EDDB had 11,500+ ships in a 24 hour period. This doesn't count console players, and doesn't count players who were docked and not playing. The real number will be significantly higher
Will there be more exploration content after Q4?
- Thread starter TheSisko
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EDDB had 11,500+ ships in a 24 hour period. This doesn't count console players, and doesn't count players who were docked and not playing. The real number will be significantly higher
The signs there is a big market for exploration content were already huge before, FD just needed to take a look at the enormous pre-sales success of another game which is far more exploration inclined than the current ED build. Or the number of players involved in exploration expeditions, even though there is barely anything to do on such expeditions. Or the number of ED related infomation websites, web tools, api toolos, charts, maps, compendiums, record listings, youtube channels made by exploration players (which are probably ED's biggest marketing tools).
Disclaimer: I have no issues with FD adding more (and especially) better combat content. Just with the general disregard so far for everything else.
But I think they wasted a big amount of sales by completely neglecting exploration for so long. Sometimes I wonder why did they go out of their way to create a replica of the milky way, with real time orbits and realistic stars and realistic formation of planets etc with 4 billion star systems, and then mostly only focus on combat, to which having a huge galaxy and realistic planets etc not only don't matter one yota, but also end up being detrimental to the combat experience (distances, player spread, etc).
It's like the stellar forge and the galaxy was created to build a game, but sometime along the way they decided to make a different game instead.
The good news is that it seems that they're trying to develop the exploration part of the game after all, we'll see soon where that leads us.
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But what about the cool new Ice Planets!?........oh wait.
The probes look cool and if that solves eyeballing a planet's surface for hours then imho it will be a good feature.
My only hope is that there will also be more stuff to find.
Nice tools only go so far if there's nothing to use them on.
For me, simple atmospheric planets and a simple kind of space legs (walk inside the ship, maybe visiting some spots inside a station (bar, hangar)) would be great and very appreciated.
Note: EDDN (EDDB/EDSM/etc) counts entrances to the system, not distinct players - that could have been 11,500 players once ... or it could have been 12 very weird players 1,000 times each. By design for privacy it doesn't let you determine which.
From what little surveying is possible on this matter without access to Frontier's tools, in a *normal* system I believe that "counting distinct entrances" and "not counting people without certain PC-only 3rd party tools" very roughly cancels out.
But the Gnosis is not a normal system right now... still the EDSM commanders map was showing well over a thousand distinct commanders docked, so somewhere in the region of 10k-ish is a believable claim.
Frontier didn't need the gnosis non-event to tell them how eager explorers are for some content and events. If they'd paid attention they'd see for months now thousands of players have already been signing up to take part in the Distant Word 2 expedition (i'm one of them). I think they must be aware by now about dw2 and how exploration gets more people involved than combat or trading events ever will. They must be blind if they can't see how popular exploration is so q4 will be a defining moment for a lot of players imo. Surely they won't neglect explorers AGAIN?
I think the feedback from explorers this week has been......louder than any Distant Worlds expeditions - unfortunately for the wrong reasons.
But yes, the desire for more exploration content was there long before now. So its a shame its taken this long for Frontier to add any.
It took FDev, and supposedly all of the supposed 100+ people "working" on the game full time, one year to release what we got this year (and what supposedly will still come out in Q4).
By their own admission they are now in "full production" on the Next Big Thing (tm). At the rate at which those 100+ people produced content this year, and assuming the Next Big Thing (tm) is a lot more content than Beyond (which isn't saying much as Beyond was hardly anything) then we are looking at several years before anything of substance comes out (other than weekly paintjobs and copy-paste CGs).
Looks like maintenance mode before the Next Big Thing (tm) comes out at least 2 years into the future (if at all) since now absolutely everybody is working on it (thus Fleet Carriers and Ice Planets are in Dodo land indefinitely).
By their own admission they are now in "full production" on the Next Big Thing (tm). At the rate at which those 100+ people produced content this year, and assuming the Next Big Thing (tm) is a lot more content than Beyond (which isn't saying much as Beyond was hardly anything) then we are looking at several years before anything of substance comes out (other than weekly paintjobs and copy-paste CGs).
Looks like maintenance mode before the Next Big Thing (tm) comes out at least 2 years into the future (if at all) since now absolutely everybody is working on it (thus Fleet Carriers and Ice Planets are in Dodo land indefinitely).
The probes idea looks interesting, but attempting to lob probes around the back of planets.....doesn't sound that interesting. I mean, how many probes can the new scanner carry? Can we synthesise more? If yes then does it matter if you've failed with your first trick shot? Or the second or third?
If only there was a Exploration Feedback Forum we could ask these questions in. All we have is speculation, and hope.
My expectations of Q4 have gone down considerably, unfortunately.
We have had in quick succession:
An announcement that removes known and demoed cool stuff (ice planets) and replaced that with unknown and undemoed "exciting things we can't talk about, but are really good" vapour ware.
A massacre of explorers on what they hoped would be an exploration voyage somewhere different.
Not looking good for understanding what explorers might actually enjoy, at this point, in my opinion...
We have had in quick succession:
An announcement that removes known and demoed cool stuff (ice planets) and replaced that with unknown and undemoed "exciting things we can't talk about, but are really good" vapour ware.
A massacre of explorers on what they hoped would be an exploration voyage somewhere different.
Not looking good for understanding what explorers might actually enjoy, at this point, in my opinion...
I agree.
I hope FDev will strive to enhance exploration more in the years to come.
It needs to become a solid complex of activities.
Adding a probe mechanic is a good step, but we also need a good planetary navigation mechanic and other things to do.
I have proposed the addition of a scientific sample taking mechanic.
We might equip our ship with a scientific exploration module and a special scientific exploration SRV that can take samples of soils, rocks, fluids and organics and research these samples in the science module. We might then sell the resulting data to science stations in the bubble for some extra money.
We also might be able to hire a scientist to operate the scientific module and to speed up the data analysis and improve the quality of the data.
It would also be cool to be able to fit a special exploration SLF, or SLX. This would not be a combat capable vehicle but a fast exploration flier with ground penetrating radar and other appropriate tools. It would be cool if we had the choice to personally fly this SLX. THat way the main ship would not have to follow us but could be sent into orbit.
I would also like to be able to fit special equipment in the hard points of exploration ships. Something like special scanners, or special zoom capable photographic equipment. Being able to equip tools in hardpoints would further add to the specialization of ships.
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Troll or just unable to comprehend the idea that not all 100 people are working on the next content to be released. There's no maintenance mode and you know it.
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Frontier has never seemed very interested in developing exploration in Elite. It will have taken four years to finally get a patch with some meaningful exploration improvements, but the lack of the feedback forum for it (still) suggests they put off developing the exploration stuff until the last minute.
Frontier has a history of neglecting explorers, and the Gnosis event is just the latest proof of that. They simply don't THINK about explorers when putting content into the game, it doesn't seem to cross their minds. It's a recurring theme, and a large part of my uneasiness for whatever 3.3 turns out to be hinges on Frontier's seeming lack of interest in it. Actions speak louder than words, and Frontier's actions towards exploration for the past four years have told volumes about their disinterest in it.
I just don't expect too much of 3.3 at this point, or afterwards for that matter. It would be a very welcome surprise to be wrong about this, but it would also be a huge shift in attitude and direction by Frontier to be wrong too, and I just don't expect them to change like that.
I think that Exploration has been maintained, in a gradual sense, rather than equipped with headline-grabbing updates. We've had a lot of improvements. And most recently, the Krait is a great explorer.
All the teaser trailers (intended for a wide audience to capture new players, no doubt) have been about pew pew, new ships and aliens. If there were shots of the kind we see in OA's videos I don't remember them, and they probably would not appear attractive to new customers ..... unless they at last delivered a message that going out into the unknown .... making new discoveries of "things out there" is more exciting than Sandro and his team appear to believe. I say "appear" because appearances can be deceiving. He too has paymasters.
