Founding own colony

[Shrewzilla2]

I think it would be cool if players could setup/start their own colonies or do so on behalf of superpowers by heading out into the black and finding distant suitable planets in unexplored star systems - could work something like this: cmdr explores; finds an earthlike or terraformable world that no-one else has discovered first; completes a survey to identify best location on planet; launch claim beacon onto planet surface and naming prospect; return to the bubble to register claim; complete a multi-stage and expensive mission to fund the venture including delivering multiple resources to your claim beacon such as terraforming equipment, habitation modules, marine equipment (for water worlds etc); people (prospectors/ slaves/ administrator - might have to pay some one to oversee/run outpost?); will take multiple trips to complete and other pirates/factions/cmdrs might try to thwart your efforts!; once mission/s completed (all cargo/people etc delivered) a nice cutscene could announce your new colony up and running!; your colony could start to generate a weekly income for you depending on what it produces/needs; or it could cost money if something breaks/outbreak/famine/war etc - in this case you will have to deliver needed goods/people or pay another cmdr to deliver etc to get production back on track and stop costing you money!.

Anyone else think it would be awesome to start or even run your own colony or think of a better way for it to be implemented? - anyone in Frontier planning to do this!!!??? - don’t imagine it would be too difficult as could be handled within the missions setup and colonies could be named similarly to the way planets are first discovered by cmdrs! Could definitely add more depth to gameplay and something for cmdrs with lots of money to spend their credits on later in the game (and maybe make more if they keep their colony running smoothly or go bankrupt if they don’t manage their colony very well!).

 

[Rob At Work]

O..o now you're in trouble..did you not read the NDA about the next release?

No one is allowed to discus it..end of!

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

With the I bubble getting ever smaller due to increased FSD ranges, expansion in to new systems would be good, although I'm not sure allowing players to claim things at random would be the best way.

I think if FD overhaul how player factions work, that'd be more feasible and controlled, and very expensive, requiring dedicated group effort, to prevent rapid growth.

 

[Marc D. Ogre]

This is basically the one element that would make this game the perfect time sink for me.

I dare not to hope for it anytime soon though.

But in my dreams, I can build up a small planetary base, with landing pads, module storage, some defense weapons, and the ability to generate ressources or credits. Maybe other players could attack it and steal data, ores or something like that, what lowers my income. The possibilities are plenty.

 

[Kayweg]

Would i lile a game that's a blend between "Elite" and "Empyrion" ?
Sure, but i really think that would be too much to ask for and unreasonable.
Sort of an entire new game on top of an existing one.
They got their work cut out as it is.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

and very expensive

This is going to be the really tricky bit for Frontier to balance - how to make it practical for a substantial player group (say 25 members) to practically colonise at all, without giving the really big ones (500+ members) a new colony every week?

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

This is going to be the really tricky bit for Frontier to balance - how to make it practical for a substantial player group (say 25 members) to practically colonise at all, without giving the really big ones (500+ members) a new colony every week?

Maybe a fixed price per asset.
Larger factions can grow faster, but with diminishing returns, with a fixed "cool down" on another expansion.

So a faction of 10 CMDRs° could expand, and it'd cost 10bn credits*, and take, say, 30 days to construct a base, once every 30 days (60 day cycle) (just making up numbers here).
100 player faction still costs 10bn, but just because they're 10x bigger, does not mean 10x faster. It'll still ltake 20~ days, and can't expand again for another 30. (50 day cycle)
500 player faction would take 18~ days, so a 48 day cycle.

Running costs would also limit growth, but then we'd need a way to sell off or dismantle assets if a faction shrinks and can no longer sustain itself.

Again, totally made up numbers.
°"NPCs" also live in your faction, and are essentially your workforce, their population is a slight reflection of the CMDR population.
*Could also require refined ores and/or commodities.

So, a small faction could build, it'd take longer to gather the funds, and/or materials, and build time would be a bit slower due to lower NPC population. But the cool down is the same.
A larger faction would grow a bit faster due to faster gathering of resources and high NPC population, but still have the same cooldown.

 

[DNA-Decay]

I’d rather colonize a foundry.

 

[Cmdr Eratosthenes]

Lol these threads *smfh*

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Maybe a fixed price per asset.
Larger factions can grow faster, but with diminishing returns, with a fixed "cool down" on another expansion.

How do you stop a large player group causing several expansions with different minor factions to get around the cooldown? Or creating multiple squadrons - which the largest groups will need to do anyway - and rotating its actively working members around them, if it's based on squadrons rather than factions.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

How do you stop a large player group causing several expansions with different minor factions to get around the cooldown? Or creating multiple squadrons - which the largest groups will need to do anyway - and rotating its actively working members around them, if it's based on squadrons rather than factions.

Sorry, perhaps the use of "expansion" was a bad idea, being as it's also used as a BGS state..lol Maybe replace "expansion" in my suggestion with "colonisation".
You can only do 1 colonisation at a time.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Sorry, perhaps the use of "expansion" was a bad idea, being as it's also used as a BGS state..lol Maybe replace "expansion" in my suggestion with "colonisation".
You can only do 1 colonisation at a time.

Where "You" is what, though? A minor faction? A squadron?

A sufficiently large group of people could have several on the go in parallel by using multiple factions and squadrons to do it.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

Where "You" is what, though? A minor faction? A squadron?

A sufficiently large group of people could have several on the go in parallel by using multiple factions and squadrons to do it.

A minor faction, I assume.

Assuming FD ever expands on that system to allow players to control it better.

Personally I think PFs should be more like PowerPlay, and be separate from the BGS.
Another thread that is though.