Time is the ruling force in this game.

CMDR Zadian Lichtfrost

C
Time is the ruler of this game.
In our reality gravity is the ruler (even time bends before gravity - sorry I had to make that joke), but in this game it's time.

Time gives things we do in this game value and meaning. It motivates us to do things or not to do things.

It can't be replaced.
Spend time in this game and it's gone. If you spend credits you can earn them again. If a ship gets destroyed, just buy a new one.

Time is what makes players give pirates cargo. Time is what makes players decide to use a smaller ship instead of the big one.

It gives things we do meaning and importance. It's not seeing Sagittarius A*, it's the time spend to get there that makes visiting Sag. A* so special (or beagle point). It's time that makes being at Jaques something meaningful.

Make things instant and they lose their meaning and value.
In some cases it's good that things happen instantly because they are distractions from the things the designers of this game consider important.
In some cases time spend doing something is very important. Time spend in super cruise is important as it shows the scale of the system, the distance traveled. Time spend grinding credits to get that big ship is what makes it valuable. The less we want to spend time doing something the more valuable the reward.

We all don't want to waste time, and this is what makes time so important.

If the reward we get from spending time isn't something we consider worthy the time, then it's wasted time. It's about finding the value of something in this game. If nobody is willing to spend the time doing something, when nobody is spending the time, then it becomes worthless.
If it takes no time to get something, then it has no value. We will waste it as it has no value to us and it will be worthless.

Somewhere between those two "worthless" is the thin line of time spend doing things we don't want to do to get something we want.
 

Ouberos

Ouberos
I'm undecided. Need more time to think about what I think

Also on a separate line of thought, should we have to wait to get our ships repaired ? Like for a week while the parts come in and they get the electrician in? Spend an hour on the wing comm to our insurance broker back in Trevithick dock (Poor bloke!)

Or is this the wrong time and place for such thoughts?
 

Spruxxx

Spruxxx
Like PC games of old? That's a why a lot of people like it. There are countless arcade / 'instant reward' games out there, that's the majority and people are well catered for elsewhere in that regard.

So I would prefer they didn't make too many concessions to that, but gameplay is still king, no question about it.
 

Backelaer

Backelaer
Wow OP, I was trying to say the same thing back over in the thread about the FDev poll.
You did a way better job at it than I did. Have some well deserved rep.

FDev have the very difficult task of trying to find balance between gameplay that is fun, but also make people put in time and effort so the result of their actions actually feels like an accomplishment. Something of value. It's a very difficult task, but I'm very happy they listen to the community on this particular issue.
 

Don Alvarez

Don Alvarez
Ouberos said:
I'm undecided. Need more time to think about what I think

Also on a separate line of thought, should we have to wait to get our ships repaired ? Like for a week while the parts come in and they get the electrician in? Spend an hour on the wing comm to our insurance broker back in Trevithick dock (Poor bloke!)

Or is this the wrong time and place for such thoughts?
Click to expand...
There is no wrong time for thoughts. Only places. For example a high school football game is not the place for a middle aged man to think "wow those cheerleaders are really hot". At the Meadowlands though its probably OK.

You raise a good point though, especially as it pertains to the ship transfer vote. Players seem to be okay with instant repairs, rearming, refueling, unloading cargo for gaming reasons, but seem to have drawn the line at ship transfers. As a gamer, the value you place on your time I guess determines how much you can put up with in a game. Early Wow, flying that entire damn griffin route or waiting for that stupid ship to arrive then leave seemed a complete waste of my time, largely because there was little to occupy it in the interim. I played EvE for about a week and left with the same impression (at least they had that in-game web browser though, a silent admission that yes, the game could get tedious).

Point is, no one is willing to sit around and watch their cargo slowly diminish. Now, if there were a cool space bar they could visit in the interim, different story. Like the Adventurer's Guild of old, a place to go, order a drip and test the barkeep for gossip - systems in conflict, a juicy trade route, maybe them tip offs that pop up - does much to allay boredom while waiting for something routine to finish. The problem with ship transfers is that queued for a specific goal, players aren't going to be happy about waiting. Engineer mods, wars, missions, whatever. Imaging going to a system and finding a war going on, one you'd like to partake because maybe for the factions involved its somehow important to you. Might change a system form independent to your own faction. So you queue up you ship transfer. You're a long way off in an explorer but in the bubble, so transfer takes about 90 minutes. Not willing to wait, you putz around a bit and log out, figuring to pick it up next day. Next day comes, Ship is there, war is over. Return home downtrodden, only to find your faction in your home system at war. Transfer ship, 90 minutes, you get the idea.

No matter what FDEV does on that point, a whole lot of players on one side of the fence or other will end up unhappy. If it were me, I'd choose to end up on the side of expediency where games are concerned, every time. Gamers value their time spent in games, especially casual ones, because they don't often have alot of it. Time is a currency you can't refund, and no one likes to play a game where simply waiting is a mechanic (except that one part in Destiny of an Emperor where you needed to wait for the old guy to wake up before you could continue, that was okay).
 
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Captain N

C
If travel actually took several months IRL time it might give you an inkling of the scale of a star system.

But I think we all prefer it compressed into an unrealistic few minutes so we don't get insane playing a video game.
 

DefiledDragon

D
The OP is correct, time is an investment. It's the single most precious thing we have. You get your lot and that's all you get, and once your number is up, no amount of "success" or money can buy you more time. As the OP correctly points out, the time taken to earn money, or to get to Sag A etc... is what give those things value. Time spent schlepping across the galaxy to pick up your FDL however, well, that's a whole other story...
 

MajorHavoc

M
I am not entirely sure what this discussion is about but being a bit of a completionist I set an early goal of thoroughly scanning all the systems that I visit ............. needless to say my progress across the galaxy seems a bit slow ! Hopefully I can complete the bubble at least before my demise. Actually though I find no real need to progress in anything. The experience of flying the free sidewinder just skimming the starport, planet surfaces, asteroids, weaving through the gravity wells in supercruise, or driving the SRV is good.
 

Kaa Mchorror

Kaa Mchorror
I spent 3 hours jumping between engineers in my FDL last night. It will take me another half hour or so to get back to my home system. Was the time invested well spent? I would like to think it was worth it in the long term benefits to my fleet. Was it fun? Not really.
 

whatamidoing

W
My time concern is that my friends, like me, do not have that much time to play the game nor much interest in sitting around waiting. So if we want to do some combat or what have you, we'd prefer to rendezvous quickly with taxi haulers and then get our main ships there to play.

Not sit around waiting for the ships to transfer and not sitting around waiting through an unnecessary series of load screens while some of us move to the others.

A fast taxi and instant ship transport is the way to go.
 
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