What will ED look like at the end of the 10-year plan?

[Lightspeed]

In 10 years you will interact with the game using a light-weight helmet that connects by wi-fi directly with your brain. Everything in the artificial world of Elite: Mind Control will seem real. You will be able to walk, talk, climb into your Cobra and fly through the galaxy and beyond into the known universe.

One day, you will take a break from the routine of shooting, mining and trading and sit down at a table outside a cafe on a distant planet, admiring the binary suns setting on the horizon, sipping a rare beverage that is worth every one of the ten million credits you were paid to smuggle it there.

A person disguised as a waiter will approach you and say "Thank goodness I found you. I have been looking for you everywhere."

 

[Starkiller_]

ED at the end of the 10-year plan:

Spoiler

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/830587/images/o-ELITEGAME-facebook.jpg

Finally the perfect game!

 

[LameoveR]

i don't think ED could survive for more than 5yrs.

 

[Starkiller_]

i don't think ED could survive for more than 5yrs.

As long as they bring more content out and fix the bugs ED will do fine.

 

[Ginrikuzuma]

-snip-

You don't know how 3d printers work do you that's the main thing I got from this post lol



in 10 years I expect more of the same.
You'll have more things to do, you'll still have people complaining how this game is mile wide inch deep or how FD failed the KS backers, etc. etc.
I hope to continue enjoying the game in 10 years but to be fair, 10 years can wear down many men (and women)

 

[LameoveR]

As long as they bring more content out and fix the bugs ED will do fine.

It's not about content and bugfixes.
There will be more games, technologies and other great stuff in next 3 years.
But, talking about content, not all were interested in last content updates.

 

[ShimEnki]

Going by past experience, I'd think it'll be a lot more advanced than we imagine. Consider that FD already went from 32 bit to 64 bit from the first to second season. That's a significant accomplishment. It might not show on the surface, but it lays out a generous path for future improvement.

In 8 more years, I think we'll be looking at a new graphics engine and huge improvements in capabilities that will take advantage of future hardware.

I'm also looking forward to the sequel, which I suspect will include support for personal holodecks.

Your potent and infectious optimism is appreciated CMDR..

 

[Privata]

Amazing.
EvE was made fun of when it first came out , and it became what it is today , if EvE with point and click adventure gameplay can do it so can elite.

Look at X beyond the frontiere to X3 albion prelude the difference is masive , I am expecting that sort of change but ten fold

 

[VR Golgot]

I allowed myself to dream recently... *warning* wonky fanfic

It does all rely on them steering through these next few years, but would love to see them develop some badass procedural tech to fill out the universe, alongside novel low-G first-person hijinks, 'populated' hubs, procedural life, and varied atmospheric planets. But each little facet of it is pretty daunting, and in some ways the results are subtle, and almost what we expect from a current gen game (just on an insane and varied scale).

Just take talking NPCs, an uber-normal facet of like, all AAA games. Voiced NPCs are incredibly hard to do at the scales FD are dealing with. I'd love to see them get it working though. If they were able to buy in 3rd party tech, or even develop their own in house, to create procedural human voices, they could then pile on insane amounts of text to underpin it. (The advantage would also be much more believable individuality for both random and mission NPCs, from everything from their voice tone matching their body shape to the aforementioned conversation variation)

Take those considerations and apply them to pretty much any other aspect you want to see improved . The sort of dreamscapes most of us would like to see probably do need a decade all told...

 

[Privata]

What i once hoped for:

http://www.igorstshirts.com/blog/conceptships/2010/wooten/wooten_01.jpg

What I believe now based on the development so far:

http://www.starzlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/train-wreck-1.jpg

Accompanied by their marketing department`s standard rubbish of glory despite the fact

Thats a toxic way of looking at things , is it not?
You think Elite is a trainwreck? I mean not... its more feature complete than freelancer was on day 1... and well... due to microsofts evil regard to games that are good or have potential Chriss left and never finished the game...

 

[Duane Dibbley]

I'm not sure exactly..but I bet those NPCs are still doing the 'doner of death' & crashing into 'roids in RESs!

 

[Midnight Sun]

Look at X beyond the frontiere to X3 albion prelude the difference is masive

And then X3 to Rebirth.... hah. I think Elite has a "wandering aimlessly in stations" update planned? With FD being so remarkably immune to reason, I am sure they will learn nothing from other company's mistakes.

 

[VR Golgot]

Where did this '10-year' plan idea ever come from? If it's the same place that the 'vertical slice' argument came from before release then I wouldn't give it much credence. I've seen Frontier's financial statements which suggest a possible 7-year economic life (which we're probably a couple of years into), and seen them say multiple times that they are in it for 'the long haul', but where did the 10-year figure come from? Can anyone point to an article or post?

Surely everything is dependent on sales? And I get the impression that Horizons has been a bit of a 'slow burn'.

Hmm, I could have sworn DB actually came out with it around Horizons launch time, but closest I can find at the moment is a 2nd-hand paraphrase from Lavecon...

 

[Derath]

My prediction is it won't, I think it would be a monumental success if they make it to 10 years in reasonable shape, one that very very few developers manage, and certainly some that I think do a considerably better job looking after their game elements.

Infact If this game makes it to 10 years with the current way they operate, its a testament to the dedication of its fans & the people that put their time into making it better for free more than anything.

 

[Saool]

ED at the end of the 10-year plan:

Spoiler

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/830587/images/o-ELITEGAME-facebook.jpg

Look at the Python. It was a far better design back then.

 

[Privata]

And then X3 to Rebirth.... hah. I think Elite has a "wandering aimlessly in stations" update planned? With FD being so remarkably immune to reason, I am sure they will learn nothing from other company's mistakes.

Show me your wares please !
Be well.........MIND !
Nice Chat....NOT !
Its UNREAL how do they get away with it?
If I had your speach controle I would be... a holo star !

Its X: rebirth not X3 , eatch ''sequel'' to X is an higher number so X , X2 , X3 and the idea is its ''power'' like in science so X rebirth actualy is part of X beyond the frontiere instead of X3 as its a reboot and a new start.
I have a soft spot for Rebirth but... well lets just say my name is in its credits.

To be fair the game changed a lot and the home of light expansion made me happy , but thats mostly due to the X2 references (X2 is a game that blew my mind)

 

[tarragon]

Yeah the "10-year plan" thing is pretty much "vertical slice" 2.0.

The way things currently are, I expect development to massively slow down in two years, with the game being on life support in three or four years.
FD will really have to outdo themselves with 2.1 and following updates for 3.0 to sell well, especially as competition is coming.

Instead of outlining their plans and making the future clear and promising, they lie, hint and keep silent. This together with poor execution of every big update so far makes me no longer trust in their vision.

Core game - combat - saw no changes in more than a year. No bigger npc ships, no active installations to defeat, no aliens to provide interesting boss fights. Nothing. Instead they add community goals in the most illogical ever way (instead of creating community goal naturally thru supply&demand&marketing, they turn it into what we see), they add another inch deep feature (landing) with no redeeming game elements. Oh well. We all could go on and on about failures..

 

[Henri]

Instead of outlining their plans and making the future clear and promising, they lie, hint and keep silent. This together with poor execution of every big update so far makes me no longer trust in their vision.

Core game - combat - saw no changes in more than a year. No bigger npc ships, no active installations to defeat, no aliens to provide interesting boss fights. Nothing. Instead they add community goals in the most illogical ever way (instead of creating community goal naturally thru supply&demand&marketing, they turn it into what we see), they add another inch deep feature (landing) with no redeeming game elements. Oh well. We all could go on and on about failures..

from a marketing point of view it makes more sense to "flesh out" the planetary stuff in the next "season".
hey we already have planetary USS...that should keep us occupied as long as the ones in space did, right?

 

[subhouse07]

Good responses, all! As it happens, I too have some slight skepticism about the ability of the development process to go on for ten years. Though it is something I would really love to happen. I love this game for what it is now and am really engaged in the world it has created, but I understand and agree with the many qualms people have with the game (they just don't bother me as much). I'm confident that as long as FD can keep going with it they can continue to make this game really great.

BUT

I kinda think this 10 year plan is contingent on each successive season compounding on features of the previous, and as an effect constantly bringing in new players each year. Unless FD has other flows of money that they can funnel into keeping the game alive, I don't think it will last if it cant bring in new players.

 

[VR Golgot]

I kinda think this 10 year plan is contingent on each successive season compounding on features of the previous, and as an effect constantly bringing in new players each year. Unless FD has other flows of money that they can funnel into keeping the game alive, I don't think it will last if it cant bring in new players.

Yep for sure. Their plans for self-publishing seem ambitious in terms of chalking up a third game to dev alongside ED & Planet Rollercoaster if RC is a success, so they're aiming big. I suspect they would allow some funds / dev crews to be leached to sustain ED in a worst-case scenario as it seems to be their real showcase for the Cobra engine. Hopefully it doesn't come to that though. My suspicion is that Season 3 will be SpaceLegs (to show of that the engine is capable of FPS etc), and that will prove a bigger draw for some who are holding off, and will prob beat SC out of the gate, at least in some capacity.

Another intriguing point is this brewing competition. The chances are that ED won't be as feature-complete as SC is aiming to be at launch when they go toe to toe, or offer as focused and classically MMO-style experience, but it will have the advantage of being on consoles (I'd expect a Playstation rollout over the next year or so - believe Xbox has an exclusivity clause at the mo), and so maintain a reasonable core of players even if PC numbers took a big hit. NMS doesn't look like it's aiming to hold on to its audience for the same length as these two, or hit quite the same notes.

So yeah, if they can have a shinier, cross-platform, more all-rounded package by the time SC hits, I think they're in with a shout of keeping the ball rolling. Let's hope so