At least we've moved on from expansion pricing policy discussion
True... unlike that "issue", this new revelation actually does irk me a bit.
No NPC SRV's - WTH?
- Thread starter Hadron-Higgs-Boson
- Start date
True... unlike that "issue", this new revelation actually does irk me a bit.
I'm greatly amused by all of your posts.
They're taking the easy way out by avoiding ground based AI navigation, hopefully they're working on it though, because it's bound to come up in the future when adding populated planets, first person navigation in stations/ships, and big game hunting.
Npcs/drones will be popping up to make life difficult for the player, they will just be flying instead of driving. So that bullet remains undodged.
Npcs/drones will be popping up to make life difficult for the player, they will just be flying instead of driving. So that bullet remains undodged.
I see your point when looking at the features and rationale in comparison to generic MMOs.
But on the other hand that doesn't mean it's necessarily wrong.
In the vast majority of cases, the player will be the odd one out in these scenarios. Not because they're a player, but because they are the visitor.
It makes sense on an airless world to use unmanned drones to patrol a base. Sending an oxygen using person out there and putting them at risk would make little sense.
Likewise in a crash site - you might anticipate crew being injured, having a limited oxygen supply etc. and the manufacturer would use robotic drones to protect them, not SRVs. A salvage site could be untouched for who knows how long, so why would it have human defenders?
In this case the player is different - they are coming down to investigate the planet in person, temporarily. That's what the SRV is for, and it makes sense to use it in that situation.
It would be nice if NPC ships could deploy SRVs, but I think it would be a fairly unusual occurrence to run in to them and as such not a priority for day 1.
It's also worth bearing in mind that we're looking at the first ever time planet surfaces will appear in the game. It's very early days in the grand scheme of things. Many of the biggest challenges - pathfinding with massive variations in terrain, dealing with extreme surface differences, and very large differences in gravity, etc. These are things that will be as relevant in some years time with Earth-like planets after a huge amount of development and refinement - they don't need to jump every technical hurdle right now, just focus on the most important things.
Excpet that it isn't, because if the technology for sophisticated hover drones doese exists, it would be used by exploring pilots as well out of the same reasons... that's why I say it feels iffy. It's like a gimmick that's only there for the player, something FD has actually avoided for the game so far.
Which is what FD has done for the game in general up until now... problem is, that's all they did do before they moved on to the next big thing. That wasn't that big of a problem when it was spaceship simulation only, but moving to planetary content and all the options that that could potentially intail, it can look pretty shallow and gamy very fast if those options are pushed/dropped for simplicity's sake. I'm just concerned that all the game will ever be is a collection of base line features...
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Deleted member 38366
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I'm pretty sure we'll one day see all this in one form or another.
But just like NPC Wingmen, it's not ready yet. Not in the first incarnation of Horizons, where they'll have much more fundamental priorities to work on.
Once NPC Wingmen and Multi-Crew Ships (which IMHO will require an NPC option) become reality, my best guess is that those details will come along with that.
But just like NPC Wingmen, it's not ready yet. Not in the first incarnation of Horizons, where they'll have much more fundamental priorities to work on.
Once NPC Wingmen and Multi-Crew Ships (which IMHO will require an NPC option) become reality, my best guess is that those details will come along with that.
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We'll see... there are many once ambitions games out there with good concepts, that had to make so many concessions along the way that that's all the ever been: Good concepts.
Right no, all I can see is the push towards a new aspect of the game, when the base game is still missing so many features originally in the concept... although, I'm not a pro-developer and I don't know the roadmap, so all I can say is, again: We'll see.
That work has already been done to a great extend. The challenge is not in route mapping, it's in recognizing the terrain. But the terrain is already in the computer's memory, so the biggest issue is already solved. It's just a matter of generating a set of rules that allows the NPC AI to access the data.
I doubt the hover drones are going to have true flight anyways, just a really lax pathing system that will allow them to traverse obstacles that will stop an SRV.
Sure, Helicopters are the perfect vehicle for strip mining in our world, right?
No, ships actually won't cut it. Why waste energy on keeping something afloat against a planet's surface and hovering still? How are ships supposed to collect the minerals they lasered off? There are no "traktor beams" in ED as far as I can tell and we haven't seen the ship drones work on planets, so the most likely candidates for such tasks are surface vehicles.
We kind of have more gravity and atmosphere making this hard in our case.
Also I'm sure most mining will be done inside/below large facilities. Not out in the open.
And you can't argue that a small SRV with 2 tons of cargo space is better suited for mining than even a Sidewinder.
Larger vehicles might do the job at some point. But we aren't there yet. (even then terrain might still make a ship more efficient)
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this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJv3EXH0yqY&feature=youtu.be does look awesome, but it also begs the question how it could be so hard to have NPC SRV's navigate around that base area, it clearly looks to me like the landscape has been terraformed for the base
For me no NPCs in SRVs was the biggest news of the stream. That's a real shame. Loads of gameplay opportunities will be lost, I suspect.
Really hoping it will come in at some point - maybe 2nd half of season 2, but probably just wishful thinking...
I thought a lot of what they showed did look really good - graphics wise: the terrain, the SRVs, turrets, etc.
But those moons are going to be a bit lifeless...
Really hoping it will come in at some point - maybe 2nd half of season 2, but probably just wishful thinking...
I thought a lot of what they showed did look really good - graphics wise: the terrain, the SRVs, turrets, etc.
But those moons are going to be a bit lifeless...
Agreed. Base perimeter patrolling SRVs should at least be doable at some point.
I really hope this is something they get to and implement eventually.
I understand pathfinding can be tough, but they can start basic, just like they did with the regular NPCs.
Sure, at first, you'll be able to escape a hostile NPC SRV by just boosting over a ravine or fooling them into tripping over a bump but a start would be good. If only to make it so that populated parts of space don't seem oddly devoid of activity when you go planet side.
I understand pathfinding can be tough, but they can start basic, just like they did with the regular NPCs.
Sure, at first, you'll be able to escape a hostile NPC SRV by just boosting over a ravine or fooling them into tripping over a bump but a start would be good. If only to make it so that populated parts of space don't seem oddly devoid of activity when you go planet side.
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Yes, they've got AI to fly ships through asteroid fields...
Also, simple A -> B can't be that hard, you'd have thought. If the buggies couldn't jump, then yes, it would make it harder - they could get stuck somewhere. Hopefully FD will comment on why they omitted NPCs from SRVs.
