Game Discussions The No Man's Sky Thread

dannysquid

dannysquid
Zanten said:
One thing I'm actually quite curious about when it comes to E: D's eventual approach to more complex planets- life-bearing ones with atmosphere, etc- is how they're going to handle what I'm assuming will at least be a similar procedural generation of assets, rather than trying to handcraft an entire galaxy worth of lifeforms. As has been mentioned, Elite does go for a far more grounded visual look, which is great in terms of feeling like this is a future that could come about, but on the flip side I'm wondering if they're going to be restricting the variety of things like flora, fauna, even life-bearing skies or seas, to fit within that same 'grounded' approach. One thing NMS does seem to have going for it is (if you're into this sort of visual style, I mean,) that they've gone full science fantasy, meaning ala Doctor Who they can just toss out pretty much anything that comes to mind; large icky slime creature? Sure! Giant sand worms? Okay! Vibrantly colored jeweled crab? No problemo. Bipedal bunny-eared furry sasquatch? We've got five of those! You want a planet filled with enough mushrooms to make a gourmet chef blush? Look! LOOK AT ALL OUR MUSHROOMS AHAHAHAHAHA...

Ahem...

Basically, I wonder if all the planets that will feature life in Elite: Dangerous, will only have creatures that are based upon life found on our own planet, or if they'll stretch out in more exotic directions. This applies to stuff like trees, grass and shrubbery as well as animal life, of course.
Click to expand...

I think they'll do it very similarly to NMS, but possibly a little less like the cover of a dodgy 70s sci-fi novel. I'd hope that they'd use the planetary info they have to further tailor the creatures -- big muscles on high g worlds, big eyes/ears on planets far from the sun. Most of the galaxy filled with whelk-like things. That sort of thing.

It's tricky because looking at the fabulous variety in NMS, I'm already feeling the PG problem where all you see are the patterns rather than the individuals. On Earth, it's the animals that don't look like they're following a pattern that we first notice. Elephants, octopuses, horses, pigs, snakes, spiders etc... Things that stand out and don't, at first glance, look like variations on other creatures we're familiar with.
 

Mucka

M
dannysquid said:
The ELITE worlds are a lot more realistic-looking, and have staggering scale, but NMS may well turn out to be more fun. We won't know until we play.
Click to expand...

True but realistic as long as it is a rocky and barren world. Not so realistic that you cannot visit other worlds for reasons unexplained.
They are of course very different games and my preference is toward realism than the more arcade style of NMS but the procedural generation behind NMS is a huge advance on anything we have seen in E D thus far
 

Mucka

M
ZeeWolf said:
Not sure about Star Citizen, there is a whole thread. So far what they have shown in this regard is a video of a bump map with a blue sky. If you think that's a leap-frog on the tectonic plates and crater science that Frontier delivered in the first part of the unfinished Horizons then I doubt there is much Frontier can do to appease you. Personally I'm kind of glad that Frontier have taken the approach of getting the science behind an airless world correct rather than slapping a blue sky on a height field.

As for NMS, looking forward to finding out if the game is actually fun and really I'm baffled that you can comprehend how much "content" it has at this stage.
Click to expand...

It is the fact that approaches will be seamless and all worlds will be included. The tech displayed so far is of course limited but there has been another tech demo released which shows walking on the surface. Again there is lot missing, surface textures etc, but I do expect them to have something much more advanced over the coming months.
With regard to NMS then obviously realism is not what they are aiming for and as previously posted I much prefer the E D SC approach but the tech behind the procedural generation shows deformable terrain, underground caverns, oceans, atmospheres and life etc all in one package.
How long before we get anything remotely like that in ED and just how much will we have forked out by that update?
This is why I complain about the pricing of ED updates. I paid more for the original game than NMS will cost and then they want full price again just to be able to land on a barren rocky planet?
Before the end of year I expect I will be able to purchase Star Citizen for less than original E D with Horizons and any future add on and be able to land on planets and have first person and multi crews etc along with other things E D is reserving for full priced updates. I just can't see ED competing if it maintains the same marketing strategy and rate of development.

If I'm wrong then I win anyway because I have already purchased the game.
 

ZeeWolf

ZeeWolf
Mucka said:
It is the fact that approaches will be seamless and all worlds will be included. The tech displayed so far is of course limited but there has been another tech demo released which shows walking on the surface. Again there is lot missing, surface textures etc, but I do expect them to have something much more advanced over the coming months.
With regard to NMS then obviously realism is not what they are aiming for and as previously posted I much prefer the E D SC approach but the tech behind the procedural generation shows deformable terrain, underground caverns, oceans, atmospheres and life etc all in one package.
How long before we get anything remotely like that in ED and just how much will we have forked out by that update?
This is why I complain about the pricing of ED updates. I paid more for the original game than NMS will cost and then they want full price again just to be able to land on a barren rocky planet?
Before the end of year I expect I will be able to purchase Star Citizen for less than original E D with Horizons and any future add on and be able to land on planets and have first person and multi crews etc along with other things E D is reserving for full priced updates. I just can't see ED competing if it maintains the same marketing strategy and rate of development.

