Please make earthlikes explorable, allow open Mods, rescue the game!

[MUTILADOR]

I want to land on far away planets and discover totally unique creatures, cultures, plants. Frontier, there is AI now. Use it!
This game needs LIFE. It has so much potential still...
Where is the ships interior?
Why can't I buy my own apartment on a space station and store my unique items, drinking space Wine and watch the ships docking?
And why can't we finally land on earthlike planets or strange inhabited moons and go exploring?
Come one, its 2023 and we have AI. You can create instant worlds by now with evolutionary reasonable flora and fauna in no time.
DO IT!
I am so tired of landing on barren worlds, taking pictures of cactae or fungus by now.

This does not need to be Star Citizen. Just a little bit more of No mans Sky.
Why can't I use my billions of credits to buy land, farm crops, build little production lines?

And you know what: let the fans develop the mods.
It is time. Please.

Thank you.

You could do what many of us have done, we went to Starfield, believe me that despite not being perfect, it fills many gaps that E.D has. Plus, it's a great vice to play, unlike the great monotony that E.D has.
Frontier is a pretty bad company, they waste resources and don't understand what players are looking for, who were lucky enough to come across what was a great project, such as Elite Dangerous. But he has let it die slowly in a rather stupid way.
What many of us, lovers of this type of games, do is wait, emigrate to Starfield until Frontier picks up the lost path and develops its goose that lays golden eggs again. In the meantime, you can check out their forums to see if there are interesting developments or not. Do not worry Be Happy.

 

[MUTILADOR]

Yep, I have all of those, have around 400 hours of NMS, 10 hours of SC and a few hours in SF... I only have 7,500+ hours in ED/O so far, and that number keeps getting larger faster than the others.

Not bad for a game that doesn't know it is dead, is it?

Let's be honest, either you're weird or you're lying a little.

The truth is that worldwide the count of players from highest to lowest is SF, then NMS follows, then SC and very... but very low of these figures appears Elite Danguerous.

That you are an exception to the rule does not help us much.

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

Yep, I have all of those, have around 400 hours of NMS, 10 hours of SC and a few hours in SF... I only have 7,500+ hours in ED/O so far, and that number keeps getting larger faster than the others.

Not bad for a game that doesn't know it is dead, is it?

Let's be honest, either you're weird or you're lying a little.

The truth is that worldwide the count of players from highest to lowest is SF, then NMS follows, then SC and very... but very low of these figures appears Elite Danguerous.

That you are an exception to the rule does not help us much.

Have you even considered that different people have different preferences? Let's stay honest, Starfield is a very different game than Elite Dangerous, No Man's Sky or Star Citizen. And rightly so. You can enjoy one or the other, or all of them, and that's perfectly fine.

Most of what some would call "veterans" here will probably have similar numbers to @Rat Catcher. I am just shy of 3k hours in ED, I have 0 hours in SC, I played NMS for around 90 hours, and I did one play through of Starfield of about 150 hours (which I enjoyed for about 120, and then just wanted to finish it). My Elite number is the only one that is growing, because I have no plans to revisit Starfield in the near future, will not pay for an alpha, and did not really like NMS. Not that I didn't like SF, but I'm done with it for now, because beyond what I did in my play through, SF has no long term value for me.

People who rack up thousands of hours in ED ( and that's quite a few here) are in it for very different things than those Starfield offers, and touting SF as "replacement" for ED is naive at best, and misleading at worst. Starfield is a good game for those who want to roleplay a story driven hero (or anti-hero, depending on your RP) character game set in space; it's useless for those who focus on what's best in Elite, and that is scope, a glint of realism and science and, first and foremost, spaceship flying. As a personal note, I appreciate that Elite has no "magic" as a central story point like SF does. I hated that they shoved that into Starfield.

It's not a surprise that Starfield is very popular, and rightly so. Bethesda Games Studios are a developer with a very devoted and passionate following, they have a reputation for putting out very good open world action RPGs (even if the internet tends to turn on them now and then), and they have huge budgets for both development and marketing. Of course that game is hugely popular right now.

But games are different, and that is okay. Just because you're disenfranchised with Elite doesn't mean everyone who enjoys Elite more than Starfield is weird, dishonest or lying. You're lying to yourself if you think an action RPG is a proper replacement for a niche spaceship game like ED.

Oh and yes, a lot of people actually like Elite as a game right now. They just don't moan as loudly on the internet as those who want it to be a different game do.

 

[Factabulous]

Just let them go. We won't miss them.

Edit: Especially as they'll come back every week to tell us they've gone

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

Just let them go. We won't miss them.

