DEVS: Why no social features like chat channels, guilds / corps and parties?

[Asp Explorer]

And yet, my friends, whom fly with me.. Do not? Hmm...

Your friends are your friends in reality. To the factions in-game, if they are complete strangers with no reputation, then they will remain neutral and that will be reflected in your scanner. If you and your friends work towards faction goals and become friends, then you will all appear green to each other as members of that faction.

Also - if one of your friends has chosen a different path and mightily annoyed a faction that you are aligned with - he will appear red, and other members of your faction will be free to engage him. By protecting him, you'd run the risk of betraying your own faction and then them turning hostile too.

 

[KonigWolf]

That is a poor IFF system. By default, today's systems can have units added or subtracted at will. It should not be hard to add a person I mark as a friendly to my IFF. Yet, I cannot.

 

[Avetorian]

IFF is in-game already. Pick a faction in a combat-zone, or earn enough reputation with a faction, and they go green on your scanner.

And as for someone wielding supreme executive power and knowing everything that his underlings are doing - that is ridiculous. Are you suggesting that Barak Obama, Queen Elizabeth II, Hassan Rouhani and Joachim Gauck know what all their citizens are up to?

Ummm.. comparing a fleet commander to the president? What? Lol.. I'd like to know how they resemble each other, please do tell. Last I checked, an FC is constantly informed about all aspects of his fleet, and responds and gives orders based on the information going back and forth between them. Which is not present in the future.

 

[Asp Explorer]

That is a poor IFF system. By default, today's systems can have units added or subtracted at will. It should not be hard to add a person I mark as a friendly to my IFF. Yet, I cannot.

The whole point of IFF is that you cannot arbitrarily add or remove people from it.

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Ummm.. comparing a fleet commander to the president? What? Lol.. I'd like to know how they resemble each other, please do tell. Last I checked, an FC is constantly informed about all aspects of his fleet, and responds and gives orders based on the information going back and forth between them. Which is not present in the future.

Well the American President is the Commander-in-Chief of their armed forces. The ruling monarch of the United Kingdom is the Commander-in-Chief of the UK armed forces.

See a pattern here?

 

[Avetorian]

The whole point of IFF is that you cannot arbitrarily add or remove people from it.

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Well the American President is the Commander-in-Chief of their armed forces. The ruling monarch of the United Kingdom is the Commander-in-Chief of the UK armed forces.

See a pattern here?

Nope, commanding a few squads or a squad is not the same as running a country.

 

[KonigWolf]

No, that's not the point.. And yes, they can be changed. Modes 1 and 2, military only, can't be changed in flight, I admit. But they can be changed.

 

[Asp Explorer]

Nope, commanding a few squads or a squad is not the same as running a country.

Really?

Ummm.. comparing a fleet commander to the president? What? Lol.. I'd like to know how they resemble each other, please do tell. Last I checked, an FC is constantly informed about all aspects of his fleet, and responds and gives orders based on the information going back and forth between them. Which is not present in the future.

And just whom do you think issues orders? Who approves those orders? Whom approves those approvals? Whom in a sovereign state has the ability to declare a state of war against another sovereign state?

I bet it wasn't your scout leader.

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No, that's not the point.. And yes, they can be changed. Modes 1 and 2, military only, can't be changed in flight, I admit. But they can be changed.

But Konig, as a pilot in Elite - you are essentially always in-flight. You, me, any other pilot - we don't have the authority to do so. Authority lies with the Powers, and they get to decide who is friend or foe. That is why they have the ability to fine you, put a bounty on you, or simply order you destroyed - they are in charge - not us.

 

[Avetorian]

Umm.. A commander of a ship/starship whatever is still the commander of his own ship. They respond to whatever threatens them whatever blah blah. They don't contact the president after every little thing happens. Anyway, this is NOT the issue, the issues is the IFF. Right now the commander of his squad, can't form and even command a squad, the president of a country in the year 3300 can't create squads/captains to give orders to using some form of IFF. that is a problem.

 

[KonigWolf]

We do land, it's called docking.. And I have to say.. If you are aligned to no "power".. Then whom, may I ask, decides your enemies then? That, by no means makes everyone your friend or foe... You're telling me, that I can't have a person I deem friendly squawk a specific signal? Right... I guess pirates and such still rely on their enemies to refit and repair their machines... Right?

 

[Asp Explorer]

Umm.. A commander of a ship/starship whatever is still the commander of his own ship. They respond to whatever threatens them whatever blah blah. They don't contact the president after every little thing happens. Anyway, this is NOT the issue, the issues is the IFF. Right now the commander of his squad, can't form and even command a squad, the president of a country in the year 3300 can't create squads/captains to give orders to using some form of IFF. that is a problem.

A commander of a ship only does so because he is commissioned by a higher authority vested to him. If you cannot manage existing comms to arrange with friends and organize what you are going to do, then what do you suggest being introduced to make things easier for you?

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We do land, it's called docking.. And I have to say.. If you are aligned to no "power".. Then whom, may I ask, decides your enemies then? That, by no means makes everyone your friend or foe... You're telling me, that I can't have a person I deem friendly squawk a specific signal? Right... I guess pirates and such still rely on their enemies to refit and repair their machines... Right?

I suggest you try pirating a space station and then docking with it.

Also - as a pilot - you are aligned to at least one Power permanently - the Pilots Federation. Your actions determine the relationship you have with other members.

 

[Daeron]

Another goal might be asserting political influence in systems:
What David Braben means in his QA about why the shared, living galaxy is absolutely necessary or else the game would be "empty" and it would suck. I'm not quite sure what this is going to be, a story / campaign consisting of missions that are released overtime, or just a background simulation.

If you do want to for example make sure that the eriani communist are left alone by the fascist federal plutocracy war machine, you are forced into a guild. You need to organize with other players to reach your goal. Alone you can't influence anything.

So here the lone wolf already lost. You won't be able to pursue this type of gameplay goal alone.

As I understand it (big disclaimer there ), changes in Elite Dangerous (political or otherwise) are supposed to *generally* be initiated by the event system, which then can be influenced by picking a side, and doing missions related to that event. Some events might be conditional and trigger by themselves, others will have to be manually injected, in order to create certain situations related to more abstract material that goes above the level of simulation the game is capable of. There is no forced organisation or grouping involved however. The outcome will be based on the overall activity generated for the sides appearing in that location, or related locations, where more interest and support for one side, surely might not be so good for the other. But this very much involves the lone wolf, since he is part of that final number that is looked at, when the event has reached the appropriate stage to move on. (It might be that they also just want to inject material completely on the side of the event system, that is in fact called "adding content/patching the game with new material", just to answer/talk to myself.)

It is the contextualisation of these events that create the stories, so to speak. Unless there is something here I've missed.

 

[Avetorian]

A commander of a ship only does so because he is commissioned by a higher authority vested to him. If you cannot manage existing comms to arrange with friends and organize what you are going to do, then what do you suggest being introduced to make things easier for you?

There are no existing "comms" to arrange friends and organize what to do, there is no interface from that other than "Form group, join player group" That's it.

 

[Asp Explorer]

There are no existing "comms" to arrange friends and organize what to do, there is no interface from that other than "Form group, join player group" That's it.

Perhaps you are using them incorrectly? I'm going to be heading to Styx in about 10 minutes - I'd be happy to help show you how things work if you are amenable.

 

[KonigWolf]

The pilot's federation? And they decide your friend and foes, regardless of other factional alliances? No sir. The other "powers" choose.. Therefore the PF has no actual power. If that was the case, then, by default all pilots within the PF would squawk as friendlies.

The fact of the matter remains that I should have the ability to add those that I deem as allies to my CID, period.

 

[Wiskey Echo]

I want a transponder system...

User case: When fighting against NPC's in Distress signal / conflict zones all ships are encoded with the same name; their are currently no distinctions or ways to determine which npc I was looking at 10 literally seconds previous!
Forget military; forget planes; It has long been proven that space command is most alike to sea (surface) maneuvering and I'm not even talking about combat;

So lets look at that; In the marine environment all "large / lawful" ships broadcast Automatic Identification System (AIS) This is for SAFTEY! you need to know what that radar blip is and it a whole lot easier if other ships just tell you! This is also similar to how air travel is one of the safest forms of travel.

