Update Dev Update - 16.04.2015

[nicomak]

I hope the option to still be able to mine the old way is still there. I hope Gold Silver etc.. will still be available outside the SOL bubble.

It's not going to change, what will is what we find in RES with no consequence on what is elsewhere.

 

[Steve50]

The option to play the game you want to should still be there as it define the elite games.
In fact I would go further and suggest that drones should carry less of what you are mining per hour than when scooping. You can sit there and not interact while your drones do all the work but you will have to sit there for longer but I know that's not the way they are going to implement it.
I amazes when people that want change to suit them also want it for everyone regardless of what everyone think.
You want to use drone? fine go ahead and use them. I don't want to use them therefore the option to do so should remain.

Well said!

 

[Starbuck_]

Hi everyone,

Continuing from last week’s details on the new mission system there’s another change that I can tell you about. Currently targets for missions are found in USSs (Unidentified Signal Sources), this will remain the case for some targets, but others like assassination targets will have to be hunted down in supercruise before they can be taken out.

Thanks!

Michael

Thanks for the news about what's up and coming, over the last few days in our community we have been speaking about the potential change to the assassination mission. As a group of 30 plus, we didn't think the idea of super cruising around sounds much fun, already the current hunt missions can be time consuming, with this change you are suggesting we go into Super Cruise and find (interdict) the target, this is definitely increasing the time to complete the mission, and for what reason.

If this is correct we would like some changes to the super cruise. Currently super cruise is really not fun in anyway, its a frustrating feature that most of us make do with.
The silly issue of being slowed down while speeding up and or it being forced to a particular speed its just annoying. If we have to spend anymore time in super cruise we will need changes to make more use friendly. It needs to be more of the user control, and not a user being along for the ride.

While we are talking about the super cruise feature, When will you be adding the in system micro jumps and or extending the beacon range so we can avoid the super cruise?

Last but not least thank you for the nice news update, I look forward to more new stuff. Keep the good work up.
Any words on the panther or the passenger missions? How about the module so I can load up to sidewinders inside my anaconda?
best wishes
Starbuck_

 

[randleog]

Thanks Michael, good stuff!

Rocket man? Or Fruit Loops? (BBT reference, in case you are lost.)

 

[OxKing]

If this is correct we would like some changes to the super cruise. Currently super cruise is really not fun in anyway, its a frustrating feature that most of us make do with.
The silly issue of being slowed down while speeding up and or it being forced to a particular speed its just annoying. If we have to spend anymore time in super cruise we will need changes to make more use friendly. It needs to be more of the user control, and not a user being along for the ride.

While we are talking about the super cruise feature, When will you be adding the in system micro jumps and or extending the beacon range so we can avoid the super cruise?

I always been ok with super cruise. Actually i like it a lot. Being slowed down by masses like suns and planet let me feel there are still some physics in that part i am bound to.
But if you want to skip super cruise i think you can while targeting someone in your wing as a nav point when jumping from another star system.
You should jump right to the place he is then, i.e. a station. At least that's what someone of lave radio told once. I never really tried it.
And as i like the super cruise in general, i also would appreciate more nav points inside a system, usable if you know it by scanning it entirely or buying its data.
At least the other stars or maybe even gas giants with other planets orbiting around them should have their own nav beacon / jump point.
This really would increase the tourism in hutton orbital tho.

 

[Commander Dini]

Steam keys?? You seem to have gone silent on this, a sceptical person would think you are hoping the question goes away.

I really do not like it when people take the opportunity to throw criticism at every communication, when communication is a good thing.

No doubt, when they have something to say about Steam Keys, they will.

 

[Commander Dini]

Frontier, and Michael, can I please implore you to think hard about whether you really want to continue with this USS mission system. It's so bad from a gameplay perspective. It's infurating and annoying, doesn't make sense in any kind of RP perspective.

I was hoping that the missions overhaul would strip the USS system out entirely (other than, maybe, very rare and special circumstances).

I do not see USSs as such a bad thing. It's a nice idea that you can stumble on something while in SC. It's only a problem when it's overused and when it's connected to a mission so that it becomes contrived.

At least for now it's easy to find the target. I wonder if there will be complaints next that targets are too hard to locate...

