Personally, I'd rather have AI pilots who would fly my own ships on my wing, as opposed to AI pilots who simply work in the background. Frontier has been rather timid about adding missions that require a wing of ships to complete, primarily because there are a lot of solo players out there. I doubt this will happen, since a certain play style would certainly take advantage of this mechanic, and I feel they're out of control as it is.
In addition, I believe that the reason that Frontier uses a Peer-to-Peer network system is that they didn't want to require a monthly subscription to pay for a large number of servers, so a lot of the BGS work is done by our computers whenever we jump into a system. This works well when a player is online, Frontier's current servers can keep everyone in sync, but imagine how much network traffic would need happen if, for example, I used my fleet of 14 ships to set up 20 star chain loops throughout the empire. Also imagine the salt that would be generated by the more PvP oriented BGS players out there when they realized that all this player-generated activity was happening, and it was happening offline where they can't attack it.
Furthermore, if Frontier was to add a "shipping empire" aspect to the game, I would expect there to be expenses as:
They can't be token expenses either. IMO, many of these are expenses that should be in the game already, but aren't. Some of these were previously in the game, but were removed thanks to the Veruca Salts of the community. These can't be token expenses, either. They need to be high enough that it's possible for a player to go bankrupt if they badly mismanage, or fail to manage at all, their business empire.
Personally, from the day my Commander acquired her second specialized ship (the Emerald Dawn), I've assumed that whatever ship I wasn't flying wasn't idle, but did milk runs around my home system. Any profits made, after all the above costs were deducted, was fed right back into restoring the Stevenson Estate to its former glory.
Finally, I don't think opening up the credit spigot would help any. For players who don't like most of the game mechanics already, they'll just complain elite is a "mile wide, inch deep" game, as opposed it being a "grind." (Not that there aren't people who complain about the former already.) For players who like most of the game mechanics, especially those prefer an ingame experience like Captain Renalds vs Captain Picard, it'll be just another example of Frontier filling in what little depth there is in this game.
As much as I like management simulators, I'd rather Frontier focus on what makes Elite Elite: one Commander, flying one ship, against a hostile galaxy. I'd rather that Frontier focus on enhancing THAT aspect of this game, as opposed to adding a gameplay loop that OTHER games would probably do a lot better job at. In particular, I'd like them to focus on three areas that are of interest to me:
Crime and Punishment, plus karma. I play an Imperial Agent in this game. Back in Imperial Space, Commander Inga Stevenson is a well respected Commander, a woman of wealth and means who restored her family's fortunes from the hole her father's foolishness left her in. This is as it should be, because she runs a fairly clean business at home. Her worst criminal enterprise in Imperial space is her no questions asked customized Sightseeing Tour business, Stevenson's Whirlwind Adventures, where she routinely boosts out of the docking bay (much to the amusement of the local ATC), and sometimes she has a wanted passenger on board.
On the other side of the border, Commander Inga Stevenson is someone else entirely. She routinely smuggles weapons to local freedom fighters, has helped overthrow Federation governors in several systems, has helped engineer a viral outbreak at a Federation station, assassinated numerous Federation corporate executives, and has gone on at least one terrorist killing spree. And yet she is a respected Commander in Federation Space. She is allied with multiple Federation minor factions, friendly with the Federation in general, and is even cordial with the faction she massacred... once she payed her fines, of course.
What the heck, Frontier? I'm hoping for a proverbial Sherlock Holmes to my Moriarty, and you give me Deputy Cletus instead?
Exploration. The current exploration mechanics are pretty much a joke, consisting of only holding a button for a few seconds, and pointing your nose at a body and waiting. This is sufficient if you enjoy sightseeing or literally trying to reach the furthest star, and making a little credits along the way, but I prefer a little more variety in things to do, and I prefer them to be active, not passive. Would it have killed you to require landing on a world, and taking a few surface samples, to reveal the (sellable) material makeup of a world? Give us a reason, besides screen shots, role-playing, or gathering materials, to land on a body?
Powerplay. This should've been Frontiers attempt to add meaningful PvP to the game. What they did instead was take the interesting parts of BGS manipulation, watered it down to ABA runs and farming NPCs, and to add insult to injury, allowed players to fast tracking powerplay cargo in 10 unit allotments. At least it provides a little more context for my BGS work, and the strategic planning is fun to read.
