Your Questions Needed - Join the Elite Tutorial Livestream - Everything You Need to Know About the Background Sim

Edward Lewis · Apr 13, 2016

Your Questions Needed - Join the Elite Tutorial Livestream - Everything You Need to Know About the Background Sim

This week is all about the Background Simulation with Dav Stott and Adam Bourke-Waite. So put your questions in the chat below for us to look through before tomorrow!

Looking forward to this one.

Make sure you join us on our official YouTube channel at 19:00 BST on Thursday April 14.

https://www.youtube.com/user/FrontierDevelopments/live

Edelgard von Rhein · Apr 13, 2016

Many thanks for taking the time to talk about the Background Simulation and answer questions! I realise this is one of the most complex parts of the game but I shall try to at least keep my questions simple:
1) What is the role of exploration data in the background simulation? Does it count only towards the 'boom' state or does it also affect 'wealth' and 'standard of living' values?
2) What is the role of vouchers from data points (e.g. crashed nav beacons)? Are the credit values too small to have any effect or do they have a larger effect than their credit values suggest?
3) [2.1 related] How will Engineers interact with the Background Simulation? Will missions completed/failed for an Engineer aligned with a particular faction alter that faction's influence or other attributes? Are all Engineers aligned with a faction?

Cmdr Eagleboy · Apr 13, 2016

Ohh yes, definitely will watch this live.

My question - are there some special plan/todo list for tasks to help visualize changes in background simulation? Major complain about BGS is that there's little visual feedback regarding changes. There are, and they are visible, but not much. What about NPC text chatter? What about visual changes in stations? Etc.

I think what I want to say - is there any long term view towards how to make BGS more viisble in game?

sensai25 · Apr 13, 2016

When will we see an automatic expansion of small stations/colony around human bubble when a system is expanding ?

Cocalarix · Apr 13, 2016

Question for both Dav and Adam: What is one feature of BGS that you'd love to add in the future?

Aewarin Jameson · Apr 13, 2016

If the BGS was sped up somewhat do you feel this would give players a sense of a dynamic, fluid changing universe (and perhaps inject some excitement) in what feels like an otherwise slow stagnant story ?

Ozric · Apr 13, 2016

Really looking forward to this one, if not just for the interactive whiteboard

My question would also be about the role that exploration data plays in the BGS?

Liqua said:
If the BGS was sped up somewhat do you feel this would give players a sense of a dynamic, fluid changing universe (and perhaps inject some excitement) in what feels like an otherwise slow stagnant story ?

My thought on this would be, maybe for a brief period of time and then they would get annoyed that systems are flipping too often and they are having to constantly work to keep things the way they are, have a week or 2 off and you could lose everything you've done over the past couple of months. Do you think systems realistically should be able to change control within a few days?

sensai25 · Apr 13, 2016

Do you plan more depth in BGS effect on :
Galnet/Missions/Commodity pricing.

For instance :
1) BGS lockdown over a system
2) Food is missing
3) Prices rise up a lot to better level than every other commodity
4) Missions related to this state pop up in nearby systems.
5) Galnet "alert" to invite people to act in a dynamic way.

Is it supposed to work like that ? Do you plan to do so ?

Aewarin Jameson · Apr 13, 2016

Ozric said:
My thought on this would be, maybe for a brief period of time and then they would get annoyed that systems are flipping too often and they are having to constantly work to keep things the way they are, have a week or 2 off and you could lose everything you've done over the past couple of months. Do you think systems realistically should be able to change control within a few days?

You tell me considering the following* (numbers in days):

Considering states can last for several weeks for me it's far too slow and there's little point in engaging in it (other than to let it do what it will and ignore it) - was that the desired intention by the FDEV team ?

*Taken from this thread which is worth a read.

Talarin · Apr 13, 2016

Three questions:

Are there plans to better represent the BGS in the game world (i.e. make it more obvious to the player)? If so, can you give us examples of what might be in mind?

Are there plans to introduce any form of relationship between the BGS entities (minor factions) in order to introduce a sense of competition, cooperation or conflict between them?

Are there plans to better represent the relationship between the minor and major factions (and their relative strengths)? Again, can you give examples?

Tinman · Apr 13, 2016

Looking forward to this one!

Also looking forward to how people will continue to complain about lack of communication after this one. Just as have been the case with the other similar streams over the last couple of weeks when people have had the oppurtunity to ask questions and getting answers by communicating with the devs.

wstephenson · Apr 13, 2016

Yet more "Are there any plans to (ATAPT)" questions:

Back in the day DB talked about actions and consequences, such as if you did something for faction A, their rivals faction B might like you less. Currently, the only negative consequences that exist are if you actively act against a faction, such as taking a mission to kill their ships.

ATAPT introduce negative reputation changes from other factions if they are in states of strong rivalry with the factions giving a mission?

And, ATAPT prosecute strong negative reputations more, such as faction ships attacking you on sight?

Aewarin Jameson · Apr 13, 2016

Tinman said:
Just as have been the case with the other similar streams over the last couple of weeks when people have had the oppurtunity to ask questions and getting answers by communicating with the devs.

Not everyone has their question answered - FD have limited time.

Tinman · Apr 13, 2016

Liqua said:
Not everyone has their question answered - FD have limited time.

Of course...but they do have the oppurtunity. The likelihood of getting an answer is also considerably higher here (as long it on the subject at hand) compared to some of the "other threads".

Riktar · Apr 13, 2016

I would like to know what the basis/foundation for BGS actions were. IE: Based on historical events? How the programmers themselves viewed/interpreted the "BGS" in the "real world" at present?

And the perspective would be helpful. IE: One of my "bucket list" items is to have lunch/an evening (separately of course) with several history teachers from the USA, Britain, Germany, Japan, etc. to get an insight into how other cultures view their place in the world.

Ozric · Apr 13, 2016

Liqua said:
You tell me considering the following* (numbers in days):

Considering states can last for several weeks for me it's far too slow and there's little point in engaging in it (other than to let it do what it will and ignore it) - was that the desired intention by the FDEV team ?

I can see why you'd think that a month is too long, but that is only a maximum not a guaranteed time, would Wars that only last 3-5 days (for example) be better? I'd say not, but that is obviously just my opinion

Just as it is my opinion that although you can make things slightly more obvious in the game I do not believe that all of the details and background workings should be made available to players.

CMDR Swift Arrow · Apr 13, 2016

This one I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to know:

1) HOW does a faction choose where to expand? What are the factors that it considers? How important are each of these factors in relation to each other?
2) And do you intend to fix the bug of factions being displaced whenever an expansion goes through in 2.1? Do you know why it happens?

Barking_Mad · Apr 13, 2016

Could you make it be possible for players to sell their exploration data to a faction of their choosing in a particular system? This might help with their reputation, ability to help factions expand, take over by non-violent methods and give players a sense of belonging....

Apos · Apr 13, 2016

1) Are there plans to allow system parameters like Security and Wealth to be affected in permanent ways without the requirement of CGs and manual editing? Same question for station wealth.

2) Does boom offer anything if it gets ended normally by excessive amounts of trading instead of getting disrupted by a war?

P.S. Give me back my alliance prison colony!

dunnykin · Apr 13, 2016

First of all thanks for fixing the wandering/skipping bgs tick time. It's been nice and reliable for a while now.

It was previously mentioned that ways to take stations without having to work against your faction to reduce them to war were being considered. Is there any more on this?

Oh and give apos his prison colony back.