I thought the ice environments were trailed at the previous Lavecon by Frontier for inclusion in the fourth quarter update of 2018
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I thought the ice environments were trailed at the previous Lavecon by Frontier for inclusion in the fourth quarter update of 2018
Because that works so well when people either:
- overhype stuff with completely false and overblown theorycrafting, dreams and hype trains (see also: NMS, SC, most of Elite's features where for no apparent reason - meaning it was not promised - players expected more stuff than what was delivered ("We're getting this functionality which totally means we'll get this, this and THIS!"))
- get bored with waiting and welcome the patch totally coldly
IMO it's better to develop in silence and release info 1 - 3 months in advance. You know it's finalized, you can limit players' expectations more reasonably regarding what it does, the players don't have time to theorycraft to insane levels.
Of course the price for this is a silence / nothingness period, if you wish, but that's what CGs, community events and streams are for. I think the community takes the "We have to have info about what is going on every. single. day." a tad too extremely - even if I understand it's caused by love for the game, in the end it's not healthy. For players, for devs, for no-one.
I'll put my hand up and admit that I found the announcement for yesterdays "Let's Play" easy to misinterpret, had the two sentences been split over as a paragraph break instead it would have removed the potential misinterpretation. Never mind, no actual harm done.
But...
I don't understand why additional information about Fleet Carriers hasn't been made public, if they were ready to insert into the game in December then surely they are unlikely to have radical changes between then and release? (Sorry, I'm still a little miffed about their delay)
But...
I don't understand why additional information about Fleet Carriers hasn't been made public, if they were ready to insert into the game in December then surely they are unlikely to have radical changes between then and release? (Sorry, I'm still a little miffed about their delay)
That's correct - at LaveCon in June 2018.
A few months later, on 31st August, we were then informed that Ice Planets and Fleet Carriers (plus the Premium Content - free for LEP owners, and purchasable by non-LEP CMDRs) were being [re]prioritised to a later time.
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It was certainly possible to misinterpret. It was also possible to realise that it's possible to misinterpret, which is why I didn't expect anything. What gave it away was "more details about what's in store for the future of Elite Dangerous!" when they just said that more info on the 2020 update wouldn't come before Summer. So to reiterate, yes, it was badly worded. Yes, it was quite obvious that it was badly worded. People should never base their expectations on ambiguous statements.
True. I guess they want to have something to talk about for the next months.
If you don't manage expectations early then you'll get what is happening now- people using any scrap of info to make things up (setting up unrealistic expectations), getting angry at the silence or simply stop playing. I also play Warframe- and I know whats coming, what the patches are (as in from top to bottom) and they have excellent engagement. They are not afraid to show in development features, even if they get delayed. People remain engaged and invested, and frustration is limited. Compare to ED: I've waited 5 years for Powerplay to be updated, CQC, MC, etc. I have no idea at all whats happening, should I keep waiting?
For a game like PZ or JPE I'd agree. ED is not the same though- its an ongoing game as a service thats evolving all the time. Since such games have very dubious reputations and longevity its good to have an out of game guide that shows whats happening and what to expect.
Which were thin at best- without some lore driver they were just isolated CGs with a bit more glitter. If we are to have an info blackout then the content to cover it should be solid. FD don't understand that streams are not everything. Why stream something that people don't want to see, when you could buff newsletters, pre-recorded segments etc and play to your strengths? Flogging a format that is not popular is not a good use of time, its just shows a lack of imagination / lack of resources which feeds the idea nothing is coming.
You don't need to have lots of updates if you have a clear, coherent schedule and populate it, then you can spread out updates and be in control of expectations and keep people happy and engaged. Like it or not ED is a game as a service- its not finished and is being continually built, and as such requires a level of expectation management and keeping interest flowing. Don't do that and confidence and interest ebb away.
I would imagine they have been reading the speculation and know that at least one aspect of carriers will be controversial. Better to keep that discussion to the time when people can see it in-game
(But that's just my imagination, so I'm not going to worry about that at all. Equally likely they're just really busy and haven't got around to formatting the FC details for publication.)
Yep, I've been saying this ever since the dev updates stopped right after Horizons launched. Before 2.1 Frontier was wonderful at keeping us informed about development with regular updates and sneak peaks. After 2.1 they changed policy and its been huge bouts of radio silence ever since with updates only right before releaase.
Dev studios who communicate development and roadmaps regularly cultivate loyal healthy communities, it builds trust and a feeling of inclusion. Just look to studios like SCS Software, Hello Games, and even Blizzard to see this in action. Frontier used to be like this but they stopped for whatever reason, and now the Elite community is almost always kept out of the loop until the last moments.
We have no idea what is changing with Fleet Carriers to have pushed them back over a year.
