Erimus has planned something. Check Fleetcomm discord.
Fleet carriers for exploration
- Thread starter marx
- Start date
This is what they said about exploration btw:
Q. How might an explorer fund their Fleet Carrier's upkeep costs?
A. Whilst Elite Dangerous' top traders might want to turn their Fleet Carrier into a trading post that turns a profit, we expect most Fleet Carriers to be fitted in ways that help players do what they enjoy in the game. For example, explorers who have accrued large sums of cash, they'll be able to take a Fleet Carrier and ferry it out to the remote regions of the galaxy and explore never-before seen locations. Equally, explorers could set their Fleet Carrier up as a trading post in a convenient location to turn a profit while they engage in other activities.
Q. How might an explorer fund their Fleet Carrier's upkeep costs?
A. Whilst Elite Dangerous' top traders might want to turn their Fleet Carrier into a trading post that turns a profit, we expect most Fleet Carriers to be fitted in ways that help players do what they enjoy in the game. For example, explorers who have accrued large sums of cash, they'll be able to take a Fleet Carrier and ferry it out to the remote regions of the galaxy and explore never-before seen locations. Equally, explorers could set their Fleet Carrier up as a trading post in a convenient location to turn a profit while they engage in other activities.
No UC on my explo-carrier? Wow... The only use I can see then is a nice distraction from deep space monotony. A bit of mining and a bit of exploring instead of exploring only.
Disappointment...
Disappointment...
What I would ideally like to see would be a Interstellar Factor type UC service that charges a fee for the convenience of being able to sell while you explore, or the ability to bulk store your data on the carrier. I feel like it could easily be integrated into that Redemption Office thing they talked about. They can simply make it faction free since they seem very focused on making sure FCs do not directly affect BGS. It makes no sense to me why you can turn in bounties/bonds etc for a fee but not data.
The jump cooldown is also way too long. To me ideal would be about 30 min of charge up and cooldown for 1 hour total. I highly expect that this will get changed after the betas, remember stuff like this has been changed in the past (remember when they were gonna make us synth DSS drones LOL). Unfortunately they sound pretty set on not having UC which is disappointing unless you're planning on parking your FC near Colonia or Explorer's Anchorage for the rest of eternity
The jump cooldown is also way too long. To me ideal would be about 30 min of charge up and cooldown for 1 hour total. I highly expect that this will get changed after the betas, remember stuff like this has been changed in the past (remember when they were gonna make us synth DSS drones LOL). Unfortunately they sound pretty set on not having UC which is disappointing unless you're planning on parking your FC near Colonia or Explorer's Anchorage for the rest of eternity
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So, you can jump 500 ly every couple of hours. Even a stock sidewinder can beat that. A trip to Beagle will take you 260+ hours, during which time most ships could have done the journey at least twice over.
The only use I can see for an FC is for record setting; e.g. take your FC to Ishums Reach and see how far you can get it from there.
The only use I can see for an FC is for record setting; e.g. take your FC to Ishums Reach and see how far you can get it from there.
"You can set buy orders out in the black for stuff nobody out there has to sell, or sell commodities nobody out there needs"
I think they meant in the bubble while you're out exploring so you don't need to care about it with that sentence.
The other challenge for explorers is funding it whilst you're out in the black. Is the expectation that, if you don't already have the funds to pay the upkeep, you would have to stop exploring and go mining, sell the proceeds back to the carrier in order to raise the cash to top up the carriers funds? Is that right?
At least if you had a UC then you'd be doing the thing you like doing in order to raise the cash. If you have to add a commodity market to support funding then that is going to cost more too fund only making the problem worse.
Of course you might take the view that a bit of mining might be a nice break, but eventually you'd fill up the carriers hold meaning that, unless you can destroy cargo (which would seem a bit odd) you'd need to return to the bubble to empty your hold. And explorers with fleet carriers would lose the option of being indefinitely self sufficient out in the black.
Lots of assumptions here, so could be completely wrong. I am struggling with fleet carriers at the moment, they seem, well, just a bit odd.
