News From orbit down to Europa

[Athan]

The glide currently disengages at ~7km above (an approximate) floor height, 11km short of face-firsting into the landscape, or when you come in too steep (60 degrees plus). If you don't want to take in the views you can dive bomb in a fair bit faster - I've certainly managed orbit to landed on a small world within a minute, given an inappropriate disregard for safety.

Thanks for the swift answer . I take it "11km short of face-firsting into the landscape" means that if there's something > 7km high and you're about to go sideways into it (at the 2500 m/s glide speed) it'll complete the glide ?

 

[CMDR-AD]

Really fine looking work. Thanks for sharing these videos!

I've funded my PayPal account, hopefully the funds are available in time so I can partake in the Black Friday offers when I pre-order!

 

[StarTux]

Latest video (from the newsletter).

One thing that might get confusing is the "Return to Surface" when you board your ship at a landing pad. Considering you go "up" from the SRV into your ship, you'd think "Return to Surface" would lower you down again, instead it raises you up again to the landing pad. Consistent with the stations yes, but seems a bit odd in this context.

Honestly I think consistency is more important, and in context you are returning to the surface of the pad. Changing it to something different can actually be more confusing imho.

 

[David Braben]

I think that video's been mangled by YouTube. The audio is out of sync and it stops before you start going down the slope.

I think you're right. Not sure what caused it, but the gameplay was smooth.

 

[Marc Alexander]

I think you're right. Not sure what caused it, but the gameplay was smooth.

Thargoids

 

[DaSucker]

Thank you so much for showing. It is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Kissinger]

I think you're right. Not sure what caused it, but the gameplay was smooth.

I think it all looks terrific David - incredibly impressive developments.

 

[Nagual]

While I know this is a highly unfair comment, it now feels like ED is at the point of being a full game. By that I look at FFE etc. etc. and think that most of what was there is now truly coming to light.

 

[Privata]

Whatever happens on monday, FD will go in history as the first studio to ever release open space game with full 3D planetary graphics on such scale. Great job everyone at FD.

Not only that but it will be the 3rd time they do it , and the 3rd time they master it...

oh poor , poor star citizen not evenmark hamill can save you now

 

[rudidev08]

Does this outpost take only small and medium ships? Checking if I should take my faithful explorer Asp out of the garage again

 

[OriginalBadBoy]

While I know this is a highly unfair comment, it now feels like ED is at the point of being a full game. By that I look at FFE etc. etc. and think that most of what was there is now truly coming to light.

Not until we have passenger missions!!

On a serious note though, it all depends on your point of view I guess. Games take a long time to make, and v1.0 of ED was still a game in its own right. Any criticisms will come from a mixture of expecting too much and rose tinted spectacles for games from a bygone era.

In the end there will always be someone who will say its not complete until 'x has been implemented', however if you (not you personally) have that attitude then you may as well wait another 5 years before picking the game up.

 

[Sterlino]

great peek... now the puzzle is complete !

i noticed that the transition from orbital cruise to landing velocity is at 25 km from the surface.
it will be always 25 km or it depends on the size of the planet (or another variable that i don't know) ?

 

[Arubeto]

Well the only way I can see how it could work is that the game starts prefecthing instances when you go near a planet station, and then when you do come out of SC the instance is already there so to speak. Then yes it should be seamless if that is possible.

What you are describing there is exactly how I always thought transition from SC to normal space would become less jarring. Start loading an appropriate instance for the target the player has selected before he hits the disengage button, not just after he already hit it. The exact time would probably have to be determined through some testing, but it could be for example whenever the player comes within 5 light seconds of his selected target.

This would of course produce some more network traffic, since more - redundant - instances would have to be loaded (since the player might decide against dropping out of SC when an instance has already been loaded), but given the very low network "footprint" ED has now I can't imagine it'd be too much most internet connections.

 

[OriginalBadBoy]

oh poor , poor star citizen not evenmark hamill can save you now

Come on .. That's not necessary .. Star Citizen could well end up being one of the best video games ever released. Whilst the way they are going about the development and funding may not be the best way of doing it, they are still creating something that could be very special indeed.


Don't turn the thread into an ED vs SC one.

 

[Mephane]

I am a bit disappointed. After the 2500m/s cruise part at high altitude, the ship was limited to its designated maximum normal/boost speed - even while flying down. Does that mean each ship has - in vacuum! - a terminal velocity identical to the speed it can achieve under its own power? Because that would mean an Anaconda falls slower than a Viper...

I was expecting that our ships would gain speed well beyond its normal capabilities when diving. Instead, the Eagle is boosting just the same way as in deep space.

Edit: On 2nd thought, maybe this is just FAON doing its job, using retro-thrusters to keep the speed within the designed limits. If we turn FAOFF, will our ship keep accelerating downward according to gravitational acceleration?

 

[Red Kite]

Great video.

Good to see that even David Braben makes the same mistakes we all do:

- spamming the boost key when the capacitor is empty
- approaching outpost pads from the wrong side
- overshooting the landing and bouncing!

 

[The Law]

I am a bit disappointed. After the 2500m/s cruise part at high altitude, the ship was limited to its designated maximum normal/boost speed - even while flying down. Does that mean each ship has - in vacuum! - a terminal velocity identical to the speed it can achieve under its own power? Because that would mean an Anaconda falls slower than a Viper...

I was expecting that our ships would gain speed well beyond its normal capabilities when diving. Instead, the Eagle is boosting just the same way as in deep space.

Edit: On 2nd thought, maybe this is just FAON doing its job, using retro-thrusters to keep the speed within the designed limits. If we turn FAOFF, will our ship keep accelerating downward according to gravitational acceleration?

I think David may have cheated and used flight assists, I would really expect that without flight assist, ships would fall like rocks even on low G worlds.

 

[OriginalBadBoy]

I am a bit disappointed. After the 2500m/s cruise part at high altitude, the ship was limited to its designated maximum normal/boost speed - even while flying down. Does that mean each ship has - in vacuum! - a terminal velocity identical to the speed it can achieve under its own power? Because that would mean an Anaconda falls slower than a Viper...

I was expecting that our ships would gain speed well beyond its normal capabilities when diving. Instead, the Eagle is boosting just the same way as in deep space.

Without an atmosphere all objects regardless of mass fall at the same speed (depending on the gravity), once they hit terminal velocity.

You take a feather and a hammer up to the moon and drop them at the same time, and they will hit the ground at the same time.

 

[QziQza]

Not until we have passenger missions!!

and horizons would be a great place to introduce them.

 

[Ozric]

and horizons would be a great place to introduce them.

Passenger gameplay (not just called missions ) is coming in Horizons, Sandro finally answered us in the last live stream

Will passenger missions be added during season 2 or later?

The plan is to get passenger gameplay in Season 2. Caveat, who knows some things may prove harder, but the plan is yes. We're going to do it, we have multiple ships that are passenger ships it would be a bit weird if we didn't do it, it's just a matter of timing.

I'm imagining it will be around 2.3 or 2.4 when Multi-crew and the Character Creator are in the game.