2.2's Instant Ship and Module Transport - Yay or Nay?

[jasonbarron]

I've never indulged in non consensual PvP before, but I've been wanting to more and more lately, and I can see insta-transfer really helping with that. Now when I travel to Sothis or Cubeo or some other player hotspot in my hauler fit Anaconda and I see some likely victims to sort of break up the monotony of the endless biowaste hauling missions or whatever, I can just park, dial up my A specced G5 modded FdL from the far side of the bubble, go on a killing spree, park the FdL and swap to the hauler and go on my merry way to the next hot spot. I sometimes think general laziness has stopped me from getting into this sort of gameplay before now, but I smell a new fun activity on the horizon!

Gankers in general are going to be the big winners with this feature

 

[dannysquid]

There's always a land port or big station nearby. It doesn't change the fact that ships with lower jumps are just out of the equation now. People will just zip around space in Asps and Anacondas with huge jump ranges, and teleport rest of their fleet to them with no penalties.
And yes, whole FSD range thing was ALWAYS a balancing factor. Always. And it's thrown away, so as any common sense.

Good point.

I've never had more than one ship and don't have much money (despite playing since Alpha) but surely this means the mega rich players will always have the jump range of their jumpiest spaceship? At least in systems with stations. Which seems a bit unfair.

Ponders.

 

[Wyaston Hypatia]

I really don't understand immersion argument. Instant ship transfer breaks immersion, but instant teleportation to last visited station, instant repairs, instant cargo handling, instant comms... do not?

Yes they do matter. They are in the game, I'd rather they weren't as they are implemented. The instant teleportation to last visited station I can fix my self. The others I'm still hoping (though with some doubt now) that they will take time once we can walk around the stations, do other things whilst it happens.

 

[Robert Maynard]

Question to the naysayers about instant: is it due to realism, or due to inbalance? If due to inbalance, is there a price scale you would consider as rebalancing it? For example if sending a ship to Jaques cost 10x the rebuy.

Not for me - for some, even 10x rebuy is a trivial cost.

Others have said "time is money" - i.e. credits = time spent in game. What is being proposed is to remove a large in-game time commitment by allowing players to travel by the fastest means possible then summon a ship that would take multiples of that time to get to the same place (if it could even get there, i.e. it had v.poor jump range) - and that's only one ship - a player could effectively summon their whole fleet of ships for the time cost of less than the time to get their once in one of them (as the transit ship would be fully optimised for transit only - no other considerations required).

 

[Weps]

I really don't understand immersion argument. Instant ship transfer breaks immersion, but instant teleportation to last visited station, instant repairs, instant cargo handling, instant comms... do not?

I hate last visited respawns with a vengeance. Not only does it not make any sense, but it completely breaks whatever crime&punishment system we have now (pre-dock one system away, get killed, spawn in safety).

Instant repairs and instant cargo are bad, but at least they don't interact significantly with other mechanics.

Instant comms has always been that one thing you just have to accept. Being able to Skype, Teamspeak etc. means there's no reason to pretend in-game that comms are not instantaneous, so you might as well just mumbo-jumbo it.

 

[Muetdhiver]

Yup. If you want instant gratification, you've bought the wrong game.

While I see why some might like the instant transfer feature, at some level gameplay has to come first.
The whole point of having ship transfer is to avoid wasting time to transfer the ship by going there and back...
Having it take time kind of defeats its purpose.

Also, it allows players to potentialy trade in low level of engagement gameplay (2h of jumping arround the bubble to
move a corvette to a CG) to high level of engagement content (20min to move to the CG with ASP, transfer corvette,
actually play the CG for 1h40min). If one is the hardcore type, it will still be possible to move your ships "manualy"...

 

[Slopey]

You're aware that jumping 400LY in a T7 does not take an hour right

Camping the mission board to min/max does though

 

[DaggerSnake]

I really don't understand immersion argument. Instant ship transfer breaks immersion, but instant teleportation to last visited station, instant repairs, instant cargo handling, instant comms... do not?

Game should respect player's time above anything else.

thats a good point for sure, but one of the pillars of Elite Dangerous game design is the realistic sense of scale and size. How do you convey that? Time. The time it takes to move from A to B. Once time is removed, how big do things feel?

I'm interested in the final result, but players should also respect the games design and sense of scale.

 

[Yaffle]

I really don't understand immersion argument. Instant ship transfer breaks immersion, but instant teleportation to last visited station, instant repairs, instant cargo handling, instant comms... do not?

Game should respect player's time above anything else.

It's consistency. That's the thing, not realism. Every commander is insta- put back, always has been. It's the rules of the game. As are 'it takes time to travel from A to B' and 'it's illegal to publish stock listings outside the station to which they relate.' It's how it is, and it's consistent.

But ships with people in can't insta-travel. Ships without a player in can. Maybe it's the living matter that can't be moved? Oh, so why do I need to carry gold from A to B then? Why not just teleport it?

Creating a ship makes no sense. If that can be done why can't I just buy an <anaconda> at every station, after all if I already owned one I could have one 'printed'.

I know it's a game, but every time we contradict the rules of the universe it makes it more and more apparent that's all it is, and makes it less and less engaging.

Adding time actually adds gameplay. You need your T9 in Place X by time Y, you are in a FDL at place Z. Now, think, plan, contact ship-courier to move it, and try to get there at the same time. Or do other stuff and arrive later. The idea of escorting your own ship to mid out for damage is also an interesting game concept. Just BANG instant anaconda makes no sense other than it being utterly gamey.

If I was the Fed navy I'd send, over a period of weeks, several hundred sidewinders to Achernar. Then insta-teleport in several hundred anacondas. No warning at all, suddenly all of those death machines INSIDE stations ready to go. Just appeared. Out of nowhere.

This is a game with fiction written about it, with a pseudo-science background. We keep throwing bits of that away for instant gratification, forgetting it's the engagement with the pretend universe that's the main draw.

 

[Jason S]

Instant - It is agame.

 

[Jack Booted Thug]

Ship Transfer YES.

Do not make it instant please as this kills immersion and really appears opposed completely to what Elite is trying to be.

Some have mentioned how transfers would be an exploit to bypass jump ranges. This needs to be addressed by introducing a time delay + a significant fee (ie. the ship in questions was placed on a larger transport and shipped to the location).

Please don't throw immersion right out the window. If Frontier is going to do that then they might as well eliminate jump range and jumping entirely really.

 

[Robert Maynard]

I hate last visited respawns with a vengeance. Not only does it not make any sense, but it completely breaks whatever crime&punishment system we have now (pre-dock one system away, get killed, spawn in safety).

.... being able to summon ships does offer Frontier the opportunity to change the "return to last docked station" on ship destruction....

 

[MarcinKsi]

Huge No for instant transport, should take about real time plus significant fee

 

[Slopey]

What's so unbelievable? They sell you a new ship identical to your old one and keep the old one.
And think about this: Frontier is trying to start a new bubble out by Jaques'. Do you want to have to fly your T9 out there to trade in the new bubble? What about your 37 other ships?

That's fine, but I'd hope that you'd only be able to transfer into a ship which is actually available.

There's no reason why Jacques would have an unlimited stock of every ship to transfer into - it's entirely unfeasible.

And what's wrong with having to actually *fly* to the new bubble, and help build it up so new ships are available there over time at the stations, rather than just rock up in your Jumpy-Asp, and summoning all your Anacondas? I'd suggest that having to go there yourself, and help build up that fledgling bubble, which until it's established would have limited shipyards, would be called "gameplay"...

 

[Knightshark]

I also strongly prefer some waiting to prevent cheese gameplay where you have one traveling ship and summon whatever ship on demand.

I think something like 1 minute per jump range of the summoned ship would be adequate. It would also be cool to order your ships somewhere in advance, i.e. Not just to your current location.

Oh, and no transfer between bubbles.

 

[Yaffle]

What's so unbelievable? They sell you a new ship identical to your old one and keep the old one.

The fact I can't buy one if I don't already own one? How does that work?

 

[Brodie]

...It would also be cool to order your ships somewhere in advance, i.e. Not just to your current location.

I like this idea.
+1 Rep

 

[DaggerSnake]

Ship Transfer YES.

Do not make it instant please as this kills immersion and really appears opposed completely to what Elite is trying to be.

Some have mentioned how transfers would be an exploit to bypass jump ranges. This needs to be addressed by introducing a time delay + a significant fee (ie. the ship in questions was placed on a larger transport and shipped to the location).

Please don't throw immersion right out the window. If Frontier is going to do that then they might as well eliminate jump range and jumping entirely really.

Personally I think it's time for a Hardcore game mode...

 

[S.H.A.D.O]

I would like ship transport, however if that is going to be 'instant' then they can simply not bother imo. I would rather do without it.

Having instant ship transfers would be just dumb and quite frankly after watching a lot of DB videos, I would have expected him to be against such a silly thing.

are they again catering to the 'youngsters' by this really really dumb addition.

 

[Robert Maynard]

I like this idea.
+1 Rep

It's a good one.

.... and those wanting instant transfer could send their ships off to the destination before they set off there themselves....

It would retain the requirement to pre-plan rather than just arrive somewhere and instantly switch to the best suited ship (that could not be identified before arriving).