Is ED on life support? A terminal decline?

[Sylveria]

Good post but I do want to discuss the bit I quoted.

FD are in a no-win situation regards transparency. If they don't give regular (some here seem to want daily updates lol) they are called secretive and not caring about the game. If they do release aspects of their plans for the future, the forum going into freefall with wild speculation on how FD should proceed, salty tears if what was proposed wasn't on someone's agenda, more tears if what was proposed was on someone's agenda, but just in a different way, threats of leaving the game if proposal is introduced, threats on how the game will die if the proposal is introduced, or introduced in a way not to someone's liking.

The problem is the diversity of the player group and the diversity of how everyone plays the game differently, FD I believe are wise enough to realise they will never please everyone and those unhappy little vegemite's (Aussie expression, google it )would probably complain about any aspect of the game because that is all they do now.

Completely agree with this, I don't envy FD's position one little bit... as much as I'd love to see more communication from them I completely understand why they choose to remain silent at times.

Having said that, I do believe they need to do more out-of-game/forum polling with customers to plan for future updates in the way of feedback. I think there is some merit to what customers feel as to FD being a bit out of touch, as a lot of their recent content releases have been hit-or-miss, or troublesome in introduction.

This of course doesn't mean the game is dying.

 

[MickyG1982]

I have a space Vineyard it appears to be doing well.

Might have to start up a cheese business to go with it.

 

[M00ka]

Completely agree with this, I don't envy FD's position one little bit... as much as I'd love to see more communication from them I completely understand why they choose to remain silent at times.

Having said that, I do believe they need to do more out-of-game/forum polling with customers to plan for future updates in the way of feedback. I think there is some merit to what customers feel as to FD being a bit out of touch, as a lot of their recent content releases have been hit-or-miss, or troublesome in introduction.

This of course doesn't mean the game is dying.

Don't know about the polling bit. Did FD try that with the ship transfer mechanism, took the majorities request to have a delay, yet we get weekly threads on how no body every wanted a delay and it is causing the game to die?

 

[DocDelicious]

Nah, I was just in one of the starter systems on PS4 last night and there were 8 or 9 brand new players there and what looked like a couple vets hanging out helping their friends.

If the game seems dead on PC it's because everyone is hiding in a Private Group.

 

[Chris Simon]

Don't know about the polling bit. Did FD try that with the ship transfer mechanism, took the majorities request to have a delay, yet we get weekly threads on how no body every wanted a delay and it is causing the game to die?

Yeah, I think that is the last poll they will ever make.
Trusting the community to make design decisions is a double bladed sword. Only both blades are gonna hurt the game, in the end.

 

[Faybs]

As I said, it's been going on for years- and although it may be your first time, it's certainly not the first time it's happened. As I stated before, it's been going on since before release.

Game is most certainly not on "life support".

Tell me, if you owned a business, would you announce you're not introducing any new product for an entire year unless you felt completely comfortable with your cash position? Seriously?

Elite is literally the CEO's pet project, it's just not going to go away like that. But that doesn't mean it's going to get as much developer support as the company's real money makers; FDev has local and international shareholders that demand a return on their investment. Given how this entire year is going to be spent fleshing out game mechanics that have been placeholders since release day three years ago, it means the game is effectively in the back burner: something you give the new hires to get to know the engine, before they move on to their real projects (welcome to FDEv Bob, your first job will be to design a replacement for the planetary scanner; you can work with Pete over there who's been here a whole week and already knows how to build the game project files).

 

[Riverside]

We shall never know the player numbers or the coin Frontier has made from the game but I have a distinct impression that things aint going so well.

Ordinarily much of the discorse over ED has been players verhmently defending their own position. There seems to be a fairly reasonable view going around that the game is stalling, that FD have moved on, and the game is on maintenance mode. Hard to say otherwise coz despite so many people who are apprently working on the game the output doesnt seem to be comensurate with that.

Of course you know, you pull in Obsidian Ant, stage a lot of devs hard at work invite him to look around, and one gullable youtuber, whose made a revenune of being 'impartial' about the game reports back on how wonderful things might be..

Some time back I distinctly remember BrettC saying that we would know when the game wasnt doing so well because the quality of the updates of the game would go down..

Call me out on this commanders but all I'm seeing is a steady decline.. A brief check on steam (oh and I know there are some who dont use steam) says that there is a certain writing on the wall.

Upper management however has cashed in..

Tell me I am wrong.

It's a good point, well made. Not necessarily one I agree with, but a concern I share.

I'm not overly bothered with player numbers, they come & go, but I am concerned about the quality & rate of updates, new features & in particular bug fixes.

There seems to be little remaining evidence of an overall plan, a big picture that ties all these disparate features together, just a bunch of stuff plonked in to try to satisfy various sections of the playerbase.