In addition, I believe that the reason that Frontier uses a Peer-to-Peer network system is that they didn't want to require a monthly subscription to pay for a large number of servers, so a lot of the BGS work is done by our computers whenever we jump into a system. This works well when a player is online, Frontier's current servers can keep everyone in sync, but imagine how much network traffic would need happen if, for example, I used my fleet of 14 ships to set up 20 star chain loops throughout the empire. Also imagine the salt that would be generated by the more PvP oriented BGS players out there when they realized that all this player-generated activity was happening, and it was happening offline where they can't attack it.
Furthermore, if Frontier was to add a "shipping empire" aspect to the game, I would expect there to be expenses as:
- Realistic maintenance costs
- Realistic fuel costs
- Taxes and duties
- Docking fees
- Hanger rental
- Office rental
They can't be token expenses either. IMO, many of these are expenses that should be in the game already, but aren't. Some of these were previously in the game, but were removed thanks to the Veruca Salts of the community. These can't be token expenses, either. They need to be high enough that it's possible for a player to go bankrupt if they badly mismanage, or fail to manage at all, their business empire.
Personally, from the day my Commander acquired her second specialized ship (the Emerald Dawn), I've assumed that whatever ship I wasn't flying wasn't idle, but did milk runs around my home system. Any profits made, after all the above costs were deducted, was fed right back into restoring the Stevenson Estate to its former glory.
Finally, I don't think opening up the credit spigot would help any. For players who don't like most of the game mechanics already, they'll just complain elite is a "mile wide, inch deep" game, as opposed it being a "grind." (Not that there aren't people who complain about the former already.) For players who like most of the game mechanics, especially those prefer an ingame experience like Captain Renalds vs Captain Picard, it'll be just another example of Frontier filling in what little depth there is in this game.
As much as I like management simulators, I'd rather Frontier focus on what makes Elite Elite: one Commander, flying one ship, against a hostile galaxy. I'd rather that Frontier focus on enhancing THAT aspect of this game, as opposed to adding a gameplay loop that OTHER games would probably do a lot better job at. In particular, I'd like them to focus on three areas that are of interest to me:
Crime and Punishment, plus karma. I play an Imperial Agent in this game. Back in Imperial Space, Commander Inga Stevenson is a well respected Commander, a woman of wealth and means who restored her family's fortunes from the hole her father's foolishness left her in. This is as it should be, because she runs a fairly clean business at home. Her worst criminal enterprise in Imperial space is her no questions asked customized Sightseeing Tour business, Stevenson's Whirlwind Adventures, where she routinely boosts out of the docking bay (much to the amusement of the local ATC), and sometimes she has a wanted passenger on board.
On the other side of the border, Commander Inga Stevenson is someone else entirely. She routinely smuggles weapons to local freedom fighters, has helped overthrow Federation governors in several systems, has helped engineer a viral outbreak at a Federation station, assassinated numerous Federation corporate executives, and has gone on at least one terrorist killing spree. And yet she is a respected Commander in Federation Space. She is allied with multiple Federation minor factions, friendly with the Federation in general, and is even cordial with the faction she massacred... once she payed her fines, of course.
What the heck, Frontier? I'm hoping for a proverbial Sherlock Holmes to my Moriarty, and you give me Deputy Cletus instead?
Exploration. The current exploration mechanics are pretty much a joke, consisting of only holding a button for a few seconds, and pointing your nose at a body and waiting. This is sufficient if you enjoy sightseeing or literally trying to reach the furthest star, and making a little credits along the way, but I prefer a little more variety in things to do, and I prefer them to be active, not passive. Would it have killed you to require landing on a world, and taking a few surface samples, to reveal the (sellable) material makeup of a world? Give us a reason, besides screen shots, role-playing, or gathering materials, to land on a body?
Powerplay. This should've been Frontiers attempt to add meaningful PvP to the game. What they did instead was take the interesting parts of BGS manipulation, watered it down to ABA runs and farming NPCs, and to add insult to injury, allowed players to fast tracking powerplay cargo in 10 unit allotments. At least it provides a little more context for my BGS work, and the strategic planning is fun to read.
