By this same logic it could also be part of Horizons. (Tricky, this speculation thing, innit...)
Colonisation - new feature, and I love it!
- Thread starter Michael Ryan
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Probably not. They mentioned "other CMDRs can bring in materials" so It's definitely going to be a group approach, or a very dedicated single CMDR. There are some things in the game that should be big undertakings for a single CMDR, and I say this as a CMDR who only manages a few hours a week these days.
Everything is in preivours frontier streams from this year.
They mentioned weekly tick to complete the colonisation. So, yes 10 ly per week for now.
With 10 Ly distance you need 1 year to go this 500 ly distnace with daisychain, and after that there is very possible that the Bubble will grow and microbubble will be just a part of the bubble again.
I think the best option is to have basic colonisation possible to do even for one commander (to make really daisy-chain possible), but if you want to grow it up, make it significat you need effor of group of players.
Because I think we can literally assume that:
- lonley wolf or small groups of firends would be interested of create some mini-hom-bubble, just for roleplay, for fun, away from all that bubble stuff, galaxy is HUUGE so we literally shouldn\t be afraid of colonisation spamming, and possibel to do for one player on small group doesn't mean that it should be too easy. Time effort is the key here. It can be balanced literally by time effort, like - ok - one system, basic colonisation needs 4 hrs of playing per 7 days...
- Bigger squadrons can grow the bubble with ouw stategy plan to control BGS and Power Play, but to do that they need to make each colonised system more valuable, what means few starports, settlements etc... every starport, settelemnt need much more time effort, so gruop of players is needed
- Squadrons with own factions - this is literally totally different way to play colonisation game... because they can use it as a strategy to grown own faction. But we need to emember that squadrons like that are unique at this moment, because you can't now create a squadron based faction. Usually they are huge with a lot of active players, so they impact in colonisation will be more visible
Concerns about balancing are that if balance will be focused on the groups that mean that the shape of the bubble will be formed by few biggest squadrons only.
How to avoid this problem?
- Easy to colonise with siginifcant distance
- Hard to grow the system after colonisation
Example:
- 500 ly jump for colonisation and 80-100 hrs of gameplay for basic colonisation of one system. So, one player can colonise one system every two weks if they plays a LOT.
To colonise own home-system 10.000 ly away they need 20 systems between, what means moe than a year of playing focused on that one aspect of the game. More, because if you are away from the bubble you need more time to deliver supplies. (I have my home-system 36kLy so... hahaha).
But it is just a basic station, with basic fatures, no siginifcat production etc. so worth only as a role play mark on the galaxy.
- Building a well equipped, big starport needs at least: existings 3 small station, settlements to deliver local supplies, and each station needs from 100 hrs (small settlemente, outpost) to 1000 or ewen 10.000 hrs of gameplay. So for an example you need to:
1. colonise system - 100 hrs
2. make a small outposty - 100 hrs
3. make s small settlement - 100 hrs
4. make a medium settlement, ourpost - 1000 hrs
5. make a big starport - 10.000 hrs
So like 11.300 hrs to make it siginifcat for BGS/PowerPlay, what simply means that you need 400 players to do it in ONE week, playing like 4hrs per day 7 days a week.
Of course numbers are just example what I mean to do low time effort to colonise and big time effort to grow.
Well, Elite Dangerous is an MMO game after all...
Wouldn't be much different from eg. the Thargoid titans: I doubt one single player would be able to take them down alone.
(Also, I don't think it would outright exclude solo players, as hinted it would just make it much slower for them to have the stations completed without help.)
I think even Frontier said more that once that it isn't MMO in classical meaning.
Of course, it is massive, multiplayer and online game, but you can literally play without face to face interaction, but every effort has impact for others. Thargoid Titans are the best example. About colonisation they said tht it will be more like group activity, but even Zac last time was talking about about one player can do that, one player can colonise system they want, etc. So I think Frontier shows this year they don't want to exclude any kind of player, even lonley wolves with any activity, so, probably it is only a matter of time effort.
Your joking, my space dog goes further than that to find a decent tree
I just managed to watch the recording now and I'm a bit miffed - the first thing that came to my mind is garbage colonies.
