Yes, the ED initial goal does still look like a stretch doesn't it.

In my case, I hit KS after having seen an interview with DB on the BBC News website. I was a teenage computer nerd when I first got Elite for my BBC Model B with cassette deck, so the memories of that, along with the BBC interview, where enough for me to get involved with the KS without any other videos etc. I also watched a video where DB talked to developers about the original Elite and how they developed it inside 20K - but I found that off of my own back.

So, fair enough, I came into it from a biased route having no knowledge about what other Kickstarter projects look like.

In any case, I'm still pretty happy with it and I would guess that the number of un-pledgers is tiny. It will be interesting to see whether DB can find the time/resources throughout December to try and market it enough to reach their goal. Otherwise, he has done what he said: "tested the market" and arguably found enough interest to develop it the traditional way ... or maybe not?

Yes Phil, I am in agreement with your posts on this.

Poor Mr DB has a money eating crowd of developers to feed in a difficult economic time where wages in an area like Cambridge are not cheap. I like the way DB comes across in the videos, he seems awkward like Clark Kent in the original superman but also seriously genuine and dedicated to the space sim and space in general. He seems kinda geeky, but I think that is cool. Personally I think he will create a game I want to play.

Looking at the Elite Kickstarter again, they are doing ok still. But I have a concern now and that is that the 20 pound tier does not have that many left and when full they are likely to be only half way there. The next tier is 30 pounds for no extra, a digital copy and previous tiers included. That 30 pounds so more in dollars for a digital copy and for a non-hardcore fan that's a fair bit for a digital copy. Actually it's my main concern about the funding going forward.

Today on http://www.dollars2pounds.com/ 30 pounds equates to: 48.07 dollars

So 48.07 dollars for a digital copy, it is DRM free and there are some minor previous tiers included, but still it is high for kickstarter. Although I am a fan I would not have gone higher on that game for a digital copy than the 20 pound mark. I suspect it is the same for many.

I am not feeling confident now that ED will make it
Maybe I will only be playing Limit Theory as I dropped out the Star Citizen one after thinking it would not run well on my low end graphics laptop.

yeah, that is my other point I made, the tiers simply aren't that thought out, and I think for a American backer, then anything higher then £30 isn't worth backing, not when there is so little there,

but that does raise the other point, the tiers are shit, they don't really offer that much incentive to pay more then £20 for the game, as the rewards don't do the campaign much good, so really, they should have been far better planned, for both sides of the pound, if I was an american backer, I would give this KS a miss now, there is there very little to justify paying more for less

As you might of guessed I am pro Elite and DB partly due to being one of those kids that played it when it was first out.

But yes Matthew I can only agree with your last post. The tiers on ED are not good for anything higher than the 20 pound one and it will most probably cause the 2nd half of funding problems. 75 pounds just to post on the ED discussion forum. For LT we do that here for free !!

and £100 for the first round of beta, and £200 for the private alpha test? I mean the alpha test one is very steep, when LT alpha test is at $75 / £46.78 which is a steal, and so bloody tempted to get it, but will wait a while, while for ED, its roughly 4 times the amount, not good at all

to me, I don't think the tiers have been well planned for both sides of the pond, and wondering if this is also the reason why the game hasn't got the momentum it needs, as many American backers are getting turned off from the high price tag, its a lot of money for them at anything past £30
30.00 GB = 48.0985 USD

or if they went for the £50 tier
50.00 GBP = 80.1620 USD

really not good value, and why I still think the project should be canned, set a lower goal, better plan out the tiers, and get some good videos done, maybe then with a better pitch, more forthcoming updates, FD might have a better chance of reaching the goal, but as the game isn't even half way funded yet, its really struggling, so yeah, once the £20 runs out, people will pass this by, especially if you are a US backer

I did play Elite and frontier back in the day, and would have liked this to suceed too, but I see too much against it to do well now

Yes for LT £46.78 is good to get to try some aspects of the game beginning early next year. I would go for that myself, but I will be finishing off my own first game then and really don't want a possible time sink for me at that point.

