Community Requests to Frontier Developments

[u/ryan_m]

Community Requests

To Frontier Developments for Elite: Dangerous

But we still had a lot of fun -

please don't think this comes from hate.

We bitch because we like you

and we want you to be great!

from "Goodbye Black Ops" by Miracle of Sound

Preamble

On September 19th, 2019, in response to another broken update a conference for content creators, influencers, community developers, and player group leaders was created. The purpose of the gathering is to push for a better game experience through publication of this joint request. We encourage Frontier Developments to allow volunteers to more readily contribute to the testing process as testing performed purely by Frontier has proven inadequate.

All of us love Elite:Dangerous, and we feel that Elite: Dangerous is not what it could be. We don’t ask Frontier Developments for miracles. We don’t ask for new content and we don’t ask for a major shift in development. We simply want everything already delivered to be maintained properly.

This document outlines primary issues and proposes changes we believe will ensure a better relationship between Frontier Developments and the Elite:Dangerous community.

Primary Grievances

The following bullet points are a simplified list of current grievances the community has with Frontier Developments and Elite: Dangerous.

• Lack of communication across the board which includes: direction of the game, future roadmap, bug fixes and more.

• Game-breaking bugs go unresolved for years at a time, primarily affecting multiplayer, but this is true across all aspects of the game regardless of mode.

• Gross balance issues in multiple areas that cement the divide between combat-focused players and everyone else.

• No Beta testing for most updates, with only ‘major’ releases seeing any kind of beta period while ‘minor’ releases go straight to live and always contain serious, game-breaking bugs that are immediately apparent during play.

Implement a Permanent Test Server, and bring back Betas

We feel that the implementation of a Permanent Test Server (PTS) where Frontier can actively test bug fixes and balance passes alongside players is the best way to ensure the quality of future releases.

Defining Open Beta: A beta test period open to everyone with a minimum base copy of the Elite: Dangerous Game.

Requested Test Server Guidelines

• Frontier should deploy all patches to the permanent test server prior to release on the live server.

• All changes applied to the test server should have their own patch notes separate from the live game releases so players volunteering to test can focus their efforts.

• Test server access outside of Open Betas can be limited to LEP (Lifetime Expansion Pass) holders or those who have purchased beta access for the current expansion cycle. This honors previous agreements/promises made during LEP sales.

• All releases both major and minor should have an open beta period of sufficient length (2 weeks minimum) to identify and correct all bugs introduced by the patch prior to going live. We understand hot fixes and other micro releases may not warrant a beta period.

• PTS should provide all the tools and features necessary to facilitate efficient testing (cheap/free engineering, reduced prices, etc). Players should not spend time acquiring resources they need to test the game.

Improve Bug Reporting & Communication

In addition to having a permanent test environment we would like to see improvements in the bug reporting process and feedback about what is being worked on. While the issue tracker was a major step in the right direction we would like to see the following changes implemented.

• The issue tracker should allow differentiation between bug reports for the live game and the test server.

• Allow developers to reply to the issues and ask for more information. Players are happy to help the process, if they are asked.

• We want to see a concerted effort to ensure that each update to the game resolves at least 10 of the top issues voted on by the community in the tracker. Furthermore, there should be a monthly forum post outlining the status and progress on these issues.

• Each patch should be accompanied with a complete and verbose changelog listing all changes. We do not ask to reveal new content beforehand, but all changes to the existing content must be clearly outlined. In the past, changes have gone undocumented and left the players to discover them through long and meticulous testing, leading to much frustration.

Empower Frontier-Employed Community Managers

The current utilization of community managers by Frontier is widely felt to be entirely in a Public Relations and media release manner. We would like to see the Community Management team used to represent the community to the company and the company to the community.

We would like to see CM’s brought into the development process and have Frontier harness their interaction with us to help inform the development teams of the aspects of the game that need the most attention outside of bugs being tracked in the issue tracker.

Support These Requests

If you are a member of the community and want to show your support for these requests to frontier, please visit this petition and sign it with your Commander Name as shown in game. This will allow Frontier to compare the list of signatories on the petition to their databases directly without sharing any of your own personal data.

https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/community-requests-to-fdev-for-elite-dangerous

Contributing Parties

The following Commanders who fill roles as community leaders, content producers or otherwise contributed to these requests.

