Incorrect. The 'new Era' stuff already was in full production since some time in Q3 of 2018. Source: FDEV. Now please don't ask me to link to one of the most debated posts of all times, I am pretty sure you can find it yourself...
The 2020 Dev Run: As Big As The Launch Run (?)
- Thread starter VR Golgot
- Start date
Option 2 on both.
4) They could release FC's now, but their customers threw a wobbler and demanded they don't add any new content before fixing a load of bugs.
According to the Lave radio podcast, 15 are working on the current game, the remaining 85 are on New Era stuff.
And pre-production was sometime before that.Incorrect. The 'new Era' stuff already was in full production since some time in Q3 of 2018. Source: FDEV. Now please don't ask me to link to one of the most debated posts of all times, I am pretty sure you can find it yourself...
The short answer to this is: Where is the money?
The fairly clear answer is: In DLC sales. That's where the resourcing is.
And that's why inability to deliver interim 'GAAS' content in a meaningful fashion doesn't equate to inability to deliver PDLC content in a meaningful fashion. Which was your initial argument.
(I'm on my phone, so I'm not going to go to town on sourcing and details here. There's lots of nitty gritty we could discuss and extrapolate from regarding company and dev strategy which might throw a bit more light on their behaviour. But honestly, that's the bones of it for me. The DLC is a Hail Mary pass. And their arm is fully wound back
)Oo interesting! Do you remember which Episode they said that in?
No, they couldn't.
If they could, they would and then they'd announce that they're concentrating on fixing bugs instead of providing anything else until the end of 2020.
You think FCs are ready and they're just witholding them out of spite?
"We had these cool new toys for you but we're not giving them to you because you moaned so much about bugs!"
I think it was at least 2 weeks ago now, it could have been the one right after the September update.
Well, firstly, I'd disagree with that - at least partially.
"The money", in entertainment, comes from audience retention and media presence in order to create a market for Paid DLC.
Secondly, again you seem to be missing the point.
It is insanely bad business practice to rigidly enforce isolated teams to the point where a product/service suffers in the short-term.
If a "big push" could have got FCs across the line, they'd have done it.
The only possible conclusions are either that FDev are indulging in insanely bad business practices or that they've been wrestling with FCs for 2 years without success.
Neither of those options bodes well for the future of "The new Era".
Incorrect. The 'new Era' stuff already was in full production since some time in Q3 of 2018. Source: FDEV. Now please don't ask me to link to one of the most debated posts of all times, I am pretty sure you can find it yourself...
Based on a comment by somebody who "left to embark on other projects", from a company which promised us FCs in December 2018 and then, again, in 2019.
Sounds legit'.
Also, if you're determined to maximise your assumptions about the length of time "The New Era" has been in production that's fine but, in doing so, you're also extending the time FCs have been in development hell, unable to be delivered.
So you are saying they are lying? Because they delayed something?
I didn't make any assumptions, just indirectly quoted FDEV.
I'm saying that it's unwise to take somebody at their word when it's proven to be an unreliable source.
You're making an assumption about the length of time "The New Era" has been in production based on what FDev said.... which, as I said, also means FCs have been in development hell for even longer.
It's quite normal for things to get delayed in development, just because they change their roadmap it doesn't mean they are lying about public statements.
The only assumption I made is that Frontier isn't lying.
It means that it's unwise to rely on such public statements though.
Which, as I said, would mean that FCs have been in development hell for longer than previously thought.
It really is no wonder that FDev refuse to provide long-term roadmap details, and as much as I find it frustrating that New Era is publicly a mystery, I am slowly becoming agreeable to their policy.
The amount of complaining and "FDev are filthy liars!" happening whenever the roadmap's few-announced details change, makes any premise of more transparency on New Era production (in full swing since Summer 2018) futile.
The amount of complaining and "FDev are filthy liars!" happening whenever the roadmap's few-announced details change, makes any premise of more transparency on New Era production (in full swing since Summer 2018) futile.
- "I want more information on future updates"
- "FDev changed their future update plans, they are liars"
- Repeat
Sure, in a GAAS. And there's at least a nominal hat tip towards that in the minority staffing being left on the core game.
They've very obviously made the difficult decision to let the GAAS aspect suffer to allow the full fat DLC to have the best possible chance of success. The 'suffering in the short term' is a deliberate act, with a deliberate pay off in mind.
The reason for this decision is fairly obvious. Seasons proved themselves to be sub-optimal, both from a dev perspective and from a consumer one. (Personally I think they're right, in the long term, to change tack).
I agree that there are plenty of 'bad practices' inherent in the above missteps, and we're still feeling the negative repercussions of some of them. (One of which was trying to do too much from the off: Launch a game with multiplayer + single player content & functionality, with dripfeed GAAS content drops, while working on periodic core expansions, all in a giant proc gen game build. It was too much).
Something had to take a hit. The GAAS aspect has.
You're seeing it as some weird contagion though. That because the understaffed GAAS branch is doing badly that the prioritised branch will also do badly. That's hugely simplistic, and ignores massive swathes of context. (It doesn't help that you're also trying to reinvent history to make your case. The Beyond Season clearly wasn't the work of the whole dev staff, as the giant hole in the middle of it, corresponding with the start of full production on the PDLC, clearly telegraphs. Stating that company declarations on these points are invalid just because the staff member in question has changed roles is beyond perverse...)
If elite feet becomes a thing, I don't expect it to become the main part of the game, unlike Star Citizen and NMS. Those two games, space legs is vital, without it, the games don't have much to offer. EDs space ship part is really pretty deep compared to those games and I suspect that elite feet will be an addition to what we can do, to expand on our adventures. Similar in some ways to the SRV but with much more gameplay available (the SRV could really do with some more).