Will I ever be able to get out of my ship?

[Kappy01]

I've been playing for just a few weeks. Though I know I can always get out of my ship in an SRV, I wouldn't mind being able to walk around in a space station. In fact, I'd love to be able to walk around inside of my ship. What's the point of having a door behind my seat if I can't go back there?

I'm not talking about running around to shoot things. I don't care for FPSs. I'd just like to be able to walk around some stations, interact with some NPCs, etc. I'd like to be able to get out, hop a tram, go talk to the various factions, etc. Maybe have some mysterious guy offer me a legally questionable shipping mission?

Like I said, I'm new. Maybe this is something antithetical to the elite series. Maybe this has been asked a million times. I'm just curious as to whether this is possibly in the future for the game.

 

[BirdWisdom]

I've been playing for just a few weeks. Though I know I can always get out of my ship in an SRV, I wouldn't mind being able to walk around in a space station. In fact, I'd love to be able to walk around inside of my ship. What's the point of having a door behind my seat if I can't go back there?

I'm not talking about running around to shoot things. I don't care for FPSs. I'd just like to be able to walk around some stations, interact with some NPCs, etc. I'd like to be able to get out, hop a tram, go talk to the various factions, etc. Maybe have some mysterious guy offer me a legally questionable shipping mission?

Like I said, I'm new. Maybe this is something antithetical to the elite series. Maybe this has been asked a million times. I'm just curious as to whether this is possibly in the future for the game.

In my opinion, space legs should be in the ships first

 

[Celery Jack]

They said it's coming later down the road.

 

[Tom2]

Soon™


'Space Legs' as they are called in the forum and probably reddit will probably come within the next YEARS because after 2.4 (the next big update) Frontier Developments wants to improve core mechanics of the game and since space legs are at the moment not part of the game it will take a long time until they arrive.

 

[insanephoton]

Perhaps, eventually. The intention always has been to include walking/floating (ships aren't supposed to have artificial gravity). Back in the early days of development we listened to David Braben enthuse about the potential to go big game hunting dinosaurs. Some more recent dev comments have been somewhat luke warm on the subject. It's been a long running topic that appears from time to time. many of us ae in favour but there are also some who strongly oppose it.

 

[Kappy01]

Soon™

Doesn't sound terribly promising.

But yeah... "space legs" inside the ship would be pretty cool. I'm sure they could monetize decorating the inside of your cabin, or whatever. I want to see my components and maybe have to fix them by hand.

Also... would like to be able to take an Orion girl to my captain's quarters.

Also, thanks to everyone for not saying, "LMGTFY" or telling me that I was... attacking the spirit of the game or something.

This is a pretty nice community.

 

[Jenner]

Perhaps, eventually. The intention always has been to include walking/floating (ships aren't supposed to have artificial gravity). Back in the early days of development we listened to David Braben enthuse about the potential to go big game hunting dinosaurs. Some more recent dev comments have been somewhat luke warm on the subject. It's been a long running topic that appears from time to time. many of us ae in favour but there are also some who strongly oppose it.

Indeed.

[video=youtube;EM0Gcl7iUM8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM0Gcl7iUM8[/video]

I really want them to do this eventually.

 

[milligna]

what is there to do walking around inside of your ship after the first time, tho? Seems a lot of trouble to go through for a feature that won't be used much.

"We can repair things!"

Again, sounds really dull after the first time.

I know space legs will come eventually, but I do not envy the devs this task. It's a whole 'nother game! One that doesn't really appeal to me, I like the flying spaceships part of flying spaceships games. Especially in VR. I hope those that want that whole 'nother game eventually get it and are satisfied, but it doesn't seem likely. Why not just go for a game that specializes in FPS stuff instead of leaves it as an expansion half a decade or so later for a spaceship game?

 

[CMDR Mayhem]

Nearly everything in life or this game is duller after you have done it. Using this reason for not adding new content makes zero logical sense to me. Yet I see it said everytime someone doesn't approve of new content.

 

[kofeyh]

At present, there is no point having legs, if there is nothing that they can be used for.

Sure, we could walk around our ship; but unless there are terrestrial facilities, station locations and a bunch of other things, then having legs isn't much use. And once in space, I would presume unless we have anti-grav plating or some such other plot device, we'll have to fly around like superman so whilst super awesome, it's also super limited value. And if you've played SC, whilst it's cool to recall your ship and walk to it; sometimes being glued to the chair has advantages. Being able to just immediately go back to whatever you are doing.

As opposed to calling your ship and watching someone steal it; or having it arrive on the other side of the station and you get ganked 4 times just getting to it.

