Elite: Dangerous

[DraQ]

I don't suppose your raging sperg-on allows you to consider that a frame of reference matching planetary rotation could be added

Indeed, but given FD's stated reasons for speed limit I'm ready to be surprised.

and that the video was from before planetary landings were going to be a thing?

Umm, nope. Planetary landings were going to be a thing since well before there was any public testing. They weren't going to be a day 0 thing but they were planned nevertheless.
And the video still showcases how retarded "fun" physics produces absurd behaviour.
If it wasn't for physical tweaks, you would be able to fly around the surface in perfectly normal fashion, even if you'd get messed up velocity readings (due to not locking the frame of reference to the rotating surface).

Compare FE2 which Braben coded alone in 68000 assembly and which had to run on pathetically limited hardware of the time, but nevertheless featured completely seamless interplanetary flight and planetary landing using the exact same mechanics as normal gameplay.
And where even after switching to rotating frame of reference you could still observe effects such as Coriolis' Force.

ED with its supercruise and warpspeed thingamajiks is exactly that you described. Boxes with pretty backdrops. You just happen to be able to create boxes pretty much everywhere even if they look very similar to the other boxes.

Neat how all those seamless planetary systems turn out be an elaborate lie, isn't it?

Needless to say itz all exactly like this thing DraQ was talking about.

 

[Duellist_D]

So its basically Q3/2015 and the best recent SpaceSim Game is X Rebirth?

Haha, oh fucking wow.

You got to be fucking kidding me.

 

[potatojohn]

So its basically Q3/2015 and the best recent SpaceSim Game is X Rebirth?

X Rebirth isn't a space sim, it's a space themed game.

 

[bonescraper]

Quick Overview

For a limited time all existing Elite: Dangerous players will receive a £10 loyalty discount plus the exclusive Cobra Mark IV ship when ordering the Elite Dangerous: Horizons – Beta through the Frontier Store. Discount will be automatically applied at checkout.



Elite Dangerous: Horizons is a new season of major gameplay expansions for Elite Dangerous, beginning with Planetary Landings across the Elite Dangerous galaxy.


Elite Dangerous: Horizons launches this Holiday. The first expansion, Planetary Landings introduces players to planet surfaces and the first all-new Surface Recon Vehicle (SRV) the ‘Scarab’. Scanning airless planets and moons brings new gameplay as players detect signals, crashed ships, mineral deposits, outposts and fortresses. Alone or with friends players will explore, mine and engage hostile forces as they attempt to infiltrate strongholds guarding valuable rewards. Players will explore new worlds, coasting over mountaintops, diving into canyons, landing on the surface and rolling out onto the surface in your SRV, all without loading times or breaks in gameplay.


Elite Dangerous: Horizons will continue to introduce new features and gameplay as the season continues into 2016, enriching theElite Dangerous experience with new activities and new ways to play. Elite Dangerous: Horizons includes all Elite Dangerous content to date, and all players will continue to fly together in the same galaxy. Existing Elite Dangerous players receive a £10 loyalty discount off the price of Elite Dangerous: Horizons, retaining their progress and unlocking the exclusive ‘Cobra Mk IV’ in-game spacecraft.


Order now and be among the first to land, Holiday 2015.

Details
ELITE DANGEROUS: HORIZONS - A NEW SEASON OF EXPANSIONS FOR ELITE DANGEROUS, STARTING HOLIDAY 2015 ON PC
PLANETARY LANDINGS
Elite Dangerous: Horizons launches with the first major gameplay expansion this holiday: eagerly-awaited planetary landings on countless 1:1 scale worlds simulated with the same commitment to realism as our galaxy.

AN ONGOING COMMITMENT TO GAMEPLAY
Elite Dangerous: Horizons introduces major content along with new features in every update, continuing to enrich the Elite Dangerous experience with new ‘open world’ activities on the surfaces of airless worlds and across the galaxy.

INTRODUCING ALL-NEW PLANETARY LANDINGS GAMEPLAY
PLANETARY LANDINGS
Elite Dangerous: Horizons launches with the eagerly-awaited planetary landings on countless 1:1 scale worlds.

GAME-CHANGING CONTENT
Map uncharted worlds, dogfight in canyons, discover items and events you’ll only find on world surfaces.

DRIVING ON PLANETS
Embark on surface expeditions in all-terrain Surface Roving Vehicles (SRVs).

LOW LEVEL FLIGHT
Feel the subtle changes to the flight model when affected by gravity.

FORTIFIED SETTLEMENTS
Attack and defend bases from ground or above.

PLAY WITH FRIENDS
Both above and on the ground in Wings, and participate in Powerplay and story events in unique ways. All expanding the depth of the galaxy.

A WHOLE SEASON OF EXPANSIONS, WITH REGULAR MAJOR UPDATES INCLUDED IN THE SINGLE PURCHASE
A SEASON OF CONTENT
The second major update for Elite Dangerous: Horizons will release in Q1 2016 with more expansions to follow.

This second major update will include additional gameplay-focused content including an all-new game-changing loot and crafting system.

ONE ELITE: DANGEROUS COMMUNITY
All Elite Dangerous players will continue to benefit from ongoing bug fixes, optimizations and tweaks, and of course participating in our ever evolving, player-led galaxy.

System Requirements Horizons

PLEASE NOTE: THIS VERSION OF ELITE DANGEROUS: HORIZONS IS FOR PC USE ONLY
WINDOWS HARDWARE SPECIFICATION:

• To Be Announced
• Network Broadband Internet Connection
• A Graphics Card That Fully Supports DirectX11 Or Greater - Shader Model 5.0 Or Greater

There are no regional restrictions, although the game may not be localised into your language.

 

[bonescraper]

And to clear out possible confusion:

I'm getting it for free, so i guess i'll check it out.

Cobra mk. IV

 

[Morkar Left]

Yes, like I thought; fucking backers in their asses.

 

[bonescraper]

Wat? I'm a backer and i'm getting it for free. What's your problem? It was as clear back then as it is now.

 

[Morkar Left]

The pricetag for driving around with a buggy is a bit steep. A honest approach would be a discount for backers in general with such a pricetag. But I guess you have to milk your rather small fanbase.

Personally I have no interest in repeatingly investing such amounts of money for just partially realized features (planet flying / landing). Or much money in general for an online game. I would probably be less critical when I would know that I can play the game offline when it's not profitable for FD anymore.

Like it is now it's a pure online mmo with mmo mechanics and the same treadmill effect of concuring pvp and grinding. For just flying around I prefer Oolite, Elite FFE D3D, Evochron Mercenary or X series, even Battlecruiser. For story and missions I prefer Precursors or I-War 2.

 

[shihonage]

Some poor suckers are still playing this wreck? How's the cheating?

 

[SmartCheetah]

Some poor suckers are still playing this wreck? How's the cheating?

People still cheat as they want. Basicly, merging online mode with single player is a fucking disastrous mistake as they can't do shit against some cheating fags. Enjoy flying in open with dozens of rich players who bascily cheated their way up to the top in few days ;-)

I wonder where is the "free" ship for beta players, they mendtioned before game even got released. Braben forgot about it, or something?

 

[DraQ]

I wonder where is the "free" ship for beta players, they mendtioned before game even got released. Braben forgot about it, or something?

Being free it ran away.

 

[Ranselknulf]

Anybody try this game. Thinking about giving it a shot.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

it's a direct evolution of the first elite. not frontier. the first elite, with heavily instanced space.
no real equipment customization, no form of character progression.
just a billion stars to play an evolved 1986 game with.
if you're a sucker for anything with spaceships, like me, you'll spend a lot of time with it nonetheless, but you'll still complain about all its shortcomings while you play.

 

[Ranselknulf]

I'll keep an eye on it.

Probably best to wait for that new expansion to come out.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

that's what i initially thought, in december, too. but judging from the features list looks like the expansion is not going to add anything which would solve these game's problems.
i mean: planetary landing? woohoo, more places with nothing to do! \m/_

 

[Mortmal]

I'll keep an eye on it.

Probably best to wait for that new expansion to come out.

You are going to wait a long time for nothing, as madmax says the epxansion will ad nothing of value . At least thats my impression after reading the previews. Get it heavily discounted and you might have a few hours of fun, but its really not worth it, plenty of indie games much more worthy of your time.

 

[justincz]

i dont get why people whine about the sticker price. Horizons is like an optional sub. 60/12 = $5 a month. subs are usually what, $10-13?
they had a small budget and were relatively quick about it.. i think the core is impressive for a PG game, no mans sky looks like childs play in comparison.

 

[Morkar Left]

i dont get why people whine about the sticker price. Horizons is like an optional sub. 60/12 = $5 a month. subs are usually what, $10-13?
they had a small budget and were relatively quick about it.. i think the core is impressive for a PG game, no mans sky looks like childs play in comparison.

I didn't subscribe to an mmo, I backed/bought a spacesim which I can play alone or in mp if I choose.

 

[justincz]

fair enough. but you knew planetary landings would be an expansion, and there is still solo mode.
i supoce they could cram a few hundered star systems offline if they wanted to, but i dont think many people would use it.

 

[Bumvelcrow]

fair enough. but you knew planetary landings would be an expansion, and there is still solo mode.
i supoce they could cram a few hundered star systems offline if they wanted to, but i dont think many people would use it.

Without going through the whole offline mode bait-and-switch yet again, the planetary systems are all procedurally generated*. There's no cramming involved - just a numerical seed and an algorithm for generating them. For an interesting read see if you can track down an article about how 2000-odd systems were stored in the original BBC version of Elite. The Beeb had 32k of memory and no separate frame buffer.
There's no technical reason that an offline mode with billions of star systems can't exist. As for why it doesn't exist, well, you'll have to ask David Braben.

Edit: *Other than a few hand-placed systems, that is.

 

[justincz]

with latitude and longitude name specific for ~100 billion systems? quite a big database.
offline would atleast require some sort of a campaign, at this point its imo too dull to completely disconnect.

 

[Bumvelcrow]

with latitude and longitude name specific for ~400 billion systems? quite a big database.

Nope - google procedural generation for info.

offline would atleast require some sort of a campaign, at this point its imo too dull to completely disconnect.

Depends what you want from the game. If you're expecting INSTANT GRATZ PVP HOT SPACESHIP ACTION, then billions of star systems is a lot of space to get lost in. As a player of Elite and Frontier, a large part of the game was the sense of wonder that having such an open universe allowed for. You could make your own stories of life on the frontier. But then, I can just sit on my own and lose myself in thought for hours so that kind of thing appealed to me. Admittedly I'm in the minority, and Frontier have followed the money.

 

[Ranselknulf]

The price seems reasonable.

I just doubt I will have a lot of time to play it.

 

[justincz]

Nope - google procedural generation for info.

i get what your saying. it still isnt just generated on the fly, any player can visit any system with a specific name and see the same system, and when you land two players will see the exact same terrain also.

the outskirts of space engine is more random than people think. yet take a look at texture sizes and map supplements:
http://en.spaceengine.org/load/

sure it can be done, but your still talking a pretty big database for reference.

 

[Bumvelcrow]

i get what your saying. it still isnt just generated on the fly

We might be getting our wires crossed, but really it's not about a database. With a seed and an algorithm you can scale up from 10 to a billion to whatever number of systems you want with no extra storage space required. Yes, you require a set of textures, but they can be reused and swapped around as much as you like. If two players have the same initial seed and algorithm and go to the same star system they will get exactly the same content. That's the whole point of procedural generation - you get a pseudo-random, effectively infinite set of star systems without having to have a database to store them.

There's player instancing and other issues, and I'm sure there's some clever work to allow multiple players to share the same space, but that's a different subject.