In regards to instant Commander teleportation for Multicrews:
It's completely immersion breaking and destroys the unique grand sense of scale of the ED setting.
Players already need to meet up to do Wing activity together, and I don't see that being complained about as a chore to achieve; so why would meeting up to form a crew be any different practically?
I already play with my friends in Wings, and the same friends will be each other's multicrew too. We're already hanging out in the same volumes of space. This teleportation feature will be used by non-Winging players maybe only once or twice, as a complete gimmick, yet the damage to the setting's scale is already done. Those who want teleportation to support their mindless sugar-rush insta-combat gameplay (besides already having CQC/Arena), will be gone to the next flavour of the month game anyway in short order once bored again.
Magical insta-teleportation for crew utterly devalues the intangible (but magical) quality of feeling like you're really journeying in space with your friends.
I doubt the gaming press / media will ever again bother covering the "magic and wonder" of ED's huge Exploration voyages, since it won't exist anymore. The thing that was news-worthy and interesting was the journey, not the destination. So obvious!
Space Engine will be the go-to application for anyone wanting to explore the Galaxy using simple "console command" shortcuts.
Lots of people (probably the same people who chase fast-credit exploits), are screaming for instant-teleportation to make sugar-rush combat as easy as pressing a button, but have FD considered that the degradation of the scale of the setting will wipe away an element of the game that is difficult to pin down in terms of specific mechanics, namely the overall emotional feel of the game?
I fear FD are chasing a demographic with these arcade design choices, that has no interest in the setting, but rather are the sorts of players who only hang around for 5 minutes after an update anyway, before they go off to the next sugary buzz. The sort of player that is not interested in the journey, or exploring the depth that ED has to offer, but rather wants higher credits per hour so they can race to the "end" ship and hurriedly "beat" the game.
Basically the worry is that FD is chasing the money of arcade players who will simply be gone again after they've exhausted their initial novelty buzz of consuming new content, then leaving the core players of the game with a unsatisfying, stripped back, bland "ease of access" focused casual game.
Instant Teleportation is simply Instant Gratification.
Those who want Instant Gratification will not be gratified by the content after 3 or 4 goes of the ride, they will leave to find Instant Gratification from somewhere else.
When I play co-op we work together to navigate distances as a team, we travel across space for our gameplay purposes in concert. Managing our time and appreciating the scale of the setting is part of the tactical-strategic layer that we play in - having meaningful restrictions, limiters and tensions in our gameplay is GOOD as it demands creative thinking and more than just an arcade style point and click unthinking approach to play.
FD might think they're adding something and fulfilling demand in their community by "gifting" teleportation. Really they are risking diluting the specialness of the setting, and gutting a huge plank of emergent gameplay (resource management and situational awareness), by just catering to the "here one minute, gone the next" crowd, and not the loyal core of the community that loves ED for it's rich and vast scale.
Remember this video?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHg6lHvWdCw
The guy is blown away by the incredible sense of scale, his mind is seemingly blown.
Now imagine the reaction when he's now told "now you just use this console command button to magic yourself to anywhere you want instantly"... - I highly suspect that the awe of witnessing the Galaxy Map is inspired not just by the sheer number of possible destinations shown,
BUT BY THE EVOCATIVE CONCEPT THAT ONE MUST ACTUALLY PHYSICALLY TRAVERSE THOSE INTERVENING VOLUMES OF SPACE TO REACH ONE OF THEM, and not "by magic", but by thought and consideration and by determination that really matters and is an actual achievement. NOT a laughable Playstation Trophy or an Xbox Achievement to tick off a damn list. BUT AN ACTUAL ACHIEVEMENT WITH FEELS AND STUFF!!
If instant teleportation is going to be a thing, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS SPECIAL IN ED limit it to only working within the Bubble, or within 100 or 50 LYs of each other.
Don't break the game's best most amazing Unique Selling Point (1:1 representation of the Milky Way) just for an arcade combat feature.
Please <3
