RockPaperShotgun on Elite:Dangerous Alpha play test

[FluffyFreak]

Ok a couple of interesting links.

The first one is to a play test preview of Elite:Dangerous : http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/02 ... preview-2/
What's fascinating to me about this is that Alex and Graham are both really interested in what comes after the combat, but also thing like how the cockpit makes them feel so immersed, nevermind the Oculus Rift stuff (it's amazing, even my crap implementation for Pioneer), this is just about the way things look and feel, the way the cockpit changes when things happen - also there's a little mention of customising the cockpit so you can change the bobble-head object. Worth reading for the enthusiasm, and fears, for the future abilities like being able to trade and explore.

These are things that I think we need to work on too, trade is necessary, not a lot of fun at the moment in particular.

The other is a post about how Star Citizen wants to add "Procedural Generation" http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/02 ... -gen-team/ once they reached $41 million in funding... gee I'd do it for a lot less than the $2 million dollars that represents over their current budget ;) I wonder where they're hiring?

[jpab]

I wonder where they're hiring?

Manchester (also Austin, TX, and Santa Monica, CA).

Edit: Looks like the Manchester jobs are for 'Squadron 42', not Star Citizen.

John B

[robn]

These are things that I think we need to work on too, trade is necessary, not a lot of fun at the moment in particular.

Yeah, we know :(

[FluffyFreak]

Yeah, we know :(

I mean it only as a thing we know which is probably also going to prove difficult to balance in E:D.
I have no idea how we could make trade more interesting, more stations in a systems with different prices? Black markets? Faction specific goods that are illegal to trade sometimes? Secret rendezvous in uninhabited systems with a fellow trader an the risk of pirates/police/military turning up?

Dunno, lots of ideas that all sound like a lot of work.

The rest of the article is interesting though and gives me hope that we're not only moving in the right direction with a 3D cockpit but that maybe we should be a bit more bold with it, go even further in some ways.

[impaktor]

Alpha 3.0 is just out. Docking:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey22m463104

[nozmajner]

Man, I so want to dust down my station remodel, and continue working on it.

[Shigawire]

Alpha 3.0 is just out. Docking:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey22m463104

I saw that today.. it's looking incredible! Was only missing the Strauss :)
I'm a backer, but not at Alpha or Beta level.. however, I did buy the Premium Beta package a couple months ago.

Still a big fan of what you guys did with Pioneer.. I grew up on Elite, Elite Plus, Elite 2 Frontier, and FFE..
In fact my first living memory of an electronic game was when my older brother loaded "ELITE" for me on the Commodore 64.. and I didn't understand a shit about it. But I was 4 years old then, 1987.. :D I still remember that.

Oh yeah, I saw someone named "John B" here.. that's also my name! :D

[impaktor]

Ha! I didn't notice the bobblehead on the dashboard the first time I saw the video. It even reacts to touching down on the station floor.

[impaktor]

New dev diary video, about docking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6AxOoBF7SM

[FluffyFreak]

I know a lot of that is graphics and artistry but even a lot of the technical bits about that video are nice.

The request-grant delay for docking, the UI for deploying the landing gear (I'd rather it was automatic actually), that cool little docking locator interface showing centre and distance.

For the look of the station though, and the number of bays etc, we could already do that. We support upto 240 bays, we can render a great deal of stuff, we support diffuse/specular/glow textures.
It wouldn't looks as good of course because we don't have deferred/volumetric lighting, and our ships don't drop down into sub-bays, but we can get a lot of the way there!