Elite Dangerous - Fleet Carriers: How They Work, What They Do And More

Fleet Carriers are now on the way, and will be available on the beta servers from next week for PC users, starting on the 7 April. Today, Frontier revealed a whole load of details on how the carriers will actually function, and what players will be able to do with them.
Fleet Carriers feature a range of services and features that owners have full control over, and which other players may use.
Come and discuss Fleet Carriers on our Discord server!
/ discord
#EliteDangerous #FleetCarriers

[@ObsidianAnt]

Here are some comments from Frontier staff made during the livestream: - We removed the support vessels and changed it so that Fleet Carrier owners had more control of the Fleet Carriers' customisation - Regarding Colonia, Brewer Corporation have set up a construction facility in Colonia so you'll be able to buy one there - cartographic data cannot be redeemed on Fleet Carriers. - Regarding numbers, there are two important things to keep in mind 1) This is a development build, they might change 2) They'll make a lot more sense when you're actually using the Carrier. - We'll talk a little more about jurisdictions shortly but no, the Carrier does not care what you're carrying. - Yes, you can name your carriers - The Carrier bank can only be accessed by the owner. - you can store modules at a carrier that has the outfitting service installed - Yes, carriers can defend themselves, similarly to stations and outposts - Currently, the limit to tariffs is 0-100%. - Fuel costs are tied to how full your Carrier is, similar but not exactly the same as normal ships - It's possible to shoot at Fleet Carriers but they cannot be damaged or destroyed and will defend themselves like Starports. - Li Yong-Rui does not apply a discount to Carriers, unfortunately - Crew do not have a direct impact, but provide a sense of immersion for the running of your Fleet Carrier. You cannot hire new crew members from Fleet Carrier Lounge. - It's not possible to name your crew members. - No, Fleet Carriers are not manually piloted by the player and instead, manned by a Deck Officer who helps oversee the operations and running of the Fleet Carrier crew and services. - You can not expand the fuel capacity, but the Fleet Carrier owner can store Tritium in their Fleet Carrier Cargo Bay. This does take up storage on the Fleet Carrier.

[@niolelo]

Quick question, do players respawn at the fleet carrier if it was the last 'station' they visited? It seems like it could turn into a miserable griefing situation

[@philwalker1167]

@@niolelo Not really, hop into solo to get out if a griefer is camping outside...

[@paesuri]

The cartographics situation is unfortunate. That was my reason to have it. And the idea that decommission penalizes who is far away from the carrier station. 2 strikes on the explorers. Why?

[@AbcKeksify]

Any word on what happens to my modules in case of decommission or when the service is discontinued?

[@sunscorpiochris]

ObsidianAnt They said 4 large, 4 medium, and 8 small. Not 8 large , 4 and 4 respectively.

[@HaloJaxed]

Frontier: "Yo, we heard you hated grind, so we added more of it."

[@Ecselsiour]

Yo, build me a skyscraper with your trowel and chisel. Now sleep in the basement and watch for any cracks - if you see them, get your trowel out and fill them. Do this for the rest of your life.

[@ConkerBirdy]

Big reason why a lot of people have stopped playing E:D. They keep increasing grind when they players find ways to make decent creds that doesnt take 100 hours to get.

[@brettreynolds6960]

We've worked 2 years on this and the FEW that can play this had BETTER keep these bad boys up and running!!!! Honestly.............

[@NonameEthereal]

​@@ConkerBirdy interesting how E:D player numbers have held mostly stable for years... ;) People always leave games. For the same reason I don't play Total War: Empire anymore. What matters is the balance between ingoing and outgoing, and as far as player numbers go, E:D seems to be keeping stable. For another example: EVE Online was all "everyone is leaving" from like 2005. And has constantly been like that - everyone sees how everyone is leaving. Yet still going strong. And that's why - you go in, you play, you make friends, then you have your group of friends and they start leaving. You don't see the influx. If you want to see a sampling of E:D data I recommend SteamDB. Sure, it's not 100% representative since not everyone uses Steam, but the stability of the chart over time is striking, and given the prominence of Steam as a retail platform I suspect it's a good indicator.

[@bumberClart1000]

It’s horrible 😔 thx feck fir X4

[@paulmclaine6413]

The overriding issue is that this is supposed to be Fun. This sounds about as much Fun as paying a Mortgage on a House you cannot afford. Costs all that money and no outside Loo.

[@jakebatty530]

It's worse than a mortgage, when you pay off a mortgage you own the house but in elite when you've paid your mortgage you now have to continue paying rent lmao

[@drduckyourself3226]

@@jakebatty530 Well no, it's more like buying a house and paying people to keep it clean/service it to make sure everything works.

[@davidulanovsky8943]

Struck By Lightning Sounds exciting

[@gabethehuman]

Struck By Lightning Except it gets repossessed without possibility of return if it isn’t “clean”

[@TechnoMinarchist]

Elite Dangerous: The Space Debt Simulator. When will we get the rent and eviction simulator, with bonus depression mechanics?

[@Malefizzz]

Next Update, next Year.

[@ray2266]

And dont forget, jail simulator, cant use anything ingame until time is up

[@WisKy64VT]

Where’s our depression simulation? Where we get debuffs applied based on how in debt we are xP

[@spazmodicusrex6629]

There's Prozac and a single-shot handgun in the Sidewinder's cockpit medkit for after you lose it all.

[@ciaranmcgrath3273]

Depression mechanics are already in it.

[@questor55]

Generally, I don't play debt simulators

[@jayr9952]

And you still won't be playing one after Carriers are released.

[@bojanrajic]

I got too much of that in RL ;-)

[@tilemacro]

@@bojanrajic Why dont you find this realistic ? i mean wtf ? Its the most realistic thing i seen in a game. You never traveled with a large cruise ship in your fucking life ? Didnt you notice the captain going out and polish shoes or work in a coal mine to pay for the cruise ship fuel and mainenance ? What did you expect to make a profit by your 5-10 billion investment ? You dont know how the real world works my friend

[@hycron1234]

The only thing missing is player-controlled debt collectors.

[@LewyKablooe]

I think it is insane to take away the award of a player's 5 bil time and investment into elite dangerous. They should be allowed permanent placement of their ship. Elite is not a hardcore game.

[@giovannibini6809]

I wanted a carrier. I don't want it anymore.

[@kyle1758]

Yeah I was excited to get one but don't think I will be... Honestly just seems like too much work. Haven't loaded the game up in months just waiting for this. Pretty disappointed.

[@nateshot4000]

Same

[@GoldenTyga117]

@@kyle1758 exactly. I haven't played in at least a year if not more. I play on Xbox and when I heard about fleet carriers I messaged all my friends who quit playing about being able to get a fleet carrier. We were all excited and now I think I'm permanently done with elite

[@XxCleanUpBoyxX]

Yeah, with this weekly costs, it's not really interesting, cause, if i don't put a lot of credits in my carrier, i will lost this ship, maybe for ever... 🤔 That sucks! 🙄

[@h1tsc4n40]

Get X4 foundations and buy one there.

[@xcrimsinx]

I would much rather see new ships, landing on ALL planets, and space legs.

[@nobody4y]

Space legs are complitely pointless idea , what for if it doesnt have content to support it to begin with , you would need to do something like I dunno star citizen and that game isint aiming to be just ship to ship combat game.

[@xcrimsinx]

@@nobody4y This game needs to evolve , or its dead. becoming more like Star Citizen will keep this game going for years

[@TmanT321]

I'm about to quit this and sink all my time in to no mans sky. They have less devs, had less time, and still managed to make their game better than this one with more stuff in just 2 years instead of 5. FD could win 15 awards like Hello Games did if they just put the time in. Its going to be spreadsheet simulator if you want to actually use the thing to make money.

