I'm starting to feel really guilty for reccomending this to my friends!!

[[VR] Mad Mike]

or it just isnt finished yet and the grouping is still being worked on.

has it been confirmed yet that the "lassoing" of the super cruise with friends has been scrapped, or are people just presuming the worst?

personally I am still expecting this to be on the way before launch, so if me and a friend fly together, if you interdict one of us, then the other is dropped out with him

not that it is a show stopper either way for me personally.... it would be nice to be in.

 

[Tyr07]

I'd like to know what the gamma phase has in store.
Alpha is usually the development stage main features are coded.
Beta is minor features and bug fixing / balance tweaking
Release candidate is final polish pass, game breaking bug fixes to make sure it's ready for release.

But what the heck does Gamma mean? That needs to be clarified. It's perfectly acceptable to have your own development cycle, but I'd like to know what this means to us.

 

[Daeron]

I'd like to know what the gamma phase has in store.
Alpha is usually the development stage main features are coded.
Beta is minor features and bug fixing / balance tweaking
Release candidate is final polish pass, game breaking bug fixes to make sure it's ready for release.

But what the heck does Gamma mean? That needs to be clarified. It's perfectly acceptable to have your own development cycle, but I'd like to know what this means to us.

It means a Christmas release, where *release* goes into the undiscovered country of profit vs. reception. You can almost call it a classical tale, by now.

 

[RobinsonUK]

When you get interdicted successfully you are loading a 'level' with your enemy ... and to support each other all your friends have to load the same level, and that does not work as expected.

That's right, and it's why you need to be able to "warp to" someone or something. That would explicitly merge you into their instance.

But then there are a load of problems with that, such as player limits and so on. It starts to become kind-of complicated.

 

[SS_KONIG]

Let's see if coming at this problem from the other end helps at all. Let's start from the bottom up and work out how you'd like to play the game, then see what barriers to that the game puts in your way. I'll need you to answer these questions (and I'm not being facetious at all, I want Frontier to be able to see how its users expect to be able to play in multiplayer and why they can't do that).

Questions:

1. Do you and your friends plan to travel together?
   • If yes, how do you envisage that working?
   • If no, how far apart do you see yourselves being? (Same system or many jumps apart?)
2. Interdiction is and always was a thing in the Elite universe. Clearly this is how a lot of fights are going to start.
   • How would you intend to call for help from your friends? (Assuming they're not travelling with you)
   • How would you expect them to be able to target you?
   • How long would you expect it to take for them to turn up to assist?
   • If your friends weren't nearby, what would you do?
3. Would you expect to be able to chat with them in-game if they're outside of the system?
   • If so, how would you expect that to work?
   • Would you expect to be able to voice chat or just text?
4. Let's assume your friends are out-of-system, some tens of Light Years away.
   • How would you expect to arrange to meet your friends?
   • How would you expect to be able to find and target them?
   • How would you expect to plot a course to meet them?
5. Finally, an open-ended question. What barriers does the game put in your way that make the game's multiplayer feel deficient to you and your friends?
   • How would you like to see those things improved?
   • If you knew those improvements were coming post-release, would you stick with the game until they come?

I will attempt to answer some of these questions quickly as i am at work & cannot give it my full attention:

1. Yes we want to move around in formation with a jump initiated by the group leader or all docked in a larger ship.
2. If friends are not travelling with each other then the ability to drop a SOS Nav Beacon so that other team members can home in on the action.
3. If friends are not close then its tough you resort to running or fighting on your own.
4. Yes you should be able to voice chat with group members no matter where they are in system (we currently are able to do this in game atm btw)
5. If a friend responds to my distress call and is say 2 jumps away maybe 12million light years then it should take 2-3 mins for them to jump to my signal.
6. The main barrier to multyplayer is that we simply cant fly from system to system together, we all jump independently which means we lose each other.
simply trying to find each other outside a space station is difficult enough but in actual space there is no hope.
7. Group members could maybe always appear in Navigation & be a jump option depending on distance.

This was just a quick brainstorm sorry.


Cheers SS_KONIG

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

Questions:


[*] Interdiction is and always was a thing in the Elite universe. Clearly this is how a lot of fights are going to start.

[*] How would you intend to call for help from your friends? (Assuming they're not travelling with you)

Friend setting. When a friend is interdicted, you get a message

[*] How would you expect them to be able to target you?

They hyperjump right next to you, if within range of their jump engine. You are the nav beacon. Can be there in 10 seconds?

[*] How long would you expect it to take for them to turn up to assist?

10 seconds ish, from call to decision, to frameshift charge and jump

[*] If your friends weren't nearby, what would you do?

You're on your own, or general distress call. Requires more comms stuff - maybe can only call to friends?


[*] Would you expect to be able to chat with them in-game if they're outside of the system?

Yes, within limits. What about local cluster chat? I know that breaks some rules of Elite, but there you go. You either dive into MMO to make it more fun or have it alone and sterile.


