David Braben Powerplay AMA - all of David's answers in one place

[David Braben]

Evening David

Me and my father have been wondering if you guys at FD where going to add in a system orrery for in game orbits and such?
The dance of planets and seeing the revolutions of a double binary system in motion or whatever the system contains would be an amazing thing to add depth to the game and to exploring for each individual system.

Anyway thankyou for your time
Off to the black i go
I would hope most of the data is there from generating the great old milky, so implementing it hopefully would be easier....

It is still on the list...

 

[David Braben]

Hello David,
Will new characters come into the game (i.e. new senators and politicians) and to what scale?

Yes. Powers, and their associated characters will come and go. The 'go' will often be due to them dying...

 

[David Braben]

From Demonmaker:
With the new powerplay features, can you divulge who your going to stand with in the faction/powerplay fights?

They haven't been revealed yet...


 

[David Braben]

Hello M. Braben.
Thanks for the awesome game. I'm realy exited to Powerplay, and the global future of Elite.

Can you give us precision on the incoming Imperial Courier, will it be a pure Fighter ? Or Multi-role like the Cobra ?

And more personal question,

What are your opinion on Imperial Slavery ? Can a power decide to make it Illegal and have others deep changing decisions like that ?

Thanks!

The Imperial Courier is a shiny fast multi-role ship. Of course you can use it as a fighter, but it is not a specialist.

Imperial slavery is not unlike signing up to the army. You do what they say for a fixed period of time - and how acceptable this is, is very much the equivalent of the particular army you sign up to.

And yes, Powers can change what is illegal. I think Aisling Duval is trying to do this right now.

 

[David Braben]

Hi David,

Bloomin marvlous game, and i can see it just improving more and more infuture! Great stuff..!

Question: If we can declare allegiance to a Faction, and system.. Then Might we have the opportunity to Register Our 'Ships' name within that system, much liek Boats are registered to a port.

CMDR Zaphonicus Taurog in the 'Highway Star' Homeworld: Blah Blah...

<...>

Keep it going... Elite Dangerous just keeps gettign bettter!.

Thanks!

If you scan another ship, it will show the Power you are aligned to. This isn't quite the same as player bases as the Powers are regional - but it is close.

 

[David Braben]

From Philip Coutts:
Do you envisage Powerplay as a tool to raise the amount of PvP currently happening? It seems that you are giving carte blanche to attack anyone from a different faction to you, regardless if they are wanted or not. Is there not a danger that the inhabited parts of the galaxy end up as one big warzone?

The carte blanche only exists within systems controlled by your Power and only apply against ships that are aligned with a Power of a different major faction to your Power. Powers interact with each other in different ways and combat is but one of those methods. How the Power is structured geographically will also guide which areas are potential hotspots. In some case Powers could provide a safety zone within their borders by their actions.

 

[David Braben]

I'm very much a fan of how Frontier has handled gender balance in its NPC characters, but as an Imperial citizen I'm quite disappointed to be hailed as a "Lord" and then "Baron" and so on. Is there a reason why the Empire has no Lady/Baroness/Viscountess/Countess ranks, or is this fixable? (FYI, there has never been a female equivalent of an Earl, perhaps Marquis/Marquess or Duke/Duchess could be substituted?) Also, will ranks within powers avoid this issue?

You're right. This has come up before too. There is some context here, but I think it is something we want to look at down the line.

Margaret Thatcher insisted on being "Prime Minister" when she took power (ie not "Prime Mistress") and many female actors are not known as actresses at their own request. Similarly women chairmen. So there is an argument that gender-specific roles will lose their specificity over time.

 

[David Braben]

ROFL!!!

Brian

Can't imagine what you're referring to ;-)

 

[David Braben]

From Matlok:
The Empire have a couple of great ships that adds to the empirical identity. The mighty federation also have ships to call their own. I really love the Alliance, yet I feel they have been very neglected by the defs. Currently, there is no real reason to rank up in their systems, for there is no real reward. With Powerplay, will there be some content for the Alliance faction?

The Alliance is a relative newcomer on the galactic stage, but we know the Alliance is a favourite with many players.

The Federation and Empire have both had hundreds of years to evolve their traditions and identity. For the Alliance this is little different from the Independent ships already available in game. That’s not to say that an Alliance ship building project might happen in the future, along with recruitment for the Alliance Navy. The trouble is Prime Minister Mahon finds it hard to get his members to agree...