[PROPOSAL] Homesystem mechanic needed

Iskariot

Iskariot
I talked about this elsewhere, long ago, but I keep running into the fact that in Elite a 'Home system' means nothing.
There is no in game mechanic to support this, and I think this is a huge mistake.

Many commanders choose a system as their home system. They do this for practical reasons, but also because in a huge game world like Elite you want to feel at home somewhere. I believe it is essential that the game offers a mechanic to support this. It builds on present behavior of the cmdrs in the game, and will add more depth to our experience.

I think this would be a feature every single cmdr would want to use if implemented well.

Some ideas:

Marking a system as home system.
---------------------------------
  • Commanders can mark a system as a home system.
  • Cmdrs can only mark a system as a home system when they are 'friendly' or 'allied'.
  • You can only mark one system at a time
  • You can only change home systems once per 3 months (just throwing it out there, could also be 1 month or 12, or no limitation).
  • A system that is marked as a home system will always stay 'friendly' or 'allied', unless you are behaving downright hostile towards the ruling faction. In that case you can lose the 'home system' status.
  • A system that is marked home system will get a special marker in the star map.


Possible Advantages:
--------------------
  • You get discounts there (perhaps 10%). People know you. Like you. Treat you better.
  • You get better missions, better pay-outs, better rewards. People know you. Like you. Treat you better.
  • Moving ships to your homesystem costs 10% or perhaps 20% less
  • Your fines are lower (perhaps?).
  • If you are attacked in a homesystem the authorities will respond much quicker to help you out.
  • Bounty pay-outs are 10% higher.
  • Exploration pay-outs are 10% higher.
  • There could be discounts for modules and ships too

For me it is not about the discounts, but there need to be advantages that set your home system apart.


Other stuff:
-----------
- When you commit crimes in your home system, you will lose your special status and you will have to work to get it back.

- Also commanders are greeted with special lines to make you feel like you are returning to your home:
"Welcome home cmdr". "Long time no see", "Glad you are back", "Let's have a drink soon", "Shall we hook up tonight" and stuff like that.
 
Last edited:

JetsonRING

JetsonRING
We already have "home" systems in fact, the plot a course to my home base all I need to do is tell ELI to "plot course for home".

In short form, you want to designate a system of your choice where you would basically get increased mission payouts and discounts on fines, modules and ships.
The same old "I want more, for less" post. I suppose you would want your discount on top of the discounts you currently get in certain systems, too.
 

JetsonRING

JetsonRING
JetsonRING said:
We already have "home" systems in fact, the plot a course to my home base all I need to do is tell ELI to "plot course for home".

In short form, you want to designate a system of your choice where you would basically get increased mission payouts and discounts on fines, modules and ships.
The same old "I want more, for less" post. I suppose you would want your discount on top of the discounts you currently get in certain systems, too.
Click to expand...
 

Iskariot

Iskariot
JetsonRING said:
We already have "home" systems in fact, the plot a course to my home base all I need to do is tell ELI to "plot course for home".

In short form, you want to designate a system of your choice where you would basically get increased mission payouts and discounts on fines, modules and ships.
The same old "I want more, for less" post. I suppose you would want your discount on top of the discounts you currently get in certain systems, too.
Click to expand...

No.
As I clearly explained it is not about the discounts. I explicitly said "For me it is not about the discounts, but there need to be advantages that set your home system apart."
Credits are for grabs in Elite. Sadly you can make them so easily these days as to make them almost irrelevant for the game.
I have many billions, so I could not care less about the credits for the sake of credits. I can destroy cutters all day long and not even notice it in my bank account.
The proposal is about creating a mechanic that allows you to actually make a system your home system in such a way that it is recognized, supported, and represented by the game.
It is more about creating a deeper mechanic. There are not many options to create such an effect. I listed the ones that came to mind. Discounts (you can halve the numbers for all I care) are just one of the options.
 

Michael Whatever

M
Quite agree with OP.

I'm in a similar game situation. I have a station I treat as my “home system”, but this is devoid of significance other than my familiarity with it. I would like it to mean more, and I think this is what the OP is suggesting.

Maybe this will be could be accomplished with a base building update ? But that is a whole other can of worms to open up.

Suggested additional benefits

Personalisation options for home station landing pad ? ( so Fdev can sell landing pad kits?)
Automatic Auto dock (without advanced docking computer) at home station only.
 

Crimson Echo

Crimson Echo
I think a system were factions/stations respond more actively to a player returning consistently over time or completing multiple missions successfully with better prices, or module availability would be a nice addition. The mission system sort of does this mission payout scaling with rank and rep, but it is relatively hollow as is. Having to select only one system is less ideal. Realistically if you frequent say 10 systems they should all respond to your continued success and long term presence similarly. (with differences/allowances for faction type, superpower, economy etc)
 

Iskariot

Iskariot
Max Factor said:
I have a home system already marked out in my bookmarks. Currently I don't need anymore then that. I don't want special privileges.
Click to expand...

The special privileges are not that big a thing and will not have a negative influence on the game, if that is your worry.
What I tried to achieve is a 'home system feel', some light privileges are a part of that.
In the end , if you are like me, you travel all over the place and won't be constantly dealing with your home system anyway, but if you go there and have dealings there, then there should be something special to it.
 

Iskariot

Iskariot
Factabulous said:
No ta, I'm a wanderer. And so are my 3 alts cmdrs...
Click to expand...

Many cmdrs have a system they treat as 'home'. But currently they see this only reflected in their imagination. The game as such ignores it. I think in a huge open world like this it could be good to see the game do something with this.
Even those who wander (I do so too) might find it nice to designate a system of their choice as a home and see this reflected in the game.
 

CMDR Corlas

CMDR Corlas
I'm not super interested in having a "home system" mechanic as described, but I'm not opposed at all.

I would be very interested in a "home faction" sort of mechanic though. Make it so you need to have allied or something status with a minor faction, then can really "ally" with them, giving you the option of tracking that minor faction on the galaxy map, showing every system they're in, where they'll expand to, where they're in danger of retreating from, and generating unique missions from that faction - stuff like requests for rares, long-range exploration requests, long-range deliveries, missions generated to encourage or discourage a potential upcoming BGS state, etc.
 

JetsonRING

JetsonRING
Iskariot said:
"... there need to be advantages that set your home system apart."
Click to expand...

No, there don't. What advantages do you have, living where you are as opposed to living in the next town over? Does the landlord pay you to live there? Does he wave and smile every day? Do you get a Discount on rent? Bills?

The only advantages you get from where you "live" are the ones inherent in the location: proximity to work, to schools, to stores, a clean place, hot water, etc. You don't get anything "extra". My "home" system was chosen based on proximity to Shinrarta Dezhra, it's anonymity, quiet location, local services. They don't "give" me anything to live there the same way a town doesn't give you anything extra to live there. o7
 

CMDR Corlas

CMDR Corlas
JetsonRING said:
No, there don't. What advantages do you have, living where you are as opposed to living in the next town over? Does the landlord pay you to live there? Does he wave and smile every day? Do you get a Discount on rent? Bills?

The only advantages you get from where you "live" are the ones inherent in the location: proximity to work, to schools, to stores, a clean place, hot water, etc. You don't get anything "extra".
Click to expand...

I agree with this (although while still being unopposed to the OP's idea). I also get the feeling that as CMDR's, our character archetype is supposed to be "wanderer", to some degree. I'm a bit wary of the game encouraging us to put down roots. (Although I'm hypocritically excited by rumors of surface base building)
 

Iskariot

Iskariot
JetsonRING said:
No, there don't. What advantages do you have, living where you are as opposed to living in the next town over? Does the landlord pay you to live there? Does he wave and smile every day? Do you get a Discount on rent? Bills?

The only advantages you get from where you "live" are the ones inherent in the location: proximity to work, to schools, to stores, a clean place, hot water, etc. You don't get anything "extra". My "home" system was chosen based on proximity to Shinrarta Dezhra, it's anonymity, quiet location, local services. They don't "give" me anything to live there the same way a town doesn't give you anything extra to live there. o7
Click to expand...

This is not real life. This is a game world. A very superficial game world, in which the only thing you can do is basically use a spaceship to mine, kill, explore or trade (and that is no criticism of the game). Therefore there are only very few options to add mechanics to flesh out the stuff people do. There is no ultra realism in the game and there never will be. To create a deeper game you need to work with what there is, and one of the things you can do is creating more depth by adding thin layers to existing mechanics.
 
Last edited:

M00ka

M00ka
OP, you get a vote of yes from me, always thought that the game should encourage a player to pick a 'home' and improve the area. One of the things I would really appreciate is an extra button/option in the left hand navigation panel to automatically plot a route to your 'home' station - one click and done. Yes I know it can be done via bookmarks but what can't it be done BETTER!

My only worry regarding the concept is those who decide that some very popular station like Jameson is their 'home'. Maybe restrict it to a limit, with first in best dressed to call it home (god knows why anyone would want to call that rubbish heap home lol). The rewards don't have to be large, maybe slightly better missions, small discount on both commodities and outfitting? Maybe a discount on all ship transfers TO your home (not away from the home station).

You never know, might finally get some players out of the normal couple of stations and actually dip their toes in the wider galaxy!
 

Drelthar

Drelthar
M00ka said:
Far enough, then I would be happy if you could just nominate a specific station as your home base, have slightly different NPC dialogue (signifying that they recognise you as a resident) and the home button in the navigation panel.

See, not one request for any extra credits :D
Click to expand...

I mean... Sure, make a bookmark called __HOME

and get allied and it's 99.99% there.

I am kind of biased as I wander about and call nowhere home but it seems a little superfluous to me.
 

aRJay

aRJay
I am another one that is largely indifferent to the idea of a home station however the benefits it provides should be superficial ie friendly station chat or not stackable ie no extra discounts on top of what are already present.
While the OP might not be intending Home to be a way of getting more for less we all know that too many of us grind the game that way and don’t need any additional help or encouragement.

The thing is I would have loved this before we could transfer ships and modules now my ships are mostly left lying around where I last used them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom