What's more important to you: Space legs or atmospheric landing?

[Jenner]

I love how almost everyone assumes that "space legs" is going to be an FPS shooter. Nobody from FDev has said anything other than "We want to do space legs at some point". I certainly don't advocate for an FPS addon, but I do want to be able to get out of my ship when I am in a port, and take care of biz at the local office of what ever I am doing. I also want to be able to walk around in my ships, look out the window, tinker with the FSD or the engines... There's a ton of immersion things that letting us walk around can add, that would be more interesting than what we already have only with an atmo.

I agree, but it's understandable why people think of FPS stuff...its a well known mechanic and is a logical feature of 'walking 'in the game. Of course there are a ton of other things that would be equally if not more interesting from a gameplay standpoint.

Surface science missions, repairs, interactions with passengers or mission givers, etc.

Of course FD would need to really design these systems well and make them interesting or there is no point.

 

[Senzafine]

IF they can do proper atmospheric planets though that would be amazing. I honestly don't think they can right now. It's a massive undertaking, way beyond adding space legs to ships and stations. They'd need to add life - alien life not trees and green grass. And atmospheric worlds without that would be like Mars which is pretty much what the current landable planets are.

Can't agree with this at all. Lifeless atmospheric worlds would be far more interesting and complex geologically than those without atmospheres, thanks to water and wind erosion etc. The landscape features we see on Mars are infinitely more varied than what we have in ED so far. Even ELW's would be doable relatively easily so long as life hasn't progressed beyond the level of algae, stromatolites and algal blooms would be easy to implement. The same would apply to ammonia worlds with life at an equivalent level of evolution. Remember, life on Earth didn't progress beyond this level for billions of years. Obviously large flora and fauna require far more work and probably a much upgraded engine so are a very long way off - but that's OK.

 

[Ted Striker]

Can't agree with this at all. Lifeless atmospheric worlds would be far more interesting and complex geologically than those without atmospheres, thanks to water and wind erosion etc. The landscape features we see on Mars are infinitely more varied than what we have in ED so far. Even ELW's would be doable relatively easily so long as life hasn't progressed beyond the level of algae, stromatolites and algal blooms would be easy to implement. The same would apply to ammonia worlds with life at an equivalent level of evolution. Remember, life on Earth didn't progress beyond this level for billions of years. Obviously large flora and fauna require far more work and probably a much upgraded engine so are a very long way off - but that's OK.

I guess I'm not interested in exploring erosion and monochromatic landscapes. I'd much rather immerse myself in this world via space legs to get a true appreciation of my ships and these massive stations.

 

[Iron Duke]

Atmospheric landings.. "let's walk before we can run" [haha] Apologies, couldn't help myself ..

 

[Senzafine]

I guess I'm not interested in exploring erosion and monochromatic landscapes. I'd much rather immerse myself in this world via space legs to get a true appreciation of my ships and these massive stations.

Mars isn't monochromatic...

Atmospheres, clouds and weather will add a huge amount of interactivity to this game and make it feel a lot less static and lifeless.

 

[Rorkan]

Ships over legs. Always.

Say NO to Incarna!....oh, wait...wrong game, wrong time.

 

[Sysmon]

Atmospheric flight will add a lot to the game, and the lot it would add is in the spirit of the game. Space legs would be fun, but there are already plenty of games out there where you can walk about and do things. Not many do what Elite Dangerous do, if any.

Atmospheric flight will add a lot to the environment, and to the interaction with the environment: Flying into the atmospheres of gas giants will be awesome. Experiencing weather effects. And the interaction between the atmosphere and the planet surfaces will add gameplay as well: Rivers, lakes, seas, mud holes, ... The step to adding life will be small-seeming, hopefully at first as algae crusts and simple life forms before FD tries to procedurally generate more complex life forms.

Ideally we would have a bit of ability to interact with the environment: Sampling, mining, mapping. Whether we do that by ship, SRV or eventually on foot, I don't really care. The environment needs to be in place first, though. So atmospheres first, then it's implications. Finally, long way down the road if there is nothing else left to implement, maybe space legs. In space, though. As in EVA. That would look awesome in VR.

S

 

[Ted Striker]

Mars isn't monochromatic...

Atmospheres, clouds and weather will add a huge amount of interactivity to this game and make it feel a lot less static and lifeless.

