Next (free) update should address PRESENTATION

[ZeeWolf]

Ryker: "Captain Picard, welcome to the holodeck. With this technology you can create anything you desire. You can recreate environments, people, objects and any situation."

Picard: "Excellent Ryker. First I'd like to...wait who is that old man?"

Old man: "Welcome my son or daughter or indeed sons and daughters, to the current year that is the current time..."

Ryker: "Er. It's the cut-scene sir. He kind of sets the story/background and explains what we have to do."

Picard: "I know what we have to do. Can't we skip him"

Ryker: <waving arms around> "No, not the first time. He's un-skippable unless you've watched him before"

Old man: "It was an early spring morning in the days of my youth I remember it like it was only yesterday..."

Picard: "He goes on a bit doesn't he? Why does he look so dated compared to the rest of the simulation"
Ryker: "The cut scene was made about three years ago. But he really sets the scene"

Old man: <After 10 minutes of dreary ranting a single tear falls across his face> "Your journey will be your own unique adventure but in many ways it will not. Would you like me to repeat everything I have just said?"

Picard: "What? No"

Old man: "Welcome my son or daughter...."

Picard: "Nooo!"

 

[Katkon]

I agree with the general sentiment expressed in OP's post - the game would benefit from more of a "face"; signs of ambient life..... people/living species, would go far.

 

[Matzov]

The last one I might be mildly interested in, but not at the expense of other developments that folks have listed elsewhere. The rest of your suggestions are fluff for me. Just slows the loading basically.

 

[MVP_Bluntman]

Better than Payable and Playable ships.

Elite has always been known for a lack of a traditional campaign or campaign features for that matter, it was the baseline for all games like it, including Wing Commander which came out after the original release in September 1983. I mean the games basically relied on the three fundamentals that we had now, and they were inspirations for many other games. So ideally the game always has been about you being part of the pilot's federation and forging your own path through the universe after such.

 

[Spicy Weiner]

[/QUOTE]
When your ship is about to blow up, your escape pod ejects, and whisks you back tot he last spaceport you docked at. [/QUOTE]

Yeeeeeha......
My "escape pod" has a frameshift drive that has a jump range equal to my Giant spaceship (which just blew up)????? Cause if it doesn't , there a plenty of places in the Galaxy you aren't gonna "whisk" back from..... ie my sidewinder just blew up on the far side of SAG A, but my "escape pod" will get me home.... sure it will...

A spaceship within my spaceship is just too much horse hooey for me to swallow!

 

[p.opus]

NOOOOOOO to cut scenes. I am my own character, I love the sandbox purity that exists today. I am ME, not someone that the developer wants me to be. I am not the dragonborne, I am not an ex-con in witness protection with an ungrateful wife and bratty kids, I am not even CDMR Jameson.....

So I don't need or Elite to provide me with backstory or character motivation. That's what my imagination is for.

Now, as far as populating the space station, Would like to see it, Someone has to be in those buildings I see everytime I land. I would also like to see some more unique landing bays, but I understand why they would not be. Pre-fab construction means it looks the same. I served on two 688 class submarines and they were nearly identical. Perhaps color schemes could be different, but I get why the internal bays to a docking bay would look the same.

A little more verbal interaction when docking would be cool. It's weird that I'm "texted" my docking clearance, but when I get into the landing bay, announcements are made over a loud speaker that I can barely make out because of echo.

And as far as NPC's and making deals outside your ship, I am a huge fan of that idea. I think EVERY station should have a black market, but it shouldn't be obvious. I mean, black markets don't actually advertise themselves. You should have to search out the contact. Once you find him, then you can make contacting him easier. But initially every station should have a black market, but you have to find him first.

 

[Witzo]

I noticed the word "immersion" being used twice in this thread so far. It apparently is used to mean "an aid to suspension of disbelief".
My opinion on this topic is that I don't need more help in suspension of disbelief. The game can do with at most 15 ship types to cover all current game activities. Reduce fluff. Streamline; anything I see in the game must be an element involved in some sort of gameplay. I do like more gameplay. Passengers. Crew. Taking research teams to distant new worlds. Gief surface mining rigs!

 

[MarcusReed]

I would love to be able to modify the look of each ship outside of modules, having different variations would be cool for each ship depending tasks.

