News 'Meet the Team' Interviews

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Ashley Barley

A
Hi all,

To replace the Feature Requests Update I will be conducting interviews with members of the dev team working on Elite: Dangerous. These are the people that are working right now across all departments to bring Elite to you in March, so I'm sure you all have more than a few questions to ask them!

If you have any questions to ask a member of our team then post it below. There will be some general questions asked to all of our team that take part, so role-specific questions would be especially appreciated! Some of the questions I already plan to ask include:


  • How long have you worked at FD and what projects have you worked on?
  • How did you get into (profession) and what advice would you have to anyone else planning to get into it as well?
  • Describe a normal day
  • What are you working on right now?
  • What thing or element of ED are you most excited about?
  • What will you be doing in the final game?
With that said, please fire away! :)
 

Darren Grey

Darren Grey
Great idea, Ashley! Looking forward to the results :) Now, some questions:

How much have you played the original games?
What's your favourite ship?

For coders:

What sorts of procedural algorithms are you using? Voronoi maps, Djikstra, CA, etc.
Is there any inheritance from Frontier and First Encounters' algorithms?
 

Slawkenbergius

Slawkenbergius
When you applied to work for Frontier, were you secretly hoping you'd get to work on a new Elite?

Are you a long-standing fan of science fiction? If so, what are your favourite films/books/games in the genre? If not, what's wrong with you?
 

Selezen

Selezen
Great idea, Ashley! Remember to include office juniors and cleaners too!!

A question for peeps: Of the side-projects (writers packs, podcasts, audio dramas etc etc etc) which are your favourites and what are the ones you are most looking forward to?
 

Tinman

Tinman
Darren Grey said:
For coders:

What sorts of procedural algorithms are you using? Voronoi maps, Djikstra, CA, etc.
Is there any inheritance from Frontier and First Encounters' algorithms?
Click to expand...

I just want to add to this:

How are you planning the games procedural generation in respect to future updates (AKA landing on planets)? Being able to see lights from cities/settlements has been talked about previously. Adding points of light to the planet is one thing, complete cities another. How are these type of features planned for in respect to the future of the game.

Another similar example would be vegetation on a planet that can support life. Maybe some vegetation in future updates might be blue instead of "earth-green" simply due to the spectrum of light from the star in that system. This of course means that the planets need to keep these type of things in mind even in the first release so that these planets does not suddenly change appearance later on.

You probably need to "compress" this question somewhat though... ;)
 

Listeri69

Listeri69
My questions would be...

Did you have any experience with any of the previous elite games prior to working for frontier?

What is it like working with the public i.e DDF forum do you find it a help or hindrance?

How confident are you that the game will be a success/the game the fans want?

Does D.B. Yell at you a lot? :D (Really more what is it like to work with D.B?)
 

MikeSnos

MikeSnos
Great idea.... Here's a couple of suggestions from me. Some serious, some less so.... I'll leave you to work out which is which....

  • Do you wear Jumpers like DB's? If not, why not?
  • Do you think the A14 should be upgraded?
  • Do you wear Onesies, if so, what pattern do you have on yours? If not, what pattern would you have on yours?
  • If you had to choose a Commander name, what would you choose and why?
  • Which place or system would you want to visit in the (real) Galaxy and why?
  • Have you ever played the original BBC Elite at all? When you first saw it what did you think of it?

[EDIT] One last question... Do you find filling in timesheets as tiresome as I do? Just spent all day reconciling two month's worth of project time (5 different projects!)
 

Mobius

Mobius
will everyone from Frontier development be attending the official launch party or will it be a selection of employees.

Ashley Barley: what was you doing before you became the community support manager, and what does this role involve?

Michael brooks: having been thrown in the deep end regarding facing the public in the development videos, do you still get that feeling of dread every time David says he is to busy to do it this week?.

David Braben: having now done your first game that is part developed by the general public, do you feel that Elite is turning into a game that will please some of the people some of the time, instead of a game that you originally envisioned it to be?.
 

X2Eliah

X2Eliah
Role specific questions? Okay.

-- To the object modeller(s):
What inspires your designs? Do you look at pictures of military jets, or do you look at other sci-fi art, or maybe cars? Nature? Sailboats?

-- To the people working on either network code or databases:
How do you get excited about such intrinsic coding as networking/database stuff? Surely, you must love what you do, specifically - so how did you end up loving something with no easily visible visual/audial payoff?

-- To nearly anyone:
Have you ever been a modder? Have you tweaked and changed and worked on games just for own enjoyment, outside of any work / contracting?

-- To the writers:
How much are you influenced by fiction, versus influenced by fact? Do you look more towards the past or the future for ideas?

-- To designers/planners/directors:
Fun vs. realism! WITH A TWIST - give your answer, as applied to videogames, entirely through cooking and automotive metaphors.

-- To nearly everyone:
Favourite game genre, OUTSIDE of space games / simulations.

-- To musicians/composers/audioProducers:
Describe your sound systems that you use for leisure time / at home! (Please)

I think that would be it, from my side :)
 

Patrick_68000

Patrick_68000
Very good idea to speak directly with the team.

  • What are the programming languages ​​used in ED ?
  • Today, ED is the most complex project, you need to do in your career ?
  • How many programmers on the project ?
  • Most programmers are engineers ?
  • There are scientists in the development team ?
  • You work on what type of hardware ?
  • About artists, you have also worked in comic books ? animated cartoons ?
  • There is an economist in the team ? (for business / economy part in the game)
  • How many people in the whole ED team ?
 
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withnail

withnail
There are some pretty wacky things bandied around on the forum. Do they create much of a talking point in the office and have they helped the development of the game?
 

DobrijZmej

DobrijZmej
Ashley, in order to make the process better choice questions - can you advertise a specialty of who will be interviewed in the next issue?
I think this will allow it to focus on those issues that are relevant to his specialty.
 

Gimi

Gimi
The Cobra development engine

To one of the core programmers.

Could you give us some more technical information about the Cobra engine that, from what I understand, is being used for Elite: Dangerous. From the Frontier web pages I understand that the engine being used is the fourth generation of Cobra.
  • Can you introduce us to the origins, development history and evolution of Cobra?
  • What games (and applications if any) have been made using the Cobra engine so far?
  • Has Frontier licensed the engine for use outside Frontier?
  • What technology/programming language is it based upon, and what languages does it support for development.
  • What platforms does it currently support (PC Win, PC Linux, IOS, OS X, and so on?
  • What platforms are planned for the future. (Not for Elite: Dangerous, but for the Cobra engine)
  • What graphics engines does it support: DirectX, OpenGL, WebGL, and so on?
  • Does Cobra support 32bit and 64bit platforms.
  • And more that I can't think of right now.
 

psykokow

psykokow
Does Ashley make the best coffee?
Are there any in office games to pass the time?
Do you have an office like google with slides n stuff?
When the shift ends do Frontier use Elite sounds to signal the end of the day?
When you arrive in the morning, do you need to call the office for permission to park?
 
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