The 2020 Dev Run: As Big As The Launch Run (?)

[IPFreely]

What is the big deal about "space legs" ?
- Enabling a 1st person view as you walk around would be kinda simple.
You can already see outside your ship in "mouse" view.
Just extend the range of the camera.
With limits like a Dungeon Crawler.
- or -
Are we talking about a 3rd person view?
To see yourself on an empty planet? -
-or -
Are we focusing on walking around a station and interactions? -
If so, then that is a completely different scenario.
That is a game inside a game.
1st you have to craft the inside of stations, outposts, etc.
The same with planetary explorations.
You have to craft those also.
So you can get out of the SRV and pick up that barrel of BioWaste.

Then decide on how to get from one game to the other.
A load screen ala SRV?
Before you can start on "space legs".

 

[myothershipisacobraiv]

Just read this and relax..

https://archive.org/details/popular-computing-weekly-1982-04-23

Yes ED was in "skunkworks" mode prior to kickstarter.

Not familiar with agile development?

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3ALwKeSEYs

 

[VR Golgot]

Or are we focusing on walking around a station and interactions -
If so, then that is a completely different scenario.
That is a game inside a game.
1st you have to craft the inside of stations, outposts, etc.
The same with planetary explorations.
You have to craft those also.
Then decide on how to get from one game to the other.
A load screen ala SRV?
Before you can start on "space legs".
A completely different environments game.

Hello. Not quite sure how this thread inspired this response, but yes, FDev’s old proposals were for gameplay in ship interiors, station interiors, and EVA outside ships + on planetary surfaces. Originally envisioned as at least 2 separate DLCs.

Have an info dump

Spoiler

Newsletter 32: 'To Launch, and Beyond with the Lifetime Expansion Pass'

We also plan to allow you to get up out of your seat and walk around your ship. You can see the level of attention and thought that has already been given to the ship interiors from these ship cockpit views in this video:

Of course walking round your ship will be nice, but it is the just springboard for a very significant expansion of gameplay – you will be able to experience the inside of starports and interact with other players and AI characters, and even board other people’s ships in space and take them by force, as shown in this concept piece.

Of course this will be further expanded to include walking around on the surfaces of planets too.

Alpha and Premium Beta customers, and those who have already bought the £35 Lifetime Expansion Pass alongside either Beta or the full game, will have access to all these features and updates for as long as we create them at no further cost.

Elite: Dangerous Development Plan (hosted on Kickstarter page - Dec 2014)

You will be able to walk around the spaceport, you will be able to see gold being loaded into someone else's ship, you will be able to sneak in and hide in amongst the cargo. All of those things are phenomenal game play opportunities where that ship might actually be the ship of another player, so just think where that all ends.

Elite Dangerous Expansion Pass Store Page - [IE the point of sale] (circa July 2014):

We intend to continue expanding the game both with new content and new features. A good example of this is planetary landings. We have an ambitious goal for landings to include new gameplay and a rich variety of worlds to explore. To achieve our goal we want the planets to come to life. We also want to add leaving the ships so you can explore space stations or board enemy vessels or even just to look around your own. We intend to release small, free updates after launch, but major expansions including rich new features will be charged for, unless you have bought the expansion pass

Newsletter 29: Lifetime Expansion Pass - to be withdrawn from sale

For example, our current roadmap is to add (in no particular order):

• Landing/ driving / prospecting on airless rocky planets, moons & asteroids
• Walking around interiors and combative boarding of other ships
• Combat and other interactions with other players and AIs in the internal areas of star ports
• Accessing richly detailed planetary surfaces
• Availability of giant ‘executive control’ ships to players

Alpha and Premium Beta customers, and those who have already bought the £35 expansion pass alongside either Beta or the full game, will have access to all these features and updates for as long as we create them at no further cost.

---

Throw in things like periodic suggestions by FDev that it's still their intent...

• 'The team and I all see Space Legs as the feature we will love to add and are at the top of our specification, but it's something that will not happen in the Beyond season. We will talk more about it later.' (Translated Sandro - Jan 2018)
• 'The future for Elite Dangerous is very exciting, including a whole raft of incredible features, yes including 'space legs' but so many more things too.' (David Braben - April 2017)
• 'All of the things, and there are lots of other things as well, that we want to do are a way away, because to do them well... Doing an animated character is only part of the problem, you've got to have things to do with it, it's got to be rich, and a great experience. So don't hold your breath, but when it comes it'll be great.' (David Braben - Dec 2016)

FDev are still tight-lipped about the subject matter of the DLC, but there are some reasonable reasons to think ‘Legs’ are the target:

Spoiler

• The ‘leak’ has hit all its predictions to date. It says Legs. (FPS, Thargs in the flesh etc)
• There was bonus ‘leakage’ from the new ARX site which aligned with the above. (New weapon and building categories).
• The files have showed signs of Legs work
• The old plan was for the second PDLC to feature legs

 

[NeilF]

It seem they always did some work here and there over the years for space legs and I guess atmospheric planets too.

Whatever come in 2020, it's big and I'm sure they have been working on it since a few years already.

There is also that: (was found in 3.3 beta files.)

Source: https://youtu.be/-WzS-n0EiCI

Yeh! What ever happened to missions? Another design mishap that didn't see the light of release?

 

[VR Golgot]

Yeh! What ever happened to missions? Another design mishap that didn't see the light of release?

Who knows, they were only ever an accidental reveal in the beta files.

They do seem like a placeholder test for me. (Say like the sort of thing you’d play through a video feed in the cockpit ). So could easily just be an experiment that got abandoned.

Having actual animated NPC characters does feel more like a glossy DLC target than a freebie addition though, so guess we’ll see if they make it in to the big release. The Oct 2018 date of discovery puts them after the start of full production. (And the further signs of apparent DLC / Legs work in the files in April 2019 suggests they continued doing DLC work in a shared build with the main game, although they seem to have split them now as no more signs have emerged in later updates).


EDIT: Just as some bonus errata that might tally...

It occurred to me that the Leggy Cmdr Chronicle vid popped up just before the start of the DLC work:

Source: https://youtu.be/4M8ZeHZSZ3o


Given there are grounds to think game assets were used in it...

Spoiler

Cockpit entry and exit have been factored in:

^^Cmdr Chronicles animation seemingly using working game assets^^

Ship entry and exit have been factored in:

^^Cmdr Chronicles animation also seemingly using working game assets^^

I do wonder if there was some win-win behaviour there. IE using some skunkwork assets / animations that were coming together. (Giving the video some extra gloss, and letting them do an extra sneaky sneak-peek of what was going on )

Bit of a stretch maybe

 

[VR Golgot]

Some bonus quotes that caught my eye regarding pre-production / resourcing:

MCV/DEVELOP 964 January 2021

[The on foot experience is] something we've played around with a for a number of years, experimenting with different ideas for gameplay, but Odyssey in its current form started taking shape around the beginning of 2019

We've averaged around 100 developers working on the project with a peak of around 140

In terms of its scale, and in large parts its development, Odyssey can definitely be compared to a new game.

PC Gamer 05/01/21

However, as for the actual build-up to having a significant amount of developers working on it, the tail-end of 2019 is when we really started ramping it up.

(And as a bonus, something entirely tenuous )

Spoiler

The date in this ('early days' looking) concept art would date it to late 2017. But of course the date could easily not be from the time of creation:

PC Gamer 05/01/21

If it were the case though, it would be intriguing if they were already playing with a legs + atmos hybrid DLC in late 2017.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

All this is why nothing got fixed.

 

[VR Golgot]

All this is why nothing got fixed.

If you like. It's certainly why the main game has been in borderline maintenance mode since 2019.

But on the plus side, we get a big chunk of dev all in one go soon ¯\(ツ)/¯

Which may be more coherent / impactful overall than the equivalent Seasonal output, with its fractured features and delivery. Guess we'll see...