Edit: Especially as they'll come back every week to tell us they've gone

Before your edit I was just going to say: But why don't they just go? Why keep coming back to tell us how we're having fun wrong?

Edit: Or in other words: I have no chance to not miss them if they keep coming back .

 

[Lhorndra]

Let's be honest, either you're weird or you're lying a little.

The truth is that worldwide the count of players from highest to lowest is SF, then NMS follows, then SC and very... but very low of these figures appears Elite Danguerous.

That you are an exception to the rule does not help us much.

Naaah, not an exception at all. And who is this "us"?
I have the same experience as @Rat Catcher. Played NMS ca. 100 hours until the end of the narrative, became bored rather quickly. It has its moments, but there is no astronomical wonder, just Toys'R'Us planets without even the most basic celestial mechanics. Started Starfield, and yes, it's a truly remarkable game, but not for me right now: too much story, I just want to be in space. And SC? Well, that's basically a Stockholm Syndrome.

 

[MUTILADOR]

In the meantime, be careful with this project.
It could be a good external complement for Elite, in the end the mod community is more visionary.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDzNKpeQd-4

 

[Crazed Android]

In the meantime, be careful with this project.
It could be a good external complement for Elite, in the end the mod community is more visionary.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDzNKpeQd-4

This is a chat-bot with extra steps and a game specific filter applied to it. How, exactly, does this improve a game?

"Oh boy! I can finally ask Elite NPCs what they think about bananas!"

Dialogue from NPCs was written and placed into a game by a person. Somebody had to intentionally take the time to write, record, and program the cues for all of the dialogue in a game, and all of those factors influence the overall design and artistic expression of a game. Crucially, most characters you can actually talk to are a way for the devs - if they have chosen this for their game - to provide background world-building fluff/lore and in-universe ways for players to take missions or find more information about an ongoing story arc. It was placed there for a specific purpose.

An LLM trained from an internet-scraped database does not have this same purpose, only well formatted dialogue about nonsense.

 

[MUTILADOR]

This is a chat-bot with extra steps and a game specific filter applied to it. How, exactly, does this improve a game?

"Oh boy! I can finally ask Elite NPCs what they think about bananas!"

Dialogue from NPCs was written and placed into a game by a person. Somebody had to intentionally take the time to write, record, and program the cues for all of the dialogue in a game, and all of those factors influence the overall design and artistic expression of a game. Crucially, most characters you can actually talk to are a way for the devs - if they have chosen this for their game - to provide background world-building fluff/lore and in-universe ways for players to take missions or find more information about an ongoing story arc. It was placed there for a specific purpose.

An LLM trained from an internet-scraped database does not have this same purpose, only well formatted dialogue about nonsense.

and?

Everything you say can be done with iA too.

I repeat, be careful with that project.

 

[Jmanis]

and?

Everything you say can be done with iA too.

It really can't. But have fun thinking it does i guess.

Proc gen is a much more viable candidate for that sort of activity.

 

[Crazed Android]

and?

Everything you say can be done with iA too.

I repeat, be careful with that project.

Argument: People are fundamentally important to the design and artistic merit of a game.
Response: nu-uh, computers can do that too!
…
I’m not sure if you’re trolling or genuinely not getting it, but this is comedy gold.

 

[varonica]

I guess we'll be seeing a flood of AI produced games hitting the store any time now, since all you need to do to speed up game production is to throw more puter power at it, weeks I tell yah, weeks for a new game now!

 

[Greasetrap42]

The truth is that worldwide the count of players from highest to lowest is SF, then NMS follows, then SC and very... but very low of these figures appears Elite Danguerous.

That's a terrible talking point. McDonalds sells lots of hamburgers. Does that mean I should choose McDonald's hamburgers? With your thinking I would never get a reuben sandwich. Do you always focus on what large populations are doing instead of deciding for yourself what you like?

 

[Rat Catcher]

It's not a surprise that Starfield is very popular, and rightly so. Bethesda Games Studios are a developer with a very devoted and passionate following, they have a reputation for putting out very good open world action RPGs (even if the internet tends to turn on them now and then), and they have huge budgets for both development and marketing. Of course that game is hugely popular right now.

I like RPGs - I've played almost as many as I have FPS games... (I count everything from Wolfenstein 3D era as FPS...)
I've found SF to be on a par with other Bethesda titles, as far as enjoying a RPG goes, better art on the assets & NPCs too. I've been enjoying playing, but it certainly isn't a 'substitute' for EDO, but is a good game in its own right.

(I have an issue with my right elbow currently, which makes working my HOTAS uncomfortable - once it settles back down ED will will get played, again, for too many hoours, as normal!)

