I was watching one of Obsidian Ants' recent videos, in which he reported that the orrery map wouldn't likely be implemented any time soon, if ever, because there wasn't sufficient gameplay attached to it to justify allocating development time and resources to it.
Which is a valid point.
As disappointing as it is to hear that, because it most definitely is a long desired feature, we do need to remember that Frontier is a business, and they need to make money, and they need to deploy their assets sensibly in order to do so.
But this got me thinking. FDev face constraints in terms of personnel and financial resources. Every company does. No organisation on the planet has enough money and people to do everything they'd like to do. But the gaming industry is in a unique position whereby it's customers are often more than happy to invest their own time, effort, and resources into creating content for the games that they play, on top of paying money to buy the game and any additional content for it which is released. Look at games like Skyrim, Fallout, DCS World, and so, so many other examples. How many games on Steam have a community Workshop attached, where you can download user created mods for the game you're playing? And how many of those are of fantastic quality which significantly add to the experience of playing that game? Some of the most successful games ever have grown out of community developed mods and conversions. Look at Counter Strike and LoL as examples of that.
So why should Elite Dangerous be any different?
There's an argument to be made for private modded servers, as was discussed during the initial kickstarter, certainly, but that's not what I'm advocating here, as much as that would itself be amazing. What I'm thinking of is along the lines of there being an official toolkit / modding tool / Garden of Eden Creation Kit which interested and talented people can download, and which they can use to create assets and content which FDev can then assess for suitability and quality, and then integrate into future content releases.
If the company doesn't currently have the time and resources to create the content the community playing their game desires, why not harness the community to do the heavy lifting, and then have in-house people polish and integrate it, assuming it meets clearly communicated standards in terms of aesthetic, function, and the like? There will be a lot of dross submitted for consideration, certainly, and some poor soul at FDev will have to wade through all those submissions and QA them. But there will also most certainly be real gems submitted, which can be added into the game, and for which FDev can give credit and even remuneration to the originator for, without having to invest significant and valuable resources themselves.
I imagine this has been suggested before, and if so I apologise for the repetition. I have to imagine, however, that this community represents an enormous asset which can be effectively utilised by FDev (any game developer actually) to develop content which the community desires, but that they themselves do not have to time, resources, and manpower to develop.
Have an idea for a new, or legacy, ship to be introduced into the game? Download the content creation kit and build it yourself. Player owned housing? Create the art assets and mechanics for it yourself. You want a new alien species? Write up their history, develop their anatomy, create a language or languages, a tech philosophy, a sociology for them. Submit if to FDev, and if it meets the criteria in terms of how FDev intend to develop the game it can be included in a future content update.
Leave the framework to the developer, but give interested and invested contributors the tools and opportunity they need to flesh things out.
I guarantee there will be many people out there with the drive, talent, and investment in the game to create amazing things which can be integrated into this game, with the orrery map being just a very small and simple example.
Which is a valid point.
As disappointing as it is to hear that, because it most definitely is a long desired feature, we do need to remember that Frontier is a business, and they need to make money, and they need to deploy their assets sensibly in order to do so.
But this got me thinking. FDev face constraints in terms of personnel and financial resources. Every company does. No organisation on the planet has enough money and people to do everything they'd like to do. But the gaming industry is in a unique position whereby it's customers are often more than happy to invest their own time, effort, and resources into creating content for the games that they play, on top of paying money to buy the game and any additional content for it which is released. Look at games like Skyrim, Fallout, DCS World, and so, so many other examples. How many games on Steam have a community Workshop attached, where you can download user created mods for the game you're playing? And how many of those are of fantastic quality which significantly add to the experience of playing that game? Some of the most successful games ever have grown out of community developed mods and conversions. Look at Counter Strike and LoL as examples of that.
So why should Elite Dangerous be any different?
There's an argument to be made for private modded servers, as was discussed during the initial kickstarter, certainly, but that's not what I'm advocating here, as much as that would itself be amazing. What I'm thinking of is along the lines of there being an official toolkit / modding tool / Garden of Eden Creation Kit which interested and talented people can download, and which they can use to create assets and content which FDev can then assess for suitability and quality, and then integrate into future content releases.
If the company doesn't currently have the time and resources to create the content the community playing their game desires, why not harness the community to do the heavy lifting, and then have in-house people polish and integrate it, assuming it meets clearly communicated standards in terms of aesthetic, function, and the like? There will be a lot of dross submitted for consideration, certainly, and some poor soul at FDev will have to wade through all those submissions and QA them. But there will also most certainly be real gems submitted, which can be added into the game, and for which FDev can give credit and even remuneration to the originator for, without having to invest significant and valuable resources themselves.
I imagine this has been suggested before, and if so I apologise for the repetition. I have to imagine, however, that this community represents an enormous asset which can be effectively utilised by FDev (any game developer actually) to develop content which the community desires, but that they themselves do not have to time, resources, and manpower to develop.
Have an idea for a new, or legacy, ship to be introduced into the game? Download the content creation kit and build it yourself. Player owned housing? Create the art assets and mechanics for it yourself. You want a new alien species? Write up their history, develop their anatomy, create a language or languages, a tech philosophy, a sociology for them. Submit if to FDev, and if it meets the criteria in terms of how FDev intend to develop the game it can be included in a future content update.
Leave the framework to the developer, but give interested and invested contributors the tools and opportunity they need to flesh things out.
I guarantee there will be many people out there with the drive, talent, and investment in the game to create amazing things which can be integrated into this game, with the orrery map being just a very small and simple example.