A game Beyond the Anaconda - Towards galactic domination

[CrazyH0rse]

I'm all for adding features that give players a choice in this game, my issue is the reasons behind threads like this. Go back and look at all the recent threads of this nature and the reason why people are starting these threads are either because they are bored or they seek directed progressions in a sandbox game. That is my main issue and why I say that a lot of people in this community don't understand what a sandbox is. They blow off the majority of the activities in this game as menial tasks in their progression. No wonder they get bored so easily!

All of that aside you are right that right now Elite is a sandbox simulator rather than a true sandbox, not necessarily because it doesn't allow complete control to the players but purely because of instancing. Sandbox games rely heavily on player interaction and when you cut players off from one another into instances it detracts from the intended nature of the game. Take out the instances in favour of a single open world server and suddenly you will turn the game from a sandbox simulator into a true sandbox mmorpg. Now, whether FDev have the ability to make this happen I don't know. Did they ever plan to do this in the future or keep things as they were?

You are mistaken about my motivation. I don't have an Anaconda or a phython and I'm not bored. Currently, I'm happily ranking my way up in the empire. I really like this game. My motivation is that I get excited about the potential for this game. I can see how much more it could be... how much more potential there is, for player interaction and for things to be more coherent, consistent and meaningful! And I believe this can all be done without undermining the original vision. The sandbox would still be there... it would exist with in the context of something greater. It would all be opt-in.

 

[Commander Dave]

And when you tire of the endless amount of , erm, 4 careers, what then?

That's up to you.
You're the one who determines if you want to continue and find new things. Only you can decide you're bored.
Only you can have the imagination to make the ED galaxy live.
If you haven't got that imagination then, well no other way to say it, I pity you.

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If this were true... if no goals were really required... then we'd all be playing the original 1984 game now today. But who continued playing it after they reached the 8th Galaxy, had reached elite and had defeated the thargoids?

I did.
And I'm certainly not alone.
Reaching the 8th galaxy wasn't the end. Did you really think it was? Are you that easily bored?

Seems to be much linear thinking in this thread here.
Seems to be lots of expecting things to be laid out waiting.
Seems to be a singular lack of imagination.

Imagination, that's the key.
If you don't have it then you're not going to get much out of this frankly.
And that would be a great shame.
A great shame indeed.

 

[Kigre]

Currently beyond cobra level, the only occupation that pays is trading. When you get on to the bigger ships, trading really is the only way to make a buck... you can engage in missions, piracy or what not, but it's really just for your own amusement.

Beyond Anaconda level there is no purpose except to get more credits. There are no more targets to achieve. There is ranking up in the factions and achieving the elite statuses but they are rather hollow to be honest.

So I have been thinking... what could you add to the game to create perpetual meaningful targets that hold some interest for players indefinitely.

The basic idea has a couple of strands:
1. Player driven content (e.g. ability for players to post billboard missions - more on this later).
2. Player factions
3. A mechanism to "settle" uninhabited systems (that would work for player factions and NPC factions and CMDRS could play a role in both). This would mean that FD don't have to create arbitrary community goals and have to patch the game to add a new system - it has to be dynamic
4. The ability to challenge control of a station and system
5. Joining the dots in the background sim to allow all this to happen
6. Closely related to 5. above, everything players AND NPCs do should be meaningful in terms of the background sim. Whether it's trading or combat, it should all be affecting the background sim in some way

Some core principals so that the toys stay in the pram for now (based on my understanding of what is important to much of the player base)

1. There should always be relatively low risk options for players
2. Risky play should be opt-in so there should be high security systems and systems of systems where penalties for griefing style play are severe and policing is very high. In fact, lets have policing as a player career option with ranks etc.
3. The game remains relatively unchanged for players that choose to remain away from the frontier systems

Please note that this isn't a fully thought through idea, but I think it lays out some of the basic elements for what could be a REALLY interesting game.

So... joining it all up.

The objective is to create player driven goals for players beyond the anaconda that require no intervention by FD. The idea is to allow single players or groups of players (player factions... but a faction might only have one player) to take control of space stations and to settle uninhabited systems and build new space stations. These would all require investments in terms of combat, credits and resources but once a player faction controls a system, it would provide an income based on it's economy and trading activity - this is the end goal. This would eventually supply enough income and resources to look at settling/taking over another system... it should take a long time however.

How could this work?

Colonizing a new system
- A suitable planet would have to be settled before a space station could be built
- Some game mechanism would need to be devised to allow a system to be scanned for its ability to support life and then identified as a target for settlement
- The system would need to be "cleared" of any existing pirate activity or otherwise unwanted unlawful elements - this would be the combat phase. To clear a system if undersirables would require player posted billboard missions. Players and/or factions would control and supply the reward and provide the moderated text. These missions would all need to be completed before the system could be settled.
- There could be a commodity called "settlers" that would have to be brought once the system is clear. The faction who brings these settlers would determine the relative influence of the faction in control of the system.
- After some predetermined amount of time after a predetermined minimum settler colony is established, a space station would need to be built to support them.

Creating a new space station
- A new space station would need investment in terms of credits and resources.
- A certain amount of resources of type X, Y and X would need to be brought to a system along with commodities such as "labourers" which would need to be paid
- After sufficient resources have been supplied and credits to pay the labourers, a barebone station would exist. This would have basic functions
- Now the station is basically like a ship and it needs to be equipped with modules, like laser defenses, outfitting facilities, refueling facilities etc.
- A functioning commodities market will now be the basis for survival of the system. Depending on the planet type, system and it's settlers will produce A, B, C... commodities to be sold via the commodities market and the system will need commodities X, Y, Z... to survive. The controlling faction set the prices of these commodities and this drives the cost of maintaining the system vs. the income it receives. This in turn controls the faction income. The faction can control prices to attract supply of commodities which would grow the system and the same for exports and resultant income etc.
- As well as upgrading the space station's facilities and defense, credits could be invested in NPC defense - a new type of NPC that can actually fight... or at least groups of NPCs that would be able to defeat at least a single player
- The player faction can post missions that will allow players to participate in the defense of the system


Taking over a space station
- A prerequisite for making a gambit for control of a system would be that faction has greater than X% influence in the system
- A faction could have influence in a system by initially supplying some of the settler population
- If a faction starts off with no influence in a particular system it would need to establish a foothold and then increase it's influence to the threshold level through the usual methods... trading etc.
- A mechanism would be needed to allow a new faction to gain a foothold in a system
- Once a foothold has been established, player or NPC factions could post billboard missions that would increase that faction's influence in a system
- The players and factions decide how much to reward for specific missions... this will achieve a number of important things
a. It will allow players to control the reward and attract more skillful players to missions and thus the likelihood of success
b. It will create missions with increased difficulty and reward and enable a new "mercenary" career
c. It will add variety and by allowing players to write the (moderated) content will address the arbitrary feel to current missions
- These missions would create persistent conflict zones where players and NPCs would fight it out to increase their influence.
- Once an influence threshold has been exceeded, a battle for the station would ensue and this is where investment in the stations defenses and NPC defense will bear fruit


Player factions are key
- The players could define their own rank structure
- The players would define the types of missions and reward required to rank up and so can control the quality of players in their faction and also compete with other player factions
- Factions would have influence and income and can pursue galactic domination

All this combined would create a persistent universe where players drive the content, create the missions and fight for galactic domination. Players who like the game as it is can continue to play in the home systems and beyond while the fight for domination rages in frontier systems. This should even give the pirate types plenty of other targets!

Although the idea here is to create player driven goals and objectives, NPCs would be doing all this too... therefore making their activities less arbitrary. I.e. NPC factions would also be vying for control of systems and players would be free to help these NPC factions too... but player controlled factions would be in there too... driving the interesting content.

In summary, we get:
- Player driven content
- Persistent meaningful goals beyond ship and rank attainment
- A new "mercenary" career
- Meaningful NPC activity

Maybe I'm a dreamer?

Edit: Player and faction postable missions could include:
- Bring my ship from X to Y
- Bring stuff from X to Y (such as commodities required to settle/sustain a system)
- Assassinate X player (player bounties) subject to certain conditions to prevent abuse (such as reputation, wanted status, faction bounties etc.)
- Police station X (prevent wanted criminals or unlawful goods from entering and protect clean players)
- Kill X number of ships from faction Y in conflict zone Z (mercenary missions - in system takeover bids).
- Etc.

Players WILL NEVER dominate ANYTHING beyond small battle scenarios. Max 4 players in a party. Remember? And DB have stated that they DONT want players controlling stations/planets etc... "Its more of an experience we are trying to create." or something along those lines.

Keep dreaming tho.