Ooooh, can't wait for the arguments that people in open are at a disadvantage because people in solo/pg can colonize systems first!
Elite Dangerous | Trailblazers coming 26th February
- Thread starter Paul_Crowther
- Start date
Ooooh, can't wait for the arguments that people in open are at a disadvantage because people in solo/pg can colonize systems first!
Come on, this is the internet: the argument needs to be more irrational. This one almost makes sense!
Isn’t that a job for an Accountant not an Architect?
Personally I think some form of return on investment will be absolutely essential to maintain player engagement with colonisation in the medium to long term. We know the effort will be substantial, although to what degree is unclear (other than claiming a system is not fleet carrier expensive....). For the only 'benefit', if we can call it that, to be having our CMDR name on the map as architect? Well, there's a lot of players who will find that most unsatisfying after the first few systems of effort, especially if the distance remains low (starting at 10LY, although I expect that to quickly increase to something like 20-30LY at least).
If FDEV (and I hope they read this) want long term player engagement, there MUST be some form of ROI beyond simply a name on a map, else this risks fading into relative obscurity, like PP 1.0 did and CQC continues to do for most players, when compared to other activities. PP 2.0 has been a boon, and for colonisation to not have any ROI of any kind would be a step backwards in my mind.
Now, I wouldn't suggest the ROI needs to be huge or game breaking by any means. I wouldn't expect to make a billion credits a week, for example, from each system I colonise, but some percentage of the trade profits (simulated by the BGS of course) would be the way to go, scaled by just how much effort I put into growing the economy of that system. I'm thinking a single-digit percentage of what the in-game equivalent would be to GDP for the system, for example. Ideally, I'd like to see the player be able to choose whether the ROI comes in the form of credits, commodities produced, raw materials mined or a combination of these, and it could be stored (weekly, fortnightly or monthly) at a station in the system for collection by the player. If I end up making a billion credits a week as my cut, well at least that will be a reflection of the effort I put in beforehand in developing the economy of the system rather than colonising additional systems.
This doesn't seem to apply for players focused on BGS.
But they effect the BGS by carrying out missions, delivering trade goods etc for which they are paid/rewarded in-game, through things like bounty payouts, trade through the commodity market, rewards from mission givers. Colonisation, as currently described, does not do that.
I wonder if, like trade CGs, delivering commodities to the construction depot ships for colonisation will be done at a profit?
It's often been assumed in discussions that players will do this on a donation basis, but the only costs we've seen mentioned by FDEV are the cost of staking a claim and the effort required to haul commodities. No mention of a cost to the player from buying the commodities to haul.
I wonder if it might rather be a hauling for profit opportunity, so that we'll be paid for commodities at competitive rates on delivery to the depot ships? If you think of the player as "architect" rather than "owner", this makes more sense to me, compared to an architect donating all the building materials to get their project built.
You may well be right - was thinking about this after I wrote my post myself. If so, this would certainly provide some ROI, and might be simpler for FDEV to implement than an ongoing return based on system economy profits as they could leverage off existing CG mechanics. It's probably what they're planning - just a shame they've been holding details until the stream this week but we'll know soon enough I guess.
I am pretty sure that's been stated in the vidoes, once the first station comes online the colonisation beacon turns into the system nav beacon.
It comes out tomorrow, be patient, we will know everything then!
Already been done, there's a thread arguing that colonisation should be Open Only! Closed now of course due to it being utterly pointless, but yes it's been done already.
soon
I'll say it first - That S-Colonisation weapon is OP. Needs nerf.
"S-Colonization module has been revamped, Overcharged Inertial Impact engineering is no longer available for this module."
We've heard you that "people in open are at a disadvantage because people in solo/pg can colonize systems first" so Colonization will be solo/pg only (j/k)
I dislike the idea of earnings being generated for us whether we are playing or not, but if the colony is going to reward the Architect it would be better as a % of the colonies earnings.
As long as it is reciprocal and we lose money if the colony does.
Totally, just like we know everything about PP 2.0 more than three months into it.