Exploration changes for 2018 per the Frontier Expo

Ian Doncaster

Ian Doncaster
marx said:
One more feature that wasn't mentioned here, but I think might turn out to be relevant to exploration: squadrons, and the carrier that they'll be able to purchase. (Slated for Q4 2018, mind.) They said that these are larger dockable ships, where players can repair, refuel, rearm and respawn at. I'd say that depending on the details of how the logistics are implemented, these could be quite useful for expeditions.
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Yes - definitely.

Even without the carriers, the comms features attached to a squadron could be very nice for an expedition.
 

13A/24B

13A/24B
Mengy said:
no one is going to call an Adder a combat ship.
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Hey! Don't dis my Adder! I once killed an eagle in it (it wasn't my fault he flew into me without shields ;) )

I'm taking an optimistic look at this, and hoping that the things they didn't tell us much about are a bonus for explorers. They talked about Alliance ships, so I think there's going to be more than just the Chieftain and Krait, although I was disappointed that there doesn't seem to be any SRV variations as well as ships.

The squadron ships could be useful for future expeditions although it depends on the mechanics for moving it around. It would be handy to use it as a base for in-depth surveying of an area, or maybe have 2 or 3 as pit stops en route.

Ninja'd. Must type faster :)
 

Alec Turner

Alec Turner
Qohen Leth said:
Curious as to what the 'new phenomena' will be, though.
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Agreed ... I'd have liked them to name drop some specifics (e.g. accretion disks, comets, etc). Perhaps, a bit like with what was said about the icy planet surface artist impression being something for them to aim for, having "new phenomena" is an aspiration rather than specific work currently underway. Look forward to further news on this.
 
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marx

marx
Alec Turner said:
Agreed ... I'd have liked them to name drop some specifics (e.g. accretion disks, comets, etc). Perhaps, a bit like with what was said about the icy planet surface artist impression being something for them to aim for, having "new phenomena" is an aspiration rather than specific work currently underway. Look forward to further news on this.
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To be fair, they likely didn't name and show specifics on these because they don't want to commit to specifics yet. Suppose they did, and said that for example accretion disks will be in. But then, as they develop the promised stuff, it might turn out that it's not feasible to implement. When they would then announce that sorry, but what they promised won't be in, we'd see plenty of "exploration is ded" and "Frontier were lying" threads.

When it comes to anomalies and such, there's also the element of surprise and spoilers to consider. If it's adding common stuff, like neutron star jet boosts were, it's fine to do so beforehand. But the conundrum of adding rare things is that if you don't tell people what they will be, then they won't know what the devs have added (until somebody finds them, of course): if you do tell in advance, then people will complain that there are no surprise finds when you're exploring.
Hence the usual "mysterious things were added" lines in patch notes. Which isn't really much. Then there's also the multiplayer nature of the game to consider, which means that the odds of you being the first to come across something entirely new are very low.
 

Alec Turner

Alec Turner
marx said:
To be fair, they likely didn't name and show specifics on these because they don't want to commit to specifics yet. Suppose they did, and said that for example accretion disks will be in. But then, as they develop the promised stuff, it might turn out that it's not feasible to implement. When they would then announce that sorry, but what they promised won't be in, we'd see plenty of "exploration is ded" and "Frontier were lying" threads.

When it comes to anomalies and such, there's also the element of surprise and spoilers to consider. If it's adding common stuff, like neutron star jet boosts were, it's fine to do so beforehand. But the conundrum of adding rare things is that if you don't tell people what they will be, then they won't know what the devs have added (until somebody finds them, of course): if you do tell in advance, then people will complain that there are no surprise finds when you're exploring.
Hence the usual "mysterious things were added" lines in patch notes. Which isn't really much. Then there's also the multiplayer nature of the game to consider, which means that the odds of you being the first to come across something entirely new are very low.
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Yup, good points ... totally agree.
 

ebbrell

ebbrell
They look amazing. Explains why they wanted rid of 32 bit. With 64 they said they could push the quality of visuals

Lets hope the FPS does take to much of a hit. You never know the nvidia Volta maybe out around the same time
 

CMDR Ahab

CMDR Ahab
Overall I'm cautiously optimistic about the up and coming changes. My main concern is that the new tools for exploration are going to make anything other than the Anaconda un-viable, especially if new tools = new internal modules.

