Will Elite Dangerous have Atmospheric Landings, Space Legs or Procedural Cities by 2019?

[nexxo]

I agree that Fdev has been somewhat unfocused in its approach. There is a definite sense of 'design by committee', lack of thinking details through and of trying to do too many different things at once. I think that is because they feel a pressure from customers who --quite mistakenly-- expect a more or less complete game, trying to please everybody all of the time.

The problem is that Fdev is marketing ED as a finished game. That is a mistake! Fdev needs to be much clearer that ED is a work in progress, and that customers are not buying a finished product but a stake in an on going project to create the ultimate space sim. That means: a much more detailed work-in-progress blog, a lot more "what we are working on" and "how it's done" video diaries. And a lot more discussion about game plans and design. If customers feel involved in the development of ED, they won't mind if it yet lacks certain features. They know that they will come. Expectations will be much more realistic, dissatisfaction much less, and engagement will be higher.

 

[Rubbernuke]

Even if Star Citizen's procedurally generated cities never make it into a final game, that one video is more interesting to me that the entirety of content in E: D 2.1 to 2.4 so far. Sorry FDev - *that's* the kind of thing you should have been working towards, rather than Powerplay, CQC, holo-me, multicrew et al.

If those features were fully integrated and fleshed out they would be fantastic, worth more than any generated city. Hopefully this is what Beyond will do, as ED needs to come together now.

 

[Miklos Atreides]

If those features were fully integrated and fleshed out they would be fantastic, worth more than any generated city. Hopefully this is what Beyond will do, as ED needs to come together now.

Beyond will be, what Frontier published in its advertising.
You are to be aware that advertising a year upfront shows the ideal world if everything works and no obstackles were found down the line.
Real life is mostly somewhat more picked with problems every single day. Hence you have to compromise some things, in the end basically
it will be what Frontier promised but a lot of deeper things many people interpret to the words of FD will not be there.

Atmospheric landings, Space Legs, Procedural full scale cities will be beyond Beyond.
But maybe Beyond can deliver the groundworks to make it happen during Version 3

Regards,
Miklos

 

[Rubbernuke]

Like it or not, Powerplay was supposed to be an 'endgame' of sorts for ED, it really needs a lot of work to make that real. If, *if* this could be done it would add so much to the game. CQC should be the ingame metasport, with connected missions that leak into the 'real' game. Holo me is nice but I'd agree its fluff- multicrew needs more love, as that again is a killer feature in waiting *if its developed*.

 

[askavir]

Like it or not, Powerplay was supposed to be an 'endgame' of sorts for ED, it really needs a lot of work to make that real. If, *if* this could be done it would add so much to the game. CQC should be the ingame metasport, with connected missions that leak into the 'real' game. Holo me is nice but I'd agree its fluff- multicrew needs more love, as that again is a killer feature in waiting *if its developed*.

CQC was something that could be seen from many miles away that it would flop hard.

Only way to salvage it would be to change it so people could organize matches and tournaments using their own main game ships, without rebuy penalties.

 

[Starbreaker]

Like it or not, Powerplay was supposed to be an 'endgame' of sorts for ED, it really needs a lot of work to make that real. If, *if* this could be done it would add so much to the game. CQC should be the ingame metasport, with connected missions that leak into the 'real' game. Holo me is nice but I'd agree its fluff- multicrew needs more love, as that again is a killer feature in waiting *if its developed*.

Pay attention to the Patreus part of this trailer, that is what I wanted from Powerplay, proper missions and objectives to aid my faction. Instead we got hauling PP cargo and generic CZ labeled "Military Strikes". Developed properly it could be the activity I would spend most of my time on. At some point you will have all the ranks, and more credits than you know what to do with. I don't recall powerplay being mentioned at all at FX17, which is a shame.

[video=youtube_share;U9P8QPZ81-E]https://youtu.be/U9P8QPZ81-E[/video]

 

[dreamer1986]

To answer the OP's question, I highly doubt ED will ever have space legs. Its too hard to implement. I'm hoping we will see atmospheric landings, but considering how bland the current planets look, and how hard it is to improve them, I think the release for atmospheric planets will be at least in 2021, if ever.

