Elite Dangerous - The End of an Era - Exploration 2015-2022
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ย. 2024
- The Galactic Mapping Project served as an amazing exploration resource between 2015 and 2022. The team behind the project have now put it into maintenance mode. This follows the retirement of the Distant Worlds Expeditions last month.
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Correction to my info in the video. Frontier's livestream is on Wednesday, not Thursday.
How dare you get that wrong on your own video, shame on you.
Jk
This update is much appreciated! 07
1600 BST Wednesday
Wednesday and again one hour too early for me. By the way twitch.tv timeline still says Thursday 17.00-19.00 GMT.
This is all Bull, Not you OA, Frontier. This is BULL. There is NO reason any of this should be happening. Not at all. It's not a problem with the game in and of itself.
The game CAN be fixed, revitalized, and reinvigorated. The technology exists, players systems can handle it. The Game has plenty of story to tell, backstory and lore to work with for years of content. NO. It's not any of that.
It's Something VERY VERY VERY wrong at Frontier. This is a people problem. I don't know if it's The Executives, The Money Counters, Turnover, Rollover, Retention, Working Conditions, Pay levels, Management Issues, Experience Levels, or just down right Laziness or Jadedness somewhere in between or just down right Greed. Maybe some combination of the above.
In this day and age, it's NOT a technical problem. Frontier itself is broken someplace, and that, what ever it is, needs to be fixed before Elite ever gets fixed. It's a damn right sad state of affairs going on there what ever it is and it's a real pisser.
The Elite Dangerous galaxy model is absolutely incredible. I can't help feeling that once FDev expanded into developing other lucrative titles, they squandered the best community in gaming.
I liken ED and SC in that both have suffered from scope creep. In SC's case it's been scope creep in terms of additional features resulting in it still being in alpha. In ED's case, it's been FDEV expanding their portfolio into other IPs, resulting in reduced effort towards ED and therefore a decline.
It's a massive galaxy with 30 systems that actually matter and the rest are procedurally generated filler, which is the problem.
@@jetlagged3645 Proc-gen gets a bad wrap, but there are tons of ways to utilize it, and when it works well (which it often does), hardly anyone notices unless someone chooses to explain how the sausage was made.
It's the just-good-enough laziness, not the existence of filler or randomness itself.
They not only have squandered us the community, but really the best damn space sim ever made.
@@miserychickadee I can concur as i'm currently playing it up until Starfield.
Hundreds of hours the community spent hoping that Frontier had secretly populated the galaxy with wonders and secrets. Little did we know, it was all the same 10 kinds of systems over and over again, and the permit locked areas were just "nah, we're too lazy to do anything there", rather than actually having secrets hidden.
Raxxla being chief amongst them... What Michael Brookes said all those years ago. Sadly, just not true. Just a way of keeping people looking for it, when it's simply NOT THERE. Why? Because there's no way on this earth that Frontier have the imagination on 'what to do' with Raxxla.
Fully agree.
I think they did just lie about all that.
@@gorfic__starshadow9801 except there was actually good in them thar hills…
Personally I think it is out there, just either in a permit locked area or part of some obtuse puzzle that nobody will ever pick up on... Because that's how they roll.
Their decision to refuse to fix the planet tiling issue was the final nail in the coffin for me. Few moments in video games can compare to my first few hours in Elite, feeling so tiny and insignificant. I can remember my first time getting over 1,000ly from the core and feeling like I was a boat floating alone in the vast oceans. Exploration in elite was truly unique and I am thankful to have been able to experience it, although bitter at its slow decay.
That tiling issue was so blown out of proportion.... at this point players who see the lack of gameplay are dissaponted and will nitpick anything they can.
I suppose for some the tiling issue makes the whole game unplayable and for me it's not something I even notice despite being elite v exploration and elite in exo bio. I can easily overlook it as it is so insignificant and not occurring widely enough.
If you go looking for dirt you will find it anywhere. ;)
That’s what has kept me in this game for the past 5 years. That truly insignificant feeling you get when out by yourself in the black.
@@MrKilladark It might've bothered me, it probably would have, but as a console player FDev decided to kill the game for me, so I guess I won't be finding out. I'll enjoy my "critical fixes only" for a while longer, I imagine, but I decline to take them up on the offer to buy a new copy of the game on a PC then build a PC to attach to my big screen so I can enjoy any new content (or, more accurately, enjoy a version of the game that isn't inevitably atrophying) with my existing commander.
@@MrKilladark I would have less of a problem with the tiling if it had existed from the start, but it hasn't. I can remember the good old days when each planet was GENUINELY unique. It's so hard to see the clearly manufactured ground pieces and remember the way it used to be. I am genuinely glad it didn't ruin the game for you, but the devs made the game worse and then decided not to fix it, and I don't want to support that. Cheers though, stay safe in the black, commander o7
@@MrKilladark It’s the final nail in long chain of nails. It’s a emblematic of the decline of the game due to FDevs superficial approach to the development of Elite, their complete mishandling of signature updates (Odyssey anyone?) which only further exacerbates existing issues, and their consistent refusal to address or fix core problems in any meaningful way, which the player base has been vocal about for years.
There’s only so much a developer can ignore their players, neglect their game, and then break things with a casual shrug of “welp” before people become disillusioned.
It really is sad to see. A game about Space, the infinite frontier; and FDev can't seem to fill it with anything. Imagine if the Thargoids weren't the only aliens. That in other places around the galaxy we could actually find other Alien Civs, either more or less advanced. A whole galaxy to explore, and the only thing you can do in it is stamp your name on the planets, and maybe drive around on a few identical dead rocks.
If Elite had the same lvl of content NMS has, it would already be a better game, like, 50 times better. If we had more life in the galaxy more plants, animals, microbiology of some sort, Idk. But no, FDev think their system works just fine with trillions of planets full of nothing. But hey, at least we can take some cool screenshots right?
I agree, but the map is very big. Even with a lot of unique content you would see repetitive patterns and void patches. Braben wanted an advanced version of the original game world (we begged him for decades), and that is what he delivered.
What I imagined ED to become was like a sandbox where you could buy/build your own space station or base, a virtual home so to speak. Then players could colonize different regions, make alliances, trade to keep their local economy running. Add some ability to design your own ships and avatars and such and you'd have a dynamic space world. The servers could spawn a few NPC's and stations of type x1234 in the neighborhood of player star base x1234 for ambiance. Of course there should be quality requirements, but that would open a market place for artists and designers. In MSFS people actually buy custom planes, scenery and liveries. Officially approved content is beautiful.
Many years ago there were Active Worlds and Second Life. Especially AW was amazing. The default map was like a small state with a Google Earth view. People could build anywhere on free tiles. Since there was no quality control not everything looked nice, but you could wander for hours through bizarre landscapes with buildings and silly games. ED has the potential to become an "open" Universe to colonize.
@@E.T.S. well, i guess you're right. You can build bases in NMS too so I wasn't so far off. Anyway, I think anything is better than what Elite is right now. By this point it would be better if it dies already, or at least bought by some big company idk.
@@E.T.S. If players could dynamically stage colonization efforts, that would be amazing. For example, if a system with certain high value bodies has been scanned and cashed in, then later mining prospectors and colony scouters started showing up in the system, eventually an outpost or asteroid base gets set up in that system as it gets settled over time, culminating in fully outfitted stations and planetary bases as a "final stage" of development. Fleet Carrier owners could accelerate the development of these places by carrying in massive amounts of in-demand commodities. Although, implementing this would probably be hell on the BGS as it is now.
@@nicolasyuri5268 Anytime I hear somebody laud NMS it just sounds like a kid who says they enjoy playdough.
That's what NMS is, the playdough of space games.
It's like Dora the Explorer meets Star Trek, it's stupid as fuck.
_"For many players of Elite Dangerous, the game has always been about Exploration "_ Too bad Fdev has never seen it that way. Because we could have gotten some amazing stuff.
As a combat flier exploration was only a small supplement to my income as I moved to a different factions RES field.
I had zero reason to “explore” as the areas within the bubble were 99% identical to those without and to do so locked in my only account/character to exploration only gameplay for at least hours at worst weeks to great risk but minimal potential gain.
Seen one rock/nebula in a galaxy devoid of atmospheres/life/infrastructure pretty much seen them all.
Imagine building a 1-1 procedurally generated galaxy in your video game, the single greatest opportunity for exploration gameplay seen, and actively deciding to make almost all of it generated with absolutely fuck all to see or do. What an absolute shambles
All the sheep chanting "space legs... space legs.. space legs..." and so that's what we got, space legs in a game about flying space ships. Imagine if FDev had spent all the effort they spend tacking on a bad FPS sub-game into enhancing the base game mechanics? We could have had phenomena like accretion discs, proper scary black holes, more ancient archeological sights to explore - so many other things... instead we got a 1990's era level FPS because of all the people who didn't seem to realize that you don't need to walk around in a game about flying space ships.
@@Beer_Dad1975 but they still could have done it well. They have half assed so much and never think about how "fun" something will be, just how many hours of play they can get out of players (and more chance of spending arx).
@@Beer_Dad1975 _All the sheep chanting "space legs... space legs.. space legs..." and so that's what we got, space legs in a game about flying space ships_
Nope.
Look back at what Braben promised. That's what we wanted. What we got was a piss-poor shooter. What we wanted was EVA's, derelict and abandoned site exploration. Ironically, what Star Citizen and NMS offer is space legs how Braben said ED would do it.
Even as someone who never got into ED as much as I hoped I could, it saddens me deeply to see such incredible fan projects quietly shut down because of what looks like the slow death of ED.
Poor management is so unfortunate, elite was sitting on a gold mine with odyssey but ruined it from then
MORPH!
Hopefully they will migrate to SC as I did. Would be amazing to have these player driven projects appear in SC one day.
@@jamesgale9722 prolly wont happen unless SC actually gets...finished.
@@Central_Media3656 You speak witchcraft! No human believes it will be finished, let alone while any backer is still alive.
Greetings Commanders,
As one of the curators of the Galactic Mapping Project, I was privileged to help build the best community content ever to come from Elite Dangerous. We worked hard to make it a reliable, quality, rich catalogue of all the best that the community could find.
May your fuel tank forever be full.
-Cmdr. Heavy Johnson
A totally awesome project!
Fair Space and following solar winds, Commander. Thank you for all you've done for this wonderful community. o7
I've only recently found the galactic mapping project, it's great! So a big thank you from the perseus sector for the effort.
Fleet carriers…what we got vs what we thought we were getting - that was the beginning of the end for me. Minimal effort is FDev’s motto.
Yup. The last time I really played elite I was grinding credits to buy a fleet carrier. When I found out the details I lost interest. Then they dropped VR support and Elite was dead to me
@@MagicPuncherGames hulup. When did they drop VR support? I haven't played elite in awhile but was considering getting back into it due to my VR headset.
@@darthdiamo6902 I think its only dropped in the newest expansion, I think it still works in horizons but not 100% sure
@@darthdiamo6902 Yeah, it still works in Horizon. At least for now. Originally they said they wouldn't support VR for Odyssey "at launch", but then later they announced not ever. No more VR support going forward.
Carriers - but what really dorked it for me was the boots-on-the-ground. Why? They borked everything up at that point in time.
DW1 and 2 were the best moments in the game for me. I remember climbing that giant mountain myself, those times will be missed.
And let's spend a moment remembering all the help Frontier gave us to make these massive events possible and smooth...
Oh wait.
I wasn't around for DW1 but thoroughly enjoyed DW2. Parked my Anaconda at the system next to Sag A* after it, and said I'd return once Odyssey got released and had ironed out its issues. Hearing about the state of the game has never inspired me to come back since though, which is a shame as Elite could really have become one of my favourite ever games, had it gotten the support it needed from the devs.
The two Distant Worlds expeditions were the best two gaming experiences I've had, not just in Elite, but in online gaming. I made so many friends along the way, saw some wonderful things, helped build the Explorer's Anchorage on DW2, mined in teams out in the Omega nebula for DW2's first CG, and helped with the logistics of the whole operation. It was a time of large community teamwork, and a developer providing the content we needed to pull it off. DW2 was the biggest event to hit Elite Dangerous, nothing else came close, I often wonder why Frontier never saw the potential of events like that and instigated or encouraged more of them. There's been nothing like them since DW2 ended.
