Even on the "in station" exploration there are lots of possibilities. I spend as much time on the forums here as playing the game, it'd be great to be able to go into a station and interact "in game". Go into a pilot's briefing room and bring up (Youtube) gameplay videos on a big screen. Or perhaps consoles where you can view more detailed exploration data (explorer's heatmaps maybe?). If they wanted to be really clever, allow 3rd party plugins, such as trading tools / EDShipyard or Coriolis to be viewed through in-station consoles. Likely? probably not, but there are lots of options out there.
Interesting! If dog fighting in an atmosphere and around ground targets adds variety.. great! But it would be hard to see this before landings?
It has to be the other way around, surely? They have to implement atmospheric entry before (or at the same time as) planetary landings. I'm a little worried as I heard comments previously that planetary landings would be easy - that makes me think they'll go for something basic like higher-resolution planet textures and stations/outposts on the surface. I want varied, dramatic terrain that provides a cool backdrop to combat. That also provides places to run and hide, or ambush. That give a real sense of speed, which you don't get in space with nothing for reference.
I fail to see what this adds except a glorified station really.
Surface-side stations could provide some variety, both visually and in terms of landing/takeoff (mountains etc. which need to be avoided on approach). I do agree there would be nothing ground-breaking in just adding station on the surface, apart from the visuals/setting. But it would have to be done if you want to add surface exploration afterwards.
Again, what would you do? There would need to be insanely complex coding to allow for missions to go and do things.
I agree, it would require a huge amount to be added to the game. Considering the existing missions are little more than collect/deliver/kill, they could implement similar missions but for surface vehicles, without needing to start into an FPS module. I played a game before called Dropship in which you flew fighters and larger craft, but could land and deploy armoured vehicles which then could explore the surface. Lots of fun, and it really gives you a sense of scale which you miss if you're just zooming about in the air.
I hope they're not going to throw aliens in already. The game has plenty of other things to improve first!
Maybe so, but they're not mutually exclusive. I think FD need to add "marquee" features in addition to tweaks and bug-fixes to prevent the game from getting stale. Since they don't have a subscription model, they're going to have to bring in money another way too, so they need something big for the paid DLC.