Edit: I also want to note that the segment near the begining of the OP's video about free-for-all politics, is exactly the sort of stuff I like in my 'world simulators', such as ED. I want my technical ability in combat (or whatever) to be one of many tools for achieving my character's goals in game, because this sort of thing is eminently plausible. However, I do agree that free-for-all politics is a problem in ED, because of how poorly FDev communicated their vision with their marketing material and actual gameplay.
This is the development plan that really got me interested in
Elite: Dangerous:
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM0Gcl7iUM8
The Alpha and Premium Beta gameplay I saw was enough to sell me on the game, which I then backed going into Beta 1.
Since then, few of the core mechanisms have improved, but many have been diluted. I blame many of the quick QoL fixes and heavy handed balance adjustments for this. Every time I notice a change, there is a good chance it was placed there to make things easier for the inept and lazy, at the expense of those who appreciate having to exercise skill.
Take, for example, the 3.6.x change where they doubled the scan range of the ship's datalink scanner. No doubt this is a minor change and one that was appreciated by many, but it's symptomatic of a general trend I find disturbing. Scanning surface beacons was meant to be done from SRVs...that's the only way they are even vaguely challenging. I wasn't thrilled with how this was implemented (too arbitrary, rather than having mechanisms in-place to make the SRV a rational choice), but at least they made it difficult to just take one's Anaconda in and scan beacons with total impunity. Sure you could use a ship like that, but you had to invert it and skim the ground to get the cockpit within the 50m required at the correct facing...which took some degree of piloting to do without risking crushing a skimmer (that shield and thruster reboot effect, while another example of a crappy and heavy handed mechanism to encourage SRV use, was at least semi-effective) or getting stuck on high-g worlds. Now that it's 90-100m any newbie in any ship can just faceplant the beacons, which means there one less reason to learn to fly, or to ever get out of that Anaconda.
Regarding new mechanisms and content, I appreciate some of it, but they've always felt bolted on and poorly integrated. However, I've never been eager for new content...rather, I feel starved for core content that works the way it's supposed to and is properly fleshed out.
Such as the ones in charge of No Man's Sky, they do a 100 times better job at making the game fun.
Didn't take much playing of NMS to figure out that the core gameplay I'm looking for in a first person fantasy spaceship simulator--namely being immersed in the control of a fantasy spaceship--was overly simplistic, unchallenging, and unrewarding. The cartoon level scale and lack of direct multiplayer interactions were also deal breakers.
Not saying NMS isn't considerably more fun for many people, but ED was never trying to be what NMS is, which is quite fortunate for those of us not enamored with NMS.
marketing a MP game to SP audience.
This is definitely a problem.
