ANNOUNCEMENT Odyssey: Update on VR and Ship Interiors
- Thread starter Arthur Tolmie
- Start date
I really dont mean to be disrespectful here, but first off, you're being kinda two-faced here, since you say completely opposite things, you DO understand that the bond between the pilot and the ship is incredibly strong, and then you say about features that provide most meaningful experience... but walking around the ship and interacting with it IS the meaningful experience people have been waiting for, and "space legs" should be built around THAT. And some things added later... not vice-versa.
Otherwise, great update, can't wait for it. Really hope that you WILL add ship interiors a tad later into the update.
Now that I've read this, Frontier's logic sounds a lot more solid, those are some really complicated mechanics to implement into the game, but for starters it would be cool to at least walk around the ship when it's landed, and what I mean by that is to physically get up from your chair and walk to the airlock and get out of the ship. That would increase the immersion drastically.
I'd be up for having to remain seated during combat and ships
They could always... you know... have someone invent artificial-gravity for small ships in the Elite Dangerous universe.
That wouldn't be too much of a stretch and it sure as hell would sort the walking problem
Strongly disagree, as much as I do want to walk around my interiors. (I do sometimes in VR but it's not quite the same thing) They absolutely are doing the right thing by focusing on gameplay related to the new feature first and foremost. Walking around and interacting with the ship is cool, but it doesn't add a whole lot right now. What they are working on seems to be giving more of a reason to walk around on foot.
Not really; when it comes to MEANINGFUL gameplay, they're referring to things that drive the game forward; people walking around these new social spaces provides that because it is providing gameplay experiences such as making purchases, interacting with other players, taking on missions, etc. What gameplay value is there in walking around ships? There's none - sure, it would be nice to see what the interior looks like, but once you've done that a few times, there's nothing new to see, nothing added to the game.
If they cared about meaningful gameplay ...then they wouldn't focus on creating content in places people spend a minor fraction of their time at or with content only a fraction of the playerbase is interested in since you're basically providing a different game that those players already had available and chose not to play (there are tons of fps's out there) and instead chose to play a space combat / trader game.
Most players spend the majority of their time in space moving between locations...not at the destinations unless they're afk.
This also happens to be some of the most under-utilized parts of the game in terms of any kind of meaningful / fun / constructive gameplay.
Make traveling in the game fun and exciting. The destinations should be footnotes to the journey getting there in this game. Focussing on the destination just further disassociates the player from what drew them to the game in the first place, flying a space ship. Further, it reinforces a sense of resentment players have towards what should otherwise be the core activity in the game (space travel) leading to calls to cut more and more of it out and reduce the cost of it (and thus any hope to make it interesting).
Introduce ways for players to create and make available their own content within the game. Reliquish the chokehold you have on the overall story of elite dangerous since you're not capable of keeping up with player demand and only harming the game by keeping it the way it is. There's at least a few hundred players left playing and the're likely more than willing to create free content in a variety of ways to tell the stories they want to tell and that would be immeasurably more valuable as gamplay to the rest of the players than the status quo and first person shooting around yet another carbon copy base environment.
It's infuriating to read marketing speak. Meaningful player gameplay doesn't factor into the dev roadmap in this game. I'm not sure what drives it but it doesn't appear to be related to what's best for players or the gameplay. Hire some people who like playing games in this genre. Or release the cell phone videos of those guys flipping chairs and throwing mice and kicking down cube walls around the office when the execs set the development priorities to what they do ...that would at least be somewhat entertaining.
Most players spend the majority of their time in space moving between locations...not at the destinations unless they're afk.
This also happens to be some of the most under-utilized parts of the game in terms of any kind of meaningful / fun / constructive gameplay.
Make traveling in the game fun and exciting. The destinations should be footnotes to the journey getting there in this game. Focussing on the destination just further disassociates the player from what drew them to the game in the first place, flying a space ship. Further, it reinforces a sense of resentment players have towards what should otherwise be the core activity in the game (space travel) leading to calls to cut more and more of it out and reduce the cost of it (and thus any hope to make it interesting).
Introduce ways for players to create and make available their own content within the game. Reliquish the chokehold you have on the overall story of elite dangerous since you're not capable of keeping up with player demand and only harming the game by keeping it the way it is. There's at least a few hundred players left playing and the're likely more than willing to create free content in a variety of ways to tell the stories they want to tell and that would be immeasurably more valuable as gamplay to the rest of the players than the status quo and first person shooting around yet another carbon copy base environment.
