Feature Requests Update #12 – The Ghost in the Machine
Time to get technical! Well not entirely...In reality this edition is something of a mixed bag of enquiries that I grouped together in a document named ‘Technical’, for reasons now unknown to me.
Be that as it may, within this document was a plethora of interesting and popular inquiries that our dev team were more than happy to provide answers for. So let’s begin!
Several of the questions we received related to whether there would be dynamic simulations for things such as commodity markets, colonisation growth and the in-game political balance. As most of you know these things and more will all be handled by the evolving galaxy and events system, which we hope will make game play much more dynamic and immersive.
Sandy: This will be part of the evolving galaxy systems that will require interaction with the server
Michael: This will be part of the evolving galaxy system.
One thing that some people were curious about was whether players would be able to roll back the evolving galaxy to previous instances in its timeline. For a variety of reasons this will not be possible:Michael: This will be part of the evolving galaxy system.
Sandy: No... This would create a nightmare of multiplayer compatibility issues.
Michael: To maintain multiplayer compatibility updates will be managed by the server.
Dynamic content generation, such as NPC missions and distress calls is something that was asked about and we can confirm that these will also be controlled by the event system:Michael: To maintain multiplayer compatibility updates will be managed by the server.
Sandy: Yes this is in the existing design
Michael: Yes, this is part of the current design.
Two questions we received related to the units of measurement that will be used in-game. The first part of this asked whether thruster power would be measured in Newtons (force) or Gs (acceleration). This is a feature that the team are still considering, but would like to provide players the option to display this information in as many formats as possible:Michael: Yes, this is part of the current design.
Sandy: There will be various methods of reporting such information. It will likely support many options and the player can choose their preference
Michael: We need to see how it goes, but there will probably be a number of options for displaying this type of information.
The second enquiry about units of measurement asks whether cargo capacity would be specified in terms of volume or mass, requesting that it be volume. The current plan is to create a unit of measurement similar to what currently exists in the world of shipping, which is largely based on volume:Michael: We need to see how it goes, but there will probably be a number of options for displaying this type of information.
Michael: This might be one of the options we use for reporting cargo space usage.
David: Yes – we need to name the unit of cargo. In maritime shipping today the unit is the ungainly “TEU” (stands for trailer-equivalent unit – ie one lorry load – and a large ship might be 6,000 TEU). We might call it “t” or “ton” for shorthand.
A very specific enquiry we received asked whether there would be some mechanic or effect in-game to represent relativity. This would of course represent a wide range of challenges in itself, for only a marginal amount of benefit. Because of this the answer is no:David: Yes – we need to name the unit of cargo. In maritime shipping today the unit is the ungainly “TEU” (stands for trailer-equivalent unit – ie one lorry load – and a large ship might be 6,000 TEU). We might call it “t” or “ton” for shorthand.
Sandy: No – there’s no way to make this work nicely in a multiplayer environment. There will probably be visual indicators of this sort for various things though – red/blue-shift and the like.
Michael: In this case we’d rule game play over realism and say probably not.
Something that was asked, which piqued the interest of our team, was the addition of an ‘Image Enhancement Mode’. This would allow players to observe space in the manner it is represented by things such as the Hubble Telescope, in a rich range of bright colours and deep hues. This was something that the team were open to explore post-initial launch:Michael: In this case we’d rule game play over realism and say probably not.
Sandy: To be discussed, I’d like to have something like this and quite a bit more besides. This may not be a release 1 feature – but certainly things like this will come available in updates at some stage.
Michael: It’s a nice idea; it probably won’t make the initial release but is something we can investigate at a later stage.
Finally this week is a fairly open request, asking for Elite: Dangerous to have a ‘steep learning curve’. Whilst most people enjoy a challenge and we want to add as much depth to the Elite experience as possible, the team are also aware that the game needs to be accessible to newcomers:Michael: It’s a nice idea; it probably won’t make the initial release but is something we can investigate at a later stage.
Sandy: To Be Discussed with the Design Decisions Forum. Personally I would like this – but that’s not a universal view.
Michael: This needs to be balanced carefully, we don’t want to scare newcomers away, but we do want the game to provide a challenge after months or even years of play. We expect that the design forum members as well as the alpha and beta testers to help fine tune the learning curve.
That’s it for another week, thank you again for reading! I currently have content for only a few more of these feature requests, so I will be thinking of something else to replace them once the Enquiry Well runs dry. If you have any requests or suggestions as to what sort of things you’d be interested in seeing in a future update please let me know and I will look into making one of them happen.Michael: This needs to be balanced carefully, we don’t want to scare newcomers away, but we do want the game to provide a challenge after months or even years of play. We expect that the design forum members as well as the alpha and beta testers to help fine tune the learning curve.
Thanks again,
Ashley
