October Community Update Discussion Thread

[trinita]

Personally, I don't depend so much on updates (anymore). To me it all boils down to the question: Do I still enjoy the game, does the game still give me some new ideas to check out? As long as this works for me and keeps me playing I pretty much forget about updates. To be honest, the latest updates, beginning from squadron onwards up to the delayed Fleet Carriers triggered zero excitement for me. All what it actually triggers is a certain anxiety whether it will break some vital functions again or not. Meanwhile the game is playable (again, to me at least) and that's all I'm asking for. But if my enjoyment would depend on new stuff I'd already dropped the game long ago.

I feel exactly the same. As long as the playing experience is smooth (and by smooth i mean relatively bug-free), i'm happy. I honestly couldn't care less about fleet carriers and i'm not even that excited about space legs (although i do look forward to icy planets and atmospheric landings).
As a matter of fact, whenever a new update is about to drop, i'm more disappointed than trepidating, because i know that means i won't be able to play the game for a few weeks. Even more disappointing is my awareness of the fact that, even after a few weeks, some bugs introduced by the upcoming update won't be fixed at all..... Everytime the most serious bugs are addressed in a matter of weeks, but something always slips through the cracks, and anything that doesn't get fixed in those few weeks after the update, usually won't be addressed for months (sometimes years).

At the end of the day, like you said, it all comes down to the enjoyment you can get out of the game. I dropped the game during the "Beyond" updates year because i simply couldn't muster the patience to put up with the lack of polish in the game anymore. I came back a few weeks ago, after a little more than a year..... the situation hasn't changed at all when it comes to polish, obviously, but my patience has been restored and i can enjoy the game again.

I welcome Frontier's decision. I'm happy they decided to delay the update, because if they came to this decision, it means the update wouldn't have been ready for the scheduled release date. And i would rather wait a few months more for a functioning update, than have an unfinished, untested update dropped on the live servers, only for it to break the game (as is usually the case with Frontier).

And if, in the meantime, they really intend to spend some time giving the game some (much needed) love and polish, then that's absolutely great news to me (although i'm still a bit skeptical about that).

 

[zimms]

They are in zugzwang now [...]

Is that where Tencent's HQ is?

 

[RooksBailey]

Is that where Tencent's HQ is?

Well played, sir.

Props to Picommander for the chess terminology. Very apropos. o7

(Coincidentally, I've been more enthused about chess for the last few weeks. The last time this happened, it was circa 2006 when the Xbox 360 and PS3 were newly released, something that sucked the air out of PC gaming for quite some time as devs flew to the easy money that Sony and Microsoft was offering for console titles. Chess was my refuge. I am sort of getting the same vibe now from PC gaming. There is some great indie work being done, but I feel that there are storm clouds building on the horizon for the industry, a feeling reinforced by both CCP and Frontier going into a period of retrenchment for their space titles [i.e., both Frontier and CCP are on the same page now: both are prioritizing the "new player experience" over headline content. Interesting, that.] While gaming in 2019 is expected to grow by nearly 10%, I suspect a lot of that growth will not interest me because it seems that mobile and consoles will account for the lion share [mobile alone now accounts for 45% of the gaming market]).

 

[Patrick_68000]

I think they will share. when they are sure that they can fix them.

Or maybe even after fixing them.

 

[StuartGT]

Well played, sir.

Props to Picommander for the chess terminology. Very apropos. o7

(Coincidentally, I've been more enthused about chess for the last few weeks. The last time this happened, it was circa 2006 when the Xbox 360 and PS3 were newly released, something that sucked the air out of PC gaming for quite some time as devs flew to the easy money that Sony and Microsoft was offering for console titles. Chess was my refuge. I am sort of getting the same vibe now from PC gaming. There is some great indie work being done, but I feel that there are storm clouds building on the horizon for the industry, a feeling reinforced by both CCP and Frontier going into a period of retrenchment for their space titles [i.e., both Frontier and CCP are on the same page now: both are prioritizing the "new player experience" over headline content. Interesting, that.] While gaming in 2019 is expected to grow by nearly 10%, I suspect a lot of that growth will not interest me because it seems that mobile and consoles will account for the lion share [mobile alone now accounts for 45% of the gaming market]).

The console market is growing at a slower pace than the PC gaming market; both markets are roughly similar in size currently.

 

[Diagbar]

Or maybe even after fixing them.

Hmm, and you know, this can be a great development for their marketing company.
Announcement of "new era" after its release
Just imagine, December 2020, an unnamed update weighing 30+ gigabytes is installed on the server,
There are legs, planets with the atmosphere, bases, a playable ship with organic engines (glaive, it seems), and much more. The forum, twitter and reddit silence.
March 2021 The forum post "we are pleased to announce our" new era "which was installed in December 2020!" success is guaranteed!

 

[Viajero]

While I'm certainly be willing to accept their secrecy, I'd already be happy to hear the reason for why this pretty long stage of silence is in the first place. Provided it's possible to explain without lifting too much of that secrecy of course...

I believe this post by Paige may answer your query: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/i-was-right-you-were-wrong.512882/page-9#post-7825345

Fully understand it may not be the explanation we, as gamers, would like to hear but hey

 

[shreddog]

Just started playing again recently. I've yet to see all these bugs everyone talks about..

 

[Rat Catcher]

Just started playing again recently. I've yet to see all these bugs everyone talks about..

