A question about player agency

It's Saturday night in the UK and I may have had a couple of drinkies, so apologies if this goes on a few rambling tangents.

Some of you will be aware of what squadron I'm a part of, what we stand for and what we do. Others far more eloquent than me will have gone into more detail here and I'm not looking to rehash any of this. Suffice to say we have, in our way, always looked to build something within the game.

Now, one of the ways we have looked to do this is by improving the engineers in Colonia. One way or another we hope (with others in the region) to have this completed fairly soon (ask @Paul Smith the 3rd for details- as I said, I've been drinking).

The question is once this is done, what is there for players to build for the benefit of others? Personally, I've helped defend the bubble from the Thargoid invasion in late 3304/early 3305; I've worked with Operation Ida to repair stations afterwards and now I've been working with others to provide a region which if it is nothing else, will be practically a one stop shop for players engineering their ships.

What is next (and this is the TL;DR bit, I should have mentioned this at the start. Did I mention I've had a couple of drinks?)? What will players be able to do to build something that everyone can use and benefit from, even if our individual contributions are fractions of a %? Will we have any grand projects starting next year that we can work on to constructively impact the player base as a whole?

I do understand this isn't for everyone, but I believe there is enough of us who want to be involved in such a thing that we hope something like this will happen (and I'm not expecting something like this to necessarily be around the Odyssey launch).
 
Currently we also have the coalsack thing going on to get some new stations going on a new area, but yeah these are CGs and when done, we'll be back to waiting for another "human expansion" CG.

The background simulation is ultimately an exchange of player action for faction influence, but it feels like it's missing an entire dimension of simulation - population changes, asset improvements or construction entire new ones, even at systems without a human presence yet. Things that would take weeks or even months to complete, but you could work on it bit by bit everyday.

A station has a market supply/demand, but those don't seem to be used for anything except giving you credits. CGs are the only thing that turn commodities into something. There's nothing similar outside of a CG.
A mission asks for something, but nothing happens beyond the influence change and your reward being generated. Sure, there's an economic/security indicator, but keeping those maxed out don't leave any lasting effect. Likewise, keeping those at minimum does no lasting damage. Influence leads to expansion/retreats, but a system will eventually run out of valid targets.
Universal Cartographics pays handsomely for our exploration data, but it doesn't seem to get used for anything. No initiatives to expand the bubble even one single system further, or filling the current uncolonized systems in the bubble.
 
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Dunno if i have this right but the engi situation in colonia was due to something failng and LR pretty much picking up the pieces and maxing them out for the good candy, which benefits all.
One thing that may work in current times is what will happen in coalsack, maybe as a way to further enhance what is being given with current CG as more resources are added.
I'm not sure how what is needed could be communicated beyond station bulletin boards, prolly out in coalsack when CG completes...codex, maybe a list of incomplete ventures and requirements which can change as things progress?
 
We have a storyline back, which is a good start, and FD have stated that they have many months of it left to run. The CGs are part of that storyline. I presume they've tied the story into the launch of Odyssey to take advantage of new stuff that brings. If not, they'd best start a new story then...

Don't know how things will pan out going forward, but we're in a much better place than we were a few months ago. There actually is stuff to get involved with at the moment.
 
It's Saturday night in the UK and I may have had a couple of drinkies, so apologies if this goes on a few rambling tangents.

Some of you will be aware of what squadron I'm a part of, what we stand for and what we do. Others far more eloquent than me will have gone into more detail here and I'm not looking to rehash any of this. Suffice to say we have, in our way, always looked to build something within the game.

Now, one of the ways we have looked to do this is by improving the engineers in Colonia. One way or another we hope (with others in the region) to have this completed fairly soon (ask @Paul Smith the 3rd for details- as I said, I've been drinking).

The question is once this is done, what is there for players to build for the benefit of others? Personally, I've helped defend the bubble from the Thargoid invasion in late 3304/early 3305; I've worked with Operation Ida to repair stations afterwards and now I've been working with others to provide a region which if it is nothing else, will be practically a one stop shop for players engineering their ships.

What is next (and this is the TL;DR bit, I should have mentioned this at the start. Did I mention I've had a couple of drinks?)? What will players be able to do to build something that everyone can use and benefit from, even if our individual contributions are fractions of a %? Will we have any grand projects starting next year that we can work on to constructively impact the player base as a whole?

I do understand this isn't for everyone, but I believe there is enough of us who want to be involved in such a thing that we hope something like this will happen (and I'm not expecting something like this to necessarily be around the Odyssey launch).
Ganking 😜
 
If we are given the tools in game, some will work together to build. Some, less enlightened souls will just want to use the hammer.

The DSSA is another great example of being given the tools (fleet carriers) and parts of the community co-operating for the benefit of all, and it looks like it will be an on-going commitment. I'm sure those guys could use a hand. DSSA v2 anyone ?

It would be satisfying to have a long term strategic plan that commanders could contribute to (or undermine), a common purpose beyond the usual petty competition of the powers. Thargoids may present a threat to all humanity and this is perhaps the most obvious unifying candidate. In a war the short term tactical objectives of station evacuation, repair,re-supply and expansion could be woven in to a (albeit perhaps hidden) strategic narrative.

Ultimately, I trust that other commanders will inevitably find new and inventive ways to manipulate the simulation and hope that the most popular of those manipulations will benefit us. As to what exactly that will be. Fun to speculate. Count me in.
 
tut, tut... You really shouldn't support such a loathed playstyle....

"Emergent content" - instead?
Criminal network appears and any and all crimes which result in a bounty strengthens them and this somehow benefits the Pilot's Federation affiliates involved with them? 🤔

Although with CGs that have a result of determining the services available in stations out in the nebula colonies, could this be an ongoing thing where services, shipyards, outfitting etc are improved by positive actions? The flip side of that being that stations degrade and could even become abandoned and derilict (with space feet scavenging possibilities) if they aren't supported.
 
Criminal network appears and any and all crimes which result in a bounty strengthens them and this somehow benefits the Pilot's Federation affiliates involved with them? 🤔

Although with CGs that have a result of determining the services available in stations out in the nebula colonies, could this be an ongoing thing where services, shipyards, outfitting etc are improved by positive actions? The flip side of that being that stations degrade and could even become abandoned and derilict (with space feet scavenging possibilities) if they aren't supported.
That would change the game forever, where player actions could really make a difference!

I would embrace such changes with tremendous enthusiasm - superior to the current BGS in all ways 😎
 
Bar cleansing the galaxy of pretentious Dictatorship controlled systems? (an impossible task)
Possibly Odyssey will have potential to do something similar, although I doubt it, otherwise ED isn't offering anything long-term to plan for, which is sad.

I've been thinking about this. Using Discord, Inara, this forum, and other ED-related tools, I think it would be possible to assemble players across various squadrons and minor factions to launch coordinated offensives agaist Dictatorship systems.
 
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Bar cleansing the galaxy of pretentious Dictatorship controlled systems? (an impossible task)
Possibly Odyssey will have potential to do something similar, although I doubt it, otherwise ED isn't offering anything long-term to plan for, which is sad.
Of course! We should implement Democracy everywhere; we can use that shining example, the Federation!

Imagine a galaxy where senior Admirals regularly attempt to murder their civilian "superiors", the illegality of slavery is given a wink and a nod, etc!

Dictator=Bad, Democracy=Good is Such an over-simplification.
 
Sorry for asking but since this post is up, he talked about improving engineers and i searched and found other posts where they talk about that, but being still fairly new to bgs and such, I don't understand HOW and can't find anything related. Would it be possible to improve the bubble ones as well ? Was it just a CG goal ?
 
Sorry for asking but since this post is up, he talked about improving engineers and i searched and found other posts where they talk about that, but being still fairly new to bgs and such, I don't understand HOW and can't find anything related. Would it be possible to improve the bubble ones as well ? Was it just a CG goal ?

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Source

This was specific to Colonia engineers.
 
Would it be possible to improve the bubble ones as well ?
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/guide-to-engineers-in-colonia.444749/ is the official announcement. Not a CG in the narrow sense, but definitely a goal for the community. (I preferred this sort to actual CGs, since it kept us busy for 2.5 years, had a lot of room for players to decide how it went in terms of priorities, and so on)

From what we saw with Chloe Sedesi it looks like engineers have a current and potential level for their blueprints. If the current level is less than the potential, you get the local news article at the base, and the current level improves with use until it reaches the potential level.

At the moment all engineers are in a situation where their current level has reached their potential level for all blueprints (the bubble ones started out that way, of course)
 
Of course! We should implement Democracy everywhere; we can use that shining example, the Federation!

Imagine a galaxy where senior Admirals regularly attempt to murder their civilian "superiors", the illegality of slavery is given a wink and a nod, etc!

Dictator=Bad, Democracy=Good is Such an over-simplification.
Democracy? No thanks, Anarchy has its place too...
(Which incidentally is why I only mentioned pretentious Dictatorships - in particular those who wish to build their own 'City of God' as that is incredibly pretentious!)
 
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