Ellen Degeneres: Horizons - AI Now Earns More Than Human Crew

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Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Some nice screenshots..

Dante80 fucked around with this message at 08:23 on Sep 14, 2015

# ¿ Sep 14, 2015 08:19

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 06:27

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

I love this guy..<3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLXzEQyacMw

# ¿ Sep 15, 2015 21:30

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Fanzay posted:

Op: Power Bottom?
Imperial Eagle sounds tailor made for it.

Not just a *fast* ship with better guns than the regular Eagle, but the *fastest* ship. Sign me up.

Its pretty luxurious too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4ifSgkMIFE

# ¿ Sep 16, 2015 09:51

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

In case this hasn't been posted yet.

also, this looks rather nice. I wonder if we will ever have co-pilots/crew..

Dante80 fucked around with this message at 13:02 on Sep 20, 2015

# ¿ Sep 20, 2015 13:00

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Also, pretty nice timelapse..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMJ2-TMJ0WQ

and a community skin for Cobra.

Dante80 fucked around with this message at 13:10 on Sep 20, 2015

# ¿ Sep 20, 2015 13:05

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Want to land on this...but will maybe happen on season 3 or so..T_T

btw...latest fangs is out . no10.

https://fangs.ink/10.html

# ¿ Sep 21, 2015 01:06

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

KakerMix posted:

Life bearing planets are an entire other paid expansion that is NOT Horizons.

I think they moved away entirely from the paid expansion model. If I understand what Fdev is saying correctly, Horizons is a season of expansions, and the first expansion in it is planetary landings.

You are correct in your assertion that we may see life bearing planetary content on another season, after Horizons. I don't think they can make it inside 2016.

# ¿ Sep 22, 2015 23:28

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

KakerMix posted:

Where is your source on this? As far as I can see this is still their model and Horizons is a big underline on the 'paid expansion' model.

I think we are talking about the same thing though. Before release, the model was big paid expansions around a certain theme (thargoids, fps gameplay, planetary interaction) and continued free patches (1.1, 1.2 etc) of the base game. The expansion frequency was not on a seasonal basis (actually, the word season was never uttered as far as I remember), and was presumed to be based strictly on content delivery (with the caveat that planetary interaction was from the start poised to be released on stages).

The difference now (which is subtle) seems to be that they have moved into a "season of expansions" style. I presume (and I might be wrong on this) that a season will span a year and will encompass 3 things.

a. The overarching feature at launch
b. continued free updates for the base game
c. feature updates for the paywalled content.

Something that we will have to see is how will they manage to enhance the base game with the expansion content without dividing the playerbase (due to having to pay for the expansion) or diluting the content so as to not make the base game..baseless. From the start of the project, Fdev is saying that expansion content is not mandatory for the base game, and you wont have to buy it to keep playing.

Btw, there is nothing malicious on this really (especially if you have been following the project since the kickstarter). It could become a little weird though.

Dante80 fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Sep 23, 2015

# ¿ Sep 23, 2015 02:00

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

AndroidHub posted:

At this point having faith in FDev is pretty difficult just because of how they have managed the game, they pile broken features on, then just keep piling instead of fixing what's broken along the way.

If you don't fix what's broken your players will go insane.

Its a simple problem of overextension at this point. When the game was in development (especially in the DDF days), the perception was that FDEV would deliver a base space game, and then work on thematic content to augment it.

They ran out of time/money, thus releasing the base game with a lot of things oversimplified or missing.
To keep development running, they have to churn up expansions so that the game remains alive.
This starts and fuels a positive feedback loop, where moving back and fixing your existing features takes away time from your expansion timetable that will help keep you afloat long enough to move back and fix existing/future features etc etc.

This circle can be broken btw, have in mind that a lot of development resources this year were used for Xbox and Mac launches. Also, FDEV is learning from this as we move along (they had 0 MMO experience before ED). I am optimistic.

Dante80 fucked around with this message at 02:12 on Sep 23, 2015

# ¿ Sep 23, 2015 02:09

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

AndroidHub posted:

They really need to add more cosmetic poo poo if it's a matter of cashflow, I would spend another $30-$40 easy on paintjobs and stuff if they had colors for all the ships and cool emblems

They need to take a page from Warframe where you could even upload custom emblems for your clan if you felt like forking over the cash.

Agreed. They have been a little half-assed on this. I mean, the first picture we ever saw about customization (after the kickstarter) was this:

They have a long way to go still.

Dante80 fucked around with this message at 02:31 on Sep 23, 2015

# ¿ Sep 23, 2015 02:29

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

some pretty good control in FA OFF.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d3zfPoB0oM

# ¿ Sep 23, 2015 12:50

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Before the game entered beta (and especially when the DDF was up and running at full steam) the forums were delightful. Then, they became like every other game forum.

Then, they became worse.

# ¿ Sep 24, 2015 16:04

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=185551

Good update for anyone interested in trying CQC, it seems like matchmaking has been fixed.

# ¿ Sep 24, 2015 20:47

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Bobblehead Announcement FAQ

# ¿ Sep 25, 2015 19:01

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Here is how it goes.

You get a Cobra IV if you pre-order horizons (or have an expansion pass/premium beta + status). You will have to pay for it.
This is bad because it puts non cosmetic content behind an additional paywall. But then again, thats the whole point of the season thingy (there is not much they can do btw, other than selling power or moving to subscriptions).

If you are eligible for a free ship (as promised to those that bought beta+), you will get the ViperMk IV for free in a hangar somewhere (like the red Eagle we got some time ago). Everyone else will have to pay for one.

# ¿ Sep 25, 2015 20:33

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Rah! posted:

I could have sworn i read that you get it for free after pre-ordering, back when Frontier first released info about Horizons. Though I guess if that was the case, it wouldn't be surprising if they changed it since then. Or maybe i was stoned and read it wrong.

Many of us did (read it wrong, that is). The original announcement was about "getting access to", so many thought it was one of the 3 free ships.

axelsoar posted:

Did something happen recently or is this resignation finally setting in?

Its a pretty weird situation. By June/July, some people (at least a couple at key positions) left CIG. Have in mind that this can be attributed to standard employee turnaround in a big company like CIG, although the rate (and the positions listed) are a little in-ordinary.

Alex Mayberry (Executive Producer)
Travis Day (Executive Producer)
Chelsea Day
Riham Toulan, Senior Technical Artist (left Foundry 42 Frankfurt in July 2015)
Andrew Matthews (Global Lead Character Artist, left Foundry 42 in June 2015 and went back to Rocksteady)
Erasmus Brosdau(Art Director of Cinematics, left Foundry 42 Frankfurt in July 2015 and went back to what seems Crytek)
Bjorn Seinstra (Lead Vehicle Artist / Environment Artist, left Foundry 42 in June 2015)
Lance Powell (Supervising Art Director)
Jenny Varner
Andrew Jones (Character Pipeline Producer)
Simon Davies (Senior Programmer)
Mike Northeast (Lead Systems Designer)
Seth Nash - (Senior Character Artist)
Rest of UK Character Team left as well, source isn't sure about the names involved.

August / September was them cutting off work with Illfonic and one of the other outsourced studios, right? Those seem like downsizing given the new allegations, especially the "shooter is indefinately delayed, no wait, the work is complete, we don't need the devs anymore".

Yesterday, DS posted this as a comment in his blog (and in twitterlong)
http://www.dereksmart.com/2015/09/star-citizen-the-long-con/

quote:

Well, I have sad news to report, regarding layoffs at the Santa Monica studio.
Since my recent blog �Star Citizen � The Long Con� went live yesterday, apparently a lot has been going on at RSI/CIG brain trust.
Key issue here is that I linked to a letter one David Jennison wrote when he quit working there.
For the record, I do NOT know this person. Not even on social media. And even when I reached out to authenticate the letter, I got a �no comment� from various sources.
Apparently he had shared it with some people in order to explain why he was leaving so suddenly. And it looks like one of those people sent it to me using a burner email account which is now unreachable. Pretty much how various unknown sources have been reaching out to me since I started writing these blogs back in July.
So today, multiple sources are telling us that the Santa Monica studio is in full crisis mode as a result.
Sources are telling me that Sandi, wife of Chris Roberts, is pointing fingers and publicly blaming people in the office for leaking the letter. A letter which isn�t even company property btw. As the story goes, she called two of them �fuckers� in front of their co-workers. And as the word goes, it may have been during that altercation that two people turned in their key cards and immediately walked out.
As it stands, two have quit.
Lisa Ohanian (Ship Shape), gave 2 week notice.
Paul Forgy, quit on the spot � and walked out.
Alyssa Delhotal and James Pugh were reportedly fired under suspicion of leaking information to me. Since I don�t know ANY of the above people, it�s patently false.
It gets worse�
Meanwhile 9 people in Austin were informed that their jobs are being eliminated in October.
Additional people are reported to be informed today and tomorrow.
As I had mentioned a few weeks ago, multiple sources are telling me that the plan is to close the Austin office by end of this year. People let go so far are Artists, Engineers, and Designers working on the PU (!!!!!).
Also, sources tell me that they are hovering around $8 (!) million in cash right now and still burning around $3.5m (!) per month. Which is why they are now initiating immediate downsizing company wide. Quietly. They are hoping that upcoming sales go well to tide them over in the short term.
As it stands, credible sources tell me that they are going to run out of money at their current sales/burn by Q1/16, assuming they get some spikes from the upcoming sales and anniversary sale in November.
Which explains the Endeavor ship sale that went live in the past 24hrs.
During this downsizing, while consolidating global development in the UK, they are focusing on Squadron 42 because right now it isn�t scheduled to be ready for release for another 15 (!) months. At best.
There is so much info coming in right now, that I simply can�t divulge all of it without putting people at risk. So I am getting on a call with legal in a bit. I remain torn between my loyalty to industry sources, and my need to alert the industry that, as predicted, as big as this crowd-funding effort was, it is still on track to be the biggest single collapse of an entity in the history of the industry.
I have been sounding this warning bell since July. But I got incessantly attacked for it, and I am still under attack as a result.
I will add another update once I hear back from legal. I will probably just throw up another blog since it�s so much stuff to wade through right now.
In the meantime, to those of you affected by this, don�t even bother with attorneys or suing them. I got this. Just go find yourselves a new job, take care of your families and keep sending us stuff. This is a crowd-funded company and there are higher standards.
Most of all :
1) DO NOT TRUST THE MEDIA!!! If you want to know which of them to trust and/or talk to, contact me (anon is fine) directly at dsmart@live.com. You deserve to tell your story and I 100% guarantee you that I will make sure that it gets out and goes into the public record via the legal system as you wish for it to be told. Remember, you are going to be around in this industry, working alongside the best of the best, for years to come. Don�t make light of that.
2) DO NOT TRUST ANY OF CHRIS�S FRIENDS. If you make the single mistake of talking to someone who knows someone who knows someone, you may find yourself in violation of your exit agreement (if any) and/or NDA signed at hiring. So don�t do it.
3) Ben Lesnick cannot be trusted. But you probably already knew that.
� DS

The letter (allegedly from David Jennison who has also left recently) was this.

Regarding the people involved above, it checks out.

Paul Forgy gone. https://www.linkedin.com/pub/paul-forgy/1/686/696
Alyssa Delhotal gone. https://www.linkedin.com/in/alyssadelhotal
James Pugh gone. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jrjpugh

Have in mind that both Delhotal and Pugh tweeted about this (after the DS post), and they both sounded surprised..

https://twitter.com/AlyssaDelo/status/647171872669302784
https://twitter.com/jamespugh/status/647208471662751744

Also, a reddit poster talked to Ben after the fact, and Ben acknowledged that O'Hanian was leaving later this month for Sony. Later, DiscoLando said that O'Hanian was "still with us". Today we found out that she is indeed leaving for Sony.

It's hard to know whether DSmart is right and getting good info, or just basing it on skimming the employee register and making the downsizing stuff believable by referring to these past events and extrapolating. There is some info there though that could not have been publicly sourced.

Which...begs the question. If you have insider information, why in the name of Cthulhu would you want to give it to DEREK SMART of all people? The guy is a known troll of stupendous ferocity. I mean, look at this..

Dante80 fucked around with this message at 20:45 on Sep 25, 2015

# ¿ Sep 25, 2015 20:42

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Rah! posted:

There are also rumors that Chris Roberts' mismanagement of the development (he's supposedly a manbaby who sucks at communicating and prioritizing) is causing them to run out of money, which means they might have to close their Austin office (which is the one working on the persistent universe, which seems kind of important).

CR is a perfectionist with bad managerial skills. This means that he wants anything and everything to pass by his hands before signing it off, while lacking the experience and managerial skills needed to explain to his subordinates what exactly he wants.

This means that things go in CRC error mode, where CR tells an artist how to do a boot lace, the artist does it, CR hates it (while he gave him bad info in the first place), the artist does it again to his exact standard, and then CR changes his mind on it and makes him do it over. Again and again.

Reading some of the Jump points (e-magazines produced by CIG for subscribers that contain development content/history) is a hilarious way to observe the above fact.

In any case, I think (out of my rear end) that the problem is they are running out of money and need to downsize enough to make SQ42 happen, and then fund the PU from it (pre-orders, and asset sales). Its not an easy task.

AndroidHub posted:

E: Also, same as the last thread, keep SC chat to a minimum. I forgot to put something in the OP about it, but we don't need a huge discussion about it here. It's safe to assume things are going just as poorly as ever with that heap of broken promises and sad nerds.

Just saw that, shutting down. :v:

Dante80 fucked around with this message at 20:59 on Sep 25, 2015

# ¿ Sep 25, 2015 20:57

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

FDEV will support both VIVE and OR (they have committed to do so in the past).

# ¿ Sep 25, 2015 23:24

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

KakerMix posted:

This really calls into question about how they'll display the UIs for wings of more than 4 people. The excuse for 'only 4' was always a UI design decision.
Maybe now the Wing icon for a person/group will be a ship name instead of CMDR name. An Anaconda and an Eagle would be 'Uberballs' group, a Corvette and a Viper would be another, etc. up till 4 'groups'

Also, I wonder if/how they will use the pilot portraits in the game UI for comms or wings etc.

Its definitely not that easy though to up the wing numbers with the current ui. They will need something else, there is not enough HD real estate for something like 8 ships the way they are doing it now. Maybe its one of (the secondary) reasons that they chose to move to multi-crew instead of bigger wings.

Dante80 fucked around with this message at 16:53 on Sep 26, 2015

# ¿ Sep 26, 2015 16:50

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

TorakFade posted:

That, and precise control with that thing is a bitch.

If I remember correctly, that is the HOTAS that isinona uses for precise control in FA-OFF mode.

Then again, the guy is a robot that only communicates through subtitles and random beeps.

# ¿ Sep 28, 2015 19:26

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5kZHuEzzIk

-------------------------------

Firdaus system, Robert Aitken Station (orbiting a type 3 gas giant)

-------------------------------

Dev Update

quote:

Hi everyone,

It was good to meet some of you at EGX last week. I don�t go to many of the shows and was impressed by our stand there and pleased to see that it was always busy and with a long queue to see Elite Dangerous on the Vive! The dev panel with Sandy and David was a lot of fun as well and I hope you all enjoyed the announcements.

I�m back in the office now and there�s been a lot of progress for the upcoming Xbox One and CQC Update release. These releases will require some server downtime � we�ll announce the details nearer the time once everything is confirmed. Many of the teething issues with matchmaking should now be addressed, but please raise a bug if you continue to experience issues on either platform.

This week sees a new (and hopefully the last) gamma release for the PC CQC update. The release date is still expected to be October 6th, but we�ll confirm once all the details are in place.

Earlier in the year we updated the mission system to allow us to add more variety and mission related content and that process has progressed throughout the year and will continue into the Horizons season and beyond. There are a number of changes and additions coming in the 1.5 Ships update and so will be available to both season one and two players.

Missions can now be received in space, so they�re not always taken from the Bulletin Board and can be received from encounters with other ships. A variant on this are missions that can be triggered by scooping certain items in space. Timed assassination missions will be available from the Bulletin Boards, similar to the assassination missions in FFE you need to find your target at a certain time and place.

This timing mechanism is also available for other mission types where the mission target can only be found at a specific time. Alongside this, missions can now have multiple stages � this applies as sequences of the same mission type, so delivering goods to a station and then bring something else back. Note that this isn�t fully chained missions yet (which we define as different missions in a sequence), although these are planned as part of the Horizons season. A specific variant on this are tasks that have to be completed after a successful assassination.

A survival element to missions means that a player will have to survive specific encounters before being able to complete a specific mission, for example delivering secret information to a contact while being hunted. Another aspect for a player to be aware of are those that require them to be completed without being scanned � something I�m sure skilled smugglers will have an advantage with :-)

There are a couple of other elements too � but I�ll keep them as a surprise for you!

Thanks

Michael

https://community.elitedangerous.com/node/307

Dante80 fucked around with this message at 04:01 on Oct 2, 2015

# ¿ Oct 2, 2015 03:58

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Eonwe posted:

Someone explain if this is a good game or not

So far, it has been a re-imagining of the good old Elite games with new graphics and a lackluster persistent multi-player layer added to them. Some aspects of the game (like flying around, the feel of space, sound etc) are really incredible, while others (game balancing, player to player interaction) are not.

FDEV have no experience in making MMOs, so many of the decisions they have made make no sense whatsoever. They are learning though, and the game has a development plan that will span years (adding a lot of things, from FPS gameplay to planetary interaction, multi-crew and Alien Wars).

If you are interested in space games, right now ED has the best space sim experience that you can find - especially if you are into VR. Take a look at this fanmade VR video from last January (when the game launched).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Djy83O0nfds

On the other hand, many have commented that this game is like a mile wide pond with a depth of a few inches. This is an accurate assessment of the current player experience.

All in all, it pretty much deserves the price they are asking for it, although its pretty far from what it can become in the future (provided FDEV learn from their mistakes and keep making money to develop the game).

Dante80 fucked around with this message at 04:36 on Oct 2, 2015

# ¿ Oct 2, 2015 04:19

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Gestalt Intellect posted:

When did they mention this stuff because at the rate they're finishing features it doesn't seem realistic.

At least these are the only promises we can say that about, and there is an actual game that exists to play right here and now. Unlike, you know. That other game.

FPS gameplay (including some ludicrous activities like hunting for exotic game in planets) has been known since the Kickstarter and also shown as concept art [1] [2]. Same goes for the Thargoids, for which FDEV have already cordoned off some sections of the starmap for future development.

Have in mind that the development plan for this game spans a decade or sth. That does not mean FDEV have a concrete idea of how it will unravel, or how to make this happen exactly, or even if its realistic/feasible to do it. Its just what they want to do, provided they have the funds to do it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM0Gcl7iUM8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yd-m9AR7mY

Dante80 fucked around with this message at 05:06 on Oct 2, 2015

# ¿ Oct 2, 2015 04:56

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Arach posted:

Landings are looking pretty barren - and still kinda photoshoped - for something that's going to be Out, or at least in Beta in within 60 days.

If I could wager a guess, thats how they are going to be at start. FDEV is using an iterative process, and tend to make things look better (and sometimes worse) as we move forward.

An example would be the first iterations of gas giants we got. We went from this

to this

# ¿ Oct 3, 2015 10:11

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

A pretty nice voyage to the core and back.

https://imgur.com/a/GdPkw/

Some very beautiful screenshots inside that album. Here are a couple.

GEMfx settings
http://1drv.ms/1Joh64d

Just extract to the folder with EliteDangerous32.exe in it and hope for the best.

Dante80 fucked around with this message at 11:05 on Oct 4, 2015

# ¿ Oct 4, 2015 11:00

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Those Type9s are pretty big.

# ¿ Oct 5, 2015 16:46

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

RabidWeasel posted:

Yeah it's funny that as soon as someone explained that to me it made perfect sense - after all, almost all of those sorts of fights in Frontier were initiated by enemy ships, and if the enemy is able to intercept you in any meaningful way then they have to be moving at least at a similar velocity, otherwise they wouldn't really be able to interact with you at all, so by turning off your engines and just using thrusters you're essentially setting your initial velocity as a new inertial frame which means you can have a perfectly good spaceship fight without jousting even though you're all moving at thousands of kilometers per second in a single direction (of course this is always true in some sense in space which kind of makes my point)

Yep, pretty much. I played that game for years in the 90's without understanding that. At first, I just paused and selected the enemy ship, then clicked the autopilot button. This brought it in my sights, but one out of three times I collided.

After a year or so, I learned to pause, select the ship and use my super duper quickshot joystick to move around. I distinctly remember killing at least 3 joysticks by playing this game. As well as dozens of suction cups. In the end, I simply used a vise to keep the joystick in my desk, whether it wanted to stay there or not. :sparkles:

I had to wait until youtube and 2005 to learn how to fly in that loving game..

btw...isinona (yeah...who else, and now you know from where he learned to fly on fa-off) made a good tutorial for it a couple of years ago. He was only like 20 years late or so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UMIbdN0UFE

Dante80 fucked around with this message at 04:50 on Oct 6, 2015

# ¿ Oct 6, 2015 04:41

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=188237&p=2899732#post2899732

quote:

Join the Elite in the $100,000 CQC Tournament

We�re also very pleased to announce our first competitive Close Quarter Combat Tournament. This will be open to all PC, Mac, and Xbox Elite: Dangerous players so get practicing! We�ll be running qualifying periods each month where players will be competing for a chance win a free trip to the live final in the UK, covering all flights (where necessary) and accommodation. The total prize budget, including cash prizes, flights and accommodation for qualifying winners will be over a staggering $100,000 USD.

The live final will have a cash prize pot of $15,000 USD!

We will be releasing full details on the tournament and how to enter in the coming weeks so keep your eyes peeled on the community site and we hope you can join us for the AMA and livestream.

# ¿ Oct 6, 2015 16:08

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

New emperor is in.

Servers up

-ish

# ¿ Oct 6, 2015 18:26

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Romes128 posted:

Are solo and online mods linked? If I get a new ship in solo mode, does it carry over to online?

Yes/Yes.

# ¿ Oct 6, 2015 19:27

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

That Medusa skin is glorious!

# ¿ Oct 6, 2015 19:32

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYv5ri9yN18

# ¿ Oct 6, 2015 20:17

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

LCL-Dead posted:

That little fighter sounds sexy as gently caress.

Yeah. Just listen to the thing wooshing by on around 1:00

FDEV should get that audio award here imo.
http://www.gamesradar.com/goldenjoystickawards/vote/

# ¿ Oct 6, 2015 20:37

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

LCL-Dead posted:

Yeah, I had access to the CQC stress test and have had beta access to all prior patches prior to them going live (Even though I've never installed the beta runs after gamma/release).

I shot an email to support and will hopefully have an answer soon. I know I didn't buy a package with season pass though.

Premium beta was �100/�120/$150 (I know, I paid for it).

If you paid less, you actually have regular beta. No expansion pass (that was selling for 75 bucks separately if I remember correctly.
Regular beta was also $75 I think. And alpha $300 lol

In other news..Braben tweeted this. Seems they have been working on how the planets look (that photo looks a little better than what we had in 1.3)

Dante80 fucked around with this message at 15:21 on Oct 7, 2015

# ¿ Oct 7, 2015 15:18

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Also, the CQC launch trailer is out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN9vdSmrY2o

# ¿ Oct 7, 2015 15:32

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Dev update out.

quote:

Hi everyone,

This week has been another busy week and saw the simultaneous release of both Xbox One and the CQC update for PC and Mac. There were a few bumps with scaling out the servers, which should be addressed today. As with previous releases we plan a minor update to sweep up some other issues as a title update for the Xbox One and minor update for PC and Mac once this is ready.

As part of the release some of us took part in a live AMA on Xbox One subreddit with a long list of questions that we had fun going through � I think we managed to answer most of them! You can read the AMA here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/xboxone/comments/3nlmdg/its_frontier_developments_developers_of_elite/

Thanks to everyone on the subreddit for their questions. Later in the day Ed Lewis hosted some live chats with a number of developers and thanks again to everyone who took part.

Alongside the releases we also announced a CQC tournament with total prize value of over $100,000 - which includes some cool cash prizes of $15,000 for the final � you can expect more details on this soon!

Next on the horizon (I can see this pun being used a lot :-) ) is the start of the second season of expansions with Planetary Landings and the accompanying 1.5 Ships update. I talked a bit last week about the mission changes coming, so this week I�ll look at some of the new enemies you�ll encounter on the surface in the Planetary Landings expansion.

As can be expected there is a significant difference between the offensive and defensive capabilities of the ships and the smaller SRVs that you drive on the surface. While it is theory possible for an SRV to shoot down a ship � it�s really not something I�d recommend! From the ship�s perspective this is balanced by the SRVs being hard to hit, although if they do manage to hit, it would be devastating.

To provide the ground operations a more reasonable level of opponents we have added �skimmers� which are capable of limited mobile operations to defend locations. Skimmers are remote controlled security and defence drones primarily designed to protect positions and restrict movement. They are designed to be hard to engage with ships, so the SRV with its rapid fire guns is the best way to tackle them. Be warned that while most rely on their armour, some may have shields.

They are remotely controlled and will usually have a command and control system or relay nearby � these define the area in which the skimmers linked to that system can operate. They are specifically designed for operations on planets and are very manoeuvrable, although incapable of space or high altitude flight. They operate best close to the ground.

Skimmers utilizes many standard manufacturing patterns and are built by various corporations across the galaxy � including big names like Core Dynamics. They are available in different variants, each suited for a different role:

�Core Dynamics S4 �sentry� skimmer � this is the most widely used skimmer in the vast semi-automated security and protection industry throughout the galaxy, and a mainstay product for Core Dynamics. Comes as standard with a belly-mounted standard recoil-ready small weapon mount, which will take both kinetic and thermal weapons. Designed with an automated alert system so a single pilot can operate multiple such drones.

�Core Dynamics S5LM �guardian� skimmer � Based on their S4 skimmers, but with reduced weight, and with an enhanced missile launcher weapon mount. A more expensive solution, but often used to protect higher value installations. It sacrifices armour to carry the weight of missiles and so is more vulnerable.

�Achilles Corp Stinger-2 attack skimmer � Smaller and quicker than Core Dynamics offerings in this sector, and also cheaper to buy. It has no weapon mount, but carries explosives, and can be directed by its pilot to self destruct, taking out its target. Some installations use these skimmers to form a last line of defence for sensitive bases and outposts. In essence they are a flying bomb. The Achilles Corporation cut down its range of skimmers just to the Stinger-2, but it is rumoured they will be launching new skimmers to their range in the next few years.

�Core Dynamics S9 �goliath� skimmer � A very effective solution to your security needs. Using four surface thrusters this armoured and well-armed skimmer is the most effective on the market. Its greater cost means it is generally only used by military clients, and use is not permitted in some jurisdictions given their offensive abilities.

While most skimmers are usually found near bases, given the recent rise in scavenging of shipwrecks, some transport vessels with higher value cargoes now carry automated distress response packageswhich include skimmers, and they are deployed automatically in the event of a crash to secure the site and help protect any survivors.

https://community.elitedangerous.com/node/314

# ¿ Oct 8, 2015 20:22

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

QuantaStarFire posted:

I really wish you could do short jumps in that situation. Like, is it an in-universe reason we have to fly 20 IRL minutes to some of these places instead of jumping there directly?

I think that the best compromise would be to be able to micro-jump between the first order gravity objects in a system. For example, the reason that some stations are very far from the jump point in a system is simply the fact that your ship uses the biggest mass in a multiple star system for the jump point, and the station is orbiting another star inside the system.

I think the way to alleviate this without making SC completely pointless would be to give us the choice of doing micro-jumps from one massive object to the other inside a star system AFTER we have entered at the largest mass entry point. This would both make sense in lore (your nav computer cannot jump to a smaller objects inside a multiple object system from light years away), and serve to cut those lengthy trips by a very big margin.

# ¿ Oct 9, 2015 14:04

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Next newsletter is out.

http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=dcbf6b86b4b0c7d1c21b73b1e&id=c2bae423cf

Regarding this, I really think they should have taken the time to make a slightly different UI than the default. I understand the lore says that the UI belongs to the pilots federation and is the same for everything, but still..its a little lazy imo. At least, we know that it will be functional..C:

Also, he is driving with assist off.

Dante80 fucked around with this message at 18:57 on Oct 9, 2015

# ¿ Oct 9, 2015 18:49

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Also, it looks like there is a base in that video.

Seems a little spread out. Landing pads?

# ¿ Oct 9, 2015 18:58

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 06:27

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Insert name here posted:

Somewhat related but I kinda wish there was an option for non-standardized HUDs so that every ship had their own unique HUD. It'll never happen but every ship having all the displays in different spots in the old Wing Commander games was always one of my favourite things.

Yes, and no. The paramount focus of UI is for it to be as intuitive and functional as possible. Making a good or even passable design is not easy in a game like this. And replicating the intended gameplay output across many different designs is borderline impossible.

What FDEV could and should do, is to provide "flair" and customization to the existing design. From different default per manufacturer hue and color combinations to customized audio and graphics/symbols. Geometry changes though...can be a bitch.

# ¿ Oct 9, 2015 19:13

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Ellen Degeneres: Horizons - AI Now Earns More Than Human Crew

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