Any indication on planet landing?

[WhosYourDaddyNow]

Hi everyone, I know FD are working hard on releasing the Powerplay update, and that this update will certainly make things more interesting, but the past couple of months I have witnessed all of my friends (whom I got addicted on E) up and quit playing the game for good, due to one reason and one reason only: BOREDOM!

It didn't really catch up to me yet, because the past month I was in the process of upgrading/changing ships in that 60m-90m credit sweetspot (Clipper, Fer De Lance, averagely fitted Python etc.). BUT, it is slowly creeping up on me, that this game doesn't have much more to offer, after I have gotten to a "Dangerous" rank through Bounty Hunting and a "Ranger" rank through Exploring. I realized that what would make it infinitely more interesting to me is the so called "Planet landing" update although nothing has been set about what that would actually entail.

So, has anyone heard anything new about when they are planning to implement this or am I just going to end up giving up on the game in the next few days (provided the Powerplay thingy doesn't pull me back for good)?

 

[Forlorn]

I too am looking forward to landing on planets and walking around my ship. What I don't understand is why you would expect such a thing to relieve your boredom?

If one doesn't enjoy flying through space making their own adventures, I fail to see why doing the same thing while walking would be an improvement.

 

[W4rSkuLL]

We know that they are working on the payed expansions in the background. And Powerplay is going beta on May 26. Powerplay should make the game interesting again if you are bored. When planetary landings comes we don´t know, but I guess we will know more after E3 in June. We can only speculate when planetary landings will arrive, I don´t think its an easy task to dive into. Maybe being able to land on small moons first so they can test out the landing stuff. It would be fun if they could do this together with 1. person mode so you could land on a moon and walk out of your ship. Have a stroll around. Maybe plant a flag.

 

[Defector]

I too am looking forward to landing on planets and walking around my ship. What I don't understand is why you would expect such a thing to relieve your boredom?

If one doesn't enjoy flying through space making their own adventures, I fail to see why doing the same thing while walking would be an improvement.

I agree that you really have to like the base experience of flying around in space to enjoy Elite. It does the whole making you feel like a spaceman better than any other game.

 

[Lord_Crazy]

Hi everyone, I know FD are working hard on releasing the Powerplay update, and that this update will certainly make things more interesting, but the past couple of months I have witnessed all of my friends (whom I got addicted on E) up and quit playing the game for good, due to one reason and one reason only: BOREDOM!

It didn't really catch up to me yet, because the past month I was in the process of upgrading/changing ships in that 60m-90m credit sweetspot (Clipper, Fer De Lance, averagely fitted Python etc.). BUT, it is slowly creeping up on me, that this game doesn't have much more to offer, after I have gotten to a "Dangerous" rank through Bounty Hunting and a "Ranger" rank through Exploring. I realized that what would make it infinitely more interesting to me is the so called "Planet landing" update although nothing has been set about what that would actually entail.

So, has anyone heard anything new about when they are planning to implement this or am I just going to end up giving up on the game in the next few days (provided the Powerplay thingy doesn't pull me back for good)?

Well if you are already bored I don't see how planetary landing would suddenly make the game nice again. Having a more connected background on the other hand might help, and that's exactly what 1.3 is about
Anyway planetary landing won't be here for a while. And I mean a while really. There are still a lot of features the basic game needs. Besides planetary landing required a paramount work by itself. Also it to make sense it would already required FPS as it would be ridiculous to be able to walk around and not fight against each other. The same goes with ship interior and so on... so yeah don't count on planetary landing in a near future.
Stay with us for PowerPlay it will be a lot of fun

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I too am looking forward to landing on planets and walking around my ship. What I don't understand is why you would expect such a thing to relieve your boredom?

If one doesn't enjoy flying through space making their own adventures, I fail to see why doing the same thing while walking would be an improvement.

Exactly. No matter how many planets we have, landing is just making the sandbox bigger. but it is still a sandbox. What some people need is more story/plot/quest/mission. I am confident 1.3 will fix that, at least partly.

 

[Iskariot]

Any indication on planet landing?

No, and I understood we will get landing on objects without atmosphere first.

(...)but the past couple of months I have witnessed all of my friends (whom I got addicted on E) up and quit playing the game for good(...)

For good?
I don't believe it. This game will transform itself over time. It will get better and better. Your friends will return. There is no doubt about that!

 

[Midian27]

So, has anyone heard anything new about when they are planning to implement this or am I just going to end up giving up on the game in the next few days (provided the Powerplay thingy doesn't pull me back for good)?

In a couple years maybe.

 

[WhosYourDaddyNow]

For good?
I don't believe it. This game will transform itself over time. It will get better and better. Your friends will return. There is no doubt about that!

Yes, I think it's for good. It's been some time now. Not that we could do much together in the game anyway (apart from some Wings fun for a while). And I think it will take something big (like FPS or Planet Landing etc.) to force them to even consider coming back.

I too am looking forward to landing on planets and walking around my ship. What I don't understand is why you would expect such a thing to relieve your boredom?

If one doesn't enjoy flying through space making their own adventures, I fail to see why doing the same thing while walking would be an improvement.

