Will Oolite survive with the release of Elite Dangerous?

[Imaginos]

I know that ED has been Beta tested for a while now but do you think that the official release with see people flocking away from Oolite?

I for one will be sticking with life in the Ooniverse.

[Disembodied]

I don't think so: E:D is its own thing, and it won't be to everyone's taste, system specs or pocket. For every flocker who leaves Oolite, there'll be plenty of other flockers who'll want to join!

[Amah]

unless E:D will ever support GNU/Linux natively I stick with Oolite. And even then...oxp'ing is too much fun, so I'll keep hanging around over here.

[Zireael]

I can't see E:D taking away Oolite players since there is no offline mode oin it. And Oolite has no online, so they can peacefully coexist.

[Smivs]

Will Oolite survive? Yes, of course it will, and I believe it will ultimately outlive E:D.
They are different things in so many important ways, and Oolite is different in that it community driven (rather than profit-driven), and appeals to a much wider range of people (modders as well as players), and of course is cross-platform and therefore has a much wider appeal.

[Cody]

... people flocking away from Oolite?

<chortles> A chance would be a fine thing - but the Admiralty have got me chained to a test build!

[Redspear]

I find myself pretty much agreeing with Smivs here.
ED will likely wipe the floor with Oolite in so many ways, but then the reverse may also be true.

Even if one day you can mod ED, it would likely be nowhere near the extent to which you can mod the open source of oolite. Tweakers, tinkerers and those who like their own eclectic mix of things 'just so' will likely always find oolite appealing; as will anyone else who enjoys a rip-roaring, low-spec, well supported and completely free space game.

ED offers you the freedom of the galaxy, but it is a galaxy you must share.
Oolite offers a much smaller domain but it is yours in its entirety.

[Bugbear]

I find myself pretty much agreeing with Smivs here.
ED will likely wipe the floor with Oolite in so many ways, but then the reverse may also be true.

Even if one day you can mod ED, it would likely be nowhere near the extent to which you can mod the open source of oolite. Tweakers, tinkerers and those who like their own eclectic mix of things 'just so' will likely always find oolite appealing; as will anyone else who enjoys a rip-roaring, low-spec, well supported and completely free space game.

ED offers you the freedom of the galaxy, but it is a galaxy you must share.
Oolite offers a much smaller domain but it is yours in its entirety.

Well said. Oolite and ED occupy different patches of turf.

And Cody(?) I also agree with your comment that Oolite may outlive ED. After all FDEV have shareholders to appease. I'm waiting for the shoe to drop on micro-transactions and/or subscriptions myself.

[Cody]

I'm waiting for the shoe to drop on micro-transactions and/or subscriptions myself.

Micro-transactions, or even cash-for-credits, are possible - but if FD were to renege on their 'definitely no subscriptions' commitment, I'd wager there would be trouble.
I bought into the game, and despite its faults, I'll enjoy it as much as I can - but I'd not pay a subscription to play it. I'd walk away, PDQ!

[Bugbear]

...but if FD were to renege...

Call me a cynical middle-aged bastard, but it wouldn't be the first 'promise' that's been broken. Having said that, my boss once told me, "Always suspect incompetence before conspiracy". FD already burnt themselves with the cancellation of offline play. I'll grant them the benefit of the doubt and say that development went too far down the online path for them to reverse. My gut feel is that something similar will happen with the ongoing online infrastructure costs. The money for that has got to come from somewhere.

Meanwhile, I get a nice warm feeling when firing up Oolite and actually playing the game within seconds, and not having to wait a minute or so for the client to connect to the server, and not waiting for the spinning sidewinder to disappear...

<stepping onto soapbox>...and another thing...has anyone noticed a decline in their fps as the beta and gamma have progressed. I could swear that I was previously getting 30+ fps a few months ago on High detail and full screen HD. Now I've degraded to windowed 1600 x 900 and Low quality, and only getting 15-30fps...

...then again it could be the dodgy laptop OS reinstallation that I had to perform a few weeks back...(i.e. incompetence over conspiracy)

[Diziet Sma]

My gut feel is that something similar will happen with the ongoing online infrastructure costs. The money for that has got to come from somewhere.

Well, they say the plan is for the money from their other games to pay the online hosting costs for ED.. to be honest though, I never thought FD's other games were that popular. Does anyone know differently?

[Bugbear]

...I never thought FD's other games were that popular. Does anyone know differently?

I'm no authority, but I would suggest that the ED forum is extremely well populated, if that's any measure to go by.

I had become accustomed to the Oolite forum pace, where I could post a new topic and still see it a day or two later on the first page of 'View active topics'. On the ED forum, a new posting would be lucky to last a couple of hours (unless it happens to resonate with the forum denizens).

I tend to lurk the ED forums now, but sparingly. I feel a little dirty after I leave that place. Signal to noise is quite low.

[Diziet Sma]

I'm no authority, but I would suggest that the ED forum is extremely well populated, if that's any measure to go by.

Well, if you check out the section for FD's other games*, not including ED, you'll find a lot less activity, that's for sure..

*
Zoo Tycoon
Coaster Crazy
LostWinds
Kinectimals
Kinect: Disneyland Adventures
RollerCoaster Tycoon 3
Thrillville

[Fatleaf]

<chortles> A chance would be a fine thing - but the Admiralty have got me chained to a test build!

<Grins> A friend of mine was speaking to me the other day about the MMO SWTOR and how there is still bugs in it since early access day 1 and that is due to the game being rushed to release before it was ready due to the accountants. She is thinking of quitting the game entirely.

I see E:D being in the same boat. Being rushed to the wild and then never really getting to grips with the things they intended to as a result of having to bring out new content to keep the game looking fresh.

Oolite on the other hand being passion driven, is in the opposite side of the coin, Things may take more time to have new stuffs (but looking at all the new and shiny stuffs in trunk I may have to retract most of this paragraph ) to be released. But the game has fewer really annoying bugs that persist from one patch to the next.

As a result passion usually beats coin in the long run.

[Bugbear]

...the plan is for the money from their other games to pay the online hosting costs for ED...

Does this mean that ED is a second class citizen from FD's point of view? If it is a vanity project (as evidenced by the devs saying that 'this is the game they want to play'), then I would suggest that the threshold for abandoning features would be lower.

I'll reserve judgement until after they give a firm ETA for planetary landings. If planetary landings get tossed in the 'too hard' basket methinks they will be facing another online only storm.