News Important Community Update

[Lucifera Danzig]

They have only just now started working on major new future content.

No. That's not what they said.

"A while ago, our development went from pre-production into full production on our next major milestone of Elite development. "

And pre-production is still working on it. Planning, concepts, etc. So they've been working on it already for quite some time.

 

[SeroJu]

Got interdicted by an adder, I submit, and there's the anaconda from a totally unrelated encounter just sitting there that isn't in the adders wing and wasn't on scanner while being interdicted.

Things like this. Maybe have npcs react to keywords and drop cargo when interdicted so you can legit do pirating without hatchbreakers. Idk. Man. Just .. come on.

Storage module limit.

 

[Genus]

I bet 100$ you guys are going release another load of half baked content in Q4. You why I know and that I am beyond 100% sure it's going to happen? because you guys haven't released anything in the last 2 years that has been consistent or worth a dime and not to mention you've been under-delivering IN EVERY single patch since 2017.

Even your past employees have left glassdoor reviews about the current development of the game:

for example:

Advice to Management: Nail down the project in pre-production to prevent continuously re-doing work throughout production right up to release which has become the norm.

All throughout, there's a lot of complaints about poor management causing waste, high turnover, nepotism, and seriously high amounts of overtime. Honestly sounds like a nasty place to work. Honestly, it sounds like the studio is not getting it or has major internal issues.

Get your stuff together, this is starting to hurt Elite pretty badly and the community from the look of the comments here and on reddit is losing faith.

I wasn't aware of those reviews. Make perfect sense. Design scoping and product briefing must be sub-par and leadership absent. Poor devs, I've seen this happen a lot in the public sector (where it's expected because they spend other people's money), but in a private organisation that claims it's creative...it's a rare beast.

Hope they can get someone in, who knows what they are doing for the push next year.

 

[Genus]

And pre-production is still working on it. Planning, concepts, etc. So they've been working on it already for quite some time.

And I would imagine they'll be starting all over again soon. Hence the project deadlines moving so far to the right.

 

[Lightspeed]

They have only just now started working on major new future content. I think a lot of us believed that Beyond was so content light due to the fact that a lot of the 100+ team was already actively working on future content like space legs and new planets to land on. We now know that has not been the case, unless Zac isn't being clear.

This reality is what makes the 100+ team claim so confusing, because Elite does not "feel" like it has a 100+ dev team behind it. NMS might be a smaller game scope wise, but the fact is that it's updates since launch have been far more content and mechanic full than Elite's have been. Thus the often comparisons of a 100+ team versus a 15 person team and the wonderment of why Elite isn't progressing faster nor receiving better content updates than it is.

The development pace just seems very off with Elite, hence confusion.

FD had always said, at the announcement of Beyond, that the majority of the team would be working on the Q4 update as the biggest of the three.

It is us, of course, who suspected (expected?) FD were working on the next stage, but we may not have appreciated this was only at a scoping stage. So it looks like a major new update like Legs or Atmosphere will take a whole lot of time to reach final production ready for release.

The trick will be for FD to manage expectations and interest in the game next year without any minor releases. I will be very interested in what Zac has to announce about going forward from this year's Q4, but it looks like they aren't ready to talk to us about that yet, which is a pity because they must know what they will be working on, even if it's a title.

 

[SeroJu]

Yeah I mean it's a shame because there's obviously some serious talent at the company... like incredible sound/gfx guys and whoever I'd working on the engineering stuff... frankly the majority of the game is incredible... but I think there's a bit of a disconnect between what they are developing and releasing and the community at large

 

[Sole Hunter]

I wasn't aware of those reviews. Make perfect sense. Design scoping and product briefing must be sub-par and leadership absent. Poor devs, I've seen this happen a lot in the public sector (where it's expected because they spend other people's money), but in a private organisation that claims it's creative...it's a rare beast.

Hope they can get someone in, who knows what they are doing for the push next year.

Ben Parry who worked as a Senior Programmer for Frontier Development spoke about the terrible poorly mismanagement issues at Frontier last Citizencon. It's probably why half the stuff they've released in the last year or so is half-baked.

Who ever decided to write this post and punch it down at us at 5:00 pm UK time deserve a salary rise because what a load of nothing but disappointment.

 

[Lee Archer]

It’s up to the ‘events’ teams to keep things going now that the updates are minimal.
At least avoid the excessive reliance on unlocks/progress bars for what content is coming.
With no character animation and limited ship variations there’s not much chance of keeping seasoned players on but that’s business- new faces will enjoy the game as it is.


Wait!
Just Reread the release...
Yeah, I really hate that -“we’re not ready to talk about it “ ‘but it’s going to be great, someday’, bulle. This is a flimflam scam, wait and see bait and switch.
When people show you who they are.... Believe them.
It was a good run but I’m out, too many competitors are giving me what I want, when I want it.

 

[Syrelai]

Honesty is the best policy and as excited as I was for fleet carriers and the like, if it comes along with paid content like being able to land on more types of planets or something else that's significantly better, i'm for it. I have been very happy with horizons and what it did to elite as a whole, and although I've liked the idea of new SRV's and things that haven't been added yet, I sit here, still excited for the future, and the fact you've been able to put more people on the project is definitely a positive thing, overall. To know that you're working on a major update that will happen "a while sometime after" the beyond update, makes me think 2020, but I'm hoping and crossing fingers toes and eyes that it's at least late 2019 or so.

Don't make promises you aren't for absolute certain you can keep, however thank you guys for being as transparent as you're able to. I don't speak for everyone, but thank you for taking the time to share with us the vision. I've not been disappointed with the bigger updates.

 

[Sole Hunter]

I wasn't aware of those reviews. Make perfect sense. Design scoping and product briefing must be sub-par and leadership absent. Poor devs, I've seen this happen a lot in the public sector (where it's expected because they spend other people's money), but in a private organisation that claims it's creative...it's a rare beast.

Hope they can get someone in, who knows what they are doing for the push next year.

This one is my favorite: Too much-undeeded crunch management, do not reward people going the extra mile and promises unfulfilled constantly, poorly managed projects.

How IRONIC considering this announcement.

 

[Bemoteajh]

Postponed Carriers...

I have personally spent well over $1,000 on this game buying friends copies... I want you to succeed...
THAT BEING SAID!

If anyone in this thread pulled this kind of at work we would be fired day 3...

If you like it or not does not matter we are you bosses... SO GET TO IT OR STOP PROMISING YOU WONT FOLLOW THRU ON!

 

[Elios0]

Just to check Zac, with the changes to Q4, Frontier is still intending to remove the macOS commanders I presume?

thats not any thing they can control Apple has refused to update there opengl version and ditched Vulkan and Metal is mess just boot in to windows its not hard

 

[TieKnee]

Looking forward and excited about the coming updates. Super game , thanks for the briefing!!

 

[Cobra1984]

Ben Parry who worked as a Senior Programmer for Frontier Development spoke about the terrible poorly mismanagement issues at Frontier last Citizencon.

Foundry 42 in Wilmslow is by all accounts the most toxic and poorly managed work environment in the UK videogame industry, so I'm hoping that Ben Parry can clarify or deny that he said this. I'd be very surprised given how professionally he conducts himself in the SC thread on this forum.

 

[Cobra1984]

On topic - this is disappointing guys

BUT

Anything less than a NMS Next level of overhaul to gameplay mechanics is going to disappoint me, and I hope this is why you're taking more time with it.

 

[Exeider]

The Beyond season was always something that we wanted to do in order to bring even more enhancements to the core experience of Elite and being able to dedicate a full development team (over 100 people!) for a full year of free content was specifically to gear ourselves up to support our long term vision for the game.

Zac I seriously hope that 100 man thing is just PR, which is cool of you if it is. But if that's so, I'm sorry I got to say, that's honestly pathetic. We've all witnessed teams with 1/5th the members and 1/10th the capital do FAR more for their games then has happened this year.

Beyond has been [REDACTED] up one side and down the other. Thargoids, the highly anticipated thargoids continues to be disasterous. Game breaking bugs galore, like the fact you can't have more than 2 people in an instance without causing a crash. Multicrew and CQC basically being abandoned. (And I really was looking forward to those), the fact that bugs and balances just seem to pass by Q/A or it seems there just is no Q/A and do I even need to bring up the cancer that is the new Crime and Punishment system

Now look, I am not blaming you Zac, you're the PR guy, it's your job to listen to flak and deflect it, and you're a trooper for being willing to defend this piece even after a year of mis-management. You're a heck of alot more honorable about it then I'd be in your position and so you have my respect there.

But this game has been seriously mismanaged this year, it makes me question the competance of this company and it's ability to deliver on it's promises.

I had great confidence in this game and company going through Horizons, I loved Horizons, content was a little slow but it was all good to me. Beyond's content and world development has been glacial.

And everyone has been patiently waiting for Q4 because honestly the enhancements for Q4 are what people around here care about. I have not heard anyone really write about how anything from Q1, 2 or 3 was particularly interesting.

Carriers and Ice planet enhancements being delayed is, honestly not only not surprising, it was in fact expected. I knew something was coming, because knowing how big those features were, you would have been show casing it like crazy because YOU NEED TO SAVE THIS GAME. So the fact that Fdev has been quiet, that told me you guys are worried about making the release date. Which means something was up.

I wish you guys would just be honest about the mis-management at this point. I'll even forgive you. And please don't say it doesnt exist, because obviously something is up when you compare the money you have access to (braben said the profits from the game and store sales fully pay for development.) and as you just said, you got 100 people on this (supposedly)

So, fully funded development, 100 man team. Yet you have the state of the game that is Beyond.

Clearly, something is amiss.

So what the hell happened Zac?

I know it sounds like I'm bashing Elite, but I love this game, and I love what it could be. I've followed it since kickstarter, and I've given Fdev the biggest benefit of the doubt because I've been a fan. I only want this game to do better than good.

Fdev, you have to do better, you just have to, otherwise you're gonna get left in the dust by some upstart. I love you guys, but please, you have to admit you have a problem, and you need to fix it.

I still got some faith left for you, but you got to do better next year.

-AE
-Fly Safe Cmdr o7

 

[shadowwar]

Thank you Zac for your rather more than too late update on what is happening to this game I backed at Kickstarter all those years ago. Mr Braben promised us loads during Kickstarter and since this is the only game I play I am hoping against all hope that once the paid content comes he will be keeping his Kickstarter promises; walking around stations and our ships, atmospheric landings to name but 2 hot topics, even more Exploration type updates other than the dead Galaxy many of us are now well used to. That would get me back into the black again. Give the Exploring community something to really look forward to and I don't mean Canonn type explorations. Make the water worlds explorable like NMS does and put something on the ELW we keep finding and being lifeless. This is an awesome game but after all these years is kind of getting too boring to make me want to play like I used to. I do hope your enthusiasm and that of the team you head never wains. Give us what we discussed before Alpha started all those years ago. Thank you!

 

[Mengy]

Zac I seriously hope that 100 man thing is just PR, which is cool of you if it is. But if that's so, I'm sorry I got to say, that's honestly pathetic. We've all witnessed teams with 1/5th the members and 1/10th the capital do FAR more for their games then has happened this year.

