It just like: "Wave? What wave?"
Scale
- Thread starter Thisdale
- Start date
I like the idea of other ships, as mentioned by someone the Large Cruisers from Frontier where a nice touch. ED could do it better, as suggested they could have Large Cargo Ships or Shipyards for Capitol Ships or even some stationed outside space docks. I would prefer that they were kept as NPCs though and it would make it feel more alive.
Exactly what I was thinking. Find someone with a DK2 and float around a space station for a while; when you understand how far away you are from most things the whole time you'll realise both how huge these things are and how much detail is in there.
If you can't find someone with a DK2 then just try to move around the inside of the space station at 1m/s (walking speed). And again, bump your shield up against the inside of the station and follow the wall.
I have made the suggestion of a mega-freighter, that is so large it could never dock at a station, but either uses drones or hires ships to transfer cargo. These ships would be so large and powerfully equipped that a single jump could be measured in hundreds of light years, but they are also so expensive that only the major factions or huge corporations can afford them (which is why there will be so few). They could also offer players the option to ship you and your vessel (or vessels, if you have more) to locations along their route.
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Ballast!
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Have FD stated they are solar panels.
If so, then I think Lobstris has a fair point about having a mix of power sources, and solar not requiring fuel.
However, I'd always looked on them as being cooling devices.
That station is generating an enormous amount of heat, which is really dificult to get rid of in space.
I was surprised that some stations DONT have sificcient cooling... particularly the traditional coriolis.
Panther Clipper will still be sissy. We need Weyland-Yutani class, Nostromo and Sulaco.
And no, you're not crazy.
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=107442&highlight=weyland
I'd have no problem with them being solar panels, just from the point of view of "free" energy. However solar panels are held in place, oriented towards the nearest star... they should definitely never be rotating with a station.
On the other hand if they are instead heat exchangers (cunningly designed to look exactly like 20th century solar panels), then there aren't enough of them and they aren't the correct shape. Heat exchangers (in space) work through having enormous surface area so they can radiate heat away which tends to require a much more interesting shape than exactly like a solar panel. Asides from this, these stations are huge with a huge surface area and a good chunk of the things need to be kept considerably warmer than surrounding space.
This is going to sound a bit crazy, but I sometimes think my appreciation on the scale of the player ships would be greatly helped if the Outfitting screen always had a couple of hanger-workers, just guys with orange jumpsuits and gas masks or something silly, poking around the ship, presumably doing the sort of tune-up or examination that's involved in, well, outfitting a ship. Even though I know my Anaconda is a big ship, and can see some sort-of-enlightening comparisons, like that big door that leads out of the hanger, without having an actual (purely cosmetic) human being standing near the ship, giving me a very concrete frame of reference.
Or, as I requested in a Suggestions thread, ship schematics so I can at least see a chart of what my Anaconda's interior should look like. x3 Ideally on a grid layout with appropriate scale markers.
Or, as I requested in a Suggestions thread, ship schematics so I can at least see a chart of what my Anaconda's interior should look like. x3 Ideally on a grid layout with appropriate scale markers.
Although in the original Elite we were always told a Coriolis is 1km x 1km x 1km.
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That sums it up for me, too. Perfectly put.
Next, can we debate whether travelling through hyperspace with a broken canopy should be allowed?! No, please don't.
Very good suggestions!
FD stations are like the Tardis (Dr. Who). They are so much bigger on the inside than they are on the outside
Indeed. Exactly what i'm thinking.
on a similar subject, a lot of people throw "science fiction" as a "can do all". Remember that it is "SCIENCE" fiction. In the sense that it is supposed to be credible. Star Trek, Babylon Five are good examples of staying within (mostly) the credible side of things. Dune, FarScape, Starwars go berserk about things. Note however, that in all these great franchises, the scale of their humanity is much more credible.
Hence the point of this thread.
I was not saying that there is no place for sidewinders. I'm mostly saying that Anacondas have no place in space stations. They should have special docks and their purpose should be to police and interdict Massive ships (bigger than they are).
In a more "gameplay oriented" trend; Overall, Elite is so tiny that they have difficulty making sense of anything because of the sidewinder and the "any player can do anything" mentality. It just shouldn't.
A single viper should have no chance against an Anaconda
An Anaconda should have no chance against a Capital ship (however so tiny they are).
Right now, Vipers take out Anacondas, Vipers take out Capital ships... it's all very much out of scale.
Hence the point of this thread.
I was not saying that there is no place for sidewinders. I'm mostly saying that Anacondas have no place in space stations. They should have special docks and their purpose should be to police and interdict Massive ships (bigger than they are).
In a more "gameplay oriented" trend; Overall, Elite is so tiny that they have difficulty making sense of anything because of the sidewinder and the "any player can do anything" mentality. It just shouldn't.
A single viper should have no chance against an Anaconda
An Anaconda should have no chance against a Capital ship (however so tiny they are).
Right now, Vipers take out Anacondas, Vipers take out Capital ships... it's all very much out of scale.
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Are you talking about NPC's? No way is a cmdr in Viper beating me in my Anaconda, and no way can I take on a Capship by myself.
How can you say an Anaconda has no place in a station? It is tiny compared to a station, I was cruising around an Imperial Interdictor today in the rift, my 'huge' anaconda felt incredibly small. The anaconda is just a heavily armed freighter ship. You really need to to rethink this whole sense of scale thing, get a rift and then try it.
I'm sure I read in either a newsletter or a Dev post on here that they aren't solar panels but actually heat exchangers / dissipation units
I'd like to see such huge stations and ships as well. Such as places where the Dreadnoughts are built should be visible and simulated in-game. Not appear out of nowhere.
It depends on the skill of the other player or NPC. High ranked NPCs are much too easy though.
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Tried the Rift, its great device. And it does give an impressive sense of scale. Mostly because the FOV is different (narrow). As you make FOV wider, everything starts to flatten and look disproportionate.
But this is not what this thread is about. Sure the visual and physical implications are there. But it's more about the credible side of the Elite world as it stands now, the role each ship represents within it. Player OR NPC.
Of course the Anaconda fits in a station, they made it that way, else it would bring problems. Does it make sense? Not so much. It's like comparing a Gulfstream "G5" with a C5 Galaxy airplane. They both fly, but the comparisons pretty much stop there; they use different hangars, and use different strips. The same way we can look at the MCS Oscar and a private Leasure boat.
In Elite Terms;
A Viper is a Mark V Special Operations boat
An Anaconda is a Saryu-Class Patrol Boat
Where are the Super Destroyers, the Carriers, the "Nostromos" transport ships?
The whole world of Elite remained the size of the Commodore64's game. It's scaled to a 20Ly world. But we have Millions of Ly now. The disproportion of the world to the humanity in it is staggering.
![[VR] Mad Mike](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/27/27910.jpg?1553527108){kind=avatar}
This!.
I was convinced the scale was off on this game when I 1st got access to it..... Then in July I got my DK2, and all of a sudden I realised FD have got it spot on.
as for, everything could be bigger because we have better hardware....
Everything IS pretty big, and am not sure at what point in "space" the need for bigger dies off. (I am talking in a logical in the future kind of way, do we need 50KM wide mega cities?)
Further more, I have a GTX980 powered rig, and in VR at least it still pushes my GPU to the max. IMO the hardware limit IS still there, for elite to be profitable the game needs to run on at least mid range machines.
Who knows, in 12 months time assuming the game is still going and if hardware has moved on the envelope can be pushed more
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Ok, I get you regarding these large transport ships, something I miss from X3TC, ED does seem to be lacking in the whole Super ship department (only two types of cap ship)
But regarding the Anaconda, I still don't understand the comparison with a Gulf stream and C5 Galaxy. The Anaconda and massive freighters use the large docking area, and have there own type of hanger, the smaller ships have there own appropriately sized hanger. All we need now are external docking ports and more capital class ships in the universe.
I have to mention the DK again, even the 'Tiny Eagle' And it's hanger is massive, that small ship is larger than single aisle airliner. The small hanger, is huge when viewed in VR
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For those thinking about the scale of the stations. Coriolis, if I'm not mistaken is about 10 km across. I come from a city with the population of 1.2 million. The city is roughly 10x20km in size. And, by definition, it's flat. So I have no particular issue with having a station roughly a medium size city in size.