Elite roleplay: Q&A and OOC
31 Jul 2017, 3:13pm
Luke3107Out of curiosity, would anyone here be interested in a list of 'lore friendly' explanations behind Major Updates?
It's not something I've seen done, although I believe it was touched on a little bit here with things like Passenger Missions being added in, but I've just finished making one to go with a thing I'm writing for the Buckyballers. It mostly focuses on stuff that directly affects the racing, but I'd be happy to extend it if enough interest is shown?
I'm thinking in terms of SLFs being added, alongside the ability to hire a Crew Member to pilot them. Not necessarily things like Thargoids coming, which already has its own explanation.
I would
31 Jul 2017, 3:40pm
Kinda like those "for Dummies!" guides, I guess.
31 Jul 2017, 9:07pm
I see a little bit of interest, but I'll hold off on posting anything for now. At least until I've refined a few things anyway..
Rest assured, this isn't me trying to thrust strict rules on how other people handle these things, just thought it might be fun to share some ideas that people might or might not want to use. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
31 Jul 2017, 9:14pm
Just because it's not in the game doesn't mean its not in the lore. Do you think since we can't get off of our pilots chair in game, people are perpetually glued to their seats in the lore?
31 Jul 2017, 9:22pm
Buckyball being a player created thing, right? Didn't exist until the players came up with it?
31 Jul 2017, 9:31pm
Everything that was, is, and will be in the game was in the lore the entire time. The game is just catching up.
It's not about "sharing ideas". It's not about "explaining". It's about understanding that the game of Elite and the lore of Elite don't equate.
Some things just don't need rationalizing in the lore, and this is one of them.
Last edit: 31 Jul 2017, 11:20pm
01 Aug 2017, 12:18am
Firstly, I was going post it as a way to let others draw from it if they felt the need. I understand now, the majority here feel it's not necessary. That's fine, I'm nothing if not diplomatic (or I try to be at least). But it's not the primary reason I wrote a list in the first place.
Secondly I can do a double barrelled explanation of what I did/ am trying to do.
@Phisto: Yes, Buckyballing is one of the forms of emergent gameplay, like Fuel Rats. It's been around since the Beta period on PC and still going strong, also something I've taken part in and grown fond of. It works mainly on an honour system, which is fine since there's no real prize for first place, but requires screenshots of the time as you start and finish a race, as well as at any checkpoints in between.
I dunno if it's the most famous Buckyball challenge, but it's the longest standing. The Buckyball Sgr A* Challenge has been around since the original event closed on 21st July 3301 (21st July 2015). Race from Wolf 359/Sol to Sgr A*, simple.
The guys in the Sgr A* Challenge in particular were discussing the fact that, as the game evolves, certain milestones in the challenge were becoming irrelevant and so requests to build a history, immortalising and displaying the importance of each milestone were put out. I volunteered.
What's been written so far, has been well received, with edit suggestions being willfully given and information handed out on request, should my own digging turn up fruitless. But it has painted me into a corner with regards to the style it's written in.
I took the perspective of a 34th Century (amateur) journalist writing out a documented history of the Sgr A* Challenge, which has worked fine so far. But prevents me simply writing in, "On 16th December 2014, Elite Dangerous was released." Instead, I wrote in the idea that the Pilots Federation was branching out from being a completely exclusive club, to allowing the general public in, should they prove themselves worthwhile. With the Beta period preceeding it being their way of 'testing the waters' so to speak.
Is it elegant? Not really. It needs work to make it smoother and more believable. Or even completely rewritten. But it's necessary to write it in a lore friendly way because it directly correlates with a spike in popularity with Buckyball Races. Similar to Engineers being introduced. This already has a lore explanation I can use, but the correlation with planetary landings can't. The Horizons release also saw an increase in average Witchspace times, usually only a few seconds here or there, and didn't really affect day to day gamers, but it greatly impacted the times in a Sgr A* run, where an increase of just 3 seconds per jump, multiplied by and easy 1000 jumps, could add 3000 seconds to a run, or 50 minutes.
Given the point of view I'm writing from, I can't, in all good sense, just say "FDev then fixed this bug a few months later with the release of the guardians patch".
I hope this explains my intentions more clearly. I made a basic list to explain each update, which needs work I wholeheartedly admit. I merely wondered if anyone else would be interested in such a list, should they wish to make use of it themselves.
Simultaneously, anyone who is willing to help make these explanations more plausible and lore friendly, I'd greatly appreciate their help.
I hope this clears up matters. I'm not here to ruffle feathers by shoehorning my own stuff into everyone elses work. Simply offering up something I'm doing anyway, to be used or ignored by anyone who wishes to do so.
Apologies, and thank you for understanding.
01 Aug 2017, 1:14am
01 Aug 2017, 1:23am
Anna ReidAs long as you don't try to explain shit like passengers and planetary landings, which have no business being explained, I think it'd be cool
This is actually where my issue is.
Passenger missions are easily disregarded as they didn't play a notable factor in challenge times, and it's easy to just say the Beluga Liner saw a mass rollout, especially as they weren't seen in game to my knowledge until Passenger Missions were released.
Planetary Landings, however, are the reason Witchspace times increased when Horizons dropped. The game started loading up the surface of planets at the same time as loading the system, which lead to the increase in loading times. So I need a way to explain that any times set during the time this was an issue, could very well have been several minutes quicker, but without saying "Planetary Landings were added and Witchspace times got bigger."
01 Aug 2017, 1:29am
01 Aug 2017, 1:32am
01 Aug 2017, 1:34am
Planetary landings have always been a thing in the lore. How do you think planets import goods without it? How do you think planets are invaded? How do you think the Emperor gets to Capitol, or the President gets to earth? By taking a ship from space to the planet's surface. There has never been a time when people couldn't land in the lore.
In the lore, the time in witchspace would not increase because of the introduction of planetary landings, because there was no introduction of planetary landing. We always had planetary landings, just not in game. Same way we always had faces, same way we can get up and walk around our ships, same way people can take passengers in their ships. Stop trying to rationalize the lore with gameplay features. It doesn't make sense.
Just because there is a change in the game engine doesn't mean that change translates 1:1 to a change in the lore. You think before powerplay came out, no great galactic powers fought each other in the lore, or before engineers came out nobody made aftermarket modifications to their ships? We do not need an in lore explanation for quirks in the game engine.
Logically, why would jump times get longer? They wouldn't, they'd get shorter as technology progressed. But because its a game, and your computer or xbox has to load more stuff, the game takes longer to load.
01 Aug 2017, 1:38am
Simon DaturaMaybe you could just handwave and say you needed to rest for a few hours/days because you were too gung-ho in trying to reach your destination that you over worked yourself to the point of mental fatigue.
Hmm... It's a fair thing to try, but would also undermine the actual effort put in by people who commit themselves to the challenge by taking away the endurance factor. Specifically by saying they had to stop for a break instead of powering through that mental fatigue.
Anna ReidNo. We don't. We really really don't. The loading times are different because it's a videogame, and your system needs to load more shit.
...snip...
Logically, why would jump times get longer? They wouldn't, they'd get shorter as technology progressed. But because its a game, and your computer or xbox has to load more stuff, the game takes longer to load.
Anna, I think you misunderstand why I'm doing it, and why I'm requiring feedback and/or help.