If there were technical limitations involved then they should never have implemented them in the first place. You can't introduce new content into a content starved game while also saying "Oh btw this content is only for 1% of the playerbase. Tough luck to the rest of you lol" and not expect there to be an enormous amount of backlash.
Seems like frontier actually doesn't want everyone to have a carrier.. for technical reasons?
- Thread starter CMDR Karrde Sun
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That's exactly what happened to me last October/November. I spent so much time mining to be prepared for FC that when I reached 2 Billion credits (what I supposed was enough for a FC) I had to stop to play. I couldn't enjoy it anymore. And today I'm still looking for a reason to launch it.
I did the same thing last fall. Except what did it for me was grinding for my Corvette. I spent weeks grinding rep by transporting thousands of tons of literal crap.
And then finally FINALLY I got the Corvette that I worked so hard for.....and I didn't even wanna look at the game anymore because I had burnt myself out lol
Luckily I've volunteered to run some race action for the virtual Elite Community meet on Saturday night and thinking about that (plus the need to actually get myself over to Cortes Base and do some practice) is going to save me before my "mining/credit earning experiment" crushes my soul. Sod fleet carriers and sod the grind ... I'm off to have some fun!
Unfortunately in my case it would be very difficult to bring me back for another reason (so double tough-luck).Luckily I've volunteered to run some race action for the virtual Elite Community meet on Saturday night and thinking about that (plus the need to actually get myself over to Cortes Base and do some practice) is going to save me before my "mining/credit earning experiment" crushes my soul. Sod fleet carriers and sod the grind ... I'm off to have some fun!
My hotas is broken, it would require something like 20-30 splices to reconnect all broken wires (yes it's a Saitek X-55) and I'm not a technician. If there was some reason to come back to the game I would spend the money and take another one, but at the moment I don't see any reason to spend this money and Amazon is also privileging other type of products (of course) so it would not be so quick to get a new one too.
I drove around pointlessly aronud planetary bases and up blue tinted mountains to park my golden Asp E on while looking down on the terminator. These moments are among the best but not really foreseen by the original game design. Game design should offer options, don't let it dictate how you play if you can.Luckily I've volunteered to run some race action for the virtual Elite Community meet on Saturday night and thinking about that (plus the need to actually get myself over to Cortes Base and do some practice) is going to save me before my "mining/credit earning experiment" crushes my soul. Sod fleet carriers and sod the grind ... I'm off to have some fun!
I had thought of this as well-- technical limitations demanding that the number of existing carriers remain low. This would mean that the pricing would be set so that only the most dedicated grinders would be able to have them. If this is the case, then it's an odd choice from a development standpoint. It's a lot of effort to go through for less than a tenth of a percent of the players. Or perhaps less than a percent of a percent. I understand that part of the justification is that they're still for "everyone" because visitors can still dock and use services, and players can collaborate (to a point). But currently there isn't much to encourage visitors to make use of services either, unless you can strategically locate the carrier to make it more convenient than hitting a station.
Instead it feels like it should be an end-game feature; a goal that is within reach for experienced players who have done most/all of what the game already offers, and are sitting on a pile of cash. I feel like I'm in this category, as I've played for years, over thousands of hours, triple elite, 3.5 million lightyears traveled, and sitting on billions. And yet, in the current state, I'm not sure I can handle a carrier. Simply because multiple hours per week (on average) of mining to cover the upkeep isn't appealing. Nor is about 5 hours of mining per jump to fuel it (it would be better to mine LTDs and then use that to pay for fuel, but that's not an option if you take the carrier away from the bubble). 5-7 billion per year, plus fuel? No thanks. I don't want to pay for the privilege of having to do more grinding or else I lose my shiny toy.
So if that's meant to intentionally discourage end-game players, it's working.
Instead it feels like it should be an end-game feature; a goal that is within reach for experienced players who have done most/all of what the game already offers, and are sitting on a pile of cash. I feel like I'm in this category, as I've played for years, over thousands of hours, triple elite, 3.5 million lightyears traveled, and sitting on billions. And yet, in the current state, I'm not sure I can handle a carrier. Simply because multiple hours per week (on average) of mining to cover the upkeep isn't appealing. Nor is about 5 hours of mining per jump to fuel it (it would be better to mine LTDs and then use that to pay for fuel, but that's not an option if you take the carrier away from the bubble). 5-7 billion per year, plus fuel? No thanks. I don't want to pay for the privilege of having to do more grinding or else I lose my shiny toy.
So if that's meant to intentionally discourage end-game players, it's working.
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I agree. The problem is that I don't play every week. And when I do, mining usually isn't on the top of my list. Carriers don't really give me new gameplay outside of a menu and feeding them money. If that means Carriers aren't for me then, so be it.
Is it the throttle or joystick? I use an x56 and its a love hate relationship for so many reasons. Keyboard joystick is still probably the best imo.
If the philosophy of the QA Testers in Frontier is that they shouldn't try to test extreme cases then Frontier has the wrong QA Test team. One of the things a good QA Test Team does most is stress test. I hope that was just the community manager putting words in the mouth of the QA Team. What a total load of horse manure!
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From having done a fair amount of time in non games qa, the non insulting explanation for that (because it happens in every single patch) is the qa testers only test very specific functionality, what theyre told to basically. The amount of regression or system wide testing would be minimal to none. It should tear them up to have to work like that too because theyre up for any bugs that get through. If managment is bent the wrong way this can be pretty destructive.. you can actually get in trouble for raising bugs out of scope for unimaginable reasons.
The other way it happens is that raised bugs dont get fixed. Theres formal sdlc in triaging whether a bug gets fixed.. qa doesnt just go up to a developer and say fix it... management does. If the issue tracker isnt a complete farce then its also getting stopped at that level.. because bugs require the fix time which can be fierce, and a whole new round of testing with the possibility of things breaking or more bugs.
Generally speaking though, by natural condition its management who decides the quality by deciding what the developers spend developing (or fixing) and what features testers go testing on.
I listened to the Lave radio thing with the devs, and while they definitely did not flat out say this is the case, what they did say along with many other things has me really thinking you are spot on here.
When I look at what we have in the Beta, it just further reinforces the idea for me.
I also think it is folly to look at things under the premise there was one design decision that should logically tie things together, as I think it is more likely to be a series of steps (and missteps) that have led us to something that doesn't make sense when looked at as a single decision or plan.
What I see now, so far as upkeep, makes total sense for a group of players working together to keep it running (original Squadron idea). It has been a long time since they first told us of fleet carriers, and I can see them pretty much sticking with the original design past whatever changes needed to be done to have them player owned, then tossing that at the Beta to see what all needs to be pared down to make it feasible for some, but still out of reach for many, while having a solid system to remove unused ones.
Some work had been put into them, and I'm guessing enough resources were there to make someone think it a waste to just abandon it all when a small team could work with what they had to deliver something in this lull between Beyond and New Era. I think they just worked themselves into the impossible position of making something for all that could only be used for some. Ironically, as a squadron asset being (at least somewhat) communally owned, there would be less of a need/want for every individual to have one, as the group aspect would have more people working towards obtaining and running a single one, as well as less of a chance for one to become defunct due to player inactivity. So somehow, trying to make them for everyone has potentially reduced the number of people who will actually be a part of running one...
It's the throttle.
Yeah. Im using an x56, used the thrustmaster set before that, but i still say the best was the first, keyboard with a logitech extreme 3d.
Thinking about why.. the "joystick curve" frontier built for the keyboard is better than anything ive been able to do on real hardware, and you still always need the keyboard for the galaxy map.
Yes it's a bit of pain in VR. I really can't get used to use the hotas in the maps.
I was thinking of buying a T16000M but I'm not sure if I can cover all the keybinds that I have on the X55. The X55 is not reliable but has tons of axis and buttons.
Ye, don't do this kind of grind. MMOs and looter shooters are prone to have crappy drop rates when new content drops. Do fun stuff. If you experience fun stuff doesn't get you anywhere: Complain. I've overstepped grinding new content in Warframe and that put me off too for good amount of time. I do take year-long breaks, too. However, there is far more stuff to do and try out. Can't basically ever do it all - it's like a shop to go and choose what might be fun. That works best for me.
The other option (which is less fun I suppose) is to strip them down to mobile boxes that can jump. If the server dies due to being linked to a market, then cut that out.
If FCs are useful enough for squadrons then maybe the FC scope should be for a certain size but pitch them at a point where a very large squadron will have several rather than seeing one as being the right quantity.
I think the problem is that the "mobile box which can jump" is probably the expensive bit once it gets outside a strictly singleplayer toy.
If they were literally just personal carriers - and other people couldn't dock at them, and they disappeared to the same place your ship does when you drive your SRV if you got too far from them - then I think they'd be much more straightforward ... but also subject to the SRV-in-multicrew complaint only more so.
Once other people can dock at them they need offline persistence, they need to stick around when you're not in the instance, there needs to be an efficient way to make sure every player's client agrees on where every carrier is at any time (that's faster than the pre-Carriers way of "we'll only move them on server restarts") ... and they still need most of the services a Fleet Carrier can have (repair, refuel, rearm, basic shipyard, basic outfitting, refuel carrier) to be useful as a mobile box.
I don't expect that it's the limited market and interstellar factor on top of that which is making them technically complicated.
Somebody likely screwed up, slept through the deadline to draw three types of carriers (mining, exploration, trading). So, the Decision had to be made: a universal carrier! I think some of you guys credit FD a bit too much for giving carriers deep thought. What I saw on the stream and in beta tells me that they sank minimal amount of man-hours into the thing, they are even outsourcing the potential usage cases to the playerbase: “can’t wait what you guys come up with, when it comes to carriers”. Well, here is the usage scenario I came up with: I am going to pass on buying one to soften the blow on the p2p architecture, so that my colleague, whoever he is, can pay 6bn+ and be the beta tester.
I thought they were meant to be fleet carriers, not mobile shops.
My bad.
The 'they were meant for player groups' specualtion at least makes sense of the insane running costs. Even so that could have been changed so easily.