Why are features on INARA not in the game itself?

[goemon]

first of all, there are some things, 3rd party tools can do better then ingame-solutions. i have played some games, many of them with integrated chat, but always beaten by dedicated chat-applications. basically, a game designer don#t need to program a messenger, there are some to chose from who will do it always better then a game-chat.

and if it comes to this:

Actually I joined this forum with the purpose to support that thread about 3rd party sites and interaction with FD's API (there is one).

.... if there would be for exampel a discord-plug-in to fetch and send ingame messages, friendslist and verify cmdr names, with a "overwolf" --- i'd always prefer discord (or something similar) above "getting social tools into the ingame chat".

same goes for many things. i'm quite happy that frontier focus on gameplay, but api for all those brilliant enthusiasts, doing inara, coriolis, edshipyard, eddb.io would help a lot!

 

[CMDR Corlas]

Me!!! I like it exactly how it is now. The level of interaction between other Commanders is perectly suitable for me. I dont have the time nor will to play "classic" MMOs, with PMs all the time, guild chats etc. Been there though. I've been a Guild Master for over 2 years in SWOTOR. The guild was around 300 peps. I made a aware choice about playing Elite Dangerous. Knowing it wont steal my time for typical social activities I had during 2 years of my life.

Ofcoz you can say "dont use social side of the game if not liking it", but I'm more than sure there are many Commanders out there like me, who would probably not start to play this marvelous game, knowing it could steal their precious time with all this typical MMO social interactions. As usually its just to tempting not to use those.

So as you see, Mr. Braben's approach tegarding the case you dont like, but there are many like me, who loves it! I hope this answers your question in the OP.

Pretty much spot on.

People start demanding space-guilds, then space-guilds start demanding guild-level content, and then people come under a lot of pressure to join space-guilds to get to experience all of the game. Better to just leave it all out, imo.

I do participate in some in-game groups, and there are already many thriving in-game communities. You can already wing up. You have have a friends list. Adding in-game /gchat isn't going to do much but add a scrolling text box and make players who want this to be a generic space-MMO feel entitled to make further such demands.

 

[Boomer Kay]

.... if there would be for exampel a discord-plug-in to fetch and send ingame messages, friendslist and verify cmdr names, with a "overwolf" --- i'd always prefer discord (or something similar) above "getting social tools into the ingame chat".

same goes for many things. i'm quite happy that frontier focus on gameplay, but api for all those brilliant enthusiasts, doing inara, coriolis, edshipyard, eddb.io would help a lot!

They have to be very careful with this, though. Once you do open the floodgates to your server's data, there might be no turning back, as some high profile cases of data theft on dating websites and the apple cloud have shown.
20 years of internet, and people still think it's like a dinner with the family.

I trust the limited data the current iPhone api provides more than the intention of 3rd party sites (I think the ones I use and visit are "trustworthy", but you never know) - would be a nice move, if FD had some "partner program" with 3rd party tools that they themselves check and monitor, to increase that trustworthyness.

 

[Cmdr. Numa]

Being in that almost 1000 people group I would be more than happy if we got a simple roster and a squadron channel. Can you imagine how utterly frustrating it is to even only manage the active members by each of every one of us adding each and every one of us to their friendlist ? Very very basic functionality is all I would like to see, no need to implement the whole Inara into the game.

 

[hannibal0216]

I would just like to say, Inara RULES. It has probably tripled my interest in the game, as well as improved my communication with the community. I never start ED without having Inara open first. Plus I like graphs, charts, and statistics, and it's fun to see my credits grow. Unfortunately, it's also slightly depressing when I see how long it will take me to reach my goal of 100 million. :/

 

[bkrownd]

INARA is the face of this game. The main things it still seems to need are trade routing like EDDB and a browseable off-line star map. (map could possibly be constructed from flight logs if enough pilots are submitting them)

 

[Mika024]

I like the Inara.cz website, but the only thing I would like in-game are the Commanders Profile, with Logs. It really adds into the immersion IMHO

 

[Ren Garris]

INARA?

Never heard of it....


Love those guys/person/dude/lady....

 

[Falcon_D]

Hello,
I really like Inara. For me it adds depth to my ED game play. In fact I don't play ED without launching and logging into Inara. I keep my daily commander's log there, even if nothing exciting happens in my game play for the day. I have all my ships and their stats listed there, keep track of my assets there, research markets for trading there and keep some of my screen shots there.

One very important feature for me which Inara provides and I find very sorely missing from the game and which the OP failed to mention, is the ability to name my ship. DB keeps saying that it's coming but well into the second season and the next update, there is still no news. In fact now we have station control give us call signs based on our current ship manufacturer and the 1st 3 letters of our CMDR's name but still no ability to name ships.

Social and RP features missing in ED but available on Inara is one reason why I contributed RL money to Inara readily but hesitated to purchase Horizons.

Have fun, fly safe. o7

 

[Red Fox Four]

There is obviously something missing in the game when so many people use INARA (and other out of game sites) to get a richer experience.

