Just letting you know that, while I do NOT support the abrasiveness of your post or personal attacks on MBrookes, I do agree with your over all sentiment.
The pacing in this particular thread is agonizingly slow. The community involvement has been minimal, and very picky choosy. Kind of like do only what we want you to do.
The Canonn offers Palin the freedom and space to do his research. He refuses. Why? Cause Micheal(or whoever his author is) doesn't want him to.
He is essentially author insert(the author creates a character to do his bidding), which I hate when not used ironically and especially when used on major characters.
Elite has amazing scope and depth, but very little substance. The UA adds unique substance to an otherwise pretty bland game, but it hasn't changed much since 1.2.
It was a reason to play for some people. I love Elites mechanics and gameplay, but there isn't much of a reason to do anything, aside from acquiring credits. But I'm content with the Diamondback explorer, so I don't need credits. And PP isn't for me.
Horizons adds substance, but it also adds more scope and gameplay, therefore compensating for all the substance it adds and then some.
What Elite needs is more UA-like content. These obviously don't have to be mysteries or even related to exploration gameplay, but they need add flavour and substance to the experience. I'm holding out that Loot and Crafting will add a little substance. A little personal gameplay reason for doing something.
Any relationship between the Canonn and Palin would be pointless - Palin is an agent in the story whose creators already have all the answers it's possible to have - how exactly can the Canonn help there?
The Canonn wanted involvement in the story - we've most certainly got that. Do we want some kind of inside track? Of course not - so then what exactly would we gain if Palin said 'yeah, great, you can support me'? That'd be it: some nice words and no more.
As it is, the idea that the Canonn is a rival to Palin works better for us and FD - providing an opportunity to drive the story on if we falter, and gives us a sense of competition. Or, in this case, offer something that we can't - an actual base for research in the current place of interest.
We couldn't have requested a CG for a base, for example - it would've broken all the rules. With a CG in place, though, and assuming it's successful, then there's a new place in the story from which Palin can signpost further details about the story.
So, yeah, of course there's a frustration - but rest assured we are *expected* to solve whatever there is to solve, and Palin/FD won't keep us in the dark forever if there's something we've missed.
