Elite Dangerous AMA on reddit (multicrew)

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who?

who?
Hadron-Higgs-Boson said:
and Michael Brooks on the live stream just confirmed NO NPC v's player dogfighting in Horizons anytime soon! Not a surprise at all, even after DB(obe) had said it would be in game
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You mean no dogfighting near the planets' surface?

I find this baffling. They have the dogfighting mechanics, they have the surface terrain generation.. you'd think it'd be a relatively easy win. I'm not sure what the problem could be. Is terrain avoidance for NPC that difficult? They - generally, with a few notable exceptions - do quite well at combat in the middle of planetary rings. Maybe it's performance? Displaying the terrain is quite resource intensive, and add in many ships and particles and it might end up being a stutter-fest.
 

Hadron-Higgs-Boson

Hadron-Higgs-Boson
just listening to the live stream talking about multi crew and what it might do, it sounds like they are NOT going to build a new dynamic for ship management but rather just expose the current management to multi crew via new UI's - which on the face of it sounds fun, but also sounds quite utterly pointless, does anyone have any real trouble managing the 3 or 4 things that the ship requires - I just dont get it, anyone? I do get having the crew on board allows for deploying to a fighter, for the small list of ships that can carry one (and that that aspect can be under Ai control).

As much as I cant hardly wait for Horizons to go live later today, I do think FD are simply trying to tick items on a tick list without bothering to put the 'game' into them.

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who? said:
You mean no dogfighting near the planets' surface?
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yes, thats what he said, I seriously want to be wrong and someone at FD to correct this, please :)
 

parva

parva
who? said:
do quite well at combat in the middle of planetary rings.
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The last days I played with version 1.4 in RES, the NPC ships crashed very often into the asteroids.

As for the multicrew. I just don't want empty seats. I liked how the game I-WAR did it... well time will tell.
 

captain slow

C
The only positive I've heard so far is that a human can pilot the SRV on a planet while you fly overhead (well they actually said they can pilot your SRV, I assume that means you can fly overhead). It's about the only thing I can see useful in multicrews as they stand. And it's hardly much tbh
 

jabokai

jabokai
Hadron-Higgs-Boson said:
just listening to the live stream talking about multi crew and what it might do, it sounds like they are NOT going to build a new dynamic for ship management but rather just expose the current management to multi crew via new UI's - which on the face of it sounds fun, but also sounds quite utterly pointless, does anyone have any real trouble managing the 3 or 4 things that the ship requires - I just dont get it, anyone?
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I'd be surprised if anyone who gets it can make us understand! Would you prefer four players in one battleconda or four battlecondas? Just so... pointless. And let's face it, it's only combat that will get any fun out of this, given the division of labour, so there is absolutely no gameplay there at all for other roles.
 
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CMDR Byr Goefin

C
Retrograde said:
It is a bit disappointing, but realistically I wasn't expecting NPC crews anyway. It would be very difficult to do well. How would you interact with them and how would they contribute to non-mission gameplay? NPCs would need depth and some autonomy to be more than glorified menu options or equipment upgrades (e.g. gunner = turret not confused by chaff). I enjoyed playing Consortium (all about NPCs on a space ship, try it), but it's a very different sort of game. I also suspect that script writing is not FD's greatest strength. :)

I still very strongly hope that we'll get NPC wings! We need this and it could add so much to missions.
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I have been working on a VC pack that has multiple crew member voices instead of just the Computer.

Not the same thing, but it might help with immersion. =)
 

Insomnia

Insomnia
I can't believe how disappointed I am right now. NPC crew was something I was looking forward to. It doesn't matter if they just sit there, doing nothing. I could just imagine them doing stuff.
And no dogfighting near planet surface was really the last drop.
I feel so empty right now.. But at least we have bobble head letters to purchase. :( I payed for both ED and Horizons, and I'm starting to regret I bought either of them.
 

-VR- Max Factor

-VR- Max Factor
Hadron-Higgs-Boson said:
just listening to the live stream talking about multi crew and what it might do, it sounds like they are NOT going to build a new dynamic for ship management but rather just expose the current management to multi crew via new UI's - which on the face of it sounds fun, but also sounds quite utterly pointless, does anyone have any real trouble managing the 3 or 4 things that the ship requires - I just dont get it, anyone? I do get having the crew on board allows for deploying to a fighter, for the small list of ships that can carry one (and that that aspect can be under Ai control).

