Fleet Carriers Update - Beta 2 has now ended!

Melarn · May 28, 2020

CMDR Woland92 said:
Still no scoopable tritium? Seriously?

Naturally occurring tritium is extremely rare on Earth. The atmosphere has only trace amounts, formed by the interaction of its gases with cosmic rays. It can be produced by irradiating lithium metal or lithium-bearing ceramic pebbles in a nuclear reactor.

Tharrn · May 28, 2020

Melarn said:
Naturally occurring tritium is extremely rare on Earth. The atmosphere has only trace amounts, formed by the interaction of its gases with cosmic rays. It can be produced by irradiating lithium metal or lithium-bearing ceramic pebbles in a nuclear reactor.

If they wanted realism they should have picked Helium-3 as a fuel that can be scooped from gas giants instead of going for Tritium (that actually has a half-life of 12 years) in icy asteroids? Let us please just forget about science, because FD apparently did, too.

ADAMtheWELSHMANz · May 28, 2020

Here's to never having to return to the bubble

Ian Doncaster · May 28, 2020

Sunyavadin said:
That took a full CG with a significant portion of the playerbase delivering stuff to jump.
Remind me how much that jump ended up costing in the end?

7,364,127 tonnes of Hydrogen Fuel, so about 600-700 million credits at average prices. That was for a 22kLY jump, so about 30,000 credits per LY ... or if you go for the 65kLY planned distance instead it's about 10,000 credits per LY.

Interestingly that's very similar to the 10,000-20,000 credits per LY that it costs to move a FC on purchased Tritium following the Beta 2 efficiency improvements.

(As an aside: when I was looking for the thread with that number in I first came across some other threads while the CG was running with explorers objecting to the concept of Jaques jumping to Beagle Point as it would cheapen their achievements in getting there. Soon, anyone who wants to will be able to hitch a ride on a Beagle-bound carrier and get there in just a few (offline!) days ... and explorers' complaints about the carriers have generally been that they're too difficult to move around for that sort of purpose. How times have changed, eh?)

VR SenseiMatty · May 28, 2020

Ian Doncaster said:
(As an aside: when I was looking for the thread with that number in I first came across some other threads while the CG was running with explorers objecting to the concept of Jaques jumping to Beagle Point as it would cheapen their achievements in getting there. Soon, anyone who wants to will be able to hitch a ride on a Beagle-bound carrier and get there in just a few (offline!) days ... and explorers' complaints about the carriers have generally been that they're too difficult to move around for that sort of purpose. How times have changed, eh?)

This community on the 9th of June:

Tharrn · May 28, 2020

Ian Doncaster said:
(As an aside: when I was looking for the thread with that number in I first came across some other threads while the CG was running with explorers objecting to the concept of Jaques jumping to Beagle Point as it would cheapen their achievements in getting there. Soon, anyone who wants to will be able to hitch a ride on a Beagle-bound carrier and get there in just a few (offline!) days ... and explorers' complaints about the carriers have generally been that they're too difficult to move around for that sort of purpose. How times have changed, eh?)

Kids these days. Call themselves explorers and hitch a ride to the end of the galaxy to show-off their 70ly Condas. spits It's not the what it used to be. I am off to Andromeda.

avow555 · May 28, 2020

Sunyavadin said:
That took a full CG with a significant portion of the playerbase delivering stuff to jump.
Remind me how much that jump ended up costing in the end?

Don't need a CG now or a gazillion recource.

Brock09 · May 28, 2020

The fact that the button to deposit cash has been fixed kind of answers the issue of whether upkeep is still a thing. Guess Frontier just chose to ignore what was a major dealbreaker issue for a large section of the playerbase. FCs will therefore be warmly welcomed into the same derilict club of powerplay, cqc and multicrew for me as yet another missed opportunity to make the game fun. I have a job i dont need one involving servicing a FC as well.

