The obsession of being a "small fish in a big pond" - where does it come from?

I still have trouble to imagine that a billionaire Imperial Earl is just trucker.

http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Empire

"Society is strictly stratified, with people being able to move between strata (lower strata particularly) based on money, patronage and influence." I don't know, but to me, it looks like if I have the highest imperial rank and I am a billionaire, I am not a cog in the wheel anymore and should be able to take over systems in the name of the empire and stuff like that.

Do we have any info on just how wealthy is wealthy in spaaaaace? Billions are nice and everything but that's also the operating cost of a relatively small fleet of ships. I'd like to see the tag on a capship, for example. Imperial Senators can swing it but we don't know how wealthy they are in numbers afaik.
 
I have the highest imperial rank and I am a billionaire, I am not a cog in the wheel anymore and should be able to take over systems in the name of the empire and stuff like that.
You are probably right about the rank thing, but that says more to me about the Faction rank progression level of difficulty being too low than anything wrong with the focus of the game. Again, a tweaking issue.
I would guess that a billionaire would have trouble buying even an outpost outright, however.
 
Do we have any info on just how wealthy is wealthy in spaaaaace?

An Imperial Clipper costs 22 million credits, an F-16 fighter jet costs the double of that in dollars and does far less.

Given how much damage you could do by investing 5 billion credits into clippers.. I would say billions of credits is A LOT.
 
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You can all stamp your feet as much as you like, but Elite is Elite, its Firefly meets Star Wars simulator (like its always been). You are a lone pilot in a vast galaxy, making your way in it any way you can. The choices are there but the design is not going to move on from that core vision. Technically its not set up for that anyway, as others have pointed out. FD have said more is planned for the future and I believe them. The EVA and Planet Landings will add a lot of great stuff. Empire building it is not and never has been what Elite or Frontier was about. As it stands ED is a fusion of Elite and Frontier and I don't doubt more Frontier features will get added. But Station ownership/System ownership just isn't going to happen. Just accept it guys. :) EVE is available and X for that matter if thats what you wish to indulge in. Elite is what it is and I for one is glad for it. :)
 
I still have trouble to imagine that a billionaire Imperial Earl is just trucker.

http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Empire

"Society is strictly stratified, with people being able to move between strata (lower strata particularly) based on money, patronage and influence." I don't know, but to me, it looks like if I have the highest imperial rank and I am a billionaire, I am not a cog in the wheel anymore and should be able to take over systems in the name of the empire and stuff like that.

The difference still remains the focus on flying a spaceship. If you and I meet out in the black, and we're at odds with each other for whatever reason, I get to face the awesome power of your spaceship and your mad piloting skillz. I can deal with that. I'm a pilot and I know my ship. Even if "dealing with it" means a quick escape vector.
;)

If I have to face the awesome power of an entire system you've taken over, instead of just us and our ships, then we're talking about a completely different game. I don't want to play that game. I want to pilot a spaceship, and that's what ED lets me do.
 
You can all stamp your feet as much as you like, but Elite is Elite, its Firefly meets Star Wars simulator (like its always been). You are a lone pilot in a vast galaxy, making your way in it any way you can. The choices are there but the design is not going to move on from that core vision. Technically its not set up for that anyway, as others have pointed out. FD have said more is planned for the future and I believe them. The EVA and Planet Landings will add a lot of great stuff. Empire building it is not and never has been what Elite or Frontier was about. As it stands ED is a fusion of Elite and Frontier and I don't doubt more Frontier features will get added. But Station ownership/System ownership just isn't going to happen. Just accept it guys. :) EVE is available and X for that matter if thats what you wish to indulge in. Elite is what it is and I for one is glad for it. :)

Braben has said before it isn't off the table, it probably won't even be looked at till further down the road but owning stations is a possibility. Factions will probably never happen but backing one and helping them dominate is already in, just sorta broken and unpolished. But it is empire building. I don't really care one way or the other about station ownership, but I'd be shocked if there isn't some form of it because there isn't a very compelling reason not to. You cant destroy stations so you don't need to defend it and people could provoke a civil war and give you the boot. And as you say the galaxy is big so you'll never know it's happening if you don't look for it. How exactly it's Implemented is a concern of course, but if it adds to the gameplay im sure they will add it, instead of listening to people who for some reason want a static universe for whatever reason. Good enough doesn't move copies, neither does shallow gameplay based on some notion it's realistic to be a nobody even if the tools are there to be otherwise. This is business in an industry that quickly buries mediocrity, not pushing the limits is suicide and an insult to the developers skills, because as has been pointed out time and time again they want and plan more, it just isn't here yet.
 