Instead Fdev took their game in a completely different direction - their beloved pew pew.
Exploration made this game, it was always its biggest strength as there wasn't anything like it out there to play. Frontier tossed that aside for a crappy FPS and copy / paste planets that destroyed things like the mapping project.
I remember when DW2 started everyone was just stuck in hyperspace because the servers died but seeing many players jump at once was amazing. I even still have the DW2 patch you could order at home. Good times.
i'ed even go so far to say dw1+2 where the best thing in the game in general, especially dw2 generated a lot of attention even outside of the e:d community, really sad how e:d declined since release of odysey. i made a lot of friends in dw1, which i am still playing with today.
I'm not surprised that the GMP is shutting down as well as other pieces of the community.
Fdev never respected the community that formed around ED to start with. With all the recent bad news coming from them, I get the impression that even Fdev doesn't think it has a future. They sure are treating it like it's time to move on.
It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Treating the game like it has no future will result in the players treating it the same way, and in the end it will have no future.
The two forum dads that zealously defend the game on the forums might disagree with you.
They gave up on the project a long time ago..
I wish they would sell the fvcking game to someone in the fanbase.
Hell, provide the source code! Let US, the FANS, run this wonderful game!
Glad they got all that Odyssey money right before they pull the plug🙄
RIP ED. Frontier did it to themselves and have no sympathy for them. Only feel for the community and players who supported the game.
You cannot make live game on 15 years old game engine. This is idea directly from madness house.
Tell that to bethesda, they seem to not want to let go of their creation engine, they seem to want to use that engine until the end of time.
now don't get me wrong, the creation engine has been great for what it is, but the engine is very limited especially by today's standards, sure they put in their optimized editions and they build it to be a little bit better as time has gone on, but it's still the same limited engine, it might be able to run their new up-and-coming game of starfield, but I have my doubts about that.
But maybe they'll exceed all expectations when the game comes out, I just won't hold my breath, it's almost like every game that comes out within the past decade straight has always had the most messed up bugs and glitches and the game eventually becomes good after two or three years down the road, that seems to be commonplace when it comes to video games nowadays.
@@user-tp5yb4hr4w Creation Engine is old, but still updated. Now they are working on Creation Engine 2. Cobra last real update was done around 2014.
Ive 'donated above average money to them through cosmetics, i kinda feel spat on when they double down on their fail rate
@@odysseus681
What they should do when it comes to a story, is fine any writer who is currently struggling, and co-opt their story into the game, and put the story to the test alongside the game, which will be built on when the game is done and if the game is very successful, then both parties get a portion of the profits.
I mean that's similar to how The Witcher series worked, of course they were a little too nice to the original Creator who created The Witcher genre, because they made that deal with that man back when he was like a nobody writer and he was willing to sell the entire series that he created for like a hundred bucks or something, it wasn't until decades later when the guy realized how popular his series that he created had become, that he came to the developers and said that he should get a portion of that money, technically CD project red didn't need to share their profits with the guy, but they did which is a great thing, but in most cases when somebody sells their story to somebody else the property rights belong to the person who purchased it.
Anyway that can be mitigated if they both go into business together both a story writer and the game developer who puts in the story written elements within the game.
Man oh man I wish they'd do this with Stargate, I doubt they ever would, but oh well.
DW2 has been for me the highest moment in ED. I never imagined it could end so badly... but accordin to FDEV the real content for ED is around weapons and engineers so there's not much left for explorers of course.
And then look at what engineers and weapons are and one doesn't come around to realize that not even there is real content...at least not in Odyssey
For me, the neckbreaker was the fact that the game's galaxy is no longer persistent. I have zero desire to venture out on another weeks-long trip and discover unique worlds and landmarks, when I know that after the next big update, they could all be gone again.
When did that happen?
Your definition of "persistent" might be not what you expect from it. When you talk about persistent changes to a game universe by the player, it means one is able to alter content in the game universe which is visible to other players and keeps the change "persistent" even if the original gamer who did the change logs-off.
Only fleet carriers are persistent objects that one can buy in ED and tag a name to it. That's about it. There are no other persistent objects that one can create in the sandbox. Unfortunately! If that would have been the case, imagine how lively & diverse it could have been in the ED universe... some say the gaming engine isn't ready for that, I say bullcrap. It's a metter of how much you want to invest. If there is no will...
Having said that, in the early days of ED, I remember FDev messing up the explorer database, but they fixed that over and over. So, it was never ignored. But one's name tag to a discovered planet is not really a virtual game object, it's just meta data. Having one's gamer name on a planet only excited me in the beginning of ED, over the years, it doesn't mean jack. One ranks to Elite for Exploration.... and that's about it.
Just wanted to take a sec and thank you for your content. No matter if it's about Star Citizen, E:D on No Man's Sky, you're always honest, never "flaming" when things don't work out as intended and always informative. Thanks, mate
Thank you. I really appreciate hearing that. :)
@@ObsidianAnt I concur with Velios. We love you Ant!
Word. This is why I come back. He's a pro.
The game is dying, it hurts. It’s like watching a fall of the Roman Empire documentary
LOL
I agree
What, watching a bunch of depraved sociopaths commit political and economical suicide?
Come to think of it, it's probably not far from the truth.
The grinding hurt
@@Blackatchaproduction nahh ure just born in the easy mode generation.
Odyssey regenerating the galaxy was the beginning of the end, and their announcement that they're not going to fix the broken planetary tech was the final nail.
The planetary tech in Odyssey is far superior to Horizons. The tiling "issue" is massively overblown, and only really visible in the planet preview, not the planet itself.
@@ironfbody It just isnt, all planets are the same flat worlds with the same pasted mountains. Sure the textures may be nicer but the actual terrain is worse. there is no more canyon ranges or unique planets, its the same repeated patterns which is very easy to spot. The same craters are found on most planets, to normal players it might not matter or be noticeable but to an explorer its basically removed anything interesting to find on a planet surface
@@pandafoz9994 you must not be exploring enough then, because i see a lot of canyons and mountains on my expeditions
@@pandafoz9994 I've been exploring for years, and it's still great. There's just not the weird, glitched out terrains.
@@ironfbody The terrain in Odyssey is far worse than the one in Horizons.
I stopped playing when they announced that Odyssey wouldn't support VR. So, it has been over a year.
