The dangers of contributing in the "Discussion" thread

I guess it's down to venting anger / disappointment / frustration or giving up. Which would the devs prefer? Do my EDD stats look like something FDev want to see?

The garden is looking good though :D

Wow, even Allitnil is playing less than he used to!!!

As for Dangerous Discussion. The contrast between this forum and the DD is great. Here we can have very civil discussions about great ideas yet rarely ever get developers to participate, but over at DD there are daily dozens of threads that turn toxic and terrible but yet developers regularly post in them.

For the first year or so after 1.0 I only posted here in the Exploration forum, never going into DD at all. Then, I think right after Horizons like a year and a half ago, Michael Brookes made a post somewhere over there stating that Frontier felt exploration was pretty solid and "in a good place". Obsidian Ant mentioned it in one of his videos and that's how I learned about it. Michael's comment floored me, and it greatly rattled my faith in Frontier and Elite's future. Back in the alpha days the DDF was full of wonderful ideas for exploration, a lot of them by Frontier themselves, and I thought the mechanics of it would gradually be improved upon and developed into an experience much more rich than what 1.0 gave us. Michael's statement seemed to suggest otherwise.

I decided I did not agree that exploration was "in a good place". At that point I slowly started becoming more vocal on the DD forums because they seemed like the path to interacting with the developers, reading it regularly and postng over there. My intent was to make my desire for better exploration mechanics and content known. Waiting wasn't getting any results, and I feared that maybe quiet patience was sending the wrong message to Frontier. I posted ideas in threads, made topics on the suggesion forums, took part in other people's discussions. Recently I even made my first video ever and entered the CTLR+ALT+SPACE competition with an explorer centric video. I've been trying so hard to get the game improved for those of us who desire to peacefully explore the galaxy. Even to this day I try to bring exploration's lack of development to the forefront in the most populated yet toxic forum.

I have no illusions of my one voice making a huge impact, I know how ridiculous that sounds. Still I've been trying because I love the franchise and I genuinely want the game to be better, to improve. I feel like Elite has the unique chance to do something special and different, to give space sim fans a chance to play in a way other than blowing things up and killing others. We have the potential of the entire Milky Way at our fingertips in Elite, what a grand and vast canvas to design truly incredible and immersive game experiences! Surely Frontier realizes their incredible position and opportunity?

Still, here we are, a year and a half later, and not much has improved for us explorers. Neutron Jumps are what I consider our biggest victory with development as the community rallied hard to get Frontier to keep the bug as an actual game mechanic. Geysers are nice but there is no gameplay around them at all. I've spent many dozens of hours hunting for geysers by eye, I've since given up as it's just too frustrating and unrewarding to keep trying. The mechanics of exploration are unchanged, planet surfaces are now more monotone beige with less surface variety than ever, things have not gotten better. In fact, I feel like it may have gotten worse over time.

I've started posting and reading in DD less, but unfortunately I'm also posting here less too. And like Allitnil, I'm playing less now than ever. There are nights when I consider logging in to head off and explore but can't bring myself to do it. I still want to explore the galaxy in Elite Dangerous, but the lack of gameplay and variety out there is frustrating. I'm starting to feel like I'm wasting my time exploring in a game that does not actively support and develop exploration, and I'm tired of waiting for the situation to improve. I've waited for over two and a half years, and now even multicrew, the big long awaited multiplayer feature, has completley forsaken explorers. It shouldn't be surprising though, with how barebones exploration still is after 2+ years, there just isn't anything for crews to do out there while exploring. There's barely enough for us pilots to do, except sightsee and take screenshots.

So to you Vorheez, I strongly suggest you ignore the DD forum, stay here in the Exploration forums and simply play the game, enjoying it for as long as you can. Treasure it while you can. Myself, maybe I'll ask Allitnil for some gardening tips...
 
I'm just staying out of it. I play ED and visit these forums to chill not to get "negged out":) Time to get lost in the creepiest deepest black i think.

