The (argh!) that just doesn't make any sense thread.

Even in the best game ever, we need a place to share in-game conundrums and mechanics that just don't seem to make any sense.

(And place for some kindly, knowledgeable Commanders to maybe shed some light).


To have a go at starting... space stations mass lock my ship to about 5km, and planets to about 2km. Argh! That just doesn't make any sense!
 
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To have a go at starting... space stations mass lock my ship to about 5km, and planets to about 2km, argh that just doesn't make any sense!

Station based mass lock is likely and artificial device to stop dangerously close jumps.

Stolen Illegal goods are still marked down for being stolen despite already being very illegal. What, are they worried the slaves might some how be MORE illegal due to the fact one slaver took it from another.
 
PowerPlay being hallowed as a "cold War" political takeover and "influencing" systems when one nations SENATOR takes a PRIVATE FLEET into another nations space and WAGE WAR to take over the system.

...And no political :):):):)storm or declarations of war is made from the other great nation about hostile takeover and creating warzones in their systems.

Like having the Governator take a private fleet of tanks and shoot up Quebec and annexing it to the US and Canada is ok with it.
 
Things that don't make sense

Spaceflight faster than the speed of light
weapons exciting atoms to show lights when there is nothing to excite against
flight mechanics
Hyperspace
Supercruise
aerodynamic space ships
.
Oh hang on that's the whole basis of it
.
Maybe that's because its A GAME not a simulator
 
You're given a task to look for a particular item rumoured to be in a certain system, and it just happens to conveniently be floating in space at the first signal source you check out.
 
1000 LY away from any station... strong signal source.... squadron of 3 pirates
1000 LY away from any station... find wrecked salvage... theres a federal service ship there. He scans you and fines you because you had salvage on you.
Can scan an entire star system and find every planet and asteroid there. Can't detect material containing rock 200meters away.
 
Things that don't make sense

Spaceflight faster than the speed of light
weapons exciting atoms to show lights when there is nothing to excite against
flight mechanics
Hyperspace
Supercruise
aerodynamic space ships
.
Oh hang on that's the whole basis of it
.
Maybe that's because its A GAME not a simulator

I think you're missing the point.

Those things we take for granted as making sense in the game as it is.

THEN you have the weird :):):):) that breaks those rules.
 
Oddly enough black markets only BUY illegal stuff...

What do they do with it? Stockpiling? Rebrand it and sell it as legal stuff on the market?

So I can sell 1 tonne of Slaves and go to the market and buy 1 tonne of Meat?

Agh! I suddenly feel remorse for the slaves I've sold.... And I'm never trading meat again... Ruined it all for me
 
Remember in FE2/FFE where, if you jettisoned Slaves into space (or tried to transport them without a Cargo Bay Life Support fitted) they'd turn into Fertiliser?

There was also the rumour that if you did this in certain systems with, shall we say... a less than progressive attitude to law enforcement, they'd turn into Animal Meat instead.
 
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Oddly enough black markets only BUY illegal stuff...

What do they do with it? Stockpiling? Rebrand it and sell it as legal stuff on the market?

So I can sell 1 tonne of Slaves and go to the market and buy 1 tonne of Meat?

I know that smarty pants. It's more the case you expressly say you want to do something illegal. It's like walking into a pub and shouting "I HAVE A STOLEN TV TO SELL".
 
I know that smarty pants. It's more the case you expressly say you want to do something illegal. It's like walking into a pub and shouting "I HAVE A STOLEN TV TO SELL".

No need to get snarky. Im agreeing with you.

And yes, they should really change the text to something along the lines of:

"wanna buy a Rolex?"

"I've got some nice bootleg copies from Achenar"

"The deal is going down at five oh clock down at dock 42, bring Danny with you and a couple of guards, we cant really trust the Crimson Ducks pirate gang"

"Wanna buy some prime meat? *wink* *wink*
 
SRVs that have shields, which require nuclear power plants, but don't have unlimited drive.

Skimmers that have unlimited fuel. (can I have one?)

Stations freaking ages away from jump points don't pay extra for goods to attract traders.

We always survive ship destruction.

Exploration data isn't backed up into the escape pod.

Exploration data doesn't update the general map for other players.

Laser beams just stop at their listed range.

The cops don't shut down black markets, even though every one knows where they are

NPCs spawn based on player activities, when the galaxy is supposed to be living and breathing and doing its own thing.

Black holes 5 Ls from stars don't cause stars to change shape.

The pilot is invincible to weapons, even with no shields and canopy blown out

The HUD is projected by your suit, yet disappears when the canopy blows

We can't fly to other systems via super cruise

Why would an NPC miner go to a resource extraction point when they're all crawling with pirates?

How do NPCs get to RES and CZ? I don't see a steady stream of them in supercruise.

Why are there so many ships in USS all over the system? Wherever I go, there's one in front of me. Why don't these guys jump to supercruise and get to where they want?

Why do NPCs hang around nav points? Why even drop out of supercruise?

Why do we have nav beacons? Explorers don't use them, and travel fine.

Why does 1 t of gold take up the same space as 1 t of food?

Why can't the insurance excess be paid a few days after notifying your intention to make a claim?

How does the insurance company make money when we don't pay premiums?

Why don't we see red and blue shift at relativistic speeds? How can we see at all when travelling at over 1 c?

Why are all orbits circular?

Where are the comets?

Why do asteroid belts only have 5 rocks?

Where is the accretion disk around black holes?

Why haven't we found thargoids yet?
 
Things that don't make sense

Spaceflight faster than the speed of light
Hyperspace
Supercruise
First off Bamber I know you're not really having a go at these because you're treating it as a game (because it is :) ) so this is just info:

Super luminary (FTL) travel is theoretically possible, we just can't do it with anything we have available at present. The Universe has expanded faster than light meaning relative objects have moved apart at speeds greater than light so FTL has happened.

In 1994 a physicist called Miguel Alcubierre came up with a theoretical drive that uses an as yet undiscovered negative mass exotic material to warp space and allow anything within the Alcubierre warp bubble to move faster than light. It's based on Einstein's general relativity and it bends space - the maths works out but we still don't have anything with negative mass. This is what Super-Cruise is based on.

Hyperspace is based on an Einstein-Rosen Bridge (or wormholes as they're called) again the theoretical work is sound we just can't do it yet!

Something is moving the galaxies apart, that may include negative mass but we're a way off knowing.

So onto things that don't make sense...

The Anaconda that interdicted me and started issuing threats that I was about to die and they were going to "burn me up" but didn't actually deploy hardpoints as they had no weapons. Easiest 60k bounty I ever claimed!
 
Maybe that's because its A GAME not a simulator

Fiction can be internally consistent, like, say, the Greg Egan trilogy where he invents his own physics and then figures out the repercussions, or it can made up as it goes along, like, say, Doctor Who. Elite Dangerous falls somewhere in the middle. The fact that it's in a realistic galaxy enables me to hand-wave away quite a lot while still suspending my disbelief.

That said, it bothers me that you can be a gazillion light years from anywhere and get interdicted by pirates. Or at least you could last time I was a gazillion light years from anywhere. Is it still the case?
 
Fiction can be internally consistent, like, say, the Greg Egan trilogy where he invents his own physics and then figures out the repercussions, or it can made up as it goes along, like, say, Doctor Who. Elite Dangerous falls somewhere in the middle. The fact that it's in a realistic galaxy enables me to hand-wave away quite a lot while still suspending my disbelief.

That said, it bothers me that you can be a gazillion light years from anywhere and get interdicted by pirates. Or at least you could last time I was a gazillion light years from anywhere. Is it still the case?

I saw not a single one when I did Sag A back in August/September time so at least back then it was fixed.
 
No need to get snarky. Im agreeing with you.

And yes, they should really change the text to something along the lines of:

"wanna buy a Rolex?"

"I've got some nice bootleg copies from Achenar"

"The deal is going down at five oh clock down at dock 42, bring Danny with you and a couple of guards, we cant really trust the Crimson Ducks pirate gang"

"Wanna buy some prime meat? *wink* *wink*

Lost in translation I think. I was saying it with a grin.
 
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