The last poll showed that 75%+ preferred a wait over instant and that is what this is to decide.
***POLL NOW CLOSED*** IMPORTANT, OFFICIAL SHIP TRANSFER POLL
- Thread starter Sandro Sammarco
- Start date
- Status
The last poll showed that 75%+ preferred a wait over instant and that is what this is to decide.
I'm not going to debate the merits of extreme solutions. I have seen hundreds of "yes please timed travel but can we talk about the delay?"; this would indicate that there is a middle ground, that the poll ignores, because it asks a binary question and proposes a delay that is addressed by a static timer.
Frontier is taking exactly the same extreme stance as proponents of either model are; defaulting to an extreme. They are simply going to add a timer. Whether or not there is actually ever any in-game representation of that timer?
I'd suggest looking at rare goods and powerplay for the answer, as to how that will be illustrated in future (hint, it probably won't be anything more than a timer).
Last edited:
There is a reason this game doesn't have a massive player base - and that attitude is it. EVE manages to have more players at any given time (lowest being 21k) than ED has had at it's peak ( 3,452 playing now 6,348 today's peak 18,039 all-time peak ) and that's because EVE has gone out of the way to attract casuals and hard core players.
FD is busy listening to people who want Elite from 1980s, but a game that appeals to that crowd will never have the mass appeal of a true modern MMO which is what ED has tried and claimed to be.
We've thought about it and don't agree with it. A lot of us have already thought this through quite substantially in order to try to find a middle ground; including a suggestion like yours. There was nothing bad about your suggestion, we simply don't agree it can work. It has nothing to do with "entrenchment."
Accusing us of being stubborn and closed-minded is simply unfair.
But it obviously needs to be more because of mah immersion and pvp balance in a game that has a group and solo mode.
Can't compromise. That will leave everyone unhappy in the long-term. I do agree with sandro in that the design decision has to be meaningful, one way or another. (But still I don't see why they can't include both)
Better to cave for immersion and perceived balance issues before even testing instant transfer, obviously.
In all seriousness I think timed transfer will go in and most will be unhappy thinking the time transfer is too long to be useful or too short for mah immersion.
I'd rather fdev stuck to their well-reasoned initial instant transfer argument which was consistent with their design goals instead of this hot mess. They've opened pandora's box.
Last edited:
Sandro did mention in the thread at least that they will be considering other elements of this as well, such as requesting ships to be sent places instead of just calling them to your current location.
I think a delay helps open up these further possibilities for a more compelling game. Of course that depends what Frontier actually do with it.
I agree that it definitely isn't just a "black and white" issue, but having a polar poll like this, I at least prefer having the delay over not having it as I think it more aptly fits the game and still provides an additional QoL feature above what we have now.
I vote that not only should it take, time, but in doing so it has a mechanic similar to the dismissal/recall of your ship when you are planet-side...
Your figuring does not take into account interdictions slowing you down as well so the added timed kind of does
You'll see that the majority of people in the delay camp are mostly open to discussion on numbers - some want a token delay just for the principle, others want a delay long enough for you to actually have time undocking, doing things and coming back for your ship(s) (the idea is that a 5 minute delay will lead people to just sit and wait... don't know if that's the best solution).
But that's only the delay side, there. There is a middle ground amongst this side, but no middle ground between the 2 IMO. Those who want instant will seemingly never be satisfied by a delay, and greatly annoyed by even 5 minutes timer.
I'm not judging any stance right now - but there was no middle ground from the get-go, and there can't be one single solution to fit them all. You need two solutions in that case.
I voted no delay. With over 2k hours overall, i'm not interested in waiting any amount of time for my ship. The game is already slow enough, 100 minutes?! i could jump a hauler taxi 500 lys in 20 minutes.
Edit: Immersion is no excuse, we deal with immersion breaking all the time. What about being in the year 3302 with no money transfer?? Combat logging??? Come on.
Edit: Immersion is no excuse, we deal with immersion breaking all the time. What about being in the year 3302 with no money transfer?? Combat logging??? Come on.
Last edited:
This is actually irrelevant. Our ships are transported, they do not fly. The carrier would potentially be something beyond the size of a majestic class interdictor. Hence the term "transported". It wouldn't even notice if it ran over 4 anaconda on the way to a station, barely a bump - if you are going to RP this mechanic.
