New Odyssey Article - more on planet generation

There are still times I think “that’s a good looking cube” when approaching a planet, because of that video 😁

On my old GTX 460 I could sometimes see the various generation stages :D Although FD have got wonky science is a lot of the game, planet generation is not one of them and is really well done.
 
Mission/BGS info from Gareth Hughes

Elite Dangerous is a living galaxy with a plethora of minor and major factions vying for influence in the different systems and settlements scattered throughout the galaxy. One of our proudest achievements with Odyssey has been bringing that background simulation to life inside our stations, outposts and beyond.
The influence of the background simulation now manifests itself in a much more physical and human way, from the background chatter between faction NPCs to the tone and thematic presentation of the locations themselves.
One key area where this can be most keenly felt is in the difference obtaining missions; the mission board offers a quick and efficient way to pick up regular missions but engaging with a physical faction representative offers more nuanced missions with greater personality and narrative depth and also the opportunity to barter for a better reward.
So with the new 'more nuanced missions with greater personality and narrative depth' what will become of the current mission board?

I know it will continue to exist but will the current mission board feel archaic and flat compared to negotiating with NPCs in person. I've always felt the mission board and missions themselves were rather bland, 6 years of playing the same missions has only made it feel more so which is understandable. I'm hoping that eventually FD will redevelop / redesign the mission board and many of the missions.

Right now I feel like the mission board is in a bad state, clunky UI, mixed wing and solo on the same board, many mission types were rather poorly optimised (nerfed or buffed) in the recent balance pass, some were accidentally broken, the whole thing feels like it needs a total refresh.

I'm looking forward to the new Odyssey mission mechanic and hope it points the way for all ED missions in the future.
 
So with the new 'more nuanced missions with greater personality and narrative depth' what will become of the current mission board?

I know it will continue to exist but will the current mission board feel archaic and flat compared to negotiating with NPCs in person. I've always felt the mission board and missions themselves were rather bland, 6 years of playing the same missions has only made it feel more so which is understandable. I'm hoping that eventually FD will redevelop / redesign the mission board and many of the missions.

Right now I feel like the mission board is in a bad state, clunky UI, mixed wing and solo on the same board, many mission types were rather poorly optimised (nerfed or buffed) in the recent balance pass, some were accidentally broken, the whole thing feels like it needs a total refresh.

I'm looking forward to the new Odyssey mission mechanic and hope it points the way for all ED missions in the future.

I bet, at least at Odyssey launch, the vanilla board missions will either be unchanged, or only slightly improved.

From a marketing POV, nothing puts a fire under the seats of reluctant buyers than seeing how much the other side of the fence have it better.

There has to be enough incentive to actually use the social hub mission givers as well. A few extra credits might not be enough.
 
Planet tech info from Dr Ross:

Where before we had a generator for rocky surfaces and one for ice surfaces which both took Stellar Forge inputs, we now have terrains and terrain materials of various different types and scales which are deterministically selected and blended together depending on the Stellar Forge driven properties of that planet.​
Landable planets are still classified between rocky, icy, rocky ice, high metal content and metal rich depending on what emerges from the Stellar Forge simulation, but their terrains are dependent on those simulation values more than these discrete titles. Terrain shapes, styles, and combinations are mixed together, meaning there is a lot of variation within these classes.​
As with everything in Elite Dangerous, the planets are full sized, and so it is a challenge to ensure that the resources we make work on all scales, work with each other, and provide detail all the way from orbit to the surface. I think we’ve done a grand job selling the scale of these things.​
Across a planet there is now a large scale mask processed which determines different zones of types of terrain based. The mask depends on things like how gravitationally stressed the planet is, the crust thickness and if the planet is, or has been, tectonically active. These zones mask out further subzones of terrain and material types, and follow the flow patterns laid out by the layer above it, creating a seamless landscape across the planet.​
Very promising!
 
I can not source it but somehow I have the impression I red/heard somewhere the experience will be of you seating as a crew member and the AI piloting in real time. So, basically a ride and at least you can enjoy the views. Just like a longer landing autopilot. I may be wrong tho.

A ride would seem to be a good compromise between the unbalancing / non immersive instantaneous teleport and a straight timer.

We'll see. :) In your case it definitely means very local travel only I assume.
 
We'll see. :) In your case it definitely means very local travel only I assume.
You'll be able to travel to other stars. My guess is it'll be limited by the BGS (with very fixed routes to select from) or by range (where you can select any location within a single jump maximum).

It might just be single hop routes too. So I can't see it being 500ly with 20 jumps in sequence. What will be interesting is how it handles supercruise. If it has to navigate those long distances and forces blue zone travel the whole way...

Sub orbital travel might be really cool though.
 
There has to be enough incentive to actually use the social hub mission givers as well. A few extra credits might not be enough.

Have to say I agree, getting a new set of missions by foot and even through talking with npc, will be much lower credit per hour than our modern fast board where you just pick missions fast and go out again.

Just in case, will grind billions and engineering materials before Odyssey, so I will not have to think those or cr/hr anymore then :)
 
I am curious if the Apex service will be like an Uber or will be it more like a bus ride. Uber is usually one person, although I have seen an Uber pick up several unrelated travelers all from a busy airport to take them to their respective hotels. Very quick and direct is the Uber way for $$$.

The bus is more of a 10 stops, at each and every space station between point a and point b and you get off the bus at your stop. Usually cheaper, like $$, but way slower. But it could allow for more Cmdr's and NPC's and bigger missions at the target location.
 
I am curious if the Apex service will be like an Uber or will be it more like a bus ride. Uber is usually one person, although I have seen an Uber pick up several unrelated travelers all from a busy airport to take them to their respective hotels. Very quick and direct is the Uber way for $$$.

The bus is more of a 10 stops, at each and every space station between point a and point b and you get off the bus at your stop. Usually cheaper, like $$, but way slower. But it could allow for more Cmdr's and NPC's and bigger missions at the target location.
If you think about how complicated it'd be to sensibly set out these multiple stop routes given the procedurally generated nature of the bubble, I think it's hard to imagine it'll work this way. It'd also be a nightmare trying to find the specific route you want, too. Just as much of a nightmare developing the UI to present a list of options to the end user.

I'm certain it'll be much closer to a taxi than a bus route. Either it'll be a list of all available destinations (wouldn't be great) or you'll just use the galaxy map to select one, much like you do now for plotting a route, only the available destinations will be limited (by range I'm guessing).

If I wanted to approach this feature as a programmer, I'd absolutely want to do it the latter way. It'd be the easiest by far given most of the functionality already exists.
 
Last edited:
With regards to the 'Apex' taxi service: Will the suits come provided with a towel, or will this essential travelers accessory be purchasable in stations and/or settlements?

If so, I expect emblazoning the towel with the phrase; 'Don't Panic', in a choice of colours will be available to buy with Arx.
As I am sure our Cmdrs are all real hoopy froods, they’ll already know where their towel is.
 
the current game's mission board is super weak sauce so it'll be interesting to see how it's improved. It's currently a lazy table that is identical regardless of which ship you have (no unique look and feel to empire vs fed vs various independent ships). There's no cinematic/audio portion of the experience that improves upon this game mechanic from that which was put in games in the mid 90's.

I'd be happy if they finally implement escort missions. military branching missions that become the only way to rank in a military and force mutual exclusion to ranking in other militaries. Missions that remember your past actions (even those actions that are external missions) and missions that involven persistent procedural npcs.

The missions should be a way to basically create your own narrative story and fdev should focus on making that experience 1st class. Even cross-mentioning the reputations of other cmdr's in the missions ...perhaps adding in a contractor/employer/union aspect that pulls the player in closer to the success/failure of the factions they're interacting with as well as tying their activities to those of other players they may not see or never see in person.

I really do not care at all about the walking around crap in odyssey - i'm not playing a space combat/trader game to walk around. But improvements to the parts of the game that were basically phoned in and left for the past 5 years do interest me. Maybe give me some reason to even care about doing missions again (assuming i was within 20k ly of a station)
 
the current game's mission board is super weak sauce so it'll be interesting to see how it's improved. It's currently a lazy table that is identical regardless of which ship you have (no unique look and feel to empire vs fed vs various independent ships).

Just to correct this "lore stuff":

Galaxy is very well founded on capitalism and free trade, corporations sell their ships who ever buy them best, and pilots and armies buy ships they like or are most cost efficient.

That is the reason why you see Fed´s and Imp´s even at Alliance based ships.
 
Just to correct this "lore stuff":

Galaxy is very well founded on capitalism and free trade, corporations sell their ships who ever buy them best, and pilots and armies buy ships they like or are most cost efficient.

That is the reason why you see Fed´s and Imp´s even at Alliance based ships.

none of that makes any sense. nothing i said has anything to do with where certain ships are found and who is using them. It has to do with the very idea of different ships being different from eachother. Empire ships look completely different from fed / independent ships - there is no reason why their ship interfaces would be identical to those other ship manufacturers. There is no reason why all ship manufacturers wouldn't have unique-isms related to their interfaces as they look to position themselves as better laid out for the roles they're meant for. To set them apart from their competition. Because if there is one thing that is absolutely certain, it's that pilots dont all prefer or need the same thing from their ships. Those differences in preferences would absolutely be expected in cockpit interface design.

the interfaces in my T6 shouldn't look the same as my FDL... That's like saying you'd expect the same interfaces in a piece of junk econo-box as a ferrarri. Just no.