At least if you had a UC then you'd be doing the thing you like doing in order to raise the cash. If you have to add a commodity market to support funding then that is going to cost more too fund only making the problem worse.
Of course you might take the view that a bit of mining might be a nice break, but eventually you'd fill up the carriers hold meaning that, unless you can destroy cargo (which would seem a bit odd) you'd need to return to the bubble to empty your hold. And explorers with fleet carriers would lose the option of being indefinitely self sufficient out in the black.
Lots of assumptions here, so could be completely wrong. I am struggling with fleet carriers at the moment, they seem, well, just a bit odd.
You will mine. Not for credits, but for tritium.
Yep, you're quite right! I haven't made my way through the whole livestream yet, but I don't think we have an indication of how much tritium we'd need or how easy it is to obatin just yet?
Personally, what I'd love to know is why Frontier decided to not have UC on carriers. Unless they just forgot that's a thing But yeah, through the reason behind the decision would help with accepting it, whether one agrees with it or not.
Also, about taking one to Beagle Point: carriers will be available for purchase at Colonia, so you needn't go 65,000 ly. It'll still be a long time of waiting on the jumps, but significantly less than if you dragged one from the bubble.
I think that from screenshots on the stream, the fuel tank will hold 1000T, and the devs said it'll be enough for two full jumps, so that would mean 1T for 1 ly if so. Of course, we have no idea about tritium rarity yet, only that they'll be available from icy asteroids, or purchase in inhabited systems. We should see this in the beta soon though.
But yeah, through the reason behind the decision would help with accepting it, whether one agrees with it or not.Also, about taking one to Beagle Point: carriers will be available for purchase at Colonia, so you needn't go 65,000 ly. It'll still be a long time of waiting on the jumps, but significantly less than if you dragged one from the bubble.
I think that from screenshots on the stream, the fuel tank will hold 1000T, and the devs said it'll be enough for two full jumps, so that would mean 1T for 1 ly if so. Of course, we have no idea about tritium rarity yet, only that they'll be available from icy asteroids, or purchase in inhabited systems. We should see this in the beta soon though.
Yeah, I get the impression that they are trying to discourage frequent jumping. There's wear & tear that increases the maintenance cost for the week, added with every jump. Plus 500T of fuel that supposedly is only available via surface and subsurface deposits (unclear if that includes laser-mining, but it implies "no"). Even if tritium is common in rings, it takes a lot longer to get 500T of deposits, than 500T with the laser. A long trip might be easier to manage by pre-loading the onboard storage with fuel, bought in the bubble.
If this is the case-- Jumping the carrier is expensive either (or both) in terms of time and money, then moving them to distant locations in the galaxy might be more of a task for an expedition, than for individual explorers wanting to put them somewhere for the community.
I'm OK with that, in general. But without UC, it may be a lot of effort for little gain.
Thinking back onto exploration uses, I do still see a bunch of use-cases, but some are very narrow niche cases.
But getting back to FDev's motivation here, I have a strong suspicion that the lack of UC is specifically for the same reason there's no shipyard at Explorer's Anchorage. They don't want to create a "one-stop shop" where you can offload data, buy a sidewinder, and suicide back to the bubble. And for carriers, they probably felt that the shipyard was of greater use to everyone than UC, and is indeed required for the whole "fleet carrier" concept anyway.
EDIT: I saw the FleetComm discord announcement last night about the DSSA. I haven't read the new thread here yet, I'll go do that.
If this is the case-- Jumping the carrier is expensive either (or both) in terms of time and money, then moving them to distant locations in the galaxy might be more of a task for an expedition, than for individual explorers wanting to put them somewhere for the community.
I'm OK with that, in general. But without UC, it may be a lot of effort for little gain.
Thinking back onto exploration uses, I do still see a bunch of use-cases, but some are very narrow niche cases.
- Ferry across gaps (either regularly, or for short-term exploration).
- Pit-stops for refuel/repair/rearm. Mostly covered already by ship modules.
- Sell and/or transfer exploration-related modules. Helpful for commanders who forgot to bring something (AFMU or heatsink, for instance), or for commanders who want to travel light and then equip things later (fighter hanger, SRV, whatever).
