This article is written for people actually playing Elite:Dangerous - if you are not playing you can probably stop reading here, as it will mean nothing to you.
The first beta for fleetcarriers in Elite:Dangerous comes to an end. Time to update my thoughts on them.
At this point we can buy a fleetcarrier which comes with a commodities market pre-installed and add modules to outfit this beast of a ship with, enabling it to do other things - like offering repair facilities etc. And the carrier loses much of its value darn fast - it is expensive to buy and you only get a fraction of the money back when selling it.
I don't think we already are at the end of the line currently.
I believe shortly before the start of this beta FDev said: "we want the purchase of a fleet carrier to be a meaningful decision" (no exact quote, it's from the top of my head). This sentence left me thinking a lot.
I will now enter the field of wild speculation and nothing I will predict is by any means provable... I am just thinking here. So don't expect any of that to be correct - I will try to point to the reasons for my thinking - but I may be utterly wrong with anything or everything I come up with in this article. So, I'll pop open a bottle of beer and just think into the keyboard from here on.
Take a look at this video CMDR Rheeney has created, if you haven't done so already. It shows different looking carriers in the docks within the Beta:
Rheeney says in the title we may see "Livery Options" for carriers here. While this is entirely possible I think - and somewhat hope - this is only part of the truth. Another part that made me think a lot was how quickly FDev was in stating Universal Cartographics will be available in the future as if it wasn't something difficult to do, almost as if it were planned anyway. And with that news something clicked and my speculations started:
In the current beta the Drake Class Carrier can be purchased - that is a very specific name for the only type of carrier there is. I think what we see in above video are entirely different carrier classes, not only livery options for the Drake Class Carrier. Painting and thruster colors could be livery, but there may be more to the actual shape of the carrier.
Also remember the old Idea of different carrier roles? Maybe that idea is still current.
Imagine the additional modules we can buy now could be purchased for all carriers, but one module is standard - and can not be exchanged except by selling your carrier and buying an entirely different one. You can only have one of those "core modules" on your carrier at any time, depending on the carrier class. With the depreciation this would really be a commitment, wouldn't it?
I guess the Drake Class Carrier is actually the "Trader Role" of carriers. That's why it comes with a market place installed as default.
The one with the ball-shaped bow may be the science-carrier - the exploration role. It could come with cartographics installed instead of the commodities market. That's why they were so fast in saying it will come... it was planned anyway, just not in the carrier class released in the first beta.
The pink one: I think by others already sometimes referred to as the "Hammerhead" could be the mining role - probably offering something completely new like additional refineries or contruction sites that allow to actually build further stuff from what they have mined. Whatever this will be.
Search and Rescue carriers? Bounty Hunter carriers? Smuggler carriers? These all were roles annouced back last year - I currently have no idea what their special module might be, but it could be possible to think of something I would believe.
Maybe we do not even get all carrier types on the release in June, but just the first few models - and additional carrier classes may be added whenever they are ready for market. I think this would be an exciting development perspective for the game - and maybe a reason not to jump at the first carrier that becomes available to players.
I guess in a few months we will know if these are just dumb ideas of a slightly drunk gamer or there is something to it.
2020-04-19
2020-04-05
Pre Fleetcarrier Thoughts
After quite a few optimistic annoucements of "Fleet Carriers" (thank you for this great wording, CMDR Wotherspoon), now there was another one. This time with a level of detail that almost looks like they might really be implemented.
The annoucement was made last week "live on tape". If you want to see the complete one hour not-so-live stream, here it is.
Maybe a short introduction for people not yet playing Elite Dangerous. Within this game you have exactly one commander you are playing. You can have many space ships - but have to park a ship in a station to be able to switch to another ship, which obviously has to be parked in the same space station. If you are in an area far out from inhabited space, there are no stations - and therefore you can not change ships. Spacestations are stationary (hence the name), you can not move them anywhere else. Believe me on this one, I have rammed quite heavy spaceships into stations, they did not move a bit.
