[Video] Open letter from community to Elite Dangerous

[Lordxenu]

Can't say I blame him, some of the posts on this forum are complete and make me say mean things to some people. Poor Zac has to bite his tongue tho!

That's very true but Zac hasn't covered himself in glory (especially on Reddit) and whilst some posts are being directed at Zac the problems with fdev's communications started in at least 2015 and no one seems interested in trying to improve the situation.

Whilst this is an attack on frontier's ridiculous "everything needs to be a trailer" policy people are running out of ideas of how to get through to them and that manifests at times as attacks on people. There are some that of course take things too far (as I probably have done on occasions) but this is an easy fix for frontier they have 3 CM's working on Elite yet they only pop up from time to time with the odd comment on here and put on streams very few are actually interested in whilst dodging questions.

We are all free to jump to their defense and they sometimes don't deserve what they get thrown at them but for me, on communication, they deserve to get some heat from the community.

 

[cheesenbiscuits]

I believe they elected themselves.

In an overwhelming landslide victory i’ve Just elected myself as Master Chairleg!
The rules are simple,it’s left handed drinking,two fingers for infractions,no snitching!

 

[Ralph Vargr]

you have absolutely no way to prove this "fact" as the extremely satisfied customers are 99% of the time SILENT, and that 99% of the unsatisfied customers are extremely NOISY.

But, what about the other 2.8%?

 

[zimms]

I have to ask: balanced for whom? I don't participate in either PvP or PowerPlay so any changes that you want may impact my enjoyment of the game!

As I stated previously, this games strength is also it's greatest weakness - no one plays the game the same way .....

Everyone? Why do you think a balance pass that is beneficial to the "PvP crowd" would necessarily be detrimental to PvE?

Don't you think there's room for improvement there too? How many people use ECM, PDTs, chaff, xeno scanner, etc? Nah, just fill it all up with shield boosters and some HRP for good measure. How many different weapon types are actually being used in PvE?

Do you think making more outfitting options viable to add some diversity would be bad for PvE? Do you think it would be bad if the income from combat, exploration, trading, mining etc would all be in about the same ballpark?

I really don't like this "us vs. them" mentality, doesn't matter if it's between different player groups or players and developers.

 

[znôrt]

So the video and petition could well hurt future sales.

bingo! that's exactly why it prompted such a quick response. while you might disagree with some of the content of the protest and with a group speaking for the community ... mission accomplished.

since yesterday we have official acknowledgement from frontier that september release was a fluke and that quality and delivery need to improve.

no amount of forum posts, tickets and memes has gotten that far, so there's that.

Without future sales, it’s hard to see how this game can last.

which is exactly why it is so important that frontier get their act straight in the future.

sorry but however much i love the base game, this isn't sustainable, it's getting worse every arxing year and constantly fleeing forwards isn't going to cut it forever. this needed to be spelled out and by someone they really have to listen to: their own cloud of supporters. now if they don't remedy the situation then in fact there might not be a clear future for the game, and arguably ... why should there, actually? nothing personal, just business.

 

[Ezren]

"The following Commanders who fill roles as community leaders, content producers or otherwise contributed to these requests. "

Really? Who elected them???

Community leaders = really loud people

They say things like everyone else, but they do it and there's a picture and also ads.

 

[cheesenbiscuits]

Everyone? Why do you think a balance pass that beneficial to the "PvP crowd" would necessarily be detrimental to PvE?

Don't you think there's room for improvement there too? How many people use ECM, PDTs, chaff, xeno scanner, etc? Nah, just fill it all up with shield boosters and some HRP for good measure. How many different weapon types are actually being used in PvE?

Do you think making more outfitting options viable to add some diversity would be bad for PvE? Do you think it would be bad if the income from combat, exploration, trading, mining etc would all be in about the same ballpark?

I really don't like this "us vs. them" mentality, doesn't matter if it's between different player groups or players and developers.

Maybe worrying about a balance pass before a major update that could in all likelihood ruin the balance,may well be seen as a wasted effort.

 

[Ian Skippy]

Everyone? Why do you think a balance pass that beneficial to the "PvP crowd" would necessarily be detrimental to PvE?

Don't you think there's room for improvement there too? How many people use ECM, PDTs, chaff, xeno scanner, etc? Nah, just fill it all up with shield boosters and some HRP for good measure. How many different weapon types are actually being used in PvE?

Do you think making more outfitting options viable to add some diversity would be bad for PvE? Do you think it would be bad if the income from combat, exploration, trading, mining etc would all be in about the same ballpark?

I really don't like this "us vs. them" mentality, doesn't matter if it's between different player groups or players and developers.

Actually, plenty of people do NOT want a balanced, dynamic game with plenty of choices and variety. Many LOVE the concept of a simple to follow meta leading to a godship that you can use to crush swarms of NPCs while drunk. For example, to make PvP be even remotely non-stupid ships need to be (bear with me) destructible even if the cmdr flying it would rather keep it in one piece. In other words, there needs to be a fail-state that can be triggered.

But many players dont want a fail-state. They want to grind to a cutter, and then just roflstomp everything else in perfect safety while roleplaying being 'CMDR Awesomesauce'.

 

[Ian Skippy]

"The following Commanders who fill roles as community leaders, content producers or otherwise contributed to these requests. "

Really? Who elected them???

The respective communities they lead.

 

[The Nephilim]

The respective communities they lead.

So their respective communities elected them then?

 

[Ian Skippy]

I know you love to belittle other people and always add a little condescension to your posts.

But talking about OA like he's some kind of parasite who only wants to enrich himself by (ab)using Elite is beyond disrespectful and stupid, sorry to be so blunt.

I'm no marketing expert, nor do I have access to any numbers, but I'm sure people like OA or Isinona have not only done a lot for the community, but Frontier as well and created some serious revenue for them.

Not entirely sure what the contradiction is supposed to be. You can be a self-centered person saying whatever gets the most clicks while also creating serious revenue for the company producing the product you talk about. Not talking about anyone in particular, just not following the logic.

 

[Ian Skippy]

Really? Who elected them???

The respective communities they lead.

So their respective communities elected them then?

Yes, their respective communities elected them.

 

[VR SenseiMatty]

Really? Who elected them???

They are not representing you, but they're definitely representing a community. You are free to call yourself out. Still a lot of people share the same feelings so they are indeed a community.

 

[Burke]

When you’ve got to the point that having a ship kit for the cutter completely breaks the game as you can’t jump, there needs to be more attention paid.

Is this true? Well thats just quality.

About this forum and how poor fdev dont post here cause of "salt" and other excuses. A street sweeper is paid to do a job. Sometimes he has to pick up turds, thats just how the job is.

 

[Bigmaec]

Actually, plenty of people do NOT want a balanced, dynamic game with plenty of choices and variety. Many LOVE the concept of a simple to follow meta leading to a godship that you can use to crush swarms of NPCs while drunk. For example, to make PvP be even remotely non-stupid ships need to be (bear with me) destructible even if the cmdr flying it would rather keep it in one piece. In other words, there needs to be a fail-state that can be triggered.

But many players dont want a fail-state. They want to grind to a cutter, and then just roflstomp everything else in perfect safety while roleplaying being 'CMDR Awesomesauce'.

Which isn't a problem per se.

Problems arise in a game that is undecided about what it wants to be. Be it either a CMDR Awesomesauce game or a CMDR Dangerousest game.
As long as it's not clear what this game wants to be, there will always be people disappointed.

I guess FD takes the road of keeping the game in that state, as long as both sides are still playing and complaining, all is well.
Deciding for one side would propably make the other side quit.

And I definitely favor complaining to quitting

 

[Viajero]

I've stopped keeping track. But I can say with 100% certainty that if these problems are persistent when the paid update comes along, my money will be spent elsewhere. FACTS

This is probably one of the most simple and honest ways posted in this thread (imo) to show your dissatisfaction with a product (any product).

 

[The Nephilim]

Yes, their respective communities elected them.

Ok, which Communities? If they're speaking for me, surely I should know who they are?

 

[The Nephilim]

They are not representing you, but they're definitely representing a community. You are free to call yourself out. Still a lot of people share the same feelings so they are indeed a community.

But which ones?

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Everyone? Why do you think a balance pass that beneficial to the "PvP crowd" would necessarily be detrimental to PvE?

Oh! Me! Me!

Quite simply, because the PvP crowd want buffs and nerfs to various things that the PvE crowd might be quite happy with. For example, why was Force Shell nerfed? Was it because of PvP or PvE? I don't know, but its possible that was because of PvP. I never heard of any PvEer complain about it?

Or other changes due to PvP that were not beneficial for PvE, especially in relation to griefers. Remember when missiles and torps were good? Yeah, thanks to PvP missiles are now a shadow of their former selves and torps are extremely situationally useful.

Also, PvPers had two patches dedicated to PvP balance already, and it appears they are still not satisfied, and you know what, i doubt they ever will be. It will be tweak this, tweak that, as new metas are found, and who will be the voice of these changes? Which self-elected community leaders will FD listen to? And then, FD will implement a new module/upgrade/change and boom everything will go out of whack again, and new demands for changes to handle the new meta will go in.

Perhaps what the game really needs is separate servers, one where they can focus on PvP content and changes and the other where they focus on PvE content. It would also solve the Open Only issue as well.

 

[zimms]

Maybe worrying about a balance pass before a major update that could in all likelihood ruin the balance,may well be seen as a wasted effort.

Maybe the two years of QoL updates would have been the right time to do that. Actually, we still have 8-14 months of those to go. Anyway, the balance pass isn't the most pressing issue, but just one example of the many things Frontier failed to go through with.

Actually, plenty of people do NOT want a balanced, dynamic game with plenty of choices and variety. Many LOVE the concept of a simple to follow meta leading to a godship that you can use to crush swarms of NPCs while drunk. For example, to make PvP be even remotely non-stupid ships need to be (bear with me) destructible even if the cmdr flying it would rather keep it in one piece. In other words, there needs to be a fail-state that can be triggered.

But many players dont want a fail-state. They want to grind to a cutter, and then just roflstomp everything else in perfect safety while roleplaying being 'CMDR Awesomesauce'.

True, but I think that would still be possible after the balance pass. NPCs would still be inferior to humans and don't complain about being given a plethora of disadvantages. There could still be low intensity instances with unengineered harmless NPCs with silly outfitting. Against other player, this mindset wouldn't work anyway and doesn't work now either.