Really good article Flavien!
This.
Regarding travel, my signature on TOF (the old forum) was a quote from @Kichae which was something along the lines of “Why would you make a realistic scale galaxy and then shrink it with fast travel.” - But Kichae put it far more eloquently. When I get home I’ll see if I have a record of it.
Thanks for that blog post @INovaeFlavien, you are a developer of a competing product and as such I think that you will end up alienating some fans of the games you were talking about.
Not really sure how many readers you have on that blog, is it just us fanatics reading it?
Concerning the “teleport”
Yes it’s true, the loading screens have been hidden somewhat but are still there.
It’s called Frameshift Drive for a reason 
. They ordered the system into different frames of reference and propulsion systems and even diffrent representation for ships.
The seamless nature isn’t naturally there. It is irritating as described. If you want to see it as seamless some disbelieve is needed. I personally did that to some extend by imagining some “Frameshift Bowobawoho” going on when the screen goes black and I’m teleported to the other frame.
I don’t believe we have ever stated otherwise.
I don’t see an issue with it tbh, we are gamers as well, and fans of the genre, and want to see certain things from our “space games”. I backed SC and bought ED, and I must say I have many of the same issues/concerns as Flavien, neither looks like they will sweep me off my feet. However, I will say that I do not have the time required to give them a proper shakedown.
Let me put it in @INovaeKeith style, “Make the game, make a better game, then complain about the others.”.
You would have been better off making a blog post about Minecraft 
We assumed that it was still the case, I think, but hadn’t heard it confirmed recently, particularly with those other games using different models. So this is good (not-)news indeed!
I’ve been reading Flavien’s blogs for 9 years now and this is the first one I read in a French accent. I think as a high level note this makes Flavien’s observations seem a little harsh and derisive rather than pensive and reflective. I don’t think, though that they’re definitely the product of much experience in and passion for the field.
It is definitely interesting how Infinity’s ethos seems to be much more down a ‘Power to the Player’ route with a more heavy focus on dynamic simulated systems (actions affecting in-game politics being mentioned, for example). Once again I find myself looking forward to community gameplay prototypes. I think these sorts of innovations are things that I get excited about.
I have a particular fondness for no mans’ sky since it’s being developed in the town I went to Uni, but I don’t think it’s a game I plan on sinking as much time into as I am Infinity.
That would probably work reasonably well across the board because the shorter trips are generally dominated by arrival and departure times anyway. In the warp prototype, even a nimble fighter traveling aggressively between a geostationary space station and Earth’s surface takes about 90 seconds (about 120 seconds in the 2010 demo). That’s time spent entirely in disrupted warp. In general, the warp prototype required at least a minute to complete an arrival or departure. Much longer for larger ships.
I have concerns over long trip times, but I’ll wait until we have dedicated threads for such discussions.
I know quite a few people who are really excited about NMS. I, personally, don’t see what they see. All I’ve seen to date are some small planets implanted in fluid space with nearly identical surroundings (does every planet in the game have a small, static asteroid field hovering 200 km above their surface?), and more neon clouds than you’ll see at a week long rave. I’m left hoping there’s actually something interesting in the game, because as interesting as the bold colour pallet is, right now that really feels like their only hook. Well, I guess that and being a PS4 title.
I hold out hope that it will be a good game, because it could be a great console focused entry into the genre, and work as a great gateway game.
Please don’t make me rage about how people don’t understand that criticism is an essential part of the creative process. It’s not “polite” to keep comments like IA’s quiet or secret. It’s actually bad for the industry, and for the people who work in it. If “fans” get hurt feelings because something they didn’t create is being examined critically, then they’re not fans. They’re sycophants, or they’ve developed an unhealthy attachment to an inanimate object or concept.
I don’t see why you think I haven’t.
Oh yes, I have concerns over long trips that are necessary for players to access the majority of the game, or core game assets. It’s one thing to take a 10 or 20 minute trip because you want to, say, mine Unobtanium-4, because Unobtanium-4 is necessary to build the AwesomeRocket MK 3, and you’re not interested in paying the current market rate. It’s something else entirely to have to take a 10 or 20 minute trip because you want to mine. Anything.
