Olivia's Insane meta-game idea: The hardcore Ship Simulator

[Olivia Vespera]

Notes to the mods: This isn't a suggestion or a piece of feedback directed at Frontier Developments. This is a planned out workable proposal for players to enact. The target audience is general players. Not folks looking to give feedback or suggestions to Frontier Developments.

The Mission
Live out an ultra hardcore, real-time fantasy of a long range commercial liner
Journey 21,000ly to Colonia in 6 days using a shift crew of 8 members in with their passengers, the viewers on a twitch stream for 3 days.

The Ship
A specially outfitted Anaconda known as the Airframe Express
It has a 34.36ly laden jump range and a 160t fueltank.

Your company has skimped on the fuel scoop so it will take approximately 2 hours 30 minutes 62 minutes 13.5 minutes to refuel your ship after every 27 jumps.

The Passengers
The viewers of the twitch stream. In roleplay, 12 first class passengers who want to see the sights.
You are required to spend at least 30 minutes in an interesting system exploring, to give them time to rest between an extended course of jumping. (25 jumps)

The Cargo
2 tonnes of food. 10 tonnes of emergency food in case of emergency.
4 tonnes of water (including emergency rations.
16 tons of various Rare Commodities

​

There will be three roles... Helsman/Captain, Sensor/SLF Fighter pilot, Cabin Crew/Gunner

• Helmsman will be in charge of flying the ship
• Sensors will be in charge of looking for interesting planets on the discovery map
• Cabin Crew will be in charge of stream moderation, answering questions and relaying questions to the crew.

The 8 crew members will take it in shifts of 3.

• The morning shift (3 crew members)
• The afternoon shift (3 crew members)
• The night shift (2 crew membrs)

During Night shift, Only Helmsman and Cabin Crew will be around. The Cabin Crew will take on the role of Sensors.

MonkeyWrenches
Using a form of twitch donation (if it is legal to do so)
Allow viewers to introduce a an issue that the active crew has to resolve. The higher the donation, the higher the severity of the monkeywrench.

---

The most pressing question is how do we get 3 captains to exchange the helm control?

That is left as an exercise for the reader.


In terms of ways that do not break EULA, Preparation is key.

Full calculations here:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UTqv2jegtBJH61BbX8WkbfCtx0mm6AJ5RErBPH-JIX4/edit#gid=0
References for Life Support Requirements here:http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/lifesupport.php#id--Requirements--Food

Comment and hope you folks have fun with this idea^^ Let me know if you would participate is I were to say host something like this next week.

Note: This is not a thread for you to bash Frontier.
Note 2: A tonne is equivalent to one register ton or 2.83168 m3 in volume.​

 

[ForeverN00b]

Perhaps 3 players in a given location on one machine per role. Given the nature of the playerbase of the game, England is probably your best bet. You might be able to find 3 willing players in USA or Australia but the odds are probably greater in GB.

Edit: I take it login sharing across computers and users is against the EULA?

 

[Olivia Vespera]

Perhaps 3 players in a given location on one machine per role. Given the nature of the playerbase of the game, England is probably your best bet. You might be able to find 3 willing players in USA or Australia but the odds are probably greater in GB.

That makes the most sense.

Edit: I take it login sharing across computers and users is against the EULA?

I strongly discourage anyone from going against EULA.

 

[kofeyh]

Interesting. However maybe engage Frontier to see how they can potentially assist with helm control or multi-crew aspects; sharing account access (unless otherwise permitted) is strictly a no-no as far as either the ToS and EULA is concerned; and would almost certainly be needed to swap over helm of a singular vessel. So (personally?) I'd deep six that entire idea up front.

The alternative; is to 'relay' via the exact same ship name and fit, across the three helm accounts (as in, each shift is run by the rotation commander, and leverages multi-crew). This would allow the narrative you want, perhaps? It's an old movie trick; have 12 cars that are identical and swap 'em out as needed to tell the story.

The problem, is that for that to work; the off-shift commanders have to chase in the background to be in the same location ready to swap in. This would be fine if there are a few days between streams; but for real-time, this means they are shadow-jumping like crazy to be ready to 'swap in' behind the scenes.

Like I said; maybe talk to frontier, as they might be able to spare someone to move a few ships around. Otherwise it's some serious time investment from commanders.

Please be aware that MC is notoriously bad when endlessly jumping during exploration, though. Like, not even remotely supportive of this. I'm not sure if you've tried MC when exploring. It's, well, it's not the best. It's pretty bad. So there's going to be some logistics around having the crew basically being geographically very close to the helm; otherwise it's going to be an endless charade of people disconnecting.

An interesting idea, none-the-less.

 

[Valorin]

That really sounds like fun!

 

[Olivia Vespera]

Interesting. However maybe engage Frontier to see how they can potentially assist with helm control or multi-crew aspects; sharing account access (unless otherwise permitted) is strictly a no-no as far as either the ToS and EULA is concerned; and would almost certainly be needed to swap over helm of a singular vessel. So (personally?) I'd deep six that entire idea up front.

The alternative; is to 'relay' via the exact same ship name and fit, across the three helm accounts (as in, each shift is run by the rotation commander, and leverages multi-crew). This would allow the narrative you want, perhaps? It's an old movie trick; have 12 cars that are identical and swap 'em out as needed to tell the story.

The problem, is that for that to work; the off-shift commanders have to chase in the background to be in the same location ready to swap in. Like I said; maybe talk to frontier, as they might be able to spare someone to move a few ships around.

Please be aware that MC is notoriously bad when endlessly jumping during exploration, though. Like, not even remotely supportive of this. I'm not sure if you've tried MC when exploring. It's, well, it's not the best. It's pretty bad. So there's going to be some logistics around having the crew basically being geographically very close to the helm; otherwise it's going to be an endless charade of people disconnecting.

An interesting idea, none-the-less.

The relay method is what I was thinking when I said Preparation.

Yep Multicrew is could be troublesome in this scenario. but it's the dream. Maybe we can try a shorter single session test run. Head to Shapley-1 and back.

 

[tea_rex]

You need at least one tonne of tea as well

But in all seriousness, this sounds really really cool!

 

[kofeyh]

The relay method is what I was thinking when I said Preparation.

Yep Multicrew is could be troublesome in this scenario. but it's the dream. Maybe we can try a shorter single session test run. Head to Shapley-1 and back.

I've had a few commanders hop into my Anaconda during an exploration run. Indeed I had an official photographer at one point (lol) and that was pretty cool but they dropped out just all the time. Multi-crew, like wings, entirely dependant on P2P; so they need to be internet equivalent of next-door-neighbours or it's highly variable.

I'm not saying this isn't possible. It just is going to rely on some serious work in the background to achieve, due to the current state of P2P and multi-crew. You can dream, absolutely. Sounds like fun.

 

[Armholeeio]

I think on a Xbox you can use your account in another machine, as long as they have a copy of elite dangerous you can play on their machine. thats really the only thing the Xbox has over the pc. The premise sounds fun, good luck with getting it up off the ground

 

[NW3]

That's an interesting idea. Rep++

One way to make the relay technique more feasible would be to increase the sightseeing stops in the "real" ship, to let the shadow ships catch up. In keeping with the undersized scoop, perhaps the "real" ship would be limited to economical routing, while the shadow ships would use the fastest route.

Basically, the "real" ship takes a leisurely voyage, to reduce the effort for the shadow ships.

 

[Olivia Vespera]

That's an interesting idea. Rep++

One way to make the relay technique more feasible would be to increase the sightseeing stops in the "real" ship, to let the shadow ships catch up. In keeping with the undersized scoop, perhaps the "real" ship would be limited to economical routing, while the shadow ships would use the fastest route.

Basically, the "real" ship takes a leisurely voyage, to reduce the effort for the shadow ships.

There's an idea! i think it makes more sense to increase the sight-seeing stops...

Economically won't work for long distance routes.. There's value in it for a short attempt.

I like having regular travel because it means every now and then, the CMDR can make use of neutron stars to reduce the number of jumps required to get to Colonia... it'll still take a while though.

I think on a Xbox you can use your account in another machine, as long as they have a copy of elite dangerous you can play on their machine. thats really the only thing the Xbox has over the pc. The premise sounds fun, good luck with getting it up off the ground

hmm~ well~ if that doesn't break ToS or EULA, maybe this meta-game will be first played on XBOX. good luck!

 

[Mav359]

That's a cracking idea Olivia

I think i demonstrates the versatility this game and why its like no others.

I would ask Frontier to donate an account to this, something they could easily do and on a temporary basis till the mission is complete. Olivia could designate who has access to the logon credentials and once the mission is complete frontier can remove the account. If its successful and something people want to be involved in it will have also acted as research and a great indicator into whether there should be time invested in expanding the multi-crew aspect of the game and allowing other users access to your helm.

 

[Olivia Vespera]

That's a cracking idea Olivia

I think i demonstrates the versatility this game and why its like no others.

I would ask Frontier to donate an account to this, something they could easily do and on a temporary basis till the mission is complete. Olivia could designate who has access to the logon credentials and once the mission is complete frontier can remove the account. If its successful and something people want to be involved in it will have also acted as research and a great indicator into whether there should be time invested in expanding the multi-crew aspect of the game and allowing other users access to your helm.

It's a bit late, but maybe we could have done something like this for charity.

Interested in giving a shortened and limited version of this a go?

 

[Mav359]

It's a bit late, but maybe we could have done something like this for charity.

Interested in giving a shortened and limited version of this a go?

I couldn't commit the time to it this side of Christmas, i'm away with work for the next 10days so my game play time is about to be severely cut down. I reckon you'll have a lot of takers though

For Charity is a good idea also, its a shame cause it would have been brilliant if you could have organized a 24hr mission to run alongside the Frontier 24hr live stream, Ed could have followed along during the stream as one of the passengers

 

[Aashenfox]

Yep, that's insane.

 

[furrycat]

Outwith the much-requested feature of letting someone else take over the helm, three identical ships for the three shifts would be the reasonable workaround. If the route were planned with specific waypoints in mind for each changeover the other players could neutron boost their way to the next shift point ready to assume the helm role.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

That sounds awful. Who'd watch that? I suggest rather playing some RPG murder game in this setting. Or generally RP the journey. More fun than staring at nothing happening and passing out from lack of stimuli.

 

[Olivia Vespera]

Outwith the much-requested feature of letting someone else take over the helm, three identical ships for the three shifts would be the reasonable workaround. If the route were planned with specific waypoints in mind for each changeover the other players could neutron boost their way to the next shift point ready to assume the helm role.

I think that's still coming, they didn't get it ready in time for... 2.3...

need to find someone with the spare cash to outfit an annie like this.

 

[DNA-Decay]

What mad scheme have you come up with now?

Your take on what Elite Dangerous is for and what can be done with it as it is - as always is marvel.

Shine on you crazy diamond.

 

[Olivia Vespera]

What mad scheme have you come up with now?

Your take on what Elite Dangerous is for and what can be done with it as it is - as always is marvel.

Shine on you crazy diamond.

Aw thanks ^^.

The other crazy idea I think is running a convoy in realspace between two planets. The amount of fuel needed means it will require the community to refuel it.