Is it just me or have Fleet Carriers ruined the game?

GunnerBill

GunnerBill
IMO FC's have ruined the game.

I can't find anyone in open anymore and now I'm stuck in an Orange Sidewinder hell in a system infested with the blighters.

And whether it's a coincidence or not but since the FC update Haz Res seem to spawn endless rubbish of +/- Expert ships.

New Rule: Fleet Carriers can only be operated and accessed in OPEN.
 

[PS4] Lorenzo Waringos

[PS4] Lorenzo Waringos
They have introduced a ton of bugs into the game, a possible exploit has been highlighted through their existence. The forum is as nearly filled with them as most hotspot selling systems in the game are. In general they have created some salt and some glee. There are arguments raging over them, this one included. There have been calls for compensation because of them or their associated issues, and some say they spell doom for the game whilst others say they are the best thing ever.

Based on all of the above I'd say they're just like any other feature that has been introduced into Elite previously.
 

dubsdj

dubsdj
I'm just astounded how many fleet carriers there are. I never imagined so many people could afford them! I guess fdev were right about putting such a high price on them, maybe they should have upped it to 10 billion!
 

Factabulous

Factabulous
Tonight:
  • 1 jump in my FC to near Polaris to pick up an Alt - bought the Polaris system info while I was there (y)
  • then 1 jump to Sterope II to let the alt hand in a Thargoid Heart for the AXI CG - avoiding the need for the alt to outfit corrosion resistant stuff (y)
  • then 1 jump to Djabara to check out a Tip Off mission - handily I had the right ship on-board for that (y)

So they're working out ok for me :D

(Oh, and tomorrow another alt is doing a 20k LY trip as part of a DSSA deployment. It'll take a while, but will be good to have that permanent base out there once it's done)
 

Nikephorus Phocas

Nikephorus Phocas
dubsdj said:
I'm just astounded how many fleet carriers there are. I never imagined so many people could afford them! I guess fdev were right about putting such a high price on them, maybe they should have upped it to 10 billion!
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Even 10bil, I'd still have one. It would have just forced me to mine more for long term maintenance. I'd be curious to how many bought one, put a ton of credits in to cover maintenance for years and not really play the game. That's what will suck.
 

Sysmon

Sysmon
They add great gameplay opportunities at a great cost to the rest of the game. Those that like them seem to just want to play with them and don't care about anything else. So they are if nothing else rather polarising.

I would like to get one, eventually. But not in their current form. They are dead boring, really, with just the most simplistic base management mechanics in place and no direct role except as door stops in the regards to the BGS.

To make them more interesting:

  1. Diversify upkeep. The upkeep probably represents the monetary value of what is needed to run the carriers, including crew salaries and commodities. Let us swap the credits with commodities, and let those commodities be stuff we can also find outside the bubble.
  2. Remove UC from the carriers. That was a really dumb move, as it makes no sense to install money printers on carriers. Instead, UC and similar offices should hand out tokens that in effect will work as a way to "save" game progress to a carrier but would still need to be handed in at a real station to get credits for it.
  3. Make carriers targetable for attack. They should not be totally destructible, but it should be possible to drive them away by destroying turrets and otherwise damaging them.
  4. Make them interact with the BGS based on onboard market settings. They are real threats to local economies, so the BGS should be allowed to respond to them. That could range from active trading to a new conflict zone scenario where local militia attacks (and/ potentially defends!) a carrier that is not or only partially welcome where it is.
  5. Make factions in systems decide via a table or two how many carriers they will tolerate in a system. That could be modified based on carrier activities (good or bad for local economy?) and activity of player visiting them as well.
  6. Upkeep is low, but probably fine if point 1 is implemented. But also add an inactivity counter, so after 5 seconds (or, as a compromise, a few months) without player interaction, the crew packs up shop and leaves the carrier for better pastures. The carrier is then open game for anyone else to hack into, empty of stuff, and eventually blow up or take over.
:D S
 

Rat Catcher

Rat Catcher
GunnerBill said:
IMO FC's have ruined the game.

I can't find anyone in open anymore and now I'm stuck in an Orange Sidewinder hell in a system infested with the blighters.

And whether it's a coincidence or not but since the FC update Haz Res seem to spawn endless rubbish of +/- Expert ships.

New Rule: Fleet Carriers can only be operated and accessed in OPEN.
Click to expand...
First: Sorry about your Orange Sidewinder hell... Have you tried asking support to put you somewhere less crowded?

As for the Haz RES sites - one of my favourite mat gathering pastimes: I've not noticed any lack of higher ranked prey in comparison to pre-FC lauch, it is still the same old RNG 'Luck' but the ones I frequent have been fairly productive - but do keep in mind that if tat (I get days where it is mainly Patreus Sentinels too...) is the order of the day, leaving and coming back only takes a minute or two, or even log to menu and come back in, just resetting the instance can make a massive difference.

As for FC's ruining the game - although I have yet to purchase one as I refuse to mine myself into oblivion - I do see uses for me that will add to my gameplay, so I'm afraid I'll have to, tentatively, disagree with the comment... but it is done with the greatest grace and in no way disparaging your opinion as incorrect.
 

Sysmon

Sysmon
Frillop Freyraum said:
Some are really miffed while most seem to be quite happy with their FC. Reminds me of one of the devs in a podcast during early beta, who said FCs are not for everyone. And he certainly didn't only mean the high entry price. Personally, I can't say anything about their trading functionality as I'm using my FC in a way that most likely wasn't intended initially. To me they are the missing link I was always waiting for...
Click to expand...

People have posted how they use the carrier to explore slowly and in more detail, including more mining. That is the game play (or one of the types of game play) I wanted to use them for. But with UC and only Tritium of interest, that game play to me still looks way too simplistic and still raises more questions than it answers about the shallowness of the game mechanics.

:D S
 

Cmdr Redmail

Cmdr Redmail
Personally I love my FC, it's brought me back to the game and breathed a new lease of life into the way I play Elite, both exploring and mining with the odd case of pewpew to break the monotony / have a go at the pesky pirates.

I'm miffed at the software limits in play, the fact we can't get into systems with our FC due to insufficient slots (which will be worse as I understand FDev are having to reduce the number of slots in order to combat the Orange Sidewinder and Xbox/PS4 crashing issues)

What we need is a queuing system so that our crew can move the FC to a location when a slot does appear. Rather than me sitting here for 2-3 hours "grinding" the set jump point button

Welcome to Elite: Grinder where all you do all day is press a button waiting for a slot to appear so you can then get on with the next aspect of your trading experience (when there's a rush on a commodity we can't get into the buy/sell system because of the FC limit - this needs to be fixed asap imho)

Keep clear of the toaster!

Cmdr Fido
 

CMDR Yates

C
Pretty happy with the update, to be honest. They've introduced a lot of new dynamics, especially for deep space exploration (in my case).

Yeah, the crashes I'm hearing about (but haven't experienced) sound like a pain, and it's kinda cluttered on the system map when there's too many of them, but hopefully both of these will be patched soon.
 

Sysmon

Sysmon
Frillop Freyraum said:
Removing the UC from the carriers would ruin them for me. I'd rather they ruin your game. :p Just saying...
Click to expand...

Even if UC in some form was still there, preserving your data as tokens that can be handed in later? Even if upkeep was possible (at least in parts) by scavenging for minerals and mats to keep the operations running?

UC took exploration out of exploration, as there is no need to come back and exploration is not done for any strategic purpose anymore. Now it is really just sightseeing, and not really my cup of tea. A shame, considering I spent 75% of my time or more deep in the black exploring.

:D S
 

Sysmon

Sysmon
Frillop Freyraum said:
What you call 'shallowness' is the first time that something I do in ED makes actually some sense, a compelling reason to do something. Even if it's nothing but a circular dependency - it is a dependency and the first time where something doesn't feel optional to me. This gameloop is just brilliant and never ending.
Click to expand...

Yeah that game loop is really attractive. I just need the connect to the rest of the game as well, or it just feels like spinning gears without purpose. That disjointedness is a curse for Elite, and visible in several other aspects of the game. Most notably Powerplay and CQC, but to some extent also the whole ignorable Thargoid story.

So yes, we can keep saying "just ignore them" as we have so far been able to ignore many other introduced elements if they don't quite suit our styles. However, I would rather have everything fit together properly or I don't see how future additions will give us any improvements (I'm looking at you, atmospheric space legs).

:D S
 
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