What was the outcome of the Transponder discussion in the end?

[scorpyon]

There was this discussion ages ago (pointed out by a mod here on a different thread) which ended with a clear-cut winner from the community:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=12509

However, in the whole looooong time playing (and being on these forums) I've seen the debate about whether or not you should be able to spot human players at a glance on the radar rage on and rear its head on numerous occasions.

Reading through to the end of the above thread, it is apparent that no decision in any direction was made and if it was, no communication was given to the player community on the forums here - which is weird since they made such a big thing of getting our opinions about it.

Leaving aside points about FD's communication on some issues, I'd like to know whether this is still going to be implemented or not.
I personally don't mind either way - I can see some awesome positives and horrible negatives on both sides of the discussion myself.
But it's more that this sort of thing will change the whole feel of the game (for those that play in Open / Groups, of course).
So it's good to have some sort of preparation for it.

 

[Snarfbuckle]

Yup, I would actually like the ability to turn OFF the transponder.

If nothing else it's an additional stealth gameplay mechanic.

 

[AnnuverScotinExile]

The outcome was that there were a couple of polls and much venting on the subject. A relatively small crowd (less than 20% from memory) wanted things as they are. Those wanting no identification under any circumstances was a similar size. The transponder was the most favoured option. Sandro said he was leaning towards the transponder, and that we may test it out later on during the beta.

Then absolutely nothing happened, and we still have the flashing blue light. At the time I thought this was just the same 'running out of time to do stuff to meet an arbitrary release date'. The subsequent and more cynical me suspects that it may have also been connected to the push for the pewpew crowd, and ensuring they had targets.

The poll you linked to was in the DDF: It could be taken by some (i.e. those that do not like the results) to be biased. But there was a discussion thread and slightly different poll in the main forum: I think it would have been better had the mods linked to these:

http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=16260
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=16341

 

[Agony_Aunt]

What was the outcome of the Transponder discussion in the end?

Ping.

8chars

 

[deMangler]

I clearly remember those debates. I must admit to being amazed that what was implemented in release was the opposite of what it seemed was agreed by the majority to be the best option. Given this and from what the devs were saying I would have put money on the released version having optional transponders that were off by default. I think that was clearly the game FD wanted to make and thus is one of the glaring examples of how the released game has been shaped by exigencies none of us involved in DDF at the time were aware of.