Collection of Ideas for Elite 4

[Steve O B Have]

This could open the door for introducing either the Thargoids again or another species which could be either Humanities or Thargoids allies, or maybe a common threat which could create a new alliance between humans and Thargoids new enemy, cue all out total war!!!

Fully agree - I think that the Thargoids deserve a much more involved role in E4, they could add a whole new design route with things like ships, space stations and cities. It was something that Frontier E2 and FFE missed a little of - a dark and sinister element - I always remember kacking myself whenever I got sucked out of witchspace and had to face up to a couple of Thargoids.

With your military rank you are asked to join up. This could introduce an extra dimension to the much loved dogfighting/bombing/photogaphic missions. You could command a squadron of fighters dogfighting your way around the galaxy or attacking enemy installations with bombing runs. you could become a spy getting information and technology.

I think that's a great idea - as much as I'd like to be able to command my own little fleet, it would make more sense to go on command missions or earlier on be part of fleet missions pertaining to your military rank.

 

[Sir.Tj]

I just like the idea of creating a more immersive universe,

I really like the idea of searching for unexplored systems etc..

You could have to search out ancient alien artifacts by collecting clues or ancient documents etc.. which could be used to help win the war. this could be done by mining down to a underground alien city on a uncharted planet in a distan system, and searching for a new power source or weapon.

Its such a big universe out there.

I do worry about the game going too far away from the originals though.

 

[Steve O B Have]

I just like the idea of creating a more immersive universe,

I really like the idea of searching for unexplored systems etc..

You could have to search out ancient alien artifacts by collecting clues or ancient documents etc.. which could be used to help win the war. this could be done by mining down to a underground alien city on a uncharted planet in a distan system, and searching for a new power source or weapon.

Its such a big universe out there.

I do worry about the game going too far away from the originals though.

Yeah it's that fine balance between making the game really immersing and interesting and bogging it down with overly complex and cumbersome missions and game play. Personally I'm not so concerned with the game differing from the previous ones as time passes and things change. But I'd certainly like for there to be a significant nod to the previous versions and I don't think we have too much to worry about on that front. There would be little point in making the game utterly different to the previous ones and then slapping the name Elite on it. There are enough of us out there who have loved the history for it to become something of a sticking point.

I have a slightly different concern - that of the game feeling too big and too daunting to get immersed in it. I don't envy Frontier in finding that balance as it's not going to be an easy thing.

When all out war kicks off what part should we play in it? Should we have a disisive part to play in it or should the war be an incidental part of the game to give excuse for the missions. What happens if you win/lose the war? Is that the end of the game and the interesting missions or is it just the start of an alliance between the factions so that they can face up to a bigger threat like Thargoid invasion?

Your right; it's a massive universe out there and the trick is to not get lost in it but to exist in it and feel like you have some sort of a future in the environment. Give you something to play for.

 

[Sir.Tj]

Yeah it's that fine balance between making the game really immersing and interesting and bogging it down with overly complex and cumbersome missions and game play. Personally I'm not so concerned with the game differing from the previous ones as time passes and things change. But I'd certainly like for there to be a significant nod to the previous versions and I don't think we have too much to worry about on that front. There would be little point in making the game utterly different to the previous ones and then slapping the name Elite on it. There are enough of us out there who have loved the history for it to become something of a sticking point.

Thats probably one of the biggest risks for the game, getting it so you have plenty of choices but not too many so you get lost in a sea of missions, plots etc.

I have a slightly different concern - that of the game feeling too big and too daunting to get immersed in it. I don't envy Frontier in finding that balance as it's not going to be an easy thing.

Maybe thats why its talking a long time to bring E4 to the market. If you actually start to think about what you would like to see in E4 your mind starts to go into overdrive, I don't actually envy David and Co making the choice of what will be in the game and what won't.

When all out war kicks off what part should we play in it? Should we have a disisive part to play in it or should the war be an incidental part of the game to give excuse for the missions. What happens if you win/lose the war? Is that the end of the game and the interesting missions or is it just the start of an alliance between the factions so that they can face up to a bigger threat like Thargoid invasion?

I think it would be great to have a choice again on what your part in the war would be. It would keep the open ended feeling going and if you wanted to you could either become a hero or a villain. You could accept missions that would be instumental in either winning or losing the war, or you could decide to be a spy for the enemy.

If we lost the war it could evolve into a resistance movement, fighting the alien victors?

Your right; it's a massive universe out there and the trick is to not get lost in it but to exist in it and feel like you have some sort of a future in the environment. Give you something to play for.

Yep, the Elite universe is huge anyway but it never felt you were ever lost in it.

 

[Steve O B Have]

I think it would be great to have a choice again on what your part in the war would be. It would keep the open ended feeling going and if you wanted to you could either become a hero or a villain. You could accept missions that would be instrumental in either winning or losing the war, or you could decide to be a spy for the enemy.

If we lost the war it could evolve into a resistance movement, fighting the alien victors?

Intersystem wars? Fighting for/between governments? Governments vs underground movements? Many many opportunities for scenarios but imagine the vastness of the scripting involved. All the voice acting and video involved. Conversely there could be some clever chaps creating an AI manner for non player character (NPC) interaction. I wonder if that can be upscaled from the Outsider NPC interaction to a governmental/system interaction?

Actually have the Anarchy systems building to a critical mass where they then attack a neighboring system and try to take over and those then influence the requirements for resources and weaponry - i.e. the market for these items increases whilst the markets for luxuries decreases.

 

[Steve O B Have]

^^^as an aside to the war thing, I would like to see the frontier actually be like a frontier. Big mining operations and massive barges owned by dodgey corporations who send out warning messages if you get too close and then send out mercs to attack when you ignore them.

A more widely available black market and things like slavery and drugs being a more accepted commodity. Casinos and pleasure planets/asteriods/moons, that sort of thing.

 

[Sir.Tj]

Intersystem wars? Fighting for/between governments? Governments vs underground movements? Many many opportunities for scenarios but imagine the vastness of the scripting involved. All the voice acting and video involved. Conversely there could be some clever chaps creating an AI manner for non player character (NPC) interaction. I wonder if that can be upscaled from the Outsider NPC interaction to a governmental/system interaction?

Actually have the Anarchy systems building to a critical mass where they then attack a neighboring system and try to take over and those then influence the requirements for resources and weaponry - i.e. the market for these items increases whilst the markets for luxuries decreases.

Maybe it could be done in the same way as FFE did with the journals? I would be very surprised if the journals were not replaced by FMV newscasts. It would be a huge undertaking to cover just this subject let alone all the other aspects and storylines which will be required. not only that the amount of voice actors required and video actors

(Ahem Note to David B I only live about a hour down the road you know! very affordable rates etc...lovely deep voice *wiggles eyebrows*)

In that way it could be more like the FFE story lines but more in depth.

 

[Sir.Tj]

^^^as an aside to the war thing, I would like to see the frontier actually be like a frontier. Big mining operations and massive barges owned by dodgey corporations who send out warning messages if you get too close and then send out mercs to attack when you ignore them.

A more widely available black market and things like slavery and drugs being a more accepted commodity. Casinos and pleasure planets/asteriods/moons, that sort of thing.

On the edge of anarchy you mean?

And would you like to explain what you mean by pleasure planet young man?

 

[Steve O B Have]

Maybe it could be done in the same way as FFE did with the journals? I would be very surprised if the journals were not replaced by FMV newscasts. It would be a huge undertaking to cover just this subject let alone all the other aspects and story lines which will be required. not only that the amount of voice actors required and video actors

(Ahem Note to David B I only live about a hour down the road you know! very affordable rates etc...lovely deep voice *wiggles eyebrows*)

In that way it could be more like the FFE story lines but more in depth.

In my opinion there have been very few games that have had live actors in them and convincingly portrayed their characters. From memory the best of them has been Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger but that had the massive advantage of having a very linear storyline. Personally I hope they steer away from the live actor path and go with CG characters.

 

[Steve O B Have]

On the edge of anarchy you mean?

And would you like to explain what you mean by pleasure planet young man?

LOL - Shhhh don't tell the missus

No I mean an Anarchy system but there would be other variables like how wealthy they were and the population and whether or not there was the space to hold the populations. I don't think you would have to do this for every system in the game as fleshing it out with generic peaceful systems would be fine but certainly there could be plenty of entertainment had from some key systems interacting with their neighbors and generating the mission structure for you as a player.

I think that the missions would feel more meaningful if there was a quantifiable external outcome to your interaction. Rather than just having your Imperial or Federation ranking just increase, actually see that there is an affected outcome.

