Elite Dangerous | Trailblazers Update 3 - Wednesday April 30

Makes sense for HMC, but MRW is 100% metal, so should be metal everywhere. But maybe volcanism does something more, I'm not a geologist, so I dont know. :)
Since in ED MRWs often have big ol' seas of lava all over the surface I think this might be a bit of a circular argument... they are in fact HMC but with all volcanism all the time, rather than just "some" like an HMC with vulcanism has.
 
You would think a colony port on or above a terraformable HMC would create a terraforming economy and an extraction economy. Not sure if fdev haven't thought of that or if there's a reason it doesn't. Terraformable bodies also have an agriculture boost, so would make sense that ports on or above terraformable bodies also get an agriculture economy?
 
This is great. But I have a serious question that I would appreciate help with.
After having not played for very long, I gave up recently after wasting a weekend trying to find out what I was doing wrong with escape pods, only to find out the devs deliberately disabled them, but didn't reflect that with the in game info and UIs. this was not the first time I wasted my time on something that was a known bug.
How can I in future, proactively quickly check what is bugged and what is not? (Needs to be via frontier, not via 3rd party spreadsheets)
 
This is great. But I have a serious question that I would appreciate help with.
After having not played for very long, I gave up recently after wasting a weekend trying to find out what I was doing wrong with escape pods, only to find out the devs deliberately disabled them, but didn't reflect that with the in game info and UIs. this was not the first time I wasted my time on something that was a known bug.
How can I in future, proactively quicklycheck what is bugged and what is not? (Needs to be via frontier, not via 3rd party spreadsheets)
 
I'm not going to write a wall o' text history lesson on all the times extreme reversals of fortune have been achieved during wars through code breaking, espionage, infiltration, misdirection, sabotage, subterfuge, surprise attack, etc. Suffice to say they are legion. And through great care, compartmentalization, and operational security the targets of such clandestine activities were never aware of it until it was too late to stop it (or, in some cases even, were never the wiser until well after the war was over and previously classified information was made publicly available decades later).

It's not an exploit; it's a valid method of fighting unconventional, asymmetric warfare with plenty of real-world precedent to back it up. Don't want to be sniped? Then more vigorously defend and reinforce your current holdings rather than trying to grow your GP's territory without a care for what you already own. Or don't and make yourself vulnerable to precisely this type of attack.

1745790634457.png
1745797817843.png


Right, I suppose every system needs to be fortified even beyond its weekly limit, wasting merits beyond the cap in order to "vigorously defend" against something that may or not come. This is just a few hours before a cycle ends versus what really happened once the servers came back and is the kind of thing I'm talking about that should not become easier to do - more than a full segment coming from the sniping. The tug of war completely loses its meaning.

I'm not talking about low percentage systems because these are also vulnerable to other undermining levers (the few ones that are viable, at least) coming from a true surprise attack. Not a handing in of like 20 hours worth of settlement data collected over the entire week at the final hour, and calling it a surprise attack.

Powerplay 2 losses should not continue getting decided by a single undermining activity having such exploitable merit-hiding capability... and while at it also being the best undermining merits/hour.
 
I was wondering if the Spansh search system could find such systems, but I tried and failed to find a way to do it. (Couldn't search for a body with certain characteristics within a system with certain characteristics... Aaand I now think I remember Spansh saying that this wasn't currently possible.)
According to spansh there are only two systems where reservelevel is not null and reserveLevel != 'Pristine' and population = 0:
MCC 515
Col 285 Sector FN-H b11-2
both have major reserves.
 
Greetings Commanders,

We will be releasing The Trailblazers Update 3 on Wednesday April 30. This update features a number of improvements to Colonisation economies and Powerplay merits, alongside a range of other fixes and improvements.

Release Schedule (All times in UTC)
  • 5AM - Servers offline for maintenance
  • 1PM - Servers back
Please be aware these are estimated times and are subject to change.

Features of Note:

Colonisation

  • The operation of economies and population growth within player colonised systems have been extensively reworked following player feedback. These changes are designed to allow significantly more flexibility in building out systems to create any desired economy, and to significantly boost the economic output of colonised systems.
Economic changes:

  • Links will now automatically be created between completed constructions within systems. Links enable supporting facilities to supply a proportion of their economy to ports across the entire system, increasing the supply, demand and types of commodities available and altering shipyard and outfitting stock.
  • All constructions are divided into two types for the purpose of creating links: Ports and Supporting Facilities
    • Ports includes Outposts, Coriolis/Orbis/Ocellus Stations, Asteroid bases, Planetary Ports and Planetary Port Outposts
    • Supporting Facilities includes Settlements, Installations and Hubs
  • Two types of link are available: Strong and Weak. A strong link provides a higher economic boost than a weak link
    • Strong links are created between a port and any facility located on or around the same local planetary body. They may also be created between ports if there are multiple of this type on or around the same body
      • In the event multiple ports are present, the highest tier port will be linked to. If both ports are of the same tier, the port which was built first will be selected
      • In the event both a planetary and space-based ports are present, planetary facilities will create strong links with the planetary port, which will pass these strong links on to the orbital port following the same prioritisation rules regarding tier and build order
    • Weak links are created between ports and supporting facilities located on different bodies within the same system
    • Both types of link can be present, enabling a supporting facility to supply the economies of multiple ports
    • Links can only be created between facilities and ports, or between ports. Facilities cannot link to each other
    • Multiple economy types can be present in a port. If additional economy types are present at a port via links, this will proportionally introduce trade of commodities represented by these additional economy types.
    • The below infographic details these links in action:View attachment 427470
    • Body 1 has a facility on the ground and in orbit, with a tier 1 and tier 2 port also in orbit
      • Strong links are created to the tier 2 port, as this is the highest tier port around this body
      • Weak links are created to the port on Body 2
    • Body 2 has a ground port and a facility in orbit
      • The ground port receives weak links from the body 1 facilities and lower tier port
      • A weak link is created supplying the tier 2 port at body 1
  • These links will be retrospectively created for all existing colonised systems during the patch downtime
  • Alternations have been made to the construction user interface flow to expose links that have already been created, and will be created on completing a construction
  • Additionally, strong links are subject to boosts or decreases in economic supply performance by the characteristics of the host system or body. Weak links are unaffected by this mechanic. Potential boosts/decreases are listed below:
    • Agriculture economy:
      • Boosted by:
        • Orbiting an Earth like world
        • On or orbiting a terraformable body
        • On or orbiting a body with organics
      • Decreased by:
        • On or orbiting an icy body
        • On or orbiting a planet that is tidally locked to its star
        • On or orbiting a moon that is tidally locked to its planet and its subsequent parent planet(s) are tidally locked to the star
    • Extraction Economy:
      • Boosted by:
        • In a system with major or pristine resources
        • On or orbiting a body with volcanism
      • Decreased by:
        • In a system with low or depleted resources
    • High Tech Economy:
      • Boosted by:
        • Orbiting an ammonia world
        • Orbiting an earth like world
        • On or orbiting a body with geologicals
        • On or orbiting a body with organics
      • Decreased by:
        • Nil
    • Industrial and Refinery Economies:
      • Boosted by:
        • In a system with major or pristine resources
      • Decreased by:
        • In a system with low or depleted resources
    • Tourism Economy:
      • Boosted by:
        • Orbiting an ammonia world
        • In a system with a black hole
        • Orbiting an earth like world
        • On or orbiting a body with geologicals
        • On or orbiting a body with organics
        • Orbiting a water world
        • In a system with a white dwarf
        • In a system with a neutron star
      • Decreased by:
        • Nil
    • As an example – Body 1 is a world with volcanism which has a port in orbit and an agricultural facility and extraction facility on the surface. The strong link from the extraction facility to the port will be strengthened while the strong link from the agricultural facility will not.
  • Constructions which have a Colony economy listed in the construction options will now have this overridden depending on the body the construction is on or orbiting.
    • These overrides are as follows:
      • Black holes, Neutron Stars, White Dwarves
        • HighTech
        • Tourism
      • Brown Dwarves and all other star types
        • Military
      • Earth like worlds
        • Agriculture
        • Hightech
        • Military
        • Tourism
      • Water world
        • Agriculture
        • Tourism
      • Ammonia world
        • HighTech
        • Tourism
      • Gas giant
        • HighTech
        • Industrial
      • High metal content and metal rich world
        • Extraction
      • Rocky ice
        • Industrial
        • Refinery
      • Rocky​
        • Refinery
      • Icy
        • Industrial
      • Has rings (includes stars with asteroid belts)
        • Extraction
      • Has organics
        • Agriculture
        • Terraforming
      • Has geologicals
        • Extraction
        • Industrial
    • These overrides may stack. As an example – for a high metal content world with organics, its overrides will be Extraction, in addition to Agriculture and Terraforming.
Population Growth Changes:

  • The overall level of facility output is determined by the population associated with that facility - a higher population results in greater output of commodities. With the colonisation beta release, this population number was at a reduced level for balancing purposes.
  • With this update, populations will now be significantly increased, enabling commanders to build fully operational economies and supply chains for self-sustaining colonisation efforts.
  • Populations within colonised systems will now grow at a significantly faster rate with a significantly higher population limit. Overall population capacity remains determined by the port and facility types built within a system.
  • Populations will grow on each weekly maintenance tick. Populations growth is based on a curve and will grow quickly for the first month before slowing to a more gradual pace, enabling quick establishment of strong economies.
Additional Changes

  • Law and order around system colonisation ships and construction sites is now enforced by Brewer Corporation.
  • Brewer Corporation has elected to begin naming it's system colonisation ships.
Port Customisation

  • Added "Facility Customisation" button within Station Services for architects when docked at their orbital facilities. This allows architects to apply paintjobs to the following:
    • Coriolis Stations
    • Ocellus Stations
    • Orbis Stations
    • Asteroid Bases
    • Outposts
Powerplay

  • Offensive and Defensive multipliers to merit gains have been implemented across all Powerplay systems.
    • Offensive actions (taking unoccupied systems, undermining etc) will receive +5% bonus merits
    • Defensive actions (Reinforcing) will result in -35% merits gained.
      • This is the first in a number of planned changes which are intended encourage and reward offensive actions within Powerplay. We will continue to monitor feedback and impact and adjust accordingly.
      • Updated powerplay galaxy map panel to include this multiplier
  • Re-enabled rare good merit rewards
  • Replaced Escape Pods as ethos activities for Powers that used them.
    • Arissa Lavigny-Duval
      • Acquisition: Collect Escape Pods → Sell commodities for large profit
    • Aisling Duval:
      • Acquisition: Collect Escape Pods → Transfer "Employee Data" & "Political Data"
      • Reinforcement: Collect Escape Pods → Reboot mission completion
      • Undermining: Collect Escape Pods → Hand in salvage
    • Edmund Mahon
      • Undermining: Collect Escape Pods → Hand in salvage
    • Felicia Winters
      • Acquisition: Collect Escape Pods → Sell mined resources
      • Undermining: Collect Escape Pods → Complete aid and humanitarian missions
    • Yuri Grom
      • Acquisition: Collect Escape Pods → Scan ships & wakes (contested systems)
    • Nakato Kaine
      • Reinforcement: Collect Escape Pods → Hand in salvage
      • Undermining: Collect Escape Pods → Hand in salvage
    • Pranav Antal
      • Acquisition: Collect Escape Pods → Sell rare goods
  • Rebalanced cartographic and exobiology merit rewards
    • Both have received an increase to merit reward rate
  • Added Undermining/Reinforcement multipliers to Merit notifications
  • Added reference to Undermining/Reinforcement multipliers in help screens
  • Improvements to PowerPlay 2 galaxy data transfer between servers and client
  • Powerplay system Local Ethos activities are now server driven, allowing for more dynamic changes
Issue Tracker Fixes:

  • Fixed instances of stutter during general gameplay
  • Fixed instances of disconnects when jumping to supercruise or hyperspace
    • We will continue to monitor data and reports following these fixes to ensure both issues are now fully resolved. Please continue to report any further instances where this occurs.
  • Fixed the Corsair Mass Lock Factor, changed it from 7 to 17
  • Fixed Crash to Desktop when plotting route near permit locked systems
  • Fixed issue where the concord cannon could not be reloaded
  • Fixed the Gamma settings window getting stuck on screen
  • Adjusted the Corsair heat dissipation
Bug Fixes:

  • Fixed the hitcheck on the Corsair's side engines
  • Fixed Corsair multiplayer audio. UI Panels in second chair now go beep as expected
  • Fixed Corsair engine sounds being too loud when rolling at maximum speed
  • Fixed instances of colonisation contact missing from list of contacts
  • Fixed instances of missing construction points
  • Fixed Alastor Military not counting towards the facility requirement of Military Hubs
  • Fixed Planet ports not selling more than 3 commodity types
  • Fixed on foot settlements not having correct max commodities supplied. They will now have approximately 3 for small, 5 for medium and 7 for large
  • Fixed instances where constructions could not be renamed
  • Fixed incorrect images being shown in facility construction selector
  • Reduced the orbital speed of ports constructed around Neutron Stars, White Dwarfs and Blackholes
  • Fixed many construction depot and beacon launch locations around stars to more closely respect their heat output, their stellar rings and any binary partners they might share an orbit with.
    • This is the cause of most failures to claim starsystems. This may still occur in some instances, and the team are working to resolve these.
  • Fixed a bug that caused constructions to be placed near the final asteroid cluster of a stellar ring instead of around the requested star. We have relocated most of those constructions to their own spaces in the system.
  • Known issue: In some instances, space positions for construction depots and constructed assets are in the incorrect frame of reference, causing them to be impossible to dock a ship at as they fly away. Thank you to everybody who has reported instances of those to help with our investigation.

This looks really good.

Thank you Frontier for the detailed notes and for listening to the feedback for Trailblazers.

I like the idea of Strong and Weak Links and am really looking forward to next Wednesday to see how this affects my colonies.

I am sure there will be some issues, but this looks like a great development to what we have now.
 
Why Have Aisling Duval's ethos activities been replaced with Odyssey/ Surface activities, but no other power has to do any surface activities in their Ethos bonuses???

Also, When do we get a fix for the Care Package Bug. Any CMDR over Rank 100 is unable to get any Care package benefits. I have about 1800 care packages waiting to be claimed, that's a lot of Creds and mats that I now need to go back to the farming grind to obtain.
 
Simple: preemptively reinforce your systems in anticipation of being undermined. You know it's going to happen, so plan accordingly. You can even counter data download sniper undermining using the same mechanic as the underminers; download data yourself, sit on it until 1 hour before the tick, then redeem it to suddenly boost the reinforcement of a system. That you choose NOT to download data at surface settlements as one method of counter-undermining is just that; your choice. A choice the rest of us are not constrained by.

If your counter-argument to the above is, "We can't possibly reinforce ALL our systems!", here's my counter-counter-argument (and the fundamental crux of the problem):

If the number of systems under your Galactic Power's control is greater than what the Commanders pledged to that Power can reasonably reinforce / defend, then perhaps their territory is larger than it should be. If your reach exceeds your grasp, it should be expected you're going to lose some of it until you achieve equilibrium; a case of perhaps a little culling being called for.

