Huts for explorers

[schlowi123]

Hello commanders

The following is probably based on a misunderstanding of how player groups function. So right out with that: can player groups have a "homebase" in ANY star system? So could said home for example be at Beagle Point?

The following idea is the reason why I'm asking: How about having exploration huts like there are mountain huts?

I don't mean a full operational starport. Just a small (automatized) base in "the four corners" of the galaxy. A bit like the bases on the way to Colonia, but much more basic (if possible). And actually it may be enough with three of them, since Station X is close to the south end of the galaxy).

No power play, no market, no passengers, no police, no nothing. Just (large) landing pads. Some repair facilities and a Universal Cartographics terminal would be desirable though.
I don't even want it to be in an interesting system. I would not want these "huts" to become centers of exploration. That is one of the reasons why I would actually put it onto a barren rock, hundreds of thousand of light seconds away from the point of arrival. But that's just me.

Will that take some risk out of exploration? Probably.
Will these bases be the aim of malevolent players? Maybe. But I don't think that they are interested in flying out so far and waiting for weeks for nothing to happen.

So, is my assumption given above correct?
If yes, would that be of interest for the explorers gathered here?
If yes, how about assembling a (or two or three) player group for just this purpose?

I have found them and them and there are probably others that may be somewhat "exploration related". But they are not what I am looking for.
I am specifically looking for NOT hanging around the base but leaving the door open for everybody who needs shelter (and a shower).

As a final note: this discussion can be cut (very) short if my assumption is false.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

The following is probably based on a misunderstanding of how player groups function. So right out with that: can player groups have a "homebase" in ANY star system? So could said home for example be at Beagle Point?

A player group can choose whatever system it wants to be its home system.

However, player groups have no ability to construct facilities in systems, so about the closest you could come is the player group parking an alt with an Asp out there with some repair and fuel limpets.

For this reason most player groups pick already-inhabited systems as their "home", even if they don't necessarily spend much time there as they're usually out exploring.

 

[Dr. Nagi]

For a home base there are certain criteria that must be met when applying for a player faction:
System must be populated
No other player faction must be present
Must not be one of the "protected" ones (like Sol, Colonia, etc.)

 

[Sapyx]

No-one can "build bases".

Some player groups have managed to talk FD into running a CG that builds them a remote starport (or a movable megaship, which can serve the same purpose). But it's all hand-crafted and manually added to the game; there's no automated process to build a base, starport or anything where a ship can land.

But in the theoretical argument that such a thing might become available to certain other player groups, upon application:

I would not want these "huts" to become centers of exploration. That is one of the reasons why I would actually put it onto a barren rock, hundreds of thousand of light seconds away from the point of arrival. But that's just me.

Sorry, but they would become "centres of exploration", no matter what your wishes were. Every other remote outpost has. Just look at the player's heatmap, and the places which have been thoroughly explored. Every node which has a lot of traffic has at their nucleus either a remote outpost, or some kind of "tourist site". It would not matter how inconvenient you made it; players would still want to go there, and to use that port as a hub for local exploration.

Take Station X, the remote outpost in the Crab Nebula. It's an asteroid base 7000 LY away from Sol and the base is 12,000 Ls from the arrival point. Yet it's an extremely well-patronized starport, partly because there are no other starports within a couple thousand LYs, so anyone in the area will want to stop there and sell data. I even flew out there in a t10 battlewagon with atrocious jump range and spent several weeks there, flipping the controlling faction of the system from Anarchy to Democracy.

 

[Orvidius]

This does raise an interesting question though. Some people have theorized that the 2020 expansion might include player-constructable bases. If that's the case, I wonder what services will be available in them, and whether they can be made accessible to others (outside of the owning player/squadron). Would it be possible for players/squadrons to create outposts in far flung locations? Or will the logistics prevent that?

This isn't a confirmed feature of course, since it's all speculation until FDev starts promoting the update. Interesting ideas to consider though.

 

[schlowi123]

Thank you for the answers and clarification. So basically the functionality this idea builds upon does not exist in the game.

 

[Nort]

I see schlowi123 you have all ready surfed this idea, you are on the same wave length.
I concur with your small limited spread, the Huts need not be large ground based units just like you suggest, for a shower, a cup of tea, and some simple maintenance.
They need to be awkwardly placed, so are not easy or beneficial for mass use.
I would like to be party to a project to say ferry out components to the Huts, and or building essentials to allow the construction of the Huts to happen over time. The carrying capacity of explorers would preclude a mass and sudden hut to form. It would take say a year maybe to eventuate.
If the Huts were player group exclusive this may get more traction for FD to permit such Huts. Also for the Huts to be combat negative areas, so this would keep the gunslingers away.
There is no point having a safe resting place if the predators are permitted to spoil the wild serenity of the distant Black.

I would go further to say any one with a combat rating, is excluded totally. But thats just me! I have no time, need, or want for combat in my game.

 

[Rooster Podunk]

You guys want 7/11's?

For what? Turn the 'Black' into a suburb? I'll pass.

 

[Rooster Podunk]

1. There already are bubble expanding missions from FD. Join and haul, and help build a station.

2. You don't want combat? Turn off Open Play.

3. You don't like collecting materials to refuel, repair, add jump range? Then stay home and play the commodities market.

4. You build a rest stop you build a ganker station. I don't care how 'remote' you might make it or if you 'restrict' it to group/squadron, the gankers will be there. If you doubt it look at the threads from DW2. Deep fakes are a fact of life and the fella that you let in your group to be 'safe' might be the guy to send you back to Sol with your tail fins between your legs tomorrow. Groups/Squadrons will not protect you.

The only thing 'huts' would accomplish is shrink the whole explorer game into 'lets go to the park for a picnic'. BAH on that.

 

[Hanerib]

I think it's a great idea

 

[Nort]

Cup of tea, a clear sky, away from ?

you know !

 

[Vetinari]

50/50 on the idea.

50% love it, would be very handy to have somewhere to stop and unload or whatever.
50% hate it, makes the galaxy too easy and too suburban. Im not keen on all the stations in the middle of nowhere as it is, humanity would not have expanded so far so quick, at this rate it will be a station every 1KLY in 10 years.

This does raise an interesting question though. Some people have theorized that the 2020 expansion might include player-constructable bases.

Where do people get this idea from? In the original dev videos by DB he stated that player base building would never be a part of the game and afaik fdev have said nothing to contradict this. Faction CG base requests are all we should be able to do. If they do them theyd have to exist in Solo only or theyd spoil the Open game completely.

 

[Orvidius]

Base building was mentioned in a "leak" a while back. It was never corroborated, and no one knows how legit the leak is, but most of the other predictions it contained have come true. Also, some data mining revealed some asset names in the game that could be part of a base building update. So it's still speculative at this point, but there's enough to take notice and consider that it might happen.

 

[Sapyx]

They need to be awkwardly placed, so are not easy or beneficial for mass use.

As I said six months ago, this is impossible. No matter how "awkward" the placement, if you build it, they will come. Hordes of them. People will even fly thousands of LY out of the way, just to go there. Putting it hundreds of thousands of Ls away from the arrival point will not be an impediment to explorers, most of whom will happily fly 600,000 Ls just to map an ELW.

I would like to be party to a project to say ferry out components to the Huts, and or building essentials to allow the construction of the Huts to happen over time.

This would need FD to add a major new component to the game, which it currently does not have: some means of "delivering things" to an empty spot on a planet's surface.

The carrying capacity of explorers would preclude a mass and sudden hut to form. It would take say a year maybe to eventuate.

Um, no. Explorers currently have no carrying capacity simply because they currently don't need it. Explorers can easily add lots of carrying capacity to their ships, especially the larger explorers like Anacondas. Or people would simply take their long-haul passenger ships and swap out the passenger decks for cargo space. FD had that competition to haul Galactic Guides to Colonia; the winner player group hauled millions. You'd get the "hut" built within weeks, no matter what constraints you put on them.

Also for the Huts to be combat negative areas, so this would keep the gunslingers away.

That would be a great big "no", from pretty much everybody. "No" from FD, because it would mean (again) they would have to add a whole new aspect to the game: there are currently no "combat-negative areas". How would you enforce such a thing? The only meaningful way would be for this little tiny "explorer's hut" to have a gigantic one-shot-ship-killer god-gun installed on it. And "No" from most of the community, who do not want to see weaponry abolished completely from any part of the game.

There is no point having a safe resting place if the predators are permitted to spoil the wild serenity of the distant Black.

I can tell you weren't around when Obsidian Orbital was built. Because that'as exactly what happened to Obsidian Orbital: they went to allthe trouble of building this space station as an "explorer's safe house" (and many exploeres helped to build it quickly), then they gave it to an Anarchy faction. This is back when NPC pirate ships would interdict you and start shooting, rather than the gentleman-pirates they are today who don't shoot cargo-less explorers. Then sometime after that, they filled the region around Maia with Thargoids. FD have allowed no concept of a "safe house" that is completely free of the possibility of someone shooting at you. Even Newbie Space has pirates, as well as the possiblilty of other CMDRs attacking you.

 

[Nort]

I know I am dreaming, to think humans could have no weapons. But hay things do change, we just may evolve past the need for conflict.
Then those who devolve can sink into the mud from whence they came.

The Galaxy is big as we know it today, due to our inability to get very far in any reasonable amount of time..
The game is in it’s self false, Light speed ! tut, would be Einstein’s retort. Yet the game permits such nonsense.
Using physics to preclude an action is failing to except future developments. Light speed !!
So if light speed is as in the game achieved, why not a zone in and around a Distant Hut that physics as we know it today has a very different set of rules.
Therefor there is no reason why a destructive natured hostile is subdued by their own efforts as in Red Dwarf. Rendering them inept.
I should have been God. I would sort them out. And have a laugh at the same time.

Happy Throttling.

 

[Hanerib]

I know I am dreaming, to think humans could have no weapons. But hay things do change, we just may evolve past the need for conflict.
Then those who devolve can sink into the mud from whence they came.

The Galaxy is big as we know it today, due to our inability to get very far in any reasonable amount of time..
The game is in it’s self false, Light speed ! tut, would be Einstein’s retort. Yet the game permits such nonsense.
Using physics to preclude an action is failing to except future developments. Light speed !!
So if light speed is as in the game achieved, why not a zone in and around a Distant Hut that physics as we know it today has a very different set of rules.
Therefor there is no reason why a destructive natured hostile is subdued by their own efforts as in Red Dwarf. Rendering them inept.
I should have been God. I would sort them out. And have a laugh at the same time.

Happy Throttling.

 

[Vetinari]

Light speed is allowed or you'd spend years travelling to a system. The only other option is to have a non-realistic galaxy with no large distances. Same for escape pods, you don't want to wait 3 months to get back to a station to continue playing the game.

Physics in our galaxy is fixed, we cant have a 'different' set of physics on a planet.

Fleet Carriers could fill the gap youre talking about. I think some explorers will gang up and lay 'trails' across the galaxy. Depends ofc on what facilities are available in the FC, I cant see UC being there tbh but assume some kind of basic repair shop is available even if you have to pay a weekly wage to a mechanic.