All pictures of Mars look more or less like this:

Spoiler

Ok so it's not a true monochromatic landscape but it's so close that it could be any barren planet in this game with the same basic hue. You can probably go on youtube right now and find a lot of SRV footage that looks pretty damned close to that pic (how about this great one from ObsidianAnt)

Spoiler

[video=youtube;ACeqTZom2ng]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACeqTZom2ng[/video]

Aside from the sky and some color variations there isn't much difference is there?

It's just not interesting to explore unless there's a chance of finding evidence of life or life itself.

That's what I'm saying about atmospheric landings. People are expecting beautiful oceans, lakes, waterfalls, clouds etc. but it won't be like that. I don't think the dev team is large enough to pull it off any time soon.

I play a single player game called Age Of Pirates 2 and man is it satisfying to disembark your ship and wander around town, visiting the tavern, actually seeing and talking to prospective crew members etc. while your ship waits at anchor nearby looking glorious. It's that combination of ship and sea legs I love and that sets it apart from games with just ships or just FPS gameplay. It makes the game immersive and something you can really lose yourself in. If it was just ships on the ocean it wouldn't be nearly as immersive, IMO.

I will admit that volcanoes would be awesome.

 

[Ian Skippy]

All pictures of Mars look more or less like this:

Spoiler

https://i.imgur.com/4QEQnls.jpg

Ok so it's not a true monochromatic landscape but it's so close that it could be any barren planet in this game with the same basic hue. You can probably go on youtube right now and find a lot of SRV footage that looks pretty damned close to that pic (how about this great one from ObsidianAnt)

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACeqTZom2ng

Aside from the sky and some color variations there isn't much difference is there?

It's just not interesting to explore unless there's a chance of finding evidence of life or life itself.

That's what I'm saying about atmospheric landings. People are expecting beautiful oceans, lakes, waterfalls, clouds etc. but it won't be like that. I don't think the dev team is large enough to pull it off any time soon.

I play a single player game called Age Of Pirates 2 and man is it satisfying to disembark your ship and wander around town, visiting the tavern, actually seeing and talking to prospective crew members etc. while your ship waits at anchor nearby looking glorious. It's that combination of ship and sea legs I love and that sets it apart from games with just ships or just FPS gameplay. It makes the game immersive and something you can really lose yourself in. If it was just ships on the ocean it wouldn't be nearly as immersive, IMO.

I will admit that volcanoes would be awesome.

The problem is that both EvEcand X:R tried it. EvE removed spacelegs and X:R was panned for it and had to redo the interface so people mostly just skip it. The final space game that tried, SC, is failing on all fronts.

Its not as straight forward as it seems at first.

 

[Miklos Atreides]

Well, I think the atmospheric landings are the one which I woul prefer over space legs.
Space legs will open up another game to be played. Many of us think of 1st Person Shooters when
hearing Space legs. Maybe me too and I am no fan of shooting someone. I even don't take any
killing Mission in ED today.

Landing on Planets with Atmosphere is in my view the harder option to make true. You have to consider a lot
in regards to physics of Atmosphere like preasure or temperatures, G-force and fog, Chemical reaction to hull, ...
endless list following.
And you have to give it some gameplay options what special things to do on those planets that you cannot do on airless ones.
Ones you have that landing possible people will drive around with SRVs and looking for plants and animals and other intelligent
(are we?) lifeforms. Players will expect a diverse biology that is unique to every planet they land on. I think there will be some
of them disapointed when they discover that many things are to repeititve there too.

I would love to land on atmospheric planets even if they do the reglementation on what you can land on by physical restrictions
Maybe worlds with less than 2G and not more than 100 atm preasure at Sealevel not hotter than 320°K. It would be a start.

Regards,
Miklos

 

[Senzafine]

All pictures of Mars look more or less like this:

Spoiler

https://i.imgur.com/4QEQnls.jpg

Ok so it's not a true monochromatic landscape but it's so close that it could be any barren planet in this game with the same basic hue. You can probably go on youtube right now and find a lot of SRV footage that looks pretty damned close to that pic (how about this great one from ObsidianAnt)

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACeqTZom2ng

Aside from the sky and some color variations there isn't much difference is there?

It's just not interesting to explore unless there's a chance of finding evidence of life or life itself.

That's what I'm saying about atmospheric landings. People are expecting beautiful oceans, lakes, waterfalls, clouds etc. but it won't be like that. I don't think the dev team is large enough to pull it off any time soon.

