If someone from Fdev streams themselves unlocking all the Guardian tech. I will eat my eye patch.
- Thread starter Punished Mobius
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Maybe they can make this be the first stream to kickoff their new HQ.
New HQ. New Fdev. New beginnings and all that good stuff.
Out with the old ways and in with the new.
Sandro’s probably still unpacking all his hats...
No they didnt learn. Everyone thinks that and everyone has hope that.. OMG they listened!!!!11 they trully made big changes to the engineers and they removed the rng. There is hope!
Well the truth is this: The first version of the engineers system was very well thought and served its purpose very well.. and that purpose was simple. TO SIMPLY WASTE OUR TIME and cover the non existent content. To simply buy time while they are doing other projects.
Take a look back and you will see what i mean. ONE WHOLE YEAR we had that grindfest. Only to be replaced by another one because they.. value our time. It was so succesful that they managed to make it last TWO years by making only fixes and presenting them like good communication.
Instead of developing and releasing a new season of paid content, they converted the initial season into two years. Thats what i call success from their perspective ofc.
To be honest, new engineers "designed not to waste time" waste even more of it, much, much more.
And the thing that totally killed it for me (did 1 upgrade since 3.0 and just cannot make myself do anymore) is that they performed typical MMO levelcap increase without adding any content that usually accompanies it.
Like if we take the simplest and most cliche example - WOW, each time level cap is increased whole new area is added to get those levels with completely new set of quests, story etc. Also new instances/raids/bosses are added for high-end gear. Old gear is not removed, but rendered obsolete by the fact that it is generally worse than common easily-obtainable one at new max level.
Now, what we got in elite? Old gear was not removed, but was rendered obsolete by the addition of better one, they also made sure that you cannot just upgrade, and if you convert you loose like ~80% of your "upgrade progress". Now it would be fine, if new upgrades were obtainable in totally new way, with new gameplay, new content etc. But as it is now - you simply have to redo all you did pre-3.0, get exactly the same materials in exactly the same way (and more of them too).
And just to add insult to injury they made it as obscure as possible, so that it is simply 100% unplayable without 3-rd party tools. You cannot look at material trader stock remotely, you cannot view blueprints remotely, you have 100500 generically named "materials" of which like 30 ones are needed for the upgrade you want in different quantities. To avoid flying back and forth to material trader and "farming spots" from engineer to do single upgrade on single module you have to get all requirements from inara or such, approximately calculate how much of each you need, probably visit multiple traders in the process and only then go to engineer. Somehow it is far too much of spreadsheet building and maths for me when i want to relax playing game. Why not display all blueprints remotely, and display approximate summary of what will be needed for an upgrade? Because they totally do not want to waste our time?
At this point all this "improvement" looks to me as an attempt to delay players in game even more with the same "engineers" without actually designing and developing anything new.
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Because all this things are symptoms of the same issue / have the same root cause - attempt to stretch a tiny bit of "new gameplay" they actually developed for as long as possible.
It is not a bug which can be simply fixed, it is conscious design decision. And there are a lot of such "design decisions" in game, not just one this puzzle.
Yep! Well said!
The Engineers not only unbalanced the game with a needless upper tier of performance, but as you point out, it came at the expense of development time being allocated to actual gameplay depth/experience improvements.
And alas, when you consider how much other "content" also seemingly was dedicated to wasted outcomes (eg: CQC, Generation Ships, Thargoid Bases, Guardian Bases, Multicrew) it's why I consider most of the past 2-3 years as wasted opportunity after wasted opportunity.
It's why after 3-4yrs we're still doing most of the same core gameplay. It's why Multicrew was still born as the core gameplay content was too shallow to leverage into making it more interesting. It why the Thargoid invasion is only a shadow of what it should be as FD failed to invest in core gameplay improvements to later leverage for an alien invasion.
IMHO - There's seemingly either a lack of desire to move gameplay depth forwards, or just a lack of insight/skill to do so. I mentioned this a year ago with Multcrew - https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...is-now-coming-back-to-bite-ED-in-the-boosters!
Given years of seemingly little/no desire/ability to actually raise the development bar and create gameplay/content with depth and layers, it's why I hold little hope of anything being added to the game to bring me back to it. My only hope is Q4 of this year with FD making a declaration of moving the 3-4yrs old exploration and mining gameplay forwards. Let's see if they can actually create some deep layered involved content, instead of point and click grind mechanics...
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This post is so good I'd rub it on my body if possible.
I've said this multiple times. The powers that be at Fd. Braben, sandro etc need to play the game from the start on the live servers with no dev magic or help from the fd team. As we play. And then see what they think.
I believe it should of got set up a simple way.
Go to a site do the required puzzle for that site. Once you completed the puzzle you get a full blueprint for the item that site gives. Take that blueprint to the engineers and pay them credits to research and make you that blueprint.
Find the next site do that one and again go to the engineers pay credits and get the next module etc.
Get rid of the need for different economies. Stuff all the different mats and data and blueprints etc etc etc. Simplify. One economy for the galaxy. If you want to collect mats and data sell them. Have it as a way to make credits rather than a payment.
You're right. And in addition the development of ED stayed with the worst.
Naw, they're too busy making dinos...
To be fair, they do look good.
I'll take your word for it, as I will never buy that game. I don't do rollercoasters either.
Quite true. The latest videos from hands-on gameplay showed some really impressive art/animation work by the team over there. A true successor to Operation: Genesis.
I'll take your word for it, as I will never buy that game. I don't do rollercoasters either.
Eh, i absolutely loved Zoo Tycoon and the Dino DLC/expansion. And while so far i like what i see, i wont buy it until after its release.
My hunch is that Frontier's goal for Elite is just different than what the players want. While the community wants Elite to be a more engaging and fun game to play, Frontier simply wants Elite to survive (to sell DLC) while investing the bare minimum of effort to make that happen. They put more priority on Elite Store mechanics and content than they do on actual game mechanics and content. They value how the game looks over how it plays, probably because graphics are very marketable while mechanics are not. Sometimes actions speak very loudly, as long as you are willing to take a few steps back to look at them objectively.
Or, it could just very simply be a case of bad game design. Lots of games in the industry suffer from poor design, managed by people who don't understand what makes a game "fun" to play. And sometimes fun is just a much lower priority than other things, even when that approach is toxic to a games health.
The Q4 update will be a very telling moment for Elite Dangerous. A lot of people expect much from Beyond and it all rests on the Q4 update now. Will Frontier come with their A game and put some real effort into it? Or will it be more bare minimum effort coupled with new store possibilities?
It's going to be an interesting year for Elite no matter which way it swings...
And my hunch is Frontier's goal for Elite is no longer their original goal.
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