Roadmap after release

[RedWizzard]

The lack of communication was exactly the reason behind the offline thing getting so big.

Had FD communicated to the playerbase what's happening with ED's features (big picture, no need to get into details) every few weeks there wouldn't have been an outrage because players would have been already aware of the difficulties and the uncertainty of the feature.

The problem with keeping customers in the dark is that there are going to be surprises. Sometimes that's good but as we saw with offline-mode those surprises can also be extremely bad.

Cut the amount of surprises and you cut the amount of outrage. Also letting people have some info gives the players something to look forward to which is a really good way to keep people playing.

I think the problem with offline was that the decision was made quite late. They probably should have said earlier that it might not make release and could be dropped entirely but to be honest I'm not sure the result would have been much different. Remember when they said "we think we're probably going to have to wipe at the end of Gamma"? The response was rage, debate, demand for certainty, and endless polls about whether they should wipe or not. Same thing would have happened if they had said anything about offline earlier.

If you follow your point about surprises to it's logical conclusion it makes sense that they are not saying much. Only unannounced features can be good surprises so at best a roadmap is blowing all the good surprises at once. But any expectation they build up with a roadmap is a potential bad surprise in waiting. A roadmap that says "we're going to do A, B, C" will be taken to mean that X, Y, and Z have been cancelled, whether that is the case or not, so the outrage will still happen. And if they later decide against A, B, or C then it's offline mode all over again.

 

[Mohrgan]

It's Simple, you have an 'on call' person to keep the customers (who purchased the product) informed - However that never happened and it does frustrate me somewhat

Why? If the people making the changes and decisions are on R&R, why would we need someone to keep us posted on how long the holidays would last?

 

[CmdrTwisted]

Surely the crazy part of that is the "here's the game, I'm off" part.

True this. New game released then set in limbo for weeks .

 

[SuBSynk]

Unfortunately a published roadmap would be seen as nothing less than a contractural obligation by the more vocal here - as such, publishing it would be an act of insanity by Frontier.

This^^

The reason many developers do not broadcast their current plans on feature development/ roadmap is this reason and it has unfortunately meant that dev's in all games have to be very careful about what they announce to the general public for fear of backlash when inevitable decisions have to be made regarding implementation of planned features.

 

[ollobrains]

hopefully todays downtime leads to some server side tweaks, ( influence bugs hint hint)

 

[flint read]

Oh what have I done

your first mistake was noticing the can marked worms.

the second bad move was reaching for the can opener.

the can was knocked over, in all fairness by the rest of us

 

[Adept]

your first mistake was noticing the can marked worms.

the second bad move was reaching for the can opener.

the can was knocked over, in all fairness by the rest of us

Have some rep

 

[Marsman]

Exactly. The dynamically changing galaxy is the key to the game's long term appeal.

what´s that supposed to be, spawning conflict zones instances? I´d expect a little more than that tbh

 

[NeilF]

Some new stuff this Friday and a road-map right? A growing amount of people complain about the lack of depth and content such as in this highly rated post on Reddit [Rant] I'm bored, and it's a shame. Really.

Frontier has to address this with planned updates to keep people engaged.

Agreed...

My analogy from months ago - We may have a huge sandbox, but how deep is the sand?

Exploration
We need more variety and some unique rare content. eg:-

- Aurora Borealis on some planets.
- Thunderstorms on some planets.
- Planets with space elevators. Make them a new type of dock why not?
- City lights on the dark side of some planets.
- Comets.
- Odd rare things. eg:-

- To find things like asteroids with tunnels you can fly into with maybe markings or abnormalities in them.
- Wrecks that at least you can look at. Maybe "abandoned" valuable items (cargo) nearby? ie: Not "Stolen".
- Why not have a few of the fabled (original) Elite Generation Ships around you can find?​

Try and include some rare missions while exploring. eg:-

- Distress signals and/or coming across a ship that's stranded and you need to go and fetch a item to repair it (for a reward).​

In short, exploration needs to have that "maybe" aspect to it. At the moment you know every system you go to will be a variation of the last few dozen you've been too. There needs to be that 1 in a 1000 chance of something different.

Missions
Allow more complex/interesting missions. Maybe even involve elements of exploration?. eg:-

- Scan a comet/wreck in system X and return data.​

Combat
Balance combat a bit:-

- Only permit one Shield Cell. Anyone currently with more than one will simply have units sitting their achieving nothing.
- If you shoot another ship by accident, receive a warning. Another shot within a second or two then means you're cannon fodder.
- More control over turrets.
- Module information. Give us stats on what the modules actually deliver. Each module type needs dedicated values to help us decide.
- Use Galnet to promote an upcoming battle (conflict zone) which will have some actual outcome. Players in the local area can then decide whether to take part in this conflict over X days to try and affect the outcome.
...the list goes on and on.​

General
There's loads of general things to consider:-

- Multiple player slots and be able to transfer finances (CR) between your accounts.
- Nose camera. I can't believe we still cannot get a cockpitless/hudless shot of anything we want to get a screenshot off. Give us a nose camera screenshot.
- Ship transportation. Allow you to fetch that Cobra you left 2000ly away to you. Ideally done in a transporter ship mechanism over real game time. You can see the transporter actually arriving outside your station after X hours and your ship finally flies in to the dock ready for you to then use.
- External views. It's been talked about since day 1. Will we get it?
- More ships.
- Thargoids?
...the list goes on and on.​

If FD could give a rough road map of what sort of areas they will be looking at and/or addressing that would give a lot of people some reassurance I believe. The current concern I believe is many people are beginning to think the game we have now, is basicallly it.

ps: My lists above are not meant to be definitive, simply set the scene of what I personally think are the kind of areas (nature of things) I'd like to see ED "improve" in.

 

[dreadlord]

Any idea of a roadmap for us to drool over?

I was wondering if the devs could let us all know a road map (of sorts) to tantalize us of whats planned in the coming weeks/months/years?

If would be nice to see what you guys have in store for us

 

[Nutter]

I was wondering if the devs could let us all know a road map (of sorts) to tantalize us of whats planned in the coming weeks/months/years?

If would be nice to see what you guys have in store for us

Too Many Roadmap posts. You won't see one.

The Short answer is - Bug Fixes, Planetary Landings, More Ships, Walking Around and Aliens, all at some point in the future

 

[Deyu]

Mike Brookes said somewhere on this forum that they will reveal some things about the future. Hope that helps.

 

[dreadlord]

ok, thanks for the heads up, seems strange why a dev would not give us an idea of whats happening (officially as a sticky), keeps people quiet as they would know, instead of a guessing game.

 

[Adept]

what´s that supposed to be, spawning conflict zones instances? I´d expect a little more than that tbh

IMO it needs to end up like Mount & Blade, with factions having limited resources, and operating patrols and trading ships based on those. The static, abstract combat zones are not good enoug, and again they seem disconnected from everything.

Why are ships being sent into the meatgrinder? Why are they not putting a station to the siege, and patrolling the surrounding space in supercruise?

 

[mcneils5]

ok, thanks for the heads up, seems strange why a dev would not give us an idea of whats happening (officially as a sticky), keeps people quiet as they would know, instead of a guessing game.

I'd imagine they just don't want to commit to anything that they then later need to drop or prioritise further down the development schedule....after the fallout from the Offline Mode decision I can't really blame them

 

[Deyu]

I'd imagine they just don't want to commit to anything that they then later need to drop or prioritise further down the development schedule....after the fallout from the Offline Mode decision I can't really blame them

True. I do hope they at least give more useful information in the newsletters though The last one was pretty "meh".

 

[Herik]

We will be revealing more information on what is coming in the next few weeks.

Michael

Thank you Michael; I never doubted this, but some needed you to say something....

 

[lbm]

Elite has beautiful bones in place. The feeling of the ships is great, and the networking is starting to be in an acceptable place. The galaxy looks good, and supercruise gives us great access to the systems.

***

But the game itself is at a bare bones stage. NPCs are missing, the changes to the simulation are very hard to detect. We don't get much feedback for our actions, and it doesn't make a big difference in practice where we are flying. Sol system should be the playground for the rich and powerful, but it's rife with criminally insane NPCs, just like every place else.

It was a phenomenal effort to get the game out on the deadline you set. I appreciate and applaud the accomplishment. Problem is though, that the reputation of the game is fast being made now, and at the moment it's all promise and little delivery. On the actual, gripping gameplay front. The features that make us care about the simulated galaxy, the NPCs, the repercusion for our actions. All of that is still missing.

So please tell us what happens next. What features are coming, what is being worked on right now, and in what order. Keep the information and updates coming, keep people engaged and involved.

Elite has incredible potential. Do not waste this opportunity

Couldn't agree more!

No need for actual dates, planned versions or milestones, but a little info on what's actually being worked on, what's gonna be improved and what new features might show up during the spring would be really appreciated. Although I too applaud the release of the game and what's been accomplished by the devs, I do feel that there's a lot of things that at the moment just feel like unfinished placeholders. For example the faction interaction and ranking feels pretty useless at the moment and I don't see any way of actually getting involved in the background story of the galaxy.

... and I'm sure FD won't let us down in the future, but some hints of what's to come wouldn't hurt.

Edit: Plus I should really learn to read the whole tread before pressing "reply"... Thanks for the heads up Michael!

 

[Zakovich]

Here is the link to a Youtube post by Frontier on a "Wishlist" by the Devs:
[video=youtube;8yd-m9AR7mY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yd-m9AR7mY[/video]

 

[Phosphora]

Perhaps some 'sneak peeks' in the weekly newsletter, giving us some hints of upcoming features.

Cheers, Phos.