In the original Elite we were constantly trading, but that was made exciting by having to fight through pirates. In this one, there is no such mechanism. Reason for this is that the jumps to planet have been replaced by the continuous Supercruise. So most encounters take place being pulled out of SC, transition, going back into SC, transition, which might repeat a couple of times. I've been thinking about a mechanism that doesn't have or need these transitions which break up the action and in my case a lot of the immersion and because escape is quite easy, the fear of being interdicted is low. (Ziggy is utterly invigorated and his Pirate fear is low .... he thinks again ....)
What would make this all much more smooth, exciting and apply to skill is when these encounters could take place entirely in normal space. And the only place traders need to be in normal space for an extended amount of time is docking and undocking at spacestations. (Outposts not included in idea)
So, my idea begins with possibly a not very popular change, when going out of SC, you end up 20-25 Km away from the station. From there the trader has to travel 10-20 Km towards the safety zone, which size is determined by the kind of government. This would mean adding minutes to the journey every time you dock (or undock, which I'll come to later) so I imagine people who measure their fun in Cr/h are hissing at their screen right now
But this window gives pirates an excellent chance to hide in the dark no man's land between the point of entry and the safety zone. The trader still has the opportunity to jump away, but the trader also has a hold full of cargo for which that station probably has the highest price, so he really doesn't want to.
The same goes for exiting stations. The mass lock from a station should reach way further than the spitting distance it is now. Which again means the trader has to go through a couple of Km of no man's land, and this time does not have the option to SC out of there until 15 Km out (making the numbers up as I go along).
Pirates will hide in this no man's land in silent running waiting to pounce. I suggest to make the cargo scanner a very silent scanner so pirates can scan without giving away their position. And I image the trader seeing "Scan Detected" will have an increased heart rate not know where the pirate is. Might be flying straight into trouble.
Bounty Hunters could fly escort for traders exiting, or come to the aid of traders arriving once they see the shooting. Security vessels would only escort you to the edge of the safety zone. Their reward is the Bounty, and more, much more important, killing that trader means something more than destroying randomly generated anomaly X. It means the station you're protected gets more trade, becomes more influential. All this time I haven't specified player or NPC, since I feel up until now it shouldn't make a difference. Solo has to work along the same lines. But I feel by focussing the action in a small (normal) space should increase PvP (genuine Player vs Player) interaction. Players can really assist and work against each other.
And like the idea of exiting a station, looking at the dark space surrounding it and wondering what kind of filthy pirate scum already has me in it's sights. Which is brilliant because it only takes the possibility of a pirate to have that sense of weariness all the time.
So, barring all the practical issues that have to be solved anyway (instancing for instance, probably many more), when I started typing I only had the idea of using the space around stations for more action oriented gameplay. Much has been made up at the spot, so much is overlooked, no detailed analysis has been done to iron out the wrinkles. I just think it might bring a couple of moments of suspense and action into the game like there was in the original Elite. It would need an economic overhaul as well (I'm not holding my breath for any of this) since the quiet and safe Democracy systems will have prices closer to the average, while the more festive Anargies will have the wild price fluctuations where you can strike it rich as trader .... if you can make it.
Piracy will become more viable and a lot more interesting that the SC merry go round.
Trading will take longer to travel, but the monotonous grind will be sprinkled with suspense and action filled interludes.
Bounty Hunting will have a noticable impact for the faction who'se station you're protecting.
Explorers will shake their head at the barbarism and the humanity of it all.
Yeah, a lot of this is pie in the sky, but a guy can dream can't he? Go ahead, kill my idea. But I hope you like the sentiment behind it.
Ziggy
What would make this all much more smooth, exciting and apply to skill is when these encounters could take place entirely in normal space. And the only place traders need to be in normal space for an extended amount of time is docking and undocking at spacestations. (Outposts not included in idea)
So, my idea begins with possibly a not very popular change, when going out of SC, you end up 20-25 Km away from the station. From there the trader has to travel 10-20 Km towards the safety zone, which size is determined by the kind of government. This would mean adding minutes to the journey every time you dock (or undock, which I'll come to later) so I imagine people who measure their fun in Cr/h are hissing at their screen right now
But this window gives pirates an excellent chance to hide in the dark no man's land between the point of entry and the safety zone. The trader still has the opportunity to jump away, but the trader also has a hold full of cargo for which that station probably has the highest price, so he really doesn't want to.The same goes for exiting stations. The mass lock from a station should reach way further than the spitting distance it is now. Which again means the trader has to go through a couple of Km of no man's land, and this time does not have the option to SC out of there until 15 Km out (making the numbers up as I go along).
Pirates will hide in this no man's land in silent running waiting to pounce. I suggest to make the cargo scanner a very silent scanner so pirates can scan without giving away their position. And I image the trader seeing "Scan Detected" will have an increased heart rate not know where the pirate is. Might be flying straight into trouble.
Bounty Hunters could fly escort for traders exiting, or come to the aid of traders arriving once they see the shooting. Security vessels would only escort you to the edge of the safety zone. Their reward is the Bounty, and more, much more important, killing that trader means something more than destroying randomly generated anomaly X. It means the station you're protected gets more trade, becomes more influential. All this time I haven't specified player or NPC, since I feel up until now it shouldn't make a difference. Solo has to work along the same lines. But I feel by focussing the action in a small (normal) space should increase PvP (genuine Player vs Player) interaction. Players can really assist and work against each other.
And like the idea of exiting a station, looking at the dark space surrounding it and wondering what kind of filthy pirate scum already has me in it's sights. Which is brilliant because it only takes the possibility of a pirate to have that sense of weariness all the time.
So, barring all the practical issues that have to be solved anyway (instancing for instance, probably many more), when I started typing I only had the idea of using the space around stations for more action oriented gameplay. Much has been made up at the spot, so much is overlooked, no detailed analysis has been done to iron out the wrinkles. I just think it might bring a couple of moments of suspense and action into the game like there was in the original Elite. It would need an economic overhaul as well (I'm not holding my breath for any of this) since the quiet and safe Democracy systems will have prices closer to the average, while the more festive Anargies will have the wild price fluctuations where you can strike it rich as trader .... if you can make it.
Piracy will become more viable and a lot more interesting that the SC merry go round.
Trading will take longer to travel, but the monotonous grind will be sprinkled with suspense and action filled interludes.
Bounty Hunting will have a noticable impact for the faction who'se station you're protecting.
Explorers will shake their head at the barbarism and the humanity of it all.
Yeah, a lot of this is pie in the sky, but a guy can dream can't he? Go ahead, kill my idea. But I hope you like the sentiment behind it.
Ziggy
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