The Planetary landing and planetside missions discussion Thread

[MarktJones]

you'll drop out of SC near the planet. You'll fly down to the planet under your own control. People have already done it, it's just not very interesting.

https://youtu.be/_URBqfP73ms

 

[EUS]

Of 1:06 video there's only 0:28 of either debug and/or non-game footage.
I would think if seamless landings were possible, it would be part of the video.

 

[trumpet]

No Man's Sky seems to do it. You can fake a lot of things with LOS and other magicks.

NMS tends to use a 'cloud layer' if you notice to soften the LOD pop . Fly towards a planet in Elite Dangerous in super cruise now, fly until you're forced out of super cruise into normal space -that's about where the new planet instance will start probably

 

[mojonaut]

What about 400.000.000.000.000 different solar systems?

You mean where every orange/blue/white/red star looks like every other orange/blue/white/red star, every waterworld looks like every other waterworld, every desert planet looks like every other desert planet. The desert planets that have the same 'hurricane' cloud formations that every waterworld has. is that the variety you are hinting at?

 

[Cradle2Grave]

I hope seamless doesn't mean without a bit of good old stutter.

 

[trumpet]

You mean where every orange/blue/white/red star looks like every other orange/blue/white/red star, every waterworld looks like every other waterworld, every desert planet looks like every other desert planet. The desert planets that have the same 'hurricane' cloud formations that every waterworld has. is that the variety you are hinting at?

hopefully they tweak the lighting further. I mean in FE2 you had the same models everywhere but a red star would make a space station look totally different to one in a yellow star system... and in some where you had a red and a yellow it'd look different again - but the same model. I reckon the lighting cues are too subtle in the current builds - give those stars some balls yo

 

[noodle]

Of 1:06 video there's only 0:28 of either debug and/or non-game footage.
I would think if seamless landings were possible, it would be part of the video.

To be fair, December is a long way away, and the visuals might not be polished enough to show off yet.

 

[CMDR Commander]

hopefully they tweak the lighting further. I mean in FE2 you had the same models everywhere but a red star would make a space station look totally different to one in a yellow star system... and in some where you had a red and a yellow it'd look different again - but the same model. I reckon the lighting cues are too subtle in the current builds - give those stars some balls yo

They won't, it's a deliberate artistic choice :^)

 

[Soliluna]

I would have thought that you'd supercruise to a exit point which then loads in the instance and then fly down to the planet from there.

Quite high up you start the normal space descent I don't know.

When you exit supercruise beside a planet, thats likely where the 'instance' begins, I agree. This is how I always imagined it would be done when I was wondering how they would implement it and whether it would be seamless.

 

[Herik]

Again we actually know all of those "IFs" are coming, but probably not in one single update, it would be impossible to do everything in one single step.
Although the things you have posted could possibly be in the first/second planetary update, you can see things like these in procedural generation engines like that one called "Space Engine", it's most likely the way FDev will implement planetary surfaces


About the missions, it's confirmed that they'll talk tomorrow (not sure if tomorrow) about the missions updates that are coming with 1.4 (it says in the Lave Radio thread)

But of course, and as per DB's comments; he doesn't want to release these expansions until there's proper content to enjoy. And I mean phase by phase. Not as many 'Ifs' as one thought...

 

[bootsam]

Landing on Earth will be interesting. Hopefully I can bomb Old Trafford.

 

[Bran Tse Mallory]

Just on the stream... Orbital cruise... seamless, right....

 

[EUS]

All companies that create videos for games should be forced to be truthful, ie have disclaimers stating: in game footage, or not in game footage.

 

[Ving]

Once in orbital cruise it will be seamless Just like docking with a station is seamless once you are in normal space ^^

It makes sense that it would be this way though, given the way the game is architected around instancing.

 

[Kneejo]

From my experience with Orbiter space simulator: the 30km/s which we fly at the lowest speed in supercruise is a decent speed for a medium to high orbit around earth. (you'll have to do the math to be exact) low Earth orbit is more like 7.5 km/s, too slow for the supercruise and too fast for re-entry. re-entry happens at speeds descending from about mach 27 at atmospheric entry, at around 90-100 km altitude. You'll need to lose most of that speed by aerobraking in the upper 50 kilometers or so or you'll burn up. Around mach 4 at 40 kilometers is manageable, although the hulls in Elite seem much stronger than that of a space shuttle, so who knows

The speed we fly with thrusters is comparable to jets in an atmosphere.. an indication of 300 on your speedometer in Elite is roughly 1000 km/h, or the speed of sound. This is why this sim feels so great for people who come from jet sims, like myself.

I can't wait to see what they do, but seamless re-entry is not impossible. It is really good in Orbiter Space simulator, but it requires actual orbiting and the required instruments on board the ship to do that.. Oh and it takes a loooong time, unless you have the hull to drop like a comet

So.. with that in mind.. I think it won't be seamless.. It will frustrate people who are used to the fast pace of the game.. I am hoping for something in between. Perhaps a decent autopilot that does the job quickly, but still gives you a full view of the whole event of going down in the atmosphere.

 

[Herik]

It would be enough for me, but not everybody. Probably not even the majority. I'm something of a PG nerd, and I've said almost from day one that being able to just land my ship on the edge of an alien lake, or a forest plateau, or a mountain, would be enough for me. Sitting there, be it it for 30 seconds or two hours, knowing that I'm looking at a unique view that can never be exactly repeated (even by me, let alone anyone else). And that I can experience an effectively infinite number of such views by moving my ship to the next escarpment, or the next valley, or the next continent, or the next planet, or any planet within a 70,000 light year radius... you could take away most of the rest of the game and that would still be enough for me.

But like I said, I'm a PG and visuals junkie and am well aware that I don't speak for everyone. For most normal gamers, some sort of content is going to be required. PG wildlife and settlements? A long-term prospect at best, I fear. Waiting for someone to deliver fuel or other resources? A fun diversion for both parties if you're 150ly from the edge of colonised space, but a bit of a drag if you're half way to Sagittarius A.

So what about something on a smaller scale?

The Traveller RPG had something called wilderness refuelling IIRC, where spacecraft with suitable displacement and buoyancy could land on bodies of liquid water and float like ships, pumping water through catalytic splitters to obtain hydrogen fuel. Since the Elite universe also uses hydrogen fuel, maybe this is something that could be looked into. Of course ED also has the more convenient stellar fuel scooping which IIRC Traveller did not, but it only takes a little imagination to posit a scenario whereby a fuel scoop becomes damaged and unable to scoop from stars or gas giants, but whose converters can still process water or any other liquid with a hydrogen component. It would make a trip back to human space a little more interesting if instead of scoopable stars, commanders had to look for landable planets with water or hydrocarbon oceans.

You could extend this further by having advanced auto-repair modules that could be replenished by locating the right sort of mineral deposits from which on-board nanotech could manufacture replacement parts. It's perhaps a bit too "find leaf A and flower B to make potion C" but (for explorers at least) it would give a reason other than wanderlust to land on alien worlds. Dare I say it's even tangentially related to the "crafting" mechanics so many MMO fans seem to want, albeit limited to self-preservation rather than profit or expansion.

Of course with the benefit of hindsight all of this speculation feels like the heyday of the DDF: lots of what-ifs? with very little chance of any of it coming to fruition in the short or medium term. I'm under no illusions that if the Gamescom announcement has anything to do with planetary landing it will be anything more than the "airless moons" David Braben has already mentioned. Still, parking my ship on the edge of a grey canyon might be fun for a while. And good practice for if and when those mountains become accessible...

Well Jack, I'm like you; just landing and seeing everything one place to the next will do it for me. And this morning we know a little bit more...

This is damn exciting.

 

[Enride]

Planetary landing but what about flying?

Ive been off and not "in the loop" lately so this news caught my attention today.

We will be able to land on planets, atmospherless "rocks" to begin with, drive around with the scarab and do lots of stuff around there.
And this does sound like a great addition to the game, im surprisingly finding myself very interested.

But will we be able to FLY around as well? Can I take my ship and zoom by my scarabing friends close to the surface?

 

[noodle]

Short answer.... yes.

 

[MarktJones]

Ive been off and not "in the loop" lately so this news caught my attention today.

We will be able to land on planets, atmospherless "rocks" to begin with, drive around with the scarab and do lots of stuff around there.
And this does sound like a great addition to the game, im surprisingly finding myself very interested.

But will we be able to FLY around as well? Can I take my ship and zoom by my scarabing friends close to the surface?

Yes. You'll be able to fly about and you'll be able to have combined wings of ships and land vehicles.

 

[Vandaahl]

These worlds are gigantic, and - like the open galaxy - you'll be able to go anywhere. You'll be able to fly over the surface in low orbit and choose your spot to land, you'll be able to venture out in your Surface Recon Vehicle and hurtle across the surface at high speed. You'll be able to sneak around or go in all guns blazing. The nimble SRV is tiny compared to your ship, and is virtually invisible on a long range scanner – ship-based weapons will find it very hard to hold a lock on them, but airborne and ground-based players can explore the same worlds together, so watch the skies!

https://community.elitedangerous.com/node/247

I guess thats a yes.