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

I've found SF to be on a par with other Bethesda titles, as far as enjoying a RPG goes, better art on the assets & NPCs too. I've been enjoying playing, but it certainly isn't a 'substitute' for EDO, but is a good game in its own right.

Some people have issues separating between games, and seem to have this urge for a one-stop-shop game (either that, or have all games the same). SF does of course provide a few features and mechanics that trigger the Pavlov reflex of the more vocal parts of the aforementioned - ship interiors, base building, ship building. NMS had those too, bar the ship building, and the "acquisition" of ships was a horrible mechanic in my opinion (relog farming), yet totally approved by those who chastise Elite for it. And then those who are the most vocal about SF being the "savior" are generally biased against Elite, and maybe more so against Frontier, so...

From my personal perspective, I liked Starfield. I really did. For the time I played it (about 150 hours). But beyond the ship interiors and base and ship creation most of the Elite critics so focus on I thought it was very bland. While the look was pretty good (not stellar for a triple A game, but okay), it didn't really have an "art" style. Overall, pretty much everything lacked... character for me, from the design to the characters. There was nothing really memorable for me, and the characters were also just.... bland. And I really hate the magic in a SciFi story.

For me it's like this: I see some kind of Starfield content on the interwebs and think: Mkay, whatever, that's in the past. I see some kind of Fallout 4 content and think: Ooooh, I got to replay that. It just ooozes charm with its design and art style of modernized 50s design. All characters, good or bad, were much more memorable. Not necessarily better fleshed out, but they had... edge. The Starfield characters don't. I don't care that the graphic fidelity of Fallout 4 looks dated. The Fallout games just have a charm that Starfield doesn't have.

And then there is Elite. It is firmly rooted in a realistic approach (even if it has some handwavium), and that goes for its setting and characters, too. Elite has its strength in completely different places than those other hero fantasy space(ish) games. You're not the pivot of the universe, you're just a cog in it. Nothing revolves around you, politics happen far away from your life, you just do whatever your job is in this somewhat realistic galaxy. And of course flying your spaceship doing whatever you fancy is where Elite shines. That and the fact that it doesn't lose itself in micromanaging every aspect of your life, as SC strives to do.

 

[MUTILADOR]

I guess we'll be seeing a flood of AI produced games hitting the store any time now, since all you need to do to speed up game production is to throw more puter power at it, weeks I tell yah, weeks for a new game now!

That's right, it's a matter of time.

In reality we are already in those times, every day it takes less to do more. Compare Pac-man to Red Dead Redemption 2.

Now imagine what will happen in 2 or 5 more years.

Currently there are tools that I didn't even dream of having a decade ago.

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

In reality we are already in those times, every day it takes less to do more.

In reality we're in those times where news articles and journalistic pieces aren't even written by the interns anymore (which was bad enough), but by AI that does pretty well writing somewhat coherent sentences, but also tends to make up the content or at least play fast and loose with the facts.

Now imagine what will happen in 2 or 5 more years.

In two two five years we will have a plethora of meaningless, hardly to be differentiated AI generated games that will flood the market, and the ones with good writing will be hard to find.

 

[MUTILADOR]

That's a terrible talking point. McDonalds sells lots of hamburgers. Does that mean I should choose McDonald's hamburgers? With your thinking I would never get a reuben sandwich. Do you always focus on what large populations are doing instead of deciding for yourself what you like?

I share your view of things, but the context of what I said is not about that.

treats Elite like a business for Frontier.

And unlike fast food, this is a different world, food addiction is harmful, in the gaming world (too) but that's what we're going for. Lots of people who love and play your product.

Why do others get more players? Luck? Chance?

 

[yianniv]

Oh and yes, a lot of people actually like Elite as a game right now. They just don't moan as loudly on the internet as those who want it to be a different game do.

Oh, yes they do, I can read "them" just fine.

There's a misconception that the players that "moan" about the game defects and FDev management negligence don't care about the game. We, or at least, I do. I couldn't care less about Thargoids and I'm tired of the ongoing bugs, old and new. I can deal with game features that are not yet broken, like mining and gathering tritium during the weekend, but shake my head when my ship tries to land at an angle on my FC. At least the lateral thrusters are working, hurray!

The usual suspects show up on both sides of the argument in each of these threads. In the mean time, even CMs leave, frustrated.
At which point will you stop patting each other on the back and look around?

I'm expecting my post to be moderated, like the last two that were of negative attitude. Maybe it's no longer worth complaining.

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

even CMs leave, frustrated.

Is there a source for that, or is that the usual doom interpretation and speculation?