For those seeking answers why David was keen to release ED as bare minimum - read this

[Sanderson]

I wish RPS would interview David and hold his feet to the fire like they just did Peter Molyneux, they both have a lot in common.

Instead the media fall all over themselves kissing his 1982 butt, while being totally oblivious to the state of the game as released, unfulfilled kickstarter rewards, broken and missing game elements, the big vertical slice and need to reengineer everything, no dynamic ever unfolding experience and on and on.

Hey, lets talk about Coaster Park Tycoon.

 

[BlackReign]

Bare minimum? ED is far from perfect, but last time I checked, no other space sim provides a 400billion star system sandbox.

 

[Armante]

Then you failed with this one.

No, it would appear they failed to engage with you. I am engaged.

 

[Rhywden]

Bare minimum? ED is far from perfect, but last time I checked, no other space sim provides a 400billion star system sandbox.

Here comes the "sandbox" again. Pray tell, what exactly can you do in this "400 billion star system sandbox" that you couldn't do in a "2 star system sandbox"?

Exactly. The number is completely meaningless. Not to mention that for a sandbox you'd have to have some kind of meaningful interaction.

 

[wstephenson]

+1

This is something that I've been thinking about a lot lately. Building a new station really is meaningless in world that had thousands already. In fact, I can't help feeling that the sheer number of stations in the game already makes them uninteresting.

I can't help thinking how exciting an Elite game would have been if it had been set at the time human colonisation had first began, maybe just a few decades after the invention of hyperspace technology.

I went back and re-watched some of the fiction diaries MB did early on, and one thing he talked about that hasn't been aired recently was that ED was supposed to be set at the dawn of a new generation of fast hyperdrives, triggering an increased pace of human expansion in space. ISTR that the previous games' jumps were supposed to advance the game clock rapidly, and you had the Stardreamer time dilation for in-system travel in Frontier, and that had all been retconned into 'old slow hyperdrives'. Dunno whether MB has had his hands too full getting the game produced to steer the overall story arc in this direction yet, and provide the gold rush economics DB has talked about. My gut is they are just getting going.

 

[Slopey]

For those seeking answers why David was keen to release ED as bare minimum - read this

... because it won't tell you anything of the sort.

 

[Devil's Refugee]

... because it won't tell you anything of the sort.

I must learn to write more Daily Mail headlines for my new threads. I posted this yesterday with the utterly mundane heading of "David Braben Interview", it disappeared fast enough

 

[Hadron-Higgs-Boson]

I must learn to write more Daily Mail headlines for my new threads

post one more thread seeking cat pictures.... and they will never find your body

 

[Toscaner]

+1

This is something that I've been thinking about a lot lately. Building a new station really is meaningless in world that had thousands already. In fact, I can't help feeling that the sheer number of stations in the game already makes them uninteresting.

I can't help thinking how exciting an Elite game would have been if it had been set at the time human colonisation had first began, maybe just a few decades after the invention of hyperspace technology.

Instead of Elite 4, it would have been an Elite prequel.

The few space stations around back in the older days would have been unique points of interest and would have been an immense undertaking for the factions that built them. Places of real industrial pride.

NPC corporations would have been employing players enmasse as humanity begins its journey away from mother Earth. Missions to create new hyperspace routes to nearby star systems. Missions to survey for nearby resources. Scientific missions to build outposts near astronomical interests like nearby nebula, neutron stars, and black holes. The birth of interstellar trade.

I imagine that era could have been open to far more emergent gameplay than having it already put in place and built for us. In fact the current game looks like a sprawling ghetto of the same old infrastructure in system after system, surrounded by nothingness. In 3300 there isn't one science outpost to be found out at local points of interest. Not even an orbiting probe in orbit around Sagittarius A*, a place of immense scientific interest a mere 30 hours flight time away.

It seems humanity has no interest in anything outside its current borders.

But I digress...

I just hope that some of that stuff will find its way into the game, and not be put there by the lowest common denominator gameplay of grinding item x at location y, rinse and repeat. Really really hope this so called community project station build that FD released is just a place holder or content filler while they work on much more engaging stuff yet to be announced.

+1

i really hope they would give us a some info on their current vision and plan.
well, if not i can only check back from time to time and see where they go, because the current game isn't bad but doesn't occupy me for too long and is not what i was thinking it will be, after reading and watching everything about ED half a year back.

edit: and yea, the article doesn't deliver what the OP suggested..

