Answers from the Devs 15/01/16

[Zac Antonaci]

Greetings Commanders,

It's been a while since the last Answers from the Devs thread so we wanted to take a moment to get some of your questions and get the answers directly from the team.

As always, if you would like to ask a question to be answered in the next thread, post it below and we will hope to get it answered.

I would like to say a big thank you to Ozric for compiling these questions too.

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Is the digital art book (as promised to Mercenary Edition and earlier backers) still coming?

Yes, absolutely. The team is working on it at the moment, and we’ll have more information on that for you as soon as possible.

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Do throttle setting and size and class of interdictor module have an influence on the potential outcome?

The size and class of the interdictor affect the range they work in, but all other things are equal, and the throttle plays no part.

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Will ED support Nvidia VR SLI where each GPU renders each display and/or AMD Liquid VR for AMD users?

This hasn’t been decided yet.

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Will there be a "first landed on" credit at some point?

This isn’t currently planned, but we have more coming for explorers on planet surfaces in Elite Dangerous: Horizons.

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When will we see Private Groups enabled on Xbox One?

This is something that is currently being worked on, but don’t have a release date yet.

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Will there be any more security, police or navy missions coming to Elite Dangerous?

Yes – we plan to revamp the military missions to make them feel more like a career, and you were actually working for them.

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Does destroying Skimmers or other SRVs affect our combat rating?

Yes.

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Are there ships that are exclusive to Horizons (and future seasons)?

It’s likely that some ships will be season exclusive. The Cobra MK IV is an example of this already – it’s only available to those who purchased the original Elite Dangerous separately.

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Is there any news on the possibility of multiple commanders on one account?

There are currently no plans to add this.

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It appears that some NPC names are used more than others, how are NPC names determined?

They’re randomly selected from a list for the ship NPCs.

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What happened to Bat Crazy Roy? I haven’t seen him since Beta

He’s hiding from you.

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Back in February, Sandro mentioned some ideas/plans to introduce some kind of "hidden cargo" for smuggling purposes, has this idea been discarded or is it still on the list?

This idea is still on the wish list.

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How far is the maximum expansion range for a minor faction and how does replacing another minor faction in a system work?

The maximum expansion range for a minor faction is about 15LY, and you don’t replace a minor faction you are adding a new minor faction to that system.

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Will the Federal Fighter and the Imperial Fighter be added to the main game when "ship-launched fighters" is added during "Horizons"?

Yes!

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Are you able to tell in advance whether or not a surface outpost has a landing pad large enough to accommodate your ship?

All surface ports have large landing pads. The ones that cannot be docked at are found only on medium sized settlements.

 

[CMDR Poet Starwind]

Thanks to all for the dev responses; it helps keep us hungry for more.

Are you able to tell in advance whether or not a surface outpost has a landing pad large enough to accommodate your ship?

All surface ports have large landing pads. The ones that cannot be docked at are found only on medium sized settlements.

I'd like to further clarify that last answer, though; it's a bit vague, from a certain perspective. If you navigate to the planet to be landed on in the System Map, and drill down to the planet map, medium sized settlements have a kind of "three boxes" icon, and a surface "port" (I mean, isn't any landing pad a "port", in essence?) has a central tower, with a circular spread of landing pads around its circumference. I've found more often than not, that ports will contain markets where the settlements do not seem to have commodities markets available.

Hope that helps a bit,
CMDR Poet Starwind

 

[rootsrat]

Nice, thanks.

My question: What is 2.1 ETA if you have one at the moment? Thanks.

 

[stridecolossus]

Not very happy about this.

Agreed! That one stood out for me as well.

Shame as a lot of players have been repeatedly asking for multiple commander 'slots' so that one can experience all the different careers more effectively (and are prepared to pay for them I expect).

At least we now know it's off the table I guess.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

Many thanks!

My question:
When is the next "big" update likely to be released?
Not just patches, but whatever's next in the pipe line.

 

[Alexander the Grape]

Since Beta, there has been significant "inflation": in both earnings and the cost of ships. Before an Anaconda would cost 6 million credits, a "midrange" fighter capable beating anything in PvP cost 150,000 cr, profits on a trade route of 1,000-2,000 per ton were considered good, earnings on warzone kills were a flat 350 CR, and bounties rarely exceeded a few thousand.

However now, an Anaconda costs 400+ million to outfit to the same standard, a "midrange" PvP fighter is now the FDL or Vulture (costing 20mill), profits on trade routes are deemed "good" at 3,000-4,000 cr per ton, earnings on warzone kills range up to 72,000 credits, and bounties reach into the hundreds of thousnads of credits.

With all this inflation, how do the original values of Commodities make sense? Having the top valued purchasable commodity at 16,000 credits severely limits piracy, being barely worth the time to scoop up. Mining is rarely done outside of CGs, and even then only the top 3 mineral types are deemed worth scooping (Painite, Platinum, Palladium). Professions requiring the collection (not trade) of cargo are ALL underperforming credits per hour wise (salvaging, Piracy, Mining).

In fact, these professions are only made even vaguely competitive with the addition of non-purchaseable commodities such as Painite, Scientific Samples and AI relics with values of 80,000 to 120,000 credits per ton, far exceeding the most expensive purchasable good. Is not their addition an admission that currently cargo is significantly undervalued? Even these measures aren't working, and all of these professions earn significantly less per hour than trading or bounty hunting.

Would you consider a significant (3-10x) increase in the value of all commodities to match the realities of player earning power?

EDIT: If you do answer this with something like "this would upset the trading sim balance", I'm not suggesting that profits from trading should rise accordingly. More like the current prices are used by the sim to calculate a "base" price, which is then increased by a set amount based on the current galactic average such that the "spread" of prices remain the same.

 

[EAGLE 5]

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Will there be a "first landed on" credit at some point?

This isn’t currently planned, but we have more coming for explorers on planet surfaces in Elite Dangerous: Horizons.

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Oh Really? It wouldn't be related to our nice new barnacles would it?

 

[almostpilot]

When we will have NPC wings, NPC multi crew and npc flying(ship) and driving SRV over planet surface?

 

[Retrograde]

Artbook! Yay! Orca interior concept art, please.

Would you consider a significant (3-10x) increase in the value of all commodities to match the realities of player earning power?

Prices for all ships should of course be increased accordingly as well.
(Seriously, the starting ships are too cheap now.)

 

[drholliday]

If you want to stick with exclusive ships as rewards I'd like to make a suggestion to tie the limitation to founders world access. So everyone who owns Horizons can get the ship as well as everyone who's Elite. This removes the requirement that the ships are more on the mediocre side and it also removes the problem with bad karma that no matter what you do in the game you will never get that ship you want because you are too late to the game. Who's most interested in the MK IV? It's likely beginners. Seasoned players usually fly something else. And if you start now with Horizons the first thing you'll know about the game is that there's a bird you will never fly just because you bought the game now. Personally I find such content bad in terms of in game logic and it's genuinely bad as the first message to convey to new players.

If there's a perfectly fine in game explanation that is ok. Otherwise go with the Elite version to prevent running into problems in the future.

I honestly don't think there are many players who would object because they really need to stick out with that (most likely) mediocre ship.

 

[Lobstris]

Artbook! Yay! Orca interior concept art, please.


Prices for all ships should of course be increased accordingly as well.
(Seriously, the starting ships are too cheap now.)

No the cost of the bigger ships and modules is way out of line with the economy/commodity price values, leading to the constant inflationary pressure on mission rewards (as Alexander says, but also IMHO).

Do throttle setting and size and class of interdictor module have an influence on the potential outcome?

The size and class of the interdictor affect the range they work in, but all other things are equal, and the throttle plays no part.

OK. But does interdictor/interdictee ship size/mass play in things? Or is that supposedly covered in 'all other things are equal'?

 

[dunnykin]

Could you check the expansion answer. Personally I've seen expansions out to 22-23ly and seen reports of further distances.

Also in expansions to full systems (5+ factions) one of the factions gets displaced.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

Artbook! Yay! Orca interior concept art, please.


Prices for all ships should of course be increased accordingly as well.
(Seriously, the starting ships are too cheap now.)

Too be honest, I found working my way out of the sidewinder far too easy. It took about 13 minutes before I was looking for somewhere to buy an Eagle. Lol
But saying that, i had been watching YouTube videos for beginners before even buying ED. But either way, earning 100k is a relatively easy task even as a beginner.
However, the more expensive ships, such as the python, fdl, etc take about the right amount of time to get. Not so long it's a dull grind, but not so easy it's not an achievement.
In my opinion, the first ship(s) should be around 300k, for the Eagle, adder, hauler etc, then 600k for Viper etc, 1-2mil for Cobra etc, 15 mil for vulture.
Then we need a combat ship in the 25-30mil range to fill the gap. Then after that, everything is OK. IMO.

 

[ian baristan]

Thanks Zac for these answers

Could you check the expansion answer. Personally I've seen expansions out to 22-23ly and seen reports of further distances.

Also in expansions to full systems (5+ factions) one of the factions gets displaced.

Agree: my minor faction had a 19.2 Ly range expansion

 

[Chummy62]

Thank you for the update!

 

[rootsrat]

Di

Thanks Zac for these answers



Agree: my minor faction had a 19.2 Ly range expansion

We've not seen that in our faction, but seen the reports on the forums that confirm that. Would appreciate clarification too, in case exp over 15 LY is an actual bug.

 

[TheDayman]

Will we see the use of capital ships more in Season 2? I feel they're a great, yet underused asset.

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OK. But does interdictor/interdictee ship size/mass play in things? Or is that supposedly covered in 'all other things are equal'?

From what I understand, the more massive a ship is, the easier it is to interdict.

 

[Arubeto]

Thanks for posting the answers, Zac!

For the next round:

1. Is passenger gameplay coming in season 2?

2. Do you plan to make passengers similarly consistent/persistent as how engineers and minor faction mission givers have been described by Michael Brookes for release 2.1?

3. Can you shed some light on whether you plan to introduce NPC wingmen and crewmen for hire during season 2? Or at all?

4. Will Jaques move again soon?

Thanks!

 

[Athan]

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Does destroying Skimmers or other SRVs affect our combat rating?

Yes.

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Wait, I thought Commander on Commander kills didn't count towards Combat Rating? And currently only Commanders drive SRVs.

 

[XLA]

Agreed! That one stood out for me as well.

Shame as a lot of players have been repeatedly asking for multiple commander 'slots' so that one can experience all the different careers more effectively (and are prepared to pay for them I expect).

At least we now know it's off the table I guess.

I thought I heard that they were working on Multiple CMDR slots but it wasn't working yet. Looks like they have binned it. Not Happy !