LaveCon 2018 QA quick recap
- Thread starter Cmdr Eagleboy
- Start date
Firstly, a big APPLAUSE from me.
The visual improvements displayed, are great. But the real beauty to me is in new play mechanics. Stuff to do, which can give better results with skill. Asteroid mining and exploration both needed some play depth (IMO), and these ideas look like a solid move in the right direction. Hopefully the mechanics will not be over-burdened with Synthesis or other materials gathering requirements. The "probes" are not my favorite exploration tool idea, but with good development they shouldn't be terrible.
Now some questions not asked in the stream (at least that I was)...
1) Will the mining updates extend to mining on planet surfaces?
2) Will the planetary scanning limpet mechanic be integrated into Search and Recovery/Rescue missions, or even other mission types?
Here's hoping to yes on both.
Regarding the integration of surface scanning with POI sites. In a way, while I am glad to see that visually searching an entire planet for a site will be gone... I also fully suspect that the smaller random POI (such as Outcrops, Metallic Metorites, SRV wreck, etc.) will not be discovered by scanner probes. In fact I really hope probes don't discover these, as it would be a significant loss to have a system completely "scanned dry" by just a lone CMDR, leaving zero to ever be found again by others in the future.
The random POI may not create the most inspiring gameplay out there, but they do create significant play opportunity and sometimes unexpected situations.
And as discussed by others above, I do hope that some of the mission specific POI can be improved with some basic persistence. Once I've located these Mission POI, really they should remain logged as a persistent location in my ship's computer until the Mission is compete or abandoned.
This doesn't mean other players need also to see my mission's POI. As the mission taker, the POI's persistent location is mine alone. Sure, other CMDRs could drop on my wake or beacon and visit the site. But it would never be a POI "location" since they don't have a mission for it (unless a shared Wing mission creates a POI... good enough). And once the mission is complete, abandoned, or timed out, the persistent POI is simply gone. Persisting no more.
But overall... gameplay mechanics. Things to do, and do with skill. [up] [up]
The visual improvements displayed, are great. But the real beauty to me is in new play mechanics. Stuff to do, which can give better results with skill. Asteroid mining and exploration both needed some play depth (IMO), and these ideas look like a solid move in the right direction. Hopefully the mechanics will not be over-burdened with Synthesis or other materials gathering requirements. The "probes" are not my favorite exploration tool idea, but with good development they shouldn't be terrible.
Now some questions not asked in the stream (at least that I was)...
1) Will the mining updates extend to mining on planet surfaces?
2) Will the planetary scanning limpet mechanic be integrated into Search and Recovery/Rescue missions, or even other mission types?
Here's hoping to yes on both.
Regarding the integration of surface scanning with POI sites. In a way, while I am glad to see that visually searching an entire planet for a site will be gone... I also fully suspect that the smaller random POI (such as Outcrops, Metallic Metorites, SRV wreck, etc.) will not be discovered by scanner probes. In fact I really hope probes don't discover these, as it would be a significant loss to have a system completely "scanned dry" by just a lone CMDR, leaving zero to ever be found again by others in the future.
The random POI may not create the most inspiring gameplay out there, but they do create significant play opportunity and sometimes unexpected situations.
And as discussed by others above, I do hope that some of the mission specific POI can be improved with some basic persistence. Once I've located these Mission POI, really they should remain logged as a persistent location in my ship's computer until the Mission is compete or abandoned.
This doesn't mean other players need also to see my mission's POI. As the mission taker, the POI's persistent location is mine alone. Sure, other CMDRs could drop on my wake or beacon and visit the site. But it would never be a POI "location" since they don't have a mission for it (unless a shared Wing mission creates a POI... good enough). And once the mission is complete, abandoned, or timed out, the persistent POI is simply gone. Persisting no more.
But overall... gameplay mechanics. Things to do, and do with skill. [up] [up]
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I think these proposals are fine, but I predict that before the beta is over, they will just be considered 'more grind'. They may just make the mining and exploration mini games longer.
Imho while they address things people have asked for, they dont address the underlying issues that are expressed as other more trivial but explainable desires
Imho while they address things people have asked for, they dont address the underlying issues that are expressed as other more trivial but explainable desires
I think it has simply to do with on which level you bind things to the client(s). Some of these things are only generated on the lowest levels, and these are the things that spawn a lot more often than the few places like Dav's Hope. So I'm guessing its about performance. Imagine a system that is frequently visited, like Sol. If every meteorite is bound to any client in Sol, and there is always at least someone in Sol, then over time you end up with ridiculous numbers of bound objects. Just guessing, but it would make sense, even though it isn't the most ideal solution.
