How realistic are this game's ambitions?

[TYC8338391]

Of course no one has ever seen and no one will. But as you stated " we can see the gravity effects on near stars that ..... " There is something we can comparison for example: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/A_Horseshoe_Einstein_Ring_from_Hubble.JPG

I can say even more we can predict what is going to happen near BH:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Black_hole_lensing_web.gif


EDIT:
There is no chance for effect like this one:

...... I can say this game is the most realistic in terms of looks and physics of any space game to date. Nothing else comes close. ..... The galaxy does look very much like that to the naked eye......

You are absolutely right it is the most realistic, maybe because there is no other game like that. It is not about the colour it is about distribution of stars, nebulae in galaxy. ETC.

 

[Karl Marx]

As someone with an actual degree in Astrophysics, I can say this game is the most realistic in terms of looks and physics of any space game to date. Nothing else comes close. Black holes should be more lethal and not bend light differently just because you turn your head, in close proximity. The galaxy does look very much like that to the naked eye but with more stars visible in most places. Nebulas mostly appear green though, not red. Unless you have a HUGE telescope.

I've got access to a set of college telescopes for my astrophotography and undergrad research on lunar regolith changes changes. I've looked at many nebulae and they've always been rather red/yellow/blue to me. That's through some smaller 10" schmidt cassegrain scopes of the Meade and Celestron variety. I've never run into anything green - though that may be due to my atmospheric conditions and/or optics.

 

[Beardless]

Sorry, I just can't see how any of our ships will cope with gravity. I bet most of them couldn't even leave the launch pad...planetary landings? More like exit SC and watch the cutscene as previously suggested, might even throw in a mini game if we're lucky.
Can you imagine a type 9 trying to take off from earth LOL!

 

[Frelix Arcadia]

10 years? lol
Once Star Citizen comes out no one will be playing Elite Dangerous except like 100 fanboys that are on this forum.

I think you're wrong about that. I have no interest in Star Citizen, because I have no interest in MMO's any longer. I don't have the time, or the patience to keep up with other players. That's why I like Elite..no guilds so to speak, no need to worry about having to be the "right" class for a group. AND, i can true solo play without worrying about other players if I so desire.

Nope, no Star Citizen for me. I'd go back to EVE if I wanted to play another space MMO.

 

[B33 ENN]

Sorry, I just can't see how any of our ships will cope with gravity. I bet most of them couldn't even leave the launch pad...planetary landings? More like exit SC and watch the cutscene as previously suggested, might even throw in a mini game if we're lucky.
Can you imagine a type 9 trying to take off from earth LOL!

That's true but then the physics simulation in Elite isn't anywhere near accurate. For instance, turning off Flight Assist and hitting boost should mean the ship keeps travelling continuously at the top speed it reaches. It does not; it slows down. The rest is similarly flawed, such as only a few ships have forward facing thrusters that look like they could handle full reverse. Most of them couldn't fly out of an atmosphere at escape speeds due to their shape burning up...

So I think we just have to suspend belief that they can fly in a planet atmosphere, like we have to with Star Wars and Star Trek.

 

[greenlantern]

Most of us are very excited about the proposed future of Elite. Especially the idea of station life, walking around ships, seamless planet flight/landing, FPS boarding action, and Thargoid attacks.

But it does make me wonder if Frontier has even a fraction of the funds and man-power to make all these ideas happen. I can see maybe one of them happening after a year or two. But ALL of them?

I can see that the game is getting good reviews on Steam but just how many sales is it going to take to turn Elite into a full on simulated universe of dream-of awesomeness without bankrupting the company?

Color me cynical but I'd like to know whether or not I should get my hopes up....

Anyone address the elephant in the room?

Is there any data on how many people are playing, since it's online only.

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Can you imagine a type 9 trying to take off from earth LOL!

ahahah yea, or it going > than c......not sure how you can imagine it doing that.

 

[Armour]

I wonder what will happen if someone's connection fails (by circumstance or design) when you are onboard their ship - will you find yourself floating in deep space? Or when you are on a planet surface with other people and the same thing happens - will a bunch of the inhabitants disappear when they do?

 

[greenlantern]

That's true but then the physics simulation in Elite isn't anywhere near accurate. For instance, turning off Flight Assist and hitting boost should mean the ship keeps travelling continuously at the top speed it reaches. It does not; it slows down. The rest is similarly flawed, such as only a few ships have forward facing thrusters that look like they could handle full reverse. Most of them couldn't fly out of an atmosphere at escape speeds due to their shape burning up...

So I think we just have to suspend belief that they can fly in a planet atmosphere, like we have to with Star Wars and Star Trek.

It'll be a different flight mode, like warping between star systems. (loading screen). physically the atmosphere will probably be skip via same magic flight mode (loading screen).

 

[greenlantern]

How much got raised on the kickstarter? I say this because I think they've done a good job with what they have. Yeah its not perfect but thinking about the insane amount of money SC has, comparing the two games seems a bit unfair considering the budgets available.

Exactly!!

Much can be said about model efficiencies Im sure. But that differential is surely beat be the funding difference between SC and ED. It was crucial ED be out before SC, and it's by the skin of their teeth imo. They'll have a player base to keep going I'd just. I've been through the SC promises and eye candy and wow if they deliver 42 this fall as described...I may be done hyper-driving between stars looking for blue dots in exchange for money.

 

[CMDR AKIRA MASAKARI]

Yay, maybe then I can go to Open.

lol +1 rep

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Realistic ambitions? Hmmm. This game is great. I mean greater great but... It has so poorly physics, this galaxy is so not our Galaxy

look at this:
View attachment 34972

View attachment 34975

Black hole doesn't look like this . Do you want ED stand for ten years or even longer, I think it`s possible. If yes, many things must be reworked.

Fly safe commanders

Did you saw a black hole for real? you would be the first one

 

[Herik]

Never underestimate the ability of two different businesses doing the same sort of thing to vary wildly in their efficiency.
I wonder what the propaganda, sorry, I mean marketing budget for SC is?

Here is some false logic.

If RSI raised five times the cash of FD, then ED must only be 1\5 the quality. Of course, that is a dumb thought.

1. Planetary landings - can't see it being terribly difficult. Worry about turning up in London or some capital city and finding a couple of sheds, an outdoor toilet and an industrial unit.
2. Thargoids - I have complete faith on this.
3. Ship boarding - it worries me. Just can't see it working PvP. Can you imagine the tears if it did happen? And to what end? so I can look into your eyes as I stab you in the guts rather than just blow your ship up? Or, steal your ship? Really not sure on this.
4. Get out and stretch legs on planets and stations? Hope so, even if its mostly just a social thing, or exploratory. Outsider work suggests Cobra will facilitate.

Really looking forward to the next two years. I think we will see big things in even that timescale, and yes, there will still be lots of folks playing.

IMO

Cheers

THIS! It's what I expect...- I can see their 'drive and ambition' in this game. In my opinion, With the exception of 'the Offline mode' blunder; FD's decisions have been very good.

All your numbered points,...(and especially #4); planet landings will be phased, and each further phase will get very large public attention and sales. The next two years with E will be stunning.

 

[Roybe]

I don't see many big solo play improvements. Wings, Power Play... it's all MMOG-centric.

I agree, it appears most of the discussion we have here is still going to be better in multiplayer mode...

Walking around stations, single player or multiplayer experience? Which would be better? Seeing 15 to 20 or your 'closest' friends or running around and talking to NPC's by yourself? It'll work in Solo, but this isn't who the design is for.

How would PvP boarding work in solo? A single player with NPC's take over another ship? Let's see the NPC wings working for those solo players first.

Planetary landings? Again, would work for Solo, but much better for groups in multiplayer.

Not seeing to much here for solo players. But then many feel this is a solo game with a multiplayer aspect bolted on to make money with.

 

[B33 ENN]

It'll be a different flight mode, like warping between star systems. (loading screen). physically the atmosphere will probably be skip via same magic flight mode (loading screen).

Hmm... not sure how I feel about that. If it's done right it might be okay, but right now it sounds like a major immersion breaker to me. You can suspend that for the hyperspace because we don't expect to have direct control during the wormhole entry, the flight navcom does that.

Piloting next to a planet and slowly descending into the atmosphere is a totally different experience, and making it a cutscene would be jarring, even more than when you come out of Supercruise and everything disappears momentarily.

 

[Jack Schitt]

Sorry, I just can't see how any of our ships will cope with gravity. I bet most of them couldn't even leave the launch pad...planetary landings? More like exit SC and watch the cutscene as previously suggested, might even throw in a mini game if we're lucky.
Can you imagine a type 9 trying to take off from earth LOL!

The conceit with Elite ships, ever since Frontier, is that they produce a ridiculous amount of continuous thrust. If you don't have to worry about running out of propellant, you don't have to worry about escape velocity. If a ship could thrust continuously to maintain a capped speed of 240-250m/s it could reach LEO in 90-120 seconds. Not realistic in a real-world sense (not even pseudo-Newtonian as Frontier was) but well within the game's rules that we've seen so far. A bigger issue might be preventing players using their ships as kinetic weapons. There might have to be some sort of auto-slowdown as they get nearer to the surface.

 

[Hellhawk666]

I think the developer's ambitions are very realistic and fully achievable in a 2-4 year frame, rolled out piecemeal over that time.

