ship interiors - will they happen

[Coolgroove]

The only way it gets released is as a barebones set of rooms you can walk around. Adding anything else (EVA, boarding, etc) would be off the charts in complexity.

With discussion in this thread, examples in game, and discussions on last few pages (all with people who have at the minimum a good understanding of the principles of the tech) - it is doable with what game can already do. But yes, just as any new feature, it'll require actual development to happen.

Adding things like stealing ships would be even worse because it would require rebalancing of ship acquisition and have a lot of other knock-on effects.

With that I agree, stealing ships is something not realistic currently. But you never know, maybe there are resources for that sometime way into the future, if not for players ships (for obvious reasons, not only tech), then at least as parts of gameplay loops with NPC ships (get in, steal, deliver, mission complete and poof NPC ship is gone, back to your own).

Worst of all it would be added in lieu of adding more depth to existing systems.

It'll also be adding depth to existing space gameplay and possible interactions with the game (playing as a commander in a ship and not just as a ship), as well as much more depth to immersion.

I can't fathom how anyone could want this instead of:

• More stellar phenomena that we can discover while exploring
• Cave systems to explore on planets and other planetary diversity
• Expanding colonization with new ways to influence and profit from systems
• Fixing/improving lighting, anti-aliasing, and shadows
• More stuff to do on planets (more facilities, places to fight, FPS combat mechanics, etc, etc)
• And much more I'm not thinking of right now

Different players are interested in different things.

We already have gameplay for planets, ships, colonisation, etc. There is absolutely nothing for playing as a commander in space.

I would love for all these additions you mentioned to happen, especially fixes for shadows and lightning overall in the game. But I'm one of the players who wants to be a commander in a ship in space, with all the gameplay and immersion it can provide, more.

Elite already has enough dimensions (space stuff, powerplay stuff, FPS stuff, colonization stuff). Odyssey/FPS was arguably already not needed. We don't need more.

But you've just said we need more with your own list, which I agree with.

There is one fundamental dimension Elite is missing, and it is a popular one - playing as a commander in ship and not just as a ship, in space, with all the immersion and new ways to interact with the game world it can give.

What we need, more than anything, is more depth in existing systems. And fixing lighting/graphics/bugs.

Completely agree on fixing stuff. Ship Interiors will add depth to aspects of the game many players are interested in.

The only way it gets released is as a barebones set of rooms you can walk around.

Everybody and everything need to start somewhere.

Ship interiors would be a tremendous waste of time.

Doesn't look like it.

 

[thistle]

When someone says they are not against, but everything they say apart from that is against - that is pretending.

That makes no sense whatsoever. You are accusing people with opinions you don't agree with of lying about their own opinions.

It's not normal behaviour.

So weird that you somehow applied that statement to yourself (by saying 'we').

I'm sorry you don't understand, English isn't your native language I believe? To be clear, the "we" in that sentence refers to you and me, collectively "we", "we are just talking about" etc.

...

But in general the overall tone and content in these posts is one of dismissal of others opinions, and an unfounded accusation of dishonesty on their part for having the temerity to disagree with you. On such irrelevant and inconsequential issues, ie what features fdev should develop next for their game.

Disagree with me, and others, no problem. But I would appreciate not accusing people of lying about their own stated opinions.

 

[Andy Gee]

Ship interiors would be a tremendous waste of time.

I can't fathom how anyone could want this instead of:

• More stellar phenomena that we can discover while exploring
• Cave systems to explore on planets and other planetary diversity
• Expanding colonization with new ways to influence and profit from systems
• Fixing/improving lighting, anti-aliasing, and shadows
• More stuff to do on planets (more facilities, places to fight, FPS combat mechanics, etc, etc)
• And much more I'm not thinking of right now

Elite already has enough dimensions (space stuff, powerplay stuff, FPS stuff, colonization stuff). Odyssey/FPS was arguably already not needed. We don't need more.

What we need, more than anything, is more depth in existing systems. And fixing lighting/graphics/bugs.

What are you afraid of? That too much work by your high priests at Frontier (aka FDevs) on the "wrong" content will result in no more crumbs falling off the table that you see as the "right" content?

 

[Coolgroove]

That makes no sense whatsoever. You are accusing people with opinions you don't agree with of lying about their own opinions.

Has nothing to do with if I agree or not. Not a factor whatsoever. If someone says they are no against and all their rhetoric and arguments are against - that is pretending.

To be clear, the "we" in that sentence refers to you and me, collectively "we", "we are just talking about" etc.

Exactly.

refers to you and me

if you're not dishonest then it should not be applied to you, and I don't see why you would feel the need to use that collective 'we'.

But in general the overall tone and content in these posts is one of dismissal of others opinions, and an unfounded accusation of dishonesty on their part for having the temerity to disagree with you. On such irrelevant and inconsequential issues, ie what features fdev should develop next for their game.

I understand how feelings can get in the way of facts or even logic, or even make someone blind to statements. For example, I stated quite a few times that disagreeing is never a problem, and have quite a lot of conversations and replies to prove it, some even on this page. On quite a few occasions I've changed my opinion about something simply because a counter arguments made sense (constructive, reasonable). Yet you're still choosing to ignore it and claim something about me that doesn't exist.

Disagreeing and providing reasonable counter arguments sometimes can be a dismissal of others opinions if those opinions don't have equally reasonable counter arguments behind them. That is a natural process of arguments and discussions.

If you think that when I disagree and provide counter arguments, with reasonable thoughts or observations behind - is somehow a bad tone and content - then it looks like it is not me who has problems with being disagreed with.

With ALL that - you're still choosing to attack a character instead of attacking the arguments to show how character is wrong.

 

[Jinx Chrome]

[...]

I can't fathom how anyone could want this instead of:

• More stellar phenomena that we can discover while exploring
• Cave systems to explore on planets and other planetary diversity
• Expanding colonization with new ways to influence and profit from systems
• Fixing/improving lighting, anti-aliasing, and shadows
• More stuff to do on planets (more facilities, places to fight, FPS combat mechanics, etc, etc)
• And much more I'm not thinking of right now

[...]

Why instead? This sounds like FDev gives us a choice and would exclude all other options. I don't think they would go that way.
My thoughts on your alternative suggestions:

• No one is against more stellar phenomena and biologicals. I don't know why we don't get a couple more. Should be somewhat easy to do because they are all hand crafted and therefore some more could be made. But yes... biologicals won't generate ARX for FDev, probably that's why we won't get them.
• Cave systems won't come for a long time if ever because the engine can't do them (according to the interview with Dr. Ross some years ago. She created the Odyssey planet engine)
• Expanding system colonisation? No, please don't. Not interesting at all for me and why sinking more development into a hauling gameloop. Instead, FDev can make tons of skins and decals and sell them for ARX.
• Fixing lighting, etc - that is bug fixing, not a feature
• more to do on planets: yes, please but same as more biologicals: No easy way for FDev to generate ARX for developing them. Personally, I'd pay for an 'explorer expansion' which adds more in that area but that won't be enough

Let's return to topic: Will ship interiors happen? Probably, when we ask politely and persistently.

 

[Daniel Cloudsifter]

SC is a cool project that I've backed for a long time. I have a lot of love for the vision. But SC is a bottomless pit of development. You have to follow the project closely and play it to really see how far away it still is. The marketing and YT videos hide a lot of it.

Star Citizen isn't next-gen, it's more like 2 generations away. It's already been in development 2 years longer than Elite, so it's next gen already. To be clear, I know you didn't bring this up, but I hear this from a lot of SC fans and they are right... SC is next gen. Let me know when it's done.

Star Citizen is the poster child for "feature creep" keeping a project from completing. If it ever does complete, great. I'm not sure I'll ever live to see it.

Why instead? This sounds like FDev gives us a choice and would exclude all other options. I don't think they would go that way.
My thoughts on your alternative suggestions:

• No one is against more stellar phenomena and biologicals. I don't know why we don't get a couple more. Should be somewhat easy to do because they are all hand crafted and therefore some more could be made. But yes... biologicals won't generate ARX for FDev, probably that's why we won't get them.
• Cave systems won't come for a long time if ever because the engine can't do them (according to the interview with Dr. Ross some years ago. She created the Odyssey planet engine)
• Expanding system colonisation? No, please don't. Not interesting at all for me and why sinking more development into a hauling gameloop. Instead, FDev can make tons of skins and decals and sell them for ARX.
• Fixing lighting, etc - that is bug fixing, not a feature
• more to do on planets: yes, please but same as more biologicals: No easy way for FDev to generate ARX for developing them. Personally, I'd pay for an 'explorer expansion' which adds more in that area but that won't be enough

Let's return to topic: Will ship interiors happen? Probably, when we ask politely and persistently.

Yep, I agree with all your counter points. I can't believe people are still going on about caves. Yes, they would be neat. However, the previous system (Horizons) and the current system (Odyssey) can't handle it. I don't want them spending all their time on Odyssey: The Next Generation... at least not for many years, anyway. Also, the current system still has issues with burying things that shouldn't be covered by the ground (especially on loot cache missions), so I wouldn't trust it with caves even if they said it could do it.

I'm glad others are enjoying the system colonization mechanic. To me it looks like a pointless grind to pursue. Oh sure, the rest of us will benefit from the new systems, but the architect? They get to name things (ooh, aah) and get a passive income that gets capped around 5 million credits/week. After all you have to invest?! If you get get the passive income up to about 30 to 40 million per week, and the ability to have that deposited directly into your fleet carrier's bank, I'd consider it. Otherwise, meh.

And the rest... yes, those are QoL things they should be working on anyway. Ship interiors is the new feature they could add that has been on the long-asked-for list and could be monetized. And again, for people that think fun game loops can't be done for interiors, please watch some youtube videos on Voidcrew or Jumpship. That said, I don't want any minigames as dumb as what they initially did with exobiology...

 

[thistle]

With ALL that - you're still choosing to attack a character instead of attacking the arguments to show how character is wrong.

Bizarre. You are the one accusing those who hold differing opinions from yours about interiors of being liars.

 

[Coolgroove]

Bizarre. You are the one accusing those who hold differing opinions from yours about interiors of being liars.

never did that

I've pointed that there are people who are pretending. If there was someone who would say they are against interiors and everything else they said was about how cool interiors are and to have them - they'll be just someone who is pretending too.

Still going for character and not arguments.

 

[metatheurgist]

Never mind caves. I'd like some underground installations.

 

[DemiserofD]

I'm curious, has anyone bothered to go through and aggregate all the different suggestions for interiors made throughout this thread(and others)? It feels like people are having all these third and fourth-hand discussions that never go anywhere because we don't have anything concrete to talk about.

 

[ꝁestrel]

Different players are interested in different things.

Not the issue. I'm sure everyone would support ship interiors if it was zero effort (or close to zero effort).

The issue has more to do with the ratio of effort to reward.

Ship interiors are high effort and low reward because they do not intersect with existing game systems. FD would need to add additional features such as manual cargo loading so that ship interiors would intersect with the trade game system. I'm sure you can imagine the insane amount of work it would be to add manual cargo loading. Just as one example.

That's really the crux of the issue. New features in Elite must strongly intersect with existing game systems.

Colonization intersects with trade and the background simulation:

• Players who don't ever plan on colonizing but enjoy cargo hauling now have a more meaningful gameplay loop of helping other players colonize systems.
• Colonization benefits all players with new clusters of systems to explore and interact with.

The same cannot be said about ship interiors. It's a feature that works in complete isolation from other features. In order to connect ship interiors to the rest of the game systems you need even more development and, even then, the connection to other game systems is spotty at best.

 

[DemiserofD]

Not the issue. I'm sure everyone would support ship interiors if it was zero effort (or close to zero effort).

The issue has more to do with the ratio of effort to reward.

Ship interiors are high effort and low reward because they do not intersect with existing game systems. FD would need to add additional features such as manual cargo loading so that ship interiors would intersect with the trade game system. I'm sure you can imagine the insane amount of work it would be to add manual cargo loading. Just as one example.

That's really the crux of the issue. New features in Elite must strongly intersect with existing game systems.

Colonization intersects with trade and the background simulation:

• Players who don't ever plan on colonizing but enjoy cargo hauling now have a more meaningful gameplay loop of helping other players colonize systems.
• Colonization benefits all players with new clusters of systems to explore and interact with.

The same cannot be said about ship interiors. It's a feature that works in complete isolation from other features. In order to connect ship interiors to the rest of the game systems you need even more development and, even then, the connection to other game systems is spotty at best.

Excellent point. That's the thing about ongoing development; the most economical way to make new content is to make stuff that interacts with existing content. That multiplies the effective content by everything it interacts with.

Spires in the War were a really good example. It multiplied SRV content, on-foot content, and AX ship combat, by combining all those things in one place, and all they really needed to add was the graphics of the spire itself.

If interiors are completely separate from existing content, then you don't get any of that. The worst case scenario from a dev perspective is new content that actively DETRACTS from existing content, and many(most?) of the interior suggestions do exactly that.

 

[ꝁestrel]

What are you afraid of? That too much work by your high priests at Frontier (aka FDevs) on the "wrong" content will result in no more crumbs falling off the table that you see as the "right" content?

Elite is one of my favorite games (easily top 20) but I don't regard FDev as high priests. The graphical/lighting issues frustrate me a great deal and I think FDev dropped the ball on Odyssey overall. IMO the first person elements of the game should have never been added. We've all but lost support for VR which is sad.

I'm voicing my opposition to ship interiors. Just make it clear that a sizable chunk of the community does not want it. If everyone unanimously wanted ship interiors then there's a good chance FDev would commit resources to it. This would be a bad thing because there are better features to work on.

 

[ꝁestrel]

Why instead? This sounds like FDev gives us a choice and would exclude all other options. I don't think they would go that way.
My thoughts on your alternative suggestions:

That was only a list off the top of my head. The list could be 100 items long because there are sooooo many things that are worth adding before ship interiors.

No one is against more stellar phenomena and biologicals. I don't know why we don't get a couple more. Should be somewhat easy to do because they are all hand crafted and therefore some more could be made. But yes... biologicals won't generate ARX for FDev, probably that's why we won't get them.

Don't agree with the ARX argument but let's assume that's true.

Ships, land vehicles, and SLFs can/do produce ARX. I'd rather FDev build more of those instead of ship interiors.

Cave systems won't come for a long time if ever because the engine can't do them (according to the interview with Dr. Ross some years ago. She created the Odyssey planet engine)

Ship interiors would, at the very least, require engine upgrades if not some significant overhauls.

Expanding system colonisation? No, please don't. Not interesting at all for me and why sinking more development into a hauling gameloop. Instead, FDev can make tons of skins and decals and sell them for ARX.

I actually agree. I don't know if I ever plan on interacting with colonization. Maybe if there'll be a way to set up a colony deep in the black.

But I don't oppose that feature because it adds more depth to the game. Colonization intersect with a lot of game systems (hauling, BGS, etc) and could intersect with even more game systems with more feature additions. Eventually it could intersect with a gameplay loop that I'm really interested in.

It would take a huge amount of effort for ship interiors to intersect with the rest of the game. And even then there'd be a ceiling. At best - we'd get EVA and ship boarding. Which would be awesome and fun. But the cost to build all of that would be enormous.

Fixing lighting, etc - that is bug fixing, not a feature

Still requires development time. The people working on game engine overhauls for ship interiors could also work on engine lighting and other engine related issues.

 

[Coolgroove]

FD would need to add additional features such as manual cargo loading so that ship interiors would intersect with the trade game system. I'm sure you can imagine the insane amount of work it would be to add manual cargo loading. Just as one example.

Agree. Although cargo loading is a desirable feature for some of the players, it is no where near the most desirable thing why those who want interiors want them.

That's really the crux of the issue. New features in Elite must strongly intersect with existing game systems.

Do you think they must intersect with ALL of the existing features of the game, or just some of them will do?

Colonization intersects with trade and the background simulation:

Yet, it doesn't intersect with combat, or engineering, or many other game systems. Even with exploration the connection is tenuous at best.
If that much intersection with other systems in the game is enough (in term of quantity) then Ship Interiors are OK, as they can intersect with missions, signal sources, repairs and other minigames, boarding, exo-bio, exploration, etc. With some as a new gameplay, with others as extra depth or another way to interact.

They are all about the commander in the ship in space - how stronger this intersection can be?

• Players who don't ever plan on colonizing but enjoy cargo hauling now have a more meaningful gameplay loop of helping other players colonize systems.
• Colonization benefits all players with new clusters of systems to explore and interact with.

I'm not interested in hauling, for any reason. The only benefit of new systems for me - is that there are players who are enjoying it and the game is doing better with more players playing. Everything else is exactly the same as any other system in the game with no extra benefits.

So the only benefit Colonisation has for all players is the same benefit any other big/interesting addition to the game has - attract more players.

It's a feature that works in complete isolation from other features.

If it's just a room for cosmetics - yes, you are correct. If it is all other ideas for gameplay - no, it is an extension for the game as a whole.

In order to connect ship interiors to the rest of the game systems you need even more development

Well, yes, any feature needs to be developed. Planets, ELW, atmospherics, interiors ... - all of them have that in common. If to compare Ship Interiors to the rest of desirable big features - less hard development, easier to do it part by part.

Or do you think it's harder? if so, how?

the connection to other game systems is spotty at best.

It is a direct connection for being a commander in everything in the game, not just sometimes you're a ship and other time you could be on-foot. Not that spotty, imo.

 

[ꝁestrel]

Yep, I agree with all your counter points. I can't believe people are still going on about caves. Yes, they would be neat. However, the previous system (Horizons) and the current system (Odyssey) can't handle it. I don't want them spending all their time on Odyssey: The Next Generation... at least not for many years, anyway. Also, the current system still has issues with burying things that shouldn't be covered by the ground (especially on loot cache missions), so I wouldn't trust it with caves even if they said it could do it.

I'm glad others are enjoying the system colonization mechanic. To me it looks like a pointless grind to pursue. Oh sure, the rest of us will benefit from the new systems, but the architect? They get to name things (ooh, aah) and get a passive income that gets capped around 5 million credits/week. After all you have to invest?! If you get get the passive income up to about 30 to 40 million per week, and the ability to have that deposited directly into your fleet carrier's bank, I'd consider it. Otherwise, meh.

And the rest... yes, those are QoL things they should be working on anyway. Ship interiors is the new feature they could add that has been on the long-asked-for list and could be monetized. And again, for people that think fun game loops can't be done for interiors, please watch some youtube videos on Voidcrew or Jumpship. That said, I don't want any minigames as dumb as what they initially did with exobiology...

Good point about caves.

To be clear that was just a random list off the top of my head. If I thought hard about it that list could be 100 items long. There's so much that's more worth adding than ship interiors. Planetary diversity is the broader umbrella that caves fall under. Whatever the engine can support - I'd rather they focus their efforts on something like that.

