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

[Bacalao]

Yeah, okay, and give up on participating in CG's and the like eh?, because you know, folks sign up to these things, maybe wanting top 5%. that is now out of reach with this mechanic if folk adopt a 'I don't like it, I won't use it' mentality. It doesn't really cut it in that and many more examples.

That's a very unlikely situation give the fact that people that never visit the CG system count as contributors. Also, exactly how long are you planning on waiting that it would have that significant an effect on your CG standing regardless of contributors?!
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Or is this one of those posts that should be depicted as being written on a cardboard sign held by a man screaming "the end is nigh!"?

 

[Jukelo]

I've seen a good solution to this from the other thread - new breakthrough in fuel technology means that all ships with purchased fuel have the same jump range which is as high as the current long range vessels. Sorry can't remember who posted it. Fuel scooped fuel would still be the same as today.

And since Frontier want to experiment with specialized slots, we could still get some bonus for dedicated explorer ships to set them apart from the rest.

 

[Lunchmoney]

But it breaks missions, CZ and the consquence's of flying the ship you want to fly. After 2.2 I will get my dedicated ships and be in a Hauler until I need these ships. It is doing the total opposite of what you want..

...Then don't do it. It's entirely optional.

 

[Ziljan]

You guys don't believe in a taxi meta after 2.2? After the smuggling > all money making meta, after the heat > all PvP meta, you still think that it is fine that essentially the best ways to travel is now to just fly in a long range taxi ship and have your main workhorse ship sent after you all the time?

You guys don't believe it completely warps trade CGs so that you must play the taxi meta or you have no chance to be in the top percentages, because it's much faster to source the trade goods in sufficient quantities that, as opposed to flying the way back to where you buy the stuff in a interstellarly slower ship?

You guys are confident that powerplay, which is competitive by nature, makes the use of the taxi meta mandatory because if the players in your power don't do it, the opposing power can undermine/fortify/etc. much faster than your power?

You guys don't think that short jump range downsides of many ships should matter any more, and travelling be normalized to taxi ship with the best jump range a player can afford? (If you say yes to this, then please just go ahead and buff the jump ranges of Viper, FDL, Corvette, Eagle, Python etc.)

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If you want to keep to at least somewhat in check, the price should consider equally the distance, the total current worth of the delivered ship, and the actual jump range of the ship. And no cap on the price. If that means sending a Corvette to Jaques costs a billion credits, so be it.

All excellent points. Perhaps the transfer cost should be higher if the ship you are taking isn't available at the station? That way local availability of ships isn't made irrelevant

 

[Bacalao]

Actually thinking about it further, a very small max distance could prove interesting. If you can, say, send a ship only up to 3x its actual jump range (explain it with the fuel tank being drained and the pilot moving it wont scoop or buy fuel for you), that means to send a ship with a bad jump range over a long distance you have to make several in between stops, and won't just go 200Ly in 5 jumps in modified Asp and have that FDL sent all the distance in one go.

Edit: It would also mean it is still worthwhile to keep as good an FSD as possible on your specialized combat ship.

The lore I've gleaned from Michael's posts in this thread is that it never actually travels, a new one is essentially built on site for you and the old one disassembled.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

No I'm right. There is a distance limitation to ship transfers. [/url]

That would be great, but I heard different from Sandro.

 

[SqualZell]

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".

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).

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.

it doesn't have to be a ridiculous time delay like a 1:1 time it would take you to fly it yourself, nor it has to be instantaneous. there is a middleground.
like a 24 hour time delay to have a ship cross the whole 100 000 LY across the galaxy and extrapolate linearely with the distance the time it takes, for example a 200LY transfer would take about 4 minutes.
or make it slighly longer but variable (maximum ship jump range / total distance to travel) x 10 minute
a 200 LY trip from a 20LY Jump Range ship would be 100 minutes to transfer. it's still insignificant and doesnt break the game too much.

basically make it a token timeframe

 

[AstroCreep]

The lore I've gleaned from Michael's posts in this thread is that it never actually travels, a new one is essentially built on site for you and the old one disassembled.

That's another issue, as an Explorer knows you become "one" with your ship (much the same way people do in real life with their cars), now they become meaningless objects with no character, it's another thing taken away from the Role Playing aspect that so many like to play in.

 

[Vicktore Beskor]

What elite needs is more player interaction and less fourth wall breaking mechanics. If they made it that player could haul ships for a fee for other players we would not be having this discussion

 

[Arubeto]

But would have complicated development for a low priority feature, this way we were able to slip it into 2.2 - otherwise it might have been further into the future. Besides delay impacts the point of the feature and that is to allow greater use of people's ships.

Michael

Thanks again for answering questions from the community, Michael.

Concerning the ship transfer, I don't think it's a small QoL feature. In contrary, I think if one considers all the gameplay ramifications such a feature brings, it will have a larger impact on peoples experience than ship launched fighters or any other feature coming in 2.2. Wouldn't such a big impact feature warrant more development time and resources put into it?

 

[Bomba Luigi]

Ah, gald to hear a limit is still possible. Really think being limited on far out places is a good thing!

 

[Michael Brookes]

That would be great, but I heard different from Sandro.

They are being discussed at the moment.

Michael

 

[Michael Brookes]

Thanks again for answering questions from the community, Michael.

Concerning the ship transfer, I don't think it's a small QoL feature. In contrary, I think if one considers all the gameplay ramifications such a feature brings, it will have a larger impact on peoples experience than ship launched fighters or any other feature coming in 2.2. Wouldn't such a big impact feature warrant more development time and resources put into it?

We like the potential effects this could have on interactions in the galaxy, and the benefit comes from instant transfer. We'll see in beta how it pans out.

Michael

 

[Colonel Kenney]

Remember - if you giveth and then taketh away... there will be splashback.

Just let them deal with it. No delays. If there is a delay might as well not do it at all. Anything higher than 5 mins forget about it.

 

[MadDogMurdock]

Oh well, looks like FD plan to charge on with the decision.

Welcome to Elite: Generic, where travelling actually doesn't matter because everywhere is effectively the same as everywhere else and you'll only ever need 3 or 4 ships which will be pretty much the same as everyone else has.

 

[Arubeto]

And there are quite a few people saying the opposite.

In this thread I see exactly one.

 

[Colonel Kenney]

Distance should be the only limitation.

I wouldn't allow Jacques and those sorts of things to transfer UNLESS there was a significant delay.

The station itself would need to somehow use some form of communication to verify the validity of the license to 3d print the ship. The longer the distance the longer the delay of a return message.

Inside the bubble should be no delay.

 

[Javert]

it doesn't have to be a ridiculous time delay like a 1:1 time it would take you to fly it yourself, nor it has to be instantaneous.

Problem is, unless the time it takes is at least as much as flying the route manually, a lot of the issues that people keep pointing out will still exist - if the time is half what it would be to fly manually, I will still fly in my Asp and then summon my Vulture as it's an advantage to do that.

The only way to avoid those kind of balancing issues is if the timer takes the same (ship and build specific) amount of time that it takes to fly manually.

In other words even the shortest delay is subject to a lot of the gameplay / balance issues that everyone is claiming, and a long ship specific delay is more complex to program and will have a lot of people complaining "why would I bother to use this feature if it takes me the same amount of time".

Granted, the counter is that they can carry on playing in the ship they are currently aboard whilst waiting, but it will still cause complaints.

The lore / realism / immersion argument is a different thing I guess that is more important for some of the folk here. Having a very short delay would help with those who say it destroys their immersion, but it wouldn't take away the other game play side effects.

 

[Michael Brookes]

Oh well, looks like FD plan to charge on with the decision.

Welcome to Elite: Generic, where travelling actually doesn't matter because everywhere is effectively the same as everywhere else and you'll only ever need 3 or 4 ships which will be pretty much the same as everyone else has.

Or maybe you'll have more ships because you can actually make use of them.

Michael

 

[Julio Montega]

Remember - if you giveth and then taketh away... there will be splashback.

Just let them deal with it. No delays. If there is a delay might as well not do it at all. Anything higher than 5 mins forget about it.

It would be a more interesting feature to me,
to be able to set a different destination than my current location.

This way i could use my old DBS to scout a hot warzone/hostile territory
and call in the supply convoys to bring my Gunship to a tactically chosen base
to get ready for combat.

Other example:
Look for possible traderoutes in a small fast and stealthy ship
and get the pirating multi-purpose to the next suitable hideout
to start the hunting.