I copletely agree with your sentiments, as I indeed do agree with most of ToSoCo concepts, they are intricate, elaborate , detailed and quite sophisticated, and that is where the problems start.
Some of the Cmdr's playing this game would not mind a degree of control like in Arma 3, Eve or DC 10 Warthog, it is very sophisticated and detailed, and it is impressive what you can accomplish when you master them. Much of the development papers pointed that way. It did not happen.
I guess Fd thought that route would alienate the "masses" and deter customers.
What we got was an easy go to game, with a minimum skillset needed, to accomplish most tasks. Granted the most difficult is becoming a good PVP pilot, that was what the "crowd" wanted, and it is still so.
The average gamers attention span today is considerably shorter than 20 years ago, and skillz needed to play an average game has dropped relatively to this.
Elite has not been crafted like the above mentioned games, it was never the intention of FD, it is only us nerds that think so. Face it: most average people cant use a spreadsheet in any meaningfull manner, and you expect them to be able to navigate through panels, clicks to get to the right one ? They cant and they dont have the patience to learn it.
It is so with all activities, Fly fishing takes practice, being a good hunter takes practice and know how, being a low handicap golfer takes practice, practice, playing the above 3 games : Exactly the same.
That is you, I and some others in here can only look at ToSoCo's concepts and silently yearn
And dont think the pew- pew crowd, dont yearn either, they do, they also would like infinite more control and nerding and tweaking
In reality Elite should be published in to versions, Vanilia and Extended version, completely separated from each other.
On the other hand: This sunday morning has brought spring to my door and garden
Cheers Cmdr's
