Elite Dangerous | System Colonisation Beta Details & Feedback

[Cmdr Larssenn]

The working theory on how you get a refinery is to have a colony- style outpost/ coriolis/ orbis in orbit of a body that has surface sites... you then put some refinery hubs down on the surface and it influences the orbiting facilty to get a refinery economy.

Edit: on outposts... it's important to note if what you're building has "facilty economy" or "system economy influence". Outposts just have a facility economy, so that's only on them. They may be influenced by hubs, but i need to test that more.

Hm, the working theory looks fine, but what happens if I also put an extraction site next to the refinery hub? Will the orbital / surface port economy be refinery or extraction?


For outposts, that may not be the case. After putting an asteroid port as primary, I deployed a research outpost, and my system economy went from extraction to extraction hi-tech. Sadly, I am not able to check the goods in my primary port after Thursday update, since the medical installation that I built later is blocking my asteroid base entrance

 

[Xenia_K]

... since the medical installation that I built later is blocking my asteroid base entrance

on mine the Astros float inside Docking Bay

 

[Cmdr Larssenn]

my theory looks like this
View attachment 421865

every body/singular Space-slot forms a micro-economy, are they grouped together they form a local eco, these grouped result in a regional economy and all together define the Systems economy - but thats a theory which still has to be proven (or negated) so far.
and depending on where you put a port thats whats defines your market. Market strenght would depend on the no of facilities supporting it....

Thanks Commander, indeed that looks very nice. I was also thinking like yours on regional markets, but I really liked the localmarket idea. If I place a port in a "local orbit", it can only benefit from the local market. If port is placed in a "regional orbit", then it can sell all in that region.

But still some things arent clear yet. I am also assuming that if I place a port in a regionalmarket, will the economy be influenced by all, or by the number of maximum installation influences ? Ie. if we have 1 mine and 2 agriculture in the region, it is fine. But what happens if region has just 1 agriculture and 1 refinery? it will be an agriculture port selling insulation membranes also?

Another point; what will be the economy of a port that is placed in only the sun's orbit, I mean the locations which doesnt have a planet, asteroid ring or a gas giant like the leftmost points in your map next to the sun? Will its market name be the maximum ratio of all economies? Of course one would assume such a port will sell all kinds of goods produced in the region. (Though I would assume, the goods sold at "system market" will have a lower amount of goods then the amount of goods found in regional ports, or else why would people dock regional ports?)

 

[Xenia_K]

yep, that are the questions we have to figure out by experimenting.....

edit: one can spin that thought even further -

lets say I have a regional Market A 3 Slot 1 Coriolis, on A 3 a three mining installtions, on A 3 b and A 3 c each three Industrial installtions,
the Coriolis Market should be a mixed Industry/Extraction Typ.

If I am not happy with the goods distribution (Markets seem to have a limited no of slots for goods) - will putting an commercial outpost in the Orbit Slot of A 3 a create a local Extraction Market and thus change the economy of the Coriolis to Industrial with a broader spectrum of Industrial goods?

 

[DazeDreamer]

@Paul_Crowther Hello there I have been having a little issue on my carrier, I have thief aboard, materials for building my outpost keep being stolen. I noticed this yesterday but put it down to bad memory and age when I was off loading at colonisation ship. Today so far have had two loads taken one of Titanium and one of Steel, at one point it had duplicate items of steel both showing 792 (Cutters Carrying Capacity). When I returned from the surface one had disappeared and I was back to 792 only. It's gonna make this building process a bit harder if my materials keep disappearing, interrogations are underway but no one has admitted to the heinous crime as of yet, I am however considering the use of rabid gerbil's to encourage the perpetrator to come forward

 

[Rock Hunter]

Thanks Commander, indeed that looks very nice. I was also thinking like yours on regional markets, but I really liked the localmarket idea. If I place a port in a "local orbit", it can only benefit from the local market. If port is placed in a "regional orbit", then it can sell all in that region.

But still some things arent clear yet. I am also assuming that if I place a port in a regionalmarket, will the economy be influenced by all, or by the number of maximum installation influences ? Ie. if we have 1 mine and 2 agriculture in the region, it is fine. But what happens if region has just 1 agriculture and 1 refinery? it will be an agriculture port selling insulation membranes also?

Another point; what will be the economy of a port that is placed in only the sun's orbit, I mean the locations which doesnt have a planet, asteroid ring or a gas giant like the leftmost points in your map next to the sun? Will its market name be the maximum ratio of all economies? Of course one would assume such a port will sell all kinds of goods produced in the region. (Though I would assume, the goods sold at "system market" will have a lower amount of goods then the amount of goods found in regional ports, or else why would people dock regional ports?)

Currently the answer to that, judging just by my own experience, is just Colony. I’m trying to boost the system economy towards High Tech using orbital installations and research ports around the star to see if that will have enough influence to make a change. The nearest planet is 500ls away and it appears that it doesn’t currently have enough influence from the things I’ve built on it to affect the Coriolis - I went too early with the Coriolis and thought ‘who doesn’t like a shipyard nice and close to the drop in point.’

