1y ago

is harsh criticism of E:D and FDev welcomed here?

Ever since Update 16 gave us nothing new that isn't War-related except magnetic sippy cups at low-grav outposts, I've become disillusioned and very much disappointed in E:D and especially FDev. However, on the other site, whenever I post any comments that give any sort of criticism towards E:D or FDev, I get chastised and ridiculed. It seems that, now, the general consensus is that FDev can do no wrong and E:D is the greatest game ever. I don't agree, I think they both have a lot wrong with them, and this is coming from someone with over 800 hours put into the game and who loves it to death. I guess I was wondering if this place is as much of an echo chamber as the other place, or if I can truly freely air my opinions on certain things about E:D and FDev here

13 comments

I don’t think you’re wrong, but unfortunately I don’t think that anything is going to change now. Realistically, it’s probably coming to the end of it’s supported life, and unless they start working on an ED2 I think there’s only so much that can be done with the existing engine; they’re not going to throw resources at it when they’ve got other more profitable IP’s.
- Yeah, I'd have to agree with you there. I guess the thing that disappoints me the most is that, were FDev to put even a little bit more effort into the IP that friggin made them what they are, they could have a massive moneymaker on their hands, but they're lazy. Hands-down, they're just lazy. The easy money is what they want, not the thing that, with a bit of effort, will be raking in the dough. But they're allergic to effort, apparently. It just sucks
  
  My take on this is that they aren't lazy, they just determined that putting any resources into Elite won't make them as much money as using the same resources somewhere else. I love Elite and want it to be improved but realistically, the business case isn't there. Everyone who is into the idea of Elite has already bought it. They tried to expand the audience by adding an FPS and I think that bet didn't go well. Whether or not you like the Thargoid war, it generates some press outside the existing playerbase. Yes, I'd like them to rework the engineers or add comets or landable ELWs. But players who are into that already bought the game.

At one point you have had seen it all, played it all, know everything about it. Sadly all games grow way slower than people playing it.
The game is almost 10 years old and is quite overwhelming to newer players, same goes for other older games like Warframe for example. I've sunk over 2000hours into Warframe but at one point it felt boring, nothing really new happens, even the annual "big updates" felt like same thing wrapped into another shell. Despite Warframe is living/earning from this updates, ED is different at this point, they already earned it and still add a little bit of content.
I would love to see another DLC, a proper one, well thought through. But at the other hand, what will it benefit ED without straying too far away?
And btw, Reddit is blind for criticism. If you want to help though, try to post at the official forum. it will get more attention then here I guess. Anyway, fly safe CMDR^^
- is quite overwhelming to newer players
  This was me. Tried to get into it, and aside from how insanely complex it all is, the gameplay loop itself just didn't feel enticing. I do follow update announcements, so I can see the much-vaunted 'space legs' are now a thing. What is there to do in E:D for a new player in 2023?
  It did make me laugh pretty hard the first time I tried to launch my ship from a hangar. Not being ready for the realistic controls, I moved the mouse slightly which sent my ship into a mad death spin, with attempts to regain control adding various different axes (axis'?) to the confusion. After a few seconds of bonking off the walls like some sort of demented metal moth, I of course exploded.
- Again, with effort, they could easily make it more accessible to new players, but they just don't. The forum has also turned into an echo chamber as well, btw. Warframe is different in that the updates, at least since the last time I played it, introduced things that made the game more enjoyable and accessible to new players and generally showed that the devs actually cared, but FDev just doesn't care about E:D. Like at all. The fact they shut down the anti-aliasing support threads with zero effort into actually fixing it says it all to me. They don't care about this amazing game
  
  I agree with you about the lack of content and care but on the other hand, we only can speculate about the why. TBH I didn't have any issues with AA on my part so I don't have any knowledge about this topic but also it's a bit disturbing to close threads without communication. But hey, the game still getting some bugs fixed and receive little updates, maybe not with the same love as from some players expected but at least it's getting some. Sadly there is a huge incomparable pile of games and Dev showing how not to keep a game alive... Maybe Frontier is just done with the game and think it's fine how it is? There's a german saying: "Alles hat ein Ende, nur die Wurst hat zwei" Everything has an end but the sausage has two... Yeah I should have head to bed... Gn8
- That's exactly it. At some point people will outgrow a game. There are a million games out there, it's ok to move on to something.
  Granted, FDev haven't been the best at quite a few things, but if they're doing such a terrible job, feel free to walk away.

The criticism comes from a place of love.
The star forge and galaxy sized flight sim are amazing. Most of everything else feels tacked on. FDev as a company just doesn't have the inspiration or whatever it took to make ED great, and they have been chasing the dragon for years.

I present you’re on the StuartGTs sun rather than the E_D version on Reddit. The underscore version is much less complimentary (but is also fully supportive of murderhobos and seal clubbing).
I recently got the odyssey update, doing a play through on a nearly fresh cmdr. I’m not much of FPS player, but I was appalled at the poor mechanics. I really bought it to try Exobiology but, really, I don’t have the patience for a 10 minute mini-game to get a single roll on the RNG/slot machine.
I’ve not tried the latest thargoid expansion. As a new cmdr, I’m hundreds of play hours from the ships and weapons necessary (that dude who solo’s a Medusa in a sidewinder notwithstanding). I’ll def lose interest (again) by then.

I'm not an AX combat enthusiast, but I've been enjoying the thargoid war lately. There's more to it than just combat, too—the reworked EVAC missions are great, the Scythe really puts C into CSAR and the barnacle matrix sites have interesting implications. I also like Glaives and the way they stir up the meta. Fun to fight them, too.
I think the game is moving into the right direction overall. The thargoid war story is very well done, going beyond simplistic "humans good, aliens bad and attack for no reason because they're alien" we normally see in games, movies etc.
If there's one thing to complain about, it's the fact that thargs haven't ramped up their war effort enough and it's too easy to counter them now that we've figured out what works best. We should be losing more systems to them and they should be sending vanguard forces deeper into the bubble.

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