FD, ace to see Gnosis rapid responce from you yesterday, now what's been learned?

[Strangepork]

I wonder what lessons have been learned by you fine people at FD, in the name of open discussion?

What suggestions do community members have?

Mine would be you guys seems to need to learn new fruitful communication techniques in house, then apply them to customers too.

ALL THE VERY BEST TO YOU.

 

[avow555]

All I learned was to never trust this developer again.

On another note it is quite apparent their hatred for explorers!

 

[Strangepork]

All I learned was to never trust this developer again.

On another note it is quite apparent their hatred for explorers!

A negative start in response to the thread, imagine you had something more productive to say, unless your really done here cmdr.

All the best.

 

[Rubbernuke]

That unchained Thargoids are a proper threat, and the opt in Thargoid war suddenly got interesting.

 

[Strangepork]

That unchained Thargoids are a proper threat, and the opt in Thargoid war suddenly got interesting.

Let's hope it's not a one off spectacle Rubber Nuke, friend.

 

[M00ka]

I hope FD learned not to use one of the biggest player events they have had as a live test of untried technology.

 

[Strangepork]

I hope FD learned not to use one of the biggest player events they have had as a live test of untried technology.

I hope they realise the importance of the Explorer community as the heart and soul of the game.

 

[Cmdr Ultra]

All I learned was to never trust this developer again.

On another note it is quite apparent their hatred for explorers!

Such intrepid explorers you are [alien] You just want to go Honk in permit locked space, same old planets scan, scan.
God forbid something actually happen.

I always respected explorers as one of the pillars of the Elite community, but after this outpouring of angst about being denied some more dullness that's gone.

You got ganked by Thargoids and griefed by Frontier in your minds. [haha]

 

[Strangepork]

Such intrepid explorers you are [alien] You just want to go Honk in permit locked space, same old planets scan, scan.
God forbid something actually happen.

I always respected explorers as one of the pillars of the Elite community, but after this outpouring of angst about being denied some more dullness that's gone.

You got ganked by Thargoids and griefed by Frontier in your minds. [haha]

Hmm, more jeopardy not a bad thing, but maybe FD made a switcheroo in this case that was almost a troll.

 

[M00ka]

I hope they realise the importance of the Explorer community as the heart and soul of the game.

I wouldn't put one profession above any others, that is the beauty of the game. Explorers are just as important as the traders, the miners and the combat jocks.

What I personally think FD underestimated is that so many players would stay close to their starter system. I have always entertained the thought that FD assumed that every Commander would head out into the black as soon as they had a ship capable of doing it, but that really hasn't happened. To put it another way, FD thought the player base would be more spread out in the galaxy, not have 90% of them sitting in either the bubble or Colonia .

 

[BIMJOHN]

It's precisely because we do NOT just want to honk the same old planets that we joined a mission that we hoped FD would support by giving us something new to get our exploration teeth into. Shame on FD for ignoring that.

 

[Rustnsawdust]

What I personally think FD underestimated is that so many players would stay close to their starter system. I have always entertained the thought that FD assumed that every Commander would head out into the black as soon as they had a ship capable of doing it, but that really hasn't happened. To put it another way, FD thought the player base would be more spread out in the galaxy, not have 90% of them sitting in either the bubble or Colonia .

Well, they might have encouraged that by putting more stuff to find and the tools to help us find it.

Here's hoping for Q4, eh?

 

[Stealthie]

Setting aside any of the many, many, things related to salt, I'd say that stations, in general, and landing pads, in particular, are something that FDev need to look at.

I'm honestly not sure if having "thargoid interference" screw up the GUI was a bug or a feature.
Either way, it's a lousy situation.
I didn't get chance to notice whether or not ships were taking damage while docked but when everything's going to poop and you can't get access to the GUI so you can refuel/rearm or equip your ship, your next response is probably going to be to log-off in order to ensure nothing else can go to poop while you're unable to do anything about it.

Having a game-mechanic (deliberate or accidental) which encourages people to stop playing the game is about as assbackwards as it gets.
By all means, keep the GUI corruption, which adds a nice touch of jeopardy to the situation, but don't inhibit the GUI completely, or at all.
Stations either need to protect ships from goid weapons completely or, at least, the GUI needs to be stable.

And then there's landing pads.
Fundamentally, the design of the Gnosis was one of the things that made it unsuitable for this "event".
It's landing pads are all in a cluster, at the rear, and they're all completely exposed.
Any goid that targets any human ship with a shutdown beam WILL hit every ship with the beam with a single shot.
It didn't matter if you were lucky enough to be launching from a side of the Gnosis facing away from the goids.
The shutdown beams pass straight through the ship and shut down any human ships in their path.

But hey, you can fit a shutdown shutdown beam gizmo, right?
Well, yeah, but you can use it until after you've launched, and when you've got half a dozen goids all firing shutdown beams in the vicinity, you're almost certain to be disabled as soon as the docking clamps release.

