Fleetcomm as a minor faction or more?

[BigZiggyHD]

To all the explorers out there I was curious as to if there would be any interest in furthering FleetComm's future.

Born as a communication hub during the Distant Worlds Expedition it has become an oasis for explorers. In my selection of Discord servers currently there are 173 CMDRs online only trumped by Cannons discord. Not even the two major power discords I belong to have that amount of active CMDRs combined.

As funny as it sounds us being explorers and all I want to present the thought of giving us a home in Elite's galaxy. I know some will not want to participate in BGS and bubble related activities. But I think some would and it would be a home to come to when you return hopefully filled with like minded individuals.

I would like to hear all explorers thoughts even if you are not part of FleetComm.

I hope many of the current members of FleetComm weigh in on this. Just don't stone me please.

 

[Qohen Leth]

The Dangerous Games were the opportunity for a group of explorers to become a heavy power, but that didn't happen. Dr. Kaii suggested the idea of an Explorers' Society a long time ago, but that never came to light (I had a different take on this but it's still a WIP). A majority of explorers, as it seems and including myself, see this idea as a contradiction and simply won't bother with it. Also, regarding Fleetcomm in particular, there is a huge amount of people there, but the activity is now very shallow. Most people have gone to other businesses.

 

[BigZiggyHD]

Seems to be there is a bit of background or personal politics going on behind the scenes that I and I'm sure most of the explorer community are unaware of in the private conversations that I've had about the subject.

Yes people will come and go the Dangerous Games do not interest me because powerplay is beyond what explorers are capable of we are wanderers by definition the amount of work that must go into power play is crazy for us to consider. Could we have become a major power maybe would we realistically be able to maintain it when the majority of pledged individuals would be out of the bubble for months at a time? No all of our controlled systems would be in the red all the time.


Maybe it was wrong to think that this thought deserved entertaining.

 

[Qohen Leth]

I figure a minor faction is easy enough to handle, you can ask the Rock Rats, they just became one. But don't expect general communication hubs to help with that, though. Worth a try!

 

[goemon]

the thing is, running a minor faction is a playstyle in itself. exploration can help (and exploration data is a heavy hitter to up a factions influence, if it owns a station in system), but actually you want people doing a broad range of activities.

you can't run a minor faction by exploration.

you want traders/miners, e.g. people who don't mind nuking or buffing a factions influence with their large traders - fear the trutters!

you want shady combat pilots, going into CZ, running combat missions, doing pve piracy, shooting system security etc.

you want mission runners.

just saying --- i'm not sure how this fits to what most explorers like to do ingame.

have a look at obsidian orbital --- if the people who build that station would control that station, things would look very differently.

 

[KT421]

It would be nice, to give a sense of identity to explorers as a group, but also to exert some control over the government types in certain systems. Like in Eol Prou RS-T d3-94, for example.

If FleetComm were to have a minor faction, it really ought to be out by Jaques.

 

[goemon]

It would be nice, to give a sense of identity to explorers as a group, but also to exert some control over the government types in certain systems. Like in Eol Prou RS-T d3-94, for example.

If FleetComm were to have a minor faction, it really ought to be out by Jaques.

if fleet comm had a minor faction at jaques, which doesn't have a fitting goverment type, you'd have civil wars at jaques downing the security level.

otherwise you'd have an election, kicking jaques out of his station.

you can't have minor factions without struggle for control in the BGS ;-)

 

[BigZiggyHD]

And I see what is going on a Jacques as a separate thing entirely to explorers in general. Colonization is important to many explorers but not all. I leave that to the Colonia Citizen's Network to manage. Although Jacques would be a convenient location for most explorers personally I think a closer proximity to the bubble would be better. Access to engineers, the other related factions, plus if an explorer has major power ties they can get on with powerplay.

Jacques is new and exciting right now but what is it gonna be in a few months time? What happens if it's UA bombed (why is this still a thing Frontier?) As goemon pointed out with Obsidian Orbital. It may ultimately go the same way.

 

[Erimus Kamzel]

And I see what is going on a Jacques as a separate thing entirely to explorers in general. Colonization is important to many explorers but not all. I leave that to the Colonia Citizen's Network to manage. Although Jacques would be a convenient location for most explorers personally I think a closer proximity to the bubble would be better. Access to engineers, the other related factions, plus if an explorer has major power ties they can get on with powerplay.

Jacques is new and exciting right now but what is it gonna be in a few months time? What happens if it's UA bombed (why is this still a thing Frontier?) As goemon pointed out with Obsidian Orbital. It may ultimately go the same way.

Obsidian Orbital didn't have the post-construction backing for a community to spring up around it like Jaques has now got - there was no realistic chance of a distinct identity being created around it due to its proximity to the bubble.

Whereas Jaques is unique - you make a commitment to it due to the distance involved. And the CCN has already established a thriving community feel about being out there. Players are commenting that they don't ever want to go back to the bubble if they don't need to, and especially if the colony gets some decent infrastructure (the first planetary base is being built now).

It really is like the wild west frontier out there with a completely different vibe to the bubble. I think it'll thrive - especially now it has CCN for colonists to organize themselves, hold events, joint ventures, and coordinate with the CGs etc.

CCN will use the Fleetcomm private group too - so that existing community will be joined by colonists.


As for Fleetcomm as a faction, I doubt it will ever happen now. It was never the intention - it was set up to be a ready made server for major expeditions in the wake of DWE. But lately expedition organizers have began setting up their own discord servers and followed the DWE/Fleetcomm blueprint - its natural organizers want control over their own servers so in hindsight FC for expeditions was a good idea in concept, but had no longevity continuing down that route.

I've spoken to Neotron and Grnbrg about the FleetComm servers future and its pretty much agreed now that it'll ditch the expedition-host idea once the last few expeditions that are still currently using it are over, and instead go on to concentrate on being a purely exploration-based server and home to Fleetcomm the private group. The link to the Fleetcomm PG will keep it thriving but will also rule it out from being a faction in its on right - as its made up of players from many different factions and well established groups already that see it as an agenda and political-free place to hang out when not involved in bubble affairs. Its for explorers, and persuading explorers to take part in events that don't involve exploration, is like herding cats

 

[Qohen Leth]

is like herding cats

Meow