I've been saying that since Alpha. Fortunately for me, I've enjoyed that kind of setting since 1984. For players who don't enjoy that kind of setting, there's always 3rd party sites, which Frontier partners with.
Still as Inconvenient as Possible to Play
- Thread starter Blackcompany
- Start date
I've been saying that since Alpha. Fortunately for me, I've enjoyed that kind of setting since 1984. For players who don't enjoy that kind of setting, there's always 3rd party sites, which Frontier partners with.
Welcome to the Elite Universe, where people are considered disposable, mega-corporations call their slaves "citizens of the company," there is literal corporate warfare, and communications AND justice between the stars is monopolized by a criminal cartel whose wealth and power depends upon each island in the sea of stars being kept as ignorant as possible.
The Pilots' Federation: screwing the rest of humanity over of fun and profit since 2805.
Whilst it doesn't impact my game-play, or my experience of the game; I have had -since BETA- trouble understanding how a galactic community can function using a system of communication that effectively pre-dates the telephone.
The world, right now, would tumble into abject chaos if the internet were to break down; and I'm not talking about all those folks crying that they can no longer check their Facebook accounts, Twitter feeds or browse I Can Has Cheezburger? I'm referring to the majority of the world's infrastructure being dependent on high-speed inter-connectivity.
How does a society so dependent on something like the internet, manage to function without it across hundreds of Light-Years? Treating each system, nay, station or planet as an island (because IIRC not even two stations in the same system know what the other is doing) is all well and good; but how does a governmental body function this way?
The headquarters of each station in the power's influence must be over-flowing with data couriers bringing in all that information .. except they aren't - they look exactly like every other system in the game; which leads me to assume they aren't getting swamped with couriers day in and day out.
So how does Hudson know what the systems under his control are up to? How does he govern effectively if he doesn't have all the data available?
Of course, it doesn't help when you can just teleport a holographic image of yourself to another Cmdr's ship tens of thousands of light-years away instantly, but you need a physical ship to transfer market data to the station on the other side of the system.
I don't like this setup, too many questions and when coupled with contradictory game elements then it just turns the whole thing into a mess.
Eh, like I opened with .. it doesn't impact my game, and I don't think about it much (if ever) anyway; but I still struggle to wrap my head around the design decision for it.
The world, right now, would tumble into abject chaos if the internet were to break down; and I'm not talking about all those folks crying that they can no longer check their Facebook accounts, Twitter feeds or browse I Can Has Cheezburger? I'm referring to the majority of the world's infrastructure being dependent on high-speed inter-connectivity.
How does a society so dependent on something like the internet, manage to function without it across hundreds of Light-Years? Treating each system, nay, station or planet as an island (because IIRC not even two stations in the same system know what the other is doing) is all well and good; but how does a governmental body function this way?
The headquarters of each station in the power's influence must be over-flowing with data couriers bringing in all that information .. except they aren't - they look exactly like every other system in the game; which leads me to assume they aren't getting swamped with couriers day in and day out.
So how does Hudson know what the systems under his control are up to? How does he govern effectively if he doesn't have all the data available?
Of course, it doesn't help when you can just teleport a holographic image of yourself to another Cmdr's ship tens of thousands of light-years away instantly, but you need a physical ship to transfer market data to the station on the other side of the system.
I don't like this setup, too many questions and when coupled with contradictory game elements then it just turns the whole thing into a mess.
Eh, like I opened with .. it doesn't impact my game, and I don't think about it much (if ever) anyway; but I still struggle to wrap my head around the design decision for it.
Last edited:
Not an anomaly, just a member of the actual target audience.
I've been saying for years that Frontier would require you to actually visit a system when they expanded their in-game trade tools. If Frontier decides to add something similar to ships and modules, I'm positive they'll include the exact same requirement. And that is fine by me. It really doesn't take too long to figure what kinds of systems produce which ships and modules, and the galaxy map has filters to reduce your search to a handful of systems, and it gives me an excuse to visit systems I may not otherwise travel to.
If a player doesn't enjoy that kind of game experience, Frontier has kindly added support for 3rd party sites to their game.
I just worked to an elite ranking, and when I need something, I go to Founders... or, I just type in a Google search to my phone that literally takes less than 5 minutes...
Should it be in game? Who cares? I have an internet connection and at least 1 machine in my immediate reach that can answer any question I have with ED... Is it that inconvenient to Google search "ed buy vulture"? I mean, it is like you are playing a game in 2018 with tech available to play from 1980...
Lol, inconvenience... I'm not sure that word means what anyone thinks it means any more.
*edit* how do you order a car online in 2018? Do you type into Google the make, model, and your location? Lmao, you can literally do the same thing with ED. It literally takes no extra effort besides opening another window or grabbing another machine that has internet and a search function... Is this what upsets you about ED? If you don't like the game, just be straight up about it.
Should it be in game? Who cares? I have an internet connection and at least 1 machine in my immediate reach that can answer any question I have with ED... Is it that inconvenient to Google search "ed buy vulture"? I mean, it is like you are playing a game in 2018 with tech available to play from 1980...
Lol, inconvenience... I'm not sure that word means what anyone thinks it means any more.
*edit* how do you order a car online in 2018? Do you type into Google the make, model, and your location? Lmao, you can literally do the same thing with ED. It literally takes no extra effort besides opening another window or grabbing another machine that has internet and a search function... Is this what upsets you about ED? If you don't like the game, just be straight up about it.