Some people worry that adding social features and clan support in game will create a demand for clan content. Well, obviously it will and this is a good thing. A lot of us want to see things in the game like outposts built and run by clans. Expansion beyond the current bubble should be done through the collaboration of members in a clan, e.g. setting up a an outpost in space 500 Ly outside the bubble to provide a base for further exploration, support mining, hide out as pirates or whatever other reason a clan would have to set up a base.

Obviously it would be time and resource demanding to set it up, as well as support and run it.

Anyways, I get ahead of myself. Without basic functionality to support social part of the game we will never see player generated content in the game either. We will be stuck with CGs as the only clan like activity.

Also, better API support from FD would really help things in the interim. INARA does a good job in keeping things simple for importing flight logs etc, but it is all still a manual job to do so. And having to manually load import files in 2016 when APIs should be a very simple thing to facilitate just feels slow and cumbersome. An API to access basic information should be an expectation.

We just gotta keep tapping Frontier on the shoulder about these social and clan features we want for the game so they don't forget it. The demand for improved social features in the game is there, and it is more of an issue than some people seem willing to admit.

Heck, people felt so isolated and lonely in the game FD had to add portraits of the mission NPCs and the engineers.

That alone tells me alot about how sorely social features are needed in the game.

 

[Sandmann]

Well for all the guild-ey bits at least, maybe because they've said many times they don't intend to support guilds?

 

[Necronaught]

It would be nice to have a Guild/Clan/Outfit feature where your members are a different colour on the radar. Or at least the ability to join multiple wings so your allies are distinguishable. Huge wing battles can be confusing. I see no reason why these features should not be implemented. It would enhance Wingplay no end.

 

[Red Fox Four]

Well for all the guild-ey bits at least, maybe because they've said many times they don't intend to support guilds?

Where have they stated that they have zero interest in supporting guild activities in the game ?

 

[Robert Maynard]

Where have they stated that they have zero interest in supporting guild activities in the game ?

Not zero interest - however: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJzizYUEF9c;t=19m40s

.... and this (from here: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/...-e3-xbox-exclusives-and-qa-with-david-braben/)

More standardized online gaming conventions like clans or formalized player organizations aren’t in the cards, at least not for the foreseeable future. VR support for headsets other than the Oculus Rift will be handled on a case-by-case basis, but Frontier believes very strongly in VR and definitely wants to go in that direction. And there aren’t any plans at this moment to expand beyond 32 players in each instance—but it’s always a possibility in the future.

 

[Necronaught]

They don't want to make it easier for player groups to be able to communicate and organise? Seems like a ridiculous idea to omit what would be a simple and valuable feature.

 

[Red Fox Four]

From what he replied on the stage he doesn't want Elite to end up in same situation as EVE where a corporation takes ownership of an area in space and claims it as their own by then enforcing their claim through killing anyone who is not "blue", following the NRDS and NBSI "rulesets" as it were... Not Red, Don't Shoot (ergo you only shoot those tagged as enemies but not neutrals) and Not Blue, Shoot It (meaning you kill anyone who is not blue, i.e. on same team as you).

However, that does seem rather silly since it's Frontier themselves who lay down the ground rules for consequences of shooting and killing someone.

Want people to not get shot and killed for no reason within the bubble? Then implement the proper consequences for the "psycho killer" attitude.

Also, we already have rulesets that encourage the "Come here and we will kill you" attitude. It's called Power Play. You are even rewarded for intruding on enemy space and killing their ships (30 merits per kill as opposed to only 10 if you go to a crime sweep). Even piracy of opposing faction is encouraged as you get +merits for stealing cargo of the enemy faction logistic ships.

So in that sense Frontier themselves have already laid down the groundwork for "area denial" playstyle. We are, through powerplay, effectively under the NRDS "ruleset" where anything that is not red we let live, but anyone red (ergo enemy powerplay faction) is free game.

As this is already implemented through their own efforts... why do they then put obstacles in our path to effectively prevent collaborative gameplay by denying us the ability to organize and play the game in any size larger than a wing of 4?

I don't understand their logic.

Lets make powerplay and put large factions against eachother and encourage players to pick their faction and then go head-to-head with other players... but wait... lets not make them able to communicate through the game but force them to use random websites and out-of-game tools.

 

[Loetmichel]

Inara is Filling a need that David didnt envision nor want to encourage if you listen closely to his Videos. It sem he wants Player interaction be more on the personal level and dont want to have large guilds like in EVE, where you are a cog in a player run big machinery.

So dont hold your breath that said Guild functions will come any time soon, if at all.

 

[Necronaught]

David Braben might have a point if everyone was in the same instance. Since that is not the case large player groups cannot lock a system down entirely. So unless they do a Planetside and have thousands of players in the same system then that reason is moot. All that is required is a simple affiliation tag when identifying ships, a chat feature for that affiliation and a different colour on the radar. That would make Wing play a lot more appealing and may even keep players in open, or even in game longer. The solo players can still solo.

 

[Red Fox Four]

I also just realized the video that was linked is 2 years old.

A lot has changed with the game since that video was uploaded....

 

[Lunchmoney]

Inara looks interesting.
I went to sign up and it appears someone has already used my CMDR name, Lunchmoney. Interesting.... Unless it was me.... But my email address is not on record with Inara..... So someone there is using my CMDR name.....