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Elite Dangerous: Horizons |OT| Just scratching the surface
- Thread starter Anton Sugar
- Start date
Veritigo_X
Member
A sale just ended yesterday (20% off I think?), so it might be awhile until the next one.
Not Spaceghost
Spaceghost
Exactly, walking around is essentially a purely cosmetic change if they just tack it on to how the game currently is. It's cool and marketable but ultimately adds nothing particularly interesting to the gameplay loop.
DouglasteR
Member
Just imagine you raiding a moon base, then you get on foot to invade the underground levels wherre you fight your away to rescue some engineer or stuff. After that you run away in your anaconda while they try to catch you !
IN MY VEINS.
IN MY VEINS.
Caesar III
Member
You do it twice and you know it all. All of it can only go so far in regards to variety and uniqueness.
This is only a real gameplay loop if you can outfit an asteroid station yourself like in X-Com or something like this.
You can argue that stations look the same all the time right now (they alter this slightly every now and then though) because they are based off of the same streamlined modules and such. But if you can walk around in them this is boring if they are all the same.
I know a game that did that...X-Rebirth. We all remember how that turned out
though admittedly it's in pretty good shape nowadays, but still.
I wouldn't mind walking around my ship while it's being flown if there was some interior customisation involved that doesn't include loads of 10+ dollar "micro"transactions, but as for walking around on stations I don't see how it would be anything other than the bolded.
RadioactiveLobster
Member
Just did my first Sothis run in the Conda
1 hour and 26 minutes for $69.18 Million profit. Not bad.
Got a 39% increase on a level 4 FSD upgrade on the first roll. Can't complain bout that.
1 hour and 26 minutes for $69.18 Million profit. Not bad.
Got a 39% increase on a level 4 FSD upgrade on the first roll. Can't complain bout that.
Caesar III
Member
I hope this will never be the case or it's entirely optional! I liked it in Freelancer. You had the areas where you could "go" like you have now in Elite but they all were animated. As you can see here in the first few minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWPAHzPQuZU
I just used my materials I gathered yesterday to up Tod the Blaster from zero to ~ LVL 4.3. "Wasted" 80 sulphur, 30 carbon and 20 nickel for this
Now I have access to Seleneedit: watching the Freelancer footage reminds me how awesome the game was. And a great mission that is. worm hole jump into an asteroid field with an awesome asteroid station
Joseph Merrick
Member
what's with the anti-'walk around everywhere' posts. get the hell out of here! hehe
Felix Lighter
Member
I'm going to wait for component storage and transfer before I upgrade any of my FDL's components. I'm going to put everything on my FSD upgraded Anaconda, use that to do the traveling and then store the modules and transfer them to the FDL.
joecanada
Member
I have a pc question but you will know why this is an elite question lol. How do you use extended dual monitors but say leave Netflix running on one while playing the other without the keyboard interrupting screen 2 ? Is there a way to lock screen 2 so that it isn't interrupted?
joecanada
Member
That will lock inputs to elite ? Thanks
Anton Sugar
Member
It's interesting to look at Star Citizen to see their implementation of avatars and what you can do. Aside from combat, it doesn't seem to be much other than "oh that's cool and immersive" but as someone mentioned, the line between immersion and annoyance can get blurred (this is FD we're talking about, after all).
Like, if I landed at a port, it's so much easier and more convenient to manage ship upgrades and all that from the ship. Would it add that much to leave the ship and walk to individual vendors to view the Commodity Market, Black Market, Shipyard, Outfitting, etc.?
Don't get me wrong--I think the combat (boarding, especially) aspect of SC's implementation looks pretty damned cool and fun...but there has to be a compelling reason to have space/ground legs outside of immersion or it just becomes a checkbox to say "we have that".
Ship repairs is an obvious one. EVA for explorers could be very useful when it comes to repairs, but even remaining inside of your ship, there has to be a *reason* for it. Currently, repairs are done either in a station or the field maintenance unit. If you have space legs, make it so repairs can be done without using field maintenance if done in person. Maybe your avatar can learn new skills to accomplish this, reroute power, repair a damaged module, "supercharge" a module in case of an emergency (thinking FSD or shields in a dire situation), etc.
Multicrew is something else and opens up a lot of possibilities.
Like, if I landed at a port, it's so much easier and more convenient to manage ship upgrades and all that from the ship. Would it add that much to leave the ship and walk to individual vendors to view the Commodity Market, Black Market, Shipyard, Outfitting, etc.?
Don't get me wrong--I think the combat (boarding, especially) aspect of SC's implementation looks pretty damned cool and fun...but there has to be a compelling reason to have space/ground legs outside of immersion or it just becomes a checkbox to say "we have that".
Ship repairs is an obvious one. EVA for explorers could be very useful when it comes to repairs, but even remaining inside of your ship, there has to be a *reason* for it. Currently, repairs are done either in a station or the field maintenance unit. If you have space legs, make it so repairs can be done without using field maintenance if done in person. Maybe your avatar can learn new skills to accomplish this, reroute power, repair a damaged module, "supercharge" a module in case of an emergency (thinking FSD or shields in a dire situation), etc.
Multicrew is something else and opens up a lot of possibilities.
I'm new be nice
Member
The trick to that would be having events between points of travel while on foot.
So as the gameplay loop stands now, even something as simple as running a package between stations can give you a few options. You might get interdicted, you might get a message for an optional part to the mission, you may see some points of interest worth stopping for, or you may see a decent bounty or NPC hauling some good cargo.
There's no reason these exact things can't be added to the non-vehicular portion of the game.
The difference it would make to the overall feel is simply variety. A mission could start in space, bring you down to a planet, into a complex, and back out to space, or wherever.
All of the smaller space stations are randomly generated in design, and although the exterior of the large stations are currently similar the interior can still be laid out differently in a similar fashion. And I have no doubt that further development can lead to more layers of random complexity added to the larger stations.
I know everyone comes to this game with different sets of values in what they want out of it, and I know not everyone is going to be happy with certain directions it can take.
For me the idea that i'd land at a station and explore it in a manner similar to, perhaps, an Elder Scrolls is appealing. The idea that I would search shops for better prices and maybe encounter an NPC in need of some help or perhaps carrying something worth a lot of credits in their inventory, in-between outfitting this feels like it could add several layers of complexity and consideration to how i'm outfitting my ship, srv, and eva activities. Edit: Officers could "hail" you in a similar manner to interdictions and you could choose to run away if you are carrying something illegal. Certain rooms or areas could contain points of interest like abandoned or lost goods, conflicts between npcs... ect.
I think, ultimately, the best utilization of these three elements is best served to base assault. Base assault is sort of the pinnacle of these three elements working in harmony, if you were to be working with several other players.
The basic structure for this seems to be already in place. The strongest of all bases should require all three elements to conquer them. There should be things that a ship can and cannot accomplish, things that the srv can and cannot accomplish, and things that eva can and cannot accomplish, and only by working these three together simultaneously and in different orders dictated by the random structure of the base can the mission be accomplished.
If you were working on assaulting a space station I would simply shift the srv role to the smaller deployable fighters and ships, and the eva roll would still require penetration of the structure, but all three would have their specialization and role.
/shrug
Edit: Basically what i'm saying is i'm less concerned about what eva can do for spaceships, and more concerned about what eva can do for eva.
So as the gameplay loop stands now, even something as simple as running a package between stations can give you a few options. You might get interdicted, you might get a message for an optional part to the mission, you may see some points of interest worth stopping for, or you may see a decent bounty or NPC hauling some good cargo.
There's no reason these exact things can't be added to the non-vehicular portion of the game.
The difference it would make to the overall feel is simply variety. A mission could start in space, bring you down to a planet, into a complex, and back out to space, or wherever.
All of the smaller space stations are randomly generated in design, and although the exterior of the large stations are currently similar the interior can still be laid out differently in a similar fashion. And I have no doubt that further development can lead to more layers of random complexity added to the larger stations.
I know everyone comes to this game with different sets of values in what they want out of it, and I know not everyone is going to be happy with certain directions it can take.
For me the idea that i'd land at a station and explore it in a manner similar to, perhaps, an Elder Scrolls is appealing. The idea that I would search shops for better prices and maybe encounter an NPC in need of some help or perhaps carrying something worth a lot of credits in their inventory, in-between outfitting this feels like it could add several layers of complexity and consideration to how i'm outfitting my ship, srv, and eva activities. Edit: Officers could "hail" you in a similar manner to interdictions and you could choose to run away if you are carrying something illegal. Certain rooms or areas could contain points of interest like abandoned or lost goods, conflicts between npcs... ect.
I think, ultimately, the best utilization of these three elements is best served to base assault. Base assault is sort of the pinnacle of these three elements working in harmony, if you were to be working with several other players.
The basic structure for this seems to be already in place. The strongest of all bases should require all three elements to conquer them. There should be things that a ship can and cannot accomplish, things that the srv can and cannot accomplish, and things that eva can and cannot accomplish, and only by working these three together simultaneously and in different orders dictated by the random structure of the base can the mission be accomplished.
If you were working on assaulting a space station I would simply shift the srv role to the smaller deployable fighters and ships, and the eva roll would still require penetration of the structure, but all three would have their specialization and role.
/shrug
Edit: Basically what i'm saying is i'm less concerned about what eva can do for spaceships, and more concerned about what eva can do for eva.
Not Spaceghost
Spaceghost
Whenever I think of ways elite could be more interesting being able to control my pilot and walk around is usually towards the bottom of the list.
I love being a pilot and combat has the most depth of all the systems by far and all I want are more ways to enjoy that fantastic aspect of the game, however conflict zones and bounty hunting aren't particularly interesting and pvp is rough without a good set up of engineer mods.
I'd love if you could sign up for "mission arcs" where you can enlist as a mercenary or militia with a specific company and you go out and do stuff for them with a squad of characters. It would run you through difference scenarios. From fighting in skirmishes, to chasing down suspects, exploring wrecks for important cargo, rescuing a VIP in trouble, playing security detail during an event that gets ambushed, stealth recon missions and all sorts of things.
Imagine like 15 or so missions for that story arc, maybe with a few branching paths each one taking an hour to finish and that's some cool content.
You could even do it for other types of professions, like explorers, smugglers and traders, you could even have SRV focus on those. The explorers story line could have something to do weird thargoid stuff, the smuggler one could be about helping a local pirate gang and even offer a branching path for doing some pirating (a profession which sorely needs some attention).
Again as cool as these ideas sound I really don't think that FDev will ever implement them since they go against their core philosophy of the game where they don't want to dictate your experience in any way. These would generally just end up being relegated to being one off activities as well, but man the new beta tutorial makes me wish we had more content like that.
Other things that could be cool would be actual group content, imagine missions that require you taking on small fleets of enemies in waves or hauling a huge amount of cargo that's impossible to move by yourself, just content to encourage playing with your friends would be a nice refresher, as it is the only activities that encourages playing with friends are mining (for silly reasons) and pvp.
I love being a pilot and combat has the most depth of all the systems by far and all I want are more ways to enjoy that fantastic aspect of the game, however conflict zones and bounty hunting aren't particularly interesting and pvp is rough without a good set up of engineer mods.
I'd love if you could sign up for "mission arcs" where you can enlist as a mercenary or militia with a specific company and you go out and do stuff for them with a squad of characters. It would run you through difference scenarios. From fighting in skirmishes, to chasing down suspects, exploring wrecks for important cargo, rescuing a VIP in trouble, playing security detail during an event that gets ambushed, stealth recon missions and all sorts of things.
Imagine like 15 or so missions for that story arc, maybe with a few branching paths each one taking an hour to finish and that's some cool content.
You could even do it for other types of professions, like explorers, smugglers and traders, you could even have SRV focus on those. The explorers story line could have something to do weird thargoid stuff, the smuggler one could be about helping a local pirate gang and even offer a branching path for doing some pirating (a profession which sorely needs some attention).
Again as cool as these ideas sound I really don't think that FDev will ever implement them since they go against their core philosophy of the game where they don't want to dictate your experience in any way. These would generally just end up being relegated to being one off activities as well, but man the new beta tutorial makes me wish we had more content like that.
Other things that could be cool would be actual group content, imagine missions that require you taking on small fleets of enemies in waves or hauling a huge amount of cargo that's impossible to move by yourself, just content to encourage playing with your friends would be a nice refresher, as it is the only activities that encourages playing with friends are mining (for silly reasons) and pvp.
You guys talking about all this future stuff and I just want more animations for what your pilot is doing while sitting there. The hand squeeze and tap tap tap on the throttle is irritatingly noticeable.
And the toe shoes are ridiculous.
Dammit TheSisko, don't call us out on the main forum! I don't even have an account there yet!
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?p=4591369&viewfull=1#post4591369
I don't mind them taking away the Sothis/Ceos run if they have a reason for it. Like if that monster mother ship thing destroys the stations.
And the toe shoes are ridiculous.
Dammit TheSisko, don't call us out on the main forum! I don't even have an account there yet!
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?p=4591369&viewfull=1#post4591369
I don't mind them taking away the Sothis/Ceos run if they have a reason for it. Like if that monster mother ship thing destroys the stations.
Really, what's not to get about space legs?
Adding on foot mechanics, potentially in zero or low gravity adds a whole realm of potential game space and mechanics that can otherwise never be explored. Potentially a lot more meaningful than the SRV if you ask me. Frontier even hinted at a couple of things. See if you can dig up the "Future of Elite Dangerous" video from around the 2014 launch (Edit: Here it is. Interesting watch for newcomers as well. Notice that the planetary landings and the buggy as mentiond by David Braben have since been added). Repelling boarders (boarding other ships as well perhaps?) and repairing damages were the main points iirc..
You could add entire new games within Elite with on foot mechanics. Take the tale of the "Missing" and their generation ships. How about such derelict hulls in space that you can explore on foot for recovering artifacts, just to be chased by the late crew turned space zombies/demons Event Horizon/Space Hulk style. That's not to mention the social element of meeting other players in their "human" form rather than artificially glued to their ship seats.
Not that I have any doubt that space legs will be just as barebones and underdeveloped as the vanilla game and Horizons at release. But hey, they are at last tackling one of my long standing gripes of asset variety (rather the lack therof) with 2.2 somewhat. Those new planetary settlements look great and all the space structures and station interiors are great, too.
Another edit: This pretty worthwhile video of David Braben talking about the Development Plan from the Kickstarter phase also gives a good idea where they try to go with space legs. Big game hunting, sneaking into ships... Remains of course to be seen, what will eventually come of this.
Forerunner
Member
I decided to go yolo on my Asp for my Sothis runs. I got rid of my weapons and my shield. It actually helped a lot. I went from 84T to 116T. I could get another eight if I got rid of my docking computer, but I love that too much, so the extra eight isn’t worth it for me. I made 40 mil my last run, which isn’t bad for an Asp. I’m sure I could get 50 mil if I got the right missions, I wasn’t being very picky that run.
I now have about 120 mil, which is crazy because before doing it I had around 5 mil. So I guess it’s time for me to start thinking about my next ship. So far I’ve went Sidewinder>Cobra>Asp. I’ve been in my Asp for quite a bit of time now. My main goal is to get a Corvette, but I still need to grind fed ranks and a top tier Corvette is like 500 mil anyways, so that’s more of a long term goal. I mostly just do trading and when I get bored of that I’ll go do some RES or Arena. So a Python is probably the most logical choice. However, I kind of do want an Orca to do passenger missions when 2.2 is released. So many decisions right now!
I now have about 120 mil, which is crazy because before doing it I had around 5 mil. So I guess it’s time for me to start thinking about my next ship. So far I’ve went Sidewinder>Cobra>Asp. I’ve been in my Asp for quite a bit of time now. My main goal is to get a Corvette, but I still need to grind fed ranks and a top tier Corvette is like 500 mil anyways, so that’s more of a long term goal. I mostly just do trading and when I get bored of that I’ll go do some RES or Arena. So a Python is probably the most logical choice. However, I kind of do want an Orca to do passenger missions when 2.2 is released. So many decisions right now!
If you say it is against philosophy, then I guess it would be sad to see it not happen. I, however, would love this. It would give a purpose greater than maxing your ship, maxing your credit to time ratio.
I guess it depends on how Thargoids pan out.
Original Elite didn't have much beyond loading your ship up with stuff, going from place to place and checking out the further reaches... but there is scope now for that basic template to be something greater. Certainly beyond working metagames.
Same boat (ship) here except I'm running with shields. I decided to go for an Anaconda. With a long range trade build on the Anaconda I could make a billion quite easily.
84 cargo space on my Asp makes me sad right now. That Anaconda can't come soon enough!
Winterblink
Member
So after making it back in one piece and repairing my poor Asp from 7% hull, I'm now heading back out towards the core and have already made it through to the Trifid nebula (handy having an upgraded drive). Snapped the following pic a bit along the journey out from the bubble:
DouglasteR
Member
I can see you making your "garrison" in a asteroid in the planet´s (or moon) belt.
The possibilities are really endless.
Mengy
wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
But, I dont want entire new games within Elite, I just want Elite to be a better game?
On the topic of space legs, Im actually of the opinion that they are low on the feature list of whats needed most in Elite. I just dont think they have much potential to add meaningful gameplay. In the Elite franchise your avatar to the game world has always been your ship, not your person. In order to implement a first person 3D environment and mechanic they will have to spend an awful lot of development time in order to do so, time and effort that could have been spent designing other content more ship related, more core gameplay related. While walking around space stations does sound cool, its only purpose is to sightsee. I mean really thats it, because any meaningful function you could do is already done better by the menus in the docking port, and if they remove the menus and force you to walk around to buy stuff then the game is being made more tedious and time consuming just to give space legs meaning, which would be a step backwards. Walking around planet surfaces could be fun and cool, but again it would just be a sightseeing thing, something you could do just because.
I think space legs as a limited feature has potential to not be a wasteful mechanic. Like say walking around our ships interior, or even going EVA in deep space to repair the ships hull, both of these could be awesome. Walking around stations just for kicks could be a cool immersion thing as long as its not something we HAVE to do. Walking around low gravity moons could be a blast, maybe go jump down a huge canyon with a jetpack on, lol. But its all just fluff that would take an awful lot of dev time to do well, and I feel that the dev time could be spent on better and more value added things for the game.
But, time will tell, Frontier is doing what they want to do and we will all just have to wait and see how it turns out. Hopefully it turns out good.
Forerunner
Member
Get rid of the shields, so you can get that extra 32T! It's really not that bad. For the runs just play in solo, so you don't have to worry about players. When it comes to AI interdictions. Just submit and boost/FSD, you hardly take any damage doing this.
With the amount of interdictions and silly Auto Dock malfunctions there's no way I'm getting rid of my shields
Even the interdictions I submit to, larger ships can mass lock and get rid of my shields before I'm able to jump away. Imagine what would happen to me without the shields!
Yesterday the docking computer thought it would be a good idea to ram my ship into the station. lol
With the amount of interdictions and silly Auto Dock malfunctions there's no way I'm getting rid of my shields
Even the interdictions I submit to, larger ships can mass lock and get rid of my shields before I'm able to jump away. Imagine what would happen to me without the shields!
Yesterday the docking computer thought it would be a good idea to ram my ship into the station. lol
I run 3A shields when I'm in the bubble and heading to Sothis, they're enough to keep you out of danger. I do sell them once I get to Sothis and go for a 8t cargo rack. That'll give me 120 tons to head back into the bubble with. Once I have enough space I get rid of the rack and put shields back on. If you get interdicted submit, boost, fire chaff, boost again, engage FSD and you'll be fine.
AspX Loadout
Found a route that doesn't need a fuel scoop on my fully laden 24ly AspX also:
Te Kaha -> Takaura -> Ceos
I still keep my 2A scoop JUST in case.
Anton Sugar
Member
No way! Space tabi is the way of the future.
I'm in the same boat (well, kinda--I don't have as much as you!). Thinking about going shieldless on my Asp for more cargo or just the added jump range. Makes me nervous, though! Maybe I'll pop on some defense hardpoints in addition to my chaff...
I wonder if they'll ever revamp interdictions again. I wish there was a way to disguise your signature while in supercruise or something like that.
Up to about 55 mil now and salivating over other ships. Thinking 2-3 more runs and getting a Python, or maybe an FDL if I feel like trying that life out. Would be nice to do a few more runs in a Python, though. If I had the Fed rank, I'd look at the gunship/FAS just for combat.
Shieldless really isn't as scary as you think. More cargo makes a big difference in your total payouts. I just had a $37mil run this morning.
I just picked up a FAS yesterday and it is a beast, especially when A rated. I dropped close to $70mil including the ship and it's definitely worth it.
Anton Sugar
Member
2.2 beta 5 just released: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/295657-Beta-2-2-Update-5
Module transfers, passenger cabins for all sizes (Sidewinders can now carry passengers), Type 7 and Keelback buffs, heading compass in orbital cruise, and more.
Yup, the FAS is the one I'm looking at most And I'll drop the shields tonight!
Module transfers, passenger cabins for all sizes (Sidewinders can now carry passengers), Type 7 and Keelback buffs, heading compass in orbital cruise, and more.
Shieldless really isn't as scary as you think. More cargo makes a big difference in your total payouts.
I just picked up a FAS yesterday and it is a beast, especially when A rated. I dropped close to $70mil including the ship and it's definitely worth it.
Yup, the FAS is the one I'm looking at most
And I'll drop the shields tonight!Going by the two videos I linked, space legs is pretty much an integral part of what they want to do. Too many mentions of mechanics related to walking or floating in zero gravity. And I disagree, space legs have a place in a spaceship game as Elite and ought to have had back in 1984 as well. Only the tech wasn't there.
When you control ships over 100 meters long, with storage for 100s of tons of cargo and complex internal systems, being glued to your seat is potentially more immersion breaking for me than being able to walk and interact with the ship and the world on foot. There must be some management aspect in these behemoths that can't be done from your pilot seat. Boarding other ships - even if it's just derelict ones for exploration purposes, doing repairs, trying to contain a Tribble plague are all aspects that must be part of the world, but are lost opportunities to add depth and variety to the core mechanics, due to the limitation of being glued to your seat. Big game hunting would also enrich exploration substantially and present one of the desperately needed additional game loops for explorers (where we're back at "entirely new games"). There is only so much exploration you can do from a ship or SRV, encaged behind a wall of glass and only havinbg your scanners, cargo scoop and weapons for interacting with things.
I think it's ironic enough that you of all people don't like the idea, seeing as you're exploration focused.The fear of having walking forcefully tacked on may or may not be justified. My ideal implementation specifically for mission givers would be a scenario where missions can be both accepted from the menu as before and by walking up to the mission giver NPCs directly. But those are implementation details and I hope that Frontier for once doesn't fail at game desing here. Space legs has huge potential imo, both in adding substantial depth to managing your space ship and removing the somewhat inconsistent and artificial limit of being glued to your seat (they're ships, not single seat fighters after all) and in adding new game loops. I'm looking as much forward to the latter, as that's what will turn the game from an artificially limited space ship game into an immersive world for me, as I don't feel just looking at things through a piece of "glass" already qualifies as such. I can of course understand that some people simply are not interested in those mechanics. But it's a case of ignore what you don't like and "blaze your own trail" for me. Don't like trade? Don't trade. Only Frontier has made it pretty clear that they see on foot mechanics as part of Elite. As such, I suspect the most likely path they'll take is adding those base mechanics - because that's what space legs amounts to - before putting more work exclusivley in substantially flashing out all the other aspects of the game.
Overall I feel Frontier's priority management is mostly spot on considering the vision they they describe, especially in this video and therefore don't get the jealousy for dev focus on certain aspects. There are too many of them. But getting basic ship controls, gameplay and the space part of the world up and running with mission and a whole lot of other placeholders seems like a logical first step (season 1). Expanding the base mechanics slowly while adding the least complex form of planetary bodies to land on and traversal mechanics by means of the SRV seems like a reasonably logical second step (season 2). Where they go from there is anyone's guess, but my suspicion is that the next logical step are space legs limited to stations and ship interiors. Earthlike planets would be rather idiotic without on foot traversal, because the first question anybody will be asking is why we're still glued to the virtual seats. Atmospheric planets that aren't earthlike don't seem like the most profound and sellable of additions by themselves, adding probably "little more" than weather and a somewhat changed flight model to the existing game mechanics. Nor does "added 100 different types of surface and space POIs" for explorers to discover sound like a very sellable headline feature. Being un-glued from the seat sounds like the next logical step imo. I'm much less fond of their game design personally, rather than the order in which they release things. There must be a parallel universe where exploration or trade are more compelling than the current hit-"J"/scan/click menue etc. marathons they are, without the addition of space legs or even landing on planets without atmosphere. But alas, these mechanics are what they are today and I don't think they'd be guarantueed to get much better, just because Frontier refrained from producing sellable game seasons focusing on adding new fundamental mechanics. As I said above: There's only so much explroation you can do being glued to your seat.
As for the what's "always been part of the Elite franchise" argumentation, that's another one I'm allergic towards, simply because some people have been arguing against any from of groups and related content because "that's not in the spirit of the originals". But if I want to experience that spirit, I'll travel back to 1984 or the nineties by means of an emulator and not play a game that is basically sold as MMO today, only to refuse players important tools to interact with each other.
Veritigo_X
Member
As far as walking around space stations goes, there has to be some sort of reason for walking over to an NPC over taking it from the mission board. Maybe you can haggle with the NPCs in person but on the mission board you have to take whatever payment is offered. Maybe there are completely different "covert" missions inside the station that aren't broadcasted for everyone on a job board.
Purchasing ships/modules could be different too. There's the "official" station shops and various NPCs selling other stuff in the stations. Basically you can be quick about it and just get stuff from the main menus or you can dig deep into the station and find something better if you want look for it.
Purchasing ships/modules could be different too. There's the "official" station shops and various NPCs selling other stuff in the stations. Basically you can be quick about it and just get stuff from the main menus or you can dig deep into the station and find something better if you want look for it.
I have a feeling that you might not be that far off if space legs eventually arrive. Just like Engineers, they'll probably want the meta to somewhat favor people buying a new season or addon, so I feel that they'll add some benefit of traversing the stations on foot, if it should turn out to be restricted to "season n" owners.
I always thought that Star Citizen bit off more than it could chew during development while Elite Dangerous adopted more of a conservative approach during development.
Having a fully modelled avatar with animations is expensive from a development resources perspective, but also not necessary to the enjoyment of the game. In a game based on space flight, walking around is not paramount to the game's design. It certainly helps with immersion, but should be one of the last priorities for Frontier.
That's why Star Citizen's development has kind of been this roundabout path that can disorient the average consumer that doesn't understand how long and difficult game development can be.
Both products seem to be coming together, and I'm encouraged by both of them.
Having a fully modelled avatar with animations is expensive from a development resources perspective, but also not necessary to the enjoyment of the game. In a game based on space flight, walking around is not paramount to the game's design. It certainly helps with immersion, but should be one of the last priorities for Frontier.
That's why Star Citizen's development has kind of been this roundabout path that can disorient the average consumer that doesn't understand how long and difficult game development can be.
Both products seem to be coming together, and I'm encouraged by both of them.
Welp, I was on an apparently temporary chase through the stars to one of the planets someone said when I died a fiery death pewpewing in my beginner ship.
Turns out you might have to 'set' a home base somehow rather than being spawned around where you died? Regardless now I'm back in beginning system (I think) so I just farmed the damn Nav Beacon there until I got a Cobra Mk 3. Tossed some of those gimballed lasers, chaff and upgraded power distributer though I still feel rather squishy.
Was looking at shield booster for second utility slot but the overall gains don't seem huge? from 90ish to 120ish shields or something like that v0v
So do I keep pew pewing at Nav Beacons or am I somewhat more ready for the wider galaxy now in this slightly larger ship?
Turns out you might have to 'set' a home base somehow rather than being spawned around where you died? Regardless now I'm back in beginning system (I think) so I just farmed the damn Nav Beacon there until I got a Cobra Mk 3. Tossed some of those gimballed lasers, chaff and upgraded power distributer though I still feel rather squishy.
Was looking at shield booster for second utility slot but the overall gains don't seem huge? from 90ish to 120ish shields or something like that v0v
So do I keep pew pewing at Nav Beacons or am I somewhat more ready for the wider galaxy now in this slightly larger ship?
Anton Sugar
Member
I'm pretty sure you respawn at the last station you docked in. Cobra is a good ship to stick with for a little while and can be multipurpose, to an extent.
You may be ready to check out some low intensity Resource Extraction Sites. They are typically more lucrative than Nav Beacons as pirates frequent them. You usually have enough security service to help you out, when needed, too.
Caesar III
Member
Just to be clear here: I want the ability to walk around like the everyone else here. I just don't see the drastic benefit for the game Elite is right now and the focus this takes away from the whole bunch of other construction sites the game has already. Frontier is not a AAA developer team at all and I have a feeling they are creating another barebones experience with this (if this is the next thing coming though)
Exactly! I hope I can still use the menus for this!
Getting out of your ship in open space is not that much work to do and the immersion increase is immense. This is also one of the things I think are helping the game.
All of these sound great, really! But you said "like in an Elders Scrolls"... that is a whole game you do compare to one small aspect of Elite here. And that's what I'm concerned about. FD is so small a developer studio they cannot create what would be an immersive experience in itself imho. So instead of doing something barebones that's not fun but "it's there", use those (human) ressources on other parts of the game.
That's the important part for me as well. As mentioned above, if the do it in - say - 2-3 years when the core mechanics we have now transformed from barebones to fleshed out I'm all for it. Right now it's just another construction side they are opening if they start with this. And they are to small to tackle this all at once.
I'd sign all of what Mengy said!
I hope all of this here makes it clear that I don't want it not to be implemented because of this but because of the focus you mentioned in this very posting. Sure, it's easier to sell seasons with new features, even if they are not fleshed out. But they are only increasing the size of the canvas. This will only work for so long.
Yep! The same ressources could be spend to enable partial ship destruction like in Star Citizen or Freelancer where you could lose a wing with all of the mounts in a fight. The Anaconda is the only ship with a visually destructable hull right now iirc.
Felix Lighter
Member
Any word on module storage and transfer times and cost? I believe it was to be added with the latest beta patch.
Anton Sugar
Member
It was added but haven't seen anything in reddit about prices or details yet.
RadioactiveLobster
Member
You have to mine it, it's the only way to get it. It might spawn as a mission reward though I've never seen it.
Oh ok. I was able to buy it once but lost it when my ship got destroyed. Any particular place that has it for mining?
Anton Sugar
Member
Yeah, gotta mine it. Fine a metallic ring, it's VERY easy to find there.
Careful, though. Pirates will attack you if they scan you.