News Project Update #46: Progress Diary #4

[Voyager_NL]

Here's the e-mail message:

Hi everyone,
Welcome to the fourth Elite: Dangerous progress diary. In this diary David discusses the roles of the Majestic class Interdictors (Cruisers) of the Imperial Navy. He also answers more questions posed by fans on the Private Backers Forum. These cover NPC’s in the game, naming ships, loading screens, the new Elite ranking system and are celestial bodies following real orbits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJGUvr-uBRA

For those of you waiting for concept prints, unfortunately we have to go with a different supplier as the quality was not good enough. We’re working to resolve this as quickly as possible and hope to see some movement within the next couple of weeks. Please accept our apologies for the delays on this, but we wanted to make sure that the prints were of a high quality.

Those of you watching your emails will already know that the seventh newsletter has been sent out yet, if you haven’t seen it yet then you can see it at: http://eepurl.com/AhCNj

Thanks again for watching and if you want to get involved the come visit our forums:http://forums.frontier.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=29

Michael

That Imperator in the background looks awesome!
FD: can you get us links to HIGHREZ images of the Imperator? Would be great for desktopwalpapering.
Thanks!

 

[X2Eliah]

Interesting - he mentioned that the dev team took some investors to increase the funding. Oh well, fair enough - I just hope this isn't like those cureent-day publisher deals with AAA studios that are leading to bankrupting & dissolution al over the place.

The empire's capital ship really looks amazing (imo much prettier than the star citizen's capships), props to the art department. I think, if that's the type of ships I'd see, then I'm going to play on the Empire side!

 

[rgmarett]

Interesting - he mentioned that the dev team took some investors to increase the funding. Oh well, fair enough - I just hope this isn't like those cureent-day publisher deals with AAA studios that are leading to bankrupting & dissolution al over the place.

An Investment firm (or individual) work differently to a Publishing firm. Most publishing firms would think they know better, or at least assume they have a better idea of what they think sells well, based on old market trends - which is why independent companies are trying to move away from them.

An investment firm might have some input, but normally they would invest based on the pitch they received, are are only looking for a return on that investment over a number of years.

 

[X2Eliah]

True. But the thing is, that firm will still want their money back somehow.. With kickstarter funds, DB didn't have to hand profit back to us.. with an investment firm, they will have to.. Which to me is a little bit worrying...

 

[Cmdr Andy B]

Interesting that he referred to prohibition era America with regards to trust when selling illegal items such as Brandy on a world where alcohol is outlawed, much more immersive than just buying and selling it

 

[JohnStabler]

Glad to see David Braben use the term "centripetal" force rather than the defunct "centrifugal" force.

 

[Listeri69]

Good update the ship in the background does look fantastic

 

[stephen_usher]

Although it's always nice to see David on-screen, after six months since the last game foootage it would be good to see how the development game is looking in the flesh, as it were. e.g. how is the scanner design coming along? What experiments are being done in the graphics engine space? etc.

 

[W4rSkuLL]

It would be nice to see some ingame flicks again But nice progress Diary today

 

[Tinman]

Although it's always nice to see David on-screen, after six months since the last game foootage it would be good to see how the development game is looking in the flesh, as it were. e.g. how is the scanner design coming along? What experiments are being done in the graphics engine space? etc.

Well, they did write this over in the comment section on KS:

"We're working on something for in-game, but we have been focusing on getting the core elements of the game working, rather than creating something to show. We will have something cool for you soon (ish)."

 

[OneoftheLost]

That Imperator in the background looks awesome!
FD: can you get us links to HIGHREZ images of the Imperator? Would be great for desktopwalpapering.
Thanks!

I second this! An amazing render!

I'm also worried about investors, but I understand that FD will probably need a substantial sum for the future plans. I'm hoping a Console port comes out of it at some point down the line.

I quite liked the questions! The NPC talk got me excited and thinking up ways to be a smuggler. However, the talk of planets rotating around the sun got me thinking.

FD has confirmed that planets will act realisticly, BUT they will do so in real time. FD has also confirmed that there is no time compression. How am I going to catch a sunset by anything other then luck? :S

 

[rgmarett]

How am I going to catch a sunset by anything other then luck? :S

You won't. Unless you land on a planet log out and then log back in later when the sun sets.

You'd need to know what time the sun sets and rises though, so maybe that could be on the bulletin board somewhere?

 

[Cmdr Andy B]

I second this! An amazing render!

I'm also worried about investors, but I understand that FD will probably need a substantial sum for the future plans. I'm hoping a Console port comes out of it at some point down the line.

I quite liked the questions! The NPC talk got me excited and thinking up ways to be a smuggler. However, the talk of planets rotating around the sun got me thinking.