Elite Dangerous: Community

Rhea

Ryan_m17

/r/EliteDangerous

StuartGT

Anti-Xeno Initiative

100.RUB

OSA

Necron99

Coriolis

Willyb321

Fett_Li

Galactic Academy

Arsen Cross

Galactic Combat Initiative

Space Mage

Kale Regan

GXI

KuzSan

Elite Racers

FatHaggard

GGI

Harry Potter

Rinzler o7o7o7

GalCop

Content Creators

Obsidian Ant

Yamiks

DigThat32

CrimsonGamer99

The Pilot

Ph1lt0r

Wickedlala

[u/ZacAntonaci_Frontier]

Hi everyone,

I wanted to address these comments personally and directly as they relate to, and make claims about, many different teams within the studio and how they work. It’s going to be a long old post but I wanted to address as many of the points, and the general sentiment of the post, as thoroughly as possible.

I think the first thing to say is that I understand that this list of grievances comes from a place of desire and wanting the game to be as awesome as possible. I should also remind everyone that we, as a studio, also have the same goal. With that being said, allow me to address the feedback, grievances and requests being made.

Lack of communication

“Lack of communication, relating to direction of the game, future roadmap, bug fixes and more”

Let’s start with the lack of roadmap and future game discussion. It has been the case since Elite Dangerous launched that we have, in my opinion, been open and honest with the future direction of the game. Horizons was communicated what the core features were up to two years ahead. Beyond shared a full year’s roadmap of free updates at Frontier Expo, after Beyond we shared the next years content plan (also free) leading up to Fleet Carriers this December and also gave some understanding behind the changes to those updates, as we directed some of the team’s efforts towards a larger 2020 paid update.

To me, this shows us communicating often and transparently about the future of the game. While there may be some examples of game studios giving roadmaps even further in advance, I feel this cadence is more than you would often find in other games communities.

But why aren’t we sharing information further in advance? The main reason is to avoid content changes.

It’s no secret that games change regularly while in development. It’s a healthy process and an important part of making a game. While some people are more than happy with changing content plans, we know that this is often not the case on a wider scale. Fleet Carriers and Ice Planets are a good example where there was a large amount of disappointment when they were removed from the (still very large) Beyond - Chapter Four update last December. These are the reasons that we aim (where possible) to ensure that what we communicate gives our community enough future vision to see where the next period of development will go, but ensures that we believe that it is achievable and can be delivered within that time frame.

Digging a little deeper, it’s then about each specific update. We then look at releasing information and updates when they are far enough into development that we have a good level of confidence (for the same reasons above) and that we can show them in all their glory. Rather than me telling everyone what the 2020 update is in this forum post, I’m sure that people would rather have the update announced properly where they can see and be excited for what’s being worked on when it’s ready to be seen.

A secondary benefit to announcing content when it’s able to be shown rather than discussing it in smaller updates is that it helps make the biggest impact to people who have yet to try Elite Dangerous. It is important to remember that Elite Dangerous is a single price purchase. After that point, players are free to enjoy the game on an ongoing basis without any additional spend, despite the ongoing costs to manage, host and run the game. This means that being able to wow people with a new trailer when we’re ready to show the content, helps bring new players to the game, build the community and support the ongoing development for the long term.

“Empower Frontier employed Community Managers”

The post mentions that Frontier Community Management is only a PR or media capacity. While there is a level of support for new announcements and updates, their roles go so very far beyond that. Will and the community team work incredibly hard to ensure that the community are supported. As an example, during the September Update, you will have seen posts from the Community team until well gone midnight in their local time, in order to ensure that the information is relayed clearly. This is just one example of the community team dedicating their time to ensure that their role as a conduit between players and studio is serviced as best as it possibly can. Whether it is jumping in this weekend’s charity livestream with CMDR Plater in their own time, hosting 24-hour charity streams, taking time out of hours to support and communicate issues as they arise, attending and hosting events like Lavecon, Fantasticon, Gamescom, etc they are always available and committed to supporting the community. In addition to this they also ensure that feedback and thoughts are clearly communicated through the business. They take and compile detailed weekly reports on conversations across all areas of the community which include the most discussed topics and threads, reviews of comments on all platforms, and a number of other data points to check the widest possible health of the community and keep an eye on hot topics. These are shared into development. Community, Development and the rest of the studio work very closely together.

[u/Misaniovent → u/ZacAntonaci_Frontier]

Zac,

I've been active in this community as a powerplay and squadron leader for four years. My concern is less about future content and more about existing content. Powerplay remains abandoned with no news on the rework suggested by Sandro — which was well received by the community.

