Why do you think FD decided to forget about the DDF?

[Stigbob]

OMG, lol.
If we only had your wisdom in 6 or 7 years back...

Speaking of offline, this was part the problem:

Source: https://youtu.be/-DX4VwlF2pY?t=390


Im not completely against this. BUT I fear this offline ditch changed or forged the game in a way that I don't really like.
The BGS is very static to my liking and I'm sure an offline simulation would be a much better implementation.

Its been 5 years since the game released and I still don't understand the priorities of the development of the game.
I remember reading the DDA, specificaly I remember the exploration section.
My god that was epic, space was big and misterious and you had to use your ship sensors to find hypercruise hotspots to jump to another system and have a possibility to missjump.
I wanted to be an explorer!
On the beta access I saw the exploration mechanic and thought, ok they are leaving the good stuff for the release.
Can you believe my surprise when on release we could jump to any system with 1 button and the exploration was a STUPID HONK! HAHAHAHAHAHA
OMG...
And they thought the HONK was good and forgot about it for 4 years but they thought it was better to do CQC, wings in a crappy state, powerplay and such.
What happened on the development... something went really bad.

If you don't like change don't back kickstarters, problem solved.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

If you don't like change don't back kickstarters, problem solved.

Wise words and in general advice i take... However with 3 top notch elite titled preceding it ,(and some other great games as well *) a compelling pitch for elite 4 as well as a real risk that without the cash up front the game would not get made I made an exception.

* I still think with FDs planet tech there could be space for a new Virus /Zarch game

 

[Stigbob]

Wise words and in general advice i take... However with 3 top notch elite titled preceding it ,(and some other great games as well *) a compelling pitch for elite 4 as well as a real risk that without the cash up front the game would not get made I made an exception.

* I still think with FDs planet tech there could be space for a new Virus /Zarch game

I didn't know about ED until gamma, once I did I was expecting a modern remake of Elite with some extra multiplayer bells and whistles. Which I got and then some. The specific make or breaks for me were optional multiplayer (not offline just optional PVP) and a block function because 'people' both of which they had. Then I tried out the flight demo so I knew I liked the look, sound and most importantly the feel of the flight model.

I doubt I'd have jumped in any earlier had I know about it since I know how picky I am especially about flight models (that's what saved me from star citizen and NMS).

 

[K M Butler]

Other than dreamcrafting and wild speculation, I don't think I've seen these "god-like powers" actually defined as to what they actually are or were supposed to be.

 

[Ignition]

If you don't like change don't back kickstarters, problem solved.

I agree with you, FD cannot be trusted.

 

[avow555]

So you are upset FD didn't tailor the game to your specific needs !

Frontier didn't tailor their own game to spec!

 

[Stigbob]

I agree with you, FD cannot be trusted.

You should have trusted their repeated warnings about the possibility of change, kickstarters as well for that matter.

 

[Jack Schitt]

Other than dreamcrafting and wild speculation, I don't think I've seen these "god-like powers" actually defined as to what they actually are or were supposed to be.

Other than the occasional wishlist posted to the forum, and the mixed bag of responses they generated, this is probably the closest we got to a definition:

Kickstarter Update #33 , January 4th 2013

The Design Discussion Forum (DDF)​

​

Many people have asked (via Reddit and elsewhere) whether the design discussion forum will continue post-release.​

​

The people on the DDF together with people from Frontier will have near god-like powers post-release. They will have access to live stats for the galaxy on rates of piracy, locations for player death, trade activity and so-on. They will decide how the galaxy will evolve. They will decide when famine (or plague) might arrive in a particular system. If, for example piracy is unusually high for a sustained period in a particular system how should the galaxy respond? Should an adjacent system send warships? Should it decay into anarchy and any government collapse? When we create a new ship type or variant How should we introduce it? How do we close down a particular game exploit - or do we? As you can see, the decisions will not stop at release.​

​

It's notable that this is, as far as I know, the first instance of the change from Design Decision to Design Discussion and it passed unnoticed by most if not all of the community at the time. When it went live, the DDF was once again described as a Decision forum, only later to be retconned into the Discussion forum. Whether that first change was a mistake, or the opening gambit of a long-term goalpost-moving strategy, will I suspect depend on the opinion of the individual reader.

 

[Kubicide]

How does no suit you ?.



Offline being dropped wasn't a bombshell it was an entirely understandable minor alteration you'd been repeatedly warned could happen.

I also bought in early. I just did it understanding how kickstarters work having read up on the game ED were actually making and never mistook myself for the chairman of FDEV's board.

We are back to realistic expectations again.

Wrong. It was a bombshell. A major one. And it triggered a number of refunds along with the threat of litigation for customers to actually get their refunds.

It’s actually humerous watching folks constantly try to rewrite history.

 

[Stigbob]

Wrong. It was a bombshell. A major one. And it triggered a number of refunds along with the threat of litigation for customers to actually get their refunds.

It’s actually humerous watching folks constantly try to rewrite history.

It was only a surprise to the people who failed to understand the kickstarter.

Then you've got the lack of an actual problem given no one disconnects from the internet to play games anymore, plus the fact they only (initially) refused refunds to people who'd already clocked over twenty hours in game online IIRC. They couldn't really claim to be unable/unwilling to play an online game after doing that I certainly wouldn't have refunded them. Also the given reasons for dropping it make a lot of sense, none of the offlinegaters seem to know what they actually were though.

Obviously that all gets glossed over by the saddo's desperately clinging onto their five year old video game minor alteration tantrum.

 

[Kubicide]

It was only a surprise to the people who failed to understand the kickstarter.

Then you've got the lack of an actual problem given no one disconnects from the internet to play games anymore, plus the fact they only (initially) refused refunds to people who'd already clocked over twenty hours in game online IIRC. They couldn't really claim to be unable/unwilling to play an online game after doing that I certainly wouldn't have refunded them. Also the given reasons for dropping it make a lot of sense, none of the offlinegaters seem to know what they actually were though.

Obviously that all gets glossed over by the saddo's desperately clinging onto their five year old video game minor alteration tantrum.

Lol... no. Total misinformation there along with gibberish drool. The facts are what they are, as described in my previous post. The archives support them.

Probably best to stop trying to rewrite history to meet your imagination. Your imagination did not happen.

 

[K M Butler]

Thank you for (re) posting that DDF statement, Jack. Reading that, I find it hard to believe that ever would have been actualized. Too much policy-making in that for a for-profit company to be comfortable with. Wonder who signed off on that, and if any lashes with an overripe halibut were administered in the aftermath.

 

[lysan]

Hypercruise, mining, fuel, exploration, trading, npc. These are a few key elements I remember to be much more complete and interesting.
From the DDF, these things are still missing in the game all the features discussed years ago.
The game conceived back then were much more complex and interesting but FD decided to do a simplistic, instant gratification and choose your short adventure game. They went for the arcade route and forgot completely about the dangerous of space and the importance of exploration and taking care of our ships.

Things like exploring for resources, hotspots for hypercruise, missjumps, different fuel qualities were something that would made space much more frightening. Since release we can go to colonia just clicking 200000000 times a button and nothing else.

For 4 years we had mining and exploration placeholders, and even now I still think those professions are barebones after so many years since the game was released. Where are the corporations claiming asteroids for their own? Where's the gas mining?

But they forgot about what was important and made a lot of questionable features like Powerplay. They thought doing the same things we we're doing but with a different name would be awesome, like going from A to B delivering numbers or fighting in a combat zone. No new or improved gameplay.
They did CQC, something that no one expected and realy few people care about, they thought doing another game was a good idea so here it is CQC, the game for the consoles.
They did Wings, but we had to wait 4 years for coop missions.
Multicrew, the worst multicrew experience I could imagine, turrets in space, yeeah reaaal fun... and only a few ships can have this wonderful gameplay experience.

What do they think we're? I know plans change along the development but this game has NOTHING to do with the one discussed and where people paid to give their opinion and make this a wonderful space game.

Mining is a lot better now, we need more surface mining equipment, what I remember was the multi star jump and the potential risk of a miss jump where you end up far far away from you original jump target, also the npc crew you could hire, mechanical or biological, what we got now is only the Fighter pilot remote control thingy. Oh well let’s see if it is in the next dlc but I doubt it.

 

[Ignition]

Mining is a lot better now, we need more surface mining equipment, what I remember was the multi star jump and the potential risk of a miss jump where you end up far far away from you original jump target, also the npc crew you could hire, mechanical or biological, what we got now is only the Fighter pilot remote control thingy. Oh well let’s see if it is in the next dlc but I doubt it.

Oh I agree mining is better now!, we didnt even had this profession until last year. It was just pressing and holding a button.
But I remember from the DDA the corporations controlling the best mining zones and also the gas mining with specialized equipment.
Still all the professions need A LOT OF WORK.

 

[babelfisch]

This thread is so... 2014.
I guess after 5 years it's probably time to get over offline mode.

 

[Stigbob]

This thread is so... 2014.
I guess after 5 years it's probably time to get over offline mode.

It is stretching credulity more than a little.

Lol... no. Total misinformation there along with gibberish drool. The facts are what they are, as described in my previous post. The archives support them.

Probably best to stop trying to rewrite history to meet your imagination. Your imagination did not happen.

Get a grip.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Conceptually offline would be pointless because it only tracks what you do- so at best you'd be pushing a grain of sand about across an unchanging beach, with no-one opposing.

If you did the tick per day via some sort of download, each 'tick' generates about 1 Gb of data across the galaxy and would need to be downloaded each day every day to maintain parity (assuming you want a dynamic looking galaxy).

It worked well enough for Frontier and FFE. You affected prices as you derped around the galaxy.

With only 1 person affecting the BGS anyone's PC could have handled the changes to the BGS in ED and they could happen in real time instead of with ticks.

 

[Stigbob]

It worked well enough for Frontier and FFE. You affected prices as you derped around the galaxy.

With only 1 person affecting the BGS anyone's PC could have handled the changes to the BGS in ED and they could happen in real time instead of with ticks.

The plan was a once weekly online synchronisation IIRC like the tick, given what we now know about exploiting/cheating in ED people would have saved up months worth of influence and trousered the BGS in a oner or just hacked the bejesus out of it so its probably good they dropped it. FDEV also said they didn't want it purely offline since it would have meant drastic simplification of the BGS to prevent it being beyond a PC's capabilities.

Solo replaced it anyway.

 

[Rubbernuke]

It worked well enough for Frontier and FFE. You affected prices as you derped around the galaxy.

With only 1 person affecting the BGS anyone's PC could have handled the changes to the BGS in ED and they could happen in real time instead of with ticks.

I never really played either of those games to know, but did they have states, economies and changes based on anything other than money input?

I do regret watching DB talk about the effect of players on EDs economy with half built stations etc via economic blockades. It seems although ED is light years ahead of them in some respects, ED is still lightyears behind what was envisioned in the KS.

 

[lenna]

It worked well enough for Frontier and FFE. You affected prices as you derped around the galaxy.

And the X-Series games too, the X game economy model is possibly slightly more complex too.

It seems although ED is light years ahead of them in some respects, ED is still lightyears behind what was envisioned in the KS.

The problem is reality rarely lives up to the hype generated by a concept - especially in terms of gaming community generated hype.