Atmospheric Worlds. A Start?

Even if they had atmospheric planets with grass, trees, and water etc, there's still the issue as to "what to do" on them...

Maybe explore them. Look for athe the different animals and planets etc. Maybe we will get to name some of them. Get unique commodities, scientific sample samples, unique materials etc. There would be even more if we had Elite Feet.
 
I'm sure FDev could come up with a reasonable "excuse" for not letting you land on certain planets if they wanted to.

I mean, let's say they undertook to make ELWs landable.
They might figure out a way to implement water, apply procedural vegetation, clouds and make the sky work.
And then, of course, the first thing people would do would be to try to land on Earth and they'd either moan because there weren't buildings and roads or they'd moan because they couldn't land at all.

So, all they'd need to do would be to invent some reason why specific worlds weren't landable.
Just set it up so that there's a reason why you can't land on specific planets, such as EM interference, corrosive atmosphere, extreme environmental conditions or whatever.
Basically, you'd be locked-out just as you are when you try to enter a permit-locked system.

All it'd take would be to create a "landable" flag within the game.
It's already set to "on" for all the planets that are currently landable and it's set to "off" for the rest.
As they add in-game resources (sky, water, vegetation, terrains, clouds etc) then more and more planets would change to "on".
For all the ones that remained "off", you'd continue to get a suitable message telling you landing was impossible.
 
Even if they had atmospheric planets with grass, trees, and water etc, there's still the issue as to "what to do" on them...

Even if we could only do the very same things as now, doing them over lakes, rivers, seas, volcanos, clouds, rain, fog, thunderstorms, forests, deserts, etc, would already be a huge improvement in terms of variety and feel.

Of course, I would also like more things to do.
 
I'm sure FDev could come up with a reasonable "excuse" for not letting you land on certain planets if they wanted to.

I mean, let's say they undertook to make ELWs landable.
They might figure out a way to implement water, apply procedural vegetation, clouds and make the sky work.
And then, of course, the first thing people would do would be to try to land on Earth and they'd either moan because there weren't buildings and roads or they'd moan because they couldn't land at all.

So, all they'd need to do would be to invent some reason why specific worlds weren't landable.
Just set it up so that there's a reason why you can't land on specific planets, such as EM interference, corrosive atmosphere, extreme environmental conditions or whatever.
Basically, you'd be locked-out just as you are when you try to enter a permit-locked system.

All it'd take would be to create a "landable" flag within the game.
It's already set to "on" for all the planets that are currently landable and it's set to "off" for the rest.
As they add in-game resources (sky, water, vegetation, terrains, clouds etc) then more and more planets would change to "on".
For all the ones that remained "off", you'd continue to get a suitable message telling you landing was impossible.

The same reason why we can't land on the moon at the moment. We don't have the permit. Even when earthlikes come out, I doubt it will be earthlikes in the bubble with cities and stuff. I expect that to come out a later.
 
The same reason why we can't land on the moon at the moment. We don't have the permit. Even when earthlikes come out, I doubt it will be earthlikes in the bubble with cities and stuff. I expect that to come out a later.

Yeah, for sure.

Point being, as long as there are reasons why you can't land on specific planets, I'm okay with that.

I don't really get this "all or nothing" approach.
I'd much rather they did something which demonstrated a commitment to expanding the game, even if there's a heap of stuff which we won't see for years, if ever.

If all it takes to get some new content is to generate sky, water and vegetation, I'll take that.
And if I try to land on an inhabited ELW and get a message saying "You cannot land here without permission from the planetary authorities" or "You cannot land here due to extreme environmental conditions" because, in reality, FDev haven't yet developed the in-game assets to generate that planet, fair enough.
 
This is true at the moment. But hopefully the core gameplay updates will fix this, so that there is more to do on these planets.

I'm praying so hard for FD to introduce more non pew pew gameplay

What else you would want to do on bare planets outside bubble though - except for some escape pods, fungus, volcanism here and there, sight seeing some interesting vistas.

MOAR SCIENCE! Seriously though, for a game with a very strong element of science in it the player has almost no science to actually "do". I'd like the ability to survey planets and collect samples and what not. Sensors to pick out rich veins of minable materiels and the ability to collect samples to verify the sensors and then to be able to sell that data for a bit more profit (I'd imagine the further away from colonised space the less money it would all be worth). The ability to get mining devices to attach to the SRV (or a dedicated mining SRV), to mine the stuff out. I'm sure others can think of more things to do. edit read the rest of the thread and yeah some really good suggestion mentioned by others
 
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They could take a look at Starflight on planetary activities not involving shooting and steal some procedural generation from No Man's Sky and/or Spore to get creature variety going.
 
So, all they'd need to do would be to invent some reason why specific worlds weren't landable.