Undoubtedly, there will be many, (several maybe) devs who are very keen on exploration. Let's hope they get to show off their work .... and we appreciate it
All the teaser trailers (intended for a wide audience to capture new players, no doubt) have been about pew pew, new ships and aliens. If there were shots of the kind we see in OA's videos I don't remember them, and they probably would not appear attractive to new customers ..... unless they at last delivered a message that going out into the unknown .... making new discoveries of "things out there" is more exciting than Sandro and his team appear to believe. I say "appear" because appearances can be deceiving. He too has paymasters.
Undoubtedly, there will be many, (several maybe) devs who are very keen on exploration. Let's hope they get to show off their work .... and we appreciate it
I may be wrong (or dreamed it), but I thought 3.3 was planetary scanners and navigational aids (waypoints), with seeding lots of stuff across the galaxy (guessing RNG based) making it actually worth exploring.
Kind'a doubt they're gonna bother with an FFF, they know we know it was just blowing smoke up our [redacted], whatever's coming must be pretty much done. If ice planets and Carrier were replaced with new gameplay mechanics I'd be pretty happy* - maybe actual Thargoid warfare protecting stations (and weapons for sale cause I'm just not doing the Guardian Grind, [redact] that for a game of soldiers).
And if it's the same half hearted crap we've been getting for over a year at least I can finally delete this forums bookmark and go hassle Egosoft about X4
.* A one to one representation of the galaxy with decent flight mode only gets you so far if there's nothing to do other than fly / fight...
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Woot. Atmospheric planets.
Now we can fly down to a surface where the sky is blue instead of black and the surface is dotted with green things.
Am I missing something?
Don’t see the point if we can’t get out and pull up a few seedlings for research, TBH.
You may have missed this, but there's an entire genre of games out there called flight simulations. Surely Frontier could look to the best of those for meaningful gameplay?
I may be wrong (or dreamed it), but I thought 3.3 was planetary scanners and navigational aids (waypoints), with seeding lots of stuff across the galaxy (guessing RNG based) making it actually worth exploring.
Kind'a doubt they're gonna bother with an FFF, they know we know it was just blowing smoke up our [redacted], whatever's coming must be pretty much done. If ice planets and Carrier were replaced with new gameplay mechanics I'd be pretty happy* - maybe actual Thargoid warfare protecting stations (and weapons for sale cause I'm just not doing the Guardian Grind, [redact] that for a game of soldiers).
And if it's the same half hearted crap we've been getting for over a year at least I can finally delete this forums bookmark and go hassle Egosoft about X4
* A one to one representation of the galaxy with decent flight mode only gets you so far if there's nothing to do other than fly / fight...
Yes, a big part is supposedly the addition of stuff to actually find. Which is a pretty big deal, especially since finding it should have gameplay mechanics added. Personally I find exploring and finding ruins of alien civilisations explo content too, it has an Engines of God vibe to it.
With a little fauna and flora, would be enough for my happiness
I think this thread, although a valid question is actually a bit too early.
Post Q4 patch is when we should be saying “that’s nice, now what’s next and when is it coming out?”.
And even then it should be after the round of “Yay fantastic!” And “Boo Rubbish!” Threads that will appear at that time.
I think until we see what exactly Q4 brings for exploration, theorycrafting/guessing on what post Q4 will just be a wasted exercise in wish lists and not using Q4 as a baseline to temper the fantasists as well as the doom mongers.
Post Q4 patch is when we should be saying “that’s nice, now what’s next and when is it coming out?”.
And even then it should be after the round of “Yay fantastic!” And “Boo Rubbish!” Threads that will appear at that time.
I think until we see what exactly Q4 brings for exploration, theorycrafting/guessing on what post Q4 will just be a wasted exercise in wish lists and not using Q4 as a baseline to temper the fantasists as well as the doom mongers.