Okay, so we'll start with the fact that the 10ly distance for colonisation is getting a lot of pushback from the player base. It's going to change but what will it change to? I wanted to put down my thoughts and suggestions.
10 LY vs 40,000 LY
If players can only build colonies within 10ly of already inhabited space, what can they do at those colonies. The way things currently stand there really isn't anything you can do at your own colony that you couldn't do at an already established system, only your own colony has cost you a ton of credits. One of the core benefits of colonisation would therefore come from not having any inhabited systems nearby, or perhaps just a handful established by the player or a player group. This means a proper mini-bubble could be established that includes Apex shuttles and missions, genuine things to do for those who want to build.
TIME
Frontier have said in both the October and November livestreams that colonisation would mean players could push out into the galaxy. However at a 10ly distance and with a colony being able to be constructed in just one week it would still take 50 years of regular gaming, every single week to just reach Sagittarius A*. Player groups wouldn't be able to make this go any more quickly as it still takes one week to build out another 10ly, no matter who it is that does it.
If the distance were 20ly it would still take players 25 years to reach Sag A*, and at a distance of 30ly it would take players 13 years of full time play. A distance of 100ly would still mean it will take almost 6 years to reach Sag A* and about 10 years to reach Beagle Point, will Elite Dangerous still be an in-service game then? This brings me on to...
GRIND
Frontier opened the Elite Dangerous segment of the November livestream by saying they've spent 2024 looking to reduce the amount of grind in the game for players. If players do want to build out into the galaxy though, this represents the largest amount of grind ever introduced to the game. Months or literally years of regular gameplay, all doing the same thing, repetitively, day, week, month or even year in and out.
EXPLORATION CHANGES
If the distance were set to 1,000ly then Sagittarius A* could be reached within one year, remember this is still an incredibly grindy year, but it fits more in-line with the narratives that have happened in-game for Colonia and the Colonia bridge. However with a distance of 1,000ly Cmdrs would be tripping over colonies when they go exploring. A typical exploration ship would stand a good chance of encountering a colony every 16 jumps.
Players can set the galaxy map to only route via unpopulated systems, but this doesn't change the fact that this dramatically changes one of the core roles within the game and changes it forever.
STAR DENSITY
Let's say that players do, by some mechanic, eventually make it out into the deep black with just 10, 20, or 30ly as the range. It can't be physically done, but just for the sake of argument. You then get to parts of the galaxy where the star density is so low you wouldn't be able to go any further. There are many parts of the galaxy where there isn't another star for 40, 60, 80, or even 150ly.
HOW TO MANAGE A LARGE LIGHT-YEAR DISTANCE
My suggestion would be that players could build a colony up to 5,000ly from an already inhabited system. This solves a lot of problems. It helps prevent explorers from tripping over inhabited systems when they're out in the black, though obviously some parts of the galaxy will be more popular for colonisation than others. It keeps the players (like myself) who want to build colonies right out in the black happy. It fits with in-game narratives such as Jaques Station originally planning to jump to Beagle Point. And it lets players who want to build in or near the bubble still do so.
There should be checks and balances with this however and I think a simple scale, or perhaps a logarithmic scale would solve the problem. It would take the same amount of materials and commodities to build a colony out deep in the black because, let's face it, why would it take any more. But it would take longer the further out you go, and cost more the further out you go.
If a player wants to build a colony inside the bubble or on the edge of it, that would happen with a single server tick. The further out though it might take two, three, or even four weeks to build the same colony and the player(s) would be able to watch the construction develop over time. This also adds an extra dynamic to the in-game narrative for individual players and player groups.
DIFFERENTIATING COLONIES FROM INHABITED SYSTEMS
Frontier have said that when a colony is up and running it will operate just the same as any other system in the game. Especially if players are limited in the distance they can build out to, this means there could be very little difference between a colonised system, and an inhabited system, or pehaps even no difference at all. This would be a disincentive for many players to colonise and to visit colonised systems.
There need to be ways for colonies to differentiate themselves from inhabited systems, through player-controlled mechanisms such as mining, commodity sales, services availability, and equipment, module and ship availability. A colony outside the bubble where the system architect has worked to build their reputation with an engineer to the point where that engineer is happy to open a depot there would be a good differentiator.
OTHER THOUGHTS
So let's look at some of the other considerations...
MINING FOR MATERIALS
If players are building right out in the black where do the commodities come from to build them? Will all commodities have to come from the bubble and be shipped out by carrier for each outpost, or could some or even all of those materials be mined, through player actions and / or BGS (as player mining alone would take simply forever). This would help simplify the process of colonisation and also make it more realistic.
LOADING COLONISATION SHIPS
If all the colonisation ships start in the bubble then why should players not be able to load them with commodities in the bubble? It makes no sense narratively that players will need to fly commodities all the way out to the colony location when they're only going to store them on the colonisation ship anyway. Sure the Cmdr will need to be at the other end but they can fly there on the colony ship, their carrier, or in their own ship.
PLAYER-OWNED COLONISATION SHIPS
This brings me onto the possibility of Cmdrs owning their own colonisation ship. Sure they'd be much more expensive than a fleet carrier, but they could completely replace a Cmdr's fleet carrier. Individual Cmdrs could then load their own colonisation ship with the commodities needed to build one, two, or multiple colonies, and fly that ship out to distant colony locations, stopping for a few weeks at each location to construct that individual colony before moving on.
Conversely, players who want to build inside or on the edge of the bubble wouldn't need to do this. The colony ship would be a "rental" as part of the cost of claiming a system. It would just turn up, they'd stock it with commodities and when the job's done it would leave.
BUILDING PLAYER GROUPS BACK INTO THE GAME
There is a great opportunity with colonisation to build player groups back into the game. Players could form their own faction and that faction controls their colony. The larger the faction, the more power and influence it has until, ultimately a few of the really large and really popular player factions could be integrated directly into PowerPlay itself. PowerPlay 2 might be proving popular, but no player will ever be more invested than in a group they themselves have created and nurtured.
DON'T ISOLATE PLAYER GROUPS
There is a risk as things currently stand of isolating specific player groups. Let's say for example that some players have formed a group to fight the Thargoids. This is fine, they can do that in the bubble. If a player group has been set up to do mining or piracy, this can also be done inside the bubble. As for the Fuel Rats though you can forget it as the way the system is currently devised they will be completely excluded from colonisation.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The last two things for me to say here are both feature requests. For Odyssey settlements there is absolutely nothing I want to see more than a main street. Not going into a building and there's Pioneer Supplies, the bar etc. all there indoors. Instead having a main street with all these open to the outdoors. This wouldn't be suitable for every planet, but that too is something that could be built-into the feature.
The other request is for mining, especially tritium mining. How amazing would it be for colonies to be able to help fund themselves by mining tritium, either from beneath the surfaces of ice worlds, or from planetary rings, and then sell that tritium on to other Cmdrs for their fleet carriers and colonisation ships.
Anyway, these are my thoughts based on sleeping on it last night and reading the conversations of players elsewhere in these forums. Thanks everybody
10 LY vs 40,000 LY
If players can only build colonies within 10ly of already inhabited space, what can they do at those colonies. The way things currently stand there really isn't anything you can do at your own colony that you couldn't do at an already established system, only your own colony has cost you a ton of credits. One of the core benefits of colonisation would therefore come from not having any inhabited systems nearby, or perhaps just a handful established by the player or a player group. This means a proper mini-bubble could be established that includes Apex shuttles and missions, genuine things to do for those who want to build.
TIME
Frontier have said in both the October and November livestreams that colonisation would mean players could push out into the galaxy. However at a 10ly distance and with a colony being able to be constructed in just one week it would still take 50 years of regular gaming, every single week to just reach Sagittarius A*. Player groups wouldn't be able to make this go any more quickly as it still takes one week to build out another 10ly, no matter who it is that does it.
If the distance were 20ly it would still take players 25 years to reach Sag A*, and at a distance of 30ly it would take players 13 years of full time play. A distance of 100ly would still mean it will take almost 6 years to reach Sag A* and about 10 years to reach Beagle Point, will Elite Dangerous still be an in-service game then? This brings me on to...
GRIND
Frontier opened the Elite Dangerous segment of the November livestream by saying they've spent 2024 looking to reduce the amount of grind in the game for players. If players do want to build out into the galaxy though, this represents the largest amount of grind ever introduced to the game. Months or literally years of regular gameplay, all doing the same thing, repetitively, day, week, month or even year in and out.
EXPLORATION CHANGES
If the distance were set to 1,000ly then Sagittarius A* could be reached within one year, remember this is still an incredibly grindy year, but it fits more in-line with the narratives that have happened in-game for Colonia and the Colonia bridge. However with a distance of 1,000ly Cmdrs would be tripping over colonies when they go exploring. A typical exploration ship would stand a good chance of encountering a colony every 16 jumps.
Players can set the galaxy map to only route via unpopulated systems, but this doesn't change the fact that this dramatically changes one of the core roles within the game and changes it forever.
STAR DENSITY
Let's say that players do, by some mechanic, eventually make it out into the deep black with just 10, 20, or 30ly as the range. It can't be physically done, but just for the sake of argument. You then get to parts of the galaxy where the star density is so low you wouldn't be able to go any further. There are many parts of the galaxy where there isn't another star for 40, 60, 80, or even 150ly.