Cmdr Nemo · May 28, 2020

ChipStar65 said:
Stations don't jump. Stations cannot provide you a means to get to the other side of the galaxy with your entire fleet and support services. Will "things" cost more (excluding upkeep) than having to return to inhabited systems to get the same "things" when you're many Klys out in the black? Be happy! You're wrong!

When first hearing of FC's more than a year ago, I was excited. As time wore on and the various aspects and speculations unfolded to what they are today. My excitement is gone along with any desire to acquire one.

Considering the total cost of purchasing and maintenance, not to mentioned time and cost involved in replacing it if and when it's decommissioned. With the exception of shipping any and or all of ones ship outside the bubble like Colonial for example. Shipping as often as one may or might desire in the bubble is considerably cheaper and involves a lot less time. OK, one can make considerably longer jumps, but then, how much longer does the total process of obtaining fuel, plotting etc. does it take compared to one utilizing the neutron highway to get to the same desired location. Perhaps one day, two experience cmdr's one with neutron highway experience and one with FC abilities will have a race. My money will be on the neutron highway being faster, and time wise considerably cheaper.

I'm not the only one, but I've got ships loaded out and engineered for specific purposes and parked in area's in which I will and have utilized them in the past and the future. Depending on my agenda when logging on to ED, I've got a modified explorer load-out and engineered Conda with a jump range of 60 to travel to and from their various locations to do my bidding's.

Nutter · May 28, 2020

ChipStar65 said:
don't buy a carrier.

Hell, you're welcome to visit my J's Resolution any time and tag along into the black, rent is cheap (pay me in Tritium! ) and the food is passable, maybe I'll lay in a stock of the most exotic liquors as well. That might even convince me to play in Open regularly!

So just to clarify, I should not buy a carrier because I don't want to spend my playtime mining?

In your very next breath you suggest I mine fuel for your carrier? No thanks!! Mine it yourself!!! If you don't like getting your own ruddy fuel then don't buy a carrier.!

Cosmo · May 28, 2020

Stephen Benedetti said:
You've had a chance to experience Fleet Carriers in the Beta, and we can't wait to see what you'll do with them in the live servers and we're pleased to announce that the wait isn't long! The Fleet Carrier Update will emerge from hyperspace and come to Elite Dangerous on 9 June!

Are there surprise features at launch? These things need more improvements post-launch.

Rock Paper Shotgun said: "Elite Dangerous needs to make its fleet carriers worthwhile", "reasonable conclusion to infer is that Frontier are establishing groundwork for their coming Next Era Update"

Cmdr Nemo · May 28, 2020

It would seem that like always, they have addressed the mice in the room, but not the elephant.

C Royle · May 28, 2020

I think Fdev could have made a compromise for the Fleet carrier

A system where you have a choice of how you want to fund the fleet carrier. For example:

1. Pay the full 5 billion but save having to pay any upkeep

2. Pay 2.5 billion but have to pay the upkeep costs plus interest.

I think this would be realistic as this is a real world financing situation as if you were to buy a car or house in real life.

Also this would satisfy both sides of the playerbase who are unhappy about the base cost and unhappy about the upkeep.

K-nours · May 28, 2020

Do not forget that FC was originally announce for summer 2019 and then two times postpone for one semester.

I could always defend a developer’s company who make the difficult choice to postpone a release to improve it and deliver a completely finished and enjoyable content.As an example, take Ubisoft who always release unfinished game on time versus CD-Projekt Red ….

But in the case of FC, is this is the final product I’m quite disappointed… The final product is less ambitious than the first announcement. I miss the support ship that give a sensation of a real aircraft carrier that is always escort by support ship. And for a sci-fi point of view it reminds me Battlestar and all the fleet roaming and supporting the Galactica.

But to make my point, after one more year of development we get the most non ambitious fleet carriers comparing to other space game.

I know all those games have different kind of gameplay and are not aim for the same kind of players. But when we talk about FC there is standard expectation.

This comparison table is based on the one made by Obsidianant.

