If you play it, we'll go on and develop it!

[fergal]

With reference to comments by Dear Sandro and Master Braben recently, regarding the relationship between the player up-take of a partially featured Multicrew, and its potential for further development...

Obviously, CMDRs have been saying that this is something of a circular argument/statement in that, the up-take of any new feature may well, in fact, be reliant upon its initial release feature "richness".

Sounds like the Powerplay update.

A bare bones system that needed to be fleshed out more to attract more players to using it, but has had nothing added to it nearly 2 years later because there aren't enough players willing to participate in a bare bones feature.

 

[Strangepork]

Sounds like the Powerplay update.

A bare bones system that needed to be fleshed out more to attract more players to using it, but has had nothing added to it nearly 2 years later because there aren't enough players willing to participate in a bare bones feature.

There does seem to be something of a fait accompli, in operating this way. Still they are a small developer... etc, etc.

I'm pleased we have this game rather than no new Elite at all. Maybe this really is the only way they can feasibly dev. the game.

Just maybe, in time all these issues WILL be addressed.

 

[Zarkon]

Yeah I don't understand that statement at all. Is that why career paths like BH, piracy, smuggling, mining and trading haven't been expanded on yet? Because no one is actually playing with those game features?

 

[mp4x]

Seems a pretty straight forward comment, to me, that they're introducing a feature and if people use/like it they'll spend more time developing it further. If people don't continue to use/like the feature, they'll spend time developing something else

 

[no namn]

..with chunks in

chunks of pork? sorry... seeing ur image i just couldnt resist

 

[Obsidian Ant]

Seems a pretty straight forward comment, to me, that they're introducing a feature and if people use/like it they'll spend more time developing it further. If people don't continue to use/like the feature, they'll spend time developing something else that people DO like.

This might be why so many updates are combat focused.

Exploration is underdeveloped - so people don't widely play it.
Piracy is underdeveloped - so people don't widely play it.
Trading is underdeveloped - (no idea if people play that a lot, but I don't hear much about it any more).
Planet content is underdeveloped - so people tend not to do a lot on planets.
Powerplay is underdeveloped - so people tend not to play Powerplay.

Meanwhile combat is well developed, so a lot of people play it.


I agree, that the statement seems to be backwards. Are all those features listed above really not played widely because "people aren't interested in them"? Seems more likely to me, that people don't widely play them, because they are underdeveloped...

 

[Strangepork]

Seems a pretty straight forward comment, to me, that they're introducing a feature and if people use/like it they'll spend more time developing it further. If people don't continue to use/like the feature, they'll spend time developing something else

I think in the context of FD, describing it (early on before release) and then releasing it with a lesser feature set, it becomes a little more complex as a statement.

- - - Updated - - -

chunks of pork? sorry... seeing ur image i just couldnt resist

Carrots, silly!

 

[mp4x]

The trick is making the feature interesting enough to start with, I guess

 

[cyberchild]

The trick is making the feature interesting enough to start with, I guess

This. Exactly.

 

[Obsidian Ant]

The trick is making the feature interesting enough to start with, I guess

Yes. I just hope that have done that with multicrew. A lot of people certainly seem to like it which is great, but the low payouts certainly isn't going to help much...

 

[Strangepork]

The trick is making the feature interesting enough to start with, I guess

It seems from DBs AMA, a new release model is round the corner. I suspect partly because of the furore over the initial description of Multicrew and what was eventually delivered all that time later.

 

[Mengy]

This might be why so many updates are combat focused.

Exploration is underdeveloped - so people don't widely play it.
Piracy is underdeveloped - so people don't widely play it.
Trading is underdeveloped - (no idea if people play that a lot, but I don't hear much about it any more).
Planet content is underdeveloped - so people tend not to do a lot on planets.
Powerplay is underdeveloped - so people tend not to play Powerplay.

Meanwhile combat is well developed, so a lot of people play it.


I agree, that the statement seems to be backwards. Are all those features listed above really not played widely because "people aren't interested in them"? Seems more likely to me, that people don't widely play them, because they are underdeveloped...

