Horizons Our Elite Vision vs. Elite's Reality!

[Maylor Rom]

Hello Commanders

In reading some of the posts for the Expo 2017 to learn what Frontier has in store for us in Elite over the next year, again I came to the same conclusion that Elite could never be the game we all envision or dream it could be.

This forum contains many thousands of excellent ideas and suggestions on how to improve the game. From Space Legs to Atmospheric landing as well as improvements in game mechanics.

The total volume of suggestions in this Forum's Game suggestion thread would be more than any software company could ever put in a game, or create a game with that amount of content or features.

Yes, it would be the most awesome game on the planet if we even came close to half that volume implemented, but it will never be. Any game will have it's audience and fan base move on and loose interest before a game of such magnitude would be finished in code and feature.

In 1990, I had a brick style Motorola cell phone which could barely make a phone call. If you had stopped me on the street that day and showed me your (future) I-Phone, that is what I see Elite eventually becoming, but right now, it's a 1990 cell phone, still in it's infancy. It would take at least another five to ten years of building on Elite to get it close to what we would like to see today. Maybe, in ten years, that 1990 cell phone which is Elite, will have full voice activation, talk back to you intelligently, and have all those things we now pile up in Frontier's suggestion thread.

Our desire for things we want to see in this game far outweighs, by any stretch of the imagination, the money, resource or time a company would have to build it, within any reasonable time frame to make it more than just an ongoing beta, until those waiting loose interest and move on to the next great thing.

Although the game still maintains it's menu driven (1984) features to navigate the game, it will be some time before we see Elite grow up into a really Smart Space Game.

It's a shame that it's technically impossible to include all those excellent suggestions into the game as those suggestions took many man hours to uncover and report. Your suggestions on this game is a tribute to your desire to experience some sense of the future, now, but alas, it's just beyond the realm of human accomplishment today.

Today, as we move to the future, Google announces a new direction in compute services, with a core theory of "AI+Software+Hardware" driving the future of coding and computing. With all three acting as one, we can now build games faster, with more intelligence and interactiveness than we have ever seen before, so there is a bit of hope, but don't expect miracles.

Thanks

 

[Marcus Machiavelli]

I love elite.

 

[[VR] Deggial]

One big issue are two terms you use: "we" and "our".

There is not "the one" fan vision of the game. Some of the ideas presented here at the forum I find briliant, others I don't care about, and again others I find outrigth horrifying!
No, the game will indeed never be what every player wants it to be. No game can be such a thing - ever!
Additionally, "design by plurality vote" isn't a guarantee for success - actually the opposite.

Personally, I like the RNG aspect of engineers. Sometimes I have the feeling of being the only one here at the forum who feels like this. So be it. It will change with "Beyond" and I am okay with it.
I absolutely don't care about this guilds thingy. It will come nevertheless and I am happy for those social players who asked for it for quite a long time now. I am not the meassure of things.
On the other hand, I am looking forward to the improvements of exploration and mining as much as everybody else.
I am hyped for the 'Krait', which seems to be a medium sized combat ship with a fighter bay!
And I am as dissappointed about the lack of atmospheric flight (not necessary landing) in 'Beyond' as many, many others - but I don't care about "space legs".

In short - there is no "we", there is just an range of personal tastes.
Some of them are tackled in 2018, some are not.
As sad as I am about the non-atmosphere thing, I am still sure it will come at some point.
And I hope, FDev will be able to focus on a coherent game with interlinked game mechanics - while taking all the suggestions into account, but still sticking to their own vision of what Elite: Dangerous should be.

 

[Komemiute]

... the game we all envision or dream it could be...

I just would like to express my gratitude to CMDR Mylor Rom for his post.

At the same time I'd like to point out how his message may not cover, i.e.: in the segment above here, of his post- emphasis mine- the actual totality of the players.
Certainly not me.

He has all the rights to express his opinion, but I still think his claiming that his feelings are the totality of the player base's is a bit disingenuous.

I for one, love the game, see the potential for growth and what could be better.
That said, I still can't wait to see what future will bring, without pre concepts or prejudice.

Many thanks.

 

[Thatchinho]

Hello Commanders

In reading some of the posts for the Expo 2017 to learn what Frontier has in store for us in Elite over the next year, again I came to the same conclusion that Elite could never be the game we all envision or dream it could be.

This forum contains many thousands of excellent ideas and suggestions on how to improve the game. From Space Legs to Atmospheric landing as well as improvements in game mechanics.

The total volume of suggestions in this Forum's Game suggestion thread would be more than any software company could ever put in a game, or create a game with that amount of content or features.

Yes, it would be the most awesome game on the planet if we even came close to half that volume implemented, but it will never be. Any game will have it's audience and fan base move on and loose interest before a game of such magnitude would be finished in code and feature.

In 1990, I had a brick style Motorola cell phone which could barely make a phone call. If you had stopped me on the street that day and showed me your (future) I-Phone, that is what I see Elite eventually becoming, but right now, it's a 1990 cell phone, still in it's infancy. It would take at least another five to ten years of building on Elite to get it close to what we would like to see today. Maybe, in ten years, that 1990 cell phone which is Elite, will have full voice activation, talk back to you intelligently, and have all those things we now pile up in Frontier's suggestion thread.

Our desire for things we want to see in this game far outweighs, by any stretch of the imagination, the money, resource or time a company would have to build it, within any reasonable time frame to make it more than just an ongoing beta, until those waiting loose interest and move on to the next great thing.

Although the game still maintains it's menu driven (1984) features to navigate the game, it will be some time before we see Elite grow up into a really Smart Space Game.

