General Adjustments to existing features

[Killerskullmk]

Among so many things, suggestions and possible new features, sometimes we just need some adjustments to things that already exist.

For example:

-Increase the limit of stored modules.
Honestly, this is not the first time that this request appears on the forum, there is a serious need to increase this, especially for commanders who do engineering constantly, saving their modules becomes exceptional so as not to need to engineer again in the future.

Strange that commanders acquire the Fleet Carrier, but also kill the same limit...

It is extremely important to have the ability to store your items and purchasing a fleet carrier does not give you any advantage in this regard either.

The same also happens with the limit of ship materials and items on foot on the fleet carrier as well as on the ship.

It would be better if there were no limits, but if it does, it will be quite absurd.


I'll edit it soon with new suggestions...

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

Obviously storage limits in games are a thing; Elite isn't the outlier here. The module storage has been bumped twice; originally it was just 60, then it got raised to 120, and the last change was with Odyssey (U7?) to 200. The Odyssey material storage on your ship was raised from 1000 (I think) in total to 1000 per category. A fleet carrier adds another 1000 units storage for those. So it's not as if the limits are set in stone, and you get a benefit from having a carrier, but no matter what the limit, player will always cry for more.

200 modules is a pretty good number. If you really need more: Storage ships . But the limits, be it the module or material storage, aren't going anywhere. If you need unlimited storage, you might want to reconsider your hoarding behaviour.

 

[Dillon Fallon]

I'd say if you're finding that you're full of both materials and modules in your carrier hanger it might be time to build and engineer ship that makes use of those modules. That's the reason I have 7 FdLs anyway.

Saves messing about with swapping modules out as well as you can just jump straight into a ready to go ship whenever you want to use a particular build.

 

[Shurimal]

200 modules is a pretty good number.

It's really not that much if you have eg:
-Several weapons setup for a few combat ships (why should I buy and fully engineer 3 'Vettes if I can just swap guns around for specific tasks?)
-Many powerplay modules (I think I have ~20 spare Prismatic shields of all sizes that I bought "just in case")
-A bunch of (Azimuth) AX weapons for different conditions. Station CZ-s, open space CZ-s, signal sources, Maelstroms and spire sites all require a different approach while the base ship stays mostly the same. Again, why buy and engineer 5 virtually identical Krait MKII-s instead of just swapping the guns and a couple of optionals/utilities around?
-Different multi-limpet controllers and differently loaded SRV hangars for PvE/BGS tasks/missions etc.
-Community goal/in-game event prizes (a grand total of 9 Festive Fireworks launchers, YAY!).

I clean up my module storage regularly and don't shy away selling off G5 engineered modules that I don't need anymore, and still sit at 120+ modules because I love to tinker with different weapons and engineering options. At least carriers should 200 to 500 module storage for the owner that's separate from the global storage for stations.

Every station can hold 40 ships per player, but AFAIK there is no upper limit on how many ships you can have in total. That means I can possibly have thousands of ships all over the Bubble; limiting module storage to just 200 globally doesn't make sense in this light.

 

[Fizzatron]

Module storage should be based on location, ie; 60 per station but 240 for Fleet Carriers. Storage ships are not ideal as then one has to remember which ship has what. It would allow for places of interest to become staging grounds for whichever activity is associated with it.

I'd say have the same limits material storage currently has but again I think they should be something able to be stored at stations with collected materials collected onfoot and srv being transferred to the ship and not immune from destruction until stored at a station/fleet carrier. The limits for carrying things for current onfoot mats should apply to all mats, but the SRV can have the same as is current Horizons mat limits. These same limits would be per station etc.. In much as the same as above, this way it would be good to stockpile some mats at appropriate engineers and stuff like that.

I also think Horizons materials should be open for trade/sell from player to player via Fleet Carriers. Players should be able to drop them on the ground like Odyssey mats as well. Odyssey mat storage amounts should be on parity with Horizons mats.

Ideally the location for material storage on a station would be a personal space that one can buy/rent.

As far as module/material management goes in relation to the above, the Galactic Map has filters that could be used to list locations with storage and then clicking on them should bring up a tab on what's there, which would also be expanded to show ships. This tab could also be dual purpose for transferring ships/modules from place to place.

 

[SteveWW57]

I believe that the limits are restrictive only because of the way some players play the game how they want. Many others are not really affected, so there is unlikely to be a great demand for change.

Given the amount of materials gathering for the engineering, that aspect is not an issue, so why not outfit ships for the specific roles rather than as required. Saves time and effort. The limit then would be the number of ships.

