Fleet Carriers Update - Beta 2 - Upcoming Changes

Tim Smith

Lead Community Manager
Greetings Commanders!

We know that many of you are eagerly awaiting the second Fleet Carrier Beta that starts next week, so ahead of that, we wanted to share some of the changes you can expect to see when you jump in to help us test them!

So, let's start with a quick reminder: the next Fleet Carriers Beta begins on 11 May and runs until 26 May. Commanders on PC, PlayStation and Xbox One will be able to jump into this one, and to find out more on how to take part, click here.

Thanks to all the feedback provided to us in the first Fleet Carriers Beta, we wanted to highlight some of the changes you can expect to see in next week's Beta:

  • Fleet Carriers will now have Universal Cartographics available as an optional service.
After the feedback from the first Fleet Carriers Beta, we reexamined how Fleet Carriers could be utilised by different play styles. We feel that with the inclusion of Universal Cartographics, explorers out in the black will be able to break new boundaries and launch exciting new expeditions.

  • Decommissioning a Fleet Carrier will now refund the full cost of a Carrier, with the only reductions either being unpaid debt when automated or a static fee for voluntary decommissioning.
There has been a lot of conversation and feedback around this, so thank you to all the Commanders who shared their thoughts with us! Fleet Carriers affect Elite Dangerous in a way the game hasn't seen before; they are persistent objects accessible across all platforms and controlled by player Commanders. Due to this, Fleet Carriers require these new systems in order to facilitate them in the galaxy. While Elite Dangerous can sustain as many Fleet Carriers as the community could wish for, there is a finite number of objects that can orbit a single body. Left unchecked, this could become a problem if Fleet Carriers are left in key locations like popular capital systems or near to carrier construction facilities, especially when a recent buyer wants to pick up their new Fleet Carrier. Decommissioning acts as an inactivity system that refunds the initial investment while preventing unused Fleet Carriers adrift in the galaxy. By adjusting the refund amount, we think this will be more in line with your expectations.

  • Module and ship storage will now always be available for the Fleet Carrier owner. Shipyard and outfitting services will still need to be purchased to enable visitors to use them and to buy stock for the owner.
After seeing the feedback from players, we agreed that Fleet Carriers should come with these services by default! However, for others to use these services, owners will still need to activate the additional service to provide functionality to visitors as well as just the owner.

  • Tritium consumption per lightyear has been reduced by approximately half.
This will directly make Fleet Carrier movement 2x more efficient in the beta. We want to keep monitoring the use of carriers and Tritium during the second beta, but this is our initial step to finding that sweet spot.

  • BETA BLOWOUT!
Towards the end of the beta, join us for a BETA BLOWOUT, where Fleet Carriers will be available to almost anyone who has not yet had the opportunity to test them for themselves!

In order to get feedback on Fleet Carriers in an environment that is as close to the live servers as possible, Fleet Carriers will remain at the price of 5bn CR. This is important to make sure we can get as accurate feedback as possible. However, during the Beta Blowout period, Fleet Carriers will be purchasable for 1m CR. We're doing this so that as many people as possible can help try them out and give us feedback, but still enable us during the first week to see how they behave in an environment closer to what the live one will look like.

We're looking forward to seeing what you will do with them (and how many you'll make!).

We'll also be creating a dedicated section on the forums to give a home to feedback, instructions, guides and all things related to the second Fleet Carriers Beta, so please continue to share your feedback with us!


Fly safe and see you in the beta next week Commanders! o7

EDIT: We've closed the Beta 1 section and will be creating a Beta 2 section next week!
 
Last edited:

Northpin

Northpin
Tim Smith said:
Decommissioning a Fleet Carrier will now refund the full cost of a Carrier, with the only reductions either being unpaid debt when automated or a static fee for voluntary decommissioning.
Click to expand...

IF you refund the carriers for full price, please - pretty pretty please - reduce the decommission to 4 weeks tops.
10 weeks (as announced during last beta feedback) is waay too much given the owner does not lose a single credit...
 

StuartGT

StuartGT
Tim Smith said:
  • Fleet Carriers will now have Universal Cartographics available as an optional service.
  • Decommissioning a Fleet Carrier will now refund the full cost of a Carrier, with the only reductions either being unpaid debt when automated or a static fee for voluntary decommissioning.
  • Module and ship storage will now always be available for the Fleet Carrier owner. Shipyard and outfitting services will still need to be purchased to enable visitors to use them and to buy stock for the owner.
  • Tritium consumption per lightyear has been reduced by approximately half.
Click to expand...
Fantastic changes, cheers Tim and the team o7
 

DragoCubX

DragoCubX
Those are awesome news, and some steps in the right direction!
The biggest complaint I have left right now is that passive upkeep still exists. Please consider turning upkeep into a maintenance system where you pay for active usage instead of fixed weekly costs! Decommissioning could just be based upon a timer: Every interaction of the owner resets that timer, and if there's no interaction for an amount of time, just decommission in the way you have now announced. That'd be my suggestion.

