General Open Letter to Fdev – Suggestion for a New Paid DLC Release

[MVBanks]

Try engineering different combinations of modules with different blueprints and experimental effects. You will get far more variation than a simple body shape change can provide.

I've done this many times, and I still often change modules (mostly G5 engineered) on my ships, depending on the activity I intend to engage in. But - the possibilities are limited. You will never, with any combination of modules and engineering, make an FdL a great exploration ship. Not even from the Mamba cargo ship.

I am aware that we could successfully play this game with 15 ships instead of 37 (or 38 including the Cobra Mk IV), but isn't it better to have more choices? This game does not need more ships with the same or similar characteristics, but there is room for different ships. For example, huge class - Frigate, Destroyer, Cruiser, Battlecruiser, Battleship classes. And I don't mean FCs - these would be ships that you can control, that you can fly around, that are destructible, that have a docking bay for smaller ships and that have a hybrid FSD for micro-jumps within the star system. That's actually what I'd like the most - to have an option to bypass the most boring part of this game - which is Supercruise. Because regardless of all the ships, all the modules, all the engineering, your experience, ranks, Elite this, Elite that - you still can't do anything to significantly speed up that SC.
But well, that's another topic.
And not even 20 new ships would mean anything if there is no proper gameplay for them.

As neither the Titans, nor the Thargoid Barnacle Matrix sites, nor the ancient battleground in Wregoe mean anything to us at the moment because there is no gameplay around them.

 

[Frankymole]

The ship builder would be a lot more than just the shape, though. In Traveller, shape affects whether you can land on atmospheric planets, e.g. with a non-streamlined or dispersed structure (like a space station, or scaffolding) you wouldn't be able to get through a dense atmosphere safely. But in Elite that makes no difference as every ship can land on every landable planet. So changing the shape is just cosmetic. All performance trade-offs come through modules, power plants and power management. Agility (due to secondary thruster placement and size?) and mass factor (for blocking supercruise escapes) seem to be the only "inherent" numbers in any hull design.

Personally I won't support a call for new ships until I own every ship in the game - might be a while yet. I've only been playing for 8 years, 12000-odd hours and only have 4 accounts.

 

[GreenCrusher44]

I've done this many times, and I still often change modules (mostly G5 engineered) on my ships, depending on the activity I intend to engage in. But - the possibilities are limited. You will never, with any combination of modules and engineering, make an FdL a great exploration ship. Not even from the Mamba cargo ship.

I am aware that we could successfully play this game with 15 ships instead of 37 (or 38 including the Cobra Mk IV), but isn't it better to have more choices? This game does not need more ships with the same or similar characteristics, but there is room for different ships. For example, huge class - Frigate, Destroyer, Cruiser, Battlecruiser, Battleship classes. And I don't mean FCs - these would be ships that you can control, that you can fly around, that are destructible, that have a docking bay for smaller ships and that have a hybrid FSD for micro-jumps within the star system. That's actually what I'd like the most - to have an option to bypass the most boring part of this game - which is Supercruise. Because regardless of all the ships, all the modules, all the engineering, your experience, ranks, Elite this, Elite that - you still can't do anything to significantly speed up that SC.
But well, that's another topic.
And not even 20 new ships would mean anything if there is no proper gameplay for them.

As neither the Titans, nor the Thargoid Barnacle Matrix sites, nor the ancient battleground in Wregoe mean anything to us at the moment because there is no gameplay around them.

yeah i did module refiting quite often aswell and dont get it wrong, i love jumping around with my T9 research carrier when i went out into the black
me and my friend love building stuff because is hell of a fun to do despite the resource limitation but i find is the trade off to do so and fair (Devs please increase mats yield and storage).

and for bigger ships i would love to have some aswell but Cruisers and above is still beyond us imo x'D
when im done with my BGS contract for our squadron i will build Destroyer class Anaconda, im not sure how it will ends up but im looking forward to it!
the Titan and the new goid surface site is p cool tho (the titan especially). but i might understand why how "slow" this game develops because MMORPG tends to be slow right? i guess is just a matter of pacing.
Also about super cruise do we always able to speed up as long as we move away from the "gravitational zone"?? im sure lot of people enjoy their ride to Huton orbital back in the day when they still doing Anaconda give away

i cant wait for the end of this month where they will reveal more stuff!