If I'm wrong then I win anyway because I have already purchased the game.
Click to expand...

Hmm, personally (and having worked with heightfield landscapes in games many years ago) I wasn't overwhelmed with the video of the man running across, what looked like a fairly low resolution landscape. It's pretty depressing that what Frontier can deliver to your hard drive today impresses you less than what a developer shows in a very short video with no indication of how it constitutes a product you can get your hands on right now, but C'est la vie. I wonder if it's just the apparent illusion of an earth-like environment that sways you... I'm not sure that even the most passionate Star Citizen fan is expecting a release this year but we should discuss that in the appropriate thread :)
 
Last edited:

knowles2

K
It nice to get a couple of the more alien planets.

No Man Sky is looking pretty good, an is setting a high standard that others will have to meet for their living worlds.
 

Hellhawk666

Hellhawk666
dannysquid said:
...On Earth, it's the animals that don't look like they're following a pattern that we first notice. Elephants, octopuses, horses, pigs, snakes, spiders etc... Things that stand out and don't, at first glance, look like variations on other creatures we're familiar with.
Click to expand...

That's an interesting observation. From a different perspective I guess you could say that each of those species has evolved to best fit its ecological niche, and each one is a very striking example of such adaptation. From a game point of view that means the generation algorithm should take into account factors that mimic varying ecological pressures so that it will produce vibrantly different types of creature.

knowles2 said:
It nice to get a couple of the more alien planets.

No Man Sky is looking pretty good, an is setting a high standard that others will have to meet for their living worlds.
Click to expand...

Yay! All players win :)
 

Sterlino

Sterlino
NMS looks gorgeous indeed
and it will be funny to play (yes i will buy it, i don't care about what i am writing down below here).

BUT

It's very un-realistic.
The scale is unrealistic
The Gas giant planets seems to be not present (or at least i didn't see one)
The unbreathable planets (like 'mars' for example) are not in game (or at least we didn't see one yet).

Still i didn't see a system map ... i hope they will keep it for show it in a future trailer before the release.

i don't know, i am very skeptical but i am happy that these guys of Hello Games (i am now sure) will have their selling success as they deserve.

fingers crossed
 
Last edited:

Tinman

Tinman
Mucka said:
...but the procedural generation behind NMS is a huge advance on anything we have seen in E D thus far
Click to expand...

Where?

Generic universe with no real structure to it (based on looking at the NMS Galaxy map.)
Small simplistic solar systems.
Very short draw distance.
Planetary bodies with atmosphere only...because of the draw distance. Draw distance limitations can be presented as "thick atmosphere".
Planetary bodies with one biome only...it will look the same no matter where you land.
No really large scale features on the terrain like the huge craters/cracks/ejecta that can be seen in ED.
Very simplistic terrain generation in terms of details.
Every gameplay element is going to be a lot more simplistic compared to ED.

Yes, NMS has vegetation, animals and atmosphere with weather. But so did Spore (and Minecraft and plenty of others). Hardly a huge advance on things that has been done before. If FD had delivered to the quality level of NMS there would have been pitchforks all over the place! :D

I could go on...

However!

NMS looks fantastic for what it is and it's a release day purchase for me!

That the gaming press hails it like the second coming and treats it like these things have never been done before and is "magic" is something I find somewhat amusing though... ;)
 
Last edited:

govny

govny
Mucka said:
It is the fact that approaches will be seamless and all worlds will be included. The tech displayed so far is of course limited but there has been another tech demo released which shows walking on the surface. Again there is lot missing, surface textures etc, but I do expect them to have something much more advanced over the coming months.
With regard to NMS then obviously realism is not what they are aiming for and as previously posted I much prefer the E D SC approach but the tech behind the procedural generation shows deformable terrain, underground caverns, oceans, atmospheres and life etc all in one package.
How long before we get anything remotely like that in ED and just how much will we have forked out by that update?
This is why I complain about the pricing of ED updates. I paid more for the original game than NMS will cost and then they want full price again just to be able to land on a barren rocky planet?
Before the end of year I expect I will be able to purchase Star Citizen for less than original E D with Horizons and any future add on and be able to land on planets and have first person and multi crews etc along with other things E D is reserving for full priced updates. I just can't see ED competing if it maintains the same marketing strategy and rate of development.

If I'm wrong then I win anyway because I have already purchased the game.
Click to expand...

by the time SC will be out, ED will already have Earth like planets, First person exploration, ship and stations interiors.
So if you wait untill then, you will have the entire package for the same price as SC.
 

JesusOnEez

JesusOnEez
govny said:
by the time SC will be out, ED will already have Earth like planets, First person exploration, ship and stations interiors.
So if you wait untill then, you will have the entire package for the same price as SC.
Click to expand...

By the time SC is out all living things will have become extinct. Indeed, our own Sun might have started shedding its outer layers.
 

cpbtrading

cpbtrading
The video 'The Art of No Mans Sky', is very interesting. I love what they're doing there.
For me it is the case, as with some others posting, the more I see of this game, the more interested and excited I get.
Roll on June..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom