Dear Diary, today I bought a Fleet Carrier...

Old Duck

Old Duck
If you hate my "diary" posts and still clicked on this thread, you only have yourself to blame :p

So I bought a fleet carrier (thank you everyone who assisted me in this endeavor), and I'm having mixed feelings about it already. As I moved all my stuff from ShinDez to my personal fleet carrier, this is the image that came to mind:

iu


iu


Wait, that guy ended up with BOTH girls? Anyway, the idea is that we're all in a shared space, yet we're all now focused on our own "device", which feels kinda isolating. And while there are plenty of good arguments regarding how technology enhances our lives (be it smart phones or fleet carriers), there are other arguments to be made of how these things take something away from us.

I've seen this already when I go to systems filled with fleet carriers yet devoid of CMDRs. Now I suppose they could all be in Solo, but odds are they (and now me) are all hanging out on their fleet carriers instead of at the local station. We're social distancing. Welcome to Jameson Memorial:

iu


Then there is the convenience factor, which is great, yet it also removes something from the game... I feel this more in the Bubble, where a fleet carrier switches on "easy mode" for many common tasks. Now before you rage-reply, I purposefully titled this post "Dear Diary", as this is my own observation based on my own gameplay preferences. I'm not making suggestions on changing FCs for everyone, rather I'm evaluating my own use for my personal fleet carrier. That's not to say that the proliferation of fleet carriers throughout the Bubble doesn't radically change the game for everyone, and I'm happy to discuss that, but again, I'm not campaigning to change fleet carriers - it's probably too late for that anyway.

And finally, there's the immersion factor. Someone pointed out there are more personally owned fleet carriers than there are system owned stations! I'm not sure if that's right or not, but still, all of us owning our own personal giant megaship feels kinda "wrong".. I almost think Frontier would have been further ahead to let us buy actual preexisting stations in the game and control the services of that station like we do our FCs. Either that or FCs should have been JUST fleet carriers.. Sorry, I digress!

So what am I going to do about it? My FC is still new, so I'm still playing around with it in the Bubble, but once the novelty wears off, I'm seriously considering building a small, specialized exploration fleet specifically for the carrier and moving it to my "home away from home" deep in unexplored space. My main fleet will remain in the Bubble, and I'll travel to and from the carrier "the old fashioned way" using my puddle-jumping Dolphin. This means I'll be without a fleet carrier while operating in the Bubble, which leaves the "hard mode" setting checked, forcing me to use ships with good jump ranges, cargo capacity, etc. In my headcannon, the fleet carrier isn't something I own, but rather an exploration ship I'm leasing, similar to how archeologists lease platforms to look for sunken ships. I realize it's an expensive asset (upkeep) for something that is "out there", but that'll give me a reason to earn credits back home in the Bubble. Considering just how crowded the Bubble is with FCs, and how an FC removes some of the challenge I actually enjoy in the Bubble, this seems like the best solution to have my fleet carrier cake and eat it too.

End Entry.
 

777Driver

777Driver
Old Duck said:
I've seen this already when I go to systems filled with fleet carriers yet devoid of CMDRs. Now I suppose they could all be in Solo, but odds are they (and now me) are all hanging out on their fleet carriers instead of at the local station. We're social distancing. Welcome to Jameson Memorial:
Click to expand...


Congrats mate. I do have to disagree with this point. I think it is more to do with your reluctance to try discord channels (at least to find out what is going on). The severe lack of ingame tools has pushed cmdrs to using Inara and Discord to communicate. It's been like that for long time with groups like Ida.

I absolutely hated communicating with cmdrs ingame except for my friends group. System chat turned off, it's like the comments section in youtube, except worse. I see less racial slurs and the use of NERFF!!! on youtube.

For me it has been the complete opposite of social distancing, massive groups working together, outside of the game.
 
Last edited:

Old Duck

Old Duck
777Driver said:
Congrats mate. I do have to disagree with this point. I think it is more to do with your reluctance to try discord channels (at least to find out what is going on). The severe lack of ingame tools has pushed cmdrs to using Inara and Discord to communicate. It's been like that for long time with groups like Ida.

I absolutely hated communicating with cmdrs ingame except for my friends group. System chat turned off, it's like the comments section in youtube, except worse. I see less racial slurs and the use of NERFF!!! on youtube.

