Station construction in game

[Vicktore Beskor]

Hello commanders
Your friendly neighborhood Sky Marshal here with this observation. Now that DW2 intense to build a station on route to Beagle point why are we still not able to build stations within the bubble. It seems to me that FDev only want players to construct structures where they deemed fit.
I am of the opinion that proper colonization mechanics would be very good for the game it would allow more player freedom and more emergent gameplay.
So I ask when is FDev going to take the dog leash off the players and allow us to make decisions for ourselves.

 

[Bigmaec]

You'll propably get lynched when the first griefers build starports near robigo after such a change

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

We as players, can not be trusted, so never.

 

[Windscreen Smudge]

Prepare your sphincter for the incoming "You're not putting Eve Online in MY game!" vitriol.

.....


But looking at your icon, I guess you already knew it was coming.....

 

[Stabby_Dave]

I think it’s a great idea......

Shields up, Mr Sulu

 

[Mohrgan]

What we are seeing with the DW2 event is not colonization. The station being built is not going to be owned by any of the thousands of Commanders participating. If you want to create something like the DW guys may get to, organize an event that gets the kind of participation that DW events get, touch base with FD, in advance, and ask for a CG to create a new station, and expect it, maybe, to get the name you want. After that, expect the new station to be part of the game, not your personal construction.

Even now, player groups can suggest CG's, give it a go

 

[thistle]

Hello commanders
Your friendly neighborhood Sky Marshal here with this observation. Now that DW2 intense to build a station on route to Beagle point why are we still not able to build stations within the bubble. It seems to me that FDev only want players to construct structures where they deemed fit.
I am of the opinion that proper colonization mechanics would be very good for the game it would allow more player freedom and more emergent gameplay.
So I ask when is FDev going to take the dog leash off the players and allow us to make decisions for ourselves.

Not going to happen.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

Because Elite is not a game of conquest and colonialization. We are not administrators and politicians. We’re pilots.

I don’t disagree that the idea of owning and operating and overseeing day to day station operations wouldn’t be fun. I think it would. This just isn’t the game for it, any more than Civilization MLCXIV would be the game for first-person Combat.

 

[Vardaugas]

This again?

 

[who?]

I think a limited / controlled-by-FD kind of construction/colonisation could really add to the game.

- FD seed a small number of systems with very hard-to-find, rare deposits, needed to construct stations.
- Factions scout systems in or near the bubble looking for these deposits.
- If they find one, and sell it at one of their own controlled stations, it auto-triggers a "Build a new Spaceport" CG.
- This could trigger 'races' between multiple factions, to see who hits the outpost/space station threshold first.

It also adds something to mining, brings it into the main game, instead of it being a kind of side-activity (that now pays well). Even though I never play in Open, it would make for some interesting Open-only gameplay, if the material had to be mined in Open, and thus combat craft would be needed to protect the mining craft (and/or attack opposing miners).

 

[Windscreen Smudge]

What we are seeing with the DW2 event is not colonization. The station being built is not going to be owned by any of the thousands of Commanders participating. If you want to create something like the DW guys may get to, organize an event that gets the kind of participation that DW events get, touch base with FD, in advance, and ask for a CG to create a new station, and expect it, maybe, to get the name you want. After that, expect the new station to be part of the game, not your personal construction.

Even now, player groups can suggest CG's, give it a go

Good job pointing out that if you want to achieve anything in the game close to this scale, you've got to put in an extraordinary amount of effort gathering and coordinating like-minded people and an unreasonable amount of time that is beyond the average player.

Because Elite is not a game of conquest and colonialization. We are not administrators and politicians. We’re pilots.

I don’t disagree that the idea of owning and operating and overseeing day to day station operations wouldn’t be fun. I think it would. This just isn’t the game for it, any more than Civilization MLCXIV would be the game for first-person Combat.

Actually, we're the enablers. We put the map in front of the politicians so the politicians can put us to work building the stations and fighting to defend them, so why does putting stations up in our own name seem like such a big step for you?

And actually mixing up genres is quite fun and works well in a lot of games. Total War: Warhammer. It's an RTS. And it's an empire builder. But I also get to level up my heroes, equip them with items, and micro-manage them should I so desire. It's great.

Persona series: JRPG combined with dating/social simulator. Fantastic!

Nier Automata:Action brawler, RPG, Shmup and platformer.

Etc...

Games that blend genres well almost always turn out to be great.

We've already got the micro aspect in ED: Fly your ship around, pew pew, break some rocks, write your name on the map, etc....

Elements like Powerplay and CG's are meant to give us a sense of the macro, but they don't work well.

