Is it time to decom the carrier?

[aRJay]

It'd be a nice gesture if the Brewer corporation offered, say, a 50% reduction to upkeep charges during weeks when FCs are unable to operate correctly.

But it would only be a gesture given how easy most FC owners find covering the upkeep costs.

FLEET CARRIER
Total commodities exported	1,549
Total commodities imported	27,060
Credits earned from commodities	156,449 Cr
Credits spent on commodities	2,494,950,710 Cr (Tritium)
Credits earned from stolen goods	0 Cr
Credits spent on stolen goods	0 Cr
Total travel distance	79,033.86 Ly
Number of carrier jumps	190
Total ships sold	0
Credits earned from shipyard	0 Cr
Total modules sold	436
Credits earned from outfitting	2,097,629 Cr
Total ships restocked	75
Total ships refuelled	433
Credits earned from refuelling	172 Cr
Total ships repaired	275
Redemption office exchanges	3,288
Redemption office payouts	722,658,919 Cr

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

But it would only be a gesture given how easy most FC owners find covering the upkeep costs.

It honestly baffles me how many CMDRs are still complaining given how easy credits are made and how many get rich quickly schemes are out there. My carrier is covered for over five years, and the 19.7 million it costs per week are a rounding error on my credit balance. And I am lazy as f... in terms of credit making.

 

[Stealthie]

It honestly baffles me how many CMDRs are still complaining given how easy credits are made and how many get rich quickly schemes are out there. My carrier is covered for over five years, and the 19.7 million it costs per week are a rounding error on my credit balance. And I am lazy as f... in terms of credit making.

The complaint isn't really about the cost of FC Upkeep.
It's more the fact that we can't actually make use of our FCs as intended.

If Brewer offered some kind of refund/discount when we can't use our FCs as intended it would, at least, be an acknowledgement that there was an issue and it's harder to complain about stuff when you're not actually paying for it.

 

[Greasetrap42]

What are your thoughts?

If nothing else, the fleet carrier is good for storing rare commodities you would like to keep on hand and don't want to fly all over the place to get when you need them. Guardian stuff, Thargoid stuff, etc. Currently nothing else in the game offers this storage function.

It seems that the game is increasing the amount of 'stuff' a cmdr needs to collect. Thargoid war in a big way did this. Without knowing what updates are coming, IMO it would be a mistake to throw this away. It might be handy to have a carrier ready 'on demand' when you want it. Especially considering its a trivial cost to simply park it while you don't need it.

 

[Tyres O'Flaherty]

Thanks for all your replies - it's interesting reading!

One thing coming through is - at least to me - is that the FC is useful storage tool. And, of course, it is that.

However, my "complaint", as it were, was really about the current jump times. As @Stealthie says above, I can't use mine as intended, and, given so many are doing colonisation (and why not? It's new content after all) this may not change for a while, if ever.

I understand there are server-side constraints (which I have only a tenuous grasp of) that prevent a jump taking less than 15 minutes or allow a carrier to jump a little like a ship does i.e. usually really quickly. However, does a stationary carrier have any impact on the whole carrier status galaxy wide?

I.e. only those that request a jump need the servers to process that call?

I suspect this is the case but, if just having a carrier in-game impacts performance then I have an idea.

I am slowly coming around to the idea that I should just keep the carrier, stop moaning and suck up the fact that a jump now takes 5 times longer than initially (almost) intended.

 

[Aerendyl]

It honestly baffles me how many CMDRs are still complaining given how easy credits are made and how many get rich quickly schemes are out there. My carrier is covered for over five years, and the 19.7 million it costs per week are a rounding error on my credit balance. And I am lazy as f... in terms of credit making.

I wish carrier upkeep would pause when I'm not playing. I'm happy to do some plant scanning to cover expenses if I'm actively playing but if I want to go on vacation or play something else for a few months, I'd like my Elite game to go into stasis. I'd be a lot happier if it just evaluated whether I had played at all in a particular week and if yes, charge upkeep for that week. I play other games and have other interests besides Elite.

 

[Aerendyl]

Thanks for all your replies - it's interesting reading!

One thing coming through is - at least to me - is that the FC is useful storage tool. And, of course, it is that.

However, my "complaint", as it were, was really about the current jump times. As @Stealthie says above, I can't use mine as intended, and, given so many are doing colonisation (and why not? It's new content after all) this may not change for a while, if ever.

I understand there are server-side constraints (which I have only a tenuous grasp of) that prevent a jump taking less than 15 minutes or allow a carrier to jump a little like a ship does i.e. usually really quickly. However, does a stationary carrier have any impact on the whole carrier status galaxy wide?

