Reality Distortion Field

Winkelmann

Winkelmann
There's this from @David Braben yesterday:
"I truly believe the team have created a milestone in modern video game history (...) It is a real shame this incredible achievement is somewhat overshadowed by the issues we have been seeing."
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And there's the harsh reality of the current state of Odyssey.

To pick the most blatant technical issue, just take the messed-up and completely unefficient rendering pipeline, whose problems have been clearly outlined here, here and here.

These are technical facts, and I'm not even talking about the numerous design, gameplay and UI problems.

As much as I appreciate what they are trying to achieve, I cannot believe this is just "overshadowed" by a few accidential "issues" that have crept in unexpectedly along the way - this has been a disaster in the making, and somebody must have seen it coming.
 
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torloisk

torloisk
Sad to say, Odyssey is a milestone in modern video game history: As one of the most botched releases ever.

It's also important to note what David Braben does not address: The UI disaster, the half-baked planetary tech, the boring surface Bio & Geo exploration, in general the repetitive content (station & settlement diversity).
 

WeComeInPeace

WeComeInPeace
torloisk said:
Sad to say, Odyssey is a milestone in modern video game history: As one of the most botched releases ever.

It's also important to note what David Braben does not address: The UI disaster, the half-baked planetary tech, the boring surface Bio & Geo exploration, in general the repetitive content (station & settlement diversity).
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It took me a couple of days in Horizons to realize the grind. I came from sim racing, where Gran Turismo was another example of grind, but I must admit that I like it as much as I like other games just giving you everything from the get go like Assetto Corsa. In Elite I sometimes get annoyed by the grind, but then I just do something else. Go watch a black hole, or look at the galaxy from above. I don't think grind is good gameplay, but it does "set a goal" and it is some sort of "motivation". The biggest problem with grinding is that once you want something, you want it now.

The technical issues are much more important to me, like not being able to move the vanity cam in VR and some other VR issues that should be easy fixes, once we get to that.

My biggest issue is the gamma/contrast, and I truly believe that is pretty high on the priority list.
 

CMDR Karrde Sun

CMDR Karrde Sun
Yes distortion field.

It sounds like he's fully embracing the notion that Odysee is properly released and all they're going to be doing going forward is fixes.

Better just to unread that letter.

No. We have real proof from every other elite patch, as bad as they were they've all been in a different league to this.

Hey maybe they are just going to do bug fixes... spooky. If this roadmap isn't good, just back away because its known how it ends.
 

drew

drew
Seduced by his own myopic eulogies. You can only talk about "milestones in modern gaming history" and "incredible achievements" retrospectively and it should be others making that observation, not yourself.

As to the JFK quote... my rejoinder is, "Houston, we have a problem."

Cheers,

Drew.
 
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TheSisko

TheSisko
Winkelmann said:
There's this from @David Braben yesterday:


And there's the harsh reality of the current state of Odyssey.

To pick the most blatant technical issue, just take the messed-up and completely unefficient rendering pipeline, whose problems have been clearly outlined here, here and here.

These are technical facts, and I'm not even talking about the numerous design, gameplay and UI problems.

As much as I appreciate what they are trying to achieve, I cannot believe this is just "overshadowed" by a few accidential "issues" that have crept in unexpectedly along the way - this has been a disaster in the making, and somebody must have seen it coming.
Click to expand...

'Reality Distortion Field' was also muttered during the latest Lave Radio podcast as well.
 

Milkman76

M
Perhaps the QA team didnt have a single GPU newer than an nvidia 1080, and did not listen to any alpha user feedback from people who have newer GPUs, and so this totally honest mistake happened! Gosh, everyone.
 

Lone_star

Lone_star
LOL - tacking on a mediocre FPS that looks like it came out in 2009 is "a milestone".

The problem with ED is that it's a neat piece of tech with a good foundation that doesn't have a clear vision of what to do with itself.

They built the big galaxy, cool ships and fun spaceflight model and couldn't figure out what they should do next..... so they've been tacking on a bunch of features for years since. (Adding landings and SRVs was great FWIW)


They need to hire a good designer who asks "so what?" and "why?" a lot more. The player can do X if we add this "Why? So what?"
 
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Peter Drakon

Peter Drakon
drew said:
Seduced by his own myopic eulogies. You can only talk about "milestones in modern gaming history" and "incredible achievements" retrospectively and it should be others making that observation, not yourself.

As to the JFK quote... my rejoinder is, "Houston, we have a problem."

Cheers,

Drew.
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To be honest I think part of the problem is that David and everyone in FDev doesn't just see the current state but also what is coming and the dream what shall be. It is hard to be objective about the now when you know what is to come, where you are going and where you want to be.

Many players have a dream about the game and the realty is a bitter disappointment. For FDev the reality is just a milestone in the road towards a dream only they know. It's not easy - that being said this doesn't make the current reality any better for us.
 

fourrunes

F
I agree with you OP with some reservations.

Having a game that create a whole real life galaxy is absolutely a big achievement, and adding the ability to land on foot is a milestone there as well.

But OP is right - from the way David present it this train wreck - it sound like some weird accident...that could have been prevented, maybe.

But there is no accidents here - the way the game was shipped they had to know it it will end up like this.
 

Winkelmann

Winkelmann
Apart from a distortion field around its CEO, I think the deeper problem of FDev is it's organisational failure: the chaotic release reflects the current state of the teams and people working on it.

And here, morale seems to be at an all-time low.

Evidence for this are the recent employer reviews for FDev. They always have to be taken with a grain of salt (disgruntled ex-employees etc.), but if even half of it is true, they paint a bleak picture:
  • Morale on the longer standing projects is very low. People are only staying to get it shipped but most despise working on it and are desperate to leave.
  • morale is at an all time low - it seems as if most of the staff has left the company out of frustration/boredom. The handful I know are much happier elsewhere enjoying better work and higher salaries.
  • Tricky to work with inhouse Cobra engine - One of the worst engines i've ever used from an art perspective.
  • Very bad game engine with terrible tools for artists...
  • Mass hiring to fill vacant seats....usually low paid inexperienced grads who's first stint in the industry is to work as clean up crew for legacy content. shame.
  • Raising frustrations about the project to your lead does nothing as they don't enjoy the work either and have no say in the game direction
  • lots of leavers at the moment across all the departments but this is never addressed
  • No longer values the work, its employees or the quality of the products.
  • Very low morale in art department, a lot of people were leaving
  • A LOT of ungratifying, boring work, they rather send cool assets to outsource than give it to in-house artists
  • Chaotic management, you never know what you will be doing next month or next week and a lot of time things do not make sense
from https://www.glassdoor.ca/Reviews/Frontier-Developments-Reviews-E372218.htm
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Stanis

Stanis
I completely agree with mr braben. Except that I will have written: It is a real shame this incredible achievement is somewhat overshadowed by the decision of release an unfinished version.

really, really bad decision. A terrible risk.
 

fourrunes

F
All they had to do was to call it early access and launch on Steam.
...And be honest about the status of the build.

I'm almost sure it would net them more money and they would not have to deal with this PR disaster.

The only thing I want to know is if the thought of fully releasing was :
1. an unconscious corporate bias - meaning they did see some flaws but thought they are minor (we are shipping a 75% quality product but it needs to get out there).
2. They knew it's garbage, but they had to release it because of pressure, fiscal year, or whatnot.

If the answer is 1) they should really up their Q/A team and get some people to say what needs to be said. if it's 2) I think they made an unsmart choice and it shows they don't know the gaming market and Steam well enough.

People will buy early access games for a premium price and will complain a lot less.

What we are seeing in terms of blowback - and that's my personal gripe as well - is the result of an unfinished product presented as a finished one.
 

Scoob101

S
Winkelmann said:
I cannot believe this is just "overshadowed" by a few accidential "issues" that have crept in unexpectedly along the way - this has been a disaster in the making, and somebody must have seen it coming.
Click to expand...

Something tells me that pointing out any external influences on the project like global pandemics would go down like a pork pie in a Mosque.
 

ZeeWolf

ZeeWolf
Stanis said:
I completely agree with mr braben. Except that I will have written: It is a real shame this incredible achievement is somewhat overshadowed by the decision of release an unfinished version.

really, really bad decision. A terrible risk.
Click to expand...

That's entirely fair. I think there is something in the open world FPS MMO that is rare and challenging, most developers avoid it. I can think of only a few examples like Planetside 2 and The Division and obviously Star Citizen. The concept of using the ED as a platform for open world FPS could work great and there's a glimpse of something there.

It's a real shame for the games dev team (not the management/money men that made the decision) that this wasn't able to mature in development as there's something experimental about it I like.
 
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