I always expect problems when a patch is released. The same will happen with Fleet / Personal Carriers and the huge 2020 update. Give it a week or two and things will go back to normal, usually. The good thing to remember is that we are not on a subscription model with Elite. You are not losing real money during shaky days.
I paid for a game I expect to be able to play... when I bought the game almost 2 years ago, it worked. It had some bugs but they were few and far between. And they didn’t break major parts of the game play.
I paid for it upfront, with the expectation that since the publisher would not allow me to run my own copy, and would not let me opt out of updates, that they would keep up their end of the contract by keeping me a game that would work, and was checked for quality prior to release, especially when new additions were made. I could care less about new material. I bought the base, played it for 5 months, and when I got ready, I then bought Horizons since I wanted to land on planets. I might do the same thing with the next paid update, then again after the fiascos of the April and September updates this year, I might not.
Anytime I don’t get to play it since I can’t log on, or the game becomes unplayable due to bugs, and the publisher forces me to accept this state, then I’m losing value. Like you said it might not be “real money” but then what is? I paid upfront for a service that is flawed beyond recognition to the service provided just 2 years ago.
And Dont pull that it’s “Maintenance Mode” stuff... Maintenance of what? Why are they adding all this crap if we are just trying to “maintain”? They wouldn’t be making all the changes if they were truly maintaining. They would have invested in bug fixes and current content to make the bridge into the next paid update. Not ARX.
I paid and I expect a game that works and is available to play whenever I want. Anytime that isn’t the case I have lost value in my purchase, no matter how much I paid.
This type of problem with updates is becoming so pervasive in the games industry with half-baked code, introduction of gimmicky storefronts, and lack of QA, it seems we are just to accept it as a matter of fact. It shouldn’t be. If I wanted to play “Fallout 76 with Spaceships”, I would’ve just waited until Bethesda let me buy a Cutter with Atoms.
