Reduce Module and Ship Transfer Times

[Schmack]

Either reduce the ship or module transfer times outright or offer expedited service at a premium. Having your ship or module sent where you want it doesn't put another player at a disadvantage and in fact means a player can continue the session without needing to log off for the 1.5 hours or however long it takes to get their ship transferred. Colonia transfers are a great example. People pay 1 billion Cr to transfer a ship that doesn't cost that much to buy and they they wait what, days? It should take as long to transfer as it would take the longest LY ship in the game to reach that station. I doesn't take 1.5 hours to get from Ceos to Founders World even in a low jump range ship.

With most grindy things, I see the benefit where the player base/progression is concerned, but the goal of the game for many if not most is to take advantage of the system they are in, and they cannot fly all of their ships at the same time. Since the in-game tools for finding interesting things to do are basically non-existent, when you stumble upon something and you have a couple hours to kill, you want to move to that role. Without your role specific ship/modules you're just out of luck. You'll need to wait the 1.5 hours real time to be able to continue. So you either abandon that goal for the time or you just quit the session.

I realize there are ways to mitigate this by having a narrow region of operation and keeping your ships within that region, or having a multirole ship, or having multiple ships that can fill these roles scattered throughout the bubble, however that means you are planning your game around ship transfer. The transfer should be to enable you to continue playing, it should not be the game itself.

I'd be ok with 1 minute transfers. We can have our bodies magically back at the same station we launched from even if we are 2000Ly away and we "die". The amount of time it takes to do that should be about the same as the amount of time needed to transfer a ship. The tradeoff? There has to be a tradeoff... make it more expensive. If you really want that ship that fast, pay the fee. It already costs 25 million Cr to ship a fully loaded Cutter from Ceos to Jameson Memorial, but it's the time that matters. I can make 100m in that time span if I had my ship. So charge me 50m to get it fast. Make credits worth something again.

 

[Captain Willard]

To bad for you, it was already decided to make it expensive and timely.
You could always fly your ship. Heaven forbid.

 

[Lestat]

I know you are doing the Boo hoo 1 Billion Credits. You can make a Billion Credits in less than a day. Note next time please do research before posting a topic.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

No thanks. I like it the way it is. It means some management is in order, some thoughthas to go into your decisions.

Also as to making it more expensive, it will then become something only the very wealthy will use.

So no. It has a nice balance at the moment and doesn't need to changed.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

To bad for you, it was already decided to make it expensive and timely.
You could always fly your ship. Heaven forbid.

In fact they decided cheaper and timely. It would have been far more expensive if it was instant.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Colonia transfers I think they definitely got right. It should cost you a lot of money to get a ship transferred all the way out there (you can always buy one locally instead, after all), and having to wait a little while shouldn't be a problem since getting there in the first place requires some forward planning anyway. If you're bringing ships out because you plan to settle there, then there's plenty to do with an exploration/travel ship for a few days while you wait - and you can always take a bit off the "wasted" time, if you're not neutron boosting out in a few hours, by using intermediate transfers at Rohini and Gandharvi.
(And if you're worried about a ship transfer costing 1 billion, fly the big expensive ship - maybe with some of the heavier modules stored - and transfer the cheaper ones)

Within-bubble transfers I think are less useful in a lot of cases, but on the other hand within-bubble is a short enough distance it's not a great inconvenience to fly it yourself either. I just use them to get ships back to my storage after they've got out of place.

 

[Lestat]

Colonia transfers I think they definitely got right. It should cost you a lot of money to get a ship transferred all the way out there (you can always buy one locally instead, after all), and having to wait a little while shouldn't be a problem since getting there in the first place requires some forward planning anyway. If you're bringing ships out because you plan to settle there, then there's plenty to do with an exploration/travel ship for a few days while you wait - and you can always take a bit off the "wasted" time, if you're not neutron boosting out in a few hours, by using intermediate transfers at Rohini and Gandharvi.
(And if you're worried about a ship transfer costing 1 billion, fly the big expensive ship - maybe with some of the heavier modules stored - and transfer the cheaper ones)

Within-bubble transfers I think are less useful in a lot of cases, but on the other hand within-bubble is a short enough distance it's not a great inconvenience to fly it yourself either. I just use them to get ships back to my storage after they've got out of place.

Well it always been the best way to make money while exploring is make a moderate Explorer ship or Combat ship Minus 2 Modules for exploration use. With 30ly Jump range. Make the best exploration ship Because of instead of 107 Jumps You be making Close to 800 jumps and earn a lot of credits to boot.

 

[babelfisch]

Only with the optional reduce ship transfer time module.

There needs to be a trade off for luxury after all!

More seriously, I agree. It should also be cheaper. In hindsight I wish I'd never argued against instant transfer. As it stands I have never used it once in the current implementation.

 

[Misty_Dark]

Either reduce the ship or module transfer times outright or offer expedited service at a premium. Having your ship or module sent where you want it doesn't put another player at a disadvantage and in fact means a player can continue the session without needing to log off for the 1.5 hours or however long it takes to get their ship transferred. Colonia transfers are a great example. People pay 1 billion Cr to transfer a ship that doesn't cost that much to buy and they they wait what, days? It should take as long to transfer as it would take the longest LY ship in the game to reach that station. I doesn't take 1.5 hours to get from Ceos to Founders World even in a low jump range ship.

With most grindy things, I see the benefit where the player base/progression is concerned, but the goal of the game for many if not most is to take advantage of the system they are in, and they cannot fly all of their ships at the same time. Since the in-game tools for finding interesting things to do are basically non-existent, when you stumble upon something and you have a couple hours to kill, you want to move to that role. Without your role specific ship/modules you're just out of luck. You'll need to wait the 1.5 hours real time to be able to continue. So you either abandon that goal for the time or you just quit the session.

I realize there are ways to mitigate this by having a narrow region of operation and keeping your ships within that region, or having a multirole ship, or having multiple ships that can fill these roles scattered throughout the bubble, however that means you are planning your game around ship transfer. The transfer should be to enable you to continue playing, it should not be the game itself.

I'd be ok with 1 minute transfers. We can have our bodies magically back at the same station we launched from even if we are 2000Ly away and we "die". The amount of time it takes to do that should be about the same as the amount of time needed to transfer a ship. The tradeoff? There has to be a tradeoff... make it more expensive. If you really want that ship that fast, pay the fee. It already costs 25 million Cr to ship a fully loaded Cutter from Ceos to Jameson Memorial, but it's the time that matters. I can make 100m in that time span if I had my ship. So charge me 50m to get it fast. Make credits worth something again.

Well there used to be NO ship and module transfer... meaning you had to to fly where you had your ship, change ship and then take the other ship back. So this required ALOT of planing to move around ships with very low jump range, which appears to be the most common theme among these requests, that people want to move around their combat ships.

Think about how is used to be. And that there was some community input on this, and this favoured costs and that transfers should not be instant, to keep with space is big and it takes time move around.

 

[Schmack]

Well there used to be NO ship and module transfer... meaning you had to to fly where you had your ship, change ship and then take the other ship back. So this required ALOT of planing to move around ships with very low jump range, which appears to be the most common theme among these requests, that people want to move around their combat ships.

Think about how is used to be. And that there was some community input on this, and this favoured costs and that transfers should not be instant, to keep with space is big and it takes time move around.

I considered that, but going by that line of reasoning no engineering changes should happen since engineering wasn't even in the game before Horizons and there should be no material traders (to keep space feeling big). There should be no interstellar factions for cashing in bounties.

The game should be about playing the game, not in waiting. That's a really poor "content" offering if wait time is being used to create the illusion of expanse. Travel wait time is quite different, as you're engaged in what you're doing. Who here is engaged in watching the transfer timer?

How is the size illusion handled from a game play perspective anyhow? You take a mission to deliver cargo and there are already pirates waiting for you the moment you enter SC. You come out of a mining site in the middle of nowhere and there are pirates waiting for you. These ships didn't exist until you got cargo in your hold. They show up magically in the ring anywhere you happen to be. That's just part of the game play offering, risk vs reward. If it's about keeping it real, ok... let me put my modules in my Cutter cargo bay and haul them. Also, why do I have a collective storage limit when these items are scattered across the bubble? Do they talk to each other and collude to limit me?

 

[Robert Maynard]

To be able to summon a ship to one's location, one must first have travelled to that location - in a ship.

If one chooses to travel in ships unsuited to performing the desired activity at the destination then that's a consequence of ones choices....

 

[Schmack]

To bad for you, it was already decided to make it expensive and timely.
You could always fly your ship. Heaven forbid.

This is a suggestion forum. How is it "too bad for me"?

Snarky comment not needed.

 

[Zapgun]

I agree.. Time sinks belong in mobile free-to-pay games. I would prefer to have the transfer time reduced, or as a happy medium perhaps provide the option to use an express courier to get your ship faster, but at a higher cost.

 

[Schmack]

To be able to summon a ship to one's location, one must first have travelled to that location - in a ship.

If one chooses to travel in ships unsuited to performing the desired activity at the destination then that's a consequence of ones choices....

I realize the first sentence, so if I gave the impression I wanted to send a ship somewhere instead of calling it from that location, that's my mistake and was unintended.

I addressed the 2nd sentence already. The fact that ship transfer exists at least indicates how undesirable it is to be stuck to the concept you mentioned. So now we have ship and module transfers. The time required to transfer the ship is somehow being seen as as offering a challenging choice. In reality part of that choice is "quit session, maybe come back in 2 hours to resume". If that's the intended outcome, that's fine. FDev is already offering people the freedom to not even pilot the ship but get to their destinations anyhow. How is a faster ship transfer somehow cheapening the experience? I am not talking about instantaneous but something that wouldn't make me want to exit the game.

I can take it or leave it though.

 

[Schmack]

Colonia transfers I think they definitely got right. It should cost you a lot of money to get a ship transferred all the way out there (you can always buy one locally instead, after all), and having to wait a little while shouldn't be a problem since getting there in the first place requires some forward planning anyway. If you're bringing ships out because you plan to settle there, then there's plenty to do with an exploration/travel ship for a few days while you wait - and you can always take a bit off the "wasted" time, if you're not neutron boosting out in a few hours, by using intermediate transfers at Rohini and Gandharvi.
(And if you're worried about a ship transfer costing 1 billion, fly the big expensive ship - maybe with some of the heavier modules stored - and transfer the cheaper ones)

Within-bubble transfers I think are less useful in a lot of cases, but on the other hand within-bubble is a short enough distance it's not a great inconvenience to fly it yourself either. I just use them to get ships back to my storage after they've got out of place.

Getting to Colonia is the challenge. It takes a few hours. It should then take a few hours to get your ship there. If it's about game play then ok, I'll fly your ship to you in a few hours for the billion you're going to pay me. The fact you cannot haz ur stuffs there creates an undesirable side note with Colonia. It's fun to visit but not to stay. They built several huge stations out there, but for some reason people want to believe they are roughing it.

 

[Schmack]

I know you are doing the Boo hoo 1 Billion Credits. You can make a Billion Credits in less than a day. Note next time please do research before posting a topic.

I have billions. I don't care for the price. I even suggested to make it more expensive. I don't think some people actually read the OP.

 

[metatheurgist]

I would like the transfer times to accurately represent the time it takes to travel the distance. Either by the capabilities of the ship with a hired pilot (or hey let's put some of those crew to work) or by the capabilities of the megaships that are supposed to be moving them around, while doing routes with multiple stops.

Anything but the arbitrary times that seem to have been pulled out of some book of terrible game design.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Getting to Colonia is the challenge. It takes a few hours. It should then take a few hours to get your ship there. If it's about game play then ok, I'll fly your ship to you in a few hours for the billion you're going to pay me. The fact you cannot haz ur stuffs there creates an undesirable side note with Colonia. It's fun to visit but not to stay. They built several huge stations out there, but for some reason people want to believe they are roughing it.

The last ship I transferred to Colonia was an FDL with a 16 LY range and a 2A fuel scoop [1]. It cost me about 130 million for the transfer, which I considered an absolute bargain compared with what it would have taken to get it out there myself.

But sure, if it's about gameplay I'll pay you 130 million in gems if you put up a verifiable video of you flying a similarly outfitted FDL from the bubble to Colonia in under 61 hours of real time.

[1] And an OC3 power plant, so I can only use about half of the scoop's max rate before I start to get thermal issues.

 

[Robert Maynard]

I would like the transfer times to accurately represent the time it takes to travel the distance. Either by the capabilities of the ship with a hired pilot (or hey let's put some of those crew to work) or by the capabilities of the megaships that are supposed to be moving them around, while doing routes with multiple stops.

If it was the former then some ships would be unable to be transferred at all due to insufficient jump range to be able to plan a route.

 

[Robert Maynard]

I realize the first sentence, so if I gave the impression I wanted to send a ship somewhere instead of calling it from that location, that's my mistake and was unintended.

My point being that to arrive at a location, the player first has to decide to travel there - and in which ship.

The fact that ship transfer exists at least indicates how undesirable it is to be stuck to the concept you mentioned. So now we have ship and module transfers. The time required to transfer the ship is somehow being seen as as offering a challenging choice. In reality part of that choice is "quit session, maybe come back in 2 hours to resume". If that's the intended outcome, that's fine. FDev is already offering people the freedom to not even pilot the ship but get to their destinations anyhow. How is a faster ship transfer somehow cheapening the experience? I am not talking about instantaneous but something that wouldn't make me want to exit the game.

If players choose to jump-taxi-travel then summon and log-out that's their choice. The intended outcome is fulfilled - a player can summon a ship (or module) to their current location. What does not happen is rapid movement of ships that can't travel very quickly at all (or even cannot make the journey when a player is at the helm due to insufficient jump range to plot a route).

Jump range is one of the compromises related to particular vessel optimisations - a consequence of choice.