News Removal of 'UA Bombing'

[Bigmaec]

Hmmm. I'm seriously torn on this one.

on the one hand [up]
- it was a ridiculous mechanic from a lore-pov
- the counter was nerfed with the removal of MA supply in Darnielle's
- it caused unnecessary grief in certain situations (engineer rares anyone?)

on the other hand [down]
- it caused (good?!) emergent gameplay (remember Dove Enigma, that would never ever have gotten that widespread support without the UA bombing)
- a way to terrorise/disrupt starports *is* realistic
- the implementation (while reasonable) came out of left field

:S

 

[Ralph Vargr]

Greetings, Commanders.

From Thursday November 29, selling Thargoid Sensors at starports will no longer have any negative effect. As a result, ‘UA bombing’, as it has become known, will no longer be possible. Along with these changes, you will now be able to sell Thargoid items legally rather than via the black market. You will also see an in-game GalNet article explaining why this has changed.

Or you can read it below:

Thargoid-Sensor Disruption Neutralised

Aegis has announced a breakthrough that has effectively neutralised the disruptive effects of Thargoid Sensors on starports.

Henrik de Lacerda, a senior engineer at Aegis Research, told the media:

“As we know, Thargoid Sensors can cripple starports for weeks or months at a time, but recent advancements in our study of meta-alloys have resulted in an effective cure for what was once called ‘the technological plague’.”

“New procedures in the application of meta-alloys mean that extremely small quantities are now sufficient to shield systems from disruption.”

“Following this breakthrough, we have made arrangements to ship meta-alloys to all affected stations, to restore them to functionality. It will not be long before every starport in known space is immune to Thargoid Sensor–related interference.”

How many years too late?

 

[ilo]

Finally!

 

[Jmanis]

I'm disappointed this never led anywhere interesting. I can get behind the removal from a gameplay perspective... but as someone who helped UA bomb Jacques which, by all accounts, contributed to Jacques misjump and a lot of cool subtext (e.g the galnet article on board jacques saying "the artifacts sing and then they come"), this feels like a giant retcon to remove something that was meant to lead somewhere, but didn't.

Again, understand UA bombing as an offensive action needed to be removed, but this just feels like yet-another abandoned storyline.

Maybe FD will finally accept a CG to collect Thargoids sensors now...

 

[Genar-Hofoen]

I'm disappointed this never led anywhere interesting. I can get behind the removal from a gameplay perspective... but as someone who helped UA bomb Jacques which, by all accounts, contributed to Jacques misjump and a lot of cool subtext (e.g the galnet article on board jacques saying "the artifacts sing and then they come"), this feels like a giant retcon to remove something that was meant to lead somewhere, but didn't.

Again, understand UA bombing as an offensive action needed to be removed, but this just feels like yet-another abandoned storyline.

Maybe FD will finally accept a CG to collect Thargoids sensors now...

It's not a retcon though, is it. It's an evolution of the storyline - "An effective antidote to the UA's has now been found, and UA's no longer affect starports."

Things move on, including storylines. This one was a long time coming - perhaps too long.

I'm sure FDEV will find other ways to simultaneously upset and cheer people in the future. After all, that's what keeps folks interested and invested in the game - upset some, cheer others, create some conflict, stir up the pot. We're all being manipulated in this fashion by FDEV and it's quite deliberate

 

[Jmanis]

It's not a retcon though, is it. It's an evolution of the storyline - "An effective antidote to the UA's has now been found, and UA's no longer affect starports."

It's hardly an evolution. It's pure abandonment. There's so many things that go unanswered now they've just said "Yeah, this isn't a thing anymore".

And it is retcon when you remove information from the game and never speak of it again. Go check out the Beta codex article about Jacques reaching now-Colonia, and the removal of Jacques "visions" during his misjump from the local galnet news feed.

 

[Brrokk]

Good move.

 

[Deareim]

It's not a retcon though, is it. It's an evolution of the storyline - "An effective antidote to the UA's has now been found, and UA's no longer affect starports."

Things move on, including storylines. This one was a long time coming - perhaps too long.

I'm sure FDEV will find other ways to simultaneously upset and cheer people in the future. After all, that's what keeps folks interested and invested in the game - upset some, cheer others, create some conflict, stir up the pot. We're all being manipulated in this fashion by FDEV and it's quite deliberate

Sure but your ship and AX limitation are still in the past of your "timeline". It is getting more and more really ridiculous this game.

 

[Weps]

Next up, telepresence!

 

[Genar-Hofoen]

Sure but your ship and AX limitation are still in the past of your "timeline". It is getting more and more really ridiculous this game.

Oh I quite agree with you there - the 4-weapon AX limit was annoying even at the start and it needs to be removed entirely IMO.

But then again what I typed earlier...

I'm sure FDEV will find other ways to simultaneously upset and cheer people in the future. After all, that's what keeps folks interested and invested in the game - upset some, cheer others, create some conflict, stir up the pot. We're all being manipulated in this fashion by FDEV and it's quite deliberate

 

[Phazon Xenomorph]

Fun detected, fun nerfed.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

So how can you shut down a station now? How can you try to stop a CG?

