So, about those Caves in Elite Dangerous...

[Mengy]

The Thargoid 'bases' are 3D meshes which have been created and pasted at specific locations. The procedural terrain generation used by the game is heightmap based and so in its current iteration cannot do overhangs, caves or anything with a 'roof' (i.e where there would need to be two or more separate heights at the location of a single pixel's X,Y coordinates. In view of that I'd say 'not any time soon.

Yeah, I know that planets are just heightmaps in Elite so horizontal deformation isn't possible. However, just like the alien bases are placed 3D meshes, I had hoped that planet caves could be implemented similarly into Elite. Create a couple dozen cave "segments" as 3D meshes (a bunch of corners, openings, and straight sections), segments which can be used like building blocks to create varied and randomized caves, and then place those assets via the Stellar Forge just like geysers and such are today and colorize them per the planet they are on.


When David talked about caves in Elite that's the potential implementation that came to my mind, as it seemed like the most likely way Frontier could do it. Now though, having seen the Thargoid bases, I'm left wondering if these are the "caves" David meant, or if there is more coming yet regarding caves in Elite Dangerous.

 

[shadragon]

cave¹
keɪv/
noun

• 1.
  a natural underground chamber in a hillside or cliff
  

• 
  

  synonyms:

  cavern, grotto, hollow, cavity, pothole, underground chamber, gallery, tunnel, dugout"there is a cave at the bottom of the cliff"

  
  

John Nailed it. The tunnels are neither natural nor underground. If anything they are passages.

Passage - the act or process of moving through, under, over, or past something on the way from one place to another.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

The Thargoid 'bases' are 3D meshes which have been created and pasted at specific locations. The procedural terrain generation used by the game is heightmap based and so in its current iteration cannot do overhangs, caves or anything with a 'roof' (i.e where there would need to be two or more separate heights at the location of a single pixel's X,Y coordinates. In view of that I'd say 'not any time soon.

Not really. I remember there were clarifications that they can place such caves in heightmap, blending them together. It is something they would be keen to do. Not sure about ETA though.

Will have to remind that was 2 years ago during Horizons preorder period.

 

[DustyArne]

i like the sound of caves, but, there would be nothing in it.. And it would be pitch black inside, no gameplay at all..

Still, i would love to have caves, because, it would make Elite feel more real..

 

[Jason Lightning]

i like the sound of caves, but, there would be nothing in it.. And it would be pitch black inside, no gameplay at all..

Still, i would love to have caves, because, it would make Elite feel more real..

Simple solution, when caves are generated it also generates higher value resources inside, maybe even occasional special cave POIs.

Also we have lights and scanners for pitch black, and in some cases if the cave is large enough and multicrew gains SRV ability then you could have say a spotter SLF with ship lights assist a ground SRV, also with lights.

 

[WindWpn]

Speaking of caves, how about underground bases... that would be cool and likely quite "realistic" given when there are bases on extreme planets where heavy radiation or heat may require bases to be built underground.

 

[Jason Lightning]

Speaking of caves, how about underground bases... that would be cool and likely quite "realistic" given when there are bases on extreme planets where heavy radiation or heat may require bases to be built underground.

Would also be interesting since such locations would be ideal for smugglers, pirates, or secret military bases.

 

[Noctover]

I suppose the current assets from the wrecks can be used in some ways towards caves. Problem is the current alien ruins content is that it isn't procedural generated which caves will need to be.

 

[Cmdr Darla]

Simple solution, when caves are generated it also generates higher value resources inside, maybe even occasional special cave POIs.

I'd also like the rewards to be dependent upon how deep you fly/drive, with increasing navigation difficulty / stronger enemies to deal with.

 

[WindWpn]

I suppose the current assets from the wrecks can be used in some ways towards caves. Problem is the current alien ruins content is that it isn't procedural generated which caves will need to be.

perhaps similar to Asteroid or other bases, there could be a "template" hand designed, but integrated into existing land-able planets which meet certain conditions. Of course there could be various flavors, but overall, expanding on the concept introduced in the alien structures, perhaps something with human underground bases could come online?!

 

[Mengy]

i like the sound of caves, but, there would be nothing in it.. And it would be pitch black inside, no gameplay at all..

Still, i would love to have caves, because, it would make Elite feel more real..

Well, using current game mechanics, one way to make caves useful and interesting would be to have them spawn lots of resource nodes, making them lucrative places to hunt for materials.

Ideally though, I'd like to see some new mechanics implemented for exploration in general, some of which could greatly be used in conjunction with caves. My suggestion thread here has a couple ideas:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...loration-Development-a-Galaxy-of-Possibilitie

The pertinent part of my post:

• Caves - Implement caves as random procedurally fixed terrain features. Accessible by both sinkholes (surface holes like on Earth's Moon) or by sloped entrances in craters/mountainsides/canyon walls. Large enough to drive the SRV in, some might even be large enough to fly the ship into, and with a high probability of finding materials, fungal life, surface ores, scannable geologic formations, etc within. Also prime locations for surface core collection points!
• New Natural Surface POI’s – These are not fixed POI’s like geysers, but a new category of randomly generated instanced POI’s (like cargo dumps and mat nodes) which are located via the SRV scanners. Gives explorers things to find while driving around on planet surfaces in deep space which can be scanned for valuable data. Things like geologic formations, meteor impact sites, more kinds of fungal life, and surface core samples (more on this below), all in varying degrees of value and quality. These data scans become more valuable with distance from SOL, this encourages explorers to get out into deep space while rewarding the time and effort to get there.
• SRV MkII (The Rhino) – This is a new, slower but slightly larger version of the Scarab, with a weaker main turret but much more cargo space. The MkII also carries a surface drill rig which can be used for various things, like surface ore mining, and collecting surface core samples!
• Surface Core Samples – These are rare random locations found with in conjunction with the SRV scanner and heatmaps which allow the commander to use the drill rig on the SRV MkII to drill through the surface and collect a planet core sample, which takes 1T of cargo rack space and can be flown back to civilization and sold for large credit values. Again the cores increase in value with distance from SOL. The new DSS heatmaps can be used to locate areas on planets with the best chances of finding surface core spots, but much SRV searching will still be required to find them. In general though they will procedurally spawn around areas of increased surface terrain geometry, like large canyon or mountain networks or inside craters.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

I suppose the current assets from the wrecks can be used in some ways towards caves. Problem is the current alien ruins content is that it isn't procedural generated which caves will need to be.

It is called authorized content with PG used for putting them together, creating something unique. It is doable. Question is though is FD current priority to add them.

And yes, I think when David winked he meant these tunnels. I hope some real caves come sooner or later though.