Lifetime pass and general update questions

[IndigoWyrd]

Folks

I pretty much stopped playing, as did the majority of the folks I played Elite with, once the "no substantial content" till 2020 announcement, so forgive me if this has already been answered.

Has there been any announcement as to exactly what lifetime pass holders can expect to be receiving?

Has there been a reveal on any new content?

Any answers, gratefully received.

This thread has become tedious at best. Here's what we know:

In 2020 there will be a major update. It's going to cost all us common folks money to get it.
LEPers will receive it for free. That's what you're going to get - what the rest of us have to pay for when it's released.
That's how special you are. That's what you paid for.

Just because you opted to shell out far too much money to essentially pre-pay for future content, well, that's on you. Will it be worth it? Only time can answer that question.

Will $195 worth of future content be released? If 10 released of $19.95 content come out during the lifetime of Elite: Dangerous, then the answer is yes. Your LEP will have paid for itself, with a little change left. If not, then you've overpaid, and it wasn't.

If any of that content is offered for sale during Special Sales for less than $19.95 and anyone else buys it, you lose out and over-paid.

But once more, that's all on you. You made the choice to purchase something that is, for all intents and purposes, a gamble.

The OP's question is answered. There's nothing more to be said by anyone that will further answer the question posed.

So let's take it at that and get on with talking about more interesting things.

 

[Rochester]

Life-time pass founder - hanging on by my teeth.

There’s never been any definitive promises concerning content with ED. There were ideas certainly in the earlier days which probably got us all very excited, seeing a developer as passionate and imaginative as ourselves (older design discussion forum) and with a touch of nostalgia that’s why many of us are probably still here.

Being devil’s advocate I recon FD hit their goal once they officially released ED; they had their game, they had achieved their goal. Everything since then has been polishing, tinkering. No commitment for future content.

Part of me applauds this slow and steady approach, it makes fiscal sense. If ED had failed in its early days then FD wouldn’t have folded and so they’ve been able to cautiously invest within the game and it’s made them very rich as a result.

I seem to recall a certain concordat between DB and CR; and I always held the suspicion FD never wanted to rush ahead of itself, of letting the other chap take the first plunge and learn from their mistakes, hiding ones talents. FD could have done feet years ago but I think it would have palled over the years and taken up too much development time and FD could have lost its way.

Part of me thinks FD has been working on legs longer than the confirmed 2 year development stage. I’d like to think the next big content drop in 2020 will be an amalgamation of all the cool ideas they’ve proposed and it’s going to blow every-ones socks off and make us all want to give them more of our money.

It would make sense, one massive update. A huge cash influx of a ‘new game’ pulling in new punters and getting existing punters excited....

But previous disappointments such as the mile-wide inch deep content, CQC and power-play to me speak of a lack of cohesion and imagination.

Recently ED confirmed our life-time passes were to be honoured, (what a relief) so what-ever we do get its for free, there you have it. But they then promised us premium content and all we got were skins... so the only thing really that I have faith in anymore is my own imagination and nostalgia.

Cyberpunk 2077 is released next year, now that seems like something which will chew up a lot of my free time. I wonder if ‘Elite Deadly’ can hold its own? That will be fun to watch.

 

[znôrt]

 

[CMDR Big Mike]

Well, no clue why I read through this whole thing, as I don’t really have a dog in the fight.

But as an unbiased 3rd party, I’ll say that buying a LEP does not mean you work at Fdev. Only thing it means is you have already purchased the premium updates

With that said, I can understand the frustration in how long things take (my job involves working with the government). But one has to realize that there are few, if any, other games that have held your attention for as long as ED has

 

[WR3ND]

I still play games on the NES from time to time as well as older computer games, etc. Some might call me a "retro gamer" I suppose, but really, I'm just getting old.

But anyway, yeah, I get your meaning. Still holding out some hope for this game to have a few more expansions yet. Not just to get my LEP's worth, but for fulfilling more of the potential of this game we're still playing.

 

[znôrt]

I’d like to think the next big content drop in 2020 will be an amalgamation of all the cool ideas they’ve proposed and it’s going to blow every-ones socks off and make us all want to give them more of our money.

i think you exactly nailed the plan, sporadic dlc not withstanding.

actually, the only bit i could disagree with your excellent analysis is that good communication, proper bug management, well thought out feature deployment, etc do not really mean big investments. they're not risk factors, they actually risk mitigators, and relatively cheap. this all points to chaotic organization.

and i'm pretty confident the plan will work out. that i end up liking it is an entirely different issue. they have indeed been increasingly targeting a broader audience, which for me means numbing it down. it will have to blow my socks quite some distance for me not making them wait a bit for the money in turn ...

well, fingers crossed! good luck everyone! only a year to go!