I'm happy with the game, I got the game I wanted in 1.0, and although it's drifted a bit from that original coherent concept, basically I can still mostly play the game I wanted for all those years.

My particular gripe is with the second round for the LEP. I paid a bunch of extra money for expansions & content yet to come, and with the single exception of Zac's recent post on premium content, there is no information on what's coming, if anything, after 'Beyond'.

Disappointing.


However I can still play, and one day I won't be able to, so make hay while the sun shines

 

[VR jefranklin18]

We shall never know the player numbers or the coin Frontier has made from the game but I have a distinct impression that things aint going so well.

Ordinarily much of the discorse over ED has been players verhmently defending their own position. There seems to be a fairly reasonable view going around that the game is stalling, that FD have moved on, and the game is on maintenance mode. Hard to say otherwise coz despite so many people who are apprently working on the game the output doesnt seem to be comensurate with that.

Of course you know, you pull in Obsidian Ant, stage a lot of devs hard at work invite him to look around, and one gullable youtuber, whose made a revenune of being 'impartial' about the game reports back on how wonderful things might be..

Some time back I distinctly remember BrettC saying that we would know when the game wasnt doing so well because the quality of the updates of the game would go down..

Call me out on this commanders but all I'm seeing is a steady decline.. A brief check on steam (oh and I know there are some who dont use steam) says that there is a certain writing on the wall.

Upper management however has cashed in..

Tell me I am wrong.

Don't you get bored of posting this kind of nonsense all the time?

 

[daman]

There are plenty of new players on PC.

I can testify to lecturing them on the evils of trafficking imperial slaves in their shiny new T6's.

 

[Sylveria]

There are plenty of new players on PC.

I can testify to lecturing them on the evils of trafficking imperial slaves in their shiny new T6's.

Keep fighting the good fight!!!!

 

[daman]

Keep fighting the good fight!!!!

I saved one of them from the dark side just tonight.

After dumping half his cargo and promising that would be his last run, he friended me and asked advice for how to make decent credits in Elite without dealing in slaves.

 

[Deleted member 110222]

It's a good point, well made. Not necessarily one I agree with, but a concern I share.

I'm not overly bothered with player numbers, they come & go, but I am concerned about the quality & rate of updates, new features & in particular bug fixes.

There seems to be little remaining evidence of an overall plan, a big picture that ties all these disparate features together, just a bunch of stuff plonked in to try to satisfy various sections of the playerbase.

I'm happy with the game, I got the game I wanted in 1.0, and although it's drifted a bit from that original coherent concept, basically I can still mostly play the game I wanted for all those years.

My particular gripe is with the second round for the LEP. I paid a bunch of extra money for expansions & content yet to come, and with the single exception of Zac's recent post on premium content, there is no information on what's coming, if anything, after 'Beyond'.

Disappointing.


However I can still play, and one day I won't be able to, so make hay while the sun shines

It's the same here. The quality of updates just feels... Sub-par.

It's the development question that really gets me thinking, rather than the player numbers.

 

[Maymo]

Good post but I do want to discuss the bit I quoted.

FD are in a no-win situation regards transparency. If they don't give regular (some here seem to want daily updates lol) they are called secretive and not caring about the game. If they do release aspects of their plans for the future, the forum going into freefall with wild speculation on how FD should proceed, salty tears if what was proposed wasn't on someone's agenda, more tears if what was proposed was on someone's agenda, but just in a different way, threats of leaving the game if proposal is introduced, threats on how the game will die if the proposal is introduced, or introduced in a way not to someone's liking.

The problem is the diversity of the player group and the diversity of how everyone plays the game differently, FD I believe are wise enough to realise they will never please everyone and those unhappy little vegemite's (Aussie expression, google it )would probably complain about any aspect of the game because that is all they do now.

But....we get all that now anyway! Lol! Doom threads like this one are created because nobody knows what’s going on or if the game is being developed in the right direction......or (in the case of this thread) is being developed at all.

Look....cards on the table......I’ve had more than my money’s worth from this game, I’m happy, play everyday.....continue to do so after a year......this game is all I’ve played, it’s all I’ve needed to get my jollies. When I first started playing I couldn’t risk opening the galaxy map while out in supercruise because it took so long to load I could be interdicted and killed before it even loaded.....that’s not the case these days, games running so much better.

But I feel invested in it and I just want to know if the areas of the game that are lacking will ever be addressed!? For example:

...I mean, this is absolutely awful. A player spends days ranking up and gets this from a galactic superpower? My cat gets longer emails than this! Where’s my incentive to keep playing? Why isn’t there a decent perk tree implemented in the navy ranks? Access to special equipment? Why can’t I get an increased security response when I’m pirated in a Federal system? I’m a post captain damn it!!

