The real expense is the effort required to build all the stations and ports. I'm fine with the price. As said, it's basically a token amount for a land claim, and not to own, just to be given the rights to build in that system. The fact we earn credits for delivering materials indicates that we don't own anything in the system.
Colonisation should be more expensive
- Thread starter dj_wylie
- Start date
Some new players regularly bite off more than they can chew. Grind for a Cutter but cannot afford the rebuy. Grind for a Fleet Carrier but cannot afford the upkeep. And so on. It's not outrageous to expect a player to be aware that, maybe, colonising a system and building stations in it might be a big effort.
Players "begging" for assistance is a bit demeaning. Sure, there are some efforts going on to organize assistance, but it's hardly begging. It's what this community does.
So some initial claims will fail. I think that is to be expected. Part of this game is also to fail and, possibly, learn from your mistakes.
Who is to blame if they cannot complete their chosen task in 4 weeks, FD or the player? (I had a Coriolis 60% complete on the Saturday after Colonisation was released, I'd looked at the Tier 3 option and decided I was unlikely to complete it alone - as it goes, the squadron helped out on the Saturday and we completed the station - but, I would still have completed well within the 28 days, even solo)
Well, enough salt to desalinate the Atlantic, for sure. All by players who chose to build whatever they were building...
Exactly. My interest in this has been hauling stuff for friends who are setting up places because we just want to build something as a group. Profit and maxing out every body with tier 3 stations doesn't come into it. We just to build something we like the look of, which is probably how this was intended.
Sorta like when the game first started and you bought that next ship, only find out the hard way you need more than E rated modules and that flying without a rebuy wasn't very smart... You licked your wounds, learned from your mistakes and got back on that horse.
No different here... Your mistakes will cost you time only.
An aspect of this game is it does not gate most content. So if a new player wants to fly their unengineered class E sidewinder into a HAZ RES site, I believe they can.
I realize the Trailblazing update is the 'New Thing" being released and system claims can be done by any cmdr. There is no gate. Obviously it is a much better idea for a new player to get a decent FSD and Thrusters and some reasonable engineering.
Perhaps you would prefer if content was gated. I don't see the need. If a new player makes a system claim and it expires whoopeedoo.
As said, park a Fleet Carrier there, buy high and sell low to make the profit worth it for others to engage with. There's your credit sink to potentially balance your time sink.
EDIT;
EDIT 2; actually I think that's moot as I don't think you can set up to buy and sell a commodity at the same time.
EDIT 3; though it might be better to do the unloading yourself as there's nothing to stop a CMDR from taking your low priced goods and selling it to another carrier for even more profit.. I guess the true answer would to be able to hand out hauling missions on your carrier to keep everyone on the straight and narrow. Probably out of the scope of Vanguards, but it sounds like it's step in that direction at least.
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I think the third option of people who enjoy architecting out their own system will be a reasonable chunk too. I've done most things in this game, apart from long-distance exploration, and for me at this point colonization gives me a great reason to jump into the game and while it's probably going to slow down to a more measured pace, I don't see me getting bored with it any time soon.
I agree that the game needs more credit sinks, but I disagree with turning colonisation into one.
Well, I would suggest that players can afford to spend 25 million on colonising a system are in most cases going to be the sort who already have the credits to have at least a T-7/T-8. The prevelance of stations in the game means no one can be surprised that the massive thing with 40 docking pads that we can all see is kilometres long, is going to need a fair amount of metal to build. Personally if I was coming at this as a new player I'd be building the smallest station possible, and then only after having an A rated hauling ship that could do it.
This is actually why I think FDev have got the 25 million amount right. Trivial to most, but enough so that anyone who can't afford a medium cargo ship to actually build anything is likely to be put off until they can afford the right tool for the job.
70% on my Asteroid station which I didn't realize until later requires more materials than a Coriolis.. I thought the shell of the asteroid would reduce the amount lol. I'm currently loading up my carrier for my last full trip, I'm pretty confident that I'll be done by the end of the weekend. And that's solo, because that's how I roll(o).