I'm excited for Jumpship but that game isn't even out yet. And it's been delayed. Who knows how good it'll actually be until we play it. Voidcrew is an entirely different genre and gets stale fast.

Instead of vaguely pointing at an unreleased game and an unrelated game: be specific. What possible meaningful gameplay could we get out of ship interiors? And how would intersect with the rest of game systems so people who don't care about ship interiors would benefit from it?

I don't understand your points about ARX. There are plenty of other game systems that could earn ARX.

 

[ꝁestrel]

Do you think they must intersect with ALL of the existing features of the game, or just some of them will do?

Ideally every area of the game is affected by the new feature. Some areas will be affected more than others obviously.

Yet, it doesn't intersect with combat, or engineering, or many other game systems. Even with exploration the connection is tenuous at best.
If that much intersection with other systems in the game is enough (in term of quantity) then Ship Interiors are OK, as they can intersect with missions, signal sources, repairs and other minigames, boarding, exo-bio, exploration, etc. With some as a new gameplay, with others as extra depth or another way to interact.

Of course it intersects with combat and engineering.

Pirate massacre systems have already been affected. My super secret pirate massacre system no longer works due to colonization so I've been out looking for a new one. I had no reason to seek out a new one before and now I do.

I also just finished engineering a Type-9 so I can help a friend build their colony. I don't do hauling so I never had an engineered Type-9. Now I do.

The things you listed are not something we would get from ship interiors. The things you listed they'd need to build on top of ship interiors so we'd actually get some gameplay value out of them. Which runs the major risk of being an unfinished pit of development.

We all know FDev. They've been working on this game for over a decade. We've seen what they're capable of releasing and in what timeframe. The things you listed would take years of focused development if not more. This is where the "effort to reward" ratio comes in. Yes all of these things would be awesome but the cost would be enormous and, given FDev's history, it wouldn't be as epic as you imagine it to be.

They are all about the commander in the ship in space - how stronger this intersection can be?

That's not the kind of intersection I'm talking about.

I'm not interested in hauling, for any reason. The only benefit of new systems for me - is that there are players who enjoying it and the game is doing better with more players playing. Everything else is exactly the same as any other system in the game with no extra benefits.

Which is fine.

So the only benefit Colonisation has for all players is the same benefit any other big/interesting addition to the game has - attract more players.

The same can be said for a lot of features in the game.

For example I've never once interacted with the Thargoid war. I did go out of my way to get scanned down by a Thargoid ship once. Other than that I just enjoyed playing in a galaxy where stuff is happening that I'm not involved in. Reading news about the Thargoid war and watching people's videos was enough for me.

If it's just a room for cosmetics - yes, you are correct. If it is all other ideas for gameplay - no, it is an extension for the game as a whole.

It sounds more like people want ship interiors to RP walk around their ships. They know that's not enough to justify the feature. So they're coming up with other features to justify it. Like... sure... you can list out features such as "boarding" like it's nothing but that's a massive undertaking for this game/engine.

Well, yes, any feature needs to be developed. Planets, ELW, atmospherics, interiors ... - all of them have that in common. If to compare Ship Interiors to the rest of desirable big features - less hard development, easier to do it part by part.

Or do you think it's harder? if so, how?

None of us are in a position to talk about what's "harder". We have no idea. We shouldn't act like we do.

If adding ship interiors was truly easy then I don't think anyone would be against it. But I also think FDev would have added by now. From that we can at least deduce that ship interiors are "hard" but we don't know how much so.

It looks like FDev is committing to one "hard" feature per year or so. I'd rather they work on stuff that adds depth to existing systems. Ship interiors do not do that unless you start piling on more imaginary features until it does. But ship interiors, on their own, do not.

 

[Lukaz_Chrom]

Finally someone that at least tries to bring up arguments instead of merely ad-hominem .
So let's begin:

To be clear that was just a random list off the top of my head. If I thought hard about it that list could be 100 items long. There's so much that's more worth adding than ship interiors. Planetary diversity is the broader umbrella that caves fall under. Whatever the engine can support - I'd rather they focus their efforts on something like that.

