3304 technology

Meneer_vandaal

Meneer_vandaal
So I hazarded a poke at Ram Tah's obelisk-scanning mission. Yes I aborted. I am expected to venture planetside with the 3304 equivalent of a notebook and a stick. I flew here in a diamondback explorer with I don't know how many megacreds onboard computers but technology to serve a decent surface map, to keep bookmarks and to plot a route and drive-by-arrow are not available anymore.
The oddest part is that you DO have a surface map AND you know your location... enough information to even anno 2018 put a pointer on a map ( ask google ).
It's not very "immersive" to fly around in a future universe but have to use cro-magnon tools.
 

Tarman

Tarman
You're on your first step down the path of madness, trying to correlate present-real with future-game-fake.

As far as gameplay features I very much agree we need cooler and more informative systems available, but trying to match up a pretend future a thousand years ahead (with a Skynet-like waaagh thrown in there) with stuff we have now in the real present like a temporal tech-tree is going to make you bleed from the eyes and ears. Like Battletech, Eliteverse doesn't correlate or future-translate well with real present-day anything, really.
 

oscarolim

oscarolim
Meneer_vandaal said:
So I hazarded a poke at Ram Tah's obelisk-scanning mission. Yes I aborted. I am expected to venture planetside with the 3304 equivalent of a notebook and a stick. I flew here in a diamondback explorer with I don't know how many megacreds onboard computers but technology to serve a decent surface map, to keep bookmarks and to plot a route and drive-by-arrow are not available anymore.
The oddest part is that you DO have a surface map AND you know your location... enough information to even anno 2018 put a pointer on a map ( ask google ).
It's not very "immersive" to fly around in a future universe but have to use cro-magnon tools.
Click to expand...

Well, in 2018 planes already have auto pilot, and this was developed in what, 50 years give or take? In 1000 years, there wouldn't be any need for a person to fly a ship, hence no need for you.

Bringing reality to a GAME can be a slippery slope.
 

Zak Gordon

Zak Gordon
This kind of thing could have an excuse IF we had not already got hundreds (if not thousands) of games already that have offered this functionality.

e.g. in any flight sim from Microprose (there is a quality name!) made in the late 80's to mid 90's you had navigational tools; simple, easy to use and understand navigational tools. Stuff like cycling through points of interest to set a nav heading, or being able to pick a point on the map to fly to etc.

What year are we now? 2018 with decades of dev (and game playing for those devs) experience and examples to draw from and yet here in ED's 3304 timeline our design of computer navigational tools has just disappeared!

NMS is another game with a 'modern lazy' (as in near non-existent) navigation system for a simulated sophisticated future society. I sometimes wonder how the people in ED or aliens in NMS found even the next planets in their systems with this level of backwardness. Space faring? They would have trouble finding the local pub!

This could be a complaint that easily would fit in the 'immersion' breaking thread imho. It does defy logic.
 
Last edited:

Ian Doncaster

Ian Doncaster
Cmdr. Numa said:
ED is a pretty dystopian setting after a massive crash of civilization and technology. Or so I rationalize the low-tech approach.
Click to expand...
Alternative rationalisations:

1) You're clearly an autonomous ship's AI that's been programmed to think it's a person, and has further been told that AI is illegal to stop it questioning the situation. (This neatly explains things like telepresence, rebuys, etc.) The answer to "why isn't this automated" is "It is. You automate it. Get on with it."

2) The Elite series is the 16th/17th century Age of Sail but in space. Things like autopilots, GPS, military-grade weapons, etc. won't be invented for another 300 years and will completely change the nature of civilisation when they are. I think the automation around the sails to let you change course almost instantly is pretty good, as is the simple six-point-lever system for ordering your crew between rowing, reloading cannonballs, and patching holes.
 

