Could Patch 2.4 Be Atmo Planet Landing?

[shadragon]

Pure speculation, but based on some logic. The recent discoveries of abandoned colony bases in the Formidine Rift may indicate landable atmo may be sooner than we think. The people who were stranded at the deserted Formidine Rift colonies and could not get back home may have made their way to an atmo planet nearby and developed a civilization of their own. This could be what 2.4 is all about.

Now, I don't make this suggestion casually, but Michael Brookes did say a while back that atmo planets would take roughly 18 months to code (with ELP's and life coming later). This was said in Aug 2015 and if you add 18 months to that, you get Feb 2017. 2.3 should be nearing Beta about that time, which leaves 2.4 after that. Way more than 18 months.

Coding atmo planets is not easy and I think that's why there is a "???" by 2.4 currently. If they couldn't pull it off, they could do something else and left it ambiguous to not build up hope. However, if they could pull it off, it would be a fine feather in the cap to end Season 2.

 

[GreyAreaUK]

I'd personally expect atmo landings to be a V3.x rather V2.x release, but I'd love to be proved wrong.

 

[Soulkiller]

No, it couldnt be. Its impossible to pull out a huge feature like that in a patch. Its totally out of scope.

 

[Muetdhiver]

No, it couldnt be. Its impossible to pull out a huge feature like that in a patch. Its totally out of scope.

Indeed. Actual volcanism + caves at most.

And I fully epxpect atmospheric flight to come in several parts, like low to mid pressures, high pressures and finally gas giants.

 

[Ian Skippy]

Depends on what you mean. Dont forget that they are considering using a different model than the current 'seasons'. Suppose they go for standalone DLC, finished upon purchasing. They may want to have the last patch give a nice impression. Having either limited 'ship spacelegs' or 'barren atmo planets' may be a smart move. I have no idea where those guys are at, so I have no idea if its feasible or not. But a basic atmosphere with light scattering is already in planet coaster, and the rest would be the flight model. No need for flora, never mind fauna, so who knows.

 

[Splendour]

I asked Michael Brookes at Fantasticon if we would have any atmospheric flight of any sort in 2.x and the answer was "No."

 

[Ian Skippy]

And I fully epxpect atmospheric flight to come in several parts, like low to mid pressures, high pressures and finally gas giants.

I doubt that. You'd ideally want ONE set of equations driving the FM in atmo conditions, and not have different ones at arbitrarily set cut-off points.

I asked Michael Brooks at Fantasticon if we would have any atmospheric flight of any sort in 2.x and the answer was "No."

Ah, that settles that.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

No, it couldnt be. Its impossible to pull out a huge feature like that in a patch. Its totally out of scope.

Depends on the types of atmospheric planet, it maybe a very limited type. But I suspect it won't be.

 

[Loskene]

That's a big ol' No there bob.

 

[PiLhEaD]

I guess it depends how much more 'runway' the ED project has in FDev, and how much work planned for 2017 the extended season 2 has now run in to.

I'd be very surprised if planetary landings were in 2.x - but then I never thought Thargoids would be in season 2, so what do I know.

My thinking is unless season 3 has a very strong headline to pull in the buyers, it may struggle, and I had anticipated this to be Thargoids.

 

[shadragon]

Depends on the types of atmospheric planet, it maybe a very limited type. But I suspect it won't be.

Atmospheric does not mean breathable. An SRV would still be needed, until legs, then you'll need a breather unit.

 

[Jukelo]

Back when Frontier announced Horizons, MB explicitely said Atmo landings were not part of this season.

Edit: source

 

[BurnyBurns]

From a purely logical PoV, what is required for "Atmo landings"? Quiet a lot actually. Surface structures that might form under atmosphere, therefore potentially completely different from the current planets. A modified flight model, incorporating atmosperic entry and exit. Actual fluids on surfaces. Weather. Maybe even different kinds of settlements?

If that doesn't sound like a major update in and of itself, rather than a sub-update of a season, I don't know.

 

[Bran Tse Mallory]

A good theory and one that may hold some water... (The theory, not the planet )

 

[NeilF]

No, it couldnt be. Its impossible to pull out a huge feature like that in a patch. Its totally out of scope.

Agreed... And consider the timing of the introduction of 64bit rendering too, which surely would be a logical requirement for atmospheric/planet rendering? That was never really ligned up with Season 2 surely?

However, I've always wondered if maybe something around atmospheric flight (obviously not landings) in Jovians maybe as a way to refuel/get certain materials etc?

 

[mistohise]

Fairly sure that atmospheric landings any time soon was ruled out in one of last year's videos.
Of course, that could be a cunning ruse, but I'd be very surprised to see it as part of the 2.x "season".

 

[DustyArne]

They have to wait for atmospheric because the XboxOne couldn't handel it.. ( i think)

And since they want both versions of the game on par with each other, i think they wait till season 4 and Xbox Scorpio.

 

[CMDR CPT. Boris]

Indeed. Actual volcanism + caves at most.

Caves, caves, caves, caves and caves

Oh, did i mention caves ?

(on the first image you can notice a wild SRV already enjoying caves)

 

[Muetdhiver]

I doubt that. You'd ideally want ONE set of equations driving the FM in atmo conditions, and not have different ones at arbitrarily set cut-off points.

Ah, that settles that.

Well, the issue here is that those equations are the navier-stokes ones, which are well known for being an goddamn nightmare to work with out of neat special cases.
If one thinks of the problem using the Reynolds numbers approach, you quickly realize that "flight" conditions in atmospheres cover stuff going from :

near vacuum to pressure so high that "flying" a ship in them is more akin to navigating with a submarine a deep thrench, under very high temperatures...

The "reasonnable" approach (IMO) is several simplified (toy) models with interpolation between them. And X-ing fingers that the feel lands in the right place
gameplay-wise.

I think most people think of atmospheric landing as an airplance simulator, but airplanes fly in very narrow conditions : ~1atm, ~300K
Now think about 10000 atm, 1500K for example, and such worlds are not that rare in ED.

Compared to what SC seems to be doing, ED scope might be much larger in that sense.

 

[GreyAreaUK]

They have to wait for atmospheric because the XboxOne couldn't handel it.. ( i think)

And since they want both versions of the game on par with each other, i think they wait till season 4 and Xbox Scorpio.

And that's pretty non-trivial. I don't envy them having to match feature parity on PCs, XBox One and PS4 versions. I'd add the Mac version in there as well, but let's be realistic here...