I'm Liking Frontier A Lot Right Now

jpaulwilson1982

jpaulwilson1982
It's true that there have been a lot of bumps in the road, some expected and some not. Elite is a great game, but still needs tons of work. I could go on about the ups and downs, but overall my experience with Frontier Developments and Elite has been mostly positive. And I really like how they've listened to their fans.

To give you an idea, here's some of the most positive moments:

- Elite releases with no game manual. Fans voice their opinions (as did I) and within a few days a game manual is released.

- Many fans make mention of how brutal repair prices can be (some respectful, some not), and 1.2 sees repair prices drop.

- Many fans voiced that they wanted an external camera, some fans voiced that third person combat would be unfair and not "Elite". So Frontier compromises by giving fans access to the debug camera, which can't be used with flight controls simultaneously.

- As for my experiences, this is the first online-only game in years that worked for me on day one.

These moments have made quite an impression on me. If they can get the support team going like a well oiled machine, then I see a bright future for Frontier Developments and Elite: Dangerous.

Basically, I just wanted to show FD some love today. They're getting Elite on the right track, and I'm thankful FD is listening to the fans and entertaining and implementing some of their ideas.

1.2 is awesome, and I can't wait for whatever 1.3 brings us. Keep up the good work, and you may have a loyal fan here for many years to come.

Because we know we can't count on the big publishers and developers, like EA and Maxis. :eek: ohhh, just typing those horrible words makes me queasy.

Anyone else got any good stories or experiences to share?
 

parablax

P
A nice antidote to the depressingly steady drop in the user rated metacritic score.

Do you think people actually take note of metacritic user scores - if it gets much lower may start to affect potential customers.
 

Salvatory

S
parablax said:
A nice antidote to the depressingly steady drop in the user rated metacritic score.

Do you think people actually take note of metacritic user scores - if it gets much lower may start to affect potential customers.
Click to expand...

Metacritic might only affect sales if ED was on Steam, but the existing fanbase alone would make sure this game continues alone in my opinion.

The quality of work that is going on is amazing - really premium stuff, even with a lot of decisions being made that the community may feel are 'wrong' (I just think FD are being very careful not to rush into anything as code impacts on other code for example and we end up with a solid build each time)

If for some reason FD needed cash to continue there are plenty of people here who see the value of what's going on to keep it going! - The Metacritic values represent the crowd that want everything either immediately or lack understanding that there's a bunch of humans coding this art up.

Personally this journey since alpha has been amazing and never expect anything more in the patches (so i'm impressed by the simple things that have changed) - I'm very easy going, but can see why others may rage when they get an itch they can't scratch.

This game and 'Rust' (in my opinion) are the 2 best 'open development platform' games I'm watching. Maybe FD could steal the idea Facepunch use and post their code commits to a twitter ;)
 

Alec Turner

Alec Turner
Hear hear, I agree - I think FD have been doing a fantastic job really (you only have to read through the list of change notes for 1.1 and 1.2 to see how much ongoing work they're putting into this). The game's released now and in theory they could be "resting in their laurels", instead of which the phrase "heart and soul" springs to mind. Despite criticisms of lack of content and people getting bored with the game I personally think it's one of the best (and certainly the most immersive) computer games I've ever played, easily carrying the 84 Elite legacy into the 21st century.
 

jpaulwilson1982

jpaulwilson1982
parablax said:
A nice antidote to the depressingly steady drop in the user rated metacritic score.

Do you think people actually take note of metacritic user scores - if it gets much lower may start to affect potential customers.
Click to expand...

As I said, I'm going by my own experiences.

And as for critic scores; yes, lots of folks stick by those ratings and take nothing else into consideration. There are also lots of folks, like myself, who don't blindly follow ratings because I've play 4s, 5, 6s, and 7s that turned out to be 8 or greater. Destiny got some pretty bad scores, but its fans (which are many) widely disagreed with those ratings. I'm not a big fan of Destiny myself, but a 6.something is too low, especially considering COD and Halo usually get far better scores for basically the same shoot 'em up experiences.

And user scores can be pretty fickle, as well. Can't trust them all hands down.

But God help FD if metacritic ratings determine it's outcome entirely.... God help any game for that matter.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Forzeti

F
I wholeheartedly agree. The recent patch, like others before it, has again shown that love is being put into this game first and foremost rather than a shallow interest in profit. Keep up the good work, FD!
 

nazartp

N
Supporting OP. Lots of good stuff. 1.1 was problematic from technical point of view, 1.2 is very pleasant. Will be "winging" it with my son later today and hitting all strong signals along the way.

Hope they now hear the overwhelming clamoring for ships in 1-5 mil range.
 