Shiro Akai

Shiro Akai
Meneer_vandaal said:
So I hazarded a poke at Ram Tah's obelisk-scanning mission. Yes I aborted. I am expected to venture planetside with the 3304 equivalent of a notebook and a stick. I flew here in a diamondback explorer with I don't know how many megacreds onboard computers but technology to serve a decent surface map, to keep bookmarks and to plot a route and drive-by-arrow are not available anymore.
The oddest part is that you DO have a surface map AND you know your location... enough information to even anno 2018 put a pointer on a map ( ask google ).
It's not very "immersive" to fly around in a future universe but have to use cro-magnon tools.
Click to expand...

This is, sadly, intended. With arrow pointing toward surface POI the whole idea of "tracking" would be gone. Especially the part where whole settlement "magically" appear behind you, in the place you passed 2 sec ago and there is no possibility to skip it. But finding anything should be engaging and not that easy.

So instead of setting manually long/lat and then just flying there with an arrow showing direction and distance we have that annoyance with observing values - if they rise or not...

This is the reason I dropped Dave's Hope (or whatever it's called) in favor of Naphta Tanker. But then FDEVs decided to "fix" it and tankers no longer drop stuff... "Engaging" gameplay, right.
 

Julio Montega

Julio Montega
Wolfe3 said:
I like the fact that my 78 Ford Pinto station wagon has more navigating ability than my DBX. Immmeerrrssiioonn after all.
Click to expand...

Welcome to Lakon Spaceways, saving production cost on non essential tools and delivering that directly to the customer.
The best for a reasonable price. :D

Shiro Akai said:
This is the reason I dropped Dave's Hope (or whatever it's called) in favor of Naphta Tanker. But then FDEVs decided to "fix" it and tankers no longer drop stuff... "Engaging" gameplay, right.
Click to expand...

Ah yes welcome to the table:
Today on the menue - grind disguised as core game
 
Last edited:

Trollymctrollerson

T
Ya God forbid navigating to a set point become something other than time wasting tedium. 400 billion stars and what? 10 times as many landable bodies? The risk is what? We might actually find things ? If the intention was simply to add yet another layer of inconvenience than it's no wonder so many people have such a toxic attitude.
 

Ursusskandia

Ursusskandia
AI was banned after a devastating war. That's the whole reason CMDR's exist and we have to fly out there - otherwise everything could be automated in the 34th century. At least that is my thought when meeting an inconsistency like that in the game.
 

Jex =TE=

Banned
J
Zak Gordon said:
This kind of thing could have an excuse IF we had not already got hundreds (if not thousands) of games already that have offered this functionality.

e.g. in any flight sim from Microprose (there is a quality name!) made in the late 80's to mid 90's you had navigational tools; simple, easy to use and understand navigational tools. Stuff like cycling through points of interest to set a nav heading, or being able to pick a point on the map to fly to etc.

What year are we now? 2018 with decades of dev (and game playing for those devs) experience and examples to draw from and yet here in ED's 3304 timeline our design of computer navigational tools has just disappeared!

NMS is another game with a 'modern lazy' (as in near non-existent) navigation system for a simulated sophisticated future society. I sometimes wonder how the people in ED or aliens in NMS found even the next planets in their systems with this level of backwardness. Space faring? They would have trouble finding the local pub!

This could be a complaint that easily would fit in the 'immersion' breaking thread imho. It does defy logic.
Click to expand...

It's ridiculous tbh - to think both these "space exploration games" have crap tools for the job. It's lazy programming. When you can't be bothered this hard, no wonder both games turned out as bad as they did.
 

EISENHORN01

EISENHORN01
Have a look at the W40K Universe if you want to see a mad take on future technology. It’s an amazing blend of what we dream of and what we scoff at right now. Amazing technology mixed with dogma and religion it’s a perfect representation of how humanities greatest enemy is itself.
 

lefty1117

L
Yeah there are some strange gameplay decisions that don't pass the common sense even in an approximation of what the future might look like. Most egregious to me are the inability to remotely browse trade data unless you've been there, and that you can't remotely browse blueprints (but you can have remote outfitters implement engineering upgrades? huh??)

What can ya do except point it out ...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom