So I had a look at the frontier store to see the trailer for JWE and was wondering what could be borrowed from it to benefit elite? My thoughts were that we could inherit, my firs thoughts were quite optimistic as I seen lots of things that would tie in nicely with the two missing big features of elite, namely space legs and atmospheres.
I think that the weather (sunshine / clouds / winds + storms) lend them self to atmospheres on Earth Like Worlds in Elite. I also think that the foliage, terrain (both man made and natural ie roads + hills/valleys) and water would lend its self to those earth likes. I also think that the water system including weather could be used on non earthlikes such as methane worlds or places like titan / mars where we have a very non earthlike atmosphere, but still a dynamic weather system. The vanishing point / fade towards horizon could work in any atmosphere. The flaura and megafauna mechanics seem to be transferrable, but I strongly suspect that Universal will prohibit FDev from reusing JWE assets in Elite. In short I think that the work being done in JWE, which seemingly borrows a lot from the roller coaster games, paves the way for atmospheres in elite.
As a gut who thinks the game would benefit more from space legs than atmospheres I take comfort from the fact that both JWE and the roller coaster games necessitate perambulation based asset creation for the NPC's (customers) and in the case of JWE some of the "staff" such as the guy tranq darting the dinosaur shooting from the door of the helicopter. I also like the fact that the environment is deformable, ie dinosaurs can bash and bust fences, so surely we could blow out doorways or bridges? And I'd imagine FDev will be able to plagiarise the movements of NPC's in JWE / roller coaster thingumy to to make CMDR's / NPC's move and behave realistically in elite.
Furthermore, the whole base building mechanic is key to both the roller coaster and jurassic world games, so it could be ported into elite with different assets/modules to build, allowing CMDR's to finally build their own bases, probably as part of the squadrons concept, which opens a whole new dimension to elite.
Sadly though my initial appraisal of what I can see of JWE isn't without demerit, most notably the environment itself seems a bit, "cartoony"(?). The grass is plausable, and the dinosaur models exquisite, but the skys and trees and water all seem very cartoony with some of the tree foliage models appearing to be little more than sprites rotated at jonty angles to create a faux 3d effect. And some of the skyscapes seemingly too blue / mottled white rather than fully modelled sky+ cloud systems.
Overall I'm left feeling optimistic having seen various assets being created / implemented in JWE that could transfer to elite. Another example would be the way customers amble around the park could be used to emulate the behaviour of other NPCs within busy starports public areas. Security staff could chase and restrain criminals rather than dinos. ELW's could become accessible with procedurally generated ecosystems, although this would need creation of new flora and fauna elements to seed the procedural generation with. I also wonder would the elements of the other two games that I've desccribed as cartoony possibly be "stylised" rather than poor quality, as while JWE has an adult rating its definitely aimed at a younder demographic than Elite, and Planet Coaster is aimed at a younger still section of the market. So rather than elite's gritty realism, they may have intentionally went with what I've called a cartoony aesthetic to better fit the intended customer base of those games?
Anyways, that's my thoughts having looked at the tw other games in FDev's portfolio with a view to what could be poached from them to benefit elite, what are your thoughts, can the games in their portfolio aid the development of each other? What can you see migrating from one title to another? What do you think wouldn't work if they tried to port it from one title to another?
I think that the weather (sunshine / clouds / winds + storms) lend them self to atmospheres on Earth Like Worlds in Elite. I also think that the foliage, terrain (both man made and natural ie roads + hills/valleys) and water would lend its self to those earth likes. I also think that the water system including weather could be used on non earthlikes such as methane worlds or places like titan / mars where we have a very non earthlike atmosphere, but still a dynamic weather system. The vanishing point / fade towards horizon could work in any atmosphere. The flaura and megafauna mechanics seem to be transferrable, but I strongly suspect that Universal will prohibit FDev from reusing JWE assets in Elite. In short I think that the work being done in JWE, which seemingly borrows a lot from the roller coaster games, paves the way for atmospheres in elite.
As a gut who thinks the game would benefit more from space legs than atmospheres I take comfort from the fact that both JWE and the roller coaster games necessitate perambulation based asset creation for the NPC's (customers) and in the case of JWE some of the "staff" such as the guy tranq darting the dinosaur shooting from the door of the helicopter. I also like the fact that the environment is deformable, ie dinosaurs can bash and bust fences, so surely we could blow out doorways or bridges? And I'd imagine FDev will be able to plagiarise the movements of NPC's in JWE / roller coaster thingumy to to make CMDR's / NPC's move and behave realistically in elite.
Furthermore, the whole base building mechanic is key to both the roller coaster and jurassic world games, so it could be ported into elite with different assets/modules to build, allowing CMDR's to finally build their own bases, probably as part of the squadrons concept, which opens a whole new dimension to elite.
Sadly though my initial appraisal of what I can see of JWE isn't without demerit, most notably the environment itself seems a bit, "cartoony"(?). The grass is plausable, and the dinosaur models exquisite, but the skys and trees and water all seem very cartoony with some of the tree foliage models appearing to be little more than sprites rotated at jonty angles to create a faux 3d effect. And some of the skyscapes seemingly too blue / mottled white rather than fully modelled sky+ cloud systems.
Overall I'm left feeling optimistic having seen various assets being created / implemented in JWE that could transfer to elite. Another example would be the way customers amble around the park could be used to emulate the behaviour of other NPCs within busy starports public areas. Security staff could chase and restrain criminals rather than dinos. ELW's could become accessible with procedurally generated ecosystems, although this would need creation of new flora and fauna elements to seed the procedural generation with. I also wonder would the elements of the other two games that I've desccribed as cartoony possibly be "stylised" rather than poor quality, as while JWE has an adult rating its definitely aimed at a younder demographic than Elite, and Planet Coaster is aimed at a younger still section of the market. So rather than elite's gritty realism, they may have intentionally went with what I've called a cartoony aesthetic to better fit the intended customer base of those games?
Anyways, that's my thoughts having looked at the tw other games in FDev's portfolio with a view to what could be poached from them to benefit elite, what are your thoughts, can the games in their portfolio aid the development of each other? What can you see migrating from one title to another? What do you think wouldn't work if they tried to port it from one title to another?
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