When can we actually expect some real gameplay content?

[Tarman]

Fair. and i'm good with waiting, as i do enjoy the game currently. as long as it continues to show (perceived) progression and improvements are made, i will continue buying DLC and paint jobs. i love this game and have no problem supporting it.

Yeah, my thing isn't to try and chase people away from my perfect little baby, what with its missing toes and extra fingers, but I see its goodness as well as the garbage and can wait for it to grow up and maybe be a great typist one day. Unrealized potential is not the same as squandered potential. I think a lot of negativity can come from the hyperfocus on the moment-to-moment status of the game not living up to a set of expectations instead of taking the whole thing as an evolutionary process; done it myself before, and it takes some intentional thinking about the game to dial back to ensure your POV is at the right focus, so to speak. Taken as a seemingly-endless series of changing snapshots, each held to be a finished result, the game perception could be disconcerting.



Not related to your attitude directly, as you sound like you're in the same boat as me with Elite generally, but I've just found out recently that walking away from a game that wasn't anything like I wanted and never would be can work wonders. I left MWO because it was never going to be my SP campaign game no matter how ;______; I was about the whole thing; PGI was still overlorded by literal criminals at that time. Walked away before the GoldMech days and just stopped angsting about it and went and played one of my other hundreds of games. >____>

Flashforward to this month, I find out MechWarrior 5 SP campaign has been announced to be indev; PGI are their own boss now and can work on this angle now, and having it be a happy surprise way later was much nicer than spending the last 5 years on the MWO forums going AAAAAA MAH SP GAEM.

 

[Marc_Hicks]

My guess would be at Pax East for March 10-12, they've already advertised for ambassadors for the event and they'll want something to showcase, maybe even be PS4 release or announcement of its release date?

PS4 release isn't scheduled until the second quarter-which puts it between April-June. So 2.3/2.4 showcase is definitely the most likely .

 

[Holven]

Thrust me i know what real sandbox sims are,

Really?

A sandbox game is Any game that allows the player to move about freely, for as long as the player would like, with the exception of dying or similar, with no definite end. That is ALL that is required to be a sandbox game. Many sandbox games also includes a lot of other stuff, like elements from Building games, Adventure games, Puzzle games etc... NONE of which are required for it to be a sandbox game.

I believe ED aptly fits the title "sandbox game", because the simple requirements for that title have been met. Is there room for improvement? Definitely, but not on the grounds of it being a lack luster sandbox game. Building stuff, for example, is not a prerequisite, nor f.x. auction houses, and neither are necessarily the required solutions.

Again, with the "shoulds", presuming to have, or to be, an authority on how things should work.

Yes, the game needs to evolve, and it will. It is just a question of time and people are, as always, impatient... and we get blessed with yet another of these threads.

There is a forum for suggestions. I suggest being more respectful in choice of tone and words, than you have been thus far though. I suspect the devs won't listen to demands or people just telling them "how wrong" they are, and those are the people you need to reach after all.

So if you really want to contribute, I suggest making posts there, with suggestions as to how things may improve, not invoking necessity (should) or belittling the one you are talking with.

That is why "fanboys" are jumping down your throat; had you written that sentence, it would probably have read along the lines of: "To make the game better, you should go to that forum and tell them what to do" Do you see the difference between your (misplaced) authoritative tone and my attempt at a polite tone?

I am not being soft, but polite. Using harsher word forms only make you more difficult to accept and does not do you any favors, in fact, the antagonistic tone make people wish to strike back at you. If that is what you are wishing for, you are succeeding.

This became incredibly meta. Sorry for that.

 

[Itaki]

Sandbox lover: You cannot make storyline content for ED! What happens after the first play-through? That's all she wrote! It's old. It's done. It's boring. Nobody will ever play the same storyline content over and over and over again, right?

Me: Noooooo. Just like people won't play/haven't been playing the same boring sandbox content over and over and over again since 2014, right?

 

[IndigoWyrd]

Sandbox lover: You cannot make storyline content for ED! What happens after the first play-through? That's all she wrote! It's old. It's done. It's boring. Nobody will ever play the same storyline content over and over and over again, right?

Me: Noooooo. Just like people won't play/haven't been playing the same boring sandbox content over and over and over again since 2014, right?

Actually you can do both, easily.

Yes, once the "storyline" material is completed, that story is told, done and over - but the game goes on - the Elder Scroll games are a good example of this - once you've finished the main story, the credits roll, and then you're right back where you were, free to do whatever. I'm finding a lot more of the games I play end like this - the main story is over, but there's still continuing game-play "post-game". I think this is a very clever way to both keep people interested as well as providing a venue for future content.

