The Planetary landing and planetside missions discussion Thread

Battlefield 2K I think it was called and the developer was a certain Derek Smart (who would send shivers down the spine of any PR guru)

Nooooooooooooooooooooooo you said the name of him who shall not be named.....

BattleCruiser 2000....ugh. Finally threw away the box this winter.
 
Great video. Really happy about the potential of these as well.

There's one other thing that I love the idea of - but not sure it's a planned feature. I know it's been mentioned in passing before as a possibility.

First person exploration and salvage of a derelict.

Also, I keep looking at gas giants with life, and the description that says the ecology is underpinned by free-floating radioplankton. Underpinned. So more life? Bigger creatures? Herds? Space whales drifting through the towering thunderheads of a gas giant, letting out a strange mournful song?

At this point, I'm just dreaming, I know :)

I should have really added salvaging to the list. It's something I would really like to see in the game, even if it is only done from inside our ships.
 
I don't think this. The expansions, ok, beta test them on the PC, I am ok with that, but then release the content on all platforms at the same time, no more of this "Platform gets this before that other platform" stuff ... that only serves to divide the community, and we should be one community.

This has almost certainly been done at the behest of Microsoft, who offered Frontier something in exchange. Perhaps free support to build the game? An envelope filled with money? A candle-lit dinner with whoever won Eurovision this year? Maybe season passes for the next Dragon Age for at least 4 of the Frontier staff?

We may never know the real reason why, but we do know that it has nothing to do with either the PC or Xbox communities.
 
Great list!

Most of them should have been ahead of Powerplay on Frontier's priority list.

Disagree on planetary landings though. This will eat up a lot of programming and designing time and the result can not be great in any way the players expect. At least not for a company the size of Frontier.
 
I want it as well.

like you, I have been very negative, and I am inspired by your post. I'm also going to try to be more positive from now on.

This game is expected to to have a life span of +10 years. We are barley started, lets keep the criticism factual, and give the FD Team the positive vibes they actually deserve.
 
And I think its been mentioned many times that a totally separate team are working on Planetary landings and walking around stations. Do you really think its the same team working on the core game that are working on the walking avatars and planetary landings?

That's not a valid counter-argument: FD doesn't have endless resources, so although they might have a separate team working on the DLC, some of those people and almost all funds could (arguably should) be diverted to completing core gameplay, and expanding on existing mechanics.

Fortunately the fluff is for-pay DLC, so those detesting the current ideas can forgo it. Here's hoping the barebones team working on the core gameplay gets to flesh out exploration, mining and smuggling by then so the rest of us have something to look forward to.
 
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Great list!

Most of them should have been ahead of Powerplay on Frontier's priority list.

Disagree on planetary landings though. This will eat up a lot of programming and designing time and the result can not be great in any way the players expect. At least not for a company the size of Frontier.

Thanks. :) So long as planetary landings are as good as what they are in Space Engine - I will be more than happy, and will play for years upon years.
 
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Great list Granite :) Here's my list, not necesarily in order as many things are linked. Also the things that Iskariot mentions are stuff I'd really love to see. Many things on your list I haven't included here, because they are pretty obvious, like 'better missions', 'better exploration'. Orrery map would also be a great feature.

I think PP linked missions is a big one, the grind really needs to go and be replaced by actual moment to moment needs of each Power as they go about their ways. I touch on that just quickly below,



'Context Aware' NPC's and greater NPC interaction

You meet them everywhere you go, so really the interactions you have with them should be drastically improved. Currently all NPC's come across as silly, unaware and very robotic. A more involved chat system for NPC's, taking into account various situational information and feeding that back into things NPC's say, could help in generating much more lively and human sounding responses. NPC's already can tell whether you're carrying nothing or something, or which Power you're working for... but the whole thing needs to go much deeper. I kind of see this as a 'low hanging fruit', since it seems like a simple job which can be expanded on indefinitely and will bring a lot to the NPC experience.

More info here


Robust supply/demand logic

Provide defined values for things such as - how much aluminium does it take to build a Clipper (are Clippers built out of aluminium? I have no idea), or how much does a Terrain Enrichment System boost agricultural output. A robust supply/demand economy would provide ED the authenticty and coherence which is so missing currently. This system should underpin everything in the game... A Power wants to build large ships for their war effort? How much do they need in the way of a particular resource? That number should be known, and missions posted to the PP bulletin board on whatever needs to be done in order to get those resources- collect ore, metals, etc.


More dynamic markets

Ties into previous, but relating more to how markets are affected by events and politics. A couple of examples...

1. A system under new political control decides miners should be paid more for their ore, which then leads to... price of metal increasing, which then leads to... price of ships in that system increasing. Discussed by David Braben here

2. A planet wide famine hits, cost of food skyrockets.


Planetary Flight, Landings

The explorer potential is enormous and could work simply from a space tourist/scenic flight POV. I could certainly get lost in doing that- if done right, would probably never get old. However...


Meaningful On Planet Missions

...would be better to have interesting and meaningful stuff to do down there. One potential could be in helping colonisation efforts and watching a planet's population visually growing over time. From a Powerplay perspective, the larger the population of a system the more valuable it is politically- in this way planets and colonisation can work into the larger picture of ED as a focus. This would enable Coloniser as a recognised career type, someone who nurtures planets through terraforming, boosting agriculture, taking materials back and forth from planet to station as required.

DB also spoke of 'dino hunting', which sounds cool but needs context. How about: protecting colonisers from the dangerous indigenous lifeforms? Leads to my personal no.1...


Procedural lifeforms and vegetation

Planets won't really come alive without life. Killing the same looking dinosaur thing on every planet will destroy immersion and believability quick-smart. No Mans Sky has tackled this problem and it looks like a blast. I'd love to see ED do better.

My number one feature would be to see a system in which smaller procedural plants and animals could be discovered and traded. These could be a special category of commodity, with a range of attributes of random strengths, for eg. nutrition/toxicity/medicinal potential/abundance, making them more or less attractive as market items. Species with high medicinal value could draw attention from corporations or scientists, which could then lead to missions to protect or exploit the resource. Provides new career type: Exobiologist.

Imagine taking a stroll down to your cargo room and seeing little animals there, which no-one has ever seen before.

Discussed here
 
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- The orrery view I want sooo much. Being able to see a system in 3d, zoom in, change your view, observe the true relative position of all objects in a system etc. etc. It would be of immense value to me.

- And we need more immersive trade screens. A bit more illustrative representation of the goods we are transporting would go a long way. It is too dry at the moment.

- The Elite galaxy needs to get filled in. It needs more diverse structures in space, like large military bases, industrial complexes, mining installations, scientific installations wit large telescopes and huge radio dishes, true shipyards with capital ships under construction, large container areas etc. etc.
Also we need a wealth of npc ships going about their business, shuttles, utility ships, repair ships, tugs, tankers etc.
The X-Wing and Tie-fighter games featured numerous npc only military and civilian ships that created a believable and immersive background for the player. ED needs this too.

The Elite universe needs to be brought to life. Having stations of true imperial design would also help to give a face to certain systems and parts of the human galaxy. Currently there is no visual difference, no feeling of uniqueness and identity. The Achenar and Sol system should look unique and recognizable. They should look special. People should want to go there to see what is there. No run of the mill space stations in core systems like that.


- Planetary landings. I would even be happy if we at first got them without being able to leave the ship and were limited to docking at planetary star ports. Experiencing atmospheric entry, putting my ship down in a beautiful planetary star port would be great. The rest could be added later.
I offer +rep for your excellent vision here, which so closely parallels my own vision of what ED should be.
 
Please forget planetary landings

I'm so tired of people asking for planetary landings. A feature like like would cost Frontier months and months to develop. What are you going to do when you get down to the planet? Collect samples? First person shooter? Seriously go play a different game instead.

I have a few ideas of things that would be much easier and faster to implement and a lot more fun:



  1. Boss fights : a wing of commanders take on a capitol ship and try to destroy it.
  2. Defend the space station : shoot rebel/alien ships that are attacking a space station
  3. Defend the planet : scoop escape pod canisters escaping the surface of a planet that's under attack and deliver them to safety
  4. pvp battlegrounds (I guess these are already coming)
  5. Inter ship docking : Dock your viper into an Anaconda and fly with them – may man one of the turret weapons
  6. Ship tow bar module : allow ships to be towed from one station to another – to move your own ships or other people's ships for credits


Please add more ideas and lets forget about boring stuff like planetary landings and walking around space ships.
 
I'm uninterested in planetary landings, but it has been promised by FD and will no doubt arrive in due time.
 
Multi-god-damn-crew. Please is it that hard ? I mean i know this game is huge and complicated, but how can it be so hard to achieve that ?
 
I'm so tired of people asking for planetary landings. A feature like like would cost Frontier months and months to develop. What are you going to do when you get down to the planet? Collect samples? First person shooter? Seriously go play a different game instead.

I have a few ideas of things that would be much easier and faster to implement and a lot more fun:



  1. Boss fights : a wing of commanders take on a capitol ship and try to destroy it.
  2. Defend the space station : shoot rebel/alien ships that are attacking a space station
  3. Defend the planet : scoop escape pod canisters escaping the surface of a planet that's under attack and deliver them to safety
  4. pvp battlegrounds (I guess these are already coming)
  5. Inter ship docking : Dock your viper into an Anaconda and fly with them – may man one of the turret weapons
  6. Ship tow bar module : allow ships to be towed from one station to another – to move your own ships or other people's ships for credits


Please add more ideas and lets forget about boring stuff like planetary landings and walking around space ships.

So...you want FD to stop what the majority wants and concentrate on what you only want.....good luck with that.
 
Those are less elite than planetary landings.

Boss fights?
PvP battlegrounds?

Seriously go play a different game instead.
 
Practically everything you've mentioned is more of the same boring space combat we already have enough of or utilities which could be useful but don't offer anything really new to the game.

How you thought any of those ideas would be better than planetary landings is beyond me. Flying on planets will actually give us a place to fly around that isn't the same empty black space.
 
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