[PROPOSAL] Simple way to utilise "new assets" to make more CMDRs feel special, as well as informing them of "galactic breaking news"?

[NeilF]

[PROPOSAL] Simple way to utilise "new assets" to make more CMDRs feel special, as well as informing them of "galactic breaking news"?

[I mentioned this in another thread, but thought I'd post it in a dedicated new thread]


When a fairly unique new discovery is made (eg: new derelict base, generation ship, alien base, alien growth discovery, even a highly unique geyser location or the like), after a few days, why not start offering a large numbers of CMDRs (who fit any applicable criteria and have not already been to the location) missions to go and scan them (or anything else that makes sense).

ie: A company urgently requests you gather information/data from this exciting new discovery and is willing to pay well if it's obtained quickly for them.

Outcome:-

• This tells CMDRs who do not live on these forums or watch ED youtube videos about new discoveries/assets in the game they may otherwise not know about.
• It make them feel more "special" and that they live in a more interesting and dynamic galaxy - ie: A request just to them to see something they've not heard about!
• They get a mission reward as a good excuse to see/visit the asset. ie: Why not instead just watch a youtube video?

Note: Building on this, the mission depth around these sort of things could surely get more involved. eg: When a generation ship is discovered, after a while (a month later) maybe a scientific vessel is stationed there, and (if you've previously been to the location or taken part in a previous associated mission) you're now offered a mission to take supplies to that vessel, or bring some data back etc etc...

ps: I'm not suggesting spamming CMDRs with such missions/messages, just offering rare periodic ones not only to inform them of interesting "new stuff", but to also offer them reasons for going there, and ultimately some variety in gameplay.

 

[c00ky1970]

Sounds cool.

Although I don't think the mission generation system has a dynamic capability to send you to a destination that has been discovered by a Commander automatically.

LOL, if this was implemented and due to a bug there were sightseeing missions to Raxxla generated!!

 

[NeilF]

Sounds cool.

Although I don't think the mission generation system has a dynamic capability to send you to a destination that has been discovered by a Commander automatically.

LOL, if this was implemented and due to a bug there were sightseeing missions to Raxxla generated!!

Agreed...

Worse case it's someone's job is to introduce these "new locations" into the "batch queue" - along with any if/buts - when they arise...

It could be the same process that ultimately leads them to becoming tourist locations potentially even later on?

 

[goemon]

love the idea.

tip-off mechanics, or the ram tah missions say that the framework for it is somehow in place.

you could couple it with some event (for exampel: selling explo data, or selling explo data wich leads to a faction reputation change ... etc. pp.).

 

[BigFW]

Eminently logical!

Anything to help CMDRS know about and experience new things is welcome.

 

[CMDR CPT. Boris]

nice ideas CMDR

 

[Lily from anim.o.v.e]

sounds like effort, doesn't seems to make it into the game ever.

 

[Sylow]

Great idea! This is possibly the very best way the in-flight mission offers could be used.
.
Please FD, make this happen! It would add so much to the game, while almost all pieces to implement this should already be present.
.

- - - Updated - - -

PS: I think passenger missions also should include all these newfound locations. I mean, we already have a list of destinations for passenger missions. It would be awesome if that list would be updated every other week to include the new discoveries.
.

 

[Belthize]

Nice idea NeilF. I was thinking about making a thread later today where folks like us who have posted comments suggesting that improvements could be made could actually write down in one place the kinds of improvements we're talking about. To be fair as I sat over coffee thinking about it just now it was difficult to come up with concrete ideas. If you have any interest (or if you want to do it yourself since you actually made such a suggestion) I'd be interested in hearing that. It needs to be a curated post that takes ideas and folds them into a coherent model, it can't just be a grab bag of 'make it better' type posts so somebody has to be willing to edit/maintain it.

To your suggestion there are ways to automate the process. It requires that FDEV sit down and create an architecture for this kind of thing. For instance discover-able objects that need to be scanned (genships, ancient ruins, dynasty exploration ships etc) provide exploration data when scanned. As soon as somebody turns in that scanned data the world becomes aware that the object exists.

