The Galaxy - Is its size now considered to be a barrier to gameplay by the Developers?

[Cmdr Zach]

So with 2.2 allowing us to hire ship "crew" that can either fly our fighter or the mothership....

Why not simply extend this to assigning crew to a ship. They travel there in real time as a passenger. And fly your ship you assign them to where you want it.

Most of the code is already there. Just needs a calculation on the client when you give the pilot the task to see how long it takes (Ie plot a route for them) and then your ship arrives in a suitable time frame. Either when you next log in, or you wait a few minutes/10's of minutes doing other activities until they arrive.

Perfectly immersive and should resolve most people's issues with this instant access to all ships malarkey.

 

[Lightspeed]

We should now just skip the whole materials gathering part and just be able to buy them at any station.

Justification: Driving and flyng around pinging rocks is a bit boring. I need to get to my pew pew faster.
Lore: There are giant 3D printers at every station, to support that every station has enormous stocks of raw materials.

In fact, why not just be honest, FD, and configure each station as a giant 3D printer - "fire laser at activation button required to print for ship .... cargo ... materials ... upgrades ....."

 

[Parmo]

We will be given the ability to transfer any of our ships to our current dock in 2.2 - there will be no delay in this transfer as the Developers have done some testing and any delay at all was considered to be too much of an impediment to gameplay.

In the recent Gamescom streams a recurring theme was that of "lowering the barriers to gameplay".

The gameplay of who? Ship transfer with full delay would increase my fun, my enjoyment of the game: other players do hold an opposite view.

It would appear that travelling back to the location of a stored ship to fetch it back to one's location takes too much time and is therefore a barrier to gameplay that is unacceptable in the eyes of the Developers (and a large number of players, of course).

It is interesting to note that the usual argument for instant transfer is that a player has noted a CZ in their current system and they are not in their preferred ship for combat: it's the pew-pew crowd again. The developers have once again shown that they, more and more, are considering only this type / style of 'gameplay'. How often does it or will it occur that a players says 'ooh, I've just found a great trade route or deal and I need my type 9 from across the galaxy - NOW'? How many players will go to Jaques Station in a Vulture and say 'Now I need to start exploring'? The whole argument is biased in favour of the pew-pew crowd. I thought giving them CQC to have instant fun was bad enough.

In a game where we have been given, to the best of the abilities of the Developers, a 1:1 interpretation of the our galaxy - with hundreds of billions of stars it seems that the size of the galaxy itself would now appear to be a problem to solve in the eyes of the Developers.

It will be interesting to see what further concessions to convenience we are given in future releases that will facilitate the multi-player aspect of the game.

This is an acceptance that this instant ship transfer will affect Open play mode more significantly that the other modes. However, features such as Powerplay and the CGs are cross-mode and I cannot see how the developers can have done any testing that will give them any reliable data to predict with any acceptable confidence the long term consequences to these features and more specifically to Open mode play. My hunch is that participation in Open play will diminish over the long term but with spurts of new paying customers when extensions / upgrades are released with publicity that will have focussed on the pew-pew.
...
FD's problem is not the size of the galaxy in ED but rather what type of player ED's game style should target. The trend is clear.
FD is targeting this group for it's own commercial aims and goals - to a timetable it may be noted.

 

[Zambrick]

I agree that piracy needs a fix in the risk vs reward but it sounds like you want to make it HARDER. So much wrong with that post that I think some if my brain cells died, if I interpreted it the right way.

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2real4me.

Not harder just logical. Right now Pirates are pirates because they want to be. At least in this games economy and social construct. There needs to be a real crime and punishment systems put in place.

There also needs to be an element in the game that helps facilitate a crime. Something most other players cant do or wont do. It must be an active choice. Such as Grand Theft Spaceship, smuggling, and robbing Space Stagecoaches. (See the show Firefly) The only difference being that the risk of getting caught must be more common place and the punishment needs to be in harmony with the crime.

If it were more like that I think we would see a bunch more browncoats running around the verse and that isnt a bad thing.

 

[Enderby]

It's one of the few things that this game really has going for it.

 

[Zambrick]

It's one of the few things that this game really has going for it.

What the Korean MMO level Grinding or the fun and engaging dog fighting, exploring, and trading?

 

[asphaltpilot]

Noone is forced to fast-travel ships.

No, but commanders who don't want to instant transfer ships are now placed at a disadvantage compared to commanders who do. I should not be able to insta-travel my 4 ton fuel-tanked, FSD D-rated Vulture to my location 250Ly away. One of the core features of this game is to make the players feel the scale of space.

 

[Lightspeed]

The physical size of the galaxy won't matter to developers because they can shrink it or expand it according to in-game features, which appears to be what is happening at present.

I can understand delays to development, resulting in an extension of the 2.0 "season" into another year if this brings about more consistent gameplay with less bugs and is well thought through for possible outcomes and unintended consequences.

However, the truly alarming outcome that I have taken from GamesCom, is that development has lost its sense of DIRECTION. Hence the title of this thread emerges, and others like them, because what was advertised as a game based on physical fact is now fast descending into an arcade-style game set in a mythical universe, loosely called the Galaxy.

If there is a "route map" for the game, it has changed, and developers are testing users to see what they will accept as the best route forward, rather than directing the path along a predetermined course to the ultimate end.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Yep. Design by committee springs to mind.

 

[m0rl0ck]

Considering that now (and since the game launched) we've had no way at all to speed that process up and yet now anything other than instantaneous is considered to be 'too long' I have to ask what on earth has changed with FD. Something clearly has, it's literally a paradigm shift. I noticed Obsidian Ant commented on that, something fundamental shifting in their thinking, the other day and to be honest I mentally dismissed the concept at the time but with the context added above, he was clearly right.

I think its called cashing out. They dont want to commit to a sustained effort so they are just throwing in all the instant gratification features they can to appease new players. They can vandalize the game and laugh all the way to the bank.

 

[Doolittle]

Transport technology. They just haven't figured out how to do it with living creatures yet. But ships no problem. It gets scanned in at the other system, and 3D prints out at your current location. Maybe they could include a little cutscene showing the process while your ship is being transferred. I have no issue with this. Many other things yes, but not this. The idea that you need to travel to get your ship is part of the gameplay is actually more valid than the instantaneous transaction. The only difference is the I want it now generation has no patience.

 

[KronenBrg]

If cost is used to deter players from transferring ships then that in itself remains a barrier to gameplay for cash poor players - the point of instant transfers seems to be reducing inconvenience - an inconvenience that would remain for those who can't afford the transfer.

Cost couldn't really be used, with this mechanism who will be credit poor?

Fly a 51LY Asp to Ceos or wherever, summon your T9. Fill It up with high value missions then fly your 51LY Asp to the destination and summon your T9. You don't even need to waste time or credits kitting it out with a shield, a capable jump drive, weapons or anything, just a giant T9 with cargo bays front to back that gets called to the station that the mission terminates.

Seems to kind of wreck the illusion of realism for the sake of what?

On the other side of the coin, I like the idea of bringing all of my ships to the engineer without needing to fetch them.

But then at the end of all of this what will I do? No real point trading as money has no meaning. So it's PvSomething or explore. At least I can't head to the other side of the Milky Way and summon my Anaconda with the SRV bays to do the planet sweeps on the way when I stumble on an interesting one because there won't be a station.

Anyway, if we can teleport ships, why can't we teleport the pilots?

 

[Marcns007]

It would be more realistic to replicate your ship at a station with a 3d printer for a fee in return for the ship corp taking your old ship or replicate a ship you own a blueprint to and rent it from ship corp?

 

[asphaltpilot]

sigh

Is anyone at Frontier reading any of these threads?? [???]

 

[Enderby]

What the Korean MMO level Grinding or the fun and engaging dog fighting, exploring, and trading?

The bigness of the thingy

 

[Comrade Error]

Not harder just logical. Right now Pirates are pirates because they want to be. At least in this games economy and social construct. There needs to be a real crime and punishment systems put in place.

There also needs to be an element in the game that helps facilitate a crime. Something most other players cant do or wont do. It must be an active choice. Such as Grand Theft Spaceship, smuggling, and robbing Space Stagecoaches. (See the show Firefly) The only difference being that the risk of getting caught must be more common place and the punishment needs to be in harmony with the crime.

If it were more like that I think we would see a bunch more browncoats running around the verse and that isnt a bad thing.

Yea alright still really dumb way to get that across in the post I replied to. "Oh I won't listen to pirates til so and so." But this seems more reasonable.

 

[robbyp]

Nope they have their fingers in their ears.

No instant transfers

 

[Lightspeed]

sigh

Is anyone at Frontier reading any of these threads?? [???]

You can be sure they are taking notes of the comments and who submitted them, and will ensure a vicious NPC will hound each person making a negative comment about the game [where is it] .....

(jest mode off, for those of a nervous disposition)

 

[Dielos]

At some point I really hope FD adds gameplay options for all this stuff. It's clear that everybody has a different opinion on how they imagine the game, so an option for instant or timed ship transfer in one of the menus would plainly solve the issue. It's at these times I miss a real offline option. Load a mod, and puff!!!, there you have it, timed transfer...

I do get that then the outcry would be about imbalance between players, but personally, I couldn't care less how others play or what they cheat with as long as I can play my way...

So no, I don't think the galaxy's size is a problem, but more the divided player base.

 

[Weps]

You can be sure they are taking notes of the comments and who submitted them

Yes, someone is taking notes, someone else is arranging the notes, someone else is filtering then, someone is forwarding them accordingly, but in the end the official position will be: "we had to make a call, it was a tough call and we understand it will not please anyone, but we stand by it because the advantages outweigh the disadvantages."