Building the game around NOT walking!

Yes all ships and module placement are created with the interior. However they are not rendering complete interiors right now because we cannot see them so why waste the RAM loading it. Once DX12 is used and DX9 is finally dropped, they may start to test the interiors. No reason to do so now when so much of the work for rendering physics and maths are sitting on the first few cores of your processor pegging them out.
 
All the other things you suggest are things that you expect in a space sim though, people expect to land on planets, come across weird and wibbly things in space and interact with the galaxy via their ship. It's the same formula that pretty much every space sim has used going all the way back to the original Elite, including games such as the X-series and Eve. Does it involve flying around in my ship and doing spacey or shippy things? Then it's probably within the scope of the game and is worthy of reasonable developer attention, or at very least developer consideration.

Space legs is basically creating an entirely different game within a game - it's not Elite, it's CoD: Elite Edition. If they were to create it as an entirely standalone game and posit it as a spin-off, then I'd have no such issues. However, investing vast sums of money and Dev resources into a minigame that could be funnelled into the actual game is pretty bad form. It would be like buying a football manager game and finding that development on the training regimen customiser has been suspended so that the Devs can invest their full attention on the "play board games with Terry the intern in the club office" minigame.

There's also the issue of the general gameplay/cost ratio, which is an important point for any developer but is doubly so for a small one. Anything that offers very little gameplay benefits at the cost of great developer resources should be rightfully either shelved or reworked.

The Descent point was just an example of a reasonable action game for how drones might interact with indoor environments, however there's little reason as to why the exact same basic set of mechanics couldn't be used to create puzzle, investigation or horror styled gameplay. The point was simply that with a first-person view on a craft that is roughly the scale of a human, anything a human can do or anywhere a human could go such a drone could follow suit, offering the exact same overall gameplay except with a ship-style control layout rather than effectively creating an entirely new out-of-genre game within the game that only shares a graphics engine
That's all well and good but David of the Braben has expressed interest in having legs and being able to walk around so I'd presume the devs are working towards it and are making sure their engine can handle it. This is a brave new world of space sim games and Frontier are fully aware of that, heck they're the ones currently leading the renaissance.

With respect: you cannot comment on the apparent lack of gameplay of walking around because a) none of us have seen it/played it and b) these games seem to have found meaningful gameplay out it:

Osiris New Dawn
No Man's Sky
Star Citizen

So how hard could it be? They even give Frontier free ideas to chew on. Now I give Frontier a hard time but even I cannot honestly beleive that Frontier cannot deliver something equal to or better for Elite than these other games who use FPS in a primarily space sim genre game.
 
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Ace though that must be daunting, I found a way to sneak into the unmade space in the Coriolis and it's a massive area.
Daunting indeed. I'd imagine it would be quite the workload but it would be quite fun to have a standardised space to walk around in a station and meet other commanders, wave and chat to each other outside of our ships. Eventually visit mission brokers in person.

Ultimately something like this would be awesome as an end goal:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=T4FJR8AVEMU

But it would be a long way off.
 
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Far as I know he's never said the insides are ready. He just said, paraphrasing here: "Conda is well massive lads. Yuuuuge! Size of an FPS level yuge." *genuflects* :D

*Shudders*

"Yuge." Did he also use the phrase "bigly"? Or start rambling about a wall? Or develop a decidedly unnatural complexion?

On behalf of the Americans on this forum, please don't use that word. It causes unpleasant associations that I'd rather not connect to Braben.
 
Are we running before we can walk?

NOT being able to walk, and building the game up without this feature is making less and less sense and creating weirder work-arounds, such as tele-presence.

It seems to be really inefficient, how much of the game will have to be re-made once we can walk?

I'm starting to suspect we may never get to walk outside our ships.

For example where is the door in your SRV? Edit: seems it opens like a bubble car, ace thanks peops.

You're assuming that a significant number of people want to be able to walk around the ship. I bought ED because it ISN'T Star Citizen with its spaceman shoot-em-up gameplay. I'm interested in space flight, not another boring first person shooter.
 
You're assuming that a significant number of people want to be able to walk around the ship. I bought ED because it ISN'T Star Citizen with its spaceman shoot-em-up gameplay. I'm interested in space flight, not another boring first person shooter.
And space flight you have, and shall continue to have - they won't be taking space flight out you know. Star Citizen also has space flight btw. And you don't have to shoot a single soul in hub areas like stations, in fact it's prohibited.

Also, David Braben wants to eventually hunt big game on planets and he's the head honcho of this shindig so... :)
 
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We now know that space legs are a VERY long way off. Since Frontier is chopping vital branches off that tree of possiblity already, it must be so distant that they have no idea how it will fit into the current game. Which means it very likely will end up like Power Play or CQC, a separate tacked on feature, and in many ways a hindrance. Not well thought out or integrated.

There will be no going back to snail walking, dismounting your ship in real time to battle space pirate boarding parties, rescuing players stranded on a desert moon, physically transferring players between ships, scooping up players in escape pods to become part of your crew, etc etc.

It's all been pre reduced to a "join random schmoe in virtual lobby" button.

That's quite some assumptions you are making based on practically zero evindence.

Please provide proof (not hyperbole) that none of those things will be possible.
 
*Shudders*
"Yuge." Did he also use the phrase "bigly"? Or start rambling about a wall? Or develop a decidedly unnatural complexion?

On behalf of the Americans on this forum, please don't use that word. It causes unpleasant associations that I'd rather not connect to Braben.


"We will make space sims great again. It'll be fantastic, you'll see. I hope the Russians hack into Chris Roberts' private email server! We will not be selling our game in Chay-na."

"Cambridge first. Cambridge first!"

"We're going to build a wall and we'll make PvPers pay for that wall"

maxresdefault.jpg

:D
 
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Ok, some points:

- To those saying space legs can't or shouldn't happen "because programming it is hard" - you're wrong. How do I know this? Well, I'm a developer myself, not in the game industry but I have plenty of experience with 3D programming as a hobby. This stuff has been done so many times by people as experienced as the FD team that it's all just a question of overall design; will it fit in with the other game elements? Can they make it compelling and/or not cheesy? If your argument is that it will add too many bugs - c'mon, this game is in development, everything they do will introduce bugs, it's part of the process. Considering the rather large chunks of "new game" they've added (I won't say content) it's kind of remarkable how few bugs there have actually been. I will say that it's really a testament to those among us who are dedicated to playing the beta (I'm not one of them) that this is possible.
- To those assuming space legs = FPS - not necessarily. It really doesn't have to be, I'd be sooo happy if they'd just add the ability to walk around the ship and check out the various quarters that I'm sure it would sustain me for another few months at least (no guarantee that I won't start begging for pew pew gameplay before a that time is up!) ;)
- Re: the debate about what FD "said" it would be - I do believe it was Braben, if not it was someone else who is deeply involved, who said that the interiors of ships are in fact already designed and modeled for walking around. Braben also did say that he would like to see hunting for game on life-bearing planets (that doesn't sound like a promise), but in speaking on when we can get space legs, he said with what I detected as a bit of an exasperated tone that there "has to be something to *do*" before it is implemented. I took from that that there are parties within FD that want to put in the basics of space legs (probably the minimum - walking around the cockpit) but Braben resists, probably because in his view it *is* a waste of resources to do that when other gameplay that *he* wants to see could be worked on instead. I would have taken cockpit-only space legs over a few things that have appeared, but it's not my game, so whatever.
- To those assuming that space legs is "a long way off" - I do believe we all thought landing on planets was a long way off as well, but bang, they did it in season 2. As far as we know space legs could be in 3.0.
- To those assuming FD will make it another disappointing tack-on like CQC - I won't say it's impossible, but I HIGHLY doubt it. I think for some of you you're taking your evidence from Star Citizen, which is a huge mistake. They have a bolt-on because they're a sham and they're concentrated on making "pretty" (read: useless) content to sell more vapour ships to the gullible. FD, if nothing else, is committed to making a *game*, and if they were happy to make space legs a one-off novelty that wasn't part of the full game, I do believe they would have done that already. Just listen to Braben, as I said above, he wants space legs but he wants some sort of gameplay around it first. For him gameplay isn't running around a platform to ogle your ship (I hope), it has to be tied in with the existing game components somehow (CQC not withstanding).

