Near future of Elite:Dangerous - clickable sky, orrery, outside view, planet landing

[domel]

Hello All,

I've been playing a bit already, starting from Gamma. Then, E: D was officially launched and as it is already rock solid, I've got a few questions concerning future plans:

1. Is a clickable sky planned? I would love to be docked (or undocked, whatever), have a mouse pointer available and a possibility while looking around the windows to click on a star to give its name, description, a possibility to lock it as a destination and so on. AFAIR it was announced by Mr. David Braben in some of the interviews or dev diaries. Additionally, an option to display names near stars (more than the one that the destination is locked on), maybe some zoom view...

2. When planetary landing is scheduled to appear?

3. Outside view! I know it is unrealistic, unless you use a wireless video transmission with a drone! This is a must...

4. How about an orrery view of a star system? With clickable items of course (targetting items in current system view would be good too). This was already presented during development and convinced many people to pledge on Kickstarter!

I understand that nearest 3 months are planned for Macintosh port, but maybe development and porting will be parallel tasks?

Would be grateful for an authoritative answer from Frontier

EDIT 29/12: 5. I completely don't understand a speed limit IN SPACE (traditional drive), especially with Flight Assist Off. 300 km/h and that's all? In 21st century you can drive a car faster on German highway (legally!) than a space ship in 34th century? Hilarious... 33rd century space (Frontier: Elite II) didn't have this limit... Yes, I know, FSD, but it still doesn't excuse not following the laws of physics...

EDIT (2) 29/12: 6. Why is Solar System incomplete? No Phobos, no Deimos orbiting Mars, a few Jovian/Saturnian satellites instead of tens as known today, or maybe even hundreds if counting all KNOWN moons, moonlets, shepherd moons orbiting inside the ring systems? Can't we really realistically model our Solar System as we succeeded with our whole Galaxy? I do really hope this is a work in progress

 

[Janichsan]

2. When planetary landing is scheduled to appear?

In the first expansion, currently planned for late next year.

 

[Geers]

In the first expansion, currently planned for late next year.

Late​ next year? That's too bad. In it's current state there is no way Elite is going to keep me interested that long.

 

[alphaa]

Late​ next year? That's too bad. In it's current state there is no way Elite is going to keep me interested that long.

totally agree, without planetary landings and a bit more game content, I think most players currently playing will move on by that time out of boredom.

 

[Antenociti]

In the first expansion, currently planned for late next year.

do we know if it will have any purpose other than "That's nice."....?

 

[domel]

do we know if it will have any purpose other than "That's nice."....?

It's the same question as "If GRAPHIC will have any purpose other than "That's nice"". I'm thinking of MUDs, Roguelike games and so on.

 

[StarTux]

In the first expansion, currently planned for late next year.

Planetary landings will not be released in a big single expansion, rather we'll see it staged, ie airless worlds first before moving to more challenging environments.

 

[Macgyver]

Late​ next year? That's too bad. In it's current state there is no way Elite is going to keep me interested that long.

Agreed,
ED needs to step it's game up, bored already.
I guess that's what happens when you don't add anything new to an old solo player game.
Big deal about the realistic star map, I couldn't care less.
Rather have 1000 planets and more content, than 400 tra zillion planets and a box full of bored.

 

[Hekantonkheries]

totally agree, without planetary landings and a bit more game content, I think most players currently playing will move on by that time out of boredom.

most players still playing are the ones vehemently opposed to anything that dares threaten their bubbles of "this is the perfect everything", most of them will never move on ebcause it allows them to pretend the alst 30 years of their lives doesnt exist and they arent gettign old

not to be confrontational with anyone, just alot of the repeat responses i see in ANY threads nowadays reminds me of some of the absurdities that arised when EVE tried Walking in Stations, sure its implementation was bumpy at first, but just about everyone who was a "true eve player" were calling for witch hunts of anyone who would dare like anything "new" or "different" from what they see as important, which is already happening here, and with the limited budget FD has, I doubt theyll try anything that will create a "community issue", so prepare for LONG stints of stagnancy

 

[Darkflame]

Many can be far too defensive, but I also trust Frontier to spend their development budget wisely. I dont think they will jump into expansions unless they really need the cash, as theres plenty of (cheaper) things that can improve the core game.
My guess would be 6 months more of core development (paid for by the new users just buying it now), then maybe a kickstarter for the first expansion.
Then, only after thats funded they will start work on it.

Planetary landings will not be released in a big single expansion, rather we'll see it staged, ie airless worlds first before moving to more challenging environments.

It has always been spoken of as a paid DLC expansion.
Its fair too say they will work on it, engine wise, in stages. But the content will be "a single big expansion".

But at this point we dont even know if its the first expansion - and the idea of them being able to put something like that out within a year is insane frankly. This stuff is hard. Theres a lot more core game to work on, and the game as it stands was released half a year late. (Note; That doesn't mean I am saying it should have been out sooner, merely the schedule was very optimistic)

 

[TUXER]

I am not a fan of clickable sky. For reasons that I dont care to get into at the moment.

I very much would like to be able to save routes, save favorite systems, and find a sytem without having to write it down as I go to the Galaxy map

 

[Antenociti]

It's the same question as "If GRAPHIC will have any purpose other than "That's nice"". I'm thinking of MUDs, Roguelike games and so on.

well, it might do if everything took exactly the same amount of effort to do... but it doesnt so... no, it isnt the same at all.

It was also a very straightforward and honest question: is there any game purpose to landing on planets?

