It's difficult to predict. There are many reasons for doing either one or the other first but essentially, atmospheric landings are going to be HEAVILY affected by the fps aspect whereas the fps aspect can run quite happily without atmo landings for some time.
To illustrate:
If anyone remembers the that was X:Rebirth, you'll recall that ALL landings were the same area- landing/docking area with some NPC's, a corridor and a room or two attached. Very small, very samey.
This is something FD definitely need to avoid and so I think a modular approach to buildings/areas/sections would be best as they can be handcrafted to use the RNG to alter positioning, skins, etc. but I digress...
It's all very well putting all the systems, mechanics and assets together but the issue then is how to test for bugs/glitches/holes in objects? The only way to really test the building or area models and their collisions is to have at least a basic FPS system already in place (whether it is released or not it still needs to be functional in order to effectively test the areas).
This is why I suspect that walking about may very well be in place first, long before atmo landings are due. By and large, the main job in creating the fps aspect is adjusting controls for movement and interaction since, disregarding atmo planets for the moment, the areas we want to move about in are pretty much finished. As has been stated here before- and I have read such elsewhere- the interiors of the ships are quite complete; many oculus streams have used the posisional detection to move the camera around and examine the ships and, frankly, the only movement around a ship that will be necessary will be in the cockpit/flight deck when multiplaying, possibly heading to the bay to get in the SRV (unless they keep the lower panel feature in the pilot's seat) and, of course, to exit your ship via the ramp or potentially an airlock hatch for EVA activities in space.
The largest jobs for the FPS system will be in the coding, I think, except for stations, but again only one model would be used for each station type/size and re-used throughout, so again it is a smaller job for the asset department which, when added to the time given due to the later release of atmo landings, keeps the modelers, riggers, skinners and animators work to be getting on with while the coders do their thing.
This method of efficient asset employment can be seen in this current season of updates; many have questioned why the need for avatars so early? I think this is largely due to many of the issues in the game right now being code related and, to be fair, the coders have their work cut out for them. However, bringing in avatars this season not only keeps the asset crew busy but also lays groundwork for things like multicrew, mission personalisation and, of course, the FPS aspect.
This is all speculation of course so please feel free to add your on thoughts on this, I'd be interested to hear them
Regards
- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -
Ya and I bought the game to do the same thing so I felt the same with horizons. The only reason I bought it was so I could do ground based missions, hang out with the others that had it, and peer pressure lol oh and barnacles and other cool stuff planet side.
- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -
How about immersion for players that want to do something while they're out exploring or doing something else that confines them to their ship? Also the captain's quarters would be a perfect hub for personal outfitting or ship to ship interactions like boarding/looting (acting as a safe room if your being pirated) etc.
Realistically speaking in game our ship is our home (the bigger ones can be at least) we spend the most time in them then anywhere else so ya it kind of makes sense.
I think a captain's quarters/armoury is a great idea, and honestly, if there IS going to be boarding or planetary FPS combat (a la planetside 2) an armoury would certainly be an essential go-to area of your ship since we would need somewhere to store weapons and gear (imagine heading down to the armoury to change from your dashing Han Solo-esque outfit into a sapce suit for EVA or a hazmat suit for landing on a planet with a highly radioactive atmosphere......)
Although they may take the easy way out and have you change through a menu in the pilot's seat.....
