Give us a reason to stay on planets.

Duel Forever

D
A big problem with on foot gameplay is that there isn't much to do without having to travel across a system which breaks up gameplay too much and actually degrades the sense of scale because actual gameplay takes place in smaller areas (settlements and then bases) separated by a travel system that takes you out of your on foot perspective.

A way to improve on foot gameplay and retain the sense of scale would be to have larger settlements or networks of settlements separated a few KM apart which can be traversed between via SRVs, small ships or even on foot with missions to do between them (assassination missions, courier missions, retrieval missions, conflict zones, etc.) all within a small-large area on a single planet giving you a reason to stay on a single body for a few hours or days.

The settlements feel nearly inconsequential when the primary gameplay loop requires you to go in and out of them constantly without any real reason to stay or care about them.

Let me know if I'm wrong or if you have another perspective.
 

[VR] Bulbulunufus

[VR] Bulbulunufus
I wish there were missions that actually required you to do some detective work. Like combine different layers of information to figure out where some lost SRV or ship foundered and have to search some radius. You start off in the settlement or planet port and they give you what they know and you piece it together. Like a procedural version of some of the easter egg hunts that are run via galnet, twitter, etc. Currently everything is handed on a plate with signal sources or markers on a planet or whatever.

It might be important to balance the potential time consumed in a hunt with appropriate rewards. If not cash or inf then they could be a good way to fast track rep or mitigate a negative BGS state or something.
 

varonica

varonica
TScal12 said:
This this this.... infinite this!!
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I can drive 3 hours without seeing another town, 8 hours for a reasonable sized town, 12 hours for a city.

Yes I can see areas where there is a dense population and only a few kilometers between settlements, I also think there would be areas where there wouldn't be a settlement within easy driving range. An entire planet laid out with population centers, isolated settlements, research bases, military assets and just completely unexplored areas would be great, generate lots of missions and etc, but that's an entire different game to the one we are playing.

Apex taxi's are designed so you can adventure on foot by visiting planets and settlements, that could be extended to a few planets where you could spend the entire game without ever leaving or running out of things to do, but that's a big step in developing planets. Maybe landable earth like worlds by the time they arrive will be like that, here's hoping.
 

TScal12

T
varonica said:
I can drive 3 hours without seeing another town, 8 hours for a reasonable sized town, 12 hours for a city.

Yes I can see areas where there is a dense population and only a few kilometers between settlements, I also think there would be areas where there wouldn't be a settlement within easy driving range. An entire planet laid out with population centers, isolated settlements, research bases, military assets and just completely unexplored areas would be great, generate lots of missions and etc, but that's an entire different game to the one we are playing.

Apex taxi's are designed so you can adventure on foot by visiting planets and settlements, that could be extended to a few planets where you could spend the entire game without ever leaving or running out of things to do, but that's a big step in developing planets. Maybe landable earth like worlds by the time they arrive will be like that, here's hoping.
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All I'm looking for is a cluster of 2 - 3 or 4 settlements within 10 - 50 miles of each other where localized missions are generated between them. Gives us an excuse to explore the awesome new terrain while conducting missions. Could be delivering supplies between them where only SRVs can be used for example, or a search and rescue, etc. (This is about fun and not efficiency). Localizing missions will truly show the massive scale of this game (by keeping you within a 10 - 100 mile radius for days while doing missions between these settlements, when all of a sudden you decide to (or have to) travel lightyears away). I think the post Dev Diary 2 chat with Luke touched on that a bit, where he said missions will be more local and only send you 1 - 200km away.
 

varonica

varonica
GroG79 said:
I can not.. I would be in Spain after 12 hours

I like this idea of cities.. Can Fdev not just buy Cyberpunk and integrate the games?
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Can't even get out of the state in 12 hours!

27 hours to the south border, 24 hours to the north border, that's with no breaks.
 

zikolach

zikolach
DemiserofD said:
Doesn't even need to be full settlements, it could be one-building mining or research outposts.

It would be neat if they generated srv tracks between them too.
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I like it! Trying to follow some semi-visible tracea to find a place, meet someone or pick up/drop a container. Or fly a canyon at low altitude to avoid being detected.

Spend a bit of time learning how to use SRV scanner these days. Found some interesting POIs I never thought existed (in Horizons).
 

Ian Skippy

Ian Skippy
[VR] Bulbulunufus said:
I wish there were missions that actually required you to do some detective work. Like combine different layers of information to figure out where some lost SRV or ship foundered and have to search some radius. You start off in the settlement or planet port and they give you what they know and you piece it together. Like a procedural version of some of the easter egg hunts that are run via galnet, twitter, etc. Currently everything is handed on a plate with signal sources or markers on a planet or whatever.

It might be important to balance the potential time consumed in a hunt with appropriate rewards. If not cash or inf then they could be a good way to fast track rep or mitigate a negative BGS state or something.
Click to expand...
At its most basic: two linked missions to steal the coordinates, then go there for final mission.
 

TScal12

T
DemiserofD said:
Doesn't even need to be full settlements, it could be one-building mining or research outposts.

It would be neat if they generated srv tracks between them too.
Click to expand...
Absolutely, and depending on BGS, there could be no fly zones in effect on those clusters that could justify the use of SRVs to traverse between the settlements!
 

GraphicEqualizer

GraphicEqualizer
I think that time spent in settlements should result in RNG lucrative inbox mission offers... something that pays well in engineering materials and can direct you to really interesting surface locations.
E.g. every 20 minutes spent in a settlement should result in at least one lucrative offer that is better than anything in the settlement's mission boards
 

Maolagin

M
It's an interesting idea, and not unappealing. One wrinkle you'd still have to contend with, in terms of establishing scale - with the current vehicle mechanics, jumping in your starship and engaging the magic warp drive is actually the best way to cover any distance over 20 km or so. In the real world we don't do that because flying is expensive, plus the time and hassle of going to the airport, etc. In ED, in almost no situation is there enough friction to taking off in a ship that you would use another mode of transportation.

Recent real example: not long ago we had the Salvation event with the ancient Thargoid-Guardian battlefield. Lots of sites to explore spread across a couple hundred km on a scenic desolate planet. Would make a cool driving tour by SRV, but I doubt one player in a hundred drove for half an hour instead of taking two minutes to fly up to drop altitude and glide to the next site.
 

TScal12

T
Maolagin said:
It's an interesting idea, and not unappealing. One wrinkle you'd still have to contend with, in terms of establishing scale - with the current vehicle mechanics, jumping in your starship and engaging the magic warp drive is actually the best way to cover any distance over 20 km or so. In the real world we don't do that because flying is expensive, plus the time and hassle of going to the airport, etc. In ED, in almost no situation is there enough friction to taking off in a ship that you would use another mode of transportation.

Recent real example: not long ago we had the Salvation event with the ancient Thargoid-Guardian battlefield. Lots of sites to explore spread across a couple hundred km on a scenic desolate planet. Would make a cool driving tour by SRV, but I doubt one player in a hundred drove for half an hour instead of taking two minutes to fly up to drop altitude and glide to the next site.
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Very true! However this could be solved with some clusters establishing no fly zones in their area for reasons such as BGS state or faction government etc. Then you will have to travel to other settlements in the cluster via SRV
 

GraphicEqualizer

GraphicEqualizer
TScal12 said:
Very true! However this could be solved with some clusters establishing no fly zones in their area for reasons such as BGS state or faction government etc. Then you will have to travel to other settlements in the cluster via SRV
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There could also be incentives for taking the time to drive by SRV with lucrative hand-based mining opportunities (if our suits had any kind of compelling geological scanning/mining features)... not just talking about the SRVs ability to shoot at rocks and scoop materials... we have lots of interesting looking rock scatter now on surfaces, but no opportunity to DO anything with any of it on foot. We should be able to drill core samples in areas that look like they have potential, analyse, sample, mine, deploy those mining rigs we see elsewhere in the game - leave them for a while and go back to them to pickup the loot (if they haven't been raided by other players), etc.,etc. Lots of opportunities. Missed. I can only hope their 'framework' is intended to accommodate this type of stuff soon™

The surfaces, especially the atmospheric ones, are nice, the scattered biologicals are nice (though lacking any compelling multi-dimensional gameplay), but the general geology is just there to look at unless you want to sit on a fumerole for a ride. There could be compelling gameplay to engage in on every planet, if they put in the effort.
 

TScal12

T
GraphicEqualizer said:
There could also be incentives for taking the time to drive by SRV with lucrative hand-based mining opportunities (if our suits had any kind of compelling geological scanning/mining features)... not just talking about the SRVs ability to shoot at rocks and scoop materials... we have lots of interesting looking rock scatter now on surfaces, but no opportunity to DO anything with any of it on foot. We should be able to drill core samples in areas that look like they have potential, analyse, sample, mine, deploy those mining rigs we see elsewhere in the game - leave them for a while and go back to them to pickup the loot (if they haven't been raided by other players), etc.,etc. Lots of opportunities. Missed. I can only hope their 'framework' is intended to accommodate this type of stuff soon™

The surfaces, especially the atmospheric ones, are nice, the scattered biologicals are nice (though lacking any compelling multi-dimensional gameplay), but the general geology is just there to look at unless you want to sit on a fumerole for a ride. There could be compelling gameplay to engage in on every planet, if they put in the effort.
Click to expand...
I completely agree, even combat zones can utilize the surrounding terrain for increased diversity. I wrote this post a few months back. Planetary terrain needs to be a part of the gameplay. It is a character in and of itself!

Conflict Zones Revamp Idea

Have the attacking force start a mile away from the settlement, set objectives, defensive points and barriers etc in a perimeter surrounding the settlement. Attacking force needs to methodically move in and penetrate the defenses inching closer towards the settlement, climaxing on urban warfare...
forums.frontier.co.uk forums.frontier.co.uk
 

GraphicEqualizer

GraphicEqualizer
I really like the idea of conflict zones being a multi task strategy to win; take out defences, bring down power/or turn on power/defend until reinforcements arrive scenarios to win, not just a fight over gamified popup whack-a-mole and disconnected from reality stakes in the ground. The current CZs are really just the equivalent of on foot CQC gameplay
 
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