The Planetary landing and planetside missions discussion Thread

[Chaodiurn]

What I imagine although not expect because it's too complicated and resource intensive:

Planetary landings being combined with multiple steps-missions. More accurately, multiple steps human transport-missions for the Orca. You go, as in independent captain, to a big company that sells ship vacancies to rich people. After inspections (in game cut out of course), the company accepts your service in your ship and a trip will be put together for you to follow. Your guests expect to see some nebulae from the first line, get through a sector of less security for the drill of it, and fly barely over sea-level of a waterworld. There, on this water planet (the other two exist in the game already, as we all know), I imagine that, while you keep your Orca at ten feet, alien-dolphins to jump curiously out of the water below you. Your first officer reports to you that many guests are pretty excited about this, and the satisfaction level(=final payout from the company) rapidly grows. Even an alien-wale lets itself been seen, as it jumps that high out of the water that it almost becomes a danger for your Orca. Perhaps, just perhaps, you can turn on the new submarine-mode of your Orca and go on a search for some more organic orcas below sea level, with bright light illuminating the clear sea-water of this strange planet. After some time and many strange lifeforms but orcas seen, you decide it's time to get back into outer space to make a 200 ly return trip to the space-habour. At about 100 knots your Orca splashes out of the water, shiny drops flying everywhere smooth rainbows in the light of the binary red dwarves standing high in the nearly cloudless sky. A strong wind pushes your Orca gently to the side, before the automatic thruster control neutrals it out. As you quickly gain high, some water particles on your glass-rich hull freeze to sparkling ice. Even a seasoned captain like you appreciates the view for a short time, before everything is left behind as another memory of the wide universe when your computer announces "gravitation well left."

 

[lefty1117]

In my opinion they shouldn't put landings in unless they are putting FPS combat in at the same time, because otherwise I don't see the point. It would just be a resource drain.

If all they have are planetary landings, after the "new feature" glow wears off, who's going to be bothered to take a mission that requires landing on a planet, which will probably add at least a few minutes travel time? Let's be honest, it will probably just be a different mission type that shows up on the bulletin board and in practice it just means you land on a planet instead of a station.

If we can get FPS style combat at the same time, now we're talking ... land on a planet and hunt down a target on foot. Anything short of that as regards planetary landings, just don't see the point.

 

[Ruskodisco]

In my opinion they shouldn't put landings in unless they are putting FPS combat in at the same time, because otherwise I don't see the point. It would just be a resource drain.

If all they have are planetary landings, after the "new feature" glow wears off, who's going to be bothered to take a mission that requires landing on a planet, which will probably add at least a few minutes travel time? Let's be honest, it will probably just be a different mission type that shows up on the bulletin board and in practice it just means you land on a planet instead of a station.

If we can get FPS style combat at the same time, now we're talking ... land on a planet and hunt down a target on foot. Anything short of that as regards planetary landings, just don't see the point.

i feel that they should defiantly put this in too.
but not just fps. maybe hunting, and other land activities that i could name but would eventually turn into a long list.
but this game has a ten year development so im defiantly stoked to see how this game turns out in ten years.

 

[NVNM]

Where did this whole planetary landing and FPS craze even start? Just because a certain other far-off game will have those features?

ED should concentrate on what it does best: Space.

You can paint all sorts of pretty imaginary pictures of what landings may be like, but you'd be wrong about the end result. This won't be on the level of Star Citizen or No Man's Sky.

 

[Ruskodisco]

That's not a valid counter-argument: FD doesn't have endless resources, so although they might have a separate team working on the DLC, some of those people and almost all funds could (arguably should) be diverted to completing core gameplay, and expanding on existing mechanics.

Fortunately the fluff is for-pay DLC, so those detesting the current ideas can forgo it. Here's hoping the barebones team working on the core gameplay gets to flesh out exploration, mining and smuggling by then so the rest of us have something to look forward to.

what on earth are you talking about frontier is continually hiring people and they have over 240 employees working for them: https://www.frontier.co.uk/docs/files/Frontier Developments plc Annual Report and Accounts 2014.pdf

witcher 3 was made with 200 employees...

seriously do some research people, before making such ignorant comments.

 

[Alien]

Where did this whole planetary landing and FPS craze even start? Just because a certain other far-off game will have those features?

ED should concentrate on what it does best: Space.

You can paint all sorts of pretty imaginary pictures of what landings may be like, but you'd be wrong about the end result. This won't be on the level of Star Citizen or No Man's Sky.

I think at best, it's more a case of Frontier launched the Elite Dangerous kickstarter, and almost straight away, backers asked for Seamless Planetary Landings. Frontier said they'd do it. At some point after this, Star Citizen said they'd have planetary landings.

At worst, Frontier and Chris Roberts said they'd do planetary landings at the same time.

Fairly sure No Man's Sky had already released a video of planet to space concept.

