Elite: Odyssey

Burstar
06 Jul 2021, 11:43am
Light-Hawk That all said, I still feel like Elite Dangerous is (or was) a potential gold mine of a game that is just being left untapped.


Oh, it is being tapped alright. Just not in a way that we like to see... For example, notice they didn't add any discounts to the store or Arx bonus events as part of their mea culpa.
Aunty Sledge
06 Jul 2021, 11:46am
SC is going to be an amazing game that I don't think I'm going to enjoy playing. The coming death and inventory changes are going to make it brutal in an online game where so many people want to kill you for light entertainment. I predict a lot of rage quiting going on.

Elite is much kinder in that respect, they got a lot of things right. However they just seem to have given up on the project, for who knows what reason. We'd all buy DLCs if the quality was there.
Light-Hawk
06 Jul 2021, 11:50am
BurstarOh, it is being tapped alright. Just not in a way that we like to see... For example, notice they didn't add any discounts to the store or Arx bonus events as part of their mea culpa.


Honestly I kind of find that to be more of a "meh" point. All ARX really gets you is cosmetics. So there are no game changing aspects there. I also can't really imagine people rushing to buy it even if it was discounted. I get a ship, I look through the colors, if I really want one, I'll get it, but it's not like I need to buy ALL the colors, special effects, etc....
Light-Hawk
06 Jul 2021, 12:00pm
Aunty SledgeSC is going to be an amazing game that I don't think I'm going to enjoy playing. The coming death and inventory changes are going to make it brutal in an online game where so many people want to kill you for light entertainment. I predict a lot of rage quiting going on.


I question Star Citizen's upcoming "death" mechanics as well. Will be interesting to see how that plays out. If there's a chance it will mitigate people wanting to go ganking or not, etc..... (probably not but we will see)

Elite is much kinder in that respect, they got a lot of things right. However they just seem to have given up on the project, for who knows what reason. We'd all buy DLCs if the quality was there.


Going with the assumption that they have given up, it would kind of make sense. The total revenue of Elite as of April 2020, was £100 million. While that sounds like a lot, that's the revenue. That's not taking any costs, business expenses, etc.... into account yet. The game released in 2014. So that's just under £17 million per year. For a company of 600 people, that averages out to about £27k per employee per year. Again we still have not taken any expenses into account so the actual amount is still less than that. There could be more to it than that (I'm sure there is as this was a simplification of it all) but so far it doesn't sound like it has been that profitable of a game in the long run. If anyone knows more and cares to correct this, I'd love to see it.
Artie
06 Jul 2021, 12:20pm
They certainly did not give up. From the hints that were told, they do have the plans for the future and also some tech investment was made into the game for those plans, how it looks.

They just have a problem to deliver things "on the first go", how it seems. Remember the Horizons release, where basically were just the planets, riding in SRV and a few activities around the bases there (and shooting stones for resources). The more things came later in the updates and I bet this time it won't be very different. I won't be also surprised if they reconsider some stuff and ship interiors will make it into the game at some point after all, because if nothing else, it can be a nice income from the Arx shop (like Warframe has).
Amata Lirein
06 Jul 2021, 12:30pm
ArtieI won't be also surprised if they reconsider some stuff and ship interiors will make it into the game at some point after all, because if nothing else, it can be a nice income from the Arx shop (like Warframe has).


^This. Personalizing your character as well as your ship is the main reason why most people are willing to spent ARX, and ship interiors would be no difference, especially your character's personal quarters. The options are almost limitless. Furniture, wall and shelf deco, the color of your bedsheets even.
Morgan James
06 Jul 2021, 12:30pm
Light-Hawk
Going with the assumption that they have given up, it would kind of make sense. The total revenue of Elite as of April 2020, was £100 million. While that sounds like a lot, that's the revenue. That's not taking any costs, business expenses, etc.... into account yet. The game released in 2014. So that's just under £17 million per year. For a company of 600 people...


If you're going to use the total number of employees, you've got to use the total revenue from all the studio's games, not just Elite.
Aunty Sledge
06 Jul 2021, 1:30pm
ArtieThey certainly did not give up. From the hints that were told, they do have the plans for the future and also some tech investment was made into the game for those plans, how it looks.

They just have a problem to deliver things "on the first go", how it seems. Remember the Horizons release, where basically were just the planets, riding in SRV and a few activities around the bases there (and shooting stones for resources). The more things came later in the updates and I bet this time it won't be very different. I won't be also surprised if they reconsider some stuff and ship interiors will make it into the game at some point after all, because if nothing else, it can be a nice income from the Arx shop (like Warframe has).


