn't mind for Fdev to win me back, my convidence of that happening is quite low though when I look at what they accomplished the last couple years.

 

[VR SenseiMatty]

I sometimes think the idea of ED is better than actually playing it.

Thanks for this: exactly my feeling, and exactly the reason hey I'm still here even tho I stopped playing months ago.

We're in 3 then.
Many times I enjoy writing here in the forum proposing new game mechanics and new contents often based on what the game already has and that can be improved. Then I start the game and I don't know what to do.

 

[cheesenbiscuits]

We're in 3 then.
Many times I enjoy writing here in the forum proposing new game mechanics and new contents often based on what the game already has and that can be improved. Then I start the game and I don't know what to do.

It’s a sand box game that has new things to play with every now and then. Skyrim in space it is not.

 

[Viajero]

Elite is not doomed (FD are currently rolling in cash https://www.pcgamesn.com/jurassic-world-evolution/sales) but its not exactly shining like a diamond either. Bugs and an unfocused dev direction are holding it back. It does not help that the perception of ED is of a screenshot simulator (For example Reddit is 95% 'look at this pretty moon / ship- i.e. low value community generated content), and that outside of player groups fighting there is a general weakness in the immediate FD directed lore and story of the game.

The screenshot thingie does not really mean much though, NMS, Kerbal and SC subreddits are the same for example.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

it's just quiet. [...] as well as a not entirely surprising lack of dev news, there's also a lull in noteworthy community activity for those channels to report on. [...] I feel like mainly what people are doing is just getting on with quietly and uneventfully playing the game - especially now that DW2 is over.

Yes, I think this is the main thing which is new. The last six months, very little new has happened, compared with the four years before that

2015:
- release of game (okay, strictly late 2014, but close enough)
- early community goals before format is nailed down, Lugh War, Halsey, etc.
- Powerplay starts, lots of player activity around that
- invention of Fuel Transfer Limpets leads to the Fuel Rats

2016:
- planetary landings widen exploration a lot: many major exploration expeditions including DW1
- Dangerous Games
- Jaques misjump, foundation of Colonia
- start of Premonition storyline
- increased discoveries of Thargoid items
- Guardians discovered

2017:
- Colonia Expansion Initiative, establishment of region
- Thargoid hyperdictions
- end of Premonition storyline
- Thargoid invasion of the Pleiades begins

2018:
- Thargoid invasion of the bubble begins
- Guardian tech brokers allow humanity to fight back, further sites discovered
- Colonia Engineers
- Gnosis misjump

2019:
- Distant Worlds 2, establishment of starport at core

Things were pretty quiet for large parts of the previous years too, of course, but at the moment there's been very little genuinely new [1] for a long time. Everything - Powerplay, Thargoids, Colonia, BGS, interactive storyline - seems to be in a steady state waiting. Even the CGs are less frequent. Where is the next thing for players to collaborate or compete on?

And "new" doesn't necessarily require new features. Dangerous Games was just a series of six slightly inventive CGs, but mostly in existing well-tested formats. The Gnosis misjump was all done with existing bits. There just doesn't seem to have been any of that for a while - maybe some of the Interstellar Initiatives might be it?

 

[babelfisch]

Ah right, fair point. But in my opinion it's true. For those that do enjoy jumping into Elite and taking nothing more than a couple of screenshots out of it, Elite does its job good and sufficient. But for those of us that do not value screenshots (alone) and expect other things suc has a high quality, major bug free experience, Elite fails miserably. I can't even play with my friends without restarting the client multiple times per hour.

I think you are not completely wrong.

Elite's strengths are visuals, audio, design and some of the technologies (procedural planets and galaxy). It's definitely a very good screenshot simulator.
I don't think it's fair to call everyone who likes it a casual gamer though.
Obvious weaknesses are bugs, long development cycles, questionable feature design, story telling and placeholder mechanics.
Some of these problems are self-made, using your own engine usually means that lots of stuff needs to be coded first which results in long development times and bugs. On the other hand it allows you to introduce features and mechanics that wouldn't be possible with a 3rd party engine.
And while I often disagree with their design, it's also quite refreshing to see how they sometimes do things differently than your average AAA clone. I am pretty much bored by almost all games that currently get released. I am pretty much as anti casual as it gets.

 

[StuartGT]

It’s a sand box game that has new things to play with every now and then. Skyrim in space it is not.

Indeed:

https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/8of96y

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/8of96y/comprehensive_elite_dangerous_career_chart/

 

[Rubbernuke]

The screenshot thingie does not really mean much though, NMS, Kerbal and SC subreddits are the same for example.

True, but in my mind its like a litmus test of what people talk and think about in the game. As time has gone on, screenshots of planets and ships has become the most upvoted content- what about the other things in ED?

 

[Shinji Ikari]

The screenshot thingie does not really mean much though, NMS, Kerbal and SC subreddits are the same for example.

In the case of KSP, the most popular videos are always those of great skill such as landing and returning from Eve, going to X with only SRBs and impresive designs (please note this is not determined by aesthetics).

 

[Viajero]

In the case of KSP, the most popular videos are always those of great skill such as landing and returning from Eve, going to X with only SRBs and impresive designs (please note this is not determined by aesthetics).

You mean like these in Elite´s:

https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/bzy4lz

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/bzy4lz/ratting_tales_plummeting_rescue/?ref=share&ref_source=embed&utm_content=title&utm_medium=post_embed&utm_name=4c6a5f32ad3d47eb8ec41f458d9a9921&utm_source=embedly&utm_term=bzy4lz

Or maybe these?

https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/by2rko

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/by2rko/krait_mkii_hydra_solo_killing_the_eight_hearted/

Or perhaps these?

https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/c0xifx

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/c0xifx/advanced_pas_on_a_vulture_with_thermal_conduit/

Or possibly these?

https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/c1dl4e

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/c1dl4e/faoff_900_viper_pomeche_go/


etc