Krash · May 28, 2020

Frillop Freyraum said:
Just saw a review on Rock Paper Shotgun:

Elite Dangerous needs to make its fleet carriers worthwhile

A second beta test for the coming fleet carriers has ended, and while the megaships mostly work, they don't really have much to do.

www.rockpapershotgun.com

with an interesting conclusion:

Obviously from a new player but quite solid observations, nonetheless.

This review is from a player with 2 weeks in the game. She spent 1 whole weekend dedicated to Elite Dangerous

. FDev gave her an account with 15 billion credits. No wonder she found very little to do with a carrier.

Mephane · May 28, 2020

Stephen Benedetti said:
The buttons used to increase or decrease both the bank and the commodity market will now scale, like other systems in-game, when depositing credits or adjusting commodity prices.

I know the game must also be playable with gamepads, HOTAS etc, but that is not an excuse to still not have numeric input fields where you can just type a number for all of these things.

Andro · May 28, 2020

Krash said:
This review is from a player with 2 weeks in the game. She spent 1 whole weekend dedicated to Elite Dangerous . FDev gave her an account with 15 billion credits. No wonder she found very little to do with a carrier.

My thoughts exactly. The gameplay people will find with Carriers is that they (should) help with your day-to-day gameplay. Or negating the travel part of it in the bubble, specifically. If I was dropped into Elite and just given a Carrier I wouldn't see its significance.

But despite all that, Carriers DO need more work. Will they share a fate with other neglected features? Probably not, because there are a lot of rich people, and unlike Powerplay or Multicrew, everyone can tell if someone has a Carrier.

Darth Ender · May 28, 2020

K-nours said:
Do not forget that FC was originally announce for summer 2019 and then two times postpone for one semester.

I could always defend a developer’s company who make the difficult choice to postpone a release to improve it and deliver a completely finished and enjoyable content.As an example, take Ubisoft who always release unfinished game on time versus CD-Projekt Red ….

But in the case of FC, is this is the final product I’m quite disappointed… The final product is less ambitious than the first announcement. I miss the support ship that give a sensation of a real aircraft carrier that is always escort by support ship. And for a sci-fi point of view it reminds me Battlestar and all the fleet roaming and supporting the Galactica.

But to make my point, after one more year of development we get the most non ambitious fleet carriers comparing to other space game.

I know all those games have different kind of gameplay and are not aim for the same kind of players. But when we talk about FC there is standard expectation.

This comparison table is based on the one made by Obsidianant.
View attachment 174743

It can't be moved though. Not in the sense of within an instance it moves around. It can only appear in different locations. but is static once you get around to interacting with it. You can't even dictate it's exact location, you only get to choose the general orbit it will have. You can't dictate that it be located at arbitrary coordinates within a system (which should be possible with mega ship fsd travel according to lore.

A fleet carrier is really nothing more than a semi-controllable station you can give commands to. It's only comparison is NMS. The other games ...no. it's nothing like those.

Really, it's persistence is probably the single thing that limits it from being so much more functional and interactive and potentially even directly controllable. existing in disconnected instances limits how it can work and what it can be allowed to do.

cheesenbiscuits · May 28, 2020

Commander Royle said:
I think Fdev could have made a compromise for the Fleet carrier

A system where you have a choice of how you want to fund the fleet carrier. For example:

1. Pay the full 5 billion but save having to pay any upkeep

2. Pay 2.5 billion but have to pay the upkeep costs plus interest.

I think this would be realistic as this is a real world financing situation as if you were to buy a car or house in real life.

Also this would satisfy both sides of the playerbase who are unhappy about the base cost and unhappy about the upkeep.

I have a feeling that a large proportion of the most vocal "Yes on upkeep" cmdrs are generally "Yes on FD" and just end up muddying the water on actual player feedback.

Darth Ender · May 28, 2020

Upkeep is not that expensive. 1 Billion I took the few hours to accrue on top of my costs for the FC will pay for literally more than 2 years of upkeep.

I'm not even sure this game will be around in 2 years.

Upkeep has been nerfed into really not mattering already. The only people who are complaining are the poors who probably shouldn't be purchasing a FC to begin with.