What's the Brand New Feature for ED in 2024?

[Rat Catcher]

Which is what happened with me in Starfield

I think I was electing for teleport to & from the cockpit of the ship in less than a week. Despite the workshops on board (which I have never used) the bigger ships, which give purpose, somewhat, to interiors, the idea of walking around admiring all my tasty cargo fell flat very quickly.

 

[Planewalker]

Other games have features that some consider would be good to have in ED, nothing particularly wrong with that desire.

RL is that Frontier are extremely unlikely to spend more revenue than the games raises in development costs, Odyssey didn't make its development costs back, the risk of another poor reception to an expansion is probably at the forefront of their corporate thinking.

i'd guess we will get small features added to ED until it stops being profitable, but PDLC may never be on the menu.

With how many new ship kits and other things that have been added i see health.

I think players tend to forget that fdev care at least if not more about the game as they do.

Going anywhere near subscription or other kinds of p2w avenues runs counter to the tenets of passion and freedom.

People who want to see the game succeed already have ample opportunity to buy arx with boni on the higher packages.

There is a very specific reason the tortoise won against the hare, and being in a hurry was not one of them.


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[Darkfyre99]

I strongly disagree. Starfield has both from the start, the instant teleport and the walk. I enjoy both at appropriate times. Of course Starfield has actual gameplay value in the interiors, mods added more, but that isn't all easily repeatable in ED. A gear engineering station is a no-brainer. A functional infirmary only make sense when an injury/illness system is also in place. A functional brig requires a system of non-lethal takedowns and restrainment.

The value of ship interiors for me comes when you can board other people’s ships, especially NPCs. Whether it’s kidnapping, rescue, sabotage, repair, theft, or retrieval… it’s the gameplay that matters. Ship interiors would simply be a new environment for that to happen in.

The bonus is that you also get access to your own ship interiors. Whether my own ship’s interior has gameplay value or not will determine whether I want to engage in it or not. Starfield demonstrated that aptly: as soon as I could build an appropriate base, I ditched as many unnecessary interior spaces as I could.

It’s also the difference in how I engage with Supercruise and the docking bay. Supercruise has tremendous gameplay value, and is relatively short, and is my favorite part of the game. The docking bay has no gameplay value at all, and dashing across it is grating on me, despite how brief it is. Of course, part of what gets on my nerves is that there is so many things I can think of that could happen in a docking bay that would make traversing it worthwhile.

But they don’t. Thus the docking bay becomes an unnecessary time sink between my ship and human shaped kiosks, rather than a gateway to adventures on a station or planetary port. Which makes me sad.

 

[Rat Catcher]

People who want to see the game succeed already have ample opportunity to buy arx with boni on the higher packages.

I'm not a detractor of EDO - quite the opposite with 5 copies being played... (and another bought for a friend) All of them have cosmetics / ship kits etc. So am doing my bit...

More EDO exclusive content might sell more copies, particularly if that happened to be new ships... EDO needs more to justify its existence, and it can only be 'small' bits currently, but every little helps.

ETA: Yes, I know Horizons introduced exclusive ships and content - but take-up before it was given away free was 25% according to frontier, which is odd as demands for more ships were common even in those days - so Odyssey doing the same makes a lot of sense. (why, it may even get more than 25% take-up!)

Edit: Typos

 

[Planewalker]

I'm not a detractor of EDO - quite the opposite with 5 copies being played... (and another bought for a friend) All of them have cosmetics / ship kits etc. So am doing my bit...

More EDO exclusive content might sell more copies, particularly if that happened to be new ships... EDO needs more to justify its existence, and it can only be 'small' bits currently, but every little helps.

ETA: Yes, I know Horizons introduced exclusive ships and content - but take-up before it was given away free was 25% according to frontier, which is odd as demands for more ships were common even in those days - so Odyssey doing the same makes a lot of sense. (why, it may even get more than 25% take-up!)

Edit: Typos

I did not think you were a detractor, my apologies if i gave that impression.

It looks like more than a few would not mind EDO being folded into main, problem is rating.

More dlcs could be a viable route but it comes with other kinds of different obstacles unfortunately.

Adding EDO-exclusive content can mean gating things and hampering overall development due to need for streamlining.

Keeping it where it is now wrt adding updates while people buy arx seems fast to me when knowing that slow is smooth and smooth is fast.

 

[Cosmo]

RL is that Frontier are extremely unlikely to spend more revenue than the games raises in development costs, Odyssey didn't make its development costs back, the risk of another poor reception to an expansion is probably at the forefront of their corporate thinking.

i'd guess we will get small features added to ED until it stops being profitable, but PDLC may never be on the menu.