[*] If so, how would you expect that to work?

what about a comms unit, that can be upgraded? level 1 is same system, level 10 is 10 systems away. Maybe the systems would have hyperspace units whizzing back and forth to send comms FTL.

[*] Would you expect to be able to voice chat or just text?

voice within system, text from without.


[*] Let's assume your friends are out-of-system, some tens of Light Years away.

[*] How would you expect to arrange to meet your friends?

Some kind of nav system - you can plot a course through known systems as waypoints.

[*] How would you expect to be able to find and target them?

make your way from system to system following your waypoints

[*] How would you expect to plot a course to meet them?

galaxy map improvements - navigation from star to star pathfinding. Not hard.

Very good ideas Crook & thanks for answering those questions for me LOL have some Rep my friend

 

[xyphic]

I'll take a stab at this.

Thanks. Pretty much what I was expecting, to be honest, as those are the deficiencies as I see them. My biggest asks for this scenario are:

• General distress call.
• Easy way to find and target friends, both on the galaxy map (so we know where they are) and in supercruise. Wakes are all well and good, but unless you know which wake represents your friend, you're stuck.

Friend setting. When a friend is interdicted, you get a message

An interesting suggestion. It makes sense to have some sort of auto-call as accessing text comms in the heat of the battle isn't really feasible.

They hyperjump right next to you, if within range of their jump engine. You are the nav beacon. Can be there in 10 seconds?

I heartily disagree with this, but I understand why you would suggest it. Interdiction fights generally last for so little time that calling a friend wouldn't be particularly helpful if they don't happen to be nearby. I actually think that's fair enough, but a general distress call (change the wake into a signal source) would certainly open up a variety of gameplay.

You're on your own, or general distress call. Requires more comms stuff - maybe can only call to friends?

Call to friends would make sense. I like the general distress call more, as you might not get the help you were hoping for...

Yes, within limits. What about local cluster chat? I know that breaks some rules of Elite, but there you go. You either dive into MMO to make it more fun or have it alone and sterile.

I actually like the current chat options. Being able to text chat between systems and voice within a system feels right. The main issue I have is that it doesn't help if you're using VR gear and can't touch type. I think canned chat would be helpful here.

Some kind of nav system - you can plot a course through known systems as waypoints.

Agreed. Conspicuously absent.

make your way from system to system following your waypoints

The DDA is interesting here. The fast travel proposals talk about your drive automatically charging for the next jump if you have a sequence. This would increase the pain threshold a bit.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

1. Yes we want to move around in formation with a jump initiated by the group leader or all docked in a larger ship.
2. If friends are not travelling with each other then the ability to drop a SOS Nav Beacon so that other team members can home in on the action.
3. If friends are not close then its tough you resort to running or fighting on your own.
4. Yes you should be able to voice chat with group members no matter where they are in system (we currently are able to do this in game atm btw)
5. If a friend responds to my distress call and is say 2 jumps away maybe 12million light years then it should take 2-3 mins for them to jump to my signal.
6. The main barrier to multyplayer is that we simply cant fly from system to system together, we all jump independently which means we lose each other.
simply trying to find each other outside a space station is difficult enough but in actual space there is no hope.
7. Group members could maybe always appear in Navigation & be a jump option depending on distance.

Thanks, even a quick brainstorm shows that you have some constructive ideas on how the game can be improved. I agree with all you're saying, the biggest issues really being that we don't have navigation waypoints to quickly traverse multiple jumps, no way to select friends as a destination, and the inability to effectively travel together (though I consider the latter to be less of an issue).

 

[Bluetorch]

Distress beacon for players?

Here one idea

What if players could launch distress beacon from their ship that their friends could target like USS? Then approach it and jump into the same instance to offer assistance.
Also could be so that everyone in the same system can see the beacon so it is not risk free to use.

Atleast i think this could be kinda cool feature, not sure if it has been brought up before

 

[CaptainKremmen]

I'm going on a repping frenzy here. I can't see an idea in my head you lot haven't expressed.

 

[Tyr07]

have you considered plotting a course and flying to the same system and teaming up if you do that you should end up in the same instance? it is a persistent world so if you want to stay together one have to stick around the same systems when you play individually.

In game comms work so you can talk to each other.

I've ended up in the same instances with friends, but I have heard it isn't always the same for everyone else.

Also - What's the point besides the odd cargo trade? We can't share bounty or credits, we don't know if they will allow credit transfers, or partake in missions.

A simple feature - allowing the sharing of credits, and some way we can drop out to the same supercruise spots for a mission or something, like a kill mission would go a long way to enabling us to play with friends.

Everyone says it's a sandbox! Yeah, a sandbox with handcuffs! I can't trade with players besides jettison, I can't trade credits, I can't trade equipment, etc.

 

[CaptainKremmen]

6. The main barrier to multyplayer is that we simply cant fly from system to system together, we all jump independently which means we lose each other.
simply trying to find each other outside a space station is difficult enough but in actual space there is no hope.

Oh, one more thing. If you have a FrameShift Wake Scanner, you can target the departed ship's wake, scan it, and your own hyperdrive will spin up and take you where it went. Behind the scenes, the engine will prioritise putting you in the same instance as the targetted wake's ship... instead of just leaving it up to The Server Gods. Note that Friends List *should* do the same thing.

 

[Mavor]

While the grouping aspect is rudimentary - myself and two friends have had no problems sticking together. Its best to jump on your own voip of some kind, or you'll be doing a lot of typing. Everything is pretty manual at this point, but with coordination and communication its pretty easy to stay together.

Obviously we cant take the same missions together but then the mission system was clearly designed with a single pilot in mind - hopefully that will be updated at some point before too long. But we can fly together to trade, hunt bounties, mine and just about everything else.

One thing I want to say is this - Im just glad this HAS multiplayer - so Im not going to complain about its functionality until they've had a chance to beef it up a bit.

 

[Hexen]

"Never make excuses. Your friends don't need them and your foes won't believe them"

Although I hope MP functionality will be better soon. And since Frontier ditched singleplayer this is something I will expect in the relatively close future.

 

[foxpur]

No but it can be a big part of it. If it weren't then there would be no support for clans. Grouping in this game, both arranged and the "Hi mate, fancy doing some missions?" type encounters could be and hopefully will be a big part of this game.

To be fair, they never said there would be. That is completely the mind of the players, an assumption it was like other games.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

To be fair, they never said there would be. That is completely the mind of the players, an assumption it was like other games.

No, they said there's big emphasis on co-op. They have underlined it again and again. All their work done on networking is done for that.

It would be incredibly stupid to do this all monumental work and don't complete work on wings and more expanded comms.

Don't worry OP, it will come. I hope FD will inform us soon.

 

[Tilen]

I thought about this a bit and I kind of wish that all players (apart from those with special privileges) started in the same system. That way you'd have a "hub" area, a place to call home where you can expect people to be, where you can socialize in the vast empty. And if you'd like you can always explore to the end of the galaxy.

Now wouldn't that be great?

 

[Dr Wookie]

Just feel i need to say that i recomended this game to my best friends & my brother we have pledged or bought into the beta and spent over £400 between us, the plan was to team up & fly together.
If we got into trouble we were going to assist each other in game & be each others wing men, this is currently impossible because most fights start from being interdicted.
How the heck are we supposed to fly to each others aid?????
Where is the multiplayer functionality?
This is not a multiplayer game as far as i can see!
I'm starting to wish i had not reccomended it because i'm permenantly having to make excuses to my buddies for the poor multyplayer functionality.

Sorry if i have upset any die hards but it has to be said i'm totally gutted atm

ED might as well scrap the mmo idea & go for Solo offline if it carries on like this because its unplayable atm for co-op.

Cheers Konig

Hi Konig, as far as I understand it, the mechanism for grouping together players (I think they're called wings now) are quite separate from the friends lists that we have now, and are yet to be implemented. Hopefully that functionality will arrive soon after the first release

 

[MrReynolds]

I've told my friends to wait until January.
AND I LOVE THE GAME...............................................................

 

[Tom Cat]

To clarify... MMO doesn't mean co-op

MMOGs can enable players to cooperate and compete with each other on a large scale, and sometimes to interact meaningfully with people around the world

 

[Hugh Man]

If we got into trouble we were going to assist each other in game & be each others wing men, this is currently impossible because most fights start from being interdicted.

I'd like to add a quick idea that came to my mind regarding supercruise with friends and interdictions:

Suppose we can fly together with a friend in supercruise, both stick together and keep a sufficiently small distance to each other.
Now if the friend gets interdicted, we perhaps could get a similar UI-effect as we would get if we are the one being interdicted. Well, anything that let's us notice this.
Now we can chase our buddy just the same as if we were the interdictor. If we can keep him in our crosshair and he gets dropped into normal space, we immediately get dropped beside him and can assist. If he evades the interdiction, we both remain in supercruise. If he gets dropped but we couldn't follow him, we remain in supercruise - and maybe the other ideas (like an SOS beacon) come into play.
It could work similarly if we and our friend are the ones interdicting someone.

Such a mechanic would have group interdictions covered wouldn't it?

 

[Pille]

I'd like to know what the gamma phase has in store.
Alpha is usually the development stage main features are coded.
Beta is minor features and bug fixing / balance tweaking
Release candidate is final polish pass, game breaking bug fixes to make sure it's ready for release.

But what the heck does Gamma mean? That needs to be clarified. It's perfectly acceptable to have your own development cycle, but I'd like to know what this means to us.

Gamma means they can do whatever they want, even though the have said that it's feature complete. It means hardcore fans can continue to hope that the game will add whatever feature someone posts about that is missing, broken or only barebones. Basically it goes like this around here:
it's still alpha, wait for beta
it's still beta, wait for gamma
it's still gamma, wait for release
it's still release, wait for next update, wait for expansion, buy dlc, this is a game that's never really finished

To be fair, they never said there would be. That is completely the mind of the players, an assumption it was like other games.

Excuse me? You don't even need to watch press events or read forum posts. From the official page: