Inconsistent Internal Narrative

SavingPrincess

SavingPrincess
In fiction writing, there are three types of consistencies:

External Consistency - Consistency with the "real" world (science biology,etc.)
Internal Consistency - Following a universes "established" rules (think Magic, the Force, etc.)
Genre Consistency - Consistency with other, similar works of fiction

Elite, almost to the point of being adorably charming, faceplants on all three of these concepts.

Here are a couple fun examples:

An 85,000,000 CR Saud Kruger Beluga Luxury Liner does not come with a built in docking computer/auto pilot mechanism.
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How are you going to market yourself as a "luxury liner" and not include basic features like that?

Data transmission is instantaneous and can travel over infinitely long distances in an instant, unless it can't.
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A lot of SciFi is guilty of this one, it falls under the "working cell phones would ruin all movies" trope.

A docking computer, designed to communicate over short distances, to a futuristic space station, takes up one ton of physical space. A small Frame Shift Drive, required to calculate and propel a ship 10+ light-years away without crashing through any celestial bodies, takes up the same space.
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Docking modules should just be a toggle in the functions panel... it's silly to have them as a separate 1t module.

A Federal Corvette, a ship the size of a small town, can be piloted by one person... but not more than three.
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Anything larger than a medium ship should have a full NPC bridge crew that chatters at you through your comms panel (or voice acted, that'd be neat).

Staying still floating inside a station for too long is a crime immediately punishable by death... ramming another ship inside the station at full speed is 100-400 CR.
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Someone on the Dev must really hate people who take too long to leave their parking spot.

A passenger will pay you 8,000,000 CR for a 40 minute trip in your sidewinder, roughly the cost of 2,656 Sidewinders.
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And thank god they do.

Any other fun internal inconsistencies you can think of?
 
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Alex Brentnall

Alex Brentnall
SavingPrincess said:
Someone on the Dev must really hate people who take too long to leave their parking spot.
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Just to deal with this one. Ramming at 100% speed is not a fine. Or at least you are incorrect in your belief of how the system works. It's based on damage to ship hit not on speed.
Shield damage = small fine
Hull damage = large fin
Lots of hull damage = huge fine
Destruction = bounty

(iirc anyway)
 

damon8r351

damon8r351
Probably the one where Elite can't decide if it has FTL communications or not. On one hand, communication is slow enough that physical courier ships are apparently a viable option for delivering time sensitive data. Then after completing certain missions, you'll get instantaneous confirmation that you did something correct and to head back for your reward.
 

stephen_usher

stephen_usher
  • When you look at the Galaxy map stars are all named. However, if you jump into an unscanned system it's "Unknown"
  • You can see other ships that the high technology scanner can't.
  • You scan a planet and suddenly you can see the side pointing away from you in the system map.
  • You can only detect surface points of interest if you're more than 2.5 Km above them but not if you can see them out of the cockpit.

That's just four off the top of my head.
 
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babelfisch

babelfisch
damon8r351 said:
Probably the one where Elite can't decide if it has FTL communications or not. On one hand, communication is slow enough that physical courier ships are apparently a viable option for delivering time sensitive data. Then after completing certain missions, you'll get instantaneous confirmation that you did something correct and to head back for your reward.
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This could be easily explained by making sure that sensible data can't be intercepted or listened to when travelling across half the galaxy.
 

verminstar

Banned
verminstar
Theres no rear view...to watch whoever is tailing ye faceplant into a mine that even a moron would see coming.

When ye die in the SRV, ye wake up back in the ship with no SRV...when ye die in an SLF, ye wake up in the ship and wait fer the automatic magic 3D printer to make an exact clone of the fighter ye just wrecked...maybe its just wheels the printer has issues with? Just spitballing a reason that actually makes sense.

And whats that about a certain brilliant at everything ship? A 400t hull ye say? Uh huh...and how big is it? Wait what? How does that work then?
 

DaggerSnake

DaggerSnake
SavingPrincess said:
In fiction writing, there are three types of consistencies:

External Consistency - Consistency with the "real" world (science biology,etc.)
Internal Consistency - Following a universes "established" rules (think Magic, the Force, etc.)
Genre Consistency - Consistency with other, similar works of fiction

Elite, almost to the point of being adorably charming, faceplants on all three of these concepts.

Here are a couple fun examples:


How are you going to market yourself as a "luxury liner" and not include basic features like that?


A lot of SciFi is guilty of this one, it falls under the "working cell phones would ruin all movies" trope.


Docking modules should just be a toggle in the functions panel... it's silly to have them as a separate 1t module.


Anything larger than a medium ship should have a full NPC bridge crew that chatters at you through your comms panel (or voice acted, that'd be neat).


Someone on the Dev must really hate people who take too long to leave their parking spot.


And thank god they do.

Any other fun internal inconsistencies you can think of?
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Should game mechanics and design built for player interaction and fun be compared to fiction writing consistencies? Or are they really very different things?
 

SavingPrincess

SavingPrincess
Genus said:
It's not as if they have standards⸮
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Yeah, they let me in with no questions asked. Technically, every criminal/smuggler in the galaxy is also part of the Pilot's Federation.

You guys I found the concept art for the docking module:

9GMR84D.png
 
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SavingPrincess

SavingPrincess
babelfisch said:
You both didn't read the link I provided.
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No I did, I just didn't see the part where being part of this "secretive" group makes it cool for anyone to be like "here's my sensitive data, please take it where it needs to go BUT DON'T OPEN IT because I can't trust sending it wirelessly."
 

Zynniah

Zynniah
When you buy a brand new right off the lot Viper Mk IV, the dashboard looks like it was pulled out of a junkyard, from a ship that crashed and burned after 10 years of very hard use and the first time it got cleaned was when the dealership tried to wipe off the grime about a month before you bought your brand spanking new top-of-the-line ship.
 

babelfisch

babelfisch
SavingPrincess said:
No I did, I just didn't see the part where being part of this "secretive" group makes it cool for anyone to be like "here's my sensitive data, please take it where it needs to go BUT DON'T OPEN IT because I can't trust sending it wirelessly."
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Quite funny that you make a thread about the lore but know nothing about it... ;)

PS
No, you didn't read it.

At the time, independent pilots were generally mistrusted, the itinerant nature of their profession giving rise to perceptions of irresponsibility. The Pilots Federation's strict code of conduct put an end to this, and over time a galaxy-wide respect for its members emerged.[5]
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SavingPrincess

SavingPrincess
Zynniah said:
When you buy a brand new right off the lot Viper Mk IV, the dashboard looks like it was pulled out of a junkyard, from a ship that crashed and burned after 10 years of very hard use and the first time it got cleaned was when the dealership tried to wipe off the grime about a month before you bought your brand spanking new top-of-the-line ship.
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The "distressed" look is super in right now.

babelfisch said:
Quite funny that you make a thread about the lore but know nothing about it... ;)

PS
No, you didn't read it.
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"Quite funny"

Okay cool, so you understood the intent of the post... nice work.
 
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