***POLL NOW CLOSED*** IMPORTANT, OFFICIAL SHIP TRANSFER POLL

[veryinky]

Apart from the upper-hand in: logic, lore, internal consistency, game-play, BGS, CGs, player group interactions, player-player interactions, and the fact that the only reason this is even an argument is because someone blurted out instant in a stream.

Everything you mentioned is actually in instant's favor. Logic/internal consistency with other game mechanics (outfitting, repair, refueling), lore: hyperspace drives and bulk freighters, gameplay: literally the core instant argument, BGS has been proven to be mostly static, CGs is an other reason for instant so no idea why you listed it beyond hiding it in the middle of your list for padding, player group/player interactions: not possible while waiting unless you're referring to chatting in [local] while docked.

Or maybe you were being sarcastic in your sarcasm? A trojan horse argument? I say this considering you were pointing out all the things wrong with the delay timesinker arguments in one list. There's no other logical reason why you'd put CGs and gameplay in your list.

 

[Cube]

Interesting now to hear people equate not instantly being in the ship they want with death. Over reaction much?

Not even remotely close to the point, but i'll assume you weren't intentionally misunderstanding that to go all hyperbolic on me. good faith arguments and that.

The only difference between moving escape pods and moving ships is that moving an escape pod is actually more lenient because you can do it manned.

if you don't like instant ship transfers buy a stopwatch

 

[Khelder]

Please Please Please don't add more Grind to the game.
I'm fed up of Commanders for "Immersion" forcing a Grind on others.

Neither option is adding more "grind" to the game. If you consider flying your ship a "grind", you are still gaining a huge advantage in being able to transfer your ship without having to do the work yourself. The delayed option keeps exactly the same grind-saving advantage, but simply ensures that the timing of the process maintains game continuity and does not invalidate ship balancing options.

 

[Cube]

Oh G*d... Obviously the clock can't skip, because you're sharing time with other people. You want the game to pause for them?

so it's an instant ship transfer then? a concession to gameplay perhaps? like what the whole instant ship transfer thing is?

 

[Osmanthus]

The cost in gameplay is the inability to do what you currently want to do in the game for a purely arbitrary reason with no real in game mechanic or benefit to explain purpose. The main timesink proponents argue that you can always just do something else.

But there is no transfer mechanism in the current state of the game. How does adding a delayed transfer mechanism *hurt* the current state?

By the same logic, if refueling a ship took 2 hours, for immersion purposes, you can use the same "plan ahead" argument and say the player should bought a second ship and kept that one fueled up.[/
Still can't play now? Then log off and come play again tomorrow and plan ahead more in the future. It's immersive to not play the game. Just like it's immersive to wait 5 hours in a waiting room looking at 10 year old magazines for a mechanic to tell you it's a fried ignition coil instead of being able to drive the car right now.

But this is a slippery slope argument: no one is trying to use the "plan ahead" argument for any reason other than this one. Moreover, you don't lose on gameplay options while waiting for the transferring ship to arrive relative to the current game state, unlike your refuelling option. The point is, relative to the status quo, which is a better option, instant or delayed transfer? The status quo is no transfer at all. If I had to choose between them, I'd choose the delayed option because the costs associated to gameplay relative to the status quo are less than those for instant transfer.

Personally, I'm arguing against the delay for two reasons. One, adding a timesink to a quality of life feature is a terrible idea. A QoL improvement should be removing things that add nothing to the gameplay experience other than forcing the player to wait.

The QoL improvement is to reduce the delays associated with manually having to fly to another station to get your ship. Even with a delay, it's a massive QoL improvement. It's not a 100% time reduction, but it's sizeable. A 100% reduction comes with costs mentioned in the OP.

For example: A "plot course to this mission destination" button in the mission screen or the left transactions screen. This would make the game easier to play while some here would argue for the button to not work for 2 minutes, to simulate the player opening up the galaxy map, clicking on the system, clicking open system view, and then plot route at the station or planet. Does an arbitrary timer forcing the player to wait for 2 minutes make the game more fun? Nope.

