*** The Official Elite: Dangerous Thread ***

Braben has at no point up to the new video release mentioned that there would be planetary landings in the game thats being funded on KS, and has stated that its not in the initial remit if the game only reaches the basic funding. Planetary landings was something the KS community kept bringing up over and over again, same with leaving the ship to walk around. Braben was quite clear at the start of the kickstarter that the £1.25 million would fund the basic game and they had based the required funding on what they expected to produce. I think they have a quite clear idea on this. It would be fair to say that they should have clarified at the start exactly what we were getting. I think the continual development of the game is a smart move. I'd rather get polished updates released when done rather than a rushed game that tries to please everyone and fails miserably at everything.

melchy said:

Braben has at no point mentioned there would be planetary landings in the game thats being funded on KS. That was something the KS community kept bringing up over and over again, same with leaving the ship to walk around. Braben was quite clear at the start of the kickstarter that the £1.25 million would fund the basic game and they had based that funding on what they expected to produce. It would be fair to say that they should have clarified at the start exactly what we were getting.

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I agree with where you are coming from, but had he done that from the beginning, then I doubt the pledged total thusfar would be as high as it is today.

"We are making Elite, its going to be great. Like the original, but missing some features that made the originals such classics."

I think DB has played it right thusfar, all that remains to be seen is if the pledged amount is reached.

Cavallino said:

I agree with where you are coming from, but had he done that from the beginning, then I doubt the pledged total thusfar would be as high as it is today.

"We are making Elite, its going to be great. Like the original, but missing some features that made the originals such classics."

I think DB has played it right thusfar, all that remains to be seen is if the pledged amount is reached.

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Few additional edits to my post above after you quoted, but hopefully it still says much the same thing. I suppose it depends from what point of view you look at the project. If you see it as a sequel to Elite, the KS project isn't missing any features at all, but adds a whole lot more. If you consider it a sequel to Frontier all you are really losing is the planetary landings (at the moment), but are gaining multiplayer, a fully evolving galaxy and no doubt a number of other feature we don't yet know about.

^^ Hes been quite upfront as you said that the 1.25m would fund the basic game but he seems to be keeping a strong emphasis in the design to the end that the extra stuff can be plugged in fairly easily if everything goes ahead.

I'm not expecting planetary landings let alone decently realised planetary gameplay to be in the initial release game given the timeframe (maybe some atmospheric flight elements tho) - but I think the timeframe is realistic to get the essential gameplay up and running and I believe that if the game has a sucessful enough launch that the extra stuff will arrive in the game within a realistic timeframe afterwards.

Cavallino said:

Well put Skeet. I have not been following the videos in great detail but everytime I check my email there is always some kind of new update.... and yes it is nice to know whats going on, but cant help but feel they seem to spend more time worrying about latest updates and telling us "what they want to do", than actually sitting down and actually working on "achieving what they want to do".

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I don't think DB can win on this - if there are no updates, everyone moans that he's not interested enough in the Kickstarter effort, he's not engaged enough with the fans, and is doomed to failure.

Then, when updates come in, everyone moans that there are too many updates coming on and they're not actually doing enough work on the game...

For my money (which I will be pledging - undecided how much), I think the game will reach its goal - there's sure to be a massive surge in the last week/days, and it's currently trending only just under target even at current donation levels.

If they release a decent, solid, well balanced core game, then I think DB's onto a winner - I don't think we'll miss planetary landings to begin with, I seem to remember trying it once or twice in FE2, thinking "this is cool... OK, now it's boring". I like the model of paid DLC, it's working well for Rise of Flight, and I'm sure well developed expansions released in a timely fashion will be better than a botched/rushed attempt to include everything from day 1.

I like the idea that he would rather defer features rather than implement a bland version.

Didn't play Elite 2, only Elite, so not at all fussed about planetary entry. Pretty much the bottom of the list as far as I'm concerned. So long as the economies, politics and gameplay are all well realised then planetary entry would be a welcome addition.


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TBH, planetary landing didn't really add anything to Frontier - just the same as a space station especially as you used auto pilot for the landings.

I love Elite but I don't like Kickstarter.

The developers are just looking for interest free loans and pretending they're being generous by handing out in game perks, etc.

If they want funding and can't get it from the banks they should float shares.

Oh yeah, they won't do that because they might have to share some of their profits. lol

I want this to happen as I would love a new and good version of elite and would one hundred percent buy the game. Don't think it will happen mind you

timbob said:

it's currently trending only just under target even at current donation levels.

