Ship Transfer Costs - These Prices are Nutty!
- Thread starter DullingWine
- Start date
There is a major difference between instant vs delayed ship transfer and those other things you mention, you can carry on playing while a ship is transferred, there is zero gameplay to be had in watching guns get fitted, cargo getting loaded or ships being refuelled, (though some form of small cut scene for one or more of them I personally wouldn't mind!).
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That's not an incorrect summary: but it's important to note that the emphasis is on "demand".
In a true sim: immersion might indeed trump game-play.
In ED: immersion is a part of the game, and laudable, but not something you can just handwave away gameplay complaints with.
A: "This mechanic makes the game less fun"
B: "immersion!" and walks off.
And we see that a lot. An attempt to discuss an issue with a feature is simply ignored by someone dismissively saying (well: usually religiously chanting) "immersion"; and that's why it's sometimes treated as a dirty word.
So don't watch them. Go do something else in a different ship.. .you know, like you are doing in a different ship while awaiting a transfer.
Sorry, but I have already acheived that goal, and the cost is simply unrealistic for both examples given, either have instant transfer with high costs attached to it or have delayed transfer with a more realistic cost modal, I would have gladly paid 100 Million for a Cutter to be transfered that distance as well as I would have paid 10 million for my Asp to be transfered that distance and wait the 61H transit time, but this current pricing is just pure and utter ridiculous.
People who have seen the numerous explanations that your ship is transferred on a bulk carrier and so know things like its jump range have nothing to do with the price.
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I see your point, however, in a game like Elite, (semi sim), it does have to be a balance, you, I and Deadpin agree the line in the sand should exist, we just disagree on where. As someone above said as well, there has to come a point where the game we are playing has to respect it's lore and history to some degree, for some of us forumites, and apparently for Frontier in the end, the instant option crossed too many boundaries, not just in terms of 'immersion', (though I'm sure and happy if that was a considieration), but also in terms of gameplay and the pretty rich Lore of the franchise.
We had a poll asking if it a game breaker.
The poll was on PC , mac and even on the Xbox.
Most voted that instant transfer was bad.
Then just on the forums there was a poll about changing the prices and making it fast : most wanted it to stay as is.
Instant ship transfer was such a deal breaker it killed my intrest in the game until they gave us the poll.
It was against everything they told us in kickstarter , everything the old games are about. it was just a shortcut that would kill immersion.
Loudouts , cargo and fuel are not multiple tones of high tech ships being transported lightyears , but just prestocked EQ or a lequid being pumped into the ship.
Agreed.
How about time or money. Both is... well, this will likely be added to the list of features I don't use... which makes them (from my perspective) not features.
holy crap what's that? it goes beyond the value of the ship and its module contents?
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I rarely fly small ships. So no, not everyone. So while I'm okay with the cost for small ships, I'm not happy with the cost for the ship I fly (My corvette) 99% of the time in the bubble. What I wanted was to be able to switch between my iEagle, gunship, Keelback, FAS, and Corvette as I felt like it. Because I spend so much time in my Vette having a reason to switch when I felt like it was a great idea. Only if I don't want to spend 1-36 million credits, I have to fly that same ship back I transferred to avoid that. Making the feature pointless and making me only stick to my Vette in the bubble.[/QUOTE]
I believe that the lack of tactical flexibility this brings to large ships to be a nice counter to their superiority in every other aspect of the game, save rebuy cost. I consider that a free and instant ship transfer would moot this downside entirely, so do not favour it. Personally, I'll be using the feature mainly on dual CGs, I think: the ones where you take the trade ship and think 'I want to do the BH too, so will get my Courier over here for it. I was half-expecting the cost to shift the FDL to hot zones to be too high.
Well, I'm sorry they aren't all happy, but I don't see the price of moving a small ship to be expensive. That's in general terms, rather than personal ones [I'm not sitting in an ivory tower thinking 'I have X billions, so it is cheap']: A couple of million is less than an hour of work, after all.
Ultimately any decision will impact someone negatively. We all can decide whether we prefer to get what we want, or to cater to the feelings and game experience of a complete stranger who - at best - holds a differing opinion and - at worse - holds a demonstrably wrong opinion and is being abusive towards us.
Come now, less of the 'certain people said' thing. Certain people will always be unreasonable, in any situation. We can ignore them. They have no place in the argument and irrational mewing does not diminish .
