Because they... don't want to make the game better so more people will buy it?
FD Road Map
- Thread starter JMars
- Start date
Because they... don't want to make the game better so more people will buy it?
I agree the lack of Sneak Peeks in newsletters is terrible. You gotta give fans something to anticipate and be excited about.
Add a concept art, screenshot, puzzle, developer diary, interviews, anything that gives us a little new information.
We really don't need another 1-2 months of nothingness in the Newsletters other than the usual filler.
Add a concept art, screenshot, puzzle, developer diary, interviews, anything that gives us a little new information.
We really don't need another 1-2 months of nothingness in the Newsletters other than the usual filler.
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This is what I've seen as well. Good example: open remains a mess and no one can say it's been anything but an absolute fail with respect to delivering the planned living universe. Yet as you've mentioned instead of fixing things like open FDev keep futzing around with the existing stuff rather than creating new stuff. More RNG stuff, arcade fighters, cloned ships and cloned missions were not needed. Note how 'QoL' has now entered many of the discussions highlighting just how much is really focused on the existing stuff; it's really a nice way of saying bug fixes or fixing a bad game element.
But for a roadmap for Elite I don't think FDev has plans more than 6 months out. This past year showed nothing but a short term planning mindset IMO where the updates were focused on capturing new revenue opportunities (hello abandoned Mac version... PS4 is likely Horizons 2.4!). Then there's the ROI problem here where one needs to look at the return for any investment: Elite's been on the market for 2 years now so how much do they plan on investing into this aging product? As disclosed in their recent financial statement, profits from Elite sales went to developing Planet Coaster; Elite is in sustaining mode where funding is likely quite limited. This has to be kept in mind while speculating about any roadmap plans as things like a PS4 version - new revenue - are probably top priority over fixing open or adding space legs.
(Note the interesting comment by Sandro in the last stream (open - trading places) @ 1:07:55 where he comments ".. being privileged to work with the game... <long pause> still." . This can quickly be taken out of context but I thought it was interesting due to the tone and way it was said.)
:S
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Yep. There's really no excuse for not sharing the detail with the community. They used to share info recognizing this communication was important so why did they stop? Unfortunately this feeds into creating distrust and concerns.
Some of us think FD keep quiet because they got badly burned releasing info early or making "promises" that later turned out to not happen or not have been promises. The classic example was offlinegate.
By only speaking about things as they are ready or close to ready, they insure themselves against a lot of aggro and hassle.
Sure, i think most of us would love a well laid out roadmap.
Since we are comparing with SC, look at the negative press that gets (as well as the positive), since people know what is meant to be coming, they pick apart every little detail and ask when it will come, and why oh why does it take so long, and what the hell is farming when the core features still are not implemented?
You get the picture?
There are pros and cons to both variants. FD have made their choice, CIG have made theirs.
By only speaking about things as they are ready or close to ready, they insure themselves against a lot of aggro and hassle.
Sure, i think most of us would love a well laid out roadmap.
Since we are comparing with SC, look at the negative press that gets (as well as the positive), since people know what is meant to be coming, they pick apart every little detail and ask when it will come, and why oh why does it take so long, and what the hell is farming when the core features still are not implemented?
You get the picture?
There are pros and cons to both variants. FD have made their choice, CIG have made theirs.
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I wouldn't say for example in my road map the time something has to be finished but what the next contents are. The sequence and what the updates contain would statisfy a lot of people.
Thatway I think the game would get a lot of publicity more. Im not a SC hater but Im angry about the popularity of that game only because of things that "will" come....
If they would have spoken open about their decisions and process early on they wouldn't have gotten into this trouble. And I still think this always online is absolute crap, a terrible architecture and design decision for multiple reason. Their tech is fancy yes, I've watched the presentation, but I think it's over-complicated and not the right approach for what was really needed. Also the P2P networking is another bad decision.
The only people upset are people who don't have the patience, it's incomplete, it's in constant change. This is a know fact that is pretty obviously communicated by them. I personally don't care if it's going to become 2018 as long as the result is fine. You get weekly progress and monthly progress reports and a lot of info whats going on. I prefer to have a honest word "We couldn't get it done because we wanted it polished." instead of getting unfinished, half done stuff (Hello FDEV!) puked on the market while cheering how awesome it is.
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I kind of prefer that FD are not wasting time, effort and resources making videos about themselves every week just to explain what they are doing. Instead they concentrate on building up the game and responding to player issues as and when they become evident, using the limited resources they have available.
This just seems far more efficient to me.
As for the road map, well I'm not sure their approach is the ideal way to make a computer game. I originally assumed a season meant a year, but seems they have brought out more features in version 2 than they had originally planned. Perhaps because of criticism and poor sales. It's a shame that the game is still tainted with the 'mile wide inch deep' criticism from it's earlier state. I don't think that applies anymore, but it will be more difficult to pull in buying players now that it has been said.
For the future, really now I don't see anything other than spacelegs, together with things to do on board our spaceships and in stations/ports/bases to make that relevant and atmospheric landings to look forward to. These are probably the most work still to do, with anything else that we don't know about yet being relatively easy updates. I would rather play a game that is finished, and just needs tweaking, but waiting for new features and playing an incomplete game seems what people are used to, and I suppose at least we had a game to play to start with, whereas other approaches simply function on a promise and a prayer from the beginning. Put your money in the pot sir, and thou shalt reach the heavenly gates...
This just seems far more efficient to me.
As for the road map, well I'm not sure their approach is the ideal way to make a computer game. I originally assumed a season meant a year, but seems they have brought out more features in version 2 than they had originally planned. Perhaps because of criticism and poor sales. It's a shame that the game is still tainted with the 'mile wide inch deep' criticism from it's earlier state. I don't think that applies anymore, but it will be more difficult to pull in buying players now that it has been said.
For the future, really now I don't see anything other than spacelegs, together with things to do on board our spaceships and in stations/ports/bases to make that relevant and atmospheric landings to look forward to. These are probably the most work still to do, with anything else that we don't know about yet being relatively easy updates. I would rather play a game that is finished, and just needs tweaking, but waiting for new features and playing an incomplete game seems what people are used to, and I suppose at least we had a game to play to start with, whereas other approaches simply function on a promise and a prayer from the beginning. Put your money in the pot sir, and thou shalt reach the heavenly gates...
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