Again, these are great steps and positive changes, we're just not quite there yet :)
 

[xtc]mrsly

[xtc]mrsly
the sweet spot is about cooldown times not just jump ranges just saying,
if we ant to go 20000ly then stop and look around they should be able to without a grind just to get 20000 ly and home
 

Alec Turner

Alec Turner
Tim Smith said:
there is a finite number of objects that can orbit a single body. Left unchecked, this could become a problem if Fleet Carriers are left in key locations like popular capital systems or near to carrier construction facilities, especially when a recent buyer wants to pick up their new Fleet Carrier.
Click to expand...
Wait ... so if enough people (who continue to pay their upkeep) decide to leave their fleet carriers parked in the construction systems indefinitely then new FC purchasers might run into problems with spawning their own fleet carrier? 😬

See, I always thought this was a problem ... if you have to decommission unused fleet carriers because there's a performance/capacity problem if you don't ... then basically ... you have a performance/capacity problem (because to stay within the game's limits you're implying that you're relying on some people not paying the upkeep). That sounds to me like an inherently broken design!
 

Valorin

Valorin
Tim Smith said:
Greetings Commanders!

We know that many of you are eagerly awaiting the second Fleet Carrier Beta that starts next week, so ahead of that, we wanted to share some of the changes you can expect to see when you jump in to help us test them!

So, let's start with a quick reminder: the next Fleet Carriers Beta begins on 11 May and runs until 26 May. Commanders on PC, PlayStation and Xbox One will be able to jump into this one, and to find out more on how to take part, click here.

Thanks to all the feedback provided to us in the first Fleet Carriers Beta, we wanted to highlight some of the changes you can expect to see in next week's Beta:

  • Fleet Carriers will now have Universal Cartographics available as an optional service.
After the feedback from the first Fleet Carriers Beta, we reexamined how Fleet Carriers could be utilised by different play styles. We feel that with the inclusion of Universal Cartographics, explorers out in the black will be able to break new boundaries and launch exciting new expeditions.

  • Decommissioning a Fleet Carrier will now refund the full cost of a Carrier, with the only reductions either being unpaid debt when automated or a static fee for voluntary decommissioning.
There has been a lot of conversation and feedback around this, so thank you to all the Commanders who shared their thoughts with us! Fleet Carriers affect Elite Dangerous in a way the game hasn't seen before; they are persistent objects accessible across all platforms and controlled by player Commanders. Due to this, Fleet Carriers require these new systems in order to facilitate them in the galaxy. While Elite Dangerous can sustain as many Fleet Carriers as the community could wish for, there is a finite number of objects that can orbit a single body. Left unchecked, this could become a problem if Fleet Carriers are left in key locations like popular capital systems or near to carrier construction facilities, especially when a recent buyer wants to pick up their new Fleet Carrier. Decommissioning acts as an inactivity system that refunds the initial investment while preventing unused Fleet Carriers adrift in the galaxy. By adjusting the refund amount, we think this will be more in line with your expectations.

  • Module and ship storage will now always be available for the Fleet Carrier owner. Shipyard and outfitting services will still need to be purchased to enable visitors to use them and to buy stock for the owner.
After seeing the feedback from players, we agreed that Fleet Carriers should come with these services by default! However, for others to use these services, owners will still need to activate the additional service to provide functionality to visitors as well as just the owner.

  • Tritium consumption per lightyear has been reduced by approximately half.
This will directly make Fleet Carrier movement 2x more efficient in the beta. We want to keep monitoring the use of carriers and Tritium during the second beta, but this is our initial step to finding that sweet spot.

  • BETA BLOWOUT!
Towards the end of the beta, join us for a BETA BLOWOUT, where Fleet Carriers will be available to almost anyone who has not yet had the opportunity to test them for themselves!

In order to get feedback on Fleet Carriers in an environment that is as close to the live servers as possible, Fleet Carriers will remain at the price of 5bn CR. This is important to make sure we can get as accurate feedback as possible. However, during the Beta Blowout period, Fleet Carriers will be purchasable for 1m CR. We're doing this so that as many people as possible can help try them out and give us feedback, but still enable us during the first week to see how they behave in an environment closer to what the live one will look like.

We're looking forward to seeing what you will do with them (and how many you'll make!).

We'll also be creating a dedicated section on the forums to give a home to feedback, instructions, guides and all things related to the second Fleet Carriers Beta, so please continue to share your feedback with us!


Fly safe and see you in the beta next week Commanders! o7
Click to expand...
Still offline costs. That's really disappointing to be honest.

Apart from that great changes! Especially the refunding. While I still think it's not the right move to take carriers away from players instead just removing them from the game space to be deployed later, it's a significantly lower price to pay.
 
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