So...Code Rewrite then?

TheSisko

TheSisko
I wonder if the reason for the 4.0 delay is that Frontier are going a code rewrite of the game, to allow new content to be more easily added and maintained.

Otherwise, 18 months for Space Legs or Atmospheric Planets (or even Space Legs and Atmospheric Planets) seems a long time.

Was the plan originally to release 4.0 later this year? Or did it get to a point during development where Frontier realised that adding the content with the existing code base was a complete pain in the bottom non-starter?

Now, if such a rewrite improves performance, allows content to be deployed more quickly, aids quality control and improves bug testing (which IMO has been lacking recently), then I support such a move.

Hopefully 4.0 will be worth the wait. Hopefully whatever content we get before 4.0 will be worth it too. Entire games have been developed and released within an 18 month time-frame (the last Mass Effect game for one). I worry that what we get in the next 18 months won't be enough. The development supported events really need to deliver here, I look forward to hearing more about them and I applaud Frontier's efforts to move away from the stale and boring CGs.
 
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Crank Larson

Crank Larson
Yes, that's right. It'll only take FD 18 months to rewrite the code that they've been developing for years. Then, in 18 months, we'll have exactly the same game but with different code! Awesome! :O
 

TheSisko

TheSisko
Crank Larson said:
Yes, that's right. It'll only take FD 18 months to rewrite the code that they've been developing for years. Then, in 18 months, we'll have exactly the same game but with different code! Awesome! :O
Click to expand...

Its not unusual for applications to have the code re-factored. I've done that at work within the last year for an application which was difficult to maintain and add new features to. The idea of doing it is to make adding new features easier. And we know it won't be the same game.
 
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krylite

krylite
My 2c. Possibly. I'd doubt it'd be a total rewrite, but maybe just more modification to Cobra and the ED infrastructure. What Sandro had said akin to adding on a entirely "new game". It's still very ambitious, because no other game has successfully mixed what ED has done so far of combination of massive precise scope and gameplay features and graphical fidelity, much less added an entire fpv/sl mode.

I'm glad the announcement sounds very much like just a continuation of the player experience rather than a forced reset to an ED 2.0. On the surface, all the player assets will hopefully just be transferred or translated into whatever combo of spacelegs plus current ED world it'll end up being.
 
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Dagwit

Dagwit
I've been wondering the same thing since they announced the delay of the paid update. Certainly, since I've been in the game, recurring bugs that Frontier seems unable to nail down in their coffins have been an equally recurring theme of these forums, so it's hard to deny that there's a need for it.

Then, as others have already pointed out in other threads, it's likely that Frontier would really like to have something nicely shiny and fresh for the release of the next-gen consoles.

Which would explain why we won't even get much content that wouldn't involve additional programming - it'll be (nearly) all hands on deck to make ready for 2020.
 

Wobblin-Gobblin

Wobblin-Gobblin
Is this the new franchise they've wanted to announce in the beginning of 2019?

Ok, but what about ice-planets and fleet-carriers? Will they release them in 2019, or have we to wait until 2020 aswell?
 
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Watcher

W
I wouldn't be surprised if there was an aspect of refactoring to support future content plans, that makes sense in most cases if you have long term plans. I tend to think they do and I guess this more or less a good time to get on with that more while they are doing other things.

Still, I also wouldn't want to underestimate the difficulty of adding in something like space legs either - I'm sure there all sorts of exciting technical issues but to be honest I suspect the design and balancing issue might be much more thorny.

Between the two a long wait seems reasonable if annoying.

If we don't get space legs I'm not quite sure what else would justify such a long delay - no single feature stands out to me as likely, though a combination of several less weighty things could.
I suppose if they really did do a large scale rewrite that didn't add much on top but structured things better that could take a long time too - though whether the payoff with all the subsequent anger would be worth it would be questionable.
 

Watcher

W
Wobblin-Gobblin said:
Is this the new franchise they've wanted to announce in the beginning of 2019?

Ok, but what about ice-planets and fleet-carriers? Will they release them in 2019, or have we to wait until 2020 aswell?
Click to expand...