My Coriolis is currently called Mournful Hollow as it seems quite apt for those people stuck there.

 

[Neestar]

Renting (not owning) a fleet carrier,

i always see people saying that ^ but i never really understand why people say that, because when i check Nav-panel-1 listings and click on any FC ingame , it literally says "OWNER: player X" .
So why then do people on these forums always try to use ( strawman ) that argument of supposedly "renting" our carriers? Is it just because of the whole non-familiar non-acknowledgement spatial chatter from FC lander/operator voice not being coded to recognize you as owner ( or at least as Captain-at-the-helm ) of your own purchased FC ?

Not Elite Dangerous, just the Colonization mechanics. Yes, that's right. That's SimCity in a simplified form.

Yeah i also sorta tried to suggest ( imply ) that type of 'SimEliteD' possibility earlier in this thread--> https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...-claims-unpaused.635153/page-15#post-10575958 but to no avail. ( not like it matters anyway, since Colonisation feature is essentially "finished" already and this is merely stress-tests, bug-fixes, number-tweaks, etc. )
The irony is, the very fact that i love this game so much ( pure sandbox greatness ) is also the very reason i want/wish for it to implement even more! ( so much potential )

Been getting some missions to new systems. Also managed to do a Powerplay assignment in one of them!

Pretty cool

i suppose that is pretty cool if players are now able to "expand" their personal play area & everything. That is, assuming there's something cool & significant out there in space to expand toward. ( other than RNG + redundancy )
Because yeah i still just don't see what the greater purpose of it all is yet, as in for actually expanding NEW content & story arc of the game. But i guess no one but FDev knows this answer. And perhaps once this open-BETA phase is completed ( aka "soon" --> https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...ilblazers-update-2-wednesday-march-19.635362/ ??? ) then hopefully the GalNet breadcrumbs will begin to drop...

 

[Zador]

i always see people saying that ^ but i never really understand why people say that, because when i check Nav-panel-1 listings and click on any FC ingame , it literally says "OWNER: player X" .

In the sense that if you stop paying the upkeep, you lose it.

 

[Xenia_K]

In the sense that if you stop paying the upkeep, you lose it.

well, if you are a company owner and do not pay your employees and maintenance contractors you get bankrupt and loose your company as well. so thats not valid argument

 

[Phill P]

For all those that said T3's could not be done solo...
View attachment 421854
I have done the "impossible" to 99.7% accuracy. I DO NOT own a fleet carrier. My options were to truck all that cargo 60k ls away from the sun to the primary port at the edge of the bubble. It is doable, a massive undertaking as a single person, but non the less doable with the current sim. I had 1w 1d 18h and 37min left to complete it. Therefor I completed it in less than 3 weeks.


Now what isnt shown is the hauling burnout was strong. That was 364 trips in a T9 with a size of 744. Each time at 60k ls.
To achieve it. I was spending all my available free time, and then some, on just trucking to make that happen. That meant coming home from work, doing minimal chores or traveling, and focusing on just trucking alone with Crunchyroll on the other monitor to help the sanity.

Again. It is not ideal for everyone. Only take the task that you can allocate proper time. I went big during the gold rush an hour after the first colonization launch and paid for it. I initially didnt know what i signed up for but with the system I claimed, I was not gonna back down. My stubbornness and determination (and very supportive wife that understands hyper focusing a goal) is what got me here.

Im gonna finally go rest now. Fly safe everyone O7

Congratulations, doing it solo is no mean feat.

 

[Phill P]

Uhm, you do know you are discussing with someone that thinks credits have value? Someone that thinks 500 million or a billion is a lot. That a billion credits for an Orbis is a meaningful purchase. That doesn't understand that piddly credits for colonization would render the update useless. As I said much earlier, there is no reasonable basis for discussion.

Agreed. Grinding money to buy installations will merely take over from grinding commodities, which is even worse. Getting all those small amounts of commodities is what I find most annoying about the hauling but at least they provide more variety than mere credits.

 

[Phill P]

Explanation. Let's say, 20% of players like targoid war. If there will be nothing in ED, except targoids - rest 80% of pilots will leave shortly. And 100% of forum members will tell you, that ED is about targoid war. Those 100% of players - are just 20% of all interested in space games, but they will dominate on forum, explaining that ED needs nothing but targoids. The same I see here for hauling. Some players state that colonization needs only hauling, it's the way they prefer to play it. Currently here only 20% of hauling lovers, but if the colonization mechanics will not be fixed, 100% of trailblazers will be sure that the right way of being an architector - is to be a space trucker. Rest of ED pilots will not use colonization at all, it will be a dead feature. Like we have a dead features related to blackmarket or caravan robbery, trading using fleet carriers, etc.

Well, sort of. The Thargoids have been the antagonists since 1984 but so has the Cobra Mk III but I wouldn't say the game is all about Thargoids any more than it's all about the Cobra MK III. They are icons in the game but not the only things that define the game or its galaxy.

Powerplay has no interest for me. We are a rescue squadron, neutral, it's like asking the Fire Brigade or Paramedics to take sides, the service is for anyone who needs it not just people with the right shirt on. Nor do I wish to be shot at rescuing in some other power's territory for having the wrong shirt on. Squad members can pledge to who they like but as an actual squad Powerplay has exactly nothing to offer us.

I would like something other than just hauling to build things in colonies. Just not sure what. Missions to source and return sound good but should be balanced so they are no faster than plain hauling and complement it as an alternative or the option to do both simultaneously for small increases to the completion rate. The problem there is that all missions are tied to the faction giving them and would contribute nothing to colonisation, so when people say it would require a fundamental rewrite of how missions are given out or require special non faction missions to be added they are correct. I don't think it's insurmountable but it is a fundamental change to how missions work at the moment.

 

[CMDR_UKmouse]

@Paul_Crowther Hello there I have been having a little issue on my carrier, I have thief aboard, materials for building my outpost keep being stolen. I noticed this yesterday but put it down to bad memory and age when I was off loading at colonisation ship. Today so far have had two loads taken one of Titanium and one of Steel, at one point it had duplicate items of steel both showing 792 (Cutters Carrying Capacity). When I returned from the surface one had disappeared and I was back to 792 only. It's gonna make this building process a bit harder if my materials keep disappearing, interrogations are underway but no one has admitted to the heinous crime as of yet, I am however considering the use of rabid gerbil's to encourage the perpetrator to come forward

Have you checked that docking access is restricted to only you?

 

[pptvirus]

This is my bad, it should say "help screen" rather than tutorial to be clearer. I have now edited the post.

Paul, will this fix be added in the next update?

Edit: Sorry, I was referring to this post.

This system (Costs increasing) is an intended process. This was planned to be made clear in the System Colonisaton help screen, however thanks to feedback we have been made aware that the screen highlighting this wasn't displaying as intended on the live version of the game. We are looking to get this resolved in a future update.

 

[Mersozz]

Question: Is the 2nd orbital station regularly assigned to the 2nd faction, or is it a random assignment?

 

[Zaphod Beeblebrox IV]

I think there is a case for restricting access to the colonisation contact to the system architect in a newly built primary port to prevent snipers taking the juicy system you are aiming to colonise. From my own experience and that of others this is a thing. A player/s wait for you to complete the primary port then snipe all the juicy new systems you have opened up.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Question: Is the 2nd orbital station regularly assigned to the 2nd faction, or is it a random assignment?

Assets seem to be assigned randomly (other than the first one).
There does seem to be some weighting to current influence levels, though, so factions on higher influence get more of the new assets.

 

[disorganise]

I had a quick play with colonisation this weekend for the first time (was away during launch and then it went on pause). Some feedback;

• Make it a bit more obvious that a system is outside the claimable zone. I went looking for an unclaimed system, and knowing there was a distance limit, looked for one near to an existing colony. Ended up having to google how to start and found I had to return to a station first.....fair enough. Went to pay for my beacon and found my intended system outside the sphere of possibility. Ideally, I think instead of simply 'unclaimed' in the system map, it's colour coded/appended to indicate if claimable or not due to distance
• It may be useful to allow a 'reset the help' option. The weekend was when Elite ran out of hamsters. I was getting coloured snake errors every few minutes. The colonisation help when trying to buy the beacon was ok, but what I assume was intended to be an image on each page was completely missing. When I got back to the intended system and opened system map, I got the colonisation help pop up (again with an empty box that I assume was intended to be a pic) except I didn't realist that's what it was and I think I quit system map and re-opened. Whatever - the help was gone and it took me a bit to figure out I needed to fly to a beacon drop location
• It would be good if we get to choose the position of the first outpost. I put mine where I wanted and had to quit the game for the night. Next day, I find the construction ship is in a different location and I'm assuming that's where the base will be built as opposed to where I'd placed it
• I can't remember a long list of commodities to haul. I'm lucky I can screenshot with snipping tool and hold it on a 2nd screen, but that's not dynamic and what if I don't have a 2nd screen? Can the required commodities be noted in the commodities market like they are for missions? (ie, a dim count of what is needed next to each of the available commodities at this market)

 

[Mersozz]

I think there is a case for restricting access to the colonisation contact to the system architect in a newly built primary port to prevent snipers taking the juicy system you are aiming to colonise. From my own experience and that of others this is a thing. A player/s wait for you to complete the primary port, or even complete it for you, then snipe all the juicy new systems you have opened up. I would suggest 72 hours as a suitable figure, my reasoning being if you haven't logged in after 3 days then you're not that interested in expanding futher.

Is it possible for someone else to complete your system? I know they can provide goods, but I assumed the system architect was the only one able to complete the process whereby a new station was created.

 

[Zaphod Beeblebrox IV]

Is it possible for someone else to complete your system? I know they can provide goods, but I assumed the system architect was the only one able to complete the process whereby a new station was created.

Oops, my bad. Yes I forgot the pop up screen asking you to confirm, so maybe just 30mins delay.