Do FD staff have "God Mode"?

[Moranaa]

We have means for interrogating systems for specific criteria. It's not something you'd want to run on the entire galaxy though

Michael

I'm not sure that I want to be on the receiving end of something that can interrogate a whole star system!
(bold for emphasis, mine)

On topic:
Using seeds is normally the way that procedural generation works, and then you either save the seeds more permanently or make a new one when needed.
For discovered systems, the seed would be saved, so that it isn't something new for every player (Although, that would be ... Interesting ... ).
But, considering how fast the loading when entering a system that haven't been visited before is (either by you, or no-one at all), I'd assume that at least -some- info regarding the system is saved and it isn't generated from scratch upon first visit..

 

[MagicTofu]

I'm not sure that I want to be on the receiving end of something that can interrogate a whole star system!
(bold for emphasis, mine)

On topic:
Using seeds is normally the way that procedural generation works, and then you either save the seeds more permanently or make a new one when needed.
For discovered systems, the seed would be saved, so that it isn't something new for every player (Although, that would be ... Interesting ... ).
But, considering how fast the loading when entering a system that haven't been visited before is (either by you, or no-one at all), I'd assume that at least -some- info regarding the system is saved and it isn't generated from scratch upon first visit..

Whether a system has been discovered or not does not matter about how it is generated. The seed is not created upon first jump by the first player to get into a system, it is probably derived from the basic seed used to generate the positions of stars in the galaxy, maybe using the coordinates of a star system to inject it in the input data to generate the system itself in a unique and consistent way.

As far as I know, for an uninhabited system, the only data that needs to be saved on the servers is exploration data for the player(s) after they scanned bodies in it.

 

[dynamicbob]

Do systems further out "develop" over time the more players interact with them

Are number of planets scanned by multiple players, signal sources entered. Number of players jumping into system. Planetary signal sources, npc kills registered, and the next time a new player jumps in does this affect what is seen and encountered in empty systems say 50-10000ly from the bubble ?

Is there a form of evolving background simulation for empty systems over time, and if enough activity is engaged is there a potential flag for future content like new stations, more pois, guardian ruins, naturall occouring formations ...

has player activity like this over time lead to the decision / trigger points of addign the new asteroid bases into nebulas which are hotspots of player activity

- - - Updated - - -

Im curious as reference was made in one of the livestreams, from one of the devs that the database for the galaxy grows over time and could get "much bigger" - i wonder if this is whats meant by growing and if the background simulation in some way comes into play for evolving gameplay and stuff based on where players are active, it would make sense

Might be more important as more stuff is added going along and it would aide developer decision making as to where to place new and upgrade existing content based on player hotspots

 

[MagicTofu]

I don't think there's any background simulation running for unpopulated systems. Adding a station to such a system requires direct intervention from Frontier, which can only be indirectly influenced by players.

 

[Vorxian]

Hi there,

Absolutely.

The public facing builds don't support any of our trickery as the developer console is compiled out, so no god mode ingame.

We could cheat progression by using the admin suite that support uses to help stuck players, but that would be... cheating... (Also it's audit logged on the live envronment, so not worth the risk).

Thanks,
Dom

Ahhh the admin suite to pay ones self 12 billion credits for hauling 6 tons of meds to colonia. Jealous!

 

[dynamicbob]

I don't think there's any background simulation running for unpopulated systems. Adding a station to such a system requires direct intervention from Frontier, which can only be indirectly influenced by players.

well something has to generate signal sources, POIs on planets that sort of thing, so what is youre assumption that once a system is found and then interacted with further that the background sim combined with stellar forge isnt active ? im just interested in what is feeding youre assumptions on this. Ive done a lot of observations and my point of view is that there is some basic BGS function going on (though it seems fairly limited)

Ill have to pick a system 1000ly or so out of the main bubble and make a note to interact with it over time i think. Ill make notes and report back in a week or so. Im out at the moment doing a very detailed scan of a few 100 systems so i can pretend its a base of operations and come back to it every so often. Do some planet stuff, enter a few signal sources etc

 

[dynamicbob]

I think they do, that's how they put the "misterious" stuff on the galaxy.


As for their game accounts they are just like ours AFAIK

track player hotspots in deep space and then put the content going forward where the most player activity is, make sense

 

[MagicTofu]

well something has to generate signal sources, POIs on planets that sort of thing, so what is youre assumption that once a system is found and then interacted with further that the background sim combined with stellar forge isnt active ? im just interested in what is feeding youre assumptions on this. Ive done a lot of observations and my point of view is that there is some basic BGS function going on (though it seems fairly limited)

Ill have to pick a system 1000ly or so out of the main bubble and make a note to interact with it over time i think. Ill make notes and report back in a week or so. Im out at the moment doing a very detailed scan of a few 100 systems so i can pretend its a base of operations and come back to it every so often. Do some planet stuff, enter a few signal sources etc

Well, the background simulation has to do with system economy, government and security mostly, and uninhabited systems have none of that, so there is no point in saving any player activity that could affect those states, unless player activity could spawn a government with an active economy from nothing, which I don't believe is possible with the way things are done currently.

It is indeed only an assumption from my part, but I was under the impression that creating new settlements or stations involved a direct manual manipulation from Frontier (I only have vague memories of reading that much on the forums, but I don't have actual sources).

USSs and POIs are just randomly generated on the fly, either directly by the game client, or by the server instance you are in, I just think it uses the system's characteristics to determine which USS/POI to spawn, and at which rate, and what players actually do in them only has an effect on the background simulation if the system has a government and economy. But then again, I'm only assuming, because based on how I think it works, recording activity in a system without population is just a waste of storage space.