I think a lot of commanders would like a decent comment from FD about this. The recent 100 paint jobs thing has highlighted the tip of the iceberg. There are a lot of talented folks playing ED. The third party tools have shown us that over the years.
Is it technically feasible to introduce community created content? Starting with paint jobs, surely there would be a way to produce them for sale via a better store than the website, such as in game? With a cut of the profits going to the creator, and some to FD? Win win?
I don't know the ins and outs of paint jobs, and how custom they are for each ship - they're not going to be a simple colour planar map, let's face it, but I guess FD can work it out if they want to. I would guess that paintjobs would have to be uploaded from all players connecting to an instance (or every paint job would have to be rolled into the game, constantly updating).
What other community created content would be possible? Perhaps it could lay the groundwork for building stations - I imagine people buying modules and bolting them together to create stations of their own. Main dock, £500 million. Docking ring, £1 billion etc. Give those billionaires something to spend it on, and create a bit more variety to stations an planetary outposts, building them like command and conquer bases or KSP.
I feel like FD may have missed an opportunity to let the player base use their free creativity to enhance the game. I would guess that it might not be financially worth it now as Elite moves towards the end of its life cycle, or be technically feasible from the current base they have.
But I hope
Is it technically feasible to introduce community created content? Starting with paint jobs, surely there would be a way to produce them for sale via a better store than the website, such as in game? With a cut of the profits going to the creator, and some to FD? Win win?
I don't know the ins and outs of paint jobs, and how custom they are for each ship - they're not going to be a simple colour planar map, let's face it, but I guess FD can work it out if they want to. I would guess that paintjobs would have to be uploaded from all players connecting to an instance (or every paint job would have to be rolled into the game, constantly updating).
What other community created content would be possible? Perhaps it could lay the groundwork for building stations - I imagine people buying modules and bolting them together to create stations of their own. Main dock, £500 million. Docking ring, £1 billion etc. Give those billionaires something to spend it on, and create a bit more variety to stations an planetary outposts, building them like command and conquer bases or KSP.
I feel like FD may have missed an opportunity to let the player base use their free creativity to enhance the game. I would guess that it might not be financially worth it now as Elite moves towards the end of its life cycle, or be technically feasible from the current base they have.
But I hope