 

[turwhitt]

And would you like to explain what you mean by pleasure planet young man?

I had assumed he meant a planet where tea and scones are readily available at a reasonable price.

 

[Sir.Tj]

In my opinion there have been very few games that have had live actors in them and convincingly portrayed their characters. From memory the best of them has been Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger but that had the massive advantage of having a very linear storyline. Personally I hope they steer away from the live actor path and go with CG characters.

Totally agree on the CG character element, as mentioned before though I would'nt want the meet trader in bar, talk to trader, talk to barman repetitive senario that a lot of games have, but how do you get around that?

I would still be happy with the BBS and stockmarket system that we had before. So if you just wanted to dock your ship on a planet sell your cargo, buy some more goods and bug*er off to make a quick profit you can. If however you wanted to disembark have a wander about meet a few shady characters then you can as well.

I know that with the new GTA game you can walk into a cyber cafe and log onto their mini version of the T'internet, that could be a good way of gaining missions etc...

 

[Sir.Tj]

I had assumed he meant a planet where tea and scones are readily available at a reasonable price.

SCONES!!

Crumpets old man Crumpet, only way to go

 

[turwhitt]

SCONES!!

Crumpets old man Crumpet, only way to go

Crivens!
Filth!

 

[Sir.Tj]

Crivens!
Filth!

I cannot believe the disgusting manner of that post.

I feel ashamed

 

[turwhitt]

As much as i'd love to discuss the relative qualities of bread products (muffins beat crumpets on any given day, for that matter), i fear that not all members may share our enthusiasm.
So i'll have to shock you all with a contribution that some may even consider "worthwhile".

What i'd really like to see from E4 is a world that is as large and fascinating as that of an MMO, but without the need for other players.

When i first played F/FFE this was how it seemed - a vast universe that was mine to inhabit and explore. There was no logical end to it, like there is to most games. However, i recently went back and played FFE again, and although it's a great game, it just didn't seem as free as i remember it. Where before i felt like i had everything i needed, now i felt that i should be able to customise my ship, get out of it and explore on foot, form alliances with other pilots - all the things that more recent games have made possible.
So i do believe that if E4 had the same premise as FFE but with updated graphics, it would fail. We need to add a 4th dimension - consequence.

There were limited consequences in FFE - if you got in trouble with Interpol you would not be able to dock in an alliance port until you paid your fine. If you assassinated Dentara Rast then you couldn't take the mission to kill his assassin. But that was about the limit of it.

If E4 had as large and fascinating a world as modern MMOs, it would be great, but where it would need to make up for the lack of players is by creating interesting NPC factions/individuals.

As people have mentioned here, there should be more factions than Imperial/Fed/Alliance. Many more. Small- and big-time gangs, trade corporations, powerful enterpreneurs, peace communes, religious cults, Explorer's guilds, etc.
If i work for a particular group for a length of time and am successful, i would like to see that group's interests visibly expand in the universe, as well as the knock-on effects on my reputation with other allied or enemy groups.

I want this game to suck me in and make me play it for years, which no non-MMO game has done for a very long time.
I want to spend a whole day helping a bunch of space hippies (who i happened be hailed by when passing a small planet in the middle of nowhere) fight off an expansionist corporation that they are not able to fight themselves due to their philosophy of non-violence.
This would be a mission chain that i might never discover, due to it being a long way from the core systems, but there would be enough of them (i'm thinking thousands) that i will always bump into them now and then.
Of course, a virtual internet is another way to find out about mission chains.

It would suit me if i were never able to "complete" the game; buy the biggest ship, do all the missions, amass huge wealth.

Unlike all other single-player games, which i have completed in a few weeks, i want E4 to sit on my computer for years, and for there always to be something intriguing waiting for me to do.

I am sure that there are plenty of members here who would be delighted to design some extra mission chains.

 

[Sir.Tj]

LOL - Shhhh don't tell the missus .

As long as you don't tell mine about the crumpet post

No I mean an Anarchy system but there would be other variables like how wealthy they were and the population and whether or not there was the space to hold the populations. I don't think you would have to do this for every system in the game as fleshing it out with generic peaceful systems would be fine but certainly there could be plenty of entertainment had from some key systems interacting with their neighbors and generating the mission structure for you as a player.

I think that the missions would feel more meaningful if there was a quantifiable external outcome to your interaction. Rather than just having your Imperial or Federation ranking just increase, actually see that there is an affected outcome.

