Is it getting quieter here?

[Pyrobee]

Only logged back into forum today after a long while and found it's mainly the same negative whining that actually puts me off wanting to play the game. So I play and enjoy and choose to ignore coming here and looking at the childish 'make the game the way I (but always the royal we) want it' that this forum is.

 

[m0rl0ck]

Straight off this is not a flaming post or a "I quit" post. I'm still here, still playing and happy...ish.

What I am noticing is a slow down on the forums and I'm wondering why. Their is the obvious thing that 3.0 came and went which brought many returning players back and they have perhaps now put it back down. A shame but not really a loss, more a return to normality. As an active recruiter for a player group though I'm also seeing far less "LFG" posts, has everyone found their groups now?

All speculation but what I'll put out is this bit of data collection:

Patch 3.0.3 was announced at 11:10am on the 19/03/18 and 12 hours later the thread had 576 responses.
Patch 3.0.4 was announced at 3.33pm on the 26/03/18 and 12 hours later the thread had 242 responses.

There is the obvious different times which could play a factor but arguably the US time zones would actually have been more active so why is patch 3.0.4 not getting the same attention.

I guess what I'm really asking: Is this a return to normality or were those "I quit" posts for real and we've actually witnessed a mass reduction in the playerbase?

Its obvious to me that FD dont care about the game and the last two patches have made my preferred game play non existent. So i dont really care about the game either. If there is a 3.05 (which i doubt given the condition of the last two patches) i might check back and take a look. But from what i have seen recently, i think FD's goal is to keep ED stumbling around on its last legs till they can milk the frontierstore for its last paintjob.

I have been reading the forums this morning wondering about the feasibility of selling my ED account, as some compensation for time spent and Frontiers bad faith.

So yes, you can have my stuff, for a price.

 

[Lightspeed]

Yes, it is quieter, but only to be expected after an initial burst of equal measures of enthusiasm and disappointment when a new update breaks. I think 3.04 was more about fixing the bugs that 3.03 broke, so not sure we should read too much between those two.

What does happen is that an interesting topic gets shunted off away from DD, either to one of the other major topic folders, or to a backwater where it is encouraged to die.

 

[Dural]

Not been visiting long but it's def calmer than it has been at times.

 

[ITZC0ATL]

Oddly enough I've become increasingly impatient with all the same old pointless whining, although after a patch it always happens. The noise to signal ratio is crazy right now, dangerous discussion is just a sea of tears.

There's the occasional bit of hilarious flotsam bobbing past, but for the most part it's just very wet.

Maybe I'm misremembering, but I don't think Dangerous Discussions used to be quite as toxic as it is now. It had the same whine posts, sure, but before the forum re-organisation you also had quite a few good threads.

Now, a lot of the good threads are moved off to subforums where they invariably have lower rates of participation and everyone who just hangs out in DD seems to find their way into a handful of mega-whine threads. The toxic minority really have claimed DD for themselves, for the most part.

 

[sollisb]

Busy writing code to give me abilities that FDev can't or won't

1. Show Points of Interest in System just arrived at.
2. Map Bounty Factions to Systems
3. Notify me when a body int he current system has a material I have on my shopping list
4. Notify me of heading deviation of track to selected target

Webserver sits on my main ED rig. Bounties/Materials displayed on my MacBook. Navigation on my laptop screen. This also monitors my heading and sends course corrections to the webserver which then announces the new track using voice.

 

[Lightspeed]

Busy writing code to give me abilities that FDev can't or won't

1. Show Points of Interest in System just arrived at.
2. Map Bounty Factions to Systems
3. Notify me when a body int he current system has a material I have on my shopping list
4. Notify me of heading deviation of track to selected target

Webserver sits on my main ED rig. Bounties/Materials displayed on my MacBook. Navigation on my laptop screen. This also monitors my heading and sends course corrections to the webserver which then announces the new track using voice.

Well that's something positive for a change ! o7

 

[Stigbob]

Maybe I'm misremembering, but I don't think Dangerous Discussions used to be quite as toxic as it is now. It had the same whine posts, sure, but before the forum re-organisation you also had quite a few good threads.

There's a general "things changed" meltdown coupled with a "new stuff sometimes needs fixing" wobbler going on, someone posted a positive thread the other day and was told to stop wasting peoples time with their irrelevant nonsense (seriously).

Now, a lot of the good threads are moved off to subforums where they invariably have lower rates of participation and everyone who just hangs out in DD seems to find their way into a handful of mega-whine threads. The toxic minority really have claimed DD for themselves, for the most part.

The PVP sub forum was a good idea as it acts as a sponge for all the Hotel California rubbish, but I can't help think we need a moan zone to dump the rest of it into.

Then again after the reshuffle maybe dangerous discussion is the moan zone in all but name and the odd genuine question that filters through to it has just been posted in the wrong place.

 

[ITZC0ATL]

Then again after the reshuffle maybe dangerous discussion is the moan zone in all but name and the odd genuine question that filters through to it has just been posted in the wrong place.

Degenerate Discussions, more like

 

[Eidolon]

can only speak for myself.. but that C&P sucked the fun out of it for me, to much hassle. and instead of getting frustrated with it, i rather go play something else..

Yes, same here. Plus I can't seem to get motivated to reengineer my fleet. I just play other things when I'm in the mood. Which is most of the time now.

 

[Lightspeed]

For a quiet, almost meaningless, topic folder there is Horizons. I can't see the purpose of that one - it died a long time ago.

 

[Zenith]

I don't like the new engineer system. I've said it a number of times, and while I don't like it, I have to engage with it.
So I've been spending a lot of my game time gathering materials and shipcrafting, just to get a ship that I'm happy with in given situations.
I've also been on a different shift with work.

All that combines so that I spend less time looking at the forums.
Factor in the negativity and repeated nature of posts on the forums, and I just feel "Why bother with the forums?", so I spend less time on the forums and more time on Discord with people who are a lot more positive.

 

[CMDR Carbo]

I don't see a reduction in whining on the forums yet but I also wouldn't be surprised if over the next few months things will get quieter.

After the recent changes to engineering and C&P, I wouldn't be surprised at all if they lose half of their active players that just put the game on the backburner.

Not saying I feel that way personally, it's just that it's impossible to make changes like this right for everybody, and putting barriers and objects in the way FDEV did in 3.0 doesn't really lead to a smooth playing experience or an influx of new players.

 

[CMDR Corlas]

I've been posting very little (and playing very little) recently.

Nothing against the game though - real life got busy (politics, work, extended family drama, water heater in the house broke), spring started to kick in here (restart work on my garden, landscaping, etc), and the warmer weather always makes it more compelling to do outdoors things in my relaxation time, so Elite loses out to astrophotography, for instance.

 

[Jex =TE=]

Straight off this is not a flaming post or a "I quit" post. I'm still here, still playing and happy...ish.

What I am noticing is a slow down on the forums and I'm wondering why. Their is the obvious thing that 3.0 came and went which brought many returning players back and they have perhaps now put it back down. A shame but not really a loss, more a return to normality. As an active recruiter for a player group though I'm also seeing far less "LFG" posts, has everyone found their groups now?

All speculation but what I'll put out is this bit of data collection:

Patch 3.0.3 was announced at 11:10am on the 19/03/18 and 12 hours later the thread had 576 responses.
Patch 3.0.4 was announced at 3.33pm on the 26/03/18 and 12 hours later the thread had 242 responses.

There is the obvious different times which could play a factor but arguably the US time zones would actually have been more active so why is patch 3.0.4 not getting the same attention.

I guess what I'm really asking: Is this a return to normality or were those "I quit" posts for real and we've actually witnessed a mass reduction in the playerbase?

The only time it's busy here is when a lot of people are complaining - all those threads get people passionate. If you check the other "boring" threads you'll see hardly any participation in them which is pretty much standard all the time and says more.

 

[verminstar]

Frontier does have to take some of the blame though with some the utterly inane statements they make, like claiming to be mining salt from the community or that they value our time...then go and make the grind worse and dont communicate any further about not wanting to waste our time.

Things like that spiral outta control very quickly indeed and lead to all sorts of flame wars on the forum...all the while FD say nothing which makes a bad situation worse considering they are literally the only ones who can set things right. They simply choose not to which really doesnt help the situation at all and the forums degenerate further as a result.

Most if not all of us have sat and discussed these issues multiple times and still, several years later, the same problems just persist. Gets to the point where the forums get too depressing to visit because these issues are not new...its a continual cycle that has gone on fer years. And as per usual, the army of fanbois are ready and waiting in the wings with all the excuses why absolutely none of this is frontiers fault and its all us that are the problem.

Like I say, they win the forums I just cant be bothered with them anymore...the communication didnt break down because there was never any real communication to break in the first place ^

 

[hypervoodoo77]

Well it was enougb to make me quit.

 

[Alec Turner]

It's so quiet (or at least, uninteresting) in the forum at the moment that, aside from some ongoing planetary circumnavigation diaries, this thread about it being quiet in the forum is the only thing I've found worthy of featuring in the Trending section of my Best of Forum thread in the last few days!

And if I'm being honest, I only did that for the irony of it.

With Bomba Luigi on holiday back on planet Wilson at the moment what we really need is for somebody new to go and get themselves stranded somewhere in a unique and exciting way.

 

[GG7]

I like what they've done, I'm also impressed with the speed they've been getting out fixes.

Same here.

I think more are actually engaged in playing the game and spending less time posting on here instead. I know I have definitely been playing more and foruming less since 3.0 dropped.

Then there are the other games I play as well.

 

[verminstar]

It's so quiet (or at least, uninteresting) in the forum at the moment that, aside from some ongoing planetary circumnavigation diaries, this thread about it being quiet in the forum is the only thing I've found worthy of featuring in the Trending section of my Best of Forum thread in the last few days!

And if I'm being honest, I only did that for the irony of it.

With Bomba Luigi on holiday back on planet Wilson at the moment what we really need is for somebody new to go and get themselves stranded somewhere in a unique and exciting way.

They nerfed that too by allowing us to refuel even if we docked anonymously after a few players cried about getting stranded with no fuel scoop ^