>you could run into other players ... it would be exceedingly rare
This should've tripped everyone's BS detectors. Why would a studio do the huge work to add a multiplayer mode if it would be so rarely seen?
It _did_ trip a lot of BS detectors.
The sound was drowned out by the overwhelmingly non-technical consumers of the game's PR. It's the modern day version of selling snake oil.
Technology progresses, but human nature doesn't.
And much of the expectant player base didn't want to hear anything negative. Reddit was a complete echo chamber, praising the devs in every post. I suppose it's still an echo chamber, but the conversation has... drifted the other way.
yeah, i think this was a mistake made under obvious pressure.
you are right about a lot of the claims seeming to be straight up BS, but it was all understandable imo. people had unrealistic expectations because the devs didn't take care to manage them well.
there are space battles, and there are things you could call factions and economy, they are just woefully underpar compared to expectation and marketting material.
I think it was more than community hype. Sean, for whatever reason, made claims that turned out to be objectively false.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.reddit.com/r/Games/comments...
Now it was never supposed to have a large focus on multiplayer, but they also mentioned things like a galactic economy, big space battles, a faction system... all BS.