ANNOUNCEMENT April Update - Coming 23 April 2019

Hands-off orbital cruise?

Lovely.

NOT sure I read hands off orbital cruise... I read super cruise will put you in orbit around a body so that you can fire your sensor probes...

This isn't orbital cruise..

This is the supercruise computer basically stopping you at the correct distance from a body so that you can fire your sensor probes.

Hands free orbital cruise would be a sweet chill out, though...

Two class one slots are very much welcome on the small vessels.

The Evil Morty (My bright yellow sidewinder) is now deadlier than ever.
 
Im laughing. I have only read the first 10 pages or so but it seems very engaging to me. 7+ guys, 7+

I never did master getting a clipper out of the mail slot so i always traded in an anaconda rather than a no shields clipper. I guess that wont be an issue any more. I wonder if the reluctance to do anything about botting is due to wanting to appeal to a certain overseas market?
 
Beginner's get carebear zone, great all good and well.

Now give veterans something to do. Give us the danger zone! There is a glimmer of hope left for some consequence and challenge for veteran players in this game.
 
There are probably two main reasons why some people complain about the auto docking/auto take-off/auto-super cruise:

1. They believe people using it are bad at the game and enjoy belittling people.
2. They are heavily engaged in the background simulation and/or PowerPlay and realise that this just makes botting pretty much trivial and reduces BGS and PowerPlay down to who can afford the most accounts rather than who has the most player support and effective strategy.

I am in the 2nd category.

Some of us looked at the automation features announced and concluded that FDev left out two things from their announcements:

1. Removed PowerPlay
2. Removed the Background Simulation

Before this announcement we already saw botting wreak havoc in PowerPlay and BGS, but at least it was limited to people who were willing to be in massive breach of the ToS (not that this had any effect whatsoever). Now ... now you aren't even going to be doing that.

Now you can just run four accounts simultaneously, wing up and have the other three follow you as you jump and head to your target. If you're doing BGS manipulation you don't need any kind of macro for it (buying/selling 792 tons takes all of 4 seconds), but if you're doing PowerPlay you sort of do to avoid going nuts buying and picking up 50 tons of cargo at a time across four cutters.

What this does is ruin two of the oldest and primary reasons for forming any kind of community in the game, as well as the two oldest actual competitive areas of the game, and it does it without any kind of attempt at rectifying or justifying it. Sure, PowerPlay has been kicked to the side, set on fire, thrown into a dumpster and then abandoned by FDev so far, and now, just to add insult to injury, they've decided to pipe their office toilets into the dumpster as well.

But the BGS? Why has that been thrown into the dumpster as well?

You could argue that it's to move the competition into the Squadron mechanics, but that doesn't work - all that does is show which Squadron has the better bots, and regardless of what people will say, this will inevitably be used as an excuse/accusation. "They only won because they were using bots!"

It's also going to have a massive impact on community goals that involve any kind of trading. It won't be long before the only way to get into the top spots will be to be a botter yourself, and since the trade CGs already tend to drain markets completely dry within a huge radius of the CG system, expect that to get even worse when botting becomes this easy.

This will kill BGS participation and will make it as pointless and abandoned as PowerPlay, and it will inevitably mess up certain types of community goals as players realise that the only way to compete is to bot.

So far I've watched Frontier attempt to drown PowerPlay in a heavily used porta potty, and now I'm watching them do it to the BGS and CGs as well. Makes me wonder what's next.
 
First things first: awesome news! Quality of life updates are a good thing. :)
A few worries and (too early) feedback:

1. I don't like the beginners zone. That "cutthroat galaxy" wouldn't gate off a protective starter area for new pilots... Feels wrong and gamey to me. I'd rather like PvP immunity and tutorial missions triggering at wherever new pilots land.

2. Autopilots: I wanted to cringe for "nerfing" the docking process and supercruise control but... I can't. Since I am pretty sure even my phone could run the docking/undocking procedures, as well as handle supercruise flight, so there's no reason our ship's computer wouldn't. And hey, it's every player's choice to either be a pilot or a space taxi driver who just pushes a button to make things happen easily... until those conveniences are not available one time. :D

3. FREE MODULE SLOTS! grabs one and runs off

4. Navigation tab: overhauling the interface is a good thing, but from what I read I now fear our ship controls will turn into Big Picture Mode. It won't, right? Right?

5. The Pilot's Handbook is something I (and many others) proposed over and over and I'm happy that finally happens! The idea of connecting it to everything worries me because I really would hate to see a "help" button next to each control. I even dislike the "help" function in the FSS screen because it breaks the simulation. I'd very much like to be able to toggle that off.

6. The Interstellar Initiative thing sounds great. I can't really take part until I am back from DW2, which is kind of a pity, but I'm looking forward to it. But... who came up with that name? We can't call them "IIs", can we? :D

Great to see updates coming. Fly safe. o7
 
So far I've watched Frontier attempt to drown PowerPlay in a heavily used porta potty, and now I'm watching them do it to the BGS and CGs as well. Makes me wonder what's next.

Hey dont forget the FSS :) The "edge" that made this something different from NMS is rapidly becoming dulled. Im finding it all highly amusing anyway.
 
I like to do the challenge scenarios. Having them available straight from the cockpit instead of the main menu is a little thing that will make the game better for me. Thank you.
 
Maybe within next patch they will redesign Escape Pod? It's a bit ugly.
Seriously they can just cancel this update and instead of it give us new planetary buggy, it will give more fun :rolleyes:

BGS to open and PvP content... oh wait
Adv DC and SC Computer is PvP Content :D more modules to snipe out.
 
it's every player's choice to either be a pilot or a space taxi driver who just pushes a button to make things happen easily

99% of ED cockpit activity is merely transporting the ship and is a tedious, braindead routine which might just as well be automated. I only play ED for the flying bits and I count none of the jump-honk-scoop or point-and-wait parts as such.

Overall I must say this thread has been hilarious like a fish in a percolator.
 
Think about the newer players that take on a more experienced mentor early in the game... are these players going to have to fend for themselves without mentoring?
Unless I've misunderstood, new players aren't restricted to the new systems - they're free to leave at any point.
 

Guest193293

G
This update could have been a great opportunity to add a Pilot's Notebook too.
 
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Overall i like the new additions as one of the things ive noticed from negative reviews are the sheer volume of people who buy the game and then refund after an hour in the game as its just too daunting for them. Letting them take their first baby steps will hopefully give them time to get used to the basics and get hooked on the game.

Having personally introduced several people to the game, and it not gaining traction with most of them, I can tell what they found the most disappointing: not difficulty of piloting (even though some voiced mild complaints about that on the PS4), but the general lack of information and instructions in-game. Having EDDB, Inara, YouTube videos and hanging out on player group Discord be pretty much a requirement is a major turn-off. The only person I got to stay in the game is my son, and that's probably because I'm almost always around to offer help.

I've on and off played since launch, and even I am left wondering how some stuff is supposed to work. You literally get no information for example on how to use different equipment and weapons. Now some people don't mind just trying stuff out, but some are immersion players like me and like to pretend in-game death is permanent, and will not just go experiment with stuff if there's considerable risk involved. For example, I'm still wondering how to interdict "cleanly" without ending up with your ship spinning. Or how to operate mines, shield cell banks and all the other stuff I haven't tried yet.
 
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