If you were to Re-write Elite, what would you change? Part 2
Michael Hughes – Facebook – Would have kept on top of and taken advantage of the early bugs that allowed people to rank up quickly.
Matt ‘wally’ Walford – Facebook – Do away with engineers, game killer for me as I don’t have the time to grind the upgrades as my work schedule doesn’t allow much game time. its become a game now where despite reaching elite ranking in combat, my ships near useless. – Game is far to unbalanced for casual players
Nopil3os – Twitter – direct economy like in X-BtF and its successors.
Karl – Twitter – I would not rely on the huge amount of 2D interfaces that removes you from first-person view. Since they’re more easy to create, their numbers only grow with each update. Elite is getting very point-and-click heavy.
CMDR Tictak – Twitter – Reduce the repetition and add content instead
Stephen Usher – Facebook – As I talked about during the early Alpha, making the scanner properly linear. Even in the current “linear” mode it’s still actually logarithmic scaling.
This makes true spacial awareness using the scanner impossible and I only use it as a direction finder, unlike in the previous games.
Drew Wagar – Facebook – I would not have allowed the entire galaxy to have been visited, rather I’d have required players to unlock it bit by bit by working out navigable hyperspace routes to new star systems via some kind of gameplay. Biggest mistake they made IMHO.
Swidhelm – Twitter – The ability to set way points on planets, and hud elements for optimal approach and landing. Kind of like the Nostromo landing scene in alien.
EvilSnowball82 – Twitter – Give the DBX a class 5 slot for a fuel scoop. I love my DBX.
David Gillum – Facebook – I would have made the Thargoids more active than passive. As it stands you can choose if you want to encounter a Thargoid, even in infested systems
Michael Hughes – Facebook – Make it possible to map asteroids so you are not always trying to mine the same ones.
Liam Greene – Facebook – The core gameplay “loop”
Make Crime and Punishment much more harsh.
Notoriety is only gained by Killing other players.
High Security Systems should be safe, any player with Notoriety should be harassed by npcs as soon as they enter the system.
Any Player in a civilised system with Notoriety should be visible on the Galaxy Map.
More NPC pirate interdictions in Low Security / Populated Anarchy systems
Community Corner
Loose Screws :- , I wanted to invite you and anyone else over at Lave Radio to the Loose Screws end of the year Discord party/show. On December 27th at 730CST we are doing a live stream and show. I’m inviting all of the listeners and friends of my show. Feel free to drop in and say howdy to everyone. I know it will be late in the UK. Thanks for supporting us and getting us started. We will keep moving the Biowaste for you guys. 😀
HCS Voice packs just teased a Babylon 5 picture for future voice packs. No Boom today, Boom tomorrow!
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”.
Thanks to those who have chipped in on Twitch chat and in-game commanders
Crew Members Director of Pest Control : Ashley Devine – DrToxic Head of health and safety : Ben Moss-Woodward – Cmdr Eid LeWeise Chief Archivist : Colin Ford – Cmdr phoenix_dfire Chief Bar Steward : Grant Woolcott – Cmdr Psykokow (In)Human Resources Director : Shan – Cmdr Shanaeri Knight Extruder Operator : Cmdr Kurgol Sagittarius Eye Editor : Souvarine
Trivia: The Guardian ruins were first discovered in the Synuefe XR-H D11-102 system on October 27, 3302 by CMDR XDeath.
You do not need to unlock Ram Tah
The CG text suggests this mission may go away: Ram Tah, the galaxy’s foremost expert on the Guardians, has revealed that his research funding will soon end. In an effort to make the most of his remaining finances, the engineer has appealed to independent pilots to deliver Guardian artefacts to his base in the Meene system.
You need a good jump range, 12t cargo space, fuel scoop, exploration scanners, SRV (multiple recommended).
When you dock at Meene (Felice Dock) you will receive the mission in your inbox, and it will automatically be added to your transactions panel.
It pays 1 million credits per scan with a 10 million credit bonus if you collect all 101 scans, total payout on completion is 111 million credits.
Counts towards exploration rank!
Many of the systems with Guardian ruins in are worth a lot of exploration data (lots of metal rich and at least one Black Hole).
You need 2 of each Guardian artifacts to be able to apply any of the combinations
2 x casket
2 x orb
2 x relic
2 x totem
2 x tablet
2 x urn
It is imperative that you keep an accurate log of which data packages you have received, they come in 5 categories:
Biology (19)
Culture (20)
History (21)
Language (21)
Technology (20)
You can read all the data packets on the Canonn Research website.
Community resources were key to success, there are many many more but these are the ones I used (edshipyard being the most useful one):
Explanation of edshipyard process, select the data scans you are missing (select none if you are just starting), click optimize and it will work out the minimum number of systems you need to visit, click export to get a list of systems, planets, sites. Click individual sites to get a map plotting where each data is, and what combination of artifacts is needed to scan it.
When scanning grab the two relevant artifacts needed to perform the scan and then locate the relevant obelisk, you should be able to target it when within a few meters and scan it with the srv data scanner.
Once you have handed in, relogged and redocked at the station you are offered the mission again, you are able to repeat it.
The CG text suggests this mission may go away “Ram Tah, the galaxy’s foremost expert on the Guardians, has revealed that his research funding will soon end. In an effort to make the most of his remaining finances, the engineer has appealed to independent pilots to deliver Guardian artefacts to his base in the Meene system.” So have fun with it while you can.
Operation IDA. Player driven initiative to repair the damaged stations before they collect their pensions or we run out of stations.. Current priority is “the Oracle”
GalPhoto is a community of Galactic Photographers in @EliteDangerous We have everything from awesome photography, to cinematics, to galactic art, & more! Join today and become an Elite Photographer! Let’s get every Galactic Photographer in one community! discord.io/galphoto
Crew Members Director of Pest Control : Ashley Devine – DrToxic Head of health and safety : Ben Moss-Woodward – Cmdr Eid LeWeise Chief Archivist : Colin Ford – Cmdr phoenix_dfire Chief Bar Steward : Grant Woolcott – Cmdr Psykokow (In)Human Resources Director : Shan – Cmdr Shanaeri
Fluffybunesq – Stephen Ashley, the amazing Fluffy Bunny himself is running a special event at Smokey Joe’s in Cheltenham on Sun 25 February 2018 13:00 – 18:00 GMT, where his long luscious locks will be savagely torn from his head in a barbaric ritual of shame, sorry he’s getting his head shaved live, if you are nearby pop in to support him or throw some cash at his just giving page.
We are delighted to announce that the tickets for this year’s Elite Community Meet (ECM 2018) are LIVE. 14th April at the Hilton St Anne, Wokingham.We will be visiting Reading in the UK this year and as usual have a packed day of social gaming, a bit of VR, our Artemis competition and an ED:RPG session hosted by Spidermind games. Plus lots and lots of Elite Dangerous. We have added a wires internet connection this year and room for 20 computers.Raising money for SpecialEffect and Hearing Dogs by having fun.
PLUS Bonus event as in the Sunday we will be descending on the Pizza Express in Reading and being hosted by Rob Hooper as we are taught to throw pizzas like a proper Hutton Trucker in one of our now legendary Pizzameets.
Tickets are 12.50 and you can add lunch and dinner to your booking if you want…. rooms available directly from the hotel via special code if you are staying for the late bar.
Crew Members Director of Pest Control : Ashley Devine – DrToxic Head of health and safety : Ben Moss-Woodward – Cmdr Eid LeWeise Chief Bar Steward : Grant Woolcott – Cmdr Psykokow (In)Human Resources Director : Shan – Cmdr Shanaeri
Special Guests
CMDR (Persera rescued)
Fuel Rats
CMDR Highwaywarrior
CMDR Abish
CMDR Theukn0wn1
Show Notes
Development News
New Aegis Gadget. Decontamination limpet controller. – Available at military, high-tech, refinery, industrial or extraction-level economies. planetary bases
Shan “Breaks” NPC Crew Payments. Shan has caused a negative value to be displayed on the crew payments total. It’s a display bug only, but a funny one.
Do you not own a Logitech series keyboard with an LCD inside? (G19s, G15, G13, G510 models) AWESOME! CMDR DrToxic has found (yet another) companion app for you.
Crew Members Station Commander : Allen Stroud Director of Pest Control : Ashley Devine – DrToxic Head of health and safety : Ben Moss-Woodward – Cmdr Eid LeWeise Chief Archivist : Colin Ford – Cmdr phoenix_dfire Chief Bar Steward : Grant Woolcott – Cmdr Psykokow (In)Human Resources Director : Shan – Cmdr Shanaeri Space Loach Mouthpiece : Sandro Sammarco
Main Discussion Crime and Punishment with Sandro Sammarco
This is a snapshot of the design process and thinking and is not representative of what may actually be delivered
Design principles behind C&P
What is the philosophy behind the C&P design? You have already mentioned it is to simplify, but more specifically is it to prevent certain sorts of play(if so what?), discourage other sorts of play, bring people back to open or to improve the criminal experience?
Two factors, There’s the simplification aspect. It’s not to re-invent the wheel.
We just want to shore up the consequences, and make them harder to avoid and more robust.
Not trying to please everyone, It’s not to “attack” a way of playing, discourage or encourage just to make it better and support the original intentions.
All roles need to be as fun as possible, just not equal in challenge.
What does success look like? How will Frontier measure how successful the changes have been in an empirical way?
Empirical success is that criminals still exist and accept consequences of their actions. Combat logging, Ramming etc cannot be fully solved by C&P and will need the karma system to address further.
Measured and reasoned Feedback is essential to measuring success, especially during these feedback phases
How close do you think you are to meeting those objectives at a design level?
Lots of excellent feedback and has “already” paid it’s way. Feedback has already identified gaps and improvements are being incorporated based on player feedback. So great progress has been made, and it’s probably got another couple of weeks.
Realising no ETA etc, will these changes come all at once or be phased over the beyond updates? E.g at frontier expo the ATR was mentioned for Q1
Likely to be a big bang launch in Q1. No ETA etc etc though
ATR fighters.
Lots of bravado re:ATR… Not going to be true for everyone. Superpowered but not insta-kill. They can bend the rules, not break them.
Imagine a fully engineered ship That’s the base level. For example, A cascade or drag muntion style beam laser..
The higher the notoriety the more intense the ATR response. They will aim to take out an individual and will be able to defend themselves
ATR may be able to be killed, but will keep coming and coming. The question it will ask the player is “How long do you want to stay around until you die”
Ways in which ATR can chase you across systems in the same faction are being investigated.
Impact on Community Questions
Do you think certain ways players play the game has historically been harmful to both the community and the number of players who now play or want to buy the game. If so, specifically, how will these changes improve this?
It’s a conundrum. Historically and intentionally the game has been left open to player interpretation and try to avoid judgement, That’s not to say there are no consequences and the game will respond to that
There is also a covenant between player and developer where the player has to abide by the rules. And we accept it’s not the full picture, but it should be an improvement from where we are now.
It’s a balance between locking down the game so it’s no fun or opening it too much.
Credit fines.
Not a huge amount of criminal players with huge amount of money, but data says being attacked and killed in open is rarer than the perception.
Previously the fines have been avoided, with the new system the impact will be higher because they are a lot harder to avoid and so eventually will have an effect.
Additional fines will increase the rebuy penalty so it all adds up. Other systems such as karma will also affect things
Player choice, open, Private Group or solo are all equally valid.
Can you explain how the new bounty hunting mechanic could work. What’s to stop friends kill trading or even selling their bounty for real money outside of game if the values become significant?
The bounty that is claimed and the rebuy bounty are different things. So while bounty hunting will be made more lucrative, it will be balanced to avoid this.
