FDEV: Are there any space legs prototypes?

[killerofstars]

Firstly, good work on Beyond update 1. Some great stuff, and stuff that perhaps needs some tweaking (the staggering number of rolls to engineer ships) but it's great seeing the love and passion put into the game.

I am curious though if space legs (which I understand won't be coming in beyond and 2018) has had any work and/or prototypes done, or if development just hasn't even touched that yet even as an experiment?

I ask because I've wanted to be able to walk around inside my ships since childhood, and it seems like Star Citizen sales are largely driven by the feeling of owning a ship: a thing you can explore and allow your imagination to roam free in...even if there's not a lot to actually do there right now.

It seems like you guys are slowly working to build the necessary features for that, first by creating holome, and now possibly with the Beyond intended feature of an enhanced lighting engine (perhaps to provide better lighting for interior spaces?)

Anyway, I know the goal is do space legs right, I was just curious if the idea has even been explored yet.

 

[krylite]

I agree that I feel they have been working on the framework for spacelegs with holo-me and multicrew. The ocassional movement of the avatar's neck, facial features, hands , and slight shifting in holo-me editor standing, etc. shows that there's working skeletal movement modeling. The last big trailer/ps4 showed a quick tease of a cmdr standing by the chair. I'd suspect they have already done some testing of spacelegs on ship floors already perhaps as far back as release then more with multicrew. Although I don't expect Fdev to officially reveal how much or what or when they have been working on spacelegs until a planned announcement such as an expo and only if they were confident they would have a working stable release and a controlled scope of spacelegs out within months up to a year.

 

[Miko]

Space legs will be weird. Imagine your ship comes under attack and you're in the engine room of a Cutter enjoying the look of some rivets... What do you do? Quick sprint to the bridge! Haha.

It will be nice to be able to walk around the ship, so long as they get the walking mechanic done right.

 

[sidereal6]

or if development just hasn't even touched that yet even as an experiment?

It wouldn't be in FDev's best interests to tell you that they were working on something that was several years out. It'd cause some people to decide to wait and not purchase the game. It'd also create hype that they aren't prepared to live up to.

However, you can get hints about the answer to this question.

First: they mentioned once that the full interiors of ships are mapped out.

Second: they've done development in their other games that doesn't make sense - doesn't add to those games, but would make sense latter in ED. For example, the roller coaster game got procedurally-generated, volumetric clouds about a year ago. Does anyone building roller coasters care about that feature? I doubt it. But we'll need it on Earth-likes in ED. This suggests that they built it for ED and incorporated it in the other game to test it.

In other words, they are developing things that wont be in ED for years to come.

Third: they've announced future games that not only have first-person perspective, but suspiciously have a lot of cool features that ED should one day have. Specifically, they are making a Jurassic park game. They're modeling the behavior and movement of dinosaurs based on bone structures.

It seems pretty obvious to me that they're making strategic decisions related to ED.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

Space legs will be weird. Imagine your ship comes under attack and you're in the engine room of a Cutter enjoying the look of some rivets... What do you do? Quick sprint to the bridge! Haha.

It will be nice to be able to walk around the ship, so long as they get the walking mechanic done right.

"Your ship is under attack and it will go boom in five secs. Escape pod?"

Yeah that definitely will be weird. Interesting too.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

Firstly, good work on Beyond update 1. Some great stuff, and stuff that perhaps needs some tweaking (the staggering number of rolls to engineer ships) but it's great seeing the love and passion put into the game.

I am curious though if space legs (which I understand won't be coming in beyond and 2018) has had any work and/or prototypes done, or if development just hasn't even touched that yet even as an experiment?

Very, very old ED Alpha 1 video showed work they have done to prototype their ship cockpits with commanders in weightless scenarios (handlers, etc.). It was few seconds long clip.

There has been avatars walking and standing in PlayStation 4 launch trailer.

They definitely prototype avatars as we speak. Good question is when we will see anything of that. But consider small team of ED is working on this as we chat.

 

[Iskariot]

Firstly, good work on Beyond update 1. Some great stuff, and stuff that perhaps needs some tweaking (the staggering number of rolls to engineer ships) but it's great seeing the love and passion put into the game.

I am curious though if space legs (which I understand won't be coming in beyond and 2018) has had any work and/or prototypes done, or if development just hasn't even touched that yet even as an experiment?

I ask because I've wanted to be able to walk around inside my ships since childhood, and it seems like Star Citizen sales are largely driven by the feeling of owning a ship: a thing you can explore and allow your imagination to roam free in...even if there's not a lot to actually do there right now.

It seems like you guys are slowly working to build the necessary features for that, first by creating holome, and now possibly with the Beyond intended feature of an enhanced lighting engine (perhaps to provide better lighting for interior spaces?)

Anyway, I know the goal is do space legs right, I was just curious if the idea has even been explored yet.

If you think FDev is going to enlighten you on this premature topic then you don't know them well .
We just entered the first chapter of the 'Beyond' season. Do not expect to hear them talk about anything beyond 'Beyond'. That is not their way of doing things.

 

[ZeroAi]

+Rep

I would love to explore all my ships in a first person walking mode!

But most missions today don't really give you the time to walk around, so when would you?

- I guess you could walk around while parked or on a very long cruise.

- Or maybe they could release a new version of FSD that allows long hyperspace jumps, aka "Hypercruise." I imagine it would work like Supercruise but in Hyperspace.

What would we do?

- Customize the CMDR's cabin and cockpit?

- But even more appealing to me would be to effect repairs manually (kind of like Sea of Thieves)

- and who wouldn't want to do an EVA?

Hopefully space legs will also support multicrew as well as social spaces at stations where you can meet up with friends for some R & R

:-D

Fly Safe

o7

 

[SAB380]

I’ve come to accept that space legs are never going to happen.

The interiors of the ships really aren’t mapped out. There is a rough skeleton there of some of the early ships but that’s it.
How have they changed cetain module sizes of ships if the interiors were mapped out? A powerplant or distributor in some ships just increased in size due to a developer buff.
How can you swap around a fighter hanger or SRV hanger when in reality it needs to be matched up to the hanger entrances on the hull of the ship. The same goes for cargo and access to cargo bay doors.
Why did they have to alter various cockpits when multicrew became a thing? Wasn’t that already planned in advance?
All this stuff is fixable, I’m just saying that ships would need an entire rework if you’re going to be walking around in the guts of them.

At this point I just hope we’ll one day get to see some cool vistas in SRVs on complex worlds.

 

[Cmdr NCarter]

My npc crew is better than me at combat. I gladly pay & leave my ship to high ranked npc pilot while i do other things in my ship. But, i rarely look for combat or get into fights. Heck, i don't even have guns on my Anaconda except mining lasers.

Keep on "going" with the work on spacelegs in secret FDevs. Looking forward to strolling around my ships and my base on a moon somewhere in the black. You're awesome!

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

I’ve come to accept that space legs are never going to happen.

The interiors of the ships really aren’t mapped out. There is a rough skeleton there of some of the early ships but that’s it.
How have they changed cetain module sizes of ships if the interiors were mapped out? A powerplant or distributor in some ships just increased in size due to a developer buff.

Because it is done with huge space left over. There was comparable screen between Type 9 actual capacity and it's size. You could increase capacity twice and still having tons of free space.

Also lore says it is all swapable modules.

 

[Jenner]

I would love space legs too, but FD are most likely not going to show off anything until they are much further along developing this. I hope they have something in the works, too, but FD keep their cards close to their chest normally.

TL;DR - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[killerofstars]

It wouldn't be in FDev's best interests to tell you that they were working on something that was several years out. It'd cause some people to decide to wait and not purchase the game. It'd also create hype that they aren't prepared to live up to.

However, you can get hints about the answer to this question.

First: they mentioned once that the full interiors of ships are mapped out.

Second: they've done development in their other games that doesn't make sense - doesn't add to those games, but would make sense latter in ED. For example, the roller coaster game got procedurally-generated, volumetric clouds about a year ago. Does anyone building roller coasters care about that feature? I doubt it. But we'll need it on Earth-likes in ED. This suggests that they built it for ED and incorporated it in the other game to test it.

In other words, they are developing things that wont be in ED for years to come.

Third: they've announced future games that not only have first-person perspective, but suspiciously have a lot of cool features that ED should one day have. Specifically, they are making a Jurassic park game. They're modeling the behavior and movement of dinosaurs based on bone structures.

It seems pretty obvious to me that they're making strategic decisions related to ED.

You make a lot of excellent points. Eager for space legs though I am as a customer, if I were a company like Frontier I just wouldn't talk about stuff in progress. So, I shouldn't have bothered asking. With Star Citizen seeming less and less like a viable game, I just wish Elite could pick up some of that funding money. I'm sure Frontier is envious of SC's budget. It seems unfair with SC seeming less tangible and even shady, while Frontier started with a basic, but solid game and have been steadily building on that foundation since.

I didn't know about the cloud technology in planet coaster, that's fascinating. (Own the game, just haven't paid a ton of attention to the sky.) Yeah, I had wondered if some of the technology and intent in Jurassic Park would lead to tech for ED. If so, a clever way to have a popular IP potentially foot the bill for ED tech. (Hunting? Foliage and fauna biome generation?) From what I can see from the outside, Frontier seems like it has a lot of cleverness and good management behind it.

Anyway, I've tried to do my part. I've hooked several other friends into ED. Outright bought it for two others. I own planet coaster and think Frontier put out the best coasterpark sim I've ever played, and hey, who doesn't love dinosaurs so Jurassic world looks fun. (I really hope it does well.)

