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

Darkfyre99

Darkfyre99
This is why I'm not in a rush to acquire a Fleet Carrier. The thing I'd most like to use it for are impossible in the Bubble, thanks to Frontier making the same mistakes the early MMO pioneers made back in the 90's, and there's already more than enough carriers moving out in the Black for me to interact with.

It might take another year or two at the rate I play before I buy one, but without a player-augmented to justify owning one, and the Ozymandias among us persuading Frontier to remove any potential gameplay in operating one, their only value in my eyes is as yet another monument to Ozymandias. And based on what I've seen in the Bubble so far, there's already far too many of those out there as it is.

Hopefully, Odyssey might bring something more interesting to spend my billions on... oh, wait. Frontier killed VR in that expansion. :( Nevermind.
 

Krash

Krash
Old Duck said:
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! :(
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I was amazed to find an open spot in the new mining system (Swoilz). Probably because it was 3 carrier jumps to get there. Btw, does your diary not care about screenshots? What's up with that? :sneaky:
 

Old Duck

Old Duck
Krash said:
Btw, does your diary not care about screenshots? What's up with that? :sneaky:
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Every time I park, I end up in a rubbish spot (usually the dark side of the planet). I'm waiting for the perfect screenshot. Maybe today I'll purposefully park somewhere scenic just for a photo op!

Which means more Tritium. At least today's system is a short SC drive.
 

Valorin

Valorin
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.
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So, what's your carrier's name?
 

Darkfyre99

Darkfyre99
Old Duck said:
Who?
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Percy Shelley said:
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."
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Krash

Krash
Old Duck said:
Every time I park, I end up in a rubbish spot (usually the dark side of the planet). I'm waiting for the perfect screenshot. Maybe today I'll purposefully park somewhere scenic just for a photo op!

Which means more Tritium. At least today's system is a short SC drive.
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Get a direct orbit around the star. You'll be within 20ls and flooded with light.
 
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CMDR Karrde Sun

CMDR Karrde Sun
From reading around you may have forced it a bit? When you're ready for it in your elite headspace it may not be so bad.

Going through all the same experiences myself the benefits were definitely greater than the oddities.

Maybe put it away until your background brain comes up with something you actually want to with it and try again. Yeah I'd imagine they would be pretty doubtful otherwise.
 

Codger

Codger
I bought mine, futzed around in the bubble with it for a few days, took it out to my semi-secret exploration area (22,000ly out), started to explore happily from my new base, heard from a friend who got himself stuck in Colonia and decided to give him a ride back to the bubble with all 16 of his ships (and he was on XBOX while I'm on PC), did some engineering I forgot, then went back to my exploration area where I am slowly expanding my little bubble of explored systems and doing some mining (with NO chat and NO NPCs).

It is a magnificent feeling to return to my carrier out in the black with a load of new discoveries and some valuable minerals. Just seeing it there orbiting the planet I chose is exhilarating. I love this thing.

I'm planning to stick around here for a while until I get my fill of exploring. Then I'll return with whatever diamonds and opals and whatnot I've accumulated, sell them for as much as I can, refuel the carrier and then...whatever I want!

As for seeing less players, I've had the opposite experience. I play almost exclusively in solo, and in the last 4 years I have almost never seen another player, or even evidence of one.

Now, systems are littered with evidence, and in some areas chat is alive with conversations. I see MORE other players (or the effects of them) than ever now. It's made the universe feel less immersive, to me, but such is life in gaming. Don't get me started on Fallout 76. :p
 

Morbad

Morbad
I've always felt fleet carriers would be bad for the game. Player owned stations essentially killed Jumpgate, and while ED CMDRs have always been less connected to the setting, the impact of these microcosms still has a number of worrying parallels.

Old Duck said:
Some people actually take pride in "hogging a slot" - I heard from one yesterday! :(
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Of course they do. People have been landing at stations in Solo only to switch to Open to crap up CGs and other activities they don't feel able to influence in any other way since before the game was launched, and Frontier has tacitly accepted this sort of abuse without much comment.

Personally, I feel that persistent assets and indestructible assets are fundamentally incompatible with multiplayer games. If it exists, other characters should have a fair shot at removing it.
 

MarkAusten

MarkAusten
Old Duck said:
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! :(
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That's a shame. I can see that slot hogging is the next griefing.
 

Kissamies

Kissamies
I did what I intended to do, more or less. Bought it and kept it mostly in one place for 3 weeks while I prepared and tied up my BGS projects. Then I took it to my favourite system outside the Bubble 12 carrier jumps away, where it will act as a base camp while I methodically explore the region. Even if I need to return to the Bubble myself, I intend to keep the carrier in there.
 

pzykozomatik

pzykozomatik
Old Duck said:
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!
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That's one of my main issues with the way fleet carriers have been implemented, it's too damn easy to get one (in conjuction with the broken mining profits). I read in a thread yesterday that someone went from new player to fleet carrier owner within two weeks just through mining. Everywhere I go in or near the bubble, there's FCs in the system map, and it's been not even a month since release. They really should've put other prerequisites for owning a fleet carrier in place, so it feels more like an actual achievement to have reached "endgame" content. Well, too late for that now (the inofficial FD motto?). But what can I say, player numbers seem to be surging, and I guess selling carrier livery to as many people as possible is good for the quarterly figures at least.
 

Old Duck

Old Duck
While I wait for my fleet carrier to jump, I'm considering my exploration fleet, and I purposefully want to make it a "humble" fleet. I'm thinking a couple of Adders (as shuttles for planetary landings), a couple of Eagles for the view & canyon running (one fast, the other built for combat), a science vessel Type-7 loaded with research equipment, an empty T7 for fuel transfer and potential cargo pickup, my Krait mining ship, my Dolphin "puddle jumper" (the ship I use for fast galaxy hopping), and my Mamba "just in case". Oh, and a Sidewinder named "Atlantis Stargate" for my quick return to the Bubble if I need to!

I'll also have a bunch of special modules like passenger cabins in case I stop at an outpost with passengers looking for a ride home.

The rest of my ships I'll leave back at "Stargate Command" (LHS 3447) in case I need to make an emergency trip back home to participate in a CG or II. Speaking of, I can remotely manage and pilot a fleet carrier from across the galaxy, correct?

Now don't go telling me, "No Old Duck, you want to use these other ships [inserts your own personal preferences] instead." I know what I like, and I like what I like :p
 

pzykozomatik

pzykozomatik
Old Duck said:
Speaking of, I can remotely manage and pilot a fleet carrier from across the galaxy, correct?
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Generally, yes, as long as there's Tritium in the tank you can plot jumps. Let's hope FD gives us the means to remotely top it up from the commodity storage in a further update.
 
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