Reading comments about the future of ED, one comment stood out like a sore thumb for me:
"A number of the visitors put some STRONG pressure on frontier on various matters on behalf of wider player audience..."
Obviously we don't know what it was, or what the resistance was, but it's been known for a long time that what a large amount of the community wants, and what FDev thinks they want (or thinks they'll appreciate), are sometimes light years apart.
Take the original grind for guardian blueprints, which was horrific before FDev dropped the requirements to one blueprint per unlock after a lot of pressure: the fact that they thought that many blueprints was an acceptable number, considering what had to be done to obtain one, showed a big element of why some think FDev don't actually play their game or are always understanding of what engaging gameplay is.
There have been many times where FDev have live streamed and come across as really incompetent in the actual day to day flying of the ships, flying in combat, basic landing manoeuvres etc which backs up certainly MY suspicion that they really haven't spent enough time in game to obtain these skills and so, while having to gather 60 sets of G5, or tradable, mats to engineer that set of multi cannons may look good, or reasonable, on paper it's boring as hell in real life to have to do it.
So when I read that community members had to put STRONG pressure on FDev to get a point across, it's concerning to me because if FDev had played it as much as many cmdr's have - or in as many ways as the thousands of cmdr's have - perhaps they'd have some understanding of the frustrations people have when it can take a dozen hours of play to recoup the money spent on one cutter repair after one combat mission that didn't even offer a strong reward in the first place, or cmdr's who want a higher variety in missions offered because they're bored of seeing the same old things every mission board.
I really hope that the Q4 update and future paid content addresses some of these issues, as I love this game but am struggling to get enthusiastic about logging in again at the moment. I have some faith in FDev but when the commanders who have put the hours in and who have a valid opining seemingly have to fight like hell to justify why a change is needed, or a feature required, I hope - when the NDA has expired and we find out actually what these were - that we aren't having more unnecessary grind in lieu of engaging gameplay and the developers have really listened and, more importantly, UNDERSTOOD, what cmdr's want to see.
+Rep
Totally hear you.
In the end, FDEV has a vision for the game they want to stay with, and there are also some features they won't take on because they want to invest time on other priorities.
I think most will enjoy Q4/3.3, but time will tell