External View [A definitive discussion]

[landario]

Hello,

i would love to have an external View to at least check my Ship.

Whats the Point of Paint jobs etc when you can only see a "fraction" of your ship in the Outfitting Screen ?.

I don't want to fight with external View but i want to see how my ship looks like with its Weapons etc.

Cheers
landario

 

[Belsameth]

Personally I'd love an external view via camera drone to admire my ship/take screenshots.

It should be availible *just* for that tho and not add extra tools for combat and whatnot. When you're flying your ship in a combat situation, there's no time to also control a drone

 

[Amaze]

I still find it ironic that a lot of those arguing in favour of the external view seem unable or unwilling to comprehend that other POVs exist.

There seems to be only two reasons against it.
Advantage in combat and it breaks immersion.

Both are not good arguments though.
1st : make it non combat only,
2nd : don't use it if breaks immersion.


I may have missed the other reasons not to have an external view.

 

[NeilF]

I still find it ironic that a lot of those arguing in favour of the external view seem unable or unwilling to comprehend that other POVs exist.

An internal view?

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There seems to be only two reasons against it.
Advantage in combat and it breaks immersion.

Both are not good arguments though.
1st : make it non combat only,
2nd : don't use it if breaks immersion.


I may have missed the other reasons not to have an external view.

"combat" is a vague term. ie: If I want to sit outside my ship in the middle of no where and see it fire lasers?

Personaly I think some simple nerfs (eg: 4-5 second delay getting in/out of the view) will be enough to mean it's of no real advantage (quite the opposite?). Add to this there will be no HUD as well most likely.

 

[Soulstain]

If it works for pvp, you are FORCED to use it, or you gimp yourself. We have already been through this. This isn't rocket science.

Yes, we have been through this to death and it DOES NOT help in pvp so you are right, it's not rocket science. Put it in please. It doesn't need to be a priority, they already have it, it's just being held back. It's such a ridiculous discussion in a game that calls itself a sim.

 

[Soulstain]

Not at the moment, but that might change in the future. We're aware of the desire for an external view, but it's not integral to the game so has a lower priority for now.

Michael

Hi Michael, thanks for the reply.
However, you are wrong in your assertion. You have marketed this game as a sim. All sims have external views. Why, because THEY ARE integral to the game. As I have mentioned on here before, computer games can't replicate peripheral view, which most certainly is integral in a simulation, especially a combat sim. It may be ok in a space hauler but not in a combat situation. This is not preserving immersion as has been suggested, it is in fact ruining it. Nobody would design a combat vessel in the future with no visibility other than front view, we don't do it now. It would be suicide, unless of course you had video imaging of some sort. Still not the same as turning your head around over your shoulder. You are correct that it is not integral from the view of it being a vanity view, but from the point of this being a sim which simulates space combat it most certainly is integral. At least until you guys invent artificial peripheral vision in a computer game.

Please reconsider your stance. It is why all hard core sims have it. If those computer nerds (of which I am one) don't think it breaks immersion, I would say there is no argument .

 

[Monarch Black]

I'm good with combat being locked in first-person. I prefer that. There needs to be external view at some point if Frontier wants to sell skins. They may sell some now, but personally I see no point in buying them just to see a different paint job from 3 fixed views in the outfitting screen. I put on the free skin in the station, and got my free Cobra skin pack, but can't see me ever spending $1 on customizing something I never see.

 

[V3teran]

I'm good with combat being locked in first-person. I prefer that. There needs to be external view at some point if Frontier wants to sell skins. They may sell some now, but personally I see no point in buying them just to see a different paint job from 3 fixed views in the outfitting screen. I put on the free skin in the station, and got my free Cobra skin pack, but can't see me ever spending $1 on customizing something I never see.

This 100%.

 

[NeilF]

Not at the moment, but that might change in the future. We're aware of the desire for an external view, but it's not integral to the game so has a lower priority for now.

Michael

LOL! Didn't even see your comment Michael (until now) Thanks for the update at least!

On a side note can I at least push for a nose-cam screenshot to be added in the meantime? ie: A screenshot facility without HUD/cockpit at all?

That would at least shut some of us for a while


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Hi Michael, thanks for the reply.
However, you are wrong in your assertion. You have marketed this game as a sim. All sims have external views. Why, because THEY ARE integral to the game. As I have mentioned on here before, computer games can't replicate peripheral view, which most certainly is integral in a simulation, especially a combat sim. It may be ok in a space hauler but not in a combat situation. This is not preserving immersion as has been suggested, it is in fact ruining it. Nobody would design a combat vessel in the future with no visibility other than front view, we don't do it now. It would be suicide, unless of course you had video imaging of some sort. Still not the same as turning your head around over your shoulder. You are correct that it is not integral from the view of it being a vanity view, but from the point of this being a sim which simulates space combat it most certainly is integral. At least until you guys invent artificial peripheral vision in a computer game.

