What can the devs do to help grow the population?

[badibeat]

Port the game to ARM based macOS or have it ported by someone able to do it well.
I can't be bothered much longer with Windows, and a hardware update is due which will no longer allow me to run Windows natively.
Apple has now highly efficient systems on a chip which are capable to eat a chunk out of the console and VR markets.
The API will probably become more uniform across devices.

 

[badibeat]

I ...

Why is your Avatar wearing the hat on the top? Falling out of character, that is. (Mine has just lost orientation.)

 

[Bottom Hat]

Why is your Avatar wearing the hat on the top? Falling out of character, that is. (Mine has just lost orientation.)

You make a very troubling point, so I'm just going to declare it to be a split personality!

 

[badibeat]

You make a very troubling point, so I'm just going to declare it to be a split personality!

Your avatar appeared to be more happy with a nice bottle of whiskey anyway ; ) The hat is probably not fitting or itching.

 

[Bottom Hat]

Your avatar appeared to be more happy with a nice bottle of whiskey anyway ; ) The hat is probably not fitting or itching.

You can tell from there?!

I'm sober in this family album shot.

 

[badibeat]

I'm sober in this family album shot.

Well, that explains it.

 

[Kotoku]

But you're still here...?

Because I pop back in every so often to check how the progress is, to see if it's worth reinstalling.
At the moment, not.

Who are you anyway, the uninstall police? Who died and made you that?
Once you've uninstalled (for whatever reasons, there are many) you're not allowed to check progress or post on the forums?
Some of us who have done that might even have more experience than you in ED/EDO, and would still like to see it succeed (slim chance as that may appear at the moment, update 9+ with no end in sight as yet...)

 

[Frop]

Because I pop back in every so often to check how the progress is, to see if it's worth reinstalling.
At the moment, not.

Who are you anyway, the uninstall police?
Once you've uninstalled (for whatever reasons, there are many) you're not allowed to check progress or post on the forums?
Who died and made you that?

Did you see how he had the gall to feign that he meant it in jest by using the winking smiley? Absolutely unacceptable, I wouldn't check the forums anymore if I were you. They're never going to fix the game and it's only 100% toxic on here anyway.

 

[Bottom Hat]

Well, that explains it.

It's a rare event, even first thing in the morning

 

[Kotoku]

Did you see how he had the gall to feign that he meant it in jest by using the winking smiley? Absolutely unacceptable, I wouldn't check the forums anymore if I were you. They're never going to fix the game and it's only 100% toxic on here anyway.

Great example of self-referential irony.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

Without making major changes to the game, they could give Horizons away for free- and it probably would not boost the population by very much.

 

[NeilF]

Buggy release (beyond repair it seems!), minimal gameplay content, maximized grind. Especially on the non-combat front.

It didn't bring anything to the core game. It's a completely different, non-coherent gameplay loop that doesn't add to the core game but is a separate gameplay loop not attached to the entire game as a whole. On-foot gameplay is completely separate from spaceship gameplay. They could have made it a separate game.

Bring gameplay, not grind. Respect and add non-combat activities. ED is not COD or Battlefield and shouldn't become either.

Fix bugs, rebalance earnings, lessen the grind, give purpose beyond the grind's sake, make the game (optionally) more challenging for those who had been there, did it and got the t-shirt. Add more features that add to the core gameplay and do not open a separate unattached gameplay loop. Ideally add new activities that provide more variety that make sense for your ship but does not introduce power creep nor make your ship obsolete.

The problem is ED has been in that position for 4-5yrs now. ie: All too frequently FD have jus dished out delayed, half baked, poorly balanced, poorly managed bolt ons...

Odyssey - the biggest ever development for ED - just underlines all those issues are still alive and 'well', and surely not likely to be cured...

 

[[Cancelled Consoleer] boppa_]

Without making major changes to the game, they could give Horizons away for free- and it probably would not boost the population by very much.

They tried that on the Epic Store and it was taken up ~90% by existing players wanting a free alt-account. To generate interest for new players they'd have to do things I outlined in my previous post, like increased opportunities for multiplayer, the addition of cross play, a native release on current-gen console hardware, alongside a marketing campaign, etc.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

They tried that on the Epic Store and it was taken up ~90% by existing players wanting a free alt-account. To generate interest for new players they'd have to do things I outlined in my previous post, like increased opportunities for multiplayer, the addition of cross play, a native release on current-gen console hardware, alongside a marketing campaign, etc.

Difficulty: Re-write the game with an entirely new engine. Expect harsh reception.

 

[[Cancelled Consoleer] boppa_]

Difficulty: Re-write the game with an entirely new engine. Expect harsh reception.

Not sure that's strictly a pre-requisite to many of those items, but for example Frontier's newer games do appear to have native current-gen support from the beginning, and it's possible (not confirmed though?) that the differentiating factor is the version of Cobra in use.

 

[Frop]

Difficulty: Re-write the game with an entirely new engine. Expect harsh reception.

Oh yes, I'd definitely be miffed if they used some COTS engine with DX12/Vulkan capabilities.

 

[Christopher Roberto]

They tried that on the Epic Store and it was taken up ~90% by existing players wanting a free alt-account.

They neglected that Epic deal and chased most of the new players away, though. For the first 3 months, it was frequent disconnections due to fdev not handling renewing Epic's auth token, 19 pages of people reporting it. Trying to grind rank was where it was at its worst, you'd get a Scarlet Krait and disconnect literally every other mission. The people I joined with all quit because of it, and I had to account transfer to a Steam version to get past it.

That Epic deal did bring in a ton of new players. All the new player areas were alive and chatty. But a severely broken game with no fixes or even developer comments about when they planned to do something about it for months is a great way to get them not to stick around. Fdev pitches a "release and nurture" strategy to investors, but it's really "release and neglect".

 

[ebbrell]

Get rid of solo and pg

 

[Bottom Hat]

Get rid of solo and pg

Ooooh are you trying to stir up some mischief?
If so, good form!

 

[[Cancelled Consoleer] boppa_]

They neglected that Epic deal and chased most of the new players away, though. For the first 3 months, it was frequent disconnections due to fdev not handling renewing Epic's auth token, 19 pages of people reporting it. Trying to grind rank was where it was at its worst, you'd get a Scarlet Krait and disconnect literally every other mission. The people I joined with all quit because of it, and I had to account transfer to a Steam version to get past it.

That Epic deal did bring in a ton of new players. All the new player areas were alive and chatty. But a severely broken game with no fixes or even developer comments about when they planned to do something about it for months is a great way to get them not to stick around. Fdev pitches a "release and nurture" strategy to investors, but it's really "release and neglect".

If it makes you feel any better we've had the same experience on PlayStation ; a parade of game breaking bugs unaddressed for weeks and months, if at all.