Are materials just a teensy bit immersion-breaking?

Kay Thaxby

K
"Hi, I'd like to buy 400 tons of platinum, please."

"Certainly, sir. I'll charge that to your account now."

"Also, do you happen to have a small piece of carbon, the fourth most common element in the universe?"

"I'm sorry sir, that item is not available from any commercial source in the galaxy. You'll have to scrabble around on a planet surface until you find some."

"Oh. Erm... seems a bit weird, but OK. Hey, y'know what? I'll take that Anaconda too. I mean, since I'm out shopping, I might as well pick up a heavily-armed 400-ton starcraft, right?"

"Of course, sir. An excellent choice."

"Oh, and have you got a couple of spare heat vents for a Sidewinder?"

"I'm sorry sir, that item is not available from any commercial source in the galaxy. You'll have to blow up someone else's ship to get some."
 
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Ian Skippy

Ian Skippy
Kay Thaxby said:
"Hi, I'd like to buy 400 tons of platinum, please."

"Certainly, sir. I'll charge that to your account now."

"Also, do you happen to have a small piece of carbon, the fourth most common element in the universe?"

"I'm sorry sir, that item is not available from any commercial source in the galaxy. You'll have to scrabble around on a planet surface until you find some."

"Oh. Erm... sounds a bit weird, but OK. Hey, y'know what? I'll take that Anaconda too. I mean, since I'm out shopping, I might as well pick up a heavily-armed 400-ton starcraft, right?"

"Of course, sir. An excellent choice."

"Oh, and do you happen to have a couple of spare heat vents for a sidewinder?"

"I'm sorry sir, that item is not available from any commercial source in the galaxy. You'll have to blow up someone else's ship to get some."
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You are also immortal and can teleport 40,000LY in a second upon ship destruction. Its a game.
 

Kay Thaxby

K
Wolf Starslayer said:
OP you've come to the wrong game if you want a logic or believable universe.FD don't do that sort of thing anymore , they're MMO now so don't need no filthy meershun'.
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I mean, I don't expect 100% realism, and things like the whole 'eject' mechanic on death are at least necessary to the basic gameplay. But the materials immersion-breaking could easily have been avoided if they'd just, say, stuck to incredibly rare elements rather than including elements that any modern-day person could acquire by burning some toast or buying a box of charcoal...
 

Ian Skippy

Ian Skippy
Kay Thaxby said:
I mean, I don't expect 100% realism, and things like the whole 'eject' mechanic on death are at least necessary to the basic gameplay. But the materials immersion-breaking could easily have been avoided if they'd just, say, stuck to incredibly rare elements rather than including elements that any modern-day person could acquire by burning some toast or buying a box of charcoal...
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The point is that if you only go for extremely rare stuff, then either you cant easily find it (increasing the grind), or you'd just shift the complaint to 'its immersion breaking I can find these super rare things so easily!".
 

Kay Thaxby

K
sleutelbos said:
The point is that if you only go for extremely rare stuff, then either you cant easily find it (increasing the grind), or you'd just shift the complaint to 'its immersion breaking I can find these super rare things so easily!".
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No I wouldn't, but thanks for presuming to know what I'd think! Like most people I don't really know which elements are rare or not; I only know the household names. So if I was going around picking up unrealistically large amounts of (checks Google) Astatine, I wouldn't know or care that it was unrealistic, and my immersion wouldn't be affected. But, also like most people, I do know that carbon is incredibly common and that you can create it just by burning organic matter, so it just seems a really bizarre thing to have as a desirable item in a galaxy where you can buy platinum like it was toilet paper.
 
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c00ky1970

c00ky1970
As I have said on other threads raising this subject, it would have been better if it was called "Vacuum Grown Carbon Nanotubicles", "Left handed Iron Crystalline shards", "Rhenium Doped fragments" etc. that way you know it is supposed to be rare as rocking horse p**p

I assume that one of teh reasons is that there is a limited number of characters to describe each item (I am guessing 20 like ship names) "Eccentric Hyperspace Trajectories" disproves that though.....
 

