The Planetary landing and planetside missions discussion Thread

[CMDR Alonso]

If planetary landing comeswhile I'm still playing Elite, I'll become a full-time explorer.

Imagine you are 30K LY away from the bubble and your canopy breaks, then you have to quickly find the nearest planet with decent atmosphere to survive untill a player with a fixer limpet reaches your position.

Just for that it would be worth it

 

[stevesideas]

If planetary landing comeswhile I'm still playing Elite, I'll become a full-time explorer.

Imagine you are 30K LY away from the bubble and your canopy breaks, then you have to quickly find the nearest planet with decent atmosphere to survive untill a player with a fixer limpet reaches your position.

Just for that it would be worth it

That sounds like a fun challenge

 

[john111]

I still think some kind of FPS-like planetary exploration is a long way off; considering that in addition to implementing all the FPS-style gameplay, you'd first need:

- atmospheric entry: ability to enter the atmosphere, see the detailed terrain, fly over/between mountains etc.
- landing: at surface stations/outposts, and/or ability to land anywhere there's a clearing.
- moving about in ship: unless you instantly warp from your seat to outside, you're going to need to walk though your ship to outside. Maybe your seat just slides down and pops you out underneath the ship?

My guess is we'll just see the first one - atmospheric entry, and maybe the second, landing at surface stations. It wouldn't add a huge amount of new gameplay, but it certainly would add some amazing backdrops to RES/CZ combat, and could even making take-offs and landings interesting if they add dramatic enough terrain.

I agree with you.. I am hoping for the announcement to get atmospheric entry and seeing some fantastic (generated) landscapes
Later on they probably will need to add FPS for walking around ships/stations and finally planetary landings...

 

[Shtehfawn]

It would be cool if Search and Rescue missions were introduced with planetary landings (e.g. locate a wrecked vessel on a moon's surface, collect cargo and/or crew, and RTB). There could be criminal resistance in orbit around the planet (and on the surface when walking around and exiting your ship are added) to add a challenge to the mission.

Sorry if someone else has already suggested this, but I'm not going to read 150 pages to check.

 

[Rami77]

If planetary landing comeswhile I'm still playing Elite, I'll become a full-time explorer.

Imagine you are 30K LY away from the bubble and your canopy breaks, then you have to quickly find the nearest planet with decent atmosphere to survive untill a player with a fixer limpet reaches your position.

Just for that it would be worth it

[This Idea requires a crew (addon)]

Or imagine you are forced to land on a (earth like?) planet with your shipped heavily damaged (FSD, Reactor, Life Support) and you are forced to send out 2 crewmean finding food and recources while your engineering team tries to fix the FSD. At the same time you try to calm the strange passenger you picked up at Vulcan 500ly ago...

Lots of possibilities....

I cant understand ppl that think that updates like planetary landings are not cool.

 

[Pomerlaw]

Some of you guys have absolutely CRAZY expectations.

+1 for search and rescue missions though.

 

[NeilF]

If planetary landing comeswhile I'm still playing Elite, I'll become a full-time explorer.

Imagine you are 30K LY away from the bubble and your canopy breaks, then you have to quickly find the nearest planet with decent atmosphere to survive untill a player with a fixer limpet reaches your position.

Just for that it would be worth it

Let's follow that through shall we? So you land on the planet, admire the view... and wait... then wait... and then wait...

You're commit is akin to folks who see "walking around stations" as some magic elixir that instantly provides deep and meaningful mechanics/gameplay.

Personally I'd hope for a load of deep game mechanics from planetary landings, else put the development time in the standard core game - Goodness knows it needs it!

 

[Zak Gordon]

You know, i had not actually considered that NMS might have an influence on ED (Frontier), but yeah it could be possible that game might push some peek at the Planet Landings expansion.

Certainly the fact NMS has that already included, and can be played off-line and is likely to come with some modding ability (PC version) has definately made it seem likely i will be playing it before getting into ED (when the Planet Landings is released).

I mean this could be a great thing! I would love 'proper' content like Planet Landings get priority in ED, rather than all the (often) gamey MP specific semi-functional stuff. So fingers crossed from me that NMS might be forcing Frontiers hand a little

 

[CMDR Alonso]

Let's follow that through shall we? So you land on the planet, admire the view... and wait... then wait... and then wait...

You're commit is akin to folks who see "walking around stations" as some magic elixir that instantly provides deep and meaningful mechanics/gameplay.

Personally I'd hope for a load of deep game mechanics from planetary landings, else put the development time in the standard core game - Goodness knows it needs it!

I think like you, but understand, first, we need to actually land in planets (or how I think of it: flying within the atmosphere), have the terrain there and all, then add the rest of the content, I'm sure there are lots of things sugested in this thread, if you're still not convinced, look the SC persistent universe, CIG had great ideas, and I for one expect FDev to ave even better ideas.

And jusyt getting into a planet's atmosphere to sightsee and do some further scans would at last add something for exploration

 

[Ziljan]

Let's follow that through shall we? So you land on the planet, admire the view... and wait... then wait... and then wait...

You're commit is akin to folks who see "walking around stations" as some magic elixir that instantly provides deep and meaningful mechanics/gameplay.

Personally I'd hope for a load of deep game mechanics from planetary landings, else put the development time in the standard core game - Goodness knows it needs it!

David Braben already said the main reason that Planetary Landing didn't go out last December was specifically because he wanted there to be rich gameplay options when we finally do land. Will be fully fleshed out when it finally arrives? Probably not. But I'm sure that there will be plenty of new things to do.

from your many anti-PL posts I wonder if you have some kind of grudge against planets? ...but seriously, I know you just want deeper gameplay (we all do!). But think about it this way: until we have all the major pieces of the puzzle (PL, FPS, and Flight Sim) then filling in the gaps prematurely could close off interactive elements between these major aspects/modes of gameplay.


if you think of PL or FPS as tacked on elements that should be added only after the "real game is fully fleshed out" then you're missing the point of ED imo.

 

[Deleted member 94277]

Seamlessness. That is all. I don't care about missions, or whatever: make it so that we can mine and discover stuff in a planet and I'm happy. Just make it so with minimal stutter and as seamless as possible.

 

[Chalito]

If planetary landing comeswhile I'm still playing Elite, I'll become a full-time explorer.

Imagine you are 30K LY away from the bubble and your canopy breaks, then you have to quickly find the nearest planet with decent atmosphere to survive untill a player with a fixer limpet reaches your position.

Just for that it would be worth it

Good luck with reentry in a broken canopy

 

[CMDR Alonso]

Good luck with reentry in a broken canopy

That would give us explorers a reason to use shields, now it's even a better idea

 

[NeilF]

David Braben already said the main reason that Planetary Landing didn't go out last December was specifically because he wanted there to be rich gameplay options when we finally do land.

How is it 7-8 months after the games release, the same ethos hasn't been applied to the core game then?

Will be fully fleshed out when it finally arrives? Probably not. But I'm sure that there will be plenty of new things to do.

Let's just hope it's better worked out than Powerplay.

 

[Phaser]

Let's follow that through shall we? So you land on the planet, admire the view... and wait... then wait... and then wait...

You're commit is akin to folks who see "walking around stations" as some magic elixir that instantly provides deep and meaningful mechanics/gameplay.

Personally I'd hope for a load of deep game mechanics from planetary landings, else put the development time in the standard core game - Goodness knows it needs it!

Not necessarily! The fuel rats are already out there rescuing folks from from the self destruct button. Alternatively, send an npc out on the rescue mission. He can try and survive till they arrive. In regards to deep gameplay mechanics, everyone`s in the same boat! I think survival mechanics coupled with a modular procedurally generated mission system probably has the best chance of living up to the expectations most people have, when it comes to P.L`s and emergent gameplay.

 

[Ziljan]

How is it 7-8 months after the games release, the same ethos hasn't been applied to the core game then?

Let's just hope it's better worked out than Powerplay.

I don't think there will be a "core game" until we have both PL and FPS expansions to give a basic skeleton of the game's final structure. Fleshing out the current game before adding in PL and FPS is like adding muscles and organs to a torso that was missing a head or limbs.

If Planetary Landing is initially implemented as a cross between the current mining/exploring mechanic, a zoo tycoon sim, and they eventually add FPS elements, and then start fleshing out the whole game more, then I will be thrilled.

I honestly think that PP would be fine with a few adjustments to missions and the rewards structure and some deeper tie-in with the background sim that allowed more varied playstyles to participate. However, if all I wanted from ED was a political space sim, then the current PP would actually be a decent starting point. However, what I want is deeper EXPLORATION mechanics. Yes that could be accomplished without planetary landing, but it could be accomplished even more more deeply and broadly with planetary landing.

 

[NeilF]

Not necessarily! The fuel rats are already out there rescuing folks from from the self destruct button. Alternatively, send an npc out on the rescue mission. He can try and survive till they arrive. In regards to deep gameplay mechanics, everyone`s in the same boat! I think survival mechanics coupled with a modular procedurally generated mission system probably has the best chance of living up to the expectations most people have, when it comes to P.L`s and emergent gameplay.

You're missing the point I believe. Would people go out of their way to spend time on a planet where they can do... nothing... but look and wait?

Unless the procedural generation is something utterly staggering to the extent it can produce vistas and plantary content so amazing and unique it means visiting planets does not become repetative, gameplay must then make visiting planets a worth while experience.

So, simply landing on a planet to wait for someone to deliver fuel sounds somewhat "thin" to me...

- - - Updated - - -

I don't think there will be a "core game" until we have both PL and FPS expansions to give a basic skeleton of the game's final structure. Fleshing out the current game before adding in PL and FPS is like adding muscles and organs to a torso that was missing a head or limbs.

You're suggesting we can't have missions deeper and more varied than take X to Y, or go to X and blow Y up, before PL and FPS? Surely the former is far far easier and indeed more necessary?

 

[CMDR Alonso]

You're missing the point I believe. Would people go out of their way to spend time on a planet where they can do... nothing... but look and wait?

Unless the procedural generation is something utterly staggering to the extent it can produce vistas and plantary content so amazing and unique it means visiting planets does not become repetative, gameplay must then make visiting planets a worth while experience.

So, simply landing on a planet to wait for someone to deliver fuel sounds somewhat "thin" to me...

- - - Updated - - -



You're suggesting we can't have missions deeper and more varied than take X to Y, or go to X and blow Y up, before PL and FPS? Surely the former is far far easier and indeed more necessary?

I think that the point is having a complete game with the big parts: the galaxy and basic stuff in your ship, PL and FPS and when you have everything (or most of it) you can start doing the rest.

It's like in Star Citizen, they are creating the game "module" by module, first the hangar, then the Dogfighting, then FPS combat, then the rest of the persistent universe, wich is basically planetary landings and walking around fused with lots of awesome ideas.

I think Elite will go that way, except it will be in small steps instead of adding things in huge updates 'cause FDev is a small team.

Like I said, planetary landings can be the base for so many mechanics that the game needs that feature first. They could go the way SC is going (planetary landings and related stuff the last with FPS coming before) if FDev were a much bigger studio with a ton of money.

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Add that I would actually go on planets for sightseeing, I do get out of supercrise loosing time just to see a shiny planet when I find it, if I could go inside it's atmosphere that would be awesome.

 

[NeilF]

if I could go inside it's atmosphere that would be awesome.

Why?

It's akin to people simply saying, "If I could walk around a station, that would be awesome."

Why?

Surely you're missing out a mountain of IFs to actually justify that comment. And the development involved to produce those IFs is monstrous.



Meanwhile, we have take X to Y... and go to X and blow up Y. The development to move us far beyond that is not as large (surely)?

 

[CMDR Alonso]

Why?

It's akin to people simply saying, "If I could walk around a station, that would be awesome."

Why?

Surely you're missing out a mountain of IFs to actually justify that comment. And the development involved to produce those IFs is monstrous.



Meanwhile, we have take X to Y... and go to X and blow up Y. The development to move us far beyond that is not as large (surely)?

That part was about sightseeing. If you actually read the rest of the comment, or to the other comment I made before and stop ignoring answers, you'll see.