For me it has been the complete opposite of social distancing, massive groups working together, outside of the game.
Click to expand...
"Social distancing" is an analogy in my OP. Or is it a metaphor? Regardless, the "You need Discord to enjoy Elite" argument has never worked on me :p

iu
 

Florenus

Florenus
Old Duck said:
I've seen this already when I go to systems filled with fleet carriers yet devoid of CMDRs. Now I suppose they could all be in Solo, but odds are they (and now me) are all hanging out on their fleet carriers instead of at the local station. We're social distancing. Welcome to Jameson Memorial:
Click to expand...
I think I see exactly the same amount of people in Open as before.
The only difference is that Fleet Carrier is like a shadow cast across different dimensions and you can see where people operate, even if they play solo. Not to mention you see Carriers belonging to people who are not in the game too, which is counterintuitive to what we're accustomed - meaning you see a ship, you see a player.
In that regard Elite feels more crowded than ever.
 

Lightspeed

Lightspeed
Old Duck said:
If you hate my "diary" posts and still clicked on this thread, you only have yourself to blame :p

So I bought a fleet carrier (thank you everyone who assisted me in this endeavor), and I'm having mixed feelings about it already. As I moved all my stuff from ShinDez to my personal fleet carrier, this is the image that came to mind:

iu


iu


Wait, that guy ended up with BOTH girls? Anyway, the idea is that we're all in a shared space, yet we're all now focused on our own "device", which feels kinda isolating. And while there are plenty of good arguments regarding how technology enhances our lives (be it smart phones or fleet carriers), there are other arguments to be made of how these things take something away from us.

I've seen this already when I go to systems filled with fleet carriers yet devoid of CMDRs. Now I suppose they could all be in Solo, but odds are they (and now me) are all hanging out on their fleet carriers instead of at the local station. We're social distancing. Welcome to Jameson Memorial:

iu


Then there is the convenience factor, which is great, yet it also removes something from the game... I feel this more in the Bubble, where a fleet carrier switches on "easy mode" for many common tasks. Now before you rage-reply, I purposefully titled this post "Dear Diary", as this is my own observation based on my own gameplay preferences. I'm not making suggestions on changing FCs for everyone, rather I'm evaluating my own use for my personal fleet carrier. That's not to say that the proliferation of fleet carriers throughout the Bubble doesn't radically change the game for everyone, and I'm happy to discuss that, but again, I'm not campaigning to change fleet carriers - it's probably too late for that anyway.

And finally, there's the immersion factor. Someone pointed out there are more personally owned fleet carriers than there are system owned stations! I'm not sure if that's right or not, but still, all of us owning our own personal giant megaship feels kinda "wrong".. I almost think Frontier would have been further ahead to let us buy actual preexisting stations in the game and control the services of that station like we do our FCs. Either that or FCs should have been JUST fleet carriers.. Sorry, I digress!

So what am I going to do about it? My FC is still new, so I'm still playing around with it in the Bubble, but once the novelty wears off, I'm seriously considering building a small, specialized exploration fleet specifically for the carrier and moving it to my "home away from home" deep in unexplored space. My main fleet will remain in the Bubble, and I'll travel to and from the carrier "the old fashioned way" using my puddle-jumping Dolphin. This means I'll be without a fleet carrier while operating in the Bubble, which leaves the "hard mode" setting checked, forcing me to use ships with good jump ranges, cargo capacity, etc. In my headcannon, the fleet carrier isn't something I own, but rather an exploration ship I'm leasing, similar to how archeologists lease platforms to look for sunken ships. I realize it's an expensive asset (upkeep) for something that is "out there", but that'll give me a reason to earn credits back home in the Bubble. Considering just how crowded the Bubble is with FCs, and how an FC removes some of the challenge I actually enjoy in the Bubble, this seems like the best solution to have my fleet carrier cake and eat it too.

End Entry.
Click to expand...
Could FD be driving us out of stations so that we won't be craving to walk around inside them? :unsure:
 

777Driver

777Driver
Old Duck said:
"Social distancing" is an analogy in my OP. Or is it a metaphor? Regardless, the "You need Discord to enjoy Elite" argument has never worked on me :p
Click to expand...

