How to make Elite Dangerous - Setting expectations

[Nutter]

To save a thousand words, watch / skip through the video and try to understand why the depth is missing that a lot of forum posters keep raising negative threads about.

A 10 year project to build the most amazing game has to start somewhere...

Everything wonderful has to start with foundations or a skeleton, otherwise, where do you hang the meat?

So with 10% of the work done so far and being able to 'play' the game already with the ability to shape it's future via this forum, I'm happy with the direction FD is going.

This video is for the people expecting to land on a planet and run bare foot across a beach sipping exotic fruit juice after a day's game hunting with the crew 58,000ly from Sol.

[video=youtube_share;6G0LvImAGAg]https://youtu.be/6G0LvImAGAg[/video]

Yes, it will take time, yes we need a skeleton to put the meat on, heck when all that is done we could do make-up

 

[sp0q]

Agreed, and we need user based feedback to get there.

edit. And you've used the key word - this thread is going down!

 

[Khelder]

I think part of the problem is not knowing how far they intend to go with breadth before focusing back on depth.

But for now... dune buggies!

 

[Kayweg]

There was a time when the whole "skeleton building" was done before asking people for money.
Now, i accept that FD isn't a company with the economic backbone to be able to afford that, but frankly, that's not my problem really.
I bought into it well aware it was a work in progress.
My decision, and i stand by that.
What the first year has shown me though is that progress is slow, and some design decisions have puzzled me (PP, CQC).
If those 2 are part of the skeleton, i'm very curious what the meat is going to be like.
They already entered new terrain with an open world multiplayer game, and stepped into the inevitable pot holes new terrain usually brings with it.
They then again tried something previously untried, a sort of turn based strategy game with power play.
Not content with that, they had a shot at creating an arena shooter (CQC) again not their expertise, and it shows.
Where in all this is a "plan" ?
To me that looks like knee jerk attempts to grab players from other genres to bolster sales figures.
They need to stick to their expertise, to what they know, making an Elite game and stop trying to be a jack of all trades.
And about that 10 year development plan.
They will need an extremely high degree of player retention and/or a high throughput of comers and goers through that revolving door to achieve that.
And that's before any of their upcoming competitors has even begun to nibble away at their player base.
10 years is a long time, especially in an industry as fast changing and dynamic as the gaming industry.
Honestly, i find that plan a bit naive, even a bit reminiscent of those 5 year plans socialist economies where run by.
Anyone know if any of those plans ever were met, i sure don't think so.
But if that's their intention, good, i wish them well of course, i always have.
And if the progress is slow, so be it.
But of course my rate of spending will slow down too.
Initially Horizons looks very interesting and like a step back "onto the right track", but this time i'll wait until the end of the season to see the whole package. I think that's only fair.

 

[Spam]

Look at World of Warcraft. Don't play it myself but it's still subscription based, after 11 years.
If it's good and people play it then 10 years is just warming up.

Either that or the demographic that plays this game is lost through natural fall out (old age and death)

 

[Nutter]

They already entered new terrain with an open world multiplayer game, and stepped into the inevitable pot holes new terrain usually brings with it.
They then again tried something previously untried, a sort of turn based strategy game with power play.
Not content with that, they had a shot at creating an arena shooter (CQC) again not their expertise, and it shows.
Where in all this is a "plan" ? ......

You have to remember the deal with xbone, which payed who knows what, that would have come with requests to appeal to console owners...

The result is a pick up and put down shooter (CQC) which has pushed back main development but paid well and will go towards the 'future'

As for power play, I'm really not quite sure why they felt the need to put that in, so that may well have been another 'request' from a major investor.

Now with Horizons looming it looks like they are back onto the main 'plan', which I have to say has surprised me just how much work has been done already.

So now it is a case of layering in the 'depth' over the season and I can't begin to tell you how much work is required to produce an alien race which we may see in Horizons... maybe?

 

[Kayweg]

You have to remember the deal with xbone, which payed who knows what, that would have come with requests to appeal to console owners...

The result is a pick up and put down shooter (CQC) which has pushed back main development but paid well and will go towards the 'future'

As for power play, I'm really not quite sure why they felt the need to put that in, so that may well have been another 'request' from a major investor.

Now with Horizons looming it looks like they are back onto the main 'plan', which I have to say has surprised me just how much work has been done already.

So now it is a case of layering in the 'depth' over the season and I can't begin to tell you how much work is required to produce an alien race which we may see in Horizons... maybe?

I've never doubted their work rate and work load, i still don't.
During the past year i've seen several change logs reminding me of Tolstoj novels, rather impressive.
Thing is, you can work your butt of and still get nowhere.
Imo they will have to keep focus on their core competence, not getting sidetracked into genres that others have already established themselves in and are doing better.
FD knows how to make Elite, nobody else does, so MAKE Elite.
I disagree that CQC was aimed at XB1 players, even though i know that's a very common perception around here.
Some of the most successful games of that genre are very much PC games. I think CQC was more aimed at the arena shooter crowd in general rather than at any platform specifically.
That CQC coincided with the XB1 launch would suggest otherwise, i know. That's just me guessing of course, not on topic anyway.
I still doubt that FD will have 10 years to complete that development plan, i'm not saying that ED couldn't run for 10 years....they're different things.