What if we try to get this done? - The Explorers Guild

[CMDR Alonso]

I had this idea when posting in another thread. It would be easily added to the game as it does not recquire any new features, just aplying those that are already there to the exploring comunity.

Give more ideas, let's try to make a perfect concept and ask FDev to add it in the next small update, I think we can do it. Is just a faction after all.

Explorers need more love.

Create an Explorers guild, as a faction to pledge alliance, but it not being political, we explorers do not care about the political state of the human colonies. We are to create more of them.

-It does not have to be called "Explorers Guild", it's just a name I use in this post to name it easy. In fact, it's more a faction than a guild, but "The Explorers Guild" sounds awesome even for a PP faction-

The headquarter of the guild would be the only world controlled by the guild, it would be placed 1000LY (coreward) away from Sol. The nearest system should be 20LY away so only explorers capable of advance exploring can access. It's name would be "The Library" (or maybe FDev could make a good reference and call it "The Absolute Record")

Note - We must find a name, and a location, it must fill this recquirements:
-the location must be cool (for example, beween the two stars of a binary system)
-it must be more or less 1000LY away from Sol, better if it's coreward
-try to find a system that is 20LY away from the nearest system so noone with less than 20LY jump range can get in.

List of proposed names:
The Library
The Absolute Record
Alexandria

List of proposed locations:

Stats/benefits/conditions:
All of the following is not 100% decided, but represents the concept wanted

-To get accepted in the guild, you'll need to travel at least 5000LY away from Sol and find at least one earth-like world.

-As a member of The Explorers Guild, you'll be able to sell all your cartographic information without coming back to a station, but you'll get a 5% less for it than if you sell it in any other colony. If you sell it to The Explorers Guild directly in it's headquarter you'll get a 5% more money than in any other colony.

- When being in The Guilds headquarter you will be able to acquire for free all the cartographic data other explorers sold to The Guild. To acquire the information sold to other factions explorers will have to pay a small fee due to the fact that the guild itself would need to buy it.

-The Guild will sell to it's member better equipment for long-range exploration and as you become a valuable member of The Guild you'll eventually be able to purchase a new ship designed by The Guild's engineers in cooperation with veteran explorators that will be fully oriented to exploration of deep space.

-If a member unpledge and want to pledge again, in order to get his status back, he will have to visit The Guilds station orbitating Sagittarius A*.

-Being part of faction or guild should pay out for detailed scans of asteroid belts, keep it at 0Cr for non-faction CMDR's

-Very expensive Scanners that increase the distance you can scan objects from (needs careful balancing, maybe high fuel consumption or high weight).

Just to make it clear: this faction would not be controlled by players, somehow would be like the actual powers but with more player interaction and integration.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=8368

R.e. Guilds.

I make no comment on my personal opinion because thats led to turning threads a little aggressive...

 

[GrillMonkey]

he will have to visit The Guilds station orbitating Sagittarius A*. Once he has his status back, he will not repeat his infraction in less than a week or The Guild will exile him for a month.

Who on earth thought it would be a good idea to build a Station orbiting a super massive black hole?

 

[Dommarraa]

Who on earth thought it would be a good idea to build a Station orbiting a super massive black hole?

Because it would be COOL !
I would expect a beer to cost as much a Sidey, ever been to Iceland ?

 

[CMDR Alonso]

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=8368

R.e. Guilds.

I make no comment on my personal opinion because thats led to turning threads a little aggressive...

It's not the same I was referring to. My idea is a new power for PP, but not political

 

[dannywhac]

ever been to Iceland ?

Not since Peter Andre.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

It's not the same I was referring to. My idea is a new power for PP, but not political

Ah, I mistook the line "create an explorers galaxy guild then" as well as your other frequent use of the word guild (18 in all compared to 3x faction).

Well in summary its a bad idea for a powerplay power because:
1) Having a remote location means it is never under threat by any other power, Its not really powerplay more of a sideshow with no influence on other factions
2) Being able to sell exploration data not at a station is a gameplay mechanic and therefore difficult to implement for specific players, its also open to abuse. Could I align myself with the faction whilst my oxygen runs out and sell my data before I explode? Obviously I can defect straight away once I re-spawn in the bubble. Its a shortcut home with a 5% penalty and if I was at Sagittarius A and wanted to take part in a new trading community goal or something its a no brainer to hop home the fast way.
3) Everything else is done better by other factions (see below).

Increase data sell value already done 200% by Li Yong-Rui faction if rank 5, I do think Li yong should have a 50% increase at rank 3 or something but thats another matter.
Good exploration modules/ships are already very easy to find in high tech worlds and can be found at 15%/20% discount in Li yong/Hudson space. Imo there is no reason to ever buy anything elsewhere except an FSD to get to the discounted area and upgrade.

Universal cartographics acutally selling real life data collected by other CMDR's is something I want anyway instead of the nonsense that is Universal Cartographics at the moment.

Key point: Not in politics yet being a powerplay faction is a contradiction in terms.

In short having an exploration station in deep space somewhere cool is good and I support that. Universal cartographics upgrade would be good but should be for everyone.
Putting it in as a "guild", not my cup of tea. Putting it in as a Powerplay power goes against the idea of powerplay.

 

[CMDR Alonso]

Ah, I mistook the line "create an explorers galaxy guild then" as well as your other frequent use of the word guild.

Well in summary its a bad idea for a powerplay power because:
1) Having a remote location means it is never under threat by any other power, Its not really powerplay more of a sideshow with no influence on other factions
2) Being able to sell exploration data not at a station is a gameplay mechanic and therefore difficult to implement for specific players, its also open to abuse. Could I align myself with the faction whilst my oxygen runs out and sell my data before I explode? Obviously I can defect straight away once I re-spawn in the bubble. Its a shortcut home with a 5% penalty and if I was at Sagittarius A and wanted to take part in a new trading community goal or something its a no brainer to hop home the fast way.
3) Everything else is done better by other factions (see below).

Increase data sell value already done 200% by Li Yong-Rui faction if rank 5, I do think Li yong should have a 50% increase at rank 3 or something but thats another matter.
Good exploration modules/ships are already very easy to find in high tech worlds and can be found at 15%/20% discount in Li yong/Hudson space. Imo there is no reason to ever buy anything elsewhere except an FSD to get to the discounted area and upgrade.

Universal cartographics acutally selling real life data collected by other CMDR's is something I want anyway instead of the nonsense that is Universal Cartographics at the moment.

Key point: Not in politics yet being a powerplay faction is a contradiction in terms.

In short having an exploration station in deep space somewhere cool is good and I support that. Universal cartographics upgrade would be good but should be for everyone.
Putting it in as a "guild", not my cup of tea. Putting it in as a Powerplay power goes against the idea of powerplay.

Well, I'll use a different term then.

To avoid what you said, there's the thing of only being able to pledge or join when you are in the headquarter of [Insert Name]


About a ship and exclusive exploration gear. I was thinking in a ship that has no weapons, no cargo rack... And obviously yo can't put one of these in the ship.
There are more things about it, but that's the less important point.

To the last part, if adding variety to PP is not a good idea, then just add it as a separated faction or whatever you want to call it.

Also, joining Lin Yong Rui makes you an objetive for other factions and exploration is just a sideobjetive in his faction. I want something that is purely for explorers.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

Well, I'll use a different term then.

To avoid what you said, there's the thing of only being able to pledge or join when you are in the headquarter of [Insert Name]

About a ship and exclusive exploration gear. I was thinking in a ship that has no weapons, no cargo rack... And obviously yo can't put one of these in the ship.
There are more things about it, but that's the less important point.

To the last part, if adding variety to PP is not a good idea, then just add it as a separated faction or whatever you want to call it.

That could work provided the HQ station is at least 24,000Ly from Sol.

On the ship point you may find you want those weapons when the thargoids come A specific exploration ship would be nice but between the Diamondback, Cobra, Anaconda, ASP, Type-6 and Hauler there are enough vessels that can explore well imo. It would be nice but considering there are only a few more ships to come to make the 30 total I'd prefer them to be something else like a smuggling specific or mining specific ship.

Yeah it could not be a powerplay power but then it is by definition a guild and my first reply in post 2 applies because sooner or later everyone will want a guild.


I do agree with you on many things you've said here but I think exploration needs love in general, don't make it specific to those in a group, allow everyone to get the exploration benefits. It may get more people to try exploration and enjoy it

 

[Anuranium]

Good idea there Alonso.

I have nothing further to add but a proposition in name: "Alexandria" - after the great library of course. May it not suffer the same fate.

 

[CMDR Alonso]

That could work provided the HQ station is at least 24,000Ly from Sol.

On the ship point you may find you want those weapons when the thargoids come A specific exploration ship would be nice but between the Diamondback, Cobra, Anaconda, ASP, Type-6 and Hauler there are enough vessels that can explore well imo. It would be nice but considering there are only a few more ships to come to make the 30 total I'd prefer them to be something else like a smuggling specific or mining specific ship.

Yeah it could not be a powerplay power but then it is by definition a guild and my first reply in post 2 applies because sooner or later everyone will want a guild.


I do agree with you on many things you've said here but I think exploration needs love in general, don't make it specific to those in a group, allow everyone to get the exploration benefits. It may get more people to try exploration and enjoy it

But it does not have to be a guild controlled by players, meybe it could be less restrictive with the politic stuff and then everyone could be in (if he can fill the other recquirements).
With this, every player really interested in exploring would have the chance to join the guild

About the HQ station being 25000LY from Sol, that was my first idea, but it would be restrictive, or at least that's what it look like from my perspective.

The idea of this post is to debate how it should be and create an "explorers faction" as a concept that FDev could add to the game, all opinions are welcome, and there's no point on it being created by me, the objetive is to unite the comunity and try to make it work for all of us

 

[Hell Razor5543]

I had made a suggestion whereby Commanders would have home stations (in the same way that cruise liners have home ports), and you have covered most of my suggestions re explorers. However, I had a couple of other ideas, that were a system that allowed the station to monitor surrounding star systems, and when an explorer was within range the station would send out vessels to provide a safe escort in (as explorers normally do not have weaponry, due to the weight), and if the escorting vessels saw the explorer vessel was in a delicate condition (think cracked egg with a damaged inner membrane, with the Commander fervently praying while breathing VERY gently) they could request the crash pad was activated (think a HUGE landing pad outside of the station, with every form of impact absorbing material you can think of!) to maximise the chances of surviving.

 

[CMDR Alonso]

I had made a suggestion whereby Commanders would have home stations (in the same way that cruise liners have home ports), and you have covered most of my suggestions re explorers. However, I had a couple of other ideas, that were a system that allowed the station to monitor surrounding star systems, and when an explorer was within range the station would send out vessels to provide a safe escort in (as explorers normally do not have weaponry, due to the weight), and if the escorting vessels saw the explorer vessel was in a delicate condition (think cracked egg with a damaged inner membrane, with the Commander fervently praying while breathing VERY gently) they could request the crash pad was activated (think a HUGE landing pad outside of the station, with every form of impact absorbing material you can think of!) to maximise the chances of surviving.

Love that idea, let's try and make it as scpecific as we can and see if everyone agrees and we'll have something.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

To get accepted in the guild, you'll need to travel at least 5000LY away from Sol and find at least one earth-like world.

Well, that leaves room for (at least) two explorer groups, I suppose - one like this which thinks exploration is about distance, and the Surveyor's Guild (or whatever) which encourages detailed scanning of everything (maybe pays bonuses for fully-scanned systems).

If you want one group with a wider range of exploration styles then the qualification might be just "Exploration Rank of ..." ("Ranger" would match the lore about "Dangerous" being the combat rank at which the Pilots' Federation starts giving you missions, but feels a little high compared with your suggested qualification)

-The Guild will sell to it's member better equipment for long-range exploration and as you become a valuable member of The Guild you'll eventually be able to purchase a new ship designed by The Guild's engineers in cooperation with veteran explorators that will be fully oriented to exploration of deep space.

The way exploration is currently set up I'm not sure what better equipment or ship is useful. (I wouldn't mind a faster surface scanner, though if they actually fix the double scan bug I probably wouldn't feel that the current one was too slow!)

I suspect both cargo space to bring back samples and weapons (at the very least a mining laser) might become a more important part of exploration in future. The current state where fitting a ship for exploration consists of adding two tiny modules, and optimising a ship for exploration consists of taking everything else off it ... would I hope become rather different in future to make there actually be tradeoffs, and it's probably not worth designing whole ships now based around one particular form of exploration.

 

[CMDR Alonso]

The way exploration is currently set up I'm not sure what better equipment or ship is useful. (I wouldn't mind a faster surface scanner, though if they actually fix the double scan bug I probably wouldn't feel that the current one was too slow!)

I suspect both cargo space to bring back samples and weapons (at the very least a mining laser) might become a more important part of exploration in future. The current state where fitting a ship for exploration consists of adding two tiny modules, and optimising a ship for exploration consists of taking everything else off it ... would I hope become rather different in future to make there actually be tradeoffs, and it's probably not worth designing whole ships now based around one particular form of exploration.

Exactly.

It hink that this ship should be limited when talking about outfitting. Maybe this way:

-Hardpoints: Only one hardpoint with a large Mining Laser, maybe it could have heat sinks too, but not that important. The mining laser would be obligatory, you cannot change it.

-For the power plant, thrusters and FSD, it should be unique stuff. Maybe an alien-tech based power plant and a vanguard long range FSD. All of this would not be something you can change, it would be specific. The thrusters would have the specific stats to make sure that the little things you can change don't make your ship overpass the max mass of the ship.

-It would have a fuel tank of 56 tons

-Cargo rack of 4 tons (considering that the alien stuff is mostly about exploration and you need to transport stuff)

-Option to add 16 more tons of fuel or a AFMU or a Shield Generator

-top tier Fuel Scoop

-Detailed surface scanner

-Advanced surface scanner

-Life support for 25 minutes

Other versions of actual equipment (working on other ways instead of only better stats) would be awesome.


You could only buy it when you reach some certain qualifications (for example, sell info for more than 1.000.000 credits, visit Sag A* station and being at least Ranger).

The price would be around 30.000.000 credits (if not more), being the best ship for exploration means a lot so it should be expensive, maybe even 100mil to match more or less the Anaconda

 

[Alex Brentnall]

Exactly.

It hink that this ship should be limited when talking about outfitting. Maybe this way:

-Hardpoints: Only one hardpoint with a large Mining Laser, maybe it could have heat sinks too, but not that important. The mining laser would be obligatory, you cannot change it.
-For the power plant, thrusters and FSD, it should be unique stuff. Maybe an alien-tech based power plant and a vanguard long range FSD. All of this would not be something you can change, it would be specific. The thrusters would have the specific stats to make sure that the little things you can change don't make your ship overpass the max mass of the ship.
-It would have a fuel tank of 56 tons
-Cargo rack of 4 tons (considering that the alien stuff is mostly about exploration and you need to transport stuff)
-Option to add 16 more tons of fuel or a AFMU or a Shield Generator
-top tier Fuel Scoop
-Detailed surface scanner
-Advanced surface scanner
-Life support for 25 minutes
Other versions of actual equipment (working on other ways instead of only better stats) would be awesome.

You could only buy it when you reach some certain qualifications (for example, sell info for more than 1.000.000 credits, visit Sag A* station and being at least Ranger).
The price would be around 30.000.000 credits (if not more), being the best ship for exploration means a lot so it should be expensive, maybe even 100mil to match more or less the Anaconda

I am just being devils advocate here. I have no real reasons to object to such a ship but I just want to say: 43mil ASP that has everything you've mentioned above and more with a 30.85Ly range. No special tech or qualifications required and weapons slots left for thargoids.
http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=70g,0Wg0WgmpYH9W,2-3I6u7_6Q5K8S8I,5225GQ7Q40Ke03w2jw2UI

Again I'd just point out Im very pro-exploration. I've done 3 large trips now probably totalling over 200/300 hours into exploration. I just keep thinking that we are the few compared to pew pew and trading. Probably 75% of the players have never been more than 2000Ly away from the human bubble (guessing from exploration forum and Sagittarius A visitors list so I accept I may be a little out with that %).


I feel like I've been way too negative on this thread (I apologise) and want to balance it out with some suggestions of my own instead of simply saying why the other suggestions won't work. If an exploration faction/guild/group or whatever is introduced here are some things that would be fun in my opinion:
-Being part of faction or guild should pay out for detailed scans of asteroid belts, keep it at 0Cr for non-faction CMDR's
-Very expensive Scanners that increase the distance you can scan objects from (needs careful balancing, maybe high fuel consumption or high weight).

Again Im a strong believer of carrot not stick. If you make it too hard to explore without being in the group it will put people off exploring. Make it easy to explore without the group but add bonuses for being in it and the group may influence more people to try exploration.

 

[CMDR Alonso]

I am just being devils advocate here. I have no real reasons to object to such a ship but I just want to say: 43mil ASP that has everything you've mentioned above and more with a 30.85Ly range. No special tech or qualifications required and weapons slots left for thargoids.
http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=70g,0Wg0WgmpYH9W,2-3I6u7_6Q5K8S8I,5225GQ7Q40Ke03w2jw2UI

Again I'd just point out Im very pro-exploration. I've done 3 large trips now probably totalling over 200/300 hours into exploration. I just keep thinking that we are the few compared to pew pew and trading. Probably 75% of the players have never been more than 2000Ly away from the human bubble (guessing from exploration forum and Sagittarius A visitors list so I accept I may be a little out with that %).


I feel like I've been way too negative on this thread (I apologise) and want to balance it out with some suggestions of my own instead of simply saying why the other suggestions won't work. If an exploration faction/guild/group or whatever is introduced here are some things that would be fun in my opinion:
-Being part of faction or guild should pay out for detailed scans of asteroid belts, keep it at 0Cr for non-faction CMDR's
-Very expensive Scanners that increase the distance you can scan objects from (needs careful balancing, maybe high fuel consumption or high weight).

Again Im a strong believer of carrot not stick. If you make it too hard to explore without being in the group it will put people off exploring. Make it easy to explore without the group but add bonuses for being in it and the group may influence more people to try exploration.

About the Asp, I meant a ship that can only work for exploration and the jump-range could be around 50-60 so we can get far from the point we are quickly and then start exploring, it could also have low fuel consumption or something like that.
And personally, this is more subjetive, I hate the Asp, it's a pretty good ship, but it's ugly, and I also don't like the DBE's aspect, I don't know if it just me but those ships look "fat" and I don't like them.

I agree with the other points and thanks for the ideas, the payout for asteroids seems like a great idea, and the speciall equipment seems like a pretty cool idea too. I'll add it to the thread.

About the latter, the point is to have benefits for explorers who belong to the group, leaving hte other explorers without any benefits (except for a couple of things that should be changed for everyone, but that's another theme).