Feature Requests Update #7- This is my ship. There are many like it, but this one is mine!
It kind of goes without saying but in a game set in space, your ship is pretty important! A lot of the enquiries we got related directly to how players interact with their ships and what capabilities would be available to them. So this week we’ll sort through them and hopefully provide you some more insight into what we have planned.
Controls
So straight off the bat, a lot of people wanted to know if there would be a ‘proper’ cockpit view in Elite: Dangerous and I’m happy to confirm that this will be the case. Unfortunately there isn’t much I can tell you to expand on this, but hopefully we’ll have more to share with you in the coming months.
During the Kickstarter campaign we confirmed that there would be a Fly-by-Wire flight system used in Elite: Dangerous, but as a follow-up to this news were several enquiries about whether there would be multiple flight models that were tailored for different levels of skill and experience. Whilst we hope to add ways for newer players to modify the complexity of the flight system, this is unlikely to take the form of completely different
flight models:
Sandy: This doesn’t work with multi-player particularly well. There will almost certainly be different levels of Fly-By-Wire ‘helpfulness’ but the flight model itself will not be fundamentally different.
Michael: To be decided, it is unlikely that we’ll have different flight models, but options as part of the fly-by-wire system that can be turned on and off are likely. We’ll get more into detail with this in the alpha and beta tests for balancing. We want flight to be much more accessible, but also contain nuances that can be used by expert pilots.
A powerful memory from the original Elite is of course the difficulty of docking with a space station without a docking computer, and some people were interested to see if Elite: Dangerous would give players a modern rendition of this experience. Although the team want to allow manual docking to take place, they don’t want it to be nearly as difficult or as punishing as it is in the original game:Michael: To be decided, it is unlikely that we’ll have different flight models, but options as part of the fly-by-wire system that can be turned on and off are likely. We’ll get more into detail with this in the alpha and beta tests for balancing. We want flight to be much more accessible, but also contain nuances that can be used by expert pilots.
Sandy: Manual Docking is in the existing design; the level of damage on failure though is yet to be decided.
Michael: You can manually dock your ship, we’ll see about the damage it causes. We don’t want the game to be frustrating, but ramming a station should have consequences.
Modules and UpgradesMichael: You can manually dock your ship, we’ll see about the damage it causes. We don’t want the game to be frustrating, but ramming a station should have consequences.
Of course, your ship choice is not the only decision that a player has to make. Each ship will have a range of modules and available upgrades for players to choose from, which will change the capabilities of your ship. One enquiry was whether spare modules could be carried in cargo and if there would be a range of different ‘quality’ modules, from generic brands to high quality models:
Sandy: Yes – specific content to be decided.
Michael: Yes we want there to be a progression for specific modules.
A similar enquiry also asked if players would be able to upgrade the software on their ships, to could improve things such as scanners and combat systems:Michael: Yes we want there to be a progression for specific modules.
Sandy: Yes – specific details undecided – but scanning & exploration will require something of this sort. Details need to be discussed.
Michael: Yes, although this requires further definition, but will be guided by the needs of the game.
Another enquiry that was related to the software of a player’s computer asked whether ships would have on-board programmable computers; this feature is not a part of the current design for Elite: Dangerous.Michael: Yes, although this requires further definition, but will be guided by the needs of the game.
Deployable structures were another thing that the community was extremely curious about. Questions ranged from the ability to deploy communication satellites and exploration probes, to mining bots and ‘trade mules’. Whilst we can confirm that there will be deployable structures, we have not yet finalised what the full range of these will be:
Sandy: There will be player-deployable structures, not sure about com-sats specifically but there may be exploration probes of sorts in the game – the specific details are to be discussed.
Michael: There will be player deployable structures; it is unknown at the moment if this includes communication satellites. Exploration Probes maybe, we will investigate this during development.
ExtrasMichael: There will be player deployable structures; it is unknown at the moment if this includes communication satellites. Exploration Probes maybe, we will investigate this during development.
Another feature that was eluded to but never explicitly confirmed was that players could own multiple ships if they wish. This feature will be in Elite: Dangerous, although you will only be able to pilot one at a time of course.
In regards to whether ships will degrade and be subject to mechanical breakdowns, this is a possibility. We already know from the design proposal for hyperspace travel that hyperdrives can malfunction and of course ships will show cosmetic signs of wear over time. But this may also be expanded to include other parts of your ship degrading and requiring repairs:
Michael: Needs further design, but some ship degradation is likely to occur and will need repair. This will need to be balanced to allow long range exploration.
David: By paying extra for equipment, mechanical breakdown would occur much less.
Finally this week is an idea that I have seen come up several times in the past few months on the forums, and that is the idea of having a crew that needs to be kept satisfied for your ship to perform optimally. Whilst not all ships would be large enough to necessarily warrant a crew, this is an idea that the team are keen to explore further:David: By paying extra for equipment, mechanical breakdown would occur much less.
Sandy: Needs a separate discussion, but at the moment I think that something like this will be available.
Michael: We need to look into this.
That’s it for another week, we have received a huge amount of requests and enquiries about Elite: Dangerous so we’re still just skimming the surface of things we have to share with you as development continues. Thanks again for reading and look out for update #8 the same time next week!Michael: We need to look into this.
Thanks, Ashley
