ship interiors - will they happen

[Agony_Aunt]

One thing Burr makes clear is most ships were not designed with consideration for interiors. Placement of SRV bay, cockpits with no room to move in them, scaling issues with doors and stairs, or in the case of the Corvette, a complete lack of entry point or an unreachable one in the case of the Asp.

Many (most? all?) ships would need to be reworked to accommodate interiors.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

The environment (aka interiors) for testing what ppl think about interiors already exist. Simply finish the bridge (aka cockpit) by adding the ability to get up out of the chair and do stuff that is available in that space. Its already modeled. Interact with the crew you hire that you call to the bridge. Disembark, jump in an SLF or SRV are available through the door or airlock that all ships have. There is game play opportunities there; the eyes simply need to open up wide.

Problem is, in some ships, there isn't the space to move.

 

[Capt. Hook]

I don't think ship interiors will make it in game as not a money or long term engagement spinner.... It's still a shame after all that only the Anaconda shows physical wear and tear on the ship exterior. If that modelling principle doesn't extend to other ships (presumably on basis of time and cost to develop) I don't think the even bigger task of ship interiors will make the light of day.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Team of 2 maybe 3 if you go junior. It's usually fair to double the employees wage and consider that the total cost to the company per year when you consider taxes, administration and all the equipment, licenses, insurance and other boring things that go on top of the developer taking home 50k/yr. 50k isn't un unreasonable wage for a mid range software engineer. Even at a graduate wage you'd have used most of the 250k on 3 juniors if they got what google is calling an average graduate wage of around 38k and then you'd lose senior dev time training them up.

In the sense that in most organisations the direct salary bill is roughly half of total expenditure, yes, doubling isn't unreasonable. I was using a slightly different calculation since a lot of the rest of that expenditure is things like building maintenance or marketing placements or the AWS bill which don't really vary much by the number of employees - eventually you need a bigger building, sure, or you're doing so much at once you need to advertise more things simultaneously, but plus or minus three or four employees isn't going to touch them at Frontier's scale.

Estimates for the direct additional costs of employing extra people tend to be more in the 30-40% range (depending on how generous the non-salary compensation is), so £250k would get you about £180-190k of salary costs which should certainly get you three people and probably get to four if they're not all software engineers - for something like ship interiors but probably also true of a lot of other possible features you'd certainly need at least one game artist and you'd also need shares of the time of a bunch of other specialisms - most of which, despite their importance, tend to be paid less than developers overall, though I haven't looked what Frontier's salary scales are like.

Admittedly even then we're both still assuming that Frontier are willing to operate Elite Dangerous on a non-profit basis where merely covering the costs of development is the goal - if "and it actually brings in a comparable amount of revenue to putting those devs/artists/etc on another Planet Zoo pack instead" is required then the income expectation needs to significantly exceed expenditure, and you probably end up closer to just 1 FTE of staff time for the project split between various people for a projected £250k income.

 

[Lukaz_Chrom]

Watch the Buur video linked above. Buur certainly isn't against, or wouldn't welcome them, but makes some good points about if they might happen.

While any recognition about the topic is most certainly welcome, Buurs video is (unsurprisingly) rather lackluster.
For once, he hasn't mentioned Ship Repair in his video once. But ok, let's begrudgingly forgive that,
yet then he is actually nitpicking on stuff like "you'd have to jUmP to access the ramp!" XD ... {Honestly makes me doubt his stance but let's still give him the benefit of the doubt.}

So to answer Buurs questions:
Ship Interiors Why? => Because they were clearly promised. Because they are desired AF. And because they would be a Gold-Mine.
Ship Interiors How? => Exactly as he sniffed out too. Via a loading-screen hidden as the elevevator-scene and not as "full" but partial Ship Interiors.
Ship Interiors When? => THAT! IS THE RIGHT QUESTION!

Furthermore, his imagination was also seemingly not sufficient for the idea of a ramp being neither 100% neccessary nor conditional.
We CAN have Corvette-Interiors even without such XD Why would a dedicated Warship need such? Just slap a retractable ladder close to the door.
And he honestly thought that old Ships would likely not get Ship Interiors because that would be economically unviable XD²
Man, guess he has obviously never played Warframe beacuse his entire prespective on what would and would not be economically viable is wrong the moment he
(and that goes for a lot of ppl) assumes that Interior-Decoration ALONE wouldn't already be a Gold-Mine XD Repeated e.g. Warframe
& To drive the nail in the coffin: If what one wants is economical viability one can do the logical thing and REUSE INTERIORS wherever viable XD
But no mention about that possibility either.

To provide a proper contrast;
ObsidianAnts most recent take on the topic is 10x better:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWPTlFt43_M

While of course not without its flaws either, this is an actually fair PoV, which I would wholeheartedly recommend ppl to watch.

 

[Rat Catcher]

I would wholeheartedly recommend ppl to watch.

Nah, I blocked that one on youtube ages ago.
Anyone claiming to know what players want is a big fail on my part, streamers and fanatics both just seek attention.

 

[Lukaz_Chrom]

Nah, I blocked that one on youtube ages ago.
Anyone claiming to know what players want is a big fail on my part, streamers and fanatics both just seek attention.

Ah yes, blocking the clearest, biggest and most honest voice of the community,
and yet it is you that claims for others to wear "blinders".

"You should go hunting elsewhere, you won't catch anything here."
- CMDR T. Riker

 

[Rat Catcher]

Ah yes,
and yet it is you that claims for others to wear "blinders".

"You should go hunting elsewhere, you won't catch anything here."

I'm jumping up and down on top of a bridge, catching plenty, I think.

