Horizons Would you like to build your own base in Elite Dangerous?

W4rSkuLL · Dec 24, 2015

As we have gotten Planetary Landings would you like to build your own base anywhere you want. This could be an excellent credit sink and also include crafting and loot. Some base modules you buy and some you craft. If you have played ARK you know what I mean. If I had a base somewhere in the Elite Dangerous universe I would use more time on it, and many others would to.

What do you think?

Tuub t Tute · Dec 24, 2015

1) If they released player housing / storage in Horizons it would have caused a paywall screaming fit like you wouldn't believe

2) Is it persistent in all 3 play modes? Can other people access it?

3) Can it be attacked, do you have to pay for base defences, or hope to be hidden far from the ganking crowd?

sbdags · Dec 24, 2015

No, Elite Dangerous is about being a lone pilot finding your way in a massive galaxy. The day they allow player bases is the day I stop playing.

Loskene · Dec 24, 2015

I'd rather just buy a slip and berth at a starport of choice rather than get into basebuilding nonsense. Take the GTA online approach to personal property rather than hamstringing us with halfbaked building mechanics like fallout 4. It's the fad of the day and unless implemented as a core mechanic from the ground up (like Rust et al) it's going to be terrible. Given the half-finished state Fdev leave their new features in post-launch I wouldn't trust them to do it properly, so a prebaked apartment to store my little elite medals or ship models when we get walkies mode would be better.

Brownshortz · Dec 24, 2015

There'd be too many different consequences with including this as someone else mentioned. I'd really like them to have a deliver my ship to me service though........I've got them scattered all over the galaxy and hardly fly any of them anymore. Its just a pain having to travel 200 ly to pick up a ship....especially if your are in a ship with a short jump range like a Vulture. Would make it much easier to have a home base.

Kayin · Dec 24, 2015

In this universe wouldn't be we living on the ship?

In which case I'd LOVE to see a personal quarters outfitting module. Allow us to walk around on our ship and customize our living space on the ship. This would be amazing on things like the Cutter and Corvette.

$0.02

TigerTen · Dec 24, 2015

Yes, my own base or compound where I could park my " Fleet & Store Stuff " !!!

Brusilov · Dec 24, 2015

Id like to rent a part of a station or planet base. This for storing ships and whatever i want to store : )

W4rSkuLL · Dec 25, 2015

I see, some want this, other dont. People complain about lack of content. Bases would give commanders all the content they want. Although, adding bases should it come after adding planets with atmospheres and 1 person walking? I can see this maybe come in season 3-4. Elite is a big game and I wonder what the next implementation would be. Although adding bases as an addon/update like they added power play or CQC would be nice. If its possible. As we now have all the planet space we can want, why not be able to build a simple base to start with then add more advanced stuff later. But I think we need 1 person walking/interaction before bases is added. Bases would fit very nicely along with loot and crafting/synthesizing. I just wonder how far they will take Elite Dangerous. Is it possible we can have it all? Or is the galaxy just to big to add to many features. As long as Frontier makes money and we like what we see, I cant really see that it is not possible. But off course it will take time.
In 3 years Frontier has given us a full scale galaxy to play with, 30 ships and ability to land on planets without atmospheres. Loot and crafting is coming along with ship launched fighters,multi crew and avatars. Would not 1 person walking be a feature to add along with avatars and commander creation? Or would the avatars be something we can see inside the ship at first and the SRV, and after some time we might be able to move them around inside the ship. Well, its speculations.
So many things can be added in this game, but also things that exist can be polished a lot. Like NPCs, wingmen, missions, pois, commander missions (bounty hunting).
We will never run out of things to speculate over, that´s for sure. We also know ship modification is coming. This will add much to the game and make some ships truly unique. I also wonder about asteroid bases and adding bigger asteroids/comets into the game.

HazardousMatt · Dec 25, 2015

sbdags said:
No, Elite Dangerous is about being a lone pilot finding your way in a massive galaxy. The day they allow player bases is the day I stop playing.

LOL WHAT?!

Elite Dangerous is technically a MMO with the option of solo play. The day Frontier forgets that and caters the game to just solo play is the day I'll stop playing. Seriously what is the point of a frigging galaxy if it's just YOU and NPCs. Forget that....

Verux · Dec 25, 2015

Be real sweet to have a home. My own mini station, asteroid base, planet base or maybe some kind of huge ship big enough to store multiple smaller ships and modules. Don't think anything like this will exist until waaay down the line, that's if the game lasts that long.

Mephane · Dec 25, 2015

I don't want to own any space or ground installations. For "housing" purposes, I want to see ship interior customization when we get to leave our seats (and by that I mean more than just changing the colours). The ship is my home.

metatheurgist · Dec 25, 2015

I would like to have an actual hangar to walk around and admire my ships.

DCLXVI your God · Dec 25, 2015

sbdags said:
No, Elite Dangerous is about being a lone pilot finding your way in a massive galaxy. The day they allow player bases is the day I stop playing.

This I don't understand.
You can always be the lone pilot, even if others get to build their bases and such.

DCLXVI your God · Dec 25, 2015

W4rSkuLL said:
I see, some want this, other dont. People complain about lack of content. Bases would give commanders all the content they want. Although, adding bases should it come after adding planets with atmospheres and 1 person walking? I can see this maybe come in season 3-4. Elite is a big game and I wonder what the next implementation would be. Although adding bases as an addon/update like they added power play or CQC would be nice. If its possible. As we now have all the planet space we can want, why not be able to build a simple base to start with then add more advanced stuff later. But I think we need 1 person walking/interaction before bases is added. Bases would fit very nicely along with loot and crafting/synthesizing. I just wonder how far they will take Elite Dangerous. Is it possible we can have it all? Or is the galaxy just to big to add to many features. As long as Frontier makes money and we like what we see, I cant really see that it is not possible. But off course it will take time.
In 3 years Frontier has given us a full scale galaxy to play with, 30 ships and ability to land on planets without atmospheres. Loot and crafting is coming along with ship launched fighters,multi crew and avatars. Would not 1 person walking be a feature to add along with avatars and commander creation? Or would the avatars be something we can see inside the ship at first and the SRV, and after some time we might be able to move them around inside the ship. Well, its speculations.
So many things can be added in this game, but also things that exist can be polished a lot. Like NPCs, wingmen, missions, pois, commander missions (bounty hunting).
We will never run out of things to speculate over, that´s for sure. We also know ship modification is coming. This will add much to the game and make some ships truly unique. I also wonder about asteroid bases and adding bigger asteroids/comets into the game.

Well written, Sir.

I really like the idea of making a personal secret base in some deep canyon, on some nice planet.
Or for groups to have bases to protect or launch missions from, if they want that.
Don't know if it can be done, but it could be fun.

Hooplah · Dec 25, 2015

HazardousMatt said:
LOL WHAT?!

Elite Dangerous is technically a MMO with the option of solo play. The day Frontier forgets that and caters the game to just solo play is the day I'll stop playing. Seriously what is the point of a frigging galaxy if it's just YOU and NPCs. Forget that....

Some like just YOU and NPCs. Ah...then generally Solo players don't count and it's all about PVP? That position is why many discussions end up in arguments. ED tries to accommodate both and PVP has already won many concessions at the expense of Solo.

Player base abilities are somewhat in game with the basic ability to store ships at a station. Add in personal storage for equipment and outfitting ships becomes more efficient and fun as well. It would be nice to simply swap out weapons and modules without having to rebuy them over again or use the market to accomplish this.

This would require the ability to purchase equipment and store it as cargo versus mounting. Then travel to your home system and store it. That opens up a whole new can of worms with ship-to-ship trading. Solo would love it for just the storage. PVP would probably hate it thinking one player with billions of credits could upgrade a wing of players becoming harder to defeat. A partial solution would be to disable equipment storage in a ship's cargo bay in PVP. It would get worse having a player base with a group overwhelming the individual player. I don't think this proposal will fly.

CMDR Saunders · Dec 25, 2015

sbdags said:
No, Elite Dangerous is about being a lone pilot finding your way in a massive galaxy. The day they allow player bases is the day I stop playing.

Doesn't make any sense

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The idea of building secret bases far out into space -- with billions of galaxies -- on some distant moon and building it up however you wish... sounds AWESOME. Possible someone could find it... but thats what base defenses are for. But it's a big galaxy... I doubt anyone is going to find some obscure base on an obscure moon orbiting an obscure star. BUT.... it would mean CONTENT GALORE. I can just imagine the thrill of finding another players base and what they could possibly mean... are they hording raw materials? Might they have some rare trinket? Might it just be well designed.