Legs would be great; but I'd rather they were added when there's a bunch of good reasons to use them, with some fairly well thought out mechanics and not a bunch of hurdles and silliness that makes them a contrivance that doesn't ostensibly improve the experience one tot.

Legs in SC are more of a frustration than fun. Hopefully Frontier can buck that trend in space sims and make it a bit more enjoyable. Legs would be good; legs with things to use them for, however, would be amazeballs.

 

[UselessThing]

Doesn't sound terribly promising.

Official Elite Feet(tm) may not be happening any time soon, but I think there is still loads to do in the game.

Make sure you try out as many activities as you can find. For instance I spent the weekend trying (unsuccessfully) to wrest Lave from the clutches of the evil Alliance. A vastly entertaining multimedia enterprise.

And then, in the Make your own fun spirit, I suggest finding alternative ways to daydream about being a Space Pilot.

View some of the entertaining narrative driven videos on YouTube, like this epic by Cmdr Ascorbious:-

https://youtu.be/JhG1ejbpmsc

And, uh, I enjoy the adventures of Cmdr Blind Pew and his motley crew:-

https://youtu.be/Y1L7B31ehjY

Acquire a copy of the upcoming Elite Encounters tabletop role playing game:-

http://laveradio.com/category/elite-rpg/

And I have been playing other games like

Dead Space
Red Faction Guerilla
Lost Planet 3
Doom 3

To get my walking in a sci fi enviroment fix.

 

[mojonaut]

Hopefully not before they've fixed all the other issues in the game.

 

[Dad Rock]

+1 to OP. I'd really like that too. I'm not too fussed with FPS, but the idea of exploring more of these gorgeous locales and stations on foot, and interacting with other players, transporting them, and doing fun stuff, would add so much to my enjoyment of the game. Sadly I don't think we'll be seeing this for a very long time...

 

[Iskariot]

what is there to do walking around inside of your ship after the first time, tho? Seems a lot of trouble to go through for a feature that won't be used much.

FD (Braben) always stated that FPA/FPS would only make sense if it became useful to the player, if the player has something interesting to do.

"We can repair things!"
Again, sounds really dull after the first time.

It depends upon how the mechanic would be implemented.
And it could be optional.
I think a mechanic like this could be cool if you are far away from the bubble and need to keep your ship going.
It would have to be integrated with already existing repair mechanisms.

I know space legs will come eventually, but I do not envy the devs this task. It's a whole 'nother game! One that doesn't really appeal to me, I like the flying spaceships part of flying spaceships games. Especially in VR. I hope those that want that whole 'nother game eventually get it and are satisfied, but it doesn't seem likely. Why not just go for a game that specializes in FPS stuff instead of leaves it as an expansion half a decade or so later for a spaceship game?

I think that walking around and therefore really separating the Cmdr from his ship would add a new dimension and powerful experience to the Elite universe.
I would love to leave the ship and walk an alien moon in a spacesuit, or do a space walk on the hull of my ship, or enter a space wreck in person.

But I would also welcome First person combat. I would love to have to infiltrate a base and have to steal information and then return to my ship.

 

[Siobhan]

Apparently you've been quarantined due to personal hygiene issues. You've been wearing that same flight suit since you first climbed into that sidewinder - it's a bit ripe now. Anyway, the rest of the galactic community got together and decided that you're not coming out of that ship til you get a shower and some fresh clothes. The rest of us have been walking round stations for ages...

 

[tomalus]

They will never make space legs,apart in ship and in station (the ships will be cool,the station horrible npc vendors)

 

[Dale Emasiri]

what is there to do walking around inside of your ship after the first time, tho? Seems a lot of trouble to go through for a feature that won't be used much.

"We can repair things!"

Again, sounds really dull after the first time.

I know space legs will come eventually, but I do not envy the devs this task. It's a whole 'nother game! One that doesn't really appeal to me, I like the flying spaceships part of flying spaceships games. Especially in VR. I hope those that want that whole 'nother game eventually get it and are satisfied, but it doesn't seem likely. Why not just go for a game that specializes in FPS stuff instead of leaves it as an expansion half a decade or so later for a spaceship game?

That's really the crux of it, right? There's been extensive discussions about space legs all over the forums, and it's a difficult one to answer from our perspective. It's something we really, really want to do.... but if it doesn't add any long-term value, it's a lot of work for something that lacks meaningful gameplay. There was another thread on this that we were taking notes from with regards to the comparison to EVE's version of 'space legs'. Unfortunately that thread was lost as the OP requested his account to be removed and all posts he made to be wiped. Essentially it was a discussion regarding the feature being removed from EVE (if I recall the linked article correctly) due to lack of people using.

