Map size

Exmortis

E
I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around how "100 billion star systems" will be implemented. How will that work in terms of gameplay? Obviously there's no way that large a map can actually be used nor can that much content be created without just automatically assigning random, but no special, characteristics to each system & planet. I guess my question is what purpose will all that space serve in gameplay terms? It seems to me that once you travel a certain distance there's really nothing more to see.
 
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StarTux

S
Exmortis said:
I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around how "100 billion star systems" will be implemented. How will that work in terms of gameplay? Obviously there's no way that large a map can actually be used nor can that much content be created without just automatically assigning random, but no special, characteristics to each system & planet. I guess my question is what purpose will all that space serve in gameplay terms? It seems to me that once you travel a certain distance there's really nothing more to see.
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You cannot obviously cruise between systems, likely you'd have to have great great great descendants look after your ship. You use a hyperspace jump drive to get from one space to another and then you can use the frame shift drive to get around within a system.

Most action will take place within the core systems, Federation, Imperial and Independents, systems will dynamically rise and fall while civilization keeps pushing out the boundaries.

There is a lot to fill, best to read this:

http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Elite:_Dangerous_FAQ

Space is going to feel like it should, massive and daunting in size and scope. I have already felt a bit like that in the Alpha on occasion.
 

CMDR Texas Stu

CMDR Texas Stu
That reminds me of Douglas Adams!
And worthy of a tagline at the very least.

"Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space."

-- Douglas Noel Adams
 

Dejay

Dejay
StarTux said:
Space is going to feel like it should, massive and daunting in size and scope. I have already felt a bit like that in the Alpha on occasion.
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+1

But yes basically a lot will be empty, uninhabited. You might find resources there and claim them for your own. I'm also curious what kind of interesting stellar phenomena we will find. You can explore and get a bonus for every star system you map as the first person there.

You will find stars that are bigger than earths rotation around our sun.

In the SPL expansion, you will be able to land on any of those countless planets and moons orbiting all those countless suns. And every planet could be just as big or even bigger than earth! And planets could contain unique life forms that you could capture and bring home. Procedural generation could spawn an endless complexity of how fauna and flora interacts on all those planets.

And hopefully later we will also be able to build and own stations, or build colonies on planets. And hopefully also find and interact with alien civilizations.
 

Valenquo

Valenquo
Well the thing that will limit our exploration is fuel. So you can really only travel as far as half of your total fuel can take you to. So only x amount of systems that are away from civilized space (with refuelling stations) can be visited at any time.

And when an explorer does find a new and interesting system and it gets colonized, well that new system will become a gate to other uncharted systems that are even further away.

And since the colonization (building of stations, trade, security and so on) will take time, the expansion of civilized space should be slow paced.

And I am not afraid of not having enough systems to explore after having played Space Engine a bit as it shows how much variety star systems can have when procedurally generated.

All in all, having a truly explorable Milky Way is one of the most appealing aspects for me.
 

azdour

azdour
Valenquo said:
Well the thing that will limit our exploration is fuel. So you can really only travel as far as half of your total fuel can take you to. So only x amount of systems that are away from civilized space (with refuelling stations) can be visited at any time.
Click to expand...

If you fit your ship with a fuel scoop you reduce your dependency on refuelling stations and can increase your exploring range. The limiting factors then become finding planets/suns to scoop from and the eventual wear and tear on your ship that means it needs to be repaired at a station.
 

nicomak

nicomak
Valenquo said:
Well the thing that will limit our exploration is fuel. So you can really only travel as far as half of your total fuel can take you to. So only x amount of systems that are away from civilized space (with refuelling stations) can be visited at any time.

And when an explorer does find a new and interesting system and it gets colonized, well that new system will become a gate to other uncharted systems that are even further away.

And since the colonization (building of stations, trade, security and so on) will take time, the expansion of civilized space should be slow paced.

And I am not afraid of not having enough systems to explore after having played Space Engine a bit as it shows how much variety star systems can have when procedurally generated.

All in all, having a truly explorable Milky Way is one of the most appealing aspects for me.
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not fuel, but your ship, it fails after a while if you dont check it at a shipyard, fuel can always be scooped, if you have the right equipment, and some gaz giant.
 

Riedquat

Riedquat
Personally I love the idea of switching on the drive and flying into nothingness.

I love doing this in games.

You never know what you might discover.

