Bake or wait? Some Planetary Landing Questions.

Were the urban environments of The Outsider procedurally generated?

Interesting question! A game like GTA requires a ton of level designers to produce. I've only seen the trailer recently and don't know anything else about the outsider. I just think it's interesting because of the first person gameplay. It shows they have the technology and a feel for GTA style fps gameplay and fluid animations with surroundings. Even if generated cities aren't much more complex than pixelcity it would be awesome to mess around there on foot and possibly with "air support" from your ship.
 

Jenner

I wish I was English like my hero Tj.
Yeah... thats like telling a dog not to eat the biscuit you placed on its nose :D

My dog can do that. Seriously! :)

Anyway, I too am very much looking forward to planetary landings. I hope the team does them justice. As well I hope they do the first person/walking around ships justice. If they need some more time to get it right then so be it. I have no issue with them putting multiplayer in first. The core mechanics lend themselves quite well to that.

We've all seen the dangers of half-baked ideas in X:Rebirth, so FD - please get it right. ;)
 
I would like to see it in the initial release even if it is initially little underwhelming to begin with.
Potential buyers that don't understand FD's vision might be put off buying the game if half- PL was in it. Detractors would also point and laugh.

The only one that come's close is a game made by only one person: evochron: mercanary.

I'm wondering what a mercanary looks like? Are they kept by mermaids? Do merminers use them as a warning system? :p
 
I'm fully with OP. In addition to his concerns, I'm also worried that may play myself bored of the game before landings happen. I have lots of hours in Skyrim with many fully developed characters (lvl 40+, when I get bored of them), and I still haven't completed the storyline on any of them. But now I'm so bored of the game I don't think I ever will do it.

It would have to be on par with Space Engine, with rudimentary cities (just slightly better than FE2 :p) where appropriate. But it doesn't have to be incredible right off the mark. But to me, landings are crucial to gameplay (sunrises, mining, photo missions, fuel scooping, near slingshots etc), alongside some way to speed up time (at least in SP) so I can enjoy my sunrises within reasonable time (for slow rotating bodies i.e.).

When speaking of "no landings", what do they actually mean? Can't cross into atmosphere? Or any body, and if so at which size is the magic limit? If atmosphere/terraformed, then fine, I guess I can wait for full version to come along and play regardless. But no landings? Then I think I'll just wait to play until it's there.
 
I fully agree, the game will only be half a game for me as released. Until they do planetary landings I wont be able to fully enjoy the game. The planetary landing part was always the icing on the cake at the end of a mission for me. For me, as I love flight sims, the challenge of doing a good landing especially with a shot up craft, is half the enjoyment in any sim game. Without it the game gets rather souless I feel, because I dont like games that are set purely in space, never have. But that hasnt stopped me buying into it at the lowest level because I did want to get involved in the game before the Kickstarter benefits ended. I am still in two minds whether this game will be anything like the Frontier that I loved.

So many of us are hoping for SPL and the associated 'Expansions'. Its the one thing I've always wanted, even expected in Elite 4. This game will be complete only when we have this.:D
 
So many of us are hoping for SPL and the associated 'Expansions'. Its the one thing I've always wanted, even expected in Elite 4. This game will be complete only when we have this.:D
Heh, and I'd like to stress the seamless part of SPL. Ye gads if they're not seamless; the cries of thousands will echo into eternity.
 
When i look at the new elite i'm not fully convinced that this game will be fully in the style of the old elites. I have to say im VERY irritated by the choice from david braben to bring in multiplayer but delay planetary landing to somewhen "after release". To prioritize multiplayer over old-elite-core-mechanics.

I'm VERY irritated by people like YOU who forget that "old-elite-core-mechanics" means NO PLANETARY LANDINGS AT ALL.

You are confusing ELITE with FRONTIER. The original game is Elite and not Frontier Elite 2.

Get your facts right.
 
Pipe down chaps and chappettes... There's no need to get hot under the collar over this.


Now video cards and CPUs attempting to render sprawling cities and landscapes covered in flora and fauna... that is something that will get many PCs hot under the collar. I played IL2:Cliffs of Dover (admittedly the engine optimisation left something to be desired) and that is a very well populated landscape right down to grass and forests casting shadows. It's not an easy thing to generate proceedurally for starters, but to then have it both convincing and able to be rendered by a vast array of different hardware - that's a trick and a half!

Also keeping in mind that Frontier have so far created a gorgeous space environment - how much of a let down would it be to fly into an atmosphere and have it a billiard ball with some buildings sticking out of it?
 
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For me, the multi-players and the planetary landings are two pillars essential for ED. The first aspect brings the dynamics of the life, the diversity and the evolution. The second aspect adds of the depth and the realism to the game.
If there was these no these two aspects, ED would look like at an unfinished project. A miscarriage
 
However, when you think back on Frontier there wasn't really anything you could do on the planets that you couldn't do in space. For all intents and purposes the planets where just really really big stations in terms gameplay.
There were the photograph/bomb military missions. Especially in FFE with its actual terrain rather than the occasional sprite hill, those were much more fun coming in along the surface at a few hundred metres, climbing over the last hill, then diving in to snap the photo / launch the missile and zoom back out the other side before the defence force had figured out where you were and what you were up to.

Also, you could launch without needing clearance from breathable-atmosphere space ports, which was really useful if you desperately needed to be elsewhere in a hurry. A small but significant difference.
 
There were the photograph/bomb military missions. Especially in FFE with its actual terrain rather than the occasional sprite hill, those were much more fun coming in along the surface at a few hundred metres, climbing over the last hill, then diving in to snap the photo / launch the missile and zoom back out the other side before the defence force had figured out where you were and what you were up to.

Also, you could launch without needing clearance from breathable-atmosphere space ports, which was really useful if you desperately needed to be elsewhere in a hurry. A small but significant difference.

Great memories. I remember flying hedgehopping to approach a secret military base and jettison the devastating bomb. Make a photo was also exciting because it was necessary that the picture is the most accurate for get the reward of the contract. Unimaginable that it does not exist in ED
 
Planetary landings are a big deal for me and something that set Frontier apart.
It's not just about being able to trade on a space station. I can do that in a hundred games. Being able to travel to a distant planet - one that nobody else has ever seen - set down on it and watch the sun rise.. that's a level of immersion nothing else came close to, and Frontier was doing it in the early nineties.

Frontier is on a scale that is mind boggling, and that scale is brought in to focus by being able to land next to a small building or on the shores of a sea. E : D can take it to the next level and give us everything from red giants to animals on the surface of alien worlds.

So yeah, I hope for a game about exploration and the wonder of space.. and planetary landings are important for that. That said, it is a whole separate area of development from space, so it makes perfect sense for it to be an expansion. And let's be honest, it people are going to pay for expansions they have to be worth it. So I understand their choice and agree with it in many ways.. but for me the game won't be really complete until that expansion.
 
I think it makes to sense to start with multiplayer (which is something that people always said would be amazing in Elite) then add planetary landing , which was never a core aspect, but something that people would like to be able to do.
It was a core concept of FE2 and FFE, if they didn't have it and if it wasn't a confirmed expansion for ED, many people including me wouldn't be here.
However, when you think back on Frontier there wasn't really anything you could do on the planets that you couldn't do in space. For all intents and purposes the planets where just really really big stations in terms gameplay
You are right. Planets were just big docking stations. But you also were able to mine them.
This isn't true, since both FE2 and FFE had meaningful Air to Ground bombing and reconnaissance mission.
 
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As I only played the original Elite, I'm not bothered about planetary landings or walking about. The initial release will have everything I want.

Of course, once the expansions are released, I'll no doubt be blown away by how great they are. :D

Until then...
 
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