It seems an awful lot of effort if there isnt a very big game incentive for it... which is fine if you ahve nothing else to do and no more content or features to add.

If you do...

 

[Tinman]

Late​ next year? That's too bad. In it's current state there is no way Elite is going to keep me interested that long.

Good thing it won't stay in its current state then...as soon as the holidays are over they will continue to add things as they've done up to this point. The main difference between the released version and the previous builds is that there will be no more wipes and the persistency of the gameworld will stay intact while they add things to it.

Planetary landings will not be released in a big single expansion, rather we'll see it staged, ie airless worlds first before moving to more challenging environments.

Indeed.

Quote from David himself for reference:

Planetary landings won't be a single thing. I think I've said before - it is what is down there that makes planetary landings compelling - and please remember all of this will be after first release of the game.

I imagine we will start with landings on airless moons. You would be able to see heavy industry, craters up close, and ultimately be able to deposit things on the surface (stash cargo or mining machines). Atmospheric worlds are a bigger challenge - whether rocky or gas giant in nature - and a key element there is the atmosphere. They should have rich cloudscapes with lightning, turbulence etc.

The biggest challenge is with what we call 'outdoor worlds'. I would want rich and varied vegetation, wildlife, and so on.

The whole reason why they are doing this as expansions is to do them well with real meaningful gameplay rather than just a terrain to fly over.

David talked about this back during the Kickstarter:
[video=youtube_share;EM0Gcl7iUM8]http://youtu.be/EM0Gcl7iUM8[/video]

Dates for when this will come is not known. IMO simply because they have wanted to focus on the first release before talking about things coming after. Now when it IS out I do expect to hear more about their future plans sometime after the holidays when they are up and running again.

 

[Darkflame]

well, it might do if everything took exactly the same amount of effort to do... but it doesnt so... no, it isnt the same at all.

It was also a very straightforward and honest question: is there any game purpose to landing on planets?

It seems an awful lot of effort if there isnt a very big game incentive for it... which is fine if you ahve nothing else to do and no more content or features to add.

If you do...

Theres lots of potential things they could do, but it would need expansion in the core space game first.
eg.
A scan of a planet reveals certain AREAS for a planet that might be interesting. ("unusual readings" "odd organics" "ruins found at..")
You then either equip your ship correctly to go down yourself and investigate, or sale the info for other players to do so. (after all, you might not have that expansion)

Then you hunt around the planet (on foot? flying low?) to find the spot of interest.
Maybe you get a rare item, or take some photos to sale to scientists, or a colony which has resources you can use (shops with rare stuff? Good prices to trade things?). Big bonus....or danger....for first contacts? (or, given theres not much aliens in Elite, it could be lost Human colony's, we don't need aliens everywhere to have interesting stuff).

Theres quite a few directions they can take it.

Personally I hope they think more in terms of "exploration" and maybe a little stealth, rather then doing a FPS thing (which I think would be doomed to failure).

 

[Altissimus]

Rather have 1000 planets and more content, than 400 tra zillion planets and a box full of bored.

Yeah, this is something I've been saying since the beginning. Am very concerned that the new features discussed are purely cosmetic.

Appreciate that DB is into astronomy...great...but I'm not.

I would like an interactive game experience, not merely a sandbox where I have to bring all the imagination, and Elite is a bit too much like that at the moment.

Hey ho, here comes all the -neg rep from those that won't hear other opinions...

 

[Alric]

do we know if it will have any purpose other than "That's nice."....?

Yes. That's why it's a full expansion not just another feature. They make a point of it every time I hear them talk about the subject.

 

[Robert Crusoe]

Didn't they say we would be able to walk around the space stations in the future, with the possibility of a GTA type accessibly huge environment.
or was that just wishful thinking ?n

 

[domel]

Why planetary landings? Well, Elite is a space sim (kind of, at least). I'd even say - realistic one. Space sim without planetary landings? Gosh...

What would I do? All I do on the space stations. Plus all the sightseeing... Plus expeditions, reconnaissance, exploration... Possibilities are endless! Elite without planetary landings? A crippled game... (as for today, I'm not talking about original Elite. But we had planetary landings in Frontier: Elite II already...)

 

[andyl]

I very much would like to be able to save routes, save favorite systems, and find a sytem without having to write it down as I go to the Galaxy map

Me too ... I currently grab a list of all the systems / star-ports I visit by grabbing the logs and processing it. But it would be nice to have things done in game - maybe it could be a computer systems software upgrade you could buy at stations.

Other things that would be nice ...

Have some stations in the process of being built - so you can see them in the process of being constructed. Obviously as time goes on the station gets more and more complete until it opens. Also station construction is going to take a load of raw materials - so it will need a lot of traders coming in and delivering metals and minerals.

Lots of people have had a moan about the systems with large distances to the station. It might be an idea to have a new invention which requires a lot of exotic (read rare) materials and science and engineering teams delivered to such far out stations to create a gravitational point source - and so shift the jump exit point closer to the station and away from the primary. Obviously the exotic materials need to come from somewhere pretty much out of the way - a long way from the seed points and the known busy parts of the galaxy. This should be a very hard task to bring all the components and people together - and then it will take time to build. Then some brave pilot needs to deliver the point source to the desired position in space and it activates on a timer - brave because on activation you might well be in a horrible gravity well if you don't time your escape well.

 

[Peaveywolf]

Hate to say this but Frontier are making the game they want to play. This has been the plan all along. They won't trivialise anything and certainly won't compromise their vision of the game.