Beyond has been a clusterF*&^ up one side and down the other. Thargoids, the highly anticipated thargoids continues to be disasterous. Game breaking bugs galore, like the fact you can't have more than 2 people in an instance without causing a crash. Multicrew and CQC basically being abandoned. (And I really was looking forward to those), the fact that bugs and balances just seem to pass by Q/A or it seems there just is no Q/A and do I even need to bring up the cancer that is the new Crime and Punishment system

Now look, I am not blaming you Zac, you're the PR guy, it's your job to listen to flak and deflect it, and you're a trooper for being willing to defend this piece even after a year of mis-management. You're a heck of alot more honorable about it then I'd be in your position and so you have my respect there.

But this game has been seriously mismanaged this year, it makes me question the competance of this company and it's ability to deliver on it's promises.

I had great confidence in this game and company going through Horizons, I loved Horizons, content was a little slow but it was all good to me. Beyond's content and world development has been glacial.

And everyone has been patiently waiting for Q4 because honestly the enhancements for Q4 are what people around here care about. I have not heard anyone really write about how anything from Q1, 2 or 3 was particularly interesting.

Carriers and Ice planet enhancements being delayed is, honestly not only not surprising, it was in fact expected. I knew something was coming, because knowing how big those features were, you would have been show casing it like crazy because YOU NEED TO SAVE THIS GAME. So the fact that Fdev has been quiet, that told me you guys are worried about making the release date. Which means something was up.

I wish you guys would just be honest about the mis-management at this point. I'll even forgive you. And please don't say it doesnt exist, because obviously something is up when you compare the money you have access to (braben said the profits from the game and store sales fully pay for development.) and as you just said, you got 100 people on this (supposedly)

So, fully funded development, 100 man team. Yet you have the state of the game that is Beyond.

Clearly, something is amiss.

So what the hell happened Zac?

I know it sounds like I'm bashing Elite, but I love this game, and I love what it could be. I've followed it since kickstarter, and I've given Fdev the biggest benefit of the doubt because I've been a fan. I only want this game to do better than good.

Fdev, you have to do better, you just have to, otherwise you're gonna get left in the dust by some upstart. I love you guys, but please, you have to admit you have a problem, and you need to fix it.

I still got some faith left for you, but you got to do better next year.

-AE
-Fly Safe Cmdr o7

Very well said. As a 1984'er and a long time fan of the franchise, I agree completely. I really want to give Frontier my money, I really want the game to improve and get better in more ways & better directions than it currently is. With how lacking Beyond has been this year it's hard to fathom why ice planets and carriers had to be cut, particularly given how we've even seen in game pics of the ice planet stuff.

Something is very amiss with Elite's current development, and I really wish Frontier could correct it.

 

[Sole Hunter]

Foundry 42 in Wilmslow is by all accounts the most toxic and poorly managed work environment in the UK videogame industry, so I'm hoping that Ben Parry can clarify or deny that he said this. I'd be very surprised given how professionally he conducts himself in the SC thread on this forum.

lol plenty of past employees have spoken about the poorly mismanagement issues at frontier. It's not a secret.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Well, a mixed message indeed.

Seems like the dev team tried to fit more in than they could achieve.

One bit of advice Zac, use the word priorotized correctly. You're saying stuff has been prioritized so it won't be making it in. Its kind of backwards. Use repriorotized.

Shame about fleet carriers, those could have been a big boon to DW2, as well as the ice planets.

So, my personal takeaway from this is:

Q4 still biggest update, but not as big as initially hoped.
Freebies in store for LEP owners but no paid for gameplay content
Paid for gameplay content will come in the future instead
FD reaffirms over 100 people working on ED (presumably you slipped that in there to provide a quote for when numpties start talking about there only being 4 people working on ED - a waste of breath, people will believe what they want to believe, or they will say its rubbish progress for so many people)
Basically you had bad news to deliver, so tried to show FD are still very much committed to ED and there are still long term plans for the game - again, to tell the detractors this is not the end of development for the game.

And considering your words, i'm going to hazard a guess that atmoshperic worlds are the big feature you're not ready to talk about.