Braben has said before it isn't off the table, it probably won't even be looked at till further down the road but owning stations is a possibility. Factions will probably never happen but backing one and helping them dominate is already in, just sorta broken and unpolished. But it is empire building. I don't really care one way or the other about station ownership, but I'd be shocked if there isn't some form of it because there isn't a very compelling reason not to. You cant destroy stations so you don't need to defend it and people could provoke a civil war and give you the boot. And as you say the galaxy is big so you'll never know it's happening if you don't look for it. How exactly it's Implemented is a concern of course, but if it adds to the gameplay im sure they will add it, instead of listening to people who for some reason want a static universe for whatever reason. Good enough doesn't move copies, neither does shallow gameplay based on some notion it's realistic to be a nobody even if the tools are there to be otherwise. This is business in an industry that quickly buries mediocrity, not pushing the limits is suicide and an insult to the developers skills, because as has been pointed out time and time again they want and plan more, it just isn't here yet.

Yes; but don't expect Eve. Whatever similarities to Eve you may come to expect; remember "Ian Bell and David Braben" made the Elite series. DB wants to 'flesh out' "Elite"; In my opinion, if that means fleshing it out with a feature from Eve, big deal. As long as it doesn't harm the user base or change the 'lore' (damaging the game); Ok.
 
This wouldn't even be a question with another type of game:

I mean football match games vs football manager games
first person warrior games vs tactical games
tactical games vs strategy games
so first person space sim vs strategic space sim.
 
The same argument gets repeated a lot, and the same response will have be trotted out each time, it seems.
  • P2P Islands
  • Solo vs Open
  • Player-driven influence of factions
These elements combine to provide a very good reason why players would be unable to maintain control of "permanent" assets, even if they camped outside the station 24/7 taking on allcomers. All three are also ingrained in how the game is designed.
Given those facts, it seems unlikely that they will be changed to accomodate anyone's personal wishlist - unless that person is David Braben. Who has declared himself opposed to such a shift in focus.

There's no denying that these features put an instant roadblock on personal factions, permanent assets and many other ideas, or trivialise them to such an extent that devoting any development time would be virtually pointless.
 
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There's no denying that these features put an instant roadblock on personal factions, permanent assets and many other ideas, or trivialise them to such an extent that devoting any development time would be virtually pointless.

And that's not a bad thing.
 
It's not that fun to do management from a first person perspective. You gotta consider what genre it is you're playing, which is a first person ship flying game. And then consider if empire management is a good fit. It probably isn't.

For the longest time EVE and X have been the only space sims on the market, and I think a big part of the reason for that is that those games are bad, but have a dedicated fanbase. In other words, they created the impression that the only market for space games was a niche, with no appeal to normal gamers, that was already more than filled.

Games like Elite and Star Citizen can fill a more mainstream appeal with actual fun gameplay. It would be a terrible mistake to make the same mistakes as EVE and X just to appease that fanbase, at the expense of everyone else.

I sure wouldn't mind some more wiggle room within the context of flying my ship. Really, there's 100.000 populated systems. I don't think giving individual players more power to affect individual systems with their actions would really break anything.
 
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The goal of any developer should be to postpone that point as much as possible, but it's not possible to remove it entirely (then you would have the PERFECT GAME).

And here I was thinking developers should make games that are fun.

If you want Eve, go play Eve. If you want E: D, play E: D. It's not a case of 'LETS TAKE THE BEST FEATURES OF BOTH AND IT'LL BE AWESOME'. It doesn't work that way.

With E: D the devs have their idea of what the game is, let them develop it. Player feedback is horribly over rated. For all the people going 'this is boring and I'm leaving', well that's your call. Frontier has put forward what their ideas for the development for E: D are and are pretty frank about saying there are bits missing. Give them a chance to fill it in before stomping your feet and having a cry. And if the game still isn't fun for you, move on to something else (maybe this amazing Eve that everyone wants E: D to be like but doesn't want to actually play).
 
EVE Online is very limiting IMO: because you can form Corps / Alliances etc and dominate Null Sec......it excludes a lot of newbies. Elite is a very different creature.

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I quote this here because I like this quote. And because it fits. My guess is, some of the players are 40 year olds who played Elite in the 80ies and are running purely on nostalgia.
“I've come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies:
1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things.”


I hope FD adds stuff these people hate, that would make the game better.

Utter drivel. Read this when you are 40 and see if you still agree with it. I think you are trying to imply that anyone over the age of 35 resists change at any cost.....which is total rubbish. Just because some of us were around when this all started......
 
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