Development News – what have the devs said this week?
Stephen Benedetti posted a response from Ian Dingwall about the latest from Galnet. It appears that we are losing a little content but that is because interstellar Initiatives requires a lot of work.
What was interesting was that even though they’ve just hired a new writer, there is an ‘aggressive production schedule’ which means that things are repositioned. What does everyone think of that?
Fdev is at Gamescom in Germany at the moment. It’s planet zoo’s time but there is an elite meet.
In-Game Events – what’s happened this week?
Dav did the Background presentation.
Stephen managed to upgrade his combat rank to Novice on Monday.
Fdev staff was at Fantasticon last weekend. Nothing was announced but they had many interesting chats with the community.
People annoyed that they can’t enter the above competition on the forum and so are accusing Fdev of ignoring the forums.
Main discussion
With NMS being upgraded to beyond this week, how does it compare to ED? Is it ED light?
Rebel galaxy Outlaw was released as well, this feels also more Elite like but you are following someone else’s narrative I. E. Freelancer, dark star one & X-Rebirth.
Both of these games have a lot less grind (NMS has reduced theirs). Should Elite do the same? I. E. Reduce travel time somehow? Rebalance credits?
Community Corner
A well-known and much-loved shipyard service ED Shipyard by Taleden have been renovated and moved to a new address.
The folks at Operation Ida are working on Kaiser Terminal – Wayutabal
HAUL:
Indium 80% 56,383 (-3,360)
Gallium 24% 72,294 (-3,658)
Copper 29% 23,641 (-0,696)
Aluminium 34% 26,180 (-3,920)
Synthetic Fabrics 61% 142,568 (-48,423)
Overall 321,066 (-60,057)
Next Milestone 250,000
24h Total: 99,557
Alec Turner’s has the new Hot off the Press Buckyball run in progress at the moment. (in association with SAGi)
Sagittarius Eye going quarterly with Issue 25
Questions
Shall we put out a community question? Should ED reduce the grind and how?
Shoutouts
Our sister station, Hutton Orbital Radio, Broadcasts on Thursdays from 20:30. You can tune in at tv.forthemug.com/ or, for just the audio, at radio.forthemug.com/.
For the discerning Commander who likes a bit of CQC action, check out the CQC Discord at “discord.me/elitedangerouscqc”.
If this means that the amount of Galnet content won’t change, but the percentage that’s related to in-game content will increase, I think that’s very positive – especially if that means that there’s more non-routine in-game content going on than previously.
If this means that the amount of Galnet content related to in-game content won’t change, but the total amount of Galnet content will decrease, then that feels like taking several steps back, to how things were two or three years ago when Galnet could go for weeks between non-automated news items.
I think also, while people weren’t satisfied with the “off-camera” narratives, this was because they took place 100% off-camera, and often, more recently, in undefined locations so that people couldn’t go looking for in-game signs of them. They felt like they weren’t really happening in Elite Dangerous.
There’s still, I think, room for quite a bit of off-camera narrative, provided that it relates to some in-game content as well. For example, the Enclave Interstellar Initiative could have had some “background” material in Galnet over the previous few months: – 6 months before II starts: news article about how meta-alloys are being widely used in research – 4 months before II starts: news article where some corporation expresses concerns about the meta-alloy supply security – 1 month before II starts: story about scientists noting Pleiades barnacles are showing signs of damage …and then go into the II with that as lead-up, rather than it suddenly starting with “meta-alloy prices double! exploration CG! no previous hints that there was any sort of issue!” – and then of course potential for a few stories following up after the II months later highlighting the long-term effects it’s had
If most of the stories eventually connected around to in-game events, they wouldn’t need to all have in-game interactions directly associated with them for players to feel that they were relevant. (e.g. Drew Wagar’s “Premonition” storyline was generally well-received and the finale had lots of players participating on both sides, despite most of the lead up happening “off-camera” and often even “off-Galnet”) An in-game event which connected three stories from months or even years ago that people had assumed were just background flavour could be really exciting. (And it’d look like you’d planned it that way even if you’d just picked up those loose stories months later, too)
@Stephen Benedetti can I ask then, on average do you expect there to be roughly the same number of Galnet stories per week but instead of Frontier inventing stories (e.g. the winking cat stuff or the dude who stole a DBX) they’ll now be covering things that actually happened (e.g. expeditions, races, AX combat/repair achievements, etc)? (which sounds great) … or, do you mean that you’ll be cutting those side stories and then, once a month or so, adding a story about the outcome of something wide reaching (but still largely Frontier created) such as an Interstellar Initiative or game update? (which sounds disappointing on the surface at least).
