I am curious to see if other commanders have similar or dissimilar opinions to myself on this subject as I brought this up in another post, and I and couldn't find any recent post with a cursory search(though I did find several from years ago) dealing with this specifically.
I would love to have the ability to "build" stations as an option in game for players that doesn't require a CG.
With the introduction of the FC and the way that they move around the galaxy, and limitations of numbers per system, carrying something like 80%-ish of the necessary services of a station, I believe that the next logical step would be for players to be able to decide to make stations in areas with no/few stations available.
The Bad:
The cost involved with developing the in-game mechanics to make this functional, and all of the hidden mechanics likely needing to be modified to avoid issues.-This would include the cost to make missions procedurally generate in systems with no oversight from a Dev to fine tune or manually set parameters(I am assuming they do not already do so given the slow speed at which stations are added)
Adding more objects to the galaxy and adding possible strain to the BGS if stations were to come with minor factions(they should) resulting in more server strain/issues.
Adding possible faction conflicts over various squadrons wanting to have a station in the same space, or wanting to add additional stations to an area with a station already present(though this could also be seen as a positive).
Bugs…. oh the bugs that would occur.
…probably not on console….(but maybe?) =
The Good:
We get to f-ing make stations!
This would introduce a far more palatable credit sink as paying upkeep for a station would, realistically, merit being measured in the billions per month/week based on "size and services" similar to FCs but on a larger scale/group oriented.
This would give player groups actual tangible goals that "feel" like an actual impact on the game as a whole, even if it is a minor impact in the grand scale, besides engaging in the BGS of Power Play.
This would likely bring back many of the commanders that got bored with nothing to do, or simply got tired of the grind as this could push towards more group/social activities as well as goal oriented labor.
This is something easily monetized for cosmetics that would likely bring in a larger amount of cashflow for Frontier(more money = more development!!(?)) and extend the life of the game even longer. I could easily see color pallets, "station kits/types/shapes", and even station "internals" being valued at the 20k-90k arx range. FCs are already something like 13k arx for base kits, so stations being the same or more seems perfectly reasonable to me(and I would honestly be more inclined to spend money personalizing a station than my FC).
This would likely sell more copies of ED:O to players that were reluctant/hesitant, which means more money for FDev, and likely a good impact on their stock as well, which means… again more money likely spent on the game and continuation of development.
If other commanders have the same desire that I do, this would curry a LOT of community good will, likely resulting in far less nay-saying and complaints over other issues.-Only beneficial to Fdev, but hey it is a positive.
Feedback:
What did I miss? Do you agree? Are there other positives/negatives? I'd like to see what the general consensus is and if it is as positive as I expect, we might even be able to get an Fdev member to notice this and make it happen(as unlikely as that is on either account).
What would you think is an acceptable amount for stations to cost? Resource wise, credit wise, upkeep wise, and even cosmetic wise? It was commented that there may be inaccessible assets pointing towards this being a project FDev was working on at one point, but cancelled, is this something the community thinks they should fast-track for ED:O content?
