Exactly, one standardized animation is better than this beam. Gets you the footfall, the transition, the feeling you want stepping off your ship and onto the surface.
That isn't an Armstrong moment. It's an important perspective about the immersion the game provides, but then destroys it with teleporting to the cockpit and back out. They call it an Armstrong moment because of being able to step down from your spacecraft on to the surface of a planet or moon where no one has ever been. It doesn't happen in Odyssey. You just...appear on the ground. The thing you had tears of joy for is good, but they needed to put the effort in to complete the experience.
I agree with both of your sentiments here. While it's an incredible feat they've accomplished so far, worthy of taking pause, that's not a Neil Armstrong moment. It's a profound moment. A moment of realization and reflection. A moment of awe and wonder. It's beautiful and impactful, much like I find the vast majority of Elite to be. Truly well done on Elite and Odyssey, but, that's also why I know they can do better than a stupid beam of light and a cop-out fade to black. They're better than coming up a yard short like that.
I'm not saying I want to have to stand from the chair, walk to the back of the cockpit, open the door, go down the hall, pass the hanger bay, pass the fighter bay, pass the cargo bay, pass the FSD, get to the back door of the ship, open the door, walk down the stairs to the surface. That's a level of immersion some may want, and maybe in the future one that can be an option. Just to stand up from the chair and fade to an animation of our feet stepping off the last rung or two onto the surface is enough. It's fast enough, it's immersive enough, it's easy enough.