As much as I cant hardly wait for Horizons to go live later today, I do think FD are simply trying to tick items on a tick list without bothering to put the 'game' into them.

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yes, thats what he said, I seriously want to be wrong and someone at FD to correct this, please :)
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I think they said the individual things like shield management will be more in depth. I'm hoping that there will be 4 shield areas, front, back and the side, and you will be able to juggle the shields a bit, like more shields to the rear with less to the front if you are running and and the other way round if you are heading towards your prey. Obviously the weaker your shields are the less you can toggle etc, then if you get module malfunctionl, have to repair it some how. Lots of things they can do to make it intersting.
 

Arubeto

Arubeto
Insomnia said:
I can't believe how disappointed I am right now. NPC crew was something I was looking forward to. It doesn't matter if they just sit there, doing nothing. I could just imagine them doing stuff.
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I kind of agree. The appeal of NPC crews for me wasn't about them actually handling stuff like those mentioned by Adams Woods - power management, galaxy map etc. - but rather either slightly flat increase stats like accuracy of turrets or even just look nice. Being able to hire differently looking NPC crewmembers with perhaps different stats or different personality traits would have been more than enough for me.

Since I didn't play the previous games in the Elite series I wonder: where NPC crewmembers in the older Elite games really adopted so badly that FD would omit the option completely for ED?
 

Straha Yeagar

S
Hadron-Higgs-Boson said:
and Michael Brooks on the live stream just confirmed NO NPC v's player dogfighting in Horizons anytime soon! Not a surprise at all, even after DB(obe) had said it would be in game

so

Wings - No mixed NPC/Player Wings
Horizons - 1st expansion for flying and driving on planets, neither flying or driving NPC's anytime soon
Multi Crew - no NPC crew

Now its not the end of the world, but it's a serious set of omissions and I think it would be good if FD could start to explain it rather than embarrassingly brushing it under the carpet and pretending no one noticed. NPC content is, imho, vital to any game, its not about open/solo, its about life to deal with in the galaxy.
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THis is a disappointment for sure. I spent some time indiscriminately killing NPC ships landing at planetary ports, and if nothing else, perhaps having some ships coming and going that show a bounty with a KWS would allow for players to do SOMETHING against NPC ships...
 

Hadron-Higgs-Boson

Hadron-Higgs-Boson
Good God, listening (on the live stream) to the 'thinking on fighters for multi crew deployment' as a huge glass canon, a hard point with an engine, disposable - sorry is this the game I thought it was, that sounds horrible. Lets hope that gets cleaned up as the design progresses :)
 
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[VR] Mad Mike

[VR] Mad Mike
to be honest I just do not get it..... it isnt like they could think, "oh its only solo players affected, who cares!". Even if this is their stance (and I hope it isnt) this kind of content would be a boon for all modes.

I cant really moan about what i have paid for ED so far and how much enjoyment I have had. I have the season pass and it came with my KSer pledge, so any and all DLC for me will be free, but honestly, if I DIDNT have the pass and I had paid £30 for horizons, or I had paid £120 for the season pass back in September, I would be feeling very shorted changed now.

landing on planets is fun, and is something I will do from time to time, but as a value proposition, horizons offers little to my playstyle really, as I can still carry on doing what I do now with the core game with friends.

I just look at the sort of content the devs teased us with 18 months or so ago, and imo they must surely know how wide of the mark they are with this announcement of multicrew, otherwise why leave it till the morning of the release to announce it.

Maybe I am overreacting.... perhaps the dust will settle and ultimately I wont care, but right now I feel like I felt in the kickstarter when I thought it was going to fail to reach its goal.
 

Muetdhiver

Muetdhiver
No NPC around planets anytime soon :/

I guess I will be out exploring for quite some time then, as I feel that non-exploration content on the surface is
rather weak at the moment.

Seriously, this is just quite bad TBH, really hope they'll go full tilt to fix it as fast as possible, i.e. during Q1.
 
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