News Important Community Update

[Jukelo]

Hey Zac,

I for one am quite happy to read this if this means you are pouring the same amount of resources into fewer features. The Fleet carrier hardly qualified as 'core gameplay' to me so I'm fine with that if it means you can do justice to the rest of the planned features/changes.

Should we read too much into the fact the Ice planets revamp is being postponed despite the fact work had already begun on it? Is its release being pushed back to maybe coincide with a more thematically fitting major expansion not too far into the future?

 

[Robert Maynard]

G'night, Zac.

Have fun tomorrow!

 

[M_Biscotti]

As long as the paid premium content doesn't become Pay2Win then I'm fine with it.

Same here. (I don't have LEP)

 

[Ozric]

Ok,

I'm heading home now but I'll check in over the weekend periodically. I'll be heading out to Fantasticon tomorrow so if you're there, feel free to pop over and say hi.

Thanks again to everyone who has been passionate enough to jump onto the thread and discuss, regardless of opinion. We're looking forward to showing you the rest of the Chapter Four update soon.

Many thanks,

Thanks for staying and answering questions for so long Zac.

 

[Spidey dmd]

Team is larger than ever and you couldn't get the fleet carriers out as shown.. very sad day for elite

 

[Zac Antonaci]

Yeah it's a shame if you were looking forward to those bits. But don't fret - there's really exciting stuff to come! We just don't know yet what that will be.

Squadrons, Exploration, Codex, Mining, etc.

 

[V'larr]

Ok,

I'm heading home now but I'll check in over the weekend periodically. I'll be heading out to Fantasticon tomorrow so if you're there, feel free to pop over and say hi.

Thanks again to everyone who has been passionate enough to jump onto the thread and discuss, regardless of opinion. We're looking forward to showing you the rest of the Chapter Four update soon.

Many thanks,

Take care if drinking with others after the convention, lest being in a group means the quality of beverage is reduced by a fraction proportionate to the number of people in your group.

 

[Genus]

Squadrons, Exploration, Codex, Mining, etc.

Keeping the engagement going too.

RoE.


Also, a little more information on why the timescale for Beyond has been extended out would be good. Your OP is a very good one, but still vague on that important point. Changes to approach are inferred, so for now it seems a step in the right direction, even though it's the project delivery moving to the right. Common thing to happen, but how do we know this isn't just the next in a long line of the same happening since 2015?

Delivery is everything for next year then.

Good luck, decision makers. Rooting for you.

 

[KaheXray]

My feeling:


Elite:





<time class="latin12CompactTimeStamp-3v5WB3 timestampVisibleOnHover-276OMc timestampCompact-MHgFLv timestampCompactBase-26h38e" datetime="1535745471303" style="display: inline-block; font-size: 0.6875rem; margin-right: 0.3rem; position: relative; text-align: right; width: calc(20px + 5ch); color: transparent;"></time>Star citizen:






<time class="latin12CompactTimeStamp-3v5WB3 timestampVisibleOnHover-276OMc timestampCompact-MHgFLv timestampCompactBase-26h38e" datetime="1535745529551" style="display: inline-block; font-size: 0.6875rem; margin-right: 0.3rem; position: relative; text-align: right; width: calc(20px + 5ch); color: transparent;">[</time>No man's Sky

 

[VR SenseiMatty]

WOW... JUST WOW...

Zac, two days ago I tried to get you attention just for few words of confirmation. Now you come out with such a long post giving us part of the critical information about the next future of Elite. I'm really impressed!

I'm really happy of the transparency in making positive and negative announcements. I prefer to know now the truth rather than discover it later with the feeling of being cheated.

I see some people here complaining about postponing Icy-planets and Squadrons.
I look "beyond".
Your statement says that these decisions come in favour of more gameplay and new game mechanics and FDEV doesn't want to make trade-offs on the final quality of the product. Well that's exactly what the community is asking since long time, so in the end I'm really happy to read that.

This shows also another key aspect to me: Frontier management is following now a direction that was not clear before. Horizons has been (IMHO) a mess because a lot of different contents came out without any specific correlation and some at a superficial level.
It looked just "a bunch of stuff", I repeat that this is just my personal opinion.

Now it's very promising to read that you have a big scope ahead and everyone is focused on that.

Thank you! [up]

 

[Noddie]

NPC crew in wings.

That is all...

 

[RagingxPenguin]

TLDR

We'd rather you pay for the fleet carriers and this season was kept lean as possible.

Message received

 

[starman]

There are things I would point to in Elite: Dangerous and complain about them, but this announcement isn't one of those things. In fact I've been expecting something like it for a while.

As a software developer, I sort of saw this coming eventually no matter what (unless all the developers from the Kickstarter days had a coding-crystal-ball or a time machine). With any complex software system (game, database, etc.) you can't KEEP adding without at some point, going back & applying all that hindsight you've acquired. If not, you just end up with the code equivalent of a hippo on a unicycle - something unfit and undesirable.
In order to add big, you've got to make big changes and judging by the seemingly narrow channel of gameplay mechanics, the foundations of Elite were just not big enough going forward.

So "bravo!" to biting the bullet and commiting to making those big changes. The game cannot help but benefit.

It just sucks in the short-term.

On the upside, it's Friday so Zac and the team will be able to put all the salt on some fish & chips...

my boss would to get there you would not start from here

Refactoring the code is part of modern developing

Or as my local council would do is to rebuild that same building over and over again Library leisure centre shopping centre

 

[Genus]

Changes at Christmas then.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

TLDR

We'd rather you pay for the fleet carriers and this season was kept lean as possible.

Message received

Zac in follow up messages said fleet carriers - when they will come - won't be paid for feature.

 

[Serror]

Can't say I'm surprised you pushed back the most anticipated part of chapter 4. I mean you are FDEV after all. You have a reputation to uphold.

In reality, EVERYTIME you promise something that sounds too good to be true, too ambitious, or game changing, something ALWAYS happens. All you really seem to be able to deliver is things like 3 versions of the same ship and a new thargoid every couple of months with a few modules sprinkled in. We all have had enough of it to be honest.

I mean Braben made A LOT of promises when the game was a kickstarter project and it changed dramatically from his original vision. You'd think by now you'd stop making promises you can't keep. Look at your forums, people are getting fed up guys.

Oh, and if you're delaying carriers to be able to add it in the game as your "paid dlc" that you're talking about that is going to kick up a storm, considering you already promised it as free, Beyond content. I have a feeling that's whats going to happen. Don't do that.

 

[Winterwalker]

Same here. (I don't have LEP)

With a fair degree of confidence you could say, P2W is foreign to ED as most people understand it.

Interesting update. Happy to hear a step-change expansion in the works for sure. (How about an extra - mini - Beyond Q5? I like the recent Stations changes). A shame about Q4 features but there are two or three dockable megaships in game already and my potato laptop can't render ice well anyway!

Cheers for the update. Onwards and upwards. Live long .. and Elite!

 

[LeoBartlet]

My feeling:


Elite:





<time class="latin12CompactTimeStamp-3v5WB3 timestampVisibleOnHover-276OMc timestampCompact-MHgFLv timestampCompactBase-26h38e" datetime="1535745471303" style="display: inline-block; font-size: 0.6875rem; margin-right: 0.3rem; position: relative; text-align: right; width: calc(20px + 5ch); color: transparent;"></time>Star citizen:






<time class="latin12CompactTimeStamp-3v5WB3 timestampVisibleOnHover-276OMc timestampCompact-MHgFLv timestampCompactBase-26h38e" datetime="1535745529551" style="display: inline-block; font-size: 0.6875rem; margin-right: 0.3rem; position: relative; text-align: right; width: calc(20px + 5ch); color: transparent;">[</time>No man's Sky

The star citizen one is inaccurate.

I can think of a few places where you need to pay at the door to see the goods but a maternity ward isnt one of them.

 

[DanGriswold]

Zac --

Truly brave of you to step into the this wild forum of ours to give us some -- let's face it -- hard news. But, news is what we've really been begging for and we got it, for better or for worse. Thank you for the information, and please remember that, no matter how much we may complain and criticize, we're all here because we truly love the game and want it to succeed and live up to our expectations (of which it has already surpassed so many over the years).

On the positive side, I am extremely encouraged to hear things like "considerable time" because that means that Elite will still be around and in development for a "considerable time" to come! I'd rather get everything I want now, of course, but I'm willing to wait a few extra minutes for my meal to come out of the oven to ensure it's perfectly cooked.

This game as kept me entertained and enthralled for years, as well as reinvigorating my interest in astronomy and space sciences. Keep at it, you guys, and know that you'll always have support from the community. It is appreciated.

Kind regards,
Dan

 

[raymondo the great]

Better gameplay > Better looking ice planets.

ah

You think ice planets have been cut so something we weren't going to get gameplay wise we will now to make it better...how quaint!

Personally it'd be nice gameplay wise if they just fixed the goshdanged mission boards so they made some sort of sense! So you didn't log in and have "bring me 5k x" for a poxy 2 mil and other insanely ridiculous wastes of time, if they hadn't got so obsessed with nerfing the hell out of all rewards because they couldn't be or didn't know how to fix bugs for stackers that stuff that used to be fun is now basically non-existent instead and we all get to do "frontier approved gameplay" and be grateful we get any in game rewards etc etc

Yeah fixing stuff is good. But that clearly aint what the very long winded announcement is promising. Anyone who works in software dev knows exactly what that announcement is, and anyone with half a brain too if they take of the rose tinted glasses!