It's still something we'd like to do, but the focus after 2.4 will be improvements of core gameplay mechanics. To add this rather heavy feature without meaningful activities around it would be a disservice to you guys, and it's a hell of a lot of work for the dev team. My advice would be to work on the assumption that it'll be a ways off yet, because as has been mentioned many times before: to do it properly would be a whole new game within ED.

 

[Genar-Hofoen]

That's really the crux of it, right? There's been extensive discussions about space legs all over the forums, and it's a difficult one to answer from our perspective. It's something we really, really want to do.... but if it doesn't add any long-term value, it's a lot of work for something that lacks meaningful gameplay. There was another thread on this that we were taking notes from with regards to the comparison to EVE's version of 'space legs'. Unfortunately that thread was lost as the OP requested his account to be removed and all posts he made to be wiped. Essentially it was a discussion regarding the feature being removed from EVE (if I recall the linked article correctly) due to lack of people using.

It's still something we'd like to do, but the focus after 2.4 will be improvements of core gameplay mechanics. To add this rather heavy feature without meaningful activities around it would be a disservice to you guys, and it's a hell of a lot of work for the dev team. My advice would be to work on the assumption that it'll be a ways off yet, because as has been mentioned many times before: to do it properly would be a whole new game within ED.

Damnit, I really want to walk around my Cutter, even if there's nothing to do yet :/

But I suppose you're right - unless there's some really compelling gameplay to accompany it, is it really worth the time/effort/cost involved to do even just that.

However, on saying that, psychologically speaking, it'd be nice to be able to just get out of the pilot seat once in a while and stretch the old legs in the cabin or bridge

 

[TheSynopticVision]

Damnit, I really want to walk around my Cutter, even if there's nothing to do yet :/

But I suppose you're right - unless there's some really compelling gameplay to accompany it, is it really worth the time/effort/cost involved to do even just that.

However, on saying that, psychologically speaking, it'd be nice to be able to just get out of the pilot seat once in a while and stretch the old legs in the cabin or bridge

I agree. Dale makes very valid points, but I think that it is a mistake to think of space legs as an "all or nothing" package to be delivered in one single step.

To give meaningful walking around gameplay would be a lot of work -- very true. But to simply allow us to walk inside the ship? The character model is there (needs animations, but nothing too fancy, it'll still be a first-person perspective), and all that is needed (granted, this is quite a bit of work, but not a crazy amount) is to create the assets for the ship interiors. Does it add gameplay? Not really. But it would still be an addition that -- I think -- would make lots of people happy (from a "better than nothing" perspective). Of course, there would be people saying "there is nothing to do while walking in the ship". But so what? There are people who say that there is nothing to do on planet surfaces too.

Of course, if I was to choose between new gameplay mechanics with what we have and these "minimal" space-legs, I'd still choose the former. But if this minimal interpretation allows for a relatively quick development, perhaps the cost-benefit analysis goes in its favour.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

That's really the crux of it, right? There's been extensive discussions about space legs all over the forums, and it's a difficult one to answer from our perspective. It's something we really, really want to do.... but if it doesn't add any long-term value, it's a lot of work for something that lacks meaningful gameplay. There was another thread on this that we were taking notes from with regards to the comparison to EVE's version of 'space legs'. Unfortunately that thread was lost as the OP requested his account to be removed and all posts he made to be wiped. Essentially it was a discussion regarding the feature being removed from EVE (if I recall the linked article correctly) due to lack of people using.

It's still something we'd like to do, but the focus after 2.4 will be improvements of core gameplay mechanics. To add this rather heavy feature without meaningful activities around it would be a disservice to you guys, and it's a hell of a lot of work for the dev team. My advice would be to work on the assumption that it'll be a ways off yet, because as has been mentioned many times before: to do it properly would be a whole new game within ED.

Ship repairs, dead ships can be only revived by leg work, protecting yourself from boarding, EVA to investigate wrecks...I just give considerable amount of ideas around ship itself I really hope you guys have tons of ideas for space legs, because it seems even most conservative dreamers on forums here do

It feels for me that space legs are required to complete ED experience - and yeah, it will take one or even several full expansions to cover the ground, but I think it is definitely worth it. It also feels that frankly dragging feet on space legs is not taking money lying around. It is a lot of work, but is very, very profitable, because walking around, while not related much to gameplay, is very desirable - IF done right of course.

But if we look at broader picture, it seems lot of commanders are not that hot on space legs right now - due of other games failing to give good, solid gameplay around them, I believe FD is capable of doing that - so I guess at some amount you are fully justified to put space legs aside for now.

Also really can't wait for post 2.4 core updates!

p.s. sorry about first version of post, came out wrong. I don't worry you guys will bail on space legs. If you will find a way to make them work, you will deliver them. I know.