Elite: Dangerous - Design Decision Forum

[Thargoid]

This is starting to sound like the current trend in Dr Who of the assistant invariably being some unique and extra-special being who plays a key role in the workings of the universe. Unique that is until the next one comes along and they can't think of a new plot device...

[DaddyHoggy]

I don't want to make a difference to the Galaxy! (might occasionally get drafted in to defend an area from pirates, courier something unexpected, rescue passengers from a stricken freighter/passenger ship etc) but it shouldn't be day to day and should still only have a local (entropic reputation?) effect...

Glad to see it's not just me ... I want to not matter; I want to be ignored; I want to be irrelevant, to be a microscopic dot on a microscopic dot, in the vastness of space. I definitely don't want to get the impression that, just before I turn up, all the NPCs are running around, bumping into each other and shouting "Places, people, places! Quick, quick! THE (or even A) PLAYER is coming!"

I don't want to be Commander Truman...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYj2m1yVpGU

[Selezen]

I don't think it's as earth shattering as you are saying. What it means to me is that the import of goods will affect the price of that good over a period of time in that market, the same way that it would in a real economy.

It's not about being a hero, its about being a part of a dynamic universe.

[Diziet Sma]

In some of the early kickstarter videos, Braben discussed some of what he had in mind.. things like, perhaps there's a revolt going on, or a war between certain systems.. players could join in on either side side, and (given sufficient numbers) might help tip the balance in one direction or the other.. this would result in changing the economy and/or political situation in that region.

I got the impression he was keen for things to stay sensible.. no Bruce Willis style heroics saving the day..

[drew]

I'm bemused that none of you seem to have heard of Commander Drew, Lord and majestic ruler of the intergalactic spacelanes, (all praise and honour to his holy name), hero of Leesti, slayer of the Lavian Tree Grubb and thrice decorated holder of the Tionislian flapjack award for frankly unfeasible courage.

Cheers,

Drew.

[Cody]

Who him?

[Selezen]

He's that bloke there. The one who looks vaguely like Rupert Everett.

Is anyone else mildly distressed at the direction the trading conversation's taken? Toebs seems to be unwilling to accept that the trade model won't be scientifically and economically accurate. He's really worried that the price of his potatoes will be artificially crippled...

[Cody]

The price of potatoes is of immense importance to someone as exacting as Toebs. <sniggers>

[Smivs]

Just wait till those Lavean Tree Grubs get a taste for potatoes.....disaster!

[Disembodied]

Is anyone else mildly distressed at the direction the trading conversation's taken? Toebs seems to be unwilling to accept that the trade model won't be scientifically and economically accurate. He's really worried that the price of his potatoes will be artificially crippled...

I've not looked at the E:D forum, to be honest, but surely an "economically accurate" model would have to include artificially altered prices, no? Or do some people really think that all prices for everything are magically set by the invisible hand of "the market"? You know, like it does for LIBOR rates, or domestic energy prices in the UK, or global oil prices for that matter ... because if so, I have a bridge they might be interested in. Going cheap, too, what with the current world bridge surplus and all.

[Tricky]

Is anyone else mildly distressed at the direction the trading conversation's taken? Toebs seems to be unwilling to accept that the trade model won't be scientifically and economically accurate. He's really worried that the price of his potatoes will be artificially crippled...

I've not looked at the E:D forum, to be honest, but surely an "economically accurate" model would have to include artificially altered prices, no? Or do some people really think that all prices for everything are magically set by the invisible hand of "the market"? You know, like it does for LIBOR rates, or domestic energy prices in the UK, or global oil prices for that matter ... because if so, I have a bridge they might be interested in. Going cheap, too, what with the current world bridge surplus and all.

The economy model hasn't been proposed by FD yet. That will be discussed at a later date. The current discussion is all about how trading will work.

Toebs is still banging the "no NPC's allowed to trade" drum. How single player trading will work in that universe I have no idea.

[Selezen]

The man's like a dog with a particularly meaty bone - he just won't let it go, even though two FD staffers have told him he's talking about a subject that isn't even part of the topic up for discussion.

Player to player trading would (IMO) be like selling stuff to your mates. Nothing to do with the "economy". Toebs probably wants to have car boot sale simulations running on the server to see if they have any more than a 0.001% impact on the trends of Tat Futures on the stock markets. Lunacy.

No denying it would be the ultimate awesome trading simulator but it's too much for Elite. Especially to implement it in a year.

[Gimi]

Next subject up for discussion in the DDF:

"You don't watch a whole lot of news, do you, Mr Wayne?" Newsfeeds in Elite:Dangerous

Hello all!
This week we will be introducing the topic of newsfeeds, your number 1 destination for all the latest news and events in the world of Elite: Dangerous!
Big thanks to Michael Brookes for this one!

