Agree Frontier don't seem to have good grasp in the ship design area so far, particular  in the size of the ship. Maybe time time to throw out the old Elite sizes and make the ships bigger.

Another update from E:D has a rather nice animation of a docking concept (maybe they put it on youtube so everyone else can see it.)

Also another concept pic of a Imperial Courier.

Yeah, they've tried to infer (on the forum) that it may not end-up as the IC though - merely concept art again.

As I said on the E: D forum - that's an ugly ship! I think most of their ship-designs stink, tbh.

The big discussion is about multi-player (PvE or PvP etc) - and it's getting quite heated.

Personally, I think they're all crazy - but then I'm as mad as a hatter too!

Not been on the frontier forum in ages is the game still single player off line or have they changed it?.

These IC gun pod are way out of size with the rest of the ship, they do seem to having a bit of problem with the size of the ships.

I believe there will be two SP modes - online, with updated universe etc, and offline.

But who knows - sometimes I think they made promises in the KS that will come back to haunt them.

IIRC I think they use the wording "subject to change" in the Kickstarter.

IIRC I think they use the wording "subject to change" in the Kickstarter.

<chuckles> Yeah... 'subject to change' could've applied to my ex too.

Another news letter

One of the biggest challenges in Elite: Dangerous (and indeed any space game) is the implementation of the cockpit. The cockpit is the core of the player’s experience while they are flying their ship. Before delving into the look and feel the first task was to isolate what are the core requirements for the cockpit. These are summarised in these key goals:

• Provide all the relevant and essential information required to effectively fly the ship in a combat environment.
• Allow the player to monitor, customize and set up various aspects of the ship’s functionality through a more detailed set of interfaces in addition to the essential items above.
• Provide a standardised system of UI elements across different ship types.
• Minimize or remove all forms of non-diegetic UI (that which is removed from the fiction and geometry of the world) and rely on the more immersive diegetic, spatial and Meta UI elements to provide feedback and functionality to the player.
• Provide feedback to the player through audio and visual effects as to the state of the ship and their avatar in addition to those provided by the cockpit UI.
• Allow the player to hang up fluffy dice within the cockpit canopy (We’ll see!).

 

As you can see from the screen mock-up above we’re building a 3D cockpit. The cockpit functionality is built in three layers:

1. In the World: holograms attach to items beyond the cockpit. So ships and points of interest are identified with suitable markers in their actual locations, with guides to help the player locate them.
2. Cockpit Panel: these holograms are situated where you would expect cockpit controls, but the holographic nature provides the easy to read functionality with the flexibility of multi-functional displays, like we're starting to see in modern aircraft.
3. Pilot’s Eye: some elements are fixed to the pilot’s viewpoint. These are elements that would follow you as you look around, such as the communications panel.

 

Radar could use some more lines on it, bit hard to tell where the cockpit end and the outside starts. Think the real test will be when we see some video of it.

Could also use some more colours far too much orange.

Just noticed something else about the pic which is the target reticule and wheres the lead indicator?.

They still grappling with the size issues

Finally we get to see what the future cockpit in ED could be. Rather impressive to tell my first impression. For the developers, I would like to add and comment:

In Frontier and First Encounter, you start with a ship with only minimal capacities in terms of sensors and what I call - to stick to military expressions - Situation Awareness. You were not well equiped - so, you had to die quickly.

While this certainly has some realism for the situation, it would quickly send away space sim players. So what I'm hoping for is (to speak for cockpit functionality and also other aspects):

- There should be a system with some upgrades to buy that get your ship better scanners or radars, but the initial equipment should be reasonable - with less output quality - but make the player at least survive

- Considerable upgrades must cost the player credits in terms of mission successes and playing efforts archieved. If you want the best, you must show you are worth it.

- For exploration situations, it's good to have a sideral and outside view without cockpit, when there's interesting things to observe, no one would look through the cockpit, but look through a bull's eye. I imagine an upper ship side observation area where the player can physically move to and the "second pilot" would take over the ship's command.

I have a ton of other comments to make ED interesting, but I will keep it short. I wish a good job and success for the game authors.

XenonS

Best place to post about any idea would be the Frontier forums http://forums.frontier.co.uk/index.php

Ah, thanks Pinback! I think it's worth posting the above there.

XenonS

Watch out for the fanboys :biggrin:

It would be nice to have bits of equipment change the look of the cockpit but I guess it be too expensive to do.

