Update 15, the Upcoming Feature Rework and More

[EUS]

This mysterious Feature Rework is so mysterious, that it cannot even be whispered to us idiots.
It's like the Ark at the end of Raiders getting shuffled in some back corner of a giant warehouse.
But it's being "investigated", whatever that even means, by what is assuredly top men.
Top. Men.
Buy Arx.

 

[Lyamecron]

Well pretty safe to say, that this year probably only sees Update 15 and 16 at best.

I was honestly pretty excited for the feature overhaul, as the last times there was one - features turned from silver to gold (mining etc.). Pretty disappointing to hear that there probably wont be any significant revelations and developments until mid 2024.

 

[Old Duck]

This mysterious Feature Rework is so mysterious, that it cannot even be whispered to us idiots.
It's like the Ark at the end of Raiders getting shuffled in some back corner of a giant warehouse.
But it's being "investigated", whatever that even means, by what is assuredly top men.
Top. Men.
Buy Arx.

A little late to that reference, LOL.

 

[EUS]

A little late to that reference, LOL.

I wrote it when perusing pg1, after which I came across your post, and swore repeatedly at you under my breath.
Now shaddap and buy Arx.

 

[Roppard]

I hope the bug with broken multicrew between Oddysey and Horizons players, even when the Odyssey player starts in Horizons mode will be resolved in this update. Got some friends without Oddysey that I would like to play with again... There are multiple issues for that already, one of them https://issues.frontierstore.net/issue-detail/58284. Other than that, thanks a lot for the news, looking forward for everything in this game.

 

[Rat Catcher]

Ain't no-one said the game's "DEDD", amazing!

Be kind, their poor part-time ED dev is working his/her/their socks off already, while doing shelf-filling at Lidl and taking care of their aged parent...

 

[Scubadog]

Well, this just angers the heck out of me. No new Player Made Factions? And then using some lame reason like "the Thargoid War satisfies this goal"? I don't involve myself in the Thargoid stuff. I don't care about it. I live in Colonia for a reason. But to kill of PMFs is just a big middle finger to newer players who want to have a home they can call their own. There's no excuse for this, Frontier. None.

 

[rootsrat]

Had some more thoughts on this, following the live stream.

- Update 15 - I don't mind the delay. Honestly, I'd much rather receive it later, but polished than early and buggy.

- The teaser shown during the livestream suggests it's something to do with the Maelstroms. The previous news stated that we'll get some new gameplay. I am really looking forward to it! Honestly, we could some a little bit more info, especially that we now have to wait yet another month for this.

- I hope the delay means that you will be able to fix more bugs, because the game is absolutely plagued with lots of little, yet very annoying broken things. SO! MANY! THINGS! Are currently broken... (an update on issue tracker would be good too)

- Key Feature Overhaul - it's very disappointing that we STILL don't even know what it is related to. It's... yeah, just disappointing.

- No more PMF - personally not bothered, but I can certainly understand the frustration of the players that were looking forward to have theirs inserted into the game. I can also understand FDEV however, as the point where they stop it was inevitable. 9 years after the release is actually not a bad run for this feature.

- Awesome news about console transfers coming back! Many people will be happy about this one.

 

[Tetra Trash]

Pretty disappointed but not at all surprised about the feature overhaul being "postponed." Feela a little like Odyssey in a way; I remember when they were getting close to release and talking about the how the "sphere of combat" might work (remember that??) not believing how little they seem to have thought through key features so close to release. No doubt if something happens it'll be half thought through.

For PMFs I'd rather see them change factions such that it becomes exponentially more difficult to expand as you move out from your home system. It'd cull back the massive factions, open up a bunch of real estate, and make it harder for the big guys to roflstomp everyone in their path. But hey let's just shut the applications off.

 

[amigacooke]

- Update 15 - I don't mind the delay. Honestly, I'd much rather receive it later, but polished than early and buggy.

I feel like this, but at the back of my mind a little voice says 'it will be delayed .... and still buggy'.

 

[Ian Skippy]

Had some more thoughts on this, following the live stream.

- Update 15 - I don't mind the delay. Honestly, I'd much rather receive it later, but polished than early and buggy.

We have been here long enough to know them delaying a patch never prevents them from typically releasing a buggy mess. The news is basically:
1) Next update is delayed
2) The Super Big Thing we were about to release is something we haven't even began developing, and we wont until the end of the year at best.
3) No more PMFs
4) Automated console transfers are possible again

They are scrambling to fix their F1M franchise after the disastrous launch, the development of which was no doubt partly influenced by them scrambling to fix the disastrous launch of EDO, the development of which etc etc.

Btw, anyone asked how the completely new anti-aliasing system they were definitely going to implement two years ago is doing? This New Era of Honest Communication is really great.

 

[amigacooke]

This New Era of Honest Communication is really great.

It is going great. You're not going to be told much that's substantive, and you're going to be told that often

 

[VR CMDR Novindus]

Very disappointed the planned feature overhaul not only isn't coming in April or May, but now there isn't even a commitment for its release this year. Instead we might hear some news about investigation into a feature overhaul towards the end of the year, and there's no knowing when the feature itself might actually materialise, if at all, going by the decision for a prolonged investigation phase, as it's quite possible the result of the investigation turns out to be that the feature overhaul isn't seen as viable.