I.e. only those that request a jump need the servers to process that call?

I suspect this is the case but, if just having a carrier in-game impacts performance then I have an idea.

I am slowly coming around to the idea that I should just keep the carrier, stop moaning and suck up the fact that a jump now takes 5 times longer than initially (almost) intended.

I lost my carrier in a freak "didn't play the game for two years" accident. So far I've not bought it back yet because I'm kinda enjoying the freedom of doing whatever I like instead of what makes money. I've been doing stealth training via courier missions, collecting material rewards and practising stealing things.

 

[IstvaanDCIV]

Thanks for all your replies - it's interesting reading!

One thing coming through is - at least to me - is that the FC is useful storage tool. And, of course, it is that.

However, my "complaint", as it were, was really about the current jump times. As @Stealthie says above, I can't use mine as intended, and, given so many are doing colonisation (and why not? It's new content after all) this may not change for a while, if ever.

I understand there are server-side constraints (which I have only a tenuous grasp of) that prevent a jump taking less than 15 minutes or allow a carrier to jump a little like a ship does i.e. usually really quickly. However, does a stationary carrier have any impact on the whole carrier status galaxy wide?

I.e. only those that request a jump need the servers to process that call?

I suspect this is the case but, if just having a carrier in-game impacts performance then I have an idea.

I am slowly coming around to the idea that I should just keep the carrier, stop moaning and suck up the fact that a jump now takes 5 times longer than initially (almost) intended.

I'm pretty sure that a stationary carrier that never makes a jump request has the same impact on the game servers' performance as any other dockable station. I think that there have been other occasions, besides game updates, in which carrier jump times shoot up due to massively increased demand.

Having somewhere to stash commodities is certainly one of the reasons I appreciate having my own fleet carrier. In addition to temporary storage of bulk items, I'm also steadily growing a private collection of ultra-rare goods, illegal salvage, Thargoid trophies, Guardian objects, weapons, and drugs.

I've got over three billion in the carrier account, so upkeep is something I won't have to worry about for a good few years at least.

It's nice having a single place that's close enough to being actually mine, where I can store all of my ships and modules, that I can move if I really have to. But I don't have any pressing need to move all of the above on demand like many of the people complaining about carrier jump times seem to. Even at the best of times, 15 minutes is just a ridiculous amount of time for me to spend twiddling my thumbs waiting around for a ship to move. I'd much rather jump into the pilot seats of the ships I can actually fly and get the job done in less time.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Won't be giving up mine. The FC jump times will settle down once the colonization rush is over.

 

[Bigmaec]

Made a jump an hour ago with 22 minutes of wait

 

[Andy Gee]

Admittedly, I have a rather unusual and bizarre concept for using the carrier: if I don't need it for a long time, I simply decommission it, and when I need it again, I just get a new one.

 

[krylite]

Thanks for all your replies - it's interesting reading!

One thing coming through is - at least to me - is that the FC is useful storage tool. And, of course, it is that.

However, my "complaint", as it were, was really about the current jump times. As @Stealthie says above, I can't use mine as intended, and, given so many are doing colonisation (and why not? It's new content after all) this may not change for a while, if ever.

I understand there are server-side constraints (which I have only a tenuous grasp of) that prevent a jump taking less than 15 minutes or allow a carrier to jump a little like a ship does i.e. usually really quickly. However, does a stationary carrier have any impact on the whole carrier status galaxy wide?

I.e. only those that request a jump need the servers to process that call?

I suspect this is the case but, if just having a carrier in-game impacts performance then I have an idea.

I am slowly coming around to the idea that I should just keep the carrier, stop moaning and suck up the fact that a jump now takes 5 times longer than initially (almost) intended.

I think there's a good chance the jump times could be resolved back to their original times at some point. I'm just guessing on this, but it seems to have been somewhat of an unanticipated problem with all the extra jumping going on with several doing colonization activities. Why did it incur longer waiting jump times? My guess is that jumps are put on a queue to keep it so there are a set limited number of carrier jumps allowed per minute or whatever time period so that it doesn't overwhelm the servers and the game down to a problematic point. And I think a major issue is persistence. The fleet carriers are like personal stations with a bunch ship objects and items that move along with it. And some of the items are available to guests to interact with on some level even if the player isn't online. Then each star system details , updated system map, etc., which includes any new parked fleet carriers probably need to be updated and more frequently with fc jumping and kept as persistent game assets for the whole shared galaxy.