It's a shame that it's technically impossible to include all those excellent suggestions into the game as those suggestions took many man hours to uncover and report. Your suggestions on this game is a tribute to your desire to experience some sense of the future, now, but alas, it's just beyond the realm of human accomplishment today.

Today, as we move to the future, Google announces a new direction in compute services, with a core theory of "AI+Software+Hardware" driving the future of coding and computing. With all three acting as one, we can now build games faster, with more intelligence and interactiveness than we have ever seen before, so there is a bit of hope, but don't expect miracles.

Thanks

The thing is it's a game with a 10 year development plan, which it's what, 3 years?, into.

So there's already effectively 7 years worth of stuff to get to the original vision anyway. (Probably 8 or 9 realistically.)

The two big things you've cited (atmospheric landings & space legs aren't) aren't suggestions and ideas, they're things that were set out in the first place, have been discussed lots and should already feature in the development plan.

It's not really about 'our' vision for the game - in the context, looking it that way is just setting things up for problems. It's about Braben & co's vision for the game. Is that a game you want to play? And do you want to play it now knowing that it's still in development?

(My answer to both of those is yes, hence why I play it.)

 

[Maylor Rom]

One big issue are two terms you use: "we" and "our".

There is not "the one" fan vision of the game. Some of the ideas presented here at the forum I find briliant, others I don't care about, and again others I find outrigth horrifying!
No, the game will indeed never be what every player wants it to be. Neither game can be such a thing - ever!
Additionally, "design by plurality vote" isn't a guarantee for success - actually the opposite.

Personally, I like the RNG aspect of engineers. Sometimes I have the feeling of being the only one here at the forum who feels like this. So be it. It will change with "Beyond" and I am okay with it.
I absolutely don't care about this guilds thingy. It will come nevertheless and I am happy for those social players who asked for it for quite a long time now. I am not the meassure of things.
On the other hand, I am looking forward to the improvements of exploration and mining as much as everybody else.
I am hyped for the 'Krait', which seems to be a medium sized combat ship with a fighter bay!
And I am as dissappointed about the lack of atmospheric flight (not necessary landing) in 'Beypnd' as many, many others - but I don't care about "space legs".

In short - there is no "we", there is just an range of personal tastes.
Some of them are tackled in 2018, some are not.
As sad as I am about the non-atmosphere thing, I am still sure it will come at some point.
And I hope, FDev will be able to focus on a coherent game with interlinked game mechanics - while taking all the suggestions into account, but still sticking to their own vision of what Elite: Dangerous should be.

You may be right, I should have stated "I, My or It". My apologies.

Simply put, Elite will never be the game "I" had hoped it to be at this point.

And yes, David's vision of the game is the one that counts, not mine or any fan's vision of what it could be eventually.

For all that Elite is today, and it is fantastic, a vision is just a dream to strive for, and like opinions, everyone has a different opinion of what the game is to them.

It was not my intent to offend, but to expound on the overwhelming numbers of excellent suggestions which may never become apart of Elite, excellent as they are.

I appreciate the comments offered by all. Thank you.

 

[Pville_Piper]

Yet another salt thread... If we could import this to the northeast US this winter the roads would never freeze...

 

[Maylor Rom]

Sorry, no salt in it. Just peppered with an inconvenient truth you disagree with.

Thanks for your opinion though.

 

[Pville_Piper]

And thank you for your opinion... For what it's worth.

But okay, I'll bite. Yes, adding better control features like voice control would be awesome. Heck, I even use voice attack. But you have to ask yourself, "Self, why don't I see this as a standard feature in other games?" The answer is the time it takes for development for essentially a feature of the game. A better implementation of AI and communications would be awesome as well, but, again, it takes tons of time to develop and time costs money. I would rather they continue working on things like fleshing out the game or improving the VR experience... I could go one but I might loose my white knight status...

As far as suggestions, yes, there are tons of suggestions in the forums. Enough that if they were acted upon you would need to have a much larger staff... Doubling wouldn't help and wouldn't scratch the surface. There are so many suggestions that if the developers followed through with just half of them the game would likely make Sybil blush with it's multiple personalities. And then you forget to factor in this... The developers have a vision of the game that is theirs. It's not perfect, and could use some tweaking but they have one none the less.

And based on their vision, they are producing a game that is engaging to play. They are doing this by listening to the community, and where they can, adding in features and ideas from the community that fit into the game design as they see it. Want proof that they are listening? For a couple of years now players have been complaining the game needs to be fleshed out. "We don't want new features, we want the existing features to be fleshed out and working in the game... Finish the placeholders!" The end result... Season 3, WHICH IS ALL ABOUT LISTENING TO THE COMUNITY! AND IT'S FREE!!!

No, they never listen to anything we suggest...

 

[Xintar]

I didn't read any salt in the OP. Just an honest opinion on game development.

I for one don't get the 'space legs' fixation. To me it just seems that some want ED to be GTA with spaceships. But it could happen. SC appears to be going that route.
I'd just be content with NPC avatars occupying empty crew seats without my ability to cut their throats or blow their brains out, but I'm sure others keenly desire that sort of gameplay.

Building your own little base on a moon is hotly desired by some. I can see it, but it's not going to happen any time soon, and I'm ok with that as well. Atmospheric landings would be an interesting development, as well as basic life forms, and so on and so on. I'd like to see alien, non-Thargoid bubbles with cities and ruins sprinkled about the galaxy for explorers to discover and perhaps even trade with, we'll just have to see.

I'm content to roll with whatever the developers can reasonably implement from all the suggestions the supporting community offers. Relax. o7