BGS - How to make the game more dynamic and drastically improve the simulation of the world

[MadDogMurdock]

There is no point in showing everyone's location in SC as USS, that in fact might counterproductive. what we ideally want is a system with closed loops, a reason for an USS to spawn and a way to track down what is happening with the associated gameplay. I don't want to show my location to everyone or just to someone, I want to send a distress signal for a reason, or I want to system to send a mission/goals to another player for something that I did, not something that I'm doing. I want gameplay, not presence, I'd be happy if when I jump back to SC after killing something a USS for degraded emissions shows up in case I left materials or cargo, and this example has nothing to do with where I'm at any moment.

It's not a case of wanting to - it's whether doing so would create more sense of life in busier systems.
And I believe that's the original premise of this thread.

Is there something different about your weapons fire that prevents it being seen in SC as a Weapons Fire Detected signal source?

 

[Julio Montega]

It's not a case of wanting to - it's whether doing so would create more sense of life in busier systems.
And I believe that's the original premise of this thread.

Is there something different about your weapons fire that prevents it being seen in SC as a Weapons Fire Detected signal source?

I think you both mean the same result,
but ilo understood your post as if every player would be visible 100% of the time
on the galmap, like he would be friended.

The result i envisioned was to create "action zones" within a system,
triggered by player action.
That should not yield to 100% visible players on the galmap all the time.

 

[ilo]

Correct?

Correct!

 

[ilo]

It's not a case of wanting to - it's whether doing so would create more sense of life in busier systems.

Definitely, but I can only talk from my view, what I'd like to see. I can't use 'we need' 'it has to be'

 

[Julio Montega]

Reminder, this is a draft, not a "it has to be done this way" thread
All that has been laid out is here to represent what would be
paramount to improve the simulation of life and interaction
of the ED galaxy.

The implementation is upon FD, if they choose to.

 

[Toumal]

I like OPs suggestion. You cannot be guaranteed to be instanced up with the original event, but substitute events could populate extra instances. So this could indeed work across all platforms and modes. At worst, you end up in.an instance with all npc ships. At best you get matched with the players involved in the originating event.

 

[Julio Montega]

Updated the OP
and replaced the old proposition on how the
communication could happen.

 

[MadDogMurdock]

I think you both mean the same result,
but ilo understood your post as if every player would be visible 100% of the time
on the galmap, like he would be friended.

The result i envisioned was to create "action zones" within a system,
triggered by player action.
That should not yield to 100% visible players on the galmap all the time.

Yup, indicating player actions in normal space into SC is what we're talking about - galmap isn't relevant here.
I brought up friends and wings to demonstrate that the game does know where everyone is and can share that information, so it just becomes a case of when and how that should be shown.

That existing game knowledge of where everyone is just seems like a more solid starting point.

 

[Julio Montega]

Yup, indicating player actions in normal space into SC is what we're talking about - galmap isn't relevant here.
I brought up friends and wings to demonstrate that the game does know where everyone is and can share that information, so it just becomes a case of when and how that should be shown.

That existing game knowledge of where everyone is just seems like a more solid starting point.

Thanks for clarification.
The proposition aims to tie into that,
as i understand it, the servers keep track of the player position
finely graded into: Cluster, System, SC Sector, Instance.

So the servers would be contacted to get the location,
by the initial creation of the new player USSes.

 

[ilo]

Yup, indicating player actions in normal space into SC is what we're talking about - galmap isn't relevant here.
I brought up friends and wings to demonstrate that the game does know where everyone is and can share that information, so it just becomes a case of when and how that should be shown.

That existing game knowledge of where everyone is just seems like a more solid starting point.

MadDogMurdock, the fact that you opt-in in a wing to share your location forces the server to add players in the comm queue, that is technically quite different in scope from what we are talking about.
We agree that sharing the location of up to 3 people is technically doable and not breaking the gameplay, adding to much signals without a meaningful purpose or gameplay approach is just cluttering the play field. You can see your friend location, but you have no idea what is going on to the point that sometimes a wingmate is already fighting in normal cruise when you see he is just getting interdicted.

