The Planetary landing and planetside missions discussion Thread

I like what I see in those pictures. Planetary Landing will enhance everyone's game in my personal opinion. Well done ED-Devs, look forward to enjoying your new content for my Christmas present, thank you Elite Dangerous.
 
...The level of detail looks fine. Sure, no Sydney Opera House, no Hanging Gardens of Babylon, no vast majestic herds of wildebeest; but what looks like pretty good renditions of airless worlds. Certainly at least as good as Kerbal Space Program; certainly better because it's Elite.

I for one welcome Horizons, with joy, happiness and the warm, comfortable knowledge that all is right with the world, and my alpha level money has yet again been proven to be very well spent.
Exactly. I for one am glad they are getting the game and mechanics out there and playable. They can always revisit the graphical side latter and improve it if necessary.

If they just endlessly faffed around perfecting every little graphical whim and wish on these forums we wouldn't even be playing a game, just watching endless videos and 'commercials' trying to sell us an idea...

There is lots that could be done better for sure, but how long do you delay and perfect something before initial release? Think of ED as a early access type scenario only better. They have a plan, a long term one it is too and slowly but surely they are delivering on it.

I see it as:
Get the mechanics and content in and get it working.
Get a workable level of graphics in.
Tweak, balance and improve mechanics and graphics to a reasonable standard without delaying or impacting on continuous development.
Continue adding new features and contnet to build the master plan/vision.
Then, and only then, give it all the graphic fidelity you can muster after the core structure is sound and complete.
 
Frontier are showing the first look
Planetary Approach in the latest newsletter #93

View attachment 65918View attachment 65919
One thing sticks out again with regards richer environment and more eye candy required, ok we see a "crashed T9" but I was a little disappointed in the level of detail for example debris wreckage even crash markings on the ground something to beef it up a little, I hope that frontier are still developing some more detail with regards this as not unlike the salvage wreck sites very small hardly no debris again lets see some detail something worth looking at, Planetary landings is great and i cant wait BUT I hope the level of detail improves.

Also I couldn't see the new scanner picking up signs of the T9 either in the images are objects on the surface items that we just stubble across or will there be some form of radar bounce signal so we know where to look !!!

First impressions Hmmmm keep working on on DEVs lets see richness here, please dont make us wait for other updates in 2016 for these things mentioned above...

I disagree with you (in the nicest possible way) .... the level of detail is already very good ... and that is DUST kicking up in the second image - a great addition to the immersive feel of the scene as we land (well done FD !) ....

You do realise that, if there is an extremely high level of detail, fewer computers will have the ability to see it and play it? There has to be a balance. Otherwise there will be complaints of screen lag like we have never seen before !
 
I disagree with you (in the nicest possible way) You do realise that, if there is an extremely high level of detail, fewer computers will have the ability to see it and play it? There has to be a balance. Otherwise there will be complaints of screen lag like we have never seen before !

I disagree with you (in the nicest possible way) Its actually dependent on the scalability implemented, its either down to the end user to scale graphics, or forced scaling by the application to ensure the best (acceptable) frame rates are achieved, the minimal requirements is where the bottom line has been set, the top line is only limited by the best current tech to drive the detail at (acceptable frame rates).
 
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I disagree with you (in the nicest possible way) Its actually dependent on the scalability implemented, its either down to the end user to scale graphics, or forced scaling by the application to ensure the best (acceptable) frame rates are achieved, the minimal requirements is where the bottom line has been set, the top line is only limited by the best current tech to drive the detail at (acceptable frame rates).

Noted, thanks for the correction. Have some rep (in the nicest possible way).
 
The happy people don't really help much apart from moral, but the moaners and thinkers, we are the task masters, always wanting better and more, it's what drives industry, and FD are of the same mind set, always want to do better!

As someone who developed for an online game for 5 years, i can tell you that people who non-stop complain and nitpick do nothing but kill morale. A developer puts his heart and soul into his work, and then some nobody with zero development skills says "It looks rubbish" makes you just want to find a baseball bat and do some facial rearrangement on that arrogant little <censored>.

Developers love constructive feedback on finished products, or things that we might have released for testing by the player base. Sneak peaks, unless confirmed as finished versions, are not something to be nitpicking over.

The devs know the direction they want to go, and work towards that. Wait until you see release footage or the released version before you start moaning.

To be honest, in this case, i think it looks pretty damn nice and realistic, but I understand not everyone will agree, but hey, still months before we see the final version.
 
I disagree with you (in the nicest possible way) Its actually dependent on the scalability implemented, its either down to the end user to scale graphics, or forced scaling by the application to ensure the best (acceptable) frame rates are achieved, the minimal requirements is where the bottom line has been set, the top line is only limited by the best current tech to drive the detail at (acceptable frame rates).

That's all very well but - we don't even know how well this runs yet, particularly with 20+ ships flying around, and SRV's and two suns on the horizon with a huge gas giant and it's rings and a planetary base etc.

A bleak landscape may run superbly, but when you add everything else in potentially what we are seeing is the best our current hardware can manage. (In the Cobra engine).
 
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Exploration and Planetary landings

Do we know if Planetary Landings will contribute to our exploration ranking? I mean it seems like it obviously would, but I'm keen to know. And are Level 1 scans asscociated with landings?

I noticed in one of the screenshots released yesterday, you could see the "Analyzing Data" text in one. Typically that only lasts for a split second so I wonder if it was there by chance or design.
 
Dev's have said every profession will be expanded by landings.
I seem to remember there being a conversation about the different levels of exploration like planetary mapping, surface analysis etc being a more detailed version than just the orbital scan. This will also include a new "First Landed on" category I believe.

So yes but no exact details though.
 
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Do we know if Planetary Landings will contribute to our exploration ranking? I mean it seems like it obviously would, but I'm keen to know. And are Level 1 scans asscociated with landings?

I noticed in one of the screenshots released yesterday, you could see the "Analyzing Data" text in one. Typically that only lasts for a split second so I wonder if it was there by chance or design.
I am compelled by circumstance (since he and I were talking about it just a few minutes ago and his achievement made him, and I quote, "proud to be English" :D) to point out that thanks to the determined and fearless efforts of my pedantic pal Shabbyj it's not "Analyzing data", it's Proper British Spelling, Innit, "Analysing data".

As you were.
 


Thanks Alex. :)


Cmdr Cumomaglus, sorry old bean, I would have used an "s" but thought they had used a "z". Mea Culpa, old boy.
 
I wish we could establish a small businesses in game, for example automated mining drone/station. You leave it at some certain planet, come over in couple of weeks to collect the goods and ...

.... some cheeky commander is sitting there already in his dirty cobra along with some wife and kids, and your landing pad is dirty and full of trash.
 
Relax it's not even beta yet :p

I'm not sure much will change in terms of appearance when it comes to beta testing. Beta testing seems to be more about bug squashing than altering visuals like debris etc. They only seem to want beta to last a short time and I can't imagine that time would be spent altering aesthetics. I see things like this being tweaked as time progresses after release.
 
Frontier are showing the first look
Planetary Approach in the latest newsletter #93

View attachment 65918View attachment 65919
One thing sticks out again with regards richer environment and more eye candy required, ok we see a "crashed T9" but I was a little disappointed in the level of detail for example debris wreckage even crash markings on the ground something to beef it up a little, I hope that frontier are still developing some more detail with regards this as not unlike the salvage wreck sites very small hardly no debris again lets see some detail something worth looking at, Planetary landings is great and i cant wait BUT I hope the level of detail improves.

Also I couldn't see the new scanner picking up signs of the T9 either in the images are objects on the surface items that we just stubble across or will there be some form of radar bounce signal so we know where to look !!!

First impressions Hmmmm keep working on on DEVs lets see richness here, please dont make us wait for other updates in 2016 for these things mentioned above...
you fly to and enter a planetary USS and then stuff is there.
 
What really upsets and worries me personally is ... well, there are like 3 station variants in the game. About 5-6 outposts. Few star types - and they don't even differ in a matter of color, I think, meaning like one type star is exactly the same color as another. You jump out and see same orange bulb.

Same goes for planets. If you did some exploring or even played a game a few hundred hours like me you can not say 'wow' to some planet that you haven't seen before - you've seen them all.


The way it looks now, we'll get yes, some gameplay on surfaces, some bases (about 2-4 variants, I suppose with slight variations), etc. and then FD will go on to implement a next feature, like multicrew and so on.

This game would be 100% perfect if some dedicated team or outsourced teams would add up more variety to everything that's been done as primary assets to the game. More stations, more npc's, more life.

Otherwise I have a huge concern we're going to get a landings with 4-6 toys to play with and that will stay like that for ages. The fact that for 1,5+ we're looking at same 4 ADS on stations in every possible corner of human occupied space actually proves that fact :(


Agree to all, more variation needed otherwise we could all get a little tired very quickly of landing, ED has so much promise to entertain and enthral but just is a little samey at the moment. I'm sure FD are aware and trying real hard to give us all they can given budget/manpower/time .
 
One thing that I see here regarding quality.

Those screens are 900p (ish)

Complaints about fidelity need not apply

Looks great, I only ordered horizons last week or so. I'm looking forward to it greatly
 
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