David Braben will answer your questions at 4PM GMT/UTC

[jippyuk]

Hi David,

My question following on from your removal of the offline mode (due to technical reasons). I assume that this means that by taking this decision you are essentially going on record to say that the multiplayer component is going to be THE WAY to play this game, considering some of the technical issues which have plagued most stages of Alpha / Beta, are you saying confidently that the majority of p2p based bugs and limitations are going to be a thing of the past come gamma / release?

I.e actually being able to effectively work with other players instead of solo all the time?

 

[Dodgey]

Hi David,

Will Missions become more varied and interesting? Will there be interaction with NPCs like the multiple-choice responese in previous games?

 

[Perrial]

Hello David thanks for answering questions 8)

Are there any plans for teams of players to crew the same mega ship and perhaps participate in interstella war (Fed vs Alli e.g.) scenarios? Or even friends/family to co-pilot smaller ships?

 

[Buckaroo_Banzai]

No. I used an Xbox controller...

Hi David.
Is there a technical possibility to offer more settings ingame, adjusting sensitivities ( x,y and z-axes) for any type of controller without using the product specific software?
If yes, is there a possibility to implement it?


Thanks to you and your team! You're doing a great job.
Stay focused to keep the game dynamic and interresting. The methods/ideas to do so won't stop if you are planning to support this game for a loooong time.

 

[Melcos]

How finish will the game be on release day ? Are the still a lot of known bug to fix after that day ?

 

[Geraldine]

When checking out what equipment a station has is there any chance of changing this to being available on the station's main menu instead having to go into outfitting to see the list? It might save a bit of time if we are after those hard to find upgrades.

 

[benji]

Hi David,

Just to say, many thanks ☺

 

[Vectorman]

No. I used an Xbox controller...

That's Blasphemy!

HOTAS or nothing IMO!

Gamepad..... Pffffff!
I'd strap my HOTAS to my back and board That train like a true king

 

[Cathy]

Hello David,

What made you decide on p2p for multiplayer instead of the familiar MMORG server model? What do you believe its advantages are?

 

[Starfish]

Only just spotted this so not got time to read through and check what has been asked yet as I'm worried I might miss answers from the man himself so apologies if this has already been asked.

David: Are you keeping an eye on feedback on supercruise. Are you open to the idea of speeding it up at all or making it more interactive? compared to previous Elite games, travel is much slower, yet requires some amount of hands-on for minor steering adjustments as you go. What are your and the teams feelings about this?

 

[Jim Chapman]

Hi David, another question (separate post, to allow a separate answer) ... where do we stand on the things we'll need for group expeditions? Things like:
Acquiring and using a player-owned outpost
Transferring fuel between player-owned ships
Ships carrying ships

Thanks, again for joining us today, and thanks for a fine game, to which I am looking forward very much.

 

[Cmdr Sharky]

Will there be someway within the game to be able to locate specific stations, as an alpha backer with a station I am wondering how I am going to locate it within the 150,000 planned inhabited systems....

It already is searchable. Just put your station name in the search box. Worked for me, station "DEXTERGRAD".

 

[mbpoblet]

Have you played the game? Why is the offline (as opposed to single player, which I understand) mode so important to you?

An offline mode insures that, no matter what happens to Frontier or the servers, the game will still be playable.

It also allows for the game (in its offline version) to be modded. This enriches the community and the game with content beyond even that which the developers themselves can produce (just look at Betheda's games), and ensures a long life for the game.

Look at Freelancer for an example of a similar game whose servers closed years ago, but which is still kicking and keeping a loyal community thanks to private servers and modding.

An offline game also lets it be DRM free (no matter the intent always-online is, by its own nature, a form of DRM, and even if it's not perceived as such by the developers, it is by a lot of potential customers).

An offline game would probably allow you to pause, thus allowing people who sometimes need to take care of children or other urgent issues to play without risking a loss of progress.

An offline game means, thus, more sales for Frontier (both from people who don't support online-only games, people who don't support DRM, and people who simply don't have a constant or reliable connection), and a much longer life for the game.

As for your claim that an offline mode would need new story content... a lot of us would be perfectly fine with a barebones offline mode that we could mod.

The community would easily and happily provide the content.

This would even avoid possible "spoilers" from your online story.

Is this a possibility you could consider?

 

[Cmdr Snuffler]

Who in the Frontier office has the title of best dog fighter?

 

[CATPAIN KIRK]

Hi David,

are there any plans to make NPC faction standings carry over to players standings. (E.g. I'm friendly with faction A and hostile to faction B - will a Player with friendly standings towards A appear as my ally? Will a player with opposite standings appear red to me?). The DDA thread on standings unfortunately only mentions NPCs.

 

[Zephyriel]

Hello David,

Are there plans to improve the search function on the galaxy map ? To not only find exact system names but partial names (like typing Canis Majoris instead of VY Canis Majoris to find the star), faction names, specific planets...

 

[efb]

can we have all the menu commands assignable?

 

[RGS]

In addition to my earlier question regarding FD's communication over the Offline issue (post #129), here's a more positive one:

Any chance of ship cockpit customisation in the near future (including HUD/instrument colours)?

 

[HipToss]

I have been thinking about the latter part of this game when we can explore our own ship is added and other deeper immersion is added.

When we are able to move about our ship and even have other players or NPC’s be part of the crew for instance. I would love to have the ability to learn various traits.

Let’s say I want to peruse the career of explorer. It would be wonderful if I could learn how to maintain my ship. In deep space, a fuel or cabin breach warning comes up, if I have learned how to repair such issues, I could get up and fix that problem. Or perhaps a member of my crew could be the “maintenance man” with the ability to fix issues. It may take a certain amount of time due to the seriousness of the issue, but would be a nicer thing to have to worry (sort off) about then just docking and fix it by clicking repair. Also, what if there are no stations to dock? I see that there will be modules that can be deployed to repair problems, but maybe make them modules that repair items outside the ship where we cannot go. OR!!! Would we be able to spacewalk on larger ships and repair the damage ourselves? But what if we were attacked when I am outside repairing a problem????

I know this is a huge amount to expect, but it would at least be nice to see the ability to “level up” my abilities pertaining to my ship. I would expect that if you want to be an explorer, you would hope that you are competent enough to work on your own ship. Perhaps a limiting aspect where if you have not acquired the skills for space exploration, you are limited to the range of space that has known stations, that is without buying cartographic knowledge to continue.

If we have the ability to walk around our own ships, it would be nice if we could have the ability to repair, or even modify systems past their limits for our own purposes (hacking). PIPS are nice to have, but I want to route ALL power to shields to escape. Or divert ALL power to weapons (overload) for a brief moment to finish off an enemy with the possibility of damage to said routing.

Thoughts?

 

[EAGLE 5]

Alright David I'm going to have to ask this as a strong Alliance supporter.

Will we se more Alliance specific support in the game lore? Seems to me that the Feds and the Empire will been getting all the press.
EDIT: and the Empire isn't even in the Beta yet!