Well now that the dust has settled, I must say that I was expecting something closer to 50:50. I guess the minority was just very vocal or the majority not giving much of a damn over it. However, I have a felling if this poll took place via Steam, it probably would be closer to 50:50.
I assume that all this backslash is probably due to overexpectations (mine included). Before the release in 2014 I simply got the impression that realism will be a major point in this game. Given Braben's interviews regarding star calalogues, artificial gravity by spinning and not some fantasy gravity generators, Roche lobes in the future and the FTL being the one thing where you simply just have to suspend belief, etc, I simply assumed that things like health boosts will remain in games like Super Mario. But I guess that I could have known since as soon as the updates started coming through after December 2014 release, FD has taken a completely different approach. Updates like CQC, PP, non-NPC Wings were completely irrelevant to me, so after a year worth of updates, except of a few more ships and better missions, I pretty much still play exactly the same game as I did just after release. As despite season 2 release, Horizons is for now simply collecting dust along side CQC. Which is a shame as I like to drive around so much.
It doesn't seem that much will change in the future. The roadmap for season 2 seems to me just like season 1 was, quite irrelevant for the way I play (crafting, non-NPC multicrew, avatars).
It would be great however if the planetary geology was made with the same scientific approach that exoplanets were themselves in the first place. Right now it simply makes no sense how materials are already refined and how tonnes of technetium which is an unstable element can exist on planetary surfaces. Planets are asteroids that have clumped together due to gravity. During the planetary formation, heavier elements such as metals sunk deeper and that is why they are scarce on the planetary surfaces - unlike the asteroids (A few months back an asteroid carrying 5 trillion dollars worth of platinum flew by the Earth). I think it would be far more engaging if we had to take geology more seriously to find expensive commodities. Utilizing detailed surface scanner and some planetary data like whether the planet is geologically active etc. Maybe hunting for metals by taking surface colors, fault lines, volcanoes, signs of erosion into account if they play any role with this in real life. And even then you should mostly be finding only ores and minerals in need of refinement. I don't really know as I'm not a geologist. But the refined and unusual materials on the surface feel way off from what I would expect from some serious sci-fi writer for example.
But as I said, I don't thing FD did anything wrong. It's just our dreams that are coming in the way. The game might not be as profitable if they did it that way. Masses of people buy games and not realistic space sims. But one can only hope.
