Please help me decide.. Wall of text

[bailablestone12]

Good ( insert time of the day ) CMDRs,

Since the Colonia expansion idea came out I was very excited about it, not sure what it was, I don't even like long trips. Maybe the idea of a new fresh start with different objectives in my Cmdr career and other things to do. For that I decided to make Colonia my new home after we had our own settlement.

I did a total of 6 trips with guides for the community goals ( yep, both of them) and in between trips I was transferring my fleet, doing some bounty hunting, mining, data missions to be friendly with all the factions there and then back to the bubble where I bought and upgraded new components as I thought I would need for my ships in the future.

Finally, the moment arrived, we received our settlement and it was time to move, so I took my combat fitted Anaconda with a 30 LY jump range and started my final trip to Colonia ( believe me, after 6 previous trips this one was the longest and most tedious of all).

A week ago I arrived to Jacques and transferred the last set of engineered components I had for my fleet. After that the next mandatory thing to do was to fly to Pedersen's Legacy to sell my exploration data ( as I mentioned before I am not an explorer so I only stopped for ELW or water worlds ) and now I am an ally with MCRN.

A deeper look into our system and I found we were given 1 Res, 1 High Res and 1 Haz Res which is great for me as I really like combat and at the same time I could help our faction. It also meant the opportunity to do some mining and finally get over that 20% left to be elite in trading.

Suddenly 2 days ago something happened when I was leaving a High combat zone in EUL-XXXXX-443 ( I only remember the last portion of the system names as I have them bookmarked in the map). I finished all my missions, being the biggest one of 108 enemies and went to cash my hard earned money ( hey, I did it alone in a FDL and it took me a little more than 1.5 hrs between going back for repairs and ammo so it is hard earned ) and I realized how easy this would be in a wing like people do in the bubble with 17 Draconis. I left the system and went to Colonia and all the systems around and I was only able to find zero ( 0) cmdrs. Not that I mind doing the missions alone but I realized that I traded off pretty much what I was doing in the bubble ( bounty hunting, mining, combat zones, trading, etc) to do it in a "NEW" place for the social aspect of the game.. I used to communicate a lot with commanders at the CG's, and different systems I visited in the bubble. I never expected it to be the same in Colonia but 0 cmdrs in a small area in a week ?. It was like playing solo.

Not sure if it is the time of the day I play ( every day from 9 to 12 PM GMT) or if the number of cmdrs in Colonia is really low or none in the PVE group ( the US one) but now I am considering my options here and all I have is :

1. Suck it up and stay in Colonia alone doing regular activities I would do in the bubble and hope things will get more exciting.
2. Take the Sidewinder back to the bubble and start fresh in the bubble ( leaving all the fleet in Colonia and start a new one in the bubble). Like starting from zero but with credits, Federal, imperial ranks and unlocked engineers.
3. Get a second account to have in the bubble ( really start from zero). This one is almost out of consideration after noticing all the things I have to do with a new commander but is not discarded.

What would you do?


Cmdr Bailablestone12

[atraangelis]

Dammit.. i get on when you log off. Im 100% in colonia and pedersens legacy.
Im on from 8pm to 11pm est (gmt -5)

I have only ever seen one other commander. Aparently we have a navy out there... i dont see them.

[AndyB]

I took option 2 as soon as it was announced we were successful in getting our faction there, i'm currently back in the bubble rebuilding my fleet

[Walter]

Do you log into the Mobius Discord channels? You're more likely to come across at least one person who is in the Colonia region.

You're right though, there aren't that many out here. Some get bored and leave. A lot are explorers and are often away (another expedition left this week) and many fly in other PGs. Sign up for the Fleetcomm Discord channel and PG as well if you want to meet people (but most seem to be elsewhere). There's also the CCN Discord channel.

I've been here for nearly three months, but have created a bit of a niche that keeps me busy. What do you want to do?

[Roger Wilco Jr]

Funny, I was literally just going to PM Mobius, but maybe he'll read this instead.

I'm getting pretty tired of this situation too. I have little hope of FD fixing large groups, and I think we'll be forever split, and eventually split some more. I gave up my slots in the Mobius groups because I was moving to Colonia and had planned to start playing in open. I tried that for a few weeks and saw a few commanders. Then I tried Fleetcomm, my hope for a crowded PVE group in Colonia, and I saw a few more commanders. Then since Mobia was settled, I've tried both both and haven't seen any commanders for a couple weeks, although I have been messing in the beta. I haven't had any problems in open, but now I feel I was just being foolish. Maybe if they ever fix open I'll try it again, but for now I'll stick in a PVE group. I was going to rejoin Mobius PVE and see how that went, but I'd really rather do something different.

