Lost Content

[wetwire]

So the Thargoids are out there and have been attacking stations. The generation ships have been cropping up, the formidine rift mystery has been solved and the guardian stones are dotted around the galaxy.

Or so I’m told from external out of game articles and youtube videos.

The excitement and joy of discovery and exploring new content is quickly lost as the story of elite evolves. This leaves players who do not know how or where to insert themselves into the story are left in the dark.

Elite has plenty of content that has become inaccessible to the casual player who has not devoted hours of research into the latest trend of events. Galnet has clues to lead players to new content but it is more like reading the middle chapter of a book. What happened before this? A player could research past articles to get an idea of how events unfolded, but at this point you are not playing the game anymore and basically just reading the history.

Suggestion: (Publish old content as new Missions.)
I would enjoy seeing a mission chain established that would allow players to follow the trail and story of past content that would allow them to “catch up” so to speak with current events. The feeling of being involved instead of an outsider looking in. Instead of reading history you are allowed to play along with it.

A chain of missions that would lead players to the thargoid probes, barnacles and witch space interdiction that through missions and context flavor text would bring the player in line with current events. So players new and old can revisit old content in a fun and engaging way.

 

[MK Regular]

This would actually go quite a ways to making the Elite universe seem more fleshed out. I've been playing Elite for 8 months, and I haven't seen a generation ship, nor a thargoid crash site, barnacles, thargoid bases, INRA bases, or abandoned settlements. The closest I have gotten to finding any of these without using third party tools is when I found a listening post pointing to a generation ship a few days ago. The only reason I know it was a generation ship was because I copy/pasted the message into google.

The easiest thing I can think of to help new players find all this content is to give tip-offs with the locations of listening posts. Then when a player scans the listening post in question, they get a Listening Post Data Package. The message players receive could look something like this:

TIP OFF
We picked up a signal at one of our listening posts, and we want you to go check it out for us.

The listening post is in the system (System A) orbiting around planet (Planet B)

Send us what you pull from the beacon, and we'll compensate you accordingly.


Upon turning in the data package, if there is another Listening post for the secret in question, the player would (eventually) get another message from different NPC:

TIP OFF
We found the message you pulled from that listening post. Our system matched it with another transmission we picked up a while back.

The transmission we received should still be in the listening post's data bank. You are free to go have a look if you wish. You can find it in the system (System X) around planet (Planet Y).


When this listening post is scanned, it too will give a data package that can be turned in. The message downloaded from the beacon will be compiled with any previous messages for the same secret. If there are any more listening posts for the secret location, this process will repeat until the player has scanned all of the listening posts, at which point they should have enough information to travel to the secret location should they so desire.

 

[zzzztxr]

I like this. I'm not out there yet wandering to explore, but if it came up in a sanitized version it would be a great way to catch up to what our trailblazers have found

 

[Aggie Ninepence]

I like this. I'm not out there yet wandering to explore, but if it came up in a sanitized version it would be a great way to catch up to what our trailblazers have found

This is a beautiful idea . Even simple signposting would be quite doable with the current systems, and there's potential to make considerably fancier chains for the most complex stuff.

Imagine missions that involved the interactions with Thargoid tech (probes, sensors) and Guardian ruins that people like Canon Research tend to do all the pathfinding work on, far enough after initial discovery not to tread on their toes - it'd really add something .