I wonder if ED did stop the project and restart it with better tiers and lower threshold if it would work? Is that done before much with big projects?

not to my knowledge, but a few projects have cancelled, but there is shaker, a very bad done one, if they get their act together with a better pitch they might raise what they ask for, I did link that one earlier, but they have yet to redo their KS, but in regard to ED, if this fails and does have a good chance of failing, then maybe a relaunch is really in order, I just feel FD and DB rushed to do a KS once KS is available in the UK, they clearly did not see any of the successful ones, and clearly not learned what it takes to do a sucessful one, but yes, I think the pound to dollar issue is something they probably didn't think of at the time,

I will say this, IF and only IF, they cann their current project, take a month to figure things through, do some decent videos, better pitch video, better front page, then if they pace themselves better, for a lower goal, then maybe I will reback them, but they still got a lot to prove,

as it stands I will not back them, I just got too many concerns on the project and game in general, and I dont think they will really make it at this time, sure they have time, but the whole KS is just running out of steam, granted that weekends are slow, but it seems that the new update has done little to bring new backers in, and I do suspect that its the tiers / dollar to pound issues that are the main reasons for the slow down

so yes, a reboot I think is their best cause of action now, if they fail, they will NEVER get another chance, but there is another thing, they were running during the SC one, and that might have partly to blame too, sure they have time, now, but they still got a long way to go, if the new update has done little to bring in new backers, then I fear that any other updates might end up not doing the same, not at the rate that is needed to reach this mountain of a goal. so a reboot might work, there is demand, SC has shown that, its just that ED has been badly panned from the outset and too many things going against it sadly

Due to the way things are going, and that we don't want a flame war against which space sim is better or worse, or to try and oviod any kind of flamers coming here to flame LT because whats been said in the LT comments and on here in this thread

then please josh, please delete this topic, as a flame war is not my intention when this topic was done, but as there seems to be a few that will try and do a flame war for whatever reason, I think to keep things civle, this thread should be deleted

I agree too Josh, there is a lot of sensitivity around the Elite franchise.

It would be sad, if ED wouldn't make it, only due to a on marketing on KS psychological ill done presentation.

In essence, David Braben is asking in front of what he really wants, instead of starting low and then adding a new stretch goal and a new strerch goal and adding a new teaser and extension of fund raising and ..., as it is done by another BIG spacesim project.
Perhaps that could be a way for Frontier Games : open up an OWN fund collection, as done by .. the other one.

yeah it would be sad, but as this isn't going to get deleted, maybe another suggestion would be to have a private backers only forum, so this could be moved, but considering the hostility from some people in the ED comments, I still think it should be moved to a private backers forum or be gone for good, I do feel this needs to happen sooner rather then later, as some users on the ED comments are just becoming pretty rude, and saying if you are saying negative stuff, you have no right to speak in the comments or on ED at all, as another user has pulled his pledge, and got ripped apart from hostile comments, real shame really, its not really doing them any favours if they keep acting like that

but saying that, many of us did come over from the ED comments, I also wouldn't have found this game if it hadn't been for ED comments, but the sad matter is, I don't want a flame war between the two camps, and its a shame we can't talk about both games either positive or negative, as the devs people won't know or learn anything if people are saying good things, to be negative is also constructive, it might be partly true its hampering ED, but to be saying all good won't help anyone, people must learn from their mistakes, and this wont happen if people are 100% positive

so really, to withdrawl your pledge if you are been negative, is the silliest thing I read over their yet,
its a real shame people are asking like this, FD could easy have put a stop to this, and stop people from been so high and mightly and saying nasty stuff about people who do pull pledges

real shame

Don't be so obsessed about this. Each time you ask us not to mention E:D, you're in fact mentioning E:D yourself, thereby prolonging the thing that you want to end.

My advice: just stop bringing the controversy* up again and again, and let it quietly and silently die.


_____________
*Actually there isn't even a controversy in the first place. The accusations of flaming are patently ridiculous; there was no notable flaming in the LT-Kickstarter comments. There is only a highly neurotic bunch on the E:D-Kickstarter comments page who, when not busy complaining about the lack of support by their god, keep themselves busy by accusing third parties who dare to point out the very same lack of support of sacrilege.

yes that is true,

just wanted to let you know, they got a community manager signed up on egosoft forums, and he willing to try and answers some questions

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php? ... 01#3988101

maybe this is a good sign, and something that is really desperately needed, I posted a couple of my concerns, how MP and SP will work and the concerns about the tiers

thread can be found here

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php? ... 01#3988101