Summary: Instead of CGs, use the cargo collection mechanism of station repairs to allow Colonia development to proceed in a more organic and player-driven manner.
Background
Frontier has implemented Colonia largely in response to player requests - direct and indirect - from its founding, naming and colonisation onwards. This has led to a place which feels very different - in both obvious and subtle ways - to the Sol bubble.
At the moment, CGs drive development. These are rare (as they compete with Sol CGs for slots) and require Frontier to indirectly assess what players want, then provide a CG for it. While this has worked so far, it has led to a very uneven pace of development, and the inevitable complaints from those who feel their priorities are being overlooked. When Colonia was first set up almost two years ago, CGs were the best available approach - now, there may be a better alternative.
The cargo collection tasks introduced in 2.4 (used for station repairs) could be a way for players to more directly choose how Colonia develops. These tasks have many advantages over CGs:
- they do not have a fixed weekly duration
- they do not take up valuable CG slots away from the overall storyline or the player-driven CG queue
- they can coexist in larger numbers with each other and compete for player time
- they require more thought than a simple bulk hauling CG
- they reward focus on a long-term goal rather than short-term mercenary rushes
With station repairs, this has led to the formation of organised communities setting priorities between the many competing goals, and cooperating on solutions - a similar dynamic would benefit Colonia.
Suggestion
Set up several cargo collection tasks in Colonia. Each task should require a mix of locally-available bulk cargo, mining-only resources, and a small quantity of unusual goods (rares, regional goods like Power Convertors, salvage-only items, or even in some cases Thargoid or Guardian commodities) to encourage collaboration on different gameplay types.
When a task is completed, another one should be set up of the same broad type. Independent pilots and different player groups can set and work on their own priorities, with the overall direction being player-led.
These would largely replace the existing Colonia CGs - though player groups could continue to submit their own.
Suggested task types:
1) Colonisation. This task would add one new inhabited system to the region with basic station facilities and a low population.
2) Settlement. This task would add a new station, planetary port or planetary settlement to an existing system, increasing the population.
3) Development. This task would improve existing stations, increasing population, outfitting quality, and possibly adding other services.
4) Cultural. This task would add non-station improvements to the region, for example tourist beacons, scientific installations, or non-dockable megaships.
Task details
There are many ways the exact purpose of each task could be decided - for example, for a Colonisation task:
1) Frontier decides on a system each time
2) Player-suggested queue: have a week for people to suggest systems on a forum thread, take out unsuitable ones, get a queue which should last for months or years
3) Player reward: one of the contributors gets to pick the system
4) BGS-state driven: e.g. Colonisation picks systems near factions in Investment
(My preference would be for 2 or 4)
Background
Frontier has implemented Colonia largely in response to player requests - direct and indirect - from its founding, naming and colonisation onwards. This has led to a place which feels very different - in both obvious and subtle ways - to the Sol bubble.
At the moment, CGs drive development. These are rare (as they compete with Sol CGs for slots) and require Frontier to indirectly assess what players want, then provide a CG for it. While this has worked so far, it has led to a very uneven pace of development, and the inevitable complaints from those who feel their priorities are being overlooked. When Colonia was first set up almost two years ago, CGs were the best available approach - now, there may be a better alternative.
The cargo collection tasks introduced in 2.4 (used for station repairs) could be a way for players to more directly choose how Colonia develops. These tasks have many advantages over CGs:
- they do not have a fixed weekly duration
- they do not take up valuable CG slots away from the overall storyline or the player-driven CG queue
- they can coexist in larger numbers with each other and compete for player time
- they require more thought than a simple bulk hauling CG
- they reward focus on a long-term goal rather than short-term mercenary rushes
With station repairs, this has led to the formation of organised communities setting priorities between the many competing goals, and cooperating on solutions - a similar dynamic would benefit Colonia.
Suggestion
Set up several cargo collection tasks in Colonia. Each task should require a mix of locally-available bulk cargo, mining-only resources, and a small quantity of unusual goods (rares, regional goods like Power Convertors, salvage-only items, or even in some cases Thargoid or Guardian commodities) to encourage collaboration on different gameplay types.
When a task is completed, another one should be set up of the same broad type. Independent pilots and different player groups can set and work on their own priorities, with the overall direction being player-led.
These would largely replace the existing Colonia CGs - though player groups could continue to submit their own.
Suggested task types:
1) Colonisation. This task would add one new inhabited system to the region with basic station facilities and a low population.
2) Settlement. This task would add a new station, planetary port or planetary settlement to an existing system, increasing the population.
3) Development. This task would improve existing stations, increasing population, outfitting quality, and possibly adding other services.
4) Cultural. This task would add non-station improvements to the region, for example tourist beacons, scientific installations, or non-dockable megaships.
Task details
There are many ways the exact purpose of each task could be decided - for example, for a Colonisation task:
1) Frontier decides on a system each time
2) Player-suggested queue: have a week for people to suggest systems on a forum thread, take out unsuitable ones, get a queue which should last for months or years
3) Player reward: one of the contributors gets to pick the system
4) BGS-state driven: e.g. Colonisation picks systems near factions in Investment
(My preference would be for 2 or 4)
) How it's matched to FDs own storyline with refurgees, burning stations, etc.- please, imagine yourself, but be cautious while writing about it here