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

Is it just me, but wasn't it said once a long while back that we were supposed to be able to interact with the Thargoids in more ways than just shooting at them?

Yes it was but besides taking samples off of them nothing has been added but focusing on more shooting, with anti xeno weapons for instance.
Or maybe they were aiming at the interaction at the Thargoid bases which is only cool doing once, which I did btw.
 
That would be because they are mostly lifeless planets. What else would you interact with?

Or do you think none-atmospheric planets to be teeming with life to interact with?

No but discoverable features don't have to be alive do they?
I don't want ED to turn into a second NMS, more stuff to interact with doesn't equal NMS's way of doing things as the only option.
Crashed ships, mysterious civilisations since the Thargs and Guardians are already there anyway or a combination of the two, mysterious crashed ships, stuff that leads to other stuff, you know make it more enticing to go out there and explore or investigate.
In reality we know squat of what's out there or what you could find on liveless planets.
Fdev was smart enough to come up with the Guardians, I'm sure they can come up with more like that and make it interesting.
I don't doubt Fdev's capabilities, I just can't understand why they're not doing it but either leave it at that or fill it up with one or the other kind of grind.
 

Viajero

Volunteer Moderator
Did someone find out what the underlying geological model does in terms of gameplay? Or is it only for creating believable planetary bodies?

Well, in addition to the "sim" aspect of the galaxy the geology rules embedded in the proc gen system seems to be indeed related to some other elements in the game. For example most geological active sites (fumaroles, geysers etc) seem to be aligned to fronts of tectonic plate edges (canyons) or splash crater areas. The chemical side of the geology "sim" impacts material finds depending on the planet type. Although with EDDB around we do not even realize it etc.
 
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No but discoverable features don't have to be alive do they?
I don't want ED to turn into a second NMS, more stuff to interact with doesn't equal NMS's way of doing things as the only option.
Crashed ships, mysterious civilisations since the Thargs and Guardians are already there anyway or a combination of the two, mysterious crashed ships, stuff that leads to other stuff, you know make it more enticing to go out there and explore or investigate.
In reality we know squat of what's out there or what you could find on liveless planets.
Fdev was smart enough to come up with the Guardians, I'm sure they can come up with more like that and make it interesting.
I don't doubt Fdev's capabilities, I just can't understand why they're not doing it but either leave it at that or fill it up with one or the other kind of grind.
That's fine and good, but what are the odds of discovering something like that in the galaxy? I can imagine it being extremely slim unless there are millions of those thing scattered around, and even then it's gonna be extremely tough to find. Why do you think FDev added things to find around nebulas, because it's far more likely for people to find it.

While I would like more interaction on the planet surfaces like getting soil sample and bio samples, what would equally be needed is good reasons to get those samples. That would be a huge other facet to the game that would need developing.

For all we know there may well be millions of downed ships and stuff, but as it will be PG, nobody will know where it is until discovered including Fdev.
 
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Maybe you missed some of the actual Horizon release dev posts and vids explaining the actual geology principles behind the proc generation in planets? including tectonics principles, crater physics and distribution etc etc.

Source: https://youtu.be/-Et5Ivi_yIg?t=47

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Oh I have pretty much watched everything since the Kickstarter announcement. I was merely highlighting the disparity between what was promised early on compared to what we have now. This was Braben's exact quote “if every planet was just a differently coloured heightmap that would be disappointing.” - Elite Dangerous Development Plan, 1:30.

Some other examples are:

Damage models for all ships - they did the Conda and forgot about the rest
Persistence NPCs
Offline Mode

Actually, I remember this thread, which sums it up well:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/broken-promises-2-years-on.444042/
 
Spend some time experimenting with how space works in game. For example, target a station in the game, fly into its orbital path about 5 mega-meters away from station, then drop into normal space, and set throttle to zero. Observe what happens to the station: depending upon the body its orbiting, it'll either approach you rapidly, or move away from you so rapidly even a high-speed iCourrier wouldn't be able to keep up. If it's approaching you, at one mega-meter, you enter its "sphere of influence*" (assuming everything works correctly, of course) and you'll come to a complete stop relative to the station.

Great & detailed reply, and you've nailed what I was thinking of when I said there was a lot of "fakery" involved - spheres of influence.

The thing is though, aside from playing silly sausages like the scenario above, I can think of only one instance where it actually impacts gameplay. If I have more than 3 bodies to scan in a system, I'll use the orrery to check the current orbital positions & plot the most efficient route to the various bodies. That's it.

Beyond that, the whole thing is just an intellectual curiosity, and doesn't really add much to the game part. 🤷‍♀️
 

Viajero

Volunteer Moderator
Oh I have pretty much watched everything since the Kickstarter announcement. I was merely highlighting the disparity between what was promised early on compared to what we have now. This was Braben's exact quote “if every planet was just a differently coloured heightmap that would be disappointing.” - Elite Dangerous Development Plan, 1:30.

I then think you need to re watch the vid I linked because what they did and what we have is significantly far away from just some random heightmaps.
 
Space ..... the final frontier.
We are the voyagers of the space sim/game Elite Dangerous.
Our 5/10/15/who knows year mission,
to scan/explore (where landable) strange new worlds.
To seek out new life (possibly using rumours) and new civilizations and shoot them.
To boldly go (assuming the area isn't locked for future content) where no man/one has gone before!*

* assuming LEP or purchase of DLCs

La-lah, La, La, La, La, Laaaah ....
 
Great & detailed reply, and you've nailed what I was thinking of when I said there was a lot of "fakery" involved - spheres of influence.

The thing is though, aside from playing silly sausages like the scenario above, I can think of only one instance where it actually impacts gameplay. If I have more than 3 bodies to scan in a system, I'll use the orrery to check the current orbital positions & plot the most efficient route to the various bodies. That's it.

Beyond that, the whole thing is just an intellectual curiosity, and doesn't really add much to the game part. 🤷‍♀️
I can't really think of another implementation that would work.
When you are in the frame of reference of a station you are still moving with the speed of the station even when you set the throttle to 0.
No fakery involved.

Now what happens when we approach a station? I'd guess that once we are close enough the FSD drops us out with the same speed as the station.
No fakery involved either.
 
Great & detailed reply, and you've nailed what I was thinking of when I said there was a lot of "fakery" involved - spheres of influence.

The thing is though, aside from playing silly sausages like the scenario above, I can think of only one instance where it actually impacts gameplay. If I have more than 3 bodies to scan in a system, I'll use the orrery to check the current orbital positions & plot the most efficient route to the various bodies. That's it.

Beyond that, the whole thing is just an intellectual curiosity, and doesn't really add much to the game part. 🤷‍♀️
I guess it really depends upon what you enjoy doing in the game. I enjoy flying my simulated space ships, and the detailed orbital mechanics ensures that even familiar systems will vary, sometimes wildly, between visits. For example, my character’s home is on Emerald, and is currently* based out of MacKenzie Relay, which orbits Emerald. Emerald is part of a binary with the Venus-like Jade.

My approach to MacKenzie Relay, changes between visits, especially between sessions. Sometimes the more massive Jade is closer to Cemiess, sometimes Emerald is. Sometimes MacKenzie Relay is on the opposite side of Emerald from Jade, sometimes it’s between the two. And of course, there are many more configurations for the four relevant bodies than that.

The former is an ideal situation if you use gravity braking like I do. It’s one of those situations where “ETA 5s” can really be five seconds if you thread the needle successfully. The latter is one that can cost you the most time if misjudge your approach. The others vary in difficulty and the price of failure.

As I said above, the reason I play this game is to fly simulated science fiction space ships (or flyve SRVs) in a simulated Milky Way Galaxy. Everything else is just an excuse plot. Frontier’s decision to model their FTL system, combined with their detailed simulation of the Milky Way, is what makes flying this game such a pleasure. YMMV

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* As soon as life-bearing worlds become landable, I intend to shift my whole base of operations to Fort O'Brian, or another scenic star port if that city isn't carried over from FE2. Fast landing approaches require different techniques than station approaches, which also makes for interesting flying.
 
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That's fine and good, but what are the odds of discovering something like that in the galaxy? I can imagine it being extremely slim unless there are millions of those thing scattered around, and even then it's gonna be extremely tough to find. Why do you think FDev added things to find around nebulas, because it's far more likely for people to find it.

While I would like more interaction on the planet surfaces like getting soil sample and bio samples, what would equally be needed is good reasons to get those samples. That would be a huge other facet to the game that would need developing.

For all we know there may well be millions of downed ships and stuff, but as it will be PG, nobody will know where it is until discovered including Fdev.

Well I would love to see some more interaction when I'm out exploring.
I'd love to see more interaction in general not only nice views.
Fdev created this huge universe but it's practically void of anything to interact with.
Dropping a couple items like a needle in a haystack isn't enticing gameplay to me.

But if you're fine with how things are then knock yourself out.
 
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They made barren empty airless planets, so i expected similar type planets with atmpsphere (never i expected earthlike planets, maybe water worlds).
It's not ED is some kind of realistic flight simulator so they need to do it top notch, they could find all kind of justification for less realistic/arcade atmo flight as they did with other aspects of the game.....it's spaceships game for God's sake!
Just add atmosphere, adjust FM a bit and give it a drama re-entry!
 
I guess it really depends upon what you enjoy doing in the game. I enjoy flying my simulated space ships, and the detailed orbital mechanics ensures that even familiar systems will vary, sometimes wildly, between visits. For example, my character’s home is on Emerald, and is currently* based out of MacKenzie Relay, which orbits Emerald. Emerald is part of a binary with the Venus-like Jade.

My approach to MacKenzie Relay, changes between visits, especially between sessions. Sometimes the more massive Jade is closer to Cemiess, sometimes Emerald is. Sometimes MacKenzie Relay is on the opposite side of Emerald from Jade, sometimes it’s between the two. And of course, there are many more configurations for the four relevant bodies than that.

The former is an ideal situation if you use gravity braking like I do. It’s one of those situations where “ETA 5s” can really be five seconds if you thread the needle successfully. The latter is one that can cost you the most time if misjudge your approach. The others vary in difficulty and the price of failure.

As I said above, the reason I play this game is to fly simulated science fiction space ships (or flyve SRVs) in a simulated Milky Way Galaxy. Everything else is just an excuse plot. Frontier’s decision to model their FTL system, combined with their detailed simulation of the Milky Way, is what makes flying this game such a pleasure. YMMV

edit:
__
* As soon as life-bearing worlds become landable, I intend to shift my whole base of operations to Fort O'Brian, or another scenic star port if that city isn't carried over from FE2. Fast landing approaches require different techniques than station approaches, which also makes for interesting flying.
I'm in the very same boat. This is actually one of the reasons I want my space legs, so that I can walk over the the big glass window of the bridge of an Orca or the big glass dome of a Beluga and take in the view (something you VR folks already have), or walk out onto the forward deck of my Anaconda and sit there and watch the moon rise on a newly-discovered planet, or walk around an abandoned base and experience it close up and personal, all while under a realistic (not NMS) alien sky.

Space legs will bring me a new level of immersion in an already "stellar" Stellar Forged galaxy.
 
I’m having fun with no mans sky. The trick is to pause playing elite while doing it.

It was never intended to be realistic, expecting nms to be real is like expecting frontier to communicate or fix bugs or release more than first pass tools. There are better ways through it :)
NMS is a bit buggy right now on PS4, so once it's patched up, I plan on finding that perfect ELW, building a base, and thoroughly exploring the planet. This means I'll be using NMS more as a flight simulator rather than a space simulator.

The new NMS does some things incredibly well. Their version of "The Codex" is much, much, MUCH superior to ED's version IMO. I look forward to completely cataloging my new home planet.

BTW, I'm playing in creative mode these days. I did the whole survival grind a couple of years ago, and I enjoyed it for what it is, but these days I just want to explore and build and fly without any of the hassle of managing a quintilian different materials and blueprints and components. I can only do one grindy game at a time, and that's ED for me (and I'm actually not complaining about it).
 
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