Update Dev Update - 16.04.2015

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So pretty much as expected in the sense of global politics. I'm happy for the game (and especially that this goes some way towards clans/guilds, but without ever being them), though I do not expect to participate very much in power playing. I am, after all, a miserable *** who explores.

A miserable Scot? ;)

I'm sure that there will be PP events that reward all playstyles. Maybe the Powers will have a reward* for your exploration data that makes it worth you aligning with one of them.

*Non-cash, since explorers don't really need a lot of money to do their thing.
 
It was a really good read, can't wait to see all that good stuff in action !!

Major props for all the work that this implied.

Thank you ^^
 
I know all the questions are probably being halted for the AMA, but with the whole mission rework thing, and npcs coming more into focus any news on Passenger Missions?
 
No passenger missions yet, but they're still on the list.

Michael

NPC comms/interactions, passengers, NPC wingmen, escort missions and coming across missions in other places than the BBS (due to NPC comms) is what I'm hoping 1.4 will be about! :)

But, I guess we better let you finish up Powerplay first! :D

Looking good indeed!
 
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cmbloise

Banned
Just two questions sorry if they have been asked before:

1) regarding the "powers" in 1.3, could a minor faction, like Crimson State Group, become a power if they eexpand their territory significantly?

2)Are new station/outpost desing planed for the future? The current designs are really great, but variety is always better.

Thanks for this great game!
 
No passenger missions yet, but they're still on the list.

Michael

NPC comms/interactions, passengers, NPC wingmen, escort missions and coming across missions in other places than the BBS (due to NPC comms) is what I'm hoping 1.4 will be about! :)

But, I guess we better let you finish up Powerplay first! :D

Looking good indeed!

Thanks a lot for the info, Michael! I am glad to hear that they are still on the list!

And as Tinman says, there is lots of other stuff directly or indirectly connected to NPCs and passengers, so I'd rather wait as long as you need to do them right instead of getting them half-finished.

As happy as I am about 1.3, I, too, are hoping 1.4 is focused on improving NPCs. Persistency, NPC contacts, wingmen, perhaps even player reputation with NPCs, like discussed in the DDF. It could be epic! :)
 
No passenger missions yet, but they're still on the list.

Michael

Thanks for the info! Can't wait to see powerplay in action, and as always looking forward to what's in store! Maybe the passenger missions can make it in around the same time as the procedural module system, which I hope is soon ;)
 
People in the David Braben thread have mentioned a "god-like mode" or somesuch from the DDF - can someone explain to me what that is referring to please?

No-one knows.

It was something that was mentioned by FD as a reward for DDF peeps and never followed up on.

And it was "god like powers"...
 
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Regarding Passenger missions, "On the list", does that mean the "We haven't started on it." list or the "It's almost ready to go but needs a few tweaks." list? Just curious, because the newsletter a while back hinted at the Orca and Dropship's roles being released soon.
 
Regarding Passenger missions, "On the list", does that mean the "We haven't started on it." list or the "It's almost ready to go but needs a few tweaks." list? Just curious, because the newsletter a while back hinted at the Orca and Dropship's roles being released soon.

'On the list' means that FD have not removed it from the list. The list is huge (see the DDA), and it is likely that some things that were initially on the list have been removed from it. Passenger missions were always on the list (or they would never have built the Orca). So, actually, this tells us nothing at all that was not already obvious.

- - - Updated - - -

No-one knows.

It was something that was mentioned by FD as a reward for DDF peeps and never followed up on.

And it was "god like powers"...
Actually, "near God-like powers". It is on one of the kickstarter announcements, at a guess (from memory) about a week from the end.
 
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I really like that idea. It reminds me of the original surface scanner UI concept, which just like the Orrery is looking really awesome:

http://40.media.tumblr.com/82cbf62d69d11e9af3e831636a23a5f5/tumblr_nkwn32Szk21roeo08o7_r1_1280.jpg

Frontier, I know you guys are super busy and all that, but you might wanna consider adding this kind of visual pep to scanning. It would make the act of scanning itself feel a lot more rewarding.

Great job, we are on same page. That kind if implement will light up our senses, reading visual enhance presence.
 
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Michael Brookes, will there be more station decorations for each faction? Because now stations look the same no matter which faction controls it.

Stations need more variation inside to reflect the faction, society and economy.
 
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Michael Brookes, will there be more station decorations for each faction? Because now stations look the same no matter which faction controls it.

Stations need more variation inside to reflect the faction, society and economy.

Agreed...especially now with Powerplay making these factions even more central to the core gameplay.

Might as well copy&paste this again just to show Michael that I'm not going to let it go! :D

--

Tinman said:
I think we all understand that one of the most challenging aspects of making Elite feel alive in terms of visuals is to have enough variation in the gameworld. Having a galaxy of 400 Billion stars with close to a 100.000 inhabited star systems (in some form) feel varied enough and not "samey" is no small feat. To put it mildly...

Let's take the current stations as an example. They look great, but the amount of variation isn't where it needs to be to make the world come alive. We should be able to tell if we are in the Empire/Alliance/Federation by just looking at a station for example. The purpose for each station should also be even more clear than what it currently is, both on the actual station and also with supporting structures around it. These two concept images comes to mind:

DG31JTNl.jpg

0tFn7Lul.jpg


Outposts are better off in terms of variation, but the number or building blocks the large stations are made of are to low to make them stand out. Right now these consist of the docking cylinder, large ring, smaller ring, "cargo units", heat vents, "solar panels" and that is pretty much it unless I missed something. When it comes to the Coriolis station I still hoping to see these at some point to mix things up a bit:

7aVFaCd.jpg


Wouldn't it be possible to crowd source this and let all the modders out there loose on these? Why not create a template file, give out the "design bible" for the different factions and see what people out there can come up with? Then have us players vote on what we like to see put into the game and you can then select your top choices every month or so and put them into the asset library the stations are generated from to increase variation. Only if they meet your standards of course and under the clear understanding that the creators later can lay no claim on the assets and demand payment. If you want this could involve prices (real or digital) for the winning contributors, but that's up to you.

Same thing could possibly be done to the interior slots that are populated by prefabs. Let modders create more for the game to choose from. This might be a bigger issue though due to future plans when it comes to being able to move around these stations so it might be wiser to hold this off until later. I DO think there is a very simply way of making these rather "samey" interiors feel a little bit more varied with very little work. Simply create a "empty" prefab for the different slotsizes where nothing has been built and use that to mix up the interiors a bit more. Presumably these interiors aren't built in on go...rather a station would slowly fill out all the slots over time as the population and traffic increased to the system. Visiting a large station close to the frontier would therefore mean that many of the slots haven't been populated yet and based on population numbers they are filled out more and more. I always loved the ambience of this image due to the emptiness of the station and that the entire station was basically just a "empty" floor.

liyXXqyl.jpg


Seeing things like this out close to the frontier would be great! You can also look at that image and imagine that only some of those slots are populated by the prefab buildings you already have in the game. Preferably placed in clusters like "mini cities". :cool:

But let's get back to crowdsourcing assets shall we? ;)

Later when you start to open up planets modders could help in the same way when it comes to creating (morphable) parts for plants/vegetation, body parts for aliens (presumably you are going to do something similar to what can be seen in Spore and No Man's Sky), buildings, ancient ruins, rocks, landmarks...basically everything.

So...what do you think? Any chance this might happen?

Come ooooon...give in! :D
 
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