EXPO 17 and my view on future Elite's roadmap

Star Citizen 3.0 is in Evocati testing...should be out in a couple weeks for the rest of us. It's all I want ..walking on planets, doing missions...mining, buying ships...trading goods.

Love Elite, but it's still 1 year away from what I want.
 
I share your view OP.

You're getting a lot of funny replies here - had to put the popcorn down to type. I certainly didn't read the OP as "doom and gloom" nor that it was trying to say SC is better. It was factual in that at the expo FDev said for 2018 the game is basically going to stay the same. That should be fine for the fan-base who love the game in its current state; there's no need to get sore or defensive. So yes, there will be new ships with a new combo of slots. Yes, there will be Galnet audio to read the day's news. Yes, friends and wings can now organize into a squad and share a station that will move (maybe animated like the capitol ships but more likely like the Jacques station magic server-update-relocation where you won't actually see them move). Yes, planetoids are getting their colors back and perhaps new fog (probably to limit the level of detail to improve FPS). But that's about it. There's nothing on the scale of 2.x releases where we saw a new crafting system introduced (good or bad). Nothing on the scale of landings with a new ground vehicle. Nothing on the scale of multicrew or SLF. There's really nothing planned worthy enough to charge money for. At least the 2.x releases introduced significant elements trying to add to the game experience and play - won't debate how good or bad they were.

So yeah. If you enjoy the Elite game you have today then that's basically what you'll have for the next 15-18 months. That's also clearly what FDev have implied by stating next year would focus on QoL and now we know what that means: no new massive changes or game additions.

Point that many repliers in this and other threads seem to miss is that a number of players are not happy with the game today and want(ed) more entertainment from the game. They're disappointed that the game will essentially remain the same for the next year, and that there was no mention of what's beyond 2018 (<< see what I did there? ).:cool:
 
Last edited:
I believe the OP is missing a key component here, Frontier now have 3 big A list games on the go currently that all share similar technologies but more importantly are all pushing the procedural generation of worlds into ever more detail and breadth to try and form emergent gameplay properties that could never be scripted. This sharing of technology and vision across a number of games and playerbase types therefore lowers investment risk and access to market time over time. The strategy of only releasing something when it has the desired quality is not an indicator that something is too big to ever implement. SC is going about things in a different direction, has amassed a large amount of money and development time for a singular game that will try and encompass many game types and will take time to come to market as a final product to be bought by the mainstream audience. Both strategies could leach too many of the original playerbase and not gain enough new users to be able to recover over x number of years so I do not see anything particularly intrinsic to SC that mean it is not at risk in the same way as ED is, both have long-term development plans and similar grand visions. If the new features of the game are good are fairly unique it will attract new players, ED has already ring-fenced its uniqueness with its Milky-Way simulator base level.
 
Last edited:
I've just got back from the Expo.

For me, the biggest take-home was the planetary surfaces. Not just getting rid of the beige (yay!) but actual planetary surfaces that look like actual planets rather than pepperoni pizza. New Horizons showed everyone that you should expect the unexpected (even on balls of ice) so seeing that, and seeing that it'll come in Q1 2018, means that the galaxy will be beautiful again. Explorable again.

New ships? Meh.

Squadrons? Double meh.

Give me a galaxy that looks like those screenshots and animations, and I'm in.
 
I always thought SC was a permanently crowd funded tech demo?! ;)

people pouring their money, cheers and whooping into a fantasy that will always be in development, with no release :D

I had wondered if it was a conspiracy... Just look how much money has been raised... What a fantastic money maker for CR and his team.

We have all seen Chris Roberts new car

maxresdefault-9-1140x640.jpg


Betcha he didn't get that polishing shoes in wall mart.

Saw his house to..

contemporary+home+photos+A.jpg


Betcha he didn't buy that from proceeds selling protein shakes outside of the Virgin mega store...

