The RES site through the looking glass

Every so often you get a RES site that you just want to stay in forever, where things are curiouser and curiouser, larger than life, and oh so bountiful. So very bountiful.

Playing in open this morning I had one of those RES sites.

As soon as I finished off one target then there was another to go after. And another. And then another. Everything was larger than life, and twice the size. The spawn list looked something like this:

Sidewinder Anaconda
Eagle Imperial clipper
Viper Federal dropship
Adder Python

Other players came and went, and while the were there the spawns seems... well... somehow less than they had been before. More adders and sidewinders, and far fewer of the magical stuff appeared. When those players wandered off then the bounty shyly returned for the slaughter.

The Gold Society really really don't like me for taking out so much of their fleet and are now spontaneously hostile. Future targets are of course now clearly visible on the scanner.

Its just a shame there aren't nearly so many of them left now.

[On a blog that deals with roleplay and characterisations of imagination then it does feel odd that reality can still surprise. Yes, this really did happen to me. Almost 8mil credits in about 3 hours of play.]

Powerplay - a pre-beta view

Frontier have just announced more about the Powerplay major content update for the next release of Elite:Dangerous, and we should be entering into beta soon.

Looking at the screenshots provided then this one has, for me, the most information in the newsletter about what to expect, the image being an overview of control activity within the faction.

Politics
It shows the internecine nature of Empire politics in action that we've been following in the news feeds: Patreus working against Torval despite the public support she has provided. Although Aisling Duval might be dating Patreus in the news feeds the phrase "undermining Aisling Duval" now takes on a whole new meaning!

This has a significant impact on how players will view their relationship with major powers. Those loyal to the Empire now look like they have to choose a faction within the Empire, and this is no longer as simple as the Empire vs Federation insults that are hurled around from time to time!

Do you want a more traditional Empire? Support Chancellor Blaine. A more progressive and economically aggressive Empire? Patreus is your man.

Overall this is a much closer take on the tribal nature of politics: two people who patriotically support their country can disagree vehemently on which political party best represents and protects that country.

The equivalent political tensions have been set up in Federation space with Halsey vs Hudson, though the Alliance has been strangely quiet up until now and we know very little about it.

Mission goals
The missions within Powerplay look very much like the community goals, and with good reason. The goals have become foci for player activity and, in a huge galaxy, have brought them together into a tight space.

Each of the missions will have to surface for players to interact with however. A signal source with a mission profile that contributes to a goal is one way to set up a mission like this, and in line with the range of ways of satisfying community goals that we've see so far.

It looks like the "obtain mil plans" objective in the Lugh campaign is how the mission shown here to liberate prisoners from private security ships will play out.

Lugh was was an intensely focussed community event that drew in around 5000 players into the combat alone. Powerplay looks like it will create a lot of hotspots across the galaxy, but with a smaller number of players. With this will be the likelihood of knowing and meeting an adversary again and again.

Mission complexity and importance
More tiers in an objective would represent larger levels of change, and to achieve them would need a determined effort by supporters, possibly at the expense of successes elsewhere.

Support costs

Systems that are controlled appear to be in one of three upkeep costs: undermined, controlled, fortified. This does translate into an economic dimension that will feedback negatively on expansion. A confrontation on too many fronts is one that would destabilise a faction and force it back into a core controlled space.

Control vs Preparation vs Expansion

The view here is of a "Control" tab which suggests consolidating your systems and ensuring they are economic to run. There is also an Expansion tab, as yet unseen, but it does indicate elements of strategy.

A Preparation tab also points to changes in systems boundaries needing time to set up rather than being regular occurrences. Wars can be won or lost in the supply lines. Fail to set up the expansion and you can't try to move into a new system. Move into a new system and control costs will be high. Manage control costs before you try to expand again. Fend off incursion at the expense of preparation for expansion.

Players that are too gung-ho on the expansion will find they have dragged their faction's economy to a halt, and so a period of consolidation through control would be required. So players within a faction can find themselves undermining each other through lack of co-ordination!

A vicious cycle that means strategy within the faction and a more focused/coordinated gameplay will do better.

The Preparation and Expansion goals might well be more demanding than the Control goals - we'll have to see.

Interesting times are ahead...

Galactic oddities - eaten alive

It seems you don't have to go much further than your galactic backyard, so to speak, to find something strange going on.

Dropping in on Ross 780, only a few parsecs from Sol, I was greeted with this spectacular oddity.

So I won't pretend to fully understand solar dynamics, and a sun probably isn't too dense in terms of hydrogen or helium and other light elements. Though it would seem that being rather hot might actually go some way to put the suffering gas giant out of its misery.

Or not.

Eaten alive just about covers it.

Trading enhancements

Just noticed this welcome enhancement to trade items on the commodity trading screen.

There is now information about which economy types will produce and consume the goods. In this case gold is produced by Extraction and Refinery, though I'm fairly sure you already knew that.

This is over and above the "imported from" and "exported to" system lists that have been there for a while now. Very helpful for those players who tend to think in terms of economy type rather than a catalogue of local knowledge about systems visited.

GalNet RSS feed added

Add the story arc posts to your favourite news reader and keep up to date with the events in the game universe.

http://elitedangerous.com/news/galnet/rss

Update 04/7/15: The feed no longer works and is only available on the community GalNet site directly. The GalNet Android app works equally well of you need something for the phone (see comments).

USS - Seeking luxuries

This gave me a pleasant surprise.

One of the fun things in the game has been the trading ships that hide away in Unidentified Signal Sources (USS). They would offer to trade items from your cargo hold for credits.

Often a surprise find when you were least expecting, and underused because either didn't have the cargo needed, or weren't inclined to investigate USS on a cargo run.

Not so much these days.

The USS has now been renamed and is visible in supercruise so you know what will be found when you drop in. These ships now advertise for your cargo and profits.

A nice touch to bring this little gem into the mainstream!

The lost station - Avogadro Enterprise in Tau Ceti

OK, somewhat mystified here.

After picking up a Federal ranking mission to Avogadro Enterprise, there's a double take moment. I know that system. There's no station by that name there.

Or so I thought.

With the mission accepted I trundled out there, and as I'm already in Tau Ceti it was a local hop. At over 9500Ls it won't be found easily and it doesn't orbit a planet or a moon. There's a steady stream of ships flying out this way as well, so I'm not alone.

Nothing on the system map appears, but it is now marked on my local list of things I can fly to. Well and truly hidden from sight.

So what gives?

Tionisla expansion into Lave

It has begun.

The spill over expansion of the Social Tionisla Labour faction into Lave space has started. For those who don't know the Old Worlds in Elite these are two adjacent systems, and both major factions are enjoying a renaissance from their unique trading items.

From a dynamic universe this is a great thing to see: the players have clearly influenced the dominance of each of the factions.

So... open question... is it possible to swap over the controlling parties between Lave and Tionisla?

Independent Leesti for Equality - system dominance

The cluster of rare trading up around the Old Worlds of Lave, Zaonce and Leesti are having a rather tricksy side effect on some of the fun that can be had in those areas. If you want to go bounty hunting then you've got an interesting challenge on your hands.

Take Leesti as an example: the dominant faction has just hit 99% control of the system and is about to enter into a boom/expansion phase. That's great until you want to do some bounty hunting, as I was trying to last night. Just about every ship belongs to the dominant faction, and they don't like it when you go after their own.

After a couple of attempts where every ship in sight turned on me, and the penny finally dropped, I decided it wasn't worth the time, effort, and repair bills. Many of those at wanted had 200 or 400 Credit bounties and showing these were first timers as a result of my actions.

An interesting side effect of the dominance and economy reaching critical mass for other Commanders to take into account.

Yes I could have tried to be more subtle, but I was in a "make it go boom" kinda mood. The Old Worlds are moving into off limits for the light entertainment variety of bounty hunting.

Greetings Commanders!

I've always had a passion about space and what the future holds. This blog is about Elite:Dangerous, a game recently made as a modern day sandbox exploring this galaxy and its 400 billion stars. Now it has been officially released with a long running story arc that will be revealed on a daily basis.

Recently I've been involved in the Beta development of the game, and from its early beginnings on Kickstarter. The game has already moved me to put together some videos about how I've engaged my imagination in playing this beautiful game.

Over the coming months I'm looking at putting together some more videos. I'd also like to expand on the GalNet news feeds that delivers the story arc to the players - with analysis, asking questions, and linking the larger story back to my activities and play within the game.

You might not always agree with my choices, or like the things that I'm saying, particularly if they are about a game faction that you've chosen to support. Like all good science fiction there is a chance to reflect on modern day actions through the lens of good writing, and highlight the moral choices that we all make on a daily basis. Please keep the comments constructive and engaging though, this isn't a place for trash talk!

Posts that are about the game or this blog will be highlighted with a "meta" tag, otherwise I'll try to mark posts with terms relevant to the game.

Think big, play in the detail!