Alien and human ships in Elite style

Adept · Jun 15, 2014

I used to run an old semi successful Sci-Fi RPG called 2300 AD. There is a website dedicated to the old girl, and some very cool 3d modelling has been created by people dedicated to it.

I wanted to share a few, since I suspect I'm the only one here to have encountered the Etranger site

First a small, technologically advanced Corvette by a mysterious collection of alien species humans haven't actually met yet in the setting.

A French Fighter bomber which IMO would make a great Imperial edition of the Eagle fighter

A passenger liner with a separate landing capable space plane section and the warp / jump engine section that is left at orbit. Again something that would be right at home in Elite

A long range survey ship with a large spin habitat section. It would be nice to eventually see pure non-combatants like this one flying around doing useful work.

I hope you enjoyed that. Here's the address to the site. http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~dheb/2300/

Vikinger · Jun 15, 2014

I actually like the idea to have a non fighting ships.
Long range explorer ships, traders etc.

Vikinger · Jun 15, 2014

btw whit risk that this topic will go into off topic.

have you seen this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6a69dMLb_k#t=169

from a game company

https://inovaestudios.com/

Suul Vellumcore · Jun 15, 2014

I know the focus is on the ships here, but I wanted to comment on how I really dig the vast planet size... the way it takes up half the screen, kind of a la X3. It almost brings on a sense of dizziness, and the effect of scale for the massive planetary bodies is really brought home.

So far in ED, the planets seem much smaller. I'm guessing (hoping?) that this is simply because we can't or haven't gotten close enough to them, and seen them from the close range that the eagle-like and non-combat ship pics where taken.

Does anybody know if we'll eventually see this kind of planetary scale in ed? There are sims, even with seemless planetary landing (Evochron Mercenary comes to mind) where the planets are purposefully made smaller for game play reasons - like to reduce the time it would take to find a landside port travelling at safe atmospheric speeds if one finds himself on the opposite side of the planet. It seems to me, with the advent of sc, something Evochron doesn't have, we could easily bypass such concerns.

Dante80 · Jun 15, 2014

Suul Vellumcore said:
I know the focus is on the ships here, but I wanted to comment on how I really dig the vast planet size... the way it takes up half the screen, kind of a la X3. It almost brings on a sense of dizziness, and the effect of scale for the massive planetary bodies is really brought home.

So far in ED, the planets seem much smaller. I'm guessing (hoping?) that this is simply because we can't or haven't gotten close enough to them, and seen them from the close range that the eagle-like and non-combat ship pics where taken.

Does anybody know if we'll eventually see this kind of planetary scale in ed? There are sims, even with seemless planetary landing (Evochron Mercenary comes to mind) where the planets are purposefully made smaller for game play reasons - like to reduce the time it would take to find a landside port travelling at safe atmospheric speeds if one finds himself on the opposite side of the planet. It seems to me, with the advent of sc, something Evochron doesn't have, we could easily bypass such concerns.

All celestial objects in ED are in a 1:1 scale. Which means they are absolutely huge. Right now the planets that you see have a single texture/level of detail, and players are not able to go closer to them in super cruise for that reason (so they look small to you). The plan for FD is to work on them as we move forward to release, while at the same time putting the mass lock mechanic closer and closer until you are in low orbit around them. Here is an example of FDs wip:

(click for full screen)

In the image above you are seeing the old Zelada station that we used to dock in the alpha 3 development process. You can see now that it is in low orbit around the planet in the system.

As they work on planets more and more, we will be able to get closer and closer..until we can actually descend to the atmosphere when the planetary expansion comes.

Alric · Jun 15, 2014

2300AD - I remember that, it was from the Twilight people wasn't it. Great combat systems

Very different. What I liked about that game was how they had really put some thought in to the aliens. Made them genuinely unknown for the players, but gave a good reason why they had such a violent culture and why they fought the way they did.

Severian · Jun 15, 2014

Almost all the SF I read as a teenager was plastered in Chris Foss art. Would love stumble across something like that

http://www.chrisfossart.com/

Adept · Jun 15, 2014

Alric said:
2300AD - I remember that, it was from the Twilight people wasn't it. Great combat systems

Very different. What I liked about that game was how they had really put some thought in to the aliens. Made them genuinely unknown for the players, but gave a good reason why they had such a violent culture and why they fought the way they did.

Yup. The aliens and the attempts and hard Sci-Fi were the best part. The RPG system was atrociously bad, and the stutterwarp mechanism for space craft made it boring and sterile... which makes the Elite FSD even more impressive, as it's pretty much the same idea, but done right!

tooterfish · Jun 15, 2014

Suul Vellumcore said:
I know the focus is on the ships here, but I wanted to comment on how I really dig the vast planet size... the way it takes up half the screen, kind of a la X3. It almost brings on a sense of dizziness, and the effect of scale for the massive planetary bodies is really brought home.

So far in ED, the planets seem much smaller. I'm guessing (hoping?) that this is simply because we can't or haven't gotten close enough to them, and seen them from the close range that the eagle-like and non-combat ship pics where taken.

Does anybody know if we'll eventually see this kind of planetary scale in ed? There are sims, even with seemless planetary landing (Evochron Mercenary comes to mind) where the planets are purposefully made smaller for game play reasons - like to reduce the time it would take to find a landside port travelling at safe atmospheric speeds if one finds himself on the opposite side of the planet. It seems to me, with the advent of sc, something Evochron doesn't have, we could easily bypass such concerns.

Sorry about this, can't resist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh5kZ4uIUC0

Everything in Elite is 1.1 scale. Planets are planet sized, you just can't get close to them yet.