New mini-game: a starports traffic control officer

norlin

norlin
Basically, giving a real player controls over a specific station traffic management. Both for NPC ships and commanders.
Accept/decline Commanders' requests for docking, answer with voice or text, managing inbound and departing ships, assigning their landing pads and so on,
Controlling the station weaponry as well, ability to blast pirates/intruders.
Protecting the station from a Thargoid's invasion.
Rewards are based on the accuracy of the job, success/failure moves, number of accidents etc.
...
"Ha-ha, this station is controlled by a player, look at my T9 boost tail-forward FA-off docking skillz!"
 

norlin

norlin
LeoBartlet said:
No way I can see this being used to troll players.
Click to expand...
Is this bad you think? It's actually the best thing a game can have - allow players to PLAY, not just a stupid mindless grind.

Anyway, adding to the OP, it can even be a mobile stand-alone game, BUT connected to the real Elite's world in real time.
Kinda Flight Control game but in the ED world.
 

norlin

norlin
Next step: allow to take full responsibilities over a single starport, manage their development strategy, resources, and so on.
Work for improvements and upgrades, increasing station population, income, etc.
 

Rubbernuke

Rubbernuke
Within two minutes

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Northpin

Northpin
Who on Earth or in Space would want to do that.
You will either get a station no one ever visit.
Or a choke point.
Have you ever watched the traffic at Jaques in Colonia? Good look managing the traffic there.

And by the way: every time you fail to do your job properly, all the incurred losses will come from your personal account - so i hope you have some billions stashed to pay for ships and station repairs.
And when i say ships, i mean the full price of the ships - since NPC are not insured by the Pilots Federation.
 

norlin

norlin
Northpin said:
Who on Earth or in Space would want to do that.
You will either get a station no one ever visit.
Or a choke point.
Have you ever watched the traffic at Jaques in Colonia? Good look managing the traffic there.

And by the way: every time you fail to do you job properly, all the incurred losses will come from your personal account - so i hope you have some billions stashed to pay for ships and station repairs.
And when i say ships, i mean the full price of the ships - since NPC are not insured by the Pilots Federation.
Click to expand...
Look, players will not be able to choose a station manually (at first).
There should be a new Rank for the traffic controllers.
Also, there are always plenty of NPC ships for any starport.

Harmless will be assigned to a low-traffic starport.
Elite can be assigned to manage Jameson Memorial in a rush hour.

The losses will be covered from the insurance and from the officer's salary (e.g. you can't receive negative amount, but can get very low payment or very high, depending on your performance).
Basically, for players, it's a new way to earn credits and possibly materials.

If an officer is failing to do the job or causing intended accidents - there could be fines or notoriety added, sure. And the access revoke, e,g. even with a high rank player with bad performance will not be able to manage high-traffic starports.
 

Northpin

Northpin
norlin said:
If an officer is failing to do the job or causing intended accidents - there could be fines or notoriety added, sure. And the access revoke, e,g. even with a high rank player with bad performance will not be able to manage high-traffic starports.
Click to expand...

In ED you get shot for loitering.
Act badly as an ATC and you will be shot on the ATC chair.

Lower wages, bounties, notoriety... more likely a frag grenade dipped in you coffee mug 😂
 

norlin

norlin
Ooooh, a forbidden idea!!!

Allow for a Player Minor Faction to assign their own Traffic Officers to the controlled starports!
At least, it will add a bit of sense to the whole BGS part.
 

norlin

norlin
Northpin said:
In ED you get shot for loitering.
Act badly as an ATC and you will be shot on the ATC chair.

Lower wages, bounties, notoriety... more likely a frag grenade dipped in you coffee mug 😂
Click to expand...
From the other side, you get a fine of 100 Cr for ramming ships and so on.
So it may be enough to get a reprimand as an ATC after accidentally causing a death of a fully loaded touristic Beluga Liner
 

rootsrat

Volunteer Moderator
rootsrat
norlin said:
Basically, giving a real player controls over a specific station traffic management. Both for NPC ships and commanders.
Accept/decline Commanders' requests for docking, answer with voice or text, managing inbound and departing ships, assigning their landing pads and so on,
Controlling the station weaponry as well, ability to blast pirates/intruders.
Protecting the station from a Thargoid's invasion.
Rewards are based on the accuracy of the job, success/failure moves, number of accidents etc.
...
"Ha-ha, this station is controlled by a player, look at my T9 boost tail-forward FA-off docking skillz!"
Click to expand...
I don't think Elite is the right game for that kind of gameplay. Terrible idea that would be exploited very fast.

Also, the only reason this game feels like a mindless grind to anyone is because they turn it into one.
 

Zieman

Zieman
As to the OP: lol no, trolling is all too easy and rampant in the game already.
But Chris Roberts might like your idea(s).
If that fails, you can always fall back to X4 or Starbase or Space engineers or Empyrion: Galactic survival, for example. :)
 
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