Elite Dangerous | System Colonisation Beta Details & Feedback

[cmdr chequers]

That's actually pretty cool CMDR , and i'm guessing you must've just gotten lucky with the terrain there?
Also: i still don't understand what's the purpose of placing those bases like that in such close proximity? ( other than just pure fun & RP'ing or whatever) --- Like, does it provide some special functionality or ease-of-use that we couldn't already get from any other randomly generated planet surface base(s) ?
Or is it just "bare bones" base-building simply meant to wet the pilot's palette for whatever this "new feature" coming in Wintertime might be?

Indeed --> https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...on-beta-details-feedback.634055/post-10572014 ... However i'm still not exactly sure why such implementation was needed? To slow things down? To govern against exploiters? To prevent billionaires from becoming trillionaires? ( even though, so far, all reports seem to be that 'Architect life' is only gaining a few thousand credits per week displayed from ingame mails? )

I didn't want both of them there the game refused the placement of the first one so I moved slightly and it then decided to place two of them even though it refused the first one.
It's either a bug or the fact they are in a very deep crater.
Made delivering commodities very easy though, one downside is you can only see one of them on the system map although both are in the navigation panel.

 

[cidiantoby]

Here is the ( official ) evidence --> https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...etails-feedback.634055/page-170#post-10572014 ... yeah?

Increasing. Not increased or increases. Meaning continually. That's one of them but there was a post or image somewhere here that stated increased costs as the system progresses. Lost it in the 50+ pages or where the other source is.

 

[ebd2ster]

Good afternoon, I am Commander Dark Sentinel, I have 4 comments.

1. The first one is related to the construction costs of large stations, it is crazy, either lower them or get a ship with more capacity.
2. The second comment is related to the capacity and jump times of the carriers, lower jump times and increase capacity, which would be achieved either by removing the space of the internal modules or selling a module that allows carrying more cargo in empty parking lots.
3. The third point is that the jump distance is very short, our squadron found only one system where we could escape the confinement to which we were condemned. 25 light years is a good number.
4. In fourth place I would mention a problem that the minor factions that the new system takes are not becoming native, if I am alone and a group comes they can easily take me out of my own system, I remain attentive, greetings

 

[Cosmo]

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.

Seconded. The Architect is treated like just an average joe.

This would not work well with settlement game play though. It'd be like throwing a exploration beacon in the middle of a CZ, only worse because it'd run like a pig. Funny. But not very sensible.

I haven't seen performance tests of multiple facilities near each other. ED's graphics are below the current gen standards (polygon count, no global illumination, no nanite virtualized geometry etc). Odyssey runs fine afaik. Maybe set a limit to 4 facilities next to each other.

 

[Alec Turner]

They are both in a deep crater on HIP 6572 body 1, I didn't really want two there but the game refused my first placement so I moved a bit and placed where the game would accept and it then went and made two small extraction bases. probably another bug.

Strangely I'm relieved to hear that, one less thing to worry about. I'll go back to assuming it's always 200km unless anyone can prove different.

 

[Ydiss]

Seconded. The Architect is treated like just an average joe.



I haven't seen performance tests of multiple facilities near each other. ED's graphics are below the current gen standards (polygon count, no global illumination, no nanite virtualized geometry etc). Odyssey runs fine afaik. Maybe set a limit to 4 facilities next to each other.

I'm talking about how the game works as well as how badly it'd run if you had two settlements with AI firing off (not to mention one might be a CZ, which runs even worse).

The game works by silos of content you "instance" as you reach it. Having multiple settlements all in the same instance would be nuts. The game already struggles enough when more than one player goes to the same settlement with the same mission, let alone two different missions at two different settlements (or more, if you all got your wish).

The thought process went like this:

1) I'd love to make a city!
2) Skip thinking how this would impact the game
3) Let us put three settlements next to each other!

 

[GraphicEqualizer]

While the update has been great, i am a bit dissapointed that we can't build a small HUB for ourselves. All we can build are things that are gonna be used by other NPC's. I wish we could build a small home somewhere in our Systems.

I'd be happy if in the settlements we can place, one of the private habs (seen in some settlement types) was reserved for the system architect. So you can go there, log out, and when you log in, you are in there.

 

[whiteroad]

This is my bad, it should say "help screen" rather than tutorial to be clearer. I have now edited the post.

By "help screen", do you mean the Pilot's Handbook in the Codex in the game?

Note that for me, this lack of information is blocking for further testing in the beta, given that I don't know what further effects I can unknowingly trigger. I've already poured too many hours into this feature not even knowing how the most important parts work.
-Construction points are only very summarily described in the tutorial that nearly everyone skipped because the setup was a gold-rush "first come first served" for claiming.
-I'm lucky to not having already painted myself into a corner with the construction point multiplier which would have more or less completely ruined my plan for the system, wasting even more of my time.

Arf said on stream that Fdev doesn't want to waste our time. Please live by that with the information affecting decisions related to 100s of hours of hauling for colonization.

 

[baronjutter]

I doubt fdev is willing to really change any mechanics as this is "feature complete" but here's my concise feedback.

-Hauling is fun to an extent, but gets old fast. Let us pay through the nose for some level of NPC deliveries over time.
-Have the hauling-cost of facilities reduced by local development or local sources of said resource to represent local NPC hauling within the economy.
-The entire system is far too opaque. People want to know how to do basic things like "build a refinery port" or "get a shipyard" and the system doesn't even provide clues and no one can figure it out.
-Make planets matter! You have this amazing planet generation system and planets have all sorts of statistics and classifications, yet nothing seems to matter? Why not have mining and industry get a bonus on high mineral worlds for example?
-We really need the ability to name planets and systems!
-The build point cost doubling is a very bad system. The intent I understand, to make it so players don't just fill their system with T3 stations. But I imagine there's far better ways of doing this while also making it MUCH more clear in the architect view.
-We need much more information available! Show us our exact number of security points, development, tech, all the relevant info. We should not need personal spreadsheets for this.

 

[Zador]

Here is the ( official ) evidence --> https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...etails-feedback.634055/page-170#post-10572014 ... yeah?

All that says is "This system (Costs increasing) is an intended process." and nothing more. It does not support your extrapolation of that to 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x. That's your assumption not a definite conclusion of what you are linking. Costs increasing after you've built 2 additional ports is another interpretation. Currently known to be correct for one increase, no one knows beyond that.

 

[Martind Forlon]

This system (Costs increasing) is an intended process. This was planned to be made clear in the System Colonisaton help screen, however thanks to feedback we have been made aware that the screen highlighting this wasn't displaying as intended on the live version of the game. We are looking to get this resolved in a future update.

It really will be very helpfull if there is created short locked thread explaining little more in detail how needed points increase should work.

Details like (based on info that second port construction initiates further constructions costs):

• Is counted first station as port?
• Is coriolis and/or asteroid base counted as port?
• Are outposts counted as port?
• Are ports meant only Tier3 constructions?

So far is here only big chaos, informations, half answers etc. are quickly lost in this huge thread, and I do not see any positivity to let players guessing when there is not "undo" button in the construction quee.

 

[Neestar]

All that says is "This system (Costs increasing) is an intended process." and nothing more.

We're venturing into typical 'IPL' ( Internet Parsing Land ) here lol but i mean the word "increasing" denotes incremental & exponential , no?

It does not support your extrapolation of that to 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x. That's your assumption not a definite conclusion of what you are linking.

i have no assumptions , since i was merely replying to you after you replied to that other person--> https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...on-beta-details-feedback.634055/post-10572242
( so i was just posting the official @Paul_Crowther link in case you had missed it )

Costs increasing after you've built 2 additional ports is another interpretation. Currently known to be correct for one increase, no one knows beyond that.

Well yeah heck most of this entire thread is speculation. But of course that's what happens when devs/coders keep things vague & close-to-the-vest. ( re: open "beta" & all )

 

[Kaocraft]

This system (Costs increasing) is an intended process. This was planned to be made clear in the System Colonisaton help screen, however thanks to feedback we have been made aware that the screen highlighting this wasn't displaying as intended on the live version of the game. We are looking to get this resolved in a future update.

That would for sure be a good one to communicate prominently and upfront. It might be nice to have it included somewhere in the colonization GUI as a parenthetical or tooltip next to the existing cost in the default workflow. It's at least as significant as being able to see your ammo count onscreen when you're firing a weapon; not something you want to only find after drilling down and reading the fine print in the Pilot's Handbook.

 

[Zador]

Details like (based on info that second port construction initiates further constructions costs):

• Is counted first station as port?
• Is coriolis and/or asteroid base counted as port?
• Are outposts counted as port?
• Are ports meant only Tier3 constructions?

So far is here only big chaos, informations, half answers etc. are quickly lost in this huge thread, and I do not see any positivity to let players guessing when there is not "undo" button in the construction quee.

Based on current experience, No, Yes, No, No. Currently unknown if there are further increases and if so when that happens.
[edit] Of course it would be great to get categorical statement of this and many other aspects of the way colonisation works.

 

[Phill P]

Yeah tracking those...the problem wasn't knowing those connections though... rather, I'd build a Relay station, and it'd create a Comms Station which didn't count as the pre-req.

Now it seems it creates a relay station still labeled as a comms station, but is a relay station under the hood.

So it's building the wrong thing. That's useful

Meanwhile I have Schrödinger's Mining Outpost - simultaneously under construction and completed.

 

[Nezzie Muso]

Feedback: I'm happy with the station costs as they are quoted upfront. I am NOT happy that the colonisation ship then charges triple what was quoted. (2) I would prefer to be able to choose the location rather than it being (apparently) randomly generated. (3) As others have said, there should be a variety of ways of fulfilling the costs by running missions from the colonisation ship (attack pirates, defend convoy, recover item, survey planet, raid hostile settlement etc etc ) with each mission contributing quantities of commodities to the shopping list as rewards. (4) The 15Ly limit is too small and results in very few systems being within range and available - increase to 25 please (5) there seem to be a large number of systems that cannot be colonised for irrelevant reasons - eg, it contains a crashed ship, or a thargoid spire, etc. This is exactly the wrong way around! When we colonise a system it should be like a potential loot box - perhaps we will occasionally discover something interesting that no-one found before. (6) the build selection should be much clearer about what you are choosing to build - eg, will it be landable, will it produce commodities, or will it have a trespass zone and be useless. Thank you.

 

[CMDR Vhi]

I was hoping for something a little more sim-like than what we apparently got. I was thinking that claiming a system would be essentially a whole little sim game tucked inside elite dangerous, but instead it's a time sink I'll do maybe once, for a few more facilities, and then completely ignore.

From what we know (because we have to figure out how everything works) there is:

• No real utility to claiming a system: pocket change amounts of credits in exchange for hours of real-life time
• No gameplay that is particularly engaging: move bits from point a to point b and try to find a way to distract yourself while you do it
• no gameplay that is novel to the activity: there are plenty of ways to move bits from point a to point b in this game for better rewards

It does provide breathing room for the BGS or Powerplay, but that might end up being counterproductive in the long term, because both systems thrive on conflict, and providing essentially infinite room to expand reduces the need for conflict.

The bottom line is that there really isn't a point to colonization. I earned credits to buy new ships so I could handle more difficult missions or goals. I gathered mats to further improve my ships for the same reason. I got a FC to make it easier to switch between the ships I own regardless of the location of my mission or goal. I colonized a system because... well, I dunno. Like, I colonized my system, but is there any reason for anyone to bother visiting it, specifically? Any reason for me to bother visiting it, specifically?

I will say that it's better than nothing, but I really do doubt many people are going to be doing it in a few months, if it even takes that long. Let's hope that "feature complete" was an exaggeration.

I really am sorry this post ended up such a rant. It kind of got away from me. Despite my negativity, I do enjoy most of this game.

 

[Minimo]

So only groups of players are allowed to power grab and players who don’t play in some form of group are effectively penalised.

It might be easy to implement but it would be difficult to justify.

It is pretty obvious that groups of people can/should be able to power grab easier than an individual alone

 

[Robert Rockbite]

I liked colonization so far.
Unfortunately, my puny 3 slots are already full.
Next time the claims are open again, I'll probably try to claim something bigger.
And I'll probably "brick" or "spoil" or "misuse" it, but I'll try to make something of it.

1) Amount of resources required was OK for me.
2) Predicted amount of resources required (display when choosing primary station) was not OK in being far too low. Display should be a lot closer to actual values.
3) Scarceness or abundance of resources in source stations was OK for me (the CMM production boost probably helped with that).
4) As for distance, personally I don't see that as a problem with the local density of stars - but I don't care about factions.
5) As for increasing build point cost limiting the amount of T3 Orbis / Ocellus and what not - I don't care.
In case it is customary to make demands in this thread, I'd rather think of something else... like... hm...
thereonceweremodifiedguardiangausscannonsthatdidapproximatelyunlimiteddamagetogoidsandiwantsome.

 

[ConstanceFlux]

This is a bad idea, to force someone to do something he don't want to do. Correct way is to make them interested in doing this.

maybe force is the wrong word, but Cmdrs are already being FORCED to HAUL, even if they don't want to. I did state 'only small quantities' , so maybe the words should be 'encourage cmdrs to explore more diverse game loops'