First off I would like to say that I think the System Colonisation mechanics are great. They are well thought through and other than some supply and demand issues cough CMMs, it's been pretty smooth sailing. This brings me to a mechanic I was disappointed with, Fleet Carriers:
Fleet carriers have what I think is some the biggest wasted potential in Elite. You are basically a glorified tenant not actually owning your FC and instead renting it from some in game corporation as evidence by them giving you back your security deposit when you fail to pay rent. You also have 0 interaction with the BGS and short of people using tools like Inara to search for things on sale on Carriers the only trading you can do with them is entirely on you as a pilot.
This is where System Colonisation comes in. System Colonisation could be used as a second entry point into FC content and make it more enjoyable to own and use one:
If you reached this far, thanks for reading. Let me know what FC changes you would make to make them more enjoyable to use.
Fleet carriers have what I think is some the biggest wasted potential in Elite. You are basically a glorified tenant not actually owning your FC and instead renting it from some in game corporation as evidence by them giving you back your security deposit when you fail to pay rent. You also have 0 interaction with the BGS and short of people using tools like Inara to search for things on sale on Carriers the only trading you can do with them is entirely on you as a pilot.
This is where System Colonisation comes in. System Colonisation could be used as a second entry point into FC content and make it more enjoyable to own and use one:
- Firstly I would leave the current FC content exactly the way it is. Why? Because even though I personally think it has a lot of wasted potential it does still have it's uses. For starters not everyone is going to want to do System Colonisation or have a system of their own ready at that time. They might already have a fully decked out rented FC, etc. and not want to have to swap and migrating them over to a new system would probably annoy them more than it would help.
- Then I would add a secondary way to get an FC. One that you would actually own instead of rent and comes with the appropriate benefits and drawbacks.
- Before you would be able to own your own FC you would need to build a Fleet Carrier Construction Yard. This is where System Colonisation comes in. It would be added as a facility that the player can build and unlocks the option to build an FC.
- By building the FC via a construction yard it should be possible to pay for the same upkeep a rented FC would have via your System's income. Therefore before you can build the FC you need to have a system with a strong enough economy to be able to support said upkeep
- Actually building an FC should also be done using the same mechanics as System Colonisation where instead of just paying a huge upfront cost, you deliver the resources needed to build the FC yourself like you do with stations. Not sure what the total amount of resources would be since 5 billion of credits is a lot of resources. But if the total number of resources doesn't add to 5 bil you can hand wave say the difference is the cost of the workers salaries for rented FCs vs you spending your time delivering the resources.
- And there you have it, a fleet carrier that you would own and would be paid for out of the salary of the system it was built in (or mulptiple systems if you have multiple smaller systems that add up to the total upkeep)
- There are the big three activities in Elite: Exploration, Trade and Combat and to improve FC content it will mostly revolve around adding support for the BGS and NPCs to interact with your FC in a meaningful way.
- For exploration I actually think FCs are pretty well integrated. First off there is the community network of FCs in the black that people can use to refuel and repair. But also it enables the gameplay loop of jumping to a cluster of stars you want to explore, explore them while your FC cools down for the next jump. I actually don't think any additional content needs to be added for exploration.
- For combat there's only one scenario that I can think of where an FC could really be useful which is conflict zones. My idea is that you would enter a conflict zone and join a side. Then assuming you have an FC with a jump off cooldown you should be able to summon your FC into the conflict zone. We know that capital class ships can be summoned into CZs since the NPCs do this all the time. But the difference here is that the FC shouldn't be in combat range. Instead what your FC should be is on the outskirts for support purposes. There are plenty of weapons that while fun to use have abysmal ammo capacities and in some cases like the shock cannon really quite expensive synthesis costs. Or similarly ships that are fun to fly, but are made of paper and need constant repairs unless they are fully engineered. This is where your FC steps in. Instead of having the leave the CZ to refuel, repair and rearm you should be able to fly away from the area of active combat to the outskirts where your FC is and then request a resupply and repair via the comms panel. This would require your FC to have a specialised combat module and would send out a small barage of limpets that would repair your hull and transfer you ammunition. And in the event that your modules are severly damaged or your canopy gets smashed you can land and get a full and proper repair. This would also be where NPC interaction with your FC comes in. There shouldn't be any reason why an NPC you sided with can't request a repair or re-arm either. The NPC shouldn't always run immediately when they need a bit of hull damage repair or that one plasma accelerator reloaded, but there should be a few NPCs here and there that request support to help make sure the battle goes your way. Your FC also shouldn't be invincible, if the opposition side has a player with a heavily engineered ship and they manage to damage several of your FC's defences it should be forced to retreat to prevent destruction.
- Finally there is trade. This is where I feel the most potential was wasted. Your FC is basically a moving station, so why isn't it treated as such when it comes to NPCs and the BGS. Fleet carriers should be considered by the NPCs and you should be able to make passive commodities and credits by using your fleet carrier intelligently and using the BGS and NPCs. For example, if I part my FC around the same stellar body as a station selling iron well below the galactic average and then offered to buy iron for galactic average, then NPCs at that station should be encouraged to sell directly to me. Similarly, if I part my FC full of iron outside a station in desperate need of iron and offer a price lower than their buy price then the same thing should happen. NPC traders at that station should be encouraged to buy from me and sell to the station. The bigger the difference in price, the more the NPCs are encouraged. Not every NPC should be forcefully compelled to buy or sell to you, so it should still take a reasonable amount of time to fill or empty your cargo hold. You also won't be making as much profit per tonne as you would if you were to do it manually where you can buy and sell at the lowest and highest prices. But it would be a stable "semi-automatic" income source with some sensible fleet carrier management. Additionally, although this is probably not trivial to implement, being able to park your FC in the same instance/real-space as a station so you don't have jump to and from super-cruise if you still want to manually load up your cargo.
If you reached this far, thanks for reading. Let me know what FC changes you would make to make them more enjoyable to use.
Last edited:
