Telepresence is not necessary.

[Garbarrage]

So, the Devs were faced with a conundrum. Distance is covered very slowly in this game and they're about to introduce a cool new feature which might require CMDRs to be in the same place at the same time, and this is too restrictive. Many players may just ignore the feature because it's inconvenient.

The "lore" explanation given is honestly, pants. I get that they are sacrificing realism for accessibility, but telepresence creates so many holes in the lore that it's like they just stopped trying and just went with whatever they had at release.

I posted this in another telepresence thread, but this forum wouldn't feel right without every aspect of a single topic getting it's own thread and suggestions posted in General Discussion. So:

How about they allow players to play as CMDRs for hire at stations, in place of current NPC crew at stations? Your actual character could be anywhere in the galaxy. But CMDR NPC-for-hire is available right now in Leonard Nimoy Station, or whichever station is nearest to your friend that needs a gunner. When you're done, you simply terminate the contract and your temporary character disappears back into the ether where all the other crew members go.

You could do some other cool stuff with the idea too. Like allowing players to use the CMDR Creator to create their temporary character. Maybe even write they're own back story blurb for the crew screen in the station.

It could be a cool way for players to meet other players in game. How about allowing players to hang around in the crew lounge of popular stations with their temporary CMDR, and identify the station on the map as having player crew for hire?

The idea here is that the gameplay is still fun and accessible, but there's no need for clunky shoe-horned lore-breaking explanations. You'd lose the ability to jump into a ship mid battle, but I didn't like that idea anyway.

Thoughts?

 

[Noctover]

Telepresence dosent bother me, but it reallyyyyy riles some people up.

I still think the best way to go about it if they were to go down a different route is...Have other commanders embody crew members that you must have to be eligible for the system.

It would solve many issues, one being..How weird do big ships feel? I mean they call us commanders but we dont command anything, we are captains.

Im not a "meh immursion" guy but when i look around my clippers huge cockpit with the 2nd chair thats always empty and the side panels with placeholder info and sitting stations i just think......Well its like taking a bus to work instead of my car, it feels kinda ridiculous to be in ships the size of football fields with just 1 person on board.

So, give us AI crew in all the ships that are MC compatible and let other players embody them during MC, jobs a gooden .

 

[Garbarrage]

That works too.

Honestly, I don't care about "immersion". But I think, if they're going to bother with lore, at least make it consistent. There's just too many holes in telepresence. The hacking thing is particularly feeble. I can't send data from system to system because it might get hacked, but an interface that allows a person beam a hologram into my ship and control parts of it remotely is a-okay. Sure, he can't control the helm, but what's stopping them for shooting the nose of your ship off. Safety protocols? Seems like they could be hacked too.

Also, I can beam a human hologram from Beagle Point to the bubble in real time, but not the complete market info for stations in the near neighbourhood.

 

[space pilot]

I like the idea of CMDRs being for hire.

Another alternative to telepresence would be posting Boom CMDR Delivery missions. Pay to have you or your crew member transported across the galaxy.

 

[Tentacle Love]

You could always roleplay that you stumbled across some npc-for-hire types while out and about anywhere, really.

Want to invite friends to a multi crew session, but you're currently out in uncharted space? Just pretend like you found a cryosleep escape pod and woke up the occupants, who were shipwrecked after thargoids captured their vessel and spit em back out into a random part of the galaxy.

 

[Garbarrage]

You could always roleplay that you stumbled across some npc-for-hire types while out and about anywhere, really.

Want to invite friends to a multi crew session, but you're currently out in uncharted space? Just pretend like you found a cryosleep escape pod and woke up the occupants, who were shipwrecked after thargoids captured their vessel and spit em back out into a random part of the galaxy.

See? You're not even trying and you've come up with a better suggestion than "Telepresence".





I'm not trying to go hard on them, even though it may appear that way. There's enough timesinks in this game without adding more, but it seems like they gave up a bit too easily on this. You could see in the Q&A that Sandro wasn't totally happy with the explanation. The question is, with so many holes in this one, and so many other non-lorebreaking ways of explaining the gameplay, why did they run with this?

