Can player-owned space stations ever happen?

[Windscreen Smudge]

It's already halfway there, Frontier just need to flesh it out.

Player factions can become dominant in a system and become the controlling faction of a station.

The problem is.... That's it. That's all that happens. There's really no benefit to taking over a station. You can't do things like change the stations politics and affiliations, control it's commodities, move it's resource extraction sites, adjust the security, manage the budget, etc.... All of the fun little micromanagement games that a lot of people really get their jollies off engaging in and would add that element that many people say is missing from ED (including myself), Depth.

So if Frontier wanted player owned stations could already be a thing, and people wouldn't really complain because it would integrate well with what already exists, and few would begrudge a player group owning a station or two due to the amount of work that's involved. Players making new stations could become a new community goal scenario, with players submitting their request assuming their player group has enough assets to warrant it and at Frontier's leisure a community goal could be started with 3 different activities which can result in 3 possible outcomes:

Build the new player owned station

Build the station but organize a financial coup in the process to ensure that it becomes an independent station

Or prevent the station from being built at all.

Lots of potential fun and engaging gameplay could be added here, but we won't see any of it because people can't get over their trauma (often non-existent as the people who complain the loudest typically never played the game) concerning some poor experience or another in EvE Online.

That's the internet for ya.

 

[Chrystoph]

I've always thought it would be cool to have your very own space station (or several) in Elite Dangerous where you could store your ships, have your own commodity market which could maybe generate more money for you or maybe even something completely different. Basically a place you could call your home, base or whatever you'd prefer.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=217718

 

[lysan]

A personal hangar would be a good start...wherein you can call in your other ships, store modules etc.

But thats TOO much freedom and power to the player and contradicts this game's current Phil.

I believe we will see it with hangars like in GTA V where you can rent a garage and show your stuff to other players. If FD want ED to be a true MMO they will need to implement this somehow. Regarding player owned stations, well maybe but not huge stations, small outposts maybe.

 

[sic]

Cmon man, we're pilots.. not a station warden..
The way this game played is by flying the spaceship not playing spreadsheet ala sim city soccer manager in a space...

if you want to have emotional attachment to a system/zone/faction, please suggest any improvement for PP instead,.. so it feels less grindy and more depth etc..


Regarding the topic tho, the closest we could get is some kind of instanced "housing" or room rent at a station, where we can buy a storage, and maybe room with a bit of decor but not too much like the sims kinda decor..

Rather than stations, I prefer to have having Mass Effect/Sunless Sea NPC feature where pilot can get a random npc crew (met at station or rescue at space) and you grow them, like pet system or pokemon system, where they add bonus to say: turret tracking speed, engine recharging rate, wep power etc.. and they come with quests/mission or even romance. I think it's nice to see people in your big ship or another seat..

That way we keep on flying because everything we care about is in our spaceship..

 

[OldSalt]

The idea of running a station, never mind multiple of gives me gripe. No thanks. At most I wouldn't mind renting a hangar.

 

[WeirdWizard]

Might make for an interesting spin off game, maybe browser based or for mobiles. Space Station Tycoon. Build maintain and manage a "real" working space station which exists in the persistent universe of Elite Dangerous. Might even be more down Frontiers street in terms of their past experience. If I was DB I'd put a small team on coming up with all manner of spin offs like that.

 

[Axel Deathrage]

I wouldn't want to run a station myself, but if the stations are very small and hard to obtain, they would be interesting. Some random pirate hangout in middle of nowhere would be cool to discover.

There's a lot of things I want for this game, but I'm not getting my hopes up. This would be very cool though.

 

[Odys]

Haha, I really don't see it being a spreadsheet "space station" tycoon type of gameplay.

I envision it as a "you are home" feeling. Currently, the game makes you feel like you don't belong anywhere. In this fictional future I could have been born many different places and never even set foot on "Earth". So where is my home? Where am I leaving to go exploring the galaxy?

Some of you suggest that being in your spaceship is home. Like you are a photographer living on the road in your Winnebago RV. But nothing about my ship leads me to believe that my character is living out of his ship. I want a home to add depth to the game and that emotional connection to a solar system where I can focus my efforts.

Are there other things this game desperately needs? YEP! Is the chance to have a home a fix-all solution? NOPE.

For a game with a story line at every port, it sure feels awkward not having one myself.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

And no. How I earn my credits is only part of that story line. Part.

A space-sim is more than a credit grind in my mind. It is a exploration, science, military, merchant, smuggler or settler career path. I think the game has the potential to provide that game play by using what it has currently and with a few additions. Imagine if mining had greater reason and purpose than just the credits you can earn to buy what you already probably have earned from smuggling or bounty hunting.

 

[Jukelo]

I'm all for it.
Just imagine being able to set up self sufficient resupply stations out in the black for explorers, without having to rely on manual injections by Frontier and the community goals system that feels way too gamey.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Player owned base, sure. Player owned space stations with fully working commodity markets and such are practically unworkable.

If you let players in on setting commodity values the whole economy, which is shaky enough as it is already, goes belly up. If you add letting the players decide docking permissions everything else goes straight into the crapper.

Best you can hope for is a personal base to park your ships, store some modules, and when first person walkies become a thing, walk around in. Nothing in this base should have an impact on anyone else but the player occupying it. Perhaps with the ability to invite wing members.

 

[dynamicbob]

player group backed mknor faction ( or loose player activities based around minor factions) building and expansion npc faction stations outposts and dynamic populartion shifts are infact all coming soonish

 

[Lateralus]

Player owned base, sure. Player owned space stations with fully working commodity markets and such are practically unworkable.

If you let players in on setting commodity values the whole economy, which is shaky enough as it is already, goes belly up. If you add letting the players decide docking permissions everything else goes straight into the crapper.

Best you can hope for is a personal base to park your ships, store some modules, and when first person walkies become a thing, walk around in. Nothing in this base should have an impact on anyone else but the player occupying it. Perhaps with the ability to invite wing members.

I agree that anything player owned should be comparatively small compared with the main installations. I think if FD do add player bases, they should be something similar to how they are in Subnautica - small modular constructs in which you could build a couple of hangers, storage units and defenses. Other benefits to player surface bases could include:

• They would be a good place to conduct player to player trades if you give someone permission to land (you'd have to trust that they wouldn't come back and raid it though)
• As the owner you could set landing permissions for friends/wing/induviduals so they could resupply (depending on supplies available in storage)
• Player colonies could spring up outside the bubble if multiple players built their bases next to eachother (This would be good for exploration and other emergent gameplay scenarios)
• A 'supply-run' mechanic could be implemented where a player would have to use a freighter to transport non-craftable base components to the site (high-tech modules such as turrets, power-plants etc). This would encourage player groups to use escort wings to protect these expensive modules (therefore enhancing the nature of the game, as opposed to changing it).
• The potential to raid other players bases for commodities/materials/ship-components would give other players something interesting to look for on planet surfaces other than dull PoI's that just give us a few Cr's worth of tea
• Player bases would also give rich players something else to do with all the money they have accumulated

 

[tarragon]

Even though I'm a long way off having too much money to spend, I would love player owned bases.
Yes, they should be extremely expensive, talking atleast a BILLION credits to buy, plus upgrade and maintenance costs.
Also, they should not be allowed in already populated space.

Not sure how to go about attacking and defending them though, because of the instancing, and game modes.
A fleet could attack your base in a private group, and they'd be nothing you could do to stop them. Lol
I guess they could be invincible like current stations, you just have to pay to repair them.

However, there are just too many issues with actually pulling it off, so I doubt FD will implement them any time soon. Bigger fish to fry and all!

Indeed. Tackling bobbleheads is far more important and complicated.

 

[william1134]

I think FD realise that something has to be done, as their vision of elite just isn't all that great. It seems that people don't really enjoy being a little fish with no effect on the galaxy. Sure its kinda cool at the beginning but after a while it is just so boring and as you have no effect on the galaxy, what is the point in playing?

I have the lifetime expansion thingy, but I don't see myself getting much value out of it at the moment as after a week or two I felt as if I had done everything "fun" there was to be done. Sure I can do my own challenges but you know what, thats not what I bought the game for.

Anyways I do think that FD will have to radically change their vision of ED to make us have an impact upon the galaxy. The galaxy is so massive, why can't we have bases or player owned systems here and there?

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Indeed. Tackling bobbleheads is far more important and complicated.

+1 This guy gets it. We do need more bobbleheads! And furry dice!

Player owned doodas is soooo 1990s. Let's move forward! Ahead the bobbleheads!

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

I agree that anything player owned should be comparatively small compared with the main installations. I think if FD do add player bases, they should be something similar to how they are in Subnautica - small modular constructs in which you could build a couple of hangers, storage units and defenses. Other benefits to player surface bases could include:

• They would be a good place to conduct player to player trades if you give someone permission to land (you'd have to trust that they wouldn't come back and raid it though)
• As the owner you could set landing permissions for friends/wing/induviduals so they could resupply (depending on supplies available in storage)

Player to player trades and being able to set docking permissions open the door to extensive gaming of the system.

• Player colonies could spring up outside the bubble if multiple players built their bases next to eachother (This would be good for exploration and other emergent gameplay scenarios)
• A 'supply-run' mechanic could be implemented where a player would have to use a freighter to transport non-craftable base components to the site (high-tech modules such as turrets, power-plants etc). This would encourage player groups to use escort wings to protect these expensive modules (therefore enhancing the nature of the game, as opposed to changing it).
• The potential to raid other players bases for commodities/materials/ship-components would give other players something interesting to look for on planet surfaces other than dull PoI's that just give us a few Cr's worth of tea

Which leads to larger groups of players getting the advantage over smaller ones. Which leads to the might makes right mechanic.

• Player bases would also give rich players something else to do with all the money they have accumulated

Sure, but as I said before, at the moment you make it influence the economy in any way, or you introduce a raid mechanic, it all goes to hell in a hand basket.

 

[Mephane]

And furry dice!

Do you mean furry dice or do you mean furry dice?

