My Proposal For a Base Building Gameplay Mechanic

[dreampage]

For a long time now I have been thinking about a base building mechanic to be implemented into Elite Dangerous. I think it would be an awesome end-game content for the game which would require a lot of time, effort and investment from players who are sometimes bored of what the game currently has to offer. The concept behind this is that every Commander could have their own planetary bases somewhere in the galaxy, providing services for others and regular income for their owners.

For the sake of simplicity I’ll write my ideas in simple present tense.

Elite Dangerous Base Building Gameplay​

Eligibility

• Every Commander who has acquired the Elite rank in either of the three main categories is eligible to buy a plot of land on any of the currently uninhabited planets or moons in the galaxy.
• The closer the body is to the core systems the more expensive the plot of land is. The further out you choose your home base the cheaper you get it but the harder it will be to develop it.
• Only planets of moons can be chosen that are either uninhabited or home to a maximum of 4-5 player bases.
• Every player gets the same area and the same beginning base with unique ways to develop it further.

Creating the home base

• You can choose the name of your base, which will be called your pilot name / Gamertag, with the suffix you choose (Base / Station / Rest / Horizon / etc.). The suffix can be changed at any time, should you choose so.
• You are free to choose the area you want your base on, if it’s at least a given distance to other player bases. Upon creation, your beginning base will be seated on the planetary surface no matter what surface features were there before (so the land will be essentially leveled for you so you can expand your base in the future). You obviously can’t create your base in tight canyons or on top of mountains but any other area will suffice.

Expanding the home base

• A beginner base will only have a small/medium landing pad and no other services. However, landing there will grant you, the owner, a set of missions and goals that you can complete in any order you choose. These involve staring different services at the station, as well as expanding it. Outfitting, Contacts, Commodity Market, Refuel, Restock, or later in the game, even Tech Broker or Material Trader.
• Every service requires materials and commodities you have to haul to your base, as well as significant financial investments (credits). When you fulfill the conditions the given service will become available at your home base.
• Expansion works similarly: you are required to provide significant amounts of commodities, metals, minerals and money in order to expand your base and develop large landing pads and more hangars for more ships. Once you have a given module unlocked, you can buy several of them (landing pads for example) if you have enough money.
• Other players can also see the expansion goals and they can contribute, even if they are not Elite rank, or not even your friends / group members.
• Every development tier will need time to appear at your base. In time you’ll see your base growing and having more pads and services.
• When you have services running at your base, other players and NPCs will appear to use it, and help with the effort in the meantime. Running home bases will generate revenue and stocks of commodities and materials for the owner to either use or invest in further expansion.
• Other services include defense like skimmers and turrets around your base. Other players can attack your base but not until you reach a given development tier with it. It’s not possible to destroy a player base but it’s possible to damage it (meaning repairing costs for the owner) or steal data or cargo from its different modules, just like from a Megaship.
• Attacking players have to use an SRV and they will be wanted if the base is within the territory of a superpower or faction. If the home base is out in uninhabited space then it’s crucial to spend as much on defense as possible.
• Overall, reaching the maximum base size and having all services will require a lot of gameplay hours and possible billions of credits.

Customizing the home base

Just as with your ships, you can customize your own base as you want. Cosmetic items can be purchased in the store. These consist of sets of special buildings, living domes, factories to smaller items like advertising boards, floodlights, solar panels, mining facilities etc. Once you purchase a cosmetic item you can freely place it around your base from the external camera system, as well as copy the item as many times as you like, or as the current size of the base allows it.

What do you think?

For me this would be an awesome gameplay mechanic in Elite which I would really love to use. Founding a home base somewhere in the galaxy, either close to home or far out to provide a safe haven for explorers. Of course, all of the above is just an outline of how I think it could work, not taking into account player group bases, wing missions or anything like that. The possibilities are endless and I would very much like to see something like this in Elite.

 

[jasonbirder]

Running home bases will generate revenue and stocks of commodities and materials for the owner to either use or invest in further expansion.

Ahhh yes, the holy grail of the "Base Builder" earning Money/materials AFK...

 

[Vasea Azure]

Building small home base/mining outpost is what should be introduced along with Horizons, dont let pp tell you "go play NMS" "you want only AFK win button" or any thing like that. In my opinion FD will have to add some sort of base building if they want to keep people interested in the game in the long run. +1 for base building in Elite like I keep saying for 4 years.

 

[JohnRoberts]

I thought along similar lines myself. In and of itself, I think many people would enjoy some variation on this theme.

However, I've personally evolved to a more itinerant style of play (meaning, I have no home base). This is a space ship game, after all. Therefore, I'm much more interested in some idea around the Fleet Carrier. Note that the Fleet Carrier is intend for group ownership (Squadrons), which might mean individiual ownership is not going to be possible, and I would also say, probably casts doubt on FDev moving ahead with individually owned planetary bases.

 

[Jamie Wolf]

Think player base building will never be in Elite.
Bases built by whole groups maybe, but think they would be more like the megaships.

The idea of Elite was always 1 pilot, 1 ship and a vast universe.

 

[Vasea Azure]

The idea of Elite was always 1 pilot, 1 ship and a vast universe.

And base building would not change much - we already have megaships, player factions, SRV and Holo me that want in 80`s version of the game.

 

[Dagwit]

I think that a base-building expansion pack - not just planetary bases, but stations, other orbital facilities and even megaships - is quite a likely development. Why?

Well, FDev has already developed the necessary technology for Planet Coaster. Why not sell it to us as well?

But there's a problem. How do you stop the galaxy becoming littered with bases in the shapes of giant genitalia and very rude words?

Here's my suggestion:

Everyone who buys the expansion pack gets a permit-locked world in a permit-locked region of space where they can build what they like and no-one else can see it.

They can also submit their base to be included in the main game. Now it would cost FDev serious money to employ staff to examine every base built so instead everyone who buys the expansion gets the option to become an Elector.

Every base submitted for inclusion gets sent to a random subset of Electors who vote on its inclusion in the full game (a random subset to prevent the emergence of cliques for or against a particular player-designer). Only if a base get an adequate number of up-votes from Electors does it go on for further consideration for inclusion in the game.

At first this further consideration would be undertaken by an FDev employee but as a database is built of Electors who don't tend to vote for giant genitalia, some of those could be invited to act as Moderators, providing a further layer of filtering and minimising the work FDev has to do in censoring bases for decency and taste before their inclusion in the full game.

This would provide FDev with a steady stream of new content in the game while making a profit from its creation. We would be doing most of the work and paying Fdev for the right to do it!

 

[Deareim]

Not able to handle a mission board and you want FD to do that...

 

[dreampage]

Not able to handle a mission board and you want FD to do that...

Haha. One can always dream...

 

[Frenotx]

A+. Would be awesome. Probably not entirely likely to happen, but I certainly would be pleased if it did.

Would also be fun if there was some central data point that, if scanned, awarded the invading player a "flag". It remains valid until the base is upgraded, or possibly until a certain amount of time has passed. The flag doesn't necessarily do anything, other than give you a trophy for successfully invading that person's base. Less-often-captured flags could be worth more "points." Add in plenty of options for setting up defenses and potentially a "most flags" leaderboard, and you've got a fun little minigame to play once resources are no longer a concern.

 

[Askorti]

Ahhh yes, the holy grail of the "Base Builder" earning Money/materials AFK...

You can make it a serious money sink though. So in order to make credits, you'd first have to spend them. A lot of them. And it's not like money even matters much in this game in the first place. But yea, I don't think getting mats without playing should be a thing.

 

[varonica]

Building small home base/mining outpost is what should be introduced along with Horizons, dont let pp tell you "go play NMS" "you want only AFK win button" or any thing like that. In my opinion FD will have to add some sort of base building if they want to keep people interested in the game in the long run. +1 for base building in Elite like I keep saying for 4 years.

And yet after 4 years you're still here. No criticism really, but for most games keeping players interested and playing for four years would have to be considered a win all round. There aren't that many games that have such a long player engagement, just the biggies like for instance WoW and Lotro, many games these days are just a few months of playable content. Base building may attract a different style of player though but I don't think base building has ever been on the horizon for ED.

 

[Iskariot]

To begin with I like the idea of being able to get a personal base.

Needing to be Elite in one of the three major ranks is an idea I have not heard before, but I think that is a an interesting idea.
It adds a little barrier to base building and adds a reason to rank up.
Perhaps (just an idea) one could do more with that. For example there might be 3 stages to base expansion. Stage 1 = small, stage 2 = medium, stage 3 = large.
Each additional Elite rank might allow you to expand further. So with one Elite rank you might only be allowed a small pad, with 2 Elite ranks you are allowed a medium pad, with 3 elite ranks you can build a large pad.
More base building aspects might be linked to your elite ranks.

Perhaps it would be best if player bases were mainly kept under the surface. This might make it easier to implement the mechanic as no terrain manipulation would be necessary. It might also be easier on the game's engine. You would only need an entrance/landing pad on the surface. The rest could be under the surface.

Do you know the game Planetbase? I love the modular aspect of that and I would like to see something similar implemented in ED.
We would buy modules of kinds to complete our base. Some would be necessary to make the base operational. Others could be extra, or luxury additions.
For example necessary modules would be:
- landing pad (with subterranean hangar),
- living quarters,
- oxygen generator,
- power generator.

Additional modules could be:
- armory,
- control room,
- skimmer bay,
- store rooms,
- medical bay,
- garage,
- fuel store,
- module depot
- ammunition depot etc.

There could also be rules for module placement. For example a garage has to be connected to the hangar module (in case you want to unload your SRV's).
A fuel storage needs to be connected to the garage and/or hangar. etc.

Some items might be plug ins for main modules.
For example you might buy repair stations to add to your hangar and garage.
You might buy all kinds of luxury plug ins for your living quarters.
You might plugin defensive systems into your control room like f.e. a skimmer controller, turret controller etc..

I am not to sure about your proposal of having a commodity market in your player base. That just does not feel right to me. I think it is a step to far and it might make things to complicated to implement.
I also am not convinced of it being a good idea to have contact, and brokers in a player base.

Of course refueling and restocking should be possible. For that you will have to make sure you have a fuel store and an ammunition depot and you will have to buy fuel and ammo to fill them up.
Also outfitting should be possible, but only with items you already bought and stored in the module depot at your home base.

I have not thought about multi player aspects, because I am simply not interested in that at all.
I would not want other players to have access to my base ever.
For me a player base is strictly a personal base of operations, a home. It is not an international space station or tourist destination, or super market.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

We are probably years away from FD implementing this sort of thing, if ever. We might i suspect get the deployable mining bases they talked about in the next few years, possibly...?

I'm not against base building in general, but really, i don't think FD should go down the road of passive credit generation.

Sure, the base could have something like a manufacturing plant add on, where you deliver mined materials and produce goods that you then take to market, but with your involvement every step of the way. No sitting back and raking in the cash.

Regardless, pretty certain this sort of thing is waaaay down the priority list, and would hate to see this implemented before a whole raft of other things myself.

 

[John Xenir]

And yet after 4 years you're still here. No criticism really, but for most games keeping players interested and playing for four years would have to be considered a win all round.(...)

I wonder if grind has anything to do with it... Nah, must be the meaningful content that keeps people playing, and those singular episodes of grind criticism are hallucinations

(...)
I'm not against base building in general, but really, i don't think FD should go down the road of passive credit generation.
(...)

What better way to alleviate the grind than a passive credit generator in the form of base? Besides, this proposition is presented as "end-game content", for those with wallets already so fat there's nothing to do with said riches. Why not then?

-

I personally like the idea of creating and running your own planetary/orbital outpost. I would - most probably - create some little fuel station along the neutron highway in the direction of Colonia for the travel-weary explorers to sit down at the bar, rest with a cup of coffee and a cherry pie, take a shower perhaps.

Few questions though:
1) How does this new content tie into BGS?
2) How does it tie with possibility of future space legs?

Two simple question, yet a lot of consideration needs to be put in a long-term development plan for such feature.
And frankly, it may be completely not in line with Frontier's vision of the game.

 

[GunnerBill]

I like the idea and it is a well thought out OP.

But how do you regulate the income so as already said - earning money AFK?

 

[Vasea Azure]

And yet after 4 years you're still here.

Might be something to do with
a: game being Korean F2p grind lvl with out skip option,
b: I was believing that we will be getting yearly expansions,
c: I`m a very patient person and I believed in "10 y pan"

or all of the above and me being a idiot and wasting lots of time.

 

[Mr_sukebe]

Does anyone really care about making money any more? After all, it's so easy.
For me, I'd just like my own base because I fancy one. I'd like to be able to build it out how I want (preferably mostly underground to avoid being shot to pieces by our ever friendly sociopathic groups).
Would also give a reason for transport, i.e. to bring out the bits to build it and hopefully can move forward from surface prospecting to actually mining.

 

[Cosmo]

I'm all in favor of player base building. It's not announced for Beyond though.

 

[Vorxian]

I had a think about this over coffee, and the OP has ideas, but, realistically it has to be part of space legs, and the base building; as I see it, would most likely be more akin to something like Subnautica or Osiris, where the base is made by modular design.. Way too complex to implement bases as a persistent thing in the galaxy, imagine how many the game would need to store and render.. but the probability is that it will only exist in your own instance to you...

Base building in this fashion with space legs would be a duo made in awesomesauce. But we're a long way off. If there's a way to measure just how far we are from it, if you imagine some string, and you're holding one end, and the other end is in the galactic core of Andromeda.. That's where we are in relation to getting space legs and base building.

It's still not a bad idea though. It just takes the hubble with a 3 month exposure to see the other end.