Pros:
The galaxy simulation is astonishing, i really appreciate the work and time spent to make it as real as possible, this is truly the juvel and shining beacon of Elite.
As the planetary generation gets more perfected, the wasteland of the planets and moons will be more interesting to visit.
Flight and vehicle model in Elite is really good, the speed cap (flight) is there for gameplay reason, most of us understand that, however they feeling of moving the ships around in different
gravity pulls are truly a work of art, it will challenged the pilots and combined with heat management this is a great way of challenging the player.
Puzzles in Elite are actually plentiful, and for the observant player this is where you could spend considerable time to try and crack the nut of one of the many puzzles.
Cons:
Grind grind grind grind, everything is connected to a grind, some of it do not feel like a grind (good game development) a lot feels like a second job (not so good game design)
The feeling of a dead world. ( I need to explain this a bit more)
- The development has come a long way, voice greetings, voice recordings to find and replay, however somehow the worlds just feel dead. This can be used in a good way IF you give the
the player a taste of what it is supposed to be, like in some horror games where you play in a full active environment with NPCS doing routines and so on, then by some event brings the player into
the main game world where there is only him or her in it.
In Elite most of the time there is no one, not even at the so called space ports, only a recorded message playing in the speakers.
There are many many ways to do this and you the reader should check this out, it's a demo of how to do it.
http://megacity.unity3d.com/MegaCity_GDC2019_Release_OC.zip (7.1Gb)
In this demo, there are only traffic activity, however it gives you the sense of scale, if you want to go one level deeper it could be done like my next example.
Planet coaster! yes in planet coaster, you actually have NPCS walking around in a predefined area doing "stuff" this could be done in Elite too.
Suggestions:
When the space ports are created, they should contain all the NPC activity, it would be a predefined area that could be inserted into the planets where they should be.
small rovers driving around, could be on rails to make it easier to control, repair crew walking around, cargo being moved around and so on.
Space elevators to Atmo planets, could be one way to control the access to this planets, you would not need to give the players full access, only through the space station in orbit would the
player gain access to the planet and the ride down planetside could load the access to the atmo planets, of course that would require legs to work, however it would be a good transition from ship to
walking around. These planets could also be few and therefore concentrate the players more together in a smaller area, activities could be many, intel collection by hacking, assassination, or join a local conflict on the planet to fight to conquer bases. We already got these gameplay mechanics in the game, and it would just be an expansion of those mechanics.
My point, FDEV should concentrate the developing efford on smaller areas like a few planets, and make them interesting to go to, this would populate the game world with players and with the right
tools available they will make the game world alive. GTA is a good example of how multiplayer within a gameworld gives you the feeling of being in a real world, and not in a dead one.
The galaxy simulation is astonishing, i really appreciate the work and time spent to make it as real as possible, this is truly the juvel and shining beacon of Elite.
As the planetary generation gets more perfected, the wasteland of the planets and moons will be more interesting to visit.
Flight and vehicle model in Elite is really good, the speed cap (flight) is there for gameplay reason, most of us understand that, however they feeling of moving the ships around in different
gravity pulls are truly a work of art, it will challenged the pilots and combined with heat management this is a great way of challenging the player.
Puzzles in Elite are actually plentiful, and for the observant player this is where you could spend considerable time to try and crack the nut of one of the many puzzles.
Cons:
Grind grind grind grind, everything is connected to a grind, some of it do not feel like a grind (good game development) a lot feels like a second job (not so good game design)
The feeling of a dead world. ( I need to explain this a bit more)
- The development has come a long way, voice greetings, voice recordings to find and replay, however somehow the worlds just feel dead. This can be used in a good way IF you give the
the player a taste of what it is supposed to be, like in some horror games where you play in a full active environment with NPCS doing routines and so on, then by some event brings the player into
the main game world where there is only him or her in it.
In Elite most of the time there is no one, not even at the so called space ports, only a recorded message playing in the speakers.
There are many many ways to do this and you the reader should check this out, it's a demo of how to do it.
http://megacity.unity3d.com/MegaCity_GDC2019_Release_OC.zip (7.1Gb)
In this demo, there are only traffic activity, however it gives you the sense of scale, if you want to go one level deeper it could be done like my next example.
Planet coaster! yes in planet coaster, you actually have NPCS walking around in a predefined area doing "stuff" this could be done in Elite too.
Suggestions:
When the space ports are created, they should contain all the NPC activity, it would be a predefined area that could be inserted into the planets where they should be.
small rovers driving around, could be on rails to make it easier to control, repair crew walking around, cargo being moved around and so on.
Space elevators to Atmo planets, could be one way to control the access to this planets, you would not need to give the players full access, only through the space station in orbit would the
player gain access to the planet and the ride down planetside could load the access to the atmo planets, of course that would require legs to work, however it would be a good transition from ship to
walking around. These planets could also be few and therefore concentrate the players more together in a smaller area, activities could be many, intel collection by hacking, assassination, or join a local conflict on the planet to fight to conquer bases. We already got these gameplay mechanics in the game, and it would just be an expansion of those mechanics.
My point, FDEV should concentrate the developing efford on smaller areas like a few planets, and make them interesting to go to, this would populate the game world with players and with the right
tools available they will make the game world alive. GTA is a good example of how multiplayer within a gameworld gives you the feeling of being in a real world, and not in a dead one.