I'd expect empire interface design to be leaning to curves and a very mac-ish aesthetic .. pretentious and ornate but dripping with a class that says this is expensive and you want everyone to know it. Federal would be utilitarian ... Not very pretty but very understandable. No eye candy. Independents would have varyious gimmicky attributes that personify that manufacturer. And all would have certain changes within those identities to lean towards whatever the role of the ship is intended for. Perhaps trade ships default your filter to trade missions and huds will show trade information and jump data up front without having to switch views as well as timers showing you your current transit time etc. Combat ones would focus on hostile ships and perhaps show warrant values up front without having to switch views and filter to combat missions by default .. etc etc.

Little things that create more personality with a ship so it really feels and looks like you're flying a different ship when picking one and it's not just a change background view surrounding your canopy.
 
Last edited:
the current game's mission board is super weak sauce so it'll be interesting to see how it's improved. It's currently a lazy table that is identical regardless of which ship you have (no unique look and feel to empire vs fed vs various independent ships). There's no cinematic/audio portion of the experience that improves upon this game mechanic from that which was put in games in the mid 90's.

I'd be happy if they finally implement escort missions. military branching missions that become the only way to rank in a military and force mutual exclusion to ranking in other militaries. Missions that remember your past actions (even those actions that are external missions) and missions that involven persistent procedural npcs.

The missions should be a way to basically create your own narrative story and fdev should focus on making that experience 1st class. Even cross-mentioning the reputations of other cmdr's in the missions ...perhaps adding in a contractor/employer/union aspect that pulls the player in closer to the success/failure of the factions they're interacting with as well as tying their activities to those of other players they may not see or never see in person.

I really do not care at all about the walking around crap in odyssey - i'm not playing a space combat/trader game to walk around. But improvements to the parts of the game that were basically phoned in and left for the past 5 years do interest me. Maybe give me some reason to even care about doing missions again (assuming i was within 20k ly of a station)
I'm predicting that you'll be very disappointed with Odyssey if you're disinterested in walking and hope missions will be even slightly different to what we have now.

The best I think we can hope for is there's more flexibility and control over mission options on foot. I'm really not convinced the mission system itself has been developed much beyond its current structure.

But we still have one more dev diary which may shed light on this, then alpha. So we'll see soon enough either way.
 
none of that makes any sense. nothing i said has anything to do with where certain ships are found and who is using them. It has to do with the very idea of different ships being different from eachother. Empire ships look completely different from fed / independent ships - there is no reason why their ship interfaces would be identical to those other ship manufacturers. There is no reason why all ship manufacturers wouldn't have unique-isms related to their interfaces as they look to position themselves as better laid out for the roles they're meant for. To set them apart from their competition. Because if there is one thing that is absolutely certain, it's that pilots dont all prefer or need the same thing from their ships. Those differences in preferences would absolutely be expected in cockpit interface design.

the interfaces in my T6 shouldn't look the same as my FDL... That's like saying you'd expect the same interfaces in a piece of junk econo-box as a ferrarri. Just no.

I'd expect empire interface design to be leaning to curves and a very mac-ish aesthetic .. pretentious and ornate but dripping with a class that says this is expensive and you want everyone to know it. Federal would be utilitarian ... Not very pretty but very understandable. No eye candy. Independents would have varyious gimmicky attributes that personify that manufacturer. And all would have certain changes within those identities to lean towards whatever the role of the ship is intended for. Perhaps trade ships default your filter to trade missions and huds will show trade information and jump data up front without having to switch views as well as timers showing you your current transit time etc. Combat ones would focus on hostile ships and perhaps show warrant values up front without having to switch views and filter to combat missions by default .. etc etc.

Little things that create more personality with a ship so it really feels and looks like you're flying a different ship when picking one and it's not just a change background view surrounding your canopy.

Not that I have anything against different interfaces or UI´s at ships from different manufactors, but I bet part of player base who have got used to their current UI and interfaces would feel restricted to the ships left old UI and interface.

If you want a lore reason for it, think our modern airplanes with different models but similar interfaces, maybe in the future to be able to dock in all factions and independents stations there would need to be some common system for all ships.
 
Not that I have anything against different interfaces or UI´s at ships from different manufactors, but I bet part of player base who have got used to their current UI and interfaces would feel restricted to the ships left old UI and interface.

If you want a lore reason for it, think our modern airplanes with different models but similar interfaces, maybe in the future to be able to dock in all factions and independents stations there would need to be some common system for all ships.

this isn't about wanting a lore reason to explain lazy design. it's about wanting improvements to the core game where there are easy and obvious reasons for those improvements to exist the way they would and to move away from the minimum deliverable solutions that we've been given.
 
Top Bottom