so when do we see these?

[Titan1978]

I remember seeing these in the Kickstarter Pitch - The stations look incredible. Not that the current stations aren't terrific - its just that the current stations have been in the game for so long - it feels like there's a station fatigue by seeing the same coriolis and ocellus orbis stations over and over again. Having a much larger variety always helps - Im wondering if people know when these stations are proposed to slowly enter the game world?

 

[Cmnd Fulsom]

My current speculation is that

3.0 is going to be lifeless atmospheric bodies
4.0 is going to be walking on ships and stations
5.0 is going to be habitable atmospheric bodies
and 6.0+ is going to be expanding on the game's mechanics and area.

So, most likely it will be in the ships and stations update, or somewhere in 6.0+.

 

[DNA-Decay]

They'll be here before season six.

And new game mechanics come with every patch.

 

[Captain Willard]

NAH Coriolis and Orbis won the corporate wars to station building. I guess you could hire Joes starport and ramshackle hut company.

 

[Titan1978]

They'll be here before season six.

And new game mechanics come with every patch.

wonder why FD doesnt use its procederal tech to generate stations prcedurally too?

 

[bossbrigand]

Creating coherent and functional looking space stations with procedural generation sounds kinda risky. It's not like planets where all you need to do is generate a heightmap and the bulk of the work is done just like that - stations need to be navigable, sensible looking and aesthetically appealing. I feel like we'd get a lot of really janky stations if they were procedurally generated.

 

[Cmnd Fulsom]

They'll be here before season six.

And new game mechanics come with every patch.

You say that, and to an extent this is true. But really, Frontier more adds more different things, than adds flesh to what's there in each patch. It seems unlikely they will stop this trend soon. And, what makes you think they'll be in before season six? What we have no is perfectly serviceable, and building these 3d renders earlier means that we'll have to be able to walk around them earlier. So depending on how much inside these stations have that could be a mountain of work.

 

[Soopyyy]

Creating coherent and functional looking space stations with procedural generation sounds kinda risky. It's not like planets where all you need to do is generate a heightmap and the bulk of the work is done just like that - stations need to be navigable, sensible looking and aesthetically appealing. I feel like we'd get a lot of really janky stations if they were procedurally generated.

Just means you need really strict parameters.

 

[Vasea Azure]

Yup, it would be neat to see some new station designs that's for sure.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

I don't think stations need to be fully procedural but the image at the top is obviously modular and I do not see why that can't work. Even if there were 150 allowed variations which were manually curated and tested to work which were then put in that would be fab imo.

I suppose the argument against it is it is a lot of 3d artwork for no gameplay benefit and it's just fluff. But personally think the game is crying out for more fluff.

The engineer bases are so great, just hope when they were made they were done in such a way as to feed back into the procedural generators to give more diversity to the other stuff at some point

 

[RoliePolie]

My current speculation is that

3.0 is going to be lifeless atmospheric bodies
4.0 is going to be walking on ships and stations
5.0 is going to be habitable atmospheric bodies
and 6.0+ is going to be expanding on the game's mechanics and area.

So, most likely it will be in the ships and stations update, or somewhere in 6.0+.

If this is correct then it means we'll be waiting four years doesn't it? Completely serious question as a new player, but I'm pretty sure a season lasts an entire year?

 

[Patrick_68000]

It was a great concept art. Hope it is created soon in the game

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Looking at the art I can imagine that station looks perfect for having docking moorings too large to go in the letterbox . Would be fab to see the massive battleships mooring up to the side of that structure!.

If it is a manpower issue (big if as it may not be) perhaps FD could consider taking on a uni summer student for work experience who is doing 3D computer art or even a 1 year sandwich student. A win win for all.

 

[bossbrigand]

The game definitely needs more variety - for stations and NPC ships alike (where are all the non-FSD capable vessels that aren't fighters?) - and even year-to-year model variations for the ships we have (3200 Cobra vs 3300 Cobra must have some differences).

My suggestion a long time ago was to put out an info package regarding how the meshes are set up and then crowd-source designs. These would of course need to be polished by FD's art team before going in-game but it would potentially allow for an explosion of variety - and community involvement is never a bad thing.

 

[Titan1978]

The game definitely needs more variety - for stations and NPC ships alike (where are all the non-FSD capable vessels that aren't fighters?) - and even year-to-year model variations for the ships we have (3200 Cobra vs 3300 Cobra must have some differences).

My suggestion a long time ago was to put out an info package regarding how the meshes are set up and then crowd-source designs. These would of course need to be polished by FD's art team before going in-game but it would potentially allow for an explosion of variety - and community involvement is never a bad thing.

That's actually a great Idea - exporting meshes to a dedicated group (just like SC did with The Next Great Starship - though they have the adv of a public available CryEngine - as opposed to FD's proprietary engine whch I suppose they'll guard zealously from leaking) - will certainly help take the load off their artists and designers and at the same time include the community into station design.!

 

[Mephane]

I am instead rather wondering when we will see more stations in lower orbits (e.g. within orbital cruise height). There are only very few of those and the view is just so good from them.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

I am instead rather wondering when we will see more stations in lower orbits (e.g. within orbital cruise height). There are only very few of those and the view is just so good from them.

I did not know there were any! Sure they will look ace in vr

 

[Titan1978]

I am instead rather wondering when we will see more stations in lower orbits (e.g. within orbital cruise height). There are only very few of those and the view is just so good from them.

where? ive never seen any

 

[JerryLove]

The game definitely needs more variety - for stations and NPC ships alike (where are all the non-FSD capable vessels that aren't fighters?) - and even year-to-year model variations for the ships we have (3200 Cobra vs 3300 Cobra must have some differences).

My suggestion a long time ago was to put out an info package regarding how the meshes are set up and then crowd-source designs. These would of course need to be polished by FD's art team before going in-game but it would potentially allow for an explosion of variety - and community involvement is never a bad thing.

You should see some of what the modding community has come up with for some games. X3 comes to mind. Spaceships are one of the easier things to model (as they don't deform, mostly don't move, and we don't have expectations for appearance from our IRL experience).

 

[777Driver]

where? ive never seen any

He's probably talking about Azeban orbital. Robert Aitkin is a large station so close to a gas giant that it took ages to supercruise away from it. There used to be a whole bunch of them, the devs moved them further out.