Elite Dangerous 2 on Unreal Engine 5

[Agema]

I also firm believer that after ED and NMS, no one will try to create a game so big that players will never be able to visit 99% of it. ED will be forever a unique in that feature, cause there is simply no merit in doing it. It's a waste of developers and players time.

I know nothing about coding, but I have been a roleplay game GM. You're right that it's a disaster in time effectiveness to make a load of material that players will never use... when you have to custom script it all. But that's the thing with procedurally generated content: that 99% that the players never experience costs the developers nothing at all. It's just a byproduct of making the 1% that the players experience.

It's not a waste of player's time, either. Those that don't want to explore can sit in the Bubble, trade and shoot and so on. But some people want to explore and discover, and they've got a whole galaxy that isn't going to run out of places to be first explorer within the plausible lifespan of the game.

 

[Morbad]

After 8 years, and only exploring 0.5% of it - there is no point in 1:1 galaxy in a game. It was a good experiment, and a good achievement, but it's terrible for the games.
Exploration in Elite Dangerous, is just honking from system to system - why, cause the galaxy is so big they can't add much to it anymore. Bigger is not better, Elite is a perfect example of that.

A 1:1 galaxy doesn't imply Elite: Dangerous-style exploration.

I have mixed feelings about that. I know exactly what you're saying, because I have this in X4, yet having this on X4 makes even their small "bubble" feel too big, for the opposite reason, in that there is so much going on that my poor brain (and my computer's brain, too) has a hard time tracking it all.

I don't think an individual should be able to track it all, not with any detail. That sort of scale is a big step toward being immersed in a setting that feels real.

 

[varonica]

Well you are not an educated game developer to judge what an engine can and cannot do. If SC dev says it can, than i tend to believe them. Cause they work in the field.
If it couldn't than UE5 wouldn't even be a topic on SC social media, as Devs would have quickly debunked that idea.

You, you've actually followed the history of the claims made by the devs of Star Citizen? You've actually seen some the the claims the devs have made publicly on social media? I don't think there's a grain of salt big enough to take with anything the devs of SC say, they skip release dates like other people skip breakfast, sell ships for thousands of actual real dollars that still aren't in the game 9 years later. If SC say they can do something, that's almost certain to be wildly optimistic dreamtext, or something they have never bothered to actually investigate and just threw out there to placate the rumblings of discontent.

 

[metatheurgist]

Well you are not an educated game developer to judge what an engine can and cannot do. If SC dev says it can, than i tend to believe them. Cause they work in the field.
If it couldn't than UE5 wouldn't even be a topic on SC social media, as Devs would have quickly debunked that idea.

Go check out the SC thread. Posts from actual devs (that have actually released games) commenting on SC dev have been posted numerous times, and it's not pretty.

 

[Lhorndra]

After 8 years, and only exploring 0.5% of it - there is no point in 1:1 galaxy in a game.

That is exactly the point for me. That is why I bought Elite Dangerous in the first place. Of course, everybody wants different things and likes different games, but this -- the vastness and emptiness of the galaxy -- is what has drawn me to every single Elite game, again and again. The knowledge that I can never see it all. If you want to change that, good for you, but do that with a different game.

Exploring another run-of-the-mill system, and another, and another, and then, finally, I find something totally extraordinary that nobody has ever seen before me. A beautiful sunset on a ringed moon of a ringed moon of a ringed planet. Some geysers that, when viewed from above, form a smiley. Some glitch that's whimsically hilarious. And then, after I leave, I don't know if I or anybody else will ever see this again. It's there and gone at the same time.

I can't do all this in real life, because our real milky way is a 1:1 representation of ED's galaxy. But without FTL travel.

Exploration in Elite Dangerous, is just honking from system to system

No.

 

[Lhorndra]

A nonsense thread full of nonsense ideas by some posters.

 

[varonica]

That is exactly the point for me. That is why I bought Elite Dangerous in the first place.

Same here, the attraction is the simulated galaxy.

In every game, every MMO, every open world SP game I have ever played there is no single part of it that hasn't been visited by someone before me. if I see a hard to reach place all I have to do is google and someone will tell me how to get there, what's there, how to do the quests if there are any, problems I might encounter along the way etc. The only way you can avoid that is to have a game with almost infinite possibilities. SC may eventually release with a dozen or a hundred planets and systems but you can bet every single interesting spot will have been visited multiple times in a few weeks, people are like that.

A few months ago I found the planet with the highest gravity in Elite Dangerous, that's ten years after it was released, still stuff to be found, places to go no-one has ever visited, that's the attraction of the galaxy simulation. Sure in most places there may be little or in some peoples way of thinking nothing at all to do, but for many players that doesn't matter, that's the attraction, that these places are indeed there!

 

[babelfisch]

Someone will probably yell at me for that, because you know, thinking is bad.

yells

 

[Red Rocket]

We already have Elite Dangerous 2.0 it’s called Odyssey

 

[tanner1ie]

We already have Elite Dangerous 2.0 it’s called Odyssey

It's not!!

Hopefully if Elite Dangerous 2 ever does come out, it comes out on "next gen" consoles, since seemingly so far Odyssey won't!!

 

[Morbad]

A few months ago I found the planet with the highest gravity in Elite Dangerous, that's ten years after it was released, still stuff to be found, places to go no-one has ever visited, that's the attraction of the galaxy simulation. Sure in most places there may be little or in some peoples way of thinking nothing at all to do, but for many players that doesn't matter, that's the attraction, that these places are indeed there!

I also like scale, space, distance, for the logistical considerations it can impose. Early on in the game, how, and how quickly, one could get where one wanted to go mattered, even within the bubble.

We still have some of the sense of scale, but not really the logistical hurdles. The galaxy has been condensed into a haystack; all the potential destinations are still there, and there are still more than enough to get lost in, but the meaningful distance between them has shrunk...too much, IMO.

We already have Elite Dangerous 2.0 it’s called Odyssey

2.0 was Horizons!

 

[Cmdr. Numa]

We already have Elite Dangerous 2.0 it’s called Odyssey

True, as Update 14 completely altered what the game is.

 

[Disemboweled Ego]

I think they should do Elite Dangerous Two in the Unity engine instead.

 

[alexzk]

Anybody who dreams about "use another engine" download Space Elfs (Starfield) and play that simulator of loading screens as much as you want.
No need to break Elite. Best feature here is 400 billions of active stars.

 

[Rat Catcher]

True, as Update 14 completely altered what the game is.

Did it? I never noticed, what completely altered?

 

[GJ51]

Others here have hit the nail on the head.

Crazy jump range increases and easy credits made ED too easy and thus it got trite.

Still - if they cleaned up some of the eternal unresolved bugs it would be a big improvement.

If it flew like legacy
They killed floating rocks
Aligned the DC approach
Misaligned docking port hologram
Returned planetary approach to Horizons model

Is it me? Did the planets shrink again after the last update and all the station orbits get tighter?

Add your favorites as needed...

And still...

No Panther Clipper or medium Saud Kruger/Gutamaya ships

Then there's the inability sort missions logically. I'd pay to be able to sort Transport passenger missions from Sightseeing missions - not get me going on trade missions.

There's so much that FD could do that would improve ED that doesn't really amount to any major undertaking. I think they just realized that Oddity was such an embarrassing failure that they've moved on to their other titles and abandoned the game that put them on the map.

 

[aRJay]

Others here have hit the nail on the head.

Crazy jump range increases and easy credits made ED too easy and thus it got trite.

Maybe, I am not yet finding it trite.

Still - if they cleaned up some of the eternal unresolved bugs it would be a big improvement.

Yes.

If it flew like legacy
They killed floating rocks

And how near to you scenery rearranges itself and rocks appear or bury themselves etc.

Aligned the DC approach
Misaligned docking port hologram

I have to say I didn’t notice that one last time I was anywhere with stations. But yes it is annoying when noticed.

Returned planetary approach to Horizons model

?

Is it me? Did the planets shrink again after the last update and all the station orbits get tighter?

Not noticed that one. Oh! Last update, not been in a position to be affected by that if it is that new.

Add your favorites as needed...

And still...

No Panther Clipper

Not sure
I am all that sorry about that.

or medium Saud Kruger/Gutamaya ships

That however is much more sad.

Then there's the inability sort missions logically. I'd pay to be able to sort Transport passenger missions from Sightseeing missions - not get me going on trade missions.

One of the advantages of my play style mission boards are such a rarity that I am too unfamiliar to notice their shortcomings.

There's so much that FD could do that would improve ED that doesn't really amount to any major undertaking. I think they just realized that Oddity was such an embarrassing failure that they've moved on to their other titles and abandoned the game that put them on the map.

 

[Frankymole]

I'd even bet that by the end of this year Frontier to announce Elite Dangerous 2 getting its development started on Unreal Engine 5!

You mean Elite 5?
Because Elite Dangerous is already Elite 4.
Or maybe you meant Frontier Elite III.

 

[[VR] Merkir]

I think they should do Elite Dangerous Two in the Unity engine instead.

Unity can be ruled out immediately as it doesn't have 64 bit positioning. Unreal 5 does, through its "Large World Coordinates".

 

[metatheurgist]

Wait...people are taking the Unity suggestion seriously? That must be the only engine caught in a bigger dumpster fire than ED's progress atm.