1.3 is out of the way.....NPC crew / passengers / walk around the ship

[Boff'in]

So whilst people um and ah over Powerplay, which brings this board-game aspect to it all

me as a lonely casual player with no wing-mates with little time to play

I just want to chillax and pretend I own a space ship.

Walk around stations and talk to other players.....not so bothered about, afterall - I barely talk to real people in real life

I'd rather just walk around my ship and look at the pretty textues, and click "e" to fall asleep in my messy sleeping bag or on my cup of coffee.
check out my cargo bay from the inside....

just to be able to look beyond the doors at the back of the ship.....man....it's killing me.

I'm happy Powerplay brought faces, and "galnet" to life,

But I'm looking forward to the ferrying of dignitaries, or just simple folk in my spare seat, or ditching some cargo-space for a cabin....WHICH I CAN WALK TO!!!

And there is that crew manifest that needs to be micromanaged.


Elite's needs to expand in two directions.

The emergent background simulation doesn't look like it's doing the job, not at the fast rates we expect.
It feels like Powerplay is supposed to try and adress this - time will tell.

but the other direction is to get elite to expand "internally".

So much effort has gone into the ships, and people are just eager to see the ships (the hero's of the game) fleshed out fully.
Maybe it might the clincher for the game, the forbidden fruit held out of reach and no one will be interested after they finally get it.

But it feels with regards to modules / ship layout, adding a cabin and passengers to "add/subtract" like a mini cargo bay isn't exactly the hardest think to implement.
Walking round the ships as they are (and have the game cull the access to the docking bays) would also be a little step in things people have been eager to see.

But I'm just one little voice, what are your opinions?

 

[ZeeWolf]

Press "e" to fall asleep.

You pressed E. You are asleep

Press "e" to wake up.

You are now awake.

Would you like to fall asleep again?

Ball is in parking lot.....would you like to play again?

Press space to hyperspace and view cut scene showing you how to feel.

 

[TriumphANT]

I like what you said about faces. That's something that ED has been missing. The politics is kinda realistic, although it feels as though politics was only invented yesterday in ED. In a month or so it'll be more mature, and will settle into something more dynamic and interesting, rather than "new".

I think that putting more people into the game is important. Crews for bigger ships, even a concept of manned turrets maybe, with different classes/experience. Wages for things like that. People in outfitting doing the work rather than "click and it's done". There are plenty of places where seeing faces (even in Comms, having a little random face icon beside the pirate saying "what are you hauling?" would be more involving). I think that people and faces with their actions and careers would make things a LOT more interesting.

I take it that FD are taking a break for E3 next week, and then they'll be announcing what's to come in 1.4? Or have I missed something? "DesignerPurpleBiscuitPlay". I want.

 

[Obsidian Ant]

It wouldn't surprise me one bit ZeeWolf.

 

[irished]

I would totally agree with you on all the points you said in your post, for a game like this one of the key things that make me play any game is Immersion something that SC knows very well. I have an idea for teamplay that involves like Flashpoint areas of space where a group of two opposing teams in giant carrier's fly of the deck and battle each other until both ships and carrier are destroyed and the winners then have conquered that solar system, that would have been a better I think direction to go with elite then Powerplay's direction.

 

[Whiterose]

Sorry to be a downer, but 1.3 isnt out of the way yet, not until the majority of bugs are fixed, I reckon it will be out of the way in about 2 weeks.

 

[Chalky]

Transporting passengers would be nice. Some missions could be more dangerous if the passenger is wanted in another system etc...

 

[Soulstain]

Next number one agenda should be to flesh out the main game professions. They are the meat and potatoes of the game. Example: Exploration- still waiting for things to explore and find other than coloured balls with stats. Give me a reason to explore and find things as opposed to just astronomy sight seeing. It's what many of us wanted the most out of this game. I could care less about the politics. I'm glad others are getting enjoyment out of powerplay but it's time to get back to finishing the basics of the game which were described from the beginning.