It's infuriating to read marketing speak. Meaningful player gameplay doesn't factor into the dev roadmap in this game. I'm not sure what drives it but it doesn't appear to be related to what's best for players or the gameplay. Hire some people who like playing games in this genre. Or release the cell phone videos of those guys flipping chairs and throwing mice and kicking down cube walls around the office when the execs set the development priorities to what they do ...that would at least be somewhat entertaining.
An interesting figure that recently popped up from EA regarding Star Wars: Squadrons - apparently 15% of players have played in VR, which I think is pretty good considering one of the game launch platforms doesn’t have VR. The 1.5% figure usually bandied about (from Steam usage figures) would seem to be not that representative after all, at least where spaceflight games are concerned.
I wonder how ED compares?
![[VR] Captain_Obvious](https://d2aefvhu2f0gi9.cloudfront.net/data/avatars/m/176/176192.jpg?1620829029){kind=avatar}
Thanks for confirming VR in Odyssey will be supported. Even if it will be only on cinema screen at first.
And I am grateful that you keep the VR thing going. There were rumors that Frontier would drop the VR support completely in 2021. I really hope that was fake news.
As far as I see, the VR community is constantly growing. And the problem with Elite in VR is: There is no turning back. Once you have tried it (and are not too much affected by motion sickness) turning back to playing it in 2D in front of a screen seems impossible. If VR support would be dropped, I would surely quit playing.
And I am grateful that you keep the VR thing going. There were rumors that Frontier would drop the VR support completely in 2021. I really hope that was fake news.
As far as I see, the VR community is constantly growing. And the problem with Elite in VR is: There is no turning back. Once you have tried it (and are not too much affected by motion sickness) turning back to playing it in 2D in front of a screen seems impossible. If VR support would be dropped, I would surely quit playing.
Same.
Once the VR is tested, very very difficult to play on screen... the game is bland.
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Thank you for the update.
While obviously not the best news, it is still MUCH better than what was originally considered, so thank you very much for listening and continuing to cater to your VR community. We know we probably make up a fairly small percentage of the player base, but still, Elite Dangerous is a shining light in the VR gaming space and FDev should rightly be proud and supportive of it.
Hope you are still considering to implement full VR support for Odyssey in the future, not entirely sure what is meant by "the same quality bar that we set for cockpits" though? Surely VR is VR as long as all in-game elements (environments, HUIDS, etc) render correctly in VR and if they don't, the someone somewhere was asleep during the design stages! Other developers have shown that it's possible for this genre of game..
Anyway, looking forward to trying it out when it launches, and thank you again.
(Edited wording to clarify the third paragraph slightly)
Shame on you.
lol
This is true only if a ship is in inertial flight, i.e., not under acceleration (either positive or negative). In ED's realspace flight, acceleration is nearly 100% of the time, with or without FA. The "gravity" vector will be along the inverse vector of the ship's acceleration, which in most cases will chiefly be "Down is at my back" given the way ships are configured. This is much the same as terrestrial atmospheric flight save that the Earth's (or any planet's) gravity well is non-existent in open space and apparently only partially in effect even in the close proximity of a planet. And there would indeed be high-stress g shifts under combat or other fast-maneuver conditions, much more than "mag boots" could compensate for. While "inertial dampeners" are a handy bit of handwavium, engineering them in any practical fashion would require radically altering the ship's cockpit configuration we're so familiar with, if it could be done at all. So, basically just ignoring the actual consequences of realspace acceleration is the only useful solution for the game. In my mind this does not detract.
Whether there is a "gravity" vector due to acceleration when in supercruise is unclear, seeing as how the nature of spacetime is rather drastically altered. If so it would stand to reason it would also be "Down is at my back," making walking about while in flight somewhat problematic.This problem is compounded exponentially in a jump, it seems, as everything seems to go rather haywire during a transition. Again, better not to ask such questions and expect "realsitic" answers.
I appreciate FDev are trying to do their best and only want to bring out new features that look and feel realistic. However, until they learn the skills to impliment full VR in Odyssey I will be more than content to stay with Horizons.
So you won't want to see all the new planets in VR with atmospheres, or the existing non atmo planets that will all have new tech applied to them, also in VR?
Was that not clear? Seemed pretty clear to me.
I reckon the 'atmospheres' will just be a coloured sphere rendered around the planet or moon. No weather phenomena as such. As for new tech I'm happy to bide my time to wait and see what others think. I am really pleased with Horizons at the moment as it gives me all the enjoyment I need. I think I may be the only person to have driven an SRV around four worlds (accomplished with my V-4-Vendetta account) and that is something I really do enjoy doing and am now looking to circumnavigate a fifth world. Don't get me wrong, Odessey looks impressive and I might buy into it, but not necessarily at launch.