I would like it if our ships would have some sort of proximity alarms, would allow for some realtime travelling where you could point your ship in a direction and leave it flying whilst you tend to real life matters.
 

trekman

trekman
FoxTwo said:
Or, "Are Thargoids the only threat to the core worlds?"

:D
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It would be great if a few new alien species popped up. Its extremely unrealistic I think to have just them and Humans in the whole of the Milky way.

StarTux said:
You use a hyperspace jump drive to get from one space to another and then you can use the frame shift drive to get around within a system.
Click to expand...

What's this frame shift drive you talk about? I must have missed the announcement of this because I cant recall reading about it in the newsletters or David or his colleagues mentioning it in one of the Dev Diaries. I guess I'll just have to watch and read them again!
 

G.T

G.T
trekman said:
It would be great if a few new alien species popped up. Its extremely unrealistic I think to have just them and Humans in the whole of the Milky way.
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Defo. And one of the best things is that as time goes on things will be added to be discovered, and it may be you that discovers it.
 

PvtTUX

P
Dont forget if you do get stranded somewhere there is always the possibility of deploying a "net" to drag other passing ships out of hyperspace due to being mass locked en route. Of course they might just destroy you anyway but thats the risk ;)
 

Steve_T

Steve_T
Valenquo said:
Well the thing that will limit our exploration is fuel. So you can really only travel as far as half of your total fuel can take you to. So only x amount of systems that are away from civilized space (with refuelling stations) can be visited at any time.
Click to expand...

Just take a Jerry can of fuel with you and you'll be fine.

OK, two Jerry cans. :p
 

FoxTwo

FoxTwo
trekman said:
It would be great if a few new alien species popped up. Its extremely unrealistic I think to have just them and Humans in the whole of the Milky way.
Click to expand...

Actually, even back in the original ELITE of the 80s, the galaxy(ies) is teeming with life such as "Harmless slimy frogs" and such from Diso, Leesti etc worlds.

What's this frame shift drive you talk about? I must have missed the announcement of this because I cant recall reading about it in the newsletters or David or his colleagues mentioning it in one of the Dev Diaries. I guess I'll just have to watch and read them again!
Click to expand...

That would be the "supercruise mode" in layman parlance. Only techies call it "Frame Shift Drive" :D
 

Exmortis

E
Folks...100 billion. Star systems. There seems to be some expectation that by exploring you will find continue to find cool and interesting stuff. There's not enough time left in the developers' lifetimes to even sparsely place interesting stuff among 100 billion star systems, much less players' time to find it. It seems inevitable it'll be a huge amount of nothing. Maybe that's the plan and it will mostly be there for aesthetics more than anything with a small fraction of those systems being more customized with content (e.g. Federation, Empire space etc.). If that's the case I guess that would be fine - I'm just kinda curious what the plan is.

I suppose they could do something like generate one of some pre-set number of special characteristics per 1000 systems or something - like ancient artifacts for example. Still though - at some point one would have seen all these things and exploring further may not be very compelling. Once you've seen Rich worlds, Industrial worlds, worlds with ancient artifacts, etc. etc., there's no point going further. There must be limits of course so I'm not suggesting that would necessarily be a bad thing. I really am just curious if there are any plans for all that space or if it's just there to have a realistic Milky Way and won't really be used.
 

Yaffle

Volunteer Moderator
Yaffle
Exmortis said:
Folks...100 billion. Star systems. There seems to be some expectation that by exploring you will find continue to find cool and interesting stuff. There's not enough time left in the developers' lifetimes to even sparsely place interesting stuff among 100 billion star systems, much less players' time to find it. It seems inevitable it'll be a huge amount of nothing. Maybe that's the plan and it will mostly be there for aesthetics more than anything with a small fraction of those systems being more customized with content (e.g. Federation, Empire space etc.). If that's the case I guess that would be fine - I'm just kinda curious what the plan is.

I suppose they could do something like generate one of some pre-set number of special characteristics per 1000 systems or something - like ancient artifacts for example. Still though - at some point one would have seen all these things and exploring further may not be very compelling. Once you've seen Rich worlds, Industrial worlds, worlds with ancient artifacts, etc. etc., there's no point going further. There must be limits of course so I'm not suggesting that would necessarily be a bad thing. I really am just curious if there are any plans for all that space or if it's just there to have a realistic Milky Way and won't really be used.
Click to expand...

It is to be procedurally generated, with some "hand crafting". You may wish to look at the article referenced in this thread - http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=11811 to see some of David's thoughts about it.
 
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