Landing on a planet

[dtrulez]

Why complain to FD and not to all the forumites who endlessly bellyached about having nothing to do once they'd bought their Anaconda?

This is the problem at planetary landings cannot solve. Planetary Landings are ultimately only a cosmetic change - it's just a change of backdrop out of your canopy from star-field to cloudy sky. I've seen variations on "it'll be cool to fly through canyons" many times on these threads, but five minutes of that and you'd be back to moaning about having nothing to do again.

Planetary Landings are a complete waste of time, effort and money, which FD does not have in great quantities. FD should be focusing its resources on actual constructive content - filling out the ship roster, diversifying the mission types, refining the economy. This is what players actually DO in Elite, those are the meaningful changes to make that affect the substance of the game. Flying around a mountain or flying around an asteroid ultimately aren't all that different. Planetary Landings are barking up the wrong tree and the enthusiasm for them is misguided, and it could well kill the game you're trying to save.

I regret to say that you have point there. It's too shallow in it's current state, big and empty, as space itself. With planets or no planets, too many gaps to fill. Sadly.

 

[Hurricane Moon]

Why complain to FD and not to all the forumites who endlessly bellyached about having nothing to do once they'd bought their Anaconda?

This is the problem at planetary landings cannot solve. Planetary Landings are ultimately only a cosmetic change - it's just a change of backdrop out of your canopy from star-field to cloudy sky. I've seen variations on "it'll be cool to fly through canyons" many times on these threads, but five minutes of that and you'd be back to moaning about having nothing to do again. It's only aggravating the "mile-wide but inch-deep" criticism that people have levied at Elite in the past.

Planetary Landings are a complete waste of time, effort and money, which FD does not have in great quantities. FD should be focusing its resources on actual constructive content - filling the ship roster, diversifying the mission types, refining the economy. This is what players actually DO in Elite, those are the meaningful changes to make that affect the substance of the game. Flying around a mountain or flying around an asteroid ultimately aren't all that different. Planetary Landings are barking up the wrong tree and the enthusiasm for them is misguided, and it could well kill the game you're trying to save.

you honestly dont like the sound of cruising down to a planet with mates?...then getting out of our ships in fist person or third......going off to explore a settlement together.
its just more freedom,another branch to give more mission variety.

in its current state the game is just a to b...same looking stations...same looking planets and stars.

i am one of those people with a Annie,fully kitted...and i have billions.strong urges to land on a planet and buy/build a settlement.

84 gamer here but its not 84 anymore,we need more than just the original elite but with current day graphics.we need frontier revamped.


in fact a good idea would be if mr braben and chris roberts from sc merged there 2 games together....we would be pretty much there...(take away the paying for ships with real money though)

Thats why im going to try out Evochron Mercenary tonight.....give it a blast with my headtracking and hotas...hell could probably even whip up some roccat gids and some voice attack for it aswell.....

 

[elayeth]

you honestly dont like the sound of cruising down to a planet with mates?...then getting out of our ships in fist person or third......going off to explore a settlement together.

I would like that. But do you know how much content and resources it is required to do it the right way?
At the moment we barely have any difference in an interior of space stations. No cities in space - just single station. And you want a city on the ground already?
The same with "exploring the settlement" ... first they should work on exploring the ship, than the station... than other things.

I do not want FD to take shortcuts because it may kill the game. First they need to make the space diverse.

That is why I don’t like demands such as: planetary landing by the end of this year.

 

[Hurricane Moon]

I would like that. But do you know how much content and resources it is required to do it the right way?
At the moment we barely have any difference in an interior of space stations. No cities in space - just single station. And you want a city on the ground already?
The same with "exploring the settlement" ... first they should work on exploring the ship, than the station... than other things.

I do not want FD to take shortcuts because it may kill the game. First they need to make the space diverse.

That is why I don’t like demands such as: planetary landing by the end of this year.

ahh yes fellow commander i agree with you,i understand that develepment process would occur with a order of workings,ideally first just the abillity to walk around our ships as a first module.


i suppose i just want a little comment from them...just a little hint that something is coming sooner rather than later.


want to know if there is going to be light at the end of the tunnel

 

[FuzzySpider]

Why complain to FD and not to all the forumites who endlessly bellyached about having nothing to do once they'd bought their Anaconda?

This is the problem at planetary landings cannot solve. Planetary Landings are ultimately only a cosmetic change - it's just a change of backdrop out of your canopy from star-field to cloudy sky. I've seen variations on "it'll be cool to fly through canyons" many times on these threads, but five minutes of that and you'd be back to moaning about having nothing to do again. It's only aggravating the "mile-wide but inch-deep" criticism that people have levied at Elite in the past.

Planetary Landings are a complete waste of time, effort and money, which FD does not have in great quantities. FD should be focusing its resources on actual constructive content - filling the ship roster, diversifying the mission types, refining the economy. This is what players actually DO in Elite, those are the meaningful changes to make that affect the substance of the game. Flying around a mountain or flying around an asteroid ultimately aren't all that different. Planetary Landings are barking up the wrong tree and the enthusiasm for them is misguided, and it could well kill the game you're trying to save.

You've saved me the effort of typing something in this thread.

I can't do much to add to this post except say I agree wholeheartedly. Planetary landings are a distraction, a gimmick, and ultimately will be played a handful of times as a novelty before people get back into the spaceships. There are already loads of new survival type sandbox games coming out (Ark is one that looks particularly promising), it is inevitable that we're about to see some on alien worlds (Grav?).

you honestly dont like the sound of cruising down to a planet with mates?...then getting out of our ships in fist person or third......going off to explore a settlement together.
its just more freedom,another branch to give more mission variety.