I bet that a few hours afterwards at least some of them wondered why they didnt think to ask about atmo/spacelegs/pp though!
Exactly that, later on I asked a few questions about black holes and the lighting system as well as mechanics changes similar to neutrons and another question about mining SLF.
I wont say exactly what the response was but it was interesting.
I believe there was also a kreat question asked/answered later in the evening about the other Q2 ship in addition to the challenger.
The one I havent managed to ask yet is if the ice visual changes, the lighting visual chages and mining changes will all apply to ice asteroids. They are pretty visually awesome as they are so all of the above added would be pretty sweet!
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It sounds like the exploration loop we currently have won't be changing much. That is to say that the honk followed by flying to a planet to detail scan it doesn't seem to be changing. What IS changing is what comes after that.
Currently if a scan tells you the planet has geysers then you have no choice but to scour the planet with your eyes at low altitude and hope to find something. This can take dozens of hours and still come up empty. In Q4 if the scan tells you geysers are present then you proceed to blanket the planet with probes to locate their whereabouts. It's exchanging one long monotonous grind for a much quicker skill based minigame of sorts, but one which provides the pilot with information from which to make decisions instead of counting on blind luck. That is a very good improvement.
So Frontier have opted to build on top of the existing exploration mechanics rather than do a complete overhaul and change everything. I was hoping for more of a shakeup personally, but I can see why they went the more reserved route. It might even be the wiser choice honestly, and as long as the end result is interesting and engaging exploration then I'm all for it.
For the probes to work though the initial DSS scan is going to have to provide us with much more information than it does now. It will need to notify us about much more than just geysers, and include other persistent POI's like outposts (ie: Dav's Hope), barnacle sites, fungal life, Thargoid structures, Guardian ruins, and any other procedural / persistent surface POI's. For the probes to be a successful mechanic the DSS absolutely needs to tell us when to blanket a planet with probes, we can't simply blanket every and all planets in the hopes of finding random stuff. The two features need to work together on a consistent basis or the new probes will fail as an improvement.
I'm sure Frontier is aware of this though....[uhh]
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I wonder how far you can sling a drone though. Can you target one of the far away 400kls planets and with careful alignment shoot a drone that far and find out whether that planet is worthwhile traveling to?
That would be nice. Would take some skill to pull off, especially if said planet is near to a second star in the system, or even behind it.
That would be nice. Would take some skill to pull off, especially if said planet is near to a second star in the system, or even behind it.
Note: This is how EVE handles exploration: Launching probes.
Thank you.
Note: This is how humanity does exploration as well.
Video https://www.twitch.tv/videos/271209822
I'd skip the Q&A itself, FWIW
(Also in there : Thargoids visiting human settlements! That was my highlight
What kind of Thargoid was casting that shadow? At 23:37
Not one of those (gulp) 'mother ships on planets?'
![[VR] optimal_909](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/109/109067.jpg?1553781733){kind=avatar}
What kind of Thargoid was casting that shadow? At 23:37
Not one of those (gulp) 'mother ships on planets?'
I think it was a Medusa, or Basilisk.
Yeah its a Medusa, Basilisk lacks the protrusions on the end of the pedals.
Imma solo it since its in a atmosphere
I was wondering this as well - can I skill-shot over long ranges? At least attempt to get the first probes on each body as I'm flying towards it? If I do score hits, will I still get the data from that kind of range?
Riôt
They said it in the live stream Im assuming, they so the Vhallenger around the 20 minute mark so looking theres a good start I guess....
It's hard enough to get multicrew working (and/or being of interest to others) within the bubble...
Can you imagine people wanting to be a subservient part of the crew for months at a time on a deepspace exploration?
I'd sign up for that right now. Oh, in the game you meant...
Chapter Four is setting to look like an absolute doozy.
Nice one Frontier. Those exploration mechanic concept shots look awesome.
Can feel a little hype stirring deep.
As multicrew stands now... that would suck.
But, with spacelegs and each person having a specific role they must do to help keep the ship ..er.. ship-shape? Plus any additional roles, eg: archaeologist, biologist, scientist (each with their own "lab" modules) and things to do and research? Well.. that's different.
Nice one Frontier. Those exploration mechanic concept shots look awesome.
Can feel a little hype stirring deep.
As multicrew stands now... that would suck.
But, with spacelegs and each person having a specific role they must do to help keep the ship ..er.. ship-shape? Plus any additional roles, eg: archaeologist, biologist, scientist (each with their own "lab" modules) and things to do and research? Well.. that's different.