Firstly, none of this is intended to be a criticism of the current writing team. I’d like to say how impressed I am with the new Galnet Audio feature, and to congratulate FD on its implementation. The TTS engine sounds pretty good to my ears, and the feature itself adds a great deal to the sense of life and narrative in Elite. I often read the Galnet articles, but the old system was somewhat dry and awkward within the context of a game. In short, well done guys. [smile]
I’m sure that FD have plans develop this feature further, but I’ve been thinking about its potential as a means of injecting narrative and drama in to the game. Above all, I feel that it would benefit from more content, of more variety and from being delivered at a greater frequency than the present weekly Galnet feed. Here’s a few ideas that occurred to me:
1) Some kind of archive of articles and narrative pieces related to the Elite universe, accessible at all times and regularly expanded.
2) Localised content: there’s already a great deal of textual content “hidden” within systems, so it would make sense if pilots were able to access it via Galnet Audio as they pass through and explore. Historical, societal and scientific info, Tourist beacon data and so on. This would generate a fairly rich and diverse tapestry of easily accessible content that would make the game feel much less homogeneous. I’ve always been of the opinion that any shortcomings in this regard were due to the challenges and size of the medium rather than anything else. Galnet Audio strikes me as the perfect means of tackling this challenge.
3) Allow users to submit articles, fictional pieces and journals (curated of course). I’m a fairly new player (around 7 or 8 months), but I’ve read that user submissions were published in the past. The Elite player base strikes me as a relatively passionate, bright and resourceful bunch, so I’m sure that talented voices would emerge given the opportunity.
Anyway, all thoughts, ideas and personal insults welcome.
I’m sure that FD have plans develop this feature further, but I’ve been thinking about its potential as a means of injecting narrative and drama in to the game. Above all, I feel that it would benefit from more content, of more variety and from being delivered at a greater frequency than the present weekly Galnet feed. Here’s a few ideas that occurred to me:
1) Some kind of archive of articles and narrative pieces related to the Elite universe, accessible at all times and regularly expanded.
2) Localised content: there’s already a great deal of textual content “hidden” within systems, so it would make sense if pilots were able to access it via Galnet Audio as they pass through and explore. Historical, societal and scientific info, Tourist beacon data and so on. This would generate a fairly rich and diverse tapestry of easily accessible content that would make the game feel much less homogeneous. I’ve always been of the opinion that any shortcomings in this regard were due to the challenges and size of the medium rather than anything else. Galnet Audio strikes me as the perfect means of tackling this challenge.
3) Allow users to submit articles, fictional pieces and journals (curated of course). I’m a fairly new player (around 7 or 8 months), but I’ve read that user submissions were published in the past. The Elite player base strikes me as a relatively passionate, bright and resourceful bunch, so I’m sure that talented voices would emerge given the opportunity.
Anyway, all thoughts, ideas and personal insults welcome.
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