I do also agree 100% that it's on those who initiated the construction of the shiny Tier 3 station if they didn't look at the requirements properly, though to be fair, I know what it takes to fill a carrier and unload it so I knew what I was taking on and knew that it was definitely going to be an effort, but a doable one. Though after finishing my base, and checking helping my son out with his outpost if needed, I think I will see if I can help out with Ida and aid getting some more CMDRs over the finish line before the time is up.
I did look at a T3 and decide I might not finish it in time...
Oddly, most of the hauling I did wasn't in loading and unloading my FC (twice the work), but, instead, jumping with my cutter to & from the supply systems. I probably saved a tiny amount of time in doing this, but it was much more fun than just shuttle work, with added bounty vouchers from the NPCs who wanted a slice of my tasty cargo!
150 is less than 2% of 8,000. I don't think the cheaters skewed the figures much.
I did a carrier load first and lost at least two hours vs flying directly to suppliers, and it was much more pleasant to load and unload once, as you say. Carrier-owner experience worked against me. This wasn't like a CG with a localized shortage near one dropoff point and plentiful supplies further out. The demand points are distributed everywhere, and the supply was feast or famine everywhere as well. The carrier was no help.
The lack of choice over port location was an unexpected blow, though. If mine had been much further out, I would have still needed the carrier.
There's quite a lot of content that's gated in Elite in all fairness.
I think people who play the game for years and have everything unlocked forget this - wiping one's account does have a sobering effect.
To your point though, Colonisation is surprisingly accessible, if you ignore the required time investment. For example, I expected the initial claim amount to have at least another zero added, and delivered commodities to be "donations" rather than yielding profits.
The only thing I could figure that a fleet carrier might do for you is if you're doing multiple stations in the same system where you store rarer items. Or if you need to switch to another ship but haven't yet built a station that has a shipyard.
It can depend on the location of the supply port and the construction ship. My particular locations work out well as I'm literally parked above the surface depot and can do a round trip from the carrier and back in less than 5 minutes, and same for dropping off too. But I can totally understand why that might not sound appealing and the one pick up and drop off does sound good at this stage for me too, so even though I think it's working out as I initially found a pretty good spot, I will do some timing to be sure, if there's a system within one jump distance that can fulfill my material requirements. Though my T9 isn't equipped to deal with pirates, but it would make it worth dismantling my AX Cutter and use that instead if it works out.
Some modules are gated. Some ships are gated. Some systems are permit locked.
What activities are gated?
(Often you need the correct ship or modules to be effective, but ANY cmdr can enter these activities. No restriction)
- Entering a HAZREZ site?
- Fighting Thargoids?
- Visiting a Spire site?
- Flying around a busy CG in Open?
- Traveling to Beagle Point?
- Engaging in PowerPlay
- Traveling to a Planetary settlement, regardless of danger. (obviously need Odyssey for some).
- Community Goals
There might be some activities that have gated entry, but I can't quickly think of any.There must be some. But generally not.
Edit:
It is an obvious design choice that the game allows players to make bad choices.
So yes, someone that does not have the means can make a system claim and try to build a huge Artemis space station. And fail.
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It actually would be kind of expensive but they give you a refund when you hand your materials into the colony structure being developed lol
Before they made it any more expensive however I would think that they need to first be more profitable. My first paycheck was only like 4,400 credits. I think, for having had a tier 3 Coriolis, and having just completed my agricultural settlement, it should have been more profitable based on the starport alone. Since then, I've built three other settlements. I'm not expecting the paycheck to be much more than 50K, which is laughable compared to fleet carrier maintenance costs. I was hoping for an income that would help offset that.
If they work on the income aspect, they can help make settling the single system a little bit more of an evolved and detailed process. They could do this by making it so that you first have to build tier 1 settlements then wait for the returns in order to save up for tier 2 settlements. Once you've constructed tier two settlements you wait for those settlements to generate their income put those credits towards upgrading them to tier 3 status etc.
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And the freedom to make bad choices without too hard consequences is probably the best game design and makes Elite so enjoyable!