Space Creatures

warbaby2

warbaby2
Most theories place the origins of such hypothetical creatures on some planet or the other... they would, most likely, have evolved from something else.

Maybe a very primitive earthworm like creature survived the destruction it's planet by an asteroid, by borrowing deep into the debts... then slowly, over generations and generations, while the planet turned into an asteroid field itself, the worm evolved, became bigger and more resilient... grew strong, hard mandibles to break rock, and hard mineral shells... maybe even some form of sonic based locomotion, to move from one rock to the other... such a creature could very well be a danger to a mining ship, blasting open one of it's tunnels.

...and that's only a very quick theory that took me hardly 10 minutes to come up with. ;)
 
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dannysquid

dannysquid
Slawkenbergius said:
Yeah, but it's already been confirmed that those creatures won't be making it on the grounds that they were silly silly silly. Void creatures are only separated from what was in Elite by one degree of silliness. They're silly silly. I'm kind of hoping Elite: Dangerous doesn't go much beyond silly.
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I suppose I sort of agree. But I think there's something strangely less silly about a mysterious, unknowable creature that inhabits asteroids than Star Trek style aliens, however much that doesn't fit with what we know about biology.

And I think the potential for spicing up the mining is worth a bit of craziness.

I'm not really sure where I stand with ELITE when it comes to hard SF seriousness versus action-packed space opera. I think ELITE/FRONTIER does feel a bit more classy than its imitators and a fairly serious and plausible approach is required, but sometimes it feels like people want the game to be as dry and characterless as possible. And I'm not sure that's necessarily going to lead to the best possible version of ELITE.
 

Slawkenbergius

Slawkenbergius
dannysquid said:
I'm not really sure where I stand with ELITE when it comes to hard SF seriousness versus action-packed space opera. I think ELITE/FRONTIER does feel a bit more classy than its imitators and a fairly serious and plausible approach is required, but sometimes it feels like people want the game to be as dry and characterless as possible. And I'm not sure that's necessarily going to lead to the best possible version of ELITE.
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Yup. It's a balancing act. Personally I think there's a lot of space-opera mileage to be had out of the human element (dictator-princesses, cultist weirdos, pirate queens, deviant patricians, whatever), without having to resort to cheap tricks with the alien or tech stuff. I don't want to see a dry game either, but when the game is already minimising the role of sentient aliens in favour of human drama, and tending towards the plausibility side of science, hostile 'void creatures' kind of brings it back down to C-grade fiction and E-grade science. I'd hope more for a B in fiction and a B in science.

I'm all for floaty aliens on gas giants though, as vaguely plausible passes my personal threshold, and I'm definitely for all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff on more obviously hospitable planets. I'd also love to see some truly alien stuff, rather than the fairly mundane hybrids of Earth animals you see in franchises like Star Wars.

It will be interesting to see if the void creatures make it into the final game in the end, and in what form if they do. The one truly big concern I'd have is that they won't actually be visible... If they only exist as text telling you that you've picked up some hostile creatures in your refinery, that will be really crap in my opinion.
 

Lestat

Banned
Lestat
The only way I think we could have space creatures. Areas where a planet being made between a very low gravity Or dense clusters of Asteroids with Atmosphere So creatures could float or fly and the ships could fly in there with out any issue.

But be warn. You could get a hitchhiker. Using the fuel scoop to collect Gasses.
 
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warbaby2

warbaby2
Slawkenbergius said:
I don't want to see a dry game either, but when the game is already minimizing the role of sentient aliens in favor of human drama, and tending towards the plausibility side of science, hostile 'void creatures' kind of brings it back down to C-grade fiction and E-grade science. I'd hope more for a B in fiction and a B in science.
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I totally agree with using scifie grounded in science... that's why, in example I strongly advocate against "sound in space"... but I still don't think creatures living in deep space are so far off, scientifically, but to make them really work, they have to be done "right". The quality of a good science fiction narrative always depends on how well it is thought out...
 

Zuikaku

Z
Please, no space creatures!
Let's base the game on known scientific facts!
Do not turn this one into some kind of Star Wars spin off! :eek:
 

Aewarin Jameson

Aewarin Jameson
warbaby2 said:
that's why, in example I strongly advocate against "sound in space"
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Wanted to address this comment: Muted sounds from your engines and weapons as they are used; impact noises etc are a great way to add to the immersion ... solidly agree.

However I saw a thread on the SC forum (linked to it from here) that showed some videos of Evochron Mercenary doing exactly what you're advocating. It was .. shall I say not my cup of tea. The periodic high pitched beeps in your ear to signal an incoming missile became annoying very quickly to the point that I had to stop watching. (It could simply be the choice of noise).

I guess what I am trying to say is that if you are championing this as an addition to ED - a player choice - then I am with you. It's not something I would likely use myself but I have nothing against it as an option. However, if you're trying to sell this idea as the only way to hear sounds in cockpit then I would vote against the idea.

Maybe I have been Hollywoodified too much, I don't know :)
 

warbaby2

warbaby2
Liqua said:
Maybe I have been Hollywoodified too much, I don't know :)
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Haven't we all? ;)

When talking about "realism" though, then we might as well go the whole 9 yards, so to speak... I wrote a few thoughts on that over in this thread. I wouldn't advocate that "no sounds outside of your ship" should be mandatory, but it should be an option.

As far as warning sounds go: I'd prefer a nice computer voice to a high pitched warning klaxon... but that's just me. ;)
 

RobFisher

RobFisher
Liqua I like that vid...mostly. I think the lack of sound in space would be very atmospheric, and emphasise the loneliness.

Yes those beeps were annoying (and superfluous - I did not notice the player reacting to them), the music was too loud, the voice was poor, the weapons too quiet and not dramatic enough. Why is there undecipherable radio chatter? Either it should be useful or not there.

But the engine noise was good. I'd add some creaking and stress noises from the hull, whirring life support systems (imagine the fear as you get complete silence when your ship's power fails) and scary impact noises, too.
 

Sterlino

Sterlino
'' we are Borg resistance is futile..''

would be nice.

Or this thread is refeering to something like ''alien'' and monstrous creatures like that ?
 
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