Colony management would be an exceptional way to add a macro element to ED though. As long as it's done well, it couldn't do anything but improve the game and add a whole new layer to it.

 

[Mohrgan]

If Faction Colonization were added to the game, it should be added to the list of BGS states, and act just like 'expansions' do, but with it's own set of conditions.

 

[Saxon Kili]

Good job pointing out that if you want to achieve anything in the game close to this scale, you've got to put in an extraordinary amount of effort gathering and coordinating like-minded people and an unreasonable amount of time that is beyond the average player.


Actually, we're the enablers. We put the map in front of the politicians so the politicians can put us to work building the stations and fighting to defend them, so why does putting stations up in our own name seem like such a big step for you?

And actually mixing up genres is quite fun and works well in a lot of games. Total War: Warhammer. It's an RTS. And it's an empire builder. But I also get to level up my heroes, equip them with items, and micro-manage them should I so desire. It's great.

Persona series: JRPG combined with dating/social simulator. Fantastic!

Nier Automata:Action brawler, RPG, Shmup and platformer.

Etc...

Games that blend genres well almost always turn out to be great.

We've already got the micro aspect in ED: Fly your ship around, pew pew, break some rocks, write your name on the map, etc....

Elements like Powerplay and CG's are meant to give us a sense of the macro, but they don't work well.

Colony management would be an exceptional way to add a macro element to ED though. As long as it's done well, it couldn't do anything but improve the game and add a whole new layer to it.

If you want first person space ship combat, you get Elite...or X4
If you want mining, you get Elite...or X4
If you want to trade, you get Elite...or X4
If you want to build stations, you get ...ummm. X4
If you want to micromanage a fleet, you get X4.

 

[Windscreen Smudge]

If you want first person space ship combat, you get Elite...or X4
If you want mining, you get Elite...or X4
If you want to trade, you get Elite...or X4
If you want to build stations, you get ...ummm. X4
If you want to micromanage a fleet, you get X4.

If you want to play a game so buggy it gives you a real-life case of the crabs, get X4.

This is a nice deflective argument that doesn't really mean anything: "There are other games that do it, so go play those games."

Has absolutely nothing to do with whether Elite would benefit from having the features added.

 

[Drelthar]

The ethos of FD and elite is that you get rewarded with such things by creating "Fun" within the game world.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

Actually my experience with games that try to be everything wind up doing nothing particularly well. Just look at our multi role ships here. Try to equip one to do everything and you’ll wind up doing nothing (except maybe rebuying often).

But specialize one and you wind up with a great ship. Why has the Python reigned king of multi role for so long? Why is the Krait II so up and coming? Because they both absolutely great at being absolutely good at any one thing at a time.

Now in older days the number of features a developer could pack into a game was largely limited to the capacity of the media it was sold on, and our own tiny HDD’s. In the modern bloatware era this is less of a concern, and games are packing in more and more. And we tolerate 20 or 30 or 60+ GB installation folders because we can.

At the same time though that 668 GB Does It All Game of Everything isn’t always so appealing to folks who really want to play it, but have ADSL connections that cap out at 10 GB, have lousy downstream speeds, and questionable connectivity. So these things do become real concerns for developers. Finally add to that the fact that the more complex a system is the more prone to error it becomes.

Compare a horse to a motorcycle. If the horse doesn’t go, it’s either tied to something, stuck to something or dead. If the motorcycle doesn’t go, it could take a mechanic a week or more just to figure out why.

Elite is already complex enough - just look at the bugs we’ve had since 1.0 that still pop up.

 

[Ca$hback]

Only way I could see it is by petitioning FDev for a CG.
If you don't want the station you try to stop the ones that do but will fail because of game mechanics.
Player owned stations will create an "I want one too" whine that will be heard all the way to Andromeda.
Personally, I think this game needs more Elitism.

 

[Vicktore Beskor]

In my so humble opinion adding an in depth colonization mechanic that works with the BGS would add value to the game. There are 400 billion star systems out there it would be nice to take a unpopulated system with no life in it and transform it into a new trade hub or a new place to upgrade your ship.

 

[ADAMtheWELSHMANz]

Personally I like been 10kly or more from inhabited space. Adding player built starports would mean there'd likely always be one near you and that would take away a lot from us explorers that like to head out into the black for weeks at a time, in fact where would "the black" even be then?

Atm there are ports every 5kly enroute to Colonia, a new one been built in the Core soon and a handful in far flung places ~2-6kly from the bubble, mostly near interesting phenomena and nebulae.......plenty for me while maintaining the feeling of scale in the game

 

[zombieapocalypse]

I want to be able to name planets after my favourites types of vegan cheese, but hey, Braben is a hippie-hating killjoy. So, go figure...