Precisely. If you build it, they will come. Instead Sandro and David have said “If you come, we will build it”. Frontier has it backwards, and I can’t fathom why they keep stating it like this? Surely they must realize how incorrect their stance is?

 

[Strangepork]

Precisely. If you build it, they will come. Instead Sandro and David have said “If you come, we will build it”. Frontier has it backwards, and I can’t fathom why they keep stating it like this? Surely they must realize how incorrect their stance is?

I can only imagine they are developing a BIG idea on a shoestring budget. Maybe this is the only way they can imagine it?

 

[mp4x]

Yes. I just hope that have done that with multicrew. A lot of people certainly seem to like it which is great, but the low payouts certainly isn't going to help much...

It seems from DBs AMA, a new release model is round the corner. I suspect partly because of the furore over the initial description of Multicrew and what was eventually delivered all that time later.

Yeah, I feel the MC addition was just to add fun and CMDR interaction. That'll go far for lot of people, but unless MC becomes a functional in-game alternative to playing solo [in a ship] with regards to credits/rank/etc there's no benefit or depth beyond playing with your mates. I don't think it's meant to be a serious alternative to playing in your own ship... At least now.

That's fine, if it remains fun and used enough for the devs to tie it into the game a bit more

 

[El Grillo]

It's disastrously circular thinking, and actually makes a hell of a lot of sense of the weird way they've been developing the game since launch.

 

[Strangepork]

This might be why so many updates are combat focused.

Exploration is underdeveloped - so people don't widely play it.
Piracy is underdeveloped - so people don't widely play it.
Trading is underdeveloped - (no idea if people play that a lot, but I don't hear much about it any more).
Planet content is underdeveloped - so people tend not to do a lot on planets.
Powerplay is underdeveloped - so people tend not to play Powerplay.

Meanwhile combat is well developed, so a lot of people play it.


I agree, that the statement seems to be backwards. Are all those features listed above really not played widely because "people aren't interested in them"? Seems more likely to me, that people don't widely play them, because they are underdeveloped...

Hey Ant, I suspect they will get round to these things as they are saying they will, though they have to work on building the basics of making the game a commercial success first.

There is a sense they are building a huge idea on a budget.

On a happy note, I've noticed as more features have been added, even ones I don't play, there is a "more than the sum of the parts" effect going on.

If someone at FD really does have a masterplan, and I suspect they do. The game will come together quite splendidly in the future in a way most of us can't really get our heads around.

 

[mp4x]

Fingers crossed anyway.


I'm looking forward to it all the same

 

[lefty1117]

Social features needed to have been built ahead of this, or at least in conjunction with it, to encourage more Open gameplay and socialization IN GAME rather than on 3rd party websites.

- Power, System, Regional chat
- Browseable trade markets
- Much more dynamic and fluid Galnet with clickable links and more integration to the Galaxy Map
- Player activity heatmaps and other social filters on the Galaxy Map
- Allow players to join minor factions, complete with minor faction chat, faction filters on the galmap, ability to set state such as WAR, PEACE etc between minor factions

IN addition the MC feature itself needs more fleshing out to make it more than just a combat perk:

- Allow crew to control limpets to harvest resources. bonus to efficiency
- Allow crew to control probes to help exploration - for example a player can launch a probe to do a Detailed Surface Scan on an object in a system.
etc

 

[no namn]

idk where to look for this statement FD is supposed to have said what OP says, any chance of a link?
wo reading it i however suspect you guys are reading into it too much, i would believe that it was ment that as long as ppl like a (any) feature, FD will keep develop it.
and yeah, a underdeveloped feature ofc will affect number of players using a feature in a negative way... even thou i like mining and exploring, i do combat the most, even thou its not what i always enjoy the most

but i have a great solution to this problem, hehe... we all must take our responibility now and stop doing what we find the most fun, and only do the boring stuff! easy!

 

[ShimEnki]

There does seem to be something of a fait accompli, in operating this way. Still they are a small developer... etc, etc.

I'm pleased we have this game rather than no new Elite at all. Maybe this really is the only way they can feasibly dev. the game.

Just maybe, in time all these issues WILL be addressed.

Or maybe another group simply buys them out and then we get rolling fwd with fleshed out and refined core game play