It's not been possible to stop a CG with UA bombing for years anyway, unless you had prior knowledge of when and where the CG was going to be.

Thursday: CG opens
{Delivery of UAs}
Tuesday: "brink of closure" notice - this does not affect station services at all
Thursday: CG closes
Tuesday: (if not enough meta-alloys) station shut down

That's why no actual CG has been shut down with UAs for a very long time, even after the recent changes to make it harder to obtain the MAs and easier to haul the UAs.

Plus if it was a trade/rares/mining CG, which is the usual CG type for "things occur as a result" ... UA bombing didn't close the commodities market - it made most goods zero-demand, but you could still sell them there for a low price, and it's possible (never tested, of course) the "force demand to 999999" rule for CGs would have overridden that anyway.

 

[Jmanis]

It's not been possible to stop a CG with UA bombing for years anyway, unless you had prior knowledge of when and where the CG was going to be.

Thursday: CG opens
{Delivery of UAs}
Tuesday: "brink of closure" notice - this does not affect station services at all
Thursday: CG closes
Tuesday: (if not enough meta-alloys) station shut down

That's why no actual CG has been shut down with UAs for a very long time, even after the recent changes to make it harder to obtain the MAs and easier to haul the UAs.

Plus if it was a trade/rares/mining CG, which is the usual CG type for "things occur as a result" ... UA bombing didn't close the commodities market - it made most goods zero-demand, but you could still sell them there for a low price, and it's possible (never tested, of course) the "force demand to 999999" rule for CGs would have overridden that anyway.

Yup. A lot of people confused the Lockdown state as being caused by UA bombing... noting Lockdowns *do* stop CGs and are still very much doable.

 

[Cmdr Steele]

Today 8:09 AM
Nicholas Nack said
Quote Originally Posted by Cmdr Steele
"Bloody fun police at it again."

"if your idea of "fun" is preventing other people from being able to enjoy the game, maybe we don't want you playing with us"

Very churlish of you Cmdr, maybe we don't want snide people in game with us either?
Fun as in player driven content in a game that encourages it by having no linear storyline should be encouraged, not stymied. Yes there is a big difference between fun and griefing and i don't condone griefing just to make someone else's life hell, however, there was an immersive, in game solution to UA bombing. No good for solo players will be the next argument to my comment. Find a good player group that encourages play with player or appeal for help from one - bingo, more player driven content.
It just seems silly to me to remove player interactivity for the sake of it. It's the game in general i guess, fantastic technology with some not so great implementation - though i should also add this has not always been FD's fault, limits of game engine being what they are sometimes.

 

[ebbrell]

I sort of understand why they have removed. I'm a little sad, a game mechanic has been removed. Less things to go wrong, feel like elite dangerous maybe becoming elite safe. We do need stations to have problems from time to time

I personnel haven't UA bombed, but have enjoyed the team spirit getting meta alloys to repair or protect a station. Sort of exciting risk it being there

Let's hope this isn't due to the removal of meta alloy production mechanics,

 

[Phazon Xenomorph]

Today 8:09 AM
Nicholas Nack said
Quote Originally Posted by Cmdr Steele
"Bloody fun police at it again."

"if your idea of "fun" is preventing other people from being able to enjoy the game, maybe we don't want you playing with us"

Very churlish of you Cmdr, maybe we don't want snide people in game with us either?
Fun as in player driven content in a game that encourages it by having no linear storyline should be encouraged, not stymied. Yes there is a big difference between fun and griefing and i don't condone griefing just to make someone else's life hell, however, there was an immersive, in game solution to UA bombing. No good for solo players will be the next argument to my comment. Find a good player group that encourages play with player or appeal for help from one - bingo, more player driven content.
It just seems silly to me to remove player interactivity for the sake of it. It's the game in general i guess, fantastic technology with some not so great implementation - though i should also add this has not always been FD's fault, limits of game engine being what they are sometimes.

All this is, is damn more "handwavium" as if suddenly now every station magically across the ENTIRE BUBBLE now has a healthy supply of Meta Alloys despite they are actually an extremely RARE commodity (not counting nonsense mode switching for instances, were it all one instance and one farm source, we've seen Barnacles can be destroyed and ruined). The act of UA bombing a station is not snide, its emergent gameplay in a game that is atrociously lacking because Frontier have yet to properly apply a story like the previous Elite games have had, meanwhile other space games are catching up between No Mans Sky fixing a lot of their failed promises and delivering, and new stuff entering the scene soon.... Frontier has dropped the ball.

UA bombing and restoring stations is one of the few ways players had of actually making something happen in this game. Thargoids became no longer a threat as they don't force themselves on unwary players and theres basically no attacked stations anymore. There's some nonsense on the Beta about attacked / taken over stations repairing faster without player intervention or something now but again thats just Handwavium.

UA bombing was also limited as you can only now fit 16t Corrosion racks (unless you wanna risk cargo spilling out from multiple UA's eating at everything) so any huge load of UA's was risky... and if you did have the mega corrosion rack then you were prime target for Elite ranked pirates (more than one at that) so every jump has you getting harassed about your cargo.

I despise changes like this. Frontier is almost as tone deaf as Blizzard, Activison, and EA at this point (only without the mega funds of said corporations to fund and force timetable deliveries). The only difference is they arent even trying (patch has a weeks worth of content at most) meanwhile they try to milk us for money with skins and other stuff.

To boot it wasnt even really that disruptive, mega stations like Jameson Memorial and Ray Gateway at Diaguandri (super cheap cheap ships here!) almost never are shut down. Only random stations. This is honestly becoming a snoresville of a game.

 

[Genar-Hofoen]

All this is, is damn more "handwavium" as if suddenly now every station magically across the ENTIRE BUBBLE now has a healthy supply of Meta Alloys despite they are actually an extremely RARE commodity (not counting nonsense mode switching for instances, were it all one instance and one farm source, we've seen Barnacles can be destroyed and ruined).

Using the same reasoning I could argue that the introduction of UA's and UA bombing was equally "handwavium"

 

[Jane Turner]

It does strike me that the people who have not experienced UA bombing from either end are the ones most vocal in their support of this change. We have had more than 30 stations shut down, one of them 3 times. Playing as 31st or whatever century it is in game, space communists does seem to attract the attention of some people stuck with 20th Century mindsets. It took (I gather) a lot of dedication to shut a station down (without exploits) and remarkably little to fix one if players concerned actually wanted to fix the station. When there was a desire to fix a station, it gave great opportunities to work together. The balance was spot on.

My paranoid self sees this as a further attempt by FD to handicap the "gargantuan minor factions maintained by an handful of players" that was used as a quote prefacing the planned BGS changes. At a stroke, this has undone a massive part of the protection we had put in place to insulate our small player group against the coming changes. We have spent the last months steering our UA bombing enemies into shutting down the stations/systems that we wanted to be protected against BGS attacks in 3.3. For example on mothballed system that was needed 100-200+ transactions a day for a year has required 10 transactions in total since it was UA bombed two months ago.

For me, this is just another part of the strategic part of the game that has been stripped away. A massive shame.


This was fun

Spoiler

 

[Deareim]

It does strike me that the people who have not experienced UA bombing from either end are the ones most vocal in their support of this change. We have had more than 30 stations shut down, one of them 3 times. Playing as 31st or whatever century it is in game, space communists does seem to attract the attention of some people stuck with 20th Century mindsets. It took (I gather) a lot of dedication to shut a station down (without exploits) and remarkably little to fix one if players concerned actually wanted to fix the station. When there was a desire to fix a station, it gave great opportunities to work together. The balance was spot on.

My paranoid self sees this as a further attempt by FD to handicap the "gargantuan minor factions maintained by an handful of players" that was used as a quote prefacing the planned BGS changes. At a stroke, this has undone a massive part of the protection we had put in place to insulate our small player group against the coming changes. We have spent the last months steering our UA bombing enemies into shutting down the stations/systems that we wanted to be protected against BGS attacks in 3.3. For example on mothballed system that was needed 100-200+ transactions a day for a year has required 10 transactions in total since it was UA bombed two months ago.

For me, this is just another part of the strategic part of the game that has been stripped away. A massive shame.


This was fun

I didn't remember he had hair...

For the rest, fully agreeing with you.

 

[Phazon Xenomorph]

It does strike me that the people who have not experienced UA bombing from either end are the ones most vocal in their support of this change. We have had more than 30 stations shut down, one of them 3 times. Playing as 31st or whatever century it is in game, space communists does seem to attract the attention of some people stuck with 20th Century mindsets. It took (I gather) a lot of dedication to shut a station down (without exploits) and remarkably little to fix one if players concerned actually wanted to fix the station. When there was a desire to fix a station, it gave great opportunities to work together. The balance was spot on.

My paranoid self sees this as a further attempt by FD to handicap the "gargantuan minor factions maintained by an handful of players" that was used as a quote prefacing the planned BGS changes. At a stroke, this has undone a massive part of the protection we had put in place to insulate our small player group against the coming changes. We have spent the last months steering our UA bombing enemies into shutting down the stations/systems that we wanted to be protected against BGS attacks in 3.3. For example on mothballed system that was needed 100-200+ transactions a day for a year has required 10 transactions in total since it was UA bombed two months ago.

For me, this is just another part of the strategic part of the game that has been stripped away. A massive shame.


This was fun

Agreed and well said. a +rep to you good sir. This is just more fun removal. Frontier might be doing some Thargoid BGS on the galmap now but ultimately it'll be a minor nuisance still in the peladies and whatever bubble systems are the absolute closest to that area. And that the the AXI groups will take care of it as Thargoids are the hardest npcs to fight at the moment so anyone wanting PvE endgame will find it there. Meanwhile more ships for paint jobs, more lore told through galnet or cinematics, virtually nothing in-game (as players radically out paced what Frontier thought would be discovered in every single patch and even in beta). UA Bombing was fun, even more fun when the 16t Cargo racks finally came out to make it easier to safely transport chunks of them. Now there's one less activity to do in this game.