Elite Dangerous | System Colonisation Beta Details & Feedback

[mtfatboy3006]

I have just this evening, last trip in fact less than 10 mins ago, completed the CMM composite deliveries. I was about half way through steel and I'm at 35% over all. Finishing off steel now and then on to Aluminium. Then the small stuff can be knocked off I'm hoping.
So the CMM-C availability seems to be a lot better. I did find a station two jumps away that had about 1200 of them and restocked so the lowest it got was >800 so I could fill up the cutter with 760 every time this evening. Happy now.

Availability is completely dependent on time zone. A commander in Melbourne coming home from work is not going to have as many others in his server shard as a commander in Chicago 17 hours before. They are going to have different experiences.

 

[LeakingAmps]

I like the idea of having more activities that contribute to the system completion progress. These could be missions handed out by the colony ship and contribute to the colonization progress the same way there were multiple ways to contribute to progress in the Thargoid war. Here are some examples:

• Bounty Hunting at the colonization beacon / ship (those pirates are always ready)
• Passenger mission (bringing staff to the new station)
• Donate Money missions (Support the cause!)
• Data Courier Missions ("Bob Stationbuilder needs the manual for the Frobulated Dinglehopper!")

These are just existing mission types that could be repurposed to add some variety to the process. New mission types (escort NPC bulk shipping convoys, unload colonization ship to partially built station, whatever) would also be amazing.

This could also be a great way to make that one month time limit for T3 initial stations more manageable for solo players - While I could do it, even unloading for 4 hours straight (for my Outpost) was mind-numbing enough that I frequently forgot where I was landing and where I was going, and the math suggests that to have wiggle room, you'd need to load a full T9/Cutter for 5 hours a day for 20 days straight (This assumes an average of 15 minutes per load; mostly because I expect CMMs to kill the average time, and assumes you're using a carrier, and therefore have to load and then unload later). Variety would be very nice.

 

[CMDR Vhi]

Getting system claim unsuccessful, any idea?

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I am just speculating, but I think that's an error similar to the "no time slots" error for fleet carriers, that just means the system is overloaded. I hit it a bunch when the update released but after a while it went away.

 

[Syntherios]

My feedback:

Requirements for the easy-to-find materials (aluminum, steel, copper, liquid oxygen, etc.) are a bit high, but manageable overall. What's not manageable is the absurd 14,000+ CMM Composites for a Coriolis when the most a station could possibly stock at any given time is in the 200-300 range, with most stations stocking less than 100, if they stock them at all.

Either remove CMM Composites from the list of requirements or at least dramatically reduce the number required. It's already a hassle picking up and transporting a full load of the other stuff; having to pick up a fraction of a full load at a time because CMM Composites are so rare while having the same number requirement as the other materials is ridiculous.

 

[Nowski]

I just posted a bug report on this, but it needs to get fixed as soon as possible, before it is used to chain out too far into unexplored space.

It'll be interesting to see if this resolves with "working as intended". As I posted back in December when Piers Jackson said space ports

will be in an under construction phase ... not all the people will be in place, some of the facilities will be turned off ... then on the Thursday it will spin up and be deployed into orbit

the way they said some of, not all of, the facilities will be turned off left room for the colonisation contact to be available immediately (as I believe Apex taxis are)

So this could just as well be by design. If the architect is somehow the only player unable to use their own colonisation contact, then that could be the bug!

proliferation of the random human planetary signals that occur within 2500 ly of human inhabited space, in a way that cannot be rolled back later.

I also have concerns about the inability to roll back the encroachment of humanity on the galactic wilderness, which is why I don't like the idea of a significant colonisation range increase. It's also true that a significant number of players want super remote colonisation, though.

From my POV the best way to resolve this is to keep the range small, but provide some remote colonisation starting points, via CGs, megaships, fiat, whatever.

Is the human signals range really 2500ly though? I've seen 500ly mentioned somewhere for this, I thought.

 

[Kzak]

Is it me, or has the material requirements for stations gone up significantly? At launch day, a Coriolis station required 53,723 units of goods to make. After summoning the colony ship, I find that the requirements are now a total of 70,244 units of goods.

 

[DjVortex]

I have to agree that while the amount of required commodities makes sense, and for a group effort (I'd say 4 or more people) it's very manageable, for a single player it's very doable but extremely tedious, and it would be nice if there was some other way that doesn't require you to do nothing but haul commodities for 20-30 hours straight.

I'm not exactly sure how that could be alleviated without reducing the amount of commodities required, but I suppose the suggested "hire npcs to do that job for you" (at least partially) might be one possible idea.

