Looking forwards to some people

[Jason S]

The game is really great, but with all great things it could be greater and I feel some people added would make the atmosphere greater.

What I mean is at the moment primarily within space station docks:

1) Add people to the control towers.
2) Add people to be doing things like stacking crates.
3) Add people to be refueling.

On outposts they would be wearing space suits of course, but in stations there is atmosphere so no space suits.

This should be in the base game really if we are to call the game a triple A game.

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Perhaps not the refueling as that would add a time sink...

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But you get the idea.

 

[sqzbox1]

Totally agree - it would make a huge difference to the experience. Actually I wouldn't have thought that it would be too big of a deal to do - but what do I know? It would make the environment come alive.

 

[Senex VII]

How much would you be prepared to pay extra for it? It's a cosmetic/immersion item that wouldn't affect ordinary game mechanics. So suppose Frontier provided it as payware downloadable content. How much in hard real-world cash is it worth to you?

 

[Jason S]

I would say it should be base game and not a pay extra thing.

Now an expansion could be "ED Crew" where you have NPC crew and you can choose and interview npc's for the crew, that would merit a paid download at between 10 to 20 pounds.

As far as people milling around stations as I mention, that should be free in the base game.

 

[Senex VII]

Bearing in mind that (a) we all bought the game knowing there was no people scenery, (b) it changes nothing in the way the game works, and (c) it would take significant extra development work to implement it, Frontier are neither be under any obligation nor do they have any motivation to provide it for free.

And while there is so much development work that does need doing, either to fix bugs or to extend game mechanics to make it more marketable (= get more people to buy it and get more revenue), then clearly there's no "should" about it and it ain't gonna happen. That ship has sailed.

 

[sqzbox1]

Not sure that I agree with you there. Just look at the recent "get to know Frontier people". This guy is a physicist and works on the skybox and continues to make iterative refinements that improve the experience. Yet the sky and planets and all that are working just fine and it changes nothing in the way the game works. That ship plainly has not sailed.

Look, even FFE had a few people around. The station greetings had faces, and with the missions there were questions that could be asked and answered. It ain't that hard! And furthermore we are not demanding anything or saying we were shortchanged or anything - we are merely offering a thought or two that would be nice to see. I believe FD have asked us to do that.

 

[Senex VII]

No one is saying that it's hard. Very little of what's in Elite is hard. It just takes significant effort. The people requirement as stated by the OP takes quite a lot of effort. It's not negligible, off-hand effort. It's work. As a developer myself, I know exactly how much work is involved. And when work is involved and business is involved, things get prioritized and money must be made. We won't see this for free, and rightly so.