A question about player owned stations.

[Garzini]

I hear a lot on the forums that people want player owned stations.

My questions are : why? And how do you think it would work?

Some extra questions to ponder...
Where would the people come from that run it?
Would it be tied into the background simulation, with minor factions and missions?
If so, what happens when another faction takes control?
What benefits can you see from owning a station?

 

[Omega Fighter]

No, just no.

This is not that kind of game.

People already have minor factions to play with.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

Prepare for the thread to be locked... I was trying to find the mega-thread but can't so maybe it won't be locked after all

Most people seem to want either money for doing nothing (which won't happen), or control over how docks there and/or the guns (won't happen). Or they want a home base for themselves or their faction/group which most already have. Market control won't happen, neither will in depth control of the station outfitting/economy/shipyard/refuel/repair/restock. There are simply too many groups/players and not enough developers.

The one real point people can argue is stations that they can then win/loose and fight other player factions over. Or bases/stations they can build/expand etc as a group similar to Eve/NMS.

I'm on the "don't want them side" because any level of control or benefit from owning a station/base would be ruined by those players out to cause grief and either removed or nerfed into pointlessness. For all intents and purposes I may as well say Ray Gateway in Diaguandri is my station.

The only fashion I want them implemented in is personal bases maybe planet-side/asteroid that are only findable by the player themselves and/or a wing-member of said player if beaconed in. Any other times players will be put in a different instance without the base.
The one and only thing I really want is a huge hangar in which I can display some/all of my ships and drive past them all lined up in my SRV.
In the end I'd pay 1billion+ credits for that provided it wasn't something I could loose.

 

[Garzini]

Personally, I don't want them either, but I was really curious as to how the people that did want them, thought that they would work..

 

[c00ky1970]

Why? I think some players want to empire build and some want to have a place that they can customise and call their own.

How it would work? Probably not in a way that could become a credit generator for the player, more a credit sink. I did post on the suggestions forum a long time ago an idea about players with shed loads of money spending that on securing a planetary base and then spending even more money to add facilities so other players can come and refuel, repair even buy ships - the profits from such actions would not return to the player, just contribute to the factions in system.

Where would the people come from to fill the positions? Jobserve or the 34th century equivalent ;-) The total population of the bubble is many trillions, so having 400 or so rock up and perform docking functions for a player wouldn't be too far of an issue, providing you pay them enough! ;-)

The real challenge is BGS interaction, either the players facility cannot provide BGS linked functions - buy sell commodities, black market, bounty/combat bond collection etc. So it's just a personal refuel and repair with a livery section. Or you have to have factions appear with mission board and whatever happens at your station contributes to BGS. If it was me I would make it a vanity item with little BGS interaction as possible so it's not subject to players gaming systems by deploying this bases.

I would also make bases a permanent deployment, not something a player can move on a whim, plus limit them to currently uninhabited planets.

In conclusion I see it as a vanity item for the idle billionaires to creat and tweak and act as a credit sink in the game.

 

[viper666]

As an avid Fallout 4 settlement builder, I would love to be able to build my own base on some remote moon. Not going to happen though, but a fella can dream.

 

[Tarman]

I'd like to see personal base ownership of a smaller class than any current stations, for use as homes, bases, low-volume physical trade hubs (even if we still have to do it oldschool in space .___.) and hideouts rather than earning system-level ability status. Really we probably have the space for it being the actual galaxy and all, but keeping them personal-pizza scale keeps the Coriolis and its system power projection in the hands of actual governments and not the PF freelancer paramilitaries that we are for those governments. Man, the PF really is up to something but they paid for my first ship and fit all my cockpits with the Blackout survival gear so there's that. >___>

As far as services, hrm. That's always a tough call how far the personal base should go in a game. I've never gone for uber-hideouts in various Fallout mods but certainly not due to lack of selection. At least refuel to start or that's just stupid; gas is effectively free anyway. I'd say with improvements it could add a weapons tech and a mechanic for the next two Rs. After that I think we get into the endlessly debatable topics but the basic ship services should be available or obtainable.

 

[JosiahD]

Not interested in seeing player owned stations/bases either. This is not that sort of game. I'd be all tor some form of player-owned hangar or apartments on the NPC-owned stations though - some form of player housing within the existing structure.

 

[Stealthie]

I get why it's unlikely a player could ever "own" a station but i wouldn't have anything against players being able to forge stronger links with stations.

I mean, why not have some kind of mechanic where you could "invest" in a station which could allow the station to provide a wider range of commodities or, perhaps, increase the number of ships you can dock there or give you cheaper prices for repairs/refueling etc?