- - - Updated - - -

But is it realistic? Minerals in game should be based on Stellar Forge creation of systems using known principles. What justification is there for an uber rare mineral just because it is outside of 500 LY bubble around Sol? Maybe heavier metals near the center of the galaxy due to the more active stars or near past super-nova remnant sites would make sense.

Then again, it's just a game so I suppose this type of manipulation would be OK. Same rationale as Hutton Orbital- no incentive to make the long trek there so why do it?

The more out of the way a place is, the less likely that the low hanging fruit has already been harvested.

 

[Commander Dini]

How come nobody has mentioned steam keys ???????

Probably because of an excess of gratuitous question marks...

- - - Updated - - -

The original question, to which the Mod Aleksej replied (and I quoted), was asked prior to Michael's response. I have read the thread.

Point stands.

It is easy to generate keys - Valve will give them as many as they want. For free. This info is easily verified. Only FD, not Valve, have claimed it is "not easy," but haven't even said why. Sounds to me like an excuse, but for what purpose? Who knows. Maybe they think we will forget, or they are deciding how much to additionally charge us for free keys. Your guess is as good as mine.

Oh so much cynical entitlement. So much silly speculation. So much impatience. Another for my ignore list.

 

[CdrTwisted]

I believe that in 1.3 we will get mailboxes and will be able send and receive email to other commanders, this was what they meant by another way of interacting within the galaxy.

Yes I said that a while ago as well.

Wouldn't it be good to be able to link your insane mail to your mail client as well.

 

[lionmonkey]

Currently targets for missions are found in USSs (Unidentified Signal Sources), this will remain the case for some targets, but others like assassination targets will have to be hunted down in supercruise before they can be taken out.

Hi Michael,

One of the slightly wearying aspects of an otherwise wonderful game is that assassinations are formulaic. You go to a place, mine USS's then on to another place and repeat. If I'm reading the above right assassination will still be formulaic but with a different formula? Can they not be made more diverse: sometimes targets are in a USS, sometimes in SC, sometimes they pull you out of SC to plunder your hold and maybe sometimes they are at the Nav Beacon. Is this posible, or too tricky?

Best,

GRaham

 

[Frankfort]

Speculating is half the fun

 

[Tinman]

We’re only one week away from the Powerplay announcement...

Well...we aren't technically there yet since this Dev Update was done on a Thursday, but on the other hand you never specified which day this week you would make the announcement so...

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

Three days till big announcement. I will guess it will include some not so nice bits like 1.3 coming in a month time (ok, trying to downplay hype here )

 

[Harbinger]

I wonder if we'll see a PC Gamer exclusive on Wednesday prior to Michael's big reveal in his Dev Update on Thursday.

 

[mono]

Combat logging I agree with but the other... get a bigger ship and mass lock, it's not rocket science...

Surely the 'jump out of fight into SC and then back into fight with full shields' exploit would be a better one to fix, unless you use that one yourself...

Michael, will this update bring any change to the combat logging and submit to interdiction exploit? These are killing PvP interaction and I would love to see them gone.

 

[Magic Man]

As a group of 30 plus, we didn't think the idea of super cruising around sounds much fun, already the current hunt missions can be time consuming,

Heaven forbid a mission should actually be time consuming...

with this change you are suggesting we go into Super Cruise and find (interdict) the target, this is definitely increasing the time to complete the mission, and for what reason.

For the reason of additional variance in gameplay. I.e. you actually have to hunt the mark down.

If this is correct we would like some changes to the super cruise.
[...]
If we have to spend anymore time in super cruise we will need changes to make more use friendly.[...]
When will you be adding the in system micro jumps and or extending the beacon range so we can avoid the super cruise?

Accept that SC is a valid game mechanic and live with it rather than demanding changes and looking for everyway around it.

 

[[VR] Sheeplovsky]

only a couple of days left for the big announcement.

My hopes go for 3 ideas:

1. (random?) wormholes connecting two parts of the galaxy, allowing travel / populating distant regions normally olny 0-2% of all players would ever see. They would be attractive for exploring and also they could be used for calling drones.

2. External storage places (in a orbit station for examples). Ok, this could be also a part of powerplay only. External storage would give the player the opportunity to collect goods when they are low priced and sell them later. Also for mining it could be interesting to collect minerals for the same reasons.

3. Mining/Extracting goods from gas giants or atmospheres of planets in general. This could be a first step toward landing on planets.

 

[insidah]

This is a secret - the latest update will allow users to use 'in-game' money to buy real things, such as elite merchandise, games, etc.

 

[darshie76]

Hi everyone,

This week has seen the release of the latest Mac beta build. As always I’d like to thank everyone testing the build and providing feedback – it is much appreciated and please continue to do so! The Mac team are currently focused exclusively on the Mac build in isolation, but in a few weeks we’ll run a combined Mac and PC crossplay test. I’ll post more details on that as we approach that test.

We’re only one week away from the Powerplay announcement, but in the meantime I have more ancillary goodness that will form part of the update alongside the new features. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the new drones that are coming and I have one more to tell you about – the prospector drone. This can be fired off to investigate an asteroid and determine its metal/mineral composition. Like all of the other drones (and limpets) each unit occupies a cargo slot and requires an appropriate module to control the type. So you need a cargo hatch breaker module and a collection drone controller to deploy either of those types of drone. The drones are universal and it is up to the controller to determine the actions of the launched drone.

While it does make some of the mining gameplay easier the main reason for adding the drones is to provide scalability for mining (in particular) thus making the larger ships more useful in that role. I also mentioned that there would be more love for mining beyond the new drones and here it is. Two new mining minerals are being added – painite and osmium. There will also be a bonus in created minerals or metals when mining at resource extraction sites. Beyond that we will have low and high intensity resource extraction sites. At low intensity sites there is lower output for mining, but also a heavier system authority presence and lower pirate presence. For the high intensity sites this is reversed, so is more dangerous with more pirates and less security, but also greater rewards for mining there.

It’s not all about miners of course. Continuing from last week’s details on the new mission system there’s another change that I can tell you about. Currently targets for missions are found in USSs (Unidentified Signal Sources), this will remain the case for some targets, but others like assassination targets will have to be hunted down in supercruise before they can be taken out.

Thanks!

Michael

Interesting change; finally the idea of the drones, that many of us suggested, to avoid the tedious of scooping, or the lottery of harvest a rock, is almost ready. I am glad that you guys realized that scooping is just a joke to waste time on a hyper simplistic mining mechanic, and are trying to work it out.
It is not perfect, since these drones will take space on board, and have a weight; and also that they are one shot and need to be purchased; but will do for now; until the next update.

Please consider the idea of a drone module for a ship; so a mining ship can simply buy a module, and couple it with the refinery and mining laser, to outfit their ship as mining ship. Buy once, use forever. I don't recharge my scanner when exploring; so why should I buy drones?
The module would host one or 2 probes, so you can scan and collect or just collect; it should use energy to recharge the probes, and take no cargo space, beside the weight and slots that the module itself takes...make it decently expensive, so it justify the advantage, and I believe you will make more people happy.

I hope that in a bit, we will see a complete overhaul of mining, to make it really engaging; I am still a fan of MAss effect way to scan planets for resources; simple minigame to get the highest signal on the scanner and then fire up the probe to collect; couple this with a mining ship that approach an asteroid or planet, and the drone system and you have an engaging mining profession.

Pirates are free to do blockade on mining sites; which means that it will be a playground for bounty hunters...makes sense and it is like in the real world; although I would expect that rich areas will have stations and police to add some sort of security...at least for the known space systems.

Mission overhaul? Thank God! Are we actually getting real mission chain? Are we getting missions trough random NPC encounter while traveling? Are we getting random events that goes beyond the pirate that pull us out of super cruise? I hope so much to see improvements on the mission systems that I dream while awake nowadays. Not a fan of USS; if you put random events in there; I would rather have them happen at random, with the chance to decide if I want to look into these potential events, or to just move on and ignore it. Good move to allow players to actually find their prey, and not just go to the USS.

Although would this mean that I need to buy a module to pull out people from SC, because I MAY acquire a mission that require me to do so? Sounds a bit illogic, isn't it? Right...I can avoid these missions; this is the answer to everything

Glad to see progress; we are getting into real Beta finally, maybe next year this game will be what we can consider a fully fledged release. Thanks for your efforts and hard work.

 

[Gilmour]

Steam keys?? You seem to have gone silent on this, a sceptical person would think you are hoping the question goes away.

by skeptical you must mean 'sane' and of course they hope it goes away, like the shield exploit, the log exploit, the cheats and griefing, people have a short attention span (they think) and it will all be forgotten, like so many other things that have been raised to no avail. I still remember though.