However, ED has gone through plenty of issues in its history. Lots of slowdowns or unintended problems or issues with updates or new features. Like Odyssey took about a year of over ten patches to finally get it a much smoother and faster framerate and gameplay for most players, fixing issues and optimizing (such as better culling out of sight rendering and optimization which was mentioned then). So I've no doubt FDev are very aware the current fc jump times is a primary issue, and somebody and resources are currently or eventually going to resolve or gradually improve on this issue. o7

 

[Stealthie]

Made a jump an hour ago with 22 minutes of wait

Must admit, since the end of the last CG, every time I've tried to move my FC away from Minerva I've got a "No time-slots available" message so I guess I can see how people who have FC-related stuff to do might be irritated.

Personally, however, it just doesn't bother me enough that I even try more than once to move it.
I've got plenty of other stuff to be doing so I just get my spaceship jollies doing the stuff I can do.

 

[Aerendyl]

I think there's a good chance the jump times could be resolved back to their original times at some point. I'm just guessing on this, but it seems to have been somewhat of an unanticipated problem with all the extra jumping going on with several doing colonization activities. Why did it incur longer waiting jump times? My guess is that jumps are put on a queue to keep it so there are a set limited number of carrier jumps allowed per minute or whatever time period so that it doesn't overwhelm the servers and the game down to a problematic point. And I think a major issue is persistence. The fleet carriers are like personal stations with a bunch ship objects and items that move along with it. And some of the items are available to guests to interact with on some level even if the player isn't online. Then each star system details , updated system map, etc., which includes any new parked fleet carriers probably need to be updated and more frequently with fc jumping and kept as persistent game assets for the whole shared galaxy.

However, ED has gone through plenty of issues in its history. Lots of slowdowns or unintended problems or issues with updates or new features. Like Odyssey took about a year of over ten patches to finally get it a much smoother and faster framerate and gameplay for most players, fixing issues and optimizing (such as better culling out of sight rendering and optimization which was mentioned then). So I've no doubt FDev are very aware the current fc jump times is a primary issue, and somebody and resources are currently or eventually going to resolve or gradually improve on this issue. o7

Yup there are probably an extreme number of jump requests - a lot of people must be playing to create 13,000 new colonies in just a few days.

 

[Montague]

However, my "complaint", as it were, was really about the current jump times. As @Stealthie says above, I can't use mine as intended, and, given so many are doing colonisation (and why not? It's new content after all) this may not change for a while, if ever.

....I am slowly coming around to the idea that I should just keep the carrier, stop moaning and suck up the fact that a jump now takes 5 times longer than initially (almost) intended.

Now you're talking sense. Jump times will settle down as they work the bugs out of Trailblazers. And what else are you going to spend credits on? My upkeep is only around 15 million a week and I'm thinking about adding all the other services just to give a tiny bit more meaning to all the credits I'm accumulating.

 

[Rat Catcher]

stop moaning and suck up the fact that a jump now takes 5 times longer than initially (almost) intended.

Except it doesn't...

But it does during peak playing hours, with thousands of CMDRs feeling the need to jump their FC to truck Commodities..

 

[Born Free]

Except it doesn't...

View attachment 420400

But it does during peak playing hours, with thousands of CMDRs feeling the need to jump their FC to truck Commodities..

you would feel the need if you were a noob like me and on day one started an Ocellus.
the game graciously placed the colonisation ship on the secondary star 267,000 LS from the main star.
try building that without a carrier and the "need to jump FC"
not complaining... i did end up with a system with 23 icy worlds. has a gas giant and another planet with pristine rings, one has diamonds
39 orbital sites and 46 ground sites

 

[Cymoril]

If your FC seems a little impersonal, you could always try EDCoPilot. With that, the FC greets you every time you drop in and messages you when you leave. You can even add your own lines for the FC to say. It's a small point but gets rid of that tick of annoyance when your FC treats you the same as everyone else.

 

[Rat Catcher]

you would feel the need if you were a noob like me and on day one started an Ocellus.
the game graciously placed the colonisation ship on the secondary star 267,000 LS from the main star.
try building that without a carrier and the "need to jump FC"

Sounds normal for the way the system works... (one of the reasons my Cutter has a SCO FSD fitted)

The point, which you appear to have missed, is that FC jump times depend on how many players are asking for a slot - at peak times it is longer / no slots
At this time in the morning, in the UK, it is normal, as most folk are going to work etc.

I decided to pass on an Ocellus as my first build, as I wasn't confident in being able to finish it in 28 days, so bravo for your confidence!

 

[Born Free]

it takes me almost a full day of playing off/on in order to fill up my carrier. so i'm doing 2 jumps per day max
no time to waste. most of the time so far was docking/undocking on planets / stations / FC.