Is frontier lowering the success of this game, by not introducing features?

[valbarr]

They are saying for example space legs is way off in the future. that they have to priorities what they do. isnt this a case of the chicken and the egg, if they made the game better more people would buy it, so they would then have more money to make the game better.

but if they dont make the game better, then less people will buy it, look at all the hype about the next mass effect game. that game isnt multiplayer like elite, but it does have space ships, and walking around and talking to npcs and tons of other stuff, that frontier doesnt seem to be able to give us, in any sort of reasonable timeframe.

i just wonder, is the games design being artificially slowed by lack of developer manpower and investment, and is this in the longrun shortsighted of them.

for the troll people, please note these are all questions i have and would be interested in hearing what other people think.
what im not interested in, is hearing people say oh no not another one of these threads... etc etc

if you dont have anything interesting to add to this thread please backout now. thanks.

 

[Genar-Hofoen]

They are saying for example space legs is way off in the future. that they have to priorities what they do. isnt this a case of the chicken and the egg, if they made the game better more people would buy it, so they would then have more money to make the game better.

but if they dont make the game better, then less people will buy it, look at all the hype about the next mass effect game. that game isnt multiplayer like elite, but it does have space ships, and walking around and talking to npcs and tons of other stuff, that frontier doesnt seem to be able to give us, in any sort of reasonable timeframe.

i just wonder, is the games design being artificially slowed by lack of developer manpower and investment, and is this in the longrun shortsighted of them.

for the troll people, please note these are all questions i have and would be interested in hearing what other people think.
what im not interested in, is hearing people say oh no not another one of these threads... etc etc

if you dont have anything interesting to add to this thread please backout now. thanks.

You raise interesting questions - but saying the word "better" isn't good enough, Op. You'd be better off specifying what you mean by "better" - for example why would spce legs make the game 'better'? For me it'd be able to walk around inside my ships, for example.

As to whether or not FDEV are 'lowering the success of the game' - well, not wanting to sound like some shill, we all should know by now that this is a game which is under continuous development - and yes the development does from an outward appearance seem 'slow', and I too am feeling somewhat frustrated by season 2, due to the lack of any meaningful exploration developments. But as far as 'lowering the success of the game', until you yourself turn your word 'better' into something more specific, you're making it difficult for folks to really answer your questions

Regards

 

[signal11th]

Not to start the whole solo/open debate but imagine the game is it was only a solo/private server game all that Dev time spent on multiplayer aspects.

 

[Furinkazan]

You can't compare ED with Andromeda.

One is the fourth iteration of a space based, third person RPG, made by a company with 20 years of experience in making RPG's. The other is well...Elite. The two have nothing in common except being set in space. You can't even fly ships in ME.

I don't think there's a shortage of dev manpower at FD, nor investment issues. I think it's simply a case of talent limitations. What else would you expect from the lead designer of Haze and Kinect Star Wars?

 

[TERMINATRIXXX]

The game is growing, they add new features and enhance core game mechanics like the CMDR creator.
Multicrew is just another improvement to play together with friends, it's just at the beginning.
I'm sure they will see how people use it and how it can be improved further.

 

[Noctover]

The game is growing, they add new features and enhance core game mechanics like the CMDR creator.
Multicrew is just another improvement to play together with friends, it's just at the beginning.
I'm sure they will see how people use it and how it can be improved further.

But But...EXTRA PIP SPLOITS WAAA!

 

[tafkabb]

I'm happy with the game I have. I'm not sitting there continually waiting to be happy.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

I'm not particularly fussed about walking around, compared to say, atmospheric Landings, landable ELWs, and generally more content, and major fixes for the existing content.

Given that FD have a very pew pew angle on things right now, i have a feeling, that if we got space legs, it'd be CoD in space, before being fleshed out for other things. Just like Multi Pew.
I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing, I do love combat in ED.
I'm just saying, careful what you wish for.

 

[SeaFireliv]

They are saying for example space legs is way off in the future. that they have to priorities what they do. isnt this a case of the chicken and the egg, if they made the game better more people would buy it, so they would then have more money to make the game better.

but if they dont make the game better, then less people will buy it, look at all the hype about the next mass effect game. that game isnt multiplayer like elite, but it does have space ships, and walking around and talking to npcs and tons of other stuff, that frontier doesnt seem to be able to give us, in any sort of reasonable timeframe.

i just wonder, is the games design being artificially slowed by lack of developer manpower and investment, and is this in the longrun shortsighted of them.

for the troll people, please note these are all questions i have and would be interested in hearing what other people think.
what im not interested in, is hearing people say oh no not another one of these threads... etc etc

if you dont have anything interesting to add to this thread please backout now. thanks.

It`s all a matter of perspective- The Devs and financial suits perspective. they have clearly decided that making the game easier and adding a 3rd person fighting view is what will bring in the customers.

Spacelegs, at mosphereic worlds, etc, y`know, immersive realistic stuff- they don`t think is worth it.

 

[TERMINATRIXXX]

But But...EXTRA PIP SPLOITS WAAA!

Well, i think it will only have a minor impact on the gameplay, here and there some CMDR will exploit it but the majority will not do that.
They could prevent it by only allow one connection from the same IP / Mac.

 

[Noctover]

Well, i think it will only have a minor impact on the gameplay, here and there some CMDR will exploit it but the majority will not do that.
They could prevent it by only allow one connection from the same IP / Mac.

Actually seems like they condone it. Dosent bother me tbh but its caused quite the stir in the Q&A summary thread.

 

[Alric]

Mass Effect is a totally different type of game. Frontier could implement walking around and talking to NPCs tomorrow if they wanted to. Implementing it in a way that fits with the game and enhances it is very much more difficult.

