What the new secret feature should be

[Cosmo]

Lately I've come round to thinking that the new feature can't be particularly big or complicated. It seems unlikely to me that FDev would have had the development resources to properly implement surface base mechanics, in between working on both the Thargoid war and re-tooling Power Play. I suppose I'm also scaling back my expectations in order to avoid potential disappointment.

If it is base building then this has been in development for multiple years. 2019 was the first time that we heard about BB. It was put on hold and not ready for the Odyssey launch in 2021 though. Maybe it includes access to a new planet type.

 

[Alien]

If it is base building then this has been in development for multiple years. 2019 was the first time that we heard about BB. It was put on hold and not ready for the Odyssey launch in 2021 though. Maybe it includes access to a new planet type.

You (generalisation, not YOU specifically) really should not speculate, it'll only result in being disappointed.

Also (and this is to YOU specifically) Frontier have not ever (as far as I know) mentioned Elite Dangerous having a player-made base building feature (if they have, and you know they have said this, please do link to a source, otherwise it is speculation). Frontier are very tight-lipped about anything they have planned, mainly because the rare times they have engaged with the Elite community, they have come to regret it, and that is our fault, not Frontier's.

Now, I'm not saying it won't be base building, because I simply don't know. I guess we'll find out on the live stream tomorrow. All I am saying is (and I know this is a waste of my time typing this), DON'T GET YOUR HOPES UP.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

You (generalisation, not YOU specifically) really should not speculate, it'll only result in being disappointed.

Also (and this is to YOU specifically) Frontier have not ever (as far as I know) mentioned Elite Dangerous having a player-made base building feature (if they have, and you know they have said this, please do link to a source, otherwise it is speculation). Frontier are very tight-lipped about anything they have planned, mainly because the rare times they have engaged with the Elite community, they have come to regret it, and that is our fault, not Frontier's.

Now, I'm not saying it won't be base building, because I simply don't know. I guess we'll find out on the live stream tomorrow. All I am saying is (and I know this is a waste of my time typing this), DON'T GET YOUR HOPES UP.

The closest they came to publicly saying anything about adding base building was in the early days when talking about deploying temporary mining stations, like the MB4 mining machine in Frontier I presumed.

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

Still think it will be cockpit cats. And if it isn't, it should be.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

The closest they came to publicly saying anything about adding base building was in the early days when talking about deploying temporary mining stations, like the MB4 mining machine in Frontier I presumed.

If you pick an implementation of base building which involves building bases but isn't what most players appear to mean by it, arguably the KS-era video where they were talking about Coriolis stations getting gradually constructed in response to player activity as part of the dynamic background counts too.

(If it is base-building, that sort of dynamic rise - and fall! - of systems would be the most obvious fit with the rest of ED)

 

[fennster]

If you pick an implementation of base building which involves building bases but isn't what most players appear to mean by it, arguably the KS-era video where they were talking about Coriolis stations getting gradually constructed in response to player activity as part of the dynamic background counts too.

(If it is base-building, that sort of dynamic rise - and fall! - of systems would be the most obvious fit with the rest of ED)

Was that the video detailing how community goals were supposed to work when they launched.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Was that the video detailing how community goals were supposed to work when they launched.

Could have been. I haven't watched it for years.

 

[Stealthie]

I actually feel kind of sorry for the dev's if they read threads like this.

It's all "ZOMG! We're getting base-building, ship interiors, or ELWs!!!1111" and, whatever they are working on, they'll know people are probably not going to be very impressed.
This year we've had a rebalance of engineering, SCO drives, 3 (so far) new ships and a total rework of powerplay.
Is it likely they've also found the time to cobble together some major new feature as well and give it away for free?

 

[amigacooke]

Frontier are very tight-lipped about anything they have planned, mainly because the rare times they have engaged with the Elite community, they have come to regret it, and that is our fault, not Frontier's.

I would suggest that, generally, Frontier have been the author of their own misfortunes.

The 'secret feature' reveal at the beginning of 2024 is a case in point. It has inspired all sorts of speculation for 9 months, informed or otherwise, specifically because Frontier sowed the seed.

 

[amigacooke]

Is it likely they've also found the time to cobble together some major new feature as well and give it away for free?

Whether it's likely or not, Frontier announced it was happening, and I think Arf has confirmed several times in streams it's coming this year.

 

[Shir]

Aren't they supposed to say something about it today?

 

[Stealthie]

If you pick an implementation of base building which involves building bases but isn't what most players appear to mean by it, arguably the KS-era video where they were talking about Coriolis stations getting gradually constructed in response to player activity as part of the dynamic background counts too.

(If it is base-building, that sort of dynamic rise - and fall! - of systems would be the most obvious fit with the rest of ED)

Keep saying the same thing but, much as I'd really, really like to see this, it's not really going to work without some kind of major "reset" of the bubble.
It could have happened at the launch of Horizons, giving us surface outposts to develop, or it could have happened after the 'goids burned the bubble, but that didn't happen (yet?) either, and it'd require a gigantic suspension-of-disbelief for people to just log in one evening and find that they're now part of a galaxy that's living (relatively speaking) in the stone-age.