Until we have a decent way to communicate in game, we don't have much choice unfortunately. I don't think it would be too much to ask for an actual Bridge, with a Helm officer giving us the stats like the FCMS tool https://fleetcarrier.space/

A comms office handling internal and external ship communication https://discord.com/invite/Yt5fev

A nav officer that gives us something like this https://www.spansh.co.uk/fleet-carrier

And a tritium officer that actually transfers the tritium.. You get my drift.

The game relies on external tools. I have waay too many tabs open these days, and as you know I fly in VR.
 
Last edited:

Retropolitan

Retropolitan
Old Duck said:
So what am I going to do about it? My FC is still new, so I'm still playing around with it in the Bubble, but once the novelty wears off, I'm seriously considering building a small, specialized exploration fleet specifically for the carrier and moving it to my "home away from home" deep in unexplored space.
Click to expand...

I think this is an excellent idea, because it's very similar to what one of my CMDRs is doing :). He's got a short range explorer (with SLF!), a rescue ship, a large mining ship, and a combat ship (?) on the carrier which will eventually hang out far from home for awhile, offering services and always available when he wants to fly his Phantom out to meet it.
 
Last edited:

Old Duck

Old Duck
Florenus said:
In that regard Elite feels more crowded than ever.
Click to expand...
Yes, this too is an issue that I'm not overly fond of - it goes back to the idea that EVERYONE (okay, not literally, but you get my meaning) has a fleet carrier. Seeing a system map littered with fleet carriers, I dunno, I just don't like it. I didn't mention this in OP, but one of the reasons I want to move my carrier to a distant region of unexplored space is because I kinda feel it my civic duty to do my part to clean up the Bubble.

iu


It's also a reason why I don't see much purpose trying to run a "shop" inside the Bubble - too many vendors already!

(Meanwhile other CMDRs are buying fleet carriers for their alts as well)
 
Last edited:

Old Duck

Old Duck
777Driver said:
Until we have a decent way to communicate in game, we don't have much choice unfortunately. I don't think it would be too much to ask for an actual Bridge, with a Helm officer giving us the stats like the FCMS tool https://fleetcarrier.space/

A comms office handling internal and external ship communication https://discord.com/invite/Yt5fev

A nav officer that gives us something like this https://www.spansh.co.uk/fleet-carrier

And a tritium tritium officer that actually transfers the tritium.. You get my drift.

The game relies on external tools. I have waay too many tabs open these days, and as you know I fly in VR.
Click to expand...
I agree with all of this. In fact, the failed potential of fleet carriers (specifically the services and markets) renews my interest in Eve Online. I love flying spaceships, but I confess that I also enjoy "spreadsheet simulators" as well. I'd love it if ED would implement more of the market mechanics of Eve.
 

Lightspeed

Lightspeed
Old Duck said:
Yes, this too is an issue that I'm not overly fond of - it goes back to the ideal that EVERYONE (okay, not literally, but you get my meaning) has a fleet carrier. Seeing a system map littered with fleet carriers, I dunno, I just don't like it. I didn't mention this in OP, but one of the reasons I want to move my carrier to a distant region of unexplored space is because I kinda feel it my civic duty to do my part to clean up the Bubble.

iu


It's also a reason why I don't see much purpose trying to run a "shop" inside the Bubble - too many vendors already!

(Meanwhile other CMDRs are buying fleet carriers for their alts as well)
Click to expand...
It was clear from Beta that FCs were going to create an untidy mess in the game, Solo or Open. It's as if FD has said, "OK, well here's your End Game Ship. Good luck with it, grinders, but we're going to concentrate on Legs from now on. And sorry about the Panther Clipper"
 

Deleted member 182079

D
Agree with the different feel of how populated Elite is in terms of other players. While I can see all the FCs, I don't see a lot of players anymore. Feels more like playing in Solo as I rarely come across another hollow square, not even in the usual player hotspots such as Jameson's or engineers. Maybe everyone still is gathering around the 3LTD spots, but even there - sometimes I wonder if instancing is buggered but I guess FCs have spread out the player population even further now.
 

Old Duck

Old Duck
Lightspeed said:
It was clear from Beta that FCs were going to create an untidy mess in the game, Solo or Open.
Click to expand...
I do have hope that the vast majority of FC owners [in the Bubble] will grow bored with them and decommission them. Then again, many people have loaded up three years worth of upkeep and then left to play other games. A conscientious CMDR would at least move his FC to an empty system when not using it, but I'm not expecting this... Some people actually take pride in "hogging a slot" - I heard from one yesterday! :(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom