System Colonisation Questions and Concerns

[Cosmo]

A few questions and concerns about system colonisation:

1. Building diversity - we can place existing assets. How do they prevent the settlements from looking the same or too similar?
2. Building upgrades - when a settlement grows can the buildings get bigger?
3. Settlement size - how large can a settlement become and how many per system?
4. Feel alive - do NPCs live in the settlements with daily tasks, routines so that it feels alive?
5. Can you customize the banner, logo of the colony?
6. Where does the System Architect live? Is there a home building?
7. Is there a command headquarters to manage the system?
8. Where do friends, squad members live in the system?
9. What happens if a System Architect is inactive for 2-5 years? - It is inevitable that a player will stop caring or managing a system. A different player should be able to take control.
10. Can the architect name the system, stations, settlements?
11. Can we finally order a drink at the bartender?
12. When will anti-aliasing get better?
13. Can the architect hire NPCs to defend a system in Powerplay?
14. How does the architect manage the system budget (credits)?
15. Do the settlements generate credits which can be spent on new buildings? If we have to haul goods for every single building that wouldn't be fun.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Based on what we've seen so far and they've said about the feature:
1) They don't, that's what "place existing assets" means. Though there are enough designs of station, outpost and settlement already available that it'd take a while to place one of each in a system.
2) The individual settlements almost certainly can't grow. The system can grow by adding more assets.
3) Probably the largest size is the really big Extraction settlement with the gap between the two parts of the site. No limit per system given yet (other than the "every dockable needs a unique ID" limit we already know about from FCs, I suppose) and there might be smaller per-planet limits.
4) As much as they do in current Odyssey settlements
5) Probably inherited from the minor faction running the settlement
6) There's the Colonisation Carrier ship. Whether you can actually live there beyond "it has docking pads" is unlikely, since they didn't bother putting concourses on the Powerplay Carriers.
7) As 6
8) Wherever they like, I guess. Perhaps build a station with a decent concourse early on.
9) It's probably not a big deal in practice since there's a short time limit on making the system up to the point where it can chain colonisation from (so that bit can be taken over if abandoned), it's not as if there's a shortage of systems to colonise, and you can only be the Architect for one system at a time. Whether you can apply to be the Architect for a system which was colonised and then moved on from they haven't said.
10) Unknown, probably just "pick name from list of suggestions" if so.
11) No
12) Not this time

 

[Disemboweled Ego]

1) They don't, that's what "place existing assets" means. Though there are enough designs of station, outpost and settlement already available that it'd take a while to place one of each in a system.

There's a slim chance that we get modular station construction since it seems to be built that way. Though upgrading the stations and other buildables wasn't mentioned imo it'd be neccessary to add depth with whats already there and there's a precedent for that with fleet carriers though it doesn't affect the visuals.

If not then there's a chance that each "tier 2 coriolis with a high tech economy" (or whatever it ends up being) will just be the version with noob hammers and all more advance agricultural stations will all have the same rings and so on.

 

[aRJay]

A few questions and concerns about system colonisation:

• Building diversity - we can place existing assets. How do they prevent the settlements from look the same or too similar?

We haven’t been told yet. But they probably don’t.

• Building upgrades - when a settlement grows can the buildings get bigger?

We haven’t been told yet. However the buildings getting bigger would probably be mocked as much as the stairs on a Cutter.

• Settlement size - how large can a settlement become and how many per system?

We haven’t been told yet. But probably not to large before it gets called something else, how many is probably down to the size of the system and the wallet of the Architect.

• Feel alive - do NPCs live in the settlements with daily tasks, routines so that it feels alive?

We haven’t been told yet. Probably much the same as any similar base already in the game.

• Can you customize the banner, logo of the colony?

Opinion is mixed that they will even trust us to name stuff so maybe/maybe not.

• Where does the System Architect live? Is there a home building?

In their ship so they can make a quick getaway when things go inevitably wrong.

• Is there a command headquarters to manage the system?

We haven’t been told yet.

• Where do friends, squad members live in the system?

The same place they live in any other system when they are hauling all the Beryyetc the Architect has asked for.

• What happens if a System Architect is inactive for 2-5 years? - It is inevitable that a player will stop caring or managing a system. A different player should be able to take control.

That sort of implies there is a role for the architect when a system is running, surely the architect will move on then to build his next system at that point.

• Can the architect name the system, stations, settlements?

We haven’t been told yet. But there is a lot of debate over whether we can be trusted for this.

• Can we finally order a drink at the bartender?

Of course not where do you think you are? Raxxla?

• When will anti-aliasing get better?
• Can the architect hire NPCs to defend a system in Powerplay?
• How does the architect manage the system budget (credits)?
• Do the settlements generate credits which can be spent on new buildings? If we have to haul goods for every single building that wouldn't be fun.

The last three all sound like part of a management sim.

 

[Cosmo]

2) The individual settlements almost certainly can't grow. The system can grow by adding more assets.

By "grow" I mean building tier upgrades. For example you place a basic mining facility building, then after a while it upgrades to tier 2 etc. This happens automatically or manually by the architect.