I would bet I have spent more than 300 hours in the game so far. I have a budget of ~90 million credits with very little time devoted to trading. I have the "Dangerous", "Merchant" and "Ranger" ranks and I am allied with both the Empire (just to get the Clipper) and the Federation. I have so far explored ~2000 systems and made ~25 million credits from exploration alone. My point: I think I have enjoyed this game VERY much so far. Boredom can still come even when I love doing these things, if I keep doing them long enough.

New content means more stuff to do, more depth, more interest. And landing on a planetary body would give you a better sense of scale, the planet's characteristics actually mean something (more than just credits) and - if done right - would give a reason to exploring/discovering even the most average/low pay-off systems.

 

[Greyhawk]

They would be wise to get this in before SC is released IMO. I think that's 2016 ?

 

[Severian]

They would be wise to get this in before SC is released IMO. I think that's 2016 ?

As an Original Backer whom has followed SC development closely since the beginning, let me say, "LOL, wut?". 2016 is in no way realistic in the Universe I inhabit.

 

[kreuzbichler]

nope, but it sure was a great marketing gag to talk about it since 2012.

 

[Vandaahl]

They said (somewhere when gamma was release, or the actual release...) that we would be walking on planets by the end of this year.

 

[ozrix84]

It has been indicated by David Braben multiple times that they already have the tech in place. The difficult thing, apparently, is building enough varient content and stuff to do.

EDIT: Here's the relevant video for anyone who hasn't seen it and is interested

[video=youtube;iTBvpd3_Vqk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTBvpd3_Vqk&index=20&list=PL7glm5rbPHKyBblUEjmm2PFkwJ4ykuz6s[/video]

 

[kreuzbichler]

They said that we would be walking on planets by the end of this year.

I´ve been walking on a planet TODAY

 

[Deleted member 38366]

-- Deleted --

 

[WhosYourDaddyNow]

It has been indicated by David Braben multiple times that they already have the tech in place. The difficult thing, apparently, is building enough varient content and stuff to do.

EDIT: Here's the relevant video for anyone who hasn't seen it and is interested

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTBvpd3_Vqk&index=20&list=PL7glm5rbPHKyBblUEjmm2PFkwJ4ykuz6s

Thanks, +1. Interesting to see they have been working on this since 2012! Let's hope it is one of the first big (payed) expansions they release.

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One of the key aspects I have with the concept of walking around the Ship or landing on Planets is the same I have i.e. when on Exploration and discovering valuable/interesting Planets :

Okay, now what can I do with it?

This leaves the questions for the planned Options :
- what can you do (of gameplay benefit) when walking around the Ship ?
- what can you do (of gameplay benefit) after landing on a Planet ?

I'd take a wild guess that these are the major things that are being developed and thought about as we speak.
Otherwise, walking around would be something like an internal debug cam and the same would be valid for planetary landings.

My ideas (ad-hoc guesses) that could work :
- tweaking Systems yields some % Bonus effectiveness on any internal modules or allows for some repairs on damaged Modules.
- exploration of planet surfaces allows to discover useful/valuable stuff (like a good place to deploy an automated mining rig, take samples that Scientists want, discover artefacts for scientific studies or simply for sale into a black market)

Wow, now these are some interesting ideas for potential activities and at the same time don't sound so far-fetched. When they are able to implement walking in the ship/landing/surface-atmosphere generation etc. these activities won't be as difficult to design I imagine.

 

[kreuzbichler]

Thanks, +1. Interesting to see they have been working on this since 2012! Let's hope it is one of the first big (payed) expansions they release.

LMAO. You don´t actually think any work has been done on this yet? Come on. It takes months after months for some mission upgrade called ´powerplay´. Everything about planets is all talk and no show, just like Eve devs talking about avatar action since 2008 and delivering .. nothing.

 

[Privata]

LMAO. You don´t actually think any work has been done on this yet? Come on. It takes months after months for some mission upgrade called ´powerplay´. Everything about planets is all talk and no show, just like Eve devs talking about avatar action since 2008 and delivering .. nothing.

They have the tech , they just need to adept it into elite , and make procedural generation of terrain work well. but that said , they also had a very basic version of the game and it was 2 years of tweaking that led us to today

 

[Pomerlaw]

My guess is we will walk on moons, ships and stations first.

Planet landing, especially planets with atmo and life... 2017.

 

[Surly_Badger]

They have the tech , they just need to adept it into elite , and make procedural generation of terrain work well.

He may have meant that they have the technique of expanding psuedorandom numbers out many decimal points to generate reliable procedurals, and that they know how to go about doing it for planetary landings. That would all be true. They appear to know how to do interiors of vessels, judging from tech demos, and damage, etc. Those are all the core tech to do planetary landings. They probably can expand the planet shaders downward into surface-level detail; that's just a "mere matter" of cranking at the fractals and the rules for stellar forging. I'm betting that what they lack is game-play elements that would give planetary landings any sense of purpose at all. And, that's the part that's going to be hard.

It seems that some people expect planetary landing will mean you can land and walk around and there will be NPCs standing around with yellow exclamation marks floating over their heads. I'm willing to bet that's not what it's going to be. In a sandbox game, pseudorandom sense of purpose that doesn't feel like a pseudorandom grind - that's hard.