Not a good move Frontier - Fleet Carrier upkeep

I'm in the same boat, but I'm not going to begrudge the people that do.
I'm not either. I was just hoping it was something that was reasonable priced for me personally, so I could have easily got it and used it the way I wanted, but as it stands now, too expensive and if it's true with a constant upkeep, it's just not for me. For people who love this and think it's great, good for them. It's just not something that will make me cut out an hour in my day to play. There are easier entertainments to access.
 
The difference between Planet Coaster and Elite Dangerous is that ED is an online game with a persistent galaxy. When a player logs out the world keeps running. In Planet Coaster when you save the game the simulation stops, you can't lose your park while on vacation or visiting relatives in another part of the world. With ED if the clock keeps ticking on your carrier's upkeep while you are logged off then it sounds like you could lose it all.

If Elite was an offline game then sure the comparison would be apt. Elite is not an offline game however.

Oh I understand that, and yes, it's a ridiculous idea to have to persistently manage assets in ED. As I said, I'm glad it's optional ...and I'm glad I didn't have my heart set on getting a Fleet Carrier, because if I did I'd probably be very upset right now, like a lot of other players obviously are.

Looking further ahead, if it turns out that leak was right and base building is going to be a part of New Era ED then I wouldn't be surprised if they apply the same mechanics to that too.
 
"decommisioned"

this is seriously one thing fdev needs to re- consider. this is a 5 billion investment and no one should fear that the fleet carrier goes away if you don't log in for a while. i don't think that this is an attempt at giving players an incentive to log into the game at least every once in a while. that would be, yea, offensive might be the correct word to describe that. i don't want to be forced to log into the game so my investment doesn't go away, or at the very least lose a part of it.

however, i am in favor of an upkeep system. as long as you actively play of course. lore wise, it makes sense, because you obviously need a crew to run this thing. so, i would make it work similar to the crew system we already have in the game. a percentage of your income goes to your crew. simple as that. but there's no amount ticking off of your currently owned credits. it's a percentage of your active income. heck, the carrier could even require you to hire x amount of crew or it will not have any or reduced functionality.

looking into the future with space legs... think about eventually meeting your crew in person. i think if you have an active crew on your fleet carrier already, space legs could benefit from that as well. expanding on your relationship with the crew that worked for you on the carrier. would be cool i think.
 
This is very much like houses in Lord of the Rings Online. Pay the rent every week; you can pay rent a few weeks in advance, but if it runs out your house becomes inaccessible until you unlock it again by paying up-to-date. I would hope that's all FD mean by "decommission".
 
Just out of curiosity, if fleet carriers need maintenance, how does a group of players help maintain the carriers if currency still cant be transfered over?
 
This is very much like houses in Lord of the Rings Online. Pay the rent every week; you can pay rent a few weeks in advance, but if it runs out your house becomes inaccessible until you unlock it again by paying up-to-date. I would hope that's all FD mean by "decommission".
It's just part of the monetisation scheme. As with engineers the whole grind doesnt have monetisation propped on top (for "player choice" these things are never made to annoy) - so there is very little purpose to it.
 
We haven't had any details yet...

Details?

LOL, this is the Internet! We don't do that 'details' nonsense around here! 😀

But....


Carriers demand a crew. Imagine the reactions if they didn't have one. I at the least would be raising an eyebrow. Its pushing it that I can fly a Cutter crew-less. A flipping Carrier? Hell no.

Imagine if that crew didn't get paid. Cue questions (and rightly so) of "why would an NPC do a job and not get paid?". Weren't we wondering not long ago why SLF pilots would do a job which could only result in their death? (before you could buy them back after ship destruction).

So, I have no issues with maintenance (crew salary?) fees. But the decommission? Hmmm. Better just to refund players the majority of the carrier + modules fee I think, rather than put the player in debt because real-life issues took priority. I'm not sure if the resulting 'rage-quit' bandwidth increase would do anyone good right now.
 
This is very much like houses in Lord of the Rings Online. Pay the rent every week; you can pay rent a few weeks in advance, but if it runs out your house becomes inaccessible until you unlock it again by paying up-to-date. I would hope that's all FD mean by "decommission".
Previously they said that the carrier can be scrapped, and money would be returned.

I am assuming that if your carrier hits the debt threshold, it is scrapped and money is returned to the player.
 
I think the FC is somewhat the exploiter award. Those who managed to make 100 mil cr/hr based on some glitch in the game that was later nerfed or fixed or for those who found the most effective money-making grind-mechanics and spent 24/7 for weeks, they're the ones who can get it. For the players who play it just for fun and doing different activities without grinding, there's not much chance of making that much, except if you've done if for years.
Then why would you want a fleet carrier when you can just continue playing for fun?

If you really want one, go and mine some LTDs like the rest of us did. you can make a billion a night, so you'll have enough in a week. they're not going to be available 'til june, so you have plenty of time to get the credits.
 
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Stephen Benedetti

Community Manager
Greetings Commanders,

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. We understand there's a fair bit of concern about this but rest assured, we'll be going over this in quite a lot of detail in the upcoming Content Reveal livestream next week.
There are also going to be two public beta periods where you'll be able to test this for yourselves and share with us your feedback.