 

[Jet Fusion]

Think all this is on the todo-list.

 

[EUS]

Think I'll disagree, the next update should include missions for Orca and Dropship, along with lubing the medium landing pads' blast shields, and increase draw distance.

 

[Arindor]

A big and hearty "NO!" to the escape pod cut scene. If it is a must do for FD, then let it be an option in the function panel. But yes, we need more station ambiance.

 

[Von Shadow]

I'd like some activity in the cockpit .... displays and lights actually active rather than all just static and empty feeling ... want the ship to feel like its dynamic

 

[Coyote]

Add a small in-game terminal that lets us play First Encounters, not having to care about E: D and its shortcomings.

 

[Elgered]

Presentation should always continuously improve with every super-minor update/patch.

 

[Cowboy Bats]

No to voice acting as far as I'm concerned. IMHO, voice acting is the worst thing to happen to games, ever. I much prefer a text based approach. It's just more efficient. I can read many times faster than some guy can speak his lines. No thanks.

 

[n13L5]

I agree with your last four points, but the first two for some people may actually damage immersion and their enjoyment of the game. Having an intro sets the Player's charecter in stone and I think would just get in the way, as would having to wake up in a hospital every time you die. When I die due to pirates I want to get some friends together ASAP and take them down, not sit though a cutscene.

Maybe we'll see some more variation and action outside the ship in the expansions.

Yes, no cut-scenes please. Very expensive if done well and a waste of money either way as people skip them after seeing it 1 time.

What I would like to see is a video screen in your cockpit lighting up with a little talking head giving you landing permission or spouting threats at you after getting interdicted.

This has been in Wing Commander, the X series and elsewhere to great immersive effect.

 

[Dooguk]

Or maybe some adverts for intergalactic proton powered electrical tentacled advertising droids. &#55357;&#56841;

 

[nats]

I think a lot of people (who are not sandbox purists) will want to see this. Now with powerplay being in place, for the next update, the game could address its presentation, ambience, atmosphere, cosmetics. Things like:

- When I die, don't tell me in a text box - make the screen fade in black and let me wake up in a hospital bed with some beeping machines

- When I start a new game, don't just throw me in there - that is lazy. How about a short intro where my dying relative on his death bed wishes me to explore the stars and gives me the key to his own old space ship (= my starter ship)

- Let there be people walking and working in the stations

- Let there be more interior and exterior variation to randomly be put on the stations, especially the cube coriolis ones

- Let there be audio NPC voices - e.g. telling me that I got landing clearance. Something like "[Insert ship type] vessel, you are clear to land on pad [insert pad number]" -> "Cobra vessel, you are clear to land on pad 27"

- Further down the line: instead of having commodities, missions etc. all available from a boring screen, have me walk across the hangar and go into the bar/market/ship dealer/missions board etc.

The game is great, but so far the original Wing Commander Privateer beats Elite in terms of presentation by far.

I absolutely agree with all of this message! I would love to see more atmosphere in this game. You are stuck in your cockpit from the first minute to the end (ignoring the terrible external view system) and there is no sense of fun or adventure. Why cant we walk around outside whilst docked, even without even seeing our own body and just in first person would be great and probably not very difficult to do. Cant we walk down the ramp and have a button for lowering the ramp independantly of the gear?

And yes people milling around, workmen around your ship would be great: refuelling etc.

Everything is so basic in the game, we need to start seeing some of the love we saw in the combat mechanics being shown now in the atmosphere of the game.

 

[Thylacine]

Hey, anybody here wonder if maybe we've seen the last free update? Betcha they start charging soon.

I believe yes, we are coming to an end for free updates. We are finally at a stage that has all basics implemented, including the long promised dynamically chaning universe (politically, power-wise). But because the original "basic game" (without expansions) is now somewhat feature complete, FD can finally concentrate on all the "useless fluff" that brings the universe to life.

 

[Patrick_68000]

I believe yes, we are coming to an end for free updates. We are finally at a stage that has all basics implemented, including the long promised dynamically chaning universe (politically, power-wise). But because the original "basic game" (without expansions) is now somewhat feature complete, FD can finally concentrate on all the "useless fluff" that brings the universe to life.

Yes it is necessary that Frontier makes its living. However there will be always to small free updates