HOW TO MANAGE A LARGE LIGHT-YEAR DISTANCE
My suggestion would be that players could build a colony up to 5,000ly from an already inhabited system. This solves a lot of problems. It helps prevent explorers from tripping over inhabited systems when they're out in the black, though obviously some parts of the galaxy will be more popular for colonisation than others. It keeps the players (like myself) who want to build colonies right out in the black happy. It fits with in-game narratives such as Jaques Station originally planning to jump to Beagle Point. And it lets players who want to build in or near the bubble still do so.
There should be checks and balances with this however and I think a simple scale, or perhaps a logarithmic scale would solve the problem. It would take the same amount of materials and commodities to build a colony out deep in the black because, let's face it, why would it take any more. But it would take longer the further out you go, and cost more the further out you go.
If a player wants to build a colony inside the bubble or on the edge of it, that would happen with a single server tick. The further out though it might take two, three, or even four weeks to build the same colony and the player(s) would be able to watch the construction develop over time. This also adds an extra dynamic to the in-game narrative for individual players and player groups.
DIFFERENTIATING COLONIES FROM INHABITED SYSTEMS
Frontier have said that when a colony is up and running it will operate just the same as any other system in the game. Especially if players are limited in the distance they can build out to, this means there could be very little difference between a colonised system, and an inhabited system, or pehaps even no difference at all. This would be a disincentive for many players to colonise and to visit colonised systems.
There need to be ways for colonies to differentiate themselves from inhabited systems, through player-controlled mechanisms such as mining, commodity sales, services availability, and equipment, module and ship availability. A colony outside the bubble where the system architect has worked to build their reputation with an engineer to the point where that engineer is happy to open a depot there would be a good differentiator.
OTHER THOUGHTS
So let's look at some of the other considerations...
MINING FOR MATERIALS
If players are building right out in the black where do the commodities come from to build them? Will all commodities have to come from the bubble and be shipped out by carrier for each outpost, or could some or even all of those materials be mined, through player actions and / or BGS (as player mining alone would take simply forever). This would help simplify the process of colonisation and also make it more realistic.
LOADING COLONISATION SHIPS
If all the colonisation ships start in the bubble then why should players not be able to load them with commodities in the bubble? It makes no sense narratively that players will need to fly commodities all the way out to the colony location when they're only going to store them on the colonisation ship anyway. Sure the Cmdr will need to be at the other end but they can fly there on the colony ship, their carrier, or in their own ship.
PLAYER-OWNED COLONISATION SHIPS
This brings me onto the possibility of Cmdrs owning their own colonisation ship. Sure they'd be much more expensive than a fleet carrier, but they could completely replace a Cmdr's fleet carrier. Individual Cmdrs could then load their own colonisation ship with the commodities needed to build one, two, or multiple colonies, and fly that ship out to distant colony locations, stopping for a few weeks at each location to construct that individual colony before moving on.
Conversely, players who want to build inside or on the edge of the bubble wouldn't need to do this. The colony ship would be a "rental" as part of the cost of claiming a system. It would just turn up, they'd stock it with commodities and when the job's done it would leave.
BUILDING PLAYER GROUPS BACK INTO THE GAME
There is a great opportunity with colonisation to build player groups back into the game. Players could form their own faction and that faction controls their colony. The larger the faction, the more power and influence it has until, ultimately a few of the really large and really popular player factions could be integrated directly into PowerPlay itself. PowerPlay 2 might be proving popular, but no player will ever be more invested than in a group they themselves have created and nurtured.
DON'T ISOLATE PLAYER GROUPS
There is a risk as things currently stand of isolating specific player groups. Let's say for example that some players have formed a group to fight the Thargoids. This is fine, they can do that in the bubble. If a player group has been set up to do mining or piracy, this can also be done inside the bubble. As for the Fuel Rats though you can forget it as the way the system is currently devised they will be completely excluded from colonisation.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The last two things for me to say here are both feature requests. For Odyssey settlements there is absolutely nothing I want to see more than a main street. Not going into a building and there's Pioneer Supplies, the bar etc. all there indoors. Instead having a main street with all these open to the outdoors. This wouldn't be suitable for every planet, but that too is something that could be built-into the feature.
The other request is for mining, especially tritium mining. How amazing would it be for colonies to be able to help fund themselves by mining tritium, either from beneath the surfaces of ice worlds, or from planetary rings, and then sell that tritium on to other Cmdrs for their fleet carriers and colonisation ships.
Anyway, these are my thoughts based on sleeping on it last night and reading the conversations of players elsewhere in these forums. Thanks everybody
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