I'm not rich, so I can't just throw a ton of money at Elite, but I've put what I can into it.
I just hope Frontier keeps hanging out inside my spaceships high on the priority list.

 

[Jex =TE=]

Space legs will be weird. Imagine your ship comes under attack and you're in the engine room of a Cutter enjoying the look of some rivets... What do you do? Quick sprint to the bridge! Haha.

It will be nice to be able to walk around the ship, so long as they get the walking mechanic done right.

It would be nice to be able to replace those rivets, too

 

[Dooguk]

Oh look, another space legs thread. Space legs will turn any boring old space game into something fantastic. Look at Star Citizen.....LOOK AT IT!!!! [haha]

 

[dumbo]

I think most people play ED for the space-flight sim, so making space-legs "compulsory" is a potential problem. But, if it's entirely optional then it may go the way of Eve's "space legs".

So the biggest challenge for the game is probably working out what 'space legs' means for the current game.

Note: I believe the forum-agreed terminology is 'Elite Feet'.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

I think most people play ED for the space-flight sim, so making space-legs "compulsory" is a potential problem. But, if it's entirely optional then it may go the way of Eve's "space legs".

So the biggest challenge for the game is probably working out what 'space legs' means for the current game.

Note: I believe the forum-agreed terminology is 'Elite Feet'.

I don't think that is the case. From what I have seen most people would like to get out of the cockpit. I think it will be optional, but I doubt it will go the way of EVE as in EVE they added no gameplay to go with it.

If there is no gameplay it will fail. If there is gameplay, then it has the potential to be great. EVA over to a wrecked anaconda to get some information stored in its computer banks etc, sounds like fun.

 

[=71st=RuSh]

Space legs will be weird. Imagine your ship comes under attack and you're in the engine room of a Cutter enjoying the look of some rivets... What do you do? Quick sprint to the bridge! Haha.

It will be nice to be able to walk around the ship, so long as they get the walking mechanic done right.

Don't you need to pee or poo? Are you Rocket Man?

[video=youtube;yzt0IACxlFA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzt0IACxlFA[/video]

 

[DanGriswold]

Anyway, I've tried to do my part. I've hooked several other friends into ED. Outright bought it for two others.
I'm not rich, so I can't just throw a ton of money at Elite, but I've put what I can into it.
I just hope Frontier keeps hanging out inside my spaceships high on the priority list.

+1 Rep!

I love the game, too, and talk about it to anyone who will listen. I got my brother to buy it and he's hooked. I'm also trying to get a couple of co-workers into it as well.

I agree with you that Frontier seems to be a well-organized and thoughtful company. They're likely to weigh all of their options and make good decisions for the long-term and ensure something will work well before announcing plans to incorporate them into the game.

I also wish some of that Star Citizen money could have gone towards ED instead. SC sure looks awesome, but they haven't done their supporters justice by not having produced anything yet. I think Frontier would have put that same money to better/smarter use.

 

[Imgran]

I've said this before in other threads, but I'd love to take a page from Mount and Blade and have each station have a Deep Space Nine style promenade. Or like the Zocalo in Babylon 5

Basically, the idea in Mount and Blade is that you can access most things from the town menu, but you can also do your business by ride around town for immersion's sake, plus there are one or two added features that you can't access any other way, and a handful of Easter eggs. A couple quests also involve riding around the village until you find a guy. There's enough there to justify the game mode without forcing it on anyone who'd rather not bother.

Where the DS9/Bab5 tie in comes is, let's say there was a Promenade/Zocalo/Grand Mall/Plaza in every station, or that it became a feature stations could have. You COULD conduct your business virtually, gather missions, do trading, etc. But you could also go take a walk on the promenade, visit the trade center, walk from there to the shipyard office to schedule some maintenance, and then maybe also access the potential for a few clandestine quests. Assassination missions, smuggling, actions against the controlling faction, these would be present in the mission board but additional missions could be found by canvassing the promenade and visiting the space tavern.

Perhaps the trade center and passenger lounge could have additional missions as well, from people who like to close their deals with a man in person rather than using an impersonal automated system.

Throw in a charity that would work like Donation missions do today (missions to donate money or fetch X number of goods) and you're on your way to an immersive and enriching experience with the game with very few new assets required (mapping out the Promenade would be about it)

Little touches like High Tech stations having robot staff, Service/tourism station personnel being dressed in suits, Industrial/refinery/extraction in coveralls and Military contacts being in uniform as well as obvious differences in decor from one kind of station to another would also be pretty cool and would add to the atmosphere.

Again, I'm not calling for a huge revelation of a massive new ground combat mechanic. Just a few extra game features that you can only do in the promenade (personal-contact missions, charity work, illicit contacts) would be more than enough to get you started without forcing people into a system they're not comfortable with. We can add combat onto that later if it's required. I have to imagine that if FD really put their mind to it they could release THAT kind of Space Legs in a few months.