The Science of David Braben

[deckroid]

After watching the interview with David on YouTube, you gotta hand it to FDev for their attention to detail. I knew that there was Real Life Science in this game, but the to this degree of detail? Magma is going to be this because science tells us this is how it is, so this is how we modeled it.

Good Job, FDev!

 

[thorn-]

After watching the interview with David on YouTube, you gotta hand it to FDev for their attention to detail. I knew that there was Real Life Science in this game

Like energy shields, laser cannons, FTL travel, and a scarcity of Iron?

 

[Colonel Kenney]

Like energy shields, laser cannons, FTL travel, and a scarcity of Iron?

Lack of alien life?

(kidding aside the science is great and I want more. I want them to do their diligence for sure but I also want it to be fun and for them to take more liberties)

 

[Yaffle]

Lack of alien life?)

W a i t

 

[JerryLove]

Like energy shields, laser cannons, FTL travel, and a scarcity of Iron?

And glass cockpits in space, and "maximum speeds" rather than Delta-V, and these insane "engines everywhere" designs, and gimbals jittering, and shaking when approaching a planet, and sound in space, and the inability to bring some air tanks with you (without them being dozens of tons and taking power from your power plant), and instant communication, and fighting things "by eye", and missiles with 2k range?

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Oh! and overheating for getting too close to stars that are downright frigid. Actually: how little heat must our ship put out to disappear after a few km of distance? I'm quite certain me floating in a space suit could be picked up on an infrared camera (in space) more than a few km.

 

[Andovar]

um, are we forgetting this is a game??

 

[vrseven]

um, are we forgetting this is a game??

Yeah but so was Tron, and look what happened.

 

[Pville_Piper]

Like energy shields, laser cannons, FTL travel, and a scarcity of Iron?

Iron is scarce? News to me. I find it all the time when I feel like shooting rocks...

 

[twsharp12]

And glass cockpits in space, and "maximum speeds" rather than Delta-V, and these insane "engines everywhere" designs, and gimbals jittering, and shaking when approaching a planet, and sound in space, and the inability to bring some air tanks with you (without them being dozens of tons and taking power from your power plant), and instant communication, and fighting things "by eye", and missiles with 2k range?

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Oh! and overheating for getting too close to stars that are downright frigid. Actually: how little heat must our ship put out to disappear after a few km of distance? I'm quite certain me floating in a space suit could be picked up on an infrared camera (in space) more than a few km.

I, too, play Kerbal Space Program, but I am thankful that this is not that.

 

[thorn-]

Joking aside - seriously: modeling of tectonic shifts and the thermodynamics of magma flow doesn't scream "revolutionary game design". It screams "OCD". And not in a good way.

Pokemon isn't the most popular video game on the planet because some guy said "Let's study the anatomical structure of a small dinosaur, then cross-reference that with the fire patterns of a flame-thrower spewing napalm at 2LT/minute. Then we'll study wind patterns and adjust for the position of the player, such that the fire from Charizard convincingly envelopes the Pokeball to give the player a satisfying real-world immersion."

No, they just made a cartoon lizard and let you throw balls at it. They made it fun, and a few billion people are playing it.

Sometimes you just don't need to consult a geophysicist when you're designing a video game.

 

[JerryLove]

um, are we forgetting this is a game??

Not at all... but someone said the science was awesome. I disagree with that assessment.

I don't demand Elite be realistic (that would be cool). I'm fine with this science fantasy WWII flight sim. I like the genre. But let's call it what it is and not something else.

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Joking aside - seriously: modeling of tectonic shifts and the thermodynamics of magma flow doesn't scream "revolutionary game design". It screams "OCD". And not in a good way.

In a game that needs to add storage for engineering parts and modules, some method of inter-player trading, and fix PowerPlay: I think you make an excellent point that focusing on plate tectonics is energy badly spent.

 

[BigFW]

um, are we forgetting this is a game??

Whoa there. I don't think you'll find many friendly faces around here with THAT kinda thinking

 

[milligna]

It's not a bad thing that the CEO is really enthusiastic about science and a little bit of that trickles into the game. No, it's not a college course. But it doesn't warrant sneering, that detail enriches the game and opens up possibilities. I'd much rather the CEO's passion for science be one of the project's guiding lights rather than, say - the CEO's need to be a filmmaker and have revenge on Hollywood for ignoring his vision of ripped off Niven space kitties.

Sometimes you just don't need to consult a geophysicist when you're designing a video game.

If you're reviving a popular series of space sims that are thoroughly drenched in Brabenesque geeking out, it better have a certain amount of Brabenesque geeking out to be a worthy followup to the first three games. If you're creating a scale 1:1 recreation of the galaxy and charging people for it, yeah - consult some scientists. More food for thought, more possibilities.

It's not hurting anybody or damaging the success of Pokemon, so let Braben be Braben. It is totally OCD in a good way and I'll keep chucking them $45 a season for it!

Doing a tiny bit to inspire an interest in astronomy in your audience isn't a bad thing. It's not like he's forcing us to eat oatmeal, it's science FICTION. We get to pew pew things.

I'm sure it drives some of the devs nuts, tho. Can you picture the behind the scenes arguments? Ha! I'd love to hear some of them open up about it.

 

[OnePercent]

Good job everyone, i laughed my head off

 

[Colonel Kenney]

W a i t

One.. just one alien life form we already knew about.

In reality there should be all sorts of life out there. Maybe not space faring but plenty to discover including ruins and unique things. That is my point.

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[JerryLove]

It's not a bad thing that the CEO is really enthusiastic about science and a little bit of that trickles into the game.

That depends. Did he pull developers off of much needed improvements (like module storage) to implement this?

 

[PavelKCZ]

After watching the interview with David on YouTube, you gotta hand it to FDev for their attention to detail. I knew that there was Real Life Science in this game, but the to this degree of detail? Magma is going to be this because science tells us this is how it is, so this is how we modeled it.

Good Job, FDev!

Well, ED is supossed to be a computer game, right ?

So, maybe FD should hire some "Real Life Game Designer" instead of "Real Life Scientist". If they will do so, maybe we will have some fun instead of some magma behaving "scientifically" on some rock 35378 LYs away, which was never observed by any "Real Life Scientist" on this planet.

 

[Jenner]

Joking aside - seriously: modeling of tectonic shifts and the thermodynamics of magma flow doesn't scream "revolutionary game design". It screams "OCD". And not in a good way.

Pokemon isn't the most popular video game on the planet because some guy said "Let's study the anatomical structure of a small dinosaur, then cross-reference that with the fire patterns of a flame-thrower spewing napalm at 2LT/minute. Then we'll study wind patterns and adjust for the position of the player, such that the fire from Charizard convincingly envelopes the Pokeball to give the player a satisfying real-world immersion."

No, they just made a cartoon lizard and let you throw balls at it. They made it fun, and a few billion people are playing it.

Sometimes you just don't need to consult a geophysicist when you're designing a video game.

I get what you're saying here, and I agree to a certain extent. However, I think that this attention to scientific detail in the stellar forge system is a hallmark of ED. It's part and parcel of the experience. Not to be too hoity-toity about it, but if we think of games as art - of having a real sense of self, being internally consistent, evocative, and having a clearly defined voice - then I think ED excels in large part due to the way the galaxy is modeled. That doesn't mean that ED's gameplay is beyond reproach, just that David has a real vision for how he wants the game to look and feel.

Also, most great game makers are real nerds who love to push the technical boundaries of what's possible in this medium. David is no exception.

 

[Monk]

It's not a bad thing that the CEO is really enthusiastic about science and a little bit of that trickles into the game. No, it's not a college course. But it doesn't warrant sneering.



If you're reviving a popular series of space sims that are thoroughly drenched in Brabenesque geeking out, it better have a certain amount of Brabenesque geeking out to be a worthy followup to the first three games.

It's not hurting anybody or damaging the success of Pokemon, so let Braben be Braben.

Indeed. I love Elite because of its honest depiction of a galaxy.

Elite is not trying to be the most popular game. As DB said, the scientifically based backdrop of the galaxy lends to a gameplay (full of fictitious things) on top of it that no other game can offer, right now. Like it or not, that is what the game is and always will be. If you don't like it, there are plenty of games that feature fantasy worlds in tiny boxes.

 

[ROSS-128]

One.. just one alien life form we already knew about.

In reality there should be all sorts of life out there. Maybe not space faring but plenty to discover including ruins and unique things. That is my point.

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http://i.imgur.com/0XJ9dVx.jpg

Well, whenever I'm in orbit over an Earth-like I can usually see some green down there, does that count?

I think it stands to reason that we're only going to see the space-faring variety of aliens until we can actually land on habitable worlds. Barnacles aside, we're not really sure what those are (though surely they're not native to the places we're finding them, I guess that counts as sort of space-faring?).