Please reconsider fleet carriers for solo players.

[CMDR Big Mike]

Anyone else thing that “base building” could apply to the carriers?

Perhaps setting up and outfitting them will have some base building mechanics

 

[Wrecked]

I don't need a personal fleet carrier and I don't think you should get one either, unless you fulfill the same requirements that squadrons do (whatever it will be).
However I would like to see NPC fleet carriers. I think there is a lot of potential for scenarios, wars, missions, etc.

Really? Why should squadrons get fleet carriers? We’ve been getting along without them just fine.

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

Well yeah, exploration is the first appeal for having your own. Imagine making your own little colonia somewhere.. even going mining for a while and selling the contents to the carrier, then moving on.

That would be an amazing sandbox addition.

Apart from not making it accessible to everyone, frontier haven't stated anything at all regarding gameplay application. I'll try not to expect the worst but we've been conditioned pretty well over the years.

 

[Wrecked]

I imagine you will need a squadron to get a carrier. But since you can make a squadron for one person, it’s a non issue

Wouldn’t it be much better gameplay to be able to pledge your personal carrier and NPC crew to the squadron rather than being a peasant, filling the carrier with jump gridonium so the squadron leaders can choose where you get to go?

I can tell you right now, I’m not grinding for jump fuel so that someone else gets to be the decider of how my hard work is used.

 

[Wrecked]

Fleet Carriers are basically a Guild home, people wanting one for themselves will likely be disappointed as I suspect that they will be designed from the ground up to work with multiple people, not one.

I will wait for the base building we may get at the end of next year if I want all my ships together in one place.

Yea, permanent bases on planets for your ships really sucks for explorers who want to go out into the black with their fleet.

 

[CMDR Big Mike]

Wouldn’t it be much better gameplay to be able to pledge your personal carrier and NPC crew to the squadron rather than being a peasant, filling the carrier with jump gridonium so the squadron leaders can choose where you get to go?

I can tell you right now, I’m not grinding for jump fuel so that someone else gets to be the decider of how my hard work is used.

Well it might not surprise you that I have my own squadron lol.

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

I can tell you right now, I’m not grinding for jump fuel so that someone else gets to be the decider of how my hard work is used.

Unless I can refuel a carrier with exploration data, I'm not grinding anything for anyone, including my own 'squadron'.

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

Unless I can refuel a carrier with exploration data, I'm not grinding anything for anyone, including my own 'squadron'.

Having along a custom type 9 fitted with nothing but extra fuel tanks to scoop up fuel for your base doesnt sound appealing?

That would be amazing. Actually thats how it should work, jumping should be equivalent to now, its the refuelling that should take longer.

I gotta stop because the last time i did this was passenger missions and that didn't end well.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

Yea, permanent bases on planets for your ships really sucks for explorers who want to go out into the black with their fleet.

What's the point in having a fleet that could take weeks to move from one place to another. The point of the matter is that is doesn't make any sense for a solo player to have one. What the hell does an explorer need with a whole fleet of ships out in the black. At the end of the day, fleet carriers only really make sense with squadrons. I prefer a game that makes sense. Having single commanders running around with basically megaships just seems ridiculous for a game such as ED where there is a proper game world to consider.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

While I suspect you are correct in your presumption that these will be designed for group play (FD so want us to play together nicely), base building as an alternative is not necessarily going to do the trick. If I want all my ships together in one place, I'll stick them in storage at a station (where at least I'll have missions, refuel, repair, restock, remote workshop facilities), few or none of which I would imagine will be available to a player base.

I think the potential for a solo player to have a carrier that can accommodate a limited number of ships is that it can be used as a mobile base. We often already get tied to a specific location / area because that's where our ships are, but being able to transport a mission runner, a combat vessel, a surface specific ship and perhaps a Thargoid hunter frees me up to go play the game wherever I feel like it and not rely on ship transfer. If there's actual gameplay involved in moving the carrier from place to place, so much the better.

FD provided an almost infinite game world, give players the option to up roots and explore it with a bunch of useful tools (with exploration not meaning exploration in the traditional sense).

Certainly not against a mini version that can hold three ships or so. But the fleet carrier we saw was huge and for a single person to have one in my view would look ridiculous. It's bad enough with the big five.

Also the mini varient would still need refuelling which may take time. I know people are talking about bringing a fleet exploring, but is that seriously realistic. I can imagine it being the slowest method of exploring ever even before we got all the FSD upgrades and modules.

 

[Ouberos]

I have a couple of fleets. My BGS fleet begins with a DBS and a T6. I fly one in and ship the other with Galactic Logistics. Once I am established as an Allie of a faction I place an order to bring in my Krait or my Python depending on the legal status of the faction. When I hit boom state I will call in my T9 or my Anaconda.

The ability to have all of these ships on station from day one would be really useful to me and in the long run save me money.

I would very much like a Fleet Carrier rather than s Squadron carrier please FD.

However I can hear Lobbyists from Galactic Logistics writing out credit note bribes as we speak. Stock in GL is going to nose dive if everyone can have them.

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

Also the mini varient would still need refuelling which may take time. I know people are talking about bringing a fleet exploring, but is that seriously realistic. I can imagine it being the slowest method of exploring ever even before we got all the FSD upgrades and modules.

After hundreds, maybe thousands of pages of comments of people completely rejecting the god mod wham bam gimme it all now exploration tool, it hasn't clicked at all that people go exploring for different reasons other than going fast? Surely some posts we exclaimed must have got though.