There won't be "settlements". There won't be anywhere to really explore or discover, nothing different, no alien worlds filled with strange life forms. For that you'll beed to buy Elite probably in 2040. You're not going to get the chance to be Han Solo in a bar filled with other space pirates.

You're going to get the chance to walk around on some rocks, with a very similar skybox to any other planet with some randomly generated shaders to alter the sky colour and clouds, and perhaps make your way a mile or two from your ship before your oxygen supply starts to run out. If it happens at all that'll be about the extent of it.

This idea that people have about there being a bar at George Lucas Terminal, with a very different bar at Lave Station, and a conference center to explore at Achenar... it's fantasy. The tech doesn't exist to make that game yet.

 

[popuptoaster]

I would like that. But do you know how much content and resources it is required to do it the right way?
At the moment we barely have any difference in an interior of space stations. No cities in space - just single station. And you want a city on the ground already?
The same with "exploring the settlement" ... first they should work on exploring the ship, than the station... than other things.

I do not want FD to take shortcuts because it may kill the game. First they need to make the space diverse.

That is why I don’t like demands such as: planetary landing by the end of this year.

There are perfectly valid reason space stations would all look very samey, that does not mean the planets would do although lets be fair most of them are going to be barren and either frozen, bare rock or gas giants just in differing colours.

Those that actually do get to have features other than ice or rock shouldn't be too hard to make interesting that's what proceduarl generation is best at, look at what "No Mans Sky" is achieving with a fairly small team to see what's possible.

 

[random_tangent]

Why complain to FD and not to all the forumites who endlessly bellyached about having nothing to do once they'd bought their Anaconda?

This is the problem at planetary landings cannot solve. Planetary Landings are ultimately only a cosmetic change - it's just a change of backdrop out of your canopy from star-field to cloudy sky. I've seen variations on "it'll be cool to fly through canyons" many times on these threads, but five minutes of that and you'd be back to moaning about having nothing to do again. It's only aggravating the "mile-wide but inch-deep" criticism that people have levied at Elite in the past.

Planetary Landings are a complete waste of time, effort and money, which FD does not have in great quantities. FD should be focusing its resources on actual constructive content - filling the ship roster, diversifying the mission types, refining the economy. This is what players actually DO in Elite, those are the meaningful changes to make that affect the substance of the game. Flying around a mountain or flying around an asteroid ultimately aren't all that different. Planetary Landings are barking up the wrong tree and the enthusiasm for them is misguided, and it could well kill the game you're trying to save.

Your characterisation of priorities and immediate investment of time and effort is bang on, imo.

However, what we're talking about here is paid expansions. They should not be an alternative to fleshing out the existing game with content that many believed would always be there. The sorts of changes you're talking about shouldn't be paid, optional extras. They are necessary to make the game into more of a game and less of a space flight/galaxy simulator. Paid expansion content should be self-financing. Whether they can charge enough for it given the number of people who will buy it, to create the sort of thing many people are hopeful for, is a different conversation. Being able to land on planets, walk around cities, set up camp on the edge of a procedurally generated forest and gather samples etc. is more or less the holy grail of a game like elite. Can it be done at present? Well, NMS seems to say it can, at least after a fashion. Elite has different issues to contend with, but if they can pull it off, it would be a game changer.

 

[ankhorion]

Well, many people want more than what the game currently is. I know several people who're interested in buying the game but are waiting for these expansions - and I even know some whom own the game already but barely play while they're waiting for new content..

Yep, I play a bit so I don't lose playing abilities. But yes, I am basically waiting. And I bought it so there is money to further develop it.

 

[HeimdallofHavn]

Fuzzyspider,

You can do absolutely amazing things with procedural generation.

Have you looked at the outerra engine?

Cloudscape from above:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2k1iKRNWkM

Cloudscape from ground:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUOgf3YPgfw

Outerra, world in a box:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNgWwvSaTZ0

Endless Earth to Space:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gACBiQY6bqs

I have the tech demo. No, I don't own outerra shares

It is incredible. I have found myself just messing around for hours with it "flying around" exploring a 1-1 earth. Just amazing to me.

I hope Frontier can do even better, and their ambitions according to Braben are higher including things like civilization, animal life etc.

Outerra themselves plan to make the entire solar system available in one two one scale by mixing real world data with procedural generation.

Cheers.

 

[FuzzySpider]

Fuzzyspider,

You can do absolutely amazing things with procedural generation.

Have you looked at the outerra engine?

Cloudscape from above:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2k1iKRNWkM

Cloudscape from ground:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUOgf3YPgfw

Outerra, world in a box:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNgWwvSaTZ0

Endless Earth to Space:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gACBiQY6bqs

I have the tech demo. No, I don't own outerra shares

It is incredible. I have found myself just messing around for hours with it "flying around" exploring a 1-1 earth. Just amazing to me.

I hope Frontier can do even better, and their ambitions according to Braben are higher including things like civilization, animal life etc.

Outerra themselves plan to make the entire solar system available in one two one scale by mixing real world data with procedural generation.

Cheers.

Looks beautiful.

I'm not seeing anything I'd play more than 3 or 4 times because there is no interactivity there at all.

 

[HeimdallofHavn]

Looks beautiful.

I'm not seeing anything I'd play more than 3 or 4 times because there is no interactivity there at all.

I agree, that will always be the challenge...

 

[Chevy66]

Yeah but if mission targets were there you would go there. There could be missions to bomb a base, protect a base. Kill pirates who live on the planet. There could be mining bases where you could buy cheap metals. Trade missions, exploration missions to map part of the surface. Humanitarian missions where you drop aid packages. There's all sorts of things you could add.