- Reloading heatsinks without using bubble-found synthesis materials.
- Reloading lost SRVs.
- Repairing the power plant, or a blown out canopy.
- Safe place to dock at scenic location (tourist trap).
- Place to swap ships and loadouts during expeditions. For instance, supporting the mining CGs in DW2, if something like that were to happen again.
- Providing a shipyard at Explorer's Anchorage, which currently has UC but not a shipyard.
But getting back to FDev's motivation here, I have a strong suspicion that the lack of UC is specifically for the same reason there's no shipyard at Explorer's Anchorage. They don't want to create a "one-stop shop" where you can offload data, buy a sidewinder, and suicide back to the bubble. And for carriers, they probably felt that the shipyard was of greater use to everyone than UC, and is indeed required for the whole "fleet carrier" concept anyway.
EDIT: I saw the FleetComm discord announcement last night about the DSSA. I haven't read the new thread here yet, I'll go do that.
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Simple solution there, make shipyard and UC mutually incompatible. Having one locks you out of the other, Same way you can't equip, say, two different kinds of shield generator on your ships.
Hi!Yep, totally worthless for exploration. What a waste of a feature for us.
The real question I'd love to know the answer to is: WHY NOT???!??!?!?
Welcome to the forums, you must be new here otherwise you wouldn't have been so surprised
You catch on quick though
Talk about an evasive answer. It boils down to: they can't, because we never considered them.
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Hmm...
It's still lots of theory crafting oc, but...
I actually like the idea to have to prepare my FC for a longer exploration trip.
Get the money for the upkeep, fill its hold with enough tritium, decide about services I want to add, store lots of powerplants and SRVs, have my racer, Miner, Explorer, Lander and whatever on board
Why should I need a UC!?
I am used to drag my data back to the bubble since years
Only thing I'm not that happy with is the 2hr /jump... Although this could help to move more slowly and therefore get more shinies
Looking forward to get one
Still, what Fdev is offering us after 2 years is ridiculous imo.
It's still lots of theory crafting oc, but...
I actually like the idea to have to prepare my FC for a longer exploration trip.
Get the money for the upkeep, fill its hold with enough tritium, decide about services I want to add, store lots of powerplants and SRVs, have my racer, Miner, Explorer, Lander and whatever on board
Why should I need a UC!?
I am used to drag my data back to the bubble since years
Only thing I'm not that happy with is the 2hr /jump... Although this could help to move more slowly and therefore get more shinies
Looking forward to get one
Still, what Fdev is offering us after 2 years is ridiculous imo.
ooh, right, yeah, a giant floating credit sink which lets me replenish my SRVs
Sold.
Sold.
There has always been a distinction between play testing and actually playing your game for Devs. I find creation can be soul numbing and sometimes you don't want to spend so much time with your creative output. A bit like our children really, so I understand not being into Elite as much as it's players.
I think the exploration side has sadly always seemed a little half baked and suffered from forgetful neglect. It's had tweaks here and there but they have felt like missed opportunities.
Without third party tools to make it more functional and enjoyable I would have stopped playing some time as go.
As you say, I'm not sure they realized the scope of exploration and how to facilitate gameplay for it.
OK, let's play the deep black mining game. We all know that in the bubble, or within 500 ly of it, you put something in your hold you generate NPCs to come try to take it.
Would you generate NPC pirates 30kly out while mining? If you don't make it back to your FC do you respawn in your FC, and lose your explore data? Most importantly, will it have a ice cream machine on it?
Would you generate NPC pirates 30kly out while mining? If you don't make it back to your FC do you respawn in your FC, and lose your explore data? Most importantly, will it have a ice cream machine on it?
As useful for explorers as mammary glands on a male pig...But what else do I have to spend billions on? Just so the hanger bay isn't covered in eye straining blue blobs....
Haha, yeah, I forgot about that. But here's another use: restoring your paint job to 100%! Gotta look good on those screenshots.
Of course, screenshots will all be about
I'm also looking forward to the inevitable "haha I glitched my carrier into the rings / planet" shots as well.