#support3rdparty - Why we temporarily shut down our sites.

[Miklos Atreides]

I would like to rep all the 3rd Party devlopers for their dedicated work.
I am using quite a bunch of different tools around Elite Dangerous.
I even use still those tools that didn't evolve for a long time and will continue
to do so as long as they will exist.

Please Frontier communicate more with those Developers. Give them the few things they
need. Speak to developers outside of your company about future development.
Raise Confidentiallity agreements where needed. and give them a documented and reliable
API they can build on.
Having the sustainable groundwork will give a huge part of the playerbase helpfull tools to
be successfull in your game end encourage long term playing and helps to sell at least
future content simply because 3rd party tools are helping to make the game fun.

Regards,
Miklos

 

[ShadowWolf Kell]

Really?

I wonder how we coped with FE2 & no internet...

(because we did)

And in 2017.... we don't have to play ED like FE2. Nor should we have to.

This cancerous idea that ED must be like Elite and FE2 verbatim is partly why ED isn't as popular as it could be and should be.

FE2 is still my most favorite game of all time. But I'm not inclined to live in the past. Not in a world with internet and Virtual Reality.

 

[Bomba Luigi]

I don't think they expect someone to be hired. Just a responsibility added to their existing role.

In the last 4 weeks I've had 2 extra major responsibilities added to me at my job, it's not uncommon.

I probably just have trouble to follow why the need for all the extra attention, I get wanting more info thats very understandable but such info can just be put in the News or Update section on the Forum and done. Lack of info sure is general problem.

 

[Monolith Preacher]

I support this wholeheartedly. Without INARA, I never would've met my Wing or gotten involved with the logbook community which is a large part of why I play the game. I found Coriolis through that site, and it has been an invaluable tool for keeping track of my ship configs and for working out what I can and can't fit on them, saving me more hours than I can imagine. Using Roguey and eddb has helped me work out where to find the things I need and again saved countless hours. together, these things give me time to play the game and a place to find people to enjoy it with and share our stories and tips.

I have long been an advocate of integrating these tools within the game's interface if possible, by possibly having a tab in the social window which links to the sites, but I am aware this is something which might take more hassle for FDev to code than is legitimately plausible considering their workload. That being said, it demonstrates how integral I feel these 3rd party sites are to the gameplay experience as a whole that INARA is my homepage on my internet explorer, and the other aforementioned sites are all on my bookmarks bar directly beneath my address bar for ease of reference.

tl;dr - I'd be mostly aimless without these sites, please give them some love!

 

[MikeSnos]

Oh great... another mob rule banner to rant under... It's not going to help chaps... really, it isn't.

 

[GJ51]

I fully support the development efforts of those who work on 3rd party apps and wish that FD not only cooperated with the developers of those apps, but also had an appreciation for the QUALITY of those efforts. FD should be paying these guys rather than locking them out of the loop as what they produce is consistently creative and of superb quality that on average is nowhere near as bugged as ED itself.

Without these tools, ED is half of what it has been. Having already gone through all the "content" I'm interested in ED, my only source of motivation to keep playing recently has been working on incorporation Voice Attack and EDDI into my gameplay. The only thing I have to look forward to at present is the continued study into these superb 3rd party apps into an effective cohesive functional complement to the ED core. Without them, I'm pretty sure it would be difficult to maintain my interest in ED and likewise demotivate me to continue spending in the ED store.

I have over 4500 hours in-game and really hope FD gets this right.

I'd further like to see FD put up options to import my history data from before I started using these external applications. I understand that this would impact server load and I am willing to PAY for this extra optional service. FD needs to think about how to leverage and take advantage of the huge number of players who use these applications, rather than ignoring them and the authors who put countless hours providing them to the community.

The ball's in your court FD.

 

[racketear]

I love Elite Dangerous, I play every day. I use Inara every day too though. Practically all of the members of the E Facebook communities that I am part of, use them when they play too.

While I have no axe to grind with FD, total respect as ever. I would like to see support for these third party sites improved if at all possible. They really do help to form companions to Elite Dangerous, enhancing the experience by joining some dots which aren't connected in game and players must sort out for themselves.

Please consider this request carefully. You know doubt feel that it makes sense to give a sprinkle of sugar to the fans who create such useful resources.

 

[Sergei Pavlov]

FDev, you are benefitting from the hard work of third-party tool designers, please include their needs into your workflow, as many other developers have already done.

 

[K-Rose]

It shows that these people can not be trusted with the responsibility to host and operate their tools without abusing them.
The current action is proof that these sites are abusing their powers in order to blackmail FDev - it's not a nice way at all.

Trusted with the responsiblity?

They created these tools! The tools are their children!

You're being ridiculous, they're perfectly within their right to pull down their websites.

Please explain how this is BLACKMAIL?

 

[Kai Calimatinus]

In what way would this be blackmailing? There is no attack on Frontier systems or property. To consider the removal of these free and non-official sites as blackmail is to admit their necessarity.

If they are necessary, the developers of the game should provide them the adequate assistance.

 

[Montrose]

With out INARA I feel we have no way to create/ have player groups. INARA and the tools that have been created to support the commanders bring so much value to Elite. Please support the 3rd party developers who are adding huge value to your game Frontier.

 

[Stewart_]

These 3rd party tools are great. It enhances the Elite Dangerous world, and user base.

Its a shame FD appear to only communicate in piecemeal. 3rd party tools benefit FD as much as they benefit the player base.

Hopefully this 'strike' will gain the attention of FD a bit more. Hopefully Ed will ensure things move in the right direction.

 

[Lorenzai]

FDev, please give this issue some attention. It's not that your game is unplayable by itself. That would be a lie, but Inara shipyard and Coriolis have helped me out big time. Unless you've gotten Elite rank in some category and can now get to the Sol system where you can see every ship in the game in one place, there's nowhere else in the game you can do that. No other place IN THE GAME that I'm aware of has that information. So yes, 3rd party developments have their uses and it helps us out.

 

[Jukelo]

I wonder, you think ED is playable without 3rd party software? I started to play without it, still have the sheet I wrote numerous prices on...
Of course, you may argue about the way they choose to do it, but who else but they themselves can draw a line and say: FD, we need more support. For me, the choice is like this: Without 3rd party tooling, I could not play ED, so I support them, just as I support FD in making ED in the first place. It is not a choice between one of the two: it is asking them both to work together, as they can not function properly without each other

ED is fully playable without the big 3rd party tools like EDDB or Inara.
Of course a notepad or spreadsheet to keep notes of what you have personally seen is handy, and tools that are basically glorified notepads are fine (see Genar-Hofoen's Captain's log), but the most popular ones out there go further than that.
The spirit of ED is that of discovery, that of figuring out stuff by yourself. For trade, actually finding a juicy trade route is half the fun, and if you take that out of the equation with crowd sourced information, then the game just turns into a grindfest (because otherwise the gameplay is a bit stale and simplistic). For combat, trying out new weapons and figuring out which one is most efficient against what, and fumbling your way around the outfitting of your ship was supposed to be part of the experience. Etc..

IMO the existence and popularity of tools like EDDB and Coriolis and the absence of these tools IG shows that a significant part of the playerbase simply picked the wrong game.

 

[Andargor]

I, of course, support this endeavour

 

[CMDR CPT. Boris]

Thanks you for these outstanding tools you provide for the community, I hope everything get resolved between you and Fdev, so we can still enjoy the best websites related to Elite.
I'm using these website on daily basis

 

[heavykick]

Hi

with our 3d party tools Elite would not be playable. These people fill the lack of functionality Frontier does Ignore!

Free API for free players!!!

 

[aDuz]

Really?

I wonder how we coped with FE2 & no internet...

(because we did)

 

[Rich32uk]

Fine time to hold not only Fdev but the whole community.. Why can't you just start charging for the work you do rather than asking for donations.. job done.

 

[sewie123]

Oh great... another mob rule banner to rant under... It's not going to help chaps... really, it isn't.

Well- keeping quiet doesn't help either. Squeaky wheel & grease and all that.

I give this whole thread a +1 too. Being a programmer IRL who's used other game's APIs to write my own code to make my life better, I'd like to see FDev give a nod to this service.