Major Directional Change - Migrate ED to a First-person RTS

[VR CMDR Novindus]

Yeah nicely formatted! yeah i get what your going for, i mean i am into strategy games, or even MMO with FPS that can be dictated at the strategic level, a weak example i can use there is probably RO Rising Storm, from which the Commander Role is more strategy based in some respects. As expected though, i knew there would be push back against this idea, its not a terribly bad idea, although still flawed in some areas, although i'm not expecting you comb through every detail, although its always good since i do like problem solving/theory crafting when it comes to game mechanics. That said i get what people in the thread are saying, that it will rob some of the charm or identity away from ED. I mean i'm quite surprised alot of folks are quite positive about carriers given when i mentioned similar-ish ideas to yours, the vibe i got off other people was that you are kinda meant to be a small cog in the machine.

Never know though what the future holds & people opinions can change over time, especially as more players start playing the game. Heard about the fleet mechanic in NMS, so i suspect at some stage, some may want to see that, which put your partly on course to your concept. But for now can also understand people wanting other certain mechanics prioritized, fixing or re-balancing.

Yes, I'll get around to working on this a little more, and addressing some issues.

I'm not surprised with the push back either. There are some legitimate issues identified, so there's reason not to support the idea in its current iteration.

Understandably, some people aren't interested in having a more directly accessible RTS element in the game, and that's fair enough. Also, some people would just rather see a different direction taken in development, which is also fair. At the same time though, while I love how passionate people are about the game, it's still bizarre to see the vehement opposition to an optional gaming mode that would extend the life of the game, even under the theoretical proviso that it wouldn't negatively impact their existing play.

I find that some players can be a little overprotective of this game, which often leads to its detriment. It's almost as though only the narrowly scoped and unambitious changes are the safe bets for approval. No "game changers" lol.

I liked your suggestion by the way. Would have made for some very interesting and competitive gameplay.

 

[[PS4] Filthymick420]

Maybe. Or maybe it would just be really stupid to change the entire eatablished gameplay and genre of something that's already been out for like 6 years. I feel like if they were going to do that they probably would just make a new game.

 

[Robert Maynard]

Depends what you think may need balancing. The newer player with a Type 9 is still capable of doing the same Trade runs and making the same type of profits, and impacting the BGS in the same degree they always have.

Effect vs. time.

The proposal would massively increase the effect of players who could afford to and chose to play the RTS game - to the point where a "normal" player opposed by a Fleet Controller might as well just give up due to the disparity.

 

[Sylow]

That's the point I'm trying to get across. It doesn't replace existing ways of playing the game for those who want to continue to access current gameplay.

And that's where i disagree. I very much think that your suggestion will replace the existing way of playing. I mean, either the new system will be more efficient in achieving things than just flying your own ship. If it isn't, then why going for something of this scope? You can have something "small and fun" for much less effort. In your suggestion you can throw around plenty of ships without big limitations. (Yea, will be piloted by NPCs, but an NPC in a fully engineered ship isn't in much danger. ) So commanding a fleet of ships will quite certainly be a more efficient way of spending your game time than just flying your own ship. But if the new gameplay is more efficient, why fly your own ship, when you can just use the same time to do things much more effienciently?

Sure you can say "for fun". But at least i feel that fun can be reduced if there is a whole new system in place, telling you that you do it inefficiently and thus wrong.

I feel that it will boil down to the question if it'll be a more efficient way of achieving things than what we have now. It if is not, it's a waste of effort. If it is, it will push existing gameplay to the backseat. I consider it very unlikely that we can get anything in between. There is a reason why the examples i mentioned above don't directly let you command your assets, either.

In STO you have the duty officer system and the admirality system. What you get there are strong abstractions of actual officers or your ships and they run on the side. The same is true for the agent system in SWL. And from what i heard about the fleet system in NMS, it's also not based on sending out your own ship, but to give tasks to specially collected fleet ships.

All of them have the limitation for good reason: the main gameplay stays the same. All you get get from these systems is comparatively unimportant. Some small buffs (temporary or even permanent), a bit of extra in-game currenty and some extra XP, but nothing which really could outshine regular gameplay. That didn't happen by chance, the developers wanted to keep the main game in focus, while just providing some side activities for flavour.

Unfortunately your suggestion doesn't do that. It very much aims at allowing you to do some activities more efficiently than by the older way of playing. You say that people have earned it by getting that far. That's one point of view, but it still doesn't change the fact that older gameplay, once you reach that point, is replaced by the more efficient new way of playing. And that's why i still think that this suggestion won't be good for the game.

If your suggestion would be kind of a mini-game on the sideline, similar to the admirality system of STO, i wouldn't mind it. I might ponder if this really is what the game needs and if it wouldn't be better to invest developer time somewhere else, but something like STOs admirality system is comparatively compact and easy to implement, so it in the end probably would be allright. But by aiming as high as you do here, i consider it much too likely that existing gameplay will be outshined by the new one being more efficient and thus better.

In case of doubt, look at our community. How long will it take between the suggested system going live and people telling those who do things the old way that they are doing in wrong and have to git gud?

I do recognise though that it would be a challenge to get the implementation right.

And that's still optimistic in my eyes. As long as your system aims as high as you do, i don't think there is a sweet spot to reach. Your suggestion would have to move a good deal more to the sideline to not poach and do damage in the area of existing gameplay.