The Codex sounds promising if it's what I think it is, but we'll have to wait and see I guess.
 

[VR] optimal_909

[VR] optimal_909
Kenneth Mcgrew said:
Reading through some of the information given out the future does look somewhat promising if frontier can deliver on its promises that is.


I will say its quite nice to actually have a road map of what's coming so +1 FD although I feel 3rd party sites and individuals on this forum all out did Frontier on explanation of the road map and visualising it through images shared at Expo

there is the whole surface of planets which was mentioned too with a link to this concept art for Icy worlds coming early 2018

https://www.pcgamesn.com/sites/default/files/elite dangerous concept art.png

if this kind of scenery materialises itself in the galaxy I for one would welcome it, although there was no mention of atmospheres in the 2018 roadmap there would be fogs and more depth to scenery as it was labelled - whatever that is
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To keep expectations in check, that ice world is part of the Q4 update only, won't come with the Q1 planet enhancement.
 

Mengy

Mengy
CMDR Ahab said:
The Codex sounds promising if it's what I think it is, but we'll have to wait and see I guess.
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I just listened to the exploration part of the Expo again while I ate my lunch (what few minutes there was on exploration). I'm worried about this "Codex". I hope it's not just an encyclopedia of all the hand placed assets by Frontier for the story stuff, but rather something which all explorers can make use of, not just the main story chasers in Frontier specified areas.
 

disorganise

disorganise
marx said:
One more feature that wasn't mentioned here, but I think might turn out to be relevant to exploration: squadrons, and the carrier that they'll be able to purchase. (Slated for Q4 2018, mind.) They said that these are larger dockable ships, where players can repair, refuel, rearm and respawn at. I'd say that depending on the details of how the logistics are implemented, these could be quite useful for expeditions.

Personally, I was somewhat disappointed by the end that they didn't even mention atmospheric flight, but thinking back on it, I realised something. They showed that they are overhauling planets on a large and small(!) scales. A very nice piece of concept art to illustrate the latter, which is the target for what devs want to implement. Basically, what this all implied, but was of course left unsaid, was: "Before we move on to atmospheric planets, we'll have to finally get airless worlds right."
To be fair, on the whole that's probably more difficult to do than just tacking atmospheric flight on the current planet generation would be.

As for explorer ships: basically, the characteristic for ships that people like to call explorer ships is that they have a high FSD class / hull mass ratio. Personally, I'd be surprised if we got anything better in this aspect, or even near the Anaconda/AspX/DBX trinity, but who knows. But if you don't want 50+ jump ranges, then any new ship can be interesting - and the ones they showed looked interesting. (Although the T-10 will likely jump as a brick, heh.)


Oh, and there's also the part about Engineers getting overhauled and new rolls always producing better results than what you had. Not exploration-specific, but likely to be very handy for explorers too.
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The concept art looks amazing and I'd much rather that than some half baked atmospheric landings.
That engineering bit at the end....hmm. I suppose that'll help us all achieve the god rolls :) I'd like it to work the I thought it worked until I found out it doesn't....mix recipes. So a reduced boot time could be applied to a jump range optimised FSD. I was horrified when I found my range cut!
 

disorganise

disorganise
Just watched the you tube of the 'reveals'. Have to say it's quite exciting. The planet models updates look to be amazing.

Disappointed to learn the wing missions are about winging with friends....was hoping it meant npc wing mates for solo play.
But with the obvious continued focus on multi-player gameplay, there was no reference to the elephant in the room that plagues our meet-ups. Instancing and disconnects. I don't know if being in Australia results in a poorer experience or not, but the recent 'big meet' at Mitterrand Hollow turned into the same sort of shambles that many of the DWE meet-ups ended up being. Seems once you get more than around a dozen Commander's, things fall apart. *That* needs addressing with some urgency in my humble.
 

Orvidius

Orvidius
I'm hoping the new exploration "tools" mainly leverage the existing modules, or anything new ends up being Utility or Hardpoint modules. Or, if they added an "equipment rack" module that would let you install multiple science experiments, or something along those lines. There should be plenty of options for adding new capabilities without exploding the module count. Otherwise, everyone will explore in Anacondas, and nothing else.

I'm still holding out hope for a mid-range exploration ship (high FSD class to mass ratio). I would very much like to have an explorer with a Lakon cockpit, more internals than the AspX, but more maneuverable than the Anaconda, while retaining a similar jump range. I'd be in heaven. :)
 

Kancro Vantas

Kancro Vantas
Mengy said:
Okay, so here is what Frontier said at the Frontier Expo today that impacts us explorers:


  • Q1 2018 - The beige planets get cured and color returns to the galaxy in force! (see pic below)
  • Planet surfaces will see improved features, fog, and terrain (no ETA but for 2018).
  • GalNet will get an audio feature where you can listen to GalNet articles spoken out loud while you fly.
  • Exploration will get a Codex feature which catalogs things you find (no ETA but for 2018).
  • Exploration will get more things to find and search for, sometime in 2018.
  • Exploration will get improved tools, but no details on how or what will be improved. Sometime 2018.
  • Exploration missions were mentioned, no details or ETA.
  • New lighting model for the game for both planet surfaces and outer space, might support multiple light sources.

Some of it is great, some of it is promising, but a lot of it was rather vague. They spoke about exploration last at the Expo like it was an afterthought, and they really didn't have much detail for us, so it sounds like most of the stuff for us will be late in the year, most likely the huge Q4 update in 2018. Q1 will see the beige plague cured though, so that is a very good thing!

Other things not exploration related are coming too like wing missions, squadrons (multiplayer thing), squadron controlled carrier mega ships, a bunch of new ships (mostly combat though?), better trading data, mining improvements, and engineering improvements.

Here is a preview of the cure for the beigefication:

https://i.imgur.com/iXzyoiI.png


Thoughts? Anything I missed? Frontier, anything you'd like to expound upon? :D

Hopefully we get more details soon, it would be nice to have more to look forward to especially seeing how long we've waited for any kind of development. At least there is promise even if details are vague.
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This all sound excellent....

US: "What happened with planets??!!! they are all beige!!"

FDev (over a year later): "Coming soon, like in 5 months"

US: "What about mechanics, atmospheric landings, scans, orrery map, and impact of exploration? Haven't heard anything!"

FDev: "Is all coming next year! Yeah..all of it! Next year"

US: "This is exciting! and great!! Let's have a party for this!! FDev, you are the best!"

Me: -Goes back to Ark-
 

mtt9999 [Parabolus]

mtt9999 [Parabolus]
So I've been thinking very much about the future of planetary exploration in elite... in fact, to me it really is the linchpin for making this game sustainable for me (and perhaps others like Dr. Kaii, etc)... I am really anxious to see if FDev can deliver on Q1 and Q4 graphic updates... I think they feel that the graphic of ED is losing out to other software (Star Citizen / Space Engine), and that for them to maintain course they need a dramatic overhaul of surfaces and textures, and geological formation variance... Why cant our planets looks like this!

[video=youtube;Ia8ZPfAlfOw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia8ZPfAlfOw[/video]

I get it, we might not get atmospheric landings for a while (I can wait until 2019 for that), but these updates they promise, and their initial renderings look great...

[video=youtube;uCKUhmbyGdM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCKUhmbyGdM[/video]

I just hope it is captivating enough, because planetary exploration is one of my favorite things about exploring... and right now the least developed. What scares me is that all of the footage from ED is taken from orbit, nothing from a surface... is that also going to get enhanced - I hope so, because right now the textures and form on surfaces are vague at best. I hope this doesn't come off salty... I've just been waiting for this to get overhauled for so long, and now that it is actually near, I am wondering if they will do enough...
 
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