What is probably unrealistic is some of the ideas we have of what the developers intend. When you're invested in a game's development it's easy to get carried away and imagine all sorts of frankly unachievable things, and then be disappointed in the actual results, even if those results are very good.

On the whole, however, I've been impressed with what FD have created so far, and every new update gives me more faith in the game. There are a couple of glaring omissions (passengers, salvage, etc) and some basic tools like a pilot's log and trading notebook in-game that really seem obvious by their absence. I still hope we'll get those things, and some other small features. However the upcoming 1.3 update should be terrific and the ongoing polish to existing features is good. I don't doubt their ability to give us a great planetary landing/exploration system (although it may look less photo-realistic than some people might imagine).

The first person expansion is the real dark horse for me. It will have to be meaningful, interesting, play smoothly and look good - and there is where FD may find problems. The Cobra engine is fantastic for designing a mammoth PG game (the big issue SC discovered once they got into production was that they were designing a space game on an engine designed for small areas - they addressed that, but it's still a problem that is only tamed by the comparatively tiny size of their game "board"). FD have the opposite problem - how to implement first person features using an engine that is not specifically designed for that purpose. I don't doubt their expertise in this area (The Outsider is proof of their creds), but it will be harder work for them than if they were using a 3rd party FPS engine.

 

[PhazonAran]

That's true but then the physics simulation in Elite isn't anywhere near accurate. For instance, turning off Flight Assist and hitting boost should mean the ship keeps travelling continuously at the top speed it reaches. It does not; it slows down.

ED is not a realistic simulation, and it was never advertised as such. Sometimes, gameplay is more important than realism.

Most of them couldn't fly out of an atmosphere at escape speeds due to their shape burning up...

Lorewise, I think they're able to fly in an atmosphere thanks to their thrusters. That's right. Lifting is too mainstream, brute force thrusting is the way to go

In Frontier, you also had the atmospheric shielding. And concerning the ship burning up... If I can park next to a sun without suffering damage, I expect my ship to handle air friction without problem

 

[AndreyATGB]

In Frontier, you also had the atmospheric shielding. And concerning the ship burning up... If I can park next to a sun without suffering damage, I expect my ship to handle air friction without problem

Temperature from a star and burning up on re-entry are completely different. There's no friction when you get heated up, where on re-entry you're more likely to get torn apart from the pressure in front of the ship. I just hope atmospheric entry isn't just a loading screen (like witch space).

 

[PhazonAran]

Temperature from a star and burning up on re-entry are completely different. There's no friction when you get heated up, where on re-entry you're more likely to get torn apart from the pressure in front of the ship. I just hope atmospheric entry isn't just a loading screen (like witch space).

That's where the atmospheric shielding comes in I suppose, wether it is a new kind of shield of a new kind of armor

Concerning the transition, I honestly don't think it'll be seamless. It could be though (I think, I'm no game developper) if it was done like this :

- when you load the system in witch space, you will also load a definite area on each planet. It'll be the only area where you'll be able to land without needing a loading screen (your onboard computer would find the best trajectory possible, that always end up in this area). Once you're on the planet, it would load progressively when you'll ltravel on it. I have no idea if it is possible.

- if you try to land oustside the pre-loaded area, you'll need a loading screen. I don't think we can expect all the planets to be completely loaded in the witch space loading screen.

- when leaving the planet, it would be cool to be forced to go through an "exit corridor" since the FSD wouldn't work. Like, you have to go towards the Lagrange point or something.

 

[Mary Celeste]

"A really nice, thoughtful Reddit post" according to David Braben states that 90% of the effort is done. Excerpt from that post: "As a software developer and dev manager of 20 years, it's that sink into building the core that consumes millions of dollars with to what the end customer looks like is wasted money. They don't see features they don't see where their money is going. But building an engine from scratch is a mammoth undertaking. Getting a screen profile of Senator Patreus might be a few days undertaking, putting up that as a profile over the top of functioning universe is 10's of man years of development and millions of dollars."

 

[taeyoonpark.81]

I think you're wrong about that. I have no interest in Star Citizen, because I have no interest in MMO's any longer. I don't have the time, or the patience to keep up with other players. That's why I like Elite..no guilds so to speak, no need to worry about having to be the "right" class for a group. AND, i can true solo play without worrying about other players if I so desire.

Nope, no Star Citizen for me. I'd go back to EVE if I wanted to play another space MMO.

I am sorry to burst your bubble, but according to Steam's description of Elite Dangerous, ED is a MMO and a Sandbox. It just failed at it, and hence giving the illusion of a 'solo' game. But, it is something ED will be moving forward to. So, good luck with that.