3) Probably the largest size is the really big Extraction settlement with the gap between the two parts of the site. No limit per system given yet (other than the "every dockable needs a unique ID" limit we already know about from FCs, I suppose) and there might be smaller per-planet limits.

I thought the architect could place individual buildings. So if you put 100-1000 buildings close together it'll resemble a city.

6) There's the Colonisation Carrier ship. Whether you can actually live there beyond "it has docking pads" is unlikely, since they didn't bother putting concourses on the Powerplay Carriers.

I thought the Colonisation Ship disappeared once the primary starport (station) is built.

The architect should have an executive apartment in a starport or settlement.

8) Wherever they like, I guess. Perhaps build a station with a decent concourse early on.

We'd have the same old Concourse layouts that are currently in-game... sigh.

9) It's probably not a big deal in practice since there's a short time limit on making the system up to the point where it can chain colonisation from (so that bit can be taken over if abandoned), it's not as if there's a shortage of systems to colonise, and you can only be the Architect for one system at a time. Whether you can apply to be the Architect for a system which was colonised and then moved on from they haven't said.

Can we only be the architect of 1 system at a time? That's disappointing. I thought we could manage multiple systems simultaneously.

10) Unknown, probably just "pick name from list of suggestions" if so.

We haven’t been told yet. But there is a lot of debate over whether we can be trusted for this.

We can be trusted with naming our ships and characters. So we should be allowed to name the system, station and settlements. If it's inappropriate just report it and it'll be changed.

The last three all sound like part of a management sim.

The colonization feature seems like Sim City / Cities Skylines style gameplay. The settlement generates wealth which could then be spent on more buildings, infrastructure etc.

Why should an Architect be a part-time hauler? I don't know any architects who haul materials to construction workers.

A colony should be self-sustaining after placing the initial structures. Otherwise it makes no economic sense to put all the effort into it. People don't want a second job.

 

[aRJay]

A colony should be self-sustaining after placing the initial structures. Otherwise it makes no economic sense to put all the effort into it. People don't want a second job.

Once it is self sustaining it won’t need us anymore.

Your wish list sounds more like a spin-off game rather than a part of ED that doesn’t seem to be a big enough addition that it will be a paid DLC.

 

[Cosmo]

Once it is self sustaining it won’t need us anymore.

The colony does need the System Architect, because apparently the colonists can't place nor upgrade their own buildings.

If the Architect can only manage 1 star system at a time, that means we have to abandon decent systems for the next one until we reach the desired system. For example the desired system is ~ 1000 ly away thus the architect must place around 100 starports (x 10 ly) to get there. If the Architect can't return to manage the previous 100 systems then those will be wasted.

 

[varonica]

The colony does need the System Architect, because apparently the colonists can't place nor upgrade their own buildings.

If the Architect can only manage 1 star system at a time, that means we have to abandon decent systems for the next one until we reach the desired system. For example the desired system is ~ 1000 ly away thus the architect must place around 100 starports (x 10 ly) to get there. If the Architect can't return to manage the previous 100 systems then those will be wasted.

According to FDEV the system architect will always be the system architect, there's no reason I can see why you can't be the system architect of multiple systems, but speculation of this sort is pretty pointless since FDEV haven't released full details and have even said some of the details aren't settled yet, such as the colonization distance, so even if they told us stuff now, there's a chance it may change before release, we all remember the Fleet Carrier companion ships right? Was really looking forward to those, oh well!

 

[Ian Doncaster]

I thought the architect could place individual buildings. So if you put 100-1000 buildings close together it'll resemble a city.

I would be very surprised from what they've said so far if they intend to go beyond "place a pre-fab settlement template" and there's presumably some minimum distance between them.

Why should an Architect be a part-time hauler? I don't know any architects who haul materials to construction workers.

Because it's a game about hauling cargo. It's likely - since they presumably expect people to mostly do this in groups - that like a Fleet Carrier you can just fund a sufficiently generous buy order and get other people to haul the cargo, though.

Frontier's internal-to-English translation is sometimes a bit fuzzy but I think they've picked "architect" to emphasise that you don't need to (or get to) do micromanagement of the details - it's the big picture "what stations of which types go where" stuff.

A colony should be self-sustaining after placing the initial structures. Otherwise it makes no economic sense to put all the effort into it. People don't want a second job.

Self-sustaining in the sense of "you don't need to pay for all its imports personally", sure. I doubt it's going to come with a detailed economic simulation to say whether - given its neighbours, economy spread, natural resources, etc. - the colony is profitable or not (and charge you if it isn't).

I'm sure some people do have "I will set up these systems in exactly this way to take advantage of an edge case in the mission generator" as a plan to make massive profits, but I doubt colonising a system is something you do to get personally rich.

 

[varonica]

I would be very surprised from what they've said so far if they intend to go beyond "place a pre-fab settlement template" and there's presumably some minimum distance between them.

Even the small section they had on placing settlements on surfaces showed a full settlement installation being placed and not individual buildings, so yes as far as I have seen, it's "a settlement" and not individual building placement. This is what I meant when I said in another thread that this wasn't base building as everyone knows and refers to it.