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The trend doesn't properly account for the huge initial surge though.

It's based essentially on a direct linear average, of £18,260 per day for 41 days so far. Multiply that average by 61 and you get the current kicktraq 'trend' figure of £1,113,851.

Unfortunately though, in real terms the 'current' average, over say the last 7 days is actually £8,585. If you were to carry on at that rate for the next 20 days, you're only looking at a final figure of £920,00. Even the single highest daily pledge since the first 5 days isn't as high as the 'daily average' the trend is based on.

Take a look at the 'projection' graph on kicktraq, this paints a much more accurate portrayal of how things might develop and the outlook is distinctly more negative.

It's going to need one hell of a push at the end to make the target and that's something I think it could struggle with, given it already had a massive surge at the start and recently has been flattening off rather than picking up, which isn't the usual pattern kickstarter projects display.

Throw into the mix announcements saying that certain features that people rightly or wrongly probably assumed would be included, actually won't be and the task just looks more and more difficult with each day that passes.

Kicktraq projections are far better than looking at the trend. 924915-1293562

And it's not good ATM, with this game though I wouldn't be surprised to see a large surge on the final day as people throw money in and upgrade their tiers.

They have announced in the comments that the £90 tier and up will include all updates and expansions. Formal update due later today.

Flying Gribble said:

They have announced in the comments that the £90 tier and up will include all updates and expansions. Formal update due later today.

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Sneaky... really sneaky. Not sure I like this.

I dont know about you lot, but when I pledged for the game I assued my £15 pledge (or whatever it was) would get me "the full game".

Now it seems the aforementioned features discussed above are slowly migrating towards being "DLC/payable extra" as opposed to an integral function/feature of the game.

I assume you can withdraw pledges?

Cavallino said:

Sneaky... really sneaky. Not sure I like this.

I dont know about you lot, but when I pledged for the game I assued my £15 pledge (or whatever it was) would get me "the full game".

Now it seems the aforementioned features discussed above are slowly migrating towards being "DLC/payable extra" as opposed to an integral function/feature of the game.

I assume you can withdraw pledges?

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The features were only ever discussed by the KS community, at no point did DB/FD say that those features were in the game. What you are getting is the full game, essentially a moderised Elite with multiplayer and an evolving universe. In retrospect what DB should have done is knock the speculation about what features were in the game right at the start. In my opinion what you are going to get for your £20 pledge (minimum to get the game) is going to be really rather decent. Again DB/FD can't win, people moaned on KS that since we are funding the game DLC should be free for pledgers at a higher level. DB/FD came back and stated that if you buy the collectors edition at £90 you get updates free. That is actually at a lower price point than many people suggested. Yet people still moan after getting what they wanted.

People are free to withdraw their pledges at anytime before the funding date.

Cavallino said:

Sneaky... really sneaky. Not sure I like this.

I dont know about you lot, but when I pledged for the game I assued my £15 pledge (or whatever it was) would get me "the full game".

Now it seems the aforementioned features discussed above are slowly migrating towards being "DLC/payable extra" as opposed to an integral function/feature of the game.

I assume you can withdraw pledges?

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Technically, Elite never had the planetary landings anyway. I didn't even know that Frontier had them since I only played the original BBC version!

Broke through the £750.000 barrier,this is going to get funded

What they are now trying to do is move over some of the <£90 backers.

There are less than 1500 people backing at £90.

And more than 14000 backers less than £90. Of which nearly 10000 backers at £20.

So say for example. I dont know. 30% of those people change their pledge to the £90 one, Frontier will have generated around another £294000 (assuming a pledge of £20 of those 30%).

DB is clever.... by doing what hes doing now, hes in effect "increased the price of the game" but masking this increase as "additional features in the future" and simulanteously generated additional source of income.

I dont like what DB has done here as a consumer. But as a fan of the prequels and putting faith into his passion that he wants to achieve something spectacular, I will most probably increase my pledge as I suspect a lot of people will too.

I like the scope and thinking behind this title. Good idea to have it as an expanding universe, with more things being added over time, rather than them trying to have everything ready for release day.

Folks, just checking the KS website for the £90 pledge and it describes it as:

Physical DRM-free collector's premium boxed edition of "Elite: Dangerous". This includes all the rewards above, except a premium boxed edition is in place of the standard boxed addition, which includes a T shirt with "I backed Elite: Dangerous" on the back, and a paperback copy of the official sequel to "The Dark Wheel".

Estimated delivery: Mar 2014

Where is any mention of the expansions etc?