Seeing the way they have handled Odyssey, I can see that I made the right choice. I'm glad I didn't spend money on it, but sad that the game has been mishandled so badly. I wanted a reason to come back.
Me too. *sad panda*
Same here. I even tried but after a few minutes in the game, I thought, what's the point? I knew I won't discover anything new, I won't see anything that has not been seen before. Because Odyssey barely brings one planet type and as a VR player, I have no incentive to buy that.
Exactly the same boat
This was me too. I had just gotten into enjoying Elite with VR (because the oculus quest 2 finally made it affordable enough for me to get into) and the latest expansion dropping support for it was basically like a huge middle finger to me. I stopped playing when Odyssey released and I don't feel like that was the wrong choice for me either. I just really wish I could find a good replacement. :\ Star Citizen is barely playable for me and I haven't see anything else out there that comes close. Really unfortunate.
Same here. Haven't loaded since Odyssey. I play VR only.
The memories are pretty much all we've got now.
you never do know the best of times until they are memories.
It's been a privilege to be part of the GMP. Fly safe you brave explorers!
I flew out to Beagle Point for DW2. It's was one heck of a trip. I started heading back home afterwards but found nothing worth rushing back for. These days, I take off, make 30 to 40 jumps and scan everything as I go and then land again for a week or so. I like playing Elite but there isn't much to chase anymore. No new ships, mods, storyline, nothing. For a game that's supposed to be about exploring, it's always been a bit light on discovery.
I totally agree.
Im the same, i dont have the same desire to explore i used to
My thoughts exactly. So sad.
Hi Mel on my way to Beagle point in a basic Asp like you will pop on for about 50 jumps when the mood takes me or time alows. Then hope to get home the long way in outer arms of gallaxy.
What hurts most is for the commanders that lived most of the global events and see how the game is slowly dying. The expeditions, Salome's assassination, the first sightings of Thargoids, the massive research for anti-thargoids weapons / defense technology.. personaly, in my adult life, no game have brought more excitement, more invested in a a game community and accomplishment than E&D. I don't think this will happen ever again.
o7, Cmdr MLSnukka Out.
o7, Commander Victoria Sharp, signing off.
Even sadder, for commanders who missed all that and look back on the game and see how fun it used to be
@@pandafoz9994 Definitely this, I feel sorry for anyone who joined on at Odyssey's release.
The event that I remember most is the failed Gnosis jump into uncharted/locked territory. Was a real opportunity for some fantastic organic storytelling, and a jump into the literal unknown, but so disappointing how it played out. Remember talking about it with friends if we'd sign-on and dock to Gnosis before the jump, knowing it meant we'd be cut off from the Bubble (and each-other) for however many weeks/months before we could return.
Have you checked out Star Citizen?
I was in DW1, went halfway, died, went all the way, got the badge, bought the book. Height of my community exploration experiences in Elite.
You know what's crazy? DW1, DW2, and the Galactic Mapping Project were all founded by one player - CMDR Erimus Kamzel. But like he said in his post, they were products of their time. If one player can be the driving force behind some of the games biggest events, and well respected initiatives like the GMP became, then surely its possible for a new generation of players to step in and create the community content to replace those that are coming to an end? Nature abhors a vacuum. Hopefully Frontiers upcoming livestream will inspire someone, or a group of players, to usher in a new era of community lead events and projects like the GMP was.
Why bother? FDEV doesn't care to even fix problems. Why should the customer step in to show them how to make a game fun?
@@hungryowl1559 Having just watched frontiers livestream and seeing their pathetic roadmap to nowhere, I think you're right. Frontier don't deserve the fantastic community it had.
One of my fondest memories in all of gaming is within Elite Dangerous and the exploration that was done. This is where Frontier shined and could do so much more.
i always wanted to go on a distant world's expedition, but they always happened during busy times in my life. so i'm kinda sad that they are done now without being able to go on one.
Ditto
My first run to Colonia is still my favorite experience in the game I cannot believe they thought erasing all that exploration data was ok
Erasing what data? Did I miss something?
I wish I had been there in it's heyday. It sounds and looks like everyone had a great time with DW1 and 2. Unfortunately I found out about this game far too late.
This game... I remember flying out and finding Station X (yes its real) it was fantastic gameplay, I nearly stayed there to take on a new persona. I mentioned it a guy in the forums one evening and as here, I gave no spoilers. 1 year later he gave me an upvote, he must have enjoyed it too. I know its too easy to get misty eyed thinking of what went before (Salome - Drew W) but I wish we had that kind of feeling again. I've not played for 3 years now, I couldn't motivate myself anymore. I watched for each upgrade but nothing caught my eye, I was never in the spacelegs camp. o7 Commanders.
Finding Station X also was one of my ED highlights!
??? Please tell me what station X is; I'm sorta new
Remember when art posted that comment about how the community was the "beating heart" of the game? Player groups like the Galactic Mapping Project *are* that beating heart. If Fdev ignore this then they are truly beyond redemption.
Thanks @ObsidianAnt for this excellent look back at the myriad of wonderful achievements of the GMP, DW1&2, and the exploration community as a whole in Elite. I think as a community we can happily look back on all we've done. And this video is a very positive tribute to it all.
I hope this game revives. Its really heartbreaking to see a beautiful and unique game dies because of the bad decisions of a company :(
If it makes anyone in the comments now feel better I just picked up the game a few days ago and feel like I’ve finally found the game for me. I don’t care if the content feels stale or anything I feel like I could play this game for years still. I want nothing more than for this game and it’s community to keep going if so just I can experience this thing I can’t believe I haven’t heard of before.
Welcome into the galaxy cmdr o7
You absolutely could play this game for years. There is real longevity here that I think a lot of people don't pick up on.
A 1:1 scale of the milky way?
Dozens of ships with different roles that you can outfit and engineer?
A vast amount of different ways to make money to fund your needs?
Landfall planets/moons that you can map out and explore?
A huge capital class-like ship that you can manage as your own mobile base of operations and jump it all around time and space while simultaneously bringing your fleet with you?
On-foot moon settlements that you can raid and kill everyone and be a menace while stealing materials?
This game offers a lot. With the recent news of a big update in the works along with many plans for 2024, including 4 new ships, I'd say the future is looking bright.