It would seem that some folk have many more bugs than others...
Others claim the game is 'unplayable' ... but I've played up to 6 hours a day...
FDev are 'fixing' bugs instead of releasing content as they felt the 'need' to address the 'demands' of a few who appointed themselves as 'Voice of the Community'
Enjoy Christmas
(not bleating really, i'm sure bugs affect something seriously, but whatever it is I don't appear to do it!)

 

[zimms]

Just started playing again recently. I've yet to see all these bugs everyone talks about..

You want to see all of them? Now that's ambitious!

 

[Patrick_68000]

Hmm, and you know, this can be a great development for their marketing company.
Announcement of "new era" after its release
Just imagine, December 2020, an unnamed update weighing 30+ gigabytes is installed on the server,
There are legs, planets with the atmosphere, bases, a playable ship with organic engines (glaive, it seems), and much more. The forum, twitter and reddit silence.
March 2021 The forum post "we are pleased to announce our" new era "which was installed in December 2020!" success is guaranteed!

Awesome ! And without bugs.

 

[RooksBailey]

The console market is growing at a slower pace than the PC gaming market; both markets are roughly similar in size currently.

According to the market research I saw for 2019, things might be changing:

Back on topic: I wish Frontier would give us a prospective bug-fixing list prior to its beta deployment in December. I could care less about speculating about the far-distant "New Era" stuff and the fleet carriers, I much rather have an idea as to what to expect for the next update. Frontier has surprised us before by including stuff in content drops that seemingly went beyond the scope of the announced update. I hope they do so again.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

In Deep Space, so plenty of time to think on an idle mind

Maybe this is roughly how things went over at FDev with the two major delays of Carriers after reading the Feedback (first on Squadron Carriers and this year on Fleet Carriers)

 

[Wrecked]

As you've all heard, I recently defected over to Space Engineers, and development of this game (including bug fix patches) and developer feedback seems way better that what we get from Frontier, and ironically some of their long-term players act like their dev team is too slow. I should invite them all to come see how Frontier does things - it might just make them appreciative of Keen Software House.

As sad as it sounds, I've "defected" over to... gulp... Star Citizen!!!!

If I'm going to play a buggy mess, I might as well be able to get out of my M F'in seat!

I mostly only play elite dangerous on the forums... and even then, I don't play very often.

 

[Diagbar]

As you've all heard, I recently defected over to Space Engineers, and development of this game (including bug fix patches) and developer feedback seems way better that what we get from Frontier, and ironically some of their long-term players act like their dev team is too slow. I should invite them all to come see how Frontier does things - it might just make them appreciative of Keen Software House.

Space engineers is just one example. There is empyrion galactic survival, interstellar rift,
Dual universe, and you just look how skywanderers has changed and prettier over the past year.
And all these games are not made by a team of more than a hundred people, no, 10-15 or even less.
As for FDev, they do what makes a profit. What makes a profit? Sale of in-game cosmetic items.
The "new era" may be done (which I doubt) but probably by a small team in my free time. I know what they write about a huge team working 7 days a week 24 hours a day, but, think for yourself, if they write otherwise, they are not so beautiful words, will the community also actively buy cosmetics? I think no. That is the reason.

 

[Viajero]

Space engineers is just one example. There is empyrion galactic survival, interstellar rift,
Dual universe, and you just look how skywanderers has changed and prettier over the past year.
And all these games are not made by a team of more than a hundred people, no, 10-15 or even less.
As for FDev, they do what makes a profit. What makes a profit? Sale of in-game cosmetic items.
The "new era" may be done (which I doubt) but probably by a small team in my free time. I know what they write about a huge team working 7 days a week 24 hours a day, but, think for yourself, if they write otherwise, they are not so beautiful words, will the community also actively buy cosmetics? I think no. That is the reason.

How is this possible. I have mostly heard over here that Elite has no competition usually as a key element of some critiques. What’s it going to be?

 

[Riverside]

How is this possible. I have mostly heard over here that Elite has no competition usually as a key element of some critiques. What’s it going to be?

Different people hold different opinions and say different things Viajero.

 

[Viajero]

Different people hold different opinions and say different things Viajero.

Darn. I knew I should have put a smiley in there somewhere Riverside.

 

[Riverside]

Darn. I knew I should have put a smiley in there somewhere Riverside.

How about you don't try to wind people up? We have a surplus of those posts already.

 

[Diagbar]

How is this possible. I have mostly heard over here that Elite has no competition usually as a key element of some critiques. What’s it going to be?

How is this possible? Well, I'll be happy to tell you.
You see, in any community there are many groups of people.
There are those who will hate and insult the project (the elite, in our case) in any case, no matter what happens. "haters" if not mistaken.
There are also players who are deeply indifferent to the fate of both the project and the fate of the company. They bought the game and they play the game until they get tired, as soon as this happens, they leave and forget that FDev and elite have ever existed, you will not see them again.
There is a group of people who refuse to take seriously anything other than your project. And they will extol you anyway, whatever FDev does. (the so-called fanboys), most likely, the fate of the elite and FDev are also deeply indifferent to them.
And there is also a group embodying a collective image of all the others.
If you have done something good, you will be praised, if you have done something bad / have not done anything, they will point it out and scold you. These people are deeply concerned about the state of your project and they worry about the future of it and the company as a whole.
Most likely, until recently, you only heard the voices of fanboys, because they really sounded louder than the others, and now, the voice of that part of the community is beginning to sound louder and more distinctly that says to you "wake up, you have problems!"
I hope the translator translated everything clearly