 

[nexxo]

So, the Devs were faced with a conundrum. Distance is covered very slowly in this game and they're about to introduce a cool new feature which might require CMDRs to be in the same place at the same time, and this is too restrictive. Many players may just ignore the feature because it's inconvenient.

The "lore" explanation given is honestly, pants. I get that they are sacrificing realism for accessibility, but telepresence creates so many holes in the lore that it's like they just stopped trying and just went with whatever they had at release.

I posted this in another telepresence thread, but this forum wouldn't feel right without every aspect of a single topic getting it's own thread and suggestions posted in General Discussion. So:

How about they allow players to play as CMDRs for hire at stations, in place of current NPC crew at stations? Your actual character could be anywhere in the galaxy. But CMDR NPC-for-hire is available right now in Leonard Nimoy Station, or whichever station is nearest to your friend that needs a gunner. When you're done, you simply terminate the contract and your temporary character disappears back into the ether where all the other crew members go.

You could do some other cool stuff with the idea too. Like allowing players to use the CMDR Creator to create their temporary character. Maybe even write they're own back story blurb for the crew screen in the station.

It could be a cool way for players to meet other players in game. How about allowing players to hang around in the crew lounge of popular stations with their temporary CMDR, and identify the station on the map as having player crew for hire?

The idea here is that the gameplay is still fun and accessible, but there's no need for clunky shoe-horned lore-breaking explanations. You'd lose the ability to jump into a ship mid battle, but I didn't like that idea anyway.

Thoughts?

I like. I like a lot.

Moreover it would open a new career path. Suppose your ship gets destroyed, you haven't got sufficient insurance for a rebuy and your credits are so low that you can't even buy a stock Sidewinder. Just go to the pilot lounge as a crew-for-hire and earn credits until you can buy your own iron again. Transport other players' ships for them (a handy way to get around without your own ride, take some cargo along), or be someone's multicrew gunner or fighter for a while.

Makes much more sense. Bonus: the pilot's lounge can act like a chat room for players. Extra bonus: drop in some NPCs who mention 'rumours', have confidential tips or get you in touch with agent missions. Extra extra bonus: pipe Radio Sidewinder through the lounge music system; have wall TV screens with in-game news items flashing up, or the names of Commanders who discovered new systems. Stuff like that.

 

[Kirth]

I'm sure your intentions are fine, but in the final analysis, it boils down to adding extra steps for people to have fun, in order to placate the never placated tiny-but-vocal player 'immersionists'.

Sometimes people need to play another game instead of shoehorning elements into a game that they demand should meet their every need and desire. Elite Dangerous isn't a sim, it doesn't have to adhere to reason or reality and doesn't. There are plenty of 'lore-breaking' elements in the game presently. Its a game and gameplay always comes first.

 

[space pilot]

Sometimes people need to play another game instead of shoehorning elements into a game that they demand should meet their every need and desire. Elite Dangerous isn't a sim, it doesn't have to adhere to reason or reality and doesn't. There are plenty of 'lore-breaking' elements in the game presently. Its a game and gameplay always comes first.

"400 billion star systems at an incredible 1:1 scale, with a full galactic and technological simulation based on real scientific principles."

From: https://www.elitedangerous.com/

 

[Madrax573]

Telepresence doesn't sit right with me purely because it's at such odds with the rest of the ED game world and feels like mocked up solution to a few players gripes.

I don't have any problems with other suggestions around being a CMDR for hire etc but again it detracts from the whole game world. My suggestion would be to allow multiple CMDRS per account. Have each CMDR completely separate from the other so you can can't trade between them etc but this then allows Explorers to go out into the black and do what you want but also to have a ALT CMDR in the bubble set up to join up with friends should the need arise.

And in all honesty I saw the same questions/concerns raised early in the life of EVE where people wanted to be able to fleet up with friends but they were halfway across the game galaxy. It wasn't until much much later that they introduced the 'Jump Clones' to allow more access around the place. I personally had a couple of these JC and 99% of the time were never used.