So the most likely scenario will be that focused groups will start building outpost highways, 10ly (or whatever limit) apart. But as the system architect apparently is one single CMDR, appointeddictator for life, these systems will never grow or change afterwards. There was no mention of any maintenance mechanic, or loss of ownership / architect rights etc. I don't mean hostile takeover, just releasing the system for re-claim after 1 year of it not being touched for example.
So the most likely scenario will be that focused groups will start building outpost highways, 10ly (or whatever limit) apart. But as the system architect apparently is one single CMDR, appointed
System in-chain with just one station is like about 40 systems between Bubble and Colonia when you can find single outpost or megaship... Just there is like 500 ly between them.
Panther Clipper incoming...
I thought so, too. The status of system architect should come with a maintainance obligation similar to fleet carriers, at the very least. There is obviously more going on with NPCs, automated trading and production in a system than on an FC. But this opens possibilities for interesting gameplay options and the role of a system architect could be something exciting and new, indeed. People build self-sustaining economies with their fleet carriers already (for better or worse effect on the game, but that's a different topic.) Here, the developer should look at 'Civilisation' and similar games, and not let this devolve into casual fly-by operations people only do for different goals in their mind.
What this means is, I sincerely hope they DON'T let people install a set-and-forget kind of thing only to build their bridge to wherever, which is what many who speak up seem to want. Iirc there was a statement somewhere in the stream saying that the further out you go, the more difficult it will be because the supply line is stretched thin, which may hint at the background simulation connecting with the bubble economy and depending on that interchange. If this is so, then building a solid bulb at the border of the bubble would be better than a thin tendril which only ever grows in length. The big question is if the design is able to steer players in that direction and away from their unhealthy desires.
Yes. You will wake up in the night thinking that someone organized a group and took your system away from YOU.
In the Galaxy we have 400 B systems, we can build a LOT at it will be almost like a scratch.
Even if a lot of less valuable systems are concerning, still better have possibiloity to make systems way ahead to do daisy-chains than 10 Ly, because big jump forced people to make this system more profitable before they will do the next jump. We have a lot of insignificat systems in the bubble, with one outpost and is it changed something?
How many station every of use have visit? You now there is like 470.000 stations/starports/outposts on 20.000 inhabitated systems?
Even if each of 10.000. players can build 1 station per week, we need a year to double the size of the Bubble. And with 25% of cover with the inhabitated systems we can fit 5 milions bubbles in the Galaxy
If we can colonize 1 system per day to colonize 100 B systems (25% of the Galaxy) with 10.000 players we still need more than 27.000 years to do it.
Even if a lot of less valuable systems are concerning, still better have possibiloity to make systems way ahead to do daisy-chains than 10 Ly, because big jump forced people to make this system more profitable before they will do the next jump. We have a lot of insignificat systems in the bubble, with one outpost and is it changed something?
How many station every of use have visit? You now there is like 470.000 stations/starports/outposts on 20.000 inhabitated systems?
Even if each of 10.000. players can build 1 station per week, we need a year to double the size of the Bubble. And with 25% of cover with the inhabitated systems we can fit 5 milions bubbles in the Galaxy
If we can colonize 1 system per day to colonize 100 B systems (25% of the Galaxy) with 10.000 players we still need more than 27.000 years to do it.
Interesting you should mention that, because the Loyalty mechanic in a Civ 6 DLC divided the community in exactly the same way. Prior to that mechanic, you could solve any settlement challenge with money, regardless of whether you could get any assets there at all; dump enough money into a Scout unit and you could settle the north pole if even your capital was the Falklands. A looooot of people did not like losing that.
Edit: and from that point forward, the focus was to keep that DLC and subsequent content balanced, so a number of ridiculous skews in the original game were just left that way. One important difference though: that studio are thoroughly invested in mods, so that filled the gap somewhat.
That's already been done a few times via the galactic map. We're past that point I'm afraid!
When will it be realesed coloziation? Willl it be realeased in spring?
Sometime early this year is all we know.
System Colonisation
System Colonisation is an upcoming feature for ED: Odyssey. Claim star systems with player-led, free-form expansion in the galaxy.[1] The Bubble is no longer static.[1] The System Architect manages colonial development. Colonisation can be done by a solo commander, group or faction.[2] A beta...
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