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Post by Cory Trese on Mar 20, 2016 19:51:38 GMT -5
I don't think Missions will "come with Navigation data" but I do believe that the game will inform you if the Quadrant or Planet you're being asked to visit is known to you. Furthermore, some Contacts will give out Missions and sell Star Charts to the same areas of space. The challenge I see in the suggestion you make tenbsmith is related to the player's ability to previously possess navigation data. A high profit, high risk mission with no navigation data is essentially an exploitable condition if the player can procure navigation data ahead of, or during, the mission. Therefore, I believe that the attitude of your Contacts will be "Look, you're the Star Trader. I expect you to be able to find this place, given the name of the System and the Quadrant ... I really don't care if you've been there personally or not." The idea being that the Contact should price Missions based on the perceived value the outcome has to that Contact's Motivations, Faction and Goals -- not on how difficult it would be for the player. Yes, Missions to distant Quadrants will definitely pay more -- but not because the Captain hasn't been there, but because the Contact cannot as easily find Star Traders willing to travel so far. |
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Post by resistor on Mar 20, 2016 20:33:30 GMT -5
The Lore PDF will focus on the story of the Star Traders, the Templars and the period of history spanning between the Exile and the Exodus. I believe that we will have pages about Adrok Shalun (detailing his particular abilities and family history) as well as information about the Alfaan, the Xarth, the Guild and the Narvidian corruption of the Guild's FTL comms network. Will the lore file be from the perspective of what the record keepers know in the ST2 era and thus be "incomplete"? Or will it describe exactly the things of ancient history, untethered by what the characters in the quadrant could possibly know? I'd be a bit concerned about the lore being "demystified" if it is the latter. |
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Post by Cory Trese on Mar 20, 2016 21:57:06 GMT -5
That is an interesting question. We haven't come to any core conclusion, but I feel it is more "themey" if it is written from the perspective of a Record Keeper.
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Post by johndramey on Mar 21, 2016 2:43:22 GMT -5
There has been tons of discussion on this already, but I figured I'd toss in my two cents.
The idea that auto-nav would be impossible unless you have either a) a purchased or procured map or b) visited the planet sounds so cool. It would really make exploration fun and rewarding, and definitely give the player something to think about when jumping to a new place.
That said, it could turn off a lot of players if it gets taken too far.
Since you seem to be open to the idea of a player home base, so to speak, why not give a starting player a basic map to begin with, either of the whole quadrant or of the nearest X systems. That way, each player can have a decent starting foundation to play around with, but then slowly be introduced to the concept of exploration.
On top of that, would it be possible to have map data be a capturable resource? For instance, you board and take over a ship and have an X% chance (maybe based on speed + officer/character skills?) of being able to recover the ships records. A ship's records could have information on Y (maybe based on enemy level?) nearby systems.
God, you are getting me so excited for this game. I, like many in here, can't wait for the alpha and the lore pdf.
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Post by tenbsmith on Mar 21, 2016 8:02:21 GMT -5
"have map data be a capturable resource" is a very cool idea. Here's a twist on that that may extends the idea too far; you could require the player to make a roll to hack into the enemies nav system to even find out if there is map data. And, that roll could be influenced by captain/crew attributes.
Taking the idea another step too far, this whole hacking thing could be extended into a mini-game.
Makes me think about some very old ST posts about enabling players to salvage materials from defeated/destroyed enemy ships. I don't know if that was ever implemented in ST--I haven't played in years.
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mataeus
Templar
[ Elite & Star Traders 2 Supporter ]
From summer sands, to armageddons reach.
