So, we're actually on schedule?

I think the current engine cannot let players seamlessly walk inside and outside ships. Because when you look at a ship cockpit from outside (space) it is a different low polygon cockpit compared to when you're inside. So it'll probably be instanced with invisible loading like the SRV. Seamless transition is better though. Maybe they've modified the engine to support it.
I think you need to learn more about modelling and the principles of levels of detail. :rolleyes:

It is quite normal to have different visual levels of detail depending on the context and while it might be desirable from a certain perspective to have the same level of detail across the board it is not practical to do so the vast majority of time.

Seamless transition is rarely implemented while maintaining the same level of detail across the board, something has to give otherwise performance suffers. There are some hard limit restrictions that are unavoidable.
 
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So nothing really comes to mind?
I smell agenda. :-(
Space Legs was promised in the intial Kickstarter. (As was an offline mode) not immediately but in a forthcoming update.
The implication was that this would not be years off. Frontier started using "if it ever happens" terms a while after release.

From the Kickstarter FAQ:
"Will I be able to leave the ship?"
"Yes, but not in the initial release. The core release of the game focusses on the ships and space. We'll then be working to expand the game. This includes exploring your ship and space stations. The potential content for Elite is huge,so we're keeping a sensible strategy to add to the game in stages."
 
I smell agenda. :-(
Space Legs was promised in the intial Kickstarter. (As was an offline mode)

Wrong on both counts there.

not immediately but in a forthcoming update.
The implication was that this would not be years off. Frontier started using "if it ever happens" terms a while after release.

From the Kickstarter FAQ:
"Will I be able to leave the ship?"
"Yes, but not in the initial release. The core release of the game focusses on the ships and space. We'll then be working to expand the game. This includes exploring your ship and space stations. The potential content for Elite is huge,so we're keeping a sensible strategy to add to the game in stages."

I'm not sure where you got that timing implication from in that quote, you also seem to have missed the bit about any DLC only being a possibility.

You also missed the standard kickstarter warnings about change.
 
That breaks immersion and can be exploited.



Your ship would either stop or fly in auto-pilot. You'd be in the "Inside the ship" instance while ship-walking. The ship is still in space and other people can see it in open.

I think the most difficult technical challenge is seamlessly walk inside the ship and go outside without any noticeable loading screen or transition. Other problems are clipping (through floors, walls, planet surface, station interior), physics, stable multiplayer sessions.



Yeah imo the most difficult part is 1. interesting gameplay features 2. enough depth and variety. 3. EVA shouldn't break the game 4. Good artwork and design for all ships, station interiors, NPCs, player characters, weapons, items and the base buildings. All that needs more details, polygons, better textures to look good in first person.



They can re-use similar assets per ship manufacturer. For example Saud Kruger has a certain style that is used in all their ship interiors. The stations will probably only have limited access on foot (a couple of areas). There are 7 different station types, but once those areas are designed they will be re-used for thousands of stations. Maybe procedural generation can be applied to the layouts.

I believe David said in a live stream once that the interior of a ring on a station as equivalent size to that of the entire GTAV map.
 
I believe David said in a live stream once that the interior of a ring on a station as equivalent size to that of the entire GTAV map.
I think you can guesstimate the surface area from the number of docks. It is likely to be a very large area based on that alone. It is probably unrealistic to expect stepping out of the ship to be seamless but arguably it does not need to be (nice to have only).
 
I believe David said in a live stream once that the interior of a ring on a station as equivalent size to that of the entire GTAV map.

They should make it like The Citadel of Mass Effect. Frontier only needs to design a couple of areas that are accessible via EVA. Such as the landing pad, a few shops, a bar etc. Mass Effect 3 still looks great, because the environment and character design are phenomenal.

 
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Seamless transition is rarely implemented while maintaining the same level of detail across the board, something has to give otherwise performance suffers. There are some hard limit restrictions that are unavoidable.
Unless you build it all into a game from the start for systems that aren't commonly owned because they are extremely powerful and expensive at the moment. This is the only thing about SC's development that makes sense. Elite, by contrast, is a game that will require another game to be welded onto it.
 
Unless you build it all into a game from the start for systems that aren't commonly owned because they are extremely powerful and expensive at the moment. This is the only thing about SC's development that makes sense. Elite, by contrast, is a game that will require another game to be welded onto it.
the cost of horizons DLC was the same price as the base game. So its not like we wont be paying enough to deserve that. After paying for it, we'll have essentially paid for three full priced copies of the base game.
 
They should make it like The Citadel of Mass Effect. Frontier only needs to design a couple of areas that are accessible via EVA. Such as the landing pad, a few shops, a bar etc. Mass Effect 3 still looks great, because the environment and character design are phenomenal.

You really think this community would settle for 'a couple of areas that are accessible'. Hell no, there would be an uproar (mostly by those who don't play the game, but nevertheless, it would fill forum space) demanding that they are able to wander anywhere on the damn planet they damn well want to. And they will drag out some miscellaneous fragment of a comment by someone who knows someone who is related to Sadie the Tea Lady to prove that FD said all areas would be accessible.
 
They should make it like The Citadel of Mass Effect. Frontier only needs to design a couple of areas that are accessible via EVA. Such as the landing pad, a few shops, a bar etc. Mass Effect 3 still looks great, because the environment and character design are phenomenal.

Although I truly loved the Mass effect series, I need to point out that any and all space flight in that game was a cut scene / loading screen. So the reverse of that would make any and all walking around on stations in Elite dangerous a cutscene / loading screen. That would probably cause more backlash then appreciation visibly.
 
You really think this community would settle for 'a couple of areas that are accessible'. Hell no, there would be an uproar (mostly by those who don't play the game, but nevertheless, it would fill forum space) demanding that they are able to wander anywhere on the damn planet they damn well want to. And they will drag out some miscellaneous fragment of a comment by someone who knows someone who is related to Sadie the Tea Lady to prove that FD said all areas would be accessible.


Specifically for station interiors, there's no need to let players walk everywhere imo. Maybe if they use procedural tech like SC then players could walk anywhere, but the city/station will only have 10+ interesting spots to actually do stuff for gameplay reasons. For example if there's shops that sell space suits, casual clothing, ships, SRVs, weapons, equipment, Fleet Carrier stuff, pets, a bar, dance club, mission givers. That could be 11 different locations in a station/city. Triple that if each manufacturer has a separate shop and different locations for important NPCs.
 
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I'd expect there to be no cutscenes when you get up to walk around your ship, or leave it. The ship interior models will be loaded in advance as they are for the interiors of space stations - which are in place for you even though you can only see them once you start to fly through the station entrance.

If there were any I'd expect to see them whilst you take whatever mode of transport is required to get you away from the landing pad to the interior of the stations, and possibly between different floors in the stations.

The stations are mahooooosive, and whilst it's unrealistic to expect them to model every room I hope they convey the size of them and the people living in them. Elite after all is a game that has the scale of everything at its core.

Planet Coaster did this really well, albeit with a different graphical style, but it gave the parks a feeling that you were in one. More than anything I expect Frontier to nail this down really well - whenever it comes :)
 
Specifically for station interiors, there's no need to let players walk everywhere imo. Maybe if they use procedural tech like SC then players could walk anywhere, but the city/station will only have 10+ interesting spots to actually do stuff for gameplay reasons. For example if there's shops that sell space suits, casual clothing, ships, SRVs, weapons, equipment, Fleet Carrier stuff, pets, a bar, dance club, mission givers. That could be 11 different locations in a station/city. Triple that if each manufacturer has a separate shop and different locations for important NPCs.

Not been following it much lately, but what procedural tech is in SC to allow players to walk anywhere?
 
I have been roasting in a bread about whether or not we (Elite players) have been lied to. About things. So I started to do some digging to find out whether Frontier has, in fact, (as I potentially misstated) over-promised and under-delivered. The results of this inquiry were interesting to say the least.

Let's start with "It's on the list..." Kickstarter flow (2016-2019)...


The "Development Plans" Wiki entry...


The interview in which David Braben does indeed say that that Elite is a "10 year plan, maybe longer"...

Source: https://youtu.be/KS33cyq6Z_A


And this statement by Sandro Sanmmarco at PAX 2016...

"Just to set the record straight, Space Legs and EVA gameplay, that's way off in the future. That's a goal. I've talked to David and it’s always been part of his core vision for what Elite really is, even from way back in the day, it's always been about you're a person in a real futuristic setting, not just a ship. However, I think it's also fair to say Space Legs is effectively dovetailing a whole new game into Elite. We take steps towards it, it's our end vision, but we're not there yet, we're… it's a long way off."

...

So, from a purely objective standpoint, looking at the features that were promised as part of Horizons and Beyond... most (if not all) of these features have been implemented. There is very little to argue about here. You can just go down the list and tick them all off. Whether it's tech brokers, material traders, CM/AM modes, the new ships and fighters, Incursions and other AX content, Holo-Me, hotspots... all of these things that were anticipated by this point have been added to Elite.

Immediately, there isn't much to complain about here. Really. There just isn't. No, damage models weren't applied to all the ships and we still have no NPC crew and fleet carriers have been delayed... but I don't see any major shortfalls. And when we also consider that Braben, Sammarco and everyone else has never actually applied a time frame to the delivery of Space Legs, we can immediately discount that as a "promised feature that was never delivered".

If we look at this without any bias whatsoever, it is hard to find major features that haven't been made available to all of us.

It was an interesting quest for real information. Please review the links at your leisure. They're enlightening, especially for a newer player like myself.

The biggest problem for me is not the 10 year plan, but the long content drought we have experienced. I think this drought was unnecessary, because FDev could have done some simple things to improve our direct experience of the Elite universe, like for example adding more diversity by adding more exterior station models. Something that simple would have improved the experience quite a lot. Currently all systems in the bubble look too samey.
 
The biggest problem for me is not the 10 year plan, but the long content drought we have experienced. I think this drought was unnecessary, because FDev could have done some simple things to improve our direct experience of the Elite universe, like for example adding more diversity by adding more exterior station models. Something that simple would have improved the experience quite a lot. Currently all systems in the bubble look too samey.
We are fine in the graphics department. Quality gameplay is more important.

People don't buy Zelda games for the graphics.The same thing needs to happen with Elite.
 
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