To me it seems your expectations were set too high. I do not agree that Frontier is to blame for that. I backed the Kickstarter and read all the updates and watched all the YouTube clips and in the end I got pretty much what I expected based on those updates. Sure, the game is not yet finished but they never promised that. After initial release there would be a proces of improving and extending the game driven by (or limited by) the popularity of the game. We are into that improvement phase now. So far I enjoyed the game a lot and the odd bug or crash or "nerf" (or whatever its called) does not spoil that. All "problems" revealed so far have been adressed and thus have driven improvement of the game. I'm happy I got what I signed up for.
Understanding the Negative Feedback
- Thread starter Rifter
- Start date
To me it seems your expectations were set too high. I do not agree that Frontier is to blame for that. I backed the Kickstarter and read all the updates and watched all the YouTube clips and in the end I got pretty much what I expected based on those updates. Sure, the game is not yet finished but they never promised that. After initial release there would be a proces of improving and extending the game driven by (or limited by) the popularity of the game. We are into that improvement phase now. So far I enjoyed the game a lot and the odd bug or crash or "nerf" (or whatever its called) does not spoil that. All "problems" revealed so far have been adressed and thus have driven improvement of the game. I'm happy I got what I signed up for.
Regardless of the amount of people not admitting disappointment, there are two sides.
But the negativism is getting way out of hand, people are just hijacking every thread to post negative comments at every opportunity. This leads to people getting tired of it, and FD won't fix the game faster if you spam everywhere.
Sure OP has a point and I think we all agree with him, but negative feedback and pure "crapposting"(the S word is filtered) because you don't like the game are two different things.
You can be as vocal as you like but it's not going to make development happen any quicker than it is. The negativity does, however, make it less likely that devs will come here or even wade through the torrents of puerile, insulting dross to find the few nuggets of constructive criticism that get swept away by it. If you genuinely care about the game surely it's better to be patient, constructive and accepting of the fact that development takes a lot more time and effort than firing off daily moan threads.
And really, there aren't as many people posting those threads as it seems. You can predict with 100% accuracy who will be posting in agreement on those threads, and it's a relatively small pool of names. Same as it is on every other game forum.
The bottom line is that we all know that there's a lot of work to be done on Elite, and it goes without saying that FD know it too, hence their albeit poorly communicated ongoing development plans. Endless, purely negative posts aren't going to change that nor are they going to make it happen quicker. It's a waste of time, bandwidth and goodwill that achieves nothing. It's not like FD are going to stop developing the game according to plan if the forums stopped being so sappingly negative. It would be better for the community if the forums did though, and it'd be infinitely better for the relationship between FD and the playerbase.
Take a step back and think about it.
The only reason I am replying to this thread is that it started politely and is (for the time being) retaining some sanity. I like the game for what it is but know it for what it is, an early iteration of what it will (with luck) become. I think part of the problem are people spending way too much time in game, I read a thread where one guy was spending 5 hours a day 7 days a week in it. That is crackers and I can see how it becomes highly repetitive doing that.
Indeed! This group of people who perhaps have not been playing games for so long, would form the bulk of the players, if they walk away there won't be enough £££ rolling in to keep the persistent galaxy running... which is another reason to dislike an always online mode.- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -
I did not back this game.... though I did play the last three Elite games... So my expectation was set by my understanding of what was included content wise from the last games. to find that Elite 2015 has less in it than First Encounters was a very large disappointment.
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Nope. Badly articulated rants are unhelpful, as they do not provide information that help developers understand what the issues are (especially where those issues are that he wants a different game to the one that FD set out to build). This gamesux help no one. The sensible points that the ranters make (and there are plenty) have all already been made by others in a more polite manner. I don't think FD lack feedback on what is wrong. What they lack are probably resources (everything is taking longer than they seem to have expected), and, in some cases, they probably don't know what to do as they may have painted themselves into a corner.
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
Some of the posters, maybe - all of them? Definitely not.
Given the number of posts prophesying doom for the game if "feature X is not included / changed / nerfed / buffed / removed", some players would seem to want the game to change to suit their own vision.
Again, not all of them. It is absolutely fair to say that the game is unfinished - read the DDA threads to get a taste of the flesh that could wrap the bones of the game that we have.
At kickstarter, my hope was for an modern take on Elite 2 Frontier.
That's exactly what we have so far, so I'm delighted.
As development continues, and more content is added, its all a bonus.
For those that say the game isn't there, well I've playing for 11 months so far...I've put in hundreds of hours...and I'm loving it. Perhaps my expectations are lower than those people. Perhaps i knew what to expect before the first Alpha was ever released. Perhaps I know the secret of how to get the most out of the game.
Want to know what that secret is ?
This video best explains it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QWqzRYU0gU
That's exactly what we have so far, so I'm delighted.
As development continues, and more content is added, its all a bonus.
For those that say the game isn't there, well I've playing for 11 months so far...I've put in hundreds of hours...and I'm loving it. Perhaps my expectations are lower than those people. Perhaps i knew what to expect before the first Alpha was ever released. Perhaps I know the secret of how to get the most out of the game.
Want to know what that secret is ?
This video best explains it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QWqzRYU0gU
Don't worry about people who are walking away from the game, silent or otherwise. While it may affect you, there's nothing you can do about it -- that's all on Frontier. I'm sure they'll be monitoring the player falloff rate, and they'll have to find some way of managing that should it look like a cliff is approaching.
What you can do is make cogent and (most importantly) respectful comments and suggestions about how to improve the game. Frontier aren't suddenly going to drop everything to work on a stupendous new feature that a forumite suggests, but they will listen to criticism about balance and make changes appropriately. They have a hard balance to strike - usually if someone wants the balance shifted in on direction, someone else will want it shifting in the opposite - but I think they're genuinely trying to improve the game for the majority. As long as it's kept civil and constructive, all criticism is welcome. Rants and moans quickly get filtered out and end up going nowhere.
What you can do is make cogent and (most importantly) respectful comments and suggestions about how to improve the game. Frontier aren't suddenly going to drop everything to work on a stupendous new feature that a forumite suggests, but they will listen to criticism about balance and make changes appropriately. They have a hard balance to strike - usually if someone wants the balance shifted in on direction, someone else will want it shifting in the opposite - but I think they're genuinely trying to improve the game for the majority. As long as it's kept civil and constructive, all criticism is welcome. Rants and moans quickly get filtered out and end up going nowhere.
I didn't say all of them... but you cannot deny the number of daily threads... BTW Love your Avatar!
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Agreed, though I would say that putting info out there about a planned FPS aspect tot he game, before they get the basic content right could be considered focusing on a stupendous feature.... We are not developers, so I'm sure there is an aspect of asking for something simple and it being far more complicated to implement, but as gamers we have become far more sophisticated in understanding what makes a game great. I just feel that there is a fundamental misunderstanding about the negative comments.... these people don't hate the game they love it to fever pitch... it's just they are very disappointed and emotional about it.
Number of daily threads doesn't mean much, look at CS:GO forums, most of the threads are negative feedback yet the game is one of the most successful multiplayer games out there.
People will always be negative on the forums and moan at every change being good or bad, thats the nature of it.
Philip Coutts
Volunteer Moderator
I had a thought last night and although thinking generally hurts my head here it is. Frontier (the sequel to Elite) was rushed out to suit the publisher. This is a fact that has often been stated by David Braben. Now even though Frontier was rushed out it still had way more content that Elite Dangerous currently does. It had far better missions, more ships, better military progression and yes it also had the full galaxy. So why then did David Braben allow Elite Dangerous to be released when it was so far away from being a cohesive game? It looks like the lessons of the past weren't learnt at all. I really worry about the future of the game and I'd really like to know how many people are playing currently against how many have stopped playing. Elite Dangerous is basically the original Elite with beautiful new graphics at the moment. It really needs more depth, better missions and "life".
There is a fundamental difference between successful and good. Pick any track by Kylie Minogue for example....
If you did not read the updates from Frontier during development of ED it was inevitable your expectations were off.
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
Flawed analogy... why not try... I bought a Tea pot but it was missing the spout and handle... I took it back and was told don't worry they will arrive at some point in the future... oh and you might have buy them as additional items.
While I don't feel duped (leaving aside the Solo Offline debacle) this pretty much sums things up. I'm an old Elite 84 type. I bought in at every level. I spent a ton on new gear to max my enjoyment.
But for all this to culminate in the release of what is no more than a 1987 game with 2014 graphics is disappointing. To then see the developers jump immediately on the ceaselessly revolving 'balance everything purely around PvP' roundabout is even more so.
I don't care what may or may not 'unbalance' PvP. Don't care. (And for the record - shield cells were not a problem, they were just an inconvenience to the minority who thought they should be able to blast everything in 30 seconds).
What I do care about is the wide empty universe, the lack of working social features, the almost non-existent AI, and the lack of emergent gameplay.
But what does 1.1 bring as new? Heat damage, nerfs and a station that moves using the Infinite Server Reset Drive.
And given - as Frontier have explicitly stated - the game is being moved towards a 'self-financing' state - I'm not expecting it to be radically transformed so yeah - I'm more than a little disappointed.
It's kind of fun to play for its nostalgic 1980's gameplay and nice graphics but there's not much here. With the limitations of the P2P implementation I'm also not seeing how it can ever be a 'real' MMO.