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

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Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Polo-Rican posted:

Whoa I'm really surprised you can fluidly fly from a planet's surface into space. I thought it would be like space stations, where you'd "pop" out of supercruise and immediately be on the surface.

There is going to be an instance hop I think, from SuperCruise to "approach" or "orbit mode".

# ¿ Oct 9, 2015 19:31

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# ¿ May 12, 2024 11:05

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Polo-Rican posted:

Yep, but that's still better than I expected. I expected the hop to be from space to an endless procedural surface that extends infinitely in all directions. But you're getting the full planetary sphere, which is awesome.

Indeed. I'm really wondering how this will look when we get down to planets with an atmosphere too. Re-entry heat and all that.
Btw, I know that this is for 2017, but I am really excited to see how FDEV will make their atmospheric flight model.

The only thing really missing would be to have proper, seamless looking instance hopping transitions. Imagining something like decelerating from warp in EVE seems appropriate, I really hope that FDEV takes a look at this in the future.

Dante80 fucked around with this message at 20:20 on Oct 9, 2015

# ¿ Oct 9, 2015 20:17

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

ralfi is at it again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A__nbX9TxEE

# ¿ Oct 12, 2015 11:16

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

double riveting posted:

That's a loving great video.

That guy is a natural. Watch his DCS videos btw, they are stellar.

Some more ED from him.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzCFXIBrFP8

# ¿ Oct 12, 2015 15:50

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Beer4TheBeerGod posted:

Any suggestions or guides for how to fly without FA aside from practice and die a lot?

From the master.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtD41MRibe4

In the end though...practice makes perfect. The first thing you have to do is to make yourself as comfortable as possible with the controls. Spend a lot of time in making a good profile for your controller setup (HOTAS is pretty good in this game) and then..never change it. Muscle memory becomes a thing pretty quicker than you might think. Also, after you become comfortable with the controls, you might want to tweak your HOTAS curves if it has a program for it. You can pretty much tune it to perfection if you take the time (and this takes time).

Also, practice in areas (the tutorials help, but you can also do it in open) where there are a lot of obstacles nearby. These can give you feedback about how you are flying.

Have in mind that flying always in FA OFF will never make you as competitive as when using it in short bursts. It really feels though like you are flying a loving spaceship, which in the end is the most notable thing about this game (the feeling of flight).

Dante80 fucked around with this message at 17:41 on Oct 13, 2015

# ¿ Oct 13, 2015 17:34

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Beer4TheBeerGod posted:

Why are short bursts more competitive than FA off permanently?

Because its far easier, and FA ON retains all 6DoF.

More than a year ago, I sent this to Mike Evans (the designer responsible for the ED flight model)

quote:

Salutations from sunny Greece...

Terribly sorry to pull you away from your busy schedule.

A question, I know that you don't have to answer it.

Currently, the FA OFF flight mode brings the skill ceiling in this game very high. As should be. Your decision to remove auto-counterthrusting from the mode made it that much more difficult, immersive and actually skill promoting to use.

Players though at this juncture of the competitive metagame are finding time and again that mastering the mode does not provide any advantages. Sure, you can use it in very small increments to augment your maneuvering, but in the end FA ON provides more usability, especially since strafing is allowed on it.

I understand that the effect on gameplay is somewhat intended. But are there any plans in the future to reward players more (directly or indirectly) for using this mode? I really think it would make the end game much more skill based and rewarding for the playerbase.

Keep the goodness coming man, cheers..C:

Regards and best wishes,
George F.

Here is his response.

quote:

We don't plan to change the way ot behaves, and in certain circumstances skilled use of it will give you an advantage but not nearly as much as some people seem to think it does as you already have surmised. At the end of the day we want flying in the direction your facing to be the main way to play and fight so I'd rather not making it more desirable to go against that if I can help it.

Cheers,
-Mike

Now...I do disagree with that, but thats what they are going for, and - for good or bad - FDEV had from the very start a very concrete vision about what they want their flight model to be.

Its too bad that they have no experience in making MMOs. If most of the decisions and focus they had on things like how space/flight feels were also applied to the way they are developing the multiplayer aspect of the game, as well as player interaction and progression mechanics, this game would be a 10/10 instead of a 7/10.

They seem to be learning though...little by little.

Dante80 fucked around with this message at 18:25 on Oct 13, 2015

# ¿ Oct 13, 2015 18:22

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

quote:

Elite Dangerous: Horizons - How to Make a Real World Livestream on our official YouTube Channel 7PM BST 14th Oct

Hi everyone,
I'm really excited about this one. We've invited Lead Artist Jonathan Bottone and Head of Technical Art Matthew Dickinson, to come on the stream and show off some brand new footage of the tech we use in Horizons.

You'll have plenty of chance to ask questions about the science and complicated tech jiggery pokery behind creating the planets, while I sit dumbstruck as they tell us how it's done.
Should be a good one. After that we'll play some CQC, or have a meet up in Eravate... let's see what happens.

ON YOUTUBE STREAMING
We've worked with YouTube to get our streams whitelisted for the German audiences - so everyone can join in! That's some good news to go with all the other good news.
Details as seen in last week's newsletter:

"The planets in Elite Dangerous: Horizons feel immersive, tactile and real, and making them is a complex, fascinating and important part of development. We'd love to give you a sneak peek behind the scenes at how we create these planets, so we�re hosting a livestream next week with a couple of our lead artists (keep an eye on our social media channels for where the stream will be hosted).

On Wednesday October 14, at 7PM BST, we'll show you some early development footage of the icy and rocky worlds in motion. This peek behind the scenes will demonstrate the simulation technology that we've been working on to create the captivating �Europa lines� for the ice worlds and canyons, and the craters and mountains for the rocky worlds.

Simulation has always been important within the Elite Dangerous galaxy, and our conversation with the artists will highlight the accuracy, depth and technical prowess that go into creating the impressive features that make up our worlds.
We'll talk through the base-scientific principle that the simulation has been built on in order to shape these beautiful, real worlds. Viewers will also have the chance to ask questions about the atmosphere-less bodies they'll be landing on when Elite Dangerous: Horizons launches later this year."

https://www.youtube.com/user/FrontierDevelopments

This might be interesting.

# ¿ Oct 13, 2015 19:42

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Some pretty cool previews there, including a 30km high mountain O_o

# ¿ Oct 14, 2015 19:54

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Now I'm really pumped to see how differences in gravity from one planet to the other will affect the flight and driving model. They did confirm dynamic gravity (according to planet mass)...<3

Also, nebularise!

# ¿ Oct 14, 2015 20:18

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Up. Starts at 8min

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Et5Ivi_yIg

# ¿ Oct 14, 2015 20:31

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

devup is in.

quote:

Hi everyone,

As I�m sure you can imagine work on the Elite Dangerous: Horizons Planetary Landings release is continuing at pace and this week � one of the major new features is the ability to drive the SRV on the surface. We�ve approached adding the SRV in the same way that we did when originally adding the flight controls into the game. They key here is to have the driving as a fun experience in itself as well as with the gameplay elements layered on top of it. As with the ships we have a robust physics system at the core and it�s with the controls we turn that into a fun experience.

The SRV has some cool advantages over normal vehicles you get to drive in game, the most obvious of which are the thrusters. These provide two key features, the first is the ability to boost of the surface allowing for powered jumps to get out of craters or to cross chasms. While in the air you can you can manually adjust the thrusters in the same way as in a ship with Flight Assist turned off. This allows for some amazing acrobatics as well as allowing you to reach locations that would be difficult to reach with normal driving. It�s also useful if you get yourself stuck!

As with the rest of the game the surface of the worlds you can land on is recreated on a 1:1 scale, not only spatially but with gravity as well. Gravity has a big effect on the handling of the SRV and here the thrusters provide their second major function. When testing the SRV in different environments there are edge cases with very low gravity and extremely high gravity where the SRV becomes impossible to handle. The thrusters help compensate for these extremes in handling, but only to a limited degree � it feels very different driving on a tiny moon compared to a massive terrestrial planet.

As already mentioned making the driving fun in itself is an important goal for us. While the thrusters do add to a large extent (there�s something quite magical with boosting out of a crater and into the sunrise!) the actual contact with the vehicle and the surface provides a lot of feedback. Similar to sand buggies, if you try to push the SRV�s performance then you need to work harder to keep it under control. Feedback is very important here � the ships audio and VFX, along with the handling, create the response you need to let you know what�s going on.

The SRV is equipped with a turret optimised for engaging local opponents like skimmers (see last week�s dev update for more information on these) and other SRV�s (if hostile players are in the area). In theory you could take on a ship, but ship mounted weapons are much more powerful than the SRV�s so it�s best not to! You should also beware some of large defensive turrets � these are equipped to tackle low flying ships, but pose a threat to SRV�s as well.

Combat is just one feature of the SRV, it�s capable of carrying a small number of cargo canisters and also has a new device for finding things on the surface � more on that in a couple of weeks time!

Next week the second batch of player group backed minor factions should go live. Thanks to some brilliant feedback from our players, we�ve made progress with fixing some odd behaviour with influence levels � we hope to address this next week.

Exploration data should be operating smoothly now after some issues since the 1.4 release. If you do encounter a further issue then make sure to raise a bug and we�ll investigate.

We are currently working on a client update for PC/Mac and Xbox One, all being well these will be released next week. As well as various fixes we�re adjusting the NPC interdiction so it isn�t quite as punishing as it is at the moment.

Thanks,

Michael

https://community.elitedangerous.com/node/318

# ¿ Oct 15, 2015 17:25

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

There was also an "answers from the devs" today. Some cool answers inside.

quote:

Hey guys,

It�s been a couple of weeks since our last �Answers from the devs� thread. So we�ve compiled a new list, sent them over to the team and got the following answers for you.

As always if you have any burning questions post them below and we�ll compile a new thread soon.

==

How many of the 30 ships are in the game currently? Any news on what the final ones to be announced are?

Here�s a list of the ships we�ve announced so far, and as an extra treat we�ve added the names of the five ships coming as part of Elite Dangerous 1.5. Remember, these are just the ship names, and we�ll be revealing loads of exciting details about them in the coming weeks.

1 Sidewinder
2 Eagle
3 Hauler
4 Adder
5 Imperial Eagle
6 Viper
7 Cobra MK III
8 Diamondback Scout
9 Lakon Type 6
10 Diamondback Explorer
11 Imperial Courier
12 Vulture
13 Asp Explorer
14 Federal Dropship
15 Lakon Type 7
16 Federal Assault Ship
17 Imperial Clipper
18 Federal Gunship
19 Orca
20 Fer-De-Lance
21 Python
22 Lakon Type 9
23 Anaconda
24 F63 Condor (CQC only)

And to come:

25 Imperial Short Range Fighter (CQC only)
26 Lakon Keelback
27 Viper MK IV
28 Asp Scout
29 Federal Corvette
30 Imperial Cutter
31 Cobra MK IV (for owners of Season 1 and Season 2)

==

What is the minimum spec for Horizons?

We don�t have a final minimum spec just yet because we�re still working on the optimization. We�re hopeful it won�t be significantly different from the current game. However it will require a PC that supports Direct X11 as Horizons uses compute shaders.

==

What are the technical issues with Oculus, is this a move towards exclusivity for VR platforms?

We now support both Oculus Rift (via the 0.5 SDK) and SteamVR/Vive. Because of some changes to the Oculus SDK, we are working closely with Oculus to support a later SDK, but we cannot use 0.7.

==

If I reset my commander data, what happens to my friends list?

Absolutely nothing, your friends list is tied to your account. If you want to reset back to zero and start with a clean slate then more power to you! Good luck Commander.

==

Will there be more decals in the store?

There will be more decals coming to the store and we are looking at new and interesting ways to use them in the future with Elite Dangerous, and I think you�ll be excited when you see what we have planned.

==

When are you going to release paint jobs for the Diamondback Explorer?

Paint jobs for the Diamond Explorer, and many of the other ships in the catalogue, will be coming to the Frontier store soon!

==

Can we get an update on the Mac version of Horizons?

Unfortunately neither Open GL nor Metal on Mac support Compute Shaders and these are vital for Elite Dangerous: Horizons. We have investigated the issue at length and found that all other options currently simply won�t allow us the performance that a game of this size and detail needs. Once Macs are able to support compute shaders, or other technical options are available, we will certainly be keen on supporting that platform.

==

How much cargo will an SRV hold?

The Scarab SRV will be able to hold two units of cargo, however on the planet surface there are other things to do and collect which may not require much storage. More information on that� soon.

==

Do you think that having the ability to have a ship delivered to a station of my choosing would be possible in the future?

This is something on our radar and is something we�re keen to implement in the game as part of a future update, but we have nothing to announce on that at the moment.

==

Are there any plans to improve the navigation system and add functionality to it?

Every aspect of Elite Dangerous will be continually iterated on and improved� The navigation system is no exception.

==

Will landing on planets give you more exploration data?

Landing on planets will eventually net you more exploration data. This isn�t something that will appear at launch in Elite Dangerous: Horizons though but there are new things to discover on the surface and a new way to find them. More on this coming soon!

==

If you are in orbital cruise, can you accidentally crash into the planet by entering too steep?

If you�re flying straight at the ground and you decide not to pull up as you approach the planet surface, you will most certainly crash!

==

What's the plan on making your CQC tournament a cool viewing experience?

We have something very special planned for the CQC tournament that everybody will be able to get involved in. We�re continuing to develop CQC and spectators are certainly something we are keeping in mind. We�ll have the full details soon, but make sure you get practicing your CQC skills right away!

==

Is it going to be a possibility of getting the lifetime pass released again?

It�s not available at the moment, but the lifetime could return to the Frontier Store again at some point in the future.

==

Will skimmers be able to be piloted/controlled by players, or just NPC's?

At the launch of Elite Dangerous: Horizons, the Skimmers will be NPC-controlled assailants � challenging and varied opponents to take on as you explore the planet�s surface. We�re looking in to the possibility of making them pilot able as part of a future update but we can�t promise anything at this time.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=191898

# ¿ Oct 15, 2015 17:49

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Seems like Mac players are kinda hosed. :/

# ¿ Oct 15, 2015 17:52

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

~~You are a partial failure.~~ You are good.

Here is a pink solar system.

Dante80 fucked around with this message at 18:47 on Oct 15, 2015

# ¿ Oct 15, 2015 18:44

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0RbIa9WmuI

also, a reply about tectonics from the Livestream thread.

Howdy folks.
I wanted to try and explain a little more about our system to hopefully lay some concerns to rest. For a plate-based tectonic system on a planet, a large enough temperature gradient is required to have a phase difference between a relatively thin crust and the deeper innards. That temperature gradient can be driven by things such as gravitational compression on a large enough body, or gravitational stress from orbiting a much larger body closely.
So yes, smaller terrestrial worlds, unless under rather specific conditions, will likely have crustal plates too thick for a tectonic mask to make sense. However, tectonic interactions is not the only way in which surface features can be formed.
Asteroidal impacts can create shockwaves across an entire planet's surface, deforming the crust in interesting patterns. The formation of a planet from the cataclysmic merging of two planetoids would liquify most of the material, but there is the chance for old solid outcrops to survive or influence the shape of the resulting body. Gravitational stressed can be enough to drive volcanism which forms mountain ranges on a surface. An event in a planet's past might alter its orbit from the previously stressful one to a wider/eccentric one, solidifying the new features. Impacts can cause rifts, ridges, and hill ranges as well as the expected crater.

To get back on topic, our 'tectonic mask' system takes into account various factors from Stellar Forge, such as:
expected gravitational stress / sibling and parent orbits
gravitational compression heating
material of the planet
size of the planet
tidal locking state
expected core, mantle, and crust temperatures
viscosity of mantle
deformability of the materials
age of the system
expected frequency and magnitude of meteorite collisions
nearby sources of regular debris
and more

The system creates masks for areas of potential crustal deformation activity. Those areas may reflect the shapes and activities of tectonic plates if it's sensible for that particular planet.
It may reflect other shapes if the sources of those deformations isn't bona fide tectonic activity. The same system is used for large and small planets, and adapts as it needs to.
We ended up calling it the 'tectonic mask' because it's short, snappy, and places the same kind of visual features (even if what physically would have generated them might have been different).

TL;DR "tectonics mask" is a shorthand way we've been describing all the regions of crustal major deformation from a variety of sources.

(p.s. similar thing with the limestone material on an oceanless planet question. Limestone is a short, relatable name for development compared to "calcium carbonate rich analogues" )

# ¿ Oct 16, 2015 14:54

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

FDEV are churning out videos and preview content at an alarming pace lately.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8H-dHS-E1c

This either means they are hurting for cash, or that they are getting better at this. Probably both?

In other news..

http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=dcbf6b86b4b0c7d1c21b73b1e&id=4e7e00d790

# ¿ Oct 16, 2015 18:34

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

frank.club posted:

Adder is incredibly cool

Even cooler in concept.

Chrysophylax posted:

Because then you can either move on to some other activity or actually enjoy the content that does exist in any ship and configuration you dream, aka playing the sandbox with any/all tools

I've been playing since premium beta, and tend to reset my character every three months or so (or in 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 etc etc). I view this as FE2/FFE with friends (ie a niche product), not a persistent MMO where you have to grind to reach an end state, and then beg the developer to add more high end poo poo for you to not get bored.

Then again, I'm weird (necrogamer + astronomy nerd). Just flying around and enjoying the scenery is enough for me at most times. In the end, I just want to remake/relive this intro.

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

Maybe in 2017 we'll be there.

Dante80 fucked around with this message at 05:06 on Oct 20, 2015

# ¿ Oct 20, 2015 05:01

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Tom Guycot posted:

Huh, thats pretty neat how despite 20 some years old, and amiga level graphics I instantly recognized the eagles when the flew into the intro. Would love to see that recreated in ED, though I don't know what that main ship was supposed to be.

That was the original Imperial Courier, a very heavy fighter sporting a pair of class 5 hyperdrive engines.

The basic design (two very big engine nacelles and the fuselage in the middle) has carried over to ED.

Dante80 fucked around with this message at 13:11 on Oct 20, 2015

# ¿ Oct 20, 2015 13:06

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Regarding the smuggling mission nerf.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=193353&p=2976583#post2976583

quote:

Hello Commanders!

This is just a tiny update on long range smuggler missions.

We've currently made them more rare, nothing more.

In the near future, we will be looking to make some more changes (cargo size, time limits, reward values), but this hasn't happened yet.

# ¿ Oct 20, 2015 13:29

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

frank.club posted:

It's weird reading people say thanks to spite others who were smuggling? That's crazy

Its not crazy, in that those guys that say it are thinking that this was an exploit, not a balance problem for a feature. The simple idea of trying to get more missions by exiting and re-joining the instance-session to re-roll the BB is a game exploit for them.

Which is partially right, but - in the end - irrelevant.

# ¿ Oct 20, 2015 14:34

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Nostalgia4Infinity posted:

Cutting their spawn rate is probably easier than changing the way missions and instances are handled.

It is the fastest way to do it, especially if the imbalance is live on your servers. Having said that, I really want them to do it properly.

quote:

In the near future, we will be looking to make some more changes (cargo size, time limits, reward values), but this hasn't happened yet.

What they essentially need there is to make both long range missions and smuggling as a profession enticing. It should really be a risk/reward balance act, and there are a lot of ideas (in this thread and elsewhere) for that to happen.

In my view, both those that whined about the feature being OP, and those that whined when it got nerfed are two sides of the same coin. And that is...the game is unbalanced and FDEV is to blame for that.

Dante80 fucked around with this message at 14:50 on Oct 20, 2015

# ¿ Oct 20, 2015 14:47

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

frank.club posted:

Look I get that for some people mindless tedium is fun.

Mindless, fun tedium is something like the dictionary entry for all 4 Elite games.
Having said that, I understand your point.

# ¿ Oct 20, 2015 14:57

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

In other news...

quote:

Elite Dangerous: Horizons - Inside the SRV livestream on our official YouTube Channel 7PM BST 21st Oct

Direct stream link - https://gaming.youtube.com/frontierdevelopments/live

Hi everyone,
I think I said this last week, and it might be repeated next week (spoilers), but I think this one might be even better than last week.

Here's the original description from the newsletter:
A few of you caught Frontier CEO David Braben's latest YouTube upload earlier today, showing the very first in-game footage of the SRV in action. Now, we want to show you more.

We're hosting another stream on Wednesday October 21 at 7PM BST, with a live demo showcasing the handling and controls of the SRV. Tune in to our official YouTube channel at 7PM to watch Designer Mike Evans talk you through the SRV's controls in a live environment.

To add to the excitement of the night, Art Director Chris Gregory will show and tell us about the artistic decisions behind the Scarab, from concept to completion. We�re sure there will be time for questions afterwards, so don�t miss this must-see event!

Reminder - We sorted out whitelisting for the German community to watch our YouTube streams, and that still stands for this week, and the following streams too!
Honestly - this one really is a must-see event!

Glad to hear that Mike Evans is the guy behind the SRV drive model. He is also the designed for how ships in ED fly.

quote:

Videomakers/content creators callout - Elite Dangerous Pioneer Programme

Hey everyone,

Are you an Elite Dangerous videomaker/streamer/content creator? Then we'd love to work with you to help get Elite Dangerous out to the eyes and ears of the world!

Our pioneer programme is designed specifically to enable collaboration, and growth for videomakers and content creators.

If you're interested in learning more about it and you want to get involved - please do send me an email to elewis@frontier.co.uk and we'll get you signed up!

Thanks, I look forward to working with all you creative types!

Ralfidude and Isinona would be good candidates, as well as ObsidianAnt.

Then again...there is this guy..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2A2SqkTJ2o

https://www.youtube.com/user/TurandSand/videos

Dante80 fucked around with this message at 17:55 on Oct 20, 2015

# ¿ Oct 20, 2015 17:48

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Dr. Arbitrary posted:

They should make a ship that actually has strong yaw mobility.

Just as kind of a gimmicky ship.

Would love to see a couple of vertical ship designs that are yaw/roll oriented. Although I don't remember any ships from the lore being vertical shaped.

# ¿ Oct 20, 2015 23:21

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Just watched that livestream about the buggy. Love the way it handles and looks. C:

# ¿ Oct 22, 2015 01:45

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

devup is up.

quote:

Hi everyone,

Fantasticon is taking place this weekend and I will be there on the Saturday, so if you�re there feel free to say �Hello�!

The exploration issues from the 1.4 release should have now be fixed, however if you still have missing data then raise a support ticket (https://support.frontier.co.uk/kb/) which as much information as you can provide and we�ll look into it further. As I type this we�re reviewing some of the tickets already raised to determine what�s going on.

We�ve talked about some of the key features coming in the forthcoming Horizons Planetary Landings release and this week I�d like to take a little step back to look at the flow of some of those changes. The most obvious addition is the ability to fly down and drive on the surfaces of airless worlds. This obviously requires some changes to how space flight is handled.

In the game currently supercruise ends with a hard wall when you get too close to a planet. If you have Horizons then your ships will automatically be assigned a module that enables the ship to operate at orbital heights down to the surface in what we�re calling Orbital Cruise. With this module you will transition into orbital flight when you reach the appropriate altitude.

The ship handles a little differently in orbital flight. They key difference is that if you fly within orbital parameters (essentially perpendicular to the surface) you will travel faster and provides a mechanism for moving quickly around the planet. This is also highlighted in the UI by showing the sweet spot on your pitch control. Below orbital cruise you enter into surface flight and the controls change again to reflect the flight model operating within gravity and your thrusters compensating for you flight close to the surface.

As well as handling differences (and high gravity worlds feel different to fly on compared to low gravity worlds) the flight UI has been updated to provide the pertinent information you need when flying near the surface like altitude, pitch and so forth. We�ll show more on this in the coming weeks, but for this week I just wanted to establish the different zones that you can be in and how that affects you while playing.

This is especially pertinent in multiplayer and wings, as you can now be operating across very different environments, but you will have a need to support each other between these environments. It�s also key that transitioning between these is a seamless experience.

One of our favourite examples of mixing these is �combined arms� operations. When operating near a planet the ships have different advantages and disadvantages to the SRVs and combining them together can make operations more effective. We�ll be talking about settlements next week, so we�ll see a little more detail on that then, but in essence different types of base defences can be more effective against ships or against SRVs, so combining the forces in an attack can make it much more likely to succeed.

Naturally you can use the same tactics in single player by landing and deploying the SRV as needed. If you drive too far away then you can call your ship to your location, although you do need to make sure that there�s a suitable landing location (so not too rocky for example) and no anti-ship defences nearby!

This week we have released client updates for Xbox One and PC/Mac. There does still appear to be an issue with some mining transactions which we are investigating.

With the rapid churn of new features and changes since release we haven�t been able to keep localised languages as up to date as we�d like. For 1.5 and the Horizons planetary landing release we�re aiming to get completely caught up with missing translations and start working with the feedback that we�ve received to improve the translations in game.

It�s great fun playing these new additions and we look forward to sharing them with you soon :-)

Thanks

Michael

The part about combined ops and the way they are handling orbital mode seems pretty interesting.

Dante80 fucked around with this message at 19:55 on Oct 22, 2015

# ¿ Oct 22, 2015 19:52

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Libluini posted:

As nice as it is to hear all this stuff about Horizons, I really wish Frontier would consider telling us stuff about new ships earlier. Waiting to almost until the beta drops to get something concrete is getting old.

Well, we know what ships are coming, what type they are etc etc. I agree that a couple of sneak peeks would be dandy at this point, on the other hand though the ships are a free update (1.5) so it makes sense for FDEV to spend more time on talking about Horizons..

The fed corvette and imp cutter will be end game anaconda sized ships (it would be nice if we knew the ranks for them in advance), the imp fighter will be the condors' counterpart in CQC, and the Viper mkIV / Cobra mkIV will be larger (better?) versions of their mkIII counterparts.

Dante80 fucked around with this message at 20:22 on Oct 22, 2015

# ¿ Oct 22, 2015 20:19

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Adult Sword Owner posted:

^^^^ Oh god I read Vulture not Python, so sorry.

What's their 5 year plan for ships? Is this going to be some Eve poo poo where there's a bunch of different classes that are effective against certain classes and not really at all against others? Giant battleships that can't hit missile boast but they hold a dozen NPC and player controlled fighters that are dispatched to take out smaller targets/intercept incoming fire? Anything like that or is it going to be the same stratified content it is now where once you cross certain price thresholds you dominate below you but have to punch upwards until you can get better mounts?

The original KS concept was the following.
http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=dcbf6b86b4b0c7d1c21b73b1e&id=c0b11fe947

quote:

On the other hand, we have no idea what the deal with the Asp Scout is and the new Lakon-ship is another mystery (another cargo-ship, another explorer, a military ship?).

True, true.

# ¿ Oct 22, 2015 20:35

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Nostalgia4Infinity posted:

Ranks for the Cutter/Corvette would be great so I can start working on that now.

Also concept art for the Cutter

This one is very old, should be probably changed by now..

# ¿ Oct 22, 2015 20:41

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

In an unrelated note, the first Planet Coaster newsletter is out.

http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=dcbf6b86b4b0c7d1c21b73b1e&id=01c7336363&e=8c820abba6

# ¿ Oct 22, 2015 20:45

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

96 is out.

http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=dcbf6b86b4b0c7d1c21b73b1e&id=8a2e2a2e48

also, a nice ship chart.

# ¿ Oct 23, 2015 17:55

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3zwpmmC1DM

# ¿ Oct 25, 2015 05:35

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

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

# ¿ Oct 27, 2015 18:19

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

latest devup

quote:

Hi everyone,

I spent last Saturday up at Hull for Fantasticon and as well as enjoying the convention conducted a Q&A panel along with Ed and Zac. I�d like to say a big thank you to everyone there for making us feel welcome, the hard work that went into organising the event and of course for all the questions. Not unexpectedly Horizons was a popular topic and it was great to see the enthusiasm for what we�re putting together.

On Tuesday I took part in a live stream event looking at some of the gameplay like Skimmer combat in Horizons and also touched on points of interest. You can watch the stream here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kF8iPf1940

I�m going to expand on that in this update. On the surface there are many different things to see. Different military bases, research establishments, hideouts, starports, mining complexes, crashed ships and debris to investigate, and perhaps a few other things too. We are collectively calling these things �points of interest�. There is essentially a scale of items on the surface from starports and settlements, down to interesting mineral finds. Points of interest cover the encounters at the lower end of that scale, so as you travel across the surface you have a chance of encountering one of these points. The nature of the encounter will vary depending on where you are, the type of planet and the local topography and geology.

So for example you could be exploring an old mining world within the human bubble and find old mine workings, or machines. You might find a crashed ship way out beyond the frontier and who knows beyond that?

These points of interest come in a variety of flavours broadly split into two categories: natural and constructed. Natural points of interest are things that occur naturally on the planet such as mineral deposits. These themselves come in a range of elements and compounds and these feed into the new type of resource collection that we are adding as part of the loot system. Some elements of this will be part of the planetary landing release and will allow some specific modifications to your ship and SRV � we�ll have more on this coming in the next few weeks.

As well as naturally occurring formations we also have resources that can be found that have arrived from beyond the planet, but still of natural origin. These include items like meteorites that again feed into the new resource system. These will include resources that can only be found on the ground.

Manmade constructs can also be discovered on the planet�s surface and again these come in a variety of guises ranging from crashed ships to small encampments and other devices. More familiar cargo containers or other scoopable objects can be found at these encounters, so a crashed trading vessel may well have spewed the contents of its cargo hold. Or they might have something that needs scanning or data extracting from. These will tend to be found in the human habited region, but also beyond as tales of The Missing can attest to.

It�s often wise to approach these sites with caution as they can be protected by automated systems!

There are points of interest that don�t neatly fit into those two groupings, but we can leave them for you to discover for yourselves :-)

How you find these depends on your current transport. While on ships you only get a vague knowledge of whether there are points of interest nearby � this is shown as an area on your scanner. You will need to deploy your SRV and with its more specialised equipment locate whatever is there. This new equipment will form the focus for a new stream and update in the next few weeks.

As well as continued development with Horizons we�re supporting the released game and this week we deployed a server update to tackle the issue we encountered with the servers last Sunday. We are still looking into changes to address issues with the background simulation and player backed factions.

Thanks

Michael

and some more info from Sammarco.

quote:

Hello Commanders!

Good discussion! A little info for you folk, so you know where we�re coming from.

Your ship is vulnerable to enemy fire when landed, even if you're not in it. Once you travel beyond a distance threshold (that we're still playing with) or at you're command, the ship will launch and enter a holding pattern around that location, effectively removed from threat.

There will be a delay when calling the ship back, based on your distance to the point of its departure (again, we're still looking at these numbers). It will likely never get insanely long, as ships are capable of travelling pretty quickly, but it will definitely be a consideration.

There's a couple of reasons for our choice here.

Technically, once you move far enough away from your ship, it doesn't really exist for anyone except you, so there'd be little to gain from having it stay (we will hopefully have other options for marking the location of your ship if you need to get back to it).

Because of this, having the ship leave reduces the possibility of it "popping" back into existence when other Commanders are in the vicinity as you return (this runs the gamut of being an incredibly unlikely corner case to a distinct possibility depending on where you landed).

From a design point of view, having something so precious as a ship be vulnerable when the Commander has little to no chance of rescuing it (if you parked your ship and drove off a long distance from it) seems undesirable to me. I guess I would see it as being akin to leaving your ship present in space when you left the game. My issue here is that there's no sensible player choice here, only a strong punishment and disincentive to using your SRV for any decent amount of ground travel time.

The same logic applies to making the ship use fuel when waiting. Currently, it doesn�t, which I could argue contextually is because it�s running in emergency power mode, but which I�m just as happy saying that I don�t think the extra punishment of having the ship run out of fuel is worth the consistency gained by doing it in this instance.

I'm not saying that this sort of persistence isn't valid (some games do use mechanics to this effect, more or less), just that I'm not a big fan in this particular case, for the reasons above.

Hope this info helps a little.

# ¿ Oct 29, 2015 20:09

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

newsletter is out

http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=dcbf6b86b4b0c7d1c21b73b1e&id=47bd8c04aa

# ¿ Oct 30, 2015 19:33

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOZhlo3TP8s

# ¿ Oct 31, 2015 05:16

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

AndroidHub posted:

And just to be clear, do you or don't you think they are being released on the same day?

Who cares really? Both should be out by the end of the year (unless FDEV miss their timeline), and Beta for 1.5 starts next week. It can also be assumed that Horizons and 1.5 are different branches (one is bringing 9mo work on planets in, the other is based on the 1.1, 1.2 etc branch). In that case, starting the 1.5 beta first would make sense (if its to be the foundation of the base game, where Horizons plugs in for those that bought it).

In other news, here is the DB Q&A.

Beta will come in two stages: 1.5 launches on week commencing Nov 9th, and Horizons 2.0 on Nov 24th
Want to do NPC Wingmates & Crew. Planned, but no timescale.
Schematic map for use on planets coming soon
Rings will cast shadows on planet's surface, but no timescale.
Orrery map still planned, but no timescale. Will be at back end of Season 2 if it makes it in.
Player groups functionality in game. 'Yes, but...' recognising player groups as sub-factions is the start, but it won't be exactly like other game's mechanics.
Loot/Crafting: Simple bits will be in 2.0
Tier 2 persistent NPCs: Won't be in the sense that you can kill off all NPCs in galaxy, but small additions will come sequentially. No timeframe.
Played it on Vive today. 'It's awesome'. Buggies didn't make him feel sick. Getting excessively tumbled did make another player who was more prone to motion sickness feel that way.
Shark-tooth skin for the Python? Would love it, and they're looking into it, but no promises.
Asp scout? Not military version, another variant. More like the Asp out of Frontier. Slightly more budget.
When will we see significant updates to the base game? DB counters that piracy forms & bounty hunting, and new professions (mining) are significant improvements. 'It's getting better by degrees'. EDIT - Says they want to improve the use of Wings in bounty hunting and piracy, and that the story reasons for pursuing such professions will improve through Season 2.
Turret with Hotas? You can configure as you like. Hat button etc.
Plans to expand astronomical phenomenon? Accretion discs etc? Would love to do it. On the list. Comets are in the simulation, but getting them to look good and interact well with gameplay still need to be got right. You will be able to see medium-sized 'potato' asteroids even if you don't have Horizons.
Is Elite an MMORPG? By almost all measures, but suggests quality / connection limits means it can still improve over time.
Do you consider support for Force Feedback Joysticks or Wheels? Actually that would be a really good thing to do. Yes we should do it.
Did he ever imagine in '84 Elite could look like this? Imagine yes . Talks about under-promise, over-deliver in terms of creating impressive modern content.
Vid of buggy driving into settlement with Corvette nearby
How settlements work with single-player? Use deep ravines to approach 'under the guns' etc. The big guns don't decline etc. Only have to deal with the lighter skimmers. Could take out a generator, and both the lights and the big guns go down. Then call your ship in (if you've got all the generators). There are lots of bases, and they're varied.
NICE! SRV being lowered out of a Cobra, internal view as you exit. Animation looks good. Drives to large base. Hexagonal heat radiators.
Plans to reduce current transition phases? Yes, and they're constantly being worked on. (Some regions, and some connections, have excessive transitions now, and they're working on them)
Character creator will be used for NPCS? Yes, and planned. But not straight away.
Keelback? Lakon ship. You'll see in a week. Based on Type 6, but better, with more weaponry.
How are the DDF 'near God-like powers' re background sim coming? Straight apology on slow progress. At some point there will be something to address that, but not for now.
Buggy too jerky in streams? Some were filmed with TrackIR, which can be less pleasurable for viewer than player, maybe the cause of concern.
High end FerDeLance? Not sure where this rumour came from. Not ready to talk about that yet.
Thargoids? Well.... He was impressed by Cmdr who decoded the signals. There's more exciting stuff to come.
Will capital ships be improved to be more fun to play with/against? Yes, there's more to come.
Asteroid stations? You can sort of see the first vestiges them in CQC. They will come. Don't have a timeframe. Hopefully back-end of Season 2.
More CGs to expand the human bubble? Yes, he thinks they're wonderful. Absolutely yes.
Are you going to play SC? Yes, looking forward to playing it.
Can you conquer planetary bases? Can attack, but can't have your own one. Not yet anyway.
NPCs in Horizons? NPCs driving skimmers already. NPCs driving buggies [?] unlikely in Season 2. Planetary ships, yes.
Game API? Looking at, in pipeline.
Transfer creds after certain rank? Suggest the cargo transfer, so not seen as a priority. Has air of exploit if done on large scale. (Says big cheaters are being banned).
Expand 32 player cap? Could, but experience would suffer. Continually reviewing.
Jettison all cargo? Why?? You don't have to do it . Makes your ship lighter. And it's a surprise.
Passengers? Planned, but can't remember exact timescale.
Cutter / Corvette? Both slightly bigger/longer than Anaconda, and have bigger hardpoints. And fit through the slot.
What will you see 20k from Sol? You will see more exotic things, there will be things to find, but doesn't want to spoil
[Missed question] - Looking at how Horizons and non-Horizons Wings perform missions together.
Planetary approach suite fits in every ship. SRV takes up 4t of cargo space. Doesn't take up compartment.
Multi-sourced lighting? On the list. Might only come in High and Ultra settings. No promises.
Will we see Cmdr faces through visors etc / when communicating? Yes face normally clear because ship pressurised.
More difference between stations? It's coming, not sure when. Probably not in 2.0
Vessels over Season 2? First variants will be similar to the SRV, then more down the line. Handle differently and do different things.
Ship naming? (Did we promised that? ). He wants it. Says we will do it. I'll talk to the team tomorrow.
Systems visited bookmarks? Doesn't know.
Models or kits coming? Models yes, not kits that he knows of.
Publishing the lore? Wants to. And bringing story more to fore.
Large cities? Ever bigger settlements coming. Big cities not in 2.0, but will come over the Season.
SRV inside stations? Currently no, and probably not. Will look if worth doing.
Is orbital cruise and instanced area? At the moment pretty seamless. Isn't sure on details on where the transition is. There is instancing on the surface.
They have rough ship layouts, but no walking etc in Season 2
Are there -edit- non-shark Thargoid species?[??] YES! [What? Who the hell asked that question? ]
[Mumbled] If you're in a wing should be able to share exploration data. Will look into it.
More CQC maps in 1.5, then more after.
Supercruise bug? He will ask after this stream.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2015 00:50

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

More interested on the schematic and orrery maps myself. Orrery views would be very nice to have (as we had in Elite2/3), and it makes sense to have different map views for each celestial object (as per DDF).

Dante80 fucked around with this message at 01:09 on Nov 5, 2015

# ¿ Nov 5, 2015 00:57

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Hi everyone,

In yesterday�s live stream (you can view it here if you missed it). David Braben answered many questions including the dates for the various upcoming betas. The first beta will be for the 1.5 content and will commence some time next week. This will be followed by the Horizons planetary landing beta on the week of the 23rd November.

David�s sneak peek last week showed some of the settlement action so I�ll describe some aspects of this in more detail. Ports and settlements are the upper end of the scale of locations you can discover on planet�s surfaces. They can vary in size themselves from huge, established conglomerations of structures to quite small outposts. Surface starports are generally the largest and they act in a similar way to the starports in orbit. They can have the same facilities and have economies dependent on the type of world and with specific variations depending on the starport itself. New economy types have been added that only apply to surface starports.

As with the orbital starports, missions can be taken from surface starports and they can take you to surface bases. Similarly missions can be issued from orbital starports that require visiting the surface � assuming you have the ability to do so. There are also new mission variants that apply only to surface operations.

Complementing this is a range of resources and commodities that are only available from surface starports or by collection from points of interest as I mentioned last week. We�re also adding a new type of method for locating resources and uses for them which is a prelude for the loot and crafting system coming later in the Horizons season � more on this soon.

The surface starports and settlements are where the population of these airless worlds live and present various opportunities for Commanders. The style and layout of these facilities reflects their purpose. One of my favourite examples of this is the prison colony � this is an imposing and well-guarded structure that you might need to penetrate to facilitate a prison break.

Surface installations are a lot more open than orbital stations. Of course you can collect and deliver goods from surface bases, but it is also possible to hack data links, sections of bases get power from specific generators � taking out those generators takes out the lights in that section, but also the power to the turrets� Skimmers can also be taken out, or taking out the towers that control them can be just as effective way of breaching the defences. Whether it�s a secret research base or a prison colony, there are multiple stages to carrying out your objectives.

As we�ve shown and mentioned already it is advisable to take a flexible approach to these settlements � some of them are protected by capital ship scale weaponry that is lethal against ships, although less so against the SRVs � both because of their slower motion, but also they have a minimum angle of declination � so a Scarab can use the landscape to stay below the guns in most cases. Smaller turrets and skimmers are more of a threat to the SRVs. If you�re operating in a wing then each Commander can work in different roles at the same time, but even on your own you can achieve the same effect more slowly by switching between your ship and SRV accordingly.

Depending on the world�s population there can be none, a few, or many of these surface starports and settlements. As you�d expect they�re more common within the human habited bubble, but they�re not exclusive to that volume. Similar crime and ownership rules apply to settlements and ports as they do to space stations and outposts. Some of these can be lawless, others where the law is enforced � so take care before opening fire! As well as the bounties available at these sites you can encounter settlements in a state of war which can be engaged in a similar fashion to combat zones.

So far we�ve focused on the locations and the more action orientated gameplay, but naturally there�s more to planetary landings than that. I�ve already talked about the points of interest you can discover, but how you find them utilises a new device on the SRV, in addition to the ground scanner you have already seen. This works very differently to the ship scanners and we�ll reveal more about this next week.

Having said all this, we are still at work on the base game too. This week we updated the galaxy sim that fixes an issue with asset ownership not flipping when a conflict is resolved. A cap on influence changes has been added � this scales depending on the population of the system (a higher population allows a bigger swing) and the degree of changes (so a large value of changes allows more change in influence) and limits the maximum amount of change in a system when the background simulation effects are calculated. This will prevent the massive swings that we�ve seen, but a concerted campaign can still bring a faction down quickly if it is not countered. For the player group minor factions that were affected by the massive drops we�ll reset them to their initial ownership state where we can.

https://community.elitedangerous.com/node/331

# ¿ Nov 5, 2015 15:47

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# ¿ May 12, 2024 11:05

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Newsletter is out.

http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=dcbf6b86b4b0c7d1c21b73b1e&id=2e8fbe7909

This week, David's sneak peek videos of Elite Dangerous: Horizons continued, showing off a cold, deep misty crater. The mist is formed from volatiles released from the rocks below. These are not uncommon, and even possible at high temperatures, where lead vapour can also form high temperature mists.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jE7UhIyRnA

# ¿ Nov 6, 2015 19:01

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

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