400 billion star systems of what?

[Ydiss]

Sadly no. But space anomalies and environmental phenomena and hazards are the other kind of content I'd like to see added at some point too. I'm not sure if planetary collisions or seeing more dynamic protoplanetary creation will ever be in Elite, but it would be nice to know that at least a little dynamic evolution is occurring somewhere amongst those 400 billion systems at some point. Even a supernova would be a cool event and create a lot of excitement in the community.. it would also be big news on GalNet and could lead to some interesting scientific-based missions popping up on bulletin boards. 400 billions stars is awesome, but not so much if its just a forever physically static and never changing backdrop.

The problem here is a supernovae occur only once per 50 years. Astronomical events are so rare in a single life time, it's pointless adding them just for kicks. No one would know they happened and if they did it would happen only once if we're lucky.

This is the downside to having astronomical accuracy. The upside is that it feels as real as it can. Even having a 0.01% chance of seeing an anomaly would feel artificial because we would see them (collectively as a community) with high frequency and they would then become normality and unrealistic.

The backdrop of ed is what it is. It's simply there. It need not be filled with content. However, the human space (and eventually Thargoid space) needs more content and should be dynamic.

And that comes with time.

I think there should be distant outposts, set up by npc Explorer expeditions at various points in the galaxy. It is, after all, trivial to take a big ship out there so it's not beyond the realms of reality that small communities could have set up in the black, particularly if they found earth like worlds. And I think there should be more things to find. But FD will always want to be as authentic as possible.

1.3 will bring more human space content and that is where FD will likely focus their efforts for a long time to come.

 

[Agarthan]

I think in a certain respect this person makes a very good argument, for example, comets and asteroids loose in a system, where are they? May be he went about this the wrong way with the whole 'where's something to do in 400 billion stars' but there is merit to this argument.

 

[Whiterose]

I am currently 40Kylies into a 75Kylie trip. The systems are beautiful and varied, however, I do agree they can become samey in that there is nothing unusual. No comets is an ommission as are other astronomical phenomena. Having said that I am still enjoying what I am doing, even with what we have there is variety, but it would be nice to stumble across something unique.

 

[CaptainKremmen]

O.k. 400 billion star systems....

What's in them??

I mean come on other than just varying degrees of different coloured planets?? Whats there???

What reason could I have to actually go to any of them?? There are no Mysteries and nothing to really discover...

Perhaps the OP is talking about the real, actual Milky Way, not Elite: Dangerous.

Perhaps he's pondering the Big Question - whether mankind should look to become an interplanetary and interstellar race, or if humanity should remain on Earth indefinitely!

 

[Jaeger]

Perhaps he's pondering the Big Question - whether mankind should look to become an interplanetary and interstellar race, or if humanity should remain on Earth indefinitely!

With 400 billion stars full of Fermis paradox there are probably many galactic species pondering this same question. Should humans die on earth?

 

[Erimus Kamzel]

The problem here is a supernovae occur only once per 50 years. Astronomical events are so rare in a single life time, it's pointless adding them just for kicks. No one would know they happened and if they did it would happen only once if we're lucky.

This is the downside to having astronomical accuracy. The upside is that it feels as real as it can. Even having a 0.01% chance of seeing an anomaly would feel artificial because we would see them (collectively as a community) with high frequency and they would then become normality and unrealistic.

The backdrop of ed is what it is. It's simply there. It need not be filled with content. However, the human space (and eventually Thargoid space) needs more content and should be dynamic.

And that comes with time.

I think there should be distant outposts, set up by npc Explorer expeditions at various points in the galaxy. It is, after all, trivial to take a big ship out there so it's not beyond the realms of reality that small communities could have set up in the black, particularly if they found earth like worlds. And I think there should be more things to find. But FD will always want to be as authentic as possible.

1.3 will bring more human space content and that is where FD will likely focus their efforts for a long time to come.

Yeah I understand that. I guess the point I'm making is Frontier make no qualms about adding gamey things to Elite Dangerous (combat and the economy are two examples), so when it comes to the background environment I don't see an issue with them adding a little science fiction or gamey events into the mix there too, to spice up the game play.

One thing I realized pretty early on is this galaxy has virtually no danger out there. None really. Hyperspacing between a close binary pair is about as dangerous as it gets, and that has happend 4 times to me in 22,000 visited systems. I would hope danger in the galaxy would come from the environment itself, and not just NPCs (be them human or alien). I would like to see vast regions of space be no go areas for certain ships due to great swaths of radiation belts, star systems still undergoing formation be deadly due to the amount of debris and gravitational anomalies going on within them... unstable stars blast out lethal coronal mass ejections... that kind of thing makes the galaxy feel less static... even if they're rare finds.

 

[CHOPP3R]

"What's in them??"

Go get an Asp and have a look

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=140032&p=2145360&viewfull=1#post2145360

 

[Aewarin Jameson]

This ^ and more this ^ Never know whats around the next jump, could be the same ole M4 star, or WHAM in your face emergency stop neutron star which gets the blood pumping. But it all really boils down to your imagination and just enjoy the scenery. Not everything is as it seems... out there....

That has nothing to do with "imagination" - Each and every time you jump into the same system the same star will be there.

Imagination would be to believe you really are an explorer rather than playing a game.

How you approach the game will determine your enjoyment of exploring - it's either going to be a chore (if you just see it as a game) or an adventure (if you imagine it's for real) but the end result is the same - you jumping from star to star scanning it, maybe running into something else but probably not.

 

[kreuzbichler]

O.k. 400 billion star systems....

What's in them??

I mean come on other than just varying degrees of different coloured planets?? Whats there???

What reason could I have to actually go to any of them?? There are no Mysteries and nothing to really discover...

someone woke up from the expectation they could actually make any amount in the billion range "varied"?
Found out no matter where I go I find the same stuff in different variation. 400 billion sounds great in theory and is good for marketing, but it ends there.
Actually you can stick to 10 systems and do everything there, doesn´t make a difference with computer generated content.

infinite randomized content is not "new" content if you randomize it a billion times more often

 

[CMDR DoubleSkulls]

I think you are being a bit unfair. There is quite a lot more diversity than 10 systems worth. Funnily enough the further I get from Sol the more unusual stuff I encounter.

Earthlikes, Ammonia Worlds only occur in about 1:100 systems. Unusual combinations, such as binary water worlds, are even more uncommon, ELWs around Black Holes etc. At the end of the day it is just looking at oddities FDs program and a RNG have come up with... but the oddities are quite diverse and I find that interesting.

 

[shadragon]

I keep seeing these "Elite should have this" threads and yes, I agree with most that "this", in a perfect world, would be nice to have.

However, Frontier have a limited staff and are focusing on larger issues. They may get to it in time but dedicating effort to making everything look prettier is probably low on their list of things to do and I'm fine with that. I'd rather see effort put into the many existing bugs before any art projects were started.

Explorers (the deep space >2,000 LY bunch who will see these things) are what, 3 - 5% of the player base at best? Heavily revamping the graphics code to include dynamic gas giant surface motion and binary/trinary star interaction plus other things would benefit a relative few. Those things may not even be possible on the MAC and Xbox platforms given their inherent graphics challenges so that may also be a limiting factor. Yet, the videographers of the game are able to produce stunning images with what we have in-game today. It's a huge leap from the wireframe of the eighties.

Edit: Having seen the SweetFX thread, Frontier could add that technology in the actual code to make things incrementally better in the short term.

 

[Herik]

I think you are being a bit unfair. There is quite a lot more diversity than 10 systems worth. Funnily enough the further I get from Sol the more unusual stuff I encounter.

Earthlikes, Ammonia Worlds only occur in about 1:100 systems. Unusual combinations, such as binary water worlds, are even more uncommon, ELWs around Black Holes etc. At the end of the day it is just looking at oddities FDs program and a RNG have come up with... but the oddities are quite diverse and I find that interesting.

Yes and FD will make it more diverse; much in the way 'Erimus' suggested.

 

[TriumphANT]

There are some amazing sights to see out there, but if they were really common, then (a) astronomers would've seen it all, and (b) explorers travelling 100Ly would have seen it all. There are a LOT of rare things to see out there. Fast spinning binaries, gorgeous ringed planets, pristine metal rings and asteroids, eclipses, moody dwarfs and hundreds of other things that only come up once in a thousand, or ten thousand or millions systems. I've found exploring to be Elite: Zen. The one part of the game where you can enjoy every second of Supercruise, where outfitting to perfection is thinking ahead for a week, and where the F10 button gets worn out. This is the peaceful, artistic side of Elite, and it's done beautifully.

 

[Herik]

Yeah I understand that. I guess the point I'm making is Frontier make no qualms about adding gamey things to Elite Dangerous (combat and the economy are two examples), so when it comes to the background environment I don't see an issue with them adding a little science fiction or gamey events into the mix there too, to spice up the game play.

One thing I realized pretty early on is this galaxy has virtually no danger out there. None really. Hyperspacing between a close binary pair is about as dangerous as it gets, and that has happend 4 times to me in 22,000 visited systems. I would hope danger in the galaxy would come from the environment itself, and not just NPCs (be them human or alien). I would like to see vast regions of space be no go areas for certain ships due to great swaths of radiation belts, star systems still undergoing formation be deadly due to the amount of debris and gravitational anomalies going on within them... unstable stars blast out lethal coronal mass ejections... that kind of thing makes the galaxy feel less static... even if they're rare finds.

I think this is coming Erimus; many of us will want some easily implemented rng. star or space anomalies...FD will just want them based on observable, or inferred data...

 

[Pendra]

someone woke up from the expectation they could actually make any amount in the billion range "varied"?
Found out no matter where I go I find the same stuff in different variation. 400 billion sounds great in theory and is good for marketing, but it ends there.
Actually you can stick to 10 systems and do everything there, doesn´t make a difference with computer generated content.

infinite randomized content is not "new" content if you randomize it a billion times more often

So true.

I hate exploring because it is as interesting as watching a random generator spit numbers out.

"My god, this was 7 characters long!"
"Wow, one that started with a 4!"
"99999, hehe, I'm really good at this!"
"Phew, this one almost overflow the variable, I barely escaped a crash!"
"Darn, another odd number again, they don't worth the display time!"
"1337, man this application is leet"
"Just one more negative number and I can finally go to sleep."

I'm still amazed that people find that interesting. Anyway, the random generator can crank out new systems until you or your PC die of old age.
There are about a handful of ingredients. All of them are BALLS. Star (various colors), Gas giant (various colors, with or without ring), barren planets (various color), atmosphered planet (blue with various amount of green and white topping). Asteroid belt. That is it.
Unfortunately, Infinite Combinations of these limited elements did not result Infinite Diversity.

 

[Flappers]

Those videoa do look really great... but I've never seen anything like that...

And funny thing is everyone I know that's played has never seen anything like that either...

Just same old boring purple and brown and earth like planets.

So ultimately your complaint is that, neither you nor your friends have found the cool stuff, so somehow it's the games' fault?

 

[Mal604]

So true.

I hate exploring because it is as interesting as watching a random generator spit numbers out.

"My god, this was 7 characters long!"
"Wow, one that started with a 4!"
"99999, hehe, I'm really good at this!"
"Phew, this one almost overflow the variable, I barely escaped a crash!"
"Darn, another odd number again, they don't worth the display time!"
"1337, man this application is leet"
"Just one more negative number and I can finally go to sleep."

I'm still amazed that people find that interesting. Anyway, the random generator can crank out new systems until you or your PC die of old age.
There are about a handful of ingredients. All of them are BALLS. Star (various colors), Gas giant (various colors, with or without ring), barren planets (various color), atmosphered planet (blue with various amount of green and white topping). Asteroid belt. That is it.
Unfortunately, Infinite Combinations of these limited elements did not result Infinite Diversity.

I think your problem is with gods or whatever creator of the Universe you believe in, rather than Braben.

While it is true that we would all love for Milky Way galaxy to be made from Candy Unicorns (how awesome would that be!), unfortunately, physics dictates they be ball shaped. And often similar. I'd file the complaint with God Customer Service department.

 

[Pendra]

Phobos and Deimos are not ball shaped. Near Binary stars are not ball shaped. Even Earth is not ball shaped. It is more like an apple.

 

[xondk]

This is my biggest issue with this game. There's SO much space that for the vast majority of time you're flying, unless you spend all your time in a few starter/event systems you'll probably never see other humans; This makes sense from a realism standpoint but it absolutely sucks from a gameplay perspective.

I'm far more impressed by Star Citizen when it comes to systems; you're going to see other people all the time. I'd much rather have more interaction and detailed systems with other players rather than a big, procedurally (which often means boring and empty) map.
I know this probably isn't a popular opinion, but whatever. Maybe a global chat channel or something could help out.

Ok, you are more impressed by a game that isn't out yet, and where you have no idea how other players are actually going to behave, or know how the server system is going to be like?

What if it turns out that putting people closer together just allows more people that just want to hurt others to do so? we don't know.

 

[Minoo Minou]

Phobos and Deimos are not ball shaped. Near Binary stars are not ball shaped. Even Earth is not ball shaped. It is more like an apple.

It's just big asteroids.