Elite Dangerous | System Colonisation Beta Details & Feedback

[INeedMana]

I think we should have some way of contacting an architect without having to be online at the same time.

Someone is colonizing a system that I've made my home. There's nothing in there, just the star and my FC. I have CMDR name but I can't find them anywhere. No such CMDR in here, on inara, discord servers. If we play at different times even becoming friends won't help

 

[Eolh89]

Most of what you said is agreeable, except for the colonization range and your point about limiting rapid expansion. Those two points make it near impossible for smaller groups to get out of the bubble, to say nothing of actually getting out into the galaxy. My squadron is already pretty much locked in. The range needs to go away completely, and there shouldn't be limits on the speed of expansion. I don't want to play this game for the next five years trying to get out of the bubble using BGS and then trying to get where I want to go. That's a ridiculous ask.

I understand your point of view, but in reality, smaller squadrons are not penalized. They won't be the only ones wanting to colonize outside the bubble, and there will be large projects proceeding in various directions. A bit slower, certainly, but with serious organizations, even with the system I proposed of developing systems up to a certain point, expansion will still be fast. Moreover, the further you move away with the current system, the more distance you'll have to travel to transport construction goods. Instead, if systems, even along the 'galactic highways' that will be created, are developed, all colonizers can benefit, finding commodities much closer, and in fact speeding up distant colonization processes in some cases. From these roads, nothing prevents a small group from moving a little 'to the side' and creating their own mini-bubble, considering that a squadron aligned with a faction carries it with them, and therefore there's no need to use the BGS to go far. Additionally, with this system, smaller squadrons can choose to colonize systems with fewer slots, which would significantly reduce the time required to move out of the bubble quickly. So what you're saying makes little sense, from my point of view.

 

[Mersozz]

I agree with the feedback from many commanders that colonizers should be rewarded differently; otherwise, there’s no sense of belonging to the system, and the mechanic will lose meaning for many. And mind you, I’m not talking about a huge economic reward—we all know there are many ways to earn credits much more easily. We aren’t looking for that (at least not in my case); we seek distinction, special treatment, control, and real benefits—things that, in general, all human beings desire much more after doing something that requires notable effort. Remember, we are not only the “architects” but also the investors, the transporters, the logisticians, and above all, those who spend their valuable hours on it. It’s not enough for just your name to be there along with an insurmountable economic reward.


Things I would like:

• Space in the stations to store your materials so you can continue your projects for further colonization's.
• A discount and/or some control over the materials produced by the facilities you built, with the condition that you can lose this benefit if you’re not attentive. How? If your faction (the one that colonized) loses control of the station, you lose that benefit, which would compel you to engage in some BGS to keep that station under control. (This creates game mechanics.)
• The more complete the systems you colonize, the further away you can colonize next time. That is, if you built 25 stations, perhaps you could have the right to expand from there—not to 15 ly, but to 30 ly—giving you the possibility of seeking systems with the conditions you want so that you won’t have to colonize 5 more just to reach the one you want.
• An encouraging message when you reach your stations (and your faction controls them) so you aren’t treated like just any other commoner. It’s very frustrating when the station you just built destroys you because you delayed your departure—what?

I hope fdev listens to us and that this mechanic does not become yet another disappointment.


o7

Good points here, and I largely agree.

I like the mechanic for installations, and the benefits they bring to the system. I'd suggest two new ones:

• I think it would be cool to add a new installation to the game that was basically a fleet carrier which did not jump. It would be a nice addition for storage, especially for commanders who were looking to daisy chain colonies farther out.
• An installation which increased the colonization jump range for system architects only.

 

[Cheesyduck]

• An installation which increased the colonization jump range for system architects only.

I would also like to build a mass effect relay.

 

[CMDR WhiteWolf06]

I understand your point of view, but in reality, smaller squadrons are not penalized. They won't be the only ones wanting to colonize outside the bubble, and there will be large projects proceeding in various directions. A bit slower, certainly, but with serious organizations, even with the system I proposed of developing systems up to a certain point, expansion will still be fast. Moreover, the further you move away with the current system, the more distance you'll have to travel to transport construction goods. Instead, if systems, even along the 'galactic highways' that will be created, are developed, all colonizers can benefit, finding commodities much closer, and in fact speeding up distant colonization processes in some cases. From these roads, nothing prevents a small group from moving a little 'to the side' and creating their own mini-bubble, considering that a squadron aligned with a faction carries it with them, and therefore there's no need to use the BGS to go far. Additionally, with this system, smaller squadrons can choose to colonize systems with fewer slots, which would significantly reduce the time required to move out of the bubble quickly. So what you're saying makes little sense, from my point of view.

I can see where you're coming from and it sounds good on paper, but the brass tax is that we are already being blocked in. Unless the distance requirement is removed colonization may as well not exist to my squadron and probably many others. I know of two such groups not including mine. That means there's probably a lot more out there. The build up, if it weren't so costly, points and materials, wouldn't be too bad for solo or small squadrons. I don't want to spend time building up a daisy chain of systems that I may never use once I get where I'm going. I have a FC with a 500 Ly jump range. I have and will use it to ferry goods for a station build. Now, once again if the distance barrier is removed, then I have no need to daisy chain and then I don't care if i have to build the system up before moving on. That would be fine.

 

[cidiantoby]

I think we should have some way of contacting an architect without having to be online at the same time.

Someone is colonizing a system that I've made my home. There's nothing in there, just the star and my FC. I have CMDR name but I can't find them anywhere. No such CMDR in here, on inara, discord servers. If we play at different times even becoming friends won't help

Should be the reverse way too. Have a squad member that is building a large station in a system and some random FC warped in a few days later. Hasnt moved in a couple of weeks. No idea why because there is nothing there yet.

 

[Tifu]

Something to do with trade routes? I know most people don't look at the in-game trade routes feature, instead going to third party sites, but if a nearby system sells what the settlement needs, then maybe that's enough to produce CMMs?

Bingo. I think this is the answer. We were so busy looking at in-system factors and forgot to take the neighbours into account.

 

[Eolh89]

I can see where you're coming from and it sounds good on paper, but the brass tax is that we are already being blocked in. Unless the distance requirement is removed colonization may as well not exist to my squadron and probably many others. I know of two such groups not including mine. That means there's probably a lot more out there. The build up, if it weren't so costly, points and materials, wouldn't be too bad for solo or small squadrons. I don't want to spend time building up a daisy chain of systems that I may never use once I get where I'm going. I have a FC with a 500 Ly jump range. I have and will use it to ferry goods for a station build. Now, once again if the distance barrier is removed, then I have no need to daisy chain and then I don't care if i have to build the system up before moving on. That would be fine.

If the distance barrier were removed, anyone could colonize anywhere without any logic. Isolated systems would be unassailable from a BGS perspective, unless someone colonized nearby. Furthermore, distant colonization doesn't solve the problem of long-distance transport of goods, which are far more numerous than a Fleet Carrier can transport in a single jump, significantly lengthening construction times compared to having colonized and developed systems nearby. The distance requirement is something FDev has been clear about from the start; it can be modified, but it's unlikely to go beyond 30LY, which is the (more or less) expansion range of a faction in the BGS, as well as the radius of a PowerPlay stronghold system. That being said, if you don't want to build the chain of systems alone, you join a project, or look for other squadrons willing to participate. Elite is a game that promotes collaboration, and politics and agreements between squadrons are commonplace, and this can only favor this type of gameplay, which is one of the best in Elite.

 

[Knuttin Atoll]

I strongly disagree. It's a sign of a poorly supported game when the paying customer has to figure out the game mechanics because the developer doesn't bother writing it down. It's not "fun" to do their work for them. It doesn't have to be in a tooltip, but it should be in the documentation somewhere.

Think of it practically: how are we supposed to know if something is working as expected if we don't know what expected is? Just look at the snafu with the construction points: everyone was playing the "is it a bug or intentional" game, because Fdev never told anyone how it was supposed to work.

If raising the tech level doesn't have any apparent effect, is it just because we haven't "discovered" (lol) it yet, or is it broken?

At the end of the day, this is just a game, and we need to know the rules. They shouldn't obfuscate it, and we shouldn't applaud them when they do so.

There's one key benefit for Frontier - which is keeping players busy in-game regardless of whether they have fun or not. Looks good on player engagement KPIs.

 

[Nosrik]

It could be nice having a new category in the colonisation filter of the galaxy map which would show all colonised systems, regardless from which player is the architect. It could have 2 benefits :

1) We could see the player-made expansion of the Bubble. This would renforce the feeling of being part of something greater/a community/the galaxy/etc/.

2) Benevolent players could seek sites under construction in those system if they want to help the local architect build their stations (they will still need to go there to see if there is any construction site, but at least it would speed up the process to find colony under some progress).

 

[CMDR WhiteWolf06]

If the distance barrier were removed, anyone could colonize anywhere without any logic. Isolated systems would be unassailable from a BGS perspective, unless someone colonized nearby. Furthermore, distant colonization doesn't solve the problem of long-distance transport of goods, which are far more numerous than a Fleet Carrier can transport in a single jump, significantly lengthening construction times compared to having colonized and developed systems nearby. The distance requirement is something FDev has been clear about from the start; it can be modified, but it's unlikely to go beyond 30LY, which is the (more or less) expansion range of a faction in the BGS, as well as the radius of a PowerPlay stronghold system. That being said, if you don't want to build the chain of systems alone, you join a project, or look for other squadrons willing to participate. Elite is a game that promotes collaboration, and politics and agreements between squadrons are commonplace, and this can only favor this type of gameplay, which is one of the best in Elite.

In a perfect world I agree with you, but the point is they said they aren't changing features, but they want EVERYONE to be able to participate. I want to colonize with MY faction that I got added into the game. Right now I'm being blocked in, as are others. Something has to give or this is just one more broken promise from FDev. If I colonize a distant system that someone decides they want, they can colonize near it and use the BGS to come get it. I would love to cooperate with other commanders to advance out into the galaxy, but I'm not spending the time on BGS to do it. This is a GAME. If, for the sake of argument, I want to go 832 ly from my starting system, I can go in a straight line, and have no other issues, that's still a full real time year that I have to wait. That's ridiculous as is, but then add having to manipulate BGS to get an opening, if you can, and it extends that time frame much further. It becomes a job rather than something fun I or my members want to do. The fact is, if we get blocked in, this game is done for us. It's just one more let down from FDev, at which point I'll remove anything concerning FDev from my community. I'll go full in on SC or something else. I've given too many years to FDev at this point. If they can't come through on what they have said then it's over.

 

[CMDR WhiteWolf06]

There's one key benefit for Frontier - which is keeping players busy in-game regardless of whether they have fun or not. Looks good on player engagement KPIs.

Until player communities start boycotting them again.

 

[pmejna]

Here is an example of terribly inconsistent UX/UI (the UX for colonization is terrible).
I think this wasn't mentioned anywhere but it should actually be changed:

A TYPE of structure should be mentioned for orbital construction.
The lack of it is just lazy and unacceptable.

When you have some structures started and you won't note what's you building you can't find the info anywhere.
Please dev team - fix this
Edit: we also should get the type and name of what we build (so what type of construction and what's name). Like - guys! You got those info in the database it's all about fetching and displaying like other data. We really need that to be immersed and have some understanding what we want to focus on.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

In a perfect world I agree with you, but the point is they said they aren't changing features, but they want EVERYONE to be able to participate. I want to colonize with MY faction that I got added into the game. Right now I'm being blocked in, as are others. Something has to give or this is just one more broken promise from FDev. If I colonize a distant system that someone decides they want, they can colonize near it and use the BGS to come get it. I would love to cooperate with other commanders to advance out into the galaxy, but I'm not spending the time on BGS to do it. This is a GAME. If, for the sake of argument, I want to go 832 ly from my starting system, I can go in a straight line, and have no other issues, that's still a full real time year that I have to wait. That's ridiculous as is, but then add having to manipulate BGS to get an opening, if you can, and it extends that time frame much further. It becomes a job rather than something fun I or my members want to do. The fact is, if we get blocked in, this game is done for us. It's just one more let down from FDev, at which point I'll remove anything concerning FDev from my community. I'll go full in on SC or something else. I've given too many years to FDev at this point. If they can't come through on what they have said then it's over.

This sounds harsher maybe than i mean it too however....................having an npc faction entered into the game where you chose the name was a hell of a privilege (one which i always felt was a bad idea because it was something not everyone got offered, FD owe you nothing, it was not a right & , there are no promises about it, and whilst i am not saying FD should not change the rules for colonisation.... that is up to them, but imo they absolutely should not do it because of player named factions been considered more important than any others.

if you want to expand a faction you expand the faction using the same mechanics available to any faction. if that takes too much time than you are willing to invest, that is your choice.

 

[Knuttin Atoll]

Until player communities start boycotting them again.

Corporations favour short-termism. Unfortunately.

 

[Гуляка]

I would like to express my gratitude to the developers for this Groundhog Day, which they gave us in this update.
Buy-flight-sit-sell-flight-sit-buy-flight... Repeat, repeat, repeat... And so to complete dullness. Incredible, Excellent, Amazing gameplay.
And bugs, bugs, bugs
I want to rejoice for those who colonized the system with 30 + celestial bodies.

I will remember these two weeks with a feeling of deep disgust. But even these words will not be able to convey my real feelings about this patch.

Thanks FDEV

 

[CMDR WhiteWolf06]

This sounds harsher maybe than i mean it too however....................having an npc faction entered into the game where you chose the name was a hell of a privilege (one which i always felt was a bad idea because it was something not everyone got offered, FD owe you nothing, it was not a right & , there are no promises about it, and whilst i am not saying FD should not change the rules for colonisation.... that is up to them, but imo they absolutely should not do it because of player named factions been considered more important than any others.

if you want to expand a faction you expand the faction using the same mechanics available to any faction. if that takes too much time than you are willing to invest, that is your choice.

I'm not asking them to cater to pmfs. I want them to fulfill what they said in the interviews. They said we could choose factions to colonize with. They said everyone would be able to do so. They said they didn't want anyone being blocked in the bubble. I'm just asking them to follow through on those things. As, far as I'm concerned once that's figured out this update is golden. Y'all act like I'm the only person this is a problem for. It isn't. The others, that I know, just gave up already. I don't want to give up because I do like the game. That's why I am on here and maybe, just maybe, someone will listen.

P.S. I haven't even told my members about this thread out of fear they'll quit the game for the final time. After the Gnosis, Odyssey, and PP 2.0 I struggled getting any of them to come back. This is the last chance for us.

 

[Rat Catcher]

There's one key benefit for Frontier - which is keeping players busy in-game regardless of whether they have fun or not.

If the players aren't having fun, they only have themselves to blame, surely, not Frontier?

 

[Eolh89]

In a perfect world I agree with you, but the point is they said they aren't changing features, but they want EVERYONE to be able to participate. I want to colonize with MY faction that I got added into the game. Right now I'm being blocked in, as are others. Something has to give or this is just one more broken promise from FDev. If I colonize a distant system that someone decides they want, they can colonize near it and use the BGS to come get it. I would love to cooperate with other commanders to advance out into the galaxy, but I'm not spending the time on BGS to do it. This is a GAME. If, for the sake of argument, I want to go 832 ly from my starting system, I can go in a straight line, and have no other issues, that's still a full real time year that I have to wait. That's ridiculous as is, but then add having to manipulate BGS to get an opening, if you can, and it extends that time frame much further. It becomes a job rather than something fun I or my members want to do. The fact is, if we get blocked in, this game is done for us. It's just one more let down from FDev, at which point I'll remove anything concerning FDev from my community. I'll go full in on SC or something else. I've given too many years to FDev at this point. If they can't come through on what they have said then it's over.

How exactly is FDev failing to deliver on their promises? A single player can colonize one or multiple systems – it's definitely feasible. In our squadron, everyone is doing it, each on their own, and many have already created chains to reach certain (fairly close) systems solo. Imagine what a squadron, even a small one, can achieve if they coordinate and focus on one system at a time.

You can already colonize with your faction since it automatically enters the system even if you colonize from the other side of the bubble. So, I don't understand where the problem lies. Do you want to bring it under control? Do some BGS work on that system. After all, it's a system with very low population and only four factions, so you can reach control very quickly. Even a single player could do it in a week and a half.

What's the point of wanting to go 832 LY away without anyone around? Just so you can have your little systems unassailable via BGS? And I bet you'd want the colonizing faction to be unremovable from system control. I'm sorry, but it can't work that way. A system is a system, and just as 'vanilla' systems can be invaded and controlled by different factions, colonized systems cannot escape these logics. It would be terrible for BGS mechanics.

Oh, and one more thing to consider: do you really think other player factions will be interested in your colonized systems, especially if you manage to get that far? The entire BGS framework will have to be revised following this update, or at least squadrons will revise many of their BGS policies. I'm a BGS player, and personally, I have no interest in conquering small player systems or managing systems where a casual player has brought my faction as a colonizer. For me, those systems are useless, and my faction can go into retreat for all I care.

So, really, I don't understand what the core problem is.

 

[Mersozz]

FEEDBACK
Cobra V is still getting attacked at small bases, at least, bases that are created by architects.
Video link here:

Source: https://youtu.be/J89iHkcmCpE?si=t0Ij7tqRvmxZxL5A

[Note: This comment was also entered under the "Cobra V" thread]

Location: COL 285 SECTOR DA-E B13-2 / Stott Extraction Rigs