What's the Brand New Feature for ED in 2024?

The three most asked for features that I can think of are: Ship interiors, EVA (in space) and base building. Of those three, base building is the worst fit for Elite Dangerous.

I speculate it'll be either EVA in space, or in-game bug reporting and fixing.
 
3. There's lots of Odyssey loot that hints at being used for building and managing a settlement. Building schematics, vehicle schematics, defence plans etc.
True - maybe meeting minutes, employee expenses, accident logs, job applications, payroll information, tax records and visitor registers will get some use in the new "ED: Accountants" expansion, where Frontier are excited to bring the thrills of VAT returns, employment tribunals and safety inspections to a mainstream computer game for the first time.
 
True - maybe meeting minutes, employee expenses, accident logs, job applications, payroll information, tax records and visitor registers will get some use in the new "ED: Accountants" expansion, where Frontier are excited to bring the thrills of VAT returns, employment tribunals and safety inspections to a mainstream computer game for the first time.
That all gets to become part of the game after you have built your base, no time to go flying a starship you have Forms to fill in and meetings to attend.
 
Hi All :)

True - maybe meeting minutes, employee expenses, accident logs, job applications, payroll information, tax records and visitor registers will get some use in the new "ED: Accountants" expansion, where Frontier are excited to bring the thrills of VAT returns, employment tribunals and safety inspections to a mainstream computer game for the first time.

That all gets to become part of the game after you have built your base, no time to go flying a starship you have Forms to fill in and meetings to attend.

Excuse me! 🙋‍♂️, I'm starting to feel ill reading this!😱
Jack :)
 
But I still don’t see why people want a static base when we have perfectly good mobile ones.
That's my feelings towards it too. In Starfield I have base building available, and it does serve some purpose. It's on the list of things I eventually want to do while I wait for the Shattered Space DLC,but for now I haven't touched the feature in now around 800 hours of play. I do tinker with my ships permanently though, also installing lots of mods for them, and I make extensive use of their interiors.
 
My $0.02? Racing. Ship and/or SRV. We've already got racing-themed paints in the store. One of the tutorials already has those racing hoops to fly through. And I also remember an Elite Dangerous developer late 2022 say (I can't remember where, a livestream, tweet, or discussion post) that for 2023 they really wanted to implement racing. When a developer wants to implement something, it's much more likely to happen...
 
That's my feelings towards it too. In Starfield I have base building available, and it does serve some purpose. It's on the list of things I eventually want to do while I wait for the Shattered Space DLC,but for now I haven't touched the feature in now around 800 hours of play. I do tinker with my ships permanently though, also installing lots of mods for them, and I make extensive use of their interiors.
It all boils down to what Fdev is willing to implement with this feature (if it even is base building).

A base with no other purpose than decorating it, would be an absolute let down. Which is what Starfield does (except for the automated mineral mining maybe).

On the other hand, having the opportunity to influence powerplay, manufacture engineering materials, trade goods and raid other bases, would be amazing imho.
 
But I still don’t see why people want a static base when we have perfectly good mobile ones.
If it works automagically after setting up, generating revenue from trade with both players and NPC-s, it could be a nice extra low-interaction income source to subsidize the carrier. I see it as a complement, not a competitor to my carrier. Dreams.txt: the base on a moon orbiting an icy ringed planet produces tritium😛

Also, setting up a mountain retreat on an oxygen-atmosphered ice planet to bug out to when things get too hot (read: I pi really annoyed a faction or another) in the bubble sounds enticing.
That all gets to become part of the game after you have built your base, no time to go flying a starship you have Forms to fill in and meetings to attend.
Aah, X3—the only game I've had hours-long sessions sitting docked, managing my production complexes and trade fleet... Occasionally directing my out-of-sector blockade task groups to fend off xenon invasions🙃
 
My $0.02? Racing. Ship and/or SRV. We've already got racing-themed paints in the store. One of the tutorials already has those racing hoops to fly through. And I also remember an Elite Dangerous developer late 2022 say (I can't remember where, a livestream, tweet, or discussion post) that for 2023 they really wanted to implement racing. When a developer wants to implement something, it's much more likely to happen...
Until very recently my money was on this too. Not only is there the dev comment you reference (it was Tom Kewell's personal new year resolution of 2023 to "get racing into the game") but I also know he'd been tinkering with stuff in his free time at home, plus it kinda fits with the way Arthur introduced it as a brand new thing. I got the sense it wasn't a major headline feature (like ship interiors or new planet types or EVA might be) but rather a fairly self contained bonus feature.

However ... I'm am now coming around to the idea of base building as there was the largely accurate leak in 2019, the early post-Odyssey store had a hint of building cosmetics (quickly removed), plus there's the existence of building schematics in the game. Base building has clearly been considered by Frontier in the past (and some early placeholders added for it perhaps), the question is, did they park it for later or completely abandon the idea (both of which would explain all the above).

Of my 10 chips I'd like to place 6 on base building and 4 on racing please.
 
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Is it a hot take to say I actually don't care if base building ever appears in-game?

I just think time is better spent on more "essential" features such as ship interiors + associated gameplay, VR, full atmosphere landings, PP overhaull (happening, thankfully), more ships/SRVs, etc.

Unfortunately I'm just not certain FDEV can even deliver base building to a standard we'd want, either. Let's just expand and upgrade what's already there, I think.
 
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