Reddit info is not very promising can FDEV shed light on it

[EdzUp]

here

The thing I find worrying is the 'Season 2' will only be airless rocks and other 'planet atmospheres' will be in a future season so you would have to pay 'per atmosphere' which is a crock tbh.

Can FDEV comment on these apparent facts maybe alay them some what as I wouldnt pay for DLC on a per 'planet' basis what I would pay for is planet landings on a compete basis not a peacemeal approach on a rocks then whatevers next sort of approach. The whole planetary landings thing has stirred up a hornets nest of resentment and people feeling ripped off and if FDEV are not careful it will cause a backlash against ED and FDEV in general. Now is the time for Micheal Brookes to actually make an announcement and tell us what the hell their plans on these seasons are going to be to give the people who actually pay his wages some insight and relief.

 

[Windscreen Smudge]

Airless planets with Horizons, everything else sometime 2017-2018, because money.

 

[DoctorDanny]

Michael has allready made it clear that Horizens will indeed be airless planets only and that atmospheres will come in Season 2.
While this is very disappointing I can actually understand that it is probably a LOT of work to get all the assets + flightmodel done and at the same time fill it with meaningfull content.
Horizons sounds like it will have quite a lot of 'real' things to do on the surface that tie into the main game.

TBH I'd rather have a limited number of planet types to land on, but actual things to do there than all of the planet types but nothing to do there.
I've been on several long exploration trips and I can't help feeling that the universe is empty and exploration offers no rewards in the way of fun discoveries.
It looks like FD have learned from this and are not rushing this part of the game.

 

[Asp Explorer]

Airless rocks are "easier" to generate fractally - concentrating on the terrain realism, bounding geometry and structure placement. No good having structures if they float in the air because the terrain won't let them place properly. Same if your ship or scarab vanishes into the mesh as the surfaces are not defined cleanly.

AI is also needed for the various things that have been mentioned - we need AI for ground units, AI for air units, structure systems, bits and pieces of whatever these things are going to be made out of, and gameplay reasons for them to exist.

Once all that background work is done (and it's a huge task! broken AI will kill a game stone dead) and they have a functioning surface model - it's then a relatively simple (but still very complex) task to add atmospheric effects. Now you've got rocks with atmospheres and structures. Cities and flora/fauna are going to be very difficult - they can be procedurally generated, but at the 1:1 scale of Elite it's a frightening prospect - wish them all the best of luck!

 

[TruffleSnout]

Makes perfect sense. It's two different games you're talking about here. Airless planets only need to introduce gravity to the existing flight model.

Atmospheric flight is a brand new completely different flight model and simulation engine. It's like saying "Let's add submarine warfare to DCS:World" and expecting it to be a simple patch.

 

[Frop]

TBH I'd rather have a limited number of planet types to land on, but actual things to do there than all of the planet types but nothing to do there.
I've been on several long exploration trips and I can't help feeling that the universe is empty and exploration offers no rewards in the way of fun discoveries.
It looks like FD have learned from this and are not rushing this part of the game.

That's true, but wouldn't it make more sense that the first big exploration enhancement is part of the core game and not a paid expansion? Additionally, it sounds like "exploring" planets has the exact same scanning mechanic as the current Discover Scanner with regards to systems and bodies, so in addition to the "hidden" base pew pew thing it's not really a gameplay enhancement.

 

[Space Dandy]

Indeed...

One thing I find funny is that peeps say SC... expensive ship...scam...vaporware yadayada yet ALL the ships being sold in SC you will be able to acquire in game via gameplay regardless whether you backed SC or not etc yet it gets lots of flak but here we now have in ED a ship which is suppose to be exclusive to peeps that buy season one now and if you dont you will never ever be able to get it in game via gameplay...hmmmm

Makes perfect sense. It's two different games you're talking about here. Airless planets only need to introduce gravity to the existing flight model.

Atmospheric flight is a brand new completely different flight model and simulation engine. It's like saying "Let's add submarine warfare to DCS:World" and expecting it to be a simple patch.