You think frontier is going to build an entire graphical representation of a timer in game? Huh. This poll, is to solidify if there will be a timer, or not. That's it. How that translates in game, hasn't even been considered at this point.
Last edited:
I reckon this 100 min timer would mostly benefit people needing to transport multiple ships and much less the guy needing one ship at another corner (removes taxi tedium though...). the numbers would be tweaked I guess, if delay's a thing.
But's that's the thing. Sandro is designing to a doctrine, not a compromise. This poll is asking for meaningful (session-long for transfer) delay or no delay. There is no magic number in the middle that everyone will be happy with, and Sandro isn't trying to find that. He's revamping the design goals for the transfer system, not seeking a middle mythical number of happiness (42 is the mythical number of happiness, btw, and the answer to everything).
So adding a timer won't really help with agreements. No matter what the time it takes for a ship to move, very few will find it acceptable, and many will find it too long for their liking or too short for their immersion or to meet their perception of the game's balance.
Last edited:
Unless they get over 400,000 votes total then the 700 people that voted doesnt mean a thing. There are over 800000 copies of this game sold on steam alone. In the last week almost 100,000 players logged in. 6000 logged in via steam yesterday.
So if the vote does not equal at least 400,000 votes one way or the other, then this whole poll doesnt mean anything. Even a small sample size of 1% is 8000 votes in total. There is no way that the players of this game will represented regardless as to the results of this poll.
Or the other side can accept that Elite is a game that uses these types of mechanics. They can just accept that Elite is not an arcade game, it was never meant to be an arcade game nor was it ever meant to be a game with instant-gratification.
It seems the wider audience just don't have the patience or time or desire to commit to things like long hauls, or delayed transfer, or high-jump-route-counts; one guy even had an issue taking his combat vessel 100ly.
They don't want to hang around a space station, socialising with other players, doing CQC, or ship browsing, or pilot gear browsing or off-duty clothes browsing, or modifying their personal hanger/apartment whilst cargo is loaded onto their ship in real time (albeit with game-play reason for doing it quite quickly).
They don't want to watch a capital ship sized bulk freighter warp into the system and approach the station, and finally release an array of various ships from her hold. Including theirs and watching as it approaches one of the landing pads.
This, I believe, is Frontier's mistake .. trying to pander to many different types of players, instead of sticking to their guns and saying "This is the game we are making, this is our vision. Be a part of it, instead of trying to make into your own."
I have no idea what it is these players want ... but it's most certainly not Elite ...
Disclaimer: This is of course just my opinion.
The duration of the transfer should be calculated in the same way as using the "fastest route" using the transferred ship's current jump range. The cost should be the cost for the fuel required plus a salary for the pilot.
For the sake of simplicity, don't account for fuel stops here (one can argue that the required fuel is stored in the cargo bay and transferred to the primary and auxiliary tanks as needed).
This may appear to give ridiculously high values in some cases, however there are still noticeable benefits for the player using this service:
* he can still do other things while the requested ship is in transfer
* he doesn't need to worry about getting interdicted or almost fried by a jump too close to a star during the trip
This implementation would leave a lot of possibilities for improvements or enhancements, for example
* add an option to cancel transfer of the ship, or re-route the transfer destination.
* give the player the option to choose between different pilots to do the task, with different skill levels and prices. With a less skilled pilot the ship may be more damaged when it arrives at the destination, whereas a better pilot could give a small bonus on the time needed to deliver the ship.
For the sake of simplicity, don't account for fuel stops here (one can argue that the required fuel is stored in the cargo bay and transferred to the primary and auxiliary tanks as needed).
This may appear to give ridiculously high values in some cases, however there are still noticeable benefits for the player using this service:
* he can still do other things while the requested ship is in transfer
* he doesn't need to worry about getting interdicted or almost fried by a jump too close to a star during the trip
This implementation would leave a lot of possibilities for improvements or enhancements, for example
* add an option to cancel transfer of the ship, or re-route the transfer destination.
* give the player the option to choose between different pilots to do the task, with different skill levels and prices. With a less skilled pilot the ship may be more damaged when it arrives at the destination, whereas a better pilot could give a small bonus on the time needed to deliver the ship.
No, i don't have the time to sit and wait for my ship for 2 hours. It's a colossal waste of my time i could be using to get in a hauler and get the thing myself. Immersion is no excuse at all.
- Status