You can look at two extreme examples of other ways of doing it:
No Mans Sky - On the checklist it has all these features. You can fly a spaceship, you can dogfight, you can go to millions of planets, get out, explore, harvest, find animals. You can walk around space stations and interact with NPCs, etc. etc. etc.
All of those features really existed in that game on day one. They were so shallow that the game was only worth playing for a few hours.

Star Citizen - It has a huge list of features and a tremendous level of detail. An enormous amount of money and dev time is going in to making it happen. It's years behind schedule because of all the stuff they're trying to do.

It isn't a simple matter of get more money, add more stuff quicker. Every approach has pros and cons and no approach results in an amazing, complete game in a short space of time. Not when you're talking about this sort of scope.

Overall, I'd say FDs middle of the road approach is the better one.

 

[Actionman2222]

Feature creep is a thing. Trying to add too many features too soon can very well be the downfall of software. By trying to please everyone you end up pleasing no-one.

I'm happy enough that the features that are being added are usually a high quality or worked on to get them to that stage before throwing new stuff on.

 

[maxpayne]

It seems to me that the whole multi-crew thing is programmed by a single developer for 3~5 months.

It is FDev's incompetence.

 

[TERMINATRIXXX]

It seems to me that the whole multi-crew thing is programmed by a single developer for 3~5 months.

It is FDev's incompetence.

meeeh thats not nice [down]

 

[MadDogMurdock]

In the PAX stream the other day Sandy said something along the lines of "if it proves popular then we'll look to expand it".

Erm, this is the road that led us to all these half-baked implementations that are not popular - Powerplay, CQC, etc.
Multicrew could easily end up as another ghost-town because it's so limited to combat-only situations.
Based on Sandy's logic, it would not ever get worked on to expand it to be more than that because the people who might want it to do those other things aren't using it.

Seems like self-defeating cognitive dissonance to me.

 

[ethelred]

With the existing game content (which I am very happy with) I can't see how adding spacelegs will help.

Why should I leave my ship to meet a trade contact when I can do so from the menu option in my ship? Sure I'd like to walk around my ship, maybe even twice, but until all the panels are interactive and have a purpose I'd rather just sit in my chair.

Until there is a reason to use spacelegs, then there is no point adding it. I'd rather see:-

- Branched missions
- persistent NPCs
- (more) reactive economy
- players careers worked on (e.g. a pirate path with rewards & ranks, a terrorist path with the same etc etc)
- PVP arenas in open
- route planning in supercruise (e.g. piloting a more efficeint route saves time, beacons to pull everyone out of supercruise in War or Lockdown systems, for example)


None of which need a whole new game added onto it.

The devs have even said spacelegs is a long way off! It's not going to happen for ages, make your peace with it and move on, please.

 

[maxpayne]

The game is growing, they add new features and enhance core game mechanics like the CMDR creator.
Multicrew is just another improvement to play together with friends, it's just at the beginning.
I'm sure they will see how people use it and how it can be improved further.

Well, i have to disagree with this.

look at wings for example. There is no improvement since it came out.
And now we have matchmaking for MC. And FDev doesn't even bother using the same system for wing matchmaking.

 

[Jason S]

OP I see your point, but then I thought does walking about actually make the game more fun and I suppose it does if it is optional, but if it were to become a mandatory thing we may just get very annoyed with it.

The other thing to think about is there many other more important things now before it and I think so, as even flying through clouds on gas giants could be done before.

 

[rucky]

I'm happy enough that the features that are being added are usually a high quality or worked on to get them to that stage before throwing new stuff on.

Uhm don't want to criticise. But do you consider the actual MultiCrew roles as high quality? Or the plastic packs aka ship kits? (I believe anybody could name a few more examples). Do they improve existing - shallow - features. Yes. indeed. but at a really slow-moving pace...

It seems to me that the whole multi-crew thing is programmed by a single developer for 3~5 months.

It is FDev's incompetence.

haha! oh that's cynical! ;-)
But to be honest, I don't think the developer count is/was more than 2-digits... (of the 300 man power in FD)

In the PAX stream the other day Sandy said something along the lines of "if it proves popular then we'll look to expand it".

Erm, this is the road that led us to all these half-baked implementations that are not popular - Powerplay, CQC, etc.
Multicrew could easily end up as another ghost-town because it's so limited to combat-only situations.
Based on Sandy's logic, it would not ever get worked on to expand it to be more than that because the people who might want it to do those other things aren't using it.

Seems like self-defeating cognitive dissonance to me.

correct. that's it.
I don't have much hope there will come more roles for multi-crew.
WHY? They got our money. They need other headline features to sell more copies.
So all you cosmetic lovers out there who like buying expensive single colored stuff..... buy even MORE!

look at wings for example. There is no improvement since it came out.
And now we have matchmaking for MC. And FDev doesn't even bother using the same system for wing matchmaking.

it was sold. so why invest man power (from so little developers working for ED) for that "old" feature??

With the existing game content (which I am very happy with) I can't see how adding spacelegs will help.

Why should I leave my ship to meet a trade contact when I can do so from the menu option in my ship? Sure I'd like to walk around my ship, maybe even twice, but until all the panels are interactive and have a purpose I'd rather just sit in my chair.

Until there is a reason to use spacelegs, then there is no point adding it.

Hm. Seen Pulsar Coop-Gameplay? The guys are walking around all the day...
But for ED, FD, it would really only be standing up from chair, make a 360° turning, sitting down again.
So... uhm... I'd really like to have spacelegs, but... as I'm really concerned about what FD would make about that... I'd say... leave it.