Reading through a lot of the forum posts, this feature seems to be among the top of the ED wishlists. However I'm wondering whether this is a lot of development effort for something players will use maybe a couple of times. Yes the first time you walk about looking at your ship or land on a planet may be awe inspiring but after a while will it not just get boring and something you won't bother with?
For instance, say you're wanting to earn enough credits to upgrade your ship or buy a better one (and let's face it, that as the ONLY reason for earning money in this game). Well every time you land on a station are you really going to get out of your ship look around it just because you can? First couple of times yes, but after that is there any point?
it would be like playing a 1st person shooter where all you do is walk around the level looking at scenery. Even if the scenery was sufficiently varied and detailed after a while it would just become boring would it not ?
i think the developers should weigh up the time and effort it would take to implement this against the actual enhancement to gameplay it would actually provide. Maybe concentrate on providing the ability for players to actually interact more that would provide a more varied and rich gameplay.
some suggestions(apologies if these were already suggested but just writing them off the top of my head)
1/ allow players to create missions. For example, I need a certain piece of equiment for my ship but can't be bothered running around star systems looking for it, post a mission that will reward someone for delivering it.
2/ allow players to post a bounty. Someone's randomly killed you for the heck of it-post a big reward to incentivise other players to find and kill them in return (more than just the standard bounty would yield)
3/ allow players with lots of money to be able to lend money to starter players (with intrest) so they can get a quick start. If the money isn't paid back within an agreed time or agreed instalments then 2/ above can be invoked.
4/ allow players to employ others to do trading for them-that way they can make money even when off line as other players are doing their trading. In return the players doing the trading maybe get a percentage of the profit plus a large cash injection to allow them to get more storage space or weapons on their ships to aid in said job without them having to fork out the money for them.
5/ players can offer other players better insurance rates based on player stats. this works like a real insurance company allowing you to give better rates to a 'careful driver' that's less prone to taking risks. This could be a whole other line eg. Trade, fight, explore, mine, INSURE!
6/ players could buy and then hire out ships or equipment to other players say for one off missions or endeavours that need a bigger ship
7/ ability to hire out other players to escort you in a particularly dangerous missions or to do a particularly nasty illegal thing.
8/ ships/equipment should degrade over time forcing you to replace them after a certain time just like in the real world. Also their value should depreciate over time meaning that you need to think carefully when outfitting rather than being able to just get the original value back. Also how abouts being able to auction off second hand equipment/ships to other players?
9/ ultimately maybe ED credits could be exchanged for real-world rewards eg. money-off future expansion packs to incentivise players to keep playing and making more money.
So in summary, the eye-candy of walking round your ship or landing in a planet may require a lot of development for very little usage once you've experienced it once. I think suggestions along the lines of the ones given above would maybe set it apart from star Citizen which is already going for this persistent universe as they call it but which may have little long-lasting appeal. The original Elite was a great game when played as a single player but since ED is a multiplayer game I think that's what should be focused on as its the interaction with others and the unpredictability of human nature which will give it longer lasting appeal.
First of all you should seperate them out into two threads as (IMHO) they are two seperate game mechanics.
Addressing planetary landings first....
If you ever played Frontier, or First Encounders then you would know that the seemless transistion from space to atmosphere and to land on a planet is a fundamentally Elite gameplay mechanic and adds a lot to the game.
Missions like bombing structures, or destroying ships on the launch pads and then having the cops chase you all the way into orbit before you can frameshift really apeal to me.
Dropping of an MB4 mining machine is of course impossible without surface landings.
Oh the fun of trying to land on a low G world or asteroid and bouncing off into space because you hit to hard... such fun... We need grapling tethers or tractor beams if the Gravity is really low.
Transitioning from space based combat to atmospheric flight combat was great fun in frontier, even if the implementation was a bit clunky.
In Frontier I remember trying to fly a Pantha or Imperial explorer under London bridge with a bunch of police vipers on your tail...... lol such fun...
So, the planetary flight is a central part of the game and seemless transition from space to atmosphere is just Sooo cool (no other game has that).
Secondly.... Exiting your ship into first person mode.
Braben first suggested this many years ago... my memory fades as it was many years ago, but from what I can remember he talked about having advanced AI interactions being something that they had developed from ' a dogs life' my initial thought was that this is not needed, and if done badly would be a wast of time... But i actually quite like the idea of getting 'special' missions from people you may meet in seedy south city bars....
If done well, the FP mode could add a lot of depth to the elite universe, but as the op suggests it requires a lot of work and there is so much other stuff to get right first.