The thing is, what Galnet needs to do is bring a sense of life to the galaxy. If FD have to invent that life (as at present) then so be it, if they can cover the life that players are creating on a daily basis then even better, but if (as it slightly sounds), it’s going to become even more lifeless … that would be a HUGE pity!
This thursday, FDev will have Dav doing a similar, or even the same, presentation about the Back-ground simulation we had at lavecon this week on the Thursday Presentation.
Our sister station, Hutton Orbital Radio, Broadcasts on Thursdays from 20:30. You can tune in at tv.forthemug.com/ or, for just the audio, at radio.forthemug.com/.
For the discerning Commander who likes a bit of CQC action, check out the CQC Discord at “discord.me/elitedangerouscqc”.
Thanks to those who have chipped in on Twitch chat and in-game commanders
Cmdr Arkaboop on Reddit shows us how to play Elite using Remote Play on a PS Vita using a Mobile Hotspot (because the local WiFi is rubbish) as well as adding a case that adds the L2/R2 and L3/R3 triggers so as not to lose any functionality.
Maybe we can segway into “mobile ways to play elite”
This took a little longer than I was anticipating (I should just go ahead and trademark that phrase, lol), but David (/u/RahnKavall) and I are pleased to present the next chapter of FANGS: a short single-chapter interlude called MERCS.
(What’s Fangs, you ask? Fangs is a noir-themed web comic set in the Elite: Dangerous universe!)
MERCS is an original story written and illustrated by David, using the characters from his own E:D web comic MERCENARY COMMANDER (now sadly offline, or I’d link to it Ah, we’ve still got the images!). After getting all super-duper emotional with FANGS book 2, I wanted to do something a little less serious to change things up a bit and get the tone a little lighter—and Rahn & Moose here certainly fit the bill 😀
David & I are now heads-down working on FANGS book 3, which will be titled “To Sail Forbidden Seas” and which will be about a commander who gets marooned in Witchspace during a mis-jump and comes face to face with the things that lurk in the between:
Test panel, temp VFX, subject to change
We’ve been refining our art process and now have a Maya-driven workflow (which lets us do interior shots like this!), and we’re excited about the art possibilities!
You guys are an amazing community and David & I are grateful for your continued support. Thanks for reading FANGS—it makes me really happy to see folks enjoying something we worked so hard on 🙂
You will likely recall the story of CMDR Michael Holyland, who sadly passed way in May this year at the age of 15.
A personalised audiobook was created for him by the combined efforts of Frontier, Voice Actors and the Community.
It was Michael’s wish that the audiobook be made available to the community so they could also enjoy it. We have taken the additional step of publishing it in ebook formats too. The book can be freely downloaded from the link below.
We are suggesting donations to Cancer Research UK in memory of Michael.
Download the episode directly from here. Position Crew Member CMDR Name Head of Health and Safety Ben Moss-Woodward CMDR Eid LeWeise (in)Human Resources Director Shan CMDR Shan Lavian Space Program Director Andy Barnes CMDR Kurgol Deputy Trade Attaché Souv Cmdr Souvarine AXI 100.Rub AXI Gluttony Fang In Game Events Palin’s…
Ohm Horizons (HIP 29312) 13-JUL-3305 to 21-JUL-3305
Welcome to the Seven Sisters Speedway: In a reimagining of one of the earliest BRC events, take off from Ohm Horizons in HIP 29312 near the edge of the bubble, and take a whirlwind tour around some of the stations and installations of the Seven Sisters in the Pleiades Nebula, then race back to Ohm Horizons.
Begin the race docked at Ohm Horizons in HIP 29312.
Visit the following nine locations in the Pleiades Nebula in any order:
The Seven Sisters are:
Asterope – Dock at Copernicus Observatory (83ls)
Atlas – Hip Hop only!
Celaeno – Dock at Artemis Lodge (46ls)
Maia – Dock at Obsidian Orbital (635ls)
Merope – Make a fly-past of the Listening Post orbiting Merope-1b (2100ls) – Note: listening posts, like other space structures, only appear on your Nav Panel when you approach to within 1000ls.
