The Old Elite IV speculation thread

[Marcus_UK]

I like the idea of having a super computer imbedded in my brain! Awesome!

Who knows if we'll have a capitalist, money based system by the 33rd century? Granted we might have, but there's every chance that we might not. Anyway humanity might not have survived. We may have become half humans, half machines. The machines may have taken over completely and done away with humans or just kept us as slaves for their own amusement. Not to mention the aliens of course...

Erm your brain is more capable at the moment than any PC around more calculations no reliant on an external power source, etc........

On a seperate note.....

Step away from the beer can... You have 3 seconds to comply.

 

[redstar1]

Who knows if we'll have a capitalist, money based system by the 33rd century? Granted we might have, but there's every chance that we might not. Anyway humanity might not have survived. We may have become half humans, half machines. The machines may have taken over completely and done away with humans or just kept us as slaves for their own amusement. Not to mention the aliens of course...

I think someones been watching too much TV and reading too many japanese comics

 

[fasnoon]

Each expansion can add new features that haven't been programmed yet due to costs and time in the initial release of the game but in this way would allow the game to add those worthy (great ideas, but we chose to leave them out) features If the expansion packs are popular then the game could be extended for some time. Graphical updates as well as new ships and tools for creating custom content could be considered as extras to put in these expansions too.

(This might be a way to release the game in the near future and still fit the vision of what the designers have for it.)

What does anyone else think to this ?

Thats exactly what Im talking about...
a COLLECTION OF NEW IDEAS in expansion packs (in one of my posts)!!!

I have always wondered what the fans would like to see in E4. Please Post replies here with your views as to what you would like to be included as part of E4....

(Maybe it will give some ideas to FD to create a similar fourm that invites ideas to help build E4. Such a site where, once an idea is submitted, that becomes a property of FD {and no financial claims/royalties can be made by us} I feel that the game itself, whenever, it comes out, belongs to us... the REAL elite fans... so why not help give ideas to boost creativity in the game or maybe in the patches/expansion packs that to come afterwards. BELEIVE ME... just the inflow of ideas (A crazy as they may be) would just be wonderful to see, even if FD does not implement them in the game


I personally would like to see:

1 - Remember in FFE when in deep space, when your ship sometimes runs out of fuel or are being attacked and you click on the RED phone to send out a message "HELP MY SHIP IS BROKEN DOWN"... Well, it would be nice to have someone actually come and help me in to the local space station.

2 - Also, I would like to see the POLICE doing their duty for a change. So many times I have been attacked in the vacinity of a station and when I fire back, its ME who actually being attacked by the police for Illegal Firing of a Weapon near a station (and not to mention the Cr 600 fine). I NEVER see the police attacking the ships that attack me. Whats up with that?

3 - Lastly, it would be nice to get a few more ships and given the infinite nature of the game... Maybe a LOT MORE missions like in FFE.

 

[Darkman]

Thats exactly what Im talking about...
a COLLECTION OF NEW IDEAS in expansion packs (in one of my posts)!!!

But my thread came first ! Neah neah Neah neah neah ! !

Joking aside, this thread was started to discuss the idea and feasibility of expansion packs after the intitial release of the game to include those cool features that the developers didn't have time for initially.

However, your thread is focusing on the ideas and features themselves so I guess I'll post my thoughts on them in there. Please continue to discuss the feasibility of expansion packs in here though .

 

[Sir Philip]

I think someones been watching too much TV and reading too many japanese comics

Which, cutely enough, does cause the brain to atrophy, (albeit less than watching it). Well, not really, but you could be forgiven for that belief. The off-base and perverted anime is the worst. I know this Briton, John, he watches it constantly along with this West German/Russian troglodyte. They snared another person, Paul, into it and it's sadder than Mel Gibson. John doesn't write any code, the troglodyte doesn't utter nonsense in Japanese while doing algebra, and Paul doesn't play with DirectX much anymore either.

