ship interiors - will they happen

[Cosmo]

I could sit for hours designing something I'd like to see implemented into a game (for "free").

The detailed interiors that FRj made are a good example of how ship interiors could be. I doubt you are skilled enough like him to make such detailed interior videos. It's easy to dismiss FRj's great efforts with a few words.

It doesn't mean it's useful to the actual game devs, or indicative of how long it might take the devs to do it properly. So there's no point citing it as how to do ship interiors.

If it was a simple drawing them it wouldn't be useful. However, FRj designed the interiors in detail with 3D walkthroughs. That's not something anyone can do. Of course they don't have to use it.

That video doesn't somehow tell fdev how to do it,

That video does show how the modules could be placed inside those ships, how it could fit, what it could look like, it is useful in that regard like concept art. It's detailed visual suggestions and ideas by a fan of ED. That should be praised.

Believe me, in this forum they have given dozens of ideas and possibilities, some really very creative. Perhaps this topic is the most repeated in the forum, it reappears constantly. It is, I would say, down to the first intuitive idea that appears when playing ED.

Yeah this topic shows up a lot, because so many people do want ship interiors.

what I actually wished was cabin interiors, to see the difference in layouts and sizes 'n all... it was there from the day one.

VR does the job. You will not ask again for ship interiors.

Walking around in a ship with VR would be more immersive and interesting than just sitting imo.

 

[TNTDany]

Hopefully Yes, one day they will arrive.

 

[rootsrat]

It's amazing how 1 guy designed the detailed interior of the Sidewinder and other ships. They should hire FRj to make it for ED.

Unfortunately frj is no longer with us due to Covid

RIP o7

 

[MUTILADOR]

I keep reiterating the same thing, it doesn't get much notice taken though!

These types of comments are not taken into account because, with all due respect, the comment is a little silly. Resignation, stagnation, conformism is never a good idea.

 

[Hank]

The first thing FDev could do that would not require 3D modeling of interiors beyond the airlock door at the rear of all the bridges; is to allow the Cmd to stand up, interface with a crew (sitting at one of the bridge stations - aka seats), or enter the airlock to:
Jump in a land rover
Jump in a fighter
Or exit the ship to start Odyssey

Interiors would be great but I have no hope it will ever happen (and in some ways I can understand the amount of work involved). The cockpits and bridges are already modeled so use them. ED is essentially I-am-the-ship game currently.

Have a nice weekend

 

[Cosmo]

Unfortunately frj is no longer with us due to Covid

RIP o7

Oh I didn't know that. Rest in peace FRj.

 

[Rat Catcher]

These types of comments are not taken into account because, with all due respect, the comment is a little silly.

Indeed, to suggest that one enjoys what they have, rather than bewail that they do no, is very silly, I suppose...

Oddly though, only one of those options leads to immense dissatisfaction, doesn't it?

Resignation, stagnation, conformism is never a good idea.

I have no idea what you are saying there...

But, as long as you are happy with your lot, that is all that matters, isn't it?

 

[Dragsham]

What more does exploration need

Well I'm surprised frankly..unless you simply don't go exploring..
It needs alot. More than l can say tbh.
But I'll give it a go.
Exploration needs a pass on the payouts for planet types, gas giants for example.
Black holes need to be more realistic ie dangerous
The inclusion of lagrange clouds full of debris, asteroids on crazy hurtling vectors, space hulks (within human occupied regions), radioactive materials, etc. I'm no expert but I'm sure there are experts here on this forum who could easily answer your question far better than l.
More landable Atmospheric planets/moons.
Fleshing out the galaxy in my opinion has to be one of the hardest, most ambitious projects fdev would ever attempt.
There's not much difference between one given system and another. And Again I just don't know enough to fill that void.
So even though I've attempted quite poorly to answer this question, it falls to my betters to do this.

 

[Rat Catcher]

Well I'm surprised frankly..unless you simply don't go exploring..

No, I am not an Explorer - although on 1 account I have travelled well in excess of a million LY, been to Beagle, Sag A*, and a few other nice places.
I'm more of a sightseer as I go out for fun, and just enjoy the sights.

Exploration needs a pass on the payouts for planet types, gas giants for example...

An interesting list.
Anything that adds any kind of danger, apart from player error, is unlikely to be welcomed by those who fly around in their tinfoil ships...

There's not much difference between one given system and another.

As we have discovered less than 0.05% (isn't it?) of the game's galaxy, this is a curious statement - although, it is true that, so far, very little of interest has been found, a bit like the galaxy in RL, really...

 

[Dragsham]

@Rat Catcher
We as a human race, have absolutely no idea whats out there.
But it's not safe. Defo not. We sanitise it for ease of use. Deep space is deadly. High Radioactivity for example.
But again I'm not an astrophysicist. So words fail me.

