Roadmap leaked??

I have to put my hands up, that post you linked to slipped under my radar - I goofed!

However I tapped like on your psot as I did genuinely learn something from it - the obligation of a company to notify its shareholders first was something I was not conciously aware of.
No problems,

I only became aware of the law many years ago when I worked for a Ltd company, and we found out that we were being bought out / there would be redundancies via a newspaper, before they told us. I then looked into why.

Cheers
 
Yes,

fair enough - in my case, this translated to Shareholders told in the evening, newspapers printed it in the morning press, we were told when we got not work the next morning.
So we only became aware around 9am the day after the announcement.

EDIT:
my comments above are relating to my last post - ie when this happened to me - the staff / everyone else not finding out 'till later, was purely coz we didn't sit and watch the coy website etc after we left work

Frontier have done everything by the book.
 
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Viajero

Volunteer Moderator
Yes,

fair enough - in my case, this translated to Shareholders told in the evening, newspapers printed it in the morning press, we were told when we got not work the next morning.
So we only became aware around 9am the day after the announcement.

The forum post was made at 07:00 uk time this morning.

The RNS statement was made at 07:00 (I presume that is also uk time) also this morning.
 
Frontier has been making more money year after year with Elite Dangerous. Why should they hurry the get a release out until the game needs a shot in the arm?

Some times I think the fans of this genre don't do them selves any favors by throwing money at a game to get it going! I'm guilty too.
 
"We had originally planned for the Elite Dangerous major update to release in December 2020, but, in the context of the current Covid-19 environment, we have now set a Q1 2021 release date"

Lets forget about the planned 2017 update which then got moved to 2019 to then be moved to 2020 and now 2021.
Thats not a plan...

Sure it is, just one that ED players suffer for. The plan is to use the core talent at Fdev to work on newer games that will generate more revenue. Once those are out and past their initial sell phase, move them back to ED.

ED is an established IP but is a niche game. There are few who want to play it who don't already have it so Fdev as a company has a pretty clear picture of their financial projections (setting aside covid). The "Delays" were one of two things, likely both. 1. internal shifts of what they want to achieve with the next installment. 2. Shifting of talent around to accomplish goals that will better suit the company.

It very much is a plan, just not one you particularly like because you likely don't care about either the other game or Fdev's profitability.

Edit- I also imagine they have been working on converting/prepping to be able to release it on Next Gen consoles and I'm pretty sure New era will be the "base game" for next gen - if there will be a "free upgrade" to current ED to next gen for PS4/Xbox players - I have no idea. I'm sure it's been discussed but it's likely an ROI assesment.
 
I can understand this delay as getting all the pieces together remotely can be a pain, the only thing we don't understand is the initial delays from when FCs were first realised?

It does give those who want one a chance to get a FC before the new era of Thargoid/Guardian wars erupt. Or are we going to face a new alien menace and Human and Thargoid have to join forces to combat the AI menace ;)
 
I can understand this delay as getting all the pieces together remotely can be a pain, the only thing we don't understand is the initial delays from when FCs were first realised?

Oh that's easy!
They built FCs according to their original vision (squadron assets) then realized it didn't actually work and that nobody would want to use them.

So rather than release on time but with a horrible implementation (looking at you Multicrew) they went back to the drawing board and came up with the player asset/support ship concept.

Turns out, they couldn't make THAT work either, so we got the mobile-Aldi with optional additional parking that we have now.

When you consider that the stupidly expensive, 'gently caress' explorers version they released to beta was their THIRD attempt at getting fleet carriers right, it doesn't bode well for the 'New Era'.
 
I can understand this delay as getting all the pieces together remotely can be a pain, the only thing we don't understand is the initial delays from when FCs were first realised?

It does give those who want one a chance to get a FC before the new era of Thargoid/Guardian wars erupt. Or are we going to face a new alien menace and Human and Thargoid have to join forces to combat the AI menace ;)
Will the gameplay mechanics be involved and engaging enough this time around to make an AI menace worthwhile?

FD had years to prepare the game ready for the Thargoid invasion by putting in mechanics which could then be leveraged to make the Thargoid invasion engaging. Instead they spent years adding mainly shallow questionable bolt ons. So when the Thargoids finally invaded is it surprising most CMDRs found it so dull?

We can only hope New Era adds some gameplay depth so the game finally has more engaging mechanics to leverage.

Consider - Space combat games I was playing over 25yrs ago offered more depth and tactics than what ED offers even after 5yrs of development. We need less shallow bolt ons and more actual bar raising engaging mechanics/gameplay! (And for me FCs fall into the former rather than the latter.)
 
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Oh that's easy!
They built FCs according to their original vision (squadron assets) then realized it didn't actually work and that nobody would want to use them.

So rather than release on time but with a horrible implementation (looking at you Multicrew) they went back to the drawing board and came up with the player asset/support ship concept.
[...]

And instead of being honest they told us the 6 months delay was due to them listening to the community and focusing on bug fixes.
 
My interpretation is that the carrier delay was initially becasue they caved to all the "Oh what about solo players?" crying on the forum. This new reworok of carriers to acquiesce the soloists likely meant a major rework of carriers. Then due to other commitiments it is likely that carriers became a back burner project, topped off with a little bit of maskirovka about "you wanted bug fixing" adding to the delays. Or at least thats how I see the carriers unfolding to be "on time" - 18 months later than originally envisaged.
 
My interpretation is that the carrier delay was initially becasue they caved to all the "Oh what about solo players?" crying on the forum. This new reworok of carriers to acquiesce the soloists likely meant a major rework of carriers. Then due to other commitiments it is likely that carriers became a back burner project, topped off with a little bit of maskirovka about "you wanted bug fixing" adding to the delays. Or at least thats how I see the carriers unfolding to be "on time" - 18 months later than originally envisaged.
Probably about right, the only other thing is I suspect it wasn't just "Oh what about solo players?", I suspect the initial delay out of Beyond was partly technical, maybe they found it was just more complicated to implement a carrier at that time than they thought, instancing etc. I mean it seemed to work fine in the recent beta, but pushing out permanent player owned stations (in effect) back when Beyond was reworking graphics/mining/exploration etc might just have been too much. The servers may have buckled back then!

(they may still in June if large numbers of people buy one!)
 
My eye is twitching a little.

What space combat game are you talking about, or is this just the usual exaggeration etc etc.

I really hope you are not going to say Battlecruiser 3000AD cause that was HOT GARBAGE.
Heck Freelancers campaign was better handled than the slow Thargoid optional menace. Yes with a adjustment was also able to be played in multiplayer too :)
 
My eye is twitching a little.

What space combat game are you talking about, or is this just the usual exaggeration etc etc.

I really hope you are not going to say Battlecruiser 3000AD cause that was HOT GARBAGE.
Let's consider X-Wing from 25yrs ago?:-
  • NPC wingman you could give commands to. This was mentioned in the original ED designs.
  • Actual combat gameplay involving escorting or attacking or defending locations/ships/convoys. Basic space gameplay stuff, still not in ED.

Let's be frank, little/no combat depth has been added over the past 5yrs. eg: Why aren't we using a Powerplay type view to see the Thargoid position? Why aren't we undertaking tasks to affect this position? Why aren't we Holomeing into fighters along with a wing of friends or NPCs to escort a convoy, or defend a location from Thargoid scouts? Why aren't we using the cold running/silent running which offered to much promise back in alpha/beta to carry out recon of stealth gameplay?

Why are we instead limited to a Thargoid invasion exemplified by invisible attacks on stations during server down time?
 
Can anyone honestly look at FD's stable of cutesy, childish games https://www.frontier.co.uk/our-games , and still think ED is their main focus, much less their main money maker? FDev is only interested in becoming Nintendo-Lite while stringing ED players along to keep as much money coming in as they can with as little development cost as possible.

On a side note, how many of those who declared the leak fake and "bad journalism" are still here after finding out it wasn't?
 
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