Huuuh, there are actually tons and tons of suggestions for ED on this fansite, someone even wants a clickable cockpit 🙂

One thing that could probably be done relatively cheap would be a ship interior like in Noctis with an Astrolabe at the top where one could move to observe the surounding 360°. Also, like in AD3000, a mothership with different smaller ships to carry out fights which then re-dock. Nice would be to act in a fleet of different ships, not only you alone against the world.

XenonS

P.S.

I just finished The Precursors. I'm really disappointed by the abrupt end (finding the scientist) on Reandore. It's clear that the game was "cut" for release. Impressive overall.

P.S.

I just finished The Precursors. I'm really disappointed by the abrupt end (finding the scientist) on Reandore. It's clear that the game was "cut" for release. Impressive overall.

The game was original a lot bigger but they announced that they had decided to do two games instead of one, unfortunately they went burst and only managed to to get the first one out in a some what unfinished state.

Back on topic

I don't think they have said how many cockpit will be in the game but I can't see them doing a cockpit for every ship so there may just be a small number of generic cockpits for different types of ship.

Can't off hand remember what the cockpits in Noctis is like and was not 3000AD more of a control panel?

Always like the ship station idea that Independence War has.

Infinity's coffin was sealed ever since. When you take that long to develop something eventually everything and everyone else catches up.

Not an expert, so this is just my useless opinion, but to me he wasted a lot of development time stressing on some very tiny aspects regards the rendering engine.

This is one thing that struck me about Josh Parnell, although he is young, he pointedly stated in Limit Theory he is actively grounding himself in reality and won't over stress on certain things, like spending weeks just to get the algorithm right to render slightly better looking asteroids.

In Battlecruiser Gold and after (the last of the AD3000 series), there are several big ships and some with 4 or more fighters attached. The cockpit of the fighters were a bit different, though all the same for the different models. It  didn't  hurt the gameplay very much and you have access to all command functions including orders sent to your Battlecruiser.  I remember the space part was the only thing really playable in this game, the FPS part with seamless transitions to planets are very interesting as a potential, alas unplayable because of an almost 100% hitting rate of enemy troops. Also, I never have found reasonable ground missions, a fact that really astonished me. On the other side, Derek Smart seemed to take the realism to paranoia: it takes 20-30 minutes REAL TIME to make repairs on the stations, no speed up possible, LOL...

As for Noctis: This early gem of a space sim has no cockpit, you can walk in your command room and operate different consoles which are projected on a wall. Very nice idea, it gives you the sensation to really *do* something aboard your ship. No other ships, no combat, just exploration on far planets in a gigantic galaxy.

I expect Elite Dangerous to take such similar features and make them playable in todays good grafics environment. I wouldn't mind a similarity in the storyline of Frist Encounters, if only a lot of different mission types and procedures are added. After seeing the cockpit pictures above, I'm rather optimistic.

Let's see what comes out!

Limit Theory: What ?! With such a nice budget gathered on KS, Josh is in trouble? How's that? This project seems very promising, it would be a real pain if it doesn't make it to the release 🙁

XenonS

Limit Theory: What ?! With such a nice budget gathered on KS, Josh is in trouble? How's that? This project seems very promising, it would be a real pain if it doesn't make it to the release 🙁

XenonS

Think you miss understood Xenons it just means Josh would not spend weeks/months programming some aspect of the game just to make it look a little bit better.

The cockpit pictures above are only the first pass at it's design and they will evolve during the games development.  

Misunderstood, yes (sorry, I'm not english native). But the better so. Josh's Limit Theory is one of the coolest space sim projects in development IMO.

XenonS

News letter 9 has been sent to backer of the game.

bit light on content this issue but the most interesting item is the galaxy map

One challenge of having a game world as huge as ours is providing players with the right tools to effectively navigate it. For Elite: Dangerous this does not mean simply knowing that Planet-A is called X and Station-B is named Y; it is about providing players with a wealth of information that can help inform their game play, whether they’re looking at an entire sector or a single remote station. With this in mind, the design team summarised their intentions for the galaxy map with the following set of goals:

• Provide the player with understanding of their current location
• Provide useful information to enable the player to make interesting decisions
• Encourage the player to visit new locations
• Easy to use
• Be a fun tool for exploring the scope of the galaxy
• To be used to ‘print’ the night sky skybox on arrival in a system
• To provide a compelling backdrop for interstellar travel

The image above is the work station of Chris Gregory, the art director for Elite: Dangerous, who is leading the visual design of the galaxy map. There are four map states that players will be able to move seamlessly through, ranging from a view of the entire galaxy down to a single station or orbital body:

1. Galaxy View: view key landmark systems and celestial objects, as well as factional space and other points of interest.
2. Sector View: Displayed in the image above; individual sectors of 10 x 10 x 10 light years in size can be searched for by their coordinates and viewed.
3. Orrery View: Each star system can be viewed as an orrery, clearly displaying every orbital body’s relative position to their star.
4. Single-Mass View: Each singular mass can be viewed individually and will display a wealth of information relevant to the player. This could range from the natural resources present on a planet or moon, to the factional allegiance and available markets of a particular station.

