400 Billion Star Systems - What will it feel like?

Muzz UK

Muzz UK
I actually think most players 90% will stay around the populated and home systems like Dahan/Eranin/I-Bootis or stay around Sol/Barnards Stars/Alpha Centuri etc. Purely because clans/groups will be managed and setup around these areas.

These areas are likely to be where conflicts happen along with missions, trading and the main markets. Unless people are given reasons to travel afar the only reason I can foresee is the challenge of maybe seeing and screenshotting stuff no one else has. Someone gave an example of 2 planets in the Braga system orbiting almost next to each other and how cool it would be to look at that if you landed on the planet. Travelling a far will be to see things like this will be the main reason to adventure out and about. However maybe Frontier/David Braben plan on creating an alien race like the Thargoids again, maybe they will be based more on the rim and edge systems and have bases created out of reach of home systems.

The beauty is technology now exists to do more with the star systems than was possible in the 80s and 90s. I was discussing with a friend the possibility of a group finding an almost empty star system using it as a place to meet and claiming it as their own literally attacking anyone who dares to come near.

Space however is a big open empty place, this is why we'll need nebula's, storms and random things to keep us busy!
 
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Patrick_68000

Patrick_68000
The galaxy will develop. New stellar systems will be conquered by the humans, but also by others species. In the long term, the galaxy will be very densely populated. But we will not be there to see it.
 

Mead

Mead
I plan to get a self-sufficient ship and strike out for the unknown, see how long I can survive. The IronSpace Challenge!
 

Ydiss

Ydiss
titus said:
How much distance can an explorer ship travel though? I imagine it will run out of supplies at some point and become stranded. It would be cool if people could build stations in explored space that would allow for further exploring. Some island hopping, if you will.
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You will eventually be able to use the scoop to refuel at gas giants and, more usefully, stars. You can equip the repair module, that will help you repair your ship, providing you survive, after any encounters on the way. An explorer will likely buy the ship with the largest jump range and change the load out to allow for very long jumps. So, generally, the answer to your question is "very far".
 

Tzukasa

Tzukasa
Will it really have 400 billion though? I mean I find that number dubious, similar to the "billion" guns that borderlands has. I mean yah there are a "billion" combinations but really their are only what, 25 guns, each with 10 skins, and then a bazillion different combos of +this and +that.. which really in my book is not a billion guns at all..

So what really is it gonna be here? 100 different systems tops repeated 4 billion times? Idk call me cynical but I just don't see how they are gonna get that many systems and each one actually be unique. After you see 4,000 of them the other 100,000,000 is going to be pointlessly bland & repetitious. Not to say that I won't enjoy the heck outta those 4k systems though ;)
 

titus

T
Tzukasa said:
Will it really have 400 billion though? I mean I find that number dubious, similar to the "billion" guns that borderlands has. I mean yah there are a "billion" combinations but really their are only what, 25 guns, each with 10 skins, and then a bazillion different combos of +this and +that.. which really in my book is not a billion guns at all..

So what really is it gonna be here? 100 different systems tops repeated 4 billion times? Idk call me cynical but I just don't see how they are gonna get that many systems and each one actually be unique. After you see 4,000 of them the other 100,000,000 is going to be pointlessly bland & repetitious. Not to say that I won't enjoy the heck outta those 4k systems though ;)
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Who said anything about all of them being unique? It's procedural. Some will be completely different, some will be slightly different, some may even be identical.
I just hope they won't use a algorithm(ie: completely random variables) to generate them. David Braben said they won't, so... I believe the phrase was artist assisted or something like that, which should mean that they will have some rules about what to randomize and what parameters to use, etc.
 

titus

T
Tzukasa said:
They will start to feel stale and boring after seeing the same models and textures reused so many times.
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It's likely to, although I guess that depends on the individual. Hopefully they'll release expansions and spice things up when it comes to that.
 

Jexter

Jexter
Just wait until after todays deploy, I think for many of us 2000+ systems will feel as close to infinity as 400 billion.
 

Cliché

Cliché
I was wondering about this. They keep mentioning 400 billion stars and I was wondering if they were going to populate the entire galaxy. It sounds like they are not, which is good. After all, it's only 1500 years or so in the future. Colonized space should be limited to a small cloud of stars centered around Sol, with most stars in that could not colonized. I think a few hundred would be more than enough. But there is still the rest of the Galaxy to be explored if you want. Maybe in 10,000 or 50,000 years we will have it 10% or 25% explored - and throw in some alien races too. Just my 2-cents.
 

