“Station-legs" to be a fully developed standalone product? [discuss]

I don't want space legs, I think that would change ED into a different genre. I prefer dev effort to be focussed on my spaceship and its capabilities.
 
The Braben did say he has dreamed since childhood of getting out of his spaceship and wandering around stations

Well, he hasn't done it in the first 54 years of his life.
Still time of course, but also, many childhood
dreams remain just that, childhood dreams...and that's quite ok if so.
I reckon he has made a name for himself regardless.
 
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I think its not a matter of dev (creative) skills, engine capabilities or content.
Aside from the massive time and resource sink for the devs, there is also a commercial side to it (ofcuz)
With that other space game in mind. :)
 
I have LEP, but genuinely hope they spend 0 hours even discussing any sort of Legs

Too late. They've already discussed it. And they've discussed it on more than one occasion.

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Thing is, as much as people want some sort of Bipedal Locomotion, it's a "last leg" item. We're not going to see anything done with this until Not-A-Season-9 or Not-a-Season-10. There are too many other things that simply need to be done first to make this a really viable direction for Elite. We know all about half-baked, partially-implemented features - we've had 2 full seasons of them, and we're heading into a 3rd.

Not, the first part of this 3rd Not-a-Season is still days from launch, and it is only the first of however many releases, traditionally 4, that we see. But we know this initial release contains only part of the content for this Not-a-Season, so it waits to be seen if the overall completion of each release seems more "complete" than previously seen. Horizons gave us Planetary landing, but only on dead rocks and balls of ice. Many of us are still waiting for our first ventures onto an atmospheric planet.

Time will tell, but until we have all the infrastructure in the game to make such an undertaking as bipedal locomotion worthwhile, there's no real point into working up any anticipation anxiety about it.
 
If ED was only a space ship racing game I could understand with regards to Assetto Corsa. And the division, if ED had a tiny map with very limited tech after a pandemic plague, then yes I can understand. I get those games for what they are.

But ED is a Galaxy sim where we fly our ships around and drive our SRV's. There are massive stations we can't explore, there are outposts on planets we can fly to, drive around them, but can't go inside. To me it feels unfinished without being able to do those parts.
I am basically on the same page. Due to the scope of ED, I am expecting unimaginative game design when it comes to exploring stations, outposts and so on. Look at the current missions, no memorable experiences. That kills exploration (for me).

A bit like if you played GTA5 but couldn't get out of your car, had no cut screen movies, you just did everything using the in-car screen on the dashboard and driving the car only. It would be half the game it is.
There is a game series called Driver, which actually focussed on driving the escape car. It worked, it was fun. It shows, there is actually no connection you (and others) are trying to make.

To me ED feels like half the game it could be. Still a very good half though.
I´d rather have a good and interesting half, then the boring "complete thing".

Or play read dead redepmtion, but couldn't get off your horse or go into any of the buildings.
Rockstar is quite good at designing both parts of their games. FDev, however, still has a lot to do with their first half of the game. The bread is half-baked and you want to put butter on it.;)

It is pretty much standard to at least have access to the interior of the ship. The core mechanics of the ships is excellent, could do with being a bit more on the sim side of things, however they have reached a nice balance. You'll find that except for a few grumpy forum members, being able to walk around ships is a feature many want, including the devs.
FDev have said, they don´t want to implement feature like "space legs" without any meaningful game mechanics. Just walking around things, would be the most bolted on, disjointed and meaningless feature of this game. It wouldn`t cut it.

It is sort of an expectation set by the few other space genre games out there currently either released or in development.
Trouble is this is not a feature that you can just dripple in, it needs to have tons of work done before release into the wild. The more I think about what would be expected the more I realise that its never happening.
That is my reservation, too.
 
They've teased us with legs before .... it's time to introduce this:

Jdz2K1f.jpg

Pssst .... isn't that a Type 10 ?
 
Hence, creating a standalone IP, that people can either
1) none elite owner buy as a starter packet into the elite dangerous verse
2) previous elite content owners can buy the Stations game at discounted price because its litterally the first person expansion on the stations.
3) spacelegs (walking around ships) will be free expansion to both horizons and season1 players.

Creating “stations” as it’s own separate product means all the art, gameplay and design choices will be done to service the gameplay in the stations. (Not aboard the ships).

So it from the ground up a valid experience and game that can stand by itself or serve as an expansion to existing players.
 
