I think we owe an apology to FD including my self.

[psefergr]

Many times a lot of people including me have been "angry" for this or that matter in the game.But it is difficult to understand how complex the whole "Universe" of ED is.Nothing , although procedurally generated has such a vast gameplaying area.We might be grumbling that ED has no content to keep going , but remember that is difficult to achieve it in such wide scale.Keep in mind that ED was advertised as 10 year plan.We already are at 4th year and still have 6 years left.We are not even in the middle! There were many times that we were furious about server problems including my self but don't forget that we are npt paying for servers cost because of the P2P model.Perhaps one of the hidden updates coming in 2020 is a server model upgrade , who knows? It might take more time than is was said to us by FD but in the end they always deliver.Remember Fleet Carriers ? We are getting them free as it was advertised , but later.Was that a delay for better implementation ? Have you asked your selves? I bet that we will be getting also Ice Planets improvements before the next major update of 2020!.So for the times i ve been grumbling i have to reconsider as most of us here. Maybe some of the things we asked to be implemented in game are more difficult to achieve without breaking something else.Even if some of you are programmers and know alot about coding , i am most certain that ED is probably one if not the most complex of games out there.
So all of us including myself should be greatfully that FD gave us the best Space Experience for years to come.

 

[Factabulous]

So you're saying the salts should apologise? This is going to go well....

 

[Rubbernuke]

Powerplay? CQC? Multicrew? If they were too hard to put in (or FD not willing to support them for any length of time) they should have been left out.

 

[GreyAreaUK]

Tricky one. It's certainly true that Frontier come in for a lot of unwarranted criticism ("the game doesn't play the way I want it to"). It's also true that they get a lot of warranted criticism. As Rubbernuke points out, features like Powerplay and Multicrew are defnitely in need of some love as they're half-baked or buggy currently.

Criticism isn't bad provided it's constructive.

 

[Heater]

Powerplay? CQC? Multicrew? If they were too hard to put in (or FD not willing to support them for any length of time) they should have been left out.

^^^ THIS ^^^ + Plus all the damn bugs that have been ignored !

 

[Nutter]

ED is indeed a great game, it has frequently been let down by poor communication and quality control. When you have a large very passionate player base, bugs and poorly implemented features stick out like a sore thumb.
Not all the game suffers from this of course.
I love the game, just frustrated sometimes by communication and quality of initial add-ons.

Would be nice to have a forum back to feedback on upcoming ideas. Currently the rule is tell them nothing, keep them in the dark and let them stew.
We know fleet carriers are coming (Yes I said the FC word) so lets have an open discussion instead of a billion speculation threads.

 

[Bigmaec]

Many times a lot of people including me have been "angry" for this or that matter in the game.But it is difficult to understand how complex the whole "Universe" of ED is.Nothing , although procedurally generated has such a vast gameplaying area.We might be grumbling that ED has no content to keep going , but remember that is difficult to achieve it in such wide scale.Keep in mind that ED was advertised as 10 year plan.We already are at 4th year and still have 6 years left.We are not even in the middle! There were many times that we were furious about server problems including my self but don't forget that we are npt paying for servers cost because of the P2P model.Perhaps one of the hidden updates coming in 2020 is a server model upgrade , who knows? It might take more time than is was said to us by FD but in the end they always deliver.Remember Fleet Carriers ? We are getting them free as it was advertised , but later.Was that a delay for better implementation ? Have you asked your selves? I bet that we will be getting also Ice Planets improvements before the next major update of 2020!.So for the times i ve been grumbling i have to reconsider as most of us here. Maybe some of the things we asked to be implemented in game are more difficult to achieve without breaking something else.Even if some of you are programmers and know alot about coding , i am most certain that ED is probably one if not the most complex of games out there.
So all of us including myself should be greatfully that FD gave us the best Space Experience for years to come.

But … but … Star Citizen …
I see myself out.

 

[Vandaahl]

Who are those 'we'? Speak for yourself. I've been white knighting the biowaste out of this board for 6 years.

 

[Nasc]

As a humble pepper farmer, I come here for the free salt.
Please don't take my salt away. My children can't live off pepper alone.

