Answers from the Devs 15/10/15

[Titus Balls]

"Every aspect of Elite Dangerous will be continually iterated on and improved… The navigation system is no exception. "

​The orrery view confirmed !!!

I do hope so. Although I'm disappointed that there is no Panther Clipper, nor Lion, no Boa in that ship list. Also we see the Orca - but no Dolphin?

(Basically a lot from this list has disappeared from this list, even as ambient background ships: http://www.sharoma.com/frontierverse/ships.htm)

I was also hoping we might find the Turner class ship out there - somewhere

 

[znôrt]

I've tried reading up on this, only to discover that I'd have to accept any jargon-based argument at face value.

no worry, we all do that constantly. when listening to any news on economy or politics, for instance. also a lot of basic science is magic to most of us. not to mention divine matters ...

i'd trust this particular dev statement more than any of the above.

 

[majogl]

My questions:

1. How rare will the landable HMC and Metal-Rich planets be in 2.0? Will there also be planets tinted in all colors? (Blue for copper ions or raw Cobalt, Green for Vanadium or Nickel Ions, Pink-purple for Manganeese, Red for Chromium ions etc.)

2. On my journeys, I have seen a lot of planets that have 0.00 Earth Atmospheres, yet are not classified as "NO ATMOSPHERE". How will those planets be handled? Will they be landable?

3. What about the lava planets. Quite a few of those have no atmosphere. Will we be able to land on them? If so, is it gonna be dangerous?

4 In connection with previous question, will temperature on the planets be a concern? Driving around on a planet that has surface temp of 4000 Kelvin would be no picknick I imagine.

 

[Zac Antonaci]

I do hope so. Although I'm disappointed that there is no Panther Clipper, nor Lion, no Boa in that ship list. Also we see the Orca - but no Dolphin?

(Basically a lot from this list has disappeared from this list, even as ambient background ships: http://www.sharoma.com/frontierverse/ships.htm)

I was also hoping we might find the Turner class ship out there - somewhere

Hey Titus, hope you're well.

It's not the end of ships. Just the ones that will be making it in for 1.5.

Thanks,

Zac

 

[Titus Balls]

Hey Titus, hope you're well.

It's not the end of ships. Just the ones that will be making it in for 1.5.

Thanks,

Zac

OK So we were promised 25 ships, then giving another 5. So if this means there is MORE! I'm happy with that

 

[Zac Antonaci]

My questions:

1. How rare will the landable HMC and Metal-Rich planets be in 2.0? Will there also be planets tinted in all colors? (Blue for copper ions or raw Cobalt, Green for Vanadium or Nickel Ions, Pink-purple for Manganeese, Red for Chromium ions etc.)

2. On my journeys, I have seen a lot of planets that have 0.00 Earth Atmospheres, yet are not classified as "NO ATMOSPHERE". How will those planets be handled? Will they be landable?

3. What about the lava planets. Quite a few of those have no atmosphere. Will we be able to land on them? If so, is it gonna be dangerous?

4 In connection with previous question, will temperature on the planets be a concern? Driving around on a planet that has surface temp of 4000 Kelvin would be no picknick I imagine.

Great questions.

 

[Ozric]

I do hope so. Although I'm disappointed that there is no Panther Clipper, nor Lion, no Boa in that ship list. Also we see the Orca - but no Dolphin?

(Basically a lot from this list has disappeared from this list, even as ambient background ships: http://www.sharoma.com/frontierverse/ships.htm)

Why hello sir, it has been a while

Never flown a Lion, maybe that review says why hehe

The Lion is a terrible ship. Painfully slow, not particularly cheap (I have to ask why anyone would pay 348,000 Credits when 187,000 will buy you an Asp!) and flawed throughout.

The lack of the Dolphin is a shame. I'm really hoping they bring in passenger missions with the Character Creation update and then they can bring the Dolphin and Beluga in at the same time!

 

[CMDR Nirnroot]

Excellent, keep these updates coming.

 

[Javert]

OK So we were promised 25 ships, then giving another 5. So this means there is MORE! I'm happy with that

Keep in mind he said those are the new ships for 1.5.

Perhaps there are more ships in 2.0 Horizons that are only for Horizons users but will come out at the same time? I am not sure whether they have said whether all ships will be usable by everyone going forward.

In fact, that's a good Dev question.

Zac - Will all ships for ever be possible to fly by those who don't by the new seasons, or will there be ships that are exclusive to Horizons (and future seasons)?

 

[Zac Antonaci]

Excellent, keep these updates coming.

Affirmative. o7

 

[Titus Balls]

Keep in mind he said those are the new ships for 1.5.

Perhaps there are more ships in 2.0 Horizons that are only for Horizons users but will come out at the same time? I am not sure whether they have said whether all ships will be usable by everyone going forward.

In fact, that's a good Dev question.

Zac - Will all ships for ever be possible to fly by those who don't by the new seasons, or will there be ships that are exclusive to Horizons (and future seasons)?

Well we know the Cobra Mk IV will be exclusive for players who's have Season 1 (and I think who pre-purchase Season 2? Can't remember the exact details).

 

[DrFreez]

Hi

1) How often will now go out bug fixes?
2) When will be fixed bug with 10cr repair and auto repair paint?
3) When will be fixed russian localization? Localization which is currently been turned into a funny meme.

Thx

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Well we know the Cobra Mk IV will be exclusive for players who's have Season 1 (and I think who pre-purchase Season 2? Can't remember the exact details).

Owning season 2 qualifies you for the CM4. I'm sure devs clarified that a while back.

And i was hoping the Beluga would make the cut, but hey ho, gives me more time to save for it in the long run.

 

[Javert]

Well we know the Cobra Mk IV will be exclusive for players who's have Season 1 (and I think who pre-purchase Season 2? Can't remember the exact details).

Yes we do it's only for those who have both 1 and 2, so the idea that you have to own Season 2 to have a particular ship is already established. I would guess there will be more season exclusive ships coming out, and the wording of this update doesn't specifically rule out there being more season 2 ships even in December.

 

[Bomba Luigi]

I like that there will be an imperial fighter in CQC, but since its a Fed Navy thing will the Empire not make some Copyright Claims?

 

[yclept]

Appreciate the candor, I'm not a tech guy either, I've tried reading up on this, only to discover that I'd have to accept any jargon-based argument at face value.

I am thinking that, to keep things smooth, a bunch of the terrain generation work in Horizons has to be done directly on your video card, rather than being done on the CPU and then uploaded to the video card.

Speculating wildly from the words 'compute shaders' and my bad habit of following Linux Open Source Graphics Driver development, my guess is to do this using OpenGL (and thus on Mac OS X) they need the extension 'GL_ARB_compute_shader' (specification here), which is only required as part of OpenGL 4.3.

As I understand it Apple only implements OpenGL 4.1. Presumably because reasons.

I don't know what the Metal equivalent would be, if there is one, but it sounds like they looked into it and it wasn't a runner, at least not yet -- Metal's fairly new, isn't it? I can see it not having all the features yet, especially if Apple is not using them themselves. Possibly the same with OpenCL.

Irresponsible speculation! For external use only! Do not apply directly to forehead!

 

[K1AN]

Will the Federal Corvette be as big as we hope?

 

[Cmdr. Numa]

This more or less confirms my worries that the Panther will be planetary landing only, not fitting through the slot.

 

[xondk]

I am thinking that, to keep things smooth, a bunch of the terrain generation work in Horizons has to be done directly on your video card, rather than being done on the CPU and then uploaded to the video card.

Speculating wildly from the words 'compute shaders' and my bad habit of following Linux Open Source Graphics Driver development, my guess is to do this using OpenGL (and thus on Mac OS X) they need the extension 'GL_ARB_compute_shader' (specification here), which is only required as part of OpenGL 4.3.

As I understand it Apple only implements OpenGL 4.1. Presumably because reasons.

I don't know what the Metal equivalent would be, if there is one, but it sounds like they looked into it and it wasn't a runner, at least not yet -- Metal's fairly new, isn't it? I can see it not having all the features yet, especially if Apple is not using them themselves. Possibly the same with OpenCL.

Irresponsible speculation! For external use only! Do not apply directly to forehead!

Well yeah, the main problem is unfortunately Apple doing things Apple's way, which is confusing, why they just can't accept an existing, efficient and well proven standard.

 

[Ozric]

Hi

1) How often will now go out bug fixes?
2) When will be fixed bug with 10cr repair and auto repair paint?
3) When will be fixed russian localization? Localization which is currently been turned into a funny meme.

Thx

Number 2 was in the 1.4 patch notes.