I agree with most of what you say, but I'd hesitate to claim it's purely down to laziness on FDev's part. That's just going to breed resentment from any developers reading the forums. They were clearly working very hard to get Odyssey out in time for their internal deadline, after which it was all hands on deck to patch it before it sank. And patch it they have. My guess is that the blue circles are a placeholder that was implemented under time pressure, and something they'll revisit once things settle down.
Fair enough - happy to concede that my choice of laziness was probably not productive. I happily acknowledge there has been a lot of work in Odyssey, and a lot of good work, despite the gripes. This is however being massively undermined by the corners that have been cut to meet the time pressure you describe. I don't think it's controversial to say this
So yes, driven by time pressure, but under that pressure, deliberate design decisions have been made about what didn't make the cut. The blue circles are just a particularly poor effort to impact ratio. I design buildings for a living. If I designed an amazing building, but decided to omit the door that allowed you access, I could hardly defend it by claiming, 'ah - but it's just the door! It's only one small part'. Ok - not a perfect analogy... but the point is, it matters. In EDO there was a clear deliberate design choice made to, in some cases have stairs descending to the surface saying 'climb me to enter' next to the blue circles saying '
don't climb them to enter'. Bad
design, whatever the reasons.
Anyway the nub of my point was that, in my view, there remains a relatively straightforward solution that would address most of immersion breaking concerns, without giving rise to most of the technical issues raised around possible instancing, entities within entities etc, which frankly I don't know enough about technically to comment on anyway. For me, the possible levels of implementation are
1: Give us the cockpits and an airlock transition, only usable when the ship is landed, and eliminates the much mocked Armstrong Moment Issue.
2: Ship interiors, minus all the adaptable bits, which happen behind the bulkheads, and only accessible when landed. Just some standard rooms such as a sleeping quarters, crew quarters, social space maybe and corridors linking the main spaces like airlock and SRV bay. Doors could be placed to rooms which may become activated in later releases. You can skip these, and they don't have to have a compulsory gameplay element, but you could update your quarters with payable items to personalise your space. This would bring in the 'running down the corridor under fire' scenario, but I described in my previous post why I don't think this is a bad thing. Just don't use your Beluga for a stealth insertion against opposition for heaven's sake. If you do, expect a hike in your insurance premiums!!!
3: The above, but with the ability to move around when you've dropped from supercruise. This would involve addition of zero-g gameplay elements - the EVA drift across to explore the alien wreck-type missions. Perhaps also defend your ship against boarding parties when inderdicted. Again, this feels like a clear, defined expansion that could be added down the line.
4: The whole hog. The Beluga ballroom and the Corvette combat control room. The Cutter hot-tub with drop down cinema screen. Doesn't feel that critical to me, but sure - could be cool.
5: ...and so on
To me, step 1 should happen 'now'. The rest would all be good but other things pop above them in my personal first-person mental list, such as fleet carrier spaces or other on foot spaces external to the ship that would do more to add depth to the immersion, the narrative and the sense of a real active and populated universe.
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