We have no idea what this New Era they've been working on for almost two years is, not a single detail.
We have no idea if the ice planet revamp is even still a thing we can expect someday.
We don't know if any new ships are coming ever again.
We don't know if any new planet types will ever be landable.
Other than the minor bug fix patch coming in January (maybe) we have absolutely zero idea of what to expect next for the game. At all.
It's amazing how little we actually know about Elite's future, and for a game which relies on selling DLC as revenue such secrecy runs completely counter to Frontier's financial interests. Investors need to feel secure in what they are investing in, that's just good business, and Elite has been failing at that for a very long time now. Their policy of secrecy is leaving money on the table for them, and I don't know why they persist with it.
It's like Frontier is afraid to commit to anything at all.
Sure, I guess Frontier should have released Elite as a single player game. People expect an MMO to keep them engaged throughout the year, otherwise communities will fade away. It feels like Elite has been hibernating for two years.
And it was Frontier who decided to talk about certain features five years ago. And a common phrase back then was "probably won't make it into the first release". I don't blame players who thought that would still mean within the first five years.
From what I gleaned from the Live Stream yesterday, the Impression I'm getting is we're getting the January Bug Fix Fest (not complaining about that) and the Fleet Carriers mid year, with maybe another bug fix patch about half way between the two. And that's our lot until the New Era stuff is coming, so nothing for Powerplay, CQC, Multi-crew, any changes to C&P, a PVE/PVP flag or any new planet side content. We can jump up and down and get as grumpy as we want, that isn't going to change. I was certainly hoping that some of those items were going to get a little attention but it was not to be.
The vast majority of the E
resources has been going into New Era (Or whatever they're going to call it), which probably is an engine update (across all three platforms) in addition to what's been speculated for the last year. I'm certainly hoping that New Era is something good because the feeling that you get from the rest of the community is that they're not feeling optomistic about the game's future at the moment.
The vast majority of the E
resources has been going into New Era (Or whatever they're going to call it), which probably is an engine update (across all three platforms) in addition to what's been speculated for the last year. I'm certainly hoping that New Era is something good because the feeling that you get from the rest of the community is that they're not feeling optomistic about the game's future at the moment.I assume because Frontier don't think there's enough to talk about for 6 months and players would lose interest.
I remember I rolled my eyes for the last patch stream when they kept going on about the throttle now being displayed as chevrons instead of bars like it's the best feature since sliced Thargoid Scouts.
I was not expecting anything less- what annoys me is that its total silence and no engagement beforehand, wasting huge amounts of goodwill that in turn building positive, realistic hype.
The vast majority of the E
And the quieter they are, the more suspicious we are because its piling expectation on expectation, building to something that could be wonderful, or something catastrophic. Its like being promised this:
And after a whole day waiting and salivating we get:
Not to mention the levels of testing, beta, balance etc. September badly shook my faith in FD. Cause you gotta have
Its pretty certain we are going to see some or all of: atmospheres, gas giants, feet, bases, carriers. Aside from gas giant scooping (which I have a pretty good idea in my head how it will work) all the rest are 'in the wild' in other games so to me its not as if I'm going to be seeing something like Elite 84 for the first time. The only other route I can see is if FD supercharge (and I mean really pump it) the current game and rewrite out a lot of its flaws (P2P etc). ED was always going to be developed in a stepwise way, mid life its not going to wildly diverge from the things that you see in concept art (atmospheres, gas giants, etc).
Its all there- there was Thargoid artwork in an old office picture, Braben had proc gen clouds going on, you have this:
Sure, if you base your predictions on leaks and speculations... I'm not so sure there's not something really groundbreaking behind the silence which then would make a lot of sense. Though I certainly would be very happy if it's actually all of this!
And I am already very happy that Frontier's approach is almost the polar opposite of all other currently existing space games.
Personally I'd rather FD went to town on what we have now, and really make it all fit together properly.
FDs stepwise approach is fine to a point, it all goes wonky when you bring in features (Powerplay, CQC, MC, squadrons etc) and never really update them so they languish.
Its why FD are setting themselves up for the most amazing things ever in the New Era, or for it to fall short and permanently turn people off ED (since it would be almost two years adrift).
The biggest danger is that people hype New Era up without guidance and nothing in the world can match that- so without shaping your expectations with long term drip fed reveals and shape peoples opinions people will be let down regardless of quality, which would be a shame.
ANNOUNCEMENT - Community Update - January 3306
Greetings Commanders, Happy New Year! As we enter 3306, we would like to tell you about the next update coming to Elite Dangerous! Thanks to all the commanders who joined in the beta back in November, we're happy to announce that the January Update will be launching on the 14 January! As we...