SRVs and base building (speculation on some exciting possibilities)

[Alec Turner]

The mention of "base building" in the recent Frontier leak plus the recent FD job advert talking about an AI Vehicle Programmer have got me thinking.

So, the fact that Frontier are looking at hiring someone to tackle "the challenges of driving and navigating vehicles on complicated, rugged terrain" seems incredibly exciting. Just the idea that they (presumably) want to have NPC SRVs suggests to me that they they want to inject life into planetary bases and surfaces (after all, the ad' does says "rugged terrain") in the same way that we have life in the space lines.

So what sort of gameplay might revolve around these NPC SRVs? I'd like to think that this isn't just about spicing up existing ground assault missions but that it opens up the possibility for having surface variants of several of the existing types of space gameplay (delivery missions, bounty hunting, search and rescue, even surface mining). I love the idea of, say, a simple delivery mission in the SRV that would require driving from one surface base to another, perhaps encountering NPC SRVs along the way.

The main problem I see with this (assuming they can get the vehicle driving AI working) is how you stop people from simply doing most of the journey in their ship (which would kinda defeat the point). One possibility is to have large "no-fly" zones (perhaps areas guarded by powerful surface-to-air weapons). That to me is a somewhat unsatisfactory solution tho. An idea I prefer is that the cargo being delivered can't be transferred to the ship. Perhaps there could be cargo trailers which have to be towed?

And then another thought occured. Suppose FD introduced new types of ground vehicle for these surface missions which couldn't be stowed in our ships (after all - the SRV only just fits in the vehicle bay after being collapsed so how could we possibly stow larger SRVs). Suppose there were vehicle hangars on planet bases where we could switch into a different vehicle (a bit like how we currently switch between ships at the shipyard). Surface missions might require the use of these specialised vehicles. The gameplay loop might go something like the following.

You land at a planetary base and peruse the mission board. There's a surface delivery mission requiring use of a cargo transport vehicle. You accept the mission, go to the vehicle hangar and purchase a cargo transporter. Then you drive out in your new vehicle to a designated cargo collection point, load up the cargo, drive across the surface to the delivery destination (perhaps encountering new AI controlled SRVs pirates?), drop off the cargo and then drive back to return to your ship.

Or perhaps you pick up a search and rescue mission. Someone has gone out in their SRV and got stuck and your mission is to go and find them. You might be able to run an aerial search with new scanners (something like the mining pulse wave analyser?) to determine the general area but then have to switch to another new surface vehicle which can track the exact location of your target and have the reufl facilities/passenger capacity to perform the rescue and maybe transport any survivors back to base?

So now we have the idea that we might own a fleet of surface vehicles.

Now ... on to base building.

Suppose we could construct our own surface bases ... planetary "homes" if you like. These might have garages where we can store our personal fleet of vehicles? Perhaps the very construction or supply of these bases might require us to drive out in special purpose vehicles from existing bases. Surface mining might require giant ground based refineries which we can add to our bases. We could drive out in special mining vehicles, collect raw ores using new ground based mining tools fitted to those vehicles and then transport them back to be refined. Perhaps we could even automate the process (and again this might be where the challenge of AI driving on rugged terrain would come in), leaving hired teams of mining vehicles slowly accruing wealth while we head off back out into the galaxy. Heck, we could even receive in-cockpit warnings that our base is under attack and have to race back across the galaxy to protect it before it's automated defences crumble.

Like I said ... the possibilities seem incredibly exciting.

 

[SlouchMonster]

Sounds good. Thinking about base building I'm not sure we'll be able to build base for ourselves. I think it'll be more like a community goal or power-play objective. Groups of players shipping resources to a planet, chosen by themselves or F.Dev as an initiative and a new base would be built.

Maybe, if we do get newer, bigger ground vehicles we could carry them as cargo and only deploy them a a base that has an 'unboxing' facility. Or maybe larger ships could have a larger vehicle bay fitted for combat or cargo vehicles.

 

[EidLeWeise]

Only you would like the idea of making a Road Train and driving it over the hills and down the lanes as opposed to chucing 700T of things into a T9 and flying it there (even if it were on the same planet!).

On the other hand, I am sure if FD put their mind to it, they could come up with reasons why you HAVE to drive something over land. - though making ppl circum-navigate a planet over the course of a month, just to deliver the post does seem a bit extreme!!!. Playing Postman Pat around bases however seems very viable.

I am going 100% by memory here - but I think the idea of "Remote Planetary Mining Rigs" has been asked of FD in the past, and they answered that adding player owned static content would be impossible (well very difficult) I still think it's a great idea though!

 

[Muzz UK]

I reckon Fleet Carriers are the bases and we'll be able to customise them like ships but with more details such as the look not just the modules and sub systems. I expect massive credit fees attached hence the reason all the career earnings have been buffered majorly over the last year or so.

I'm sure Frontier said fleet carriers would be able to move too. Perhaps with rumoured space legs we'll be able to dock and run around on them with our commanders etc.

As for shooting goids same thing just on a goid base or structure.

Funnily enough if you look at the way the game has changed you can see that Frontier have done some of the ground work for this. Example I went into a distress call USS and found an abandoned Type 9 with its rear entrance exposed (no pun intended) that looked ready for me to roll up and board.

 

[Alec Turner]

Only you would like the idea of making a Road Train and driving it over the hills and down the lanes as opposed to chucing 700T of things into a T9 and flying it there (even if it were on the same planet!).

On the other hand, I am sure if FD put their mind to it, they could come up with reasons why you HAVE to drive something over land. - though making ppl circum-navigate a planet over the course of a month, just to deliver the post does seem a bit extreme!!!. Playing Postman Pat around bases however seems very viable.

I am going 100% by memory here - but I think the idea of "Remote Planetary Mining Rigs" has been asked of FD in the past, and they answered that adding player owned static content would be impossible (well very difficult) I still think it's a great idea though!

LOL - I knew you would say this!

But seriously tho', I do genuinely think there is a non-tecnical problem to be solved here with surface gameplay. Once people have an easy way out in Elite, it becomes very hard to ignore that fact, even if we want to. For example, I like the mechanics of the sub-surface displacement missile and I love the idea of working through all the different layers of an asteroid - but in practice it's VERY hard to ignore the fact that it's way more profitable to simply go Void Opal mining and ignore those other aspects of gameplay which FD spent precious time and resources implementing. I'm concerned that all FD's efforts to make planetary surfaces feel more alive will be for nought if they can't give us a good solid reason to remain on the surface. It also needs to be done in a way which doesn't "feel" like we're being forced into a certain style of gameplay (even if we kind of are).