This is what keeps me checking the game out each new update: I WANT to like it. I want to log in and find its become an engaging game with as much depth in the supporting mechanics as exist in the flight model.
But its not, and it hasn’t. Its still a shallow grind full of loading screens, time gates and waiting for your ship to get to the good parts. The BGS - when it works correctly at all, which 5 years in is still FAR from a sure thing - has no discernible, tangible effect on, well…anything. Trading is basically a Loading Screen sim. And Hauling and Passengers are EXACTLY the same experience as trading, with passengers throwing in a couple extra locations for giggles now and then. Which, of course, means more loading screens.
The new FSS “scanner” is a 2D AM Radio Tuning Simulator that wold have been laughed out of the board room of any AAA developer who cared at all about their reputation and player engagement. Its fiddly, boring, cumbersome and unfun. It locks you into Sitting Duck mode in Supercruise and is about as much fun as trying to find an AM radio station on a dial at 9pm after their output has been turned down for the night. Its so bad that in a live stream, one of the people showing it off grew so frustrated that he was heard saying, “Just put me out of my misery” when trying to demonstrate it on Frontier’s behalf.
So yeah. I am frustrated. Braben talked a good game. About an immersive sim. About existing in a galaxy where you are more than a ship. But when asked directly about whether they were still interested in making Atmo and Walking happen, Brett finally said on their forums, “Probably,” (only probably, mind, not for sure) “when the tech can handle it.”
So all this while they have strung players along with talk of the things they were interested in adding. Knowing full well they didnt even have the tech (and probably, that they lacked the talent, too) to even DO any of these things. Braben scammed players. Has for years. Maybe he didnt start out with the intention, but he DID do it.
At this point, I have no more respect for David Braben than for Chris Roberts. Both men sold blatant lies and wishful thinking as fact and neither has even come close to delivering on promises made half a decade or more ago. Whatever their initial intentions, both men have now firmly crossed the line into con artists, and I would not buy another game from Frontier with someone else’s money - especially if the lead developer wears a pet sock.
To clarify another accusation: I am NOT still playing the game. I jumped in and TRIED it again when the latest update came out. But nothing changed, except new tools made old tasks twice as tedious and time consuming as they used to be, without adding anything fun or engaging game play wise. So contrary to baseless accusations in this thread, no, I am most certainly NOT still playing the game. Nor am I likely to do so, now its basically been abandoned in this state by FDEV.
If I am wrong and they manage to release actual content this year, I will happily approach it with an open mind once more, and check it out. But until and unless that unlikely scenario comes to pass, I have plenty of fun stuff to do instead.
