First of all - before I continue - I love Elite. Full Stop. I am not going to stop playing it. But I often wish that things hung together better.
So this post is a wish list for Devs. It's likely long (I haven't written it yet) so if you want the TL;DR it's ^^ Up there.
1. Mission Goons. So I took some planetary scan jobs in a ship which has no cargo space and saw some tasty Wing Mining Missions at the same time with a 6 day timer. I took those too. The mining missions sent 16 goons after me which I was delighted to take on in my combat-fit FDL with a hastily-fitted SRV. When each goon arrived (each one associated with a mining mission) it was talking about cargo and how it was going to take everything and it's here for the cargo and nothing else etc. I have ZERO cargo space in my FdL. None. Why are the goons not connecting with this fact?
2. Carriers: When I approach my own carrier, I'm not expecting bootlicking or whatever - but I don't want to be greeted like every other commander approaching my carrier either. Join the dots. "Welcome back, Commander; we've opened Pad 1 for you as usual - please approach and land at will." (Pad 1 is now coloured green where all the others are purple for instance). Just have the carrier pretend it knows me? It's a simple IF...THEN...ELSE construct with different answers. Similarly, when I'm walking about my carrier, I want to be recognised (even subtly) by the crew... maybe the Command Deck Sentry stiffens up a little - maybe the chatting crew in the corridor stop talking and move to the side as I pass? Maybe the bored pilot sits up a bit and looks interested?
3. Allow me to use things while I'm sitting down - why on EARTH would I need to stand up to use Galnet, or to look at carrier services?
4. I don't care HOW I GOT TO my Carrier. If I'm aboard, let me select any of my parked ships from the elevator panel. At the moment, if someone drops me off and then leaves, I cannot access ANY ships and I have to use a bloody escape pod or trip to Horizons to start playing again!
5. When you decide if a mission is "Available" or not, please note that I have numerous ships. If I accept and I cannot do the mission at all, that's MY PROBLEM, and I'll get fined or shot at. For instance, if I'm in a cargo-less FdL it doesn't mean I cannot do a cargo mission. Let me accept the mission and pick up the cargo later when I begin???? It's bizarre that I can accept a "5221 units of water" mission, but not a "deliver 34 units of biowaste". I can only change ships if they're all at the mission-giver location. By all means filter them by reputation or other factors, but really? I have 784 tons of cargo space over there and I have 300 seats of passenger space over there. Let me worry about logistics and "accept" now, "begin" when ready (within the mission time frame).
6. Let me plot manual multi-point routes via the maps with my ships and carrier. e.g. I have ten missions in the local systems group and I want to go HERE first, then HERE, then HERE. etc.
7. Let me bind keys for:
* Supercruise Assist off/on
* "Deploy Fighter with NPC Crew" - "Deploy fighter with live crew" - "Deploy fighter with ship commander".
8. Let's get rid of the whole "Pinned Blueprints" and "Must visit engineer for ExpEffs". It's nonsense. Madness. Engineering is awful and there's really zero need for this grind. Commanders were NEVER going to let their engineering evolve naturally over time, they were ALWAYS going to min-max everything as fast as they possibly could. This was never a way to increase the game's time-appeal to players. So; now everyone maxes out on materials, and goes to the engineer ONCE to max-eng everything for that ship. They pin a blueprint for other ships. But other ships have differing needs so now they have to spend a week going back and maxing materials again. NOBODY wants a G2.6 Laser Multi Mine Thruster Drive. They want it full G5 with an ExpEff on it. And they want it now. Some carrier owners with ten ships are going on Engineer Round Robin trips to engineer all their ships at once - it's not gameplay - it gets in the way of gameplay. Why not let people pay premium prices for pre-engineered modules? Allow them to select which modifications and finalise the price after? Of course, they can get the module cheaper, without.
9. How can an NPC Anaconda just "BOOM" high-wake out of a fight without increasing thrust or boosting away? One minute I have a HUD full of dying snake hull, next minute I'm looking at a grey square and hearing a triple-bleep.
10. Interdictions; two beefs here.
11. Better/More expensive ship? Should have better doo-dads and whatsumma-hickies. I know you can fit and engineer better modules - but what about, in a Corvette, letting me have all the stuff in point 10 - but in a Sidey you get none? What about, when you're building your mining Python, you are allowed to add little key macros and automations to it that you couldn't in your purely manual mining Cobra Mk III?
12. Theming - I want to be able to colour/arrange/theme my cockpit and HUD. I want there to be a player-theming community. I want people to be able to sell and/or share their themes for Elite online. I want the different ship cockpits to have more than cosmetic background differences. I don't want background lighting to obscure HUD elements - (I'm talking to you, Gravity Readout in Anacondas).
13. I want to be able to lend people a ship, and I want to be able to sell ships, un-engineered modules, commodities. At a price of my choosing.
14. I want to be able to transfer credits and ARX to other players. For instance I want my Son to get a head-start to a ship he can actually use. He's very young and loves the game. Giving him 10M would mean a great start for him. Giving him ARX from my already purchased stash would help him get liveries and whatnot.
15. I want there to be a livery market for players to design/contribute livery of their own to, at prices of their choosing. FDev could take a 10% cut of the price. The current liveries are pretty crap, and players are immensely creative.
16. Let me skip the pad-spinning and other cut scenes once the novelty wears off. For the Gods' sakes! They're fascinating and amazing at first, but just obstruct gameplay later. If people feel this would impact immersion, they could leave them on. Maybe even a sliding scale of how MUCH of the cut scene is played.
17. My SLF pilot seems to be present all the time - at least, he's available in EVERY crew lounge I visit, across the galaxy. Why can't I set him active from the ship's own menus?!
This is a Bill for the People of Elite, it is a Good Bill, and I Commend it to The House!
So this post is a wish list for Devs. It's likely long (I haven't written it yet) so if you want the TL;DR it's ^^ Up there.
1. Mission Goons. So I took some planetary scan jobs in a ship which has no cargo space and saw some tasty Wing Mining Missions at the same time with a 6 day timer. I took those too. The mining missions sent 16 goons after me which I was delighted to take on in my combat-fit FDL with a hastily-fitted SRV. When each goon arrived (each one associated with a mining mission) it was talking about cargo and how it was going to take everything and it's here for the cargo and nothing else etc. I have ZERO cargo space in my FdL. None. Why are the goons not connecting with this fact?
2. Carriers: When I approach my own carrier, I'm not expecting bootlicking or whatever - but I don't want to be greeted like every other commander approaching my carrier either. Join the dots. "Welcome back, Commander; we've opened Pad 1 for you as usual - please approach and land at will." (Pad 1 is now coloured green where all the others are purple for instance). Just have the carrier pretend it knows me? It's a simple IF...THEN...ELSE construct with different answers. Similarly, when I'm walking about my carrier, I want to be recognised (even subtly) by the crew... maybe the Command Deck Sentry stiffens up a little - maybe the chatting crew in the corridor stop talking and move to the side as I pass? Maybe the bored pilot sits up a bit and looks interested?
3. Allow me to use things while I'm sitting down - why on EARTH would I need to stand up to use Galnet, or to look at carrier services?
4. I don't care HOW I GOT TO my Carrier. If I'm aboard, let me select any of my parked ships from the elevator panel. At the moment, if someone drops me off and then leaves, I cannot access ANY ships and I have to use a bloody escape pod or trip to Horizons to start playing again!
5. When you decide if a mission is "Available" or not, please note that I have numerous ships. If I accept and I cannot do the mission at all, that's MY PROBLEM, and I'll get fined or shot at. For instance, if I'm in a cargo-less FdL it doesn't mean I cannot do a cargo mission. Let me accept the mission and pick up the cargo later when I begin???? It's bizarre that I can accept a "5221 units of water" mission, but not a "deliver 34 units of biowaste". I can only change ships if they're all at the mission-giver location. By all means filter them by reputation or other factors, but really? I have 784 tons of cargo space over there and I have 300 seats of passenger space over there. Let me worry about logistics and "accept" now, "begin" when ready (within the mission time frame).
6. Let me plot manual multi-point routes via the maps with my ships and carrier. e.g. I have ten missions in the local systems group and I want to go HERE first, then HERE, then HERE. etc.
7. Let me bind keys for:
* Supercruise Assist off/on
* "Deploy Fighter with NPC Crew" - "Deploy fighter with live crew" - "Deploy fighter with ship commander".
8. Let's get rid of the whole "Pinned Blueprints" and "Must visit engineer for ExpEffs". It's nonsense. Madness. Engineering is awful and there's really zero need for this grind. Commanders were NEVER going to let their engineering evolve naturally over time, they were ALWAYS going to min-max everything as fast as they possibly could. This was never a way to increase the game's time-appeal to players. So; now everyone maxes out on materials, and goes to the engineer ONCE to max-eng everything for that ship. They pin a blueprint for other ships. But other ships have differing needs so now they have to spend a week going back and maxing materials again. NOBODY wants a G2.6 Laser Multi Mine Thruster Drive. They want it full G5 with an ExpEff on it. And they want it now. Some carrier owners with ten ships are going on Engineer Round Robin trips to engineer all their ships at once - it's not gameplay - it gets in the way of gameplay. Why not let people pay premium prices for pre-engineered modules? Allow them to select which modifications and finalise the price after? Of course, they can get the module cheaper, without.
9. How can an NPC Anaconda just "BOOM" high-wake out of a fight without increasing thrust or boosting away? One minute I have a HUD full of dying snake hull, next minute I'm looking at a grey square and hearing a triple-bleep.
10. Interdictions; two beefs here.
A. Why the heck is it (a) so easy to escape NPC interdictions, and yet (b) impossible (I mean - literally impossible) to escape a live player one? I mean, I know that even if an "Elite" NPC interdicts me in the best ship EVER, I only fight him if I want to - even in a T9. But if a live player interdicts me, I'm done in three seconds. No matter how good I am.
B. Once I am interdicted and have the bad guy behind me, I have to (a) choose fire group, (b) FA-Off, boost and turn, FA-On, (c) target the bad guy, (d) set pips, (e) deploy hardpoints, (f) set combat mode, (g) deploy fighter (which takes a good couple of seconds minimum!), (h) issue fighter orders. The workload is IMMENSE. Now - I kinda get this - but I firmly believe that in 3308 there would be a whole BUNCH of automation around it and reacting to actually being shot at would be a lot easier. For instance; deploying hardpoints while ship is under attack? DUH - we should automatically go combat mode. Or even just "while being shot at" at all. Deploying hardpoints could automatically assign 3 pips to WEP, and divide the rest equally between SYS and ENG. A useful starting point in a fight or any time you want to use hardpoint-stuff.
11. Better/More expensive ship? Should have better doo-dads and whatsumma-hickies. I know you can fit and engineer better modules - but what about, in a Corvette, letting me have all the stuff in point 10 - but in a Sidey you get none? What about, when you're building your mining Python, you are allowed to add little key macros and automations to it that you couldn't in your purely manual mining Cobra Mk III?
12. Theming - I want to be able to colour/arrange/theme my cockpit and HUD. I want there to be a player-theming community. I want people to be able to sell and/or share their themes for Elite online. I want the different ship cockpits to have more than cosmetic background differences. I don't want background lighting to obscure HUD elements - (I'm talking to you, Gravity Readout in Anacondas).
13. I want to be able to lend people a ship, and I want to be able to sell ships, un-engineered modules, commodities. At a price of my choosing.
14. I want to be able to transfer credits and ARX to other players. For instance I want my Son to get a head-start to a ship he can actually use. He's very young and loves the game. Giving him 10M would mean a great start for him. Giving him ARX from my already purchased stash would help him get liveries and whatnot.
15. I want there to be a livery market for players to design/contribute livery of their own to, at prices of their choosing. FDev could take a 10% cut of the price. The current liveries are pretty crap, and players are immensely creative.
16. Let me skip the pad-spinning and other cut scenes once the novelty wears off. For the Gods' sakes! They're fascinating and amazing at first, but just obstruct gameplay later. If people feel this would impact immersion, they could leave them on. Maybe even a sliding scale of how MUCH of the cut scene is played.
17. My SLF pilot seems to be present all the time - at least, he's available in EVERY crew lounge I visit, across the galaxy. Why can't I set him active from the ship's own menus?!
This is a Bill for the People of Elite, it is a Good Bill, and I Commend it to The House!
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