But in your example, having zero delay in the plotting feature does not come with a gameplay cost, unlike instant ship transfer.

Could the player do anything else while waiting for a "plot course to mission" button work? Yes, you could look at the cargo screen or adjust the sound while waiting for the "ding, I did that thing you'd do by yourself and did thousands of times before" and then go on their way but why? Why the delay?

Because of the reasons named in OP. Not having a delay would hurt decision-making gameplay, among other reasons.

My second reason is that I've noticed that most timesinkers barely know the game, creating ridiculous scenarios where npcs would fly the ships instead of bulk freighters carrying the ships. They don't know what happened in the previous games and get all confused or frightened when they're shown.

This doesn't affect the arguments proposed for the delay.

 

[Marc_Hicks]

Judging from this thread, if it truly reflects how the community feels about this topic I would say the delay people have it in the bag. FD should send an email to all players informing them of this poll to get the best turn out. If the delay is implemented I think this will be one of the worst decisions in MMO history.

Wow, hyperbole much?

 

[Osmanthus]

That's me trying to make a joke since I don't actually want to completely dehumanize the delay supporters and argue like a robot. My main point is that adding delays doesn't make things challenging or interesting, they just make things tedious. Make transfers cost money, or make them summon pirates at the transfer destination. Anything besides "now the player goes and does something else they don't really want to do".

But relative to the status quo, tedium is already being reduced by the addition of a ship transfer mechanism. ​The question is which mechanism is better?

 

[Cube]

Neither option is adding more "grind" to the game. If you consider flying your ship a "grind", you are still gaining a huge advantage in being able to transfer your ship without having to do the work yourself. The delayed option keeps exactly the same grind-saving advantage, but simply ensures that the timing of the process maintains game continuity and does not invalidate ship balancing options.

What ship balancing options are being invalidated by instant travel?

 

[relayer]

Where did that screenshot come from, beta testing? Looks great!

 

[Repentant]

I see this as an extra feature. So if it takes time for the ship i want to transfer someplace i honestly don't mind at all since it wasn't even possible up to now.
I also think instant teleportation of a ship would have more downsides to it then people think but i guess that's all going to depend on what the player personally likes about the game.

 

[Cube]

But relative to the status quo, tedium is already being reduced by the addition of a ship transfer mechanism. ​The question is which mechanism is better?

As the goal of adding the mechanism is to reduce tedium, then the one that eliminates it entirely is better than the one that greatly diminishes it. logic.

 

[Osmanthus]

I see this as an extra feature. So if it takes time for the ship i want to transfer someplace i honestly don't mind at all since it wasn't even possible up to now.
I also think instant teleportation of a ship would have more downsides to it then people think but i guess that's all going to depend on what the player personally likes about the game.

Why don't more people understand this? Especially the first statement.

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

As the goal of adding the mechanism is to reduce tedium, then the one that eliminates it entirely is better than the one that greatly diminishes it. logic.

That's only true if the one that eliminates it entirely doesn't come with greater gameplay costs than the other option. Logic, and reading comprehension of the OP.

 

[Aussiedroid]

Hey there Sandro,

Vote placed.

I think it would be really good to have these sort of official polls on a regular basis, even weekly via the newsletter. I am sure there are a lot of the community who would like to engage on such things. There are often hot topics on the forums that may benefit from a structured poll and I would expect there are a lot of things the dev team would like to ask the community, whether that be for an upcoming patch or just spit balling ideas that are floating around the office. Earlier gauging of community opinion may help ensure better experiences at patch/fix/update times.

I bring this up as I have seen times in the past where earlier community engagement may have resulted in less negativity or confusion when an update arrives... and this (already looking ahead) is one good example of it!

It is great to see you and the team looking into these concerns, but hope it becomes a more regular thing.

Cheers.
AD

 

[xXR34P3RXx]

Why does this community complain about the most inane     ?


The game has massive flaws like instancing, no galaxy chat, no trading tools, no moderation, no penalty for killing everything you see, supercruise being boring as hell, massive grind, no guilds, BUT NO SHIP TRANSFER IS THE HOT TOPIC.


Anyways, this poll is essentially for naught because the rabid fanboys are going to use their multiple accounts to rig the voting process for the delay side. Watch, 10 bucks says the "delay" crowd wins by a landslide.

 

[Ozram]

What ship balancing options are being invalidated by instant travel?

Every single one which relates to balancing a ships ability to travel vs its ability to do anything else. Throws that right out the window. This has been covered extensively in the thread that inspired the vote on this one.

 

[Marc_Hicks]

As the goal of adding the mechanism is to reduce tedium, then the one that eliminates it entirely is better than the one that greatly diminishes it. logic.

Not if it comes at a cost of gameplay balance. A short delay is still a massive increase in convenience, but one that doesn't throw ship balance & immersion out of the window.

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

Why does this community complain about the most inane     ?


The game has massive flaws like instancing, no galaxy chat, no trading tools, no moderation, no penalty for killing everything you see, supercruise being boring as hell, massive grind, no guilds, BUT NO SHIP TRANSFER IS THE HOT TOPIC.


Anyways, this poll is essentially for naught because the rabid fanboys are going to use their multiple accounts to rig the voting process for the delay side. Watch, 10 bucks says the "delay" crowd wins by a landslide.

Oh look, see we already have the "instant gratification" crowd moaning about the poll being "rigged". Utterly pathetic.

 

[Tsao Nima]

But relative to the status quo, tedium is already being reduced by the addition of a ship transfer mechanism. ​The question is which mechanism is better?

Using a delay doesn't reduce tedium, it just changes the cause (unless delay scaling function is badly designed in which case welcome to pain); for example, when you go to the mission board and there's a 10-second delay for it to come up, then another to accept a mission, it feels tedious. The mission board used to take even longer to load and update, but reducing the time it takes doesn't mean you stop thinking "ugh hurry up". In fact making the delays small enough can make the problem worse, since now they're not noticeable except as an annoyance.

 

[Ozram]

Why does this community complain about the most inane     ?


The game has massive flaws like instancing, no galaxy chat, no trading tools, no moderation, no penalty for killing everything you see, supercruise being boring as hell, massive grind, no guilds, BUT NO SHIP TRANSFER IS THE HOT TOPIC.


Anyways, this poll is essentially for naught because the rabid fanboys are going to use their multiple accounts to rig the voting process for the delay side. Watch, 10 bucks says the "delay" crowd wins by a landslide.

Lol! You will claim voter fraud? The game you describe above is not one I would like to play and thankfully does not accurately reflect elite dangerous as perceived by many of us who enjoy it. If that's how grindy, broken and boring you think it is, the. Instant transfers won't fix that. Why are you even here?

 

[[VR] Goooost]

It obsoletes large hyper-drives in larger ships. People will just taxi from A-B and then instantly SUMMON their fleet, negating the logistics aspect of owning multiple vessels. That is just one example. Also any law handwavium/technobabble to explain away this instant transfer opens a massive can of worms, further cheapening the canon.

Simple fix for the canon- this feature is not canon. Players are special. Don't let the AI find out. There. Canon safe.
If you can't agree with that, please explain the canon of the options menus and the start screens. Explain the canon of changing pilot gender mid flight. Explain the canon of never leaving your ship and never speaking. Get over your stupid canon. You can't ruin it unless you try to explain it.

 

[Khelder]

What ship balancing options are being invalidated by instant travel?

Really?

Having bad jump range (and therefore slow/inconvenient travel time) in certain combat ships is no longer a factor. You can simply go to your location in a cheap ship with longer range (people have been dubbing them "taxis") and instantly call in your low-range ship. Deciding to spend money on a higher-grade FSD drive as opposed to something like weapons or countermeasures is no longer a factor. You can simply use your long-range "taxi" in place of an expensive FSD drive.