The reveal of Beyond yesterday left me with bitter feelings.One hand I'm excited for everything they announced and I'm sure that there are more great things they haven't announced yet but one the other 1 year seems like a very long time for updates such as these.I'm not a game developer so I could be wrong but I'm worried that ED has stopped being FD's top priority and thus development has slowed down significantly.I mean look at Horizons.It took around 5 months for 2.2 to come out which is probably the smallest of the Horizons updates.I love ED despite of it's many issues and I just want to be sure that it's still as much of a priority to FD as it was 3 years ago.
Is FD slowly shifting focus away from ED?
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They proved a list of changes/features coming over the next year and a roadmap for releases coming in '18, and you see them as shifting focus?!
The impression I got, talking to some of the development team yesterday, was they want more years out of Elite yet. There is so much they want to do with the game. It's just sometimes the ideas are that big it takes longer than anticipated to realise.
I'm not saying they're abandoning the game.I'm just saying that the development of the game feels very slow and that this might be because they put less and less manpower to develop it.
Having been at the Expo, I am utterly reassured that Frontier's commitment to ED is unwavering. Yes, we didn't get an announcement of Elite Feet or atmospheric landings but the changes being made to the lighting and scatter models will put the game in a far better position to bring us atmospheric landings hopefully in 2019. There may be more to come in 2018, they alluded to more ships during the talk, so there is a chance there.
Difficult to say. From the specifics it feels like too little for a year's worth of content. They are however addressing the 1 mile wide, 1 inch deep criticism and improving what is already in the game instead of tacking on more gimmicks that provide 30 minutes of interest and are then ignored.
The issue is they didn't mention many specifics. There were no showings of new game features, presumably because they don't yet exist.
Is the game in maintenance mode. Maybe it is, or maybe they just don't know the specifics.
EDIT - Also 4 circles on a dark background is not a "roadmap".
Elite has no competition. FD are a business first and foremost so are likely in no rush to improve the game when they have the monopoly on the space game market.
The issue is they didn't mention many specifics. There were no showings of new game features, presumably because they don't yet exist.
Is the game in maintenance mode. Maybe it is, or maybe they just don't know the specifics.
EDIT - Also 4 circles on a dark background is not a "roadmap".
Elite has no competition. FD are a business first and foremost so are likely in no rush to improve the game when they have the monopoly on the space game market.
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DeathStroke
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When have they EVER done that?
No, they're not SLOWLY shifting focus, they've been QUICKLY shifting focus to each new game they've come up with.
ED is a 'cash cow', low growth but high profit. You know what happens to cash cows? They get milked. Usually to fund other projects. *COUGH*planetcoaster*COUGH*Jurassicworld*COUGH*
In the first whole year, and even added planetary landings way before anyone even expected them.
It might also be because some of the dev team are working on the next major release.
It's a shame considering Elite was the game that made David Braben famous.
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I really hope so!
It sounds like the team on ED are well up for it. And this is Davids first love, remember he invented way back in the 80s he's not going to want to let this die off.
I'm positive about it all. The more engines they have the better, ED will benefit when we do eventually get in atmosphere worlds due to them.
I'm positive about it all. The more engines they have the better, ED will benefit when we do eventually get in atmosphere worlds due to them.
It would be a shame if it were true, yes. But Elite is not merely a cash cow to Braben.
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OMG, what?! FD used profits from a product to develop a new product?! OUTRAGEOUS!
I think we can take it as red that they only spoke about things they are confident about delivering on.
If there is any change of focus it is in taking seriously the criticisms and acting to further develop and refine what already is a very rich gaming experience. It is these actions that will guarantee that E: D does have a future, and allow FDev to then work on new Capital Letter features like Space Legs and atmospheric worlds.
So he shouldn't do other games? Or they have some sort of obligation to finance only ED?
I suspect this myth have legs in 'it is no brainer what FD should do and it should be easy to do', none of which are true.
So no. FD doing other games aren't related of slow development. FD extended and will extend Horizons a year more because they saw people voting with their wallets and demanding improving core game first before it extending fhuther.
So much this. We didn't expect Horizons. In fact, most of us wanted more of core gameplay at that time.
I know, how dare they.
This is it and it's also the right business decision for FDev. The fans here are impacted and don't want or like this which is understandable. Yesterday's roadmap reveal confirmed the game is in a maintenance type mode getting minimal resources. Their focus is on Jurassic which should be very obvious, and it wouldn't surprise me to see a 4th brand (not Elite) get started once Jurassic launches. This is called business. And it has nothing to do with "doom and gloom" mongering.
Elite will likely come back as a main dev effort when v2.0 is needed and when they know they can get major $$$ from a new version, new launch. Until then the revenue model is the current and trendy micro-transactions which is no different than Halo or other recent console games once they hit year 2.
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That's not what I meant.If developing other games like PC and JWE means more income, then they should absolutely go on and develop them.I just hope that ED won't be "abandoned" to allow quicker development on the other games.
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