David Braben Powerplay AMA General Discussion - Qs & As in one place

Surly_Badger · Apr 25, 2015

snotface said:
It was a shame that he did not reply to the question about what his plans are to deal with cheats. I can only take this as they are not interested in people cheating,

Why would you make such an absurd assumption?
Maybe he was answering questions he thought were more interesting, particularly focused on PP.

Also, since FD's TOS says "no cheating" obviously, they're interested in cheating; they also close cheats when they can, in upgrades. Want to bet the beacon cheat gets fixed in 1.3? I've got a couple tons of palladium that says it will.

Tl;dr: oh, calm down.

excalibus · Apr 25, 2015

Thanks for the Q&A, I hope we get to participate in more of these in the future

Hellhawk666 · Apr 25, 2015

Thanks for collating the answers into one thread, Edward - it's a big help. Also thanks to David Braben for doing the AMA session. This kind of engagement with the community is much appreciated.

It would be great if David, Michael and Sandro could take some time from their busy schedules to produce regular progress & development videos, like we used to get. That sort of direct communication is worth a dozen forum threads. Would it be possible for the weekly newsletter to contain something like this? It probably seems like unnecessary fluff that just takes time to do to you guys, but you might be surprised what a positive effect it would have on the player community.

Anyway, just a thought - thanks again for the answer session amd for making this the great game it is.

Jack Luminous · Apr 25, 2015

Many thanks to David for taking the time to answer our questions! Also,

Hellhawk666 said:
It would be great if David, Michael and Sandro could take some time from their busy schedules to produce regular progress & development videos, like we used to get. That sort of direct communication is worth a dozen forum threads. Would it be possible for the weekly newsletter to contain something like this? It probably seems like unnecessary fluff that just takes time to do to you guys, but you might be surprised what a positive effect it would have on the player community.

...this would be amazing to have! I still remember the KS dev update videos fondly, especially the early one with David talking about procedural generation while a beautiful cloudy planet sky was shown moving in the background...

Patrick_68000 · Apr 25, 2015

snotface said:
It was a shame that he did not reply to the question about what his plans are to deal with cheats. I can only take this as they are not interested in people cheating,

He prefers to keep his plans for the secret. Why to give the informations to the cheats ?

CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE · Apr 25, 2015

snotface said:
It was a shame that he did not reply to the question about what his plans are to deal with cheats. I can only take this as they are not interested in people cheating,

Ed Lewis commented on this:

Originally Posted by Dbrn47

Now here is a good cause for concern. What is FDev going to do about the clear and blatant cheating? It's not enough to punish, we need prevention measures of some kind too.

EL:

We're working on this. It's definitely a priority for the team, although cheating isn't quite as rife as some reports/posts might suggest.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=139946&page=2&p=2143711#post2143711

OillyRag · Apr 25, 2015

just wanted to add my thoughts here,

for me the whole AMA felt like they had rolled out a forgetful older gentleman who doesn't really remember much but everyone loves.
"How do you pronounce patreus grandad" chuckle chuckle isn't that great.

hopefully we'll get an actually informative AMA from Michael one day

Tuub t Tute · Apr 25, 2015

woodstok said:
just wanted to add my thoughts here,

for me the whole AMA felt like they had rolled out a forgetful older gentleman who doesn't really remember much but everyone loves.
"How do you pronounce patreus grandad" chuckle chuckle isn't that great.

hopefully we'll get an actually informative AMA from Michael one day

Ask me anything doesn't mean "I will answer every question"

Of course he is going to cherry-pick and give a mix of teasers, good soundbites and only occasional substantive answers.
The fact that he confirmed the Empire rank requirement for the Courier and that it was multi-role was a huge Easter Egg, I thought! I expect Empire space to be flooded with unranked CMDRs now, all flooding tot he boards to ask the same questions about gaining Naval Ranks

Anopheles · Apr 25, 2015

Tuub t Tute said:
Ask me anything doesn't mean "I will answer every question" Of course he is going to cherry-pick and give a mix of teasers, good soundbites and only occasional substantive answers.
The fact that he confirmed the Empire rank requirement for the Courier and that it was multi-role was a huge Easter Egg, I thought! I expect Empire space to be flooded with unranked CMDRs now, all flooding tot he boards to ask the same questions about gaining Naval Ranks

Have we got to the stage where we are only to expect only occasional substantive answers? What's wrong with getting complete substantive answers?

Tuub t Tute · Apr 25, 2015

Anopheles said:
Have we got to the stage where we are only to expect only occasional substantive answers? What's wrong with getting complete substantive answers?

Yup, all hope is now lost, etc... What you choose to expect is entirely your own decision

If I was DBOBE I would not give answers to any questions that I thought were not beneficial to either the product, the development process, or the community. As can easily be recognised, I am not in fact DBOBE, so the point is moot.

CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE · Apr 25, 2015

woodstok said:
for me the whole AMA felt like they had rolled out a forgetful older gentleman who doesn't really remember much but everyone loves.
"How do you pronounce patreus grandad" chuckle chuckle isn't that great.

Cruel but funny

I guess it comes down to expectations - he gave more details than I expected on a few things but I bet that Michael and maybe Ed and the PR guy were sitting right beside him, like a president getting prompts from his aides LOL.

Stonecoldamason · Apr 25, 2015

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...[/QUOTE]

In this case then, vote of no confidence in the PM Mahon's leadership, find someone who will approve quicker...

Lunchmoney · Apr 25, 2015

The Alliance doesnt have it own ships yet? Was it not an Alliance shipyard that gave us Turner's Quest class ship?

Stonecoldamason said:
vote of no confidence in the PM Mahon's leadership, find someone who will approve quicker...&#55357;&#56833;

Down that route, leads to the dark side, so it does...
[video=youtube;ptFhhz5Lrqk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptFhhz5Lrqk[/video]

Shanaeri · Apr 25, 2015

Some tantalising answers here xD, although using BARONESS Thatcher as an example of a female using a male title isn't probably the best example

Dagless · Apr 25, 2015

David Braben said:
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.

This sounds like all powers are actively hostile to all other factions.

Does that mean no sneaky politics- such as alliances, temporary truces, covert support or backstabbing between them?

That would seem a shame.

Ghost1 · Apr 25, 2015

so glad to see new weapons coming. That was my real big complaint about this game was lack of interesting weapons technology to obtained or found. I'd like to see more unique load outs for ships and players

Jorlin · Apr 25, 2015

Ghost1 said:
so glad to see new weapons coming. That was my real big complaint about this game was lack of interesting weapons technology to obtained or found. I'd like to see more unique load outs for ships and players

as long as you don't have to form a raid or wing to get the "epics".... fine

Ghost1 · Apr 25, 2015

Jorlin said:
as long as you don't have to form a raid or wing to get the "epics".... fine

agree'd and i hope they add in more missile types as well, no body uses missiles

Stonecoldamason · Apr 26, 2015

Lunchmoney said:
The Alliance doesnt have it own ships yet? Was it not an Alliance shipyard that gave us Turner's Quest class ship?

Down that route, leads to the dark side, so it does...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptFhhz5Lrqk

Its funny Lunchmoney, I was thinking about the film and that quote when a I wrote it. Perhaps as I'm an imperial, I'm trying to undermine the Alliance government into spreading themselves to thin, by concentrating their efforts on ship construction rather than resolving their own internal issues, therefore misdirecting any efforts to thwart the Empires rise to glorious overall power in the galaxy. Lol.

cmujitha · Apr 26, 2015

thank you very much