Guest193293
G
But for me it does exactly what I want from an orrery: I can visually plot the best course to the bodies in system that interest me.
I'm pretty happy with the orrery. Could it be shinier, more functional? Yes, of course. Is that needed? No.
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My main concern is that according to the 1st post that was all but finished but with a few bugs. Clearly that was FD blowing smoke up our backsides... Not a big deal perhaps but with hindsight shows need to take everything they say with pinch of salt imo. Clearly that map was as genuine as the sand worms in starcitizen or the vertical slice of game in alien colonial marines 
That one is cute but it's not to scale, so it's pretty useless. It would be a nice addition as an extra system map, but it's not really an orrery.
According to that original post, the “image represents our current development”. Whilst I imagine most of us at the time (me included) took that to mean it was almost ready for the game, it may well have been that the concept picture was indeed the sum total of its current development and FDev were completely truthful in their post.My main concern is that according to the 1st post that was all but finished but with a few bugs. Clearly that was FD blowing smoke up our backsides... Not a big deal perhaps but with hindsight shows need to take everything they say with pinch of salt imo. Clearly that map was as genuine as the sand worms in starcitizen or the vertical slice of game in alien colonial marines
I don’t think a smoke enema was being given, but we should be wary of assumptions (is that a pun?).
Its various functions got separated out in time and became what it is now I assume. It could be what we would have had if supercruise was not in the game.
The fact that it was generating a comet tail but that it needed tweaking because not totally accurate at the very least strongly intimated it was almost ready. IF that was code for "our art guy who made this image in paint shop Pro bodged it" then I would say the wording was somewhat over egging wouldn't you?.
Anyway that ship has sailed now. At least we have an orrery tho personally I find it quite clunky in vr. But that could be my settings I guess
Anyway that ship has sailed now. At least we have an orrery tho personally I find it quite clunky in vr. But that could be my settings I guess
Again, and I was guilty of this too, I think it’s just a case of reading too many eggs into that particular pudding. Re-reading that newsletter with hindsight-o-vision, I cannot see any intentionally misleading statements - any functional development mentioned in that section was regarding the galaxy map.
I’ve got used to using it in VR though I wish for a few more bells and whistles - together with the FSS, I want FDev to rewatch the stellar cartography scene from Star Trek Generations and take a few notes
Functional? What are you talking about?
The two we've got are way more functional. One's a good overview to see what's in the system, the other one shows current constellations/locations.
The one from OP does neither really good and is just a nice artwork to look at. How much use would that be for a system with, let's say 70 bodies?
Agreed, it's pretty but not as functional as what we have. If they were to try and alter the current displays to look more like that it would really just be a lot of effort for purely cosmetic reasons.
You're not wrong, technically, but the question we ought to be asking is whether FD knew exactly what they were doing when they chose those words or whether it's pure coincidence that they happened to lead so many to believe in the nascent existence of something that was in reality little more than a concept. Answers to that will be numerous and diverse, of course.
It's easy to do this with isolated examples, but if you look at the number of times this happened over the course of the game's inception I don't think we can let FD off the hook completely. Yes, many of us were fooled by our own enthusiasm into thinking certain aspects of the game were further along than they in fact were, but it didn't happen in a vacuum. If we thought we saw too many eggs in the pudding, it may be in part because the kitchen counter was covered in empty eggshells. IMO FD got better and better at this sort of language manipulation, beginning with Kickstarter feedback and progressing through the newsletters and the website. I believe it to be deliberate, and it'll take a lot of persuasion to convince me I'm wrong on that.
Another factor -- one which many not have been intended as part of a disinformation strategy but which played perfectly into it -- was the surprise launch of planetary landings with Horizons. Nobody saw that coming so soon after launch, and it was such a triumph that I'm sure it must have led many people to think, "Well if that's what they can do without warning, imagine how close they must be to wowing us with persistent NPCs* / space legs* / gas giant refuelling* / atmospheric worlds* ..."
(*delete according to preference)
Sometimes it's even less subtle. Never forget that FD persuaded a significant (at the time) number backers to fork over cash to be part of a Design Decision group, only to retcon it into a Discussion group once the money was in the bank. They are very good at this.
Loved that scene. Still one of my favourites, although the initial "Wow!" has long worn off as time has moved on and screen technology has now reached the point where you could almost do that whole sequence in camera with no need for VFX at all. It's beautifully shot though. A great example of how to do a heavy exposition scene.I’ve got used to using it in VR though I wish for a few more bells and whistles - together with the FSS, I want FDev to rewatch the stellar cartography scene from Star Trek Generations and take a few notes
Viajero
Volunteer Moderator
Just read that newsletter, seemed fairly obvious to me that it was just a static view that looked like an orrery not something that actually moved it was obviously replaced with the easier to use system map we have now. Also from the article they were thinking about having a map showing a cube of the galaxy around your current location as an intermediate between the galaxy map and the system map. So well developed ideas but not the route that was eventually followed.
Likewise, and agreed. My only annoyance with it, is having to re-click on my position (which often doesn't register right away and requires several clicks) and re-center and zoom in again.
Aye, a good answer, though if I was to look askance at FDev I’d probably have in mind a sorta-Hanlon’s Razor - if we could look at the DDA today (aside: a hearty “harrumph” to the forum migration assurance!) there are plenty of examples of ostrich egg intentions with hen’s egg implementations.
I was majorly surprised when Horizons was announced and thought the whole major expansion every year or so was going to be a thing, but it seems all momentum was lost once they got that out of the door. I was also excited for volcanic worlds up until the farting campfires appeared.
As for ST:G, I just rewatched the scene as I hadn’t seen it in years, my first thought was, “that’s a pretty sweet 3x screen ultra-wide monitor setup you’ve got there, Data”