[@manrightchea]

@@nobody4y Space legs is the only update that gives this game a future. There are so many various forms of gameplay opportunities it can bring. Social aspects, crew management, EVA, cave exploration and dungeons, collectibles hidden throughout the galaxy, ship hull repair etc. Space legs is the only update that matters. Even so-called atmospherics would be useless if you can't get out.

[@alfrotbart1840]

Becoming more like Star Citizen? More Bugs, Crashes, more RL-Money drain for ships to fly? You want more wipes? And I "play" SC too (if you can call it "playing"). And every time i am feeling sad for all the technical problems at SC, i am happy to play Elite. Because Elite is that game that David Braben had announced 2012 and released 2014. SC that would be announced by Chris Roberts 2012 too is still Alpha and will be Alpha the next years i am afraid. It´s just a techdemo for me. No more and no less. So please don´t compare apples with eggs.

[@tehPete]

So you pay 5bn for a flying wallet, that costs you a minimum of 10mil a week upkeep - and even more if you dare use the thing you paid so much for! If you take a break and don't cover the upkeep you'll go into debt, and eventually lose your fancy wallet - and a lot of credits in the salvage process. I'm not an expert, but this seems to me more like a rental arrangement with a 5bn deposit? If it can be taken away, you never really owned it. There was so much they could have done, so many fun gameplay possibilities.

[@graycarlyle8627]

Thats a good point.

[@Sgt_Glory]

Literally 90% of the complaints in hearing are regarding the upkeep cost. If they had made that monthly instead of weekly, or removed it and this would have been an instant winner and a decently good update with a fairly happy community. As it stands, 'stop having fun guys - FD' is in full effect. Let's hope the beta convinces then otherwise but I'm not holding my breath.

[@theduke7539]

Frontier doesn't care anymore, why should we.

[@theduke7539]

@@mastah39 you're not a warframe player then.

[@MrDmadness]

Yup, and no man's sky has had carriers for EVER.. ed is such a shit game

[@crackensvideo]

What the hell is the logic that I can't sell my data at a U.C. uplink installed into the carrier? I was going to use the Carrier as a mobile base/platform for exploring the Eastern Fringes. This makes No godsdamned sense; Explorer's either need to bank even more credits to sustain and even then we have to return to the bubble to get credit for our discoveries. Again, this is a complete break of the loop that carriers seems to have been designed to support. I'm all for miners and traders to get stuff, but explorer's, once again, get jack diddly shit other than a 5 billion credit sink that, ultimatley, isn't worth our time.

[@Rattlepiece]

Sounds like you were planning on having some fun in the game. HA!

[@kevinrsvr]

I totally agree. I spend most of my time in deep space and was thinking about a fleet carrier as a mobile base in the far reaches of the galaxy. Seems FD have stopped that idea in its tracks

[@foldionepapyrus3441]

Also have to ask the question is exploration profitable enough for the upkeep costs even if they did let you sell there. Jumping one makes it cost more to upkeep (fair enough I suppose) which is the one thing an explorer will do with theirs - no making a trade profit out in the fringe of the universe! And for me Exploration is a relatively low reward for time sunk payout anyway - or at least it falls so far behind mining (as does pretty much every way to play the game) that it isn't funny. If they are going to give it upkeep costs they should be to keep all the services running ONLY! It still needs to be flyable so explorers can get back, all it needs to be is shifted out to a parking orbit and shutdown when the money runs out (so there is room for an active carrier) - So we can take break and still have our base back to being fully useful once its been recommissioned (which should be a capped price lower than buying new).

[@bestbrotherhandsdown4617]

"We want you to use your fleet carrier for the playstyle you enjoy." ... " Also fuck you. You cant use your fleet carrier for the playstyle you enjoy. Have fun jumping thousands of years away and then having to FSD back, and be forced into a playstyle you dont enjoy. You know... so you can use the fleet carrier for the playstyle you enjoy." Who is their PR? Wtf kind of answer is that.

[@glenjones1493]

Couldn't agree more. I had planned to use one for a mobile base to thoroughly explore a section of the galaxy that has always interested me. The nearest station is 12kly away and that station is 15kly from the bubble. Between the upkeep and jump costs it'll cost billions to move the thing and probably 2 weeks minimum to get it there. Meanwhile I could probably get a sidewinder out there faster.

[@boris8489]

Is it just me who just feels put off and fed up, More and more with Elite Dangerous? I was looking forward to the fleet carriers being added and the farm leading up to them. But now im more put off the game, Then ever before. Seeing how restricted they are going to be, And only going to be viable to the hardcore player base.

[@RibshackTV]

SINGLE-player base. ABSOLUTELY no multiplayer aspect except docking permissions? Uninstall....

[@CynicalOldDwarf]

I haven't logged in since the start of the year, and even that was only for a couple of weeks I'm done, I'll check them out in the beta but after that I'm uninstalling the game, I've got a ton of games in my library that are a far better use of time

[@SuperCrysiscore]

@@CynicalOldDwarf Think about Star Citizen, they got already very well designed Planets and soon more Star Systems to Explore.

[@DarknessInferno15]

No shit they're only viable to the most hardcore players. It's a fucking capital ship. Yes, Bob the casual bounty hunter won't be able to own his own moving city, what did you expect?

[@Vanhala]

@@DarknessInferno15 Maybe a squadron being able to afford them if they pooled their resources? You know.. a "fleet" carrier rather than a "fleet of your own ships carrier".

[@rattslayer]

I was hoping to use this as a mobile base station, allowing me to redeply as needed, and being there if (and when) i take a break from the game. Instead, i get a huge, slow credit sink which will empty my bank account... PASS!

[@hannybenny7632]

it feels the developers don't even play the game and don't intend to play it in future.. o.O as would "stranger" decide the ED-development.. David THEY DESTROY YOUR VISION !!!

[@cmdrlt.evildead5328]

Exactly what I wanted it for but alas I wake from the dream

[@Mr_Giggles]

Yeah I thought it would be a permanent boon for your hard work but no its just another thing to make you grind and spend all your time in elite. I think its time to uninstall this game.

[@cmdr_thrudd]

@@Mr_Giggles To be fair the upkeep isn't really too bad. Making money in Elite is way easier than it used to be. I decided to do some mining last weekend to start getting ready for carriers and in two play sessions I made 2.3 billion credits. Even spending 20mil a week in upkeep costs that would keep it running for over 2 years. So basically 1 day mining for a year of keeping the ship. Still doesn't make the ship particularly useful to most players though lol

[@WH40KHero]

@@Mr_Giggles Its 10 million...per week...or, maybe...lets say, with all the services etc, its 30 million...one trip to the Low temp diamonds yields about 300-500 million credits, thats a grind of 3-4 hours, which then sets you up for the next 10 weeks and more! If you think about it, it really isnt that much of an upkeep

[@dsagent]

Heh, with Doom, Cyberpunk, and a bunch of other stuff coming out this year Frontier has to do something *MASSIVE* to get me back into the game.

[@nocturne_adagio]

why has half of the games playerbase forgotten about the Q4 megapatch 60% of the dev team is currently working on

[@alexandsimba]

Community: Can we get a cool update to the game, like making the Thargoids a Superpower? Atmospheric planets we can land on? Or yearly voting for new power play powers? Frontier: Here is a new money sink.

[@nocturne_adagio]

@@alexandsimba you're proving my point lol

[@TmanT321]

@@nocturne_adagio I'm sorry, please don't tell me it took 40 people to design and implement the FCs? That means the "Megapatch" at the end of the year will be even more underwhelming than this ended up being for me.

[@Pilot8091]

Nocturne Adagio is it really going to be good tho? They dicked us around for months for this debt ship, wonder how they’re going to fuck up the big update

[@hellscorpio82]

The big update in the end of the year will underdeliver mark my words!

[@davekennedy6315]

Guaranteed, and I bet they change the release date to late next year! I still have no faith in the leak (Space Legs, Base Building) and, like you say, whatever it turns out to be will no doubt be a crushing disappointment (in a placeholder state with lots of promises to flesh content out 'soon'. With their history we know that will more than likely never happen)

[@TRG29338]

It will enable full use of the Krait's coffee maker but you'll have to subscribe to weekly coffee deliveries. If you don't pay the coffee man your character gets turned into biowaste used to make more synthetic coffee.

[@slothomatic]

Yeah, that's stupid. I don't want to be chained to the game by "upkeep" costs.

[@showdownbrown6355]

100% agree

[@Valhalla.Studio]

Yeah thats what I was thinking as well.

[@Sgt_Glory]

Imagine exploring in one. "We thought of all the playstyles and made sure it fit them all... except explorers...you can git fecked explorers." No Universal Cartographics means you'll need to be both an explorer _and_ a miner to be able to explore for very long, as your upkeep costs will continue to mount in the black with no way to pay besides like one or two CMDRs a month maybe docking there. Maybe. Ah well, such is ED.

[@TerrbearSF]

Yeah, I predicted this outcome on FD’s forum ahead of the stream when the concern was hung up on its 5 bill cost ...that I was more concerned about its upkeep. Just about everyone that I knew hyped about this update now feels whelmed.

[@Sotzuke]

First: it’s not obbligatory to buy a fleet carrier Second: with 1 billion you can manage the upkeep for 1 year Third: you can use the fleet of all role: for exploration, for example, you have to manage and finance your expedition, like all other expedition in human history!

[@Kuzumby]

Basic tip for new players: Never do or buy new things in Elite when they release updates. Give it a few months and the Developers will change everything and make it more reasonable.

[@esotericegoism7536]

That does not make it better

[@aonodensetsu]

@@esotericegoism7536 it makes it more reasonable

[@berengerchristy6256]

Here’s a better hint: don’t buy the game at all. I check in on this game periodically and it still seems like fd doesn’t want people to enjoy their game. Also, star citizen is still a pipe dream. Jedi fallen order is on sale right now so I think I’ll get that and maybe doom eternal once I get started on my ultra nightmare play through of doom

[@rlhrock]

OA I’ve been a long time subscriber and value your content. Surely you have a working relationship with Frontier. You can see from the player feedback that the cost and use of Carriers are not generating new and return of players to game, but just the opposite. You need players to trade and interact with your carrier for profit and upkeep. Frontier has basically angered current game owners not to return to game and made it extremely unlikely to attract new players. We need for your voice to enlighten Frontier that 5B for a carrier is insane! The feedback from players have shown that 74% of players do not even have 1B. Unless they drastically reduce this charge the game is “Obsolete”. I’ve been playing No Mans Sky, which is way more interactive than Elite. I haven’t played Elite in months. It’s stagnate, and the market is too competitive with new games. Frontier had this one opportunity to jump back to front of gameplay and have failed miserably.

[@Enchisedmy]

I see what they're doing: They want players to play consistantly rather than jumping in and out in periods of multiple months. Telling them "Come earn money or we ruin you" is probably not the best way to go about, though.

[@phoebiousz]

Nobody is forcing you to get a FC. You are all whining about them like it is imperative to purchase one. Get in the beta and try it out. Then you decide if it is worth it or not.

[@alvatoredimarco]

@@phoebiousz Everyone's complaining about this because when's the last time something actually new was added to the game? Now something totally new has been added, and everyone's excited about it, but then it's revealed that the new thing puts a chain around your neck. So people are disappointed and upset that no, there's not actually anything new for them after all.

[@TmanT321]

@@phoebiousz it's an update, after 5 years since release, with barely any content for anyone. I can afford one and I'm pissed. Same shit, different ship. BORING.

[@MrMeddyman]

@@phoebiousz Yeah but they wasted time developing this when they could have done anything else

[@mikicerise6250]

Why? To wave Arx in my face more? Do they think that will make it more likely for me to ever buy them?

[@GalacticAstroparticles]

FD is so afraid of people having fun in this game. All hail the credit grind!

[@GalacticAstroparticles]

@Gaming Git "Because the game lacks content." Exactly. You hit the nail in the head there. If the *actual gameplay loop was engaging & entertaining* then no-one would mind it, even if it was repetitive. Plenty of online multiplayer games have this repetitive loop, called a 'grind', but if the process itself is entertaining and fun, people don't mind it. Since FD sacrificed everything in the name of the game's financial grind, such as gameplay, fun, development of new interesting features, designing more interesting astrophysical events (like accretion disks, interacting stars & black holes, planets with strange atmospheres), then they made the *only progression in this gameplay loop = a boring financial grind.*

[@MegaCevapcic]

@Gaming Git Some other occupations could be fun, if the constant grind for credits wasnt such a huge factor, sigh. If you arent making a couple of million an hour youre basically loosing money and it makes you afraid of any risk that there is :S This whole game is just such a waste of time

[@CragScrambler]

Well as much as I love the game, this isnt going to bring me back to it. It's hard enough looking for content in the game, I'm not going to spent my spare time mining fuel and paying 10m a week to have a mobile base.

[@PestOnYT]

While other games include more and more 3D objects and 3D-UIs, ED steps back and returns to click-&-point adventure. I can only hope that the beta shows it is worth to grind for 5 bil. CR. I have my doubts.

[@vitor022]

Of course its worth. What u mean you have doubts... isnt it fun grinding 3 hours per day all days?????? Because i can only play 3 hours

[@EXTRO72]

So it can jump 500 light years every 2 hours? I can do that in less than 10 mins in my asp explorer 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@SS_BAJA]

Muggzy exactly, why would anyone buy these carriers?

[@DorkingtonHacker]

And no Stellar Cartography.

[@usoppbarbosa981]

Given enough patience, one could jump to stars impossible to reach with current ships.. on the edges of the galaxy. now would it be worth it...

[@Jhorsma]

but you can't make 500 ly jumps with your ASP, more or less it can be used as a support base ship to visit systems where people haven't been able to get before.

[@TheRealLegosi]

You can do that with the asp and take yourself, or you can do it with a fleet carrier and take your entire buisness, some modules, some ships in your shipyard, and a few friends.

[@Z0011-]

The upkeep charge is irrational for me, i dont play the game daily and we already have enough debts in real life to have a virtual one.

[@galacticdudeman1818]

lol :-)

[@Whit3_Tig3R]

oh wow, so you spend 5 billion on that thing just so that then you can sink more money into it with the possibility of it being decommissioned if you miss out on couple of payments, bet you the reimbursement's like 1 billion or something ridiculous

[@DragoCubX]

In the stream, you could see you'd get 4.3 billion back on willingly decommissioning a base carrier. we can further assume it was within 100ly of the next construction dock as they were in the bubble. Also, if you get a force decommission due to debt, you can subtract that debt from the 4.3 billion. so 700+ million instant loss for not planning your play time ahead 🤦‍♀️

[@tomasz9429]

So to sum up: - 500 LY jump every 2h - 5 billion credits cost - possibly (?) tens of millions of obligatory weekly upkeep - ukeep forces you to play at least once a week, making the game punish you for not playing it. I explore in E:D(if I am bored enough to launch the game once in a blue moon). 500 LY I do in under 10 minutes in my Anaconda. Do I need a carrier? No. Case closed, I can go on living, yet again laughing at the dumpster fire that is E:D, until they prove me otherwise. A side note: If FDev had the quality and dedication of content production of this channel, E:D would be the best space game ever.

[@elementwarrior7905]

you can pay in advence so if you pay 1 billion is 2 years pay so is not so much work

[@nikisepps]

It's not meant for single players. My squadron will enjoy this feature quite well. But if I were a single player I'd pass so hard.

[@dasraffnix9471]

@@nikisepps Why the fuck did they call it PERSONAL than? It just doesn't make sense.

[@musifter9126]

It doesn't make you play every week. It has its own bank account to pay for things. You can put a few billion in that and not have to log on for years.

[@graycarlyle8627]

Don´t forget that you need 500 tons of Tritium you have to mine after a jump. Which will take what? 3 hours?

[@daxlucero2437]

The thing is, the price and everything else does make sense, in a realisticish sort of way. But games have always sacrificed realism to boost gameplay, because otherwise people won’t play the game. Except for those phone games, which is basically identical to the grind on ED. It’s honestly pathetic for FDev to not realize/care about these issues that sacrifice gameplay, no wonder the game’s dying

[@xyzzy3000]

Which do you think it is - incompetence or malice?

[@vitor022]

@@xyzzy3000 incompetence, i hope

[@davekennedy6315]

@@xyzzy3000 incompetence and greed. How long before Frontier push skins and add ons only available with ARX.

[@zushimiyamoto9478]

I like realism in ED and that's what makes it funny: FSD despite being a magical jump drive still being affected by massive objects or going from one side to the galaxy to the other still can take MANY weeks. But FC price and everything? That's a bit... off. I wouldn't call it realism.

[@maciejkszczepanski]

@@xyzzy3000 Hanlon's razor - never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity :)

[@ClickToEnlarge]

We’ve been waiting for carriers for a few years. They’re finally here and FDev found a way to ruin something great once again. I’m not surprised.

[@mikicerise6250]

We have? I haven't.

[@h1tsc4n40]

Yeah FDev just cannot ever get anything right

[@kyledesaulniers9277]

So is it just me or do these "fleet carriers" sound an awful lot like "stations" it seems we will never be able to actually pilot any ship larger than a canoe.

[@akaBeaucoupFish]

That's always how Fleet Carriers have been described - not flyable ships, but as player-owned stations. You might like this size comparison video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/npzNiJ9qo9Cteac An American Football field is about 100mx50m, I think. You might be able to squeeze four Cobra's (27mx44m) end to end across an field. The Cutter (192m x 111m) is the size of *four fields* - basically the size of a large stadium! And the Baluga is even bigger (209m x 131m). What kind of canoe are you thinking of? ;)

[@wumbosaurus9121]

Yeah man, imagine if we could buy capital class ships that you could pilot around and they would have massive jump ranges. They'd have to be expensive af, so that you truly have to earn it, but it would be epic. Having ship to ship battles and having players deploy like star fighters from your hangers and engaging enemy ships. How badass would that be?

[@kyledesaulniers9277]

@@wumbosaurus9121 then you would be playing eve

[@wumbosaurus9121]

@@kyledesaulniers9277 The thing is though Eve doesn't appeal to me very much. If I actually got into it then I think I would get hooked but I love the idea of being in the ship and flying it around myself rather than just clicking a mouse. I like to be controlling the ship rather than reading stats

[@kyledesaulniers9277]

@@wumbosaurus9121 I heavily agree I love ED for it's cockpit view it's one of my favorite things. I also enjoy piloting large spaceborn vehicles because in space you can build large things. Unfortunately ED's largest pilotable ship would barely classify as a ship launched fighter in most other space games. In naval terms a Corvette is the smallest designation of warship.

[@wedge_one]

If Elite had EVE-like player corporations, making the Carrier for the corp and splitting the upkeep among the players would make more sense.

[@manemjeff7686]

which this game is fking not

[@lorddraxxos964]

Seconded. They didn't want to emulate Eve early in the development of the game, but some similarities in the present day would actually benefit them. Mutual storage space for Squadrons, shared banking systems and as you've said, shared upkeep for goals like carriers.

[@tazerrrrrr]

So basically this is like a super fancy apartment with 5 bil deposit and then 10 mil minimum every week and even after all that that you have to pay more to access the kitchen, bath room, and bed room even more for beds and sofas lol

[@TRG29338]

at least you can take a shit in the bathroom. this is just a series of menus.

[@bosmens1]

Well, this all looks like reasonably fun gameplay that I'll never be able to access because I'm a normal person who doesn't spend all his time playing the same videogame. Hope they make it a little more accessible over the next few... Years, probably?

[@xyzzy3000]

More like never. Frontier don't listen to players - it's all about the shareholders. This has been designed to boost player engagement numbers.

[@FecalChunks]

It's probably going to suck forever. It appears to me that they are deliberately creating a "ball and chain" effect with carriers. "OK player, if you don't play each week we're going to throw your 5 billion in the trash, cool? Thanks for (not)playing."

[@DesertStateInEU]

bosmens1 - Im using a Cutter and making 1B+ per 6-7 hour mining run in the triple LTD hotspot. You grind for 10 days and you have a Fleet Carrier plus enough money to not have to worry about money for months.

[@Axonteer]

feel ya - i face the same issue. i can dedicate about 2h a day to a hobby and i dont want to dedicate this only to a single hobby only so something that wants to chain me to a game with recurring costs is a nono.

[@xyzzy3000]

@@DesertStateInEU Grinding in a computer game for a full working day is rather extreme though, so saying that people 'just' have to do that is hardly an argument in favour of affordability.

[@Smoothmel]

Defending this game a long time now. But today I'm uninstalling the game..

[@StargazerTheFurry]

Yeah me too, don't see a reason to play, also unsubscribing from this channel, the fact that Obsidian cannot show that players are not happy with this bullshit has put me off this channel. Fuck FDev and fuck ED, wasted so many hours on this fucking game.

[@mikawillems982]

Try Star Citizen, it has come a long way.

[@jimmyshousevideos]

@@mikawillems982 how does the current state of Star Citizen compare to the current state of Elite? I tried SC a few years ago when they had a free weekend and it was absolute trash.

[@jimmyshousevideos]

@@StargazerTheFurry what are you talking about, he says he doesn't like the idea of upkeep himself. Plus he covers a bunch of other games too.

[@SuperNova_5482]

@@StargazerTheFurry 4:47

[@waynestuart2755]

There ought to be a mothball option. Then you can set this if you know you're not going to around for a while.

[@raymondcoventry1221]

That would make sense, so they never thought of it or rejected it. The players must suffer.

[@dmaxcustom]

This demands more dedication that I can give to a single game. Oh well.

[@kerbalairforce8802]

So when a military member deploys in real life and can't play their game, Frontier will delete their 5 billion credit investment.

[@BlackCenturx]

You can sell it and get billions back

[@xyzzy3000]

@@BlackCenturx A better option would be to not penalise players for having a life and commitments outside of a computer game.

[@AnIllinoisan]

Sounds like it, yes. Even if a college student goes to school (most colleges don’t let students use the internet protocol Elite uses), they will have to suffer that. I think it’s absolutely idiotic

[@NapFloridian]

@@xyzzy3000 amen

[@SenseiJacksama]

Yes. and if you catch the corona virus and end up a month in the hospital.... well guess whats waiting for you back on Elite?

[@BespinGuard1]

*Proceeds to store 2k LTD that have been aquired over weeks on my fleet Cartier and jumps to the highest selling system*

[@TheMaw365]

Watch them nerf that in 2 seconds flat and you be set there with a 5 bil isk paper weight.

[@martytube821]

Whats the purpose of credits when you have everything?

[@simsdiver5201]

Let's just hope that when you get there, said highest selling system wasn't already hit with the other billionaire Cmdrs who beat you to it first. So you're not stuck in a race against other Cmndrs searching the galaxy map/eddbio for the next station that hasn't been hit up by system jumpers like yourself. LOL I'm glad I ddin't waste my time grinding for this. I'm sitting on a comfortable 30 billion credits. But the fuel and maintenance grind costs will likely take all the fun of operating this space submarine. NVM mining for fuel is going to take up 90% of ppl time so they can't mine for other resources, or do non mining shit like PP, combat missions, exploration or simple sandbox free lancer missions. Once again, FDev took a terrific, emergent gameplay idea and turned it into a mind numbing grind. PPL are going to vacation from ED for a LONG while once the novelty wears off. And especially when the realization of having to grind this finally sinks in

[@TmanT321]

see you at Borann.

[@luthariii7827]

Sims Diver And once a large section of the player base leaves, or chooses to stop using/visiting FC’s, they are basically dead since a major point of them was to encourage p2p interactions, trading, and having players be a source of income with tariffs.

[@VinePest]

I really wish I still cared about this game. The dream of THE space game, however, never dies and watching Mr. Ant frequently puts me in a dreamy, longing state, submerged in space game fantasies and memories of my long gone honeymoon with Elite. Screw fleet carriers, but at least they prompt a few more videos on this channel :) Love from Germany

[@VinePest]

Thanks, I'll give it a go :)

[@Brawneteer]

Why not make the upkeep cost of the carrier more like something that's already in the game, and doesn't chain you to the game? To those unaware I'm talking about NPC crew that can pilot a fighter. Hiring one of them costs a flat amount of credits based on their skill level at hiring, and a percentage of whatever credits you make after hiring, and that's it. You don't come back to the game for a year or so? Your faithful crew member will still be waiting for you and ready to go whenever. I REALLY don't agree with how they want to do the upkeep cost on Fleet Carriers, and after reading the comments and watching the full video, I'm not the only one.

[@Sgt_Glory]

If they dint want ghost carriers floating around why not just impound the carrier, take it out of the galaxy and store its stats. You pay to recommission it and you get it back without having lost all your customizations and settings.

[@bensonburner3852]

Better yet, just change its status to "closed" and let it reopen once the player restocked the carrier

[@BenYork-UBY]

Exactly what I was thinking. If fleet carriers are inactive for a long period of time just hide it from the galaxy and put it into an inactive state that the player can access and reactivate later from the menu. That idea is far more intuitive. Never hold players investments hostage to the game

[@figll20]

I’m a game that simulates the size of the galaxy I’m pretty sure there is enough room for thousands of abandoned carriers. Don’t play anymore cuz it’s the same repetitive grind, but stay current cuz I’m hopeful that frontier will give us something truly groundbreaking. This game has so much potential. I really do feel frontier barely scratched the surface of what this game can become. Btw given up on Star Citizen. Probably be long dead when they finally release the finished product.

[@dw6066]

Flying stations are not the capital ship we are looking for. There is no soul in there! XD

[@P_RK_NY8]

I want to ENJOY the game, not work inside the game to keep up my carrier. I'm very dissapointed with this update.

[@BushmanLastOasis]

This will not increase player numbers if anything cause more people to leave. They might get an initial boost but it will be short lived

[@niolelo]

Why did they even bother, what does it do that a station or ship doesn't do better?

[@vitor022]

Personal storage.... basically nothing, i never nedeed personal storage

[@Malefizzz]

@@vitor022 I needet it sometimes but there's no way im going to pay these hilarious prices...

[@NgryMosquito]

@@vitor022 A PAYWALLED UPKEEP PERSONAL STORAGE / PLAYER TO PLAYER CARGO TRANSFER ... things that other games got WITHOUT 5bn paywalll ffffs!

[@HaloJaxed]

@@NgryMosquito And don't forget weekly upkeep paywall too, or you lose everything.

[@user-fd1cp9jt5i]

Not least the fact that they bothered putting tons of effort into the support vessels which would have accompanied the carriers just for them go go and scrap them. I don't know why we other with FDev, if their glacial development was g bad enough they do shit like this

[@wudimusic]

I went from "soon i have a mobile base" To "Well ok, maybe wait for next update then"

[@NearlyH3adlessNick]

Explorers don't seem to benefit from these carriers at all... If they could be destroyed, I'd say that combat pilots are at least benefited but nope... So....who are these carriers for, exactly?? Miners?? Not when *_only_*_ the owner_ can deposit materials and stuff? Crews?? Same reason. I'm really confused! These carriers have no real reason to leave the bubble, from what I'm gathering from this?? Or am I missing something huge?

[@TRG29338]

Nah you got it.

[@TmanT321]

No. Most of them wont leave the bubble, purely because of the time sink it takes travel. 2 hours in between jumps. Ha.

[@MiliardoK]

My interest in this is completely dead now. The one friend close enough to the 5 billion mark of being able to buy one of these can't possibly keep up the cost of keeping it around, none of us play the game enough to keep the upkeep costs on this. This whole update was what people where waiting for in our group and its basically dead in the water.

[@Gongolongo]

You can make 300 mil an hour with LTD farming. I got a conda in just 5 hours of mining and converted it for mining.

[@hannybenny7632]

.. so no new gameplay.. a destroyed opal-economy and just endless grinding for what ..? I am a 1984-Baker and I AM OUT !!

[@writershard5065]

k

[@h347h]

How do you know some one is a backer? They'll tell you.

[@lukeforshee8709]

Honestly no one cares, I want more content as well but I just hate the way you ended your comment as if you are something more special than current players

[@nonegone7170]

Should've just added 10-20 new playable ships instead, even that would've brought more life into this dead game.

[@___Nobody__]

Stan W at this point screw realism. Also, FDev please, add large and gimbaled anti thargoid weapons for fucks sake!!!!!

[@alvatoredimarco]

@@___Nobody__ FD's response: "No! If you want to participate in Thargoid fights, you must do it our way! If you do not like it, get out!"

[@TheSinquisitor]

"Yo. fellas! Wanna hang out on my space yacht?"

[@joesnodgrass608]

"Ghost carriers" don't have to be a thing. They could be impounded.

[@deadlyapollo]

Once you've got enough money and bought every ship, there's not much else to do. This is for those players who've amassed a ton of wealth and have nothing to spend it on.

[@doublegi2880]

well I'm sure not spending it now paying premium price for ability to rent a carrier and on a weekly rent for a carrier. If I don't play for 1 year, I'll rather crash 20 anacondas into space stations when I come back, then lose all that money on some fucking carrier rent (which I woudln't even be using if I wasn't playing).

[@dside_ru]

tl;dr: as an infrequent player, I see carriers as a gimmick at the shown level of financial expense. I'm keeping my Python as the biggest thing I own for the time being. • 500 ly jump range given 2-hour+ jump cycle may not be the fastest thing to jump, but it can certainly jump farther than anything currently in the game, potentially reaching more places. The interesting part is that the carrier always needs to have an onboard supply of fuel for 2 jumps at least, otherwise Fuel Rats are in for some serious investment... Well, they might just be anyway. So there *is* an exploration niche for it, albeit very small, considering how much of the known galaxy is currently explored. • I saw this as a very promising mining hauler initially, but with how often I play >10 mil of upkeep costs are hardly worth it. Really hoping they'll cut it down, even if at the expense of the services that it offers to others or even myself. I would be fine with it only sustaining itself in place and keeping its cargo hold for, say, for 100k/week. As long as it can transport a hefty load of minerals (magnitude of kilotons). • Looks like for 5 bil of purchase cost it can be decommissioned for 80% of the cost. So of you plan on purchasing it for a big mining operation and decommission it after, you're still in for a billion+ loss. Hardly interesting. • The above estimations are given based on my current financial standing of around 350M (cash, not current assets). A carrier feels within reach, though it will require effort; only the way it's looking now is effort for more effort. This is such a blatant "player holder" that it's insulting.

