The game is being milked for cash and the devs don't care so much anymore?
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What can a Fleet Carrier add to the Game?
- Thread starter Hooplah
- Start date
Greetings,
OK, I will with an example. First up using a carrier to avoid travel time for me is such a very small part of it's capabilities.
Let's go to a SYNUEFE GT-H B43-1 C 4 to obtain a Guardian blueprint module (or several). It is required for the Guardian FSD booster. Very rough terrain there in the mountains taking experience to land in a small ship, a lot more in a medium and good luck with a large one. Still once parked the terrain is fairly flat making it easy to get around in the SRV and has less pylons to activate than other sites with a lot of hills to deal with.
In the past 19 jumps one way in a Krait Mk II gets there with 2 SRVs. Run out of SRV ammo or fuel one can synthesize them, go work the planet having most or fly to a local outpost 36LY away to restock. A PvP player comes along and kills you before you land? You're back in the bubble after a rebuy. It is 27,000LS in system to get there.
Enter the Fleet Carrier. Load up several dedicated Guardian/Thargoid ships and modules to swap around and in two FC jumps I am there. My FC 'APOCYLAPSE" has full refuel, restock and repair facilities orbiting the planet. I also charge zero tarrifs and anyone can land including the bad guys. NPCs love it.
So not needing a fuel scoop in my Dolphin designed for collecting HGE materials in the bubble I replace it with two SRVs and go work the site. I have maxed out many of the Guardian materials over many hours long before FCs showed up except the Technology Components. The Dolphin can farm these about 80 per two SRVs and I maxed them out at 200. I only needed 120 but it was a challenge!
The engineered Krait Mk II now becomes a support ship. I fly to the site in Open mode, see if any players are there and with Comms say, "Greetings! Need any help taking out sentries?". Being slightly evil I bring up my hardpoints and light up their SRVs running around with my ship lights before doing the Comms. Then hovering over the site I can use my beams to direct new players to each pylon then take out the sentries in seconds with a large engineered beam. My 3 beam convergence on a Krait doesn't work close up. I did this Sunday with two DBXs parked there. They knew what they were doing and so did I. Perfect. They even used my carrier to restock. I made friends later on.
So the point is maybe a carrier will get somewhere faster. But it also provides many more opportunities to make friends (and enemies) in a new direction of the game taking a lot longer to play. Just one moment in time using a carrier. Like my example other players have many more possibilities.
Regards
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You can target the carrier in the system map, press enter and it opens up an info window that will show you if there is docking access, notorious access etc..
But it won't show what they offer in services or trading. In the past some players changed their carrier name to 'Buy Tritium for 35k'. Frontier needs to seriously work on this otherwise we fly to carriers and getting there without any trading access wasting the trip.
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hmm maybe I'm just getting your tone wrong, but what's wrong with reducing travel time? It's not that "jump, fly around star, align to next waypoint, jump, rinse, repeat" is very engaging gameplay. Let alone "Point ship in general direction of destination 50k ls away and hit super cruise". It's part of the game, yes, but I like to balance my ingame time towards more "player active" activities. When I want to blast some Thargoids, I want to blast some Thargoids and not spend up to an hour traveling from A to B over C and D to collect the necessary ships and modules first (especially if I'd like to try a new loadout or ship for AX/PvE combat).
FCs can be a convienent time saver, especially when you use the 15min spool time for other stuff (outfitting, doing RL stuff like the laundry/dishes, doing some workout, checking forums/social media). It's all a question of effective time management
Long story short, I think it is a positive design choice.
I agree, as I suspect they have earned it over time not just in a month.
FCs are a great addition to ED and I would love to be a part of that. But my gameplay style and RL constraints prohibit that. That‘s not a complaint, it’s great others can access them. I would rather have had my commander’s ELITE status mean something though, such as giving access to this game mechanic at a significantly reduced cost. I guess I am saying ‘FDev, please give something back to those that have put a decent grind in.’
Maybe that’s for another thread! Fly safe o7
In another thread someone posted about massacre missions, "$22 Million for 30 ships isn't bad..."
How does that income compare to mining? FD slowly and surely lost the plot with economic and combat balance in ED
ps: I recall the effort I went to just to get a T9 and the like, scouting out trading routes with a group of friends; There was a real sense of achievement even managing to get a T6
How exactly does using a carrier reduces gameplay time?
If any, my gametime has actually increased by a lot (before the tritium apocalypse ).
What my FC does for me is quite simple. It gives me more time to play the game.
I have, at the moment, two or three days a week to play ED. I'll usually use that time each week focusing primarily - but not exclusively - on a single "theme" of play, whatever I happen to be in the mood for that week. Often that's quite different to what I was in the mood for last week, requiring different ship(s) or different loadout(s) on the same ones, requiring me to be a (frequently) significant distance away from where I logged out the week before.
Sometimes, in the past, getting from "where and in what state" I logged out the previous week to being ready to do what I want this week has been a big enough pain in the bum that I didn't do it. I did something else rather than play ED.
With the FC that doesn't happen. I almost always end my weeks ED session(s) logging out aboard my carrier. The following week I start by telling it where to go and use the jump timer to select my ship(s) and customise their loadout(s) with my stored modules.
"I'd like to do X this week but getting there and setting up would be such a pain...." just doesn't happen with a FC to use. For me, that's enough. It doesn't make what I do in the game any easier, safer or more profitable... but it sure makes it more convenient.
I have, at the moment, two or three days a week to play ED. I'll usually use that time each week focusing primarily - but not exclusively - on a single "theme" of play, whatever I happen to be in the mood for that week. Often that's quite different to what I was in the mood for last week, requiring different ship(s) or different loadout(s) on the same ones, requiring me to be a (frequently) significant distance away from where I logged out the week before.
Sometimes, in the past, getting from "where and in what state" I logged out the previous week to being ready to do what I want this week has been a big enough pain in the bum that I didn't do it. I did something else rather than play ED.
With the FC that doesn't happen. I almost always end my weeks ED session(s) logging out aboard my carrier. The following week I start by telling it where to go and use the jump timer to select my ship(s) and customise their loadout(s) with my stored modules.
"I'd like to do X this week but getting there and setting up would be such a pain...." just doesn't happen with a FC to use. For me, that's enough. It doesn't make what I do in the game any easier, safer or more profitable... but it sure makes it more convenient.
I would very much like to see system-local NPC trade with my carrier (at rates dependent on station population and pricing compared to galactic average). I know the intent was to not have them as money-making machines (players must be involved at all steps), but the result of that intent is that a great many are instead simply used as bulk LTD/Painite haulers and as such clog up the mining areas. Other methods of FC use have to be made profitable I think. You certainly can't tramp-trade with them effectively at the moment.
FC is just another example how players need to make concessions for MP stuff. (Mostly looking at network stability and UI clutter)
And that's fine of course. But, two questions:-
1) Why put "more time to play the game" behind a 5bCR pay wall?
2) And surely, for CMDRs with 5bCR, couldn't FCs have offered more involved gameplay mechanics and/or depth than basically, do more of what you've been doing for the past 4-5yrs, more easily?
I'm not suggesting FCs don't offer some new nuances, but once again FD seemed to have aimed pretty low gameplay wise with their design. Personally I would have expected after 5-6yrs layers of mechanics all feeding off each other. Instead we still seem to generally be getting shallow simple bolt on after shallow simple bolt.
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I've been using a squadmates fleet carrier to store rare items like AI relics, prototype tech and trinkets of hidden Fortune regularly. Its actually nice not having to keep things like this on your ship constantly if you want to have them.
No argument at all on any of that. It's just that since I had the 5bCr and enough left over to prepay its upkeep for a few years when, after almost convincing myself I didn't want a FC I realised what that minor benefit would do for me, personally, that benefit was enough for me. It might not have been if I'd had to grind a lot of Cr to afford it first....
Undoubtably a mobile locker is useful. Just a shame it doesn't truly move the game on and offer individuals with 5bCRs some bar raising engaging mechanics.
ie: Seems a big development, delayed for almost 2yrs, to then just offer a small amount of niceties, for a small amount of the community...
Ah, I understand what you're saying now. Thanks for the clarification.Understood, and that's just grand for you. ie: I'm glad you enjoy your experience and style of play.
"You and others like you seem to find it somehow belittling, correct me if I'm wrong, that new commanders now 'have it easy'." - I'll correct you, because you're wrong
Ultimately, I'd suggest the fact new players can now quite literally get to FCs in a few weeks just demonstrates how broken and unbalanced ED is... And the fact we can probably all imagine how 90+% of their income would have been attained surely is a sad underlining of that?
I'm not saying that the game cannot be enjoyable. What I'm saying is, a balanced game experience, that rewards careers, roles, risk and skill more logically, sensibly and even handedly, to my mind would probably be a more enjoyable one to most CMDRs.
Travel time. Single or two jumps eliminate 20+ jumps to a 1kly destination.
Ship transport time. No waiting for fleet delivery.
Cargo delivery time for wing transport missions. Load up next to a station. Transport block units to destination station.
FCs reduce game time.
It is a basic issue with the game though.
Progression is measured through acquisition of ship assets.
Metagrind pathways optimize the process and reduce play time.
FDEV works hard to nerf these pathways, and at the same creates an in game asset that is, itself a game play time minimizing meta. Silly ol' FDEV.
I completely agree with your sentiment that there is a basic flaw in the game design where sitting and waiting is the intended mechanic. SC is an evil time suck. The inability to set multijump autopilot system to system travel is also a shortcoming.hmm maybe I'm just getting your tone wrong, but what's wrong with reducing travel time? It's not that "jump, fly around star, align to next waypoint, jump, rinse, repeat" is very engaging gameplay. Let alone "Point ship in general direction of destination 50k ls away and hit super cruise". It's part of the game, yes, but I like to balance my ingame time towards more "player active" activities. When I want to blast some Thargoids, I want to blast some Thargoids and not spend up to an hour traveling from A to B over C and D to collect the necessary ships and modules first (especially if I'd like to try a new loadout or ship for AX/PvE combat).
FCs can be a convienent time saver, especially when you use the 15min spool time for other stuff (outfitting, doing RL stuff like the laundry/dishes, doing some workout, checking forums/social media). It's all a question of effective time management
Long story short, I think it is a positive design choice.
FDEV makes FCs attractive by promising to dodge that, but then tosses in maintenance fees as a backdoor way to not see a gameplay time apocalyptic decrease.