 

[NeilF]

Pay attention to the Patreus part of this trailer, that is what I wanted from Powerplay, proper missions and objectives to aid my faction. Instead we got hauling PP cargo and generic CZ labeled "Military Strikes". Developed properly it could be the activity I would spend most of my time on. At some point you will have all the ranks, and more credits than you know what to do with. I don't recall powerplay being mentioned at all at FX17, which is a shame.

https://youtu.be/U9P8QPZ81-E

Yep, after Wings, I fully expected Powerplay to open up meaningful and interesting:-

• Combat scenarios. eg: Fighting to get supply convoys through vs preventing supply convoys getting through. etc...
• Recon and counter recon. Why have stealth mechanics such as cold/silent running if they're no real gameplay of depth making use of them?
• Full on battles for locations. CZs are too thin in gameplay depth and outcome. They need to be improved.

CQC should have bolted in fighter bases gameplay into the core game so you could undertake PvE and PvP Powerplay missions. eg: Defending/attacking a location.

...and all of this in OPEN and non-OPEN forms such that gameplay carried out in OPEN accounts for a logical proportion of any outcome, else we just have a huge number of enemy who can affect outcomes invisibly (eg: in SOLO), making OPEN gameplay less valuable and interesting.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

Yep, after Wings, I fully expected Powerplay to open up meaningful and interesting:-

• Combat scenarios. eg: Fighting to get supply convoys through vs preventing supply convoys getting through. etc...
• Recon and counter recon. Why have stealth mechanics such as cold/silent running if they're no real gameplay of depth making use of them?
• Full on battles for locations. CZs are too thin in gameplay depth and outcome. They need to be improved.

CQC should have bolted in fighter bases gameplay into the core game so you could undertake PvE and PvP Powerplay missions. eg: Defending/attacking a location.

...and all of this in OPEN and non-OPEN forms such that gameplay carried out in OPEN accounts for a logical proportion of any outcome, else we just have a huge number of enemy who can affect outcomes invisibly (eg: in SOLO), making OPEN gameplay less valuable and interesting.

Yep. This is what the combat part of PP should have been like. Plus a load more powers with more pronounced differences. At the moment they feel to similar, and there are just not enough powers to make it interesting. I mean the alliance which you would think would a a good number of powers have one. Just doesn't make any sense.

 

[IamMe]

I think we won't have atmo landings, space legs nor big cities even in 2021, better question is will we ever have it in ED!

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

Even if Star Citizen's procedurally generated cities never make it into a final game, that one video is more interesting to me that the entirety of content in E: D 2.1 to 2.4 so far. Sorry FDev - *that's* the kind of thing you should have been working towards, rather than Powerplay, CQC, holo-me, multicrew et al.

LOL

So they should stop working on *actual* game and go into *dreaming* business?

Sorry, no. I would like them to better step by step approach, doing mistakes along the way while making REAL game.

 

[Quester91]

After almost 4 years years, something as relatively simple as changing hud color is still impossible in any proper manner and we're stuck with puke orange, everything that needs rework (System map, missions, narrative, planetary content etc. etc.) is still barebones as always, and every new big feature is an half baked mess.

What makes you think that the skeleton crew working at Frontier will ever embark on such titanic task of developing a whole new module such a space legs, which would require x1000 more effort, budget, time and testing?

Let's be real guys, come on.

 

[popuptoaster]

In 2019 they'll still be fixing the things they broke in 2018 while trying to fix 2017s problems....

 

[Ian Phillips]

Let's be real guys, come on.

Why do you constantly ignore the information that FD have given out about
1) the number of people working on ED
2) the announced rework/improvement of the main areas of the game ?

It's almost like you have a blinkered view of all things ED related.

 

[dreamer1986]

1) the number of people working on ED

How many people are working on ED?

 

[Quester91]

Why do you constantly ignore the information that FD have given out about
1) the number of people working on ED
2) the announced rework/improvement of the main areas of the game ?

It's almost like you have a blinkered view of all things ED related.

Because I trust facts, not words.

And the facts is that we have a watered down, butchered minimum effort product that took way more than it needed to be released, in such condition anyways. So they can say all they want about the gazillions of people working on elite and all the "We are just getting started!" announcements.

How many people are working on ED?

I think they said a hundred or so. Then they've shown a little happy mini montage with twenty people behind the desk, probably cut from different stages of development too.

Judging by the glacial development, the quality of the releases/cosmetics/mechanics I tend to believe it's well below a hundred souls, not even close

 

[popuptoaster]

It doesn't matter how many people are working on any game if they are not working on or towards the right bits of it. FD made a great basic game that seems to have loads of potential but they can't seem to get it to the point where it feels finalised so they can then add more parts.

