It may be that military ships are configured the way OP stated but for private buyers? It may be that sometime within the 1000+ years such ships did exist but didn't sell very well. Humans are funny like that.
But the new Enterprise in JJ A universe has a canopy / windshield too, unlike the old viewscreen.....
Also, no matter the quality of the video, it will never portray the same amount of depth when it comes to your eyes.
Which means that things that you'd normally notice might not be as noticeable in a screen, even with 16200p. The difference might be just a second of reaction time, but that's what makes a difference in tight situations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIuSAsg9YmM
This sort of cockpit would make more sense.
But then, Elite's whole setting is rather archaic and contradictory. Given how far into the future the game is set, and given how far mankind has spread, along with the presence of FTL technology... it's ridiculous to suggest that 99% of space traffic would be tiny, one-man ships with machineguns and conventional cockpits. Now, if the Elite universe was one of almost post-apocalyptic decay, the odd technological limitations would make more sense; that mankind had forgotten things, like in Warhammer 40k. But that isn't the case. This is supposed to be mankind at a time of great wealth and power.
In the end though, we just have to accept; Elite's lore was never going to be its strength, and the details of its world were always going to succumb to the gameplay.
If it was replaced with monitors, imagine the devastation of an EMP type weapon, or even just the kinetic impact unplugging the HDMI v471.4894c cable from the back!
I like you. Have some rep.
Direct visual will always be the preferred method due to that not needing a backup.
Cuz.... technology can fail. Your camera could be jammed. If you were encased in a ball of steel with camera images projected, you'd suddenly be staring at steel walls and not "around you".
Canopies and windows you can always look out of![]()
I keep hearing that flight is the safest form of travel. But I also keep hearing about planes that crash, or going missing. When's the last time you heard about a train going missing? I also don't as often hear about commercial passenger ships sinking. I wonder why that is.
ON TOPIC, I was thinking about this just the other day. And about why our ships aren't just rectangular solids with turrets at the verticies. No matter where you are around the ship you would have at least 4 barrels in your face. Would that be boring as hell? Sure. But it'd be fantastically practical.
Furthermore, we're already learning how to project 3D images on a 2D screen, in fact I've got a small example on my desk right now in sleep mode because I hate Victory Road. I imagine that a guarded internal cockpit would either have the pilot wearing an Oculus Rift style headset, or be sitting in a sphere of video projection that gives him view of everything surrounding the ship, far surpassing the view we have even in the Asp with its incredibly open cockpit.
1000 years is over ten human life times, the truth of the matter is (assuming we don't end ourselves, or the universe doesn't end us), we can't even begin to accurately imagine how far technology will have progressed in that time. Even over my lifetime things have changed so very much. Stuff that was far-future science fiction when I was young is stuff I can hold in my hands now!
EDIT: I crit that wall of text for over 9000 damage... or a couple line breaks. Either way.
Probably going a few light years off topic here but I didn't say stopping religion would stop war. That's part of humanity and that will take a LONG time to winkle out. No, what I am saying is the number one cause of rigid thinking, stagnation and outright ignorance (and the celebration of ignorance) is religion. Religion thrives on ignorance.
Well, guys, that's true... until your canopy violently explodes in your face and glass shards fly into your eyes.Really though I'm glad the devs went with traditional glass canopies. IRL, no way. In a game, perfectly fine (for me).
We are going to mars in 2027... Wish I could join them lucky bosh'tets
No, we won't.
Anyway, with harder-than-steel canopies, they are far better solution than cameras and monitors for a pilot.
There are a lot of things that could go wrong with them.
Why do you think we have canopies in current airlines (or fighters)? We'd arleady have the tecnology to put cameras and monitors there.
About remote control... If we talk about realism, we can't remote control something several light years away. In ED we have istant comunications, but IRL we wouldn't, even if space warp was discovered (and even with some faster thsn light "tachionic" comunications... Wouldn't be istant at such distances), so, human presence would be mandatory
They should put some sort of RNG mechanic in the game that once every so many times your shield goes down a stray bullet punctures the back of your head with the canopy completely intact lol.Since the game features weapons that can easily penetrate ship's hull and hit internal components, once the shields go down, I'd say canopy isn't a structural weakness. It's the poor pilot inside, who needs oxygen to breathe, that's our ships' weak point.![]()
To you silly folk having unintelligent religious debates.
View attachment 35042
Now for the canopy vs. closed cockpit debate.
Why do we have to have one or the other?
Lets take a look at one of my favorite Sci-fi franchises, Star Gate! For anyone who has watched the shows you know that the earth ships like the Prometheus had windows all over that damn ship, including the bridge. It was a bad ass ship designed to fight the Goa'uld who had ships that didn't have open cockpit, bridge, canopies. Later they faced the threat of the Ori who also had ships that weren't open bridge design. For the majority of the battles with the Ori, both Goa'uld and earth ships were no match for the Ori.
Point being, why can't we have ships of both designs? Certain ships might be designed to be better against certain threats. As a general rule all ships will have some sort of energy shield as they do now. Also as a general rule (regardless of physical ship size) ships designed with an open canopy system will focus more on tanking kinetic damage and worry less about energy damage. Maybe something inherent in the design of the canopy makes it more resistant to energy based weapons. The natural reflective qualities of the material the canopy is made out of absorbs or reflects a certain amount of energy, however, this will leave it more vulnerable to kinetic damage.
Now, as for ships with closed cockpit designs you will naturally have more sensitive sensors and cameras close or on the outer hull of your ship. These sensors will obviously be easily knocked out by electromagnetics of any kind, such as those in an EMP device or those inherent in energy weapons. These ships will want to focus more on shield tanking the energy damage more than the kinetic damage.
Basically hull tanking vs shield tanking, adding another layer of depth to the game.
P.S. I also saw a post a few pages back mentioning something about us BEING the ship and not the pilot of a ship, AI controlled ships? This is obviously not the case in ED,otherwise you wouldn't be looking around your ship with a helmet on, life support would be irrelevant for a drone craft. Not to mention seconds before your ship explodes the computer blatantly announces "eject, eject, eject!"
But when your canopy depressurizes the vacuum of space pulls glass away from you does it not? Not to mention you have a helmet on which would deflect glass even if it could be forced towards you.