I'm all for development of a feature taking all the time it needs to be done to a better standard, but this sounds like an ambitious feature change was proposed, and after looking more closely into what it would entail, priorities were changed, or the initial idea has been abandoned, and now developers are looking for an alternative, which may possibly be a lower hanging fruit.

It's a ball drop to be sure, and not even accompanied by a consolation offering of something like new ships or SRVs in the shorter term, or something else as realistic because it involves replication rather than innovation.

 

[RooksBailey]

Once upon a time, this development news, such as it is, would have disappointed me. But now it is just more of the same. Honestly, this is what I expected. Delays, no news, and sunsetting features.

Update 15
Update 15 is set to build upon the narrative and unlock the next major stage of the Thargoid War. This will be among the biggest moments in the game to date and we’re excited to see how you react. To allow the necessary time for development and ensure the update meets expectations, Update 15 will release in May. An exact date will be confirmed closer to the time.

Yawn. Remember back in December when we were all convinced U14 was going to be about defending settlements from Tharg ground troops? And then nothing happened except for the Thargs becoming AI bots? Well, expect more of the same disappointment from U15. Honestly, I would be fine with such minimal development IF Frontier would just address the overwhelming amount of bugs, performance and balancing issues introduced with Odyssey. We are approaching the two year mark and Odyssey content remains in a late beta condition. But I know that is never going to happen.

Major Feature Rework
Last year we announced a major update that would rework a long standing feature. This is still being investigated, however a number of changes (not least the Thargoid War itself) have required our attention as a priority. We will share details of this investigation and our plans towards the end of this year.

Hard to be disappointed about a feature overhaul that remains unnamed, despite its announcement last year. Now, it is delayed and, even worse, being "investigated" by the dev team, something that suggests that when the feature was announced it was just a wild guess! If an unspecified feature is still being investigated about an overhaul, does it even merit mentioning? It might as well be vaporware.

Player Made Factions: Applications Closing
Player Made Factions have played a key role in expressing your will over the shape of the bubble. This goal is at the heart of our plans for Elite and reflected in the Thargoid War. Our focus is now turning to investigate how upcoming systems will allow every player and player group to have a meaningful impact on the galaxy’s landscape. This means we will be closing applications for PMFs, however we will process any remaining applications.

I've seen some speculation that this is happening because Frontier is working on an overhaul of the BGS, which will prove to be the actual feature overhaul. If so, with all the other aspects of the game that are limping along, this would be, well, a fitting disappoint from this game. But that's not it: Frontier is just sunsetting more and more of the game. I hate to say it, but that is the picture that is becoming clearer to me.

Live Mode as the Default Download
In addition to the above, we will be making the Live version of Elite the default download. This will encourage new players to try the main version of Elite with access to future updates while keeping Legacy as an optional alternative. Implementing this change will cause an update to appear for all Steam users, and Legacy players will need to re-download that version to continue playing, existing Live players will not require an update. This will have no effect on your save files, so if Legacy is your preferred mode, you can continue playing normally once it is re-downloaded.

Reduce, consolidate, automate: Elite: The Sunset Days



It's back to X4 and NMS for me.

 

[Old Duck]

Very disappointed the planned feature overhaul not only isn't coming in April or May, but now there isn't even a commitment for its release this year.

And a year in an online game is like a dog year, though I doubt Elite will outlive the average dog.

There is a pretty big update coming to Space Engineers in April, if that makes you feel better

 

[angusmadmac1]

Well I had lowered my expectations to what I thought was an acceptable level of disappointment and yet Fdev even fails at that level ?? Im thinking that with the numbers of people in fdev wanting to or are working on Elite is so low now that they cant even carry the "narrative " plus it's bugs ?
U15 I'm not too worried about
But they are still investigating the rework and they won't figure that out till next year ??
I wonder who they are going to blame this time ? Or is there another group they can cut ?

 

[Revelation_jeff]

As an indie developer who has worked in the games industry for more than 15 years I am continually astonished at the lack of transparency and effort on frontier's behalf. It's a month or so away from this big promised "Feature re-work" only to finally tell us you've not even started anything and you won't even tell us what you're researching these last year or more lol. That's absurd from a professional standpoint in terms of management.

I imagine it's only a very small team left working on elite dangerous at this point due to the low amount of content, lack of pipeline and updates planned for a live service game. I actually think with a re-investment and some tech re-worked with an actual content pipeline it could eventually compete with star citizen again. Sad times.

 

[thistle]

I actually think with a re-investment and some tech re-worked with an actual content pipeline it could eventually compete with star citizen again.

 

[Coehoorn]

Am I the only one who feels like it's cruel to make Bruce post this?

 

[Ian Skippy]

As an indie developer who has worked in the games industry for more than 15 years I am continually astonished at the lack of transparency and effort on frontier's behalf. It's a month or so away from this big promised "Feature re-work" only to finally tell us you've not even started anything and you won't even tell us what you're researching these last year or more lol. That's absurd from a professional standpoint in terms of management.

Before Elite Dangerous even launched Braben came out saying he was so sorry for the terrible communication, that it would really change for sure pinky swear and so on. We've been through a few of these cycles now over the decade. They cycle through community managers, they announce a New Era of Brutal Honesty and Transparancy and then the usual happens; lengthy periods of silence occasionally followed by corp-speak, vagueness, empty promises and such.

I imagine it's only a very small team left working on elite dangerous at this point due to the low amount of content, lack of pipeline and updates planned for a live service game.

Yes.