It feels like every update has a few bits in that make sense, then a big chunk of overambitious and half done parts followed by some stuff that no one was expecting or really wanted.

The bare, basic game I love, but it seems that more and more "stuff" in it is of no interest or at least not interesting enough to make me want to get involved in it.

Star Citizen may well be the same for all we know although it does definitely look better and less "orange".

 

[NeilF]

Yep. This is what the combat part of PP should have been like. Plus a load more powers with more pronounced differences. At the moment they feel to similar, and there are just not enough powers to make it interesting. I mean the alliance which you would think would a a good number of powers have one. Just doesn't make any sense.

Wouldn't suggest more powers... At the end of the day, if we are concerned about viable PvP gameplay, we need just a few logical fronts at any one time. eg: If there was half a dozen powers, offering a dozen or so logical PvP options (tasks/missions) between them, then hopefully there would then be enough players to always mean PvP was available for those interested. If there were far more powers, and far more PvP options (tasks/missions), then PvP would be spread too thin.

I guess far more than this could be offered for non-PvP orientated PP missions/tasks though.

It doesn't matter how many people are working on any game if they are not working on or towards the right bits of it. FD made a great basic game that seems to have loads of potential but they can't seem to get it to the point where it feels finalised so they can then add more parts.

It feels like every update has a few bits in that make sense, then a big chunk of overambitious and half done parts followed by some stuff that no one was expecting or really wanted.

The bare, basic game I love, but it seems that more and more "stuff" in it is of no interest or at least not interesting enough to make me want to get involved in it.

Star Citizen may well be the same for all we know although it does definitely look better and less "orange".

Agreed... The only cornerstone updates I think were impressive were Wings and Planatary landings. Too much else is question in outcome, and questionable in how it got out of a design meeting (IMHO). If you consider the questionable gameplay outcomes of The Engineers and Powerplay? And then underline it in seemingly the huge development wastes with CQC and Multi-crew? *sighs*

 

[nexxo]

It doesn't matter how many people are working on any game if they are not working on or towards the right bits of it. FD made a great basic game that seems to have loads of potential but they can't seem to get it to the point where it feels finalised so they can then add more parts.

It feels like every update has a few bits in that make sense, then a big chunk of overambitious and half done parts followed by some stuff that no one was expecting or really wanted.

The bare, basic game I love, but it seems that more and more "stuff" in it is of no interest or at least not interesting enough to make me want to get involved in it.

Star Citizen may well be the same for all we know although it does definitely look better and less "orange".

Basically.

 

[Kubicide]

Why do you constantly ignore the information that FD have given out about
1) the number of people working on ED
2) the announced rework/improvement of the main areas of the game ?

It's almost like you have a blinkered view of all things ED related.

To be fair, just how many people has FDev actually said are working on the game today - show us the number. Don't include those providing Customer Support or working on the website, paint jobs, etc. (and I'd bet those were the people we saw in the recent video). I don't recall seeing any number from FDev ever. Can you point to where they actually tell us this?

And what has been revealed by FDev for Beyond is very little. The only parts with any detail sound pretty simple to implement (or should be with a capable t team) such as the Galnet voice reader which they hyped up a bit too much at the conference IMO, and Squads for all we know right now may be a simple redo of something like Wings + a Jacques-type jumping baseship. There's no detail yet; just vagueness. Again, if they have provided great detail that shows the need for large dev teams in the 100+ range then please point to it.


Speculation of course since no one knows the facts outside of FDev, but the speculation that is most rational is simply that there's very little resources being spent on Elite because the return on that investment is low. The game is released. Same with Planet Coaster - probably very few devs are still active. The majority of their talent should be on Jurassic their next big money maker (they hope). And then after that the majority of their talent will move to the next big unreleased title. It's irrational to think that somehow FDev would divide up their resources and spread them out equally "just because". When a game is launched / released the work is done; time to move the crew on to a new job. Not doing so would be irresponsible to their employees and shareholders. FDev are operating a for-profit business and not a hobby. So back OT: the game we have today is likely to be the game you'll have. "It is what it is". There's no 'doom and gloom'ing' stating this but the odds of the game getting greatly enhanced and dramatically changing are very, very low. Horizon's demonstrated and provided facts of what to expect - at best - moving forward. Would also speculate that they will eventually do an Elite 2.0 but not for some time.