And we're seeing at least some of this in Elite - with the emergence of these alien artichokes. We could well see things like:

Elite: Dangerous - The Artichoke Wars where open warfare between human and space-vegetable rages through countless systems
Elite: Dangerous - The Drawn Butter Accords - War between human and artichoke has come to a bitter-sweet end, for both sides, and the first steps toward reconciliation and reconstruction have begun.
Elite: Dangerous - Brave New Worlds - Following the Drawn Butter Accords, humanity continues to rebuild, having ceded a number of worlds where the artichokes have begun to regrow. Now two different species learn to coexist.

And so on, until the day comes that we must upgrade to Elite: Deadly, when we can begin it all over again.

 

[DaveB]

13 pages of several folks saying effectively "I don't like this game, but if it was like ${THIS} I would!" and others replying back "I DO like this game even though it isn't perfect and I don't want it to be like ${THIS}."

I totally get it that not everyone likes playing in the ED universe, with the way a single pilot out of the uncountable number of (real and simulated) people in the galaxy cannot be a mover or shaker on the scale of the simulated powers, cannot become autocrat over their little slice of it and doesn't have a "storyline" to follow and control other than the little one they make for themselves against the backdrop of the overall simulation and larger injected events. There is literally NO way to play that allows you to "win" long-term against other players, because there is nothing you can do to prevent them playing out their own story without your interference while you can - if you wish - "help" other players and play your story alongside theirs for a while.

Arguments for "content," for changes to the modes, for changes to benefit one play-style or another, on some level they all seem to boil down to a disgruntlement with that fundamental universe design. I do not and will not criticize any gamer for feeling that if this isn't the kind of game they thought they were getting or really wanted to play. I'm not saying "Go play something else." Nothing would make me happier than for more players to enjoy their virtual existence within the ED universe, whatever their play-style or in-game goals. But if this game-universe and the game mechanics add up to a game you don't want to play then surely the rational course of action is to spend your available game-time playing one you do enjoy instead of spewing on yet another thread asking for changes in this game that are never going to happen? There's enough people who bought into this game knowing what they were buying into and wanting to play precisely the kind of game that ED is that FD simply aren't going to break that design to suit any individual group of players that want something different.

Play the game in front of you or don't. Simple choice. Don't sit down at a bridge table and expect to be dealt a poker hand.

 

[vernonator]

The game elements you mention are in thousands of MMO's all over the interweb. I can see no reason for FD to create what you can already find elsewhere. Let Elite grow with it's unique outlook.

The problem is players expect those features in an MMO (and that's what ED is like it or not) and if they are not there they won't continue to play. No players = no income = no ED....its only a matter of time.

 

[NVNM]

I don't think anyone wants ED to be another EvE, especially since EvE requires a very... specific mindset to be successful in.
Yet SOME form of interactivity and player agency should exist.

 

[Commander Commander]

Frontier has to introduce ways to force people go out of this comfort circle.

Really? As others have said repeatedly ITT, go play EVE the pseudo sandbox which is actually theme park design using choke points with forced conflict. It is not going too well for EVE though, is it. The amount of ppl who have left EVE on that account compared to the ones staying is staggering. You can have as much conflict in ED as you like. But what really es you off is that you can not force yourself on every other player, right? That ED offers a choice.

 

[IamMe]

Really?

A sandbox game is Any game that allows the player to move about freely, for as long as the player would like, with the exception of dying or similar, with no definite end. That is ALL that is required to be a sandbox game. Many sandbox games also includes a lot of other stuff, like elements from Building games, Adventure games, Puzzle games etc... NONE of which are required for it to be a sandbox game.

I believe ED aptly fits the title "sandbox game", because the simple requirements for that title have been met. Is there room for improvement? Definitely, but not on the grounds of it being a lack luster sandbox game. Building stuff, for example, is not a prerequisite, nor f.x. auction houses, and neither are necessarily the required solutions.

Again, with the "shoulds", presuming to have, or to be, an authority on how things should work.

Yes, the game needs to evolve, and it will. It is just a question of time and people are, as always, impatient... and we get blessed with yet another of these threads.

There is a forum for suggestions. I suggest being more respectful in choice of tone and words, than you have been thus far though. I suspect the devs won't listen to demands or people just telling them "how wrong" they are, and those are the people you need to reach after all.

So if you really want to contribute, I suggest making posts there, with suggestions as to how things may improve, not invoking necessity (should) or belittling the one you are talking with.

That is why "fanboys" are jumping down your throat; had you written that sentence, it would probably have read along the lines of: "To make the game better, you should go to that forum and tell them what to do" Do you see the difference between your (misplaced) authoritative tone and my attempt at a polite tone?

I am not being soft, but polite. Using harsher word forms only make you more difficult to accept and does not do you any favors, in fact, the antagonistic tone make people wish to strike back at you. If that is what you are wishing for, you are succeeding.

This became incredibly meta. Sorry for that.

yes i overreacted and you're right!
i get annoyed watching ppl in every thread saying something is missing and those attacking and saying game is not missing anything it's your fault cos you grind or go play EVE.
should just skip those threads like i usually do!
don't get me wrong i love elite, only disagree with season 2 path(more significant things could be done) and i do think missions are shallow but also i Know game is still in development and that takes time so with new content missions will get depth and those two things are tied. i Know it cos i do some scripting and modding so i suggested few things in sub-forum.
with 400h ingame i reached my goals so now i'll wait and see what season 3 will bring.
cheers!

 

[DaveB]

The problem is players expect those features in an MMO (and that's what ED is like it or not) and if they are not there they won't continue to play. No players = no income = no ED....its only a matter of time.

Before the original Elite, in '84, players expected a computer game to have multiple "levels" of play and "three lives". The two programmers had a very hard time selling a game that didn't work that way because "everybody expected" something like all the others. ED has broken the mold of "MMO's" in exactly the same way - it doesn't work the same way all the others do and many of the "features of MMO's" that "everyone expects" either don't work or simply aren't there.

Time will tell if it works or not. For me, personally, it does. I believe, but cannot prove, that it will work for enough players in the same way the original Elite did. Just as the folks who wanted nothing but the leveled game with three lives didn't "like" the original Elite, folks who want everything that goes with current expectations of a "MMO" may not like ED.

ED is a proper successor to the Elite franchise and in that context it "works" incredibly well, even with its flaws - which I admit are legion. Try and judge it as a "normal MMO" and there's a lot lacking. This is TRUE and I fully understand that there are a LOT of players frustrated with that. However, it also has a huge amount that "normal MMO's" don't and can't have. It's unique, just like the original was. It is a "universe to exist and survive in" in a way that no other space games outside the Elite franchise have ever been. Even the biggest multiplayer space game of all time, EVE, largely inspired by the original Elite, doesn't give the "Elite" feel like ED does. I played EVE because I played the original Elite. I was looking for a similar but updated experience. I've played almost every game since '84 Elite that featured 1st person space flight. Only ED, today, "feels like Elite"

I'll stick with that and carry on enjoying it. I know and completely respect that others won't like it. That's fine. I won't go on the forums for the games they love and try to advocate the game be changed to suit me. I'll play my game right here instead. The gaming universe is big enough for us all, even though all of us aren't wanting an "Elite" game.

 

[Tataboj]

Yes. I'm sure they find their lackluster player numbers due to a lack of interest in RNG grind utterly hilarious. I certainly do.

Got good with combat yet?

 

[RhymeRhyme]

There is sooooooooooooooooo much more fun stuff that you can do to improve the game. I can't be the only one here thinking about how much more this game could have been.

Son! You're not alone.

 

[Scarmax]

Oh look, yet another "backseat developer" telling FDEV what their vision and direction should be according to their singular opinion. How original. Excuse me a second while I dramatically roll my eyes.

Wanting more is fine, but making demands and attempting to tell the developer, "Here, let ME show you how you're supposed to do it" is just blatantly arrogant and obnoxious.

 

[thirstyfish]

Dear Frontier.. <snip for lack of content>

Oh look. a another person who thinks they know what is best for FDev, for the game, and everyone who plays it.

 

[Winterwalker]

don't get me wrong i love elite, only disagree with season 2 path(more significant things could be done)

Worth reiterating then that imo the expansion content we get is NOT all about dev choices. Although each expansion needs a headline feature, each expansion also represents the development of game architchture .. examples of some of the things that come with expansion so far;

wings (weighted matchmaking), powerplay (copy and paste, indefinitely, BGS), community goals (injected content), planet landings (vehicle to vehicle cargo transfer), engineers (floating module statistics), SLF's (nested vehciles and NPC crew), multicrew (nest player avatar, inside ship) ...

If you see these choices not as, 'Frontier decided to do this feature next', but FD were 'guided by building a galaxy from the bottom up' I suggest the dev decsions, to bring expansions in the order they have, look a bit different?

 

[Enderby]

Oh look. a another person who thinks they know what is best for FDev, for the game, and everyone who plays it.

Any normal person would agree it needs some more content.

 

[thirstyfish]

Yes, a normal person.

What is good for the goose is not necessarily good for the gander.

 

[Enderby]

Yeah but if it's a fangander...

 

[thirstyfish]

Yeah but if it's a fangander...

You have a point in there at all? No?? Then go away.