Just wanted to say I loved this video and really appreciated the positive spin about what an amazing time it was and how we should try to look back on it, not with sadness (difficult tho that is) but with pride and fondness for all the good memories we've had. ❤
Thanks Alec, I really appreciate that.
@@ObsidianAnt I've been away on holiday all weekend so I only got to watch it this morning. I think you really did justice to just how significant the GMP was and what exploration meant to the heart of the game that Elite is (or at least was). I also just watched Buur's Friday WSN and I think he made a fantastic point about how, in Frontier's absence, the community have taken control of Elite/FD's narrative. Taken together that's quite an important pair of videos.
@@alecturner07 Buur makes a great point. It's really why any company should maintain consistent communication with their playerbase.
The last thing I did before i retired myself from the game was go out and explore not knowing it was going to be for the final time. My return to the Bubble and my home station coincided with the news from FDEV on the future of Console play. It was good while we had it. If you pass through a system discovered by Cmdr Parrollo spare a thought for those that traversed the black in our console cockpits. Fly dangerously commenders. o7
o7
I had such a great time going to certain 'tourist locales' in Elite that when Odyssey was DOA i picked up No Mans Sky where I continue to flap to worlds, land, and scan everything in site. The sense of wonder I got in Elite still lives on, but now in NMS
Yeah I'm probably going to have to give NMS a go. Might pop into ED because I like the trucking aspect.
@@theclown3967 NMS has scratched that itch (somewhat) ever since you became able to manage a trading fleet
You can always try out ATS or ETS if you want legit trucking feels. Being a truck driver myself it's fun. But nothing beats loading up a Type 9 in Sol and heading to the Sothis Ceos systems.
If only nms had flying mechanic like in elite. One can allways dream...
@@PyroTheRock yea my only complaint with NMS is the flight model. Its jarring to go from Star Citizen running bounties to NMS just trying to get to space station
Good old Elite, an ocean sized game, deep as a puddle.
I'm on console, so I do not matter anymore.
4:34
Watermelon planet watermelon planet
Bloody hell. Completely forgot about Exploration Community Events - the golden times. Sad to see ED fall so far.
Heya OA.
I want to thank you. I started playing Elite after I realized it had come to Xbox, I'd seen videos when it first came out from Jingles. I enjoyed derping around the bubble, and at some point I came across your channel. After some time, I saw your video on the start of DW2, and wished I could have participated. Your next video explicitly mentioned console players, and I hightailed it over, catching up at WP 2, leaving to engineer and get the FSD booster, and caught up again at the conflux WP. I was so proud to have made it to BP by the end.
DW2 was amazing, and without you I never would have found out about it. Never would have made the friends I did.
But, things change, and this is it.
Thank you again, for everything. I'll miss this game.
A heartfelt tribute to the amazing exploration and community built over the most-of-a decade with Elite Dangerous. Whatever comes next, this has been quite a ride, indeed! O7
Having hundreds of hours in elite, never even knew this existed. Doesn't really bother me either. For me, the fun of exploration is discovering things oneself. A map to all the greatest hits then defeats that purpose for me.
It's neat that it existed for those who enjoyed it though.
We never found out what the Thargoids and Guardians wanted.
Or what they looked like officially.
They want you to buy Arx.
@@FortressArena This hurts my balls.
Well this has aged well
I know you said it is not sad, but for a lot of us this is extremely sad, it actually made me tear a bit..
Me too :(
The game was killed by greed and laziness. The nail in the coffin for me was when the Game pass was voided and I was awarded a skin for ship you abandon after 1 hour of game play. That was the compensation they gave us. A.. fucking.. skin.
Then when they wanted me to pay for something that should have been in the game to begin with, I had already given up and actually laughed as players tried to make sense of the buggy mess they tried to sell.
Thank you for expressing so eloquently and frankly the Motis Operandi of so many players and fans of Elite Dangerous. The call of exploring a new virtual frontier of an open 1:1 simulated galaxy has not yet been equaled or so encapsulated in any game and it has been a truly a groundbreaking experience to be part of that shared and unique experience. Huge Kudos to you as well to showcasing and sharing your thoughts and experience over the years of the game… it was through your videos that I first learned of the potential, possibilities and beauty of Elite Dangerous. One can only hope that the next chapter in Elite continues to expand on our observations of the cosmos and imagines the possibilities and wonders that are no doubt out there.
nicely done tribute! loved this game. whenever I craved to play VGs but nothing came to mind in particular, Elite Dangerous was my always go to. but the exploring was so highly addictive, before I know it 12 hours passed. lol
Very sad to see ED fail. It was hands down my most favorite space game. I had such high hopes for their recovery, but it looks like they are in an unrecoverable flat spin headed out to sea. I think at this point Braben would need to personally spearhead the revival of ED. If they came out with ship interiors, gas giants, base building on planets and more/improved First Person exploration mechanics, it would be a solid start!
ED didn't fail. FDev killed it.
I consider Braben out of touch and the problem itself.
It feels ironic that an Alpha like Star Citizen could do better in the ship interior and on-foot combat segments rather than a finished product like Elite Dangerous. And I like Elite, which is making it worse to see how they're failing their player base.
I think tbh the community also wants vastly different things from this game. We all know about ship interiors and that seems to me a solid 'please-all' direction. However, this is the first I've heard of planet-side base building being requested, some players want exploration improvements and variety, some people want the FPS side of things fleshed out, some people want further development locations themselves, some people want to see FPS thargoids, some people want more ships in their ship sim, some people want an AI overhaul, and some people just want all the current content to run on the machine they've been playing elite on up until Odyssey. While of course there's overlap with some of these, the list of changes/additions to bring all the players back into the fold just seems insurmountable at this point. I think it has been for some time. Many didn't want space legs at all. I don't think there really is a solution apart from patience. And acceptance that Elite going forward will have to commit to something that may not be everybody's cup of tea in order to reduce scope and execute well. Rather than trying to please everyone and failing miserably.
@@Josua070 Ironic? Not really, you'd expect that from an "alpha" with a half billion dollar budget...
Seven years I've been a member of the E:D community. Seven years well spent and meaningful friendships made along the way. Helped me a lot in life and it helped break my awkward teenage social skills.
End of an era I guess. Really sad to watch Frontier let this game go with what's essentially the end of the community driven side of things.
end of an era? one fuckin website shutting down lol wtf is wrong with some of you
RIP Elite Dangerous. Without the community run sites, this game is hollow, shallow, and doomed.
Elite Dangerous. Width: The Galaxy. Depth: A millimeter.
Exactly. The community did 10x the work that that incompetent developer did
@@wilfridsephiroth9213 One of the worst example of Frontier being useless is when they introduced Material Traders, and they would only show up on the galaxy map if you have already landed on the station they’re in, and they didn’t bother to listen to our complaints for future additions, as when FC vendors and Gardian module stores arrived, they still only appeared on the map we had previously landed on the Stations. I genuinely have no words for how disrespectful Frontier are.
@@Matty_B0y yes, among the many downright dumb decisions they've taken, that was definitely an highlight. I wish it was the only one, but we could write hundreds of comments about stupid or incompetent design decisions. How about when they asked people to defend the Gnosis but forgot to disengage the proximity limit for weapons, so that people would get fines/bounties by the Gnosis for defending the Gnosis? I mean, it's been a shitshow from very early on
@@wilfridsephiroth9213 Although the sentiment is there, that's just incorrect. The community doesn't have to pour a single ounce of funds or effort into QA or marketing. That's just the obvious 2.
The last thing I will do in elite is take my corvette to beagle point. Feels like a fitting send off to the game. Alone and in the dark.
Love the voice of this man. Its like watching a documentary from BBC
I had some good times exploring in Elite, spending ridiculous amounts of time out in the black (in VR the whole time). Elite always had such huge potential, the possibilities of whats to come, that made the game more exciting to me. And that is what is missing now 'possibility', the future looks empty. It's sad and annoying that Frontier drove this game to where it is now, on deaths door. The game and the players deserved so much better. I have moved on to Star Citizen (yes I know there are issues there too) but I get that feeling of immense possibility again, and it makes the game better and more exciting, for what comes next. I plan to go back into Elite and head off into the black again, park my ship on some distant lonely planet and log off (maybe for the last time).
what a sad day. this game has been such a major part of my life for the past 5 years. My erradic work schedule prevented me from joining in on DW. It really does feel like the end of elite..
Imagine having a community so dedicated and passionate, and then throwing it away through sheer incompetence. I'm honestly surprised it lasted so long.
I'm missing already those days. Exploration is what made Elite Dangerous so ubique. I'm afraid the main thing we are going to get in 2022 is thargoid oriented FPS. We have plenty of games about shooting aliens, but only one Elite. Please FD, don't let Elite's galaxy fade to black.....
You're right, elite doesnt need to be a game about FPS combat, it being there is awesome (at least in theory but its so shit i dont bother) but it shouldnt be a focus. No other game has elites galaxy but they fail to realise than and act on it
Elite, desperately needs to get back to its roots. The 3 key components that make Elite and set it aside from games like NMS and SC are; 1. The ships. A wide variety of iconic ships that are beautifully crafted into the game. The cockpits are gorgeous, the sound of the engines, the look, etc. 2. The flight mechanics. With the ability to toggle F/A on and off and how the gravity of planets affects supercruise is a technical marvel. 3. The galaxy. A 1:1 approximation of the actual Milky Way galaxy containing real stars from actual star charts, historic Elite systems, and procedurally generated systems to round it out.
The frame work of a great game is STILL there but devs have to quit chasing fads and start working on Elite... the space flight/combat sim. I don't want to play NMS or SC that's not the content I want. I came to Elite because I want to play Elite.
I mean, SC has two of the three already, in my opinion better implemented.
Which just makes it all the sadder that ED hasn't reached that point.
I have a feeling the next major edition to the game will be Elite Dangerous: Maintenance Mode expansion.
All the drama aside, and we all agree on those. I gotta say these last videos you've made, captured why we loved the game so much perfectly. Also I feel they are brilliantly done! Cudos
I’m finally getting a gaming rig together, have VR, got a HOTAS, and I’m gonna fire up the game for the first time in years. I can’t wait to explore all the content that exists, and I don’t care if it’s peak players or not. What a crazy good game and I welcome anyone curious to join.
Good for you! See ya out there cmdr
Never got to experience DW2 and was always looking forward to a DW3…
me too. I have two little kids, did not have time to do it. was always looking forward for a DW3 to join :(
Same here
I spent more time that I would like to admit exploring in ED. Expeditions would take months. However since ED kept changing the planet generation tech (and often not for the better) it started to seem pointless. The planets would still have my username as the discoverer, but if I revisted, it wouldn't be the same place. I really miss that feeling of anticipation as the jump came to the end and you got the first glimpse of a system no one had seen before, followed by the anticipation of the HONK and looking at the system map (pre all of the weird scanning gameplay).
Same here,when they introduced "all of the weird scanning gameplay" ,(plus the Gnosis debacle) , I was done.
First, thank you to everyone involved with the GMP and DW. You are pillars of the Elite community.
It's a shame FDev is more concerned with making the next Jurassic or getting some new licensed IP instead of actually building on the vibrant and imaginative community that is at the heart of Elite. Where else do you find groups like this, Canonn, the Fuel Rats, Hull Seals, Kingfishers, New Player Alliance etc. It's a truly unique community and lately, FDev is bound and determined to crap on it at every turn it seems. I just wonder what the next community pillar to fall will be
From 2018 to early 2019, Elite Dangerous was my game to go to for scratching that itch I always had for wanderlust. I remember putting in so many hours into playing the game and having fun with friends with bounty hunting, but for me, exploration was why I bought the game. There is nothing that ever catches my imagination like space travel and this game truly felt like it delivered with its immersive world and amazing visuals.
However, I eventually started to feel like exploration was not worth the hassle. Many nebula models were reused and it made it feel like a trip to the Eagle Nebula was a waste of time when I could go to the North America nebula instead which had the same model. These trips back in those days were hours long in real time, with the more distant objects taking upwards of 12 real-time hours to get to. It would take days to get to another part of the galaxy even with ships that could make 60 light-year jumps like my Anaconda.