The concept of reducing a victim’s rebuy and increasing the attackers is at the moment fairly compelling as it increases the sense of justice.
Will any fines or bounties be commander based, rather than ship based(e.g interstellar bounties)
It’s an interesting debate. But there proba”thye devprebly wouldn’t be. One of the reasons why it’s on a ship is because it opens the player up to other professions, whilst still adding a penalty
interstellar bounties will be pretty horrifying, so probably no need for pilots federation bounties. But balancing will be needed.
The current system differentiates between player murders and NPC murders. The proposed system seems to dilute this distinction, why the change?
It’s felt that the consequences for ship destruction should be the same. It’s nicer it’s simpler whilst still recognising there needs to be a sense of justice for the player.
The hope is this system will reduce the instances of combat logging
Impact on Consensual PvP, player events, and criminality as a profession etc
Any chance of having CQC style arenas/pvp centric mega-ships etc in anarchy systems to assist in consensual PvP. I.e give consensual PvP outside of CQC some love?
Should be possible using existing assets although some assets are already in place already. So could be looked at, where players make their own rules .
Piracy and PvP in general have been mentioned as needing improvement. Is smuggling on the list also?
Smuggling is a core role in the game, but is being reviewed as part of beyond. They would like to be improved in two ways. The black market and mechanical changes to improve gameplay.
Other factors are involved in how successful your smuggling is such as your in system rep and how ‘prestigious” your ship is
How will player run events, such a demolition derbies be affected by these changes(frequent ramming, getting the station annoyed on purpose just for funsies. etc)
It’s fun seeing the crazy events players come up with. Report crimes off and anarchy systems will still work and should not be much difference. But will need to be looked at in case by case basis.
One can imagine how crimes are not affected in wings, could also apply in squadrons….
Possible exploits, loopholes etc questions
How are you going to prevent mischievous players “getting in the way of other ships’ weapons in order to get the other a bounty etc?
While the system is harsher. The friendly fire threshold will be increased, as as a new reckless weapons offense which will impose a fine, not a bounty.
Is there a potential issue in having a nice collection of freshly clean(and freshly poorer) players in a detention centre that are just ripe to being killed again and again in a place where other ‘naughty’ players have been sent?
Fastest possible ATR response will be present, may be worthwhile having instant attack function while being in your own instance until you jump away. In other words security in the detention system will be tight.
What would happen if you filled a detention ship up to the max number of ships you can store there(e.g filled it with sidewinders)
It’s an interesting idea. In theory there are several solutions from upping the limit, forced moving of ships all the way to giving the player a choice of what ship they want to lose to make room
For the first time perhaps(outside of the BGS). The size of my credit balance and rate in which I can earn credits can now affect others players. Is this a worry?
It’s an interesting question, that is quite a moral conundrum, but in general punishments based on assets
Power Play
Please could you explain again the power play changes, they seemed more complex than those currently in place.
Lightning Round
Accidentally shooting before a scan ends no hull damage. I.E. Shield Dmg Only. – Fine
Accidentally shooting before a scan ends with hull damage -Fine
Accidentally ramming a ship without destroying it – fine maybe bounty
Shooting a clean/non scanned ship with and inflicting hull damage – bounty
Killing skimmers – fine… bounty.. fine
Shooting people in an SRV – all of the above 😉
Smuggling illegal goods -fine
Loitering or docking without permission – All of the above 😉
Killing a clean NPC as part of a mission -Bounty
Carrying wanted passenger – Bounty
Killing clean player not PP aligned – Jail
Killing multiple clean players not PP aligned – All of the above 😉
Killing the same player repeatedly within a defined time period – All of the above 😉
First twin commander Basilisk kill. CMDR’s Tainted Wanderer & Cncmaster took roughly an hour to take the ship down and described the fight as “downright incredible”
The Trucker Dr Eros Madelung has done it again with an excellent video getting us all down as he talks about mass, density, gravity and the roche limit.