Colonisation Answers

[Cosmo]

If FD are (as said) a little scared at what we might do with the feature, then axing the daisy chaining would result in far less of a player footprint (or scar?) on the galaxy, as CMDRs with low ambitions for the feature could establish a single system rather than being forced to put down hundreds to reach their destination.

Requiring colonists to grind for 100+ primary starports in systems that are disregarded would be a waste of time and resources. They should allow free-form space colonization of any unpopulated system.

Forcing players to do a daisy-chain colonize grind to get far away from the Bubble will evaporate their motivation.

Suppose one wanted to get to a distance from the bubble equivalent to that of Colonia, which is 22 thousand Ly away. Also suppose that you could string systems absolutely optimally: Every next system is exactly 10 Ly from the previous, and you can form a perfectly straight line. It would take well over 40 years of doing this in order to get 22 kly from the bubble. And that's in the absolute best possible scenario.

40 years to get to Colonia sighs. The Colonisation Ship should be able to go to any unpopulated system, not just within 10-100 ly.

 

[TheRoninX]

Between engineering, FSD Boosters, neutron boosting/FSD synthesis, possibly fleet carriers and lately SCO drives and the new exploration Mandalay, it's now easier than ever to range far into deep space to reach untouched systems. Explorers have got a massive head-start on colonists, and there are hundreds of billions of stars to choose from, the overwhelming majority of which remain undiscovered. Exploration will be alright.

Besides which, given the current limitations of 10ly and only being allowed to colonise from the bubble will mean that in the initial stages, colonist players will only be able to reach systems that are next door to the bubble and likely to be well-trodden or of otherwise little interest to anyone looking for something interesting that hasn't been found already.

I don't think they realize, maybe they do, that we have a huge reach as players and a pretty good ability to move massive qtys of goods even solo. 10 lys seems to be super restrictive and really reserved on their part. I do get the rp reasons but still 100lys would be a nice compromise.

 

[Kira Goto]

Still, the likely rapid permanent expansion of inhabited space doesn't seem like it'll be good for any part of the game except colonisation itself.

Unless, and I could be reaching here, there were a Thargoid-based mechanism opposing this in some way...

... but if it could not "destroy" a system permanently by 'removing' the starports and thus require re-colonizing, which might not necessarily be welcomed by players (if that were a concern for Frontier), it would be of limited impact.

 

[SergMx]

Am I understanding this correctly? Since Colonization is not a paid add-on to Odyssey, when Colonization comes out and at launch the game will see the name Odyssey.

 

[Alien]

Initial costs of colonisation?
Still to be decided, but way cheaper than a FC. Aimed at established but not necessarily ultra-rich players who have a bit of spare credit.
4-weeks to build initial starport, using commodities, not as a credit sink

Upkeep
No upkeep costs at all

I don't agree with this. Establishing a system should a lot more expensive than owning/leasing a fleet carrier. If a fleet carrier has weekly upkeep costs, then so should a system. If a system doesn't, then neither should a fleet carrier. By not having costs for a system, but have costs for a carrier, you are making unbalanced gameplay.

Beta period
This might be more of a early-access/prototype rather than an actual separate-servers Beta?
"All players will be able to engage with it. What you do will be final. So if you colonise systems during Beta they'll be yours, you'll be able to keep them, we're not going to take them away from you."

This is controversial. Frontier allow content creators early beta access and that is seen by some as unfair as it is. Now they are going to allow this favoured group to get an early jump on colonising systems first? Will LEP holders be part of this beta period, as specified in the description of the LEP? Another concern I have is that the beta period won't be long enough. It takes at least two weeks to colonise a system (one week to claim it, which it then recognises on the Thursday tick, and let's say someone has everything the system need to setup that initial station, it takes until the next tick to recognise it as a built station.) Are Frontier really going to implement changes in a beta period in what i guess will be four weeks?

EDIT: Apparently it's going to be an open beta. I await further clarification from Frontier on this.

 

[IstvaanDCIV]

I don't think they realize, maybe they do, that we have a huge reach as players and a pretty good ability to move massive qtys of goods even solo. 10 lys seems to be super restrictive and really reserved on their part. I do get the rp reasons but still 100lys would be a nice compromise.

I think the 10ly limit is on the terribly low side, I wasn't expecting it to be thousands of light years like some people were but I was still surprised at how low it turned out to be. I really hope that it's just a temporary limit while the early kinks of the colonisation feature are ironed out.

I don't agree with this. Establishing a system should a lot more expensive than owning/leasing a fleet carrier. If a fleet carrier has weekly upkeep costs, then so should a system. If a system doesn't, then neither should a fleet carrier. By not having costs for a system, but have costs for a carrier, you are making unbalanced gameplay.

I disagree that fleet carriers and system colonies should be expected to operate similarly.

A fleet carrier has to have supplies of everything it needs to keep operating shipped to it, hence the cost. It's a vehicle and its crew needs to be paid.

On the other hand, a colony is supposed to be able to sustain itself in some way. The 10ly limit means that colonised systems will always have neighbours they can trade with and use to build their own economy.

This is controversial. Frontier allow content creators early beta access and that is seen by some as unfair as it is. Now they are going to allow this favoured group to get an early jump on colonising systems first? Will LEP holders be part of this beta period, as specified in the description of the LEP? Another concern I have is that the beta period won't be long enough. It takes at least two weeks to colonise a system (one week to claim it, which it then recognises on the Thursday tick, and let's say someone has everything the system need to setup that initial station, it takes until the next tick to recognise it as a built station.) Are Frontier really going to implement changes in a beta period in what i guess will be four weeks?

What favoured group? It's going to be an open beta which any player can choose to participate in.

 

[Alien]

What favoured group? It's going to be an open beta which any player can choose to participate in.

I edited my post to say this. You might have been typing your post as I edited mine.

 

[Tifu]

[1] I think with their talk elsewhere about building up so that you could get those commodities closer they're really underestimating just how much more efficient a FC is compared with any other ship in the game at long-range hauling, so FC owners are going to have a big speed advantage here.

Bring forth the Panther Clipper to even the odds a bit

 

[Fedifensor]

I just want a place to store ships and some cargo without paying 5 billion for a fleet carrier plus regular upkeep.

 

[Tifu]

Besides which, given the current limitations of 10ly and only being allowed to colonise from the bubble will mean that in the initial stages, colonist players will only be able to reach systems that are next door to the bubble and likely to be well-trodden or of otherwise little interest to anyone looking for something interesting that hasn't been found already.

People keep saying this but the outer layer of the bubble is a huge expanse. Are you absolutely sure there is nothing of interest 10-30 ly from that outer layer?

 

[IstvaanDCIV]

I just want a place to store ships and some cargo without paying 5 billion for a fleet carrier plus regular upkeep.

You can store ships at any station with a Shipyard. Unfortunately there's currently no way for players without FCs to store commodities. I don't think these newly colonised systems will have that functionality, but I'd be happy to be wrong about that. It's long past time that we should be able to lease a secure warehouse or something like that.

People keep saying this but the outer layer of the bubble is a huge expanse. Are you absolutely sure there is nothing of interest 10-30 ly from that outer layer?

Well, if there are still any surprises still to be found in that region of the galaxy, then I rather think that undercuts any complaints about system colonisation taking over everything. If even 10 years of thousands of intrepid explorers passing through the closest regions of unexplored space have failed to exhaust the Orion Spur of its mysteries, then much slower settlers are certainly not going to do the same thing to the entire galaxy any time soon.

 

[varonica]

Am I understanding this correctly? Since Colonization is not a paid add-on to Odyssey, when Colonization comes out and at launch the game will see the name Odyssey.

It's still part of Odyssey, why would the name change?