Thanks for your understanding!
 
The way I see if if u buy a house IRL it still costs you weekly and monthly Bill's, if the Royal navy purchases a new aircraft carrier it still costs the navy for the up keep of the ship, if u don't spend money on ur house it eventually falls apart, if the navy doesn't spend ooodles of money on a ship it falls apart and is eventually decommissioned,
If ED is supposed to be a simulator more than a game then its sticking to real life, it could be worse you could have to purchase more NPC crew to man said carrier and then you'd be paying a weekly crew wage bill in top of your up keep.
Why moan about something before you even get chance to try it out, do you tell a date you don't like her favourite restaurant even tho you never eaten there?
Personally i never found the fleet carrier a must have item.
 
Then why would you want a fleet carrier when you can just continue playing for fun?
Because I'd like to have something that I could call home. It's like in No Man's Sky, you can build bases that you can have an attachment to, where you store your stuff and your ships. A place you can go back to and feel "this is my place."

I actually don't play Elite anymore. It ended around Christmas last year, after several years playing and thousands of hours. I was hoping the FC could bring some new light and interest to the game for me, but it doesn't. Rather the opposite. Before, it was something that could peak my interest in playing again, but alas, no. I've said it earlier on one of the threads, when New Era comes out, maybe I'll look at the game again. I've tried to play Elite for "fun", but it isn't much fun anymore. If it's fun for you and others, that's awesome, it's great that the game continues with other people.
 
I think the FC is somewhat the exploiter award. Those who managed to make 100 mil cr/hr based on some glitch in the game that was later nerfed or fixed or for those who found the most effective money-making grind-mechanics and spent 24/7 for weeks, they're the ones who can get it. For the players who play it just for fun and doing different activities without grinding, there's not much chance of making that much, except if you've done if for years.
I really hate the “this is for exploiters” line of thinking. I have multiple billions in assets, and while steep, the 5b price tag is not out of reach. I have NEVER done a credit exploit in elite. Not a single one

My money came from exploration, mining, and trading. Noteably, 2.8 billion came from an expedition to Beagle point, and I made sure to fully scan every system on my way there. I had lots of fun making it all the way out and back. Then I used the LYR bonus before cashing in. ALL legit game mechanics.

dont poo poo others for having played more/ more efficiently (in terms of making Cr). If you’re a person that logs in a couple times per month, FCs likely aren’t for you, and that is OKAY.

not everything is meant for everyone. My understanding of the announcement is that FCs are going to be owned by some, but add content for all (with the markets/ trading). I would still recommend reserving judgement until next week’s stream
 
Greetings Commanders,

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. We understand there's a fair bit of concern about this but rest assured, we'll be going over this in quite a lot of detail in the upcoming Content Reveal livestream next week.
There are also going to be two public beta periods where you'll be able to test this for yourselves and share with us your feedback.

Thanks for your understanding!

Thanks Stephen, we appreciate you responding.

I think the main concern people have is completely losing their 5 billion investment just by not logging in for a little while. I think this is a worst-case assumption based on incomplete data.

If there is upkeep for keeping crew and services running, that's not bad just by itself. As long as there is a mechanism to prevent debt from accumulating when logged-off, then we will be okay (either by de-activating, or turning off services, or something). Players don't want to lose their investment of time and credits just by being inactive.
 
Greetings Commanders,

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. We understand there's a fair bit of concern about this but rest assured, we'll be going over this in quite a lot of detail in the upcoming Content Reveal livestream next week.
There are also going to be two public beta periods where you'll be able to test this for yourselves and share with us your feedback.

Thanks for your understanding!

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.
 
If there is upkeep for keeping crew and services running, that's not bad just by itself. As long as there is a mechanism to prevent debt from accumulating when logged-off, then we will be okay (either by de-activating, or turning off services, or something). Players don't want to lose their investment of time and credits just by being inactive.
Going dormant mode is an interesting idea. If you know you're not going to play for a while, being able to mothball the carrier for close-to-nothing cost until you pick the game up again.

Edit: sorry meant "is" not "isn't"
 
Greetings Commanders,

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. We understand there's a fair bit of concern about this but rest assured, we'll be going over this in quite a lot of detail in the upcoming Content Reveal livestream next week.
There are also going to be two public beta periods where you'll be able to test this for yourselves and share with us your feedback.

Thanks for your understanding!
There is a difference between upkeep for the sake of it and running cost for actually productive assets. One is where you do chores to keep it spawned while it just drains away time - the other is an asset you can operate for some benefit. What kind bears the question?
 
Greetings Commanders,

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. We understand there's a fair bit of concern about this but rest assured, we'll be going over this in quite a lot of detail in the upcoming Content Reveal livestream next week.
There are also going to be two public beta periods where you'll be able to test this for yourselves and share with us your feedback.

Thanks for your understanding!
Thanks, does this mean if i'm 50,000ly from anywhere I can sell exploration data to my carrier to keep the lights on?
 
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