FD has confirmed that planets will act realisticly, BUT they will do so in real time. FD has also confirmed that there is no time compression. How am I going to catch a sunset by anything other then luck? :S

you're in a space ship remember, at any half decent orbital velocity you'll see sunrise's a plenty. the International Space Station witness around 15 sunrises and 15 sunsets every day so imagine how many you could see in a Cobra 3 with the afterburners running hot

 

[psykokow]

I am baffled about why people assume the worst. We all backed a game that might not ever be, and willingly, at NO STAGE thus far have they turned on us with a surprise of right you guys shut up...

We have had no reason not to trust frontier... mugs and t-shirt designs were an issue from design front, but we all have seen the effort into the game.

We have to trust Frontier that they will not squander our monies nor make deals that undermine the whole ethos we have bought into.

There is NO reason to be sooo worried about every slight announcement, and it was an official announcement carefully worded to let us know about it.

We need to kick back a little more and enjoy the whole process we are part off and stop reacting badly to any bit of an anouncement like this.

IF it is to be a can of worms, wait till its open....before you call it worms..

 

[Minti2]

I am baffled about why people assume the worst. We all backed a game that might not ever be, and willingly, at NO STAGE thus far have they turned on us with a surprise of right you guys shut up...

We have had no reason not to trust frontier... mugs and t-shirt designs were an issue from design front, but we all have seen the effort into the game.

We have to trust Frontier that they will not squander our monies nor make deals that undermine the whole ethos we have bought into.

There is NO reason to be sooo worried about every slight announcement, and it was an official announcement carefully worded to let us know about it.

We need to kick back a little more and enjoy the whole process we are part off and stop reacting badly to any bit of an anouncement like this.

IF it is to be a can of worms, wait till its open....before you call it worms..

Agree, and noticed DB said he wanted us to know about the news first before anyone else, makes me think there will be an announcement somewhere about who the investors are at some point.

Am not worried one little bit, am feeling Frontiers are getting on with the game they want, and giving us alot of insight in the newsletters, we will always want more, but the tease of whats next is half the fun in my opinion

 

[psykokow]

Im just worried that the community could sour itself when it really doesn't need too..

At the moment we are all part of the most valuable commoditty ED has... but it wont take much of us becoming whingers and winers.. before that could be altered...

and I don't mean the PVP PVE debates or the criticism of ship designs or proposals... THAT Is what they want from us...


Lets get on with the hard work of moaning about the important stuff and leave DB and EA alone *ducks*

 

[Patrick_68000]

I am baffled about why people assume the worst. We all backed a game that might not ever be, and willingly, at NO STAGE thus far have they turned on us with a surprise of right you guys shut up... We have had no reason not to trust frontier... mugs and t-shirt designs were an issue from design front, but we all have seen the effort into the game. We have to trust Frontier that they will not squander our monies nor make deals that undermine the whole ethos we have bought into. There is NO reason to be sooo worried about every slight announcement, and it was an official announcement carefully worded to let us know about it. We need to kick back a little more and enjoy the whole process we are part off and stop reacting badly to any bit of an anouncement like this. IF it is to be a can of worms, wait till its open....before you call it worms..

Agree, Those who doubt, should read the minutes of the artists in the DDF.
It is impressive of seeing what is being decided.

Agree, and noticed DB said he wanted us to know about the news first before anyone else, makes me think there will be an announcement somewhere about who the investors are at some point.
Am not worried one little bit, am feeling Frontiers are getting on with the game they want, and giving us alot of insight in the newsletters, we will always want more, but the tease of whats next is half the fun in my opinion

As long as David is the master of his game, it is essential

 

[Minti2]

Agree, Those who doubt, should read the minutes of the artists in the DDF.
It is impressive of seeing what is being decided.

Alas am not in the DDF, but that sounds intriguing about the minutes of the Artists, can you say what that is?...no worries if not

 

[Slawkenbergius]

Alas am not in the DDF, but that sounds intriguing about the minutes of the Artists, can you say what that is?...no worries if not

I think Patrick is referring to the Design Discussion Archive. The 'artists' bit is probably just a translation thing, as he's not a native speaker of English. There's actually very little discussion on the 'art' side in the DDF - most of that happens in the general forums and the private backers forum. Beyond what's currently being discussed this week, the only things that are not publicly available are general 'housekeeping' threads, and one thread of our random musings which remains open indefinitely. Unlike the fiction forum, there are no mysteries in the DDF.

 

[Minti2]

I think Patrick is referring to the Design Discussion Archive. The 'artists' bit is probably just a translation thing, as he's not a native speaker of English. There's actually very little discussion on the 'art' side in the DDF - most of that happens in the general forums and the private backers forum. Beyond what's currently being discussed this week, the only things that are not publicly available are general 'housekeeping' threads, and one thread of our random musings which remains open indefinitely. Unlike the fiction forum, there are no mysteries in the DDF.

I did wonder if it was a translation thing, just couldn't let it go in case there was some special artists thing going on i didn't know about.

"sighs" ah well, was excited for a few minutes, back to the poor PBF for me

cheers for letting me know.