Make a plug-in system for player-scripted missions

[CMDR Corlas]

Ok, now I know this sounds like a huge change, but hear me out, because it doesn't really have to be nearly as a big as it first sounds, and it doesn't have to impact the BGS or player progression or anything at all.

First off, the odds that Frontier already has built their own basic tools for simple scripted mission content is already pretty good. That's just... what you do to make your own job easier. So all they really have to do to start is flesh those out a bit more, add a bit of a UI, etc. It doesn't even need to be that good. Plug-in creation systems can be pretty rough, and player content creators will still work with it.

Just let people using those tools be able to:

• Spawn a ship (or on-foot NPC/SRV/whatever), name it, set a skin, and base it's AI on what's guaranteed to be one of your pre-existing AI templates (aggressive and hostile to player, pirate potentially hostile to player, neutral trader, allied with player, etc)
• Set some basic triggered flags for those NPC's behavior like "follow player", "attack", "jump away", "scoop cargo", "go silent running", "dock", etc.
• Tie existing basic mission-system scripting to that NPC; ie, transmitting messages (text or audio) to the player, offer missions or mission branches.

You could go bigger and add more to it, but you honestly wouldn't have to.

Anyway, having done that, then you have to do the real work of making a system where creators can save whatever spawns and named-NPC scripting they come up with, and share that saved file with other players so they can put it in a folder on their Elite installation that the game can then see and trigger those events. That's an addition, but wouldn't need to be a lot.

All you have to do then is make plug-ins load only when you're in Solo and have the base game flag any and all game content loaded via that plug-in system - and anything that content interacts with - as "don't send to the BGS".

So then nothing a plug-in can do could ever influence the BGS:

• Plug-in spawned ships messing with system security by fighting with authorities? Nope, none of the data from those fights never sees the BGS.
• Bounty or trade exploits? Nope. Plug-ins spawns don't have credit bounties, and plug-ins can't give you credits or engineering items, just mission-specific cargo that you can't sell.

The appropriate safeguards wouldn't be too complex to consider and build. And if it's solo-only you don't even have to worry about any possible exploits that actually are hard to design around.

People would use those tools in droves and this game could have a thriving community around custom mission chains and storylines.

Especially if you went just one extra step and let those who create private groups enable certain plug-ins to work in their group.

• Build a UI element where a list of plug-in names (and some metadata) that the group creator has enabled shows when you select a private group to play in.
• Build a basic matching system that makes sure players joining have those same plug-ins locally, and don't let them log on to that group otherwise.
• Everything else is just on the plug-in creators and the owner of the private group to mange, and not FD's problem.

The amount of content creators who would engage with that, and often become committed to engaging in their own on-going and active storytelling; and the number of engaged players who would spend money the game - I think would make it well-worth your effort.

You'd turn Elite into an interactive storytelling platform like nothing else in gaming.