It would be fun if there were some no-go areas for the honest traders among us areas with pleasure palnets (shhh) casino planets or planets where you can trade in illegal goods, you could also only be able to trade on these planets if you had a certain reputation, or if you're feeling brave enough raid either the casino/trading post or ships leaving or entering the system.[/quote]

I think that the missions would feel more meaningful if there was a quantifiable external outcome to your interaction. Rather than just having your Imperial or Federation ranking just increase, actually see that there is an affected outcome.

I agree,, to actually be able to shape galaxy wide events would be a big part of the game, like the Dentara Rast mission but in a larger scale. as in starting a war and being blamed for it!

 

[Steve O B Have]

What i'd really like to see from E4 is a world that is as large and fascinating as that of an MMO, but without the need for other players.

When i first played F/FFE this was how it seemed - a vast universe that was mine to inhabit and explore. There was no logical end to it, like there is to most games. However, i recently went back and played FFE again, and although it's a great game, it just didn't seem as free as i remember it. Where before i felt like i had everything i needed, now i felt that i should be able to customise my ship, get out of it and explore on foot, form alliances with other pilots - all the things that more recent games have made possible.
So i do believe that if E4 had the same premise as FFE but with updated graphics, it would fail. We need to add a 4th dimension - consequence

There were limited consequences in FFE - if you got in trouble with Interpol you would not be able to dock in an alliance port until you paid your fine. If you assassinated Dentara Rast then you couldn't take the mission to kill his assassin. But that was about the limit of it.

I entirely agree - rather than just bowling your way through the universe with no real worry in the world, there should now be a real outcome to your actions, as you say consequence. You should have to take responsibility for what you do and changing your affiliation should be more difficult than paying a statutory fine. Changing from one faction to another should be the domain of either a proving ground or some pretty sly espionage.

If E4 had as large and fascinating a world as modern MMOs, it would be great, but where it would need to make up for the lack of players is by creating interesting NPC factions/individuals.

As people have mentioned here, there should be more factions than Imperial/Fed/Alliance. Many more. Small- and big-time gangs, trade corporations, powerful enterpreneurs, peace communes, religious cults, Explorer's guilds, etc.
If i work for a particular group for a length of time and am successful, i would like to see that group's interests visibly expand in the universe, as well as the knock-on effects on my reputation with other allied or enemy groups.

See this is the thing that is making me rethink the soulely single player element. Having other players to interact with and fuel the changes within the economies and environments is not nessasarily a bad thing. Policing such an environment is a massive job but there are ways to deal with it as CCP (EVE Online) has proven. The ingame AI would have to be massively extensive to control all the various factions and keep an active commodity/stock market ticking over and live players would take care of quite a large component of this.

Another way to possibly approach it is to allow the players interactions to drive the environment but not actually allow the players to interact. I personally would have no issue with my game sending back information to a centralised server with the changes resulting in my buying and selling stuff. That way you don't need to deal with some 15 year old that plays the game 24/7 bringing your life to an undeserved end but still get the environment variation.

Oh and Scones all the way

 

[Sir.Tj]

I don't think I would like a World of Warcraft type of E4

Firstly the cost to FD would be astronomical without a subscription service. secondly can you imagine how crowded the sol system would get?

You'd be able to walk from one space station to the other across the top of all the ships.

It would be good on a smaller scale as in the people who post on here using one of their pc's as a server and playing the game that way.

I'm probably talking rubbish but it would be good to have some interaction.



oh and....



Ohhh theres a lovely bit of crumpet

 

[Steve O B Have]

I don't think I would like a World of Warcraft type of E4

Firstly the cost to FD would be astronomical without a subscription service. secondly can you imagine how crowded the sol system would get?

You'd be able to walk from one space station to the other across the top of all the ships.

It would be good on a smaller scale as in the people who post on here using one of their pc's as a server and playing the game that way.

Oh no I do agree - a WOW environment would be rubbish but depending on how good the game is I would seriously consider paying a subscription to it. There is more than enough proof out there that the pay as you go model works, but it does not have to be all doom and gloom - as I suggested a partial online component could have its advantages.

From the crowding situation the problem would not arise from there being an overcrowding of ships rather from the server lag involved in sharing information with several thousand people at once. There are several systems in EVE that most people avoid like the plague - it would not be cool if SOL became like that.