OP, I know you are a software engineer and that you know it won't be a difficult thing for FD to do - but do you really know?
Do you know if all the assets in every cockpit are rendered with their collision limits? Can you say for certain that any stairs will actually function as stairs? Are you positive that everyone will only be happy with walking around their cockpit, and no one will suddenly demand (via Open Letter of course) that the coffee machine must be made to work and that they can easily identify a flat white from a cappuccino at a glance? What protocols will need to be put into place to alert a Commander of impending doom whilst they are doing the solo waltz around their cockpit? Whose fault will it be if the ship is destroyed because the Commander was playing virtual hopscotch and flew into a star? What I am trying to say is that although it may look like everything is there it may not be the case and it could be a bucket load of damn hard work for FDev to do what you think is an easy task.
Yes it would be nice to get up from the Commander's chair, but then what? Stand and look out the window? See how many paces it is to the rear bulkhead? Identify then bitterly complain that the graphics on the lower console at the left rear of the Cutter's cockpit don't quite match up with each other? Fix the dangly wires hanging down on some ships? Play with your bobble heads?
Just face it, there isn't a lot of gameplay that can be had in a cockpit that can't be had when sitting in the Commander's chair. Like a lot of other's I envisage that when you land and want to stretch your legs, you will hit the appropriate key binding and after a fade to black you will find yourself in the air lock on your ship looking at the stairs down. That will be enough for me.
Hi M00ka, and welcome back from your hiatus.
The possibility that collision detection is not currently implemented in cockpits was considered when classing this a relatively low effort item. On the scale that collision detection had to have been done in Odyssey, engine tools are without a doubt available to make it much less of a burden. In something like Unreal Engine for example, it's literally a setting per object where you choose the type of collision detection you need, depending on the required complexity of the mesh.
There is of course no notion that everyone will desire or be satisfied by this proposed feature. I am guessing though that there are enough players who would appreciate it as a role playing and immersion enhancing addition, with the hope that it would be the first step towards more fleshed out ship interiors, and the consolation that if ship interiors never come, at least there'll be this. So I created this thread so commanders could show support for the idea if they choose. As for this leading to players making more requests for cockpit and ship interior features, that's to be encouraged, not avoided, as it would help make a case for expanded ship interiors, which may influence Frontier to consider it if they had abandoned plans to do it, or which may bring it closer in the product roadmap.
The idea for this feature though requires keeping it as simple as possible. Commanders leave their seat at their own risk, and need to pay attention to the existing warnings and alerts, with any consequences being their own fault.
Other players have brought up the issue of gameplay to assess this proposed feature as low value. Here is one of my responses to that:
"Why does gameplay have to be the focus from a development perspective? The focus on gameplay is for the purpose of player enjoyment, which for the company is expected to translate to sales. If a proposed feature that doesn’t introduce new gameplay is something that a substantial proportion of players say they would enjoy, and I’m not presuming that this proposal necessarily fits that bill, then that would translate to sales in the same way a similarly enjoyable gameplay focused feature would."
Immersion is a huge factor in what makes Elite a great game, and what draws players in and holds them. In my opinion, it should not be undervalued and cannot be overstated.