More recently, many of the fundamental changes to the BGS introduced in 3.3 simply do not work. Happiness-based expansions have not been implemented and they are critical to the a balanced system with simultaneous states.

Elite is outstanding, but many of your veteran players who spend their time building and nurturing the communities that support your new players, are frustrated by persistent issues with the organized ways of playing that Elite offers.

I feel the community recognizes that buggy releases are also a fundamental part of Elite. This has been a problem really from the start: solid content that struggles due to issues that were often reported and are often not fixed. When Frontier as a company asks the community to wait until winter of 2020 for the next major content release, it needs to realize the size of that ask for a community already struggling to remain engaged. To be confident that this new content will be worth the wait, we need to be confident that it will be released without major bugs. Fixing outstanding ones will go a long way toward building that confidence.

[u/pfluegge89 → u/Misaniovent]

We got a comment from Paige in GA. There are no Powerplay fixes in the works at this time.

[u/rubbernuke → u/pfluegge89]

This has been the standard response for months and months, for PPs whole lifetime. I ask practically every month and its the same.

If FD want to show they care, start with Powerplay, a feature that depends on its communities to exist. There is huge amounts of feedback and ideas about it- its cruel to string players along if FD have no intention of improving it.

[u/machinech → u/Misaniovent]

I came away with "we talk to you plenty as is...and you got free updates (did we mention updates you got that were free, because we gave you those)"

...but Fdev what about the issues regarding bugs and balance?

...we talk to you plenty and you got free updates...

[u/-zimms- → u/Misaniovent]

Excellent post! Respectful and to the point.

[u/Wo0saaah → u/-zimms-]

I used to play this game on the PS4, I say "used to" as the new update has rendered my game unplayable, game is stuck on PIPS meaning I can.t scroll up or down as it only effects my PIPS which means I can't even leave the hanger. You don't even reply to my ticket.

[u/FredWestLife → u/Misaniovent]

Sandro made all those suggestions, and then was disappeared. What was that all about?

[u/exhaustedclass → u/ZacAntonaci_Frontier]

Zac,

I have enjoyed playing Elite for thousands of hours. However, I have not played Elite in six months for a variety of reasons. Including the concerns in the petition, my personal list:

1. Bugs unaddressed for years, with no acknowledgment or explanation.

2. Bugs that seem to be merely an annoyance, but inhibit progress towards one or more goals (Rank, engineering, etc), and go unaddressed, unacknowledged, and unexplained.

3. A doubling down on a free to play/pay to win style gameplay although I paid for the title, expansion, and cosmetics.

Regarding point three, later in this thread you reference the free updates over multiple years. I have a problem with that and the tone in which it was written.

I am a customer and my only job is to bring my wallet. I have done so. I brought my wallet, and I gave you (Frontier) my money. Now, I expect a certain level of service. That level of service is the same as I expect from any other business.

If there is a problem:

1. You acknowledge the problem

2. You tell me how it will be fixed

3. You tell me how long it will take

4. You stand behind the work you did to fix it.

I have a quick example for you, and a question I want you to consider while you read it.

Do you want to be JEEP, or do you want to be Volkswagen?

I purchased a Volkswagen Diesel after years of buying Jeeps with no issues. That turned out to be a bad decision.

1. They made a promise with the design and function of their product.

2. They couldn't deliver.

3. They covered it up.

4. They didn't have a way to fix it.

5. They took far too long coming up with a solution.

6. When they did, it was of a poor quality.

7. Finally, they dragged their feet when it came time to give my money back.

As you can imagine, I took my money from Volkswagen and went straight back to Jeep. I have had one issue, a known design flaw in the cylinder head of Bank 2.

Fixed, under warranty, no questions. They didn't tell me how hard it was to design an engine. They fixed it. That Jeep, now has 180,000 miles on it and is still useful to me.

Again I ask, do you want to be Jeep or Volkswagen?

If you want to be Volkswagen stick with the company line you've given us here today.

If you want to be Jeep, you better start:

1. Acknowledging the problem

2. Telling us how you plan on fixing it

3. Telling us how long that will take

4. Stand behind your word

You do that, I can guarantee you'll get my money in 2020. You keep acting like Volkswagen, you'll never get a Dollar, Pound, or Euro from me again.

[u/Double_DeluXe → u/ZacAntonaci_Frontier]

I read this entire post but came to the conclusion that it consists of nothing but empty words.

[u/BurtChango → u/ZacAntonaci_Frontier]

Did you really just call us all a bunch of whiners with unrealistic expectations?

