I don't like the new ice worlds.
- Thread starter jammedhamed
- Start date
I think I now sit in the middle as far as criticism and praise goes for the new planetary tech. I admit I have retreated my harshness in having a dig at the downfalls of it. Overall it's not as bad as some say I think, as there are plenty of examples of where the game looks much better. Of course there are examples of where it looks no better, and examples of where it looks plain broken.
I mean we can still only land on dry planets, and weirdos like Io are not landable yet as the tech needed to have active planets don't exist. I mean what would it take in a all-but-dead planet's composition to have bright red or green surfaces? Would it need 50% copper or iron or something? Is that even possible in planet formation, as in on the surface not down in the core? Mars is rightfully considered the RED planet but how red is it on the ground?
I do think they did the right thing in scaling back the excessive colourations of planets, as I think we have enough in our system (with zero or low atmospheres) as a good sample set. Grey and brown is after all by wide and far the most common appearance of rock. An example of an exception is red sandstone, which can be vibrant and I've not seen any of that in Odyssey. I'm not sure I can imagine an entire planet so red, but certainly some regions.
It's because canyons, mountains, cliffs and glacier valleys are so dramatic, and as such their underwhelming nature stands out. Craters have the depth, but the edges do still suffer to some degree from the dreaded blobbiness. I know Horizons didn't support overhangs either, and of course any sizeable hill just wouldn't have that, but it's more than just overhanging rock but angular and sharp-edges features that seem entirely lacking and really hurt the variety and realism.
I mean we can still only land on dry planets, and weirdos like Io are not landable yet as the tech needed to have active planets don't exist. I mean what would it take in a all-but-dead planet's composition to have bright red or green surfaces? Would it need 50% copper or iron or something? Is that even possible in planet formation, as in on the surface not down in the core? Mars is rightfully considered the RED planet but how red is it on the ground?
I do think they did the right thing in scaling back the excessive colourations of planets, as I think we have enough in our system (with zero or low atmospheres) as a good sample set. Grey and brown is after all by wide and far the most common appearance of rock. An example of an exception is red sandstone, which can be vibrant and I've not seen any of that in Odyssey. I'm not sure I can imagine an entire planet so red, but certainly some regions.
It's because canyons, mountains, cliffs and glacier valleys are so dramatic, and as such their underwhelming nature stands out. Craters have the depth, but the edges do still suffer to some degree from the dreaded blobbiness. I know Horizons didn't support overhangs either, and of course any sizeable hill just wouldn't have that, but it's more than just overhanging rock but angular and sharp-edges features that seem entirely lacking and really hurt the variety and realism.
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I agree with you. It's been a pleasure discussing with you.
There is a way to go for Odyssey yet.
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For Bruce's sake, has anyone had the GD sense to go check out Pomeche 2 c yet? Go, hurry up I need to see if it's still good for canyon cruising....
Deleted member 121570
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Yes, and it's absolutely ruined. It has canyons, but they're all extremely wide and meh. Handcrafted into pointlessness.
All the fun, deep spots with interesting terrain and high mountains are gone. The 'Epic Mountain Range' POI is on the floor.
Mars is terraformed in Elite timeline. So no planetfalls there.
You think the handcrafted it?
Deleted member 121570
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Well, they said they did. It was explicitly referenced in the update notes.
It's still a total mess though.
Oh yes I forgot that. One does wonder what the content patches will add for this expansion, full atmosphere planets seem a bit much as they'd require huge amounts of new tech, but maybe entering the higher reaches of gas giants, and hopefully zero-G 1st person and ship interiors.
That's awfully nice of them, actually, even if they didn't quite hit the mark.
I agree with much of what you say, but what do you want out of Elite? 'fun' gameplay like racing, or realistic and believable terrain? What is the priority here? I know the two aren't mutually exclusive but read on..
In my opinion Pomeche looked somewhat ridiculous, and I find it very hard to believe a world can ever form that way. The colours were way too extreme and the geology looked silly in how global it was. Do you think it should have been scaled back, and they've just gone too far? Say for instance turn the colours down 50% and make the crazy geology localised to one or a couple of regions? That way the planet would be rather more believable, and still a good place for racers.
