Since Elite's successful Kickstarter at the end of 2012, FDev's total staff count has increased from ~220 to over 500.
Source: https://twitter.com/davidbraben/status/1178972192337530880
"Is the game dead?" returning players keep posting here and on reddit, due to blank Galnet
- Thread starter Nickolai
- Start date
Source: https://twitter.com/davidbraben/status/1178972192337530880
By that rationale, every game seems dead unless an update has arrived today for it.
I bought the game + Horizons getting close on to 3 years ago. In that time there have been continuous updates improving nearly every facet of the game, all of which have cost me nothing. I would continue playing the current version of Elite for probably as long as they kept it running. It's a great game now, as is, and while I'm not opposed to some paid expansion down the road, I certainly don't feel something has to be added asap to keep the game alive or worth playing.
Sometimes I wonder if a business stratagem (gaming in particular, but not solely) of pumping out new "content" as fast as you can get people to buy hasn't so we'll conditioned many into this view of impending death (or at least Doom) for anything that isn't trying to sell you the next update as fast as possible.
I find Frontiers style of development a refreshing oasis in an industry that can often be very cookie cutter.
Sometimes I wonder if a business stratagem (gaming in particular, but not solely) of pumping out new "content" as fast as you can get people to buy hasn't so we'll conditioned many into this view of impending death (or at least Doom) for anything that isn't trying to sell you the next update as fast as possible.
I find Frontiers style of development a refreshing oasis in an industry that can often be very cookie cutter.
The issue being that some of the bugs were non-trivial. Hence one of the asks was for more betas. To help identify these visible and impactful bugs.
Gaming is and has been about evolving your product because that's a large part of what keeps your product earning revenue. It's pretty clear Elite has chosen that model (selling Horizons and cosmetics with the promise of new paid expansions in the future) and it was clear of that intent from day 1 (lifetime pass).
They're just not very fast with it. I doubt that's actually intended though.
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![[PS4] Filthymick420](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/201/201444.jpg?1555738739){kind=avatar}
I havent been experiencing very many bugs on ps4 lately and previously it was pretty bad. Every so often a CZ will fail to load npcs but thats been the worst of it for me in the past month or so. I dont think the game is dead.
Im worried that it seems like a lot of employees have been saying farewell, on top of CMs saying that their resources were spread thin (implied by galnet writers being repurposed to the point that a paragraph a month is too much extra work) and the addition of new titles coming out from frontier, that we will be losing the already seemingly lackluster support we already have (especially console).
There is no shortage of racing games. I would say there is an over abundance. But a game like elite dangerous only exists in elite dangerous. Everything else is... whatever you guys would say is worse than 'pants'
Im worried that it seems like a lot of employees have been saying farewell, on top of CMs saying that their resources were spread thin (implied by galnet writers being repurposed to the point that a paragraph a month is too much extra work) and the addition of new titles coming out from frontier, that we will be losing the already seemingly lackluster support we already have (especially console).
There is no shortage of racing games. I would say there is an over abundance. But a game like elite dangerous only exists in elite dangerous. Everything else is... whatever you guys would say is worse than 'pants'
They were massively trivial they also got hotfixed almost immediatley.
The next patch will be no different, irrespective of having a beta some bugs will always slip through to the live release. I'll be fine with that, you (and some others) wont be and there'll be a big old moan in the forum.
Things were broken with engineering, both remote and not, for at least 3 days. I was out when they got fixed so I don't know the exact timeframe. But they were non-trivial enough to be a barrier that had me leave the game for a bit and long lasting enough for that to be the case 3 days later as I was looking for workarounds.
Bugs happen all the time but that update clearly drew a greater response than normal. Did you ever actually consider that maybe that was because of the specific issues encountered and how that affected players who use the affected features? Or is everything just inherently trivial to you?
I guess whats "non-trivial" is open to interpretation.
In my little universe non-trivial includes:
- My computer no longer functions. the application updates screwed with my computer.
- The updated application (example ED) no longer functions. Its completely screwed. It just doesn't work. Its broken.
- The updated application randomly locks-up requiring manual shutdown through control panel or requiring computer hardboot.
- I permanently lost significant application data (ships, inventory, credits, etc) as a result.
Remembering its a video game, so to me I don't really care as long as stuff generally works and anything annoying gets fixed before... well before it gets annoying. Honestly I work with so much crappy software I find ED really quite fantastic.
![[VR] M4st0d0n](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/182/182772.jpg?1569064854){kind=avatar}
If carriers are next quarter, shouldnt they maybe get their beta server up again soon(tm) so people can test this new revolutionnary inventory system? You know, before its a total shipstorm and mauve adders are lost in witchspace...
For all we know those beta testing the fleet carriers are already doing so under an nda
I would count rendering the product into a state where you don't want to use it because the features you want to use don't work as non-trivial for that specific game. Personally that seems like a metric that's reasonable. I wouldn't put the lower bound for notable problems with software anywhere near the point of actively breaking other software or hardware. Nor would I put that barrier at being completely nonfunctional.
Aw I missed the closed letter then.
Moon dog
Banned
what they need is for the community to give some Ideas that arent past budget
Three days, is that all ?. Some people reacted like the sky was falling.
That update was no better or worse than any others, the standard post patch whingefest didn't seem any worse than normal either. Some people get mad about a few bugs after a patch, others are OK with it or even expect them as part of any update. Release and hotfix is just how it is now, its better than it used to be when games just stayed broken. You have to move with the times.
The solutions simple if it bothers you avoid the game for a week or zen out to a few teething issues. Its not a big deal either way.
I can't say how long it was in totality as I used my response to a workaround as a mark of a specific issue that was personally impactful lasting at least that long.
Not for me. I've had multiple unobtrusive updates. That wasn't one of them by a long shot.
Moon dog
Banned
Or maybe the feel life events are more important like that damn virus if i should even have to mentionTo be fair, Galnet is "dead" because the player base collectively agreed it was useless. It had few practical, pertinent news like the Thargoids attacking bases which can be verified by doing SAR missions. Or Thargoids returning to the bubble in specific systems etc. But other than that, the news stories weren't relevant to actual game play. I personally couldn't care less that Princess Aisling was spotted in public holding hands on a movie date with Denton Patreus.
Nope. Don't miss it at all. That tabloidy news bit wasn't going to impact which major faction I planned on stabbing in the back that week as a double agent. Or which faction NPC trader's cargo hold would fall victim to my Sidey pirate's lock picking skills
But the other stuff and especially #1 is somewhat disheartening.
Culling chaff if you ask me
Really ?, because they all cause comedy wailing and gnashing of teeth.
I'm sure they all had their reasons but I'm speaking for myself. The Sept update was especially troublesome for me and I can imagine that being the case for other as well.
At the very least the reaction seemed particularly strong from what I was looking at here and on Reddit.