Herik

Herik
I so agree with your recognition of "Frontier's" work, and listening to their players...+1

Also what is often surprisingly apparent to me, while examining the update notes; why a bug is fixed, or a feature changed (suddenly), when it has been around and complained about for a time. In almost every case the bug or feature adjustment was dependent on the release of a larger update. My guess is the feature or bug fix can-not be changed/implemented until (that update is coded/tested). The game coding becomes simpler, and more unified this way. The game runs smoother. Also, using their apparent thinking, look at 'Mining' for example; many players think changes/improvements are necessary...We also know 'Inflatable mining labs on large asteroids/planetoids are planned (part of the planet landing expansion?). Well it appears to make sense any dramatic adjustments to the Mining feature we should expect to wait...This will probably occur late this year...

I'm very impressed with the manner in which this game is being worked.
 
Last edited:

AndyC77

A
Nice to see so many positive people still on the forums. I stuck up frontier on another thread recently and received lots of sarky comments. There are too many cynics around here latley.

I'm glad frontier are sticking to their guns as pandering to every bodies needs will certainly destroy the game.
 

TriumphANT

TriumphANT
1.2 feels like a totally different beast, IMO. There are hundreds of little touches missing up to now, from the different types of USS, to the landing scanner. Lots of pleasant surprises, like the first time you meet a Wing, or the better [OPEN] chat stuff. I'm almost at the point of buying a T6 just to do some heavy trading to get up to a Vulture. The last time I had this enthusiasm for ED was on the 16th of December. Massive congratulation to Frontier Developments for all they have achieved so far, and thanks for letting us be part of the evolution of one of the greatest sequels of the modern day.

T
 

Bigcheese

B
TriumphANT said:
1.2 feels like a totally different beast, IMO. There are hundreds of little touches missing up to now, from the different types of USS, to the landing scanner. Lots of pleasant surprises, like the first time you meet a Wing, or the better [OPEN] chat stuff. I'm almost at the point of buying a T6 just to do some heavy trading to get up to a Vulture. The last time I had this enthusiasm for ED was on the 16th of December. Massive congratulation to Frontier Developments for all they have achieved so far, and thanks for letting us be part of the evolution of one of the greatest sequels of the modern day.

T
Click to expand...

These are very basic things. To me, it's embarrassing for FD that it took months after release just to do this. It's going to be years before this resembles a completed game.

Are we praising devs for simply getting the basics done? The game is not even that different in 1.2. The ability to fight ships should not be considered a monumental accomplishment in a space game...Massive congratulations for what? Taking the money for a woefully incomplete game? Aren't they working on a paid expansion already while the base game is so bare bones?

Is the bar really this low? Honestly...
 

AndyC77

A
Bigcheese said:
These are very basic things. To me, it's embarrassing for FD that it took months after release just to do this. It's going to be years before this resembles a completed game.

Are we praising devs for simply getting the basics done? The game is not even that different in 1.2. The ability to fight ships should not be considered a monumental accomplishment in a space game...Massive congratulations for what? Taking the money for a woefully incomplete game? Aren't they working on a paid expansion already while the base game is so bare bones?

Is the bar really this low? Honestly...
Click to expand...

It seems most people are enjoying. From my point of view it made sense to release the base game as it was then they can build the and makes sales at the same time. We can't all have the same opinions but I am glad they are building the game they want and are able to keep going through certain undeserved criticism and I'm sure they appreciate the deserved criticism. Its a shame you feel the way you do, let's hope the game can win you over eventually.
 

TriumphANT

TriumphANT
Bigcheese said:
These are very basic things. To me, it's embarrassing for FD that it took months after release just to do this. It's going to be years before this resembles a completed game.

Are we praising devs for simply getting the basics done? The game is not even that different in 1.2. The ability to fight ships should not be considered a monumental accomplishment in a space game...Massive congratulations for what? Taking the money for a woefully incomplete game? Aren't they working on a paid expansion already while the base game is so bare bones?

Is the bar really this low? Honestly...
Click to expand...

I think the bar is really, really high to be honest. I'm a Day #1 Kickstarter, and have been involved in other KS projects, so I know that it isn't a golden bullet for making things happen. But within ED you can see the vision of Frontier Developments. Their timeline for release was probably a bit early, but I'd rather be inside the process of evolution, than waiting another 12 months for "version 1" to be released. Games like GTA take 2-4 years to develop with massive studios. So my feeling is that either we'd be looking at a 2016 release of a polished game, or we get to play inside an increasingly functional sandbox for a year or so. Maybe this game will never in a classical sense be "finished"? It's awesome though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom