Elite: Dangerous

[Blaine]

Clan only works when they are mandatory to achieve something.

Success in PvP situations could end up being that something, even if there's no territory to hold.

I agree it's still too early to judge one way or the other, and there's plenty of time before either game is slated to be released.

 

[dunno lah]

Dont call them space sim but space opera then, i dont remember a space game with believable physics, nothing at all comparable to flight simulators , space combat is usually at best a submarine like fight with explosions in space. You wont have fun with a realistic space game, no O2= no explosions, and probably no visuals at all since the enemy ships are too far to be seen.
Glad it was funded , it was really close to fail.

2001: The Game?

 

[Mortmal]

Clan only works when they are mandatory to achieve something.

Success in PvP situations could end up being that something, even if there's no territory to hold.

I agree it's still too early to judge one way or the other, and there's plenty of time before either game is slated to be released.

Yes but i am especially worried about the pvp, ive read no mention of anti cheating device, punkbuster and such. its worth asking them on the offciial forums . I dont think those good sirs thought about it and know how rotten ,immature, rude the online community can be. I just hope you cant instant disappear with a memory editor.

 

[tindrli]

but wait.. i forgot.. will elite have any kind of offline single player??

 

[Trojan_generic]

but wait.. i forgot.. will elite have any kind of offline single player??

No, and that is why it will suck.

 

[Kalin]

According to the FAQ on the Kickstarter page, it will indeed be possible to play in offline single player mode:

The galaxy for Elite: Dangerous is a shared universe maintained by a central server. All of the meta data for the galaxy is shared between players. This includes the galaxy itself as well as transient information like economies. The aim here is that a player's actions will influence the development of the galaxy, without necessarily having to play multiplayer.

The other important aspect for us is that we can seed the galaxy with events, often these events will be triggered by player actions. With a living breathing galaxy players can discover new and interesting things long after they have started playing.

Update! The above is the intended single player experience. However it will be possible to have a single player game without connecting to the galaxy server. You won't get the features of the evolving galaxy (although we will investigate minimising those differences) and you probably won't be able to sync between server and non-server (again we'll investigate).

 

[Blaine]

Hey, User 12415, you're cramping our style. We're trying to complain about a game because it doesn't cost $10 and isn't single-player only. We certainly won't let the fact that we haven't actually read anything about it or even skimmed its feature list stand in our way.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

some time ago i interviewed braben:

・ Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh My god! It's David Braben! I played Elite for months and Frontier for years! You're my hero! Will you sign my boobs while I cry and scream like an overexcited little girl?

I think it’s best not to answer that one!

・ All right, let's be serious: Frontier was a coding miracle, in a time when resources were scarce and true miracles were needed. No game has ever reached its level of detail, of quality or of quantity. Today we have much more calculating power than we really need and gaming has been dumbed down to “press a button and something awesome happens”. Will the new Elite be a true successor to the masterpiece Frontier is or are you too afraid to scare the mass market off?

Following up from the previous games is a big ask, but we plan to do the best we can to make it a true successor. I completely understand the concern about the ‘dumbing down’ – something that is all too common these days, and a reason we wanted to make this game without a publisher; we want to make this games for ourselves.

・ On a side note: have you tried Space Engine (en.spaceengine.org)? Billions of billions of billions of procedurally created star systems based on real data. Wouldn't it be a dream come true adopting something like that in a videogame about universe esploration?

Frontier had 1012 Star systems back in 1993 – as many as the real galaxy, and so will Elite: Dangerous. We will also include the stars in the immediate vicinity of the sun, so the night sky will be accurate – but you will be able to visit each one if you choose.

・ Star Citizen is probably going to be your main opponent, there's plenty of news about it and everybody and their dogs speak about it, while Elite: Dangerous is left in a dark and dusty corner. Why is that? Do you have something extraordinary in mind I hope you're willing to tell us right here, right now, or are you still chosing on which tropical island to run and hide with all the money from Kickstarter?

Star Citizen is a different type of game, but I think people are talking about both. I see this more as a return to space, and the presence of both games will keep each of us on our toes. Competition is a good thing!

・ History belongs to innovators. Elite was the first, one of a kind, something never seen before. Frontier went where no man had gone before. On the other hand, Kickstarter feels like a fashion, massive social forced interactions mandatory multiplaying feels like a fashion too. For whose traits will Elite: Dangerous be remembered in twenty years?

I would hope “Elite: Dangerous” will still be being played in 20 years time, much as “Elite” is/was 20 years after it was released. There are many ‘firsts’ I would hope “Elite: Dangerous” will be remembered for including the approach to multiplayer, and some other things we haven’t talked about yet! We were the Kickstarter with the highest target amount worldwide (so far) and we launched it as soon as Kickstarter opened in the UK, so we were not really following fashion – but I don’t expect that will be what “Elite: Dangerous” will be remembered for.

・ Speaking of fashions: will there be any kind of skill tree, crafting system, unlockable stuff or anything like that?

There will be stacks of things to discover in the game, and some of the elements will work a little like unlocks (for example trading in illegal goods will require you to know who to go to in order to do so, and you will need to build up trust with them), but we do not see this as a traditional RPG.

・ Excluding the blue skybox, Frontier is being remembered for its exasperated, brutal realism (which could be afforded on that time's computers, and was still a lot). Now I read that you're not really fond of it, that Elite: Dangerous will contain a lot of fly-by-wire to lessen the impact of newtonian physics and that there'll be nebulas which, in reality, are less dense than on Earth mechanical produced void. Every today's reboot, remake or sequel have changed its predecessor ruleset, resulting in an inferior product which alienated fans. Do you think it's due to society's decadence or is catering to the lowest common denominator not only the present but the future of humanity too?

Most of the ‘brutal realism’ of Frontier will continue. The real galaxy and so on. For the combat model we are doing more fly-by-wire than in Frontier, but this is to improve the feel of the game; the realism is still there. Don’t forget there was fly-by-wire in Frontier too. In “Elite: Dangerous” space is essentially black, just as in real life, with a rich stellar backdrop. We are modelling real world nebulae, but this is not the huge magenta and green clouds you see in some representations of space – this is as accurate as we can make it. If you fly to a nebula you will indeed see it from inside, but it will have a realistic, ethereal property, and you will be able to see it from nearby systems.

・ I feel I'm being unnecessarily hostile, don't know why, maybe because one has huge expectations from his heroes, so here's an easy and accomodating question: you said planetary landing and on foot movement will be expanded in future. How?

When the game ships, it will not have the ability to explore on foot because it is a huge undertaking to do well, and I don’t want to include it if we can’t do it well. Each of these things will be launched via updates after the first release of the game.

・ Question on a FAQ: “How many craft types will you be able to fly? At least 15 at launch, and we plan to add more after launch.”. What do you mean with “types”? Like “Interceptors, bombers, freighters” or “15 ships total”? I strongly hope the former, 15 ships seems very very little.

We are planning to have 25 different playable ship types at launch. Some will have variant versions, and each will have a huge range of different equipment levels, so you could equip them as freighters, attack ships, explorers, etc. It really is a lot.

・ Balance. In a single player game of this genre the pursuit for balance is just an obstacle but in a multiplayer, PvP game it's its very essence. How different are the ships going to be? I want, I need to be able to pilot one of those gigantic superfreighters I saw parked beside orbital stations.

Balance is important. It is why we are having an Alpha and Beta test period, but you are right it also affects a great many design decisions. The ships will range from the tiny Sidewinder – with little more than the facilities for the pilot and a few units of cargo – to the giant Anaconda and larger – with many decks, gun turrets, and a giant loading bay. They will all fly differently, and have differeent benefits. Some ships will be specialised for speed or combat, others for carrying vast amounts of cargo.

・ In closing: maybe inspired by “2001: A space odissey”, those starships dancing on “By the beautiful blue Danube” were a stroke of genius. As a kid I could stare at them for a very long while and from there my passion for classical music was born. Can we expect the same kind of soundtrack or are we going to get the latest dubstep crap?

No – we are going for a full classical musical style, and it will include the Blue Danube!

not really a masterpiece, also he didn't play along and i'm pretty dissatisfied with the nebulas stuff.

 

[octavius]

David Braben said:

Frontier had 1012 Star systems back in 1993 – as many as the real galaxy

I assume that should be 10*12?

 

[Raapys]

Frontier had 1012 Star systems back in 1993 – as many as the real galaxy

I assume that should be 10*12?

120 sounds somewhat low.

Anyway, isn't the estimate somewhere around 300-500 billion? 10^12 = 1,000 billion sounds a bit excessive.

Also, you forgot to ask if there's an achievement for visiting all of them ^___^

 

[octavius]

Frontier had 1012 Star systems back in 1993 – as many as the real galaxy

I assume that should be 10*12?

120 sounds somewhat low.

Naturally 10^12 was what I meant.

 

[Tzaero]

The first picture is a mockup of the HUD using elements they've already made.
The second picture may actually not be a concept.

And a link to the backer newsletters.
http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/home/?u=dcbf6b86b4b0c7d1c21b73b1e&id=eb767c006f

 

[Blaine]

That's weird, why I didn't I post that cockpit screenshot a couple weeks ago? Probably pasted it into Steam chat and forgot about it.

Lookin' good.

 

[tindrli]

indeed. lets hope that era of the great space sims revives​

 

[Stokowski]

Cockpit is overcooked. System map looks very nice, though.

 

[Blaine]

Frontier Developments is going public:

http://www.frontier.co.uk/news/latest/?artid=323&pageNum=0&blk=12

 

[tindrli]

Cockpit is overcooked. System map looks very nice, though.

I wanted to agree with you about that cockpit but compared with a real shit,

the ingame cockpit seems like an coffee machine

 

[SuicideBunny]

i hope this turns out ok, i threw more money at it than at wl2.

 

[DraQ]

I hope it turns ok, but I'm severely dismayed by FBW, denser nebulae, and lack of any sort of frame of reference and velocity vector indicators in cockpit mockups.

Sure, Frontier had FBW, but at least the layer governing actual translational movement could be disabled at will (moreso, it was necessary in order to make combat playable). If there isn't going to be an option to shut it down to the level of Pioneer with all control aids disabled, I'm going to rageskip E4.

Also, I haven't been following the news for quite while, how much online is it going to be?

 

[tindrli]

how much online is it going to be?

probably too much

 

[SuicideBunny]

offline singleplayer without galaxy updates (or maybe otional galaxy updates every once in a while)
online singleplayer with dynamic galaxy influenced by other players
instanced online multiplayer with shared (across all instances) dynamic galaxy and some other players which sounds like a mix between mmo and smallscale coop towards the smallish scale end of the spectrum

 

[tindrli]

offline singleplayer without galaxy updates (or maybe otional galaxy updates every once in a while)
online singleplayer with dynamic galaxy influenced by other players
instanced online multiplayer with shared (across all instances) dynamic galaxy and some other players which sounds like a mix between mmo and smallscale coop towards the smallish scale end of the spectrum

i just wish that they made a holy shit, greatest ever, the best of the best SINGLE PLAYER space sim in our lifetime.
and that's it.. and i think i will keep dreaming on..

 

[Blaine]

Holy fuck... those beam lasers are FANTASTIC.

 

[potatojohn]

Interface looks like an iphone

Comms sound worse than 1930 intercontinental phone lines

Sound propagates through space

Pre-school space physics

WW2 dogfighter combat

Space missiles that go 10m/s constant velocity, while thrusting.

great stuff

 

[Hornawkawk]

Sound propagates through space

Shut the fuck up you worthless piece of shit.