Suggestion: Walking on the bridge.

[Bobbydylan]

We're all clamouring for ship interiors, but I'd like to make a recommendation to FDEV to at least allow walkable bridges / Cockpits.

1) Allowing the player to get out of the chair and explore the bridge is a great first step towards ship interiors. It also allows FDEV to test how "boring" it will be with repeated use with no new modeling.
2) It would give players something to muck about with during long travel times.
3) FDEV could move the "outfitting" menu to a control panel near the cockpit door, allowing us to select the suit we're going to disembark with.
4) FDev seriously don't want me to land my ship in a settlement then stand on the bridge watching the little people below? This is a low cost addition to EDO that would add to the game. Who doesn't want this?

 

[Murfelton]

This is a low cost addition to EDO that would add to the game. Who doesn't want this?

Note that players in VR can walk the bridge already. (The camera suite also can do this, if we take a wide definition of “walk.”)

I see four scenarios.

1. Despite repeated requests for this, and the fact that FDev already provided this for VR, they somehow did not think of adding this to Odyssey.
2. They cut it at the last minute to meet deadlines, and will add it in an update.
3. They are deliberately holding a “low cost” requested feature back to a future major expansion.
4. Your assumption that this is a ”low cost addition” is incorrect, that in fact, trying to model players moving inside moving ships is not supported by the current game engine. (Note that the VR implementation is probably using an existing API, and moving a character is not the same as moving a camera.)

 

[GroG79]

...We're all clamouring for ship interiors...

No we are not...

 

[fennster]

I don't think it is a simple as people think it is.

We are shown are number of times with fade to black transitions and the fact we respawn as our ship that character and ship are not entirely separable, at least not in the way it has been coded. Moving the camera around the cockpit in VR is not the same as disengaging the control from ship gameplay and moving to a different character with different mobility and interaction with the environment, which has now changed from the system you were moving through to on a ship level. It's not impossible, but it's certainly not as easy as build some interiors and let us get up out of our seats.

It reminds me of how in Fallout 3 they wanted to make a train you could board and move through a city on, but the code didn't allow for movable vehicles. So to get around this they made an NPC that wore a train model on it's head as a giant hat, this NPC then walked around underneath the map to keep it concealed giving the impression the train was moving. Whilst onboard a helmet was placed over the players head inside which the view was projected. Point being due to limitations of the code it wasn't as simple as 'Just put a train into the game'.

 

[Bobbydylan]

.

1. Your assumption that this is a ”low cost addition” is incorrect, that in fact, trying to model players moving inside moving ships is not supported by the current game engine. (Note that the VR implementation is probably using an existing API, and moving a character is not the same as moving a camera.)

How is it any different to the existing mechanic of moving around a station?

1) The ambulation model exist
2) the Ship bridges exist.
3) Most bridges (if not all? Please correct me if I'm wrong) are big enough already to allow for some movement (they're acrually rather absurdly large if the VR scale is true).
4) I see no difference between the landing pad "level" and a bridge "level" in terms of demand on resources. Sure some textures would need upscaling and some surfaces might need greebling (Back of the lift in the 'Conda) but this is likely only a few hours of an artists time, to chuck in some existing assets and bind the "outfitting" menue to a terminal at the door

 

[Bobbydylan]

I don't think it is a simple as people think it is.

We are shown are number of times with fade to black transitions and the fact we respawn as our ship that character and ship are not entirely separable, at least not in the way it has been coded. Moving the camera around the cockpit in VR is not the same as disengaging the control from ship gameplay and moving to a different character with different mobility and interaction with the environment, which has now changed from the system you were moving through to on a ship level. It's not impossible, but it's certainly not as easy as build some interiors and let us get up out of our seats.

How about if the game loads the Cockpit as the same "level" as the landing pad. The coding that gets you from the concourse to the Landing pad could be used to move you from the staircase to the cockpit. The "becoming of the ship" would happen when you press F at the chair in the cockpit rather than the staircase outside.

 

[Ydiss]

No we are not...

You're not but we are. All of us.

Scope of We and Us undefined.

 

[nicedevill]

No we are not...

But you do - - waves hand - -

 

[Murfelton]

How is it any different to the existing mechanic of moving around a station?

1) The ambulation model exist
2) the Ship bridges exist.
3) Most bridges (if not all? Please correct me if I'm wrong) are big enough already to allow for some movement (they're acrually rather absurdly large if the VR scale is true).
4) I see no difference between the landing pad "level" and a bridge "level" in terms of demand on resources. Sure some textures would need upscaling and some surfaces might need greebling (Back of the lift in the 'Conda) but this is likely only a few hours of an artists time, to chuck in some existing assets and bind the "outfitting" menue to a terminal at the door

In a normal “walking” level, the structure is not moving. (Stations are rotating, but it’s not clear whether they cheat on that.) Moving spaceships are structures that move in 3D, as well as having a rotation vector in 3D - 6 degrees of freedom. This is an unusual physics structure to model in video games.

In a single player game, it might be possible to cheat on the calculation complexity. Elite is multiplayer.

FDev’s behaviour on this issue is consistent with this being a tricky problem.

 

[Grey Weasel]

Perhaps this should be in the Suggestions section, as this isn't a feature of Odyssey, let alone the Alpha test of Odyssey.

 

[LeoBartlet]

We're all clamouring for ship interiors, but I'd like to make a recommendation to FDEV to at least allow walkable bridges / Cockpits.

1) Allowing the player to get out of the chair and explore the bridge is a great first step towards ship interiors. It also allows FDEV to test how "boring" it will be with repeated use with no new modeling.
2) It would give players something to muck about with during long travel times.
3) FDEV could move the "outfitting" menu to a control panel near the cockpit door, allowing us to select the suit we're going to disembark with.
4) FDev seriously don't want me to land my ship in a settlement then stand on the bridge watching the little people below? This is a low cost addition to EDO that would add to the game. Who doesn't want this?

Hmm

 

[Ambroza]

On one hand, I would like this very much personally.

On the other, I really don't think Frontier would be wise to do it. CCP added a very basic station interior to walk around in EVE (and essentially do nothing in), with the intent to build more features into it later. While I found it pretty cool, as boring and basic as it was, it was pretty much reviled by the community, and as a result was never developed further and eventually removed from the game entirely.

I would prefer Frontier not run the risk of repeating this mistake. No half measures, when we get interiors they should be fleshed out.

 

[Grey Weasel]

This sounds rather like a topic for the Suggestions section, as this feature isn't in Odyssey, and this section is for testing the Odyssey Alpha.

 

[mossfoot]

On one hand, I would like this very much personally.

On the other, I really don't think Frontier would be wise to do it. CCP added a very basic station interior to walk around in EVE (and essentially do nothing in), with the intent to build more features into it later. While I found it pretty cool, as boring and basic as it was, it was pretty much reviled by the community, and as a result was never developed further and eventually removed from the game entirely.

Spreadsheets In Space is hardly a fair comparison point, don't you think?

 

[Mersozz]

It would be funny getting interdicted while taking a crap.

 

[dannysquid]

Note that players in VR can walk the bridge already. (The camera suite also can do this, if we take a wide definition of “walk.”)

I see four scenarios.

1. Despite repeated requests for this, and the fact that FDev already provided this for VR, they somehow did not think of adding this to Odyssey.
2. They cut it at the last minute to meet deadlines, and will add it in an update.
3. They are deliberately holding a “low cost” requested feature back to a future major expansion.
4. Your assumption that this is a ”low cost addition” is incorrect, that in fact, trying to model players moving inside moving ships is not supported by the current game engine. (Note that the VR implementation is probably using an existing API, and moving a character is not the same as moving a camera.)

I think it's (3). If you're going to do it, do it properly with the whole ship. And I suspect just doing it for bridges would still entail having to remodel all those bridges to some extent (and make the computer screens do things and improve the canopy etc...) and people would start complaining that they'd only done the bridges "they're so lazy" etc...

 

[Murfelton]

I think it's (3). If you're going to do it, do it properly with the whole ship. And I suspect just doing it for bridges would still entail having to remodel all those bridges to some extent (and make the computer screens do things and improve the canopy etc...) and people would start complaining that they'd only done the bridges "they're so lazy" etc...

This possibility seems to be the most plausible, other than #4.

Weak points of the scenario.

• People can already walk the bridge in VR, so it’s not as if they are hiding the current state of bridges.
• With the bridge walkable, they would have a proof that the technology exists and works. They can either start selling “interior expansions” almost immediately as cosmetics, or wait for all ships. But in the meantime, non-VR play get parity with VR.

The one thing that is hard to judge: will ship interior fans exhibit more or less unreasonable behaviour with such a partial step?

 

[Deleted member 48160]

This sounds rather like a topic for the Suggestions section, as this feature isn't in Odyssey, and this section is for testing the Odyssey Alpha.

No, the suggestions secton is where good ideas go to die, this idea is not dead yet.

 

[varonica]

How is it any different to the existing mechanic of moving around a station?

1) The ambulation model exist
2) the Ship bridges exist.
3) Most bridges (if not all? Please correct me if I'm wrong) are big enough already to allow for some movement (they're acrually rather absurdly large if the VR scale is true).
4) I see no difference between the landing pad "level" and a bridge "level" in terms of demand on resources. Sure some textures would need upscaling and some surfaces might need greebling (Back of the lift in the 'Conda) but this is likely only a few hours of an artists time, to chuck in some existing assets and bind the "outfitting" menue to a terminal at the door

Because your ship is moving, sometimes quite fast and often turning, while a station is essentially stationary from your character perspective (and yet we still get poeple accidentally kicked into space in the alpha). If you disconnect your body from it's stationary position in the ship you now have 2 independent bodies that need to be synced to keep you in your ship and exact location through all maneuvers, and as a certain other space game has demonstrated time and again, that syncing can sometimes...and quite often, go catastrophically wrong. I think a FC bridge could work fine because that's essentially a station, but I doubt we will ever get moving around in ship while flying at SC or even normal speeds.

So no, moving around in a station and moving around in your ship are not essentially the same, they are very different.

 

[Deleted member 48160]

We're all clamouring for ship interiors, but I'd like to make a recommendation to FDEV to at least allow walkable bridges / Cockpits.

1) Allowing the player to get out of the chair and explore the bridge is a great first step towards ship interiors. It also allows FDEV to test how "boring" it will be with repeated use with no new modeling.
2) It would give players something to muck about with during long travel times.
3) FDEV could move the "outfitting" menu to a control panel near the cockpit door, allowing us to select the suit we're going to disembark with.
4) FDev seriously don't want me to land my ship in a settlement then stand on the bridge watching the little people below? This is a low cost addition to EDO that would add to the game. Who doesn't want this?

I dont think they will do that, knowing Frontier they will strive to do it right and not settle for compromisee, be it temporary or otherwise therefore, I only see 2 viable scenarios.

1. They dont do it.
2. They take their time to fully flesh out ship interiors allowing you to access cargo holds and more to promote gameplay such as cargo theft/tresspassing on other ships etc. They might possibly also introduce zero-g movement/combat to complement ship interiors(and rest of the game) with further new gameplay.