That depends what you mean by "space legs". Do you mean a fully integrated, unified, single-perspective universe where you are walking on a ship that is moving and interacting with other ships and players? That is basically what CIG has been developing with Star Citizen for the past 4 years and it required completely re-writing and customizing their own version of CryEngine to accomplish. There are multiple reasons for this but generally they relate to unifying first and third-person perspectives, dealing with overlapping physics grids and many other complicated technical issues that are necessary to solve if you are hoping to actually implement the feature properly (which no developer has ever attempted to do other than CIG).
If you mean just having your player character walk around and sit in a chair and maybe engage in some rudimentary fps combat? That's not difficult at all, but it apparently still requires more resources than Braben and FD are willing to put into Elite development.
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You also have to define where you can and can't walk. And this will only allow you walking about, no gameplay. So you have to create all of that, too.
Sometimes it seems like people forget that every single detail, tiny or huge, in a game world has to be defined manually and doesn't just pop into existence. It's not like the real world where things react simply according to the laws of physics and universal causality.
Sometimes it seems like people forget that every single detail, tiny or huge, in a game world has to be defined manually and doesn't just pop into existence. It's not like the real world where things react simply according to the laws of physics and universal causality.
I think the main issue is having all that vast magnitude of urm, erm, space - and actually putting worthwhile and satisfying gameplay content into it.
There's not much point in being able to walk around at human scale if there's nothing to do.
There's not much point in being able to walk around at human scale if there's nothing to do.
Because it's never been done before with ED's unprecedented scope, literally billions of possible locations which already works for spaceship flying. i.e. the holy grail, massive openworld plus detailed freedom. StarCitizen tries to pretend it's there, but it's still stuck in one solar system of a handful of moons, planets, and still composed of illusory cryengine levels.
All other games with fp view, have very limited locations for the walking. There's always a tradeoff for massive scope (and framerate/playability) vs. fidelity & detail. Even if there was walking in ED's stations, there's heck of a lot of work in how to limit the walkable locations, and all the goof-ups, and possible grame crashes, and framerate drops that could occur with trolls pressing the boundaries, persistence not just with other player cmdr's assets, but your own ship and npc assets when in walking mode all within the current framework, and probably a myriad other technical challenges us non-EDdevs are unaware of, etc.
Of course I still have faith FDev are trying to work on it and it will take time and arrive eventually. I'd bet they've been working on it to some degree or another at least since initial multicrew & holo-me.
All other games with fp view, have very limited locations for the walking. There's always a tradeoff for massive scope (and framerate/playability) vs. fidelity & detail. Even if there was walking in ED's stations, there's heck of a lot of work in how to limit the walkable locations, and all the goof-ups, and possible grame crashes, and framerate drops that could occur with trolls pressing the boundaries, persistence not just with other player cmdr's assets, but your own ship and npc assets when in walking mode all within the current framework, and probably a myriad other technical challenges us non-EDdevs are unaware of, etc.
Of course I still have faith FDev are trying to work on it and it will take time and arrive eventually. I'd bet they've been working on it to some degree or another at least since initial multicrew & holo-me.
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It's not just the technicalities, it also needs to add meaningful gameplay. Which, at the game's current stage of development, it won't. Chances are this will be the last thing they implement.
Some players keep saying that we somehow need "content" to make space legs worthwhile but it's not really true. The SRV greatly added to the overall gameplay experience and there is almost nothing to do with the SRV in terms of actual gameplay or content associated with it. You can drive around, shoot rocks for mats and scan data points on bases. That's basically it. SRV combat is so terrible that it's not even worth doing. Yet most players enjoy the SRV for what it is regardless. There is so much more potential for the SRV that FD has yet to deliver but the game is definitely better for having the SRV included even in its current form.
It would be the same with space legs. Just walking around, interacting with chairs/consoles in the ship cockpit, having some rudimentary FPS combat would be really nice. It might not be any more developed than the SRV gameplay but really no one would expect it to be. They just want to walk around and interact with the universe in some limited manner as an individual. The unfortunate reality is that FD won't put in the resources to even give us a minimum viable product version of space legs. Not because it wouldn't add to the game immersion greatly (which it would) or because players wouldn't use it (they would), it's simply something that FD won't actually put the minimum resources into Elite to develop. That is the only reason we don't have space legs in Elite yet and why we won't be seeing it in the future.
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A more "expert" look into the "holy grail" of the massive scope "everything" space game, OP
(quicker to skip ahead to where he first mentions "Elite: Dangerous" )
http://dereksmart.com/2015/07/interstellar-citizens/
(quicker to skip ahead to where he first mentions "Elite: Dangerous" )
http://dereksmart.com/2015/07/interstellar-citizens/
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It's not, and CIG isn't getting anywhere with Star Citizen because Chris Roberts is as much of a leader as I am a cactus - but that's a debate for a different thread.
"Space Legs" or whatever we're calling it, isn't difficult to pull off at all, and Frontier did start a delightful project called The Outsider that shows they do have a good solid grasp on the whole bipedal locomotion. Just as it stands right now, between 3.1 and 3.2, there just isn't really anything to actually DO with a biped. It's all the supporting stuff - the missions, the interactions, the locations that need the work done to give us more to do than just get up and walk to the chair beside us to sit back down, and that, while also not terribly difficult, is simply time consuming.
Frontier has some undisclosed time-table they're following, and when it is time for this, it will happen. Sometime after, I'm sure, it will get its own Beyond-style update to actually add some meaning a depth to it, probably circa Not-A-Season 10.
"Space Legs" or whatever we're calling it, isn't difficult to pull off at all, and Frontier did start a delightful project called The Outsider that shows they do have a good solid grasp on the whole bipedal locomotion. Just as it stands right now, between 3.1 and 3.2, there just isn't really anything to actually DO with a biped. It's all the supporting stuff - the missions, the interactions, the locations that need the work done to give us more to do than just get up and walk to the chair beside us to sit back down, and that, while also not terribly difficult, is simply time consuming.
Frontier has some undisclosed time-table they're following, and when it is time for this, it will happen. Sometime after, I'm sure, it will get its own Beyond-style update to actually add some meaning a depth to it, probably circa Not-A-Season 10.
Unfortunately CIG has gone significantly off track with SC development over the past year, mostly due to misguided attempts to squeeze the backers for more and more cash. They have managed to address most of the core game engine challenges in terms of unifying the first and third-person fps perspectives and dealing with overlapping physics grids but the flight model and game balance is still a mess. There's also the issue of extremely inefficient network code that is causing poor gameplay performance even on high-end gaming machines. CIG has been focusing too much on overhyping and selling new concept ships and not enough on fixing the core gameplay issues and it will probably take another year before they get the core game development back on track.
The only "timetable" FD is following relates to how long Elite will continue to generate revenue while consuming an absolute minimum amount of development resources. That is realistically maybe another 3-5 years. After that point the game simply won't be competitive and it will only be continued cosmetics sales that keep it from being shut down. Braben has already talked about the possibility of "Elite 2" which is likely never going to happen but of course he can't really admit that the Elite franchise is basically as good as it's going to get in terms of actual development (which, incidentally, isn't very good).
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Season 10 is much too late. We've been waiting for 4 years now! Space Legs is Long Overdue. You can put your wish list on hold for season 10.
Some people already passed away while waiting for EVA since Elite Dangerous was released in December 2014.
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The combination of space legs / planetary legs and a huge procedurally generated universe is the challenge. In my opinion, no game has yet done that right.
There's a chance that one day soon CIG (SC - if it survives), Novaquark (Dual Universe), Hello Games (NMS) or maybe Frontier may do it, but I'm not holding my breath.
There's a chance that one day soon CIG (SC - if it survives), Novaquark (Dual Universe), Hello Games (NMS) or maybe Frontier may do it, but I'm not holding my breath.
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Day early for the monthly space legs thread.
It's pulling on a very, very long thread...
You need legs in space for the same reason the SRV needs wheels. To move around.
You'd also need legs to sneak in to those abandoned facilities found on remote moons and planets that had been attacked (huge gash marks in the sides of the buildings). That's where you'll find the space zombies. You'll have to kill at least 200 of them in order to make your way through to the secret room holding the "Laser Of A Thousand Truths" that you can then install on your ship.
Considering how much grind I've done in the SRV I would probably actually do that sort of grind if we had space legs.
Also can the Laser of A Thousand Truths be Engineered?
Ok... the scene is yours...
So... what would YOU implement in the game, if you could, to make space-legs not a walking simulator in the game?
What sort of game functions would you implement that does not destroy the current gameplay? An example of what would destroy the current gameplay would be
Instead of hitting a shortcut to bring up the Galaxy map or System Map, you force the player to walk to the System / Galaxymap console before being able to use it.
Things like that... what interractions are you thinking about here that would make it worthwhile for the playerbase?