As much as I gathered, it's more about the exact size and shape of the canyons. Maybe they should have talked some more to the canyon racers.
And yeah, making the crazy landscape localized features would be a great way to to keep it more realistic and give the racers something to play with.
I mean, who wouldn't love a great canyon!
Deleted member 121570
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I'd like a balance, with some terrain areas actually varied enough to provide challenging flight. I'm not referencing racing specifically.
Most of 'old' Pomeche wasn't particularly usable anyway given more to the big straight canyons that look so good from orbit but just end up being straighline freeways down low.
Where it was good for what I'd like, it was more like the mountainous, complex terrain as demonstrated in the himalaya pics provided earlier.
Many planets had terrain that was very broken up, 'badlands' style with good elevation variances. None of these had this all over a planet - it's always been a mixture of areas of different terrain that led to different activities. Canyon racing isn't particularly what I'm looking for, but I understand those who do like it and want to do it, and I'm sure that they'll want something more than 400m deep and tight enough for some excitement. Pom's used to have that, but it's all got a bit wide & gaping down low now.
Regardless of whether you feel it's realistic or not, or you'd like to fly around it or not - It was there, people used it, and it's gone now. Variety has been reduced and the game is poorer for it. The terrain generation model now seems to have just smoothed everything over and introduced the plasticky yoghurt junk that looks like it's 1999.
Edit: the stuff down there is between 2-3km deep, with the 'canyon' ridges rising to around 6km. In some places on that planet, ridges are >20km.
Most of 'old' Pomeche wasn't particularly usable anyway given more to the big straight canyons that look so good from orbit but just end up being straighline freeways down low.
Where it was good for what I'd like, it was more like the mountainous, complex terrain as demonstrated in the himalaya pics provided earlier.
Many planets had terrain that was very broken up, 'badlands' style with good elevation variances. None of these had this all over a planet - it's always been a mixture of areas of different terrain that led to different activities. Canyon racing isn't particularly what I'm looking for, but I understand those who do like it and want to do it, and I'm sure that they'll want something more than 400m deep and tight enough for some excitement. Pom's used to have that, but it's all got a bit wide & gaping down low now.
Regardless of whether you feel it's realistic or not, or you'd like to fly around it or not - It was there, people used it, and it's gone now. Variety has been reduced and the game is poorer for it. The terrain generation model now seems to have just smoothed everything over and introduced the plasticky yoghurt junk that looks like it's 1999.
Edit: the stuff down there is between 2-3km deep, with the 'canyon' ridges rising to around 6km. In some places on that planet, ridges are >20km.
As much as I gathered, it's more about the exact size and shape of the canyons. Maybe they should have talked some more to the canyon racers.
And yeah, making the crazy landscape localized features would be a great way to to keep it more realistic and give the racers something to play with.
I mean, who wouldn't love a great canyon!
Well, to be blunt canyon racers aren't known for being experts on canyon formation. I do think features need to be realistic and plausible, and not just "Will this be fun?" It is a space simulation not a racing game.
The reason I feel I can be harsh is because I'm sure things like ice fissures on frozen moons could easily replace the loss of crazy spikey canyons. Such features can form in ways that would be very amenable to racing circuits.
I remember when Horizons first came out you could find small rocky moons (a few hundred km in diameter) that were non-spherical, and really interesting to explore. I haven't seen anything like that in a couple of years - what's happened to them all ? I haven't found any rocky planets in Odyssey that look good.
Yea I can't stand when my video games are fun. What kind of imbecile would want that?
It certainly shouldn't be part of their own trail they should be blazing. [/s]
Deleted member 121570
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I wholeheartedly agree btw - hence the himalaya pic etc, or badlands like :
I don't necessarily feel it's an unrealistic ask from a galactic veracity angle, given there's similar terrain right here on Earth
There was loads of this stuff in Horizons, but haven't seen anything equivalent yet from EDO.
Lets have a balance that gives variety, and sufficient range within that to be enjoyable to fly.
No, it would be fun. That's clearly out of the question apparently.
Deleted member 121570
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Exactly; when did the sandbox game and promotion of emergent gameplay where people found things to do for fun give way to adovocating for some sterile, misguidedly 'realistic' idea based purely on looking at pots of strawberry yogurt and aged ums take over?