Seems Very Quiet Around Here

[Viajero]

Despite all the sales, the ammount of people playing desn't increase.

Number of average monthly concurrent players in steam has actually increased slightly year on year since launch in 2015, including peaks and valleys. The actual spot record was achieved this past December or Jan if memory serves (which will be probably hard to beat at least until new era I suspect). We can probably assume something similar is happening in Xbox, PS and the FDEV launcher versions.

The really remarkable thing is that after 5 years (and according to some allegedly without any new significant content) a niche game like Elite, with so many barriers to entry (controlers, lack of solo campaign, in game help or in depth tutorials etc), has been able to maintain, or even slightly increase, that average concurrent population.

 

[SpaceInvader]

I've been gone, like completely gone, for some time now.
I've mostly been enjoying the sheer chaos of Just Cause 3. Pure, pointless, destruction. Yay! I spent an odd amount of time playing a game with basically no plot.
Anyhoo, I'm slowly getting that itch for ED, so I've started venturing back here, and on my discord channels.
But it's very very quiet now. Did something happen? Do we all talk somewhere else? Or is it just that "mid term" lull we get between updates?
How is the game? Is that quiet too, or just here?

It's not a Dooooooom! thread BTW, just an observation. Maybe I was the one making all the traffic...

Come back around 2020-21

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

The really remarkable thing is that after 5 years (and according to some allegedly without any new significant content) a niche game like Elite, with so many barriers to entry (controlers, lack of solo campaign, in game help or in depth tutorials etc), has been able to maintain, or even slightly increase, that average concurrent population.

I don't think that's remarkable because im somewhere in that pool of people that just wont go away.

I think its bane of frontiers existence though. No matter what they do, they cant increase the population, no matter what atrocities (.... selling leps and having no problems lieing for community management) they commit, they can't decrease it either. After so many years of that no wonder they went frack it and went off to focus on other titles.

Or is this all a result of the content + live service offering? The fair score of the output?

 

[Viajero]

After so many years of that no wonder they went frack it and went off to focus on other titles.

Somehow I suspect the plan to expand to other titles, or invest in new era for that matter, has little to do with Elite 5 year long (and counting) foretold doom (tm).

 

[RooksBailey]

I have to admit to not being very engaged with ED at the moment. I do boot it up once or twice a week for a mission or two, but that's about it. To be fair to Elite, I think I am just worn out on the game. Usually, I shelve my space games during the summer months. This summer was different; for some reason, I couldn't stop playing ED. So now I am burned out a bit.

That is part of the reason.

But I have to be honest: the other part is frustration from watching Frontier chasing its tail. On one hand, if our current version of Elite is going to remain in maintenance mode until late 2020, it is smart (and welcome) for Frontier to spend the bulk of their time fixing bugs. I mean, if we are stuck with the game as is, might as well make sure that game shines as much as possible. But on the other hand, I have to admit to being annoyed about how Frontier can't seem to find the time to bug fix and add in at least a little fresh content every three months. Who knows, maybe Frontier will surprise us with the next patch and give us some tiny new toys to play with - they have done something like that before. But if they don't and all we get is a small list of minor bug fixing, well, that would be annoying. Either way, seeing Elite: Dangerous fundamentally dead in the water until late next year does rankle a bit.

So, for me, I've been switching genres. Now I am a newly minted MechHead enjoying my time commanding a lance of mechs in Battletech (Heavy Metal releases in just 11 hours!). I've even been dabbling in MWO. I'll be back from time to time - ED is still in my top five list of favorite games - but for now, I need a breather to get away from the drama around this title. I need to reset a little before returning.

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

Somehow I suspect the plan to expand to other titles, or invest in new era for that matter, has little to do with Elite 5 year long (and counting) foretold doom (tm).

Hey i never played dust 512 (or eve more than a demo) so maybe frontier can take another crack at it.

If its just going to be something more similar to how passenger missions turned out compared to the potential of the concept then doom. You can't discount that they did actually release this. Same with crime and punishment. And screen tinting. And insert your pet hate feature.

They're not giving us enough to doom it yet.

Also maybe frontier are more going with the flow. If jwe didn't do as well as it did would that have impacted planet zoo and the secret 2 new games (and space legs). Probably.

 

[Tikanderoga]

But on the other hand, I have to admit to being annoyed about how Frontier can't seem to find the time to bug fix and add in at least a little fresh content every three months. Who knows, maybe Frontier will surprise us with the next patch and give us some tiny new toys to play with - they have done something like that before. But if they don't and all we get is a small list of minor bug fixing, well, that would be annoying. Either way, seeing Elite: Dangerous fundamentally dead in the water until late next year does rankle a bit.

Oh they can fix bugs VERY quickly. Especially when it comes to interesting bugs, like July 2017 I think, where passenger missions were paying out insane amounts the further away from the drop point they were. They fixed that in 48 hours.
The Multiple abrasion blaster bug last december. Shoot one surface deposit with 2 or more blasters and you get 2 or more chunks, depending on how many hits you landed. That got fixed within a week after new year. Reason it took that long was because of the Xmas/NYE holidays. Else it would have been fixed within 48 hours.

So looking at that, they can fix things quickly if they want to.
Things only seem to get fixed if they benefit the players in some way.

 

[WinterKing2112]

Let's face it, the Game (troubled as it is) now being left sitting in Maintenance Mode for a record amount of time is simply winding down.

You can only do Carrot&Stick so long - and after the last Carrot was removed (Carriers), the outlook for >anything< worth taking note of now sits deep in 2020 (!)

Now would be the time for a Community Manager to feed Roadmap Details and associated Concept art with Ideas into the Forum and yield something like a weekly Dev Update.
IMHO that's virtually the only weapon they have left in their arsenal as some form of PR Damage Control right now..
Move from "super excited - but we don't have anything to show for it" empty boring promises to being able to show something tangible.
(what's the point if the existing and paying Customers - the prime target Audience - are always amongst the last people to be told anything... and any Information has to be sourced from Leaks or from some Investor Meetings)

Otherwise - they might not have a whole lot of customers left taking interest in their 2020DLC when it goes live.
Lots of folks will have moved on and won't be easy to convince them to hand over more Money to the very Company that left them hanging so often.
Word has spread and getting brand new customers onboard with all those Reviews/public sentiment isn't made easier by the deafening Silence and dropping Player numbers.

DOOOOOOMMMMM!!!

 

[WinterKing2112]

If it's quiet now, imagine what it'll be in a few months...

I hope someday some good videogame journalist will write a well-researched article called "The Slow Suicide of Elite Dangerous"

MOOORRE DOOOMMMMM!!!

 

[Speedcuffs]

Its a lot further than borderline. Since roughly the release of Horizons its been fine to be outright hostile to anyone positive to the point where you get repeatedly told to stop posting in the forum if you like the game.

Understandable though given the millions of copies sold you are bound to accumulate a certain number of edge cases.

The forum undead are my favourites "I haven't played this game in years, but groan in the forum everyday repeating whatever the other obsessive nutters say". They remind me of Miss Havisham living forever in the wedding dress they were abandoned at the altar in.

 

[Riverside]

And yet the amount of whiners do. Strange.

Yeah the ones that complain about other whiners are the worst

 

[WinterKing2112]

My current health and work situation gives me little time even to play other games, I never felt that ED was the kind of game to play if you only have 30 minutes to an hour to play a day. I'm looking at a less stressful job opportunity telecommuting with better hours. Hopefully I'll have a lot more time to devote to playing this and other games.

Good luck with that. FYI I've just employed someone to cover for me on Fridays so I can play ED 3 days a week now!

 

[Patrick_68000]

Kicks game.
See there, it moved!
Not dead.

"The game is dead" is an ironic expression used by the ancients on the forums for a joke purpose.

 

[WinterKing2112]

There's a certain truth in what you say!

But the real question is why? Could it be that more and more people are disenfranchised, frustrated, bored, angry etc etc at the constant shoddy releases, the never ending unfixed bugs, the cancellations and the basic lack of empathy or indeed communication by the company?


Obviously this game/sim whatever ya wanna call it is quite niche. When it's also very badly developed, you're always going to get the anger vented on the forums.

Yeah, but if those people were normal they would just go buy another game and that would be the end of it. Unfortunately for the rest of us, they are very far from normal so they keep coming back and moaning about a game they havn't played for ages, but are still obsessed with. So weird.

 

[Riverside]

Yeah, but if those people were normal they would just go buy another game and that would be the end of it. Unfortunately for the rest of us, they are very far from normal so they keep coming back and moaning about a game they havn't played for ages, but are still obsessed with. So weird.

Some waited years for this game to be released, they want it to be good.

 

[M00ka]

Some waited years for this game to be released, they want it to be good.

I disagree, they want the game the way THEY envisaged, which could be dramatically different from what FD and the rest of us want.

 

[Riverside]

I disagree, they want the game the way THEY envisaged, which could be dramatically different from what FD and the rest of us want.

How is that different from what I said?

 

[M00ka]

How is that different from what I said?

You are implying that these people think the game is bad overall, hence they are 'waiting for it to become good'. The term good is relative, what you or me might consider good, others would consider it woeful and inadequate. And some get so use to waiting for their version of perfection that it becomes some mythical ceiling that will never be reached. Simply even if FD do what they want, they are that us to complaining that they will find fault even if there is no fault at all just so they can continue complaining because that is all they know.

 

[WinterKing2112]

Some waited years for this game to be released, they want it to be good.

I played the original Elite on an Acorn Electron! I had a good look at this latest incarnation for a while before I bought it (I don't have the time or patience to play bad games) and it looked good. Been playing ED for almost a year now and I am the opposite of disappointed.

 

[Rubbernuke]

Must..not...ggghh...make comment.......think of....kittens....happy place...