Read First Publishing GalNet Reports on faction activity

[edgar]

Many people here are talking about Powerplay stuff - but I don't think Brett C's post is actually on about removing anything much about Powerplay:

GalNet Weekly Economic Report
GalNet Weekly Security Digest
GalNet Weekly Powers Update Incoming
GalNet Weekly Health Hotspots
GalNet Focus on Democracy
GalNet Weekly Conflict Report
GalNet Weekly Expansion List

My emphasis. The "GalNet Weekly Powers Update Incoming", which is listed in the OP, is simply the weekly article that appears on Galnet - reminding everyone that end of cycle is approaching, go and cash in your vouchers etc. Yes, IMO, this should be removed (those of us involved in PP get those gods-horrible notifications in our inboxes anyway, so this Galnet prompt is completely redundant).

The detailed "stickied" article in Galnet called "Galnet Hourly Update: Speculation and Predictions" (showing the current CC for each Power etc), which I think some folk are talking about here, is NOT listed in the OP, and isn't up for proposed removal as far as I can see from Brett C's OP. Personally I don't think this should be removed until a replacement is ready.

 

[Don Alvarez]

I do read these, and to be honest I think that without them Galnet would be extremely sparse without them. So I'm against getting rid of them unless there are plans to replace them with something. If you want to take a random entity from one of these lists and write a small dramatization, that would be something. The lack of real news on Galnet lately is kind of disconcerting.

 

[Joshua Sol]

Honestly, we need a website dedicated to Galnet news.
One that can organise all the news into different sections.

I'd be more inclined to read the posts on a daily basis if they were presented in a more professional, futuristic way!

I do love the posts.

 

[Arubeto]

I voted "yes" even though I never (or nearly never) read the articles. I think they take up to much space in the GalNet news (I already got used to just scanning for the "real" articles with news stories in them and ignore everything else.) I'd therefore suggest to somehow group them, put multiple topics into the same article, like for example merging conflict, security and economic reports into just one report that has multiple subsections. That way the Galnet news articles wouldn't be cluttered by so many automatically generated articles. (I think the "automatic report"/"real authored story" ratio is just bad at the moment)

 

[Horasfalter]

I would like to know, if the Galnet News will no longer be published, ie "GalNet Weekly Powers Update Incoming", how I am suppost to know if my power is going in a turmoil or not next week? Also the other news are important for me to know, because of good traderouts, to avoid systems or other business.

 

[lovely lovely]

Looks like there's enough to keep the reports going. If it was like 90% + against then fair enough.

 

[Davos Rancheros]

Although I like the idea, I don't think that they lend enough context to the player experience (mainly because they are so broad and wide ranging). Does knowing that there are thousands of systems in civil war really tell us anything..?

If you could find a way to regionalise them and make them accessible from nearby stations (e.g. the local news reports on civil wars etc in a 30LY radius) that would make them much more powerful.

i agree with this wholeheartedly.

 

[Cmdr Bazil Yat]

They don't give enough data to be useful. The top ten out of HOW many?

 

[CptPotatooo]

I dont think there is a lack in intresst to read the galnet. I sometimes check it, but its mostly to find community goals and events.
But I could find this easyer on the forums or dedicated websites like Inara.cz.
My point is, if the UI for galnet was better I think more players would take part and read it.

At the moment its just a wall of text, and sometimes its hard to keep up on what Iv read and havent read.

 

[Mu77ley]

Hi everyone. As you know, we currently publish regular GalNet reports on faction activity – economic updates, expansion updates, that sort of thing – but we suspect that most of you don’t really take much interest in them. So the question is, would you like us to continue publishing the reports, or would you like us to drop them? A complete list of the reports is below, so you know which articles we’re talking about:

• GalNet Weekly Economic Report
• GalNet Weekly Security Digest
• GalNet Weekly Powers Update Incoming
• GalNet Weekly Health Hotspots
• GalNet Focus on Democracy
• GalNet Weekly Conflict Report
• GalNet Weekly Expansion List

I think it would be more useful to have additional filters in the galaxy map which you can use to visualise where Wars, Outbreaks, etc. are happening.

 

[Johnny Cyclops]

Although I like the idea, I don't think that they lend enough context to the player experience (mainly because they are so broad and wide ranging). Does knowing that there are thousands of systems in civil war really tell us anything..?

If you could find a way to regionalise them and make them accessible from nearby stations (e.g. the local news reports on civil wars etc in a 30LY radius) that would make them much more powerful.

+1 for this. I voted "no" as knowing that 10 out of n systems are having some sort of 'event' without knowing whether that's 20Ly or 200Ly away is of highly limited use. FD built the galaxy so large, even the inhabited 'bubble' that just getting a list of system names is left to random chance whether I've heard of any of them - and those I have heard of, I'm probably directly involved with in my local neighbourhood.

If it was the "Top 10 [event type] nearest my locale" that's a lot more valuable, and perhaps including major faction alignment (so if I'm interested in helping Empire minor factions, I can do so).

 

[insanephoton]

They don't give enough data to be useful. The top ten out of HOW many?

I'm not sure it's even the top 10, it may even just be a random 10 out of typically around a 1000 systems in whatever state.

 

[Mad Doctor X]

Don't get rid of them, we don't want to lose any depth! However, they shouldn't be headline news, shift them to the inside pages.

 

[Gorrister]

Hi everyone. As you know, we currently publish regular GalNet reports on faction activity – economic updates, expansion updates, that sort of thing – but we suspect that most of you don’t really take much interest in them. So the question is, would you like us to continue publishing the reports, or would you like us to drop them? A complete list of the reports is below, so you know which articles we’re talking about:

• GalNet Weekly Economic Report
• GalNet Weekly Security Digest
• GalNet Weekly Powers Update Incoming
• GalNet Weekly Health Hotspots
• GalNet Focus on Democracy
• GalNet Weekly Conflict Report
• GalNet Weekly Expansion List

The question is, are they automatic generated or do you have to write them by hand? If automatic, keep them, but make them less present. If you write them by hand, please invest your time in storylines. I miss the news from the start of the game. These were really interesting.

 

[AsukaZ]

I think as a general principle in life more information is better than less, although huge data dumps can be used to obfuscate things too.

I'd say publish as much as you want but to pay some attention to how it's organised, tabs, filters and subscriptions and so-on.

I voted yes.

 

[Cargobane]

I just thought of one report that is missing and could add to player engagement.

Traffic Reports! Top 10?

Hey?! lol..

 

[aquantar]

I think the many reports of powerplay and factions are interfering with the other Story arcs of the game. It is hard to Keep track of the storytelling with them.

On the other Hand they provide useful Information to some other CMDRs. So to me the best option would be to be able to make ingame abo's for them like with the newspapers in FFE for example.

That would be great! If you Need them make an aboi for them and pay a subscription fee of a few Cr ingame.

Or at least give us the Option to filter the News which get displayed.

 

[Cargobane]

Example: "Each week, GalNet presents a list of 10 of the 1,321 minor factions"

This is the subheading in the launcher and I can already tell I have a less then 1% chance of knowing any of the 10 you do show.

Combine them into one 'item' on the Launcher that says: "GALNET DAILY REPORTS", and link that to a webpage that actually can report on a filter of my choosing, just as 'Within 100Lys of my Position'

 

[Anarch157a]

If you could find a way to regionalise them and make them accessible from nearby stations (e.g. the local news reports on civil wars etc in a 30LY radius) that would make them much more powerful.

I support this idea, it would make a lot easier to find things to do nearby.

 

[TheSpaceTexan]

Hi everyone. As you know, we currently publish regular GalNet reports on faction activity – economic updates, expansion updates, that sort of thing – but we suspect that most of you don’t really take much interest in them. So the question is, would you like us to continue publishing the reports, or would you like us to drop them? A complete list of the reports is below, so you know which articles we’re talking about:

• GalNet Weekly Economic Report
• GalNet Weekly Security Digest
• GalNet Weekly Powers Update Incoming
• GalNet Weekly Health Hotspots
• GalNet Focus on Democracy
• GalNet Weekly Conflict Report
• GalNet Weekly Expansion List

Brett,

These sorts of news don't necessarily fit in with the Galnet News theme you guys have setup, though it would be incredibly useful to have in the local news of the system. When I actually saw one of these posts for the first time I thought it was both an indicator of what's happening in our galaxy AND how it's happening. Problem is, we're not getting much of either.

If there is any possible way to keep the Expansion list, at the very least Local and up to date with where that Minor Faction is expanding, that would be the best way to go about it. As it is right now, once your faction expands, you have to search all over the Galactic map to find them. It would save time and tears to essentially have the faction tell us where they're going in the local news.
Alongside with the Conflict Reports, Health hotspots, security digest and Economic being entirely local and to the discretion of the said minor faction and their occupied stations.

However, when we have large conflicts that bodes with large and severe conflict (say a system with 5-10 conflict zones, more than two sides fighting, Powerplay related factions at war, etc.), Conflict Reports would be fairly welcoming for newer and experienced players alike to go joining the fray.

Edit: When I finished writing I had another thought that could benefit these should you want them to be on the Galnet News still. First off, they should be case and point, once a week and with a purpose OR if something of news worthy course occurs that could warrant players to fly out to that specific system or systems.

For example, "Sol is experiencing a boom and x modules are now available with older modules at a discount of x%!" or "Sol is experiencing a boom and trade has gone up exponentially, hydrogen prices are now conveniently lower than its competitors!"
Similarly, "HEH is currently experiencing a large internal Civil War with x sides fighting for control of the system. The (Controlling minor faction) is calling for assistance of any nearby pilots and rewarding them with a 20% combat bond bonus."

As of right now, the local news DOES this, but it isn't sufficient in details to warrant an excuse (or to be totally frank, docking at a station in a random system to see what's going on there) to fly there.

In short,make the player want to fly there.

Edit Edit: if there is a way to have the local news pop up in the screen alongside with the Large Galnet, THAT would be the most beneficial place to put those news articles in alongside the actual local news of the system.