Development Update 1 - June

[[VR] Merkir]

Omg what is this obsession with repeatble textures. SC has few planets and uses it all over them. Why keep on nitpicking at problems that don't exist.

Omg look same buildings in this city:
Go file a petition to demolish them!

So now you're comparing natural terrain with human built structures? Well at least you're doing a great job highlighting your ignorance.

I see another player circled repeating terrain that I pointed out, on the image that you provided.

Repeating terrain is on every landable planet. I know it upsets you when people tell you that, but it's easy for you to disprove. Just name a landable planet near the bubble you believe has no repeating terrain. No images. Name it here so that anyone else can check it themselves. The two examples you've already given to try to disprove this have failed miserably. Want to try a third time?

Or... you could do the honorable thing and assume that explorers who have already checked hundreds of landable planets might actually be telling the truth, then admit that you haven't really checked any landable planets properly yourself.

 

[Sysmon]

So now you're comparing natural terrain with human built structures? Well at least you're doing a great job highlighting your ignorance.

I see another player circled repeating terrain that I pointed out, on the image that you provided.

Repeating terrain is on every landable planet. I know it upsets you when people tell you that, but it's easy for you to disprove. Just name a landable planet near the bubble you believe has no repeating terrain. No images. Name it here so that anyone else can check it themselves. The two examples you've already given to try to disprove this have failed miserably. Want to try a third time?

Or... you could do the honorable thing and assume that explorers who have already checked hundreds of landable planets might actually be telling the truth, then admit that you haven't really checked any landable planets properly yourself.

Nobody so far has explained why the repetition is an issue, however. The planets still look marvelous at any distance.

S

 

[CodeJunkie]

Nobody so far has explained why the repetition is an issue, however. The planets still look marvelous at any distance.

S

The only thing I can think of is because it's obvious. I'd say it's the least serious of the issues though.

 

[tomimt]

If it were me and my company had released such a bad product, I'd have everyone working all God's hours to get it right. Saying 'oh it's the weekend' is sticking the fingers up at your customers.

While the state of Odyssey is bad, that doesn't take away the developers right to free time. They are human, not your slaves.

 

[Darth Ender]

While the state of Odyssey is bad, that doesn't take away the developers right to free time. They are human, not your slaves.

That all depends on what system we're talking about.

 

[[VR] Merkir]

Nobody so far has explained why the repetition is an issue, however. The planets still look marvelous at any distance.

S

Of course they have, many times, by many different players, in many different threads.

It boils down to, what is the point of exploring planets when landable planets no longer have unique terrain. To an explorer it's taken away part of what it means to be an explorer. It breaks immersion. The procedural generation uniqueness, chaos, "magic" is gone. To non-explorers this is unlikely to be an issue, I grant you. But many explorers have said it has destroyed exploration for them. It's disappointing that others don't appear to see the issue from an exploration point of view.

Personally, whatever small thrill I had when exploring to find extraordinary surface features created by true procedural generation, is now completely gone. Every landable planet has the same type of features now, with most of those features repeated hundreds or thousands of times, quite literally. All landable planets repeated and homogenised into sameness.

Edit: And don't get me wrong. At first glance the new planet tech looks amazing. I've already made many posts describing Odyssey planets with words like beautiful, breathtaking, gorgeous. But it's like comparing Christmas trees (Odyssey - pretty, sparkly, colourful, repeating assets), to real trees (Horizons - chaotic, unique, unknown, the unexpected).

 

[StanleyDunkan]

 

[Wonko_The_Sane]

Just incase people forgot all of the promises made that this "dev post" broke.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwrBaEFEJMQ

 

[Sysmon]

Of course they have, many times, by many different players, in many different threads.

It boils down to, what is the point of exploring planets when landable planets no longer have unique terrain. To an explorer it's taken away part of what it means to be an explorer. It breaks immersion. The procedural generation uniqueness, chaos, "magic" is gone. To non-explorers this is unlikely to be an issue, I grant you. But many explorers have said it has destroyed exploration for them. It's disappointing that others don't appear to see the issue from an exploration point of view.