 

The image above represents our current development for the Orrery View, however David keenly noted that the comet trail from Thais is pointing the incorrect way to be scientifically accurate, so there are still some amendments to be made! The map is designed to be as information rich as possible, providing players with a range of various views, filters and search options that can be configured to their own play style. To help illustrate the flexibility that it will give players, the design team came up with the following hypothetical scenarios:

1. I want to plot a hyperspace course: Generate an automatic course to your destination using the 'quickest route' or 'safest route' parameters, or manually plot each stage of your jump coordinates yourself.
2. Search by name for a system, planet or station: Type the target name into the search box
3. I have a cargo hold full of beans that I need to sell: Activate the trading data filter and set it to highlight non-agricultural systems. If your cargo is small, perhaps select a small/low traffic system where prices are likely to be highest, and plot your course.
4. I am a bounty hunter looking for new targets: Set the filters to highlight high piracy and low security level, and then head to such a system.

A lot of development has already gone into making the galaxy map as useful a tool as possible for players, whatever their role. The current design proposal is full of additional information on how the galaxy map will work, so head over to our forum for the full design summary. http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6298

 

New pic of the F63 condor

In previous newsletters we have shared with you the designs for both the Imperial and Federation short-range fighters. Since then the Federation Fighter has undergone a lot of development to take that early concept images and create a fully functional model for the final game. We have also given it a name; the F63 Condor.

We have also created the following schematic for the F63 Condor, as well as updating the schematics for the Empire Fighter and Sidewinder. We intend to eventually release these for every ship so look out for them in future newsletters!

 

Yeah, the galaxy map... almost a game in itself. One could probably spend hours just toying with it.

Yeah, the galaxy map... almost a game in itself. One could probably spend hours just toying with it.

Universe sandbox always reminds me of the Frontier maps

Well maybe I should say without the planet and galaxy crashing bits. :laugh:

E:D Video update 4

Last weeks news letter in full http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=dcbf6b86b4b0c7d1c21b73b1e&id=ffe2385d13 you can also look up the old one there as well.

Newsletter 10 out. http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/home/?u=dcbf6b86b4b0c7d1c21b73b1e&id=eb767c006f

Bit about trading in the game.

Trading has always been a massive component of the Elite experience and with the capabilities of our event system at our disposal, as well as online multiplayer, we have the opportunity in Elite: Dangerous to make a trading system that is more dynamic and detailed than ever before.

Today we would like to share with you some details on the initial design of trading, which has been revised and refined with the help of our Design Decision Forum members. So let’s get started where the majority of transactions will take place, at Markets.

Markets exist in a range of locations, both mobile and static; something we plan to expand further overtime. There are also a variety of different market types available to visit, each type helping to determine what goods may be available to buy:

• Space Stations: Trades legal commodities and essential ship supplies.
• Shipyards: Trades limited commodities relating to ships, ship modules, ship supplies and specialist enhancements.
• Factories: Specialist markets for particular commodities, relating to the factory and generally at a discount.
• Black Markets: Private markets only accessible based on player reputation. Trades illegal commodities, requires contact to access, and can be a hidden part of a legal market.
• Pirate Bases: Ignores fines and bounties, trades both legal and illegal commodities, and requires a contact to locate.
• Smuggler Bases: ignores fines but not bounties, trades legal and illegal commodities, and requires contact for location.

We have been experimenting with different trading screens. There is still a lot of discussion taking place in regards to balancing what information players are given so that they can be an effective trader.

The supply and demand (and as a result, the prices) of commodities at a specific market will be heavily determined by its location and the events taking place close by. Here are some possible examples of how the properties of a market might be affected by its location:

• Markets near an agricultural planet will have low demand and a low price for food or other organic produce, but might have a high demand for machinery and fertiliser.
• If a disaster hit the same planet (perhaps blight hits the planet’s crops), chemicals to produce fungicides as well as food and medical supplies to survive the destroyed harvest might sky-rocket in demand.
• Politics/laws determine the legality of specific commodities. So a system that prohibits alcohol consumption would be a difficult place to shift Lavian Brandy, but if you could establish black market contacts then you could set yourself up with a lucrative (albeit illegal) trade route.
• Newly colonised planets might demand a wide range of supplies to begin settlement building. If this planet later became populated by affluent citizens then a range of luxury resources might fetch a high price.

Alongside the main trading screen each commodity will have its own data panel, allowing players to make more informed trading decisions. We are still investigating how best this will work, and the data that is most helpful to a trader, while allowing some element of skill to make this work. For example only showing the last known price of a commodity at a given remote market, instead of a fully up to date price list.

In Elite: Dangerous information will also be a commodity in itself, with players able to buy and sell data packets to automatically update their galaxy map. These will open up a range of possibilities to the buyer, for general gameplay as well as trading, for example sharing more up to date market information on a distant system. Data packets can contain information on the following things:

• System locations
• Market locations
• Resource gathering locations
• Mission/event locations

There are many elements to the design of trading in Elite: Dangerous that can be seen in the design summary over on our forums. If you’re interested in some of the finer details of the proposal, such as information on player-to-player trading or commodities that require special equipment to transport, then head over now and check it out.

 

And a bit about introducing a new class of ship to the game.

Historically ships in Elite could be separated into one of three categories; combat ships, traders, or more general multi-role vessels.  With Elite: Dangerous we will be adding an entirely new range of ships, specifically designed for transporting passengers.

The above image represents our current direction for passenger ships, which are meant to evoke the same feeling as a yacht or luxury liner. The two ships above represent the low and middle range passenger ships, named the Dolphin and Orca Class Yachts respectively. As well as these there will also be a third Passenger-Class ship available, which will be the largest in its class and manufactured by the Imperial Gutamaya shipyards.

Passenger ships will generally be lightly armed but fast and luxurious, providing players with the lucrative potential to carry wealthy passengers (assuming you can get your passengers to their destination safely!). This could be in cooperation with other players, by them providing you with an escort, or by risking the journey alone for greater reward. We look forward to sharing more with you on Passenger-Class Ships and how they will work in Elite: Dangerous in future updates.

 

Boy racer class might be a better description of the ships above.

And planets.

In previous newsletters we have shared with you the results of our art team working to procedurally generate planets (for those that missed it click here). This time we’d like to show you a little more of the tool used at Frontier to achieve these results, and the process involved.

Much like the examples shared in Newsletter 4, the above planet is a sample of what was created by our in-house planet editor. The editor allows our team to set a wide range of parameters and environmental options in order to create the planetary maps based on conditions on that system (temperature, temperature range, chemical and atmospheric composition, age, history, plate tectonics, erosion, tidal locking, etc). When combined, these maps create a material that can be wrapped around a model to produce a planet with a tremendous amount of detail. Here are some of the maps that are procedurally created in this process:

• Height Map: used to map out the landscape
• Liquid Map (seen in the blue texture above): adds liquid to the landscape by setting variables such as 'sea' level, based on the temperatures and the chemical composition.
• Colour Map: sets the colour ranges for the planet, and then determines the relationship these colours have with the other maps depending on what classification of planet you’re trying to create and its composition.
• Liquid Colour: Set the colour and then how this colouration changes depending on the environment (for example darkening in relation to the liquid’s depth, depending on its opacity and temperature - e.g. if the poles are cooler than the equator).
• Cloud Map: Determines the level of cloud coverage over a planet.
• Flow Maps: An invisible layer that maps out how the clouds move and at what rate. This is affected by the local height of mountains and by temperature differentials.
• Impacts: Add craters to the planet’s surface. This is dependent on its age. If for example, if has been recently terraformed, then there may still be craters, but these will be surrounded by vegetation and possible seas or lakes and rivers.
• Rivers and Lakes: Add water sources to the planet’s surface in areas above sea level and dictates how these systems might modify/erode the landscape.

The beauty of this method is that once you find an array of inputs and modifiers that work together to create a convincing planet of a particular classification, you can then generate a countless number of planets of the same classification by just changing the procedural elements. This is how Elite: Dangerous will be able to have billions of unique planets that are not only rich in detail, but also scientifically accurate.

 

<dons his curmudgeon's sombrero> I don't think much of the new ships - there seems to be a certain 'style' emerging that is not to my taste. As for the planet - hmm, I've seen many better than that. Overall, a disappointing newsletter (though the faithful lap it up).

I would agree with you Cody the style of the ships that we have seen so far just does not look right, it almost has a console game look if there is such a thing?.

Also the size still does not look right to me.