Professions in space

[Kipper]

So, to keep a new open world space sim entertaining for the longest time, you'd need as many options for 'stuff to do' as you can. I thought I'd list the obvious ones we all know about, but what else could be on offer? How would they work, and how do you balance out the professions to ensure they're all viable?

Trader - Buy low and sell high. Exploit markets.

Ferry - Transport passengers, safe system tourists or more dangerous diplomats and spies.

Black Marketeer - Buy what's legal one place, and sell where it's illegal.

Fence - Buy stolen(pirated) cargo and take a risk on moving it to where it can be sold.

Pirate - Steal cargo from other ships and trade it or fence it.

Bounty Hunter - Hunt criminals (pirates) and get a reward, also any cargo.

Asteroid Miner - Mining lasers!

Surface Miner - Deploy mining rigs, different planets have different compositions and densities of minerals.

Explorer - Get bounties for discovering new planets and systems

 

[Paden]

Military - serving under one of numerous factions with a rank structure - similar to Frontier but with more factions and more complexity. Certainly with more mission types (e.g. rescue, stealth recon, convoy protection)

Rescue team - specialist at rescuing ejected lifepods and quick response to distress calls. Maybe have some in-space repair capability.

Salvager / Boarding team - recovery of abandoned ships and hulks (mixture of user abandoned ships and developer 'inserted' ones.

 

[Paden]

Oh, and I'd love to see an initial choice of profession (which can be changed at any later point) affect your start location, ship and faction (maybe starting faction is a different choice too). Would be a cool touch to spread initial users out and give a more unique feel to the game.

 

[archamedes]

I assume that the new version will have a much updated version of the bulliten boards or be able to be interactive with other playable characters while docked. That said the one thing that I found really rewarding was when you did the computers/robots to sol from barnards star run and every now and again there would be a private customer who would pay over the market price for them. Those trips really made my day.

That said freelance contractor like han solo would be great, however most of what he does is already listed

 

[Paden]

Commercial convoy patrol specialist - this idea has already been suggested in other threads / Mr. Braben himself - friends or guns for hire in fighters protecting freighters with expensive cargo in risky systems

 

[Paden]

Colonist - don't know how this could be controlled in multiplayer - might get out of hand. But if we could set up colonies (at a high cost), then you could run specific supply trips to resource the various commodities and equipment needed for the colony to survive. Maybe colonies could only be set up with a very limited number of expensive permits.

 

[Sav112]

I take it the game will still run on credits, what is to say a system could not be in place that you could travel without your ship having sold it. Make ships second hand value rocket the further out into space you go. I’d still have everyone start in the one system even the same space stations and let the players expand themselves out into space. If you wanted to travel a long distance and did not want to actually pilot yourself there why not have a colony transport that takes you there when your offline. When you arrive you’ve got the credits to buy a ship and start in a new patch of space that maybe just maybe has left behind a few Human players that were after you!

This would have to be Ai as no one is going to trust there life to anyone.

I also think there should be a in game counter of time alive and this would run when you were on a transport but off when you were just offline not playing. Be interesting meeting players that have kept the one life in play the most, plus it just adds value to the life and option you''d take. Instant spawn you'd take high risks but would you with your three month alive in game character?

 

[Alien]

Terrorformer

You buy some terrorforming machines and find a nice barren rock somewhere.
Place the terrforming machines, each needs to be a certain distance from each other to work to maximum efficiency. if you only have a few you have to keep moving them around the planet to terrorform it all, or you buy lots and place them all at once.

The process to terrorform a barren rock into a liveable planet should take quite some time, say months in game time, but when finished, you can sell the planet to a faction (say Imperial or Federation or Alliance to use the FFE factions) for a huge profit.

 

[Paden]

Like Sav112's colony transport idea, and maybe it's another way of giving wider options for start points too.

 

[Aewarin Jameson]

Oh, and I'd love to see an initial choice of profession (which can be changed at any later point) affect your start location, ship and faction (maybe starting faction is a different choice too). Would be a cool touch to spread initial users out and give a more unique feel to the game.

Another suggestion regarding professions - Instead of having rigid roles have characteristics that your player has that move and drift over time depending upon how you play. The profession you chose at the start sets these characteristics and the more you "do" something in-game the better you become at it. As you improve in one area perhaps another area could decrease.

If you always fly around in a fighter ship then your combat skills improve but your navigation skills weaken. If you then start to fly around in a hauler over time your navigation skills improve but your combat skills weaken. Similar for the other activities - each should improve and weaken something at the same time.

The in game mechanics and quests could also adjust to your current skill level - If you're a trader and accept a kill mission then that should be much harder for you to accomplish than it would be for a seasoned combat pilot. Likewise for a transport mission with a combat pilot - perhaps they can't jump as far across the galaxy per hop or each jump takes longer; or their ship is more prone to failure; etc.

I am not suggesting a character "level" or even skill points but some characteristic of you that adjusts as you play - maybe hidden; maybe visible.

ETA: An example of what I mean can be seen here : PPS (Substitute the personality types for role characteristics and hopefully you get the idea)

 

[Geraldine]

Mmmmm, there was a poll someplace about professions, lets see if I can locate it........

Aha! Here it is http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1759

 

[Bounder]

Another suggestion regarding professions - Instead of having rigid roles have characteristics that your player has that move and drift over time depending upon how you play. The profession you chose at the start sets these characteristics and the more you "do" something in-game the better you become at it. As you improve in one area perhaps another area could decrease.

If you always fly around in a fighter ship then your combat skills improve but your navigation skills weaken. If you then start to fly around in a hauler over time your navigation skills improve but your combat skills weaken. Similar for the other activities - each should improve and weaken something at the same time.

The in game mechanics and quests could also adjust to your current skill level - If you're a trader and accept a kill mission then that should be much harder for you to accomplish than it would be for a seasoned combat pilot. Likewise for a transport mission with a combat pilot - perhaps they can't jump as far across the galaxy per hop or each jump takes longer; or their ship is more prone to failure; etc.

I am not suggesting a character "level" or even skill points but some characteristic of you that adjusts as you play - maybe hidden; maybe visible.

ETA: An example of what I mean can be seen here : PPS (Substitute the personality types for role characteristics and hopefully you get the idea)

Keep thinking 'em up, but this particular one i don't like - it's you that acquires skills, not your avatar. Games using this system are just condescending and annoying - Fallout3 for instance applies it to aiming the sniper rifle - the sights wobble less the more experience points you gain, as if that's fun or realistic, or even logical; it'd be more understandable if tasks become more difficult as you gain skill... for instance dogfighting skills are a steep enough learning curve in their own right; handicapping learners is just backwards.

At the other extreme is auto-aiming, and i hate that too! Such systems frustrate and deny players' attempts at skills development.

 

[Jokester]

Keep thinking 'em up, but this particular one i don't like - it's you that acquires skills, not your avatar. Games using this system are just condescending and annoying - Fallout3 for instance applies it to aiming the sniper rifle - the sights wobble less the more experience points you gain, as if that's fun or realistic, or even logical; it'd be more understandable if tasks become more difficult as you gain skill... for instance dogfighting skills are a steep enough learning curve in their own right; handicapping learners is just backwards.

At the other extreme is auto-aiming, and i hate that too! Such systems frustrate and deny players' attempts at skills development.

Can't really argue with that from the point of view of Elite. It would be a major departure from what's gone before to go down the route of leveling/skilling up to improve yourself. From the point of view of what is essentially a space piloting simulator the only thing that should impact your own performance is your own performance.

 

[Styggron]

I LOVE all those ideas !

I especially loved Alien's "Terrorform (sic)" pun on the word Terraform.

Would be good to have Terraforming equipment on a ship. Fantastic.

 

[DraQ]

Assassin - not just when target is flying on a ship, but also when in particular part of a spacestation or on planetary surface.

Scientific contractor - deploy or retrieve equipment/samples, get near some phenomena and so on. Can be in orbit, planetary atmosphere, surface or even near star.

Xenoarcheologist... of sorts - find alien derelicts or ruins, explore for interesting and potentially useful or lucrative stuff.

Keep thinking 'em up, but this particular one i don't like - it's you that acquires skills, not your avatar. Games using this system are just condescending and annoying - Fallout3 for instance applies it to aiming the sniper rifle - the sights wobble less the more experience points you gain, as if that's fun or realistic, or even logical; it'd be more understandable if tasks become more difficult as you gain skill...

That depends on what your game simulates. RPGs are affectively simulators of your character, which means they do get to simulate character's skills and penalties resulting from the lack of thereof. It's an interesting mechanics in its own right because it adds weight to your decisions when building your avatar - you want to be a shrewd diplomat at the expense of your marksmanship? You can and it will open many opportunities, but if you'll have to shoot your way out of some situation, then it's going to suck for you.

That said, I think that E4 should be simulating your ship, not yourself. Character abilities just don't translate into anything specific about the performance of their vehicles, so it would be an absolute pain to implement for possibly underwhelming results.

You should have varying types of reputation, though.

 

[The Space Pirate]

DraQ sighted... DraQ sighted.. WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN??

 

[DraQ]

DraQ sighted... DraQ sighted.. WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN??

Mostly on the ever-uncivilized RPGCodex.
There was very little activity here before E4 hit the KS.

Still I'm not sure I'm actually interested in E4 as it doesn't seem to go in quite the direction I'd like it to, but at the very least there will be no shortage of Frontier enthusiasts to talk with.

 

[Styggron]

Mostly on the ever-uncivilized RPGCodex.
There was very little activity here before E4 hit the KS.

Still I'm not sure I'm actually interested in E4 as it doesn't seem to go in quite the direction I'd like it to, but at the very least there will be no shortage of Frontier enthusiasts to talk with.

Not interested in E4 ?

 

[DraQ]

Not interested in E4 ?

Not sure.
I hope I am, but that depends on how the game will unfold.
Personally I hoped for better, meatier Frontier: Elite 2.

 

[Non Grata]

Oh, and I'd love to see an initial choice of profession (which can be changed at any later point) affect your start location, ship and faction (maybe starting faction is a different choice too). Would be a cool touch to spread initial users out and give a more unique feel to the game.

Personally I'd vote against this - it's putting you in a box. Not what I want from Elite.