Personally, whatever small thrill I had when exploring to find extraordinary surface features created by true procedural generation, is now completely gone. Every landable planet has the same type of features now, with most of those features repeated hundreds or thousands of times, quite literally. All landable planets repeated and homogenised into sameness.

Edit: And don'e get me wrong. At first glance the new planet tech looks amazing. I've already made many posts describing Odyssey planets with words like beautiful, breathtaking, gorgeous. But it's like comparing Christmas trees (Odyssey - pretty, sparkly, colourful, repeating assets), to real trees (Horizons - chaotic, unique, unknown, the unexpected).

Nah, it's just showing a bunch of players have rampaged so far down uncanny valley that they forgot what this is: A game. They really need to find something relevant to be annoyed about. Such as actual bugs, or that we got yet another addition to the game that doesn't quite connect to the rest of it.

Every planet I have seen so far is unique, and I've seen a few by now. Even if they are made up from repeated components, then at least that means the developers are trying to be efficient. And I'll keep enjoying these beautiful and endlessly varied vistas and hope that some day people will stop whining here about having found two lego pieces that look the same instead of playing with them.

S

 

[[VR] Merkir]

... hope that some day people will stop whining here about having found to lego pieces that look the same instead of playing with them.

Which is a perfect example of a non-explorer's thinking; that explorers should "play with" these repeating lego pieces, rather than discovering new and unique ones. You obviously don't know what exploration is or the significance of true procedural generation. Similarly, I'm not a PvPer, but I don't go onto the PvP threads and tell them they don't have an issues with PvP gameplay. But people will be people.

 

[Sysmon]

Which is a perfect example of a non-explorer's thinking; that explorers should "play with" these repeating lego pieces, rather than discovering new and unique ones. You obviously don't know what exploration is or the significance of true procedural generation. Similarly, I'm not a PvPer, but I don't go onto the PvP threads and tell them they don't have an issues with PvP gameplay. But people will be people.

"Non-explorer". People will indeed be people.

S

 

[MacIntoc]

I have absolute nothing against elderly people - but it is a fact, that this game is played by a lot of people who played already Elite in the 20s century, who have some nostalgia about this game and are satisfied with a lot less than younger people will. Simply because younger people grew up with a lot more technology and have higher expectations than those older players. How could one otherwise be satisfied with Elite - it lacks in content in comparison with other space games and there isn't really a lot to do either. This might not be that obvious to those, who were already satisfied with that less content when they were much younger, but it is certainly obvious for younger people. And that is why this matters - Elite is carried by this age group, otherwise it might have been dead already. Nostalgia is what carries this game. But it can do this just for so long and then?

I don't think they have lowered expectations. They were just more patient.

 

[LKx]

Just incase people forgot all of the promises made that this "dev post" broke.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwrBaEFEJMQ

Well, he was actually kind of honest, at least in the first part of it, where he says that he would have told us where they were on the development and on future plans, and he kind of did tell us: they are in a huge mess and they still don't know how to get out of it (too bad they were hyping it until at least the week before)

 

[MacIntoc]

If it were me and my company had released such a bad product, I'd have everyone working all God's hours to get it right. Saying 'oh it's the weekend' is sticking the fingers up at your customers.

In any case, it's not up to the devs to pay for managerial mistakes.

 

[MacIntoc]

"Non-explorer". People will indeed be people.

S

He should indeed have used "tourist" instead of "non-explorer"

 

[Lysette]

I understand now. You are literally incapable of not writing crap. You could have just said that.

Also I don't think the word 'elderly' means quite what you think it means.

well, I use the Merriam-Webster definition 1a of "elderly" -

Definition of ELDERLY

rather old; especially : being past middle age; old-fashioned; of, relating to, or characteristic of later life or elderly persons… See the full definition

www.merriam-webster.com

Personal attacks are not ok, Red, that is against the forum rules - you can argue against what I'm saying, but personal attacks are not ok.

 

[Lysette]

I don't think they have lowered expectations. They were just more patient.

Could as well be - but it looks like being satisfied with what ED is - eventually the patience was powered by making them hope for a better future, but this future is unlikely to happen now. But I don't see them complaining, they have still hope and if it just stays as it is, they would most likely even be satisfied.

Maybe I should just add this here - to see how people feel about the game - i don't see this reaction from older people.

 

[Zaphod Beeblebrox IV]

Can you do me a favour? Bag up this older folk/younger folk line of argument/discussion and throw it in the bin where it has always belonged.

I can think of any number of splits of opinion I've seen about games over the years and of all the demographics that you can split players into when trying to analyse them, age has to be one of the least useful and with the least correlation with any particular opinion you could mention. About the only thing I will say age might be relevant for is that those of us with a few years on the clock tend to be a bit more forthright in calling absolute bull out when we read it. Which y'know... I jus

I thought I'd build an exploration ship after my above settlement woes, to spend more time doing some sightseeing and to see what the planet tech has to offer, maybe scan a flower or two.

I thought the below screenshot contains a number of bugbears preventing me from enjoying even the ship 'stuff':

View attachment 247302
1) The above flashing of cockpit lights is due to me flying low in order to spot bacteria. Due to its exaggerated brightness it "dims" the rest of the scenery (it's a fair bit brighter in reality on that icy world) in a on/off kinda way (should really come with a seizure warning). And it looks quite unnatural - and this after they spent time re-balancing the cockpit lighting.

2) Shadows in cockpits, in both Kraits seem pretty broken (although I noticed it in the Vipers before, sufficiently ugly to make me sell them until it gets fixed). EBL has nothing on what I see (on Ultra settings) - a blurry, non-sensical, flickering mess in some, but not all situations. I have no idea what they did but Horizons looks so, so much better. It's tragic.

3) Look at that frame rate. I should be getting a rock solid 60fps (and once I land and don't move too much, I do) but apparently drawing a flat, featureless landscape with some rock scatter (came across invisible ones again in the SRV...) is too much to ask for for my i7/RTX2060s.

There's no way I'm going to look at this kinda for any further length of time (was planning to go for an exploration excursion) - and I was only just starting to head out into the black, 3 jumps in and landed on the first atmo with bio life I came across.

So any remaining enthusiasm (being generous here) has been thoroughly extinguished. And this comes after checking out other various visual glitches and little regressions earlier that I can't even be bothered to mention. I run into these constantly, it's relentless.

Gonna park my Krait on that planet now, and step away from this game, it's just making me too miserable dealing with all its issues, life's too short and other games are much more deserving of my attention than this broken mess. Let's just hope FDev reconsider their "no plan until consoles" plan sooner than later; plenty of fires left burning.

Edit - and of course I had to task kill the .exe again, because that's SOP with this game. Ugh.

Well I'm not going to get all all melodramatic about it and rage quit but they did definitely go ott with boosting the cockpit lighting, especially in the Krait.

 

[LKx]

Could as well be - but it looks like being satisfied with what ED is - eventually the patience was powered by making them hope for a better future, but this future is unlikely to happen now. But I don't see them complaining, they have still hope and if it just stays as it is, they would most likely even be satisfied.

Maybe I should just add this here - to see how people feel about the game - i don't see this reaction from older people.

Well, from the piece in that video he kind of was honest, as he did tell us where they are in development and about future plans: they are in a huge mess and they still don't know how to get out of it, so any future plan is on hold.

Howevere there are other pieces of supercruise new where they were still claiming exciting news coming at least until the week before so...

 

[Lysette]

Well, from the piece in that video he kind of was honest, as he did tell us where they are in development and about future plans: they are in a huge mess and they still don't know how to get out of it, so any future plan is on hold.

Howevere there are other pieces of supercruise new where they were still claiming exciting news coming at least until the week before so...

Well, the interesting part of the video is presented past what Arf said - when people tell about how they feel about the game - watch the full video please.