Look, I want space legs as much as the next person but I do want them to do it right. I know for a fact it's not a question of how hard it is, it's a question of where they're at with their design milestones and what they've decided, internally, will bring in the most new players and keep existing players around. I disagree with a lot of the choices they've made, it seems (I think they released too early, I think their choices to "keep people playing" are way too centered around "modern tedium", I get the sense they make design choices without anyone in house *really* playing through how it works in practice, etc), but I have some faith they will keep the basic promises they've made and that's why I'm still around.
 
Really ship naming shouldn't be too hard to implement. The game already keeps track of ship loadout and docked location; what's wrong with adding a ship name and making it exclusive until blown up?
 
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- To those assuming that space legs is "a long way off" - I do believe we all thought landing on planets was a long way off as well, but bang, they did it in season 2. As far as we know space legs could be in 3.0.

Good post, but there is reason for this part. We are largely basing that off what DB said on the christmas stream. He could of course be trolling us, and its going to be 2.4 or 3.0, but from what he said, my bet would be closer to season 4 or 5.

Overall, i'd rather see more SRV types and atmosphere worlds first, although i wouldn't be terribly upset if space legs did come first.
 
I'm not sure if snippets of the lovely art book are allowed, so sorry if not. For those wanting a picture of it, this is how the SRV cockpit might open. It's among many things showing Fdev considering spacelegs at an early stage.

I didn't realise the bars by your feet were a folder down step. Nice!


anicefatcockpit.JPG
 
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[...] seems to be a very slim implementation.
Or... "Slimplementation!"

Can't believe I've never seen that before. That's going to be my new word for anything bare-bones that FD adds to the game, especially if it's something that had a much more in-depth proposal in the DDA.

"Multi-tier NPCs aren't a patch on what was proposed, but what we've got is very well slimplemented."

"Not sure what FD have planned for the Crime & Punishment overhaul, but I'm sure the slimplementation will be very polished."

;)
 
If FD doesn't add avatars that we can explore stations with, walk on planets, derelict ships or even our own ships - it's game over for me and ED. They have said repeatedly that avatars would be added and that we would be able to get out and explore with them. Have not seen anything remotely in game yet that they are even working on such a mechanic. I left EVE hoping Elite would be more than just a simple space sim. As it is now ED isn't really pushing any boundries or breaking any molds. There are games coming out like SC and others that will push the genre past the limit of just being a simple x-y-z spaceship sim. They'll be full blown RPG's where we actually play a character and not just fly a ship. I'll give them the rest of the year to add avatar game play - if it isn't in by the end of 2017 there are other games that I'll gladly spend my money on that will have avatars we can control and not just fly ships.
 
Really ship naming shouldn't be too hard to implement. The game already keeps track of ship loadout and docked location; what's wrong with adding a ship name and making it exclusive until blown up?

Shouldn't be difficult at all. Maybe it's being reserved as a premium feature. Want to name your ship? Only £5 from the store!

- - - Updated - - -

Good post, but there is reason for this part. We are largely basing that off what DB said on the christmas stream. He could of course be trolling us, and its going to be 2.4 or 3.0, but from what he said, my bet would be closer to season 4 or 5.

Overall, i'd rather see more SRV types and atmosphere worlds first, although i wouldn't be terribly upset if space legs did come first.

1. He's trolled us before
2. Yup, I'd like to see atmospheric planet landings added before much else (including space legs).
 
If FD doesn't add avatars that we can explore stations with, walk on planets, derelict ships or even our own ships - it's game over for me and ED. They have said repeatedly that avatars would be added and that we would be able to get out and explore with them. Have not seen anything remotely in game yet that they are even working on such a mechanic. I left EVE hoping Elite would be more than just a simple space sim. As it is now ED isn't really pushing any boundries or breaking any molds. There are games coming out like SC and others that will push the genre past the limit of just being a simple x-y-z spaceship sim. They'll be full blown RPG's where we actually play a character and not just fly a ship. I'll give them the rest of the year to add avatar game play - if it isn't in by the end of 2017 there are other games that I'll gladly spend my money on that will have avatars we can control and not just fly ships.

Yes...Star Citizen will push the genre way past the limit, like Duke Nukem Forever did or even beyond its genre like the awesome Phantom console! lol Dude, chill....Its coming....we may not live to see the day, but it will happen...
 
At some point cmdrs will realise that its just a consensual hallucination and that there is no spoon.

Tried this ? [video=youtube;irPGroIk1s0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irPGroIk1s0[/video]
 
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