I hope I'm wrong, I really do. They need to revisit Powerplay, flesh out mission types, add ship interiors, allow base building and customisation, and continue support of VR. More SRVs, resize a couple of ships so they fit on more appropriate pads (Asp Scout, Type-7, Keelback should be small, Clipper should be medium). Fleet carriers would be much nicer if they were modular instead of them all being the same huge thing, and add the concourse to Fleet Carriers! Engineering for vehicles and fighters would be nice too.

Who wouldn't want space hulks that only small ships could land on, fight a load of Thargoids or pirates, and get some good loot. Make some of them so hard to HAVE to team up. The possibilites in Elite are endless, the developers just seem to be stuck in this mininal-viable-product mindset which is really grating on customers.

CIG excel at tantalising their customers, people enjoy ships for years before they actually exist. FDev need a roadmap longer than 3 weeks, and for the love of god could they stop embarrassing themselves on those streams. They need to know their product, get good at playing it, and stop lying to us.
Meowers
06 Jul 2021, 1:41pm
Aunty SledgeFleet carriers would be much nicer if they were modular instead of them all being the same huge thing, and add the concourse to Fleet Carriers!

This one. And a bit of interaction with your carrier crew would be nice as well. And crew management with arranging shifts and dealing with random events (illness, vacation, etc). To make you feel that you're now a captain of a carrier, you must be responsible, not just have 'a big cargo storage that you can land on'.

And yeah, different carrier sizes with different costs, capacities and landing pad sets.

Last edit: 06 Jul 2021, 1:46pm
Sakashiro
06 Jul 2021, 2:20pm
I'd love to have more survival mechanics, especially for exploration. Ships can survive forever by scooping fuel, but what about oxygen, food, and water? There should be a requirement to gather materials for food synthesis on a regular basis while we cannot visit stations. The cargo hold could slowly fill with biowaste, too, to be jettisoned or sold for profit, lol.
Meowers
06 Jul 2021, 2:23pm
Sakashiroor sold for profit, lol.

"Just make sure you have a ton of it to fill the canister."

Thought about 'hardcore' version of ED, where you have to survive and slowly progress. Not that 'Anaconda at the Day 3' stuff.

Last edit: 06 Jul 2021, 2:29pm
Morgan James
06 Jul 2021, 2:42pm
ED Hardcore mode would be ace

Thinking of what Frostfall does for Skyrim and Frost does for Fallout 4... yeah.

Taking a ship out into the unknown should take serious preparation and induce a little bit of fear and anxiety!
Sakashiro
06 Jul 2021, 2:45pm
MeowersThought about 'hardcore' version of ED, where you have to survive and slowly progress. Not that 'Anaconda at the Day 3' stuff.

Slow is OK, slow and boring is not. In many other games, you become good at something simply by doing it repeatedly. In ED, to become good at, say, combat, you have to unlock engineers by doing non-combat stuff such as mining and trading. It would help a lot if each engineer could be unlocked in multiple ways, so people could choose an activity they enjoy. Don't like mining? OK, bring some combat bonds instead, or some Lavian brandy. I get the idea of using engineer grind to introduce players to activities they might like, but it just doesn't work out that way. It also goes against the game's motto "Blaze your own trail."
Meowers
06 Jul 2021, 2:48pm
Too bad it would shoo the casual players (main source of money) away. But... game is too easy now. As I think, it should be much more difficult and unfogiving. Not taking hours of gameplay away if something goes wrong (a bad way to do hardcore games, it can cause even the most stubborn players to go), but giving player a challenge.

SakashiroIt also goes against the game's motto "Blaze your own trail."

All the engineering stuff are way off the Elite concept... As I see it, maybe, but still way off. Elite games were about freedom to do everything and everywhere, not 'bring X tons of particular cargo to a well-known paranoid person and then grind something just because you can't buy it for credits'.
Sakashiro
06 Jul 2021, 3:02pm
MeowersToo bad it would shoo the casual players (main source of money) away. But... game is too easy now. As I think, it should be much more difficult and unfogiving. Not taking hours of gameplay away if something goes wrong (a bad way to do hardcore games, it can cause even the most stubborn players to go), but giving player a challenge.

The challenges exist but are easily avoided. For example, you can travel through Thargoid systems endlessly without ever getting bothered by them. The only surprise threat in the game is other players if you play in open.

In Fallout 4 there was both the survival element and random threats such as roaming ghouls or supermutants. You had to take care of food and water and constantly watch your back. The wasteland felt dangerous. ED is dangerous in name only.

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Anything about the Elite:Odyssey release version.