Proposal Discussion The game keeping track of old ships. Also downgrading in bad times.

[Adept]

The core ideas are from a clever friend who isn't active on these forums. I wish to share.

The observation is that it would be very cool if the game keeps track of the ships you swap out of. Human space is of course vast, but maybe you could still come accross your old Sidewinder or Eagle later, still bearing your colours.

Hopefully the game also won't be just an endless victory march towards bigger and better ships, both for the players and especially the NPC traders.

If a system is hit with bad times, it would be neat if the local traders have to downgrade to old klunkers / smaller ships, and a lot of those 2nd hand ships of hte players would end up being flown in those economic distress zones.

 

[FragMonkey]

What?

 

[Slopey]

The core ideas are from a clever friend who isn't active on these forums. I wish to share.

The observation is that it would be very cool if the game keeps track of the ships you swap out of. Human space is of course vast, but maybe you could still come accross your old Sidewinder or Eagle later, still bearing your colours.

I very much doubt it, especially as you can't give a ship your own colours currently, and even if you sold it, the first thing most players would do would be to repaint it to their colours.

Hopefully the game also won't be just an endless victory march towards bigger and better ships, both for the players and especially the NPC traders.

But it's a game. If there's no advancement, it's not going to be much fun really.

If a system is hit with bad times, it would be neat if the local traders have to downgrade to old klunkers / smaller ships, and a lot of those 2nd hand ships of hte players would end up being flown in those economic distress zones.

Why would a system hitting bad times affect a single player? They own their ship already - if the economic environment of a system is poor, they simply jump away to somewhere they can buy low, jump, and sell high. As long as they can afford the fuel (which is unlikely to be a huge cost otherwise it'll have serious ramifications on gameplay), they should be able to relocate to somewhere more lucrative. And the very nature of a game like Elite is that you're mostly transient - you don't need a fixed point to live from.

Your "clever" friend is forgetting that a ship with a hyperdrive, and a pilot with no mortgage/ties, is quite a bit more mobile than a person in the real world, constrained geographically and financially.

 

[Adept]

But it's a game. If there's no advancement, it's not going to be much fun really.

Huh? You mean you think the game is only fun if you're progressing into bigger and better ships? That's it?

As for why would it effect a single player, I was talking about NPC ships. Those people will have homes, they aren't just just transient truckers. When a country in the real world hits hard times, it doesn't mean that everybody just migrates away. Some do move, most stay.

The idea is that a poor economic times would be reflected in what kind of ships are flown in that system. I suspect that is coming anyway.

As for the ship identification, most used cars keep their paint jobs. Again, the ship a player sold is most likely flown by NPCs from then on.

 

[StarTux]

The core ideas are from a clever friend who isn't active on these forums. I wish to share.

The observation is that it would be very cool if the game keeps track of the ships you swap out of. Human space is of course vast, but maybe you could still come accross your old Sidewinder or Eagle later, still bearing your colours.

Hopefully the game also won't be just an endless victory march towards bigger and better ships, both for the players and especially the NPC traders.

If a system is hit with bad times, it would be neat if the local traders have to downgrade to old klunkers / smaller ships, and a lot of those 2nd hand ships of hte players would end up being flown in those economic distress zones.

I recall similar things being bought up during DDF discussions.

1. We will be able to apply different decals to our ships and I do recall seeing concept art showing differently coloured vessels, but this hasn't been talked about much.

2. Ships will carry a unique registration code.

More here:

http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6793

It is worth pointing your friend towards the DDF archives, note it has more than one page .

Also, there is an official Twitch stream coming up, why not ask the question here?

We've barely seen 1% of game content (minus the galaxy), and I would be surprised if we couldn't paint our ships as that's been hinted at, plus as Slopey says people will likely just re-paint it anyway, the only thing that's likely to survive would be the unique registration ID.

 

[Rog]

I'm all for anything that helps the game to be a 'live' galaxy, as far away from being a 'game' is fine with me.

 

[Darkfyre99]

But it's a game. If there's no advancement, it's not going to be much fun really.

Personally, I prefer to struggle for my advancement. Without risk, there is no reward, just a big red button that says "To win, press here." Those kind of games can be boring after a while.

 

[Daeron]

I'm all for anything that helps the game to be a 'live' galaxy, as far away from being a 'game' is fine with me.

Aye. The whole selling point of going "online" would be to participate in something more organic than your typical self-centered one (wo)man universe.

Strange though, that the self-centered static universe should prevail even after going online, in so many sad cases! But that is another story altogether... !

Nice call for immersion at any rate!

 

[Jumpin' Jack Flash]

Quote from revised DDF Archives...

"Second hand ships are created by the game and come with randomly generated names that the player can either keep or pay the fee to change as above"

Just a thought on second hand ships versus new ones, whilst I was reading through this topic...

Will 'second hand' ships be graphically represented with various states of hull disrepair?
For example, dents, burn marks and corrosion etc....and...
'New' ships, represented with immaculate bodywork or in 'showroom condition'?

I also remember in FE 2 & FFE when buying a ship (new) that I would cycle through certain ships (of a class), that were for sale looking for a unique designation number that had one or more of my real name initials, or a designation number/text that seemed cool at the time <----(what a pendant! ) )

Hmm...'personalised' ships number plates?....Okay...Okay.. I'll stop typing now...



Jack

 

[Erimus Kamzel]

The core ideas are from a clever friend who isn't active on these forums. I wish to share.

The observation is that it would be very cool if the game keeps track of the ships you swap out of. Human space is of course vast, but maybe you could still come accross your old Sidewinder or Eagle later, still bearing your colours.

Agreed -little things like that add to the overall immersion of games. So this is encouraging....

2. Ships will carry a unique registration code.

Like most of us in real life we never forget our first car, as in Elite it'd be nice if we knew our first ever spaceship was still out there somewhere giving a new owner as much fun as we once had in it. I would like to be able to dock at a station an log into a database and look up old ship registration codes - see if they're still around, or have been scrapped/destroyed etc.

Hopefully the game also won't be just an endless victory march towards bigger and better ships, both for the players and especially the NPC traders.

If a system is hit with bad times, it would be neat if the local traders have to downgrade to old klunkers / smaller ships, and a lot of those 2nd hand ships of hte players would end up being flown in those economic distress zones.

Again a good suggestion - another feature that gives the gameworld an organic feeling of being alive and reacting / adapting should certain conditions arise.

 

[Harrimon Hoxx]

Agreed -little things like that add to the overall immersion of games. So this is encouraging....



Like most of us in real life we never forget our first car, as in Elite it'd be nice if we knew our first ever spaceship was still out there somewhere giving a new owner as much fun as we once had in it. I would like to be able to dock at a station an log into a database and look up old ship registration codes - see if they're still around, or have been scrapped/destroyed etc.

Imagine the pangs of guilt when you realise the pesky pirate your are fighting just happens to be flying your first "car" and you know the situation is going to end in a big explosion and you flying, very silently, back to a station.

 

[Adept]

Imagine the pangs of guilt when you realise the pesky pirate your are fighting just happens to be flying your first "car" and you know the situation is going to end in a big explosion and you flying, very silently, back to a station.

"I wrecked that old pacer... again!"

 

[Riedquat]

I thought Mr Brookes said that there would be no facility for buying/selling second hand ships.

Although I do like the idea of selling on old ships to other players /npc's