Walking in stations/spaceships + boarding

bummer6 · Sep 10, 2016

I've been following this game's development since alpha, but I haven't actually been invested in the game for a while since I'm waiting for a feature that was promised a long time ago to arrive in a future expansion. I've heard interviews with Braben where he talks about the ability to get out of your seat and walk around in your ship and even boarding other ships. This is the main thing that Star Citizen still has over Elite: Dangerous, and to me it's a very important feature that would increase immersion and make the game a lot less tedious to play, not to mention opening up TONS of options for new mission types, taking along passangers, multi-crew ships, etc, etc.

Is this feature still planned? I haven't heard anything about it in a long time, and it's starting to worry me a bit. Don't get me wrong, I still love the flying in this game, and the ability to land on planets was a fantastic addition, I just wish there was a bit more to do aboard your ship during those long trips. Even if it's just walking around checking your cargo or talking to passengers. I also feel this feature would give the Orca and Beluga liner some stronger focus.

PLEASE note that I am not hating on the game in it's current state. It's fine the way it is, and if that's all that's planned then so be it. This is just a personal thing on my wishlist that I've been looking forward to because it appeals to me personally.

Kzak · Sep 10, 2016

Walkabout is still being planned, yes, but it won't be part of season 2. Hopefully part of season 3.

Ian Skippy · Sep 10, 2016

Basically there are two major features missing: spacelegs and atmosphere planets. It is presumed they arrive in the next two seasons (2017-2018), but we dont know for sure, or in which order.

The Lavian · Sep 10, 2016

Repped!

bummer6 · Sep 10, 2016

Thanks for the straight forward answers. I swear, if I would have asked about a "missing" or "upcoming" feature in the Star Citizen forums like I did here, I would have been instantly jumped by a hoard of angry goons defending the game in it's current state. It's nice to see this community is still pretty friendly in comparison.

CMDR_Mogriax · Sep 10, 2016

bummer6 said:
Thanks for the straight forward answers. I swear, if I would have asked about a "missing" or "upcoming" feature in the Star Citizen forums like I did here, I would have been instantly jumped by a hoard of angry goons defending the game in it's current state. It's nice to see this community is still pretty friendly in comparison.

Going back to flogging the star citizen hype on walking around, id rather it didnt happen, i would like to see frontier fix all the bugs they have ignored because of lack of man power coding and development. Adding new shiny stuff just shoves dust on the old shiny stuff if you get what i mean. If you watch a lot of the star citizen videos of people walking about the glitches, frame rate drops and freezing, tearing that goes on shows just how bad an idea it would be if integrated in the elite dangerous gfx engine. Id rather have the ability to remote pilot little drones which can do tasks on planets, outside stations and your own ship, That way no worrying about collision mechanics of two legs two arms and where the hell your head isnt.

The Wallet Inspector · Sep 10, 2016

Why would anyone want to walk around, surely it would be better to have INSTANT transfer from one place to another? Some of us have busy lives/kids etc.. and don't have all day to walk around planets and space stations. Unless you are in the minority, and care about "imemrsion" lol, then why would anyone even want this feature?

EDIt:Yes this is sarcasm btw.

NeilF · Sep 10, 2016

Kzak said:
Walkabout is still being planned, yes, but it won't be part of season 2. Hopefully part of season 3.

No... Season 3 will be adding all the mechanics into the game that are currently "place holders"...

Then walking around in the ED universe might be worth while... (Season 4+)

My fear is, FD will add it sooner than later (& sooner than a time when the game can make the most of it) as a marketing exercise. Probably like aliens

The Wallet Inspector · Sep 10, 2016

NeilF said:
No... Season 3 will be adding all the mechanics into the game that are currently "place holders"...

Then walking around in the ED universe might be worth while... (Season 4+)

My fear is, FD will add it sooner than later (& sooner than a time when the game can make the most of it) as a marketing exercise. Probably like aliens

My fear also, that it will be too soon and only with limited feature to be expanded upon later.

mrsiCkstar · Sep 10, 2016

Having just started playing, how long usually between seasons?

Ian Skippy · Sep 10, 2016

Heck, just being able to walk in my corvette would be grand, even if there is zero point to it. Call me weird but I am all for pointless timesinks like that, its the one thing I like about SC. Give each local faction its own HQ on a station so you can walk to each. Have airlocks, bars and all that stuff. And most importantly, keep the current interface as well for those without Sx and those who just dont want to walk around for 20min each time they hand in a mission.

Then later we can add gameplay like EVA repairs and such as the season progresses.

The Wallet Inspector · Sep 10, 2016

mrsiCkstar said:
Having just started playing, how long usually between seasons?

Well major updates used to be every 3 months, but it has slowed down to every 6 or so now i think. Season should be yearly, but probably every year and a half. Who knows really..

Ian Skippy · Sep 10, 2016

mrsiCkstar said:
Having just started playing, how long usually between seasons?

It should be one year, but we have had a bit of a delay so its assumed the current season will last a few months longer into Q1 2017.

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bummer6 said:
Thanks for the straight forward answers. I swear, if I would have asked about a "missing" or "upcoming" feature in the Star Citizen forums like I did here, I would have been instantly jumped by a hoard of angry goons defending the game in it's current state. It's nice to see this community is still pretty friendly in comparison.

