External View [A definitive discussion]

[CaptainSodom]

Ok I just thought of a perfect idea

The 3rd person view, which would be a drone camera you deploy... could be targeted and DESTROYED by another player if they tried using it in combat.

These camera drones would be very expensive! Not many people would want to use them in combat Also they would explode and damage your ship..

Such technology for these camera drones exists today on earth in real life so.. to suggest 1000 years in the future that tech will not exist and should therefore not be in the game is just silly really, so just based on balance is not a good enough reason really.

Do war games omit night vision scopes because they give you an advantage? NO, because they are a fact of life in modern warfare. If something exists then you use it to your advantage. You don't just ignore the fact they exist because of "balance" in a game. Well you *could* but it would be making the game rather unrealistic by doing that.

emphasis mine.

This might be a workable compromise.

 

[P4UL]

Another idea I just had, an EMP could disable or destroy all deployed camera drones within range rendering them useless in combat!

All player ships would have this EMP fitted as standard to prevent the cameras being used against other players in combat.

 

[00prometheus]

External view by leaving your ship

There has been a lot of discussion about external view and immersion: basically, an external view is highly unrealistic. I thought a simple solution would be to let us take our pilots EVA, i.e. leave the cockpit in our space-suit, along with a little jet-pack and fly around our ships.

Since we are wearing a jet-pack, it will have enough oxygen, so we don't need to worry about the 10 minute countdown, but can explore the external view of our ships to our heart's content. This can of course be expanded later for rescue missions, swapping ships in mid-space, space suit combat, et al, but for starters, we simply get an external view under realistic conditions.

 

[Erimus Kamzel]

This is something that will hopefully come in the EVA expansion. Being able to conduct external repairs, jetpac over to another ship alongside you, and of course get those external views of our ships a lot of people crave

 

[Tek]

Once shot at your external camera drone docks up and renders you useless for several seconds while doing so. I think just having your camera drone out around other players would be dangerous enough, they would know that you are in a nerfed state and you could not shoot back until the little guy is re-attached to your ship.

 

[NeilF]

Once shot at your external camera drone docks up and renders you useless for several seconds while doing so. I think just having your camera drone out around other players would be dangerous enough, they would know that you are in a nerfed state and you could not shoot back until the little guy is re-attached to your ship.

That's sort of along the lines of the suggested approach? Deploying and docking takes 4-5 seconds (each way), so if you find yourself under attack and you want to get back to the cockpit to take action, docking is going to take a while.

If you want to suggest when your ship takes a hit, docking is initiated automatically, fair enough. Not sure if I agree with that, but it's obviously a valid suggestion with some +ve points to it.

 

[Jax Herah]

External views solution that does not compromise gameplay.

I realise how destroying an un limited external camera can be for game mechanics and intended gameplay experience. However I am in favour of experiencing the Ed universe out with my own first person perspective

My Solution. The Camera Drone

An in game Assett / Item in the form of a deployable camera. Controllable and configurable via an in ship monitor display and with a set of small thrusters allowing some positional variances and motion tracking ability. A simple UI with full screen capability, some basic lens settings.

As a useable in game item this could be used in the very gameplay that the unlimited camera options would naturally destroy. The immersive factor could be maintained through good implementation and simple provide further richness to viewing this universe.

spying, pirating, protecting, survival. tactical. that would be its other uses it would come at a cost in many forms for both financial up keep for usage and maintenance and ownership etc. having this item in use would negate other abilities but allow focus on what many people do want to experience in the form of external views. It would be a function with a wide range of purposes satisfying everyone's tastes. you cant use it in combat per say but you could use it prior to combat. but generally it would serve a multi purpose, one mainly being to view our beautiful dynamic universe for a multitude of reasons whilst not detracting from what external views integration immediately destroys.

 

[jabokai]

Discussed extensively here - http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=12464

 

[Jax Herah]

ok, thanks. not that I want it to be a simple ship viewer only. infact I don't want to view ships at all. but hey ho, im late to the show. :smilie:

p.s Glasgow chap here, unfortunately living in the NW of E. It`s raining. Time to do some Intergalactic Planetary, Planetary Intergalactic trading.

 

[Elessarus]

Just to be sure / camera

Hey,

I was checking out the new website and the E3 demo which i havent seen before and i noticed all the cool camera angles (under your ship, side etc.). This isnt in game now is it? I couldent find any camera controls so im assuming its not in game but i just wanted to be sure because it looks so damn cool! Is this something that will be implemented or are they just dev tools?

 

[Michael Brookes]

They're just dev tools at the moment. We are looking at ways to allow external views like camera drones.

Michael

 

[Severian]

No 3PV, but the plan I believe is to have camera drones for admiring your craft, screenshots and videos.

edit: ninja'd by a dev, no fair

 

[AndyEdgson]

Sadly just Dev tools. FD are very keen not to have external camera angles, especially in combat.

Must admit it would be really useful in shooting videos and showing off your shiny/tarnished/battle scarred space ship.

 

[Elessarus]

They're just dev tools at the moment. We are looking at ways to allow external views like camera drones.

Michael

Thanks alot for your reply Michael! Camera drones should work well

 

[Elessarus]

Sadly just Dev tools. FD are very keen not to have external camera angles, especially in combat.

Must admit it would be really useful in shooting videos and showing off your shiny/tarnished/battle scarred space ship.

Yeah thats the only thing i would like to use it for. Just to see the awesome ship designs and maybe inspect for damage. The ship designs are beautifull imo and it would be a shame not to be able to look at it.

 

[Zaptruder]

It makes complete sense to me that we should be able to see a third person view of the ship - even from in game universe perspective; given that we already have technology for VR, a virtual model of your ship with external camera sensors picking up all that additional information would be pretty straight forward tech for the 33rd century.

But even if you want to go for an apocryphal level of technology, from a gameplay perspective, the ability to admire your ship from an external camera freely can be easily balanced with combat functionality - while your weapons are up you can't engage third person view. When they're down, you can launch a drone (the idea been that you can't toggle weapons on and off mid combat to provide you with an advantage - the drone is a plausible time delay mechanism) that allows you to view your ship in all its glory.

Especially important when you're making a game where you can customize your ship, change weapons, engines, paintjobs, etc. How are you supposed to savour that detail if you can't go third person?

 

[Dinbar]

Thanks for posting at the weekend Michael, guess its a busy time

Really pleased to see that you are actually looking at giving us some kind of view ( all be it drone ). For me its the youtube vids that people produce that will be the best marketing for this wonderful game.

Just look at minecraft to see how player made videos help. ( I'm sure you have already )

 

[Majere]

What if you could drop a drone, it would either have no engines or very minimal with some AI to attempt to follow at a slow speed, it would be useless in combat.

Also make it broadcast unencrypted to that any ship within range can pick it up.

Takes up a utility mount that can hold 1 or 2 maybe.

You can scoop them back up afterwards, or maybe someone else would...

Just a thought.

 

[Dinbar]

What if you could drop a drone, it would either have no engines or very minimal with some AI to attempt to follow at a slow speed, it would be useless in combat.

Also make it broadcast unencrypted to that any ship within range can pick it up.

Takes up a utility mount that can hold 1 or 2 maybe.

You can scoop them back up afterwards, or maybe someone else would...

Just a thought.

This is my worry about a drone. It could get far to complicated and all I want to do is admire the GFX and my ship.

So far, in the ships i've played, only the sidewinder has a decent window for looking at a unobstructed view. Even then I have to face the ship nose down and look up .

I like the no hardpoint option discussed earlier in the thread and then a frontier type interface would fit the job

 

[Dalkeith]

I noticed that in the shots as well. While its clear you could justify anything with a bit of imagination I personally would prefer that third person views are only for recording for broadcasters.

I think it would really encourage the broadcasters though. They ve already done a great job with what they ve been given.