They could even make it part of the gameplay, whereby if you invest in a station you get a mission to go somewhere, do something for the faction that runs that station and then, upon successful completion, you'd be able to buy the desired commodity and bring it back to "your" station to initialise a small supply of that commodity there.
Do more runs to the same place (thus improving trade relations with that station) and the supply at "your" station increases.

Seems like it'd be fairly easy to set the game up with limits on the amount of "investing" possible so people couldn't just grind the supply of a valuable commodity to exploit levels of profit.

 

[mp4x]

This is the benefit of owning a station, as I understand it:

 

[Harley Quinn]

My own station. No thanks I don't fancy being an administrator.

My own rock hermit base or better still hanger and home carved into a mountain on a ELW thousands of light years from the bubble? Yes please, but plenty to fix and add first.

 

[Iskariot]

I hear a lot on the forums that people want player owned stations.

My questions are : why? And how do you think it would work?

Some extra questions to ponder...
Where would the people come from that run it?
Would it be tied into the background simulation, with minor factions and missions?
If so, what happens when another faction takes control?
What benefits can you see from owning a station?

I do not want player owned stations of the size and type we see currently in the game.

...but being able to construct a small modular private player base down on some planet would be very cool.
I would not have to be tied in with the BGS. I think that would make things far to complicated.

 

[Arry]

The issue with player owned stations, are the same as faction controlled stations now. Ok so you can afford to own a station and you are the controlling faction; until another player group comes along and takes over by force. All the credits in the galaxy are not going to save you from force of numbers.

 

[lenna]

In ED, perhaps player owned "Apartments"/"Planetary Outposts" would be appropriate when we eventually get space legs. But if this were done IMO it should be implemented in a similar fashion to the likes of GW/GW2 Guild Halls or ESO Homes (i.e. there are set places that can be "personalised" and used as some kind of trophy/achievement room). Such things would not be player owned stations in the way that they exist in the X series but IMO that approach is inappropriate for MMOs.

Overall though, I think such things are frivolous and irrelevant for this kind of game. I would rather be able to decorate the inside of my ships with more than just bobbleheads on the dashboard.

 

[DocPossible]

Stations are owned by Factions. The issue is that players can't be a member of a faction - player groups associated with a Faction are so loosely related as to be essentially independent. I'd just be happy if players could actually join a faction.......

 

[cmdr m0kn]

"this is not that sort of game" ...
ok... WHY?
there's 400 billion starsystems, isn't there place for player owned bases???
i just simply cannot understand why some ppl do NOT want to see player owned bases... PLEASE explain to me.
and don't come with "we have already player minor factions", because thats only a BGS manipulation like NPC minor factions, nothing more.
as long as we don't have seperate solo/private and open BGS... these player minor factions cannot operate normaly...
"oh you want to attack me because im hurtin your system?? i go to solo and continue to undermine your opertaion...INVISIBLE STYLE!"

 

[ThomasWJames]

No, no, no, no.

1. No to player owned stations/ports or asteroid bases. (Player factions is good enough)
2. No to player owned super ships.

None of these concepts is what Elite: Dangerous is about. I stated it somewhere else, we are commanders of small ships, not fleet admirals or something. Keep the brass as NPC's!

 

[sb413197]

I would much prefer to own my own Farragut. And command a fleet of warships...

 

[ThomasWJames]

"this is not that sort of game" ...
ok... WHY?
there's 400 billion starsystems, isn't there place for player owned bases???
i just simply cannot understand why some ppl do NOT want to see player owned bases... PLEASE explain to me.
and don't come with "we have already player minor factions", because thats only a BGS manipulation like NPC minor factions, nothing more.
as long as we don't have seperate solo/private and open BGS... these player minor factions cannot operate normaly...
"oh you want to attack me because im hurtin your system?? i go to solo and continue to undermine your opertaion...INVISIBLE STYLE!"

I honestly just think that would bring us into a downward spiral of bad news. Makes the game seem like Eve Online or Star Trek Online, two games, Elite: Dangerous is not. I say you want your own base than you have to play as traffic controller and direct incoming ships. That's it.

 

[Gunnet]

My impression is that you can divide the players who want player stations/bases into two distinct groups. The people who want to build a little personalised space to call home, in the style of Minecraft, Subnautica or any of a thousand other games with similar features. And the people who want to lay claim to an area of space with their player group and exert control over independent pilots while fighting other player groups for dominance, in the style of you-know-what.

Personally, I enjoy games that fall into the first group. But I don't consider those features essential for Elite, would rather dev time was spent on expanding existing features rather than adding major new ones, and would hate to see players in the second group use them as the thin end of the wedge.