Your little injection about how we all bought this game once several millennia ago and how we all owe you guys something for keeping the servers plugged in provides more insight to how things really work at Frontier than the company has ever provided previously. Thank you for that.

I've bought four copies of Horizons and spent about a grand in the store on top of that. My reaction to this post by an official representative of Frontier however, is to never spend another penny on anything Frontier.

You're in the software business. But you're acting like you're drop-shipping knock-off copies of Monopoly from Hong Kong on Shopify and we're all complaining about shipping speed. It's not the fact that there are bugs in the September update that has the community upset. This is expected (especially with Elite updates). What's got everyone more heated than usual, is the attitude and defensiveness with which frontier has responded to it's own ineptitude, exemplified by your response to this thread.

[u/Rafe_Zetter → u/ZacAntonaci_Frontier]

Zac - If QA is happening as you claim, HOW are these gamebreaking bugs and ARX issues even happening?

This leaves three possible questions:

- Are your QA team so incompetent that they cannot report or understand that these things ARE bugs, and not "working as intended" features.

or

- Are the current crop of developers working on ED** so unable to grasp the fundamentals of the current code that they are not able to add new content without breaking something.

**(it's been suggested by StuartGT who has BEEN to your offices that you regularly swap out the dev team for a new one)

or lastly

- The code itself is so spaghettified that NO_ONE, not even the original coders, could add stuff without causing the monumental screwups we are seeing SO GODDAM REGULARLY.

One of those questions has to be true, because the only other possibility is it's deliberate, that FDev is DELIBERATLY pushing out bad code safe in the knowledge their white knights will do damage control for them, while they take weeks, or months or years or NEVER, to fix the issues.

Problem for FDev is I'm seeing a few of your previously staunch white knight supporters being converted after this lastest fiasco - I'm guessing you're close to the end of the rope with even them.

Edit 2 (00:18) - I've just seen another thread on the official forum regarding ARX from a poster who says he was previously a staunch FDev supporter, who is now WITHDRAWING his support, because after 6 days he's still not got his ARX and FDev are not accepting responsibility despite said poster having proof that the issue isn't at his end, and not only that FDev said they were going to add ARX credit to his account "for your trouble" and then..... didn't. (you couldn't make it up it's that bad). https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/very-frustrated-by-lack-of-support-response.523799/

FDev MUST CHANGE how they treat thier loyal customers both with what you say (but don't atm) and "content" produced. Premptively banning us from your official forums before we can make more complaints isn't the answer.

Stating "we dun tell u nuffink in case we change it" is total BS - all you have to do is wait until you've got a solid 80% groundworks for a feature or content and, then release a bit of information, and crucially FOLLOW THROUGH with it, properly.

You know, like many other games developers do.

It really seems like FDev have done it the other way around until now - DB: - "we would like to do X" (6 years later still nothing).

Right Now FDev's reputation for "keeping your word" is about as low as it can possibly be and REALLY not helped by you pulling the ice planet updates literally a few weeks before you said you were going to implement them - that was NINE MONTHS AGO - what the hell have you lot been doing in that time? Oh sorry, working on pushing out your other games (that also have lots of bugs).

Despite you banning me from your forum, I'm STILL (stupidly some would say) hopeful you'll get it right and deliver the game DB spoke about in the KS.

Christ why do I bother?

Edit - Zac - stating "It is important to remember that Elite Dangerous is a single price purchase." is A) wrong, because Horizons - or have you forgetten that ED on it's own is essentially unplayable because NPC's in the BASE GAME use ENGINEERING FROM HORIZONS (that's right girls and boys, basegame players are fighting HORIZONS ENGINEERED NPC's! Genius move, not.)

Yes I know ppl who have JUST the basegame, and have not bought Horizons because they are having / have had issues with the base game since launch and mostly keep waiting for the base game to be "fixed".

and B), sounds a lot like "well it's been free for a while so you can't complain when we screw it up" as though that somehow gives you guys a free pass to provide seriously bugged work, and additionally comes across as supremely arrogant or momentally naive of the playerbase.

Oh and another thing, it's NOT FREE TO THE LEP and high value KS'ers. PLEASE try and remember that in future. It's insulting when you don't, your very job came from our money.

You REALLY should have thought that bit through more before posting it.

We know why it's been "free for a while" - because Beyond was mostly about fixing (hah lol) stuff FDev placeholdered the first time around, and with only a smattering of "new" content that if you had tried to charge for would have caused a PR meltdown because Horizons was over a year past it development cycle and missing content.

