So, how are future features and expansions going to work?

Step 1: Get multi-crew ship.
Step 2: Find another ship!
Step 3: Disable enemy ship, shooting power system just enough so it won't work but won't explode?
Step 4: Your friends go EVA and break into disabled ship.
Step 5: Friends try to access ship - results can be either success or self destruct, depends on how good they are!
Step 6: EVA repair so you can fly that thing back to base
Step 7: Sell that ship/Strip parts/Repair and change owner in black market?

I can see this as DLC.

this....
 
Personally i don't mind paying for more content, but then i only paid about £60 in total on the game. I don't know how those who paid much more will feel, not as eager to fork out yet more money for content that should have been present on release i'd expect. My own worry is whether it will be done at all. If i may say so, i feel the progress being made on fixing serious bugs is slow, actually in the case of ingame texting it hasn't happened at all, so the thought of more meaningful content making an appearance seems ever more distant.
 
Segregating players away from such a large portion of the game, such as planetary landings would be a stupid idea. This was a core feature within the second game and is being offered for free by other games and engines - space engine have designed their game for it example and did it all for free.

As it is, Elite as a game is nothing more than a very polished beta - as such, people who have paid full retail price SHOULD get these expansions for free. This keeps existing players playing the game - it also gives them a feeling they are valued as paying customers, and it doesnt involve any more pay walls to get newcomers into playing the game.

Frontier can make enough money off selling skins, custom variants of ships that are limited runs, and in these expansions there are enough avenues for making even more money off customisation. Want to bling out your ships interior? can do a basic job with creds, but want some super swanky custom interior? money dollar shop.

same on the ground - if they ever allow building colonies, they could sel lpremium interiors, land vechiles etc etc.

People WILL pay for these. This is how planetside, mwo, etc etc work and make more than enough money. If Frontier are needing money for an expansion, im sure if they were to also ask for donations on their site to help with development, people would gladly throw more money at them if they market it right now the concept and engine have been proved to be excellent. I dont see why more companies dont do that, like os projects, and have a link where you can continue to support them for the sheer sake of it. Id gladly throw £5 a month extra their way to help with development. That would add up if a hardcore number would also do the same and it was an available option.

Just my two cents. I find this a much more innovative and better way forward for both players and developers.
 
They need to be segregated

Player A has landings
Player B does not

Player B Boards A's ship - Bork! Black screen - End Task
 
yeah, a playerbase forking over alone 3 or 4 dollar each month is a tidy sum with 300,000 players..
I would consider with planet landing and walking around plots where one can plonk down an hangar and store modules and ships for an monthly fee of maybe 10 dollars alone would sell.
Makes it convient stuff and the money will roll in, nothing that is per se an advantage, but make game play more luxurious .
 

Robert Maynard

Volunteer Moderator
They need to be segregated

Player A has landings
Player B does not

Player B Boards A's ship - Bork! Black screen - End Task

.... or, more likely (in my opinion):

Player A has the EVA expansion;
Player B does not;
Player A can initiate a boarding of Player B's ship as all players can move about their own ship;
Player B cannot initiate a boarding of Player A's ship as they have not bought the EVA expansion.
 
They need to be segregated

Player A has landings
Player B does not

Player B Boards A's ship - Bork! Black screen - End Task

No no...let's use this to drive sales instead!

Player A has landings
Player B has not
Player B enters player A's ship just fine.
Player B gets a lift down to a planet.
Player A kicks out player B on the surface and flies off again.
Player B are now stranded...unless he/she buys the expansions so they can leave!!

Genius if I can say so myself! :D
 
.... or, more likely (in my opinion):

Player A has the EVA expansion;
Player B does not;
Player A can initiate a boarding of Player B's ship as all players can move about their own ship;
Player B cannot initiate a boarding of Player A's ship as they have not bought the EVA expansion.

This is the way to do it.
 

Robert Maynard

Volunteer Moderator
yeah, a playerbase forking over alone 3 or 4 dollar each month is a tidy sum with 300,000 players..
I would consider with planet landing and walking around plots where one can plonk down an hangar and store modules and ships for an monthly fee of maybe 10 dollars alone would sell.
Makes it convient stuff and the money will roll in, nothing that is per se an advantage, but make game play more luxurious .

As the game has been sold without subscriptions, to introduce them for expansions would be seen as a betrayal of trust. Also, many players already have an expansion pass granting access to all major expansions.
 
I think the focus should be on 'working' first. We're nowhere near an expansion yet. Although in IT generally bug fixes are seen as features lol
 
Obviously you dont read. It would in no way be mandatory, it would be a way for existing players to support the game if they wanted. They could be rewarded with store points, to pick up whatever they wanted, as a thank you for doing so, maybe even some small easter egg missions designed for them.

The game as it is, is rather starved of content. Exceptionally fun, using your imagination and playing with other people, but content starved. If Frontier really want to see the game succeed, they will make the expansions free, so that everyone can board and land on planets.

But give all those customisation options for people to buy.

Then everyone is happy. People who havnt paid and only have the base game, get to land on planets etc. People who have paid get all the cool stuff, maybe some additional 'premium' features for those packs (passes for restricted bases on some planets etc so they dont have to grind rep or what have you). Frontier gets their money, from the supporters program and the cash shop.

The game is the better off as a whole, and retains more players for longer. What id love is for elite dangerous to be developed alongside star citizen and other space games and made better over the next 5 years in an iterative process that just grows and expands its scope, rather than hastily dropped for a sequel when locked expansions dont work out (which they really wont).
 
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League of Legends handles the free-to-play model quite well. Extremely well, actually- both in profit and system. The majority of the 'expansions' are entirely cosmetic (in this case, for an example, paint-jobs for ships, better furniture and whatnot once the walking-inside-your-own-ship-feature becomes a thing), boosts to fasten your progress or monetary gain etc.

I can't see why ED can't do the same.
 
League of Legends handles the free-to-play model quite well. Extremely well, actually- both in profit and system. The majority of the 'expansions' are entirely cosmetic (in this case, for an example, paint-jobs for ships, better furniture and whatnot once the walking-inside-your-own-ship-feature becomes a thing), boosts to fasten your progress or monetary gain etc.

I can't see why ED can't do the same.

No. No "pay to progress" please.
No "real life money to credits" either please.
 
No no...let's use this to drive sales instead!

Player A has landings
Player B has not
Player B enters player A's ship just fine.
Player B gets a lift down to a planet.
Player A kicks out player B on the surface and flies off again.
Player B are now stranded...unless he/she buys the expansions so they can leave!!

Genius if I can say so myself! :D

Hehehe - I like, lets hope they have A class Life support - or maybe an option... "Would you like to buy more oxygen"? Add to Basket :D
 
I'm not referring to anything unfair or game-breaking, merely something that slightly boosts how much money you get for x amount or for x duration. I don't much like it myself, it was just an example.
 
I think expansions restrictions could be based entirely on internal components. Planetary navigation for planetary landings, boarding clamps for boarding etc. If defending against boarding requires ship roaming option, let it be available for everyone.
 
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