There is Im afraid an implied promise here, combined with an actual one.
* Frontier, released a game in the 1990s called.... Frontier : Elite II, and it featured being able to land on Earth and other Earth like planets. There was implied Flora, but no Fauna, but there were bodies of water, mountains, clouds, blue/pink skies and so on.
* David Braben and the kickstarter + has always talked about Atmospheric Planet landings as being a thing.
Now I, and many here will have played Frontier back in the day. And it was a revelation. Where Elite was a quantum leap in video games in the early 80s, IMHO Frontier was similar in the 1990s. It was amazing. The only thing that really sucked was the flight model. Long story....
So here we are, in a post Frontier world, with a new Elite (IV) being promised (and now delivered). And, for good or bad, being able to land on atmospheric planets IS a part of that vision.
But, the issue is now, that it appears DB possibly under estimated the task, and another issue may simply be funds.
Frontier may (I don't know) need more £££ to be able to hire enough modellers/texture artists, plus coders and products (the entire dev team mix) to be able to deliver on their vision in a timely manner.
There ARE good signs.
They are not a one trick pony any more. I think they used to develop one game at a time. Now, it appears they are developing 2 or more. They have ED and Planet Coaster plates spinning, and team members are moving into a new product. Which is all good for the future viability of Frontier.
Apparently Frontier currently has approx 240 employees, and they are on a drive to add 50 more. So, 300 employees to deliver 3 separate products. To put this in context. When I worked on John Carter of Mars (A Disney/Pixar movie), the VFX company I was at had about 480 people on that one project alone. There were no coders, that was simply people to produce assets, and then render them, and add effects....
Anyway, Frontier are currently in the throws of opening a new office. Im not sure if this is a replacement for the current one, or an addition. Lets hope its an addition, as that would indicate a really chunky expansion.
Now, the task
Frontier are more than capable of delivering Atmospheric Landings. The question is more to do with how long it would take, and the will. If the will is there still, they still have to develop an engine that can deliver it, as an extension of the existing planetary landings engine (which is pretty cool). And then they need to deliver on assets that give that engine what it requires to deliver the visuals and game-play we want. Im talking
* Buildings
* Infrastructure / roads
* Natural effects
* Flora
* Fauna
As many have suggested, this could be semi phased, with atmospheric landings first being enabled on lifeless worlds, like our Mars, and later on life bearing planets. There does not need to be an excuse for this phasing, just as now, we can only land on some planets and not on others.
We HAVE to have this feature. Simply because it makes the ED Universe "complete" there would be no more artificial barriers to where you can go.
Beyond this, game-play of course has to be a consideration. At first, its just an expansion of visitable locations. That in itself is a big thing. Flying in gas, rather than in vacuum will be novel. And of course, it will allow for more types of missions, thats obvious. But from these new locations, new gameplay can then flow.
Question is, does Frontier have the £££ to get this into our hands in a timely manner. Or do we have to wait until 2025+
Ill state, that for me, timely would have, ideally, been the end of this year, for the thin end of the wedge of this feature to be released. Now, I'd have to say 2018, as we know its not happening.
Oh, and space legs. Im happy for that to follow a year or two after the intro of Atmos landings. This IS primarily a spaceship game after all. Space legs is the final cherry on the cake.
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