 

[psefergr]

Please don't talk about Star Citizen! There has been so much fuss about this game.Nobody knows when and if it gets complete, how much it is going to cost , what will be the system requirements if it will have a subsciption plan and finally if it will appear in market before we are able to travel in space like we do in ED , making the game almost obsolete!As far as Multicrew i know that there are alot of problems but have in mind tha we are using a P2P model.I am almost certain that this is the problem and if server model changes this will be taken care, but are most of player base willing to pay for a subscriprion model ?
Let's talk about CQC , i would like to know what are you main concerns!

 

[zimms]

I think it's okay for them to hear some feedback. Their plans to keep people interested until aren't quite enough it seems, but probably Frontier is okay with the majority of players leaving for now as long as a lot of players come back for 2020.

But currently Galnet is more barren than ever, and some of the most loyal fans are losing interest/taking a break. SagEye will now be released "only" quarterly, with Allen focusing on a new monthly magazine about sci-fi and fantasy games in general. Laveradio pretty much mentioned Elite only in the intro and then talked about NMS, Rebel Galaxy Outlaw, X4, GTA instead. A lot of big Elite Youtubers left too or are now covering a broader selection of space games.

Maintenance mode is not a fair expression, because the developers are working hard on the game behind the curtains, but from the point of view of players, the game is currently very much on pause.

That being said, the last II was a blast and the next one can't come soon enough. (My guess is October)

 

[NeilF]

Powerplay? CQC? Multicrew? If they were too hard to put in (or FD not willing to support them for any length of time) they should have been left out.

Agreed - There's a significant history of questionable designs, including:-

• How unbalancing Engineering is IMHO (both for PvE and PvP).
• How Crime and Punishment after various attempts just feels convoluted and ineffective.
• How with years to prepare, and to get some more involved gameplay mechanics in the game ready, the Thargoid Invasion then has so few mechanics to leverage to make it engaging, it's a really wasted opportunity IMHO.

And I even see Mining 2.0 as a bit of a worrying reflection on FD's ability to move this game forwards. It's obviously got some nice aspects to it, but there just too many glaring design and balancing issues with it (that should have been spotted on paper or at least during internal testing), along with mechanics that could have been easily implemented to give mining far more depth and meaning at little/no cost/effort.

Ultimately, this four or so year history of so many questionable and poor developments to me seems to demonstrate a questionable desire or ability to truly raise the bar as regards ED's gameplay and mechanics, and has me truly worried about next year's "big update"; Why would it be any different given seemingly the same people and same ethos? Fingers crossed it is impressive and does truly raise the bar!

 

[cheesenbiscuits]

This game manages to be a Broken mess and a work of pure genius,depending on your point of view. All I know is I think I backed the right horse,the competition can’t do what ED can do.
The forum,as a tool to gauge player satisfaction,has become pretty irrelevant to the developers. Theirs a tendency to demand changes that reflect our own personal issues with the game and not the game as a whole. I think ARX was a test to see if we would complain about anything,we will and it just ends up muddying the waters to a point where actual good ideas get buried beneath the latest outrage.

 

[psefergr]

I am still waiting to hear your CqC concerms.As far as Powerplay on thing that probably make it more intersting is have powerplay between superpowers , to have passenger missions cargo missions assasination missions rescue missions and all kind of missions given by a power contact.Also every thursday that the servers gets update starports and bases could change ownership giving more missions for next week (the ownership of the installation will be determined by the success of the specific faction) but that requires different server model

 

[Rob At Work]

If I have ever done anything to that you dislike OP then Yes indeed I will apologize to you. But to FDev,.. forget it. Many things have been changed due to this forum and in their latest result they referred to us as a vibrant community or similar. They have big boy pants and they can take it.

 

[VR SenseiMatty]

Many times a lot of people including me have been "angry" for this or that matter in the game.

I always try to make critics to incite reactions and to highlights problems. I always try also to suggest solutions to said problems. Blaming people is the solution to nothing. The issue is that both problems and solutions are always completely ignored by FDEV so I'm not the one that need to apologize here.

We already are at 4th year and still have 6 years left.We are not even in the middle! There were many times that we were furious about server problems including my self but don't forget that we are npt paying for servers cost because of the P2P model.

The game was released Q4 2014 so yes we're in the middle of the time, but less than half promised features have been released. What makes me angry is the development time wasted on features that were not part of the initial game vision (the vision presented when I bought the game). And we're talking about years...

Remember Fleet Carriers ? We are getting them free as it was advertised, but later.Was that a delay for better implementation? Have you asked your selves?

I didn't bother so much when Zac announced their delay as there are more important features that I've been waiting for since longer time. So FC are part of the wasted development time I was talking about before.
I don't really care if they are free or not. I care more the quality and the additional gameloop that they can introduce. If they are just floating starports we will all get bored very soon.

I bet that we will be getting also Ice Planets improvements before the next major update of 2020!

It's possible: the major update will be Q4 2020 (probably shifted Q1 2021), so somewhere around Q2 2020. FDEV announces things quite in advance, so I don't expect Ice Planets before middle 2020. Small delays are fine but this has gone too far now...

So all of us including myself should be greatfully that FD gave us the best Space Experience for years to come.

My gratitude is already expressed with the almost 200€ spent on the Frontier Store.

So to conclude:

 

[Enderby]

Huh?

Nah.

 

[NeilF]

I am still waiting to hear your CqC concerms.

My concern with CQC is the lack of desire FD seemed to have to move the core game forwards. And this seems to have been the rule for most of the past 4-5yrs.

Consider if the development effort for CQC had not been allocated to a stand alone game, now all but collecting dust for most of the community. Consider if it had instead done the follow:-

• Allow fighter based gameplay to be available in core ED. For example by holo-meing into a fighter.
• Allow basic NPC wingmen gameplay (where you can give basic commands such as attack this, defend that). Remember this exact feature was in the original design notes!
• Develop some more involved combat scenarios such as defend a location, attack a location and even the classic escort a convoy from A to B.

Consider where and how these mechanics can be leveraged? All the way from missions, to CGs, to Powerplay tasks. And if orchestrated well enough even full on PvP gameplay.

Consider if CGs could offer fighter based gameplay? Consider if some dedicated OPEN only CGs could orchestrate PvP fighter bases gameplay. Consider if some OPEN only Powerplay tasks could orchestrate PvP fighter based tasks.

Consider if Fleet Carriers for certain roles could offer missions using fighters. eg: Whereby you could holo-me into a fighter at the FC.

And consider how shallow the Thargoid Invasion is because of the lack of gameplay mechanics it has to leverage. Right now, we could be undertaking missions/tasks to holo-me into a fighter at a capital ship, to escort a convoy of civilian ships through an asteroid field, under attack from Thargoid Scouts. Or defending a damaged ship from attack until it repaired and can then escape. Or defending a Platform from attack. And we could be doing this with a Wing of CMDRs, or with a Wing of NPC giving them basic tactical commands.

Now consider if just a bit more development effort was put into more involved combat or stealth bases scenarios/mechancis was combined with this?

We've have four+ years of generally shallow bolt on gameplay being added on, with little/no effort put into deeper more involved mechanic that can be leveraged to create more involved gameplay. The whole game has suffered because of this. There's a reason why the Thargoid Invasion has brought little to the game. Because there's no mechanics for it to use/leverage to make the most of the scenario.

CQC should have instead been development time invested in more involved combat and related scenarios in the core game, available then to be leveraged across numerous areas.

 

[lenna]

Keep in mind that ED was advertised as 10 year plan.

I believe that this is essentially false and misleading - FD may have announced a "10 year business plan including ED" but that is a far cry from ED being declared as having an planned 10 year development time. Further more, it is Sep 2019 now and the kickstarter project was initiated in Nov 2012 with an estimated delivery date for the game being May 2014. Given this, it could be argued that ED has been in development for at least 6-7 years in actual fact (only 4-5 years of which have been post initial release).

That being said, those complaining about delivery time scales for given features or fixes should perhaps give themselves a reality check - FD are under no obligation to deliver any given feature with-in any set timescale that they do not set themselves nor are they obligated to not change any announced timescales.

Given the overall advertised desired scope of ED (with all expansions), the apparent pace of development and the fact it has been a released now for nearly 5 years (actually released 16 Dec 2014 - 5th anniversary only a few days over 3 months away) - I would expect the overall development timescale to span much more than 10 years (Nov 2022 being notionally the 10th anniversary of the kickstarter project and Dec 2024 being the 10th anniversary of game release) and would not be surprised if the actual E/O development extends far beyond 2025.

 

[THECATISDEAD]

The development path of this game has been a show. Stop excusing it, it is unacceptable.