At the very least you can call ways issue a public call out "Vessel heading 080 at the mouth of the harbor, This is 'me', over"; And thus I agree with the OP that we need COMMUNICATION!

And of course we need to be able to say where we are... Meeting up with anyone for any reason in elite is all but impossible (Other than a nav beacon, celestial, stations ) - maintaining a squad or even a wing man is going to take a lot more than just a colored radar.

 

[Asp Explorer]

The pilot's federation? And they decide your friend and foes, regardless of other factional alliances? No sir. The other "powers" choose.. Therefore the PF has no actual power. If that was the case, then, by default all pilots within the PF would squawk as friendlies.

The fact of the matter remains that I should have the ability to add those that I deem as allies to my CID, period.

Not quite. Other powers determine their attitude toward you, and the factions help tip that balance depending on their sway toward each power. The PF doesn't enter into this too much, as NPC's are not members. All player pilots squawk as hollow scanner items - wether they are friendly or not is entirely up to both you and them.

The fact of the matter remains in the hands of the devs on wether you can mark targets or allies as you choose.

 

[KonigWolf]

I agree that it remains in their hands, thus why the point was brought to light in the first place.

Arguing semantics, while fun, does nothing for either side of the argument.

 

[Avetorian]

I want a transponder system...

User case: When fighting against NPC's in Distress signal / conflict zones all ships are encoded with the same name; their are currently no distinctions or ways to determine which npc I was looking at 10 literally seconds previous!
Forget military; forget planes; It has long been proven that space command is most alike to sea (surface) maneuvering and I'm not even talking about combat;

So lets look at that; In the marine environment all "large / lawful" ships broadcast Automatic Identification System (AIS) This is for SAFTEY! you need to know what that radar blip is and it a whole lot easier if other ships just tell you! This is also similar to how air travel is one of the safest forms of travel.

At the very least you can call ways issue a public call out "Vessel heading 080 at the mouth of the harbor, This is 'me', over"; And thus I agree with the OP that we need COMMUNICATION!

And of course we need to be able to say where we are... Meeting up with anyone for any reason in elite is all but impossible (Other than a nav beacon, celestial, stations ) - maintaining a squad or even a wing man is going to take a lot more than just a colored radar.

This. Me and a couple of friends where hunting wanted targets together at an extraction site. we got so far seperated that we couldn't locate one another and had to regroup at the center of the extraction site again. We need to be able to regroup anywhere. That's where the problem lies. It's not difficult, but it's tedious.

 

[Asp Explorer]

I agree that it remains in their hands, thus why the point was brought to light in the first place.

Arguing semantics, while fun, does nothing for either side of the argument.

Oh I don't think it's arguing - merely a friendly discussion

I do agree with you that being able to "mark" scanner blips would be useful - as a target of interest, but perhaps make is a unique colour. Marking it green or red will just let it disappear in blips when the shooting starts.

Also - if you mark a target as green, and then for whatever reason he starts shooting at you - either accidentally or on purpose, you may have a difficult time finding that one green blip again.

Same if you mark something as red - maybe he's not too fussed about engaging anyone, is merely passing through on a tourist run, but due to his faction he is automatically classed as an enemy despite the fact he is unarmed and carrying nothing but Nuns.

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We need to be able to regroup anywhere. That's where the problem lies.

If you are looking for Fast/Instant travel - then absolutely no thanks.

 

[Avetorian]

If you are looking for Fast/Instant travel - then absolutely no thanks.

No, I'm looking for a way to be able to track where my friends are, especially when I'm in the same instance as them. Something that tells me how far they are away from me and in what direction. Example, the other day at the extraction site, The person who got lost couldn't find the rest of the group, had no way of being able to since our hollow markers disappear after you get out of a certain range. If friendlies or wingman/partymembers were marked differently and maintained a presence on your radar, you could find and track them down again without everyone having to regroup again and again.