Elite Dangerous | System Colonisation Beta Details & Feedback

[MrFlokiG]

Seriously, Frontier?


This is the second time now.


Our squadron has been pushing out over 400 light years from the bubble, building stations, expanding colonization chains, working together every single day—the way Trailblazer content was meant to be experienced.


And yet again, after all that effort, after constructing two installations, coordinating logistics, and investing real time and passion into expanding into a specific system…


We were sniped.
By another invisible rat hiding in Solo Mode.


No interaction. No warning. No fight.
Just some ghost player exploiting your broken shared-mode mechanics and undermining the entire point of building and colonizing systems together.


You’re pushing colonization like it’s a new frontier for player-driven storytelling, and we believed in it. We made plans. We brought friends. We built infrastructure in deep space.


But your refusal to restrict Solo Mode’s influence on the BGS and colonization has made all of that completely meaningless.


At this point, this isn’t “inclusive gameplay design”—this is pure, unchecked griefing through exploits.


You have handed tools to exploiters and left squadrons like ours to suffer the consequences. What kind of “multiplayer experience” is this?


Fix this.
Before you lose even more of your community.
We are not going to build another 400 LY route just so another Solo Mode ghost can swoop in and undo it all.


– A betrayed commander, twice burned, representing dozens of disillusioned players.

 

[Greasetrap42]

Some rat in Solo Mode was lurking and waiting for the moment to snipe the system from us at the last second.

Or maybe some player that saw a nice system that was available?

I don't know the details of what happened, but if you are in a group with a particular system in mind, do you not have resources available to quickly slap in the last 50% of an outpost so you can claim the next system? Or are we talking about a sneaky solo sniper that actually grabbed two systems in a row that you weren't able to keep up with? /s

Edit: Maybe learn from your mistakes and figure out some strategy of your own.

Regardless, I take exception to calling fellow random players that you don't know 'rats'.

 

[kosnett]

Apologies if this has been asked already, but is there any logic to the order of commodities in the list for your FC when you look at the inventory transfer in your own ship when docked with it?
It would save a bit of my sanity playing colonization if it would sort alphabetically instead of apparently at random.

 

[MrFlokiG]

Or maybe some player that saw a nice system that was available?

I don't know the details of what happened, but if you are in a group with a particular system in mind, do you not have resources available to quickly slap in the last 50% of an outpost so you can claim the next system? Or are we talking about a sneaky solo sniper that actually a system two systems in a row that you weren't able to keep up with? /s

Regardless, I take exception to calling fellow random players that you don't know 'rats'.

he immediately applied as soon as we finished the system to apply from. He sat in solo mode and waited for the station to appear

 

[MrFlokiG]

First it's two stations and now it's 400 light years. Which is it? Can I ask, what makes that system belong to you?

We traveled 400 light years to build our own bubble. To colonize the said system, we had to build 2 intermediate systems. And when we finished the last one, he immediately applied for the system we were going to.

 

[Greasetrap42]

he immediately applied as soon as we finished the system to apply from. He sat in solo mode and waited for the station to appear

While entirely possible it seems unlikely that some random player that did not know your playing schedule waited around (possibly for hours,days? eyes glued to their computer screen) until the final second your new colony stn was completed and zipped in faster than you to the colony contact and reserved the next station that you were aiming for?

So you think if you had waited an hour, or two hours, or 48 hours, that person would have been sitting at their computer lying in wait? While possible, just doesn't sound likely.

 

[Maolagin]

We traveled 400 light years to build our own bubble. To colonize the said system, we had to build 2 intermediate systems. And when we finished the last one, he immediately applied for the system we were going to.

This sniper, did you consider booting them from your group chat after the first time? After all there's millions of systems within 400 LY of the bubble, how did they know which one your group was building towards?

 

[MrFlokiG]

and this situation has happened to us twice already! And we were not even saved by the fact that the person who was supposed to submit the application was standing near the place where the station was supposed to appear and waiting for the dock. After all, here you will also be met by a "great gameplay solution" from Frontier - a random for the occupancy docking by NPC!!!

 

[MrFlokiG]

This sniper, did you consider booting them from your group chat after the first time? After all there's millions of systems within 400 LY of the bubble, how did they know which one your group was building towards?

I repeat, we are building our own bubble which is 400 light years away and within our bubble was this system which we wanted to take. We were continuously building towards it today, but some rat sat us down in solo mode and took it away. And this rat is not in our discord.

The universe is a big place, you can find another spot. I know it stinks to put in effort, but the system doesn't belong to you. Be prepared for it next time If you're on my side of the bubble maybe I can help you find a new spot and help haul.

This is a stupid exploit that is practically impossible to defend against. I'm not going to search for and build a path to an analog system again because some rat set me up.

 

[MrFlokiG]

While entirely possible it seems unlikely that some random player that did not know your playing schedule waited around (possibly for hours,days? eyes glued to their computer screen) until the final second your new colony stn was completed and zipped in faster than you to the colony contact and reserved the next station that you were aiming for?

So you think if you had waited an hour, or two hours, or 48 hours, that person would have been sitting at their computer lying in wait? While possible, just doesn't sound likely.

through the map you can see if the station is currently being built or not. We are building using carriers and he could also put bookmarks on our carriers and track their movement. There are many options to catch us, but there are no options to catch him in solo mode

 

[MrFlokiG]

Why does that system belong to you? Explain it to me like I'm another player in the video game, because I am.

EDIT: For clarity, all you've done is explain what this person did. You have not explained why you deserve it.

Are you really like that or are you pretending? We built a path from two completely uninteresting systems on our own, dumped resources there with our carriers, and this guy you're defending just caught us sitting around in the place where the station was supposed to appear and was lucky that he didn't have an NPC on the dock. Do you consider this to be equivalent to the efforts invested in colonizing the target system?