 

[thistle]

The detailed interiors that FRj made are a good example of how ship interiors could be. I doubt you are skilled enough like him to make such detailed interior videos. It's easy to dismiss FRj's great efforts with a few words.

Again you miss the point. FDEV don't need someone to show them how to design or build ship interiors for their game. That's not a criticism of frj or his video.

The design of ship interiors isn't the problem, it isn't the reason we don't have them. FDEV can do that no problem. It's the totality of work required to change the game, as well as add the interiors, that FDEV appear to have decided not to do.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Fleshing out the galaxy in my opinion has to be one of the hardest, most ambitious projects fdev would ever attempt.
There's not much difference between one given system and another

That is essentially the problem with games on vast scales. You can either design things mostly by hand and have a very limited number of distinctive detailed areas - or you can make heavy use of templating and have a very large number of areas at a lower level of detail. Inhabited space at a much smaller 20,000 systems has very much the same problem.

Elite Dangerous of course has bits of both - there are things like volcanism, the Odyssey biologicals, tip-off shipwrecks, etc. which are heavily based on templates (and still, putting together those templates will have taken a substantial amount of artist and developer time) ... and there are things like the Thargoid or Guardian sites, or the various generation ships, abandoned bases, the rarer NSP lifeforms, etc. which all have at least some sort of unique detail and often specific ways to interact with them but are as a result extremely limited in number.

There's not really a middle ground between "so common that you'll find several - or at least see the same template multiple times even if the precise details differ - and they quickly stop being exciting" and "so rare that you won't find any except by following other people's routes" ... at least not at any finite budget.

 

[Rat Catcher]

But it's not safe. Defo not. We sanitise it for ease of use. Deep space is deadly. High Radioactivity for example.

In the game deep space is safer than walking around the park.
Real space is slightly more hazardous.

My only point was that, given the preference for "Explorers" to fly around in min/max ships, adding anything that might threaten the flying deathtraps is likely to be met with outrage as they are not equipped for any real threat. At least FCs have given many the opportunity to fly something well shielded and heavily armed & armoured (which was my Krait II I took to the Abyssal Plains from the Bubble) rather than a maximum jump paper vessel.

 

[Dragsham]

With the advent of fleet carriers as you've said, no need for paper kites anymore.
The galaxy is a much smaller place for it.
Is Ian said, there's only a finite amount of content that could be added.
But I'd add that that finite content could be an ongoing situation. Course the galaxy In elite is safe. Especially the bubble. We've colonised it. Removed any potential threat. Or are in the process of.
But out there! In the black. Hazards must be there. Some known Some unknown. And as the unknown is recorded, more unknown is generated by the devs almost stealthily. Not a readme or patch note in sight.
Now that would be cool.

 

[Spaceman-FXL5]

Interiors, although whilst maybe nice looking fluff, will be just useless fluff for me.

I recently got Ody and I did actually enjoy walking around My Own FC for the first time.
BUT, I will not be doing that again in a hurry, unless I start Exobiology and need Vista Genomics and some other services installed.
You cannot even get a beer at the bar!!!!! What?

With limited 1 or 2 hr sessions after work, I have more things to do than spend time walking from concourse to ship or walking to SRV or SLF bay to deploy them - DUH!.

Instead of the effort put into useless interiors, I would prefer FDev put more effort into (seemingly dead) storylines and CG's with outcomes that effect ongoing storylines - win/lose, research/supply, haul/defend, evacuate/repair, etc, etc.
This really creates immersion and a feeling of a 'live' galaxy in need of PF services, rather than superpowers/armed forces.

1 (or 2) CG's per month would be great - when was the last one? 21 March.
I really hope PP2 creates a need for more CG's, not the death of CG's.

 

[Darkfyre99]

What more does exploration need, in your opinion? (Ignoring more atmospheric bodies to land on - the mechanic would still remain unchanged)

Missed this question the first time around…

The biggest missing piece of exploration for me is “living off the land” mechanics, and of course dangers which would make it necessary to do so. For me, the term “exploration” is inevitably linked with “finding stuff to survive.” Once outside the Bubble, and Thargoid and Guardian territory, there is very little besides pilot error that will threaten your ship.

And of course, a small sized and lightweight “D” class life support system can keep a Commander alive indefinitely. It’s absence so wrong in my eyes, I’ve made my own rules regarding life support size, quality, crew size, “quality of life,” and how long said crew can survive without resupply.

Then there’s the lack of actual exploration missions. The closest we get are long-range tourism missions, and those aren’t nearly as interesting as they used to be, because the landmarks were for pre-Odyssey features. Where are missions that ask you to survey a world for a corporation or government?

That leads me to another missing piece of exploration, the shortage of core exploration-based game loops. There’s the two basic ones: “map the system” and “map a world.” Then there’s the Odyssey exclusive “sample life.” To this day, I think Frontier dropped the ball by not requiring “geological samples,” gathered by SRV, to figure out what materials are available on the surface of a world! They moved this function first to the surface scanner (no need to even enter orbit!) and then the DSS! (no need to leave the arrival star!). This would’ve been a wonderful opportunity to add a new class of exploration data, to accompany surface gameplay added by Horizons.

Which leads me to final missing piece of exploration, which is the paltry shortage of essential planetary exploration equipment for your ship. There is exactly one piece you need: the surface scanner. It used to be two, but the discovery scanner became the core equipment in the firm of the FSS. To this day, there is little reason to visit a world’s surface, because science can be done in orbit… unless you’ve bought Odyssey, and that doesn’t require ship-based equipment. There isn’t even a exploration-specialized SRV! Everything else is optional. Even a fuel scoop is only necessary for long-range travel… without a fleet carrier.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Which leads me to final missing piece of exploration, which is the paltry shortage of essential planetary exploration equipment for your ship

Though the way that outfitting is set up in Elite Dangerous [1] doesn't really fit well with even the range of exploration equipment we currently have - a properly-outfitted exploration ship (that's not tied to a nearby FC, anyway) is probably looking at 8-9 optional internals filled which rules out a lot of the smaller ships immediately even with the FSS now being free and the extra supercruise assist internal being repurposable.

I ended up slightly annoyed by this on my recent exploration trip, because I passed through Black in Green and wanted to check out the Tourist Installation there ... only to remember that this was my other exploration ship which didn't have recon limpets, manifest scanners, etc. and I didn't feel like a 30,000 LY round trip to get the right ship, so I was restricted to just looking at it and admiring the view.

[1] Given how oversized the Sensors are relative to the rest of the ship on the Asp Explorer (and Asp Scout!) but not on any later exploration-intended ships I assume that they were originally intended to play a much more critical role in exploration. Sensors having sub-module slots based on their size and grade (rather than pushing all of that off to utility scanners or additional optionals like the DSS/original discovery scanners) might have made the Asp's ability to carry 5A really useful.

 

[metatheurgist]

The biggest missing piece of exploration for me is “living off the land” mechanics

"Living off the Land" is kind of hard in ED though. We only really need fuel (free from many stars). The only real limit is ship damage, which because of how safe exploration is you really need to throw caution to the solar winds to even come to any kind of risk. A long time ago I suggested maybe if we had to at least bring food along as a limit that would be something, not suggesting any actual survival mechanics. As you can imagine the thought of sacrificing module space for food was abhorrent to almost everyone.

But it's not safe. Defo not. We sanitise it for ease of use. Deep space is deadly. High Radioactivity for example.

Most of the hazards we experience are mitigated by our amazing space faring Winnebagos. Limitless power, air and security. Ships strong enough to withstand parking next to suns and basically invulnerable unless we smash into planets.

The bigger issue with exploration is the mechanic can't be salvaged, it's too late. There is no mystery of the unknown anymore. Sure we've only actually only seen less than 1% but we've already spiderwebbed the galaxy, no one really believes there's anything between the threads. The difficulty should have been there to limit our progress but we've pretty much covered the whole galaxy.

 

[Greasetrap42]

I really don't see decent gameplay ship interiors being implemented without some major game modifications first.

Example:
I don't understand how they could implement ship interiors without first splitting-up the instance reloading such that a cmdr can continue "doing things" inside the ship while the ship enter/exits a jump. If a cmdr is sent back into their chair and forced to look out the cockpit window every time.... that would be extremely immersion breaking...and crazy frustrating. How would that be fun?

I suppose a cmdr might be allowed to walk around their ship only when it is landed. Whoo-hoo! /s. Isn't this a game where we fly space ships?

 

[Dragsham]

I can talk about SC ship interiors all day.
The whole mechanic of loading and unloading, getting out of the cockpit going to the cargo area, opening the cargo bay doors etc. I'll admit I miss that. The EVA aspect too. It's fun. It can get tedious especially stacking cargo knowing the bugs therein.
And I'm not saying that's how elite should approach it. The realism is good. The clipping errors are not. If it worked OK it'd be fab but SC doesn't work. Riddled with horrible bugs the whole process is.
The new internals and how they need attention using some god raygun to repair etc. It's idea is good just doesn't work as intended.
If elite did go down that road I'm sure it would roll out with bugs but unlike SC those bugs would be addressed.
Elite is not perfect there are bugs that go back years that haven't been fixed.
My point is if ship interiors did come to elite it would be problematic and I'm sure some aspects would never be fixed.
Perhaps the whole loop should be avoided on that premise.