Decommission System?

[wakirk]

Would a Decommission System by the BGS be useful, over 8000 systems, and 16,000 locations seems overkill for what, a week or so of time? I think Trailblazer's introduction is fantastic, I've seen elite mentioned in places not focused on Elite, and players who've swarn off the game actually have interest and even come back, Frontier has caught lightning in a bottle, But player do what players do, and its sounds like things got messy quick. I have been watching Rusty Dog, nice chill vibe, and his system went into Infrastructure Failure, he didn't know anything about it, I didn't either, and with the pause, it got me thinking, could a lack of for-thought by players cause their freshly built system to fail? Could this be how Frontier clean up dead systems?

The more I thought about it, the more it made sense, let the system clean itself, players need to plan more carefully, survey the systems for resources, food, water, raw materials, trade routes from and good system choices and good economy choices lead to a thriving system, poor, hasty choices, lead to failed systems that become abandoned and eventually decommissioned, and eventually, become unclaimed again. Could it serve as a natural deterrent for mass building, and enrich the system and gameplay even more. I am posting this thought under BGS since it would be the BGS that would control this process back to an unclaimed system.

I don't mean a system would fail due to lack of player input, (like with carriers), but it would become abandoned because of poor choices, so, some systems might survive, if near a proper star system, with supporting resources and trade, but tones of tiny outposts with poor setup, wouldn't make it due to poor trade, no resources, etc.

Thank you. (sorry about the earlier faux pas)

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Frontier were very clear in the pre-release livestreams that there would be no "system upkeep" requirements and constructions would be permanent.

I don't think, having done that, they can change course on it now without vast unpopularity.

I don't know how necessary it is, either:
- there's certainly a lot of gameplay which would work better with, say, just 1,000 inhabited systems. But the difference between 20,000 and 200,000 systems is minimal for that
- there are lots of existing pre-Colonisation bubble systems which really don't do much and wouldn't be missed either
- even in the immediate vicinity of the bubble there are a couple of million systems. It'd take several years to colonise all of them even if the current rate of settlement continued (which it won't, because lots of people will switch to building up the systems they have, rather than putting down a cheap outpost in as many as possible)
- if the system is visited by players, then it hasn't "failed". If the system isn't visited by players then it doesn't matter if it's inhabited or not because no-one is checking.

 

[AlSki]

I'm not in favour of decommissioning systems, as it feels that players put effort into something that then silently disappears.

I am in favour of dilapidating stations/outposts/installations, where when the conditions would be right (or rather very wrong) we get locations first that are abandoned, then start breaking down. Buildings might start crumbling/fall to bombardment, with both new entrances through what was a wall, or blocked passageways where a roof comes down. It could be an extension of the Thargoid planetary invasions, possibly based off of BGS conflicts, but when there is insufficient trade in a system, then there just isn't the money in a system for repair, it slowly (not per tick, more like per month) degrades, unless player activities enhance trade again, the player donates cash, or the player repairs each thing manually (that works more for restoring functionality than buildings walls).

I mean, just how many stories revolve around someone hiding out in an abandoned location, or having to visit the location to acquire the missing artefact?

I'd agree this should be the exception, but if you've just plonked down another mining system and there is no market for your ores, the resolution should be simple. Just add a refinery into your system, or build a nearby refinery system.

Of course, this requires many more assets to be built and added, as opposed to the deletion of assets for a decomission.