Oolite Bulletins

Some Q&A from Mr Braben in the early newsletter:

http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=dcb ... 1d209941c4

Obviously all about offline-gate but it addresses some issues. Most was a rewording of yesterday's answers but it's a bit more in depth.

Top of the list is the exciting news there are now multiple ways to reach the rank of Elite! You now progress to that exalted status via Trading and/or Exploration and/or Combat, rather than Combat alone.

The way it should be, but why wait until the last minute to announce this change...?

Change? If I get your meaning right, that's been in the design plan for nearly eighteen months:

DDF Archive wrote:

The “Elite” rating is a combat rating based on the number of successful pirate kills by a pilot. To get this rating requires a great deal of dedication. Additional routes to an “Elite” rating and that coveted membership were introduced in 3290. Three new possible “Elite” rankings, in addition to the combat effectiveness rating (still based on number of kills using a player rating and ship formula) now cover new key areas:

Wealth: profit over accumulated net worth (though both values are taken into account)
Influence: based on contacts and successful negotiations or diplomacy.
Knowledge: acquisition of data, particularly through exploration.

Getting the Elite rating (in any of the four rankings) automatically gets you into the exclusive “Elite Federation of Pilots” – and being a member of the Elite federation confers many privileges. It is also possible for pilots without the “Elite” rating to gain admission to the EFP, but access to the organisation is extremely difficult: one must show extraordinary promise as a pilot to be admitted.

Hardly news, eh? Of course, nothing is certain!

Cody wrote:

Change? If I get your meaning right, that's been in the design plan for nearly eighteen months... Hardly news, eh? Of course, nothing is certain!

I'm quoting from the newsletter Pleb linked to. It says it's a new feature in beta 3.9. If it's not news why describe it as "exciting news"? (Please don't assume that others know or care anything about E:D.)

Wildeblood wrote:

Cody wrote:

Change? If I get your meaning right, that's been in the design plan for nearly eighteen months... Hardly news, eh? Of course, nothing is certain!

I'm quoting from the newsletter Pleb linked to. It says it's a new feature in beta 3.9. If it's not news why describe it as "exciting news"? (Please don't assume that others know or care anything about E:D.)

Because it hasn't been in the earlier betas.. which were largely about testing other parts of the code.

I'm still coming to terms with the idea of charging suckers to beta test, rather than paying them. I guess in that crazy world something can be re-announced an arbitrary number of times and still be "exciting news" when it actually happens. It'll be exciting news if the NBN ever gets rolled out in WA.

Wildeblood wrote:

I'm still coming to terms with the idea of charging suckers to beta test, rather than paying them.

Yeah.. I've never quite gotten that concept, myself.

Wildeblood wrote:

It'll be exciting news if the NBN ever gets rolled out in WA.

Well, solo play is said to only require about 10kbps, so you may well be good to go already.

Diziet Sma wrote:

Well, solo play is said to only require about 10kbps, so you may well be good to go already.

I don't know if that's completely true. And besides you still have to download the game which on slow connections would take ages. People already complain about the download times just for the Beta patches!

Gamma being released in about an hour. The change log over 3.9 looks a lot lighter than some people were hoping for. The people who were demanding wings won't be happy!

kanthoney wrote:

The people who were demanding wings won't be happy!

They can join the queue - plenty of unhappy people over there!

While the servers have crashed...

Didn't realise Jupiter's rings were that big!

i must admit my ignorance, i didn't know Jupiter had rings. i had to google to see if this was a mistake or not.....

Well, this "offlinegate" things has rekindled my knowledge of what's happening with Elite (and Oolite). Still no time to get re-involved, unfortunately, but very disappointed at FD's change of plans.

Amazed at how far this news has spread - FD did not do themselves any favours here!! Even though there -may- be technical reasons why they can't do an offline mode anymore (if this is really the case, which I doubt, the technical leads have something to answer for here!), at the very least they should have instantly granted any and all refunds to avoid this negative publicity.
I am now -very- glad I never backed this kickstarter, even though I am quite sad that it looks like I won't get a new Elite to play; at least, not one I want.

For me personally, playing an online-always version of ED holds very little interest. Yes, there's the solo mode, but it will still get updates from the community (galaxy evolution etc blah blah). Why can't people understand that not everybody wants to have their game influenced by others? I -want- my own private galaxy to explore at my leisure. There could be weeks or months between gaming sessions for me, I don't want to come back and find everything has changed.

My take has little to do with the technical issues of requiring an always-on connection, but a purely personal one for the way I like to play most games.

Does anyone else think that FD have over done the rings on Jupiter?