Horizons What's going on with the Horizons Reviews? Both Number and Score.

[almostpilot]

All the different aspects of the game should tie together. We can't craft anything yet.

Example:
1. collect minerals. Not only to sell for credits, but to craft things
2. go to station
3. craft modules, new ships, build a player outpost on a planet
4. Trade or sell crafted inventory with other players
5. Share ships, modules with guild members.

Those features make the sandbox deep and massive.

If the upcoming Loot and Crafting expansion only adds basic crafting of ammo, fuel and weapons, that adds too little depth.



NPC interaction is still very basic. It boils down to scan, shoot or get shot. It lacks richness and depth.



It could be presented better without needing to turn your head left or right. Allow players to customize their HUD can improve this a lot.



The biggest complaint is the lack of multiplayer, chat rooms, guilds, guild chat, multiplayer missions, anything for wide-scale socialization between players.

NPC character customization is planned and a crew of up to 4 players per ship. I read it's 4 players per wing. If 4 players fit in 1 ship that's 1 wing. This is not massively multiplayer.

6 to 10 players per Wing and, or multiple-wings in one group is massively multiplayer.




The galaxy of Elite Dangerous doesn't feel or look vibrant, alive, bustling.

Examples:
- There are no NPC characters in stations or starports.
- no traffic between populated planets and stations.
- no NPC vehicles or traffic at starports.
- No NPC ship dog-fighting on planets.
- Too basic and simplistic interaction between players and NPCs.
- Stations controlled by different Powers look too similar.
- Players are unable to make guilds or group-chat for massively social interaction.
- Can't build an outpost on a planet or in space that's managed by players of a guild.

If you have done them once you have done them a thousand times.

Most player activities are basic and lack depth. It are independent activities that don't tie together. There aren't any deep sandbox objectives.



Right, people who point out the flaws and lack of the promised "richness" by Braben give their feedback in the hope that FD will add said richness and depth to make ED a truly great space sim.

Rep to you Sir....

Can someone in FD hear this guy?

 

[nexxo]

IMHO part of the problem is how FD advertise ED, which makes it look like a 'traditional' fast-paced action/shooty space game.

Hence lots of people buying it without realising it's actually a harsh slow-paced space "arcade sim" that requires a lot of effort to learn to control the thing & work out how do to stuff yourself (without having your hand held).

Hence lots of negative reviews.

Good point. Perhaps Frontier needs to make a shift of emphasis in its advertising:

 

[Mr_sukebe]

Strikes me as two key reasons worth calling out:
1. Some of it is frustration that players most certainly have ideas about how the game could/should be improved, and Horizons really didn't deliver much of that
2. FD have been pretty tight lipped about exactly what we're going to get (IMO a GOOD thing, as it means you don't fail against potentially over-ambitious targets). The implications of that are that some of the reviews are basing their comments on what has been delivered in the first update for this year under Horizons, pretty much ignoring that Horizons is also planning to deliver other (potentially more important) updates in the next year.

So as already suggested, some of Horizons is very much a "leap of faith" of us funding developments that we hope will be delivered.

 

[SentineI]

The implications of that are that some of the reviews are basing their comments on what has been delivered in the first update for this year under Horizons, pretty much ignoring that Horizons is also planning to deliver other (potentially more important) updates in the next year.

i.e. Those reviewers are ignoring the fact that it's marked as Early Access, which partly implies it's not finished.... While other reviewers blast ED for being Early Access in the first place! Thus, to some degree, FD cannot win.