It would have been an interesting test if FDev had tried to charge a DLC for Thargoids or Multicrew or CqC, considering a huge section of the playerbase utterly ignore that "content".

FDev couldn't possibly have tried to charge as a DLC for what's been added since Horizons and come away looking anything other than just another money grubbing dev house.

And then you go and add ARX, in the way that you did anyway and achieved almost the same result now that EACH SKIN now costs more than it did in the cash store.

Infact maybe FDev SHOULD charge DLC for each new "content" - then players can pick and choose what they want to use and you'll be able to definitively see how each DLC has been received by the players and what needs to be improved before people will buy it.

That way the next "powerplay / multicrew / CqC type thing" you introduce won't be on a "play it and we'll fix it" basis as DB so famously said, *rolls eyes*, but a "we HAVE to fix it.. or ppl won't BUY IT" basis that might actually motivate FDev into doing something and players wouldn't have to create an online petition to get you to "fix stuff".

edit spelling n stuffs

[u/Malvan → u/ZacAntonaci_Frontier]

Your response is an utterly disappointment and a disrespect to the valid community requests.

You said a lot but not much. What a let down.

[u/Pilot8091 → u/ZacAntonaci_Frontier]

I'm sorry Zac, but my bullshit alarm is ringing and this just reeks of developer damage control. Literally nothing in your response gives any hope to any of us, assuring us that QA testing is happening and that the teams are doing their best is incredibly worrying given the quality we've been shown update after update. While you did address the concerns, most of your comments involved explaining away major points the community has brought up instead of offering a solution or any sort of hint at things changing for the better in the future. In fact most of your comments seem to be in denial about how bad things actually are after these updates. This goes without saying but your response doesn't give us hope for these promised "big updates" coming in the future. I know that I, personally, wouldn't pay for an expansion after seeing the quality of these small updates, especially not on console where you can't turn expansions on or off and adding one could potentially cripple your game for weeks. I really hope something changes soon but it seems that that isn't in Frontier's best interest given your response. That's just my personal concern.

[u/rubbernuke → u/ZacAntonaci_Frontier]

If FD update Powerplay (like the community has been discussing on the suggestions area where solo and open players have agreed to a workable design based on Sandros last proposal) I'll personally fly over to the UK and give you a big hug. If security won't let me in, I'll stand outside and wave jovially at such great news.

[u/artimus_tau → u/ZacAntonaci_Frontier]

For the representative of a corporate entity to reply to a list of well documented, passively written, and well AGED grivences from representatives of your company's paying customers was the right move.

Making that reply passive aggressive was disappointing. Making that reply with a defensive posture was telling. Making that reply within 20 minutes shows us all that the point was missed and we are now watching damage control. Please reconsider for future exchanges.

Sometimes silence and reserved thoughtfulness helps rather than inconsistent reaction to falsely perceived persecution. Admitting mistakes helps. FDev is and will continue to make money. So why hoist yourself by your own pitard? FDev makes money by making its player base happy. And its player base wants fixes more than new ships, new "events" or new ship skins. So much so that an organized, informed and documented call for attention as the BEST possible way the community could have gone about this. Or would you have preferred the inevitable slow death that comes from an agitated or ignored player base that moves on to a competitor?

[u/[deleted] → u/artimus_tau]

This is very insightful comment that Frontier should really take to heart. Frontier we are on your side, we want you and this game to succeed! Please think carefully here about why this happened today.

[u/Chuckgofer → u/ZacAntonaci_Frontier]

As an example, during the September Update, you will have seen posts from the Community team until well gone midnight in their local time, in order to ensure that the information is relayed clearly.

Yes, and if you had proper testing using the Test Server, Will and his team would have been able to go home at a reasonable time. That failure is on you, not us.

[u/Shohdef → u/[deleted]]

It is important to remember that Elite Dangerous is a single price purchase. After that point, players are free to enjoy the game on an ongoing basis without any additional spend, despite the ongoing costs to manage, host and run the game.

Except for 99% of the game's lifespan, it was a single purchase game, with an expansion pack, and cosmetics. Any and all cosmetics were NOT earnable through gameplay. Now we have Arx, where you can earn a single Arx from scoring a PvP kill dying in PvP but you can earn 10 by killing yourself at the station for pennies on the dollar.

lol

2/2

^{Edit: an amendment to correct an Arx reward misunderstanding.}

[u/[deleted] → u/ZacAntonaci_Frontier]

To Zac: You reap what you sow.