 

[Tikanderoga]

I pretty much stopped playing, as did the majority of the folks I played Elite with, once the "no substantial content" till 2020 announcement, so forgive me if this has already been answered.

Yup. Steam summer sales are on, trying to nab a good deal or too, or check Fanatical, they have some great discounts too.
I'm about to delve into Far Cry New Dawn, after having finished Far Cry 5, once on Normal and once on Insidious.

Has there been any announcement as to exactly what lifetime pass holders can expect to be receiving?
Has there been a reveal on any new content?

We got 2 bobble heads and some paint jobs. Quality content right there! Makes the game so much better.

LEPers will receive it for free.

Not free!
We paid for the LEP, probably more than what it is worth at this stage.

 

[babelfisch]

what you're saying is that he just has to wait, which is true. the issue is that he's tired of waiting and is starting to harbor doubts and while that's totally subjective, it's also totally understandable. some people just doesn't seem to want to hear about it and can't abstain from shooting that down. i don't think it's working, but yeah, doesn't matter anyway.

I can understand that he is tired of waiting and it's not like he doesn't have a point. I just like to argue with him...

 

[babelfisch]

Ah, so we were stupid to pre-pay. Do you think FDev share that view?

The LEP wasn't really pre-paying or pre-order but supporting continuous development of the game. And that's what FDEV did.
It's not a way to save money. If you wanted to do that you shouldn't have bought anything at all but wait until the game is on a sale

I think the plan changed is all, and it has been communicated extremely poorly. And after this long with neither anything to show for it nor any useful information on what's coming (or willingness to provide any) offers of refunds to those no longer happy to wait would be a good way to settle this.

I believe there never was a clear plan...

PS
On refunds: Wouldn't that signal they no longer believe in the future of the game? I believe that's probably the worst thing they could do.

 

[Kimosabe_X]

The LEP wasn't really pre-paying or pre-order but supporting continuous development of the game. And that's what FDEV did.
It's not a way to save money. If you wanted to do that you shouldn't have bought anything at all but wait until the game is on a sale
snip

Imho that's not correct...

What do most games get after a short while or even with launch ? Right a season pass ... A way to pre-pay for oncoming content and to save money on that next season DLCs, with a given number of DLCs or a time span to deliver those DLCs...

And to get on top of that what would one probably call an even better and loooonger lasting season pass then ? Right a lifetime expansion pass ...


Sold at a time when "Seasons" were the way to go, only to change that to a DLC-type-modus right after the first "season" Horizons which then became the first paid DLC...
and until now also the last... And i guess no one expected back at the time, that it might last a good 5 years to get the next paid content... no one...


My 2 ct

 

[VR jefranklin18]

didn't know about that! gonna bookmark this for when i feel like digging a bit in nostalgia
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/alt.fan.elite/before$3A2002$2F12$2F31|sort:date

I used to be quite active in that forum from 1997 until about 2006. There used to be a lot of discussions about what Elite 4 (as it was called in the group) would be like.

 

[Riverside]

PS
On refunds: Wouldn't that signal they no longer believe in the future of the game? I believe that's probably the worst thing they could do.

Earlier I posted a list of solutions:

Solutions to this ongoing issue:

Provide the stuff,
Talk about it,
Offer to return the money.
Put the LEP on permanent sale in the shop.

If offering refunds is the worst thing they could do then putting the LEP back into the store is (by the same logic) the best thing they could do under the circumstances. Putting the LEP on sale would demonstrate confidence that there is an intention to make it a worthwhile purchase.

After this long there are no easy choices left. FX17 would have been a point where an option for FDev and customers alike to back out of the LEP ball & chain would have worked, I'm sure they'd have realised it would be a sticking point if they'd thought about it.

There have been plenty of opportunities for FDev to be proactive on tackling this, personally I think 'saying nothing and hoping the problem will just go away eventually' is the worst thing they could do as far as their standing in my eyes is concerned.

 

[babelfisch]

Earlier I posted a list of solutions:



If offering refunds is the worst thing they could do then putting the LEP back into the store is (by the same logic) the best thing they could do under the circumstances. Putting the LEP on sale would demonstrate confidence that there is an intention to make it a worthwhile purchase.

After this long there are no easy choices left. FX17 would have been a point where an option for FDev and customers alike to back out of the LEP ball & chain would have worked, I'm sure they'd have realised it would be a sticking point if they'd thought about it.

There have been plenty of opportunities for FDev to be proactive on tackling this, personally I think 'saying nothing and hoping the problem will just go away eventually' is the worst thing they could do as far as their standing in my eyes is concerned.

Putting the LEP on sale now wouldn't make any sense without announcing the contents of the next paid expansion. Which isn't something they can do yet.

 

[Viajero]

Also, the “keeping the LEP on sale” argument to prove confidence is a bit narrow and flawed. Assuming not much changed within the few weeks the 2015 LEP was on sale (August to September if memory serves), why do we think they took it off sale only after those few weeks instead of, say, keeping it available or until further notice as suggested above as the most logical course of action purely based on “confidence”?

 

[zimms]

Actually no, he didnt. Here the relevant part:



It was very deliberate in leaving out all the actual main elements of the 2015 LEP that could be "deducted" until I pointed it out.

Seriously, how long are you going to go on about this single post? What about the dozens of other posts where Riverside went into more detail and stated that he also got Horizons and beta access? You're being dishonest yourself and focus on the one post where Riverside was probably tired to write the same stuff again and again and went for a shorter version.

Why not ask him if he has ever talked to Frontier about it?

It honestly feels like you are deliberately derailing this thread for the last couple of pages.

 

[Viajero]

Seriously, how long are you going to go on about this single post? What about the dozens of other posts where Riverside went into more detail and stated that he also got Horizons and beta access? You're being dishonest yourself and focus on the one post where Riverside was probably tired to write the same stuff again and again and went for a shorter version.

Why not ask him if he has ever talked to Frontier about it?

It honestly feels like you are deliberately derailing this thread for the last couple of pages.

My correction was very factual, simple and straightforward. The puzzling thing was actually seeing the rationalisation, wishful thinking and doubling down that happened afterward.

I would actually argue the derailing started much earlier with the discussion about personal grievances with the LEP which are certainly far off topic from the very specific and straightforward answers the OP got already at the start.

 

[zimms]

On both sides.

 

[IamMe]

This topic was addressed by FDEV not too long ago:

That is usual go-around chit-chat from FD!
They weren't so quiet and worried about quality (as stated in that PR post) during KS when they needed money, once money arrived they went silent (until they released other titles DB was very talkative about ED, after other titles granted Frontier financial stability DB went silent).

Also if they are so worried about quality of announcement details and sneak peak how come they released recent updates without QA and with tons of bugs.

It is very hard to officially wrote few lines after one year of major drop down with Beyond content stating 2020 update will be atmos, legs, base building or something else.....nothing to misinterpret there!
But again there could be a reason, like it was with Beyond so they can drop down significant amount of content once they realise they can't do it.

Overall, very naive community here....

 

[Sir.Tj]

I'd say that is probably a good place to halt this thread.

It's not as if the subject hasn't been discussed over and over again.

I'll ping a FD Staff member and let them decide if it should be reopened.

At the very least it will give some a chance to cool off for a ilttle bit.

 

[Paige Harvey]

Folks
I pretty much stopped playing, as did the majority of the folks I played Elite with, once the "no substantial content" till 2020 announcement, so forgive me if this has already been answered.
Has there been any announcement as to exactly what lifetime pass holders can expect to be receiving?
Has there been a reveal on any new content?
Any answers, gratefully received.

Hello OP and others reading this!

To answer OP's questions, all LEP holders will receive the 2020 release free as part of their pass. Other Commanders will need to purchase the content if they want to play it. Any other updates coming this year will be free for all Elite Dangerous players, so keep an eye on our forums and social channels for more information on what's coming.

At the time of writing, we've not revealed any information regarding the 2020 release. Earlier in this thread, Viajero linked to one of my forum responses which offers a summary of why we haven't released any information, and this may be of interest to you!

That’s a good question!

While we’d love to tell you everything as we find it out, the reality is that we need to show things when they’re ready, and in the best shape possible. Every single feature, in every single game, goes through multiple iterations, bug tests and redesigns before they’re released to the public. As such, if a company were to release all the information they have, you’d end up with a lot of convoluted and eventually incorrect content.

We know it’s exciting to get a sneak peek at things in development, but as mentioned, things change and when that has to happen, we wouldn’t want to let anyone down. You also have to understand that you can’t just speak about a feature, you have to show it. That requires development time to teach the feature, tech time to set up the build, creative services time to make images and videos and community time to design a release plan and get that information out.

To do all that for information which will change very quickly doesn’t make a lot of sense. So, in order to make sure that what we present to you is as correct as possible, sometimes we have to hold our secrets to our chest and ensure it’s right before we show it off to you all.

TL;DR – Games development is constantly in flux and features constantly change. Showing off information early leads to misinformation and potential disappointment. There’s also a lot more to releasing info than simply putting a post on the internet.

We hope this information helps explain the situation a little!

This thread will reopen shortly, so please stay on topic!