 

[Darkman]

Elite 4 and the XBox 360/ PS3

I was thinking about getting an XBox 360 at some point, maybe in 2007 once MS go ahead with the revised 60nm cpu fabrication process. I'm very concerned about buying one now because of all the overheating and failures I've been reading about on the Xbox forums I visited yesterday. The revised 60nm cpus should eliminate the overheating problem as well as use less power , as I was told on one of these forums.

Although I will continue to use by Desktop PC for gaming for some time to come, I feel that I want to move most of my gaming onto a console such as the Xbox 360 - although I would like a PS3, they are going to be very costly on release and so I'll leave that platform until the price comes down (which could take a while). I have enough games to keep me going until next year, so getting a 360 next year won't be a problem.

When Elite 4 is released for the PC I will definately upgrade parts of my system to run the game without question. However, I think it would be great to take advantage of the Xbox 360 and PS3 and port the game over to those platforms too.

As for graphics cards, I find that I always wait until the prices come down somewhat before buying them but if I had the option of either buying a current graphics card for my PC or a 360 I would get the 360 instead.

What I'm also wanting to discuss is what everyone thinks of the 360 so far, especially those that own one and if you had to buy Elite 4 would you get the PC version, the 360 or PS3 version or all of them if you so desired ?

 

[Michael Brookes]

I've had a 360 since launch and (touch wood) haven't had any problems with it. Speaking personally I think a game like Elite would do well on console. And I'd go for the 360 version.

Michael

 

[Matt]

I have been a Playstation fan since the early days, however I will almost certainly be getting a Wii on release day if its < £150. Sony can go and <do something> if they think I am going to pay out 500 quid (or whatever its up to now) "just because" is playstation and I had the last two.

I think I read somewhere that there are likely going to be no games at launch for the PS3 and sony are basically just using it as a platform to foist Bluray onto the consumer! Yet again Sony are attempting to force their propietry media format onto us - how many times will they do this before they learn?!

For me the Wii looks great - The Xbox 360 (and ps3 to a certain extent) just looks like the "same old" rehashes and sequel. The games on the Wii actually look like fun and something I want to play rather than just "Super Shooter 4, now with even more prettier graphics!!!" or whatever they release on Xbox360.

 

[redstar1]

The thing about the Wii is that it isn't intended to be a direct competitor of Playstation or Xbox. Nintendo lost that war. The Wii will be something revolutionary, however that doesn't mean it will be any good. I'm not convinced by it from what I've seen. Will have to wait and see on that one.

 

[Karl]

The only thing I'm sure about as far as the 360 is concerned; I will not buy one until it is thoroghly and completely cracked, effectively removing all constraints currently attached to it as far as usage go. When I can use it completely hazzle free as a media center, I'll reconsider. Today, I'd rather buy the old xbox.

But that's me...

About 360 version, I'm actually not so sure. Spec wise I don't think it should have any problems running any game originating on a PC. I'm more worried about the controls. Freedom games like this tend to have a lot of interactivity from the player. GTA has solved it, quite brilliantly I must say because it fits the genre, by dumbing it down a lot.

A more comparable freedom game would be Oblivion where the PC version had beed adopted to the look and feel of the 360 version. There are a few menus to access while gaming, and I couldn't help feel how messy it appeared on the 360.

The same menu system was used on the PC version, and although slightly easier to control because of keyboard shortcuts for the menus, I keep wondering how much better it _could_ have been if 360 constraints have not been an issue?

If designed solely for the PC, the menu system would have worked a *lot* better imho. Morrowind (previous version of the game) had drag & drop features, similar to what you'd expect from using windows OS. Now everything was menu-select-controlled -- yuck!

Now, this game doesn't even have *that* much menus and controls compared to i.e. X series games and maybe E4.

Would you rather have to dwelve through a series of menu items to attach a new gun to your ship because of lacking control interfaces, or would you rather open one ship inventory screen and simply drag the weapon where you wanted it?

After the introduction of "game consoles", human interfacing with the game has become worse by the game. For consoles, they couldn't have been much different. But PC versions could have done so much better.

But that's just my opinion.

 

[rob001]

Frontier Elite IV

So... beating around the bush.. anyone know when Elite IV is due out?

 

[ToadMan]

So... beating around the bush.. anyone know when Elite IV is due out?

September 31st....

Toad

 

[Darkman]

September 31st....

Toad

According to play.com, its 30/03/2007: Elite IV: The Next Encounter

http://www.play.com/Search.aspx?searchtype=PC&searchstring=Elite&page=search&pa=search&go.x=48&go.y=5

Before it stated that it was sometime in September this year, but it looks like its been moved.

Personally I would wait for Frontier themselves to release the date and that won't be until they are near a finished product. But the question is why do Play.com advertise this for pre-order right now, it just doesn't make any sense except to check early demand.

 

[Michael Brookes]

I would take Play's release date with a huge pinch of salt, a release date has not been set for Elite IV.

Michael

 

[2005]

It's amazing it's finally getting any release, i still have an original copy of frontier somewhere, although it never worked great with win 95/dos.

 

[Metalenkist]

What worries me a bit is that they are talking so long about a follow up for FFE but I wonder where they are really now in developement.
I've seen no screenshots
There is no website
The FAQ is really outdated
Basicly frontier is only telling is that there is coming a follow up and they do that since 1998??.
Try to google on Elite 4, it's hard to find any recent info about elite 4
So I fully understand that a lot of people doubt if Elite 4 will ever come uit.

A newsitem with the current state of the project or maybe a small summary with goals to reach for the next periods ( for example: a website in october, gamerelease period between march and june 2007) and an updated FAQ.
It's not that I want detailed information, not at all but just more feedback from frontier about the game.
I think that would take away a lot of doubt by a lot of ppl including myself

but for so far the critics now
I can't wait till it's release cause fair is fair elite is one of the best games ever. I know I played elite on 9,5Mhz processor (that was on turbo mode) on a black and white screen. I was little kid then.
When my brother had his own pc (100 Mhz 486 DX4) I was doing very annoying to him every saturday and sunday morning at 9 o'clock just to play first encounters on his PC.
I loved that game, played it for a long long long time

 

[caol]

Erm your brain is more capable at the moment than any PC around more calculations no reliant on an external power source, etc........

On a seperate note.....

Step away from the beer can... You have 3 seconds to comply.

Firstly I'd just like to emphasize: at the moment. What about quantum computers, to mention just one probable future computing technology? If we have individual computing elements at sub-atomic sizes then we'll have virtually instantaeous transfer speeds (possibly instantaneous - anyone know any quantum theory?). Combine a few of those elements together into even a rudimentary processor and it will fundementally change the world in which we live. This will happen if we don't all kill each other first. Also what about other alternative future computing possibilities - artificial neural networks, parallel computing - taking us more in the direction of the biological computing power of the human brain that so many believe to be unsurpassable. Careful, logical design combined with technologies such as these will surpass the chaotic, evolutionary design mess that has brought us into existance any day.

Secondly, erm... *ahem*... I'm away from the beer can, for just now anyway.

I think someones been watching too much TV and reading too many japanese comics

I hardly ever watch TV and have never read a Japanese comic in my life! I think my ideas are more influenced by books such as Kevin Warwick's "March of the Machines" (a bit repetitive and not that well written, but some inspired ideas) and the fact that I have been working with and studying computers all my life and as well as keeping up to date with some of the research in the field.


But anyway lets talk about Elite IV! The Elite universe has already been created so lets not speculate as to it's accuracy (not in this post at any rate). What do you think will be the technological advances between FFE and Elite IV? And what about the Thargoids? Elite IV is supposed to be called "The Next Encounter" isn't it?

 

[Bounder]

We're already cyborgs. A 'chipped' dog probably qualifies as a pet cyborg. Some dogs have wheelie trolleys to alleviate partial paralysis. Even a wheelchair is a machine. Pacemakers, in vivo insulin implants or other drug delivery systems, neurological augmentaion technologies for paraplegics and such are gaining ground all the time. One researcher in the US created a robotic arm that could be remote controlled by a chimp with a (massive & ghastly) brain implant protruding from the top of its skull - though this was a good ten years ago, and now these technologies are much more refined and being deployed, albeit experimentally, in clinics around the world.

In vivo extended memory, quantum computing, and internet access are all theoretically feasable and emerging technologies are pushing this way constantly. Prosthetic sensory organs are just around the corner. Artificial - and ultimately enhanced - eyesight, hearing, even taste and smell are just decades away, and will be commonplace long before we master bio and nano techs - though we'll doubtless have those too by the 3rd millenium.

And as with anything, there'll be the have's, and the have-nots...

Not sure what this has to do with E4, but there you have it. I rant, therefore I am.

 

[Matt]

Firstly I'd just like to emphasize: at the moment. What about quantum computers, to mention just one probable future computing technology? If we have individual computing elements at sub-atomic sizes then we'll have virtually instantaeous transfer speeds (possibly instantaneous - anyone know any quantum theory?). Combine a few of those elements together into even a rudimentary processor and it will fundementally change the world in which we live. This will happen if we don't all kill each other first. Also what about other alternative future computing possibilities - artificial neural networks, parallel computing - taking us more in the direction of the biological computing power of the human brain that so many believe to be unsurpassable. Careful, logical design combined with technologies such as these will surpass the chaotic, evolutionary design mess that has brought us into existance any day.

I think the problem isn't so much about the performance of computers, its about working out how the brain works! I've read/heard it in a couple of places that we probably had enough processing power back in the 80s to get "intelligence" in a computer - if only we knew how to programme it!

Obviously we know how the brain works on a simple level, but how things are actually done in the brain still remains largely a mystery as far as I am aware. Like how does our memory actually work, how do we learn, how do we recognise faces, how do we solve complex problems that will cause a computer to use huge amounts of time and/or memory, is our personality some collection of "settings" stored somewhere or is it like a hash of all of our memories, do we have limited "storage" for memories?

There is the question of if you can really compare a brain to a computer anyway - I'd love to know if there was in effect some real tangible "organic programming" and systems going on in the brain like how we program computers (at a high level anyway)

 

[Bounder]

This is the so-called "binding problem". I found an elegant theoretical solution some years back, based on resolving informational and connective entropies in signal ana|ysis and network equilibria, as determined by conservative selection pressure and cellular geometries (ie. thermogeometric ambient potentials and complexity, or rather, simplicity, in randomly self-organising networks). Basically, efficiency is 'god', quantum information is a four-dimensional state space (partial, prior, temporal and spectral), and all information we can see, hear, taste, smell, think or feel is PPTS modulation of factor-two synchrony. Which was nice.

It's too much to post here, and I don't have a write-up online, but see Miller et al's work on temporal thalamacortical modulation:

http://jn.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/87/1/516

GC Huth's pioneering work on the retinal transform:

http://www.ghuth.com/vision/

Also Axel and Buck's 2004 Physiology Nobel for their explanation of olfactory function, and subsequent papers on this and gustation, David Mckay's work on cellular function and information theory, as well as anything on set theory, Fourier & wavelet transforms, just about any of the work being done at Penn, Stuart Kauffman's work on dynamical systems theory, anything on synaesthesia, and just about anyhting else that seems even remotley connected. I went through some three gigabytes of PDFs in one year, trying to pan it out. Did my ' head in, but then I ain't not no acedemic nor nuffink, innit...

But I think you're right - We'll get there, eventually. kurzweil's singularity and all dat, eh. If the 'terrorists' don't take us all out, Skynet probably will. Hope I get to play E4 beforehand...