External View [A definitive discussion]

An External View yes or no, Multiple choice

  • Yes: an External View for Combat

    Votes: 28 8.8%
  • No: This will break immersion fo me

    Votes: 117 36.6%
  • Yes: I want to know from where I am being attacked from

    Votes: 16 5.0%
  • No: the Scanner is all you need.

    Votes: 103 32.2%
  • Yes: a Simple external ship viewer None Combat

    Votes: 161 50.3%
  • No: Keep everything within the ship

    Votes: 105 32.8%

  • Total voters
    320
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Yet another poster who can't take it when they someone pokes a bit of fun at them. Look, the reason you offered for the game's existence was a narcissistic one, surely you see that?

Tooling about space in a pimped-out ship is such a tired old gaming cliche, a virtual version of those guys who rush out and buy a big red sports car the day they see their first grey hair in the mirror. Don't expect to carry on like that without getting fun poked at you a bit. "It's not 1994 any more!"



I'm not against it in the context of drones, where it makes sense within the reality of the game. I am not a fan of magic astral projection cam. Given that the devs have come down on my side of the argument, I'm quite happy with things as is. I still fail to see a good argument against the status quo on this subject, even without referencing any balancing issues that might arise.

So sorry for the over reaction here. I didn't notice you were funny ;)
And I never stated what you desperately try to make me say (being narcissic and playing as such). You appear to understand what you want to, aren't you? That goes along with your statement about devs coming domn to your argument. The last comment I read on that matter was stating that they were actually looking into it, with no ETA so far.

This feeling is reinforced by the fact that you can't see a good argument for that feature so far. There are plenty of good arguments from both sides. You just have to stop reading what you want to read.

Space sci-fi movies are essentially made of beauty shots, and this is not about being narcissic. It's about giving something to dream on, something to be amazed at. Images, frames, impressions, you name them. Elite is by essence a very contemplative game, like many of its kind. I asked that before, but would you play with an untextured primitive polygon shape as a ship? From the very first Elite to all the other space sim games ever, there was always a strong emphasis on giving shapes and design to the ships. Surely I don't have to explain to you why the sense of beauty and design is so important?
 
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Somebody of you maybe know XREBIRTH?
They think at release it would be a good idea to release the game without 3thr person view.
(I dont want to talk about all the bugs they had in release version, but no 3thr view was intended from the devs.)
And then most players wanted a 3 view and they implement it quick and dirty, and near one year later they did some real 3 person view with patches.

Why should Frontier not learn from the failures that were maid from Xrebirth dev-team?

Another good point you speak about here, frontier want to make some extra money with paint jobs for your ships, well if i just see my ship from the cockpit i sure will not buy any kind of stuff like that for what when i will never see it from outside^^ *rolleyes* ???
 
And I never stated what you desperately try to make me say (being narcissic and playing as such).
Here's another thing I disagree with: unnecessary melodrama. "desperately" - really? As for your claim re:narcissism, what would you call using this as the raison d'etre for the game:
pimping your shiny spaceship to the core until you can buy an even more bling bling one
Sounds pretty narcissistic to me.
You appear to understand what you want to, aren't you? That goes along with your statement about devs coming domn to your argument. The last comment I read on that matter was stating that they were actually looking into it, with no ETA so far.
I don't think I am likely to convince them either way. I don't know about your thoughts. You may think that you are that important, or that your arguments are so novel and unassailable that the devs will ironically be forced to accept your POV. Who knows?
This feeling is reinforced by the fact that you can't see a good argument for that feature so far. There are plenty of good arguments from both sides. You just have to stop reading what you want to read.
I have read the arguments, but they all seem to boil down to "I really really want it" (not an argument), or "it will look cool to me" (again, not an argument), or "I paid for skins that I can't see" (better, except you saw them when you bought them, unless you bought them all sight unseen, in which case I dread to think what your wardrobe contains...)

Space sci-fi movies are essentially made of beauty shots
They also don't allow you to interact with anything. Games have a completely different set of criteria. Games like this are the antidote to all those games where the producers secretly want to be movie producers, that lead you on a linear path towards a conclusion, roll credits, put the game back on the shelf. Again, "it's not 1994 any more!", and CD-ROM interactive movies are long dead.