 

[Esvandiary]

My feedback:

Requirements for the easy-to-find materials (aluminum, steel, copper, liquid oxygen, etc.) are a bit high, but manageable overall. What's not manageable is the absurd 14,000+ CMM Composites for a Coriolis when the most a station could possibly stock at any given time is in the 200-300 range, with most stations stocking less than 100, if they stock them at all.

I've picked up from multiple different ports with 1500+ stock in the last day or so. If you're only looking for stations with current data on INARA you're going to have a bad time; going off the beaten path tends to give much better results.

FWIW I think the numbers are basically fine as-is. I don't really know why individual players are expecting to be able to build the most prestigious starports in the game on their own without an extreme amount of effort. I like that outposts are very achievable solo in a matter of days, and I like that creating an entire starport from scratch requires either a significant commitment, or people working together.

 

[yianniv]

It makes sense that you need a lot of material to build a space port. Those things are huge.

However, perhaps some kind of alternative could maybe be devised to get that material other than personally transporting all of it yourself. Although it's hard to imagine what that would be.

Although I'm already envisioning it: A player group like the Fuel Rats or the Rock Rats, but to help people finish their system colonization.

"The Colonization Rats"?

 

[DjVortex]

"The Colonization Rats"?

A player group helping commanders finish their colonization would be cool, but I'm not sure we can rely on one forming...

 

[mtfatboy3006]

I'm not exactly sure how that could be alleviated without reducing the amount of commodities required,

They could just stretch the deadline so that the tedium could be tackled in smaller chunks alternating with or implemented within other gameplay. Let us eat the elephant one bite at a time.

 

[BardBowman]

The carrier jump times (and sometimes complete inability to jump) are completely game-breaking. I love that Fdev is working to revitalize the game, but if they want more players they've got to pony up for more server capacity.

 

[Nowski]

I've picked up from multiple different ports with 1500+ stock in the last day or so. If you're only looking for stations with current data on INARA you're going to have a bad time; going off the beaten path tends to give much better results.

FWIW I think the numbers are basically fine as-is. I don't really know why individual players are expecting to be able to build the most prestigious starports in the game on their own without an extreme amount of effort. I like that outposts are very achievable solo in a matter of days, and I like that creating an entire starport from scratch requires either a significant commitment, or people working together.

This exactly matches my experience. I finished acquiring the CMMs for a coriolis late yesterday and I'm at ~50% on the station overall. I probably play a bit too much, granted, but given the 4 week window and the ability to create stations with considerably less strenuous requirements, the balance seems reasonable to me. Seeing colonising a system as a long-term activity which requires a degree of commitment is key, I think.

There's a trade-off between turning off players who don't want that kind of commitment and turning on players who like an opportunity to achieve something requiring serious effort, and I'm ok with where the feature is currently placed on that axis.

 

[Norlav]

i like the idea of having stations in system slowly supply other constructions, even if it needs player boost via credits or something.

 

[mtfatboy3006]

creating an entire starport from scratch requires either a significant commitment, or people working together.

It also almost certainly requires more time than a month.

 

[Aexrael]

Why isn't there a Prison Colony option?

 

[Devilish Dave]

Getting system claim unsuccessful, any idea?

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I'm having this issue too and I don't know if many who are encountering this. You're the 3rd. I've already made a ticket, but I think I'll miss out as by now Fleet carriers have piled up in the system, probably a squad and I have no chance like this.

Whenever it will be fixed, there's greater likelihood one of them will be on that time.

 

[N4KEDP4NTS]

There are gonna be a lot of 1 outpost colonized systems. This is already boring AF....

 

[Julian Ford]

I've picked up from multiple different ports with 1500+ stock in the last day or so. If you're only looking for stations with current data on INARA you're going to have a bad time; going off the beaten path tends to give much better results.

FWIW I think the numbers are basically fine as-is. I don't really know why individual players are expecting to be able to build the most prestigious starports in the game on their own without an extreme amount of effort. I like that outposts are very achievable solo in a matter of days, and I like that creating an entire starport from scratch requires either a significant commitment, or people working together.

+1 to starports being hard to build solo. Remember when there were entire community goals just to create solitary asteroid bases?

 

[LuxSublima]

CMM Composites are still vastly undersupplied. They are far harder to come by than everything else, yet needed in very high bulk.

BTW I don't mind the high cost of stations. It feels realistic. The Tier 3 high costs encourage a team effort, while the depots are reasonably doable solo. It's just CMM Composites that are a huge problem.