Our proposal for the system is as follows:

Goals

• Provide the player with useful and relevant information about the game world.
• Present that information in a varied and interesting fashion.
• Be extensible to allow for extra content/features as the game develops

Basic System

• Newsfeeds in Elite: Dangerous display the latest in-game events to the player
• The newsfeeds system revolves around two core elements:
  • Events
    • Events are things that happen in the game world.
    • These can come from:
      • Direct player action
      • Galaxy Simulation
      • The Event Injection System
  • Channels
    • Channels are the presentation layer for the event.
    • Channels determine what news items are displayed and how the news item is displayed.

Events

• Events are the data for the newsfeeds
• Events are scored based on the relevance to the player
• Events affecting them or people on their friends list, or relating to a nearby location, will be scored more highly
• The player is able to adjust the threshold at which events are shown (probably as ‘low’, ‘medium’ and ‘high’).
• Events are organised into types, a summary of types is provided below:
  • Player Driven
    • Mission completion – this would be filtered by some value so only significant missions are reported
    • Major kills – destroying a highly ranked opponent (human or NPC) would be a newsworthy event
    • Player death – the death of highly ranked players would be a news item
    • Career events – for example collecting bounties, major trades or exploring a new system
    • Ranking – major ranking increases
    • Opening/discovery of a new dark system enabling a new trade route
  • Player Indirect
    • Traffic – unusually high or low numbers of visitors
    • Piracy – piracy and anti-piracy stats for region
    • Economy – Prices up/down, surpluses and shortages
    • Stability – function of crime and clean up rates
    • Political – changes to laws in a system (can be as a result of a civil war etc)
  • Injected
    • Major events- these may have their own templates
      • Famine
      • Civil war (What’s so civil about war anyway?)
      • Stability
      • Major military movements or interdiction of a system
      • New space station or city construction

Channels

• The channel decides what news items are available from the events list and how they are presented.
• Ideally the channels are data driven which would allow new channels (and their associated templates) to be added dynamically.
• The channels allow us to create newsfeeds specific to player’s interests as well as more general news. Here are some example channels.
  • Imperial Times – The flagship Imperial newsfeed, it features high profile stories focused on the Empire.
  • FNN (Federation News Network) – One of many Federation news channels.
  • The Daily Hunter – Bounty hunter related news.
• Each inhabited system will have a procedurally generated local news channel for reporting only local events.
• To be considered is the possibility of including some mark-up in the templates to allow branding and visual distinction between the different channels, but this may be considered for future updates.

Accessing the News Feeds

• Newsfeeds are accessed from the player’s cockpit. There is the direct interface part of the tertiary screens as well as hooks via the galaxy maps for accessing news feeds for different systems.

Example News Item

Here are two different example stories using the same event but different templates:

Daily Lave

Pirate Menace Struck a Blow

Today a blow was struck against pirate forces when police engaged and killed the known pirate RedBeard. In a statement the local Trader’s representative said “This is wonderful news. Traders throughout the system will all rest easy knowing RedBeard won’t be out there waiting for them on their next run.”

The Daily Hunter

Lave bounty update – RedBeard taken down!

Another pirate bit the dust in Lave today when the infamous RedBeard was taken down in a furious battle. Although the bounty was relatively small the traders of Lave will be feeling safer today.

Adverts

• Adverts are content added to channels to provide colour and variety. They should also add some humour as seen in the previous games. They also add authenticity and depth by expanding the fiction in the universe.
• These come in two forms:
  • Authored
    Adverts that have been authored (we can get the fans involved in this as well as write them internally).
  • Procedural
    These are template adverts that are used to generate ads for local commodities. For example Lavian Brandy, these are generated from the same system to create local specialities, along with a variety of templates to reduce repetition.

Issues

There are a few other points that need to be considered:

• Out of Game Announcements
  It needs to be considered if the newsfeeds system should be used to make out of game announcements (eg) server down time or migration or security issues.
• Repetition
  As with any procedural narrative repetition is a certainty. This can be mitigated via increasing the number of templates, but a finite limit will be reached.
• Future Expansion
  As with other areas of the game the newsfeed system should be expandable to allow integration of new features and content. The desire is also to improve the system to continue improving the player’s experience.
• There are a few ways we have already considered, including:
  • Using a more flexible system for generating the text content.
  • Allowing players can submit stories to the newsfeeds (these would need moderation) and would be a good way for adding variety and richness.

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[DaddyHoggy]

They've obviously been using Snoopers (and YAH) - that's all I'm prepared to say!

[Cody]

Allowing players can submit stories to the newsfeeds (these would need moderation) and would be a good way for adding variety and richness.

Sounds like Tales from the Spacelanes, does that! Thanks for the info, Gimi.

They've obviously been using Snoopers (and YAH) - that's all I'm prepared to say!

<chortles>