 

[Stigbob]

what on earth are you talking about frontier is continually hiring people and they have over 240 employees working for them: https://www.frontier.co.uk/docs/files/Frontier Developments plc Annual Report and Accounts 2014.pdf

witcher 3 was made with 200 employees...

seriously do some research people, before making such ignorant comments.

Well it's easy to prove your point if you're going to rely on verifiable facts, logic and reason. But where does that leave the vocal minority, spare a thought for the forum users who raise imaginary concerns about non-issues whilst claiming to represent the player base.

 

[GIBSONJR]

No Man´s Sky is done by less than 10 people - landing and exploring planets, space stations, different fractions, big space ships, storing ships, creatures on planets, walking around and mining on planets, destroying and killing animals and structures on planets and there are many Galaxies and not one.
You can build your own ships and you can meet other players and work together on finding things etc.
It is a bit unfair comparing NMS and ED but the whole - oh we need so many people to keep it running doesn´t count IMO.
Frontier has to make decisions where to go in the future with ED. Debugging the game is not the best choice IMO.
I don´t want to be negative I love ED but Frontier really has to make ED come alive.

All the best,
Robin

 

[Mucka]

Breaking News:
There is no news!

I think the fact that David had nothing to say or show us at the biggest gaming event of the year is somewhat of a concern since it must mean they have nothing to say or show us.
Xbox exclusive content aside.

It would of been nice to get an update on how the development of new content is going (especially planetary landings) and just get a glimpse of something contained in a small demo or even just a freekin screenshot but we got absolutely zip.

Ah well, hopefully after a few more updates we will have the game we were promised in kickstarter at least.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

No Man´s Sky is done by less than 10 people - landing and exploring planets, space stations, different fractions, big space ships, storing ships, creatures on planets, walking around and mining on planets, destroying and killing animals and structures on planets and there are many Galaxies and not one.
You can build your own ships and you can meet other players and work together on finding things etc.
It is a bit unfair comparing NMS and ED but the whole - oh we need so many people to keep it running doesn´t count IMO.
Frontier has to make decisions where to go in the future with ED. Debugging the game is not the best choice IMO.
I don´t want to be negative I love ED but Frontier really has to make ED come alive.

All the best,
Robin

NMS isn't done by less than 10 people - Hello games has been growing a studio quite a bit in this last year. Also if you call ED features bare bones, I wonder what you will say about NMS offerings. NMS is single player by default, it doesn't have MMO style network play, only Dark Souls kinda vibe. It has strong emphasis on crafting and fantasy.

Overall, impossible to compare.

 

[Ruskodisco]

Well it's easy to prove your point if you're going to rely on verifiable facts, logic and reason. But where does that leave the vocal minority, spare a thought for the forum users who raise imaginary concerns about non-issues whilst claiming to represent the player base.

for a min there i thought you were serious lol.
but yeah; i find that weird when they say that there are barely any people working on elite. like just look up "frontier development employee count". whats even more funny is how their "now hiring" proves that they are doing pretty good because they need more employees.

my question is if they have that much employees im assuming that they have been working on planets and other content the whole time but being tight lipped about it. cause 200 employees is actually a pretty good number. that and elite dangerous has a ten year development plan.

 

[AnnuverScotinExile]

for a min there i thought you were serious lol.
but yeah; i find that weird when they say that there are barely any people working on elite. like just look up "frontier development employee count". whats even more funny is how their "now hiring" proves that they are doing pretty good because they need more employees.

my question is if they have that much employees im assuming that they have been working on planets and other content the whole time but being tight lipped about it. cause 200 employees is actually a pretty good number. that and elite dangerous has a ten year development plan.

The couple of expansions that we know about are supposed to be 'complete game' size/complexity. And they have Planet Coaster, too. Plus support, I imagine on their other games. Assuming they are only doing the expansions 1 game at a time, that still leaves them effectively working on three games in parallel. 200 is a good number, but 66 per game is less good. By about a third.

 

[QziQza]

Yep, but if people cannot play together then that's the way it should be IMHO - separate stories, powers, etc. Stupid to have big player actions and influences that it is impossible to directly interact with.

unless you are playing 24hrs a day 7 days a week and can be present and persistent in every instance, it is impossible for any single player to interact directly or otherwise with everyone anyway. its also worth considering that, the more players we have effecting changes within a single background sim, the smoother that sim will develop and the more realistic the outcome from community events and power play cycles will be. hopefully this will also result in a reduction of frontiers need to babysit and heavily direct the sim, moving it closer towards their original concept of something with a more independent 'player effected' evolution.

 

[Ruskodisco]

The couple of expansions that we know about are supposed to be 'complete game' size/complexity. And they have Planet Coaster, too. Plus support, I imagine on their other games. Assuming they are only doing the expansions 1 game at a time, that still leaves them effectively working on three games in parallel. 200 is a good number, but 66 per game is less good. By about a third.

of course minus the customer service, mangement, and maybe 5 others i would agree.
and of course they would work on other games but frontier defiantly knows that elite dangerous is their golden egg and planet coaster or zoo tycoon isnt going to make nearly as much. i assume they have a "dynamic" or rotations as far as duty goes.
but to assume that only 66 people are working on elite at all times is alittle out there dont you think?
also dont forget about the people being hired too.

