We were promised atmospheric planetary landings

[VR StarLightPL]

I can solve that dillema for you, there will be approach vectors, landing zones and something modelled around them, then full stop. Scam Citizen was aiming for a persistent 100 sq km if I remember correctly. As for the rest maybe they strike a deal with google and use google earth content to model procedurally . Or say that earth is one big preservation project right now and all life is going on on Mars. Will it be gamey? Yes. Will the playerbase have to suck it up like no insta-ship transfer? Yes. Will it be worth it? Yes.

 

[Vasea Azure]

I can solve that dillema for you, there will be approach vectors, landing zones and something modelled around them, then full stop. Scam Citizen was aiming for a persistent 100 persistent sq km if I remember correctly. As for the rest maybe they strike a deal with google and use google earth content to model procedurally . Or say that earth is one big preservation project right now and all life is going on on Mars. Will it be gamey? Yes. Will the playerbase have to suck it up like no insta-ship transfer? Yes. Will it be worth it? Yes.

Pretty much this, if they ever make land-able Earth likes it will probably be few crafted "zones" that we can explore, do stuff in. And I would be very ok with that - I saw in NMS how messed up PG can get, it can pass in cartoony like world but not so much in Elite.

 

[Teh Smoo]

Guys, currently we have rocky biomeless balls with 3-6 geysers on them because of some technical issue with distribution. Landable Earth likes? Forests? Animals? Cities?! Thats way way in the future... or even galaxy far far away. I`m very pessimistic.

Yah. Remember what a crap fest No Man Sky was? Entire planet a single biome, extremely derpy creature generation, etc etc.

I think a good starting point would be mere atmosphere. Landing through a rain cloud, watching the canopy slam through rain at about the speed of sound (340 m/s at sea level on Earth, anyway, so depends on how fast and atmosphere thickness). Then driving around an SRV while getting rained on.

But even plants would be an order of magnitude harder. Procedural generation does weird things sometimes. FD needs to bulletproof things, since their clientbase is largely flight sim fans.


But also, barren water worlds! An aquatic SRV! Finally a point to the second slot in a size-4 SRV bay! No fiddly plants or animals required! Or... just make the SRV amphibious?

...Might wanna drop the aqua-SRV while the ship hovers, and have it auto-dismiss, though. Then come back and over again for pickup. I don't see a spaceship doing well as a submarine.

 

[Jack Schitt]

The interviewer doesn't know the difference between planets like earth and atmospheric planets.

Oh yes, lots of journalistic (mis)interpretation going on there no doubt. The main reason I quoted that was because people were asking where anyone from FD had talked about difficulty in crafting atmospheric planets, and because that is the most recent* example that seems to be ruffling feathers across the interwebs it also seems to be the one most likely responsible for the OP.

FWIW I'm not agreeing with the OP's stance, and certainly not their attitude. Technically we weren't "promised" anything, and what we already have in Horizons technically covers the requirements of the KS FAQ on planetary landings. I'm just pointing out the most likely source of their "FD saying" claim.

Personally, as in the post I linked to earlier, I've been of the opinion since last year that while we might get non-terrestrial atmospherics at some distant point, the likelihood of Earthlike landings being anything other than domed spaceports at the end of very restricted flight paths is basically zero. I saw nothing in that article to change my mind.

^[SUP]* 'Recent' in a somewhat loose sense given the article is from June but seems to have taken a while to resonate.[/SUP]​

you know I would just be happy with water worlds and giant oil rigs to land on. They could use precedual generation underwater and have a module for your ship that allows underwater travel. Other than animating the ocean (And a couple of squids), the rest of the tech is already there!

I'm not sure about the underwater stuff but floating structures on ocean surfaces would be cool, and equally applicable to water worlds, Earthlikes and liquid ammonia worlds.

 

[Jex =TE=]

I like this, and indeed this is how I imagined it would be. Of course the atmosphere would get thicker and thicker until something that a human might perceive as 'solid' would be reached. But yeh, you'd be at 1000g and pressures that would crush even Chuck Norris.

Nothing can crush Chuck Norris.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

Guys, currently we have rocky biomeless balls with 3-6 geysers on them because of some technical issue with distribution

They are mostly hundreds on one planet.

They are however found in specific places governed by PG engine which processes planetary seeds. Not sure which issue you mean.

 

[Jex =TE=]

Atmospheric Planets aren't coming anytime soon and thank god they're not. Does anyone here want another NMS?

Just think back to dinosaurs on our own planet and what the plant life was like back then. Now think of every planet that could have life on it - each one, evolution would go down a different route. This means both flora and fauna would have to be different on every planet, trillions of them (or maybe billions or millions but it'll be a huge number).

To acheive that level of accuracy as well as the modeling for the physics, sky colour, where the deserts are placed and the polar caps or whatever - that's huge amounts of work. I'd love it if they could acheive that but let's not expect the impossible here but it would be interesting to find such a planet... all to yourself with all these new lifeforms to study and maybe ancient civilisations.

 

[Vasea Azure]

They are mostly hundreds on one planet.

They are however found in specific places governed by PG engine which processes planetary seeds. Not sure which issue you mean.

Cant find the quote but I remember that FD said that active volcanic sites spawn in very small numbers per planet (less than 10) due to some technical issue. I could be wrong but I saw this being "quoted" more than few times in all those "where are geysers" topics.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

Landable Earth is really...questionable, although it doesn't need to be super detailed, it is video game, not Planet Earth virtual tour.

Landable Earth-*like* however will be very welcome and is possible.

Cant find the quote but I remember that FD said that active volcanic sites spawn in very small numbers per planet due to some technical issue. I could be wrong but I saw this being "quoted" more than few times.

There isn't such quote.

Technical limit was for size of sites - they can't do big vulcanoes yet. Small sites are unlimited.

 

[Winterwalker]

Landable Earth is really...questionable

I don't know about that actually. In a thousand years Earth will, quite realistically, be almost unrecognisable (especially after the Nuclear wars of the twenty fifth, Hyper Tsunami's of the twenty ninth century, and so on). Just 100 years ago the car was a fairly novel idea?

I think it will be open world, like it is now but that's why Earthlikes are a way off.

I think we might see mega fauna on ammonia worlds etc., we're already seeing evidence of Thargoids. I hope there will be a monorail system .. and I DO want to hunt rare beasts to the edge of extinction for their priceless toenails, throwing the rest of their inedible bodies away, just for the big game hunter wastage of it.

 

[Ddraig]

Honestly? Earth like worlds are something I do not think we will see and it does not bother me ones bit. The thing is to know where realistic expectations are, I would be happy with water worlds or desert worlds with mild atmosphere and something to do.

 

[Obsidian Ant]

Atmospheric Planets aren't coming anytime soon and thank god they're not. Does anyone here want another NMS?

Just think back to dinosaurs on our own planet and what the plant life was like back then. Now think of every planet that could have life on it - each one, evolution would go down a different route. This means both flora and fauna would have to be different on every planet, trillions of them (or maybe billions or millions but it'll be a huge number).

To acheive that level of accuracy as well as the modeling for the physics, sky colour, where the deserts are placed and the polar caps or whatever - that's huge amounts of work. I'd love it if they could acheive that but let's not expect the impossible here but it would be interesting to find such a planet... all to yourself with all these new lifeforms to study and maybe ancient civilisations.

Atmospheric Planets, does not automatically mean planets with life (whether that is plant or animal life).

When Frontier introduce atmospheric planets, it will be as "Mars-like" planets first...

 

[krylite]

I'd rather Frontier continue being realistic about it as the best policy, rather than continue to dole out scripted engine demos and endless new textures and .jpgs for sale to keep a ponzi going like the competition.

And if it's just going to end up looking like NMS' fantasy fluff generated dopey and buggy playdough planets now, I'd rather Fdev keep working at it for the next decade.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

Atmospheric Planets, does not automatically mean planets with life (whether that is plant or animal life).

When Frontier introduce atmospheric planets, it will be as "Mars-like" planets first...

Gas giants, Mars, Venus...and that's only what I can imagine from Sol.

 

[deckroid]

And now FD is saying it's too hard, that it's "extremely difficult." Well, I don't care how difficult you believe it is, hire the right people and get it done. We want atmospheric planetary landings. We want flora and fauna. We want to be able to scan them and obviously kill them (what's the point of leaving them alive?) We want to find primitive cultures and corrupt their society. We want to find advancing civilizations on the verge of deep space travel and cripple their research so they can't progress. Who wants competition? Right?

So, FD; the only thing I want to hear from you is "we are releasing atmospheric planetary landings. We have hired quite a few people to specifically address the difficulty of creating this advanced content, and we hope to have a release in the near future."

Make it happen.

Demand Much?

 

[Amargosa]

We don't need animals or humanoids running around on them. Randomly generated forests and cities can't be that hard. Rocky worlds already have randomly generated rocks, craters and mountains.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

I'd rather Frontier continue being realistic about it as the best policy, rather than continue to dole out scripted engine demos and endless new textures and .jpgs for sale to keep a ponzi going like the competition.

Well they are very cautious...even maybe too much. We have some hints that they have some work on atmosphere done. I know David has dropped a lot of hints about gas giants lately. Still there isn't even a mystery peek and mostly because community blows everything out of poportion.

At positive side...when it comes, it comes. I better get Apple treatement in this regard.

 

[ChiefRedCloud]

And now FD is saying it's too hard, that it's "extremely difficult." Well, I don't care how difficult you believe it is, hire the right people and get it done. We want atmospheric planetary landings. We want flora and fauna. We want to be able to scan them and obviously kill them (what's the point of leaving them alive?) We want to find primitive cultures and corrupt their society. We want to find advancing civilizations on the verge of deep space travel and cripple their research so they can't progress. Who wants competition? Right?

So, FD; the only thing I want to hear from you is "we are releasing atmospheric planetary landings. We have hired quite a few people to specifically address the difficulty of creating this advanced content, and we hope to have a release in the near future."

Make it happen.

And I want to train myself not to read or respond to such trolling as this .... and yet here I am ....

Chief

 

[krylite]

We have some hints that they have some work on atmosphere done.

I did enjoy the slight moisture and condensation on the grounds around the thargoid deserted bases like leftover drying rivulets from a garden hose down a driveway. It was exhilarating to see with the slight watery reflections for the first time!

 

[Stealthie]

Honestly? Earth likes worlds are something I do think we will see and it does not bother me ones bit. The thing is to know where realistic expectations are, I would be happy with water worlds or desert worlds with mild atmosphere and something to do.

I can't see what'd be so hard about modelling the basic planets TBH.
Seems like all you'd need to do is calculate the average diameter of a rocky planet and then create a "ball of water" of roughly the same diameter and then just spawn it in exactly the same place as the planet itself.
The result would be a ball of water with whatever bits of the planet which were higher than the average poking out above the water.
Tweak the settings, randomise things a bit and you could quickly get a range of diverse planets.

Beyond that, maybe give planets a handful of biomes and then texture them with stuff like rocks deserts or mud-flats as appropriate.

And then, if that all starts to make the Stellar Forge sweat a bit, come up with a variety of reasons why a whole heap of planets are just flat-out unlandable, ever.
Maybe some planets have environments which are lethal, or corrosive, or have wacky electromagnetic fields, or high-g, or extreme environments which prevent your ship's nav' systems performing a landing there.

Doesn't seem like ED suffered that much when Horizons was introduced and the game suddenly had to deal with millions of landable planets so I'm sure the extra burden could be dealt with, especially if they made it so that 90% of the planets were always going to remain unlandable for whatever reasons.