 

[TriumphANT]

Transporting passengers would be nice. Some missions could be more dangerous if the passenger is wanted in another system etc...

Cool thought. Your status could update to reflect this in the systems he's WANTED in. What would be needed (I think. This was rattling around in my head the other night.) would be some kind of "arrest" system for the police ships that only they could use, or could be the 1st iteration of a "ship boarding" tool. Like a grappling hook. You get surrounded by a Wing of System Security Vipers and they do the pirate talk thingy "Stop your engines and submit". Then the clunk of magnet on hull and next thing you're at the local station with you Illicit cargo gone, your WANTED passenger in jail, and a 25,000Cr fine for your trouble.

 

[Genus]

1.3 is out of the way....

Chuckle. Funniest thing I've read today.

 

[Matt]

+1 - still eagerly awaiting "real" updates that add gameplay instead of meta-content like multiplayer chat and powerplay. I am a solo player - none of the updates so far have added anything for me as they've all been concentrated on the "community" or "social" aspect.

Getting around your ship (and fighting boarders/boarding a capital ship etc!) repairing things, tinkering with broken engines etc etc. Awesome. Hoping we see that in 1.4, but not holding my breath.

 

[Leper Messiah]

Next number one agenda should be to flesh out the main game professions. They are the meat and potatoes of the game. Example: Exploration- still waiting for things to explore and find other than coloured balls with stats. Give me a reason to explore and find things as opposed to just astronomy sight seeing. It's what many of us wanted the most out of this game. I could care less about the politics. I'm glad others are getting enjoyment out of powerplay but it's time to get back to finishing the basics of the game which were described from the beginning.

I sooooooooooo want planetary landings, that will open up a whole smegload of gameplay.....but will be a mammoth task to do right.

 

[Boff'in]

I think Frontier are adding in stuff in a building block manner.

They need system 1 inplace before they can implment system 2 which requires some of the functionality of system 1.

Powerplay......I personally don't see the value, well I do, but it's just not for me I feel.
As others mentioned - I'd rather get the professions sorted out and expand ship missions content. (but then I want those missions to effect the power structure in the system and arrr viscious cycle).

But if powerplay forks in neatly into the background simulation which even crews and passengers depend upon....then...sigh...fine.

-----------------------------------------
The thing about planetary landings are career expansion posibilities.

Explorers get to scan the surface whilst flying round in atmosphere. Or land and prospect.
(maybe prospecting needs to be added to the career list of Explorers as well?)

Traders get places to land.
Miners get places to mine (which I think one dev claims will level out the mining progression somewhat).

This is why the big multi-crewed ships have large ramps/cargo bay with lifts.
Clearly we can roll out the mining equipment and get on with some work.

You can Even mine the gas clouds in gas giants....think about it, fuel scoop AND refinery).



But I think we have to come up with a reason than MORE than planetary shielding because you could easily put a space-craft on the moon and take off.
Our ships, should be able to combat that kind of gravity well, correct?


-----------------------------
FACES, faces
It's like, I'd be happy just having random names on a manifest / cabin.

But maybe, maybe Frontier are going down the route of NPC's with Names and faces with the procedural generation brush plastered over a NPC face to liven stuff up.
and we ourselves get a character creation screen......sigh....don't want the later, I quit like looking like Rinzler/CLU from Tron Legacy, but some people love this Avatar creation stuff.

and maybe crews/passengers / walking around stations'n'ships with all the boarding antics etc etc etc because they involve faces
are all part of the same uber mega update, which will come as one of the years "big" upgrades. Like every december or something.
-----------------------------

Animations.
So we have a big yellow boom, with cargo canisters to the side of most landing pads. This is clearly how stuff is offloaded.
So far we think it's a bind to have the twirly landing pad rotation or going down to the hangar.

Traders are going to go nuts when the "offloading/loading" animation is finally put into place and buying/selling actually has to take it's time.

Mind you I really do take me time to peruse the commodities market so this might be okay.