Are we Going to get Elite : Dangerous "Lite"

[Philip Coutts]

There are a few threads on the Frontier forums running along a common theme. Basically there are a lot of features that people have said are placeholder that seem to becoming permanent. For example we have at various times in the Newsletters and elsewhere been shown cargo screens and trading screens but so far in Beta we have some pretty basic screens for trading. Things like the supercruise exit are "placeholder" and my concern is that these things are going to stay the way they are. At the moment we basically have Elite 2014, it is the original game but with updated graphics. I'm a little disappointed that a lot of the features (Orrery maps!) seem to have been scaled back.

Now maybe Frontier are going to pull a rabbit out of a hat and fire all these things into the game but for me they should be in the Beta now so we can test them. There is no point in testing placeholders is there!

I worry that the full release is being rushed out for the Christmas market and will be less than it could have been. I know Frontier can update these things after the release but to be honest I would rather wait and get the full game finished properly.

Maybe I worry too much. Thoughts anyone?

Edit: Here's one of the threads on the Frontier Forums and the first post contains a lot of the screenshots I'm talking about.

http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=50682

[GlobusDiablo]

I agree Coutts. Things do seem rushed. I'd rather wait also, but understand if FD have another schedule.

It isn't turning out to be quite the game I was hoping for, mainly due to the flight mechanics, but I'm still glad I backed it and I think it will be a top quality title yet.

We'll just have to wait and see.

[Philip Coutts]

I think we are still going to get a fantastic game but it saddens me that we might not see some of these really cool features. I'm no big fan of the current menu systems as they are pretty clunky at times and I had hoped we would get something a bit more user friendly and pleasing on the eye.

[Flip]

We don't know how many people are working on the stuff that will fill in the placeholders. For what we know they might have twenty small teams working in parallel on these stuff.

That's the point of agile development: the team that does the integration doesn't have to wait for all the teams that do the little bits here and there. They (the integration team) can use basic placeholders until the other teams are done.

[Mr_Average]

I prefer pretty asteroids to pretty trading screens.

For something that is at Beta 2 stage, its a damned fine product. While I hope that there's more to the final game that's released this year than what we have presently, I'm prepared to wait for DLC or add-ons if it isn't quite right.

I've seen and been part of plenty of software projects (never games mind) that have never done the sort of Beta testing that Frontier have put in place. Personally I'm impressed. Look how quickly they released X.01, X.02 etc patches. While some might think that they are having their tickets ignored, since Beta came out, I'm sure that there are a list of priorities. Bugs are a bitch to resolve. Fat client + server stuff especially so (what version of Visual C has he got, on what Windows with what security patches installed? Can we replicate the error? Is it only when he's near a star?). It boggles the mind.

Saying that, I'd like to see what else can be done in game besides space trucker, pirate, bounty hunter, explorer. I get the impression (maybe I'm wrong) that unless you're a shit-hot fighter pilot, you have to continually trade in order to make money (to buy ships, refuel, repair etc). And once you get a decent ship with some decent add-ons, you have to maintain a balance of xCR just to make sure that when some idiot wipes you out when exiting a space station, you can get your valuable equipment back.

[Silverwolf]

Its a great game now,
But yes it could be fuller and i wonder how full it will be on release.

In my mind it will still be lite all the way up to planetary landings. Then I hope it will feel full and awsome.