After many hours of play, my time I spent playing the game dwindled and by the end of 2019, I had not played it much more at all. The last time I booted up Elite Dangerous was probably toward the end of 2020 and it was for about an hour. It really breaks my heart because I just felt like the game started to go downhill even after the updates at the time and I simply never got into the new Odyssey updates and I have heard some pretty rough things about it, to say the least.
I really wish there were a game that would focus itself on purely exploration without being as fantasy as No Man’s Sky, as I have not been able to immerse myself in that game’s universe since it just doesn’t seem authentic to space flight (which I know was a developer decision, it’s just a nitpick for my own preferences to have a realistic-looking galaxy to explore).
I don’t know if I want to go back to Elite now that it has been so long and I see how its community is slowly dying. But thank you anyway, Frontier, for making a game truly amazing like Elite.
Exploration was the BIGGEST reason I played Elite....when they decided they were going to focus on everything but exploration....they left me behind. They have every right to make this game whatever they want, but I didn't walk away from Elite......Elite RAN away from me.
So well spoken, Ant. The exploring a few years ago that I did will never be forgotten. Or ever the same again. So bittersweet.
Frontier doesn’t deserve this game or community.
Feels bad, man. This feels like a funeral. ED was truly one of the most amazing achievements in gaming and is the game I've put more hours into than any other since the 1980s.
It really went out with a whimper rather than a bang.
I was disappointed that Odyssey focused so much on lackluster combat. Frontier doesn't seem to want to even consider what players want. If by some chance development of new content keeps going, I'd hope for more exploration focused content.
As it stands now, I'm way out in the black. I went on DW2 and haven't made the return trip. Still somewhere between Beagle Point and Sagittarius A*. Don't really have a desire to put much more time into the game as it is currently.
If you think about it, it's logical. PvP requires way less effort from their side since the content will be player driven. Writing a campaign and story takes time, effort, money and skill.
@@azynkron True, Frontier went with the "easy" content expansion. If they were to develop optional story campaign expansions (Federation, Empire, Alliance), I would probably be the first in line to pick each up. Beyond the CGs and news articles, Frontier doesn't have a strong writing team that would be able to take something like a story campaign on. Their other games clearly show this as well.
Story focused content wouldn't be my first choice for ED. I'd like to see more exploration content. Spacial anomlies (both harmless and harmful), having to analyze signals, a minigame that suits the genetic sampler, leisure/exploration SRVs, etc...
@@azynkron I actually disagree to a large extent. I think with the right setup to the procedural generation engine and background simulation they could have set the game up so that there would be a massive player driven aspect to the game in a fulfilling way. A good example is NMS. I know it's going for less realism and sure you do see through the algorithms after a while but the simple fact that it generates every type of environment imaginable makes it already better than what ED did with every landable planet being an airless world.
Even if ED didn't want any other ailen species they could have do so much with just geologic formations, caves, volcanoes, islands, oceans, hot springs, glaciers, etc. Throw in the potential for settlements, bases, hunting extremely rare resources, a player driven economy, true lasting effects on the world based on actions, fleet management and on and on. All they really had to do was give us the foundation and let us build and they never would.
Same. I've been out in the black for 2 or 3 years now, occasionally logging back in and slowly heading back to civilization. But with each passing day i just feel like giving up on that and uninstalling the game. Not even the amount of exploration data i have is worth the journey.
>I was disappointed that Odyssey focused so much on lackluster combat
I would love to know what went down in the meeting when they decided that instead of fleshing out a genuinely unique exploration game that already had a solid foundation for an a community actively begging for it, that a mid 2000's utterly mediocre FPS was the way to go
As one of the early CMDRs, exploring the galaxy before the Thargoid Invasion, I must say, I feel sad. But also good. It's a bittersweet goodbye but looking at the circumstances, it was doomed to happen
Hearing my friends talk about the distant worlds expeditions was why I joined ED then when I joined no more expeditions happened. Sad times.
Nothing lasts for ever, not even stars
Distant Worlds 2 will always be one of my best memories. It was like nothing else I have ever experienced and fulfilled a childhood dream of flying through space exploring the stars like in my favorite science fiction.
I'm sad to see Elite Dangerous fade away, but unless they add a lot more things to go out and find I don't see myself coming back to the game.
I will however always be grateful to frontier and the community for the gameplay I enjoyed so much. o7
This video actually made me feel sad, and the also realisation that I got to jump on it very.. very late. I really hope this game will get SOMETHING. At the current state and counting what I have already done in this game, it feels like it will take me years to comeback and play it once more.
I jumped into the boat probably a few months until the news of Frontier dropping console came out and when I heard the news my heart sinked. I played on console and also got a friend to join me and now it seems like a gloomy end, but there is up side for me, it helped me discover astronomy and how much I love just staring up at the stars
This truly feels like an end no matter how much I don't want that to be the case. DW2 was the best gaming experience I've ever had. And even though I've spend more time in and around the bubble, partly because of FOMO, I will always consider my commander an explorer first.
Elite is like an ex-GF you think about sometimes. You've moved on and are very happy with your life, but occassionally, you think "What if...."
The first time I reached Sagittarius A, or reached the furthest point of the galaxy. More than 1200 hours of gameplay discovering planets, black holes, pulsars... All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain
I came to the realization about three years ago that Elite I had in my head was not the Elite FDev was building. I was hoping they'd continue on the galaxy simulation track, but most of their energy seemed to be aimed at making a pew pew shooter that could cash in on the console market.
lol how exactly would that cash in on the console market if they discontinued all future updates for console?
I started playing Elite Dangerous shortly after it opened to the public. I took part in the Distant Worlds I and II expeditions and circumnavigated the galaxy (which took over 6 months to complete!). I got a little burnt out after that. Then they changed how exploration was done and I quit the game. I will miss and still miss going out into the black and finding new things. Thank you to all the people that made the expeditions possible!
It's a legitimate finale. fdev has abandoned the elite, it's now quite obvious. no major or even medium-sized upgrades are worth waiting for.
I think that soon they will announce that the elite is moving to maintenance mode. maybe they will release patches every half year, until the final closure of the servers, but, quite obviously, that's it.
They won't announce it as long as ARX sales are going. Of course, it's already in that mode, they're just being dishonest, greedy shits about it.
@@madprophetus agreed (a-greed something Braben is all too familiar with now!) Frontier seem desperate to be the next EA or Activision, dreaming up new ways to rip off their loyal community. Their choices over the last couple of years have shown everyone just how little they care about Elite or its community, an incredible community that they never deserved.