 

[Darrack]

We traveled 400 light years to build our own bubble. To colonize the said system, we had to build 2 intermediate systems. And when we finished the last one, he immediately applied for the system we were going to.

Nobody has a right to any system, it is what it is and to say 'hiding in solo' is utter rubbish, they could have been in a PG working with their group like i do or even a deferent time zone.

O7

 

[GKhan]

This is not "shared gameplay." This is an illusion.
You're trying to sell us the idea of a living, breathing galaxy while simultaneously allowing this kind of solo-mode abuse to ruin everything meaningful in player-driven efforts.

So what happened was, another player used your outpost / station to colonize the system you were aiming to colonize next?

 

[MrFlokiG]

Nobody has a right to any system, it is what it is and to say 'hiding in solo' is utter rubbish, they could have been in a PG working with their group like i do or even a deferent time zone.

O7

No more than 5 minutes have passed since the system was completed and their application was submitted. What are you writing about here? If you play solo modes in your solo game, then you absolutely do not understand my remarks as a person who plays a multiplayer game with a squadron.

 

[MrFlokiG]

You're not listening. This is a video game. It is developed by software developers. I am such a developer. These systems have to have defined parameters. In CONCRETE TERMS, why are you owned this system? Not in vague speech. In very discrete terms, what process does a player have to take before they are "owed" a system and no one else can touch it?

I'm not going to respond further as you seem extremely upset and unable to use necessary speech to explain your situation. Think of it like a law in real life. Laws cannot be vague. They have to be extremely explicit. You seem to want Frontier to change something, but you have not been explicit enough to either describe why you are owed this system, nor what constitutes exclusive rights to it. As I asked before, does two chained systems constitute exclusive rights? What happens when you make one outpost and someone else makes one right next to yours, does this reset the two outpost counter? Does this exclusive radius scale with the number of chained systems? How would detection work in a 3 dimensional space?

What you are asking for, exclusive rights to a system, would need to be extremely well fleshed out with every possible outcome covered. This is on top of justifying it to the community. I don't know what else to say. Raging because you didn't get something you wanted isn't productive.

The problem lies in the stupid mechanism of combining solo and open game modes. This is what creates this exploit. If the open mode were a separate gameplay, I could protect myself from applying for the necessary system by removing the player patrol at the station. But in this implementation of the game, this is impossible.

So what happened was, another player used your outpost / station to colonize the system you were aiming to colonize next?

He was standing in solo mode at the place where the first station in the system was supposed to appear. Our squadron representative was also standing at this place and they did not see each other. When a station appears, you can get a landing ban, because the NPC is already boarding there. And for someone, this NPC may not appear. And thus this person can get ahead of you in the application because he will dock faster. Which is what happened. That is, if you find a cool system and build a path, then any person who catches you when the final station appears and does not catch the NPC on the dock can take this system from you. This way, you will do the work for him, and he will just drink tea and watch how you work building the necessary systems.

 

[MrFlokiG]

So if we had open only and he showed up with more people than you did, and killed all of you and took the system anyways, you would be ok with that? You seem to be completely unable to see this from any other perspective other than your own.

If he had won this right in a fight like you described, it would have been fair and I would have no complaints about that.

 

[GKhan]

He was standing in solo mode at the place where the first station in the system was supposed to appear. Our squadron representative was also standing at this place and they did not see each other. When a station appears, you can get a landing ban, because the NPC is already boarding there. And for someone, this NPC may not appear. And thus this person can get ahead of you in the application because he will dock faster. Which is what happened. That is, if you find a cool system and build a path, then any person who catches you when the final station appears and does not catch the NPC on the dock can take this system from you. This way, you will do the work for him, and he will just drink tea and watch how you work building the necessary systems.

This sounds fair though. The other player was just quicker. If the player is in solo mode, maybe your group could befriend them and share the system as a group? I know that solution isnt ideal, but it could be that they were just excited to get into an awesome system that was about to come into reach. Regardless of the hows and whys, its over now and you'll just have to be the quicker ones the next time. I totally understand your frustration here though! I do hope things work out for you all and fly safe! 07

 

[MrFlokiG]

This sounds fair though. The other player was just quicker. If the player is in solo mode, maybe your group could befriend them and share the system as a group? I know that solution isnt ideal, but it could be that they were just excited to get into an awesome system that was about to come into reach. Regardless of the hows and whys, its over now and you'll just have to be the quicker ones the next time. I totally understand your frustration here though! I do hope things work out for you all and fly safe! 07

Faster at what? That he didn't have an NPC blocking the docking option? What's his skill here? Luck? So, are we playing slots or a MULTIPLAYER space game? Or true skill be a solo game where you can't be caught and prevented from doing such actions?

 

[Greasetrap42]

through the map you can see if the station is currently being built or not. We are building using carriers and he could also put bookmarks on our carriers and track their movement. There are many options to catch us, but there are no options to catch him in solo mode

Certainly through the System Map anybody can see that a stn is being built and fleet carriers are in the system. Regardless of whether YOU are online or not. And if this person is in solo mode, I don't believe there is any way they can know you are online. And even if they can tell(?) they can't tell if you are actively building or AFK for the next 6 hours. This sniper would need to sit at their computer waiting for the exact correct moment.

The problem lies in the stupid mechanism of combining solo and open game modes.

I am not understanding what Solo or Open mode has to do with this at all. Are you saying that in addition to building your stn in Open you are gonna be patrolling and basically ganking anybody that happen to be passing through?

 

[aRJay]

he immediately applied as soon as we finished the system to apply from. He sat in solo mode and waited for the station to appear

So they were in Solo because you didn’t see them?
Not in Open but in a different instance because they were playing from somewhere else?

Still it could have been worse at least we don’t own colonies.