So many options. I love the thought of this!

jpaulwilson1982 · Dec 25, 2015

I don't think having player-owned stations would be a good idea. At least, not with Elite. But I've seen a lot of good and exciting ideas come up. We just have to think this through practically.

If we allow players to build and own personal stations, then what would be the point of having players form groups, who later form in-game factions and gain stations by trading and war? I'd imagine few people would go through the hard work of forming groups and conquering systems and stations if they could just buy it or build their own. I doubt FD will ever implement this particular game mechanic to Elite.
What if we allow players to customize the inside of their ships, like a home? Or, we can take it a step further and offer a player the ability to buy personal living quarters on stations. This way, the purpose of groups and factions isn't made obsolete, and each of us will be able to customize the game more to our own liking. And for special items, perhaps sell things like portraits, paintings, mini-scultures of ships and so forth to put in your ship/living quarters. This is another way for FD to make money to pay for the game.
This may be a bit off topic, but I think we should be able to name our ships. That little personal touch would go a long way with the players.
I, too, am in favor of being able to have our ships transported to a station or stations of our choice (for a nominal credit fee, of course). This is another simple game mechanic that the players would overwhelmingly appreciate and enjoy.
Even though players shouldn't be able to buy or build personal stations, perhaps a reasonable compromise is to allow players the ability to buy a base somewhere; something that's not nearly as big as a station, nor with the abilities to sell cartographic data, outfitting, buying new ships, doing missions (except maybe some personal missions you can get only at your "home"), etc. I think I'd be okay with this.
Briefly on the future updates and whether they're geared for Solo or Open, single play vs MMO play- Frontier is having to walk a fine line in an attempt to cater to both kinds of player. If you want to rough it all on your own, that's certainly part of the game. If you want teamwork in this dangerous galaxy with a goal of getting your faction to conquer the galaxy, that's also an option. Frontier caters to both kinds of players, though we can easily debate which kind of player has gotten the most support (the MMO crowd IMO). The day Frontier stops trying to cater to both, I'm done. I've enjoyed the mix of MMO and single player content, and the freedom to switch between those gameplay styles at my own discretion.

Marcus Machiavelli · Dec 25, 2015

player owned bases are already in the game! get your group registered, become a minor faction and BAM you have a base! my group have two now and we love it! a home makes all the difference to us! no moon bases as yet but we are working on it!
Ps. you do have to fight to keep it now and then but the game is called dangerous....

Cynaqq · Dec 25, 2015

Player owned bases would not mean infinite new content if the mechanics governing them is not designed to harbor new content. Player owned base means anything from a self deploying space tent only you and players in your instance can see to a full blown station which is a permanent addition to the game world, owned and controlled by a player or clan.

There are countless problems to overcome and even more design decisions to be made if something like this is to be implemented into a game like ED.

First and most basic problem is that ED is not a dedicated server based game. The structures don't live in a server. They are placed where they are by the client but their functions are communicating with the BGS server at regular intervals. This is why new stations are only added with a major update. The istructions to place a station at a specific location must be hard coded into the procedural generation algorithm. Otherwise we would have no permanent structures but only those random and transient ones in POIs.

So, the first problem again is deciding how permanent we want these structures to be. Will they be for the owner alone? This would be relatively easy to do but would not realy be playable since it can't account for instances.

If they are made permanent across the board, again, instancing will be a problem. Hell, solo play will be a problem because what happens of some people gather a group and they decide to go to solo and attack a player's base? How will you defend a base from unseen enemies from a parallel universe because they are placed in another instance or they chose to be in another instance by going solo?

How many bases will be allowed per player? How big? Will it come with clan support? Can a clan cover a small moon in bases? Will the bases be made up of pre made modules or will the player build it space engineers style? Or maybe there should be base types just like ships and stations so you buy one you can afford and that's it. You place it somewhere it fits.

This is not even the tip of the iceberg. Realistically, player owned bases is such a fundamental aspect to a game, the whole game needs to be designed around it. If you go and place such a mechanic on a game like ED with all the easiest of all options, at best it will be a disconnected gimmick and will meet harsher criticism than powerplay, and at worst, it'll be game breaking by creating all sorts of networking and storage problems.

I'm in no way against players owning a small portion of the game world and calling it home. I'm not against clans and territory control even but honestly, I can't see how it can be in ED without it being a totally different game.