Would they even need a reason? Just a message from a higher power? Attempt it and face the rebuy screen

"All these worlds are yours except <insert worldtype or planet name here> attempt no landing there"
 
People initially thought the rocky worlds were amazing but given enough time they complained that they were bland.
If ELW's with jungles and little else are released, I would predict a similar response.
There has to be a meaningful and compelling reason for them to exist and for players to want to visit them other than "It looks cool"

I personally have never lost any luster for the rocky/icy worlds; although I agree it's got a lot of people's backs up.

Just checked out Planet Coaster on the 'tube, was quite impressed. I could see how, since it's also using the Cobra engine, it could easily be adapted to ELWs and EVA.

Happy to see the core mechanics updated, but history tells us DB is more than capable of NDAing a team, locking them up in a separate room and getting them to produce some awesome stuff - how many people were blown away planet landings happened at the end of year one from public release? I was certainly surprised.

So, here's hoping (and pleasantly dreaming)!
 
Before 2.2, there were varied terrain worlds...after 2.2 and some changes made by frontier, we got bland and beige and then the complaints started in earnest. Those complaints lasted through several mega threads...guessing ye missed the explanations why players were complaining and still are ^

To be more clear, I was referring to all land-able bodies. Not just the one's that have grown more beige.
i am not considered with the various shades of strata but more so on the activities that can be performed on the surfaces.
 
I think we will be through a couple more hardware cycles before ELW will be feasible.

Personally don't see it ever coming to ED.
 
My own anticipation spells out like this:

1. Gas Giants - we'll get to enter the upper atmosphere of gas giants first, as this will afford the opportunity to work out all the atmospheric effects.
2. Barren/Exotic Atmospheric - high metal, rocky and ball of ice worlds will be next on the list. Followed shortly after by Ammonia and other life-capable worlds.
3. Water Worlds - following on the heels of the Barren/Exotic atmospheric worlds.
4. Earth-like - to finally round out the list.

I would be more than impressed to see one of these per "season" or whatever they're going to call their update cycle. I would guess 1-1.5 years between each world type release.
 
I think we will be through a couple more hardware cycles before ELW will be feasible.

Personally don't see it ever coming to ED.

Why would we need a couple more hardware cycles before we get it. There are already games out there that can do it, I can't see why ED can't. People keep saying will melt computers of today, but see no reason why.
I will use NMS as an example, sure the art direction is completely different, but you can see what is possible and what isn't. If NMS can do it, I see no reason why FDev can't. All they need to do is to make better algorithms with the PG to include things like rivers etc. But when it comes to textures and stuff like that which is what will be the most demanding, well that is bread and butter stuff for modern gaming computers. Remember in earthlikes, the viewing distances are much smaller as you can get away with fogging and cloud cover and there will be foliage that gets in the way too. Obvioulsy there will still be LOD as well which will help too.

I really see no issues with earthlikes. The biggest issue is creating all the different biomes for the different environments. That is what is going to take the longest time.
 
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Why would we need a couple more hardware cycles before we get it. There are already games out there that can do it, I can't see why ED can't. People keep saying will melt computers of today, but see no reason why.
I will use NMS as an example, sure the art direction is completely different, but you can see what is possible and what isn't. If NMS can do it, I see no reason why FDev can't. All they need to do is to make better algorithms with the PG to include things like rivers etc. But when it comes to textures and stuff like that which is what will be the most demanding, well that is bread and butter stuff for modern gaming computers. Remember in earthlikes, the viewing distances are much smaller as you can get away with fogging and cloud cover and there will be foliage that gets in the way too. Obvioulsy there will still be LOD as well which will help too.

I really see no issues with earthlikes. The biggest issue is creating all the different biomes for the different environments. That is what is going to take the longest time.

Read the forums regulary and there are plenty of people struggling specifically on planets and around stations.
Wildlife and fauna now they are easy on hardware.
Simply put, some folk are going to be upgrading before ELW are going to work for them.
 
Progress I could see is like this:

- Barren, thin atmosphere worlds with no or little weather; this will allow implementation of the skybox mechanics, aerodynamics and friction heat on entry
- Barren planets with non-lethal pressure atmospheres; now we can implement persistent weather systems you can see from orbit, on the planet and approaching from the horizon, only needs simulation when someone is looking
- Barren planets with up to lethal atmospheric pressure: this includes gas giants, which will squish you if you drop too deep into them, may add new modules to increse pressure resistance, some worlds may exist where only the highlands can be landed in
- Water/liquid can be added along some of the above, first shallow systems and lakes where you don't sink, just to work in generation of flowing rivers and the like that make sense, once lethal pressures are included, deeper waters can be added with increased pressure effect, new submarine SRVs and flotation devices for your ships
- Lethality upgrades; dangerous temperatures, corrosive atmosphere, molten worlds (like water just burning), deadly weather, etc.
- Microorganisms; at this point enough worlds that can harbor microorganisms can be open and a way to exploit/research them can be implemented as a basis for more complex lifeforms
- With all environments made available, procedural generation of life on planets can be worked on
- Once life can be generated, civilization, settlements and agriculture can be generated

So by around 2027 we should have that completed. Adjust your expectations accordingly.
 
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