 

[goxy]

they were text adventures, Braben i ll pay you 45 eu more if you add
landing,
take off cut scenes,
pirates bases in the system,needing landing permits, or to be a pirate , with better guns and equip
Asteroid bases,
much more interdictions
sudden mission in space during the flight to pick up some goods in space
people walking around a ship in hangar
passengers mission
trade with passengers hibernation capsules

 

[ffr]

You can argue that games are terrible when done with a publisher, but at least the developer is legally obligated to fulfill the terms of the contract with a publisher involved. With kickstarter, developers slap the faces of every early backer by doing whatever the hell they want.

Not much difference. Braben failed to deliver his last space Sim game to its publisher, failed to give a refund, and got sued for a million dollars.

This time Braben is equally obliged to fulfill the terms of his contract. Again he has failed to deliver, failed to make the required refunds, and is under threat of legal action from backers.

The outcome is pretty similar. In both cases, Braben will be extremely unlikely to get any financial backing again from those sources.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

But the extremely poor expectation setting by certain agency's is unforgivable. Sack em off!

What agency? Braben's false promises are his own.

 

[ffr]

the company didnt create new shares to create capital.

You missed all the new shares they had to create to buy the Elite rights after finding out that Braben didn't own them as he'd claimed.

 

[Skip Intro]

Kickstarter doesn't make software development project planning difficult - it is always difficult, kickstarter just gives the consumers a window into our industry on a level they don't have elsewhere. A recent study of major software projects found that they averaged a 66% budget overrun, 33% time overrun, and delivered 17% fewer features than planned.

The old software development saying writ large: "on time, on budget, working. Pick two."

 

[ffr]

In all seriousness the game is brand new.

Wrong again. Since launch the game has had half a million pounds of development over two months. With not much to show for the price.

 

[barcode]

Wrong again. Since launch the game has had half a million pounds of development over two months. With not much to show for the price.

Two months. I just need to point that out.

 

[Patrick_68000]

Very good read. Even if lot of things have already been said long ago by David in other interviews

 

[Viajero]

Not much difference. Braben failed to deliver his last space Sim game to its publisher, failed to give a refund, and got sued for a million dollars.

Failed to deliver... Says who? Please show the court statement declaring Braben failed to deliver. Otherwise I might aswell believe it was instead the publisher who failed by forcing the early realease and had to actually compensate Braben after a counter suit.

The outcome is pretty similar. In both cases, Braben will be extremely unlikely to get any financial backing again from those sources.

Outcome? What was the outcome of the Frontier: First Encounters writ pray tell? I dont really recall the publisher getting it its way at all.

Also, you mean no financial backing other than the most successful kickstarted project since start of kickstarter in the UK? Or the almost 6 MM GBP raised on Frontier´s IPO overall? He seems to have managed to get financial backing allright so far.

 

[Nauht]

Also, you mean no financial backing other than the most successful kickstarted project since start of kickstarter in the UK? Or the almost 6 MM GBP raised on Frontier´s IPO overall? He seems to have managed to get financial backing allright so far.

Gotta love selective reasoning arguments. Last I checked, Kickstarter was on the internet and the internet was available, um, nearly everywhere. Most successful ever in the UK is like trumpeting the most successful kickstarter in Tonga as well.

Point is, it's the interweb, it was available to everybody, everywhere, to back. If it was ONLY available to the UK and that's it, then yeah, that's a fair tooting of the horn.

 

[Viajero]

Gotta love selective reasoning arguments. Last I checked, Kickstarter was on the internet and the internet was available, um, nearly everywhere. Most successful ever in the UK is like trumpeting the most successful kickstarter in Tonga as well.

Point is, it's the interweb, it was available to everybody, everywhere, to back. If it was ONLY available to the UK and that's it, then yeah, that's a fair tooting of the horn.

Nice strawman. I ll bite though.

I supose your definition of selective is also very selective. After all, the context of my response is to a statement suggesting Braben is not getting financial backing. Well, for a game based and developed in Cambridge, by a company paying taxes to Her Majesty´s Revenue and Customs, getting the largest kickstarter in the UK so far could be considered a good start dont you think?

 

[Ideas Man]

Dude don't bring the Queen into this