Steve

 

[Shurimal]

why not outfit ships for the specific roles rather than as required

Because why should I? I like the idea of a "hero ship" that has all sorts of different stories going. Millennium Falcon was a character in itself, sometimes smuggling, sometimes infiltrating Imperial stations, sometimes shooting down TIE fighters. So is my Krait Phantom. Even if I use specialized ships for some tasks (mining, hauling), my Phantom is still the "hero ship" and as integral to my commander's character as Millennium Falcon was to Han.

Non-RP wise, swapping modules forces me to think about what I need for the task at hand and makes me more likely to try out different "what if?" scenarios with different modules and tactical approaches. Eg, I found that railguns are pretty good for power failure surface missions because I decided to slap one on my ship on a whim when preparing it for Horizon planetary missions. In other combat flight sims selecting ordinance for your current mission is a normal and integral part of the experience, I feel the same way with E: D.

Of course one can have 10 slightly different Krait MKII-s and Pythons for every task imaginable, everyone is free to do things their way, but for me (and many others I hazard to guess) that's just extra work fitting and engineering them.

 

[metatheurgist]

Every station can hold 40 ships per player, but AFAIK there is no upper limit on how many ships you can have in total. That means I can possibly have thousands of ships all over the Bubble; limiting module storage to just 200 globally doesn't make sense in this light.

Used to be a 250 global ship limit; I doubt it's changed.

 

[aRJay]

It's really not that much if you have eg:
-Several weapons setup for a few combat ships (why should I buy and fully engineer 3 'Vettes if I can just swap guns around for specific tasks?)

See below.

-Many powerplay modules (I think I have ~20 spare Prismatic shields of all sizes that I bought "just in case")

I would consider getting rid of anything stored for longer than a year, just keep the ones you swap around regularly.

-A bunch of (Azimuth) AX weapons for different conditions. Station CZ-s, open space CZ-s, signal sources, Maelstroms and spire sites all require a different approach while the base ship stays mostly the same. Again, why buy and engineer 5 virtually identical Krait MKII-s instead of just swapping the guns and a couple of optionals/utilities around?

Because it is easier to just pick a ship with a meaningful name than trying to remember what combination of modules you want for a task, or which note book you listed them in.

-Different multi-limpet controllers and differently loaded SRV hangars for PvE/BGS tasks/missions etc.
-Community goal/in-game event prizes (a grand total of 9 Festive Fireworks launchers, YAY!).

I clean up my module storage regularly and don't shy away selling off G5 engineered modules that I don't need anymore, and still sit at 120+ modules because I love to tinker with different weapons and engineering options. At least carriers should 200 to 500 module storage for the owner that's separate from the global storage for stations.

Not sure about that as carriers are smaller than stations, and what happens to all the extra modules if the carrier decommissions as you won’t have enough storage for them.

Every station can hold 40 ships per player, but AFAIK there is no upper limit on how many ships you can have in total. That means I can possibly have thousands of ships all over the Bubble; limiting module storage to just 200 globally doesn't make sense in this light.

As said elsewhere ships are not unlimited, nor an exact multiple of 40.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Because it is easier to just pick a ship with a meaningful name than trying to remember what combination of modules you want for a task, or which note book you listed them in.

This is where something like the Odyssey suit loadout feature would come in useful - you've got your ship hulls and modules, define a loadout using them, if the modules are available at the current station either on the current ship, stored in module storage, on another ship of yours at the station, or available for purchase, it'll apply the loadout ... otherwise it'll tell you what's missing and maybe offer to start the transfers for it all if you're willing to pay.

A lot more complicated than the Odyssey version as the concept of "you have that module but it's not available right now" is much more complex for ship parts, but it'd be a really nice convenience feature if they hypothetically had time for it.

 

[aRJay]

This is where something like the Odyssey suit loadout feature would come in useful - you've got your ship hulls and modules, define a loadout using them, if the modules are available at the current station either on the current ship, stored in module storage, on another ship of yours at the station, or available for purchase, it'll apply the loadout ... otherwise it'll tell you what's missing and maybe offer to start the transfers for it all if you're willing to pay.

A lot more complicated than the Odyssey version as the concept of "you have that module but it's not available right now" is much more complex for ship parts, but it'd be a really nice convenience feature if they hypothetically had time for it.

Yes this would be a great Quality Of Life feature but as you say much more complex than the on foot version as we don’t have all our ships and modules available almost anywhere.

I am sure it could be done and if it was would count as a major feature rework.

 

[Shurimal]

A lot more complicated than the Odyssey version as the concept of "you have that module but it's not available right now" is much more complex for ship parts, but it'd be a really nice convenience feature if they hypothetically had time for it.

It could be implemented as a carrier service either for owner only or for owner plus squadron/friends. Make loadout modules "locked" so that they aren't seen in equipping UI and can't be sold or transferred unless removed from the loadout "recipe" first. Of course, another complication would be one and the same module used for different loadouts for different ships.

Because it is easier to just pick a ship with a meaningful name than trying to remember what combination of modules you want for a task, or which note book you listed them in.

Different brains work differently. I have no problem storing equipment lists, inventories and mental flowcharts in my mind. Probably due to playing a lot with LEGO as a kid and never documenting, but always recreating my builds. For example, my Phantom has 3A armored monstered power plant for exploration, 6A armored thermal spread for general use, 6A low emissions thermal spread for evac missions and 7A low emissions for AX. I didn't have to look it up and I could list all the different loadouts here but that would be boring and off-topic

Not sure about that as carriers are smaller than stations, and what happens to all the extra modules if the carrier decommissions as you won’t have enough storage for them.

How many player ships are stored at Jameson Memorial at any time, in addition to all the ships and modules it sells? I don't think carrier/starion size and realism is a consideration at this point—the carrier storing 40 ships for it's owner alone is already defying realism.

Decommission should put your extra modules into an "overdraft" global storage from which you can install them into ships, but you're not able to store any modules. Maybe auto-sell non-engineered/non-CG/no-material purchase modules if you don't deal with them yourself.

As said elsewhere ships are not unlimited, nor an exact multiple of 40.

According to my web search the 250 limit was supposedly changed at some point. How accurate these claims are, no idea.

In any case, increasing the module storage to a total of 500, 700 or even 1000 would not affect any players negatively, but would affect at least some players positively. Which I think would result a net positive for the game and thus is worth considering.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Of course, another complication would be one and the same module used for different loadouts for different ships

Yes - for me that would be a big advantage of having a loadout system if you could do that.

To make it work most smoothly I think what would be needed is:
- set up loadouts for each ship, assign modules to loadouts
- when you assign a loadout to a ship, it takes modules from other ships at the same station if needed to complete the loadout, and warns you about any unavailable bits
- if you board a new ship, it tries to rebuild whatever the last used loadout was (taking modules from your other ships if needed); if that can't be done it installs what it can and gives you a big warning saying what's missing, and you fix it yourself from there either by updating the loadout or transferring another ship to your location to steal its modules.
- if you try to sell a module which is defined in any loadouts, you get a big warning

It's all very complicated, definitely (and making it a own-carrier-only service so that most players are at least likely to have most of the bits there already would make it more reliable in practice even if no less complicated technically)

 

[aRJay]

...

Different brains work differently. I have no problem storing equipment lists, inventories and mental flowcharts in my mind. Probably due to playing a lot with LEGO as a kid and never documenting, but always recreating my builds. For example, my Phantom has 3A armored monstered power plant for exploration, 6A armored thermal spread for general use, 6A low emissions thermal spread for evac missions and 7A low emissions for AX. I didn't have to look it up and I could list all the different loadouts here but that would be boring and off-topic

Maybe my memory would be that good if I had ever had LEGO, or even a significant amount of Meccano.

How many player ships are stored at Jameson Memorial at any time, in addition to all the ships and modules it sells? I don't think carrier/starion size and realism is a consideration at this point—the carrier storing 40 ships for it's owner alone is already defying realism.

It's not the realism as such but the ratio.

Decommission should put your extra modules into an "overdraft" global storage from which you can install them into ships, but you're not able to store any modules. Maybe auto-sell non-engineered/non-CG/no-material purchase modules if you don't deal with them yourself.

...

Auto sell is the top of another slippery slope leading to module trading, much simpler would be to just delete them after x days in a use them or lose them scenario.
Simplest of course is to not have different sized storage in different areas.

 

[Killerskullmk]

I agree with Shurimal on many points...
For example, I have ships with a unique purpose, but many weapons and engineered modules, power play items...
There are people who may never miss it, but those who engineer a lot end up facing the global limit situation in a short time.

So we unfortunately have to start sacrificing items, which is an extremely sad thing to do, only those who invested time in farming engineering in this farm simulator know how difficult it was to achieve.

The frontier says: here you need to farm a lot to conquer.

You say: but there is a small limit to the number of items I can keep.

Frotier says: yes.
What? Why??????