Once again, your inability (or, rather, your Galactic Power's collective pledgees' inability) to adequately defend its current territory is a you problem (collectively, your Galactic Power's problem). Your solution is to expect everyone to conform to a set of rules that favors your preferred play style and gives you an advantage. To wit, playing Euro Truck Simulator in Space, peacefully shuttling mined commodities and/or PP Allocated Resources back and forth ad nauseam, with the expectation of achieving uncontested reinforcement and unfettered expansion; all while placing artificial constraints on data download undermining so as not to interrupt the reinforcement effort nor inconvenience you. This isn't Power Play 1.0 anymore.

You claim data download sniper undermining isn't "fair". News flash: this is a 12-way WAR; whether cold or otherwise. There's nothing fair in war. Is it fair that some Galactic Powers are smaller than others and can't out-compete the efforts of larger ones? No. But that's also part of war; some nations are larger than others, have greater population, have more natural resources, greater industrial capacity, etc., etc., etc. So you avail yourself of any and all tools at your disposal to give yourself an edge wherever possible. For smaller GPs one such tool in the toolbox is data download sniper undermining.

Now, all that said, I'd be OK with a mechanic added that, when a Commander attempts to download data at a settlement in a system controlled by a Galactic Power, an alert will go out to players pledged to the targeted Galactic Power IF the Commander attempting the download neglects to disable the settlement alarm or one of the NPCs calls in an alarm before they can be silenced.

I'm all for play and counter-play; the more direct and immediate, the better. By which I mean I had stated earlier that undermining can be countered by reinforcing; which - though I still stand by that as an available counter - is indirect, not very dynamic, and six-degrees-of-separation. Something more direct, immediate, and in real-time in the form of the aforementioned Galactic Power-wide alert I'd be OK with.

Even if the underminer(s) are in Private Group or Solo, the alert would still be sent. Though the underminer(s) themselves might not be stopped, it at least puts the pledgees of the GP being undermined on notice that, "Hey! Someone has raised the alarm in a settlement in system XYZ!" Then we add another layer of counter-counter-play: intentional feints at undermining to draw the targeted GP's members' attention to system XYZ and away from system ABC, for example.

Or maybe it's an Odyssey mats farmer who is just there to collect data for a suit or weapon upgrade. You, as a pledgee of that Galactic Power, won't know the difference. Do you investigate? Do you treat it as a false alarm and ignore it? This further reinforces the notion that Power Play Commanders should be active participants in patrolling, securing, and maintainting their Galactic Power's territory rather than expecting it to run on auto-pilot without their active involvement.

TL;DR: Qouted Commander believes sniper undermining of Power Play systems through settlement data downloads isn't "fair" and wants limitations placed on it. This is a 12-way WAR! Of course it's not fair. Besides, a counter to it already exists in the form of system reinforcement and/or performing data downloads of their own.
I do not have a problem with settlement data, only that you can collect them by 1000 plus 1000 goods to drop them before the tick that there is no chance to counter, it suppose to be a fight, that i why they block exploration data since you can collect them and wipe out whole areas without a fight. It suppose to be a fight not a exploit, where you can not loose since the tick protects you from any other counter action. If they have to deliver the data and the system is monitored by someone it will be visible and can be countered, granted 20 data and 20 goods is low but 1000 is way to high so drop it down to 60 or 100 gives settlement data still an big edge on anything else especially with the 40% boost now, but at least there could be a fight and not just a winning guaranty for the sniper.
 
I am a little concerned about this patch, the more I think about it. With this change, defenders will have roughly a 2.5 to 1 disadvantage against hostile powers able to take advantage of their ethos. Settlement Data is particularly painful, since attackers can use all forms while defenders can only use 2/5 forms.

In practice, many systems simply will not be worth having at all, unless they're literally unreachable by the enemy, but that will tend to heavily bias towards the larger Powers. Torval, for example, has virtually no territory that's unreachable by enemies.
 
Right, I suppose every system needs to be fortified even beyond its weekly limit, wasting merits beyond the cap in order to "vigorously defend" against something that may or not come.
If your aim is "never lose any systems under any circumstances", then yes. If this is a reasonable goal for a Power to contemplate having there is a fundamental problem with Powerplay as "the competitive feature".

None of that reinforcement in Barnard's Star was wasted [1] - it forced Archer to put together a much bigger attack on the system, which is then effort which couldn't be used to act on systems elsewhere instead.

[1] Except in the "peaceful" sense that both sides spent 1.5M CP on the system which could have been used to reinforce 5 other Exploited systems to Fortified, or Acquire another 10 new Exploited systems. Conflict is always wasteful in that regard and that's probably a bigger challenge for Frontier to overcome than the precise balance of in-system activities. (Especially since they decided to introduce Trailblazers and therefore guarantee everyone an endless supply of blank systems which no other Power has any real interest in or capacity to capture)

With this change, defenders will have roughly a 2.5 to 1 disadvantage against hostile powers able to take advantage of their ethos.
At Standard:Standard, yes. A High system strength penalty (and a lot of Fortiifed/Stronghold systems have that) would negate that back to just being the effect of "the attacker uses their ethos bonus but the defender can't". Throw in a Moderate or High BFP as well (which might be necessary to find an attacker who can use their ethos bonus) and the numeric advantage is still with the defender.

Settlement Data is particularly painful, since attackers can use all forms while defenders can only use 2/5 forms.
In that respect, still much less painful than Bounty Hunting (and now Rares again) is the other way, where defenders can use all forms and attackers can use none. Direct comparisons of individual methods aren't as important as how the entire set of available methods lines up.
 
View attachment 427672View attachment 427677

Right, I suppose every system needs to be fortified even beyond its weekly limit, wasting merits beyond the cap in order to "vigorously defend" against something that may or not come. This is just a few hours before a cycle ends versus what really happened once the servers came back and is the kind of thing I'm talking about that should not become easier to do - more than a full segment coming from the sniping. The tug of war completely loses its meaning.

I'm not talking about low percentage systems because these are also vulnerable to other undermining levers (the few ones that are viable, at least) coming from a true surprise attack. Not a handing in of like 20 hours worth of settlement data collected over the entire week at the final hour, and calling it a surprise attack.

Powerplay 2 losses should not continue getting decided by a single undermining activity having such exploitable merit-hiding capability... and while at it also being the best undermining merits/hour.
once again: i understand how sniping can be frustrating, but
wasnt barnards star one of the systems taken from federation by goids? iirc this could be reason for an... increased focus on recapturing these systems... im not saying this doesnt/wont happen anywhere else, but especially with these systems id say its somewhat justified. you certainly werent complaining about fairness when goids wrecked federal systems and you all flocked to those like vultures and captured left right whatever you could.
aisling has by far the largest number of commanders. archer, for example, not so much. if we focus one system, we lose another. we cant be everywhere. as it was well demonstrated when the sol area systems were lost. while we recaptured what we can, we still lost a good amount of them. we work hard and we take our wins as well as we take our losses.
so while id generally agree that something like a time limit on the data could be established, i find it hard time to feel sorry for you. especially when its the power that generally rejects any talks about ethos and morals in conflicts with the argumentation of using any and all available advantages they can get.

Why Have Aisling Duval's ethos activities been replaced with Odyssey/ Surface activities, but no other power has to do any surface activities in their Ethos bonuses???
just because you dont see it in the changes doesnt mean that no other power has ody activities in their ethos...

Also, When do we get a fix for the Care Package Bug. Any CMDR over Rank 100 is unable to get any Care package benefits. I have about 1800 care packages waiting to be claimed, that's a lot of Creds and mats that I now need to go back to the farming grind to obtain.
this i very much agree with. the care packages are a... situation... i personally have not claimed any for a very long time. its just easier to ignore them than to go through the headache of managing the menuing, compiling list of mats that i have to trade to make space for the package, going through the traders...


@Paul_Crowther
sorry to bother you with this, and its probably too late to expect it on wednesday anyway, but could the trailblazer megaships be reclassified as dockable megaships so we can bookmark them? or at least give them some icon on the map... we still do have icons for titans and rescue megaships. they are pretty significant for great many cmdrs engaged in colonisation and if they are to be permanent assets, this would be really helpful as now as in the future.
 
Last edited:
wasnt barnards star one of the systems taken from federation by goids?
Exactly, I think the issue here is less to do with gameplay mechanics and more to do with a lack of awareness that players will prioritise a response to attacks that occur in the middle of their territory.

If you're going to take a system like that, you better be willing to fight tooth and nail to keep it, because it will get focused.
 
Will there be a point in time that we will be able to remove structures we don't want/need? Even if it means paying like 50mil to Brewer to have it removed

Bearing in mind the construction points system, if you could remove an arbitrary station you could create system builds that aren't achievable otherwise (like create a bunch of settlements to get T3 points, build Orbis, remove settlements - you now have a "free" Orbis and can repeat the process indefinitely to fill all your orbital slots up with T3 starports)

If you introduce a constraint that stops you getting a system build inconsistent with the points system (i.e. you can remove a facility only if there is a valid build chronology resulting in that system build) this then requires a search over all possible system histories and is likely to result in systems with actual build histories wildly different from the virtual build history their existence is now predicated on. IOW an over complex and unsatisfying mechanic.

Allowing arbitrary demolitions which instead trigger additional demolitions of facilities which depended on the chosen facility for points at the time of construction is even worse!

A kind of "undo" system which lets you demolish the last-built facility avoids these problems, though other problems like evaporating missions which involve the facility, etc., surely exist.

I think the best we can reasonably hope for is a "cancel ongoing construction" feature, which is a lot cleaner and simpler than any of the above, and already exists for the primary starport iirc.
 
Exactly, I think the issue here is less to do with gameplay mechanics and more to do with a lack of awareness that players will prioritise a response to attacks that occur in the middle of their territory.

If you're going to take a system like that, you better be willing to fight tooth and nail to keep it, because it will get focused.
I think FD need to steer PP2 pledges into caring less about losing territory, and more about what you gain if you risk bigger stakes. Territory should be a means to an end, not the end itself (which fosters gardening tendencies).
 
I think the best we can reasonably hope for is a "cancel ongoing construction" feature, which is a lot cleaner and simpler than any of the above, and already exists for the primary starport iirc.

Yah, this seems the least problematic. The other options have the potential to generate unintended chain reactions.
 
Bearing in mind the construction points system, if you could remove an arbitrary station you could create system builds that aren't achievable otherwise (like create a bunch of settlements to get T3 points, build Orbis, remove settlements - you now have a "free" Orbis and can repeat the process indefinitely to fill all your orbital slots up with T3 starports)
While that's possible, assuming demolition was a feature, who in their right mind would undertake such a transition?
I've just completed a tier lll at 300+ trips.
So let's say 20 assets in a given system are replaced by tier lll's.
That's a shedload of hauling! (6000+ trips) assuming a type 9 or cutter 750t capacity +.
An application process for demolishing stuff would be doable.
The admin of it is another story.
Justifying demolishing assets is a requisite.
But I think it's a nessesary evil. And should in my opinion have been included in the rollout, much like the primary being undone.
I guess we will have to wait n see.
 
I think FD need to steer PP2 pledges into caring less about losing territory, and more about what you gain if you risk bigger stakes. Territory should be a means to an end, not the end itself (which fosters gardening tendencies).
Agreed, but I don't think in this case it's a good representative example due to how it was lost by Archer in the first place.
 
Back
Top Bottom