It is back and forth to understand work involved:
1. (+) Despite all saying COBRA is more than capable to have us walking around ED. It is an versatile engine;
2. (-) Actual engine capable doing this means very little considering how complex FD wants space legs to bee - magnetic boots and magnetic mittens, weightlessness everywhere else. Ship room design must serve this so players doesn't get stranded. Just slap camera walking around won't cut this;
3. (-) amount of work involved just get all ships mapped out is staggering;
4. (+) however ships are extremely modular. This of course can be done with PG and authored content. No need to handcraft all rooms. FD have clearly done lot of research to think ahead how ships would work with space legs;
5. (-) with all modularity going around I wonder how even ship internals look and feel like. Can you access cargo bay by floating/feet. Idea suggest there should be service hatch right?;
6. (-) also yeah there's a thing called gameplay - repairs, boarding, etc. For that alone ship combat - seemingly unconnected thing - will have to change marginally. Today's pew pew boom approach really doesn't make feel ships as persistent stations, but something to chalk off. To change that feeling - will it mean bigger ships won't blow up, etc. - will be biggest challenge, because for gameplay to make meaning you need to have reason for player NOT to blow ship up but board it;
7. (+/-) while financial reasons might be sound - desired feature in well played game - work involved and very unclear size of market (let's be honest, ED with it's rule set already disappoints lot of people who want GTAV in space) doesn't help much either.
So that's just a my fanboi's surface observations, I don't even touch on technical issues and limitations (avatar split from ship) currently in game. That's a lot of obstacles to cover.
Can FD do it? Yes. WIll they? I think they will, they are that just (positively) crazy. But it will take very long time to take there.
1. (+) Despite all saying COBRA is more than capable to have us walking around ED. It is an versatile engine;
2. (-) Actual engine capable doing this means very little considering how complex FD wants space legs to bee - magnetic boots and magnetic mittens, weightlessness everywhere else. Ship room design must serve this so players doesn't get stranded. Just slap camera walking around won't cut this;
3. (-) amount of work involved just get all ships mapped out is staggering;
4. (+) however ships are extremely modular. This of course can be done with PG and authored content. No need to handcraft all rooms. FD have clearly done lot of research to think ahead how ships would work with space legs;
5. (-) with all modularity going around I wonder how even ship internals look and feel like. Can you access cargo bay by floating/feet. Idea suggest there should be service hatch right?;
6. (-) also yeah there's a thing called gameplay - repairs, boarding, etc. For that alone ship combat - seemingly unconnected thing - will have to change marginally. Today's pew pew boom approach really doesn't make feel ships as persistent stations, but something to chalk off. To change that feeling - will it mean bigger ships won't blow up, etc. - will be biggest challenge, because for gameplay to make meaning you need to have reason for player NOT to blow ship up but board it;
7. (+/-) while financial reasons might be sound - desired feature in well played game - work involved and very unclear size of market (let's be honest, ED with it's rule set already disappoints lot of people who want GTAV in space) doesn't help much either.
So that's just a my fanboi's surface observations, I don't even touch on technical issues and limitations (avatar split from ship) currently in game. That's a lot of obstacles to cover.
Can FD do it? Yes. WIll they? I think they will, they are that just (positively) crazy. But it will take very long time to take there.