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There is a game series called Driver, which actually focussed on driving the escape car. It worked, it was fun. It shows, there is actually no connection you (and others) are trying to make.

Yes I remember that game. It was great fun but limited. Also Driver 2 allowed you to get out of your car and run around, which in my view made it even better.

What connection do you mean. All I am saying is that I love flying my ship and driving around in my SRV. Being able to get out of your ship has the potential to open up the game in a lot of exciting ways.

But it is only potential.

Rockstar is quite good at designing both parts of their games. FDev, however, still has a lot to do with their first half of the game. The bread is half-baked and you want to put butter on it.;)
I see no reason whyFdev can't do the same, but I do agree that the main game needs updating which is what they are doing. I wouldn't expect space legs for at least 3 years.

FDev have said, they don´t want to implement feature like "space legs" without any meaningful game mechanics. Just walking around things, would be the most bolted on, disjointed and meaningless feature of this game. It wouldn`t cut it.
Again, completely agree. I don't want space legs just so I can walk around my ship for no reason at all. I want proper mechanics and reasons to do it. You mention how missions are so bland at the moment. Space legs has the opportunity to make those far more exciting and interesing. There is only so much you can do with missions when you are trapped in your vehicle. Look at the Driver game as an example. It was basically doing the same thing again and again, but they had a story to bind it together. That is why the missions feel bland in ED, because there is no story to bind them all together.

But think of lets say a black box job. You get the mission, you drop out of supercruise at your destination and see the wreckage and the black box, great you scoop it up. You then get a mission update asking you to EVA over to the wreck and get the datacore in the wrecked ship. You need to bypass some security to get there and then you have it.

It has the potential to make some of these mudane missions far more interesting instead of arrive, scoop and leave. Getting that datacore may create a follow on mission that requires you to take that data core to a specific person at a station, which you could be followed and you need to loose them, or there could be a gun fight.

But that will take time, the reason why I don't expect it for some time.
 
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Hence, creating a standalone IP, that people can either
1) none elite owner buy as a starter packet into the elite dangerous verse
2) previous elite content owners can buy the Stations game at discounted price because its litterally the first person expansion on the stations.
3) spacelegs (walking around ships) will be free expansion to both horizons and season1 players.

Creating “stations” as it’s own separate product means all the art, gameplay and design choices will be done to service the gameplay in the stations. (Not aboard the ships).

So it from the ground up a valid experience and game that can stand by itself or serve as an expansion to existing players.

No, because that is not what I want to do in the game. There is just no need for stations to be a standalone game, and it makes no sense. I want it to be a seamless experience. I don't want to have to log out of the game, start up another game to enter the station. That is just rubbish.

If you don't want to enter a station, don't enter the station. It's your choice. I want to be able to get missions that take me from a station, to my ship, to my SRV, out of the SRV, back into my SRV, back to my ship and then back into a station, with lots of gameplay in amongst that. Why would stations be a seperate game.
 
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No, because that is not what I want to do in the game. There is just no need for stations to be a standalone game, and it makes no sense. I want it to be a seamless experience. I don't want to have to log out of the game, start up another game to enter the station. That is just rubbish.

If you don't want to enter a station, don't enter the station. It's your choice. I want to be able to get missions that take me from a station, to my ship, to my SRV, out of the SRV, back into my SRV, back to my ship and then back into a station, with lots of gameplay in amongst that. Why would stations be a seperate game.

DUNK DUNK DUNK OF HEAD AGAINST THE WALL.


IT WILL BE A SEAMLESS EXPERIENCE FOR PRIOR ELITE CONTENT OWNERS,

All i'm saying is that the STATIONS game could also be purchased AS a standalone, so the FPS/RPG people get a taste of the Elite Dangerous universe and not have to worry about flying a ship.
And since it *is* designed as a standalone per sig, they would give more attention to detail and gameloops than a "bolted on" experience because of a Kickstarter promise.

the spaceleg (doing stuff on/around your ship in space) that's free to all content owners, where players from Season 1, horizons and Stations can meet up and kick around in first person.
 
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DUNK DUNK DUNK OF HEAD AGAINST THE WALL.


IT WILL BE A SEAMLESS EXPERIENCE FOR PRIOR ELITE CONTENT OWNERS,

All i'm saying is that the STATIONS game could also be purchased AS a standalone, so the FPS/RPG people get a taste of the Elite Dangerous universe and not have to worry about flying a ship.
And since it *is* designed as a standalone per sig, they would give more attention to detail and gameloops than a "bolted on" experience because of a Kickstarter promise.

the spaceleg (doing stuff on/around your ship in space) that's free to all content owners, where players from Season 1, horizons and Stations can meet up and kick around in first person.

But wouldn't the game loops involve your ships/SRV's as well. When on a station I expect the game loops to also include leaving the station and flying my ship at some point. Sorry, but it just doesn't make sense to do that. Seems like a load of work for no reason at all.

If they want to do a FPS game, just have it as a completely different franchise to ED with a different team.

SO basically they would need to create a whole load of gameplay loops that are just based in a station to apease the people that just bought the "stations" FPS game.

I really can't see that happening. I would much prefer a more focused approach, which should be less faff and work, but more compelling too.
 
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But wouldn't the game loops involve your ships/SRV's as well. When on a station I expect the game loops to also include leaving the station and flying my ship at some point. Sorry, but it just doesn't make sense to do that. Seems like a load of work for no reason at all.

If they want to do a FPS game, just have it as a completely different franchise to ED with a different team.

SO basically they would need to create a whole load of gameplay loops that are just based in a station to apease the people that just bought the "stations" FPS game.

I really can't see that happening. I would much prefer a more focused approach, which should be less faff and work, but more compelling too.

It wouldn't necessarily have to be restricted to operating in a single station, as space taxis are a thing (just look in the passenger lounge), as well as there's the potential for boarding actions against capital ships and megaships. Even without actually piloting a spaceship, there's still a lot to do on stations and capitals. Connect it all to the BGS and you could have spliter-cell like missions about infiltrating VIP's quarters to steal key information, assassination missions where you have to blend in with crowds and assume fake identities. Going further, and there could even be a business management side where you are planning and refurbishing station economies trying to generate profits, with your results feeding into the main BGS to potentially provide long-term gradual shifts in the galaxy's economy. Once planetary atmospheres are added, there could even be wilderness survival gameplay elements, or large scale city exploration and business.

Literally, any game that doesn't involve piloting could pretty much be aped into an Elite:Feet game.
 
Exactly
Call it, Elite Dangerous : Soldier of fortune.
or Elite Dangerous : Mercenary (same thing, but I got a lot of love for Paul Woakes' Mercenary games hence my commander name, Woakes)
Elite Dangerous : Rogue.

It's BOTH
It is an expansion, just the usual content hidden behind a pay-wall designed to work as a seamless expansion, BUT
it would not HAVE to be an Elite Dangerous player, the expansion could bought seperately, and be played by itself as it's own game, in it's own right.

That's the whole idea right? You don't want a token first person game, but you want a propper experience
So they build up a game from the ground up, one that interact with the Background Sim, using the same engine, same assets, same network in the same universe that litterally the only difference is the pay wall to board and pilot a ship or to leave your ship.

It's an RPG, shooter
so levels rep, grind for money, Hacker Slicing skills to buypass locks, brute force your way through security guards,
uses your rep to charm people etc etc.

it's all there, just first person action/adventure for those who want to buy into it,
for us Elite Dangerous Season 1 and Horizons owners, we get our own little space legs onboard our ships free of charge as that will be the "meeting point" between the three games.
but we'd need to BUY the expansion to walk around the stations (except the Lifetime Expansion Pass owners).

But the people who just own ED:Mercernary, well they won't ever need to fly a ship, they can hire in space taxis, and hang out onboard players or NPC's ships and get up to hijinks.
But if they want they can BUY into the Space-ship side of things by purchasing (from their perspective) The Elite Dangerous : Horizons expansion.

For the people who own all the expansions it's a seamless experience.
Flying, docking and walking round the stations.
 
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It wouldn't necessarily have to be restricted to operating in a single station, as space taxis are a thing (just look in the passenger lounge), as well as there's the potential for boarding actions against capital ships and megaships. Even without actually piloting a spaceship, there's still a lot to do on stations and capitals. Connect it all to the BGS and you could have spliter-cell like missions about infiltrating VIP's quarters to steal key information, assassination missions where you have to blend in with crowds and assume fake identities. Going further, and there could even be a business management side where you are planning and refurbishing station economies trying to generate profits, with your results feeding into the main BGS to potentially provide long-term gradual shifts in the galaxy's economy. Once planetary atmospheres are added, there could even be wilderness survival gameplay elements, or large scale city exploration and business.