I wouldn't be surprised if airless landing was mostly already functional all this time and they are presently working on other stuff, peeps keep saying it's a huge huge undertaking I have to politely say hogwash.....this is why NSM is getting more love as they are not giving us any bull about this kind of thing.

 

[EUS]

Michael has allready made it clear that Horizens will indeed be airless planets only and that atmospheres will come in Season 2.

Small correction: Season 3, we're already in season 1; Wings, CG, and PP
Season 2 will be Horizons.

 

[Archvillain]

It all seems promising to me. I didn't care much for Powerplay, but Wings was a big feature upgrade and CQC looks like an even bigger step up. Airless-rocky plus a couple of CQC-grade additions to gameplay would similarly make Season 2 well worth it. A third season offering more planetary landing plus more gameplay additions will likewise also be well worth it. And even though the Powerplay core idea didn't appeal to me, the Powerplay update still included a lot of nice useful features and upgrades and polish - things that I do really like.
I got more than my money's worth from Season 1, so Season 2 has earned the benefit of the doubt.

More importantly to me, from a dev perspective, spanning the development of atmospheric planetary gameplay over several years means there is at least a chance it can be done well. If you want Earthlike-world planetary landing done in one year, you will not like the results, and neither will I. It would be rubbish and would not do E: D justice.

Worthwhile Earthlike planetary landing is just not a one-year task, and it's not a one-year task in the same way that making a baby is not a one-month task ("One woman can make a baby in nine months so presumably nine women can make a baby in one month?" Nope. Not how it works ).

 

[B7ACK MAM8A]

Can't have it all!

 

[CMDR Corlas]

I don't understand people who expect a game to be continually be expanded with new content and features, but get upset at the idea of paying for it. Your goodwill and gametime happiness doesn't feed developers or their families...

Frontier is being more than fair here, IMO. I got Elite and bunch of free content added on, and more free content coming. Now they are offering me even more content for a price, if I want it. If I don't want to pay that price, I don't have to, and can still enjoy the game I have, still with free content updates coming in the future. If I think that's it's unfair to pay now for airless planets and then pay again for atmospheric flight later, then I don't have to do that. I can skip paying for airless and then when atmospheric comes out, just buy that one, and get it all.

This is really an exceptionally generous payment model. I don't know of a single other game where each new content expansion automatically included all the ones before it. If you think one cycle isn't worth your money, then skip it, and you literally lose out on nothing. Pay for it when you think it's enough to be worthwhile for you, and get it all for the same price AND you still get your atmospheric flight at the same time as people like me who will happily pay piecemeal. You lose nothing and you save money. What on earth is there to complain about there?

 

[Space Dandy]

Seems promising to me. I didn't care much for Powerplay, but Wings was a big feature upgrade and CQC looks like an even bigger step up. Airless-rocky plus a couple of CQC-grade additions to gameplay seems worth it. A third season offering more landings plus more gameplay additions will likewise be worth it. And even though the Powerplay core idea didn't appeal to me, the Powerplay update still included a lot of nice useful features and upgrades and polish - things that I do really like.
I got more than my money's worth from Season 1, so Season 2 has earned the benefit of the doubt.

Also, from a dev perspective, spanning the development of atmospheric planetary gameplay over several years means there is at least a chance it can be done well. If you want Earthlike-world planetary landing done in one year, you will not like the results, and neither will I. It would not do E: D justice.

It's all subjective I guess but I couldn't care less about wings, I don't want to play Eve 2, I wanted to play this game more as a lonewolf etc etc, same goes for CqC I have ZERO interest in pvp death matches and powerplay was another waste of time IMO, they should have worked on CG instead....

As for horizons by god I have been looking forward to planetary landing but this half baked idea of cutting this in two pieces and selling it in two different seasons...bwahahaha I will be damned it I will pay 60$ now for half of it and another 60 later on for the rest....

From my point of view the game has been a let down and has introduced zero things that interest me not to mention the is broken and doesn't work properly as has been tested by various groups since beta.


Have been a big fan of this game and defended it in other forum but no more... and no more money from me...maybe in season three if they give us a really good deal and include previous seasons at no extra charge.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

Yes its a different season.
Its a lot of work and odd questions to be resolved. I mean an example just cropped up of planets with 90% oxygen atmospheres. Does the entire planet explode if anyone lights a match.....or say fire a weaponised laser?
I think Braben said a long time ago that if you want coloured skyboxes with nothing in them that'd take a few months to implement. Adding content, things to do and realism is what takes the time, effort and causes the most problems.

I personally think the season after horizons will include all atmospheres but I have no more info than anyone else and you are right they could do it bit by bit if they wanted.. Thats why I bought lifetime pass...

 

[Monk]

Even in that early video where several Frontier devs talk about what they want to see in the game, Dan Davies, I think it was, commented on how planetary landings is a scary task. Mostly for the requirement of doing it at the same level of fidelity as the rest of the game.

It is going to take a long time to get there. At least they are giving us what they have so far.

 

[Crimson Kaim]

I am disappointed as well but I can understand it and in fact, I prefare a good looking rocky planet with actual content and stuff to do there instead of two planets with and without atmosphere which turns out to be underdeveloped and qualityless like mining was at ED's release.

So quality over quantity. But still ... I am disappointed. It should be included in Horizons as well, not now, but for a future release.

 

[DoctorDanny]

Small correction: Season 3, we're already in season 1; Wings, CG, and PP
Season 2 will be Horizons.

Corrected I stand

 

[Ryder35]

Indeed...

I wouldn't be surprised if airless landing was mostly already functional all this time and they are presently working on other stuff, peeps keep saying it's a huge huge undertaking I have to politely say hogwash.....this is why NSM is getting more love as they are not giving us any bull about this kind of thing.

The only hogwash I see seems to be coming form someone claiming NMS is not giving us any bull despite never having played it and only seeing very carefully choreographed dev controlled footage. Do you know how complex the flight model is compared to ED? Do you know how much real science is involved in their PG compared to ED? Do you even know if atmospheric effects are modeled and affect the flight model?

It is so much easier to make an unreleased product look great than something that is already available for people to play.

 

[CMDR Crustatious Cornelius Pig]

here

The thing I find worrying is the 'Season 2' will only be airless rocks and other 'planet atmospheres' will be in a future season so you would have to pay 'per atmosphere' which is a crock tbh.

Can FDEV comment on these apparent facts maybe alay them some what as I wouldnt pay for DLC on a per 'planet' basis what I would pay for is planet landings on a compete basis not a peacemeal approach on a rocks then whatevers next sort of approach. The whole planetary landings thing has stirred up a hornets nest of resentment and people feeling ripped off and if FDEV are not careful it will cause a backlash against ED and FDEV in general. Now is the time for Micheal Brookes to actually make an announcement and tell us what the hell their plans on these seasons are going to be to give the people who actually pay his wages some insight and relief.

We have no idea what is coming after horizon except a mention of a crafting system.

People are hypothesizing what we will or wont get without any information to support it. Getting upset over information that isn't valid is just silly!!!

 

[Archvillain]

Have been a big fan of this game and defended it in other forum but no more... and no more money from me...maybe in season three if they give us a really good deal and include previous seasons at no extra charge.

Problem Solved!

If Season 2 is anything to go by then FDev is catering to your exact desires: The moment that full planetary landing is done and available, you will be able to buy it (with all of Season 2 thrown in for a measly extra $15!), and until then you don't have a spend a dime!

(As I'm sure you're aware, you were told since before Elite was even released that planetary landing would cost extra, because they didn't want to charge you a monthly subscription fee to play Elite. So what they're doing with the seasons system really does seem to be exactly what you want)

 

[CrustyGoth]

I've always assumed that the planetary landing with atmosphere was coming later because they would have life on them rather than the flight model although that would be another factor.

If they are adding flora and fauna it needs to be done well and that is a hell of a lot of work.