Speculation on the new era

[VR Golgot]

Except - if it's just DLC like Horizons or Beyond, why not say so in so many words? Instead we get careful circumlocutions: 'a whole new era/milestone in Elite', 'much like Horizons was' ('much like', not 'the same as'), and as for Will's 'in-game content' that means no more than 'it will be recognisably Elite'. The most you could perhaps make of that phrase is that it won't formally be Elite Dangerous II.

There's something they're trying not to say, and I can't be sure what that is, but I'm pretty certain it's not, "Oh, it's just another DLC."

Short answer: It's primarily down to the shift from Seasons, I reckon. They just didn't have a term for what the new delivery system is. (They didn't want to just say 'big DLC', as that can still be mistaken for the flagship, but smaller, 2.1 style chapters of the past).

Longer answer: It seems they were also still deciding its internal form. IE I don't reckon they knew themselves how long the dev run was going to be (Zak talks about aspects of the roadmap still being in flux internally etc). How they were going to handle tide-over material etc. (Events would seem to concur with that . Or at least, I'm suspicious that Carriers were pushed from Beyond purely to act as a carrot in the interim. And then shuffled around further as big picture plans continued to change).

The way they suddenly firmed up the delivery target to 'end' of 2020 when the PS5 launch was confirmed for Winter is suggestive that they'd hitched their wagon to that horse too. (By the time of Zak's post I suspect this was still up for debate. By the time of Will's 'second half of 2020' post I suspect they'd made their decisions).

Possibly they didn't even know if they were going to deliver it as one lump DLC, or 2 big ones, or whatever.

Essentially, at the time of Zak's post I suspect they were still deciding just how big they were going to go. (It seems they decided to go big )

TLDR: They were still shifting to the non-Seasonal format. They were fuzzy on some of the details internally. The language was correspondingly fuzzy.

 

[rp198419]

My guess is that lots of people will be very disappointed.
Source: Experience.

Totally agree.

 

[rp198419]

I still believe that "100 people working on E: D" quote includes the cleaning women, doorman, HR department and the 50 people working in PR.

If I could rep you twice, I would.

 

[Babellon]

I think they'll release a huge trailer showing us stuff, put some threads on forums telling us as little about it as possible while vaguely hinting at a "surprise" on streams..Generate a bunch of sales on the hype maybe get a few old players back in anticipation, then delay everything while promising " its going to be huge, like really really huge, you cant imagine how big its going to be"...

 

[Dagwit]

Golgot, you make a good argument. But did they forgo two years of income from paid content because they couldn't decide how to package it? Or was it because they were having trouble making ice planets and whatever else was supposed to be in the 2018 paid content work on current platforms? As you say, they've hitched their wagon to the launch of the new-gen consoles. The question is: did they choose to or did they have to?

 

[Noddie]

To be brutally honest. I think Elite has more important things to do. The multiplayer experience is utter crap. Basically it doesn't work because the game was designed as a single-player game and multiplayer sort-of bodged on afterwards. It's buggy, vulnerable and generally a bad experience all around. My experience of it so far is that it's a rubber-banding, crashing horrible experience. As for multi-crew...………….. As for the AI co-pilots...……. As for powerplay...…..

Quite a lot of stuff feels very, very "placeholder". Like the way only the anaconda gets Damage modelling.

I'd forget all about the "new era" and try to fix the existing stuff first. At the moment it often feels like one of those episodes of kitchen nightmares where some Kebab van owner and his mate have set up shop as a "boutique dining experience", and Gordon is pointing out that their food is nasty, the décor is a 1980s greasy spoon, the wait staff rude and over-bearing and they haven't actually worked out that the "dining experience" would cost more than it costs to supply IF anyone ever went into the place in little-place-on-the-hill, population 200..... And the owner has just rented a place in the next village to open his next branch and bought himself a brand new BMW to celebrate this...

 

[Deleted member 38366]

[...]
For this reason alone I think the FC delay is worth it - give us some meaningful content and game play

...if only... Players hadn't been waiting for that since 5 years now in our dead, static and scripted Galaxy wirh its mere few Tourist attractions.

It's still possible, got to give it that.
But why - and how - would or could the same Team and Decisionmakers that got us the infamous half-baked Features, very poor Balancing, underdeveloped MultiPlayer (and Bugs) suddenly realize such a dramatic improvement ?

I'd say with that Track Record, that assumption falls miles deep into the realms of wishful thinking (and that'd be an understatement).

Beyond btw. was already supposed to deliver that... and we all know how that went.
It's almost like a Deja-vu - except the "wait for the exciting future" delay tactic is now called "New era".

At this point, it'd almost qualify as "Insanity" - witnessing the exact same Problems and negative Moments over and over and over again... and expecting things to change. That is crazy.

 

[[PS4] Filthymick420]

My guess is fleet carries will be further delayed and eventually released with the next paid dlc instead of being part of the current one we're on.

 

[[PS4] Filthymick420]

I feel like I'm the only one who, after 5 years, thinks instead of trying new players for the current game they should be working on a new Elite ?

I've questioned for the past few years how what we see being released for this game infers 100 people working on it... I have trouble seeing it...

Maybe they're trying to work the "room full of chimpanzees with a typewriter eventually writing Shakespeare" theory to see if it would work with computer games lmao

 

[xzanfr]

We know that AX conflict zones have been removed. The Thargoids have changed tact and fleet Carriers have been delayed.
My guess is that frontier are going to combine the two in the new era - fleet carriers could be used in some useful way to engage with the common enemy - perhaps we will now be invading Thargoid space and we’ll be base building on Thargoid planets to establish outposts.
For this reason alone I think the FC delay is worth it - give us some meaningful content and game play

Imagine something that most players want - a combination of landing on atmospheric planets and walking around ships, stations and planets. Engaging with a living, breathing galaxy containing meaningful encounters with tiered NPC's and a rich galaxy full of stories and lore all written for fd by people for free / payment of £4500.

Expect half arsed landings in domes (stations on green planets) and a "vision drone" along with stuff no one wanted / expected like thargoid CQC, external ship doodleboppers and tons of other stuff for sale via space tiger tokens.

For a general idea, read the ks pitch, the ddf and focus feedback, then see what we actually got - then temper your expectations accordingly.

 

[robbyp]

I was here when the 1.0 was released without offline, without being dubbed, without most (my opinon) of the features being discussed in the DDF. I've been here when Horizons was released, and we all be hyped by the possibilities of planets and astronomical features that four years later, we all know never happened, being all stuck in the same rocks. I was there when engineers space casino and for ever grinding, balance breaking for ever, first iteration, appers. When the disaster of multicrew begins, when power play was bring to live and as CQC set in some kind of developper oblivion. I was in the fraud of Lugh and the lack of transparency and lack of consistency of "rol playing" BGS (because you are personally nothing for real npc powers in bgs and rules change by reasons). I was there hyped by the begin of the optional but only for pew pew Thargoid War, and dissappointed fastly.

Now, I'm not geting dissappointed by carriers being delayed because I know the problems of this game, and I prefer bugs being repaired (if Frontier keep working in its reprioritized plan). I won't get dissapointed when the new age will be released, because as with carriers, I have really low expectations.

In my opinion, the more you can enjoy the game as is today, the better for your sanity. ED probably will never be nearly as the game depicted in the DDF and surely never will be as the game people write about the new DLC. Because the history of this developpment is agains that. But is an excellent game, under realistic assumptions, and if FD is really fighting back the bugs, of course.

It's amazing you stayed after all that trauma

 

[Hanerib]

I'm not really seeing the developer discussing much about improving existing game features, or that much about future game features either. Maybe I'm just a bit bored and missed something. I think there was some halloween themed pictures posted a while ago.

 

[Ignition]

I expect to be disappointed.

5 years of development of "exiting" features is proof enough of the capacity of FD.

 

[Ignition]

My guess is fleet carries will be further delayed and eventually released with the next paid dlc instead of being part of the current one we're on.

Agree, they will cut content on the paid DLC and add the 2 year delayed FC for "free"

 

[SP_Predicador]

It's amazing you stayed after all that trauma

I stayed all this time, because:

1- the great Elite lore, even not well integrated in game
2- the magnificent Stellar Forge
3- here are some good friends
4- my space sim addiction XD

And of course the lack of real alternatives.