It is something I'd enjoy seeing, though, because I like small ships and I'd hope that any such feature would give us places where only small ships could land until we developed them enough to build bigger facilities.
Maybe they could implement a new colony, like Colonia, and apply that kind of mechanic there?

 

[zimms]

Aren't they supposed to say something about it today?

No, tomorrow. Don't know if plans have changed due to the delay.

 

[Alien]

I would suggest that, generally, Frontier have been the author of their own misfortunes.

The 'secret feature' reveal at the beginning of 2024 is a case in point. It has inspired all sorts of speculation for 9 months, informed or otherwise, specifically because Frontier sowed the seed.

I Understand what you're saying, and to some extent I agree, but when the community spend months speculating, and when Frontier finally reveal it, the community has a mix of reactions from some accepting it to some outright raging [1] (less common now, but my point is that it has happened). That's what has caused Frontier to tighten their resolve to say as little as necessary.

[1] I have to hold my hand up here and admit, to my shame, I have been the latter in the past, but I am trying more and more to be the former.

 

[Leadfoot]

Still think it will be cockpit cats. And if it isn't, it should be.

Followed by the always necessary cat litter box for your space cat.

Just not exactly sure how you would clean it out though.

 

[HRDiagram]

Followed by the ever necessary cat litter box for your space cat.

That better be magnetic litter, as ships can accelerate to tens of g's, and that would cause a total mess!

Not the cats, obviously: we all know cats are immune to acceleration, gravitational or otherwise!

 

[Koma Pahu]

That better be magnetic litter, as ships can accelerate to tens of g's, and that would cause a total mess!

Not the cats, obviously: we all know cats are immune to acceleration, gravitational or otherwise!

So long as their legs are pointing in the right direction they will always land safely

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Frontier are very tight-lipped about anything they have planned, mainly because the rare times they have engaged with the Elite community, they have come to regret it, and that is our fault, not Frontier's.

i dont disagree with your sentiment and i know we as a community can sometimes be told something and hear something completely different however the above isnt really true.

FD have consistently over egged a lot of their features in the past only for them to be hugely dialed back by the time of release or delayed for ages, they have used vague wording for stuff and failed to nip in the bud rampant speculation, and for things like the voiced mission givers which were actually dug out of the released code in the game..... FD know what its players were like and must have known nuggets like that were sure to have been dug out, and yet they were left in there for players to find. of course people were gonna leap to conclusions about those!.

am sure there are better examples however the whole beyond reveal back in .... was it 2017 springs to mind with the amazing ice planet rework artistic target as well as fleet carrier ships ended up far more streamlined shall we say than the initial reveal.

 

[amigacooke]

I Understand what you're saying, and to some extent I agree, but when the community spend months speculating, and when Frontier finally reveal it, the community has a mix of reactions from some accepting it to some outright raging [1] (less common now, but my point is that it has happened). That's what has caused Frontier to tighten their resolve to say as little as necessary.

As you say, the 'community' has a mix of reactions, so it's not really fair to blame all the 'community' for the reactions of some.

For a fair number of years Frontier have been engaging my curiousity, but not really my enthusiasm. I'm interested in what emerges from the upcoming livestream, but am unlikely to do anything about it. Unless it's really good of course

 

[Ian Doncaster]

FD have consistently over egged a lot of their features in the past only for them to be hugely dialed back by the time of release or delayed for ages,

they have used vague wording for stuff

These are two legs of the "can't win" stool for Frontier communication, of course.

• If they give us detail about what's coming, more than a few months in advance of release, it will be wrong on content or timescale or both.
• If they don't give us detail and just give us single-phrase headlines, players will make up something wrong on content or timescale or both to fill the gap, then complain when the reality is different.
• If they say nothing about what's coming, players criticise them for a lack of roadmap and panic that this means the game is about to shut down

They change which one they use from time to time to see if it will help and I think the current balance is a lot better than it has been historically.

and failed to nip in the bud rampant speculation

If Frontier went around shutting down wrong speculation about coming features ... the CMs wouldn't have time to do anything else more useful; the few times they've done this it hasn't stopped mega-threads of "yes, but you're wrong, here's why it should be implemented"; and it'd be really easy for players to narrow down what they were planning through what they didn't deny, which defeats the point.

and for things like the voiced mission givers which were actually dug out of the released code in the game..... FD know what its players were like and must have known nuggets like that were sure to have been dug out, and yet they were left in there for players to find.

That bit's fair enough, I think.
1) Digging that stuff out is against the EULA, and not merely in a technical "we could under the literal wording ban for that but obviously it's a normal part of gameplay" way, but something Frontier actually doesn't want players to do. Leaving a bunch of red herrings in for that sort of player probably isn't a deliberate strategy but I'm sure Frontier sheds no tears over their "predictions" being wrong almost every time.
2) There's far less incentive for them to ensure things that won't be in the game (tried it, didn't work/not fun/whatever) get cleaned out of releases than things which later will. Given the choice between a "data miner" finding out about the Mandalay and them discovering a few traces of the (abandoned) Puma Clipper or whatever, one needs far more care than the other.