External View [A definitive discussion]

[Doomus]

I'd love to be able to view the 3D ship models in the shipyard. I'd like each ship to have its own sales brochure when you browse them. Maybe even an option to sit in the cockpit to see if it feels right for you. Make it more like buying a car. Kick the tires. That kind of thing.

As for external view the best idea I've seen is that you could launch a camera drone to check outside. This could be used to survey damage investigate wrecks or just for taking cool pics and vids.

 

[RelicStarbrook]

There seems to be a simple answer to this and that's have an AI "take over" the flight controls while in 3rd person view.


That way there is no "advantage" during combats.

 

[zhaith]

There seems to be a simple answer to this and that's have an AI "take over" the flight controls while in 3rd person view.


That way there is no "advantage" during combats.

Well I suck at combat so i'm sure the AI is probably better than me

 

[Nutter]

Just needs a drone you pilot, launch and fly round your own ship. FD have said they may do this, but who knows... All I know is, until I can fly a drone around my ship I wont bother buying any paint jobs, there is simply no point! This subject has come up a thousand times yet nothing has been done. So I guess paint job sales are probably not doing very well. - I Don't get it, if you can't look at your ship in space, why have paint jobs?

 

[Hawkenser]

You will be able to get out and walk around your ship on stations and maybe planets later on.

There has also been talk about space walking for emergency repairs and such for an outside view in space.

Other than that I don't believe an out of ship experience whilst flying would be very safe or realistic.

 

[Nutter]

You will be able to get out and walk around your ship on stations and maybe planets later on.

There has also been talk about space walking for emergency repairs and such for an outside view in space.

Other than that I don't believe an out of ship experience whilst flying would be very safe or realistic.

Cool, so I can spend £50 on paint and maybe possibly look at it in 2016! Awesome!

 

[Tholin]

In open play without any combat or ships near all you are doing is denying the player a chance to appreciate their ships and enjoy just how great everything looks. Even a standard Flyby view would be nice. The developer Artist have done such a great job it would be nice to experience their work more. As for the drones it would be useful to check damage on a large ship if a drone took a look.

You’re not going to spend hours on external camera views but it would be a nice touch when it’s just yourself.

This.

Just to reiterate on the "it's a simulation" argument, how exactly is ED a simulation? You're doing impossible jumps between stars, you're in a spacecraft with incompherensible amounts of energy, the game is set in the year 3300 which you can not simulate, only make a wild guess, you're hearing engine noises and gun blasts, except sound does not travel in a vacuum (ok, you can say the sounds are generated by the ship's computer to increase situational awareness) and so on.


Flight Simulator X had external views, Project Cars has them, despite it trying to pass as a hard core driving sim. I could go on.

Call me childish but if we don't get any way to truly see our ships, I really doubt I'm gonna play this game much. And I've only played it two times so far.

 

[Hawkenser]

Cool, so I can spend £50 on paint and maybe possibly look at it in 2016! Awesome!

You could...but I wouldn't. Isn't freedom of choice a wonderful thing.

 

[AndyC77]

I have seen the price of them paint jobs. 10 quid for something you will hardly see, sorry but that is just a complete con. Tut, tut frontire, i didnt expect that from you.

 

[Hawkenser]

Well, Unless that paint starts repelling lasers or makes the ship go faster I don't mind a bit what they charge.

I'll just order a case of spray paint and be done with it.

 

[Vikinger]

To take a little better screenshoots you can hide your hud by pressing LeftShift-LeftALT and G. It toggles part of the hud on and off.
But its not possible to take any screens in 3d person view.

We have had this discussions many times and first the devs said no. But they have changed their mind and are investigate it and a solution they talked about is to launch a remote camera drone that could act as a 3 person view. But no decision have been made.

 

[Cody]

You do know that there's already a little thread about external views, yes?

 

[StarJim]

There are atleast two ways to see your ship from outside :

1. Oculus Rift : Calibrate your camera be too low (sit on floor) and then stand up. At least in Sidewinder you will see your ship from above. I did it and tried fly around standing - is absolutely amazing.

2. Buy a second account and a second PC (A little bit expensive indeed)

 

[Vikinger]

@Cody


Sorry for of topic but what a heck is a Fnord? LoL

 

[Nightborder]

Outside view IS A MUST but for non combat situations

 

[Nutter]

I'm sure it's not just me, but why have an option to buy paint but never to see it in space! I just don't understand, the screen shots and video I want to record are of me in my pimped out ship outside an undiscovered planet. Currently the only way to see your ship is in the hanger, completely useless for what I want. AND you still can't see the whole ship! - Emperor clothes anyone?

 

[BillD]

I actually had it happen by accident a couple of weeks ago.
I was flying around and pressed a function key accidentally while reaching for a pad and paper (grrrr!) that paused the game momentarily. What happened though is my POV froze, but the ship kept going, so I actually got to see the ship fly off into the distance for a few seconds, then I was back inside again. I got all excited thinking they had sneaked in an external cam view without telling us. I tried to repeat the experience and it never happened again. Alt-f10 sort of seemed to create a strange glitch but never to the extent I had happen the first time.

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Outside view IS A MUST but for non combat situations

Yeah I would be happy if they gave you a roaming camera view, but It disables weapons for a short time or cant be deployed if you are targeted or both.

 

[Ortikon]

"ship spinning" was a favoured past time of Eve players. When bored and not wanting to do anything, one could rotate their ship around in station and look at it. At one point they removed the feature to make the station look more realistic, the pitch forks came out real fast and likewise the feature returned just as quickly. I think a ship viewer would be nice.
I also think a cinematic camera mode would be safe as long as there are no hud elements at all. Player screenshots should always be available.

 

[Vikinger]

I'm sure it's not just me, but why have an option to buy paint but never to see it in space! I just don't understand, the screen shots and video I want to record are of me in my pimped out ship outside an undiscovered planet. Currently the only way to see your ship is in the hanger, completely useless for what I want. AND you still can't see the whole ship! - Emperor clothes anyone?

Yep. And I think this is the reason they changed their mind from a No 3d person view to a possible solution under investigation.
Iam sure they would sell more skins if people actually could se them

 

[Dejay]

So what are we making of this? Drones sell-able back the the store? Are these camera drones or cargo hatch drones or something different? This would imply that they do take up an equipment slot and that they are destructible but actually usable in combat.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=61341

- Point defence guns now shoot down drones
- Sensors now treat drones like missiles
- Missiles and drones can now include an extra collision capsule which point defence guns can shoot. The idea is to make it a bigger target so point defence can actually hit small fast moving things. The hack to sub-munitions is no more, if you want to shoot a missile with a non point defence you'd better be a good shot

- A few bug fixes to handle unexpected non live drone game objects

- If a drone control module game object vanishes some how without destroying it's drones, prevent the drone from trying to use a non existent controller

- We should be able to sell drones back to the store

- Prevent drones trying to initialise with non live targets