ED is a good game, even with its faults. I am not one of those who need to think (and sometimes tend to lie themselves) that their game is perfect, to justify continue to play along. I can play a game for years, known perfectly that is flawed.

 

[Mengy]

There's something they're trying not to say, and I can't be sure what that is, but I'm pretty certain it's not, "Oh, it's just another DLC."

Just look at Blizzard's announcement of Overwatch 2 yesterday to see the confusing situation Frontier is trying to avoid. I still believe the New Era is a core rewrite of the game to introduce space legs along with a cleaned up and optimized engine. Essentially ED2. Frontier wouldn't want to come out and say they are working on ED2 because it would raise a ruckus about people's purchased cosmetics, LEP owners, "why bother playing Elite at all now?" and such, just like what Blizzard is dealing with for Overwatch 2 right now.

Every update has been optional, The New Era included, which Frontier want us to pay money for. What are they gonna do to players who don't buy The New Era DLC? Present a black screen with white text saying "To continue playing, buy the New Era. Ta." ?

Again, look to Overwatch 2 to see how it could work. The New Era ED2 could be rolled out as thus:

• Free core rewrite of ED1 for all Elite owners, everyone gets the new game engine for free.
• All current cosmetics come over to the new game, just like Blizzard is doing with Overwatch.
• ED1 owners (who don't own the LEP) would need to buy ED2, the New Era expansion, in order to have access to Space Legs and player base building, for example.
• All future new features would require owning the ED2 expansion, just like Blizzard is gating all future Overwatch content behind the OW2 purchase.

I think the New Era is Elite Dangerous 2, but it's essentially an expansion (possibly with space legs & base building) to buy for the newly re-written, optimized, and improved Elite Dangerous we have now.

Overwatch 2 is a real live example of what I've been describing for Elite's New Era.

 

[[PS4] Filthymick420]

Wouldn't a new game be easier than a core rewrite? I can't imagine all the bugs a Core rewrite would introduce. maybe in 15 years will have a game with all the patches introduced to it

 

[Patrick_68000]

Wouldn't a new game be easier than a core rewrite? I can't imagine all the bugs are Core rewrite would introduce. maybe in 15 years will have a game with all the patches introduced to it

Difficult to know.

It would surely be a gigantic job again.

 

[[VR] DDM_Reaper20]

Just look at Blizzard's announcement of Overwatch 2 yesterday to see the confusing situation Frontier is trying to avoid. I still believe the New Era is a core rewrite of the game to introduce space legs along with a cleaned up and optimized engine. Essentially ED2. Frontier wouldn't want to come out and say they are working on ED2 because it would raise a ruckus about people's purchased cosmetics, LEP owners, "why bother playing Elite at all now?" and such, just like what Blizzard is dealing with for Overwatch 2 right now.



Again, look to Overwatch 2 to see how it could work. The New Era ED2 could be rolled out as thus:

• Free core rewrite of ED1 for all Elite owners, everyone gets the new game engine for free.
• All current cosmetics come over to the new game, just like Blizzard is doing with Overwatch.
• ED1 owners (who don't own the LEP) would need to buy ED2, the New Era expansion, in order to have access to Space Legs and player base building, for example.
• All future new features would require owning the ED2 expansion, just like Blizzard is gating all future Overwatch content behind the OW2 purchase.

I think the New Era is Elite Dangerous 2, but it's essentially an expansion (possibly with space legs & base building) to buy for the newly re-written, optimized, and improved Elite Dangerous we have now.

Overwatch 2 is a real live example of what I've been describing for Elite's New Era.

I wish I had your confidence. Sorry. I don't believe any of this. Yes, they stated we'd all be excited, just before postponing Fleet Carriers. (Which was, technically, true, given how excited people were to read about this . . . excitement needn't be positive . . .).

I still love playing ED. My only VR title. Doesn't mean I'm all that happy with the direction things are taking. Let us just hope that they stick to their word and release updates to reduce bugs.--

 

[shadowwar]

I would personally like to see no more Cruise Ship SPAM! Those stupid texts are meant for in Ship commentaries. Not for the airwaves and the sheer amount of Cruise Ship SPAM bugs me to want to stop playing. I probably won't stop but PLEASE FDEV CUT THE SPAMMING!