So with about 6 months to go, it doesn't set off alarm bells that FD are so unsure about what is and what isn't in the expansion? Or how they are going to implement some of the basics? Or they are not ready for the new consoles which would bring in more money for the development of the game?
As for the legcy comment. All the ships have been designed to be walked around.
This has me concerned as well. You'd think they would have more stuff ready and locked in with the amount of development time they say they put into Odyssey. I hope the future dev diaries will hold more answers as to how they have spent the time.
Let's put it this way; FDev are better off getting feet-tech stable before putting you on a ship, in space and risking having you glitch out through the floor, like other space games we could mention. It's not the way they operate and the player experience is better for it. Bet you a hundred credits they see ship interiors as icing on a cake, while stable character control, in a procedurally generated galaxy, is the real victoria sponge.
This has been their modus operandi for new content from the beginning indeed. Put a first basic implementation of a new feature in the game, patch some of the bugs and build upon it in later iterations.
I have a feeling the basic multi-crew they put in a while back was a necessary stepping stone for the upcoming content. With social hubs coming to Elite where you can interact with other Commanders.
It's gonne be quite bare bones i think at the beginning, with more depth added to it in future updates.
I have a feeling that any in ship moving about would be done in the presence of a gravity well anyway (i.e. you are docked) because you have to design for both gravity and zero gravity- and the cockpits we see seem to only make sense in a gravity well (lots of hard surfaces, pointy bits etc).
So with that in mind, it might be when you are landed / docked you get up from your chair, move to the door behind you, it fades to black and then its you on the lift down to the surface. So its interiors in a way but cutting out walking past the toilets and galley.
There are magboots in game. Which you can currently put on your in-game avatar in Holo-Me. So walking about in zero G is not gonne be too difficult if/when they implement it.
And he also said he wants atmospheric planets and walking around them.
For this expansion, we have the beginning of Elite Feet and atmospheric planets. The next expansion may include more elite feet additions and more types of atmospheric planets.
Given their track record regarding Elite this seems as the most logical approach they have to Odyssey.
That was during kickstarter, further in they stated at a few points that most of the original ships had their interiors pretty much designed but had no point adding them due to the current lack of being able to see them.
Also even if the first was still the thing wouldnt it make more sense to start there with walking regardless as it would remove alot of future bug issues with clipping etc before going onto planet surfaces etc and really flesh out the design as if your characters are fleshed out for the small spaces and other things mentioned the wider planetary ones would just need quick fixes already pretty much done.
I cant imagine teleporting to land then later down the line see the transition... It makes more sense from a design perspective and also for advertising purposes for their own gain to have that initial drop onto the boots more WOW.....
The same could be said for letting us walk on planets before ships. There are many more different planets then there are ships. Plus most planets are big and vast, with close quarters being represented by the mentioned outposts, bases and the like. Ship interiors and walking about them may still come at a later time once they have fleshed out the First Person bit on planets.
Here's something to think about a bit...
There are actually a lot of us who don't give two craps at all about walking around anywhere.
I think there are more of us who do want to be able to walk around outside and/or inside our ships. And if you don't like the Elite feet part, don't buy Odyssey.
What's the point in walking around your ship, when you can do everything in the cockpit?
Because they said at the kickstarter that that was one of the goals for the game? And because why not?
Also, getting access to on-foot missions? Which you need to be on foot for to get them?
I think some here are forgetting there is nearly 40 ships in the game that would need to be fully modelled because you can sure as hell bet there would be a stream of forum tears if they just procedurally generated interiors and they all looked the same internally.
Also many of these ships are quite large and would require a lot of developer time to work on.
I don't think they'll make the interiors procedurally generated, this would imply that even between 2 identical ships there'd be differences in interior design.
As mentioned further down the thread most of the early ships allready have fully developed interiors, it's just that they have not put them physically in the ships since there is no way of viewing them yet.