Pleione – Dock at Stargazer (1072ls) AND
Pleione – Make two tunnel fly-throughs at the Squirrel’s Nest space bar (265ls)
Head of Health and Safety Ben Moss-Woodward CMDR Eid LeWeise (in)Human Resources Director Shan CMDR Shan Second Technician Chris Forrester Cmdr Fozza Chief Bar Steward Grant Woolcott CMDR Psykokow Chief Archivist Colin Ford CMDR Phoenix_Dfire Download the episode directly from here. Main Topic We shoot the shit, talking about everything…
Will did a new commander stream but that’s about it
In Game Events
None but new paint jobs for the keelback.
Main Discussion
Questions for the Coalition:
Why didn’t Communism Interstellar join?
What’s the status of the Border Coalition?
What’s the purpose of the Coalition?
Is the Coalition a ‘threat’ to the Alliance? I.E. the Alliance is supposedly the Alliance of Independent Systems, so is the Coalition ‘stealing’ those systems from them?
Game improvements from Cmdr Nash
I’ve got a few suggestions on things frontier could do to improve the game with minimal work before the next big content drop in 2093 or whatever it is.
I’m assuming their software design is something reasonable (despite evidence to the contrary) and we want to get most bang for the buck.
Generally Frontier’s big problems are their lack of (useful) communication and a tendency to do something half-arsed then let it sit without an update for too long (the engineering/mining/exploration updates were all great, but they took way too long).
Idea 1: CQC Materials
Add material drops. Give each player who finishes a game a random material drop. Give anyone who scored a kill another. Give the winners (top half players or top team) a drop. Totally random material. Suddenly even seasoned players have a reason to play.
Also increase the credit payouts by 10 times (or more). With a single courier mission paying a few thousand, and mining paying up to a billion, a few thousand for CQC ain’t going to break anything. (still only useful for new players, but they probably don’t care about engineering yet) Code wise this should be trivial.
Other improvements:
Add Guardian fighters to the mix (should also be easy)
Add NPCs (maybe easy, maybe hard)
Make the arena’s smaller (more contact = faster games) (not sure)
Buff all CQC weapons to make TTK (time to kill) smaller (should be easy)
In game queueing (probably the hardest)
Idea 2: SLF Engineer(s)
Add a new engineer or 2 who only does fighters. Fighter’s are a single module so can only be engineered with a single modification.
4 mods:
Increase damage by 20% per level
Increase shields by 20% per level
Increase speed/maneuverability by 20% per level
Increase all three by 10% per level.
(multiply those numbers as appropriate).
Shouldn’t be too hard to add. Makes fighters more useful in a post-engineering world.
If they are too powerful, it just moves the game meta to have more fighters, and fighters are fun to fly, so it’s all good. Fighters vs Fer-der-lances FTW.
Potential to add experimental effects later if they wish.
Idea 3: A Small SLF Carrier Ship
So a little more work, but a small ship (size of a sidewinder) that is essentially just a strapped on FSD for a fighter.
Need some special module slots and the like, but the only new real asset would be the ship itself. May have limited re-builds of the fighter. Super cool if combined with Idea 2 as well.
Others – Some other things they could do to look after their community:
Cross-platform save support (see Fortnite and other games)
Ghost Giraffe had done it again with a fantastic video about how to create the fastest ship ever.
In addition to the forums and reddit. Several elite groups have appeared on the Amino App (normally used by the young person’s type) . If you use amino, then just search for Elite Dangerous
Shoutouts
Paige raising money for Special Effect
I’m 25 now, and nearly 16 stone. With my disabilities, this is dangerous, and I’m finally ready to see myself for who I truly am. This time, I lose the weight, and see it, because I’m ready to love myself.
I need to lose a minimum of 6 stone. For every pound I lose, I will be donating £1 to SpecialEffect to help keep disabled gamers in the game. If you would like to 1) support disabled gamers, 2) help motivate me to get healthy, please do feel free to make a donation of your own.
Fozza has managed to dig up some new iTunes reviews!!! <3 you guys
Jaybird
Cmdr Macwa de Linn
Cmdr Valaryc
Cmdr Harass B Dragon
Ki
Jrohrer1010
Cmdr Tomacco
Lavecon 2019 is 5th – 7th July at the Sedgebrook Hall Hotel, and is sponsored by Spidermind Games!
On Friday Karen is planning to take all the silver/gold camping and Ambassadors reception tickets off the website to allow the hotel to plan food numbers. So, if you want one of these, do get it soon!
Bronze tickets will be on sale up to and on the day itself.
Cmdr Beetlejude is going to be doing a Blind Auction of her Signed by Frontier Artwork at Lavecon