Ha, well I think the big difference is that 'ED-fanboys' like me base our appreciation less on hope&faith than SC-fans, but rather on whats already here. It makes it easier to acknowledge that the game isn't perfect. And considering spacelegs has been part of the planning for years, and so far the planning has worked out quite well, its also a bit easier to assume there is a reasonable chance spacelegs will happen, too. In the next three months or so we should start to get some hints on S3. If no spacelegs are mentioned, its a safe bet they wont arrive before 2018.

CMDR_Mogriax · Sep 10, 2016

sleutelbos said:
Heck, just being able to walk in my corvette would be grand, even if there is zero point to it. Call me weird but I am all for pointless timesinks like that, its the one thing I like about SC. Give each local faction its own HQ on a station so you can walk to each. Have airlocks, bars and all that stuff. And most importantly, keep the current interface as well for those without Sx and those who just dont want to walk around for 20min each time they hand in a mission. Then later we can add gameplay like EVA repairs and such as the season progresses.

Get a VR headset, you will have some mobility in your ship. VR headsets see a lot more and can disconnect from the pilot chair.

mrsiCkstar · Sep 10, 2016

Okay, wow. I thought iRacing was taking their sweet time with 4 builds a year lol. A little disheartening to know it could be 2 or 3 years before we see anything as cool as spacelegs. I would really love to be able to be a part of a crew in a bigger ship and do boarding actions with a small strike team to free hostages from the clutches of pirates for example. Or do EVA repairs on the outside of my ship.

Who knows what I'll be doing in 3 years. Oh well.

Ian Skippy · Sep 10, 2016

mrsiCkstar said:
Okay, wow. I thought iRacing was taking their sweet time with 4 builds a year lol. A little disheartening to know it could be 2 or 3 years before we see anything as cool as spacelegs. I would really love to be able to be a part of a crew in a bigger ship and do boarding actions with a small strike team to free hostages from the clutches of pirates for example. Or do EVA repairs on the outside of my ship.

Who knows what I'll be doing in 3 years. Oh well.

It could be ten years, or never. Remember however that it is generally assumed it will be in S3, as it makes sense considering their work on multi-crew and avatars this season. To be clear, we are in S2 currently so if that is correct spacelegs might start in six months. As always, noone knows for sure, lets wait and see.

For those who dont know, Frontier worked on a FPS based on an older version of the Cobra engine. It was cancelled/frozen, but it does mean they already know how to do FPS with the ED engine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Glr71X-cr84

mrsiCkstar · Sep 10, 2016

6 months doesn't sound so bad. I really hope it happens.

CMDR Pugwash · Sep 10, 2016

Frankly I'd rather they concentrated on the core game. Walking about is nice novelty, but that's all it is, a novelty. One that takes an incredible amount of development.

bummer6 · Sep 10, 2016

CMDR Pugwash said:
Frankly I'd rather they concentrated on the core game. Walking about is nice novelty, but that's all it is, a novelty. One that takes an incredible amount of development.

The thing is, I think walking around should be PART of the core game. It's not a novelty.
Boarding, stealing ships, EVA to investigate wreckages, doing passenger transport with the Beluga Liner or the Orca, talking to NPCs, having multiple crew on your huge ship manning turrets and stuff... None of this can be considered a "novelty" since it DRASTICALLY changes the game.

That's why I personally think it's better to add it sooner rather than later since it will introduce so many new mechanics and ways to play the game that it will have a gigantic impact on the game as it is now and will basically break everything. the earlier they do this, the easier it will be to fix the game and balance things up again after the addition of spacelegs. The more polish you add to a game, the harder it is to start implementing big features.

Moonax IRL · Sep 10, 2016

bummer6 said:
Thanks for the straight forward answers. I swear, if I would have asked about a "missing" or "upcoming" feature in the Star Citizen forums like I did here, I would have been instantly jumped by a hoard of angry goons defending the game in it's current state. It's nice to see this community is still pretty friendly in comparison.

No fear, a large no. of Cmdrs including myself are waiting for space legs as it opens up a huge number of gameplay features inc. EVA, first person exploration, repair, combat etc. My guess is that within the next 6-12 months we will be walking around our ships and hopefully EVA maybe even some parts of stations. There's a lot of work involved but I`d say a fair share has already been done in preparation for it.

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CMDR_Mogriax said:
Going back to flogging the star citizen hype on walking around, id rather it didnt happen, i would like to see frontier fix all the bugs they have ignored because of lack of man power coding and development. Adding new shiny stuff just shoves dust on the old shiny stuff if you get what i mean. If you watch a lot of the star citizen videos of people walking about the glitches, frame rate drops and freezing, tearing that goes on shows just how bad an idea it would be if integrated in the elite dangerous gfx engine. Id rather have the ability to remote pilot little drones which can do tasks on planets, outside stations and your own ship, That way no worrying about collision mechanics of two legs two arms and where the hell your head isnt.

You can be sure that FD would never release space legs in that condition, I believe FD would not let a glitchy mess like that out the door and when we get it it will be a lot more polished.