0:07 Welcome everybody to the first video now we are in full development of Elite after the kickstarter
0:12 A great huge thanks to everyone who is already on the campaign. Its fantastic to be here
0:17 and I don't think thats going to change throughout the game.
0:19 We are enthusiastically planning now, working out all the different aspects of development
0:25 The ap for all of the pledge - things like that - is live on now,
0:29 I'm sure everyone has already seen that and we are working on that as we speak.
0:34 So, we have had some questions through the forums
0:37 and the job of this video is to answer 5 of those questions
0:40 so I'll kick that off now.
0:42 So the first question is from M Pat which is;
0:46 'Are there any particular books/films/TV shows and artists that are
0:50 influencing the way the Elite hardware is going to look in-game?'
0:52 Now, to me this is actually a really interesting question
0:55 because for me books / films / art
1:00 - its the atmosphere they convey is the most important thing
1:04 they say a lot of things about the world
1:07 without actually...uhm...it being quite so overt, so
1:12 when you have clear functional imagery you can immediately see from an image or a shape
1:19 how it is going to work, you see doorways, you see hatches, you see grab handles
1:24 I think that is one of the things that really grounds an object in the world.
1:29 things, you know from an Elite point of view things need to be able to dock, to land,
1:34 the interiors need to make sense, so the hatches have to be in a sensible position, windows and all of that sort of thing
1:39 and it is astonishing how much artwork that is out there
1:43 is completely knocked out by those practical things.
1:45 You know, whether it is some of the glorious imagery you see on the books of 60's and 70's sci-fi
1:51 where you have amazing arc shapes and you think 'Well how is that going to land,
1:55 how is that going to dock with another ship?'
1:57 If you look at other things where the windows are presented right at the front
2:02 you say 'Well where would the guys feet go?' It sounds terribly mundane
2:04 but when you come to do an interior for one of these things you realise actually, it doesn't work, it doesn't make sense.
2:10 So to say what sort of - I think to turn it around a little bit what sort of
2:15 science fiction worlds work in the world of Elite
2:20 I think for example *cough* - and I also would like to apologise, I have a bit of a cold
2:24 so if I cough and sneeze on the way through, I'm sorry about that.
2:29 So, science fiction that work, so for me
2:33 the early Star - some of the early material in Star Wars was great.
2:37 It was consistent, you can see this grubbiness, you can see how it worked
2:40 you can see how a ladder would go up to it, I'm talking about things like X-wing fighters, things like that
2:46 The later series of Battlestar Galactica really looked like they would work in some way
2:51 You know it had been designed to work in a real world.
2:57 Now with Elite we have other
3:00 restrictions if you like - requirements so
3:03 we don't have artificial gravity which I know is a
3:07 Sci-Fi staple but what we have tried to do is to
3:10 just stick with things that make sense in science
3:14 apart from hyperspace which we hacv e said is a suspension of disbelieve if you like
3:19 but you don't need gravity in space
3:22 we have concepts like magnetic boots, we have space stations that rotate
3:26 that give you essentially artificial gravity
3:28 but it is artificial in a way that truly works today, its not artificial as in it is not possible.
3:34 So with those sort of things they create design philosophies for the ships
3:40 If you imagine a trading ship
3:43 it will probably spend a lot of its time
3:46 landed either in artificial gravity inside a rotating space station
3:50 or eventually, landed on the surface of a planet where it is the right way up
3:54 so it still makes sense for there to be some sort of general orientation to the ship
3:58 where people walk around inside and you need to have a concept of up
4:02 but also we design it mind the fact that it will spend some of its time in zero G
4:07 so there are some intersting design philosophies that come from that and you will see
4:10 that over the period of development
4:13 So moving on to the next question
4:16 We have a question from RMPG
4:19 I'm not sure how you supposed to pronounce that
4:21 So that'll do
4:22 Which is; "Will the PC and Mac players be able to play on the same server
4:26 [DB coughs] So, I believe elements of this have already been umm answered
4:30 The answer is yes
4:32 Umm, but what's more, you will be able to start playing on a PC and continue on a Mac, that's, as soon as we release the Mac version, which is of course a bit later
4:40 and back again,
4:41 Ummm, the idea is you will be able to interchange your position and you'll be able to play on the same account, so long as you not playing on both ...... at the same time
4:48 We will also hope, with time, to add additional platforms to that mix and you get those additional platforms as part of your, ummm your account....[that] you've already got
4:58 [Waves hand in the air] Which I think is great
5:00 .... Right! Third question from ......."Kfriman" ... or Kayfreeman
5:05 So. When flying with your friends, can you share your nav map information, for example points of interest,.. of where you're heading?
5:14 So ummm, this one is more complex, that answer is also yes
5:18 because I think its important if you're in a multi-player session [and] you wanna go the same route to somewhere
5:24 you're gonna want to be able to share Nav Data, so you both do it together
5:27 Ummm, we haven't worked out how the user interface is going to work
5:31 But clearly, what will happen is, you will connect to each other
5:33 umm, you will either hail them, or you will have uuh already connected uuh over audio
5:36 and you'll be able to send a message, as a sort of, uuh as some sort of attachment
5:44 Ok, question 4, so, this is from "Cutter."
5:46 "Since space travel will be long and boring (at times) due to low fuel or damaged equipment.. will there be time wasting activities equipped to purchase for your ship like Chess, Cards, onboard PC etc.?"
5:59 Now this one, the answer has to be no!
6:02 [DB gestures] you don't design a game to have really long, boring, frustrating sections in it
6:07 [DB giggles] It would be really annoying and, and so the, the answer is, is no, there's nothing to stop you playing ummm on a different window on your PC, other board games, people do things like that anyway
6:18 but really no, umm the whole point of Elite is, we're, we're doing a game that we want to play, that I want to play umm
6:28 I DON'T want the sort of game where I have to occupy myself for hours
6:33 You know, this isn't a frustrating long car journey where kids are going "How many more miles? I wanna stop." you know and all of that sort of thing
6:40 Ummm, NO, the, the whole point with umm Elite Dangerous is you can actually brought in hyperspace, now, that doesn't take weeks, that takes seconds
6:50 Ummm......and the point is
6:53 from a multi-player game, this is how, this is how I want to relax in an evening
6:57 this isn't how I want to do my long car journeys
7:00 Uhhh, we will find ways and we will have mechanisms for ships damaged and all that sort of thing
7:04 Ummm that still wont be long, it might be longer than a few seconds but is not going to be the sort of thing where you play a game of chess, so hopefully that answers, that answers that one
7:14 Ok and finally, the fifth question, which is from Dinbar
7:17 Will there be media such as newspapers in-game?
7:21 So, not as such. Newspapers for me, are from a previous age, if you know what I mean
7:27 There will be newsfeeds that you'll be able to plug into [DB waving right hand]
7:31 and feed and potentially filter
7:32 Ummm but they really wont be presented as newspapers
7:35 Ummm they'll indicate major and minor game's events
7:39 and commentary on them, Saying ohhh you know
7:41 [DB waving hand] King Azziz of such a world
7:44 is now visiting the opening space station
7:46 Uhhh there is a rumour, that you know...., and it will all be able to be linked together
7:50 You'll be able to sift it and go "Ohhh, I wonder
7:52 Cause when you see contracts coming out, that are placed on an un-named person you might want to look to try and see who its for so
7:58 The newsfeeds will form, form a major part of the game play
8:02 but they wont be ummm..... set out as newspapers with lots of ummm padding in
8:06 because I think thats, that ends up ultimately being quite frustrating
8:08 .......
8:11 Ok so those are the questions uhhh for this week
8:13 umm I hope you find that useful
8:15 Once again, apologies for the cold
8:17 and uhhh thank you very much for all the effort that people have been putting on
the design discussion forums
8:22 .. and the other forums, with the game. We've been having a fantastic time
8:25 nailing down some very, very obscure details of the fiction behind the game
8:31 umm.. you know how all the different elements interact with each other
8:34 it, its absolutely fantastic. We're very very excited
8:37 umm and look for to speaking to you next time
8:40 Thank you very much [Picture fades to Frontier logo]
Cody, 
metatheurgist, 
Bingo Brewster!