Last edited:
I don't know if this is a help for anyone playing in 2D - if you set the game to windowed mode it's much easier to access 3rd party app's whilst playing as you can just move the ED window to the side...
The thing is, a galactic community requiring physical transportation of data would cope the same way that human civilizations coped with the same thing for tens of thousands of years. They coped. The only thing instant communications does is allow for just in time logistics, maximizing corporate profits by reducing labor costs and interest payed on inventory.
How did the 18th century British Empire do it? They relied on regional governors to keep the local populations in line.
Telepresence was a hasty explanation on the part of one of the Dev Team for how instant multi-crew worked, when said game mechanic didn't need to be explained in the first place, anymore than instant cargo loading, repairs, refitting, or respawning. These are instant because them taking time wouldn't bring anything to a multi-player game. The the actual game mechanics depends upon information travelling at the speed of ships.
To each their own. The Elite Universe to me makes a certain amount of sick sense, given the types of personalities that actually run things in human space. As the old saying goes: dystopias are fun to read about, and they make great game settings, but I wouldn't want to live there.
I had considered that, but I cannot see humanity regressing from what we know and how we function today to a logistical operation better suited for the Colonial Era.. for what? Just to be able to land on other planets? Perhaps in the early days of exploration, sure (eg: the movie Passengers) but a thousand years in the future with near-instantaneous travel between star systems? Ehh, I just don't see it happening.
Sociologically, psychologically, logistically or militaristically .. it just doesn't add up for me; either I don't understand humanity, or humanity has done a complete about face in terms of priorities.
But as I said, it's not a biggy. It's just something that's bothered me.
Or give governments near-instant (sometimes preemptive) warning of some form of failing infrastructure.. water, electricity, security, alien invasions and so on, or up to the minute military data on enemy positions - fighting a war with the Thargoids is going to be difficult when you can't monitor your fleet positions in real-time, or make split-second decisions that could make or break an engagement.
We encountered Thargoids centuries ago; and humanity made NO effort to improve weapons or communications or ships?
Honestly.. this sounds like the worst kind of humanity, lol.
Exactly! And look where that got them.
The problem is when you use a "lore-esque" description of how something works .. it kinda becomes lore-related and thus immediately begins to contradict existing technologies and established lore.
So, either Frontier need to retract their telepresence handwavium, or ... introduce FTL-communication.
I'm in favour of the latter.
I wouldn't classify ED as a dystopian future.. I mean, citizens can and do live in the lap of luxury; high-end exploration/passenger liners; none of this really strikes me as dystopian.
More .. modern day .. only humanity forgot how telephones work.
I did that in the 1970's for a car part and the person on the phone said yes, it's in stock.
When I got there the counter person couldn't find it in their warehouse......
Much better than.
Space Ship yard salesman: You want to find out if a ship is in stock in Brearaton 90lys away? Certainly sir I will call them right away and leave a message, they will get back to me as soon as possible.
Me: How long is that likely to take?
Space Ship yard salesman: well it will probably take them a few minutes to look it up on their computer, then 90 years for the message to get there, 90 years for the reply to get back, so I make it about 180 years and 5 minutes, of course longer if it's a weekend when the message arrives.
So what you're saying is we will we be able to see what ships are in stock in game in a future update?
Laser Communication.
...What? You're telling me we can have laser weapons but don't have the tech to turn them into high speed communication devices when the current tech we have now allows for near real time data transfer?
Seriously. Am I really the only one who goes looking for viable solutions instead of bemoaning problems?
I spent a good half-hour or so reading up on all kinds of different ways to communicate through space out of curiosity.
There was no need to post a solution as I have no doubt Frontier will resolutely ignore any posed, no matter how viable, simply because it's really not important.
Braben wants mailmen in space. We get mailmen in space.
I only responded to OP, not OP´s post history. I understand your point, because I had worked for a service provider. There is also a third way: What about (c) realizing it might be your fault, too? Regarding ranting, I could understand ranting if a company continuously fails to meet certain goal. I do not expect a customers´ patience to be infinite. But as always, it is not what you say, it is the way you say it.
Yeah, the issue is that as a whole the design often isn't intuitive. So quite often you can't work out how to do things by applying logic and reasoning - instead, you just have to bumble around using semi-random trial & error in the hope of coming across something useful (or, alt-tab/quit the game and go spend time googling how to do things). It's a real shame. I wish FDev could explain why they made it this way.
You do realise that light, as in laser weapons, still travels at the speed of light and will still take 90 years to get somewhere 90 light years away.
And no I am not against having a communication system that works faster than light speed, after all we can do it, I just wonder what else out there is listening in, there may be worse things than thargoids lurking in the dark places (oh I really hope so!)
Last edited:
Personally I have no wish to know everything that is available. Finding things out is part of the game. The OP could have jumped to another system and got what he needed and jumped back by the time he had written his rant.
While I wouldn't mind a similar system like we have in the new galaxy map for ships, it really isn't the end of the world.
Learn about the economy types etc to get a better idea of what ships are available.
I so not eat the game to be dumbed down as it will just turn the game into a borefest. Exploring and finding stuff out is a part of the game. Don't try to destroy that.
While I wouldn't mind a similar system like we have in the new galaxy map for ships, it really isn't the end of the world.
Learn about the economy types etc to get a better idea of what ships are available.
I so not eat the game to be dumbed down as it will just turn the game into a borefest. Exploring and finding stuff out is a part of the game. Don't try to destroy that.
And god knows as a species what their priorities are! ><