OH REALLY ?
And what would these features be.
There is really only ONE competitor that can actually go SOMEWHAT toe-to-toe with Ship Interiors and that would be actual atmo. Planets.
However, as should in fact be obvious to everybody the investment-to-profit ratio of those would simply be significantly worse in comparison to Ship Interiors due to them being significantly harder to develop while simultaneously being significantly harder to monetize. The only way for them to be properly monetized would be a completely new paid expansion which in turn would rely on a MUCH larger playerbase (aka. customerbase) in order to be worth it ... and how could you potentially achieve such an increase in the customerbase? ... Well there is such a tiny little feature desired by >97% of the community while at this point likely being the most desired feature overall ... introducing that feature might just increase the playercount drastically ... It starts with an S and an I.

So let's disect it further:

Ship interiors would be a tremendous waste of time.

The only way it gets released is as a barebones set of rooms you can walk around. Adding anything else (EVA, boarding, etc) would be off the charts in complexity. Adding things like stealing ships would be even worse because it would require rebalancing of ship acquisition and have a lot of other knock-on effects. Adding things like ship repair etc would require a whole resource management system that currently doesn't exist.

EVA would be a lot of work but worth it and still 100% doable. But OK let's scratch EVA. It would be nice but is 100% not needed.
Boarding & stealing Ships, yeah indeed that WOULD introduce a ****-load of complexety and probably not be worth it. You are right.
But "etc" ... what do you mean with "etc" ?
Ship Repair? 100% doable for the main-components of the Ship and would 100% not be hard to implement. The resource management system does 100% exist.
It is your mats! XD It would 100% NOT be that complex to implement a system which uses mat XY for repair AB. Just like the AFMU XD
And if you now wish to bring up the cheap "BuT SEE wE aLrEaDy HaVe AFMU!!" -card: Guess what, we can make changes to the AFMU ...
AND EVEN if we weren't cool with that: Then we could restrict the Ship-Repair to only the Generator if you really wanted to!
That would be insanely easy to implement while still checking that box and giving us replayability!
(And you can't tell me that it wouldn't be somewhat nice to not have to waste a slot for a second AFMU just to be able to repair themselvs ... just mentioning )

Worst of all it would be added in lieu of adding more depth to existing systems.

Ideally every area of the game is affected by the new feature. Some areas will be affected more than others obviously.

Uhh no, and why the hell would that be your defenition of "ideal"?. Really not neccessairly. Most direct change I can imagine unless FDev will actually go along and do such stuff as "boarding" etc. is reworking the AFMU and being able to repair the Generator. Everything else would be entirely built-on-top, not within.

I can't fathom how anyone could want this instead of:

• More stellar phenomena that we can discover while exploring
• Cave systems to explore on planets and other planetary diversity
• Expanding colonization with new ways to influence and profit from systems
• Fixing/improving lighting, anti-aliasing, and shadows
• More stuff to do on planets (more facilities, places to fight, FPS combat mechanics, etc, etc)
• And much more I'm not thinking of right now

Dude, what you are advocating for here are breadcrumbs instead of the cake.
NONE of this, EVEN if counted together is worth more than Ship Interiors!
EVEN the 4 new Ships recently released, hell let's even add in the FURTHER 4 Ships to be released,
are NOT in the same league as Ship Interiors! MAYBE you see that differently, you are not alone.
But I promise you, most people would have prefered Ship Interiors of them.
And most certainly over the breadcrumbs you advocate for.

All of what you want here is nice and good but it comes down to QoL, Bugfixing and treats,
those are always nice but should be DEFAULT!
You can't compare them to actual BIG-LEAGUE features such as Ship Interiors or actual atmo. Planets.
Hell you can't even compare it to MID-LEAGUE features such as EVA XD

And don't think I don't understand your logic:
"Rather a million breadcrumbs, than a bad cake". It is a sound argument in principle.
But you must understand this:
"Even a billion breadcrumbs, will never taste as good as even a mediocre cake."
Simple as.

Elite already has enough dimensions (space stuff, powerplay stuff, FPS stuff, colonization stuff). Odyssey/FPS was arguably already not needed. We don't need more.

Yeah my dude. With this I would like to agree.
Years ago I was an outspoken opponent of Space-Legs! I predicted their failure.
However now, it is too late! They are already here. And the only thing that would have been worth smth for a LOT of us about them,
would have been Ship Interiors my dude XD
SO: Not adding Ship Interiors now, would be like going through all the trouble of finding the holy grail, just to NOT drink out of it for some reason!

What we need, more than anything, is more depth in existing systems. And fixing lighting/graphics/bugs.

We don't need a million breadcrumbs.
We need a decent cake.

ESPECIALLY: If you consider the $ argument.
Your's would make essentially no profit while Ship Interiors would be a Gold Mine.


PS:

It sounds more like people want ship interiors to RP walk around their ships. They know that's not enough to justify the feature. So they're coming up with other features to justify it. Like... sure... you can list out features such as "boarding" like it's nothing but that's a massive undertaking for this game/engine.

No. A lot of us would be 100% fine with RPing around their ships and don't hide it. E.g; Warframe.
BUT (limited) Ship Repair would actually be extremely easy to implement aswell ...


PSS:

None of us are in a position to talk about what's "harder". We have no idea. We shouldn't act like we do.

Maybe you aren't. I think a lot of us are able to count 2 and 2 together and draw certain obvious conclusions XD
You don't need to be a member of FDevs inner Circle to be able to do that.

If adding ship interiors was truly easy then I don't think anyone would be against it.

A lot of people just think of a "castle" per Ship When they think of Ship Interiors.
It really doesn't have to be that though. A FEW rooms, will suffice for 95% of ppl, that I can promise.

 

[Jinx Chrome]

Instead of vaguely pointing at an unreleased game and an unrelated game: be specific. What possible meaningful gameplay could we get out of ship interiors? And how would intersect with the rest of game systems so people who don't care about ship interiors would benefit from it?

Oh, the possible meaningful game loops have been repeated over and over in the last 99 pages of this thread. We won't repeat them
The pro and con of any other major feature expansions have been discussed, too and as it turned out that ship interiors won't be the easiest feature (depending on which game loops one would add to them), they are at least technically doable without a complete game overhaul.

Bottom line: The question remains if interiors will happen or not. They might be the alluded feature coming at the end of 2025 or something completely different will be announced some time in the future (I don't expect that FDev will reveal anything before July or even October. The next FUs will be filled with the flying Dodo and 'Vanguard'.

 

[DemiserofD]

Oh, the possible meaningful game loops have been repeated over and over in the last 99 pages of this thread. We won't repeat them
The pro and con of any other major feature expansions have been discussed, too and as it turned out that ship interiors won't be the easiest feature (depending on which game loops one would add to them), they are at least technically doable without a complete game overhaul.

Bottom line: The question remains if interiors will happen or not. They might be the alluded feature coming at the end of 2025 or something completely different will be announced some time in the future (I don't expect that FDev will reveal anything before July or even October. The next FUs will be filled with the flying Dodo and 'Vanguard'.

I am actively in the process of going through this thread from page 1 to figure out exactly what 'doesn't need to be repeated'.

Fun fact; people have been saying that there are 'enough suggestions' since PAGE ONE. That they 'don't need to be repeated'.

Thus far, the suggestions I've found in the first 20-odd pages are:

Boarding
Salvage
Cosmetics
Being able to do things like navigate or swap loadouts at an internal table instead of via menus

...that's it. I'm not kidding, and I will provide links once I finish cataloging this mess. But no, the idea that this thread is full of suggestions is absolute bunk.