I'm actually more interested in how planets look from orbit and during flight than from ground level. It is important to remember that when NASA chose those sites for their landers they had safety more in mind than dramatic and interesting scenery. Polars regions for instance would quite different.
Mars is a fascinating planet with an immense variety in features, I have a huge book called Mars: A New View and it's simply gorgeous to look through. This site will give you an idea of what I mean - https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/images/index.html

I suspect clouds, oceans, rivers and so on will end up being easier to implement than space legs, good animations alone are a lot of work and very costly - look how Bethesda consistently screws them up. If Frontier manage to do a good enough job approximating geological and weathering processes then we will have a truly unique and unendingly fascinating game, and have a good base to start adding large life forms later.

 

[CMDR Pugwash]

I'm actually more interested in how planets look from orbit and during flight than from ground level. It is important to remember that when NASA chose those sites for their landers they had safety more in mind than dramatic and interesting scenery. Polars regions for instance would quite different.
Mars is a fascinating planet with an immense variety in features, I have a huge book called Mars: A New View and it's simply gorgeous to look through. This site will give you an idea of what I mean - https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/images/index.html

I suspect clouds, oceans, rivers and so on will end up being easier to implement than space legs, good animations alone are a lot of work and very costly - look how Bethesda consistently screws them up. If Frontier manage to do a good enough job approximating geological and weathering processes then we will have a truly unique and unendingly fascinating game, and have a good base to start adding large life forms later.

Those images are beautiful, how can anyone not want to explore terrains like those is beyond me. Maybe it's because you can't shoot them, or rather they won't shoot back.

 

[Ted Striker]

Those images are beautiful, how can anyone not want to explore terrains like those is beyond me. Maybe it's because you can't shoot them, or rather they won't shoot back.

Very nice to see but what's there to find? If they also add a chance at finding life or signs of life (for a hefty reward when you return) this kind of exploration would be fantastic. It's an atmospheric or former atmospheric world, there should be a chance at some form of life and not necessarily life as we know it on Earth.

If there's no chance at finding signs of life there isn't much point to it. But I find that true about a lot of this game - it's a mile wide and a foot deep. It needs content.

 

[Ambroza]

Those images are beautiful, how can anyone not want to explore terrains like those is beyond me. Maybe it's because you can't shoot them, or rather they won't shoot back.

You can shoot them, though. In fact, shooting rocks is basically the only way we can interact with the terrain itself currently.

 

[CMDR Pugwash]

You can shoot them, though. In fact, shooting rocks is basically the only way we can interact with the terrain itself currently.

Would you like them to say ouch?

 

[CMDR Pugwash]

Very nice to see but what's there to find? If they also add a chance at finding life or signs of life (for a hefty reward when you return) this kind of exploration would be fantastic. It's an atmospheric or former atmospheric world, there should be a chance at some form of life and not necessarily life as we know it on Earth.

If there's no chance at finding signs of life there isn't much point to it. But I find that true about a lot of this game - it's a mile wide and a foot deep. It needs content.

Yes, I agree there should be rare and valuable minerals and microscopic life that can be sampled and returned. The further you go the more valuable they become. I am expecting something like this from their upcoming focus on the core-mechanics, when exploration finally gets some love.

 

[Aasgard]

Atmospheric landings like Aliens

 

[Riverside]

Those images are beautiful, how can anyone not want to explore terrains like those is beyond me. Maybe it's because you can't shoot them, or rather they won't shoot back.

TBF most if not all those Mars pics are colour enhanced.

 

[Senzafine]

TBF most if not all those Mars pics are colour enhanced.

Yes, they are - and so should fit in very well with ED's graphics which are also colour enhanced. I turn saturation down a tad to make it look a bit more realistic.

 

[Senzafine]

Very nice to see but what's there to find? If they also add a chance at finding life or signs of life (for a hefty reward when you return) this kind of exploration would be fantastic. It's an atmospheric or former atmospheric world, there should be a chance at some form of life and not necessarily life as we know it on Earth.

If there's no chance at finding signs of life there isn't much point to it. But I find that true about a lot of this game - it's a mile wide and a foot deep. It needs content.

Sigh, you just don't get it do you? For those of us actually interested in astronomy (and geomorphology) - that is the content.

I really don't understand how anyone can overlook the sheer beauty of those pictures I linked to. Every single astronaut who goes into orbit is absolutely mesmerised by the views they see of Earth. It would be the same orbiting any other planet - even the recent pics of Pluto left ordinary Joe public fascinated.