This is why I'm cautious about where I post on any fourm. So many trolls seem to just try to make people's life hard and I can't take all the "X game is dying because what I want didn't get updated/etc".

I find I like the company to be found in the deep black, most of the people like me all alone in my ship :) hehe.

The Exploration section seems pretty calm so far.
 
Thanks for the link - well done, sir, well done indeed.

I didn't look super close, but there is a chance that some of your footage was taken at my current location.

As in, the planet my ship is on, within sight of where my ship is currently parked.

Now, the likelihood of that is zero, but it sure looked like it.

Riôt

Did you find the beige spot?
 
I don't see much difference there now compared to two years ago. A handful "players" defending their free-kills-game-play with the usual insults.
Frontier apparently thinks this is a good way to sell the game. Let's hope they wake up before Star Citizen arrives or Elite Dangerous will not get close to reach that lofty ten year goal.
 
Frontier apparently thinks this is a good way to sell the game. Let's hope they wake up before Star Citizen arrives or Elite Dangerous will not get close to reach that lofty ten year goal.

Frontier made a statement today that might signify exactly that:

We’re happy to be able to confirm that the next major updates following 2.4 will focus on core gameplay, existing features, quality of life and other improvements! We’re delighted to be investing a considerable amount of development and effort into making the core gameplay experience even better for our fantastic community or players.

So promising, so incredibly promising. Two and a half years late, but at least it's finally happening. Now we just wait to see HOW they intend to improve the game's core.
 
Frontier made a statement today that might signify exactly that:



So promising, so incredibly promising. Two and a half years late, but at least it's finally happening. Now we just wait to see HOW they intend to improve the game's core.

I don't agree that this is late in coming, nor does it really have anything to do with other games. The vast majority (or perhaps all) of the core components will be in the game once 2.4 releases, and it really would not have made any sense to start fleshing things out until all of the bases have been put in play, and work.

Exploration, Trade, Combat, Mining, Bounty Hunting, Piracy, Faction alignments, Power Play, Engineers (crafting substitute), Multi-Crew, landing/driving on planets, Missions - all of these (and more I can't think of at the moment, I'm sure) are now in the game, they all work, and are now ready to be expanded upon. It really would not have made sense to focus on this any earlier, and to be honest, I really think more planet types to land on should come before the fleshing out, but they probably know better than I do, so I'm going to wait and see what we get.

Riôt
 
Let's hope they wake up before Star Citizen arrives or Elite Dangerous will not get close to reach that lofty ten year goal.

I hear a lot of talk on the forums about Star Citizen but I can be nothing but doubtful about it. It is not going to be perfect at launch, just like Elite. That is even if it sees a release, I am sure it will but I won't really believe it until it is released. I am not holding my breath and I have to admit I have thought vaporwear more than once.
 
I hear a lot of talk on the forums about Star Citizen but I can be nothing but doubtful about it. It is not going to be perfect at launch, just like Elite. That is even if it sees a release, I am sure it will but I won't really believe it until it is released. I am not holding my breath and I have to admit I have thought vaporwear more than once.

I do hope SC will be released soonish. I think that would remove the salty part of the community, so that they can rage and hate elsewhere.
That said, I hope it will be a success too.

Frontier made a statement today that might signify exactly that:



So promising, so incredibly promising. Two and a half years late, but at least it's finally happening. Now we just wait to see HOW they intend to improve the game's core.

Thanks for the heads-up, I wasn't really expecting any news before E3 and wasn't reading the forums either. I wonder what that means beyond 2.4. Sure, core gameplay improvements are welcome, but I do hope extensions to the stellar environment (updated coloring, updated star and lighting graphics or new stellar objects like proper asteroids or comets, more volcanism and ultimately atmospheric landing) will come too.
Oh, and the Panther Clipper. ;)
 
Yeah the post 2.4 announcement is further proof that FD listen to us and even take on board the unignorable bile spewing from DD these days. I genuinely feel sorry for the developers, they do an epic job delivering the best space sim-game out there and get a constant salty stream of infantile bleatings from people who should accept that what they have is the best on the market currently.
Ref SC I'm doubtful that once all the considerable post release bugs and patches have been factored in, and also when the SC player base realise it will be exponentially more expensive to play in that universe compared to EDs then there will be quite a few haters rethinking their vitriol. Or maybe not "haters gonna hate" and all that.
 
