Player owned settelements

[AlexRyder]

I too would like to have settlement building, and it could work like this...


Player stakes a claim to a point on a planet either not owned by a faction, or owned by their player faction

Player places prohibitively large (200t or something) colony module on surface, and then needs to purchase and deliver additional modules to the site in order to expand... habitats, storage, defence etc and the available colony buildings can be configured to produce certain materials.

If the colony reaches a certain size, the various buildings start producing the materials in lockers, the settlement owner of course can have access level 6 or something crazy but this makes it a useful place for other players too.

Otherwise, behaves just like a normal settlement but one that is excluded from the BGS. The security forces would need to be droids and skimmers only though if you were out in the black.

It's not like there isn't sufficient space for every player to build as many of these as they want having multiple configurations of buildings and defensive layouts could add to the gameplay.

 

[molgrips]

Yeah, I'm not massively into base building for the sake of it when there's no gameplay reason but apparently lots of people are, it's huge in No Man's Sky.

 

[Gordon Freeman IV]

Yeah, I'm not massively into base building for the sake of it when there's no gameplay reason but apparently lots of people are, it's huge in No Man's Sky.

Think of it as a planetside fleet carrier. You can add services(refuel, restock, repair, vista genomics, pioneer supply etc., set trades, get more landing pads. I agree that having a useless base would. Not be good however with services it could be a cool little home away from home and allow player groups to create a little bubble wherever they want with carriers as the starports and player settlements on the various planets.

 

[Frankymole]

I strongly suspect it will happen eventually, IF the game survives long enough.

Was there not something about this in the early game design documents? Something about a future update bringing the ability to build things and cache items on planet surfaces? I think there was.

Do you mean in Horizons design documents? There was little about planets earlier since the base game (no pun intended) didn't even have landable planets of any kind, nor any means to move about on them.

 

[CMDR Yates]

Do you mean in Horizons design documents? There was little about planets earlier since the base game (no pun intended) didn't even have landable planets of any kind, nor any means to move about on them.

I forget all the ins-and-outs but there were documents shared with Design Decision Forum Kickstarter backers detailing in broad strokes the kind of features that could be developed in future, before the original release.

Obviously, those were early, early concepts, and most of that has been superceded by later development, though.

 

[[VR] wi03016]

Base Building from small mining camps to settlements would bring a lot of content to the game.

 

[Miklos Atreides]

In the Elite Universe Base building and management offers a lot of opportunities but in fact to me it seems more an independent game rather than a game that is mainly surroundet by flying spaceships. Even the "Space legs" of EDO is imho already borderline to be better placed in an own gameset.

Regards,
Miklos

 

[CardioTherapy]

Settlements / bases to be modular. We buy a blueprint fir certain module and then we need to collect certain amount of minable metals and minerals to buid it.
Adding a profile to the planets: mineral rich, biological rich, High Xeno treath area, high conflict area, High turist area...
We can buils and develop our sttlement to match a profile of the planet for maximum efficiency: exstraction base, bio-research base, Anti xenop support base, military base, turist settlement... and so on. then the base need to bve properly managed to generate certain output like credists, minerals, research data, weapons or whatever...
Player owned settlements can be bnuild only on non inhabited planets.
I can imageine building AX base in witch head or research base in deep space.

 

[CardioTherapy]

In the Elite Universe Base building and management offers a lot of opportunities but in fact to me it seems more an independent game rather than a game that is mainly surroundet by flying spaceships. Even the "Space legs" of EDO is imho already borderline to be better placed in an own gameset.

Regards,
Miklos

True, but it will broaden the spectrum of the game and will bring real sandbox. "Do what you want in one game" in space.

 

[Cosmo Bozo]

I was against the idea before odyssey, but now we can walk around, having our own home base to walk around in would be cool, as long as it was limited to one per player, so people didn't dump settlements everywhere and never come back to them.

 

[Miklos Atreides]

True, but it will broaden the spectrum of the game and will bring real sandbox. "Do what you want in one game" in space.

Yes, it will broaden up the sandbox. Only managing a settlement properly will make you no longer flying around in that box. You will be busy to keep your settlement up and running.

Regards,
Miklos

 

[CardioTherapy]

I was against the idea before odyssey, but now we can walk around, having our own home base to walk around in would be cool, as long as it was limited to one per player, so people didn't dump settlements everywhere and never come back to them.

Or they will require regular physical maintenance by the owner (or a squad mate) and if the player has more than one settlement, he/she will spend most of the in game time to maintain them. if not maintained the settlements will enter abandoned state and will be shut down and crowded with scavengers. Good gameplay for scavenger roleplay too.

 

[ChipStar65]

I was against the idea before odyssey, but now we can walk around, having our own home base to walk around in would be cool, as long as it was limited to one per player, so people didn't dump settlements everywhere and never come back to them.

Player-created settlement could have maintenance requirements beyond the type FCs require, which is just credits. Ongoing trade, or the need to deliver regular supplies not found in the local system, etc. If not met, the settlements degrade and eventually are removed, no refunds. Perhaps as the settlement degrades, it could become more vulnerable to predation by other players? Player settlements should be a long-term commitment rather than a one-off.

 

[sixhashbrowns]

I'm not really interested in owning my own settlement, the carrier is enough for me in that regard. (I would like carrier features/ customisation to continue to be expanded though)

What I would like though is additional BGS mechanics that allow any faction (through hard to achieve states) to expand into new systems and set up new settlements. Expansion could be into populated and unpopulated systems.

That'd allow the bubble and other human controlled space to change and expand based on larger scale player activity without fdev having to 'hand of god' it all in as they do now.

 

[Semivivus]

Settlements / bases to be modular. We buy a blueprint fir certain module and then we need to collect certain amount of minable metals and minerals to buid it.

I too am a proponent of modular design. Mostly to avoid overly creative bases and performance issues that would follow, if you look at other games. Large prefabs with limited customisation to be connected together however the player wishes. To keep the occupied space more or less lore-friendly and clean.

As for their purpose, I would personally settle for a mere decorative player home akin to MMORPG guild halls and player homes, except not instanced. Everything else would be just a bonus, although I don´t think player settlements should in any way be able to tamper with the existing BGS.

 

[Martind Forlon]

Possibility to build something your "own", ideally a home, is very strong gaming feature. Nice suggestion @frostthejack

 

[molgrips]

The problem of too many abandoned settlements could easily be solved with the same method as with FCs: Through pseudo-expiry mechanisms like their weekly maintenance costs, and when the money stops flowing, the settlement is removed.

Not removed - it should be boarded up and abandoned (irreversably) but you can then go round and loot it for stuff. Actually, FCs should be the same.

 

[Sylow]

Hmm. I own spaceships the size of an aircraft carrier. Several. Which can travel many lightyears in no time, through a galaxy of billions of star systems. So yea, i definitely need to tie myself to some random rock in a random system, so i can have a small hut of my own there...

Disclaimer: The statement above might contain sarcasm.

 

[molgrips]

Ships that you can't walk around in.

But yea, not everyone has to like it, but that's the point of a game like this.

 

[Sylow]

Ships that you can't walk around in.

But yea, not everyone has to like it, but that's the point of a game like this.

Maybe. But in my eyes Odyssey is already a weakly bolted on addition to the main game. Now you want to bolt something on to that again.

Might be just me, but how about something for the actual game again, for a change?