Planets: Prettiest at Night?

zexpe · Nov 14, 2014

I was looking forward to this feature of the planets. Does anyone know whether it has been officially dropped or will FD surprise us with it in the next week?

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From Newsletter #2

Lobstris · Nov 14, 2014

As someone who has spent time proc. genning. cityscapes, this was one thing I was looking forward to - especially if they could tie the density and distribution of settlements to population and economy type. I doubt it's in the first release, but we could be pleasantly surprised. Something that needs time to be done well, so part of the planetary landings expansion perhaps?

Ian Phillips · Nov 14, 2014

i thought there was a picture of city lights on a planet in one of the newsletters... you did have to look carefully, but it was there!

Lobstris · Nov 15, 2014

Ian Phillips said:
i thought there was a picture of city lights on a planet in one of the newsletters... you did have to look carefully, but it was there!

If it is the picture I'm thinking of (outpost, partially in shadow over terrestrial planet), we initially thought it could be city lights, but on closer inspection could have just been aliasing artefacts on partially illuminated latticework on the outpost. (Gawd. Now I sound like a two-bit conspiracy theorist... I'm sure the photo showed bigfoot in the Priory of Sion!)

Brodie · Nov 15, 2014

Yeah I have to admit when I saw those concept pictures of city lights on a planet in the newsletter (shown in the OP above) I thought it looked awesome, I would be disappointed if they where not added to the game at some point (before launch by preference).

Armante · Nov 15, 2014

They look great -would really like to see those in-game

zexpe · Nov 15, 2014

Lobstris said:
As someone who has spent time proc. genning. cityscapes, this was one thing I was looking forward to - especially if they could tie the density and distribution of settlements to population and economy type. I doubt it's in the first release, but we could be pleasantly surprised. Something that needs time to be done well, so part of the planetary landings expansion perhaps?

Well, it certainly would be strange not having this when the planetary landings are possible (assuming that expansion ever happens, has it even been confirmed yet?), but given that planets only function as eye candy in the current release, why not make them as pretty as possible for release?

Obsidian Ant · Nov 15, 2014

zexpe said:
Well, it certainly would be strange not having this when the planetary landings are possible (assuming that expansion ever happens, has it even been confirmed yet?), but given that planets only function as eye candy in the current release, why not make them as pretty as possible for release?

I agree, no reason we should have to wait for planetary landings to get city lights from orbit.

Also - the first expansion has pretty much been confirmed to be "Walking outside ships" - and it's likely that will be 12 to 18 months away. If Planetary Landings come after that, it will be around 3 years before we can get down to those planets.