Dredphyre

D
Cliché said:
I was wondering about this. They keep mentioning 400 billion stars and I was wondering if they were going to populate the entire galaxy. It sounds like they are not, which is good. After all, it's only 1500 years or so in the future. Colonized space should be limited to a small cloud of stars centered around Sol, with most stars in that could not colonized. I think a few hundred would be more than enough. But there is still the rest of the Galaxy to be explored if you want. Maybe in 10,000 or 50,000 years we will have it 10% or 25% explored - and throw in some alien races too. Just my 2-cents.
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Actually, it would be a rather simple affair to populate the entire galaxy in perhaps 1000 years. I've not done the exact calculations, but given the hyperspace drive and the technology available in game, all you have to do is send one colony ship out to a habitable planet. When that colony is established, you then send out two colony ships to habitable planets. Each of those colonies sends out two colony ships...etc. It's the classic math phenomena of placing 1 penny on the first square of a chess board, 2 pennies on the second, 4 on the 3rd, 8 on 4th. 2^n-1. For the chess board with 64 spaces, this becomes 2^63 = 9,223,372,036,854,775,808.

So you can see that within a short amount of time, if each penny represented a colony ship...it would take far less than 63 iterations to populate the galaxy. The only delays happen establishing a colony and extracting resources to build the next pair of ships, and of course birthing another round of colonists.
 

Cliché

Cliché
Dredphyre said:
...When that colony is established...
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That's the rub. How long is that going to take? And why colonize another planet asap? I think it would take hundreds or thousands of years before that colony would want to expand again. Btw, I think it's 37 iterations to reach 137 billion star systems (accounting for binary star systems and etc).

Anyway, it looks like we are getting 2400 populated systems. I'm just hoping they are centered around Sol, and not spread over the entire galaxy.
 

Bird Man

Bird Man
MajorEpeen said:
It will feel big.

You will feel small.

This is how all space games should feel.
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Couldn't agree more! I'm hoping that, in time, there will be teeming cityscapes in highly developed systems where we will be able to get out of our ships and walk around and such. I suspect that the core systems will have tons of players in them from the start.

If you choose to go out into the infinite frontier and explore, however, you should feel like you are on your own and surrounded by mystery. That feeling of isolation and wonder is what it's all about.

I sincerely hope that they include life-forms in their procedural generation model eventually. Once we are able to land on planets and explore, life is an absolute must! Shouldn't be a problem for the creators of Zoo Tycoon!
 

saviornt

saviornt
Cliché said:
That's the rub. How long is that going to take? And why colonize another planet asap? I think it would take hundreds or thousands of years before that colony would want to expand again. Btw, I think it's 37 iterations to reach 137 billion star systems (accounting for binary star systems and etc).

Anyway, it looks like we are getting 2400 populated systems. I'm just hoping they are centered around Sol, and not spread over the entire galaxy.
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It is of my opinion that there will be four "main" reasons for creating an extra-planetary colony:

1) Planetary Resources
2) Over-Population
3) Habital Preference
4) Strategic locations

In thinking of today's situation, it would not surprise me if, within 3 more generations, mankind will:

- Start harvesting comets and asteroids for resources (It is said that the first private entity, ie: non-government/nation, to get a trillion dollars will come from another "gold rush" to the asteroid belt)
- Set up off planet colonies (If the Mars Project works) - China will be the nation to strongly push for it

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As for the topic on hand, we will see a few things happen in E:D (If the game becomes popular enough and becomes a true MMO, rather than some sort of hybrid it is now):

- Noob galaxy: Where all players start and learn the game
- Explorers will go out, find resources and "trade hubs"
- This information will make other people go to those regions
- People will start forming "trade hubs" - I believe its called convergence theory, but I could be mistaken. Its the phenomena that leads to people gathering in one place for a reason. This is how colonies become cities become states become nations

Of course, this all depends on FD and how much "like" Eve-Online it is (player-player trading, markets, player crafting, forming guilds/alliances, etc..)
 
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craftomega

C
I was wondering what the chance of finding stations out in non colonized space would be? Like what are the chances of the procedual generation making them?
 
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