If FD was to turn around tomorrow and say:-

“That’s all you get. We’re happy and proud with what we’ve done with the navy ranks. We have no intention of changing it”

...then I’d be able to make my peace with the game, it is what it is. (and walk away and play something else)

Instead (like others) I end up on here ranting for change.

A bit of transparency wouldn’t hurt...

They definitely know what we aren’t happy about but I’m really interested in what they’re not happy about and want to change in the game.

 

[Ambroza]

Not sure why people cite the Steam charts as a source for the game's imminent death. Let's take a look, shall we?

Notice how the average number of active players has been higher for all of 2017 than it was for 2016? Not to mention, there were two console releases over this period that aren't accounted for in this graph at all (and of course, not everyone uses Steam). Over the course of 2016, we didn't reach 10,000 daily players even one time. In 2017, we've exceeded 10,000 daily players three times, the most recent occurrence being 2.4's release.

 

[Devari]

Exactly. Funny how they're in the process of planning out a whole year of updates without new content being introduced yet the game is "dying", eh?

Except that what we've actually gotten with 2.4 is nowhere near what they hyped for "The Return". Why do you think Beyond is going to deliver when The Return has been almost embarrassingly poor in terms of gameplay and content?

A business couldn't afford to do that unless they're flush with cash. That's a BIG gamble if you don't have the cash on hand to sustain a whole year.

The problem is that cash is being used to make other games. It isn't being re-invested into the Elite franchise, which is why 2.4 has been so disappointing. There's no way that anyone can really claim that 2.4 represents 4 months of solid high-quality development effort.

 

[stooger]

But....we get all that now anyway! Lol! Doom threads like this one are created because nobody knows what’s going on or if the game is being developed in the right direction......or (in the case of this thread) is being developed at all.

Look....cards on the table......I’ve had more than my money’s worth from this game, I’m happy, play everyday.....continue to do so after a year......this game is all I’ve played, it’s all I’ve needed to get my jollies. When I first started playing I couldn’t risk opening the galaxy map while out in supercruise because it took so long to load I could be interdicted and killed before it even loaded.....that’s not the case these days, games running so much better.

But I feel invested in it and I just want to know if the areas of the game that are lacking will ever be addressed!? For example:

https://image.ibb.co/hW0pxw/7_F072_EB1_0_B47_4284_A491_FAB41_E4_D228_F.jpg

...I mean, this is absolutely awful. A player spends days ranking up and gets this from a galactic superpower? My cat gets longer emails than this! Where’s my incentive to keep playing? Why isn’t there a decent perk tree implemented in the navy ranks? Access to special equipment? Why can’t I get an increased security response when I’m pirated in a Federal system? I’m a post captain damn it!!

If FD was to turn around tomorrow and say:-

“That’s all you get. We’re happy and proud with what we’ve done with the navy ranks. We have no intention of changing it”

...then I’d be able to make my peace with the game, it is what it is. (and walk away and play something else)

Instead (like others) I end up on here ranting for change.

A bit of transparency wouldn’t hurt...

They definitely know what we aren’t happy about but I’m really interested in what they’re not happy about and want to change in the game.

This. There are too many of these threads already but I'm not surpised... there will be more. Doom threads are not as much about dying game but about players fears. Develoment is slow, we don't get much content so players are scared that game is slowly dying. The "it's all good! I have fun!" people should stick to the "fun" threads and not try to convince others that waiting 5 years for some meaningfull content is not long enough. The amount of these "doom" threads is the best evidence that something is wrong with this game. We have more and more discontent people on the forum and that's the effect. Noone knows anything about game future (beyond: beyond) and many people were expecting much more from ED by 2018. I mean... how much placeholder content we still have after all this time? Yeah... People don't know what's going on with the game, people don't like current/past developement pace/direction, people expectations are low and they still get disapointed by new implemented features... so what threads people expect? It's all good and we have fun threads? There are some but for many players good/fun basics like flight model, fun shooting etc is just not enough anymore. Let's not forget ED was a game with 10-year dev plan... and at 5th year we will have "core game fixes" in "beyond". I'm happy it's happening but... people were expexting much more by now.

 

[GroundxZERO]

At this point I dont even know what to say. I was going to just buy some Christmas lights and a tree for my ship because times are a bit hard irl this Christmas and it would be the best I can do for my favorite holiday decorations but then I dont want to keep pouring money into this seemingly empty well for little or nothing.

 

[jasonbarron]

There's no way that anyone can really claim that 2.4 represents 4 months of solid high-quality development effort.

Sleutelbos? Sylveria? Babelfish? Devari has thrown down the gauntlet.

 

[Tarman]

This thread exists on every game forum known to mankind.

 

[Sweet&Dandy]

Mr Brooke's shifting over to the Dino park project was the eye opener for me. I'd love to know how many Frontier staff also moved over and how many staff were replaced? If there are fewer people working on ED now, then I think you have your answer.