I have a little over 200 hours into ED and I increasingly feel a lack of something. I'm on my third ship, a Federal Dropship. I spent well over 100 hours in a MKIV Viper which served me very well. However, when I changed ships there was no sense of loss, or the ending of an era. As a lover of cars and machines in general this seems completely wrong, and I believe that I know where the problem is.
To take another example, I have a 2001 Volkswagen GTI with just over 300,00 KMs on it. She has the wrong engine, she's rusty, she has some odd squeaks and rattles and I recently had to move up in oil weight to stop her burning the stuff. The wipers are terrible, she is incredibly rough at idle, the parking brake sometimes sticks on, one of the speakers randomly goes out and I am the only person in the world capable of closing the trunk properly. Her name is Jenny and the day I lose her will be very very sad indeed. I will probably cry. Part of the reason is of course the memories of commutes and 14 hour drives to visit my girlfriend and camping trips where I slept IN the car, but a much bigger part of the attachment is all the things that make her unique. Those foibles can be inconvenient yes, but they are part of the personality of the car, the relationship that I have built up with her.
I call this the "Top Gear Cheap Car Challenge" factor because that show captures it so well. I can't really remember most of the shows where they take dramatic supercars to some exotic country, but I remember every one of the used cars that they have smashed to pieces. When Clarkson says "I would rather be in this [ancient, very broken and slightly dangerous Camaro] than a Rolls Royce" I absolutely believe him.
The feature I'm asking for here would probably be controversial as well as very complicated to develop. The most I realistically hope for is that it is a concept that the developers will have in the back of their minds when developing other aspects of the game. What I want is for there to be random things that can go wrong with ships after some period of time, or after damage is sustained, which can't be fixed by just hitting "repair all". A buzzer than goes off occasionally for no reason, a cargo space that is inexplicably filled, flocks of seagulls on the radar always forming the shape of a duck. The bottom left corner of the modules menu has turned blue. Bonus points if particular faults are unique to particular ships.
Of course it needs to be possible to clear these faults because some of them will drive you nuts, but that can make for fun little side missions.If your cargo hold is damaged buy a new one but don't expect much for the old. Fixing that beep? That's telling you that one of the chips that controls opening the cargo hatch is overheating. Nothing will actually go wrong, but we'll need some painite to fix it.
Perhaps you don't tell players how to fix these problems and instead leave it up to experimentation and community discussion. Just like Mortal Kombat, and in fact the original Elite, there are things that the playerbase will just need to work out on their own.
Again, it wuld be irrational for me to believe that you would actually implement this feature. I just want you to know that it would enhance my relationship with my ship, and my enjoyment of the game, to no end.
To take another example, I have a 2001 Volkswagen GTI with just over 300,00 KMs on it. She has the wrong engine, she's rusty, she has some odd squeaks and rattles and I recently had to move up in oil weight to stop her burning the stuff. The wipers are terrible, she is incredibly rough at idle, the parking brake sometimes sticks on, one of the speakers randomly goes out and I am the only person in the world capable of closing the trunk properly. Her name is Jenny and the day I lose her will be very very sad indeed. I will probably cry. Part of the reason is of course the memories of commutes and 14 hour drives to visit my girlfriend and camping trips where I slept IN the car, but a much bigger part of the attachment is all the things that make her unique. Those foibles can be inconvenient yes, but they are part of the personality of the car, the relationship that I have built up with her.
I call this the "Top Gear Cheap Car Challenge" factor because that show captures it so well. I can't really remember most of the shows where they take dramatic supercars to some exotic country, but I remember every one of the used cars that they have smashed to pieces. When Clarkson says "I would rather be in this [ancient, very broken and slightly dangerous Camaro] than a Rolls Royce" I absolutely believe him.
The feature I'm asking for here would probably be controversial as well as very complicated to develop. The most I realistically hope for is that it is a concept that the developers will have in the back of their minds when developing other aspects of the game. What I want is for there to be random things that can go wrong with ships after some period of time, or after damage is sustained, which can't be fixed by just hitting "repair all". A buzzer than goes off occasionally for no reason, a cargo space that is inexplicably filled, flocks of seagulls on the radar always forming the shape of a duck. The bottom left corner of the modules menu has turned blue. Bonus points if particular faults are unique to particular ships.
Of course it needs to be possible to clear these faults because some of them will drive you nuts, but that can make for fun little side missions.If your cargo hold is damaged buy a new one but don't expect much for the old. Fixing that beep? That's telling you that one of the chips that controls opening the cargo hatch is overheating. Nothing will actually go wrong, but we'll need some painite to fix it.
Perhaps you don't tell players how to fix these problems and instead leave it up to experimentation and community discussion. Just like Mortal Kombat, and in fact the original Elite, there are things that the playerbase will just need to work out on their own.
Again, it wuld be irrational for me to believe that you would actually implement this feature. I just want you to know that it would enhance my relationship with my ship, and my enjoyment of the game, to no end.
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