From that point on the game knows it should begin offering these missions. The mission triggers could be coded such that they have layers of triggers, one for each action FDEV was hoping players take, first discovery turned in, first set of artifacts recovered, first time somebody scans an obelisk with 2 objects etc.

Once the triggers are defined and set up then the missions can be refined. There should be a lot of interest by the minor factions to advance their standing. If they're over the moon reputation and payout wise because I sold them some data about some random star I scanned or because I sold them a 100 tons of Osmium they should be ecstatic if I sold them data about a gen ship. So possibly make the missions be given by a minor faction you have high standing with and happen to be near and make it create a more significant change in your reputation and their BGS standing than a simple trade in.

Short of time, may refine the idea more but the basic idea is to tie these unique features into the broader game features somehow and inform the players via in game mechanisms rather than youtube/forum/discord.

 

[NeilF]

To your suggestion there are ways to automate the process. It requires that FDEV sit down and create an architecture for this kind of thing. For instance discover-able objects that need to be scanned (genships, ancient ruins, dynasty exploration ships etc) provide exploration data when scanned. As soon as somebody turns in that scanned data the world becomes aware that the object exists.

From that point on the game knows it should begin offering these missions. The mission triggers could be coded such that they have layers of triggers, one for each action FDEV was hoping players take, first discovery turned in, first set of artifacts recovered, first time somebody scans an obelisk with 2 objects etc.

Once the triggers are defined and set up then the missions can be refined. There should be a lot of interest by the minor factions to advance their standing. If they're over the moon reputation and payout wise because I sold them some data about some random star I scanned or because I sold them a 100 tons of Osmium they should be ecstatic if I sold them data about a gen ship. So possibly make the missions be given by a minor faction you have high standing with and happen to be near and make it create a more significant change in your reputation and their BGS standing than a simple trade in.

Short of time, may refine the idea more but the basic idea is to tie these unique features into the broader game features somehow and inform the players via in game mechanisms rather than youtube/forum/discord.

Agreed... Things could be automated. Optional follow on mechanics automatically coming into play X wee/months later. eg: Tourist mission coming into existence.

I was thinking about making a thread later today where folks like us who have posted comments suggesting that improvements could be made could actually write down in one place the kinds of improvements we're talking about. To be fair as I sat over coffee thinking about it just now it was difficult to come up with concrete ideas. If you have any interest (or if you want to do it yourself since you actually made such a suggestion) I'd be interested in hearing that. It needs to be a curated post that takes ideas and folds them into a coherent model, it can't just be a grab bag of 'make it better' type posts so somebody has to be willing to edit/maintain it.

Alas many folks have tried this, myself included, and given up - https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=191178

 

[t3l3c0n]

I can see no downsides to this (although I'm sure someone will be along to tell e how this would ruin their Elite experience). This could also surely be implemented in its basic form very easily (just add new discoveries to the list of tourist destinations manually) but could also be filled out more and more to make some really interesting gameplay

 

[Andovar]

I like the idea.
Though I'm expecting at least a few snarky responses here regarding making cmdr's "feel special"

 

[Edith_The_Hutt]

I like this idea. It fits inside existing gameplay parameters, it makes sense in-Universe and it means that more Commanders get to experience and enjoy some of the Variety FDev are adding to the game.

+1 Rep

 

[Haleks]

Agreed... Things could be automated.

Things should be automated, even. The amount of manual interventions from the devs disturbs me - not only for story telling stuff like the Salomé thing, look at the CGs.
Heck, even the newest assets are all hand-placed (correct me if I'm wrong!). And I don't think we have automated colonizations yet?

It feels like we're constantly playing some sort of giant roleplaying game with the devs, that's not really what I envisionned when I bought ED.

 

[Belthize]

Alas many folks have tried this, myself included, and given up - https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=191178

True, I recall that thread (and others).

I was thinking about the issue more this morning and came to a couple of conclusions.

1. FDEV is doing a good job
   • From a story perspective they actually have some compelling story arcs. The alien ruins, gen ships, rift sage, UA/UP stories are all good stories.
   • Their puzzles are properly tuned. The ability for a highly organized group of intelligent people to tweeze out information is substantial. It's hard to make a puzzle difficult enough to keep them engaged for weeks/months without it being impossible. (UA 2D ship model, alien ruin codex etc)
   • They've stated they want the game played using external tools and players have responded with things like the Cannon,
2. A major problem is the temporal nature of game events
   • Some things aren't in when folks go looking. For example I poked around for gen ships a year ago doing mostly what folks do now, didn't spot the beacons or a genship, probably because they weren't in. Ditto for UA/UP etc.
   • For folks that come along 6 months to a year later the world has moved on so reproducing events is hard. For example in 6 months a new player won't know there are even ruins to be found unless they troll through the forums and see a comment about them and there's no way for them by themselves to decode the puzzle so they're left with just reading through the spoiler-esque (but excellently done) documentation on sites like the Cannon.
3. There's little tie in between the background day to day nature of the game and these events.
   • The actors aren't aware of it, outside of Ram nobody in the ED world seems to be aware or even care about Ancient Ruins, except they do because he was attacked and forced to move. Presumably if folks cared enough to attack him they should care enough to either help (through info) or hinder (through interdiction) the player depending on their motivation
   • The BGS doesn't care about it, so make turning in event data to a minor faction a significant boon to that faction (and your rep)

At some level I understand I need to change my expectations. In most games I'm happy to adapt to the mechanics of the game and don't really get to Jones'd about balance issues or realism issue but for this area it's so integral to my world view that I find it difficult to adapt to the jarring disconnect between micro events in game and macro events that play out nearly externally to the game.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

+1

If I were a dev I'd have the missions in there but locked behind the spawn algorithm. When something gets found do a server side hotfix style update to allow X mission to spawn. Simple yet it works.

 

[NeilF]

I'd suggest the capital ship wreck site at HIP 10744 used for last week's Thargoid announcement CG is now sitting there basically pointless?

Could we not have missions to go and collect cannisters or debris from there? Prevent some pirates looting the wreck (ie: fight them off)? Taking supplies to scientific ships there? etc etc...

ps: See ship-to-ship docking for an interesting way we could deliver supplies to these NPCs...

 

[Deleted member 115407]

Been suggesting this (OP) for a while, OP.

This game should be guiding us, through contacts and tip-offs and flash missions, to all of the cool storyline stuff out there. As it stands now, it's far too easy to feel disconnected from the major story arcs - everything is second hand. CMDR Joe Shmoe discovered a generation ship. CMDR Stinky Poobottom found an old mining installation. Watch the youtube video and visit the Canonn thread for coordinates. Meanwhile your CMDR is just some schmuck without any kind of purpose or connection.

That's why all of the thargoid hype is non-plussing for me. I haven't been given much to be hyped about.

And, like I've said numerous times, I don't buy video games so that other people can experience the content. I buy them so that I can experience the content.

 

[Fosdyke]

Nice idea! A great way to involve more commanders in this big evolving galaxy
Can't rep you more, virtual one +1

 

[NeilF]

Been suggesting this (OP) for a while, OP.

This game should be guiding us, through contacts and tip-offs and flash missions, to all of the cool storyline stuff out there. As it stands now, it's far too easy to feel disconnected from the major story arcs - everything is second hand. CMDR Joe Shmoe discovered a generation ship. CMDR Stinky Poobottom found an old mining installation. Watch the youtube video and visit the Canonn thread for coordinates. Meanwhile your CMDR is just some schmuck without any kind of purpose or connection.

That's why all of the thargoid hype is non-plussing for me. I haven't been given much to be hyped about.

And, like I've said numerous times, I don't buy video games so that other people can experience the content. I buy them so that I can experience the content.

Indeed...

The worry is a lot of the Thargoid stuff will be announced via youtube videos and emails and Galnet etc.

Wouldn't it be nice for those CMDRs not aware of something to get a mission to introduce them to it?