I must have misunderstood then.
@INovaeFlavien is not contributing anything to the creative process, first because he is not part of that process and second, because what he discusses is wildly know by anyone that has played those games at a novice level of participation. If anything, he has shown that he is critically discussing games that he really hasn’t played enough to enable him to give a constructive critique, it’s a rant level contribution. Have a look at the guys giving feedback in the comments on his thought on ED shortcomings. There are reasons and explanations on everything he has said.
Then comes the question, why would he even choose this topic as a blog post. He starts off by saying that he thinks there is a possibility that he might anger some people. INS does not need to anger anyone, they should be making friends and fans, rather skip a sensitive topic that you know is sensitive and give the public something that is obviously good for everyone involved.
Then comes the tease from the the person who made the ICP some 7 years ago that he thinks that ICP is superior. I don’t really don’t know what the purpose of this blog post was, I don’t see much good coming out of it.
I also don’t think that there is a need to be reasoning that people are sociopaths based on having their feelings hurt, feeling are not a rational thing, if anything in this case they would come from love.
I think both will happen regardless of what approach is taken. One thing I like about our team makeup is we’re all very honest. Whether that hurts or helps us, we’re going to find out!
There is a science called Marketing and in that science they learn the most efficient ways of making people like you, some approaches to this are more effective, some less effective and some have a negative influence. You need to try and pick the effective ones and avoid the negative ones, you don’t have to lie to be seen in a positive manner, honesty is a good value, but it doesn’t mean a specific honest approach is the best honest approach.
Thanks to this discussion, I doubt INS will ever write their opinions about competitors anymore.
All those games deserve a look at. A lot of us point the community at new and interesting games. The dev team is part of the community and normal people, not money machines. Now they could just look at them privately and keep their opinion secret out of fear, and yes it is fear, they could anger anyone who has a different opinion.
Which is a pretty conforministic approach. Sorry but that’s just something I wouldn’t like to give in into.
We live in a different time nowadays. Companies can be personal.
Most traditional companies try to jump the social media train and fail because they loose their humanity by limiting their freedom too much out of marketing “concerns”.
We had this discussion several times in the past. They don’t seem to agree with the concerns posed by some people. And that’s their right of course.
@cybercritic , try their perspective for a second. Would you like to be reminded every time when you post your personal opinion on a subject that someone, somewhere who reads it and disagrees might not buy your newest mobile puzzle game?
And I don’t talk about you reminding them by criticising their public image approach. I’m talking about you having to remind yourself not to post your opinion but rather rob yourself of that freedom because it could hurt you “professional” image.
I see. Though it worries me that they may just decide to cease this perfectly healthy criticism, because it seems pointless, after writing a lengthy post, to receive these types of responses from some community members every time.
My concerns are more along the lines of how long trip times would be abused or exploited by players. Here I am, playing the game and I’ve sent my ship on a long run to a remote location. There is nothing but empty space between my origin and destination, and I’m going to have to wait for 15 minutes before needing to do anything. What do I do with that time?
But I’m guessing that 20AU trips are not going to be a part of Infinity:Battlescape, so it’ll be a moot point for the foreseeable future.
Everyone on here has the right to repeat their opinion on a subject every time that subject comes up. Even if the other party stated they would go another route it is still ok for someone to try to convince them. Reminding everyone of the discussion what’s the official plan is is enough to answer that in my oppinion … se Genes post.
The system should be scalable nevertheless. Let’s continue the discussion: Inter-Stellar/Planetary Travel … I’ll post there shortly.
@Lomsor, let me add that @INovaeFlavien blog was honest, that I agreed with probably 90% of what he said and that I can understand all of his concerns that he made about those games. I still don’t think it was a good blog post, it made me feel no positive feelings, except when he teased about the ICP gameplay, then on reflection that feeling changed into doubt. An of course the fact that we got a blog post was positive.
As for my game making business, I wish I had a community like this one where people would actually care enough to post their concerns and I would probably adopt a response based on those concerns. I don’t know what it’s like, INS does and from a pawn perspective on these forums, I’m airing my concerns, I probably care too much, like most of us here do.