My Biggest Concern Regards Colonisation, Excluding Casual Gamers

[Markov Chaney]

I feel like it's very likely the range mechanic will be tied to existing range mechanics. Given that it's been 5+ years since FSD ranges broke the 20ly rule that Missions were built around, making it essentially nonsense, and PP 2.0 has gone with that rule again anyway despite both SCO and PP 2.0 being an opportunity to readjust it, they ain't gonna change it for colonisation.

So if you go with PP 2.0 lore (and by lore I mean retcon, see above!) if a Power can't even properly exert influence over more than 30 light years even though both systems have 1000 years of spacefaring and another 1000 years of naval colonisation under their belts... it feels quite likely colonisation isn't going to stretch over that 30ly limit either.

I suppose there are those weird expansion or emergency missions that crop up and I think the limit on those is about 200 ly? So mayyyyyybe we'll get 200ly?

 

[Rat Catcher]

Introducing anything that may take some time and effort to complete is always going to "exclude" the new, casual or occasional player, so perhaps no new feature that doesn't take more than 5 minutes to complete and doesn't provide anything exclusive should make its way into any game? That way nobody would ever miss out on anything, new , old, or casual...

 

[Cmdr Travers]

I feel like it's very likely the range mechanic will be tied to existing range mechanics. Given that it's been 5+ years since FSD ranges broke the 20ly rule that Missions were built around, making it essentially nonsense, and PP 2.0 has gone with that rule again anyway despite both SCO and PP 2.0 being an opportunity to readjust it, they ain't gonna change it for colonisation.

So if you go with PP 2.0 lore (and by lore I mean retcon, see above!) if a Power can't even properly exert influence over more than 30 light years even though both systems have 1000 years of spacefaring and another 1000 years of naval colonisation under their belts... it feels quite likely colonisation isn't going to stretch over that 30ly limit either.

I suppose there are those weird expansion or emergency missions that crop up and I think the limit on those is about 200 ly? So mayyyyyybe we'll get 200ly?

As I mentioned to someone else a little while ago, if the range was going to be so small, why the need for the big ship?

 

[Gabriel H]

they ain't gonna change it for colonisation.

FDev have a habit of introducing an inconsistency with established norms when a new feature is introduced. Are they likely to change it? No. Is there a posssibility they will? Yep.

 

[Gabriel H]

As I mentioned to someone else a little while ago, if the range was going to be so small, why the need for the big ship?

View attachment 409151

Colonising a planet takes a lot of resources and personnel.

 

[Cmdr Travers]

Colonising a planet takes a lot of resources and personnel.

Nah, I don't buy it. That's a fleet carrier with bells on. It's not going to have a range of less than 500ly for a jump, and not going to be capable of only one jump. There would be no logic to that.

 

[Starshot_Jigawatts]

I play solo all the time, but I will admit I have some fellow Cmdrs coming in with me to build a decent colony (announcements from Frontier permitting of course). But I can't see why a solo Cmdr having a colony wouldn't be successful. It should be as successful as owning your own fleet carrier. There are lots of things to do, from mining and setting up a market to sell it, to acting as a deep space port for explorers. I think that will be fun.

Because it should take a massive effort to colonize - in any meaningful way - a star system. Otherwise it wouldn't be a meaningful endeavor. Then once you have a Star System colonized there would have to be some mechanic whereas you must keep that colony funded etc etc. I don't want to see solo players barred from Colonization, but I sure don't want it to be so trivial that some part-timer player can stamp his name on a handful of systems forever.

 

[Gabriel H]

Nah, I don't buy it. That's a fleet carrier with bells on. It's not going to have a range of less than 500ly for a jump, and not going to be capable of only one jump. There would be no logic to that.

I'd agree only one jump is silly, but the ship itself becomes the colony - if keeping to existing scientific/engineering theory.

 

[Cmdr Travers]

Because it should take a massive effort to colonize - in any meaningful way - a star system. Otherwise it wouldn't be a meaningful endeavor. Then once you have a Star System colonized there would have to be some mechanic whereas you must keep that colony funded etc etc. I don't want to see solo players barred from Colonization, but I sure don't want it to be so trivial that some part-timer player can stamp his name on a handful of systems forever.

I suppose that depends how to define meaningful. For me, just being to have my own permanent base well outside of the bubble would be meaningful enough. But then of course you'd need gameplay so you've got something to do while you're there, otherwise there is no meaning. Given the fleet carrier model where you have to do everything yourself, meaningful gameplay could be introduced for a mining or farming colony for example.

 

[IstvaanDCIV]

Because it should take a massive effort to colonize - in any meaningful way - a star system. Otherwise it wouldn't be a meaningful endeavor. Then once you have a Star System colonized there would have to be some mechanic whereas you must keep that colony funded etc etc. I don't want to see solo players barred from Colonization, but I sure don't want it to be so trivial that some part-timer player can stamp his name on a handful of systems forever.

I think you'll be disappointed then, because the game already allows players to tag their names all over many, many systems via exploration.

 

[Cmdr Travers]

I'd agree only one jump is silly, but the ship itself becomes the colony - if keeping to existing scientific/engineering theory.

Also, don't forget that there are thousands of fleet carriers in the game, so we can assume (especially given how well it's been received so far) that colonisation will be at least equally as popular. If you have to colonise an "unpopulated" system, that would mean almost nobody would be able to build in or around the bubble. Again, for me, that doesn't make sense.

 

[shevek]

Dibs on the area around Sag A.

 

[Disemboweled Ego]

As I mentioned to someone else a little while ago, if the range was going to be so small, why the need for the big ship?