Literally, any game that doesn't involve piloting could pretty much be aped into an Elite:Feet game.

Sorry but it sounds utterly pants and a waste or resources adding in a whole load of other features to try to justify it. I would prefer they spent that dev time on making getting out of your seat a much better experience.

Basically,I just don't see the need in it.
 
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Sorry but it sounds utterly pants and a waste or resources adding in a whole load of other features to try to justify it. I would prefer they spent that dev time on making getting out of your seat a much better experience.

Basically,I just don't see the need in it.

So you'd rather them just toss together some features that are more tagged on like the present day crafting system into our "cockpit experience".

If you let Stations be BOTH expansion AND it's own stand-alone game, then you WOULD have that rich world at the first person level, which is it's OWN experience in itself, not some features shoe-horned concept taped onto the ED-cockpit experience.

Letting stations be BOTH expansion and Stand-alone, forces the dev's to make sure the assets and gameplay standup on their own merits and not hide behind the excuse "well it's a space game with some first-person features, what do you expect".

Space-legs is just about ship and ship boarding, which is a totally different expansion, and my arguement would be a free expansion to all content holders.

Stations - allows the player to basically make a living OUTSIDE of the cockpit as a Rogue-ish soldier of fortune, a mercenary for hire.


If you own elite dangerous already, then it's just another seamless expansion and more ways to collect money.
But for those who never bought an elite game, ED:Rogue mercenary, could be their first trip into the Elite universe, and for them it will be a First Person action / adventure RPG, which lets them test the waters of Elite Dangerous, but without never needing to know how to fly a space-ship.

Braben, eluded to the idea of working your way up to buying a space-ship,
which is very premise of the game moonfall https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAaWQmrX2cE

Which is a mixture between Elite and the game Mercenary
http://mercenarysite.free.fr/mercframes_graphic.htm
 
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So you'd rather them just toss together some features that are more tagged on like the present day crafting system into our "cockpit experience".

If you let Stations be BOTH expansion AND it's own stand-alone game, then you WOULD have that rich world at the first person level, which is it's OWN experience in itself, not some features shoe-horned concept taped onto the ED-cockpit experience.

Letting stations be BOTH expansion and Stand-alone, forces the dev's to make sure the assets and gameplay standup on their own merits and not hide behind the excuse "well it's a space game with some first-person features, what do you expect".

Space-legs is just about ship and ship boarding, which is a totally different expansion, and my arguement would be a free expansion to all content holders.

Stations - allows the player to basically make a living OUTSIDE of the cockpit as a Rogue-ish soldier of fortune, a mercenary for hire.


If you own elite dangerous already, then it's just another seamless expansion and more ways to collect money.
But for those who never bought an elite game, ED:Rogue mercenary, could be their first trip into the Elite universe, and for them it will be a First Person action / adventure RPG, which lets them test the waters of Elite Dangerous, but without never needing to know how to fly a space-ship.

Braben, eluded to the idea of working your way up to buying a space-ship,
which is very premise of the game moonfall https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAaWQmrX2cE

Which is a mixture between Elite and the game Mercenary
http://mercenarysite.free.fr/mercframes_graphic.htm

Nope. Now you are putting words in my mouth. You seem to have an issue with me disagreeing with you so much that you just start making stuff up.

Conversation over.
 

the idea that you could have a separate product with only one part of the game, in this case leg part, that wouldn't be flying ships but maybe instead being transported by or moved by other players could be quite interesting.
Though it would be quite difficult to balance, and like the main game, 'story' would be very tricky in a game like Elite.
 
but it's designed from the bottom up as a FPS experience.
Meaning it not a meaningless experience that is "bolted onto" a space sim,

it is it's own thing.
People can buy stations and they join in spacelegs activities.

Horizons/dangerous players will get space legs automatically but can’t board stations until they buy the expansion.

For people who have bought a spaceship game and the stations it will be a seamless experience docking at a space-station and walking out of your space ship.

Space legs will most likely be a premium expansion (DLC). Probably a series of expansions that integrate with the main game. For example:

1. ED Ship EVA (DLC).
2. ED Planet EVA (DLC)
3. ED Station EVA (DLC).

This will make ED much more appealing to a new and wider audience.

I have LEP, but genuinely hope they spend 0 hours even discussing any sort of Legs

I genuinely hope they never listen to people like you who don't respect others who do want space legs and extravehicular gameplay in Elite Dangerous.
 
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