Tom, I hope you hid the confetti gun somewhere!
Best of luck with whatever comes next, I for one am sad to see you leave!
Best of luck with whatever comes next, I for one am sad to see you leave!
Update 18 tease by Senior Designer Tom Kewell "one of the coolest things we have ever done"
- Thread starter StuartGT
- Start date
Some of them already are, but I understand your point, more landable worlds would be nice! However I can't see any of the above fitting the category of coolest things they have ever done, it would have to be something special. Fixing PP? What's cool about that, more Thargoid fights, only on foot man against Thargoid would fit that description. More worlds with proper environment including mobile and aggressive life forms? Yes. Scooping gas giants, fun and indeed cool. If it is indeed the coolest thing they have ever done I don't see just fiddling with stuff already in game would fit that description, so I am hoping for something special but I am not keeping anything in particular in mind so I won't be disappointed as inevitably will happen to the Power Play fans....sorry guys that just doesn't fit in with the statement "one of the coolest things we have ever done."
I hope it has nothing to do with Thargoids. Or even if it does, it's not once again something that's so utterly inaccessible to the average player who isn't so much into combat.
The current Thargoid war is a bit boring, because it seems to be (deliberately or inadvertently) very exclusive to a small portion of players. Heck, some months ago I built myself a full-on AX combat ship to see if I could get into the Thargoid stuff, and still the answer is for the most part "no". Sure, I can go to a Thargoid-controlled system and shoot down a dozen scouts, and even the occasional hunter, but that's it. I tried to go to a maelstorm, but I was unable to do anything there because I don't even know what you are supposed to be there, and there's only so much that my ship can take with the corrosive stuff.
It's not a very approachable part of the game, and it's essentially locked behind tons and tons of obscure poorly explained mechanics.
I really hope this "coolest thing ever" isn't Thargoid-related, but something that all players can enjoy and fully use.
I don't think having updated Thargoid stuff is bad, those players will enjoy it, but yeah, "coolest thing ever" isn't really going to be that cool for players who don't do Thargoid stuff if that's all it is, "coolest thing ever" needs to be easily accessible to most players.
I think they'll release Panther Clipper, which will be a cool ship that stays cool under pressure, making the dolphin jealous.
Pfft there's only one way to make a Dolphin jealous, of course it's buy another
"Coolest thing ever" is totally subjective and could be just about anything given the spectrum of stuff Kewell has worked on over the last 11 years.
Exactly...he's worked on a lot, so if he thinks it's "the coolest thing ever" it's not going to be something boring like a Power Play update.
Games often use the concept of the first being stronger than the second but losing to the third. As in dota, the dodgers of the security forces and intelligence. So in this game it is expected that one race is perfect against the other. And consequently their weapons and technology. The latest updates of kato are destroying this structure of thought. The Targoids are stronger than Humans but inferior to the guardians. Therefore, it was strange for me that they started destroying modules at the guardian base. This needs to be justified somehow. Or return the balance. The only thing is that there are traitors, people who sided with the Targoids and taught them to defend themselves. And so the developers please us only with new targoid ships. Will the Targoids hijack a human ship? 
But you can create content that if the targoids control the system for a long time, then spires will appear on the planets and new titans will grow out of them. Which will win players to look for systems with the presence of targoids to preemptively eliminate the threat. Spires can be destroyed by bombers and Titans can only be destroyed by capital ships of the factions. Which can only be bought by the leaders of the player clans. Which needs to be built on. And before that, get a rank in the faction.
To you maybe. Bringing PP into the BGS and unifying the two would be a fantastic move, because then you have an open ended, self sustaining meta game between human powers thats more detailed than factions and far more varied than PP tasks.
Given hooks into other parts of the game (maybe powerplay themed uniforms, more sensible perks) as well as a defined 'goal' you'd have reasons to join in.
Never said it might not be worth doing an update of PP for some people who like it, just said it certainly doesn't fit the bill for "the coolest thing ever." PP and the BGS is, if anything, just the basic background, not "cool" by any measure. It seems a pity, you are so keen, but will inevitably be disappointed, PP and the BGS will be untouched by update 18, that's my prediction.
Best of luck to Tom in his next role.
As far as "coolest thing ever" goes it's worth remembering that "cool" doesn't necessarily have to mean epic in scope or game-changing - back in Beyond 3.3 I think Frontier would very comfortably have described core mining as one of the "coolest things ever" - it holds up well as a set-piece moment even when compared with later additions, it's got a lot more obvious [1] depth and opportunities for skill to it than point-and-hold-trigger laser mining, in terms of technical feats it was the first example of players being able to persistently change the state of a background object in a way that spanned instances, modes, etc. in real-time.
(And yes, there are probably even ways that a new Powerplay-like system could meet that, though I'm expecting something where the impressiveness doesn't necessarily come from the scope)
[1] Laser mining has plenty of subtler options and I'll leave the debate over which one is actually deeper to people who do more mining! And obviously you have even more possibilities for combining the two, at least in theory.
As far as "coolest thing ever" goes it's worth remembering that "cool" doesn't necessarily have to mean epic in scope or game-changing - back in Beyond 3.3 I think Frontier would very comfortably have described core mining as one of the "coolest things ever" - it holds up well as a set-piece moment even when compared with later additions, it's got a lot more obvious [1] depth and opportunities for skill to it than point-and-hold-trigger laser mining, in terms of technical feats it was the first example of players being able to persistently change the state of a background object in a way that spanned instances, modes, etc. in real-time.
(And yes, there are probably even ways that a new Powerplay-like system could meet that, though I'm expecting something where the impressiveness doesn't necessarily come from the scope)
[1] Laser mining has plenty of subtler options and I'll leave the debate over which one is actually deeper to people who do more mining! And obviously you have even more possibilities for combining the two, at least in theory.
That 'basic background' is what gives purpose and reason to many playing -acting as an ever changing environment for the majority of players in it.
People want agency within that, and to feel part of it- be it a faction, power or superpower and feel as if the choices they make tangible changes. The ingredients are there in game now but require joining up.
The Guardians might well have been superior to the Thargoids millennia ago but since they were wiped out the Guardians have had very little opportunity to develop their technology whereas the Thargoids have had all that time to fix theirs.Games often use the concept of the first being stronger than the second but losing to the third. As in dota, the dodgers of the security forces and intelligence. So in this game it is expected that one race is perfect against the other. And consequently their weapons and technology. The latest updates of kato are destroying this structure of thought. The Targoids are stronger than Humans but inferior to the guardians. Therefore, it was strange for me that they started destroying modules at the guardian base. This needs to be justified somehow. Or return the balance. The only thing is that there are traitors, people who sided with the Targoids and taught them to defend themselves. And so the developers please us only with new targoid ships. Will the Targoids hijack a human ship?
I hope the people who enjoy the Thargoid war thing get more of what they like but I also hope those of us who haven't really had much to do with it get something too. There's quite a list of stuff from players so I won't bore with my wants.
Except for... well, you, on foot 'Goid fights. That would bring me into the fray.
I have never touched PP or taken any notice of the BGS, but yes it does count as basic background to the galaxy and by definition is not "cool", it's just "there", and of course you mean "some people", personally I am quite happy being a single wandering space ship pilot doing what I want, where I want. I don't personally see any point in players being able to make major changes in the powers and superpowers arena, just doesn't fit with the spirit of the game, the devs will do what they want with powers and superpowers and you might think you are having a tangible changes, but it will go the way the devs want it to go in the end.