God yeah i hated the newtonian stuff. The 'planes' one was much better and allowed proper dogfights. I would LOVE there to be some kind of limiter though, in nor mal gravity you have to be careful with energy, height, AoA etc which makes for some real duels and makes skill really matter - I dont suppose thats possible but my second choice would be plane type flight models.
*** The Official Elite: Dangerous Thread ***
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All the dev videos show plane type controls for smaller craft.
Dunno for definite what they've decided as I've been stayiing away a bit from the forums, etc. lately so theres some suprises left when it launches but the general comments from the devs earlier on was they wanted to look at implementing a mixture of styles depending a bit on the situation and ship you were flying so some of the bigger craft will probably be closer to the newtonian model and the smaller craft closer to the original game.
Good...
Next year is going to be interesting seeing how Elite and Star Citizen compare...
There's an awesome video posted further up I think of a capital ship battle that shows what can be expected flight mechanics wise. Fundamentally it is still true Newtonian type physics under the hood. Side slip will be dealt with by thrusters which will all generate heat that needs to be dealt with / disposed off.
Well SC is slated for release in 2015.
Elite is supposedly March 2014?
But I'll believe that when I see it
(Here's to hoping though!)
Yep. So far, for me, I find the Elite Dangerous videos so much more engaging and 'real' than anything I've seen from Star Citizen. But it'll probably end up being the other way round!
Soldato
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I would be over the moon if they managed a semi newtonian flight dynamic. If anyone ever played Jumpgate (MMO) they'll remember that had one of the most satisfying skill rewarding physic systems I've ever played.
Yep they have stated its semi-newtonian based on mass, still to be tweaked.
Here's Braben discussing how and why they made the last vid;
Key points:
1. It was rendered in game BUT there were less post effects made to that than I expected \o/ yay!
2. The cockpit was a placeholder and looks better in game.
3. The ship paths were predefined for cinematics.
4. There will be a full breakdown of what and what was not part of the game engine render in the Damocles vid coming soon.
Can't wait for this one.
Here's Braben discussing how and why they made the last vid;
Key points:
1. It was rendered in game BUT there were less post effects made to that than I expected \o/ yay!
2. The cockpit was a placeholder and looks better in game.
3. The ship paths were predefined for cinematics.
4. There will be a full breakdown of what and what was not part of the game engine render in the Damocles vid coming soon.
Can't wait for this one.
My worry is, it may well be the case there's 400,000,000,000 stars in the game, and many with planets etc etc all very cleverly generated by procedural generation etc etc... BUT, it'll be the case once you've seen a handful, you've seen them all. ie: I'd rather have just 400 stars available will lots of interesting (unique) stuff, than 4 billion with most of them being more of the same...
Soldato
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They could always do both. How big was the original Elite, a few less kb then a picture takes now and it had lots of plants. If its all vectors they can scale it up in detail and still do the conventional textures business on a few central hubs
It was line vectors and now they can generate terrain fractals, realtime even
It was line vectors and now they can generate terrain fractals, realtime even
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^^ Yes, but I recall in the original Elite there was talk/hints of things that sounded epic.... and were not there.
In the manual I remember reading about generation ships that were sent out to the stars (& I'll swear there were pictures) and that science had over taken them. So they were still on their journeys now to places already populated. I always expected to find one of them... but of course never did.
I fear that there lots of such content that would be lovely to explore and discover in the Elite Dangerous universe... But it may just not be there because trying to populate 4 billion stars is just too much to do?
In the manual I remember reading about generation ships that were sent out to the stars (& I'll swear there were pictures) and that science had over taken them. So they were still on their journeys now to places already populated. I always expected to find one of them... but of course never did.
I fear that there lots of such content that would be lovely to explore and discover in the Elite Dangerous universe... But it may just not be there because trying to populate 4 billion stars is just too much to do?
Soldato
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Modern games are designed and populated by its players where the old elite was singular and he couldnt update it alone.
I think Frontier was promised more along those lines and it wasnt possible at that time still. Most stars are barren and I'd expect that in game also but with mining possible thats fine
I think Frontier was promised more along those lines and it wasnt possible at that time still. Most stars are barren and I'd expect that in game also but with mining possible thats fine
I'm not sure all the work to render planet surfaces is really worth it. Unless it adds some gameplay it's surely nothing more than eye candy. And once you've done it a couple of times the novelty will be gone and you won't bother again!?
Associate
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as long as:
It has thargoids....
procedural generation is better than Frontier: Elite II
Missions are varied with a clever AI,
Lots of story lines with an active and vibrant modding community, API etc.,etc.
Lots of secret stuff that you discover and go '''oh...wow, nice"
It has the potential of being great, though im hoping that it doesnt suffer from Skyrim syndrome, where the game is huge but as shallow as a saucer.
pinkies crossed
Frontier: Elite II, had planetary landings, you could mine on their surface, and scoop hydrogen fuel from gas giant atmospheres, etc.
It has thargoids....
procedural generation is better than Frontier: Elite II
Missions are varied with a clever AI,
Lots of story lines with an active and vibrant modding community, API etc.,etc.
Lots of secret stuff that you discover and go '''oh...wow, nice"
It has the potential of being great, though im hoping that it doesnt suffer from Skyrim syndrome, where the game is huge but as shallow as a saucer.
pinkies crossed
Frontier: Elite II, had planetary landings, you could mine on their surface, and scoop hydrogen fuel from gas giant atmospheres, etc.
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I wouldn't worry that's a relatively solved problem.
Here is a ten minute video of David Brabens recent talk at TedX if anyone missed it. It's pretty interesting listening, on the subject of how procedural generation could make this game great.
Also some good news about how in-system travel will work in this thread:
http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7896
(Summary copy and pasted below)
No jump gates/space highways but proper free-form travelling from A to B.
Also some good news about how in-system travel will work in this thread:
http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7896
(Summary copy and pasted below)
The Three Modes of Travel
Ships in Elite: Dangerous can use three distinct modes of travel, for travelling exponentially different distances:
Hyperspace jumps - hopping around within or between systems in near-instantaneous jumps, but with limited control of exactly where you end up
Super-cruise travel - roaming about at high speed within a system
Conventional flight - moving, fighting, docking and mining in a smallish area of space
Although each mode of travel has different properties and uses different in-game technologies, for readability this post will talk as if ships had a single engine with three gears - a "top gear" that's the next best thing to teleportation, a "middle gear" that's optimised for urban transport, and a "first gear" that goes at walking speed.
Meeting other players
Real-life technical considerations mean players can only interact with a small set of other people at a time, usually called an "instance" (although this particular proposal uses the word "session"). Switching gears also punts you into a different instance, and there are three ways to try and follow someone into a new instance:
Flight control - friends can let each other "slave" their drives together so they all change gear at the same time (and in middle gear they can all travel in formation)
Follow the trail - switching up into middle gear leaves a Back to the Future-style flame trail you can follow, and switching into top gear leaves a residual opening that can be analysed (or in extreme cases tailgated)
Pray to the matchmaking algorithm - the game will generally try to put you in an instance with other players you would enjoy playing against, so you might bump into your target without doing anything special
None of the above are guaranteed - for example, you can't slave a huge pirate gang together and force your way into a nearly-empty instance. But with a bit of skill you can play a good game of cat-and-mouse with all this gear-shifting.
Interstellar snooker
Although you can plot any route at any time, players will usually aim at a point in space, shift up to middle gear to get in position, up to top for a the long haul, down to middle gear to get to their approximate destination, then finally down to first gear to interact with the world.
But no matter how fast your top gear is, a straight line journey to the dark side of the moon is still going to leave a pancake-shaped splodge on the moon's near side. If your ship was a snooker ball, you would need to bounce it off the cushion to make a shot like that. So what does a cushion look like in space?
Well, super-cruise travel works by warping space, which means it warps gravity too. That will make a ship that normally handles like a bumble bee fly like more like a whale in tornado, but it also means a careful commander can do a real-time gravitational slingshot - making a hyperspace jump to Mars, a quick half an orbit around to line themselves up for the moon shot, then a hyperspace jump back to the part of the moon they were aiming for.
Ships in Elite: Dangerous can use three distinct modes of travel, for travelling exponentially different distances:
Hyperspace jumps - hopping around within or between systems in near-instantaneous jumps, but with limited control of exactly where you end up
Super-cruise travel - roaming about at high speed within a system
Conventional flight - moving, fighting, docking and mining in a smallish area of space
Although each mode of travel has different properties and uses different in-game technologies, for readability this post will talk as if ships had a single engine with three gears - a "top gear" that's the next best thing to teleportation, a "middle gear" that's optimised for urban transport, and a "first gear" that goes at walking speed.
Meeting other players
Real-life technical considerations mean players can only interact with a small set of other people at a time, usually called an "instance" (although this particular proposal uses the word "session"). Switching gears also punts you into a different instance, and there are three ways to try and follow someone into a new instance:
Flight control - friends can let each other "slave" their drives together so they all change gear at the same time (and in middle gear they can all travel in formation)
Follow the trail - switching up into middle gear leaves a Back to the Future-style flame trail you can follow, and switching into top gear leaves a residual opening that can be analysed (or in extreme cases tailgated)
Pray to the matchmaking algorithm - the game will generally try to put you in an instance with other players you would enjoy playing against, so you might bump into your target without doing anything special
None of the above are guaranteed - for example, you can't slave a huge pirate gang together and force your way into a nearly-empty instance. But with a bit of skill you can play a good game of cat-and-mouse with all this gear-shifting.
Interstellar snooker
Although you can plot any route at any time, players will usually aim at a point in space, shift up to middle gear to get in position, up to top for a the long haul, down to middle gear to get to their approximate destination, then finally down to first gear to interact with the world.
But no matter how fast your top gear is, a straight line journey to the dark side of the moon is still going to leave a pancake-shaped splodge on the moon's near side. If your ship was a snooker ball, you would need to bounce it off the cushion to make a shot like that. So what does a cushion look like in space?
Well, super-cruise travel works by warping space, which means it warps gravity too. That will make a ship that normally handles like a bumble bee fly like more like a whale in tornado, but it also means a careful commander can do a real-time gravitational slingshot - making a hyperspace jump to Mars, a quick half an orbit around to line themselves up for the moon shot, then a hyperspace jump back to the part of the moon they were aiming for.
No jump gates/space highways but proper free-form travelling from A to B.
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