Mind numbingly boring hauling

[Starshot_Jigawatts]

Before Trailblazers I rarely did any hauling outside of community goals (and even then I prefer the bounty hunting side, if available). Because really, there are more interesting ways to make money than hauling commodity X from station A to station B and commodity Y from B to A. And there was no other reason to do hauling besides making money (or, I guess if you really, really like space trucking—nothing wrong with that!)

But building my own colony is different. Hauling is a means to an end and it makes a real, visible difference in the actual game world. This I enjoy; I've always liked building things in games—player homes in Skyrim; production complexes in X3; stations, mining rigs and hangars in Space Engineers.

Especially since Trailblazer hauling is a racing game in disquise—hauling Asp while hauling my Asp off is kind of fun. I've got my 3-jump loop from surface site to surface site down to 10 minutes from 15 or so, and trying not to belly-flop a fully loaded Cutter while landing as fast as possible is a skill that takes learning I feel confident that I can build a surface outpost easily in 9 hours, maybe even 8. And I will solo an Orbis in my new home system as the final piece.

I also want to tackle the logistical challenge of solo building a primary outpost 200k ls away from the main star in another system.

Yeah but it doesn't feel like we're really building. It's more like filling in columns on a spreadsheet. I have to be honest but after Eve Online I swore I would never play another space game that required Excel. Major Eve Online vibes I'm getting from Trailblazers, it's not good.

 

[Jmanis]

Yeah but it doesn't feel like we're really building. It's more like filling in columns on a spreadsheet. I have to be honest but after Eve Online I swore I would never play another space game that required Excel. Major Eve Online vibes I'm getting from Trailblazers, it's not good.

Yeah, that is actually a concern for me... like... regardless of whether I like this stuff or not... I got into Elite because it wasn't EVE (and I was heavy into EVE)... but Trailblazers does feel somewhat "EVE From Temu".

 

[CMDR Vhi]

Yeah but it doesn't feel like we're really building. It's more like filling in columns on a spreadsheet. I have to be honest but after Eve Online I swore I would never play another space game that required Excel. Major Eve Online vibes I'm getting from Trailblazers, it's not good.

It's funny, the day Colonization was released, I literally created a spreadsheet to help track what needed to be gathered and what was already delivered, because the game puts that information in an awkward place.

 

[Shurimal]

I guess being able to hire up to 4 NPC-s in T9-s that haul stuff from a location the player specifies (or the nearest Trailblazer megaship) as long as the player is logged into the game and within a certain distance of the colonized star system (so no unattended colonization) would not be too unbalanced. Of course they'd demand 1 million credits per hour, be way slower (no SCO, 10 ly jumprange when loaded) and have a chance of losing the cargo to pirates every now and then, requiring the player to reimburse the cargo cost. And if they die, they're gone, requiring a new hire.

 

[Jinx Chrome]

Right now, this is the current flagship feature that has players returning to the game, im not sure there is something else more important than making colonisation not burn out players like pp1 did. Except maybe having some devs fixing the long standing bugs, like pp2 rares and escape pods being disabled, carrier transfer being glacially slow, market on em being broken....

Flagship or not, there are as many requests to change / optimize this game loop as there a players. It would take forever to change the stuff to a set of game loops which cater all those who want to play colonisation. Particularly, when looking at the diverging requests (too expensive, too cheap, more influence, more distance, closer settlement placement, more BGS, less BGS, more game loops, etc.)

I'd say that with the same right a new feature in a different area of ED (atmospheres, interiors, exploration, new galactic civilisations/raise of the Guardian AIs, just to name a few - there are more for sure!) will attract the same amount of new / recurring players. In the recent Frontier Unlocked, FDev has stated that "Colonisation is feature complete". There's no point in asking for such large scale changes. It is what it is (unfortunately, because I also had the plan to do a bit of colonising of a small backwater system for weary explorers returning to the bubble. Alas, it won't happen because the feature won't allow me to build what I had in my mind).

 

[Dillon Fallon]

It's funny, the day Colonization was released, I literally created a spreadsheet to help track what needed to be gathered and what was already delivered, because the game puts that information in an awkward place.

The system map? I've not found it that awkward given that I've had to plot a route to the location anyway.

 

[CMDR Vhi]

The system map? I've not found it that awkward given that I've has to plot a route to the location anyway.

I leverage my FC, and bookmarks, such that I don't spend a lot of time on the galmap and almost no time on the system map.

 

[Dillon Fallon]

I leverage my FC, and bookmarks, such that I don't spend a lot of time on the galmap and almost no time on the system map.

That doesn't make it a bad place to put it given that it only takes 4 mouse clicks.

 

[CMDR Vhi]

That doesn't make it a bad place to put it given that it only takes 3 mouse clicks.

Not all of us play with M&KB, and it isn't a bad place, but it's bad that it's the only place.

 

[Shurimal]

Someone said somewhere that supposedly an API for colonization is in the works (can't verify that rumor, ofc). If so, we'll have a 3rd party tool to help with the spreadsheet aspect of things

As of now, I just take screenshots of the material list and alt-tab into it when filling my Cutter.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

twice now I have somehow screwed up my numbers. am 7 tons short on titanium and it's quite frustrating esp as I jumped my fleet carrier only 3/4 full so I could have packed in the extra

I will use my exploration ship to jump the 150ly back to bubble inguess to pick some bits up

 

[CMDR Vhi]

twice now I have somehow screwed up my numbers. am 7 tons short on titanium and it's quite frustrating esp as I jumped my fleet carrier only 3/4 full so I could have packed in the extra

Did you reuse numbers from somewhere else? It seems like there's some variability when it comes to the exact number of mats needed for any given build, so if I build a relay and you build a relay, the number of mats we need may not match.

 

[Dillon Fallon]

Not all of us play with M&KB, and it isn't a bad place, but it's bad that it's the only place.

Yes, I really don't see why this isn't in the transaction tab, but you might want to consider using the mouse in the Galmap if your alternative is pen and paper (I use a controller, but switch to mouse and keyboard for using the Galmap because it's just easier).

 

[Shurimal]

Yeah but it doesn't feel like we're really building. It's more like filling in columns on a spreadsheet.

TBH, exactly as crafting/building in every other game. You collect the stuff needed, then click a "Build!" button in UI, and the thing appears out of thin air (sometimes you also need to click-and-hold the left mouse button for a few seconds to "weld" the thing up). The only major difference is that Trailblazers has the order reversed: you first click the "Build!" button, then go collecting the stuff needed

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Did you reuse numbers from somewhere else? It seems like there's some variability when it comes to the exact number of mats needed for any given build, so if I build a relay and you build a relay, the number of mats we need may not match.

I wish I could use that excuse but no. I took the numbers from my own colony ship. but I did the counting in my head and got it wrong . I thought I was over by a few tons.

 

[CMDR Vhi]

Yes, I really don't see why this isn't in the transaction tab, but you might want to consider using the mouse in the Galmap if your alternative is pen and paper (I use a controller, but switch to mouse and keyboard for using the Galmap because it's just easier).

Pen and paper? haha

My spreadsheet has some scripts that automate most of the number moving. Though, since we started this discussion, I'm confident in saying that the only time I'm on the system map is to jump my FC. Other than that it's a few seconds to select a bookmark in the galmap, if I'm not in the same system as the material source, or on the nav panel.

The thing that makes my brain itchy is that they could have given us the option to pick up a group hauling mission at any given construction site, and then the mats needed would be highlighted on the commodity market, and they even make the first build a mission but it doesn't highlight the mats you need on the market.

I don't understand Fdev sometimes haha.

 

[K Olley]

How do we know that we are not getting substantial assistance from NPC's?

If you look back to the time before carriers when station repairs was part of the gameplay, the amounts required for repair were way higher than what is required to build a station, sometimes as high as over 2 mil ton for a single station repair, average was probably nearer to 1 mil.

If you look from the other side, an Ocellus station that I am buying stock from which would only cost just over 200k ton to build holds stocks of between 30 - 40 MILLION ton of material, that's without taking into account space needed for industry and living requirements, how can you build something that size with such a small amount of material?

 

[Dillon Fallon]

Pen and paper? haha

My spreadsheet has some scripts that automate most of the number moving. Though, since we started this discussion, I'm confident in saying that the only time I'm on the system map is to jump my FC. Other than that it's a few seconds to select a bookmark in the galmap, if I'm not in the same system as the material source, or on the nav panel.

Whatever works for you. It does seem like a bit much for me though.

The thing that makes my brain itchy is that they could have given us the option to pick up a group hauling mission at any given construction site, and then the mats needed would be highlighted on the commodity market, and they even make the first build a mission but it doesn't highlight the mats you need on the market.

I don't understand Fdev sometimes haha.

Yeah, does seem like an oversight.

 

[Jaffz]

How do we know that we are not getting substantial assistance from NPC's?

If you look back to the time before carriers when station repairs was part of the gameplay, the amounts required for repair were way higher than what is required to build a station, sometimes as high as over 2 mil ton for a single station repair, average was probably nearer to 1 mil.

If you look from the other side, an Ocellus station that I am buying stock from which would only cost just over 200k ton to build holds stocks of between 30 - 40 MILLION ton of material, that's without taking into account space needed for industry and living requirements, how can you build something that size with such a small amount of material?

Uh because only the progress bar goes up when I drop off stuff and at no other time

what a strange post

 

[CMDR Vhi]

Whatever works for you. It does seem like a bit much for me though.

Yeah, does seem like an oversight.

I think, either way, the colonization stuff is really just changing some numbers on a spreadsheet. I'd much prefer that spreadsheet information to be more visible in the places I need it, like the market UI itself, instead of on a map that I never really need to look at when sourcing or delivering commodities.