So here come Fleet Carriers now - they can be owned by players and are personal space-non-stations - They can offer most services Space stations have without being stationary.
With the annoucement youtube, reddit and the game forums at Frontier Development (FDEV) went crazy. I couldn't say it better than our CMDR Bob Lowkey said it on our discord, so here is the quote:
And I would like to thank FDEV for that alone. All that whining and yelling on all those platforms by themselves provided an excellent entertainment value. Chapeau!
Most of those complaints seem to orbit around the idea, that people wish to play the game exactly like they did without the carriers, and that carriers don't change that playstyle now - or something like that. All in all logic is in short supply in most of the complaints. It almost seems like those players believe, they are forced to buy a carrier and use it all the time. I am pretty sure this is not the case, if you wish to continue playing like you did before, you should be able to do that.
I personally see those carriers as a massive increase in options how to play this sandbox game I like so much. To be honest I have so many ideas how I want to use this thing, that the hardest part will be deciding on what to try out first.
Sure, I am also not 100% in line with all the design decisions and they are not completely arranged around the play styles I enjoy, but I am able to accept, that this asset maybe has not been designed for my own personal preferences, but had to be a bit of a compromise to also appeal to other players.
So, what I want to do with these? A few examples:
They, for the first time, allow to play markets in Elite Dangerous. The ability to buy and sell goods and set prices on your carrier is total new gameplay. Galaxy-Tycoon style, being the boss on your space-flying farmers market. This is like a new game within the game by itself. I want to try this out - and taking into account how bad I am in trading sims, probably lose a fortune while doing so.
BGS support vessel is the next big thing: When our in game faction is at war, can I place this thing near one of the combat zones to provide refuel, repair and re-arm services to our combat ships? That'd be a great addition.
Will there even be respawn on the carrier in case of ship destruction occuring? I sure hope so, then this can also become the hooning base our community always wanted. So when doing racing events in narrow canyons on some planet, you can place a carrier in orbit to ensure respawn near by. All those wonderful canyon rich worlds outside the bubble can now turn into playgrounds of speed addicted low altitude flyers (yes, I am looking at you, CMDR Sanderling).
Exploring the galaxy 500ly a time: So I can jump my carrier somewhere and just have a light weight scout ship analyse the systems around it. If I find something interesting nearby, I can easily pick up the fitting ship to exploit that point of interest - and at some point jump the carrier on to the next center of exploration.
Ohh, and the most important part: FDEV said, the carriers are "indestructable" - I say: CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! I see hours of fun ahead of me trying to get this massive ship I have into the most dangerous places I can think of.
Please file all your further ongoing whining about the announced carriers directly here in the comments, where they will go mostly unread by the public. Thank you.
And for the time being, turn up your subwoofers and watch this fleetcarrier megajumping (yes, this is the technical term, don't ask) into another starsystem:
The annoucement was made last week "live on tape". If you want to see the complete one hour not-so-live stream, here it is.Maybe a short introduction for people not yet playing Elite Dangerous. Within this game you have exactly one commander you are playing. You can have many space ships - but have to park a ship in a station to be able to switch to another ship, which obviously has to be parked in the same space station. If you are in an area far out from inhabited space, there are no stations - and therefore you can not change ships. Spacestations are stationary (hence the name), you can not move them anywhere else. Believe me on this one, I have rammed quite heavy spaceships into stations, they did not move a bit.
So here come Fleet Carriers now - they can be owned by players and are personal space-non-stations - They can offer most services Space stations have without being stationary.
With the annoucement youtube, reddit and the game forums at Frontier Development (FDEV) went crazy. I couldn't say it better than our CMDR Bob Lowkey said it on our discord, so here is the quote:
Fleet carrier reveal there's so much salt on the stream already makes the Dead Sea seem like spring water.
And I would like to thank FDEV for that alone. All that whining and yelling on all those platforms by themselves provided an excellent entertainment value. Chapeau!
Most of those complaints seem to orbit around the idea, that people wish to play the game exactly like they did without the carriers, and that carriers don't change that playstyle now - or something like that. All in all logic is in short supply in most of the complaints. It almost seems like those players believe, they are forced to buy a carrier and use it all the time. I am pretty sure this is not the case, if you wish to continue playing like you did before, you should be able to do that.
I personally see those carriers as a massive increase in options how to play this sandbox game I like so much. To be honest I have so many ideas how I want to use this thing, that the hardest part will be deciding on what to try out first.
Sure, I am also not 100% in line with all the design decisions and they are not completely arranged around the play styles I enjoy, but I am able to accept, that this asset maybe has not been designed for my own personal preferences, but had to be a bit of a compromise to also appeal to other players.
So, what I want to do with these? A few examples:
They, for the first time, allow to play markets in Elite Dangerous. The ability to buy and sell goods and set prices on your carrier is total new gameplay. Galaxy-Tycoon style, being the boss on your space-flying farmers market. This is like a new game within the game by itself. I want to try this out - and taking into account how bad I am in trading sims, probably lose a fortune while doing so.
BGS support vessel is the next big thing: When our in game faction is at war, can I place this thing near one of the combat zones to provide refuel, repair and re-arm services to our combat ships? That'd be a great addition.
Will there even be respawn on the carrier in case of ship destruction occuring? I sure hope so, then this can also become the hooning base our community always wanted. So when doing racing events in narrow canyons on some planet, you can place a carrier in orbit to ensure respawn near by. All those wonderful canyon rich worlds outside the bubble can now turn into playgrounds of speed addicted low altitude flyers (yes, I am looking at you, CMDR Sanderling).Exploring the galaxy 500ly a time: So I can jump my carrier somewhere and just have a light weight scout ship analyse the systems around it. If I find something interesting nearby, I can easily pick up the fitting ship to exploit that point of interest - and at some point jump the carrier on to the next center of exploration.
Ohh, and the most important part: FDEV said, the carriers are "indestructable" - I say: CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! I see hours of fun ahead of me trying to get this massive ship I have into the most dangerous places I can think of.
Please file all your further ongoing whining about the announced carriers directly here in the comments, where they will go mostly unread by the public. Thank you.
And for the time being, turn up your subwoofers and watch this fleetcarrier megajumping (yes, this is the technical term, don't ask) into another starsystem:
2020-04-03
We just wanted to do some mining...
At the end of 3305 some commanders of The Buur Pit that - for reasons not comprehensible to this writer - actually like mining, founded the BPMC: The Buur Pit Mining Company. With their company slogan "Making Billionaires since 3305" they are not exaggerating.
As I have learned through the course of the economic adventure this article is about, there are "Leaderboards" for squadrons within Elite:Dangerous. And so the madness started. Those leaderboards are reset every two months...
Sometime in February someone noticed we are actually in the Top 50 of squadrons in the trade category. We were very proud of this as we are a fairly small squadron and found that to be quite an archievement. Only a few weeks later someone noticed our crazy mining folks have somehow pushed us into the top 10 of miners. From there it went down the drain pretty much and more people started to mine as they learned there are a lot of credits to be earned.
Sure enough we were in the Top three soon after. At that point we realized, that we are not competitive game players, we just wanted to win. Early March spreadsheeting started to happen and soon enough the whole squadron was just focused on making money. Especially as there is a trophy to be won, so we really wanted to stay in the Top 3 places and at least get the shiny bronze trophy for our spaceship dashboards. See here you can see how it ended:
 |
| Spreadsheet Magic provided by CMDR NeokeVenice |
You can nicely see the race with Dark Enterprise (DE), another player faction in the game, at the last days. With our international community we basically had people mining 24/7 somewhere - from Europe to the Americas on to New Zealand and Australia... We could create a continuous income for this. It was completely crazy, some time mining with 10 or 15 ships together, on the way learning new mining techniques to optimize outcome.
After those last few days I can say one thing for sure: I dont want to mine an asteroid for quite some time anymore.
We do not plan these things, but if we get to the point where this community has a common goal, we are a bit on the unstoppable side of things. #ForTheBobblehead
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