My perception of E:D evolution

[Pheerasink]

I was thinking during more than week, how to express my feelings about Elite: Dangerous. And suddenly understood, that just a pair of pictures will say all for me, better than any words.

This is how i perceived Elite2, Elite3, and Elite: Dangerous during first 1-2 years after release, and why i loved these games, played them a lot, and considered them absolutely unique games, masterpieces:

And this is how i perceive the Elite: Dangerous development during last 1-2 years, with all these MC/MP/focus on "fun and socialization", and why i almost stopped playing ED completely:

Of course, i understand that FD will not change its course just because of my feelings and two pictures, and actually they don't care at all about such nonsense. Just if i could ask FD just one question, i'd ask - why?

 

[GroundxZERO]

What do you mean why? It’s gotta be obvious.

 

[Pheerasink]

What do you mean why? It’s gotta be obvious.

Not obvious at all for me.
During kickstarter, and in tons of different streams/interviews with developers, and especially DB, it was always promised that ED will stick to "hardcore science fiction" canvas, not another "casual push-Start-to-begin-fun-fight-with-friends" social/multiplayer-focused platform.
As people discussed sometimes here on forum, FD has no any problems with money, so they don't have to follow "fashion trends". Also, it looks like DB still rules the ED development, and he is exactly the mastermind of "hardcore sci-fi" attitude for ED.
But last 1-2 years the global direction definitely changed. So, to me it's completely not obvious - why?

 

[Deleted member 38366]

IMHO there - technically - was nothing wrong with the idea of enhancing the MultiPlayer experience. Game sells as an MMO after all. Naturally, that includes PewPew.

However... implementation and attention to Detail. Sounds familiar? Anyone?

Spoiler

What if...

- Wings were possible without other Players as well?
-> Mission-based (Faction issues you Wingmen to lead - or gives you a Wing Leader to follow)
-> Scenario-based (a Faction in distress against Thargoids assigns you to a strike Wing. An Allied Faction in Outbreak assigns you to a Wing to attain urgently needed Meds.)
-> Role-based (if Allied, you're allowed to sign up with System Authority and join a Wing to assist with Bounty Hunting)

- MultiCrew was possible with our Crew NPCs?
-> depending on rank, they man the Turrets and two SLFs with appropriate benefits/results
-> when not active in these duties, they'll fill the seats of the Ship and perform other basic Tasks (Docking, Navigation, basic Autopilot, Notification of events you choose, assisting in Mining or Trading or Exploration)

- CQC matches with Rosters not entirely full with Players were filled with NPCs?
-> no more "waiting for other Players", after the Lobby timer runs out you always get your matches

Does that make sense? Of course it does.
The whole key : sure, make MultiPlayer the best possible experience. But make 100.0% sure every MultiPlayer feature released gets injected and repurposed to afford best possible Single Player experience just as well.
Got another Combat feature coming up? Just make sure it can be used to some extent for non-combat tasks just as well.

IMHO that's how you do it right and make the best of all those mechanics/assets you develop - and give all Playstyles the best possible benefits.

 

[Pheerasink]

IMHO there - technically - was nothing wrong with the idea of enhancing the MultiPlayer experience. Game sells as an MMO after all. Naturally, that includes PewPew.

1. I very like things which you enlisted under spoiler. And according to what i hear from FD, all what you talk about there is not implemented exactly because of focusing on MultiPlayer. Because all of that is either very difficult or nearly to impossible to implement in MP on good level/with reasonable efforts/resources spendings.
2. Initially ED was designed, announced and developed as pure singleplayer. The more and more inclination to MultiPlayer appeared later.

Conclusion? Pretty obvious for me - MP makes ED to degrade in terms of content depth/world detailing, and finally will kill it.

 

[Sylveria]

1. I very like things which you enlisted under spoiler. And according to what i hear from FD, all what you talk about there is not implemented exactly because of focusing on MultiPlayer. Because all of that is either very difficult or nearly to impossible to implement in MP on good level/with reasonable efforts/resources spendings.
2. Initially ED was designed, announced and developed as pure singleplayer. The more and more inclination to MultiPlayer appeared later.

Conclusion? Pretty obvious for me - MP makes ED to degrade in terms of content depth/world detailing, and finally will kill it.

There's actually a lot of validity to this. ESO is another good example of a game that was hindered by its MMO features in comparison to other TES offerings. A "copy of a copy of a copy", if you will- not quite the same as the original in many aspects. Combat was changed for the multiplayer "rotation" balancing, as opposed to a more immersive "instant" feeling. The same could be said for a lot of "converted" game titles which originated as single-player type games.

Although some may feel the "sacrifice" is worth it, there remain quite a few who are unconvinced that every game absolutely must be multiplayer for "business reasons". Quite a few single player games are hugely successful because they didn't try to be something they're not... "poser games". EVE's success was that it was indeed a niche title that offered something others did not- this game isn't going to be able to capture that success by pretending to be EVE.