Why is ship interiors something that is not planned to be included if at least half the player base wants it?

[Straker]

Just watch any video of someone playing SC for the first time and the thing that stands out is NOT that there are ship interiors - it's that they can seamlessly walk on-to their ship. I think all this focus on ship interiors is missing the point. Like I said above, it's the experience of feeling seamlessly connected to the world around you that means the most (at least to me).

Having ship interiors is just a result of employing this connected experience. Walking onto, around and back out of your ship is indeed a gameplay loop. Just like spending time in supercruise or driving your SRV around is a gameplay loop. Some may not want or care about this connected experience I'm talking about but you cannot argue that it has no gameplay value because everything you do in a game is gameplay, whether you realise it or not.

Let's not focus so much on ship interiors and instead focus on the desire for a connected experience. Yes, the architecture for the game may not allow it but we can still let the devs know what our opinions are.

 

[DerqaTarzan]

Haha, i'm very aware of SC. Check out the SC thread at some point

You may note in my post i mention manning turrets, which does not require ship interiors and can already be done in ED.

Ground team standing by on ramp - in ED you can have a ground team standing by in ship ready to exit in a second or standing outside the ship. Yes, they could stand on the ramp, but then, what happens if they need to take off quickly? Someone has to run to the cockpit. But why aren't people all together working on the objective? You might want someone sitting in the cockpit, having a smoke, chillin, while everyone else is busy doing stuff, just in case a hostile comes along i suppose.

Swap out gear/stow things away - What? Why? How long are they going to do that for? 2 seconds?

Interact with ship components? Why? What for? What do they do? Why does that need interiors as opposed to multicrew without interiors?

Let other people fly your ship. Yes, now this is something i would like to see FD do. But again, doesn't require ship interiors. Just requires an option.

Hot drop a talk - again, doesn't require interiors. I wish we could hot drop out SRVs, that would be very nice.

Many other activities - any actually require ship interiors?

You see my point? None of what you describe requires ship interiors. It could be done with enhancements to multicrew.

Again, interiors could add value to the game, i'm not arguing otherwise. But what mechanics could be added to all extra value that couldn't be done with just improved multicrew (or even solo) features?

Oh, and i'd love FD to allow our NPCs to sit in the spare seats. But that's a different topic.

Anyway, happy holiday yourself.

While manning turrets doesn't require interiors... the way we do it in Ed is unplayable at best lol. You have to have very specific turrets, the pilot then loses control of all guns and then the player uses said turrets in a 3rd person mode? <-That is not a quality experience and certainly not the one portrayed by marketing.

"Ground team standing by on ramp - in ED you can have a ground team standing by in ship ready to exit in a second or standing outside the ship. Yes, they could stand on the ramp, but then, what happens if they need to take off quickly? Someone has to run to the cockpit. But why aren't people all together working on the objective? You might want someone sitting in the cockpit, having a smoke, chillin, while everyone else is busy doing stuff, just in case a hostile comes along i suppose"

^You lost me on this one, I have no idea what rabbit hole you went down on that. You literally teleport outside your ship from your chair... That's not a thrilling experience by any means...

"Swap out gear/stow things away - What? Why? How long are they going to do that for? 2 seconds?

Interact with ship components? Why? What for? What do they do? Why does that need interiors as opposed to multicrew without interiors?"

Yeah, you right, who would want to interact with their spaceship? That's not at all why we play a space game, I forgot, thanking you for the reminder!

You kind of need a ship interior to you know, get out of the pilot's seat to let someone else fly it? Or else its more load screen teleportation crap...

I see your words but not your points, all of what you said would be a dull/boring experience IMO. You are also defending it needing gameplay reasonings while playing a game that you literally have to RESTART to do one of its main grinds. What kind of gameplay mechanic is that?!

Interiors wouldn't just "add value" to the game, it would GREATLY extend its shelf life or at the very least be the reward for the insanely boring engineer grind they call gameplay in this verse.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

While manning turrets doesn't require interiors... the way we do it in Ed is unplayable at best lol. You have to have very specific turrets, the pilot then loses control of all guns and then the player uses said turrets in a 3rd person mode? <-That is not a quality experience and certainly not the one portrayed by marketing.

Whereas in SC the pilot never has any control of the turrets, as opposed to ED when someone isn't in the turrets the pilot can choose how they operate.

"Ground team standing by on ramp - in ED you can have a ground team standing by in ship ready to exit in a second or standing outside the ship. Yes, they could stand on the ramp, but then, what happens if they need to take off quickly? Someone has to run to the cockpit. But why aren't people all together working on the objective? You might want someone sitting in the cockpit, having a smoke, chillin, while everyone else is busy doing stuff, just in case a hostile comes along i suppose" ^You lost me on this one, I have no idea what rabbit hole you went down on that. You literally teleport outside your ship from your chair... That's not a thrilling experience by any means...

I was just going off what you said. I'm saying why is this something special? What, from a gameplay perspective, is the difference between other players standing on the ramp vs standing outside the ship?

"Swap out gear/stow things away - What? Why? How long are they going to do that for? 2 seconds?

Interact with ship components? Why? What for? What do they do? Why does that need interiors as opposed to multicrew without interiors?"

Yeah, you right, who would want to interact with their spaceship? That's not at all why we play a space game, I forgot, thanking you for the reminder!

I'm not saying you won't swap out gear, i'm asking how long you do it for. Takes a second or two no? In ED you can swap out gear while in the ship, you just do it while sat down. Doesn't require ship interiors.

You kind of need a ship interior to you know, get out of the pilot's seat to let someone else fly it? Or else its more load screen teleportation crap...

Well, as i said, doesn't exist in ED (yet, maybe it won't ever), but it doesn't require ship interiors. Could be done with "teleportation crap".

I see your words but not your points, all of what you said would be a dull/boring experience IMO.

I never made any claims as to which is better. I was basically rebutting the point that all the things you listed required ship interiors.

You are also defending it needing gameplay reasonings

Nope, i'm not defending it. I'm saying the things you listed don't require ship interiors.

while playing a game that you literally have to RESTART to do one of its main grinds. What kind of gameplay mechanic is that?!

I don't know. What are you talking about?

Interiors wouldn't just "add value" to the game, it would GREATLY extend its shelf life or at the very least be the reward for the insanely boring engineer grind they call gameplay in this verse.

Interiors would definitely add immersion. I don't see it adding much in the way of gameplay. Just more corridors to walk though. Adding ship interiors wouldn't remove the engineer grind either, you seem to be confusing different things.

And, as my point was, the things you listed do not require ship interiors. Ship interiors might enhance those things, or make them worse. We've recently discussed in the SC thread whether ship interiors, having to walk through them every time you land, is a good or bad thing.

Why not join us in the fun discussions we have about Star Citizen? You don't even need to give any CIG any money to do so! (unlike Spectrum where you can't post unless you have given CIG money!)

Game Discussions - Star Citizen Discussion Thread v12

Hello all, Our previous SC thread reached the 10,000 post limit. As such, it's time for a new thread for Star Citizen discussions. If you want to discuss Star Citizen, this is the place to do so! As always, the following rules are in effect for this thread (in addition to the per-forum rules...

forums.frontier.co.uk

 

[MUTILADOR]

They made our legs. biology, new data, weapons and overalls. I don't think that the interiors of the ships and interactions with it will be a big problem. Personally, I am even ready to buy as a separate DLS.

I agree, also for those of us who create modifications, it is not such a complex job, if you have already achieved something more complex such as fps. In fact, I would say that the architecture that ED has today has everything you need to make interiors without even creating something from scratch.

 

[MUTILADOR]

Yes, indeed, I just watched the video, not the link. So if SC allowed all available ships to use these modules, effectively SC would have modular ships. At the moment this is not the case.


You mean, model only the crew quarters ?

they are already modeled, what is missing is perhaps to instantiate the zone and the script for the collisions.

They could also generate an empty space, behind, in the other areas of the ship, (instantiate it) to be able to fill it with furniture to the player's taste (with the assets already existing in the game).

It is not a quick job, but it is not as complex as some in the comments believe. It is "totally possible" with the architecture that ED already has. and it would take about 2 months to create and another time to check for errors.

 

[DimaS]

I stopped playing games a long time ago where all the controls are connected using three buttons. Until I met ED. First of all, the game hooked me with extensive control over the ship and freedom for the entire galaxy. I didn't know all the subtleties of this game, but I kept playing. The pleasure of controlling the ship and landing on the planets added even more sensations to me. Over time, I figured out some of the mechanics of the game, and I liked it. I liked the freedom of choice. With the release of The Odyssey, this freedom, unfortunately, has not become more. To search for biology, I use SRV and go out only for analysis. I also stopped going out at stations only when I take biology and buy equipment. Ground missions quickly got bored because of the linearity. This is the end of the Odyssey. The interiors of a fleet aircraft carrier are already a failure for me. The same type of station with shops creates the feeling that this is not my fleet.
I don't understand many things, why can I do biology analysis, but I can't analyze geological finds? Why can't I mine resources with my hands, but only on SRV? Why can't I get data from beacons, sensors while standing on my feet, for this I need SRV. I have a lot of ideas to improve the Odyssey, including the interiors of ships, not just interiors, but a full-fledged, controlled ship from the inside. Repair of modules, switching on and off unnecessary modules to save energy. Crafting ammunition, strengthening for FSD, all these are mini-games inside the ship. Signals (the place of the fall). It is much more interesting to get inside the crashed ship and find a very rare module for improvement in it. Open the black box, find out the cause of the disaster, find some coordinates, or even find the pilot still alive and save him. These are just a couple of examples for our freedom. Today, my pilot's legs are already atrophied. Because he has nowhere to go.
While horizont and odyssey are separate from each other, make us wheelchairs in the arx store. It will be relevant!

 

[Zeke Drexel]

I don't understand any of the arguments against ship interiors ... it's about immersing ourselves in this semi-realistic universe.

Anyone who has tried ED in VR raves about how we can walk around the cockpit/bridge in VR. It's that simple feeling of perspective.

We spend a lot of time in our ships looking only one way. It would simply be nice to turn around sometimes and enjoy what FD have already put into the game.

 

[varonica]

We spend a lot of time in our ships looking only one way.

Freelook?

I can look up down, sideways.

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

it's about immersing ourselves in this semi-realistic universe.

For me it's about sitting at my PC playing a game about flying spaceships.
Immersion really isn't important to me - I'd much rather have some more spaceship gameplay.

 

[Zeke Drexel]

Freelook?

I can look up down, sideways.

I was taking about turning around and get up from the cmdr chair.

 

[Zeke Drexel]

For me it's about sitting at my PC playing a game about flying spaceships.
Immersion really isn't important to me - I'd much rather have some more spaceship gameplay.

Good for you. Immersion is an important factor for a lot of other players though.

 

[MUTILADOR]

Para mí, se trata de sentarme frente a mi PC y jugar a volar naves espaciales.
La inmersión realmente no es importante para mí, prefiero tener algo más de juego de naves espaciales.

Pero te equivocaste de videojuego. ED es un mmo "simulador" espacial, vas a planetas, conduce vehículos terrestres, usas armas de fuego.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

I don't understand any of the arguments against ship interiors ... it's about immersing ourselves in this semi-realistic universe.

For some its a question of whether the devs should spend their efforts on them rather than something else. I think you'd agree that there are a lot of different things we'd all like to see still added to ED, for example, full atmospheric planets with flora and fauna.

For those who don't care about ship interiors, and those who do care but its not a big as priority for them as other things, then it should be understandable why someone doesn't want FD to do them, at least, not now. They can wait.

For some, they don't care about the immersion, they don't care for on-foot mechanics either, for them its just a spaceship game. Walking around doesn't matter, they just want to fly. For those people ship interiors just don't make any sense. Better the devs spend their efforts elsewhere. Like more alien races with their own space stations and ships. Wouldn't that be cool?

And some just don't see the point of adding extra walk time when they want to get stuff done. After you've ran through the hangar a dozen times it gets a bit old and tiring. They don't see a point to interiors as they don't see anything to do in them. It just adds more time in the way of getting stuff done.

A lot would depend on how FD add interiors should they do them. From basic stairs > corrodor > cockpit with nothing else, no gameplay added to full on ship interiors with actual gameplay loops for interiors (don't forget the mandatory go collect 50 X and 30 Y to upgrade Z inside your ship and unlock the ship interior engineer!!!!)

Personally i'm firmly in the camp "Ok, i don't mind interiors being added, but its not at the top of my priority list, full atmospheric planets first"

So, if i was in charge of FD, ship interiors would not be in the plans yet, atmospheric planets would be the next big DLC.

 

[Sighman]

Here's a checklist. See how you go when you choose one from each line

1. Ship interiors, or full atmo planets.
2. Guardian sites with new buildings to explore - plus new missions to carry out there - or ship interiors
3. Thargoid sites with caves and new missions, or ship interiors
4. More building variety at settlements - including new missions - or ship interiors.
5. Open up space station interiors, with conflict zones and/or missions, or ship interiors.

Etc

In almost every case I can think up where the game devs could be working on X, Y, Z or ship interiors, for me ship interiors come off second best.

Now obviously there are many who would put ship interiors first, and that's fine. I'd like to see them too, but not at the expense of other things.

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

Good for you. Immersion is an important factor for a lot of other players though.

For sure.
It's just not important for FDev.

 

[CMDRTarkaDal]

I don't get this whole "I don't get ship interiors. What's the point in walking around a ship doing nothing?"

Have just a little bit of imagination.

Also it is abundantly clear this is not coming to Odyssey, but doesn't mean it isn't coming to a later expansion.

 

[Barking_Mad]

It's going to happen, people just need to chill their beans.

 

[Darkfyre99]

I don't understand any of the arguments against ship interiors ... it's about immersing ourselves in this semi-realistic universe.

For me, I’d much rather explore strange new worlds, than the same old interior of a ship I’ll see thousands of times. My imagination is sufficiently mature that I can immerse myself in the universe of an 8 bit pixel game… assuming that game’s universe has verisimilitude. (See EDs current economic sim and its resulting “You can buy a ship for that! What do you need me for?” mission rewards, for an example of a lack thereof)

Don’t get me wrong, I want ship interiors eventually, but it’s for the mission variety that is possible from NPC ship interiors, not my own sense of immersion. If I want to sit sipping tea on the veranda on my estate on the verdant hills just outside of Fort O’Brian in the actual game, I first need to be able to land my ship on Emerald to do so. Being able to fly my ship through Emerald’s cloud dappled skies, and land my ship at that space port, is IMO the most important part of that dream, because it also means I can land that ship on similar undiscovered planets, and survey those planets for the glory of the Empire. All the rest can wait, because I don’t need to actually do that in game to know that when my my character is docked at MacKenzie Relay, she’s taking a shuttle down to the surface every chance she can get.

 

[amigacooke]

I wish I still had the confidence in Frontier that I had in 2012, but that's gone.

I hope Frontier still have a firm plan for the direction that ED should be moving in, but for me, recently, 'we have no plans for that' seems to be a too often repeated mantra.

 

[Old Duck]

I don't understand any of the arguments against ship interiors ... it's about immersing ourselves in this semi-realistic universe.

Anyone who has tried ED in VR raves about how we can walk around the cockpit/bridge in VR. It's that simple feeling of perspective.

We spend a lot of time in our ships looking only one way. It would simply be nice to turn around sometimes and enjoy what FD have already put into the game.

I'm definitely not against ship interiors, but it has moved down my list of priorities because of VR. I can literally walk around my cockpit / bridge, and I can even literally walk around on planet surfaces and space stations, at least in a small little area, all thanks to VR. And this is in Horizons. In fact, bigger ships have more interior than I can explore due to the cable length of my VR headset.

One thing VR has shown me is that most large ships are just too big for a single pilot, to the point that VR kinda breaks my immersion if I'm flying something like an Anaconda. It's like that ST-TNG episode where Beverly Crusher ends up all alone on the Enterprise, it's just spooky and wrong. This is why I almost exclusively fly small ships in Elite anymore, with the Cobra and Eagle being my favorite in VR. And when I fly the Cobra, I'll often put my alt in the copilot chair for that extra bit of immersion. If Frontier does bring full ship interiors to the game, they better also bring a sizeable NPC crew to man those large ships.

I've actually entertained the idea (though not that seriously) of grabbing a bunch of cardboard and modeling the basic interior of either the Cobra or Eagle, so that when I put my hand on a virtual console in VR, I can literally feel that console with my real hand. Sometimes, depending where / how I sit, a wall in my IRL room will line up with a VR wall / window / console, and it's uncanny how that adds to immersion.

I suspect this is one of the reasons I'm not as excited about Odyssey as others, because I've had space legs ever since I bought my VR headset, and with Odyssey moving away from VR rather than towards it, I see this as a step backwards rather than forwards. I'd much rather have my VR Cobra cockpit than an empty 2D fully-rendered Anaconda. That said, I refer back to my original statement - I am not against ship interiors, and I totally understand why folks want them. Ship Interiors is one of my favorite features of other flat screen space games (and there are a few) that offers them.