If they are looking towards a new way of doing planets and this is part of the larger feature addition then I that could be pushed further out - it would make sense if they did something like a whole new planet handling layer with, for instance, deformable terrain. At that point why spend effort releasing something you know you are going to replace soon.

I could see fleet carriers coming in as a thing towards the end of the year, might be a nice layer on top of what they are planning with impoving early game experimence and perhaps wants people to get involved in squadrons. Same again though as above, if it strongly interacts with the new features in next years release I guess we won't be getting that either.

I'll be keenly waiting for more news.
 

mpfj

mpfj
I hate to think how much "working" code I've ripped out and had to re-write just to add support for new features.

I've no idea what the SLOC count is on a project the size of ED, but I bet it's quite large so any amount of re-coding would be quite an undertaking, so a 2020 release seems quite reasonable.

As an LEP holder, I'm looking forward to whatever next year brings ... I've a long list of things still to do in ED so I'll be busy till then anyway.

Fly safe o7
 

Tarman

Tarman
crushdepth said:
Nah it's the Fox Mulder Effect: I want to believe. But I don't.
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We could always try the mythical "Rational Person" Effect and not fall off into extremism in either the positive or negative direction.



>___>


Who am I kidding, no we can't. Prepare for endless days of white knights and bittervets spending most of their time arguing about stuff they all pulled out of their rear thruster assemblies to suit their agendas.
 

Ignition

I
Maybe they didn't even know what to do with game? They never told us what was going to be, they only said it was going to be exciting as usual.
 

VR SenseiMatty

VR SenseiMatty
I speculate for a new Cobra Engine... It was not possible to make atmospheric planets on the existing one.. They realized that developing the new icr planets. That's why also ice planets have been post poned
 

RamirezKurita

R
Hopefully, this is the case. There's so much potential in the game's overall design that is seemingly held back by shortcuts and engine limitations.

If they can get around to a comprehensive rebalance at the same time (easier than it sounds, as they are typically done by separate teams), then I'll be pretty happy with what's coming. Beyond has helped somewhat with regards to fixing issues, but outside a few core improvements the bulk of it has simply been just bolting on more unbalanced content rather than actually fixing and improving the core game.
 

TheSisko

TheSisko
SenseiMatty said:
I speculate for a new Cobra Engine... It was not possible to make atmospheric planets on the existing one.. They realized that developing the new icr planets. That's why also ice planets have been post poned
Click to expand...

I'd love to see a DX12 version of the Cobra Engine (assuming its using DX11 on PC/Xbox).

RamirezKurita said:
Hopefully, this is the case. There's so much potential in the game's overall design that is seemingly held back by shortcuts and engine limitations.

If they can get around to a comprehensive rebalance at the same time (easier than it sounds, as they are typically done by separate teams), then I'll be pretty happy with what's coming. Beyond has helped somewhat with regards to fixing issues, but outside a few core improvements the bulk of it has simply been just bolting on more unbalanced content rather than actually fixing and improving the core game.
Click to expand...

I sometimes wonder if the code for say, mission rewards hasn't been documented and has been coded by former developers at Frontier. It would explain all the times that rewards have just been thrown out of whack for game activities. I still remember haulage mission rewards being decimated after an update and we had to wait several weeks for a fix. Or when EFCs stopped being rewarded from factions. That wasn't fixed until the next big update.

If code re-factoring can fix issues like that - permanently - than I'm all for it.
 
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Marklar_

Marklar_
Re-writing the code base would be about the only good reason to delay other development for that long, I agree with that much.

But there isn't even the slightest hint that they are doing so. If they were, there's no reason why they wouldn't say so, it would calm some of the concern and it's not as if players would be able to look under the hood at the code to make sure FD actually did their homework. They said nothing about any major backend work, just vague promises about future content.
 

racer1

racer1
As a contract software dev for the last 20 years I can tell you companies don't do whole sale re-writes. It makes no sense in any large code base you end with the same old issues back again. People will tell you they could have done this and that, hindsight is a wonderful thing ;)

My guess, they're doing either full on legs or full on dino theme parks on planets and for one reason or another they've decided the big hit will make more cash than the drip feed.
 
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