Unfortunately I have to agree with you. This isn't going to bring back players to the game, it's just something else for the existing players to grind. Which is a real shame, but we're used to it by now.
Colonisation Answers
- Thread starter Ian Doncaster
- Start date
Limiting players to merely place structures in a star system (by a sole architect), doesn't sound like handing over the keys.
Seconded. Proper space colonization is when players are empowered to:
- Go to an unpopulated system and claim it (no max distance)
- Do the colonization grind
- Gain control of their own star system
- Name the star system (and settlements)
- Develop the star system's economy, settlements
- Gain rewards: materials, goods, credits from the colony
- Have a personal HQ, optionally for a squadron / faction
That would be another missed opportunity for ED. SC is technically complicated, but the front-end (gameplay) that the devs have shown is not good, too basic.
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I'm convinced that this data is stored in the data files the Codex draws from and just isn't accessible, for no bloody reason at all. I'm probably wrong. It probably isn't stored anywhere, unless you have been faithfully using EDDiscovery for your entire playing history, and have never lost any data to hardware crashes or upgrades. Then there might be a way (but I wouldn't know it).
If I had known all along what I know now, I might have kept a spreadsheet of at least some discoveries, but it seems like my ship's log should actually contain useful details like that.
I think with all the worrying about "paving over the galaxy" this fact keeps being missed out. We will never come anywhere close to covering the galaxy in colonies. Not unless something wildly implausible happens, like everyone on Earth becoming a devoted ED player and/or the game sustaining itself for over a thousand years.
I didn't say it in a bad way. But this is ultimately a sandbox game, and this is a sandbox feature. I personally love map painting, and colonization is an even more meaningful way to participate in such a thing than BGS or powerplay. (I say this as someone who's basically only done BGS for years).
And you can even include BGS and powerplay into it. I do think colonization is going to bring back many players into the game, I think it'll stick with a lot of players who didn't think they'd engage in it. Personally I think it's amazing and the best feature they've worked on since forever.
A lot of things in elite don't have "a point" is where I was getting at. What's the point of BGS? Powerplay? Mining? Exploring? Doing anything? It's not like you can "beat the game". Sometimes it's hard to give yourself a goal to work towards. It's why I like BGS and Powerplay, there's always something to work towards, but it was always a limited thing in reality that we just ignored for convenience. Bubble is getting crowded for BGS, years after it was initially discussed that this would happen. Some factions just can't expand anywhere anymore.
With this you just create an avenue for infinite content until you get bored. Not to mention that if you choose the right system you can develop it straight to hell, apparently. Choose the biggest stations with the biggest populations in a system with an ELW and go to town developing a single system for months.
It's awesome, and more or less what I always wanted to see in the game. What I want to do to Braben right now cannot be posted in these forums without breaking every rule against NSFW content
Yeah people are mentioning they're worried about the galaxy being littered with more systems. I'm like damn, if there's ONE thing we'll never run out of in this game, it's space.
If you already enjoy and play Elite as it is I'm sure you will enjoy colonization as well. I think BGS and powerplay are pretty much pointless as well, and I hoped colonization would change all of this.
My point is this isn't going to bring new or old players to the game, it's merely another grinding tool for the existing ones. Which is fair, you guys deserve it for sticking to the game even after Odyssey, but for me personally and others like me won't be the thing to bring us back.
But I'm happy at least some of the community will enjoy this new feature, I might even give it a go on the beta and colonize my own system just to "experience it". And then I'll be done with it.
You're already proven wrong by the fact that I am a returning player lmao. Many things leading to that though. SCO's, engineering rework, more mats from anywhere, new ships, powerplay rework. To think all this was done within a year when we went years without a hint of content since Odyssey, except maybe the thargoid war but I was never interested in AX.
One of the appealing things about the galaxy is the feeling of being far from humanity when you make it to the galactic centre or even beyond. Knowing all human existence is so far away and the fact you've took time to travel a lonely path out to the depths is a feeling you can only get when you know how far away everything is. So yes 400 billion stars is an unfathomable number, but if colonisation is made too easy (i.e.1000's of light years between colonies as some are demanding) then it won't be long before there are multiple Colonia's in every region, and that feeling of remoteness you get from being far from humanity will be gone forever.
That would be a shame because no other game offers that sense of remoteness when exploring its outer reaches of the map - not on Elite's scale anyway. Elite's galactic scale is the only one that does, it what sets it aside from all the others.
For this reason I hope Frontier don't make the ranges too big.
That would be a shame because no other game offers that sense of remoteness when exploring its outer reaches of the map - not on Elite's scale anyway. Elite's galactic scale is the only one that does, it what sets it aside from all the others.
For this reason I hope Frontier don't make the ranges too big.
Sounds like you already enjoyed BGS, powerplay mining, etc, and the game as it was, so seems like you never left, just probably stopped playing so much. Myself nothing in Odyssey ever appealed to me and I only bought it when it was on sale, and the stuff we got in the last years was nice for the people who were playing Odyssey, but I couldn't care much for it. You're definately not the players I'm refering to bro.
No I legit quit (Uninstalled) for 2-3 years due to the game not having any meaningful updates for me. After all you do get bored of the same thing over and over. Never so much enjoyed mining, never did powerplay before the rework, only really enjoyed BGS but that one was ruined by cheaters for me. Colonization is making me want to stay. But, we're going in circles, and we're not really disagreeing here.
I really hope you're wrong though you might be right. I just think this is Elite's best year so far, and I hope they keep aiming higher and giving us more content. Doubt colonization is the last ever thing they'll add to the game!
Well, if you think the content they added in the last year is good and this colonization thing is going to make you return and play the game on the long term, we're not in the same category of "returning players". The game has been in a slow pace since Odyssey and none of this changes the fact there is no appealing gameplay in Elite and adding yet another fluff mechanism for us to "colonize" other systems won't change much.
I did comeback to check out the last Titan and try out some of the new ships (the ones not behind a paywall) and I will most likely try colonization out at least once, but none of this will make me want to play the game on a regular basis.
I also hope I'm wrong and you're right, for the sake of the game, but I honestly don't think I am and FDev's history is not in their favor. Perhaps the new CEO will prove me wrong, I can only hope. I admit the last year has been an immense improvement, but to be honest they need ALOT of improvement before they are in a acceptable place.
That's the problem, I really started using EDSM in earnest around 2016, so there are a couple of years worth of missing data that would be great to see, especially since I didn't get my 10 year email.
To explorers who want to set up a colony 10Kly away from the bubble - you can't just decide a system is a colony, you'll have to ship out all the required resources. I don't know how much that is but if they are giving people 4 weeks to ship stuff to a system 10ly away its not going to be a handful, and would pretty much make fleet carriers mandatory. As an explorer would you want to spend 4 weeks hauling goods across the galaxy just to make one system permanently inhabited?
One solution would be to allow unlimited distance but to increase the resources required to establish the colony proportionally so that only a huge combined effort would be able to colonise a remote system.
One solution would be to allow unlimited distance but to increase the resources required to establish the colony proportionally so that only a huge combined effort would be able to colonise a remote system.
Yes, absolutely.
Still double of that 10ly seems like a gameplay loop minimum. Considering that there are a ton of systems bordering the edges of the bubble with no stars In the radius of 10.x-14ly (checked that recently) - this is the way to go to not block the acces to any stars around the bubble. I think 20-30ly will let them keep new systems tight and not go too crazy too fast. My predictions is that the increase will be closer to 15-16 ly than 20
You know what, never mind. Pointless rant that won't change squat
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It wouldn't make sense to make it so expensive. Keep in mind that there are plenty of systems around the bubble with just a star. Which would act like a chain. Colonization will also require resources collecting/hauling. To be honest - I expecting that systems with multiple planets, enabling you to put ton of settlements will end up costing you more than that 10 bln. Why just the first station cost that much? I would need to grind for weeks just to be able build one station in empty system without any planets?
The price of FC's doesn't make sense either. Rampant long-term economic imbalance has created some pretty dumb ideas about what things should cost... FCs were just the start.
Check systems around on your own. You soon realise that ton of them are just single star systems. Not to mention that there are many good systems -sometimes bordering populated systems with more than 10ly to the closest star. What's crazier - I tested this out with s ship of limit close to 10ly. I have noticed that there you would need often to colonize 2-3 systems from populated one to finally get to planetary system not a lone stars. That's why 15-20ly seems logical.