 

[Miklos Atreides]

Not having player owned Stations in my opinion is good as should stay as it is.
By the way FD has already denied several times the existance of player owned stations.

In fact its already almost there even if not for a single persion which makes totally sense to me.
How to permit a docking request while you are out 5688 ly from home??
When coming back after your run to Beagle Point your neighbour turned your base into a hill of dust.
Do you hear that type of rant then?

Minor faction are already allowed to control Stations and this is ok and might be expanded in some ways,
so a faction might be allowed to define legal/illegal goods. Include/exclude commodities on the market they control.
Other things are to be invented and developed here. Imagination is the limit.
I am fine with this but player owned station would be one step too far in my view today. (Things may change over time.)

Regards,
Miklos

 

[Aewarin Jameson]

This has the potential to be done well IMO.

• Building a new base
• Initiation
  • Player installs new survey module into ship and looks for a new place to build
  • Returns data to nearest existing station
• Station initiates a build plan
  • Player can pick
    • Name for the station
    • Major faction to support (Federation obviously )
    • Power to align to
    • Services to include like
      • outfitting
      • ship hangar
      • refuelling
      • rearming
      • repair shop
      • NPC mission board
      • anything else they introduce later)
  • Once approved by the station (including FD check on name) a CG style mission is created
    • Rather than a single progress chart (like existing CGs) include multiple CGS*
      • Initial depost (of say 10-50% of the money needed up front based on reputation with station)
      • Money (takes cash to pay engineers to build said base. More services more money)
      • Multiple Resources (require different alloys and minerals, each with their own progress chart)
      • Timer to ensure people are actively doing the CG. (If someone desposits some resources/credits to the CG then timer resets. Means people can't open 100s of to-be-built bases and abandon them.) Once timer expires CG is lost. No refunds
• CG objectives met so station is built
• NPC run (like others)

*Yeah, cos my photoshop skills are all that

Spoiler

More complex than buying a "blow up" build & forget mini-base that FD touted but equally more involving for the community.

Anyone can help build it; anyone can use it; useful for deploying your "own" base out in the middle of no where.

 

[xondk]

It's already halfway there, Frontier just need to flesh it out.

Player factions can become dominant in a system and become the controlling faction of a station.

The problem is.... That's it. That's all that happens. There's really no benefit to taking over a station. You can't do things like change the stations politics and affiliations, control it's commodities, move it's resource extraction sites, adjust the security, manage the budget, etc.... All of the fun little micromanagement games that a lot of people really get their jollies off engaging in and would add that element that many people say is missing from ED (including myself), Depth.

So if Frontier wanted player owned stations could already be a thing, and people wouldn't really complain because it would integrate well with what already exists, and few would begrudge a player group owning a station or two due to the amount of work that's involved. Players making new stations could become a new community goal scenario, with players submitting their request assuming their player group has enough assets to warrant it and at Frontier's leisure a community goal could be started with 3 different activities which can result in 3 possible outcomes:

Build the new player owned station

Build the station but organize a financial coup in the process to ensure that it becomes an independent station

Or prevent the station from being built at all.

Lots of potential fun and engaging gameplay could be added here, but we won't see any of it because people can't get over their trauma (often non-existent as the people who complain the loudest typically never played the game) concerning some poor experience or another in EvE Online.

That's the internet for ya.

This, especially the fact that many people don't get Elite's type of game, where individual isn't as important as the group, and the groups being minor factions, that is what the game is build around, a lot can't grasp that the individual alone doesn't have 'that' much power.

This has the potential to be done well IMO.

• Building a new base
• Initiation
  • Player installs new survey module into ship and looks for a new place to build
  • Returns data to nearest existing station
• Station initiates a build plan
  • Player can pick
    • Name for the station
    • Major faction to support (Federation obviously )
    • Power to align to
    • Services to include like
      • outfitting
      • ship hangar
      • refuelling
      • rearming
      • repair shop
      • NPC mission board
      • anything else they introduce later)
  • Once approved by the station (including FD check on name) a CG style mission is created
    • Rather than a single progress chart (like existing CGs) include multiple CGS*
      • Initial depost (of say 10-50% of the money needed up front based on reputation with station)
      • Money (takes cash to pay engineers to build said base. More services more money)
      • Multiple Resources (require different alloys and minerals, each with their own progress chart)
      • Timer to ensure people are actively doing the CG. (If someone desposits some resources/credits to the CG then timer resets. Means people can't open 100s of to-be-built bases and abandon them.) Once timer expires CG is lost. No refunds
• CG objectives met so station is built
• NPC run (like others)

*Yeah, cos my photoshop skills are all that

Spoiler

http://s9.postimg.org/c8v2s4da7/station_build.png

More complex than buying a "blow up" build & forget mini-base that FD touted but equally more involving for the community.

Anyone can help build it; anyone can use it; useful for deploying your "own" base out in the middle of no where.

Group of players and not players alone, you know players belonging to a minor faction, that I could agree with when it comes to building stuff that is bigger then a single large docking module for personal use. But otherwise good idea.