 

[c00ky1970]

I actually don't like telepresence, so when ever I see it I replace it with the word "magic" this helps me immensely and it keeps my immersion at 100%

 

[Peter Thompson]

What bothers me about telepresence is the can of worms it opens. Why fly in your ship at all if you risk dying and it can be done remotely? Couldn't we just remotely travel to SRVs and surfaces? What about stations? Why cant I holo me there and do some of my business like grab missions? If so, why use ships at all to explore? why not focus on one big ship everyone can telepresence to?

I don't know. Gameplay over logic is needed sometimes, but I wish it was done in a less slippery slope kind of way.

 

[Chpouky]

My guess is, telepresence is a necessary placeholder before we get spacelegs.

 

[Suteksio]

My guess is, telepresence is a necessary placeholder before we get spacelegs.

I don't see how space legs will change the telepresence thing. Explain please.

 

[Kirth]

"400 billion star systems at an incredible 1:1 scale, with a full galactic and technological simulation based on real scientific principles."

From: https://www.elitedangerous.com/

I'm not sure what your point is because you haven't made one. Are you implying that Elite is a simulator because the galaxy is based on our own? I guess that makes the flying mechanics in any games a sim because the flying is within an earth modelled on our own.

 

[Chpouky]

I don't see how space legs will change the telepresence thing. Explain please.

Until now, we didn't have any way of going into someone else's ship. Spacelegs is far from ready apparently, so they needed something else for us to play together until then.
So now, they can tweak the different multi crew roles based on player's feedback, so it will be ready when we'll be able to go manually into those seats.

But that's just my guess..

 

[Lucifer Hate]

I would have thought the overwhelming ship transport vote would have told them what a majority of the active players were looking for in this game. I guess they did not get that message. I think it has reached the point alot of people are just waiting for a worthy competitor in the space genre. I truly hope FD gets the message before that day comes.

 

[Kirth]

I would have thought the overwhelming ship transport vote would have told them what a majority of the active players were looking for in this game. I guess they did not get that message. I think it has reached the point a lot of people are just waiting for a worthy competitor in the space genre. I truly hope FD gets the message before that day comes.

The ship transport vote did not include the majority of active players of whom do not post in the forum and so could not represent what they want. It's not even a representative sample either of the player base, just a sample of players who use the forum and were motivated to vote.

 

[Tarman]

I'm sure your intentions are fine, but in the final analysis, it boils down to adding extra steps for people to have fun, in order to placate the never placated tiny-but-vocal player 'immersionists'.

Sometimes people need to play another game instead of shoehorning elements into a game that they demand should meet their every need and desire. Elite Dangerous isn't a sim, it doesn't have to adhere to reason or reality and doesn't. There are plenty of 'lore-breaking' elements in the game presently. Its a game and gameplay always comes first.

If you're going to have an explanation for something in the world of your game at all, it's really great if it fits with other things you've said previously about the world of your game.

There has been enough work done by FD on the world and its setup, that including a lore element that bbqs lots of the underpinnings of the game concepts actually does affect how many people perceive the game. Food is nutritious apart from taste, for example, but most people do not want strawberry-kiwi sauce on their mashed potatoes and roast beef in place of gravy.

Lore doesn't usually beat gameplay in and of itself, but this is just some very poor and un-necessary lore that has done nothing but stir up flames. A different explanation with some actual thought, or even better, "holymoly it's a gamefeature", would have been better for FD than telepresence, because the concept directly contradicts a lot of gameplay design elements such as ship control and market data. YOU specifically are saying "holymoly gamefeature", but you also are not FD. FD has basically said "it's this ill-defined technology that undermines a lot of what we said before about ingame technology and why you as players can't do certain things based on said technology".


EDIT above: IIRC the vote went through the game launcher.

 

[Lucifer Hate]

The ship transport vote did not include the majority of active players of whom do not post in the forum and so could not represent what they want. It's not even a representative sample either of the player base, just a sample of players who use the forum and were motivated to vote.

Except active players were sent notification of the vote so they had the choice to vote or not, so if the game was important enough to them they had a choice to input which shows how active they are truly. It was still a 70/30 percent difference which shows something.