The games been unofficially in maintenance mode for years, but as long as players continue to buy shitty paint jobs and ship skins FDEV will continue to suck the life (and money) out of you!.
I don't actually think so to be honest. I think you're going to get an attempt to right the ship so to speak, from Frontier. It's not over quite yet.
We needed a galaxy where the possibility existed of finding something that lay outside of the procedural parameters, producing oddities, not even the developers knew were there. Planets with strange anomalies, the possibility of finding a rouge station far out in the galaxy, civilizations nobody had ever encountered before. You could become a famous explorer for real haha.
I miss this game, I used to play it all the time I’ve played it since launch since I was 14, there’s still millions of things that I have not seen trillions of things that I have not done. I have Just about 50,000 hours and I haven’t made the trip to earth nor have I been to SagittariusA. I’ve stopped playing this game and I am going to miss it. No I don’t think we need another one if we get that I will most likely return but for right now, this is my farewell. 07 commanders, may the stars guide us on our galactic journey.
@Jinx Powder complete estimate on my part, but yeah, yours is closer I think, tbh I have no idea🤣🤣
you really never visited Sol system??
@@jimmaurer8361 He didn't miss anything tbh. Doesn't look that great nor realistic.
@@rdgmobile6882 Yeah, I agree. On consoles it earns a trophy/achievement. I think all I did was cruise out to the Voyager probe to listen to Carl Sagan and visit the one engineer there
Man I keep that DW2 decal on all my ships, it was probably the best experience I've had in Elite.
I loved this game a lot and while I didn't get into it as much as many others, it is really saddening to see the path it seems destined to go down.
Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.
Oh my, I remember that green fog. Caused so many ships to crash or miss their landings, or ram the surface. Don't remember the name we gave to the place, but boy was it a spooky one.
Lost an SRV on that mountain as well. Probably one of the ones in the video there. So much fun.
Elite Dangerous have something rare that I really hope games like Star Citizen can replace when Frontier now seems to slow developement. The feeling that you could (and sometimes would) find truly unique places in the Elite universe that drove me to spend hours jumping from system to system in hope to find something not even the developers knew existed. Star Citizen is beautiful but everything feels placed and that you are not the first to see it. Great job OA, I really like your vids.
Well, everything IS placed there lol. It's sad when I think back to those great exploration trips in Elite, alone in my Asp, 45000+ Ly away from the Bubble. Perhaps we'll see a better version of that explo feeling in SC in a few years, and then it will be relly great. Until then, I just keep laughing every time when I play SC and someone says that exploration is a thing over there haha.
Been there! Great experience during DW2. We were ejecting beer all the time ;) But I heaven't played for more than a year now. Would love to come back, but they say. Enhanced exploration is a must here.
Congrats Mr.Braben, you've done it at last.
Why would I not be sad? I'm an explorer, and my favorite space game is dying a slow and completely preventable death, with nothing to replace it on the horizon. No other game that I've seen has this kind of feel with this kind of galaxy.
The ending of the GMP really is the nail in the game's coffin for me. Ever since I started playing Elite Dangerous I was an explorer. Distant Worlds 3302, Distant Stars 3303, and Distant Worlds 2 3305 are all my high points in the game, along with being a founding member of the Hull Seals.
With the changes to fundamental tech like switching from procedural surfaces to the "box of stamps" in Odyssey, exploration has really dried up for me. The conclusion by the DW team that DW3 will never be happening and now this just show that I'm far from the only one greatly dissatisfied with how FDev have treated this gem of a game. I'm not fully retired from the game just yet, but am well on my way to it.
CMDR Brian Speakman, 176-DW, Hull Seal, signing off.
Been watching Obsidian since 2015 for Elite content.
The end of an era indeed.
Didn't think they'd kill their own game and name like that.
Live long enough to see heroes become villains...
In Elite, you can visit a handful of planets and you've pretty much seen them all. It's really just barren planets with very few POIs and some differences in elevation. I lost interest very quickly, there wasn't really any mysteries to encounter, nor were there any truly deep ways to interact with the world. You could look at things and shoot at things.
You missed the point of the game my friend.
@@sithrisarkuro7909 the devs missed the opportunity for players to be able to interact with the environment in more than a point and shoot way.
@@sithrisarkuro7909 that's a very weak response to 100% valid criticism of the game. Just because you disagree doesn't mean they're missing the point of the game.
Personally, I don't think overlooking Elite's weaknesses, as you are doing, amounts to understanding the point of the game more than someone else.
you know a youtuber is good when you have no interest whatsoever in the topic yet you can't stop watching it. i couldn't care less about elite dangerous, or eve online, or space games in general, and i can't put this channel down lol. you're amazing
There's no replacement for that feeling of heading into the deep black and leaving your name.
Sadly I don't know of any project to look forward to for this type of thing
It got to a point where it felt like 90% of the conversation within Elite Dangerous communities was all about maximising credits-per-hour so the remark about explorers being a small portion of the community makes sense.
I will forever look back with fond memories at all the exploration I've done. I wish Fdev could have done something more interesting with Odyssey.
I loved picking a random star on the map and seeing what was along the way but I guess we explorers got the short end of the stick for content and updates.
It's very disheartening to see elite nearing the end of it's lifespan. I just got this game a few months ago and recently traveled to colonia before going to Sag A in my orca. Being one of the newer generation of players that just recently joined the game, there are plenty of things I still wanna achieve. But with how I heard about fdev handling elite in these few years, I might regret not playing this game sooner. I hope that one day elite will rise back up and continue to give us the experience that we all love. If not... The things me and others have yet to achieve will just be another distant star we can't jump into.
Godspeed Cmdrs o7
I'm in the same boat. I just missed the glory days it seems.
Too bad they didn't deliver what they promised in the kickstarter: an offline Elite game with a single player story supporting modding, Linux and community driven online servers.
The elephant in the room of course is the real reasons why exploration died. It’s the same reason why obsidian ant keeps using footage from elite horizons. He has a very subtle way of saying things
Frontier - Elite Dangerous entered maintence mode far before the Galatic Mapping Project did >_
Dw1 and Dw2 were peak ED. I still have my map on my wall! :)