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

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surely it would be madness to split it up too small.... imo the size of horizons was ok, but if every little featire is an optional paywall how can we ever hope for interesting multipart missions using all of the features of the game.

if seasons isnt to be a thing, then if the game is to develop as i hope it does and not be a disjointed mishmash of unattached game mechanics then the only other way is DLCs, every bit as big as horizons, but for the most part feature complete and paid for at point of sale - ie the traditional dlc model. i truly hope this is what FD are working towards and in part explains why horizons has dragged on, and continues to drag on so long (marketing aside "beyond" IS still horizons imo)

Good points on challenges there. As I said, season might be perfect for ED as game, but unfortunately we don't live on lone island. FD has to take market realities into account. And there's already design challenges with gating planetary missions. It isn't that is not possible to create gameplay which takes that into account. It just creates additional work for FD.

At this point I would even think some sort of premium account system would make sense. Sudo sub so to say but for content, from which you can opt out if you want.
 
It seems you were not here the first 3.5 ish years of the game...

It seems you forgot we got airless moons to land on in second year of the game. Granted, they have stumbled upon some issues and self inflicted wounds, but overall they seem to handle it all quite well.
 
surely it would be madness to split it up too small.... imo the size of horizons was ok, but if every little featire is an optional paywall how can we ever hope for interesting multipart missions using all of the features of the game.

if seasons isnt to be a thing, then if the game is to develop as i hope it does and not be a disjointed mishmash of unattached game mechanics then the only other way is DLCs, every bit as big as horizons, but for the most part feature complete and paid for at point of sale - ie the traditional dlc model. i truly hope this is what FD are working towards and in part explains why horizons has dragged on, and continues to drag on so long (marketing aside "beyond" IS still horizons imo)

Yep, it is a tough one. It could be that they roll horizons into the next DLC. Which would help with the lack of splintering and giving more reasons for people to upgrade, or horizons may become the base game when the new DLC comes out and they stop selling the standalone version of ED. You keep the update to horizons for those that will need it, but the base game probably will not be updated anymore. You would need horizons from then on.
 
Yes they did it so well that they have to redo it again... like 95% of their features.

They should start by redo the Core and then add new features. No point to add new things on shaking grounds
 
Yep, it is a tough one. It could be that they roll horizons into the next DLC. Which would help with the lack of splintering and giving more reasons for people to upgrade, or horizons may become the base game when the new DLC comes out and they stop selling the standalone version of ED. You keep the update to horizons for those that will need it, but the base game probably will not be updated anymore. You would need horizons from then on.

I think they will stop selling standalone ED but I think they will keep supporting it, but they will definitely upgrade requirements for base game. It will be pseudo Horizons - with new code base but features disabled. So everybody will be on 64-bit ED with potentially also upgrading graphics.

Really thorn question is MacOS version - do FD feel justified to invest into Metal 2 port? If that's true, then I guess we will move to pseudo Horizons base for tech.
 
I think they will stop selling standalone ED but I think they will keep supporting it, but they will definitely upgrade requirements for base game. It will be pseudo Horizons - with new code base but features disabled. So everybody will be on 64-bit ED with potentially also upgrading graphics.

Really thorn question is MacOS version - do FD feel justified to invest into Metal 2 port? If that's true, then I guess we will move to pseudo Horizons base for tech.

the mac is a pita to be honest.... without the mac i would fully expect FD to eventually rescind ED and replace everyone with horizons.... but the mac is unable to do this without significant work - unless FD use it as a proof of concept if they want to market COBRA to other dev teams? - if they do then maybe worth while, if not then imo the mac stretchgoal may be a bit of a lead weight holding them back.

with hindsight i wonder if FD regret developing for the mac?
 
Yes they did it so well that they have to redo it again... like 95% of their features.

They should start by redo the Core and then add new features. No point to add new things on shaking grounds

Let me quick point at EVE Online as a good example of the consequences for just pouring more sauce on your spaghetti code instead of consolidating your game base before expanding.
 
the mac is a pita to be honest.... without the mac i would fully expect FD to eventually rescind ED and replace everyone with horizons.... but the mac is unable to do this without significant work - unless FD use it as a proof of concept if they want to market COBRA to other dev teams? - if they do then maybe worth while, if not then imo the mac stretchgoal may be a bit of a lead weight holding them back.

with hindsight i wonder if FD regret developing for the mac?

I think they as lot of devs got burned by Apple step to abandon OpenGL, as it halt their plans to roll out Horizons for MacOS. At this point is good question is Apple even reliable vendor to be worth all trouble. Apple might publish huge profit numbers, but those are more and more in mobile electronics department, and desktop is clearly swayed aside for more profitable markets.
 
This video from DB is now five years old skip to 4:45

[video=youtube_share;iTBvpd3_Vqk]https://youtu.be/iTBvpd3_Vqk?t=4m49s[/video]

I'm still waiting to play the game DB was talking about. I feel maybe there has been a bit of false advertising that lead me to pay way too much during the beta period for a game I am still waiting to play! I get what ED is but it is still grind, grind, grind. Exploration should be more than looking at rocks on big lifeless rocks. Two hundred news letters later and none of them have hinted at Atmos or indeed anything interesting.
 
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I don't understand the constant expectation of space legs.
Let's say they manage to introduce this feature. Then what? Other then being able to walk around your ship or a station, what meaningful game play will it offer? Based on past performance, you know it's going to be another half baked feature built on top of the unfinished foundation.
 
Based on past performance, you know it's going to be another half baked feature built on top of the unfinished foundation.

If we base any discussion on "FD cant develop anything to its full potential" any discussion over future updates is pointless - game is done in current shape and form. I for one hope it is not. I have my worries over future big game-play updates but I still have some faith that FD will expand ED with decent SL game play and content - examples on how it could be done have been posted many times in here, I`m sure FD is aware of it. Not a priority, do not freak out but in the future, I hope we will get it.
 
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Star Citizen will be released before Elite has atmospheric landings and space legs.

Well we will see but after being a backer of SC for some time and looking closely at their development pace.... I bet David vision will be accomplished before Roberts one. Who ever wins the "space race" we can all meet up and drink a beer in the future and say "I told you so" yeah?
 
Once 3.0 gets released, i bet you 80% of Elite players will migrate to Star Citizen.

Here is the thing SC is a space game we all like space games and ED will be AT LEAST 5 years old by then... So sure the day SC launches I expect a dip in player numbers . Same with when X4 launches.

The question is once the novelty of new and shiny wears off what will we go back to?. I only ever try to speak for myself and not state I speak fore the masses like some here With no VR support I am fairly sure SC won't hold me like ED does even WITH it's flaws
 
I don't understand the constant expectation of space legs.
Let's say they manage to introduce this feature. Then what? Other then being able to walk around your ship or a station, what meaningful game play will it offer? Based on past performance, you know it's going to be another half baked feature built on top of the unfinished foundation.

Eventually we want to unbolt ourselves from a chair and walk around. I'm not screaming about space-legs myself; I'd like them, but a nice lava planet or something with even a thin atmosphere would be new and interesting. There's tons of planets out there that have a thin or methane atmosphere but the planets/moons involved have tons of metals/resources on them. Seems a waste to not exploit them.

Also regarding space legs...
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...make-credits?p=6118813&viewfull=1#post6118813
 
Once 3.0 gets released, i bet you 80% of Elite players will migrate to Star Citizen.

I smell troll, but I'd bite.

SC is very very far away from having anything ready to be released. And ED got something SC don't, a 100% simulated Milky Way, I like that, I like ED because they are more science than fantasy regarding the universe.

However one does not exclude the other, if we ever will see a working game called SC people will play it, but that 80% is just .
 
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