Please reconsider your stance. It is why all hard core sims have it. If those computer nerds (of which I am one) don't think it breaks immersion, I would say there is no argument .

I certainly would love an external view. But let's consider that there are a number of issues surrounding the problem so it's not a five minute job. eg: Incorporating drones etc. So would you rather FD spend man weeks of effort putting external views in, or instead use that time to add more meat to ED's bones?

Consider also that maybe more game mechanics are coming which may also affect external views. So would it be better to put in external views now, only to have to amend the code later, or simply do it once later on?

 

[Deyn]

I'm good with combat being locked in first-person. I prefer that. There needs to be external view at some point if Frontier wants to sell skins. They may sell some now, but personally I see no point in buying them just to see a different paint job from 3 fixed views in the outfitting screen. I put on the free skin in the station, and got my free Cobra skin pack, but can't see me ever spending $1 on customizing something I never see.

^^^This!, absolutely...

 

[Deyn]

I certainly would love an external view. But let's consider that there are a number of issues surrounding the problem so it's not a five minute job. eg: Incorporating drones etc. So would you rather FD spend man weeks of effort putting external views in, or instead use that time to add more meat to ED's bones?

Consider also that maybe more game mechanics are coming which may also affect external views. So would it be better to put in external views now, only to have to amend the code later, or simply do it once later on?

That is, why they should simply bind the existing external view/fly by to a key and voilá, no additional effort or manpower...

And if it will affect "game mechanics" (I wonder how though?) they could limit this key bind to Solo play.

No rocket science and lots of people happy.

All we ask for, is a simple(!) external cam that can pan around the ship, may be a fly by. No drones or extravehicular add on required.

Actually, I don't care about extravehicular action, drones etc. In fact I'm afraid the introduce "new concepts" of boarding actions in Egoshooter style, so I have to care about yet another problem, i would like to omit, in the first place.

I bought a space SIM! No EGOshooter... I suck at Egoshooters! Now, what happens if you now need to get away quickly from any enemy to avoid "boarding", as I may be a decent pilot, but can't survive any boarding action?

 

[Olrik]

that can pan around the ship...Actually, I don't care about extravehicular action, drones etc.

Simple as that!

 

[Shadowma]

Yes would love option to take some Pic's of my ship flying around don't need or want it for combat FP works fine for me with combat. Hope they are listening would be a nice option. What would really be nice is a third person camera so we could watch dog fights & use this as a training tool, maybe something in conjunction with Nvidia's shadow play?

Shadowma

 

[almostpilot]

I'm good with combat being locked in first-person. I prefer that. There needs to be external view at some point if Frontier wants to sell skins. They may sell some now, but personally I see no point in buying them just to see a different paint job from 3 fixed views in the outfitting screen. I put on the free skin in the station, and got my free Cobra skin pack, but can't see me ever spending $1 on customizing something I never see.

Exactly.

 

[TheDeathsHead]

I personally would love a cinematic view that just does flybys, would be useless for combat but would extend game life IMO.

 

[Joe Akeem]

Are we here again? ok, uuh yes out of combat. There.

 

[NeilF]

I was doing some weapon/shield testing with a friend last night. At one point he commented on the "great damage effects" he could see on my ship while I let him fly close around me to look. Seems such a shame I can't see it

 

[Gédéon_Lecanard]

I was doing some weapon/shield testing with a friend last night. At one point he commented on the "great damage effects" he could see on my ship while I let him fly close around me to look. Seems such a shame I can't see it

I can imagine the designers, modelers and texturers at FD posting anonymously in this thread, asking for an external view

 

[almostpilot]

I was doing some weapon/shield testing with a friend last night. At one point he commented on the "great damage effects" he could see on my ship while I let him fly close around me to look. Seems such a shame I can't see it

sometimes i just stay around stations to see ships entering in a jump(among others things).....is very cool.

We lost a lot while we don´t have a external view

 

[Dejay]

Just to reiterate one point about making an external view unusable for combat:

Reduce the FOV to create a more telescope or cinematic look.

A smaller FOV will negate any "situational advantage" you might gain (and VR will give a far bigger boost to situational awareness). A zoomed in look will also look better!