Why can we only Land on Barren Planets after almost 5 years?

[60mm]

It isn't very difficult to understand: people want ED to be more than a spaceship game. People have wanted that for thirty years, including David Braben. I am not sure what is so puzzling about people wanting that. You don't have to agree, but to not understand it...

Well to clarify, it's not that I do not understand the desire at all. Being able to go anywhere is an obvious bonus for a game like ED. But for the amount of Dev legwork required when the game is already such a mess of unfinished features and bugs while in space, the core of the game , . . . I fail to understand how anyone would want it now. I've gotten 4 people into ED in the year I have been playing. 3 dropped out in a matter of weeks because of undercooked features and bugs that made ED not worth their time. They never came close to landing on a planet, and their issue never was lack of tutorials and whatnot that FDev is currently burning their time on.

So, would landing on atmospheric planets be cool? Sure. Would it be cool if we got landable atmospheric planets when new players usually can't stomach the bugs/problems long enough to land on said planets? Eh, I think it's a bad use of dev time currently.

 

[Ian Skippy]

Well to clarify, it's not that I do not understand the desire at all. Being able to go anywhere is an obvious bonus for a game like ED. But for the amount of Dev legwork required when the game is already such a mess of unfinished features and bugs while in space, the core of the game , . . . I fail to understand how anyone would want it now. I've gotten 4 people into ED in the year I have been playing. 3 dropped out in a matter of weeks because of undercooked features and bugs that made ED not worth their time. They never came close to landing on a planet, and their issue never was lack of tutorials and whatnot that FDev is currently burning their time on.

So, would landing on atmospheric planets be cool? Sure. Would it be cool if we got landable atmospheric planets when new players usually can't stomach the bugs/problems long enough to land on said planets? Eh, I think it's a bad use of dev time currently.

I think that is just a problem with you being reasonable. Dont forget that when people say space legs and atmo landings, they mean diving into underwater caves to wrestle with dinosaurs so they can reinforce the base with their scales. Remember David Braben not only explicitly talked about 'big game hunting', but FD also put out official pics such as:

 

[EUS]

Because wings, consoles, PP, CQC, RNGineers, teleprescence, anti-board flipping, 'goids, FSS, coasters, dinosaurs, and zoo took/take priority.

 

[Barking_Mad]

B tier team is B tier, they are no blizzard nor rockstar but a team that has been pushing licensed bargain bin titles for kids for a decade and they bit more than they could chew with elite... the engine is already on its knees and the network architecture is severely lacking which limits and hinders any progress

Then David decided that company growth>Elite, changed his jumpers to suits, bought himself fancy glasses and here we are....

We should have all listened to Ian Bell

But just you wait... because the new era is upon us... face-melting stuff i tell you, I`m very very excited, I`m sure that this time 80% of impressive stuff won`t end on the cutting room floor because our team has done a wonderful job...

Yet here you are....

 

[60mm]

I think that is just a problem with you being reasonable. Dont forget that when people say space legs and atmo landings, they mean diving into underwater caves to wrestle with dinosaurs so they can reinforce the base with their scales. Remember David Braben not only explicitly talked about 'big game hunting', but FD also put out official pics such as:

Thanks for the chuckle! I really like the underwater fencing, well thought out. And check out the Parrot Fish next to the Orca, the future has some enormous fish!

 

[Barking_Mad]

True, but the galaxy in Elite has always been mostly reasonable...
If you want to compare the effort it takes to develop procedurally generated planets in Elite and NMS you also need to take the scope of both games into account. NMS doesn't need to bother with habitable zones, atmospheres, gravity, minerals and stuff. They just randomly chose a colour and it looks cool. That's great, but it isn't comparable.

Well said. I mean most of the game dev experts on here will use hand wavium and magic these away as inconsequential, along with a load of other reasons the games are similar but fundamentally different, but still....

If Elite's planets were not technically and visually more realistic than NMS (which are great don't get me wrong) the same people on here will be asking why and saying they weren't up to the job. Yet for as long as they don't exist they can cite NMS and ask why Elite's planets don't exist as they do in NMS.

Possible reasons off the top of my head... Massive draw distances, planet sizes, cobra engine, possible weather systems, detail, graphical 'realism', biomes, liquids, gasses, volcanic lava, variety, animals that look believable, gravity, atmospheres, caves, rivers, streams,networking, loading, levels of detail etc..

 

[IndigoWyrd]

I have to say I am routinely impressed and staggeringly disappointed by so much of the speculation this community comes up with to explain things they don’t understand.

Now granted Frontier could abate much of this simply by saying things like “The next big thing we want to work on is [this thing].” and go right back to their regular, tight-lipped silence for however long it takes before it’s Pimp The New Thing time.

With all the “Well If I We’re Developing”’s around here, I’m 100% surprised they haven’t banded together yet, written, developed and released their own Perfect Space Simulation Game yet. Actually I’m not, because if they could, they would, but they can’t do they talk biowaste.

So let’s have a second helping of Reality here. Could Frontier give us basic, bare-bones atmosphere landing, by the end of the month? Sure. What would you get? Pretty much the same thing you get landing on a Rocky planet without an atmosphere - boring plains, mountains and valleys of look-alike rock piles, look-alike geological formations, just with something that passes for air over your heads. Oh. Wee.

And people would complain volumes. So what if it takes another year or three to actually make these worlds worth landing on, to make them different than the 2.88 trillion balls of ice, rock and metals we can already land on? Let them take their time and make it good from the get go.

Or band together, develop something of your own and show us how it’s done.

 

[60mm]

Or band together, develop something of your own and show us how it’s done.

"If you have time to say how you feel about a vidya, you should have the time to drop your current job/career and make your own vidya."

Reasonable!

 

[Ian Skippy]

"If you have time to say how you feel about a vidya, you should have the time to drop your current job/career and make your own vidya."

Reasonable!

Well, there is a difference between saying "I dont like X" or "I'd prefer Y" (which is totally fine), and the frequent 'Devs are lazy because Game X isn't my dream game!!!". Those folks should really try to do it themselves for a change. :/

 

[Han Zulu]

I have to say I am routinely impressed and staggeringly disappointed by so much of the speculation this community comes up with to explain things they don’t understand.

Now granted Frontier could abate much of this simply by saying things like “The next big thing we want to work on is [this thing].” and go right back to their regular, tight-lipped silence for however long it takes before it’s Pimp The New Thing time.

With all the “Well If I We’re Developing”’s around here, I’m 100% surprised they haven’t banded together yet, written, developed and released their own Perfect Space Simulation Game yet. Actually I’m not, because if they could, they would, but they can’t do they talk biowaste.

So let’s have a second helping of Reality here. Could Frontier give us basic, bare-bones atmosphere landing, by the end of the month? Sure. What would you get? Pretty much the same thing you get landing on a Rocky planet without an atmosphere - boring plains, mountains and valleys of look-alike rock piles, look-alike geological formations, just with something that passes for air over your heads. Oh. Wee.

And people would complain volumes. So what if it takes another year or three to actually make these worlds worth landing on, to make them different than the 2.88 trillion balls of ice, rock and metals we can already land on? Let them take their time and make it good from the get go.

Or band together, develop something of your own and show us how it’s done.

I think you're half-right.

Having an opinion about delivery time, quality, features, content, functions, etc, is all a matter of people expressing their experiences with something. I can like some restaurants and dislike another and even have opinions on why I dislike the other, but it doesn't mean I have to become a chef to be allowed to express these feelings and view.

On the other hand, to tell how they're support to do it is a matter of knowing how things are done. I can't tell a chef how to cook something right unless I have some experience as a chef myself, yet, it doesn't mean I have to actually be active as a chef right now either, but to have the opinion about the crappy chefs, I probably need to have the skill to do it right and done the dishes better.

So it's two sides to the coin. One, as a users/customer we can express opinions about delivery times and lacking features, but we can't really tell them how to do it or really know why there is a delay unless we have some experience and knowledge of doing it right ourselves.

 

[Old Duck]

This community complains a lot, but never votes with their wallets or play time.

I voted, but the Russians hacked the election!

 

[Vasco Sapien]

Elite Dangerous launched in December 2014. It had many major free and paid updates that exponentially improved the base game. However, aside from the desired space legs, there's one aspect that disappoints the most. We can only land on desolate, barren planets. We've waited almost 5 years for more lively planet types.

A certain other game launched 1 1/3rd years after ED and has 10000 times more variety in land-able planets. It has many different kinds of alien creatures, vegetation, you can even travel underwater in a submarine. The procedural generation of planets in ED is very basic comparatively.

We want more than simplistic planets covered with monotonous dirt and rocks! ED's planets have endless sand, dirt and rocks as far as the eye can see. Sometimes, if we're lucky, we find a little primitive flora. We want more natural features, explore alien forests, jungles teeming with life. If Frontier plans to take another 10 years to release more land-able planet types, that's too slow.

So why is ED very primitive with procedural planets? Why aren't there more terrains, creatures, plants etc? It seems that Frontier is focusing too much of their resources on other IPs (Planet Zoo, PC and JWE).

I wonder if it has something to do with the performance glass ceiling created by the Console version.
New generation consoles come out in......2020....coincidence?

...Hides...

 

[Old Duck]

I wonder if it has something to do with the performance glass ceiling created by the Console version.
New generation consoles come out in......2020....coincidence?

New Era will be a PS5 exclusive. With LOOT BOXES!

Sounds glorious

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

I personally don't understand why people want to play a spaceship game just so they can get back to planetside gameplay ala 99.9% of games. I have plenty of fun in space and would prefer FDev spends it's dev time on fixing bugs in the current state of the game and expanding on the spaceship part of the game.

Maybe because the game is not just a spaceship game.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

I think you're half-right.

Having an opinion about delivery time, quality, features, content, functions, etc, is all a matter of people expressing their experiences with something. I can like some restaurants and dislike another and even have opinions on why I dislike the other, but it doesn't mean I have to become a chef to be allowed to express these feelings and view.

On the other hand, to tell how they're support to do it is a matter of knowing how things are done. I can't tell a chef how to cook something right unless I have some experience as a chef myself, yet, it doesn't mean I have to actually be active as a chef right now either, but to have the opinion about the crappy chefs, I probably need to have the skill to do it right and done the dishes better.

So it's two sides to the coin. One, as a users/customer we can express opinions about delivery times and lacking features, but we can't really tell them how to do it or really know why there is a delay unless we have some experience and knowledge of doing it right ourselves.

I largely agree. As a diner, I can certainly tell if it takes an exceedingly long time for a meal to be prepared, if said hot meal arrives at my table cold, or if a side dish is missing, without being a chef, or even knowing how to pour milk into cereal.

What I can’t do is tell the chef how to prepare my canard à l'orange, how to prepare the Demi-glacé, or claim to be able to do it better, when at best I can burn microwave popcorn.

I also cannot go into my local McDonalds and demand they make me canard à l'orange, despite having the ingredients on hand. Well, I CAN, but I’m going to wind up with chicken nuggets, soaked in orange juice and hamburger grease... and have no one to blame but myself.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

Maybe because the game is not just a spaceship game.

Oh yeah, it’s a Spaceship AND Space Buggy game.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

I think that is just a problem with you being reasonable. Dont forget that when people say space legs and atmo landings, they mean diving into underwater caves to wrestle with dinosaurs so they can reinforce the base with their scales. Remember David Braben not only explicitly talked about 'big game hunting', but FD also put out official pics such as:

That's no an official Fdev pic. That is fan made.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

Oh yeah, it’s a Spaceship AND Space Buggy game.

And a galaxy sim game, with a BGS game, with the powerplay game etc.

 

[babelfisch]

Plans and priorities change, unfortunately for us.

Now, on the other hand, if the leaks would turn out to actually be true and Frontier would really prioritize space legs over atmospheric flight, then "why" would be an excellent question there. After all, they've pretty much always said that it would be a distant future feature, as it would constitute almost a whole new game.
Of course, they could shut down such speculation at any time, if they wanted to.

They basically said the same thing about atmospheric planets.

 

[60mm]

And a galaxy sim game (played with spaceships), with a BGS game (played with spaceships), with the powerplay game (played with spaceships) etc (played with spaceships).