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

[Aewarin Jameson]

There has never been any consequences in Elite: Dangerous. I'm a Duke, a Vice Admiral, and Ally to all the powers? I'm a serial killer in one system and a sheriff in the next? I'm allied with every faction in my home system? Oh yeah, and I have dirt cheap insurance that replaces the exact same everything if I die, instantly? Consequences, eh?

There are consequences to all your actions:

Shoot a cop - become wanted.
Shoot enough cops and you become disliked as your reputation takes a hammering.

What was missing from day 1 was consistency (eg: Kill 1 person and all surrounding law abiding systems should know about it.)

--

EDIT:
To bring it back on track there were some "limited" consequences to your ship choices. Fly a combat ship and you couldn't take hauler missions; fly a hauler and you couldn't take combat missions ... Fancy that CG on the other side of the galaxy - hmm ... liquidate my ships and travel there fast and buy new at the location ? Take my low jump range hauler and hope it's still going ? Take my long range, small haulage ship and make many more trips during the CG ? Limited choices ... repercussions & consequences .. now that's been trivialised as has every ship FSD drive .. Can't afford a large FSD / need to get somewhere fast with your low range jump ship / many other reasons .. no worry - take a 30LY 250K hauler and "print" your old ship at the new location

 

[Jack Schitt]

Michael, please, for all that is holy, at least don't explain instant ship transfer away with some lore about 3D printing. Just leave it unexplained, so we can fill in the blanks with imagining that it took some time to deliver, just like refueling or repairing the ship is instant even though obviously lore-wise it would take time.

Yep, a much more concise and punchier version of my earlier ramble, quoted here in the hope the idea will gain traction. I think it's fair to say that the community has lost the battle to convince FD not to implement instant ship transfer in 2.2, but I'd like to think we still have a chance of convincing Michael Brookes not to try to officially rationalise it into the lore. It's not necessary, and it could be quite problematic for future plotlines both in the game and in any supporting fiction.

 

[Leo Sagan]

I personally can buy them being tansported if delay is very symbolic and there's hard limit. I already laid down 3D printing issues...so yeah, no 3D printing lore explanation for ship transfer, please. That feels out of place.

Fair point.
I still think you're a misguided soul on this, but since you're willing to compromise, I'll have to give you rep on this one.
Rest assured that I'd like to drown your cat if you have one though

 

[orfeboy]

It does by making the constraints irrelevant. Why have cargo restraints in the first place then. Starting in a sidewinder means I can't do certain lucrative missions, why can't I start in a fully decked out Python.

Can you really not see the issue here.

It makes ship choice irrelevant as well.

I am really puzzled why so many people cannot see how this is going to seriously cheapen all the good work FD have already done. Forget about immersion. that really is a pointless argument. You are completely on the right track here Max Factor. This is a practical issue that stands to break lots of areas of the game that these same people who support this feature actually love.

I think the real realisation won't actually come until this is actually in the game and people see the results for themselves.

 

[robbyp]

I would rather no transfer over insta transfer

Its removing a vital part of the game world for me, fhe travel time, the different range of ships, the fact a fighter cannot move thru the systems as fast as a asp.

If it comes in, youll see people buy a disposable long range hauler, jump 300ly, thow the ship away, magically summons the fleet to you.

So that fdl with a low jump range.. who cares about that anymore. In fact fit it with the worse fsd you can. It can be insta called anywhere.

In fact except for you one long range ship, asp or anaconda, why bother with any good fsds on other ships.

The game play is going to be worse, with people essentially subverting the scale dynamic of the universe

 

[Mephane]

I personally can buy them being tansported if delay is very symbolic and there's hard limit. I already laid down 3D printing issues...so yeah, no 3D printing lore explanation for ship transfer, please. That feels out of place.

I can even imagine for myself that transport takes time, unless the game says (or GalNet, or just Michael our lore overlord on the forums) says they are 3D printed.

 

[Shar]

Trying to find some positives in the feature

1. Taking ships to the engineers will be easier, it was annoying me having to back and forth to the same engineer, now i can call in multiple ships to have work done on them simultaneously.

 

[Lobstris]

I've only been around since 1.0 so forgive my ignorance, but when did our choices ever have real consequences?

Well if you got your ship positioning wrong, it would take you real time to go and get it...

Oh. And if we're all printing ships all over the place, what happens to the originals? They aren't actually transferred, so surely stations would fill up with discarded, cast off ships. There would have to be special clean-up crews going round disassembling ships using giant 3D 'unprinters'!

...ah! That's why I see NPCs being destroyed so often at stations. They aren't actually NPCs being destroyed for their crimes, it's just the GalCop Transfer Ship Cleanup Crews at work again, tidying up after careless players!

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

I can even imagine for myself that transport takes time, unless the game says (or GalNet, or just Michael our lore overlord on the forums) says they are 3D printed.

Yeah, as I pointed out it kinda defeats attachment towards big ships. What's the point to call your Anaconda "a home from home" and give it a name, if you know that in case of transfer it is just melted down and 3D printed instead light years away?

 

[Cosmos]

How do you know or why assume, it's the vast majority? Just asking.
...

I have eyes and am reading what others are saying on the issue. I've never actually seen so many people so united over one issue about the game; that FDs insta teleport solution is a bad idea. I've oddly discovered I have common ground with people I ordinarily always disagree with.

 

[Bacalao]

The amount of feedback and the intensity of the discussions indicate that ship transfer is not considered a low priority feature by many players. Is there any chance you might reconsider slipping it into the game in its currently planned form and postpone its release to put additional development time into it?

What feature that players want do they consider low priority? It's easy to make everything a top priority when all you have to do is post adamantly on a forum about it, much different when you actually have to do something about it.

 

[Julio Montega]

Well if you got your ship positioning wrong, it would take you real time to go and get it...

Oh. And if we're all printing ships all over the place, what happens to the originals? They aren't actually transferred, so surely stations would fill up with discarded, cast off ships. There would have to be special clean-up crews going round disassembling ships using giant 3D 'unprinters'!

...ah! That's why I see NPCs being destroyed so often at stations. They aren't actually NPCs being destroyed for their crimes, it's just the GalCop Transfer Ship Cleanup Crews at work again, tidying up after careless players!

The stations actually use criminals
as "calibration" for the guns?
At least they have the chance to flee...

 

[Shar]

Well if you got your ship positioning wrong, it would take you real time to go and get it...

Oh. And if we're all printing ships all over the place, what happens to the originals? They aren't actually transferred, so surely stations would fill up with discarded, cast off ships. There would have to be special clean-up crews going round disassembling ships using giant 3D 'unprinters'!

...ah! That's why I see NPCs being destroyed so often at stations. They aren't actually NPCs being destroyed for their crimes, it's just the GalCop Transfer Ship Cleanup Crews at work again, tidying up after careless players!

There recycled into new printer cartridges silly.

 

[GraXXoR]

The time it takes to do something is a deterrent. Removing that deterrent will have a massive change in what you experience at given places in systems with stations. That's only a bad thing in regards to negative player actions - which will obviously occur. And it's a far far cry from saying someone is coordinating with other people and the massive majority who are working alone. It most definitely will be a feature used to increase the amount of hostile activity since hostile ships tend to be lower jump range - where as non-hostile ships tend to already be at the top percentile of jump range ships anyway. So who benefits most? Hostile ships.

That being said. I dont oppose the feature because of that. I dont really care if players get killed in the game by other players. I oppose the feature because it doesn't solve a problem. It works around the problem and in doing so it only addresses this workaround to a subset of players. I dont believe this is the correct course of action. I believe FD should be putting time into solving the problem of boring space travel instead since it would benefit everyone.

Do you think that it requires a lot of time to develop instant ship porting? It's probably one of the least dev intensive main ticket features ever introduced. It's a cop out and is wagging the dog, and is deflecting attention from key game problems.

 

[Ironwolf]

I think it really is about explaining the game with as little coding as possible, keeping the costs within budget.
Plus they want more players to use more ships and buy kits and paintjobs.

 

[Arubeto]

They don't have a valid license to create the ship, the ship transfer does.

Michael

Still, we persevered with 'battle damage', because we consider it an important part of telling your ship's story. Those small details became more important as soon as we offered players the chance to leave their ships in Elite Dangerous: Horizons. We always wanted players to feel bonded with their ship, even if it's an old wreck.

You know were this second quote comes from? From the Elite Dangerous Digital Concept Art book I received last week.

How am I supposed to feel bonded to my ship, how is it supposed to retain it's battle scars and tell a story, if it's nothing more than a freshly printed copy of my original ship? No, instant ship transfer by licencing and 3D printing goes against what FD themselves describe as an important goal of the development of Elite Dangerous. Please, take the time that is needed to develop a feature that does these plans justice!

 

[Kitster]

... and it could be quite problematic for future plotlines both in the game and in any supporting fiction.

Not just future supporting fiction but also the stuff that has already been written for Elite and licensed by Frontier. Including Micheals own book.

 

[Leo Sagan]

Trying to find some positives in the feature

1. Taking ships to the engineers will be easier, it was ing me off having to back and forth to the same engineer, now i can call in multiple ships to have work done on them simultaneously.

There are many good things in instant transfer ships.
But I still didn't read any good reason to limit it to (roughly) one time a day.
Why on Earth would you need to teleport your ship 50 times per day if you're not exploiting ?

 

[Aewarin Jameson]

I can even imagine for myself that transport takes time, unless the game says (or GalNet, or just Michael our lore overlord on the forums) says they are 3D printed.

I think I am just finding fault now as this "feature" is so out of whack for ED it's doing my head in ... but ... if this "3D printed" argument is sound in FDs eyes why do we have to go hunting for ship parts station to station ? Why are they not just printed ? The given about "licenses" is nonsense given how many knockoffs there are in our world so there's bound to be "dodgy daves" who is willing to knock out a ship component or two for a fee (and ED is set in the future so there's going to be more dodgy people about .. we didn't all just become law abiding citizens as there are pirates .. wow .. so many inconsistencies ... )

 

[Weps]

I can even imagine for myself that transport takes time, unless the game says (or GalNet, or just Michael our lore overlord on the forums) says they are 3D printed.

NO! You imagine them being 3D printed like everyone else! Imagine your ship, in which you had so much fun in, at that far away port, being shred to pieces, because on the menu, it disappeared from the list! And then imagine it being put back together to make a new ship for a new commander. Except there were some Exquisite Focus Crystals left over and no one new where they need to go, so they threw them in the trash!