 

[GreenCrusher44]

The ship builder would be a lot more than just the shape, though. In Traveller, shape affects whether you can land on atmospheric planets, e.g. with a non-streamlined or dispersed structure (like a space station, or scaffolding) you wouldn't be able to get through a dense atmosphere safely. But in Elite that makes no difference as every whip can land on every landable planet. So changing the shape is just cosmetic. All performance trade-offs come through modules, power plants and power management. Agility (due to secondary thruster placement and size?) and mass factor (for blocking supercruise escapes) seem to be the only "inherent" numbers in any hull design.

Personally I won't support a call for new ships until I own every ship in the game - might be a while yet. I've only been playing for 8 years, 12000-odd hours and only have 4 accounts.

i fully agree with that, the modules is what im trying to prever in my opinion above (which hence the specialized vehicles came at the 1st place), not to mention that gears and cargo scoop act as an air brake xD but i always imagine my self that deploying the gear or cargo scoop will activate some certain of modules

back at it again i do agree that everything can be anything in Elite, but getting more things is always a great thing in my opinion, and as we all can see the Developers is leading us into it. more things to do in our invinite universe. 07

 

[Schmack]

It would be quite nifty if you could find an uninhabited and unexplored system where you could first disco and first footfall the whole shebang.

Then load up the new carrier module that contains materials and construction equipment to start building planet bases and star ports.

Somewhere deep in the black that other CMDRs could stop at en route to somewhere else then stock up and sell stuff.

Yeah, then 3000 other folks to the same thing and no one visits anyone because the bubble still exists and the imaginary factions that pay out credits are still getting magical money and paying it out. The galaxy isn't missing star ports.

However, I would like to build my own shelter and base somewhere, preferably an atmospheric ELW. Just somewhere to call home. Even now if I don't return to my carrier at the end of a session I feel like the job isn't done because I'm not back home.

 

[Jack Winter]

i ignore space legs like i ignore cqc.

IMO, you're missing out..

 

[Darth Ender]

IMO, you're missing out..

i've played elite on foot. I'm not.

 

[RestJustice]

It would be quite nifty if you could find an uninhabited and unexplored system where you could first disco and first footfall the whole shebang.

Then load up the new carrier module that contains materials and construction equipment to start building planet bases and star ports.

Somewhere deep in the black that other CMDRs could stop at en route to somewhere else then stock up and sell stuff.

Indeed - on Stellaris you have a colony ship that, when landed, acts as the new settlement. Perhaps you could do that here. The drive section could act as the power hub, the bridge/command centre could be the Command hub, the internal passenger sections as a Habitat hub etc?

I don't do much community goals or power play, but perhaps your new settlements / habs could contribute towards CC of the regional powers etc?

 

[RestJustice]

Like all of this. For new paid content I would like to see a little bit more for all the other bits of the game. I don't mine much, nor do I do much trading but surely there is greater content here that could be included?

I like doing the exploring - so being able to land and explore all of the currently unavailable planets is a must for me. Adding more bio content, such as new animals etc should be incorporated. Having cities and large spaceports in core bubble planets would also be great.

Perhaps additional explorable features in space stations and other settlements. Surely there has to be more to get to in the lift from the hanger than just the shops and bar?

 

[Jokerman]

There's merit in this OP. It's not that it hasn't come up before, it's just that for some reason, this thread didn't go to into an uncontrolled spin before the end of the page 1. Hurray for no controlled spins.

Let's not go too deep into a DLC content discussion (I like the ideas discussion by the way) and instead how about thoughts and ideas on how best get this idea in front of an FDev decision maker.
Else it's just another thread in a sea of threads.

Any thought?

S!