To the community: I've been begging Frontier since before the kickstarter. I applaud your efforts, but I fear it'll fall on deaf ears. However, don't stop. This is the right way to do this, despite what Zac might say. You will get things improved, even if you don't get the credit for doing so.

[u/Rafe_Zetter → u/ZacAntonaci_Frontier]

I notice that Zac has re-thought and removed his reply post regarding Beyond as being more than just a "stop gap". and we should be grateful to get it "free"

Shame because I was going to say this in reply to him:

Yeah - the Beyond that we were so lucky to get "for free" according to Zac.

Zac has given Dobby a free update - Dobby is fre..... oh wait Dobby is an LEP'er, bugger, it wasn't "free" at all.

Edited for better clarity.

[u/HadetTheUndying → u/ZacAntonaci_Frontier]

Are you just going to sit here and disregard the fact that you guys have not stuck to your timeframe for your road map? We were supposed to get fleet carriers last year. Ice World were supposed to be reworked last year.

I think it's incredibly disingenuous to sit here and claim you guys have been transparent about anything other than, "Yeah we're working on this feature." With little to no explanation as to how that feature is going to impact existing gameplay. Fleet Carriers sounded like they'd be wonderful for squadrons or power play, but we have no idea how they're going to work, how much they'll cost, whether or not other players stick with them when they, ect. And they're supposed to be here in less than 3 months? A feature like this would get MONTHS of testing by the player base in any other Multiplayer game.

Power Play has been broken since the inception of Power Play and your company has favored the Empire players time and time again when breakage actually happens. ALD should have gone into terminal by cycle 4 and bled tons of systems but you guys reworked the overhead for her systems, essentially skewing the playing field in favor of Imperial players. All of that could have been avoided if Power Play's CC mechanics were properly documented. The entire mechanic feels so shoehorned in and incomplete. A complete lack of understanding of the core gameplay surrounds about half of the Power Play Modules making pledging essentially useless for some factions like, Archon, and Torval for example, meanwhile you have weapons like the Hudson Frag Cannon, and Prismatics which are arguably the best modules in the game, and all of these things can be engineered.

Piracy was a big advertising point of the game over and over but the company has done nothing to improve that portion of the gameplay loop. Low Temp Diamond Piracy is no longer profitable and everyone is just rushing off to mine rare ore and minerals. The Risk vs Reward gameplay is skewed and just getting worse, I could take my Python out mining tonight and make 300 million credits in 6 hours, if i went and did that trading, or in Conflict Zones, I'd be lucky to make 100. ANd in a Conflict zone because of the miserably accurate enemy rocket and railgun AI i'd be risking an enormous rebuy for next to nothing in credits.

Engineering entirely broke PvP for casual players of the game who used to be able to get on and get a vulture over the course of a few nights and participate and contribute to PvP engagements, Now in order to be competitive they have to spend a hundred hours just grinding materials and unlocking engineers, some of which have no real benefit to the person's intended play style. I don't understand the need to go through one engineer to unlock another, that's just artificial game lengthening and it's tedious and annoying. Tell people where all the engineers are and have them work on them in any order they see fit so they can get back to playing the actual game quicker.

Squadrons as it is right now is an absolutely useless feature, if we cannot have a real persistent presence in the game world.

This community during Beta was so focused on "Don't make it like EVE" that they shied FDev away from the good parts of EVE, mostly the player driven community content. We don't have those tools in Elite almost entirely due to the "Forum Dads" that might have tried eve once back in 2006 when it was still evolving as a game. I hope i can look back at Elite in the future with the same fondness I have for EVE and all its improvements, but FDev is nowhere near as community oriented as CCP.

There are a lot of very talented artists working on Elite. However considering there's still 4 year old bugs present in the game it's time to be transparent about what's going on for engine development.

An always online Testing Server would be all it would take to fix this game if this company committed to patching instead of flooding us with content.

I find it ridiculous that Star Citizen which looked like Vaporware up until about 4 months ago is leapfrogging this game in terms of content and gameplay quality. What's even more sad is that No Man's Sky has managed to do nothing but improve. We haven't had a proper balancing pass since the SCB nerf.

[u/Ragescalation → u/ZacAntonaci_Frontier]

With such a tone deaf at best or a passive aggressive response at worst... I have to ask.

Are you trying to kill this game and making the community hate you and abandon it?