So I was going to ask Mobius if he was ok with someone forming a Mobia private group (Mobia PVE, or Mobius Mobia, or Mobius Colonia, or etc.). I've certainly been hinting about this on the board several times. I would ask him, but I assume he has neither the time or interest in dealing with running another private group. Anyway, having this affiliated group would allow members from both Mobius and Mobius PVE to also join this combined group for a more concentrated player base out in Colonia/Mobia.

So, for Mobius, what are your thoughts?

If Mobius says it's a go, and assuming someone else gets to do it, is anyone interested in creating and managing the group? I could do it (and will, if necessary), but I do work and I think it would be better to have someone with more time during the day. It would probably be better to have someone that hangs out on Discord during the day. We'd probably want a new Discord channel too.

So what do people think?

[Saberius]

Funny, I was literally just going to PM Mobius, but maybe he'll read this instead.

I'm getting pretty tired of this situation too. I have little hope of FD fixing large groups, and I think we'll be forever split, and eventually split some more.

I have personally messaged Michael Brookes direct about this recently.
If i end up blocked on Facebook and my frontier forum account gets slammed, I'll know why.
That or I'll get told in no uncertain terms where to stick the pointy end of a Federal Corvette...

Dependent on his reply, regarding private group solutions, we ( the Mobius volunteer admin staff) have some talks to decide on future plans on either creating a Colonia group (as you suggest), or now that we have a sufficient AsiaPacific member-base, split Mobius (original) from EU & APAC to EU and create a new APAC group, which would include Australia, China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, New Zealand etc

[bailablestone12]

I like the idea of a Colonia specific group. The only reason I haven't left Colonia is because I still have hopes of being part of the development of the "new bubble" and MCRN as a new expanding power in the area.

But for that to happen a little help from FD is needed. So far besides the Colonia expansion cg's we haven't seen anything new, not even C rated modules, no cg's specific in the area or new big stations so we can use the big ships for something ( I haven't used the anaconda for combat missions as I have to be changing ships constantly) and we don't have any missions yet at Pedersen's. You just can leave the BGS do its job by itself, the few commanders there will be bored because is the same thing as the old bubble but the old one has the aliens, the engineers and finally more People to interact with.

I never thought that moving to Colonia was going to be an easy task and didn't think that the development of it was going to be fast but we really need Colonia to be an active growing community and not just an explorer's stop between the bubble and Sag A.

[evovi]

We might all be heading to Colonia in one of the future updates... As our little bubble becomes someone's new stomping ground !

[GlobusDiablo]

...
2. Take the Sidewinder back to the bubble and start fresh in the bubble ( leaving all the fleet in Colonia and start a new one in the bubble). Like starting from zero but with credits, Federal, imperial ranks and unlocked engineers.
...

What I would recommend. And remember:

► Show Spoiler

[Roger Wilco Jr]

<snip> or now that we have a sufficient AsiaPacific member-base, split Mobius (original) from EU & APAC to EU and create a new APAC group, which would include Australia, China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, New Zealand etc

Well, as it stands now, new European players are screwed because Mobius is full up, and it looks like Mobius PVE will be full pretty soon itself. So unless there is a culling the frees up significant places, it looks like the group may need to be split again. A new Mobius APAC would essentially split the Mobius PVE group, and Mobius would still be full. Not the greatest solution - thanks, FD - but necessary.

But that doesn't help with Colonia. Splitting the player base just makes it that much less likely to run into other players out in Colonia. PVE players need a concentrated player base out in Colonia. Mobius is the brand name for PVE, so Mobius Colonia would probably be best. But just a plain Colonia PVE would be great too. And it should be for all PVE players, so it probably shouldn't be linked to Mobia or The Order, which are really minor faction specific groups within Mobius.

I don't think FleetComm is the answer as that is mainly for stellar expeditions and I don't think Erimus would appreciate it being hijacked.

My main concern is that managing it will be a pain as the game can't enforce PVE - it all has to be done via blocked player lists and manually investigating infractions. So regardless, sharing information with Mobius will be required. It is also a long time commitment, so whoever administers the group will need to be very reliable - as reliable as Mobius.