When I see an inconsitency in the game I usually chuckle then remember im first and foremost playing a game and I dont require everything to have a lore explanation in order to enjoy the game.
The problem with these sorts of threads is that:
1) This is a videogame. Not meant to be taken so seriously.
2) Nobody asks why magic mushrooms work on Mario and Luigi but not King Koopa!
Yes, it's "just a game". But, importantly, it's a
Science Fiction game. The difference between "fantasy" and "science fiction" is that, in science fiction, there's always supposed to be a logical, rational explanation for everything, including "how do you get from
here on 21st century Earth, to
there in that science-fiction universe". Saying "It just is, so switch off your rational brain and just go with the flow" works for fantasy, but not sci-fi.
Now, it is entirely possible to treat science fiction as fantasy. It's not how science fiction is designed to work, but you can still make it work. But science fiction fans will still be approaching a science fiction game from a science fiction mindset. They will be asking those "how, when, where, why" questions and expecting there to be answers. So threads like this exist in this forum, they have always existed since the game launched and and will continue to exist.
Don't get me started on artificial gravity, that just shows how lacklustre and at times inept FD can be. First they state that artificial gravity doesn't exist in 'their' galaxy to justify having spinning space stations (cos they look kewl or something - okay because of the legacy of the original Elite, I get it).
But then they completely screw up everything by having coffee machines fitted to ships. Coffee machines that need gravity to operate, otherwise there would be coffee floating all over the damn cockpit. Yes the coffee machine looks good but how about a little consistency FD, it isn't asking for much is it!
Actually, this one is easy: the coffee machine is only intended for operation in a gravitational environment - when you're landed on a planet, for example. If you try to use it in zero-G it probably bleeps and says "Sorry, Dave, I can't do that here. Please go land on a planet and try again." I don't know why they keep a piece of machinery sitting around that you can only use on certain relatively rare occasions, taking up space in the cockpit. But then, ED cockpits are so large, space doesn't seem to be much of an issue. The dangling coffee cups are clearly non-functional and decorative, a visual aid to say "this is a coffee machine", as they would be knocked around and float away if they were real coffee cups just hanging there on hooks.
So I invite the illustrious alumni of the Pilot's Federation to come up with their own versions of Lore to explain some of the things in the game that seems out of place.
For my own contribution, I find it inconceivable that high-population planets close to Earth do not all have unique, individual names. Take the Duamta system. It's less than ten light-years away. It must have been colonized in the first wave of generation ships, a thousand years ago. Yet the people of the Duamta system have, in all that time, not been able to come up with any creative names for any of the planets in their system - not even the Earth-like planet where the vast majority of them live. Instead, it's simply "Duamta 4".
My only in-lore explanation is that the planets of Duamta were colonized quite quickly, and everybody on the generation ship and in the initial colonization phase was using the original, boring nomenclature the system's first explorers gave it. By the time things settled down and it was time to start applying their imagination to giving the names to their new planets, it was too late - everyone (including their computer databases) had gotten used to using just the star-name-and-planet-number.