[@xyzzy3000]

I look forward to seeing how they write this up in the annual report.

[@Vanhala]

@@xyzzy3000 my arx are on them fudging the player number increase due to quarantine and social isolating as people excited to play with carriers.

[@vulpine3431]

Tbh 10mil is like 10 ltds

[@666sparton666]

I totally agree. My Corvette will probably be the biggest thing i own, though i find myself playing No Mans Sky more and more the last couple of weeks. I only had to grind to 170 million for the Imperial class frieghter, theres no upkeep, and i can jump it as much as i damn well please

[@dside_ru]

@@vulpine3431 yes, when I mine 50 tons per session and then disappear for a month, I wouldn't want to log back in and find 80% of its value gone.

[@okeman7614]

Cashgrab update.

[@NgryMosquito]

Ofc you can buy ARX to paint your carrier as you like ....

[@SClerckx]

So disappointing, we just got an expensive player owned station. No new gameplay and especially the disconnect from squadrons is such a missed chance.

[@RibshackTV]

The missing squadron element epically fails so hard that this is the end for me...

[@stephennugent9958]

"aimed at experienced commanders with the time and credits to maintain and manage these mammoth vessel" (from the recap) I'm definitely not one of those commanders & I wouldn't say "experienced". I am experienced but I'm not privileged to have all the time in the world to earn billions of credits.

[@vitor022]

Looks like 5 hundreds hours isnt enough lol

[@TRG29338]

I think a lot of experienced (with FDEV) players just won't buy one. Probably the only way to send a message other than uninstalling.

[@Nosttromo]

anyone experienced will laugh at that and say a big nope

[@ronaldsaavedra9300]

The cost bothers me, I never used so called exploits and do not have billions of credit. So this is way out of reach for a player like me.

[@furbyguy]

I'm in the same boat. 'Luckily', it seems like there isn't really much new stuff you can do with the carriers anyway, so I don't think we're missing out on much.

[@tennoshenaniganizer9234]

Honestly at this point I couldn't care any more. I've deleted Elite from my machine and don't intend to come back. Content drought that lasted 3 years, and when they finally bring something interesting they punish you for not playing the game

[@h347h]

Don't reward casuals.*

[@vitor022]

@@h347h ah yes. If u dont play the game because you have a life we take yours 5b haha fuck you noob

[@h347h]

@@RandomNameLastName811 Nothing, it doesn't punish you though.

[@neoxenia7014]

Yeah sadly I have also deleted E:D, even Star Citizen in its alpha state feels more fun at this point.

[@peter58murray]

Ive still got ED installed but il never go back unless a huge add on is announced ,,,i logged back into SC this week,1st time in 18months and wow i was impressed,its in Alpha still but is way ahead of ED in content,shows how bad ED is really

[@554466551]

In these troubled times, where more and more people are finding themselves out of a job, stressing about their future finances, what they really need is a game they can immerse themselves in with constant upkeep stresses attached to the loss of an expensive property to take their mind off all that.

[@tosspot1305]

+rep for this comment...escape the daily finacial grind of life with a daily finacial grind of space life :)

[@dangernoodle8813]

this is rather disappointing ngl

[@Challenger160]

I'm so glad I never got my hopes up for fleet carriers. There is less literally no benefit to owning a fleet carrier over any standard medium to large ship unless you want to spend time upkeeping your new 5bn credit rental scheme for standard station features...

[@arkuos8361]

Couple things *need* to change: More jumps per full tank, maybe four. Time needs to be half an hour, not an hour (maybe if exploration is specced into only) my engineered ship can do 500ly in about 2~ hours if I push it with guardian FSD Boosters. Should *not* be forced to upkeep more than 10-20k credits per **month** ( as in thats what it costs for upkeep, period) We should be able to jump into permit locked systems if we have the permit (its stupid not to be able to) Crew **should** have a direct impact. Ie. more exploration crew means less wear and tear on the systems, more combat means munitions or something cost less to buy (or the fleet carrier can fight more competently), trading should allow for more storage space on the carrier ***most importantly*** You should NEVER be able to lose your carrier for ANY reason. Shut off until debt is re-payed, sure. It should not disappear. EVER.

[@leggomypotato1484]

Exploration Anacondas can do 500 ly in a minute with neutron stars, 5 without.

[@Hlecktro]

I don't have 5 billion but I have no problem with this as 95% of Elite Players who still play have been drifting around the galaxy accumulating excessive, inflated amounts of cash for over five years. Basically money is worthless now, and this is a good cash sink. The fact that everyone can tag along together I think is the best feature, because the most memorable parts of Elite have always been interactions with other players. It's really only going to breathe life into the game for a couple of weeks, but it will be fun to see other commanders and do stuff together. And if you are still envious that only certain people can afford a big ship, just remember that for real, the best game play in elite can be done in pretty cheap ships.

[@arkman117]

Personally I'd rather they spent the last 2 years developing some other ship's that are pilotable, would be 10x as excited for a panther clipper reveal, or the imperial explorer and maybe a few new ships that are bigger, oh and even though I don't care for the idea, I know lots of people would be ecstatic for space legs. I mean we have capital ships that are supported by ships that could be considered fast attack craft by comparison, we need something akin to destroyer escorts something 2 to 3 times the size of a corvette, anaconda or cutter.

[@Democritus8181]

I'm a triple elite that's been playing ED since its second year of release, I was really hoping that this content would bring me back to the game, but what's the point of a carrier explorers module add on if you accrue debt from non payments if your carrier is in the black, that's just shit for brains ? Or did I miss something ? I Love this game, but I think its an end of the decade for me, and looking for something new :( Good Luck Commanders o7

[@doublegi2880]

you didn't miss anything, shit company is a shit company. I'm in the same boat. Wanted to come back, but I'm not playing their debt simulator. So much potential in this game, such a shit execution.

[@BannorPhil]

I'd **LOVE** for you to do a follow-up on this, now that Fleet Carriers have been around a while, and at least SOME of the problems have been sorted out. A LOT has changed since this video was made.

[@fluffypinkpandas]

ok guys. so heres the plan. we start a kickstarter petition and use the funds to buy the elite franchise off of frontier including the server wherehouse and make elite opensource once its in our hands. so this way. the community has direct control over adding what the community actually wants. everyone is happy. but heres the thing. lets pull out NOW. so that when fdev sees there is nobody online, ITS EVEN CHEAPER TO BUY FROM THEM. STONKS

[@harlemk1ng]

So it's a glorified traveling space station that you have to micromanage. You can't fly it in real-time such as in supercruise within the systems? I'm good. I mean, I don't have the credits for one anyway but now I have absolutely no desire to try. Players: Can we have something we really want like the ability land on earth-like planets or walk around in our ships? FD: No, but here's some 5 billion dollar carriers most of you can't afford

[@DorkingtonHacker]

Two hours to travel 500 ly. Oh well.

[@jamesseraph8813]

1 hour. Needs an hour to charge, then an hour to cool down. More like 2 hours to jump its max of 1000. I don't like the hour wait to jump. What is the likelihood that I would just be willing to set there and wait for the jump. They should just have the cool down, even if they double it.

[@Anoobvia]

@@jamesseraph8813 As far as I'm aware you can jump the carrier from anywhere in the galaxy, you don't need to be docked at it

[@TheMaw365]

@@jamesseraph8813 You need to go back and do some math, 1 charge, 1 cool and 1 charge again is 3 hours. Every jump takes 2 hours before it can jump again.

[@dasraffnix9471]

@@jamesseraph8813 My experimental Type-9 all fuel explorer build is faster than that! Although not ment to go fast, but to explore as much as possible, it can do 2000ly in that time.

[@graycarlyle8627]

@@Anoobvia Yeah, cool idea, bro. And than its stranded 1000 ly away without fuel. Brilliant.

[@Smitsva]

0% added fun, 100% added more grind....sigh

[@writershard5065]

1 hour of mining will get you 6 months of upkeep done at the displayed upkeep rate. And the upgrades won't change that by much. What grinding are you talking about?

[@michaellundgren6949]

Its not fair if your game assets were depreciating while you aren't even playing. It should be that it doesn't charge you upkeep for a week if you never log in that week. So if we stop playing for weeks/years, you won't be ruined.

[@gerardogonzalez7237]

What happened to the support ships? they didn't say anything about those ships

[@Multi11113]

I was about to say the same thing what happened to the support ships that they were talking about

[@MChannel80]

Removed according to QnA as they had no purpose.

[@gerardogonzalez7237]

CMDR Ulon thanks for the update, I've been out of the game for a while now, I was excited to see them, it's a shame they were dropped.

[@sam23696]

There is a relatively simple solution to the upkeep issue that I think would benefit both sides. Make it so you can install modules that reduce upkeep by a certain percentage. These modules can stack to a maximum of 8, reduce upkeep by 10%, and are expensive/difficult to attain. You can also locate your ship in specific areas, such as an asteroid belt for mining modules, a high population system for trading and so on. This conditional location grants a upkeep reduction of 20%, stacking on your modules. This creates a game mechanic where you can spend a few months grinding out the ability to passively remove the carrier upkeep. Those that would buy the carrier and then leave the game before doing this will lose their carriers and the few players dedicated enough will achieve a upkeep free carrier, but only in specific areas of the game based on what the carrier is built for.

[@eddiegodfrey2538]

Thankyou for the fleet carriers. And will get one. But NPC's should be able to trade at your carrier. I dont believe there is sufficient player base for a carrier to sustain, improve and grow an economy.

[@Chacesumica]

What economy? The carriers dont add any thing they only take out. The market on them has to be stocked by the owner, you dont get some discount on cost of item. You have to go to the same stations every one else dose to buy something for it. Just so you can turn around and sell it at a mark up. Who are you going to sell those marked up items to....a station. It's like going to a store buying a selection of products then selling them in the parking lot with a convenience charge of not having to go in to the store.

[@FirehawkValkyrie]

It's just so much time and money. You have to supply everything yourself and with so many resources out there for finding specific commodities and modules you're buying bulk with noone knowing what you're selling. Explorers are essentially cut out from buying them because you need to come back and fund it yourself somehow. You cant even fly the damn things.

[@daveyjoneslocker4703]

...nah. I seriously don’t understand the utility of having one. I played this game when it first came out and I took a 4 year break and just started playing again. I have plenty of catching up to do with engineering and other content. No way I’m going to bother with this.

[@ellieallen115]

I kind of like the idea of needing to “fund an expedition” in your exploration focused carrier. Maybe we could see players selling tourist tickets to other players on their carriers?

[@DesertStateInEU]

Hey all. Heres a few questions that I dont think were addressed in the video or in the pinned comment. 1. Can you buy new ones after you decommissioned your old one? 2. Do you have to be logged in to open play for other players to use your fleet carrier, and do you have to be logged in at all? 3. Can NPCs use it? 4. Do you have to stay with your carrier while the FSD is charging/cooling? 5. What happens if you run out of fuel in the middle of nowhere space? I know people are rushing you with questions right now so you can answer when you got time and have the answers.

[@paisis123]

1. Yes 2. The carrier will be persistant 3. No 4. No 5. You be Fucked, Gonna have to call to get some tritium or mine your own fuel and bring it back

[@DragoCubX]

1. Yes 2. No 3. No 4. No 5. Hope you (and other CMDRs) can gather Tritium nearby and deliver it to the carrier. Otherwise -> decommission/lose money

[@RudalPL]

1-4 like the others said 5. Well, it will be a resource I guess so you can mine/collect it but knowing FDev it will be extremely rare so you will be basically screwed after couple of jumps.

[@DesertStateInEU]

@@paisis123 Thanks guys for the answers. The only ones Im not happy about is NPCs not being able to use our carriers cause at least they could contribute to making a profit. And I wonder how much tritium we can store inside the carrier. If its like 10000+ then we're good.

[@DesertStateInEU]

@@DragoCubX Thanks

[@chloewebb5526]

NO PILOTING! I wanted to be up in the bridge, staring at it in all its majesty and slooooooowly steer this beast of a ship as it crawls into witchspace 😭😭😭😭

[@sea0fgreen33]

The upkeep mechanic isn't to keep the map clean, its to keep you logging on. A endless treadmill.

[@HalNordmann]

If FDev REALLY want a credit sink for Elite, just offer Arx or basic materials for horrendous credit sums, or allow for a full player economy. Or they could offer a "ferry" service that can get you to interesting places (Colonia, Pleiades) without any effort on your part, but they cost a lot of credits. Another idea are "consumables" for ships, items that take up cargo space, can be bought at stations, and offer a similar function to Synthesis - allowing restocking of supplies outside of a station.

[@krazyknva78]

The more details that come out, the less likely I'll get one. As a player who prefers solo play, the the costs of purchase & upkeep just kills what little fun I have ingame. However, a carrier absolutely makes sense for an active squadron, provided every squadron member can contribute to the costs.

[@trolloloization]

So exciting! Well thanks but I'd rather buy Star Citzen or go play NMS. Terribly bored and dissapointed

[@Khunvyel]

Imagine there was no insurance so you have to buy every ship and every module you lost again and engineer it again. Imagine also for a second that when you die in a system that is a certain distance away from the closest station or settlement, your death is permanent. Suddenly all those "extreme athlete" explorers going to places they can't return from and self destruct are happily welcoming the addition of fleet carriers which take days to recover them from whatever lonely place they got stuck at. It's all about perspective.

[@arphos8328]

This is honestly disappointing. I wanted to buy a carrier to go out and explore stars that my ship couldn't reach at the rim, but if I need a whole crew hungry for my credits, I'm on a timer in regards to how much money I have until bankruptcy.

[@tehflemin]

"for explorers... they'll be able to ferry it to remote locations and explore never before seen locations" so since you can dock and jump with the carrier... you can take it to The Rim and get the sweetest explo data of all. The darkest of dark data. #hyped.

[@BenRobinson1974]

You put more effort into this game than Frontier do.

[@quoguitars9555]

I'm looking forward to this, and although it will take me a while to be able to get one myself I think this will prove to be a boon to the simulation. Take care mate, and stay safe buddy. Quo

[@TmanT321]

I would just like to say, that at the end of the year you'd better dazzle us Frontier. Well and truly. This is sad. All you would have to do here is take out some of the hyper realism and add some actual fun features. I was expecting you to announce new play styles and "quests" you can send yourself on with these, that only they can accomplish. Nope. Same crap, bigger ship. How about a ship that can jump across the galaxy in 5 jumps. Why does it take 2 hours between jumps? I can afford the upkeep and I find it annoying because I want a fleet of carriers, but I can't even do that (something new and interesting that we haven't seen before) without my friends all playing for 300 hours like me to earn the amount of money I have and buy one too. You'd better make these more fun, and add all kinds of unseen and interesting concepts at the end of the year, along with the well loved concepts we all know. Teleporting players to other ships, walking around cities/carriers/stations/planets/owned buildings, hiring NPC contractors to do mining, etc. for you. Adding something for people who bothered to grind to Admiral, aka, add the damn Farragut class cruisers. Adding some kind of story element for players, adding player owned buildings with actual functionality, adding tanks/mining trucks/drills, adding first person combat/bounty hunting, adding all kinds of things that No Man's Sky was able to figure out in 2 years from release, not 5. It seems like you guys spent a lot of time changing your mind on this project and weren't able to spend time actually making something people like. Treat this like an ever moving blob. Take the parts of it out that aren't popular, and add new things, if they break the game for a few days, economy wise or whatever else, fix it or try another way of doing it. Some of the BS lies simply in the size of the numbers you're asking from people and reducing them would go a long way, but still you wouldn't be what NMS is. (AFTER 2 YEARS) Think of a new player, he hears that the end game ship is 5 Billion credits, with a 10M per week upkeep. He logs in for the first time and sees he has 1000 credits, and the missions on the board pay 50K max for him each. He's going to log off and give up right then and there unless he is being guided by an advanced player who can already afford one, or is working toward one. You seem to not understand the "new player" concept, which might actually be hard, considering you've been around the game for 10 years or more. You need to make an update ACTUALLY worth paying for, because all the NMS content added was FREE. You need to add features for everyone, that anyone can get lost in one facet of. Here, you get bored of one facet, and move to the next after a few hundred hours of game play. You could get so much more life out of it with more features/things to do. You could use the advice, "you will always regret the decision you do not make". Pick a path and walk down it, if it's muddy and crappy, go back and follow another path. Stop changing your minds and ADD CONTENT.

[@graycarlyle8627]

Yeah, not getting my hopes up for such a miracle. FDev has a malformed idea of "fun"

[@TmanT321]

@@graycarlyle8627 I know and it's what makes me sad. I'm going to give them until the update, see where it's at EOY, and if it's super underwhelming, I'll be done with Elite, and full time NMS.

[@graycarlyle8627]

@@TmanT321 Is it that much better since release? I got burned hard at release.

[@Midnight24435]

@@graycarlyle8627 Multiplayer is still locked to a limited amount of terrain edits, as well as several occurrences where my base I built with my nephew just disappeared completely. Single player seems to be fine.

[@TRG29338]

congratulations you've put more thought into the future of Elite than the devs have.

[@BRUXXUS]

More and more it feels like Frontier should be paying *us* real money to keep playing this game. They want me to treat it like a job, they'll have to pay me for my work. I was stupidly hopeful Frontier may have finally had found a shred of creativity and fun under the couch cushions... how stupid of me to even allow myself to hope for such a thing. I could rattle off at least 10 things off the top of my head that could be done with carriers that would completely change the game and community for the better. It's actually astounding how bad the people in charge of this game are at creating something fun and interesting gameplay systems that could also increase their revenue by orders of magnitude.

[@xyzzy3000]

Dull - the devs themselves didn't even look excited. As predicted, this latest content encourages grind and pushes microtransactions. Uninspired and lazy.

[@craigconnor7398]

I think they know that they've killed off the player base, this game needs a Magor overhaul

[@DorkingtonHacker]

I disagree with lazy. I'm sure they work very hard. It's just that they have really boring ideas.

[@xyzzy3000]

@Latte It's literally a handful of menus, some database tables and a few ship models. The interactions they've shown are trivial and much of the way these operate is based on existing megaship mechanics (but via the new menus). As usual the art team did a great job, but the design and code behind this is hardly going to break the bank. The design doesn't seem all that clever either... Almost actively hostile to the player base. Seriously, why has this taken so long to implement?

[@nfwolf20]

they wouldn't make any update if they are lazy

[@lordwall]

Carriers look like they will allow some crazy things. We could leap frog from the bubble to colonia in a single day by setting up around 45 fleet carriers 500 ly apart by docking, jumping, then transferring to the next one. Player could bank roll friends by setting a common commodity to purchase at a crazy high price and having the someone sell it on the carrier. Example: I want to help my friend out so I set a buy order for 100 biowaste at 1mil credits each. Then my friend could dock and sell his biowaste thus giving him 100mil credits. This can essentially give a new player an anaconda by stocking an anaconda on the carrier at base price. Then "Selling" enough of the inflated goods to your buddy, who can then turn around and buy said Anaconda from your own carrier. And by doing it that way, the carrier owner would then recoup the cost of the Anaconda because the friend bought it off of him.

[@luthariii7827]

I see a large majority hating this, and many just straight going to stop playing cause of this. The others are more hardcore, have money, and telling all the rest “bye bye then”. Yeah, except looking at the percentages through reddit, KZbin, and many other locations (google it), we probably shouldn’t be telling those players to leave. Otherwise, FC’s aren’t going to have many customers, and with that being the main source of income.... well, it’s more like “bye bye FC”, unless you grind enough to dump into the ship for 2 years of payment. Which.... makes that the endgame? That sounds boring, and a hassle. I easily have the money for one (and I understand both sides), but I’m more towards not buying one, so far.

[@hibiscus779]

I love it. It's indestructible from the outside, except falling apart from the inside from regular wear and tear. You can store commodities on it, so it's possible to do so in the game, but it's still not possible to store commodities in a warehouse or on your ships, because... no answer. ED's problem is that it is unwilling or unable to provide new gameplay, so they offer a giant grind/credit sink for a weird clunky outpost that requires tender loving care by invisible minions. So the Deck Officer is permanently stuck on my fleet carrier, I assume, forever, desperately hoping that I don't stop playing, or the decaying ship falls apart around him. Epic gameplay.

[@brettreynolds6960]

So instead of decomissioning - maybe they could be sent to a storage dock? Maybe you have to take the carrier to a special planet where they have this holding facility and it can sit whilst you wait another 4 years for more content to appear?

[@Evangel-aclr]

I can see this being a useful tool to the fuel rats

[@nothanks3236]

And that's about it unfortunately.

[@DrivingDerbyshire]

Fuel rats don't charge. The upkeep might be an issue.

[@pureskill123]

@@nothanks3236 Operation Ida too. Park a carrier near the repairing station full of repair commodities. No more 200ly hauls.

[@TmanT321]

@@DrivingDerbyshire They don't charge because how would they. Theres no money transfer system in the game. And even with the update, they still wont be able to charge.

[@alvatoredimarco]

@@TmanT321 Even if the Fuel Rats could charge, I strongly doubt that they would.

[@Jon-pc6ch]

The grind is off the charts for carriers.

[@ObeyHats4035]

I could watch that carrier jump over and over again.

[@cmdrmiketv2698]

A lot of people want to see the literally only video clip they had.

[@ObeyHats4035]

@@cmdrmiketv2698 I guess we will want to watch the streams for the players that play the beta. I will be looking out for Malic_VR or here in OA.

[@BobMarley-yq3wi]

I can see some commanders getting totally stranded with this. Jump to a system out of range of most ships, then the owner jumps again whilst commanders are out of dock.

[@wyvern7012]

To be completely honest? For countless of reasons I am immensely disappointed with the fleet carriers :/

[@foldionepapyrus3441]

If they are going to give it upkeep costs they should be to keep all the services running ONLY! It still needs to be flyable so explorers can get back, all it needs to be is shifted out to a parking orbit and shutdown when the money runs out (so there is room for an active carrier in the prime locations) - So we can take break and still have our base back to being fully useful once its been recommissioned (which should be a capped price lower than buying new).