To better store rare goods in. (which will be the most efficient way to build a colonly!)

I wouldn't read too much into what the ranges or gameplay is going to be based on how the assets look like tho. Ultimately the range doesn't matter, but it's probably more interesting if it's lower. Which would frustrate many who just want to go colonize some far off nebula.

If the limit was going to be so small, there'd be no need for these and you could do it with an Anaconda.

In practical terms you probably could just land a conda somewhere and make it into a colony-ish base to survive on, there's a few POI's out there that are exactly this.

 

[Cmdr Travers]

Dibs on the area around Sag A.

I can imagine there'll be very vibrant colonies built up around Sag A* and Beagle Point. They'd be interesting places to live.

 

[Starshot_Jigawatts]

I think you'll be disappointed then, because the game already allows players to tag their names all over many, many systems via exploration.

Well yes but that has zero impact on my gameplay. We have no idea what tangible effects "owning" a star system may have on others playing the game will have.

I mean I get the OP is a solo player but I'm just sorry, please find me an example in the history of mankind where a single person "colonized" something? By definition this is a group activity.

 

[zimms]

Since we don't know anything about the feature yet, it's obviously all just speculation. But I'm going into this with the expectation that it's not going to be for me, because of the time/effort required.

But I don't think it has to be a one man show and I assume Frontier does as well. So there will probably be possibilities to work with other players to colonize a system together.

Anyway, if I wanted to have a personal system all to myself, I wouldn't want it to be next to the bubble within range of another settled system. I'd choose to put up tent far out in the black in a system I myself discovered.

 

[IstvaanDCIV]

Also, don't forget that there are thousands of fleet carriers in the game, so we can assume (especially given how well it's been received so far) that colonisation will be at least equally as popular. If you have to colonise an "unpopulated" system, that would mean almost nobody would be able to build in or around the bubble. Again, for me, that doesn't make sense.

Why doesn't it make sense? Already inhabited systems are, well, already inhabited. I'm pretty sure the last FU stream was quite clear that system colonisation feature is only going to apply to uninhabited systems. As for colonising in and around the bubble, there are plenty of uninhabited systems that are really close if not actually within the envelope of the bubble itself, especially around the edges where civilisation gets patchy. It's hard to get what you're concerned about.

Well yes but that has zero impact on my gameplay. We have no idea what tangible effects "owning" a star system may have on others playing the game will have.

I mean I get the OP is a solo player but I'm just sorry, please find me an example in the history of mankind where a single person "colonized" something? By definition this is a group activity.

I think we're going to be "architects" rather than "owners" of the newly colonised systems, since "architect" was the wording used and there was no explicit mention of ownership. I'm expecting colonised systems to be rather hands-off affairs once the player who started it decides that they're done with building it.

 

[Cmdr Travers]

Well yes but that has zero impact on my gameplay. We have no idea what tangible effects "owning" a star system may have on others playing the game will have.

I mean I get the OP is a solo player but I'm just sorry, please find me an example in the history of mankind where a single person "colonized" something? By definition this is a group activity.

I can tell you what "owning" a star system means to me. I've spent many months now, out deep in the black, looking for completely undiscovered, yet interesting systems that I could colonise, and scanning everything in those systems to claim them as my own.

I also did say that, while I play solo almost all of the time, there is a group of us going to do colonisation together. I know, as well as most people that a single base or station out in the black doesn't count as a colony. We do need to band together. The joy of this though is that you can build colonies together, but still play solo at the same time, as the colonies will all be persistent across all game modes.

 

[Cmdr Travers]

Why doesn't it make sense? Already inhabited systems are, well, already inhabited. I'm pretty sure the last FU stream was quite clear that system colonisation feature is only going to apply to uninhabited systems. As for colonising in and around the bubble, there are plenty of uninhabited systems that are really close if not actually within the envelope of the bubble itself, especially around the edges where civilisation gets patchy. It's hard to get what you're concerned about.



I think we're going to be "architects" rather than "owners" of the newly colonised systems, since "architect" was the wording used and there was no explicit mention of ownership. I'm expecting colonised systems to be rather hands-off affairs once the player who started it decides that they're done with building it.

It doesn't make sense to me if Frontier limit the range so much that simply finding an uninhabited system (remember, players will also want a system they personally like, or that has something interesting in it) becomes a point and peck affair. People will very quickly become frustrated with that.

Good point on "architects" by the way, I'd forgotten about that. I think we will all be very hands on though, given Frontier as a game's company built itself on sims.

 

[Gabriel H]

Also, don't forget that there are thousands of fleet carriers in the game, so we can assume (especially given how well it's been received so far) that colonisation will be at least equally as popular. If you have to colonise an "unpopulated" system, that would mean almost nobody would be able to build in or around the bubble. Again, for me, that doesn't make sense.

You vastly underestimate the size of space.

Around 22,500 populated systems currently in an area of 300 light year diameter around Sol.
There is around 0.004 stars per cubic light year.

We'll make the Bubble a Cube for ease of calculation and expand it out to a range of 800 ly, being 500 beyond what exists now.

800 * 800 * 800 = 512,000,000 cublic light years * 0.004 = 2,048,000 systems = 2,025,500 unpopulated systems.

So, how many landable planets/moons on average per system? How many colonies allowed per planet?

Lets say 1 colony per planet. And what an average of 4 or 5 landables per system? That's space for 10 million colonies within 500ly.

Edit: For context, around 5.5 million copies of ED have been sold.
Further Edit: And yes, the bubble is mostly empty systems.