 

[TOPAZ-63]

if the colonization range exceeds 30 ly, then how will PP 2.0 forces be able to get into these systems? The range of the base is 30 ly, and the fortified system is 20 ly

 

[Alien]

I just want a place to store ships and some cargo without paying 5 billion for a fleet carrier plus regular upkeep.

I have a feeling you'll need a fleet carrier to collate what you'll need to build a station in a claimed system. You probably could do it with a Type-9 or an Imperial Cutter, but it'll be easier and quicker with a fleet carrier.

 

[Fedifensor]

I have a feeling you'll need a fleet carrier to collate what you'll need to build a station in a claimed system. You probably could do it with a Type-9 or an Imperial Cutter, but it'll be easier and quicker with a fleet carrier.

I have an Imperial Cutter. I'm doing well...but not 5 billion + expenses well.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Pretty much confirmation of what we already knew/suspected.

Big disappointment from my side.

To get our faction to expand out to the edge of the bubble would take years and probably require more than a few fights to eject PMFs from existing systems so we could take their slots or take detours to avoid all systems with PMFs. Even without considering PMFs who might object to us kicking them out (which our small group probably wouldn't be able to achieve anyway), I guess by the time we got even half-way to the edge FD will increase the range or something, making our effort worthless.

And if we did? Then what? Just another system on the edge of the bubble?

Ok, let's say we don't care about our PMF, we are happy to expand whatever faction we find on the edge of the bubble. Then what? Just another system on the edge of the bubble. Sure, one the architect can build up, but why? There are a bazillion systems in the bubble, and if i wanted to live in a specific type of system, pretty sure i can find one that meets my desires already.

So, no, i won't be partaking in the beta for this, nor after release, unless something changes. Which is a shame, because with one or two changes, i would be really interested in it.

1) Obviously the distance. I'd love unlimited distance. Let me place my beacon where i want and let it be up to me to see if i could develop it in the time limit. Let the distance and the willingness to put in the effort be the deciding factor. But if there must be a limit, let it be at least 100 or more LY, which would provide the opportunity to expand my PMF out of the bubble in a timeframe that can be done before the game finally shuts down.

2) Failing that, instead of saying you must build within 10LY of the system you bought the beacon from, let people buy beacons from any faction, but they must place them within 10LY of any inhabited system. That would allow us to get our PMFs out there while retaining the 10LY limit... for whatever reason FD want that limit.

 

[IstvaanDCIV]

if the colonization range exceeds 30 ly, then how will PP 2.0 forces be able to get into these systems? The range of the base is 30 ly, and the fortified system is 20 ly

I think one of the reasons that some find the 10ly limit so disappointing is precisely because it doesn't permit the settlement of systems outside of PP ranges.

 

[varonica]

Big disappointment from my side.

Been a lot of expectations crashing I think, it's not base building, not that I wanted that, but that's what a lot of people were expecting/desiring. I really don't know what to think for myself, the base building/colonisaton bug has never bitten me so it's hard to be dissapointed about something that has literally no impact on me.

 

[Tifu]

Well, if there are still any surprises still to be found in that region of the galaxy, then I rather think that undercuts any complaints about system colonisation taking over everything. If even 10 years of thousands of intrepid explorers passing through the closest regions of unexplored space have failed to exhaust the Orion Spur of its mysteries, then much slower settlers are certainly not going to do the same thing to the entire galaxy any time soon.

I think I'd like solid proof, like is there a catalogue of systems in that category similar to what the group looking for Raxxla assembled in their search for the fabled mythical place? Is there such a catalogue?

Explorers tend to want to be as far from the Bubble as possible which isn't exactly the same motivation as people who want to colonize systems have. There is an intersection of course, some colonizers (sorry for the term, has negative connotations I know) will share the same sentiments but not all.

 

[Montague]

I'm glad they're adding more into the game, but like PP2.0, this doesn't appeal to me. What's the motivation to do this?