 

[MadDogMurdock]

MadDogMurdock, the fact that you opt-in in a wing to share your location forces the server to add players in the comm queue, that is technically quite different in scope from what we are talking about.
We agree that sharing the location of up to 3 people is technically doable and not breaking the gameplay, adding to much signals without a meaningful purpose or gameplay approach is just cluttering the play field. You can see your friend location, but you have no idea what is going on to the point that sometimes a wingmate is already fighting in normal cruise when you see he is just getting interdicted.

I think we have a difference of opinion on how this currently works that could only be resolved by FD.

 

[ilo]

It would be great if someone from FD could jump in saying how viable the option we are discussing is, at least to keep or get rid of the momentum.

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

However, a system that is known to produce or harvest special high value items,
should have a decent percentage of those onboard of NPCs, to create "hotzones"
that by themselves create hubs of crime and police/bounty hunter action in response.

I would like this to be the case for certain rare goods.

For example Baltah'Sine Vacuum Krill. According to the rare good description, the krill are harvested from the ice ring of the moon Baltah'Sine 4B. There should be numerous NPC ships harvesting the krill in the ring and transporting them to the station.

This would open up several forms of gameplay:

• Pirating NPC ships for rare goods, either while mining in Krill-RES, or en-route to the station
• Missions to guard transport ships
• Players could harvest (mine) their own vacuum krill
• Huge void creatures that eat vacuum krill - these could be hunted
• CGs using all of the above

 

[MadDogMurdock]

I would like this to be the case for certain rare goods.

For example Baltah'Sine Vacuum Krill. According to the rare good description, the krill are harvested from the ice ring of the moon Baltah'Sine 4B. There should be numerous NPC ships harvesting the krill in the ring and transporting them to the station.

This would open up several forms of gameplay:

• Pirating NPC ships for rare goods, either while mining in Krill-RES, or en-route to the station
• Missions to guard transport ships
• Players could harvest (mine) their own vacuum krill
• Huge void creatures that eat vacuum krill - these could be hunted
• CGs using all of the above

We can only dream of this level of verisimilitude.

This is where FD need to be very careful with the Codex, but given that one of their FB posts advertising it was a fluff piece on the pony-haired princess I'm hedging my bets.

 

[ilo]

I'd like to point out that Sandro snuck during a stream the possibility of tracking limpets, which became as mysterious as 'raxxla' since no one mentioned that again, ever.

 

[Julio Montega]

I would like this to be the case for certain rare goods.

For example Baltah'Sine Vacuum Krill. According to the rare good description, the krill are harvested from the ice ring of the moon Baltah'Sine 4B. There should be numerous NPC ships harvesting the krill in the ring and transporting them to the station.

This would open up several forms of gameplay:

• Pirating NPC ships for rare goods, either while mining in Krill-RES, or en-route to the station
• Missions to guard transport ships
• Players could harvest (mine) their own vacuum krill
• Huge void creatures that eat vacuum krill - these could be hunted
• CGs using all of the above

That would be something for V2 of the idea,
first let us start with basic stuff that can be used
in every system, then the ties to the world can be made tighter.

I really like stuff like that, it adds something very important:
Consistancy and valuable gameplay.
It breathes life into the galaxy.

 

[Vicktore Beskor]

Proper colonization mechanics is the next logical step for Elite Dangerous

 

[Ouberos]

There are loads of fantastic ideas in this thread. I have no position on the technical issues but I would love to play the game you are describing.

Inara already reports on commander murders if people are using the EDR plug-in which is only a tool that collects journal intel. Although I'm not down with the KWS using scum myself, I know some of them are having great fun hunting people down at the minute. I think they would enjoy getting crime notifications.

 

[Julio Montega]

There are loads of fantastic ideas in this thread. I have no position on the technical issues but I would love to play the game you are describing.

Inara already reports on commander murders if people are using the EDR plug-in which is only a tool that collects journal intel. Although I'm not down with the KWS using scum myself, I know some of them are having great fun hunting people down at the minute. I think they would enjoy getting crime notifications.

Absolutely, having player actions tie into the creation of USSes and missions
will breathe life into bounty hunting or police roles aswell.
Everyone has something from that, even explorers pootling by looking for USSes.

 

[Julio Montega]

Hey devs, i know you have the hands full reading through the feedback on forums
with the beta landing, could you please have a look at this proposition and ratify
if it is possible to do?

We now have persistant USSes, i very much would love to have ties into player
actions here.