Hutton Orbital.. A revisit of an old post that's been around 3 years...

[MBaldelli]

Originally from: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/63056-Alpha-Centauri-Warning

Alpha centauri was like this in Frontier, too. It's huge because it's a binary star system.

We're hoping ED will eventually allow a way to jump to a specific star, so this will be less of an issue.

All right, let me get this straight.

Almost three years after the start of the above thread, all I see for the distance to Hutton Orbital is that there's nothing more than a hashtag #ForTheMug. No Achievements... No special concessions... Nothing of great value for the 40 - 90 minutes of in game supercruise from Alpha Centauri to Proxima Centauri because of the distance between the two stars.

Well other than the value that's it's been in the game since the 80s.

Let me start by adding this quote..

Do not believe in what you have heard; do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations; do not believe in anything because it is rumoured and spoken by many; do not believe merely because a written statement of some old sage is produced; do not believe in conjectures; do not believe in that as truth to which you have become attached from habit; do not believe merely the authority of your teachers and elders. After observation and analysis, when it agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and gain of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.

Close-distance hyperspace jumps are not a new concept to science fiction. They have been around since the 60s, easily. Fast forward into the 90s and we have science-fiction writers introducing not only close-distance jumping within a star system, but also being able to use jumping from other stars to get closer to a point using triangulation outside of the entry system.

From my perspective, you [the developers] can barely get people to explore and survey stars and planets in binaries, trinaries, etc. when the next star in the system is ~125K Light Seconds away from entry. There are some -- like the Hutton Truckers --- that take a certain pride in doing it. But what about the other 200,000 players (unconfirmed at the time of the post)? Is there a reason? Other than an outdated tradition that this has been around since Elite?

What incentive is there to keeping this in place? Or was this simply forgotten in the midst of all the bits that need to be added and fixed since the last updates?

 

[Rustnsawdust]

Search shows 12 threads on this in the last week. Don't see how FD could possibly have forgotten.

 

[bitstorm]

What incentive is there to keeping this in place? Or was this simply forgotten in the midst of all the bits that need to be added and fixed since the last updates?

Seriously dude, who gives a monkey's.

Go visit one of the other 200,000 stations and stop stressing yourself so much about this one.

 

[MBaldelli]

Seriously dude, who gives a monkey's.

Go visit one of the other 200,000 stations and stop stressing yourself so much about this one.

I would have probably forgotten about it and kept to my missions without ever stopping by Alpha Centauri ever again except... I did a passenger mission where instead of coming into on the A Star -- which is definitely the norm for most star systems in and out of the bubble -- I ended up coming in on the B star instead.

While the distance from B to A was a paltry 44K Light Seconds, this particular mission proves that it can be done and this .22 LY distance from Alpha to Proxima Centauri seems to be proof of poor design kept around for tradition's sake... If you have problems with that I'm implying, do be sure to read the italics quote I included in the OP.

 

[AJW]

Working as intended.

 

[Alec Turner]

Oh dear, where to begin.

Some things in this game are "hard" (or take a long time or require more than one button press). Some people complain about these things and ask that they be made "easy". Other people turn these "difficulties" on their head and make them into emergent content. The Fuel Rats are one such example, the Hutton Truckers are another. The shear amount of alternative gameplay, roleplay, socialising (both in and out of game), media (podcasts, radio shows, blogs, etc), merchandise and general enjoyment that have come out of the simple fact that it's a long way to Hutton is quite beyond estimation (although, and you seem to be an explorer so this might resonate with you as a comparison, I'd say it's easily comparable to the amount of emergent "content" that came out of the Distant Worlds expedition).

What incentive is there to keeping this in place?

Because an entire ecosystem of enjoyment has evolved around it and it would be a very great shame to spoil that.

P.S. And no, I'm not a Hutton Trucker (although I am very fond of them and did take part in the original Hutton Mug CG).

 

[Lestat]

Here my Suggestion the old topic Alpha Centauri Warning.. It still active. USE it instead of a copy cat topic under a different location. The other topic has all the info people need.

 

[MBaldelli]

P.S. And no, I'm not a Hutton Trucker (although I am very fond of them and did take part in the original Hutton Mug CG).

Hmm!! I didn't realize there was a CG and something to get out of it. I did try looking, but even Hutton Orbital Trucking doesn't reference it (unlike Fuel Rats that have several sections on their site). Looking at the various trade/station sites it would appear that the mug is no longer part of the inventory there (not sure if it's there and the sites I use simply omitted it). And again, where's the incentive for those of us that weren't here for that CG event? Should I personally suffer through the trip for what? The Palladium I acquired from another station and got paid for it already?

I admit, my underlying motivation with this suggestion is that I also want to keep myself (and others honest) in this hurdle. After all, I wasn't here for the CG however what's stopping me from saying I did it recently? My say so? I can easily lie and unless you were there for it, I don't have to provide video proof of the trip there. And if I can do this lying -- imagine 200,000 other people doing the same thing.

One can keep this hurdle in place without any problem; even if the proposed incentive is nothing more than getting a single decal to put on your ship to show you did it. It can even be something that shows it's not part of the original CG. Original CG folk can get something different as that data easily exists somewhere on their servers. I'll admit, Digital Extremes has spoiled me with this. As a Tenno since the month after open beta I have plenty of tchotchkes right down to parts of my dojo that were around since Clans were first introduced so many years ago. Seems rather common sense as many other MMOs I've played have something similar in place still years later.

Here my Suggestion the old topic Alpha Centauri Warning.. It still active. USE it instead of a copy cat topic under a different location. The other topic has all the info people need.

You are aware I originally referenced the very same message.

However, going on the theory of a message buoy upon entry to Alpha Centauri, I agree. I'll even endorse if it's in the galactic map much like permits required for many of the systems I still have yet to unlock.

Finally, Lestat... Why was that 76 pages done in Discussions? A Suggestions Forum does have a purpose you know. Even as a Beta Tester, I tend to look in Suggestions first before scrounging through other forums ad nausea, ad infinitum. I try not to duplicate work and given developers and their assistants are over-inundated by nature they prefer to stick to certain forums first before scanning other forum groups for ideas.

Don't worry though, after this I'm through with responses. I've said my peace, even got a bit of brainstorming going thanks to Alec Turner. After this, it's time to let it sit here and let the developers and their assistants work through whether this discussion is noteworthy of changes or to ignore it completely.

 

[Teh Smoo]

How about this:

Researchers at Hutton Orbital work night and day on a new pseudo-jump drive, to get them resupply from the nearby star in non-stupid amounts of time (a ~100,000 ls jump device).

They eventually succeed, but early prototypes destabilize the star in a weird way. So, ironically, Alpha Centauri is the only system where it DOES NOT work! (Also opens the door to ways to disrupt this drive, if needed for plot reasons.)

This preserves the Hutton run, but puts in the ability to knock 100k ls off of treks.