ok, finally have some time to sit down. Lets get a step back and go into the current distress signals with a real example. I chosed to pick up the 'distress signal' of a ship without fuel because this is introduced as one of the revamped scenarios in 3.3.
So, if you go to any NON anarchy system and fly in supercruise around deep space, chances are you will eventually see a distress signal (threat 2). Watch out because some times this distress signal might not be a stranded pilot but some pirates, and sometimes it will actually be the stranded pilots AND some pirates.
So, this is what is going to happen (in theory, my best guess, based on dev experience):
- you exit supercruise following a USS, this instructs the game to start a 'custom minigame' in the form of a finite state machine (FSM).
- one of the states of the FSM will be setup the situation, spawn any ship or dropped cargo, environment, debris etc..
* the spawned ship will have 0 fuel and a custom message list (to welcome you when you come closer).
- front this point onwards, the FSM is finished, and now what happens is driven by the ship AI FSM (every ship has its own too, behaviour and stuff).
- If you don't refuel the ship NOTHING will happen at all.
- If you refuel the ship it will thanks (or not)
- eventually the ship will jump out (and say thanks)
(note, this is a simplification of the FSM, the ship doens't need to have 0 fuel at all, and the trigger even could be just firing a fuel limpet and not a real refueling action, but whatever works is fine).
Thank you very much for your effort. At this point in life we have no idea if this distress signal is already tied into the BGS, and our actions have any effect or not, but that'd be a different discussion.
Prior to 3.3, If you kill the ship the USS will dissapear. If you exit doing nothing the USS will dissapear. If the ship jumps out the USS will dissapear. Actually, the USS dissapeared at the very moment you entered it, because the lack of persistance.
After 3.3, I want to believe if you refuel the ship the USS will dissapear immediately, your client will be instructed to do so (pure guess again, that how I'd expect it to work). So, yeah, either your client saves the USS list locally, or the EDServer is giving back the list when you enter SC or the system again. The list being in the EDServer would be our best case scenario, because that means the FSM is aware of the 'goal' completion and informs the EDServer to remove the USS from the list. Worst case scenario, your client is managing it (will be probably stored somewhere close to the market data you buy from the galmap, etc.), we will see.
What we already know is that this USS is unique to you and therefore (
this is important) even if someone joins you, other players DO NOT exit SuperCruise using the USS signal (and therefore firing up the FSM again) but following your low wake or beacon. At this point you are responsible for the instance, you are responsible for the FSM. If another player joins your instance, they will spawn the ships you instruct them to do, they will get the text messages you send to them as owner of the instance. The ship is not going to talk on their clients, it is being controlled by you. Really need to understand this, because this is relevant later during our 'player generated signals'. THEY ARE NOT AWARE there is a FSM running in the instance, only the client creating the instance knows this and controls the FSM, all client side.
So, lets assume, I ran out of fuel and somehow, I can forward this distress to another commander that joins my instance.. in my instance there can be NO FSM running, or a FSM that has nothing to do with refueling (a RES for example) or several FSM running because of different situations I (as instance owner) created.
For the new player coming to help there has to be a custom FSM on his side (an example could be a mission FSM) to take care of my distress signal, the different states of the FSM can help the EDServer to manage the different USS being created (e.g. under certain conditions, just delete the USS for everyone else, remove it from the pool, whatever). I really believe, with a custom FSM the load on the servers can be easily countered and actions can be taken to inform other players. (e.g. a degraded emissions threat 0, can turn into a degraded emissions threat 1 if a player enters the USS). This NEW type of FSM doesn't have to spawn any ship or cargo or materials because you are already entering an existing instance, however it can still inform the EDServer about events, specially in case the instance owner leaves and needs to transfer control to you.
So, quick recap on what I'm suggesting, you exist SC following a USS or a mission USS (from inbox mission generation), in both cases you as the new coming player you fire up your FSM on an existing instance with already defined objectives: refuel a ship, pick up some dropped cargo, repair a ship, and these 'objectives' can be rewarded as part of a normal mission FSM through the 'onsuccess' state.
Now, assuming (I'm the stranded pilot) and I get attacked before you arrive (either other player or an NPC), when I die, my FSM can send the required data to the EDServer for a 'critical mission update' objective change, and this info (as a new FSM state) can create the necessary items in the space for you when you enter the new instance you will create (dropped cargo, ship debris, materials). So you can no longer refuel or repair me, but you can still scavenge the spoils.
Without a mission or objectives, MacDogMurdock is somehow right, who is going to care about a distress signal that has little to no rewards (for the AIDING player), and having a mission still makes sense from a Lore point of view.
Now, from my point of view, as a gameplay loop, ideally I'd like to create a distress signal for a local faction (friend or allied that I know they will try to help me), e.g. the fuel rats, or my local faction close by. People 'linked' to that faction or a SuperPower or whatever system used to OPT-IN/OUT of this content would get a mission from the Faction I requested help from, or the police. So fuel rats will get missions from the Fuel Rats faction, that on completion will also help their faction. I can sneak OPT-IN and pick up the mission for nefarious purposes too, nothing will prevent that. Getting missions from the police could also add a new module like 'police radio scanner' or whatever other gameplay loop you want to add. Also, remember Stealthie brought up the Pilots Federation, I assume they could as well help creating this critical mission/uss whatever.
One of the main problems I can see is when two players join this newly created instance (remember what I said before it is important). They both get into the instance following a USS that will fire up the FSM on arrival. Still only one of them will be the owner of the instance, but if the FSM has to create space assets, then the cargo or space debris might get duplicated (exactly the same thing that happens with the Wake Scanner dup issue), but I'm sure in 2018 we can work out a technical solution for this. The FSM needs to be aware of the existing instance, or a different FSM can be necessary for the two cases: you join a new instance or you join an existing instance.
Let me know if this highlights any possible tech challenge and clarifies a system that might work. I'm not sure I can explain myself very well, specially with technical stuff when trying not to use technical langauge.
Finally, as a side joke while I was checking my functions panel:
