Powerplay 2: Imperial Gigolo.
Powerplay 2: Havana Nights
Powerplay 2: Leisure Suit Larry.
Colossal announcement at Gamescom in two weeks' time
- Thread starter Globusdiablo
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Powerplay 2: Leisure Suit Larry.
There's issues here because it's an optional DLC and, unlike in a core update they have to cope with the fact that not everyone will have it but that the games must remain compatible. With planetfall they can at least make the update a "new piece of equipment" that enables it (eg: you get an updated engine that has "planetary capabilities" and without it you can't land) and without which you simply can't do it, but 1st/3rd person is a bit more problematic as you're still going to have interaction between players that have it and those that don't. For example, if I have the expansion and you don't can I simply not enter your ship because all their doors are locked? Do you get to see my avatar walking around in front of your ship, or do I not exist to you? What happens if my avatar is standing on a landing pad and you try to land your ship there, do I get squished or does the game move me, or does it move you? Or do we simply not get to share the same instance unless we have the same DLC? Of course none of that is impossible to handle, none-the-less planetfall is a lot simpler to enable in an environment where some people don't have it because those without it simply won't be allowed to approach planets which won't impact the people who DO have it (unless they're winged up, I guess).
Also giving us 1st/3rd person means they have to give us CONTENT outside of the ships. That means they have to actually FINISH designing the stations for a start - right now the only parts that exist are the parts you can see from the landing bay, there's no rooms on the other sides of the doors, no buttons to press, no people to interact with, and the doors don't even open. If you add planetfall at the same time there's a bunch more "stations" to consider on the planets, plus the need to add content outside of the "planetary stations". The same goes for the ships - the only internal parts that actually exist right now are the cockpits. If you can actually get up and walk around now you've find that behind that wall at the rear of the cockpit is just a huge empty space - there's not even anything to see there since they probably haven't even added textures to it yet (why add textures to something a player will never see? It'd be just something else for the computer to render that has no gameplay purpose). Then there's the content they'd have to add on the planetary surfaces, PLUS the content they'd have to add in space (assuming our ships will let us spacewalk). Also, to make it anywhere near plausible they'd have to add real NPC's (which means a whole lot of extra added interaction) - would you believe it if the planet with 2-3 bases that you were walking around on only had 3 other people on the entire planet?
Finally there's the consideration that if they made landings AND 1st/3rd person a single update, that's only half as much potential update dollars for frontier, compared to them making it two separate releases.
Seriously, landings will be a big enough expansion to do on it's own if they even come close to doing it right - and that's the BIG caveat given FD's history of going for the "low hanging fruit". I'm a little afraid that (at first at least) planets will be nothing more than big space stations you can dock in and can't go anywhere else on, but there'd be a HUGE outcry if that happened so maybe not. I'm sure planetfall will be limited at first, but I expect to see more than we have in FE2, with at least decently generated planetary surfaces that you can explore from within the ship, mining machines that you can drop onto the surface and come back later to recover, bases that offer more/different options to the existing stations, gravity effects with a different flight model etc. Maybe even they'll give us different, surface vehicles that we can transfer into to have a method of interacting with the planet without doing 1st/3rd person - tank battles anyone? However if planets are just going to be big space stations, why bother?
If is planetary landing I hope that they will also add atmospheric flight and the ability to do other things on the surface such as missions and exploration. For example they could add missions where you need to hunt down someone in hiding on a rocky/icy/sparsely populated planet and you would be able to locate their habitation module and destroy it.
David Walsh has said in public that it will 'transform the game'. FD have described it as 'colossal'. FD know perfectly well that there is a significant number of players complaining about 'broken promises' (and, in private though not in public, of course, probably accept that some of those complaints are not unreasonably). Given all that, if this is not colossal and game transforming, then they will have a huge backlash, and I don't think they are quite that stupid. So I expect more than just stage one of planetary landings with landing on rocky moons with no atmosphere - after all, I'm sure many of us have pretty much landed on asteroids.
Atmospheric flight brings up a good point (on planets that HAVE atmospheres of course). Should ALL ships be capable of planetary landings, and should all capable ships be equally capable? For instance a loaded T9 is an AWFUL lot of mass to be introducing to a gravity well, while a Vulture is more appropriate and a Sidewinder relatively simple. A Vulture and a Cobra may be of similar size and mass, but the Cobra's a lot more "wing" shaped and so should possibly have an atmospheric advantage against the cobra that doesn't exist in a vacuum, as should an Eagle. Perhaps "small ships" should be capable of atmospheric flight, "medium ones" capable of simply landing and taking off from bases, and "large" ones incapable? Also, if we accept my supposition that atmospheric flight & planetary landings will require extra, specialised equipment (atmospheric engines & shields for instance), does that take up space normally reserved for other stuff, or simply replace the existing equipment? David Braben's already mentioned planetary vehicles (I'm assuming, cars, jeeps, tanks etc), but what about planetary aircraft? Wouldn't it stand to reason there'd be freight, combat, and passenger aircraft, at least on inhabited planets? Which would give rise to a bunch of new missions (which hopefully wouldn't just be planetary versions of the same old missions already available in space).
One can only hope so. I agree that the people at FD aren't stupid... but they have made some decisions that have definitely left me scratching my head in the past.
Space Scooters.
You kidding me?! Scooters would be revolutionary!
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You thought races in the grooves of the station's structure in a sidewinder were a blast? That's nothing compared to a 12 man scooter rally.
I'm pretty darn sure it will all be wonderful, whatever they do.
Maybe they'll tie the "colossal" in with power play, huge ships we can go into,park up. It leaves at a particular time/day and takes off to different part of the galaxy and we use the ship as a base until station is built. Would be a good way of expanding the "relatively small" play area
Maybe they'll tie the "colossal" in with power play, huge ships we can go into,park up. It leaves at a particular time/day and takes off to different part of the galaxy and we use the ship as a base until station is built. Would be a good way of expanding the "relatively small" play area
To be honest, I could see people bittery complaing if the announcement was every player got a genuine Elite Dangerous Cargo Canister filled with Real Gold.
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The announcement had better be that I, and I alone, get a real 1:1 scale fully working, able to jump light years at a time and fly in supercruise, Cobra MkIII.
Do not underestimate the rage on this forum from the community if this is not the announcement at Gamescon
(diisclaimer: I am teasing and know this will not ever be a thing)
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The announcement had better be that I, and I alone, get a real 1:1 scale fully working, able to jump light years at a time and fly in supercruise, Cobra MkIII.
Do not underestimate the rage on this forum from the community if this is not the announcement at Gamescon
(diisclaimer: I am teasing and know this will not ever be a thing)
*Receives a Cobra Mk.I and a pre-FSD Jump Drive*
Having read about and thought about this lots and given the venue for the announcement, I regretfully conclude that none of my hoped for announcements are likely at all. I must admit I am stumped for ideas. Maybe it will simply be an announcement that they have invested in some new IP to support the engine. Facebook bought occulus rift. Maybe FD are buying facebook. More likely than my hoped for announcements anyway...
If it is more PP or CQC and nothing for commanders who want to "Blaze their own trail" I am off.
So how does it work......and please forgive me if its a very obvious answer but I have never purchased or played another game online.... Currently I am pretty unhappy with the current state of the game having so many bugs and problems etc and hardly play anymore but supposing I at some point in the future I want to fire up my boosters again!!!.....(presuming its not a free upgrade as generally expected) and I dont want to purchase...can I still continue to play?
What planet are YOU on?
Yes. Paid expansions are always optional.
I agree, if its more CQC nonsense (who bought Elite Dangerous for instanced boxed-in arena battles?) i will just be hugely disappointed.
In fact, when they were about to announce CQC i was excited, woah a new way to play the game, what will it be?
Then its just an Xbox lure arena mode to attract more casual players.
Totally not what ED is about. I mean considering even that the ships fly and handle differently in that mode! It couldnt be more disconnected from the game.
Planetary landings is a huge thing, i am not sure it is even logical to hope for that at this point, but it would be great. Even without landing, just being able to fly around a "boring" procedural lanscape without trees, vegetation, fauna or anything, would honestly be good enough for me to classify it as "collossal":
Just imagining a Planetside 2 level of visual terrain quality when flying down on planets would be enough for me to be very happy.
Even without landing or interaction or anything to actually "do" down there. I just wanna explore and fly around planets.
In fact, when they were about to announce CQC i was excited, woah a new way to play the game, what will it be?
Then its just an Xbox lure arena mode to attract more casual players.
Totally not what ED is about. I mean considering even that the ships fly and handle differently in that mode! It couldnt be more disconnected from the game.
Planetary landings is a huge thing, i am not sure it is even logical to hope for that at this point, but it would be great. Even without landing, just being able to fly around a "boring" procedural lanscape without trees, vegetation, fauna or anything, would honestly be good enough for me to classify it as "collossal":
Just imagining a Planetside 2 level of visual terrain quality when flying down on planets would be enough for me to be very happy.
Even without landing or interaction or anything to actually "do" down there. I just wanna explore and fly around planets.
Is that so? I totally missed this. Do you have a source, by any chance please?
I didn't buy Elite for CQC, but I'm looking forward to it, and I'm also looking forward to planet landings and walking on stations and whatever else they have planned, it's all going to be good if they can do it.
I'm with Evil here, I didn't back Elite Dangerous for CQC mode, but it would be silly to limit the game to what we had in FE2/FFEI didn't buy Elite for CQC, but I'm looking forward to it, and I'm also looking forward to planet landings and walking on stations and whatever else they have planned, it's all going to be good if they can do it.
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