Kay Thaxby

K
c00ky1970 said:
As I have said on other threads raising this subject, it would have been better if it was called "Vacuum Grown Carbon Nanotubicles", "Left handed Iron Crystalline shards", "Rhenium Doped fragments" etc. that way you know it is supposed to be rare as rocking horse p**p

I assume that one of teh reasons is that there is a limited number of characters to describe each item (I am guessing 20 like ship names) "Eccentric Hyperspace Trajectories" disproves that though.....
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The data materials seem more plausible because of the use of words like 'unexpected' and 'irregular', and because computer systems can and do generate new, 'organic' results that can't be replicated elsewhere. But how is any particular heat vent or power cell going to be unique and valuable, and why doesn't anyone fill in this gap in the market by opening a spare parts store?
 
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El-bizor

El-bizor
Kay Thaxby said:
"Hi, I'd like to buy 400 tons of platinum, please."

"Certainly, sir. I'll charge that to your account now."

"Also, do you happen to have a small piece of carbon, the fourth most common element in the universe?"

"I'm sorry sir, that item is not available from any commercial source in the galaxy. You'll have to scrabble around on a planet surface until you find some."

"Oh. Erm... seems a bit weird, but OK. Hey, y'know what? I'll take that Anaconda too. I mean, since I'm out shopping, I might as well pick up a heavily-armed 400-ton starcraft, right?"

"Of course, sir. An excellent choice."

"Oh, and have you got a couple of spare heat vents for a Sidewinder?"

"I'm sorry sir, that item is not available from any commercial source in the galaxy. You'll have to blow up someone else's ship to get some."
Click to expand...





that's funny .. I like it.
 

Rakaposhi

Rakaposhi
It doesn't exactly break immersion for me, but it is very odd, I'll grant you that. You'd have thought it wouldn't be a huge leap to make materials rarer sounding, like instead of carbon, use chaoite (white carbon) or any of the possible forms listed on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allotropes_of_carbon. Just calling it btc-carbon (or similar) would help, and would be better than carbon (as per OP) or Unobtainum/<insert made up name here>.
 

Watcher

W
Yes, its a bit weird.
Then again permanently carrying around an apparently invisible zero weight bag with hundreds of hunks of rock and bits of spaceship is also a bit odd..
All in all I think we are fairly far from things making a huge amount of sense, just have to roll with it really :)
 

BlackSpaceCowboy

BlackSpaceCowboy
Kay Thaxby said:
"Hi, I'd like to buy 400 tons of platinum, please."

"Certainly, sir. I'll charge that to your account now."

"Also, do you happen to have a small piece of carbon, the fourth most common element in the universe?"

"I'm sorry sir, that item is not available from any commercial source in the galaxy. You'll have to scrabble around on a planet surface until you find some."

"Oh. Erm... seems a bit weird, but OK. Hey, y'know what? I'll take that Anaconda too. I mean, since I'm out shopping, I might as well pick up a heavily-armed 400-ton starcraft, right?"

"Of course, sir. An excellent choice."

"Oh, and have you got a couple of spare heat vents for a Sidewinder?"

"I'm sorry sir, that item is not available from any commercial source in the galaxy. You'll have to blow up someone else's ship to get some."
Click to expand...

I agree. But I just find shooting rocks on a planet to be immersion breaking. I also find the entire USS system immersion breaking. I agree that they could do a better job. The core problem is these are essentially placeholders but no progress has been made in years.
 

BL1P

BL1P
I also found it immersion breaking.
Though to be fair if they allowed us to buy materials for credits, they would first need to fix and remove all exploited credits and credit making exploits.
I say that because I feel they created the materials economy to counter the massive discrepancy in credits between those who use exploits and those who do not.
 
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