Not a good move Frontier - Fleet Carrier upkeep

[Skip Rockbounder]

While speculation and discussion is great, let's stop short of making thought-out 'informed' judgements about the upkeep situation considering we know next to nothing about...

No, No, No, we need to fill in the gaps in the information with whatever we can, remember, if we make something up then it's real and needs to be addressed, no longer should we be called over the coals for making something up believing it and getting irate over it!

I bet they don't even come with a supply of toilet rolls!

 

[Rat Catcher]

While speculation and discussion is great, let's stop short of making thought-out 'informed' judgements about the upkeep situation considering we know next to nothing ...

But some ill-informed hysteria and rage-quitting threats is the bread & butter for some of our posters, the more drama that can be fabricated the happier they appear to feel - and if there is a vague potential that other players may even enjoy the content being discussed the apoplexy of said posters can be heard even through their castle of bog rolls, pasta and hand sanitiser

 

[Cmdr Scorpion]

You never know the Devs may be looking at all of the negative posts on here and delay the launch.

So that they can placate the incessant moaners and gloom merchants

 

[Nadreck]

We don't have much to go on, but starting your own squadron (not something you do every day) costs 10 million. So I'm going to assume that a daily expense will be substantially less than that. Maybe 1 million per day?

Setting aside 365 million to secure the Carrier for a year (assuming I've parked it somewhere remote where it won't be making money) wouldn't be unreasonable. Especially if there's a mothballing option. And preferably an auto-mothball after awhile if my absence from ED wasn't planned, or at least auto-recovery of most of the Carrier's value.

 

[BL1P]

I AM GOING TO PANIC BUY ALL THE BIO WASTE !!!!!!!!!
Just in case !

 

[Rebel RDX]

Maybe the carriers only decommission if they haven't been used for a LONG time, say 12 months.

They may need a certain amount of upkeep to be fully functional, but only the absolute minimal interaction to reset the timer on their decommission.

The worst that happens could be that one doesn't log on for 12 months, and you end up back at the last port you docked at with the value of your carrier added back to your Cr balance?

 

[Kelster87]

Eleven pages of dross. We really don't know anything about FC's, except for the barest outline. Yet, some people here seem convinced that it will be a disaster. I get that some don't actually have any respect for the Dev crew, but the rage and unfounded claims just make your arguments seem juvenile. Until we have full info and have seen the Beta, this is all pointless speculation. And it seems the 'doom and rage' crowd are the biggest speculators, again, without a morsel of hard data to work with.

I think we see now the power of Tencent in the company grind for the Chinese market

Tencent owns a tiny percentage of stock, less than DB owns himself IIRC, so what power does Tencent really have. TBH, this just sounds like racist claptrap - another opportunity to bash China.

You never know the Devs may be looking at all of the negative posts on here and delay the launch.

So that they can placate the incessant moaners and gloom merchants

I hope they read some of the pointless outrage and change things to wind those people up..

 

[Cosmo]

While Fleet Carriers require a weekly upkeep for crew and enabled Fleet Carrier services, there are a number of options which will allow owners to earn credits and cover the ongoing running costs of a Fleet Carrier.

So we will have crew hiring and management options? I hope it has enough depth.

 

[Han Zulu]

I AM GOING TO PANIC BUY ALL THE BIO WASTE !!!!!!!!!
Just in case !

Yeah. You need to stock pile as much as you can fit in your new carrier! You never know if you'll run out of it in the next 200 years.

 

[Cosmo]

But the idea that the FCs will be "decommisioned" if they aren't constantly fed in terms of fuel or money or WHATEVER resource is just....offensive. I'm sure a bunch of people will jump on to say "Oh no it's cool" and hey, everybody's entitled to their opinion and gamestyle, but here's mine: I have a job. The idea of Elite becoming one is the WRONG direction for this game.

Seconded. Forced grinding to prevent a FC from being decomissioned is not fun. The grind in ED is soul crushing and shouldn't get any worse.

 

[IAM GROOT]

The simple fact is FC will prove to be yet another worthless introduction as the game itself is lifeless, people will soon be bored again for the same reasons and stop playing, losing their 5 bill investments, until they find a way to change the all modes equal sharing and affecting same galaxy I and many others won't
see any reason to play this game no matter what they introduce!

 

[[VR] M4st0d0n]

People should calm down really. If anything's been learnt from the past, it's that Frontier always pushes clean updates for their games "content".

 

[IAM GROOT]

Lets not forget how much they will break the game again with this update!

 

[Jonuss]

Genuinely can't think of a single game/mmo where end-game content has the chance to be taken away from you because of accrued debt. Absolutely insane.

 

[Speedcuffs]

The simple fact is FC will prove to be yet another worthless introduction as the game itself is lifeless, people will soon be bored again for the same reasons and stop playing, losing their 5 bill investments, until they find a way to change the all modes equal sharing and affecting same galaxy I and many others won't
see any reason to play this game no matter what they introduce!

Factual Doom!

Lets not forget how much they will break the game again with this update!

Regular Doom!

 

[Dillon Fallon]

Genuinely can't think of a single game/mmo where end-game content has the chance to be taken away from you because of accrued debt. Absolutely insane.

You lose your Cutter/ Corvette if you can't afford a rebuy. How do you know that this wouldn't be a result of failure on the part of the player and it's not possible to run a fleet carrier that can run in profit indefinitely?

 

[Libluini]

Ok my entire list of owned ships since 2015 gp is 1 cobra3. List done

ok your port just impounded your cobra3 and sold it since you never bothered to pay your docking bills

you now have to manually pay the bills from the last 5 years one by one

your were billed daily, have fun

 

[IAM GROOT]

You lose your Cutter/ Corvette if you can't afford a rebuy. How do you know that this wouldn't be a result of failure on the part of the player and it's not possible to run a fleet carrier that can run in profit indefinitely?

How is that remotely the same? You have to be playing (and stupid) to lose your Cutter/Corvette because of rebuy. Not logging in because the game has again become boring should not result in said player losing assets already paid for!

 

[Mengy]

I hope the stream covers one very serious concern - viability of carriers in the black - will explorers be able to sell exploration data while away from the bubble? Realistically it's only option to ensure you don't eventually run out of money while using carrier as a mobile base on exploration trip - unless the upkeep cost for exploration-fitted carrier is miniscule.

Oh I'm very certain you will be able to sell exploration data at FC's. They have an exploration variant for frack's sake, what would be the point of an exploration FC if you couldn't sell data at it?

The big issue is how explorers would collect the fuel tritium. Sounds like mining is the method, so explorers with FC's will either need to bring along a mining ship too or have their exploration ship outfitted with mining gear.

Lots of questions, I'm concerned one stream won't be enough to cover everything.

 

[killerofstars]

While Fleet Carriers require a weekly upkeep for crew and enabled Fleet Carrier services, there are a number of options which will allow owners to earn credits and cover the ongoing running costs of a Fleet Carrier. There's more to the debt and decommissioning of a Fleet Carrier, and it's not something that should happen if the player hasn't incurred a HUGE amount of debt.

Stephen, FDEV, The fact that you CAN incur a huge amount of debt that has to be paid off is itself a problem, and part of what people are railing against. Right now you can only incur a relatively small debt in game through (usually) bad choices in gameplay, and never passively. While I really appreciate your post, and will be absolutely watching the live stream for more details, I'm afraid this doesn't really change the unpalatability of what's been announced so far.