If that happens then the chance of big DLC like ELW, ship interiors would be slim. I'd rather have them add more monetization options such as optional subscription, and sell early access for new DLC. The core of ED is a game about being a commander and spaceships, so adding ship interiors makes sense. The interiors could be sold per ship as small DLC or a 1x fee for all interiors. ED still has a lot of potential and it's one of their premier titles. The majority of Steam reviews are positive nowadays. So they shouldn't give up after Odyssey.

Which the majority might do a few times, for atmosphere, before electing the quick teleport method, is the most likely scenario.

There's more space sims where you do have to first 1. stand up from the seat. 2. walk through modules, hallways to exit the ship. The cockpits in ED are generally small so standing up and walking to the first door would be a few seconds and makes it 10x more immersive. The solution for long walk times is turbolifts.

Odyssey currently has 1. walk to blue highlighted spot near the ship on the wrong side, 2. teleport into the pilot seat. The level of immersion is zero. The minimum they should do is 1. walk to the correct ship entrance, 2. press a button, 3. fade to black into the cockpit. 4. walk 1-3 seconds to the seat, 5. press button to sit down. The immersion would be 100x better.

 

[Darkfyre99]

There's more space sims where you do have to first 1. stand up from the seat. 2. walk through modules, hallways to exit the ship. The cockpits in ED are generally small so standing up and walking to the first door would be a few seconds and makes it 10x more immersive. The solution for long walk times is turbolifts.

Really? Most of the space sims I’ve played, much like flight sims, are in cockpit only. The games I’ve played that allow for on foot gameplay typically are mediocre space sims at best.

And immersion is a tricky thing. No matter how few seconds the trip from command chair to the bottom of the boarding ramp may be, if there’s no potential gameplay between those two, it becomes an annoyance to me. Being annoyed by the lack of any gameplay between point A and point B is the antithesis of immersion in my experience. I much prefer to use my precious playtime pondering potential problems, than traversing an empty volume of space which is devoid of the same.

 

[Alien]

Immersion is also subjective. What I would consider immersive, someone else might not. It's a personal experience that can't be easily quantified.

 

[Ultra-Chris]

The docking bay has no gameplay value at all, and dashing across it is grating on me, despite how brief it is. Of course, part of what gets on my nerves is that there is so many things I can think of that could happen in a docking bay that would make traversing it worthwhile.

But they don’t. Thus the docking bay becomes an unnecessary time sink between my ship and human shaped kiosks, rather than a gateway to adventures on a station or planetary port. Which makes me sad.

The fade to black when disembarking on the landing bay might as well just deposit you onto the station concourse.

It seems a bit arbitrary to have that walk to the express lift in there when there are so many other shortcuts being taken.

They chose not to do the “suspiciously long airlock opening” trick to hide the transition from cockpit to the ground and went with a fade to black. I’d rather they just go the fade to black route everywhere for consistency's sake.

 

[Fizzatron]

Not if we end up with 3 game modes where nothing interacts. The good place to start would be to integrate the existing pieces first.

Not sure whether you're referring to online/private/solo or base/horizons/odyssey.. I get the feeling it's the latter but my point still stands; incorporating all three expansions into the base game means that there are no decisions to be made about developing x for Horizons players or Odyssey etc. Everyone is on the same page which effectively means that all integration options are valid and are a natural aspect of developing or updating feature x, whether that works out in practice is a separate matter. But it's one of the reasons why I believe a lot of the effort put into disrupting the uptake of Odyssey ultimately is intended to stymie further development of the game overall.

 

[Fizzatron]

Rolling the previous expansions into the base game is a smart move to boost the value. However, they could sell big DLC separately. For example:

1. Base game to attract newbies - low price
2. Tenuous atmospheric worlds, new gameplay, content (space legs) - paid DLC
3. Gas giants, new gameplay, content - paid DLC
4. Volcanic, ocean worlds, new gameplay, content - paid DLC
5. ELW, new gameplay, content - paid DLC
6. Ship interiors and EVA - paid DLC

The only PDLC that would add a core feature to the game which could work separately, or be optional, would be a full VR implementation.

 

[Cosmo]

Really? Most of the space sims I’ve played, much like flight sims, are in cockpit only. The games I’ve played that allow for on foot gameplay typically are mediocre space sims at best.

It's difficult to implement interiors, that's why mostly the big space sims have it. Customizing the layout, module types, and walking through it is fun too. More fun if there's NPC Crew, companions or players onboard. It opens a lot of possibilities for roleplaying. I prefer mediocre interiors over nothing. Just having the ability to get out of the seat and walk inside your own ship would be so cool. The Krait has a coffee-machine device. Well, I'd like to look at it and maybe they can add some functionality.

They chose not to do the “suspiciously long airlock opening” trick to hide the transition from cockpit to the ground and went with a fade to black. I’d rather they just go the fade to black route everywhere for consistency's sake.

If they add fade to black teleportation then we might as well ditch the ships and teleport to locations in the galaxy.

 

[Darkfyre99]

The fade to black when disembarking on the landing bay might as well just deposit you onto the station concourse.

It seems a bit arbitrary to have that walk to the express lift in there when there are so many other shortcuts being taken.

They chose not to do the “suspiciously long airlock opening” trick to hide the transition from cockpit to the ground and went with a fade to black. I’d rather they just go the fade to black route everywhere for consistency's sake.

I’m hoping that at least in the case of the turbo-lift, it’s a hook for potential future adventures inside stations and planetary ports. And if that’s the case, perhaps gameplay will be added to the docking bay. It’s the lack of gameplay, not the traversal itself, that I ultimately find irritating. The lack of meaningful decisions to make.

I always imagine my character doing a pre-flight check before lifting off… but there’s no need to do so ingame, because there’s nothing you really need to check. Thus doing so is simple play acting, and little enough free time Imagine if Frontier had added the possibility to tamper with ships in the docking bay. Not only would that add new mission types and wrinkles, but it would also be a meaningful decision to do a pre-flight inspection. Especially if the chance of your own ship being tampered with is decided by security level.

Same could be true for ship interiors. Finding tampering while doing an interior inspection could turn into a mini mystery if you’ve running stacked passenger missions.

 

[Planewalker]

I'd rather have them add more monetization options such as optional subscription, and sell early access for new DLC.

There is no need for wasting resources on more monetization methods when arx already does that, and early access let's just not go there. XD
The principle of keeping it simple applies; there is zero reason to make it more difficult than it absolutely has to be.
It is completely fair to wish for a lot of things to be added to elite, but level heads must prevail.
While interiors could be optional dlc, comitting resources to it is another matter entirely.


Going anywhere near p2w or subscription can run counter to them having freedom and passion to do the things they want.


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[Dragsham]

Going anywhere near p2w or subscription can run counter to them having freedom and passion to do the things they want.

Disagree
Subs would give them more revenue.
That's a fact.
More revenue = more devs more time on elite and more scope.

 

[Jack Winter]

Surely it's up to Frontier to decide how they monetize the game?

One thing I can guarantee is that for everyone here that would be happy to pay a sub, there will be many that would be deeply offended..

 

[Dragsham]

One thing I can guarantee is that for everyone here that would be happy to pay a sub, there will be many that would be deeply offended

Yup

 

[tolm]

Yup

I think it would depend a lot on the cost as well …

I looked into getting Rocksmith recently … the cost is ridiculous at £16.99/month. Even if you pay in advance you’re looking at £120/year. That’s two full games EVERY YEAR just to have access to one game.

That said, if Elite offered a subscription service for like £5/month I would probably be interested - assuming it provided something in terms of perks (Arx or something else non pay-2-win) as well as ensuring continued development.

 

[aRJay]

I think it would depend a lot on the cost as well …

I looked into getting Rocksmith recently … the cost is ridiculous at £16.99/month. Even if you pay in advance you’re looking at £120/year. That’s two full games EVERY YEAR just to have access to one game.

That said, if Elite offered a subscription service for like £5/month I would probably be interested - assuming it provided something in terms of perks (Arx or something else non pay-2-win) as well as ensuring continued development.

I am not sure that I want to be paying £60/year.

To be honest I am not sure I would want to pay £5/year, I love ED but I loathe subscription software.

 

[Planewalker]

Disagree
Subs would give them more revenue.
That's a fact.
More revenue = more devs more time on elite and more scope.

Fair enough to disagree but in the end it is fully up to fdev to decide.
"Too many chefs"; neither feature creep nor tunnelvision wrt potential for potential makes a good game. Focus does.
Of course it's a fact that more revenue can be good, just like subs can run counter to them having freedom of creativity which no-one wants.
We already have a lot of perks in the form of decals, ships from cgs sometimes and now ship kits too we also get arx just from playing.
-anyone who want to support the game can buy arx; they are right there i really don't see the point in making it more complicated.


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