Not really sure how to fix this (in a way that doesn't seem contrived) but it needs fixing.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

I hope FD learned not to use one of the biggest player events they have had as a live test of untried technology.

That sounds sensible, but I hope they don't learn that.

Every memorable event in the game's history has involved them *trying something new*. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't ... but it would be an incredibly boring game if they never tried anything at large player events that hadn't been thoroughly tested out at smaller events of the same design first. The routineness of the CG format is what happens if mass events have to be mature tech only.

Also, all the untried technology basically worked - the Thargoids attacked as they should and appeared around the ship as they should. It was the combination of tried and tested technology that failed - no fire zone working as designed, Gnosis point defences shooting down missiles and flak like they're normally supposed to, C&P system correctly transporting offenders to the nearest detention centre. All perfectly working to spec. Just not, overall, giving the right experience - there are certainly lessons to learn about end-to-end scenario testing, but all the components worked exactly as designed.

 

[dannysquid]

I hope FD learned not to use one of the biggest player events they have had as a live test of untried technology.

I think they probably just learned not to screw these things up!

A series of things went wrong which amplified the anger. Disappointed to a bit cross to angry. If any one of these things hadn't happened it probably wouldn't have been so bad.

The biggest mistake was to do a non-exploration event when it was explorers who wanted the event. But they probably thought it would be a cool fun thing to do for the community when doing nothing was the other option. If things hadn't then gone badly wrong with bugs and galnet screw-ups it would probably only have caused a couple of threads worth of grumpiness and most people would have seen it as Frontier trying their best.

 

[SP_Predicador]

I hope that FD learn that in the player community, there are real hunger for real narrative events like that the Gnosis was. Surely this even could been made much better, witout spoilers, epic bugs, better communication...But in general I have a positive perception of the Gnosis event. My hope are in that FD learn, and more and better done, will be in the near future.

 

[Strangepork]

Well, they might have encouraged that by putting more stuff to find and the tools to help us find it.

Here's hoping for Q4, eh?

I think FD fear new mechanics, as firstly maybe screwing up the initial code, where some geniuses and some lesser were at work, also new mechanics are a bit risky and maybe expensive, better just to add some new models and hire artists. New mechanics seem like something they appear 'for some reason' to be adverse to!

 

[bitstorm]

Todays lessons :

The 6 p's: Proper Preparation Prevents <Censored> Poor Performance.

When you are about to be engaged in a particular project, job, task, whatever, and you absolutely cannot afford to have it fail, you always have to remember the 6 p's.

If you prepare properly, the end result will be at least adequate and it's the best shot you have at being seen as a work monster.

If you do not, it will be a total failure and you will be seen as a waste of space.

George: We went into Iraq and did what we set out to do. But some things take time, that's all. We misunderestimated our time slot.

Voice of Reality: Moron, you don't understand the 6 p's. That's all.

#kneejerk #best laid plans #key to success #planning #strategy

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Not really sure how to fix this (in a way that doesn't seem contrived) but it needs fixing.

Not contrived is tricky, since turkey-shooting vulnerable ships as they try to launch and before they can switch to combat mode is a highly realistic military tactic.

And the Gnosis - or an outpost - where you at least have some chance to drift away from the action after launching ... probably *better* for it than the same scenario with a Coriolis' bottleneck, or the inevitability of gravity at a planetary port.

Only thing I can think of is getting a bunch of shutdown field neutralisers retrofitted to the weapon pods on stations, which fire in the presence of Thargoids. Not strong enough to protect the station, but provide a little more cover for launching ships.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

What I personally think FD underestimated is that so many players would stay close to their starter system. I have always entertained the thought that FD assumed that every Commander would head out into the black as soon as they had a ship capable of doing it, but that really hasn't happened. To put it another way, FD thought the player base would be more spread out in the galaxy, not have 90% of them sitting in either the bubble or Colonia .

I don't think Frontier did assume that - basic things like the B-class cubes near the core, or the mass suppression axes heading out from Sol, suggest that their original plan expected people to mostly stay near the bubble, and they didn't do detailed testing too far from home. (The original DDF exploration plans wouldn't have given people much choice, either, since they had hyperspace travel being a much slower and trickier process in many respects)

They are on the record as being surprised at how many people just find a home system and stick near to it, rather than heading around all over the bubble ... and they probably shouldn't have been surprised at that.

But I think even the limited popularity of multi-month deep space exploration did surprise them - they probably expected people to stick closer to the bubble, where the plot is, where the fancier custom nebulae like Veil West are, etc., where the Guardian and Thargoid items are to find rather than just more generic systems. Distant Worlds probably shook that up a bit - but by then of course the Horizons season was all locked in, so this Q4 is basically their earliest chance for a major reaction to it, though 2.2 had some minor bits with long-range tourists and neutron boosts.