Which makes it a luxury item. A choice for those of us who would rather be getting on with something more profitable and fun. I'm personally ok with that, rather than it being a routine way of travelling. A dreaded a bubble full of Asps, zipping around at 50LY, and then summoning warbeasts with D-rated FSDs willy-nilly.
Yes, you would. Did you think I did not realise that?
That gives prey a 15 minute head-start and the predators an admission price to the fish-barrel.
Fair play, I think: The prey gets a window of safe opportunity if they can capitalise. I see that as a good thing, particularly in the wake of the treasure hunt, where speed was very much a factor. I see more of these happening in the future, and think it worth bearing in mind.
The time delay does not prevent aggressive players from having fun nor limit their impact, but does provide a portion of prey a head-start if they are canny. Or the predators can elect to use something less than the biggest stick they have in favour of a faster reaction time, which gives them a choice, too - and one which might slightly shift towards the prey in an asymmetric conflict which heavily favours aggressors. I like the gameplay factor of this.
Do I, now? Wonderful how you can see inside my head.
No, I don't. I'm happy to take a hit here and there as regards personal preference in where things are headed. On the other hand I'm not going to roll over and just not state my opinion, nor argue for it [unless someone can illustrate why I'm wrong. It happens sometimes. Which is rather the point of reading other people's replies] if in an area of the game which I feel matters to me personally. Everyone has an opinion, and as much as I like everyone to get what they want, some opinions I do not agree with and do not want to see instituted, even though it makes them unhappy.
We have ship transport. It is fairly cheap except in extreme cases: Huge ships and Jaques. it is strategic in nature. I'm actually good with that, even though I don't really like the who feature in many ways.
We are so far into hypotheticals there mate that I'm not going to proceed, point is, you are in a ship while waiting for a ship to be transferred, how you spend that time is up to you. Ship transfer is here, refuelling, reloading and oil change mechanics are not.
Maybe *after* they've got into the game and seen the prices for themselves, though.
I don't know why we still have people thinking that the reason for delayed ship transfers was "immersion". That's just not true at all, there are so many non-immersive features in the game that FD is perfectly fine with despite them making no logical sense.
The ONLY reason we got delayed ship transfers was game balance, to stop players flying everywhere with their Asp and then insta-transferring their FDL or Corvette in a fraction of the time it would have taken to fly their short-range combat ship to their destination.
The problem now is that FD has put such a high price tag on ship transfers that it just makes no sense to use it at all. You could literally buy a new ship for less than it costs to transfer a ship more than few jumps. Not to mention the massive 90% nerf to mission rewards that we got with 2.2. (particularly the Sothis/Ceos payouts which was the main source of income for most players) makes it even more ridiculous to charge such high prices for transfers.
FD just has no idea how to balance a game or any sense of what the average Elite player has in terms of time or credits. The fact that we got 3 weeks of "beta" prior to this nonsense tells me that FD isn't even trying at this point and doesn't seem capable of producing balanced gameplay.
The ONLY reason we got delayed ship transfers was game balance, to stop players flying everywhere with their Asp and then insta-transferring their FDL or Corvette in a fraction of the time it would have taken to fly their short-range combat ship to their destination.
The problem now is that FD has put such a high price tag on ship transfers that it just makes no sense to use it at all. You could literally buy a new ship for less than it costs to transfer a ship more than few jumps. Not to mention the massive 90% nerf to mission rewards that we got with 2.2. (particularly the Sothis/Ceos payouts which was the main source of income for most players) makes it even more ridiculous to charge such high prices for transfers.
FD just has no idea how to balance a game or any sense of what the average Elite player has in terms of time or credits. The fact that we got 3 weeks of "beta" prior to this nonsense tells me that FD isn't even trying at this point and doesn't seem capable of producing balanced gameplay.
Sorry but that's not the way Sandro presented it originally during Gamecon. He said it was a Quality of Life improvement so if you wanted to do something that required a ship that was somewhere else, you could access your ship, immediately, and go do some mining, or bounty hunting, or whatever. Yes, you could also use it to relocate your fleet, but he never said it was something you would only use rarely.
Yes I agree that a poll was carried out and I was a participent in it, however, the prices are simply not a realistic part of the transfer mechenism and need to be rebalanced, I don't mind a cost and a time scale but I do wan't it to be fair which I don't think it is.
As I said, keep the delay, but make the costs more realistic.