, and this is not about being narcissic. It's about giving something to dream on, something to be amazed at. Images, frames, impressions, you name them. Elite is by essence a very contemplative game, like many of its kind. I asked that before, but would you play with an untextured primitive polygon shape as a ship?
Again, I was looking for good arguments. This ridiculous hypothetical situation you present is not one. Besides, the original game's ships were quite primitive convex hulls, really:
Elite.jpg

(I know, not a real primitive, but the ships were a product of their engine, much like the ships today are. They weren't about to win many design trophies at the time unless there was such a thing as the "Paperweight Awards", or perhaps the 1984 "Fromage D'or". Still, I played that game for a loooong time.)
From the very first Elite to all the other space sim games ever, there was always a strong emphasis on giving shapes and design to the ships. Surely I don't have to explain to you why the sense of beauty and design is so important?
No, but you might have to explain to me why it should trump any other considerations, i.e. balanced gameplay and/or making sense within the reality the game tries to present.
 
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It's really just an unnecessary cod era gimmick feature.
Then can you please explain, why Frontier takes so much effort to have this "unnecessary cod era gimmick" implemented to take their promotion videos and screenshot and then take additional effort to compile a version without it??!!!
 
still no external view?

Please quit showing these wonderful screenshots of the external views if we are never going to see
Than the interior of the ships cockpit. It is misleading to potential new players.
 
As this thread https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=70517&page=6 has been closed because... reasons.... I guess we're back to posting in this one and no longer have an active poll on the topic for people to register their opinion.

For reference at the time it was closed a clear 60% majority were in favor of normal (non contextualized) external cameras at least in solo and/or restricted to out of combat in some way with a further 17.65% voting for drones.

So yeah, people have spoken. Frontier don't have to listen but considering how easy and quick a thing it is to implement and how it falls squarely into the "don't like it then don't use it" and "Play the game your way" arguments I think they would be utterly crazy not to bite the bullet admit they were wrong and make sure its in for launch. By all means make it solo only at first and see how it goes. But please don't restrict it to out of combat for me when I'm playing on my own.
 
So yeah, people have spoken. Frontier don't have to listen but considering how easy and quick a thing it is to implement and how it falls squarely into the "don't like it then don't use it" and "Play the game your way" arguments I think they would be utterly crazy not to bite the bullet admit they were wrong and make sure its in for launch. By all means make it solo only at first and see how it goes. But please don't restrict it to out of combat for me when I'm playing on my own.
Guess that will be the hardest part... The Vision(tm) can't be wrong, right?
 
external views

Why do we not yet have external views? Am i the only one that really wants this in the game? If you look at frontiers web site all of the promotional screen shots are taken externaly so it is
possible to implement this feature. Ive commented on this before and get the responce "you cannot
see your car while driving, so this is just realism by the dev" i answer would you buy a car without
looking at the exterior? Do you not look at your car while its parked? Why go through all the trouble
of programing beautiful space craft when no one will see anything other than the inside cockpit view.
give us this option or quit showing those external views on all your promotional pictures and you tube videos.
 
Why not an external "camera view" while in your ship and docked?

When were docked, theres a tower in front of us, why not use that as an excuse to have an optional 3rd person view of our ship while docked, and then maybe a couple camera angles to cycle through in the hangar?
 
Yeah, maybe. But I don't get the fascination with hangar only views. If we get 3rd person in any form, it needs to be out in space where I can see my ship in its natural habitat - hanging against blue giant stars or drifting across volcanic moons and so forth. Hangars are boring.
 
This old chestnut again..

The only External view Id like and tolerate would be a piloted remote drone.

But since you are flying your drone your not flying your ship
Your ship has to be stationary in order to fly the drone.

If you hear yourself being attacked you can abandon the drone in space (You'll have to buy another) or you can land it back on your ship.
Drones can be shot if seen, tho they are hard to see and dont show on radar.
The drone could be needed for recon missions. (running cold, hidey, sneaky business)

Oh and the drone is first person too... Dont want any of that 3rd person console garbage in Elite.
 
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