 

[galahad2069]

Buurs video is (unsurprisingly) rather lackluster.
For once, he hasn't mentioned Ship Repair in his video once.

Probably because he did not want to lose viewers.

 

[Lukaz_Chrom]

Probably because he did not want to lose viewers.

So you would say the same about ObsidianAnt?
Who has a significantly higher subscriber-count mind you ?

Just in case, let me link the video in question one more time;

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWPTlFt43_M

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Personally i think there are a lot of great streamers in elite.... they do a decent job of advertising the game and I have been fortunate to meet a few of them and they were all great people who i would happily spend time over a beer with. However regardless of how many people follow them, from my perspective what they state, it is their opinion only and their view is no more or less valid than mine.

and 1000 followers does not automatically mean they speak on behalf of 1000 people and are therefore 1000x more important than I am.

of course Frontier may feel differently but they have 1 voice as far as i am concerned... just as i have 1 voice.

even if they are saying something i 100% agree with, i hate it when any streamer claims they are speaking for "the players".

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

even if they are saying something i 100% agree with, i hate it when any streamer claims they are speaking for "the players".

Me too, even more so when they post loaded questions and then go "See? This is what the community (no: my community) wants!".

I've listened to Buur's video, and the shortcomings he listed can be seen that even the new ships are not designed with interiors in mind at all. But I am sure the obnoxious part of the "interiors when?" faction will conveniently ignore that.

 

[amigacooke]

of course Frontier may feel differently

They clearly do which is why there's the partner program.

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

They clearly do which is why there's the partner program.

They are in the partner program because they are another PR outlet. They might also get a feeling what their individual communities like or don't, which isn't wrong. But they are not elected officials.

 

[Rat Catcher]

Personally i think there are a lot of great streamers in elite....

I agree.

I just choose who I watch, which I assume most intelligent people do. (although I only really bother with perhaps 4 or 5 ED channels, with Buur & GND being the most watched.)

 

[Lukaz_Chrom]

even if they are saying something i 100% agree with, i hate it when any streamer claims they are speaking for "the players".

Have you actually watched the video ?
Juding the book by the cover because the thumbnail sais "What the players really want!"
...
And btw.
According to the logic of some here, there is NO WAY WHATSOEVER to gage "What the players really want!"

But let me put out a WILD theory
If something is requested by the vast majority of people AGAIN AND AGAIN literally EVERYWHERE ...
MAYBE, JUST MAYBE ...
it might be something "that players really want!" ... and this is in NO way restricted to Ship Interiors btw. :/ (Just that Ship Interiors are obviously #1 here)

Just a theory of course
After all, we can never be sure unless God himself comes down to declare it ...
Unless you are an Atheist I guess XD

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Nope not watched the video yet and actually that wasn't why i put what I did... but it IS a trait which many streamers do (and actually what i had in mind were a number of "open letters" which this forum has had over the years.

PS that said.... one thing i truly hate even more than streamers claiming to speak for the masses is clickbait titles... the UK media does it all the time claiming something that when you look at the data is absolutely not true..... So if a streamer/journalist/blogger does not want a reader/listener to see a clickbait title and draw a false conclusion then the obvious solution is not to make a clickbait title which does not represent the conclusion you want people to draw.... simples!.
Surely you can see that even the people on Redit, the forums and youtube combined are but a tiny subsection of the people who play the game? and even if it were the majority i believe your statement that the majority even here want ship interiors is false! its certainly not the number 1 most requested feature.

The only truly representative of active elite dangerous players the game has ever had AFAIK was the ship transfer poll which FD built into the game launcher and emailed all account holders iirc.

PS to be clear....... i would love ship interiors... it was a feature promoted by David Braben as a future expansion and with with game play associated with them.... but that said, personally i would not want them before ships crew or EVA and exploring derelicts etc or new planet types

but ultimately i would happily take ANY premium expansion for the game

 

[Rat Catcher]

Surely you can see that even the people on Redit, the forums and youtube combined are but a tiny subsection of the people who play the game?

I suspect the answer to that is a resounding "NO!"
Given:

If something is requested by the vast majority of people AGAIN AND AGAIN literally EVERYWHERE ...

 

[IndyNovascend]

The Buur Pit has put out an excellent video regarding upcoming possibilities in Elite Dangerous gameplay and some thoughts and opinions on ship interiors. As much as I'd like even a bit of nothing-to-do ship interiors, I think I agree with Buur's opinion in that ship interiors is a "why" not a "when"/if.

EDIT: I see now someone else already posted the video. Still, I'm going to leave this here because some of this lot get so off topic that the conversation goes sideways in a few replies.

 

[thistle]

While any recognition about the topic is most certainly welcome, Buurs video is (unsurprisingly) rather lackluster.

I'm shocked.

For once, he hasn't mentioned Ship Repair in his video once. But ok, let's begrudgingly forgive that,
yet then he is actually nitpicking on stuff like "you'd have to jUmP to access the ramp!" XD ... {Honestly makes me doubt his stance but let's still give him the benefit of the doubt.}

Why in every single case where someone holds a different position to you, do you have to insist on implying they are not being honest or genuine in their opinion?

Furthermore, his imagination was also seemingly not sufficient for the idea of a ramp being neither 100% neccessary nor conditional.

He is suggesting IF as some suggest the inclusion of walkable ramps and doors in new ships implies interiors are being worked on, why would they not be a) accessible or b) scaled correctly in those new ships. That's all.

And again with the sly insults.

I'm jumping up and down on top of a bridge, catching plenty, I think.

There's much enjoyment to be had but, to be honest, for the first time ever I'm actually going to put this one on ignore.