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Iv no interest at all in SC. I enjoy playing Elite & hopefully will continue to do so.

FD's main issues from my point of view are the lack of information/communication with the community & the rate of pace of the stories within the game.
I certainly hope that yesterdays thread of Zac's is the start of a changing policy to keep us informed, but within the post there is still that reluctance to tell us what's coming.

That's what frustrates me the most, the promises of '...best is yet to be revealed, but we're not telling you yet...' & other similar comments wear thin after a while.

FD seem slow at progressing the lore of the game, the Alien craft & ruins are a prime example here:

The Alien ship lore is at 'glacial pace' & soooo long drawn out that after visiting the wreck sites & then being 'kicked off' a planet in HIP 22460 & now being locked out of that system, that is ridiculous Im ignoring that for now, I'll return to it when there's something to do.

The Alien ruins, which were first found around six month ago, still can't be finished (even after FD revamped all the sites, to fix the bugs) yet Tech 06 wasn't allocated to an obelisk - & to date it still hasn't...so we still can't finish it.

But what next?? is that it?? get 101 data scans & then go & do something else?? Surely not!!!

We are doing these to solve a 'puzzle' in a way, you wouldn't give someone a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle that contained only 50 pieces, then two months later gave them 50 more, then change the picture on the box lid, so start again....etc!! All the time making sure it couldn't be finished because one piece was missing!

I got fed up with not being able to finish the ruins mission plus FD's lack of communication. but unlike the 'third party programmers' I didn't withdraw my services, I went on a return visit trip to Beagle Point - I'm still heading there!
I'm really hoping that when I return in a few months time that I can then resume these two parts of the game to their completion, & maybe these '....best is yet to come...' features will ACTUALLY be ingame.

2.3 to some, myself included, was a disappointment, of little interest to my style of play & hasn't moved the Alien lore forward at all.

Some players then make to the forums to fan some flames!
 
I have been a little disappointed in some aspects (mainly to do with the lack of story line interaction and the ruins fiasco) of Elite recently - but I don't feel it's justified to write a three page essay "On what's wrong with Elite".

I can ignore the bits that annoy me and do the bits I like.
I also don't understand some of the player base with the demanding attitude.

I've certainly got my Lifetime pass (the most I've ever spent on a game by a long way) worth of game playing out of the game - anything else is a bonus.
 
Yeah the post 2.4 announcement is further proof that FD listen to us and even take on board the unignorable bile spewing from DD these days. I genuinely feel sorry for the developers, they do an epic job delivering the best space sim-game out there and get a constant salty stream of infantile bleatings from people who should accept that what they have is the best on the market currently.
Ref SC I'm doubtful that once all the considerable post release bugs and patches have been factored in, and also when the SC player base realise it will be exponentially more expensive to play in that universe compared to EDs then there will be quite a few haters rethinking their vitriol. Or maybe not "haters gonna hate" and all that.

There's always been proof that they hear us, but the announcement is somewhat proof that they aren't listening to what we'd actually like out of them. What we get is their own interpretation based on what they want to give. We were given crumbs when people are dying for a full piece of toast and some butter on top. It's good that exciting news is coming, but the news that news is coming is not news. If any of that makes sense. :p

There are specific things that people would like to see or hear and since they don't get it, they continue beating the salty drums of forum doom. I suppose it depends on your perspective, since an argument could be made that it's just the nature of things here and expectations should be lowered, even if for one's own sanity.
 
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