Having a base of operations that follows you around away from the bubble would be absolutely perfect yes. Regardless of what it took to get it there.

Also max, what could you imagine the purpose of these things be apart from that (roleplay is a given)? What will these actually do?

 

[Siigari]

I don't understand why some people are asking why can't the solo players have it?

That's akin to a single human being asking if they can launch themselves to the moon all alone in 1975. No ground control to talk to, single person, etc.

They're not designed for single players. Single players if you want to use one, there is a gameplay mechanic allowing you to participate. Not trying to sound like a jerk or anything, but sometimes things that are made for groups are not made for people who choose to be solo players.

 

[Siobhan]

While it'd be nice to see carriers with an explorer, a a-hunter etc as some suggest, I suspect most fleet carriers when they launch will carry a gankmobile, another gankmobile, a slightly different gankmobile that isn't a FDL, a gankmobile and a stealth gankmobile...
But we will see...

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

After hundreds, maybe thousands of pages of comments of people completely rejecting the god mod wham bam gimme it all now exploration tool, it hasn't clicked at all that people go exploring for different reasons other than going fast? Surely some posts we exclaimed must have got though.

Having a base of operations that follows you around away from the bubble would be absolutely perfect yes. Regardless of what it took to get it there.

Also max, what could you imagine the purpose of these things be apart from that (roleplay is a given)? What will these actually do?

Except it doesn't follow you around. You will have to spend time refuelling it, you have to plot a course, possibly when docked. They are guild homes. They may introduce something in the future for solo players, but I doubt it.

Roleplay is fine, but I prefer to roleplay in a semi-plausible game world. It's one I f the reason why I don't like NMS and their fleets controlled by one person. It's just looks silly. I don't like it. Other may want that, that's fine, bit I allow we to not agree with them.

At the end of the day, these things are just moveable guild homes.

Player housing looks like it's coming next year. But I know that's not what people want. They want their fleet of ships at a moment's notice wherever they are. It's instant transfers all.over again.

There are no moveable megaships with a shipyard. I suspect that these ships will also not have a shipyard. So if that's the case, all you can do is transport your ship when it's jumps. So instead of going out exploring in your explorer ship, you will end up taking weeks to re-stock after a jump (as these are designed around group play) to jump again. Yeah, a nice grind you have just created for your self.

Sorry but I can't see having these for lone pilots. They just won't make sense.

 

[[VR] Goooost]

As I understood previous statements, a Squadron would retain its assets until the point of disbandment - even if there was only a single member.

If that's true, then we could just have a few friendly people with alts go around and hook everyone up with a carrier. You drop a squad name, they join, you buy your carrier, they disband. Call them the Carrier Pigeons or something.

 

[Mars Starcruiser]

Except it doesn't follow you around. You will have to spend time refuelling it, you have to plot a course, possibly when docked. They are guild homes. They may introduce something in the future for solo players, but I doubt it.

Roleplay is fine, but I prefer to roleplay in a semi-plausible game world. It's one I f the reason why I don't like NMS and their fleets controlled by one person. It's just looks silly. I don't like it. Other may want that, that's fine, bit I allow we to not agree with them.

At the end of the day, these things are just moveable guild homes.

Player housing looks like it's coming next year. But I know that's not what people want. They want their fleet of ships at a moment's notice wherever they are. It's instant transfers all.over again.

There are no moveable megaships with a shipyard. I suspect that these ships will also not have a shipyard. So if that's the case, all you can do is transport your ship when it's jumps. So instead of going out exploring in your explorer ship, you will end up taking weeks to re-stock after a jump (as these are designed around group play) to jump again. Yeah, a nice grind you have just created for your self.

Sorry but I can't see having these for lone pilots. They just won't make sense.

I'll have one, even if I'm a lone pilot unless some ridiculous extra requirement is there. Not very efficient to fly too most of the ships in this game except for maybe the big three. AspX, python, anaconda(...until you can replace it with vette or cutter since their cooler.) Can skip 90% of the ships in this game because they are not even remotely as efficient as those 3 but we buy them anyways.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

I'll have one, even if I'm a lone pilot unless some ridiculous extra requirement is there. Not very efficient to fly too most of the ships in this game except for maybe the big three. AspX, python, anaconda(...until you can replace it with vette or cutter since their cooler.) Can skip 90% of the ships in this game because they are not even remotely as efficient as those 3 but we buy them anyways.

You don't understand. These things will based and balanced multiple players, not one. These ships probably won't have shipyard, so all it can do is carry the ship you are in. So what the point in a single player having this huge lumbering ship that takes weeks to move a couple of hundred lightyears that you could do in five minutes in the only ship you are bringing with you.

 

[Mars Starcruiser]

I'm curious what kind of module storage it is going to have for the outfitting since I'd guess, you won't necessarily have instant buy options, so likely have to have insane amount of module storage to compensate. That storage is what would matter to me the most, if its 1000 or 10,000. I'd be able to finally sell a few hundred ships that I've been harboring in way too many stations.

 

[NCFCpaul]

My take away from reading through the thread is that there is quite a demand for solo type options but also a view that Frontier won't do that. I also see how potentially game changing and therefore contentious this is.

Frontier need to tread carefully, Fleet carriers could be fantastic, as well as player bases, less mentioned here. As someone who plays Solo, however, mostly I really hope they find some kind of content to encourage players like me too.

I'm looking forward to what they do and just in case I'm going to have an extended prod collecting void opals, the one thing I'm really certain of is that all these easy credits are going to get a mighty big sink!