:D

Crowd funded fantasies are awesome for fast cash :) :)



<disclaimer>

ok all the above was made up.. OR WAS IT!? ;)
 
That was a low move. What makes you think Braben lives a simple life? No need to reply, lets just not go there.

David has earned his worth and grinded his rep via company working for showelware which has always turned out much better than you can expect for comissioned software. I checked out ScreamRide, Kinectals and Disney Kinect adventure game. Ping me when Chris will have same professional ethics.
 
Last edited:
Star Citizen will be out 2018/2019 …
Ha… haha… hahaha… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAAA…

Do you seriously believe that? Have you seen the roadmap for the SC *Alpha*? And have you seen the speed of SC's development? If you are lucky, you will have SC Alpha version 4.0 by 2019. The final release is at the moment still years away.
 
Point that many repliers in this and other threads seem to miss is that a number of players are not happy with the game today
Yeah. And they went "mile wide inch deep", "mile wide inch deep", "mile wide inch deep", "mile wide inch deep", "mile wide inch deep" ad nauseum. Constantly banging on how FD needed to introduce some depth into all professions.

And now FD has done so, bellyachers keep on bellyaching, and the world turns as it has always done.
 
It was factual in that at the expo FDev said for 2018 the game is basically going to stay the same. That should be fine for the fan-base who love the game in its current state; there's no need to get sore or defensive. So yes, there will be new ships with a new combo of slots. Yes, there will be Galnet audio to read the day's news. Yes, friends and wings can now organize into a squad and share a station that will move (maybe animated like the capitol ships but more likely like the Jacques station magic server-update-relocation where you won't actually see them move). Yes, planetoids are getting their colors back and perhaps new fog (probably to limit the level of detail to improve FPS). But that's about it. There's nothing on the scale of 2.x releases where we saw a new crafting system introduced (good or bad). Nothing on the scale of landings with a new ground vehicle. Nothing on the scale of multicrew or SLF. There's really nothing planned worthy enough to charge money for. At least the 2.x releases introduced significant elements trying to add to the game experience and play - won't debate how good or bad they were.

So yeah. If you enjoy the Elite game you have today then that's basically what you'll have for the next 15-18 months. That's also clearly what FDev have implied by stating next year would focus on QoL and now we know what that means: no new massive changes or game additions.

People complain about core of the game. Frontier attempt to address complaint. People complain there's no new features.

Note: They did say that the level of detail would go up on planets and it's clear they're getting much more than their original colour back. You also missed:


  • New global lighting system
  • Crime and Punishment
  • Changes to Engineering modules
  • New system for placing and displaying/generating rock formations etc.
  • Wing Missions
  • Trade changes
  • Mining
  • Exploration: Codex, new stuff to find, new tools for exploring.


Plus other features they've got earmarked for the two smaller content updates that we will have to wait to find out more about. Im not sure how adding new stuff to existing features can't possibly be classed as adding to the game?

Yeah. And they went "mile wide inch deep", "mile wide inch deep", "mile wide inch deep", "mile wide inch deep", "mile wide inch deep" ad nauseum. Constantly banging on how FD needed to introduce some depth into all professions.

And now FD has done so, bellyachers keep on bellyaching, and the world turns as it has always done.

They want everything their way, yesterday.
 
Yeah. And they went "mile wide inch deep", "mile wide inch deep", "mile wide inch deep", "mile wide inch deep", "mile wide inch deep" ad nauseum. Constantly banging on how FD needed to introduce some depth into all professions.

And now FD has done so, bellyachers keep on bellyaching, and the world turns as it has always done.

One could even reach a conclusion that people are complaining not because they want a better game but simply because they like complaining.
 
Yeah. And they went "mile wide inch deep", "mile wide inch deep", "mile wide inch deep", "mile wide inch deep", "mile wide inch deep" ad nauseum. Constantly banging on how FD needed to introduce some depth into all professions.

And now FD has done so, bellyachers keep on bellyaching, and the world turns as it has always done.

FD gives everyone a cake. First response on these forums is 'why is it not two cakes?'
 
People complain about core of the game. Frontier attempt to address complaint. People complain there's no new features.

Note: They did say that the level of detail would go up on planets and it's clear they're getting much more than their original colour back. You also missed:


  • New global lighting system
  • Crime and Punishment
  • Changes to Engineering modules
  • New system for placing and displaying/generating rock formations etc.
  • Wing Missions
  • Trade changes
  • Mining
  • Exploration: Codex, new stuff to find, new tools for exploring.


Plus other features they've got earmarked for the two smaller content updates that we will have to wait to find out more about. Im not sure how adding new stuff to existing features can't possibly be classed as adding to the game?



They want everything their way, yesterday.


Okay, so planets get colorful and more texture detail to see when scanning in the buggy :rolleyes:. Still don't see anything that's really nothing more than adding to the width of this shallow gameplay:

  • New global lighting system: okay maybe we'll see two shadows in the cockpit to match the two binary stars when we SC forever in a system.
  • Crime and Punishment: gankers get a new financial penalty - does anyone think this will stop ganking?
  • Changes to Engineering modules: changes as in reducing the god-roll/RNG effects.
  • New system for placing and displaying/generating rock formations etc: new visual when forever driving the SRV hoping the RNG gods spawn a rock with arsenic.
  • Wing Missions: yeah, now 4x players can fetch/delivery/grind together for 150,000 credits and 200,000 LY.
  • Trade changes: we have no idea what this will be.
  • Mining: again, we no idea what this will be.
  • Exploration: Codex, new stuff to find, new tools for exploring: which could be more ruins, more crashed ships, etc. - more of what we have today.

Not sure I'd call these features as many are more like changes or enhancements. These take the game wider but not deeper hence the cliché that continues to be brought up.

To go deeper things need to drastically change which means serious development resources, money and time, and it's clear FDev recognize they can't and/or don't want to make this investment by the 2018 approach of QoL changes versus actually investing in developing a new expansion and new content. An example of depth would be not adding a simple text reader to Galnet; depth would be creating all the elements to actually see and participate in the stuff being described in the Galnet ascii text. When Galent says "... blockade remains in place at xx system..." wouldn't it actually be great to go to xx system and see the blockade and to engage perhaps in battle with a number of capital ships. But today you can't. You go to xx system and it looks the same as it did yesterday and last month and last year. There's nothing that even resembles what Galnet had described. <insert "use your imagination" response here>

As for the people complain comment and how FDev has responded to these, does your list address many or any of the real complaints people have made, really? Folks do not like the level of RNG scattered throughout the game - there's no mention of changes in 2018 to reduce this. Folks do not like the grind in RNGineers, USS placeholders and other areas - there's no mention of addressing this in 2018. Folks complain about the imbalance in many areas be it PvP combat or income from pirating/BH - there's nothing about changes for these in 2018. Folks are not happy about multi-crew - there's no mention of anything new here in 2018. And then there's the things that folks do want with spacelegs and atmospheric landings, etc. - where has FDev addressed this?

Based on yesterday's expo, FDev are saying Elite "is what it is" for the next 15-18 months which for the loyal fans should be great as they love the game we have today.
 
Last edited:
Star Citizen's internal date for beta is 2021 and half the industry knows it.

I have stuck with ED throughout 2017 despite the big headline features disappointing me. This is because the ships are a sheer joy to fly and graphically it is capable of actually astonishing me at times. Plus it scratches 75% of the Elite itch for me.

Frontier have made a ballsy move by scrapping big headline features for 2018 and instead are putting exploration, mining and multiplay back in the oven. On top of that they are reworking planet and lighting tech, and the wip screenshots already make Star Citizen's planets look like a Mickey Mouse cartoon.

No paid season and no big headline features is a good and bold move by Frontier. It's predictable, obvious and tiring to see the Star Citizen machinery try to turn this into a marketing opportunity.

The most successful thing CIG have done is turn their fans into marketing drones and have them pay CIG for the privilege.
 
Back
Top Bottom