Posts: 820 
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Post by mataeus on Mar 21, 2016 12:22:01 GMT -5
There has been tons of discussion on this already, but I figured I'd toss in my two cents. The idea that auto-nav would be impossible unless you have either a) a purchased or procured map or b) visited the planet sounds so cool. It would really make exploration fun and rewarding, and definitely give the player something to think about when jumping to a new place. That said, it could turn off a lot of players if it gets taken too far. Since you seem to be open to the idea of a player home base, so to speak, why not give a starting player a basic map to begin with, either of the whole quadrant or of the nearest X systems. That way, each player can have a decent starting foundation to play around with, but then slowly be introduced to the concept of exploration. On top of that, would it be possible to have map data be a capturable resource? For instance, you board and take over a ship and have an X% chance (maybe based on speed + officer/character skills?) of being able to recover the ships records. A ship's records could have information on Y (maybe based on enemy level?) nearby systems. God, you are getting me so excited for this game. I, like many in here, can't wait for the alpha and the lore pdf. For me, exploration is key. My most fun times with open world games - from Morrowind to Elite Dangerous - is setting off into the unknown without any clue as to where the bloody hell I'm going. Some rumours are fine, a la Skyrim or Fallout 4, that can point you in a specific direction, but it's the discovery which keeps me playing.timeI had the full Fallout map with all locations marked from the start, the game would lose a whole ton of it's appeal. I think at least an option to have a STE style fog-of-war would be great. I want to find those planets as if I'm there for the first time  |
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Post by Cory Trese on Mar 21, 2016 13:00:18 GMT -5
Yeah, the design calls for each unvisited quadrant to be covered by a fog that is revealed the first time you visit the area.
The big question is about auto-routing ... say you have a Contact that's 6 jumps away ... jumps you never used. Should you be able to auto-pilot to those jump gates, or should you have to explore them first?
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Post by resistor on Mar 21, 2016 13:01:48 GMT -5
I also think it would be pretty cool if the player had a map of starting quadrant, but needed to explore or buy new star maps for other quadrants (but maybe this should depend on difficulty setting?). Anyway, we should think about how the maps would be available. Should there be different "quality" maps that some could be cheaper, but incomplete? Should the completeness of maps bought from factions be influenced by politics? (Rychart and Thulun have a trade embargo, and you buy a map from Rychart. The map lists pretty much everything in the quadrant except major Thulun trade worlds which Rychart conveniently "forgot" to add.)
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Post by Cory Trese on Mar 21, 2016 13:11:03 GMT -5
The question we'll keep coming back to, over and over, is ... does that feature make the game more fun? Players will want to understand what they're buying, and be able to predict how it will change their game. Interesting discussion, for sure -- but I'm not sure that grading maps on quality will fit into the design. And then we get to budget, which we don't have for maps in general ... hehehe just work more OT  |
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Post by Cory Trese on Mar 21, 2016 13:14:27 GMT -5
 Here you can see the prototype fog system in action in a small quadrant. I've found 3 of the 9 Systems in the area, as well as 2 of the gates. Since I only use this Quadrant while making trips to the Galactic east, I don't really need to explore any more than that ... I come in one gate and go out the other on my way from Javat mining words to the industrial zones controlled Cadar. |
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Post by Brutus Aurelius on Mar 21, 2016 13:54:30 GMT -5
Are the Anomalies the stand in for the gates?
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Post by Cory Trese on Mar 21, 2016 14:06:40 GMT -5
Are the Anomalies the stand in for the gates? Right ... the new map artwork is still in the planning phase, so we're going to be using the 4X artwork for a while more during the prototype development. |
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Post by Brutus Aurelius on Mar 21, 2016 14:11:42 GMT -5
Are the Anomalies the stand in for the gates? Right ... the new map artwork is still in the planning phase, so we're going to be using the 4X artwork for a while more during the prototype development. So will there be an animation or special loading screen for Hyperwarp travel? |
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Post by tenbsmith on Mar 21, 2016 14:17:00 GMT -5
The big question is about auto-routing ... say you have a Contact that's 6 jumps away ... jumps you never used. Should you be able to auto-pilot to those jump gates, or should you have to explore them first? I guess in all the skylarking, I failed to answer the original question. My vote would be to require manual navigation to the jump point, but have it visible. So, the jump-point itself is not covered by fog, but all the other squares are. This would still require some exploration, but keep the blind fumbling around that could get frustrating on a large map to a minimum. |
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Post by xdesperado on Mar 21, 2016 14:29:08 GMT -5
I vote jump animation like the gates in the Buck Rogers TV show from the late 70s  |
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