Really SuperG? Then tell me, why do certain threads on this forum attract 1000s of views? Even this fairly recent one has over 800 views. If you are correct then why are they here, why are they bothering to read about a game that doesn't even exist yet or that they have no interest or understanding of?
as mention above might be that 1/20th are mine. I check Elite threads each day or so. Look at other Dev publsiher forums Where your tread get lost very fast. What good about it it's easier to follow.
Are are correct there and no mistake SuperG, that's why in my opinion things must change. Where is the story telling, where is the moral dilemmas, where is the learning, in effect where is the humanity! Games need to be giving their younger audience more than just run and gun gameplay. Yes that's fun, but consider this example, you are playing Frontier and have just nuked a listening post on a planet. Good, you think, another mission to add to my career, but stop for a moment and think about what you just did. You just killed possibly a million people and created a terrible health and environmental disaster. What does that mean? Is the game mechanic going to show you the consequences?
Well Single player FPSRPG games go that way. where you have choices. The dark side or the good or something in between. Remindme of mass effect. I take offten the good way in such game. It reminds me of MassEffect 1+2 And Fallout 3 + DLC. Mass Effect was y first RPG(TPS). And use those moral dilemma's. I't more the leveling and action that draws me.
I cant agree with you here SuperG. There is no reason why a game (if created properly) could not appeal to both those who love depth & complexity and those who just want shallow run & gun gameplay. The important thing is, all that complexity is still there waiting for them when a casual gamer's curiosity pushes them to take a look. That curiosity will go wanting if the game does not provide the material to feed it.
Depend on what part and how it's implemented.
Example your standard Fighter buy is a multi role fighter.
A casual gamer just buy it and such fighter do a decent job in almost everything. You can kick as. But just don't stand out. While a hardcore gamer could buy a customised fighter adusted to his/her gamestyle and role the fighter been use for. So it less in other way but good in specific task.
Like a % of ship stats
75 85 80 85 70 vs 60 50 95 90 65.
So the casual has still a decent chance to kill the hardcore depending on situation. But the hardcore player excels if using his ship in the right role.
What wrong is give standard fighte a 30 40 26 55 50 stat. In that case noob or casual has no chance and just quit the game because getting your as kicked all the time is no fun. So more depth means often more tweaks to give you a edge in something but not to extreem that noobs killing woudl eb like duck shooting.
My goodness, I am an exotic gamer! I have never been called that before. I will take that as a complement, thank you.
As for your other point of large budgets being dictated by the needs of publishers, I say to you, what of the needs of gamers, or consumers, if you want to maintain the business model? The games industry is above all an entertainment industry, but there is room for "edutainment" too. One great game an change an industry, so the real question is has Frontier Developments, the nerve, the talent and the intellectual wherewithal to stand in the face of these publishers "needs"? I think they do
big budged stands for more marketing budged room and room for competive Graphics wich seams to works like auto marketing for games. The many ingame screenshot screenshot and the trailers. Wich draws gamers in. Big teams can get funded with a large work force on the awesome comtent part. Games do compete with each other to.
If a game is good enough, budgets will always be less important than talent.
Totaly disagree, that just one requierment. You have less time and resource to spend on game development. It still doesn't stand out won't atract gamers that much depend on month to month advertisement by gamers. This works only if the gameplay is top notch and stand out with that. Result is often a sleeper hit.
Talent is just one aspect there is also getting the funding and time to be able to do the best with the game vision. Most dev's don't get the time. And the work force that make awesome content. And if reading these forum even one Frontier sequel was a rushed out game.
Ask yourself, what is the difference between a budget game and a "AAA" game? To me at least, it seems to come down to advertising, given that a hypothetical game is just as good in every why to it's "AAA" stable mate and that is for two games which are unknown.
The difference is a high budged for Marketing and a studio with triple A status and price wich can pull it off. And have more say agianst a publisher as a companion than more on contract. There aren't many Triple A dev studio's. A Triple A GAme project doesn't demand just a professsional Dev house. But one of the major league. The prima donna 's of those busnnes. Where even the gamers know the name of the person who have lead such studio to fame.
But I would argue that the Elite franchise is bigger than that. It has history, it still has, after all these years a healthy fanbase who are so desperate for a new Elite game, that they are turning out community projects. It's a rare thing indeed in the gaming world and I would close by saying that Elite games are a special case. Normal business models would be difficult to apply, simply because it's such a well known series.
Sure there are still some people who still play Glide on the godlike 3DFX stuff. People move on the industry The gamers to and with that a franchise with many years dead in the tracks will be heavely eroded. OF market awereness.
Ofcourse there is a audience that is into retro gaming. So you have also some new gamers. But the bulk born after the last sequel. Don't know it. But trumble by occation in a tread where a other gamer mention Elite???
I'am totaly not into retro gaming. But into Space "Sims" games.
I think it's more that Frontier has abandon the franchise and this genre isn't doing well with publisher and by that the absent of competition and decent to high profile games. Yes we got Xseries but that's it. While FPS and RPG have Triple A Exclusives etc.
So the urge by hobby dev's and small independed is doing it your self in a XNA studio level.
D'know something SuperG? I hope we are both right (although I admit, I hope I am closer to what actually happens!
), as long as "it" gets released, that's what is important. Afterwards we can debate again on whether it measures up to it's legacy.
I would have no clue. Didn't play any Elite game. I am on this forum because my favo genre is Space simmy games. Privateer was my first. And with high- end DX10 3D Visoon Game rig and a DX11 I won't polute my systems with some old retro stuff. That's not my thing. But the genre is. I don't know what to expect from it would I like is? would it be my thing or not. I have no reference.
What I know it use NEwtionan Physics. Procedural universe and low poly ships models.
My interrest ins space games is based on many scifi tv shows with space ships in it.
Oh dear better get off to work! :-(
Weekend