 

[AnnuverScotinExile]

of course minus the customer service, mangement, and maybe 5 others i would agree.
and of course they would work on other games but frontier defiantly knows that elite dangerous is their golden egg and planet coaster or zoo tycoon isnt going to make nearly as much. i assume they have a "dynamic" or rotations as far as duty goes.
but to assume that only 66 people are working on elite at all times is alittle out dont you think?
also dont forget about the people being hired too.

I completely disagree. Well, perhaps not completely, but certainly at least somewhat!

The market for roller coaster games is, it seems, much larger than for space games like E: D. RCT3 has sold lots. I'm no expert on it, but I seem to recall seeing numbers like 10 million being bandied around. Planet Coaster would appear to have a much greater guarantee of being a cash cow. The upsides of it may not be as high as E: D, but I think the 'guaranteed' numbers probably are.

However, I see no point in speculation on the numbers of people being deployed in various roles. All I wanted to do was shoot down the assumption that some seem to be accepting that E: D would use the majority of FD resources. Whilst that may be so, we certainly cannot take it for granted.

 

[vijay.mis]

Where did this whole planetary landing and FPS craze even start? Just because a certain other far-off game will have those features?

ED should concentrate on what it does best: Space.

You can paint all sorts of pretty imaginary pictures of what landings may be like, but you'd be wrong about the end result. This won't be on the level of Star Citizen or No Man's Sky.

I'm totally agree with you.
Consider a scenario, A trader lands on a planet buy/sell resources at the trading port and fly away to the next destination. At max the player will be on the planet for say 10 mins, for that the whole planet to be constructed/designed?
Elite Dangerous is a space simulation and it is good in that way only.

 

[Karakhian]

Where did this whole planetary landing and FPS craze even start? Just because a certain other far-off game will have those features?

ED should concentrate on what it does best: Space.

You can paint all sorts of pretty imaginary pictures of what landings may be like, but you'd be wrong about the end result. This won't be on the level of Star Citizen or No Man's Sky.

It started when the very idea of the game was being put together and presented in the Kickstarter. It was in there as a proposed paid-for expansion from the very beginning, constantly mentioned in dev videos. When talking about the future of Elite: Dangerous, David Braben himself said this was his favorite future feature and the one he was most looking forward to.

This isn't Eve Online and this isn't the ambulation controversy.

 

[Sphinx2k]

Where did this whole planetary landing and FPS craze even start? Just because a certain other far-off game will have those features?
ED should concentrate on what it does best: Space.
You can paint all sorts of pretty imaginary pictures of what landings may be like, but you'd be wrong about the end result. This won't be on the level of Star Citizen or No Man's Sky.

If they just use random terrain generator for the instance based on the planet type (similar to the asteroid field instance generator), which would be similar to no man sky anyway, with a base to target and land on it would be easy enough I am guessing - and would appease most, while sticking to the space flight sim theme.

I agree the whole FPS idea is silly and should be dropped, as it's not needed in a space flight sim.

 

[Ruskodisco]

im loving that there are still people arguing against the planetary landings.
like people wake the hell up. do you guys remember how popular no mans sky shot up; and that was just a "indie" game.
star citizen is one of the largest kickstaters. all these have in common is that they eventually want planetary landings and walking around in the ship and other content that involves space including a space flight sim. because there were plenty of other space flight sims that simply just didnt sell. now sure you could say that frontier:first encounters had planetary landings and it did nothing for the game but that was 10 years ago!! it was released April 1995. of course unless you are ignorant to how far games have come along.

simple fact is that other companies sooner or later will be coming out with another space genre game. and one of these companies will come out with a planetary landings and all the features that you guys keep thinking should be avoided and it will be hilarious how fast this game would be ditched if they werent already working on expansions.
and im glad you guys are not listened to. just like im glad rockstar never listened to the people that believed games should be airplane specific and car specific and should all be specialized because there is no way of combing them together while creating good content. and yes that was an actually complaint towards rock star when they released such games as gta. now look at them.

as fun as space flight is, it simply isnt enough. but of course you dont have to buy the expansions

 

[Ruskodisco]

Where did this whole planetary landing and FPS craze even start? Just because a certain other far-off game will have those features?

ED should concentrate on what it does best: Space.

You can paint all sorts of pretty imaginary pictures of what landings may be like, but you'd be wrong about the end result. This won't be on the level of Star Citizen or No Man's Sky.

are you saying frontiers devolpment of 250 employees cant make what a four man team made (no mans sky) because in case you didnt know it was only four people making no mans sky https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Man's_Sky
and now recently updated there is a whooping 14 devs working on that game http://no-mans-sky.com/press/sheet.php?p=no_man's_sky#factsheet

so please do continue on telling me how this game is going to be so much better and on a different level then elites never seen expansion pack.

seriously dude go look at facts before spouting such ignorance.