I don't think it's that strange. Yes you can set up a colony 1000ly from the bubble, but why bother? The shorter are your trade routes, the better. Time is money after all.
What is with the galaxy? No populated systems?
- Thread starter OlafTheOne
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I don't think it's that strange. Yes you can set up a colony 1000ly from the bubble, but why bother? The shorter are your trade routes, the better. Time is money after all.
The last great expansion was driven by the Empire. Since then, humanity has more than enough resources to sustain itself where it is; so there has been no need to expand.
Think of it as the same reason why there aren't houses all over the Australian outback.
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Am pretty sure the FSD is fairly new technology in ED
Boom, this. However, if we find gold/new materials in distant systems then you can bet their would be a rush to setup shop in that part of the galaxy. If it isn't broke don't fix it. Civilisation is fine where it is so it doesn't expand, in large numbers anyway. There will always be those that want to know what is over the next hill. That is the human gift.
The current generation of 'fast' FSD tech is relatively new. (Thanks to Tantalum if you are interested in the lore)
Older Hyperspace drives took around a 1 week of game time per 10Ly jump.
The evolving galaxy is one of my favourite parts of the game; there have already been several new stations added in remote parts (See Obsidian Orbital)
There are "the Missing" as well...
Size is not the issue, it's 1:1 so the inhabited bubble is VERY large. Traveling speed is what makes it look small. It would be stupid game design if it would take 1 week / year / whatever to get to the next system. As others pointed out the FSD drive is a relative new technology and not every human has the money to get his own space ship. Also it's easy to travel fast but building a colony takes time. It doesn't take much time to travel to the moon, but building a station and infrastructure would be a task for generations.
On a side note from the thread where can we get information on the lore of ED? Such as storylines, timeline etc.
You could start here: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=45
There are some great books/audio books on the store too. I've bought and listened to all of them
And my favourite resource of 'old' information is here: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Main_Page
There are no houses (well few) houses in the Australian outback because it's a desert and the coasts are more comfortable, but even then you find scattered settlements.
The bubble/uninhabited space are not comparable. Like I said the bubble is only the size of a city.
Surrounded by unlimited, unguarded resource and no one has struck out beyond the fairly well defined boundary of the bubble?
Come on, you could have a nap on an Orca and wake up halfway to the core. FSD is seriously fast and because of that the galaxy is a tiny place.
CMDR CTCParadox
Andromeda is the larger then the MW but it is not the closest galaxy to us. Below is our local cluster of galaxies. We are currently merging with one of the dwarf galaxies plus the is the Canis expanse (Forgive me if the spelling is wrong) that has left a trail of stars looping around us on the vertical plain.
In other words... lots of places for us to see before Dave has to think about Andromeda!
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It's like they say the world is shrinking, a intercontinental journey is nothing for us, but a few hundred years ago would have been a serious (and dangerous) trip. Speed shrinks the world and in Elite's case the galaxy.
How long has the FSD been around, I've not heard that mentioned before.
Didn't we build the basis of a station in like a couple of weeks as a CG?
That's just ragtag pilots not even the Federation or Empire. The amount of manufacturing power and resources the superpowers have is immense.
CMDR CTCParadox
I'm certainly hoping for aliens at some point and with their own ships and technology.
Elite should not be a Homo Sapiens only club!
It isn't 18th century anymore, now you can't just land somewhere, build some huts out of local trees and call it a colony. Now you have to put some serious infrastructures in place and that requires a lot of money to start with, so it only happens if there is a damn good reason to set up a new colony. As there are already more than enough resources inside the bubble, there is just no incentive to spend the money to set up new colonies.
I never knew that. So that's what the nav beacons are for! I just thought Universal Cartographics were being a bunch of money-grubbing bar stewards.
+rep
Sir, I stand corrected i should have stated Andromeda is the nearest major galaxy, another interesting point is that the Milky Way Galaxy and Andromeda are also on a collision course, but the spread of the stars is so vast they wont crash into each other, they will merge, i would love to be around for that but thanks for your info, good stuff.
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I wouldn't apply too much realism here.
I think that the far jumps and fast cruise speed are there to help primarily gameplay.
Because otherwise the distribution of colonised worlds and power blocks would be totally unrealistic. Achenar could have its whole fleet circling over Hudson's ranch under an hour, for example.
Sometimes i even erase High Wakes from my headcanon completely and entertain the thought that they just represent travelling between stars in supercruise with a fancy timelapse animation.
Helps to keep the universe a bit more believable.
Tl;dr: No one but very, very few would like to play a game going for extreme and uncompromising realism. Mentally cut some small corners here and there, helps with immersion.
I think that the far jumps and fast cruise speed are there to help primarily gameplay.
Because otherwise the distribution of colonised worlds and power blocks would be totally unrealistic. Achenar could have its whole fleet circling over Hudson's ranch under an hour, for example.
Sometimes i even erase High Wakes from my headcanon completely and entertain the thought that they just represent travelling between stars in supercruise with a fancy timelapse animation.
Helps to keep the universe a bit more believable.
Tl;dr: No one but very, very few would like to play a game going for extreme and uncompromising realism. Mentally cut some small corners here and there, helps with immersion.
Early attempts at colonisation were attempted without FSD "The Missing"
Slightly later attempts with poor FSD tech also went missing.
Modern FSD drives are relatively modern.
Thanks to a recent CG, there is now a station in the Pleiades.
Also the massive drives used by stations are the old 1 jump a week sort. It's one thing to hop into the old eagle and leg it off to the galactic core. It's quite another to get a great big umpteen gazillion ton space station into place. Colonisation is hard.