Forums » Suggestions
Landing on planets, idea
I know it said that this is being reviewed, I just have an idea of how to go about it. You could have orbital platforms, similar to the docking bays, strung out around the planet. This way when you land, there could be a short "cutscene" where it shows a shuttle taking you to the surface, it doesn't have to show your ship or anything. Another thing could be, although this would be harder and more space/engine consuming, more fun for the players; is to be able to actually pilot down through the atmosphere. This would also open up many different types of play, i.e. planetary/orbital/atmospheric warfare, where fights could be in orbit, maybe have to buy special equipment for atmospheric flight, and posisbly the people really close to their governments and with the highest licenses could buy planetary "bombs", although this would only be for fun, no reason to do this. Except maybe for a certain mission, i.e. an alien race's base needs to be destroyed, although this may be too much to do.
Our ships cannot enter atmosphere because of the nature of the propulsion used. There for the only thing we could do in the atmosphere is have little cut scenes.
There are all sorts of issues involved in planets that its just better to avoid. To my knowledge the devs have completely killed any idea of landing on planets. This topic has been discussed to death.
I know the topic is dead but another alternative to orbital docks and shuttles to surface would be a Space Elevator. Even if you could not directly go to the surface, docking at a space elevator would be cool to see, and would be as if you are making a delivery at the planet instead of some station in space. Just a thought =)
A space elevator would be cool, but I'm not sure how easy it would be to render the 'infinitely' long cable. Anyway, its an art suggestion, and I'm sure that the devs are overwhelmed with ideas for more art.
The idea of having a dock up against a really huge image of a planet, and then being placed on the planet somehow could be done easily, BUT....what happens when you're down there? If it's anything more than additional menus and chat with panoramic planetary scenes, you've got a major engine overhaul involved. The custom Vendetta engine is optimized for the unique flight model. It doesn't lend itself to walking around.
I don't see any benefit to landing on planets. However, it slightly bothers me that the planet graphics are part of the background.
wyfling: It's a necessity given the realistic size of planets.
I don't feel like repeating myself on why the ships we have now fly at about the speed of WWII fighter planes, but suffice to say that I think it a good thing that speeds stay unrealistically low.
But if that is the case, realistically sized planets produce a serious problem. It would take literally days to orbit them!
I do agree however that it would be really cool to have a few 'small moons' (or large asteroids) in the ten's of kilometers diameter range which might at first only appear to be part of the background, but that you could journey too. Generating such moons and the textures for them in such a way that they look good might be a problem though.
I don't feel like repeating myself on why the ships we have now fly at about the speed of WWII fighter planes, but suffice to say that I think it a good thing that speeds stay unrealistically low.
But if that is the case, realistically sized planets produce a serious problem. It would take literally days to orbit them!
I do agree however that it would be really cool to have a few 'small moons' (or large asteroids) in the ten's of kilometers diameter range which might at first only appear to be part of the background, but that you could journey too. Generating such moons and the textures for them in such a way that they look good might be a problem though.
The real importance of landing on planets by whatever means is that planets are where the 'real' population of the universe is, and thus the foundation of all real commerce. Planetary needs should be a factor in the larger mission tree that's in development.
Planets are also a fantastic medium for enriching the cultural background of the universe. Planets can have in-game access to libraries of text and image content that could give the universe real depth. Even if planets are simply navigated by menus with a nice big splash in the background it'd be great.
Planets are also a fantastic medium for enriching the cultural background of the universe. Planets can have in-game access to libraries of text and image content that could give the universe real depth. Even if planets are simply navigated by menus with a nice big splash in the background it'd be great.
lowguppy: i wholeheartedly agree. :)
I don't, but I learned long ago that you couldn't argue with common sense, so I'll just shut up now.
I also agree with Lowguppy,I left EvE for several reasons.
One was that the economy was basically ruled(strangulated) by the fact that everyone that was ever born was flying a ship.
And where are the Foood farms (the bioFarm stations) tell me please(wink)
Cheers/Thrangar
One was that the economy was basically ruled(strangulated) by the fact that everyone that was ever born was flying a ship.
And where are the Foood farms (the bioFarm stations) tell me please(wink)
Cheers/Thrangar
Great point Lowguppy, would definitely be a great start to getting planets into the game!!! =)
Oh yes. Give me the "air ports" on the planets, and show me where are all the people of this world. Where ere they living? Remember old game FR***ER or EL*TE? There you could see the face of the officer in the station that is welcoming or warrnig you. The feel of the game was more human. In here I cannot feel that. I understand and agree with all mentioned technical problems, but this is only a game. So I can tell you, give it a piece of humanity in this game, and it will rise in the eyes of users. Give it planets and people!
well from a game play perspective i agree that planets would be cool, and that the ability to fight in an atmosphere would add a lot to the game, but from a practicle perspective it couldn' be implemented in the way people want. I saw a post earlier that had as close as i have seen to a doable way to handle planets and it esentaly amounted to sectors that had gravity and drag, and diferent backgrounds.
Even then it seemed like it would be more trouble than the added benafit was worth concidering that the devs are understaffed.
Even then it seemed like it would be more trouble than the added benafit was worth concidering that the devs are understaffed.
Re: bongaonga1
Sorry, but I would need to agree with Durgia's point that simulating piloting through the atmosphere would be impractial.
However, I thought that johnhawl218's idea of a "space elevator" highly intriguing.
This idea was actually used in the Japanese anime series "Phantom Memory KURAU" ( see http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,1435,wnitsi,phantom_memory_.html ). In this series, in the year A. D. 2100, civilization has put cities on the Moon, and an extremely high elevator has been built linking the earth with a space station in geosynchronous orbit around the Earth. Spaceships link to this station, making space travel economical. (For those of you who can read Japanese, see the official Japanese site at http://www.kurau.net/about/index.html .)
In response to Celebrim's point that speeds should stay unrealistically low, IMHO, it would be sufficient simply to assign specific sectors to the space elevators, and make it necessary to use sector warp to reach them.
In response to the Forum Moderator's point that the game engine has been optimized for the flight model (thereby making walking around impractical), I don't think that it would be necessary to create more than "additional menus and chat with panoramic planetary scenes." As lowguppy said, "Even if planets are simply navigated by menus with a nice big splash in the background it'd be great." I definitely agree with wylfing's point that "it ... bothers me that the planet graphics are part of the background." Any time that you see a big part of the universe that you feel that you should be able to reach one way or another, but that you have no access to whatsoever, that negative experience detracts from the realism.
Therefore, to add realism without much additional programming, instead of cut scenes, simply create a space station linked to a "space elevator" linked to the planet's surface for each planet, with the planet filling up the sky below.
As lowguppy mentioned, "Planets are also a fantastic medium for enriching the cultural background of the universe. Planets can have in-game access to libraries of text and image content that could give the universe real depth." Therefore, to add realism, add a few planet-specific menus for, say, a few planet-specific topics for each planet.
Also, planets usually have at least two cities each linked either directly or indirectly to the geosynchronous space station (otherwise, they are no different from space stations themselves). To simplify the programming drastically, just give the additional "cities" essentially the same functionality as space station, except with only different backgrounds, slightly different menus.
For each jump from the geosynchronous station to a city, just add a short cut scene similar to that from the city Esthar of "Final Fantasy VIII" ( see http://www.square-enix-usa.com/games/ff8/ and http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/psx/file/final_fantasy_viii_g.txt ), showing a high-speed car traveling above ground in a futuristic transparent vacuum tube with a high-tech city with aerodynamic pastel-accented skyscrapers zooming by (see the Esthar region on Disc 3 of "Final Fantasy 8" for this futuristic cut scene).
The geosynchronous space stations and cities would have exactly the same menus, the only difference being that the high-speed car vacuum tubes would link only to other locations in the same geosynchronous space station/city set for that planet, and that the backgrounds views behind the menus would be different (space views for the geosynchronous space stations; planetary atmosphere views, complete with flying birds, moving clouds, and rolling ocean, and the background sounds for chirping birds and ocean waves, for the planetary cities).
In particular, the background views behind the city menus of azure/madder red ("madder" is a moderate to strong red) sky with moving clouds overhead (assuming terraformed planetary environments, in line with the Backstory), snow-capped mountains in the distance, and rolling ocean waves below on the harbor, would be rather romantic and inspiring, and add terrific realism at very low cost.
Suggested additional tabs:
Travel | Library | Races | Practice | Resorts
The "Travel" tab would list other accessible planetary locations. For example, for the planet Itan, it would list the following cities:
New Itan
New Tokyo
New Honolulu
New Kyoto
Upon selecting, say, "New Kyoto," the view switches to a cut scene of the vacuum-tube car zooming first through the desert, then through streets filled with futuristic Buddhist monasteries, then docking in a futuristic aerodynamic pastel-accented terminal building similar to one of those in the city "Esthar" in "Final Fantasy VIII."
Now, the same tab, when seen from New Kyoto, would reach as follows:
New Itan
New Tokyo
New Honolulu
Spaceport
where "Spaceport" would refer to the space station at the top of the "space elevator."
The "Library" tab would list planet-specific cultural data, as lowguppy suggested; for example:
Backstory
Demographics
Cultural History
Current Mayor
Registered Native Players
where "Native Players" could list players who have registered to have this city as their city of legal residence, for future mayoral elections.
"Races" would list the planetary counterpart of the space races that, reportedly, used to exist. The planetary races would be similar to the one in which Anakin Skywalker participated in the recent motion picture "Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace." For example, it could list the following:
Itani Desert Speedway
New Yokohama Speedway
New Monaco Speedway
Mt. Everitani Speedway
"Practice" would list practice-only missions. For example, players could practice destroying Aerna Seekers with lightning mines in canyons, or they could compete for speed in traversing ravines in Orion Centurion Rev C's, or they could dogfight NPC Vultures in ravine mazes. For example, it could list the following:
Aerna Seeker Evasion
Canyon Race
Canyon Dogfight
"Resorts" would list resort sites, each with a special beautiful, futuristic artistic background screen and a special unique BGM (BackGround Music) theme. For example, it could list the following (visit the Apple Music Store in iTunes® to listen to samples of the tunes below):
New Nikko (Kitaro: Theme from Silk Road)
New Grand Canyon (Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony #5: Coriolan Overture, Op. 62)
New Mt. Everitani (Frédéric Chopin: Scherzo No. 2 in B Flat Minor, Op. 31)
There could be bars at the resort sites where guild members could discuss plans for future expansion while enjoying the view and the music and, perhaps, a view of the bar with its iced purple neon lamps from behind the saké and wine bottles and of the gradated azure-to-madder-red sunset sky outside (perhaps even while taking a few sips from some virtual cocktails [my favorite would be a Lime Daiquiri served in a very shallow decorated champagne glass on the rocks, lit by a futuristic iced purple neon lamp from behind the bar, with a view of the futuristic city gradated azure-to-madder-red sunset sky overlooking the harbor, and Kitaro's "Theme from Silk Road" as BGM ^_^]).
-- DekuDekuplex Ornitier
Sorry, but I would need to agree with Durgia's point that simulating piloting through the atmosphere would be impractial.
However, I thought that johnhawl218's idea of a "space elevator" highly intriguing.
This idea was actually used in the Japanese anime series "Phantom Memory KURAU" ( see http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,1435,wnitsi,phantom_memory_.html ). In this series, in the year A. D. 2100, civilization has put cities on the Moon, and an extremely high elevator has been built linking the earth with a space station in geosynchronous orbit around the Earth. Spaceships link to this station, making space travel economical. (For those of you who can read Japanese, see the official Japanese site at http://www.kurau.net/about/index.html .)
In response to Celebrim's point that speeds should stay unrealistically low, IMHO, it would be sufficient simply to assign specific sectors to the space elevators, and make it necessary to use sector warp to reach them.
In response to the Forum Moderator's point that the game engine has been optimized for the flight model (thereby making walking around impractical), I don't think that it would be necessary to create more than "additional menus and chat with panoramic planetary scenes." As lowguppy said, "Even if planets are simply navigated by menus with a nice big splash in the background it'd be great." I definitely agree with wylfing's point that "it ... bothers me that the planet graphics are part of the background." Any time that you see a big part of the universe that you feel that you should be able to reach one way or another, but that you have no access to whatsoever, that negative experience detracts from the realism.
Therefore, to add realism without much additional programming, instead of cut scenes, simply create a space station linked to a "space elevator" linked to the planet's surface for each planet, with the planet filling up the sky below.
As lowguppy mentioned, "Planets are also a fantastic medium for enriching the cultural background of the universe. Planets can have in-game access to libraries of text and image content that could give the universe real depth." Therefore, to add realism, add a few planet-specific menus for, say, a few planet-specific topics for each planet.
Also, planets usually have at least two cities each linked either directly or indirectly to the geosynchronous space station (otherwise, they are no different from space stations themselves). To simplify the programming drastically, just give the additional "cities" essentially the same functionality as space station, except with only different backgrounds, slightly different menus.
For each jump from the geosynchronous station to a city, just add a short cut scene similar to that from the city Esthar of "Final Fantasy VIII" ( see http://www.square-enix-usa.com/games/ff8/ and http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/psx/file/final_fantasy_viii_g.txt ), showing a high-speed car traveling above ground in a futuristic transparent vacuum tube with a high-tech city with aerodynamic pastel-accented skyscrapers zooming by (see the Esthar region on Disc 3 of "Final Fantasy 8" for this futuristic cut scene).
The geosynchronous space stations and cities would have exactly the same menus, the only difference being that the high-speed car vacuum tubes would link only to other locations in the same geosynchronous space station/city set for that planet, and that the backgrounds views behind the menus would be different (space views for the geosynchronous space stations; planetary atmosphere views, complete with flying birds, moving clouds, and rolling ocean, and the background sounds for chirping birds and ocean waves, for the planetary cities).
In particular, the background views behind the city menus of azure/madder red ("madder" is a moderate to strong red) sky with moving clouds overhead (assuming terraformed planetary environments, in line with the Backstory), snow-capped mountains in the distance, and rolling ocean waves below on the harbor, would be rather romantic and inspiring, and add terrific realism at very low cost.
Suggested additional tabs:
Travel | Library | Races | Practice | Resorts
The "Travel" tab would list other accessible planetary locations. For example, for the planet Itan, it would list the following cities:
New Itan
New Tokyo
New Honolulu
New Kyoto
Upon selecting, say, "New Kyoto," the view switches to a cut scene of the vacuum-tube car zooming first through the desert, then through streets filled with futuristic Buddhist monasteries, then docking in a futuristic aerodynamic pastel-accented terminal building similar to one of those in the city "Esthar" in "Final Fantasy VIII."
Now, the same tab, when seen from New Kyoto, would reach as follows:
New Itan
New Tokyo
New Honolulu
Spaceport
where "Spaceport" would refer to the space station at the top of the "space elevator."
The "Library" tab would list planet-specific cultural data, as lowguppy suggested; for example:
Backstory
Demographics
Cultural History
Current Mayor
Registered Native Players
where "Native Players" could list players who have registered to have this city as their city of legal residence, for future mayoral elections.
"Races" would list the planetary counterpart of the space races that, reportedly, used to exist. The planetary races would be similar to the one in which Anakin Skywalker participated in the recent motion picture "Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace." For example, it could list the following:
Itani Desert Speedway
New Yokohama Speedway
New Monaco Speedway
Mt. Everitani Speedway
"Practice" would list practice-only missions. For example, players could practice destroying Aerna Seekers with lightning mines in canyons, or they could compete for speed in traversing ravines in Orion Centurion Rev C's, or they could dogfight NPC Vultures in ravine mazes. For example, it could list the following:
Aerna Seeker Evasion
Canyon Race
Canyon Dogfight
"Resorts" would list resort sites, each with a special beautiful, futuristic artistic background screen and a special unique BGM (BackGround Music) theme. For example, it could list the following (visit the Apple Music Store in iTunes® to listen to samples of the tunes below):
New Nikko (Kitaro: Theme from Silk Road)
New Grand Canyon (Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony #5: Coriolan Overture, Op. 62)
New Mt. Everitani (Frédéric Chopin: Scherzo No. 2 in B Flat Minor, Op. 31)
There could be bars at the resort sites where guild members could discuss plans for future expansion while enjoying the view and the music and, perhaps, a view of the bar with its iced purple neon lamps from behind the saké and wine bottles and of the gradated azure-to-madder-red sunset sky outside (perhaps even while taking a few sips from some virtual cocktails [my favorite would be a Lime Daiquiri served in a very shallow decorated champagne glass on the rocks, lit by a futuristic iced purple neon lamp from behind the bar, with a view of the futuristic city gradated azure-to-madder-red sunset sky overlooking the harbor, and Kitaro's "Theme from Silk Road" as BGM ^_^]).
-- DekuDekuplex Ornitier
*wants to see Serco Armored Fighting Creature*
"LOL flame bait"
This is a S.P.A.C.E game, keep that way, if I would have wanted to walk around on a planet I would be playing SWG or some stupid sward slinging game.
don't get me wrong there good ideas but keep it in space, all the ideas could be done at space stations.
Syberfly out
puts on flack jacket and ducks lol
This is a S.P.A.C.E game, keep that way, if I would have wanted to walk around on a planet I would be playing SWG or some stupid sward slinging game.
don't get me wrong there good ideas but keep it in space, all the ideas could be done at space stations.
Syberfly out
puts on flack jacket and ducks lol
yeah it's a space game.. and we need space racing.. :D
the space elevator sounds cool. ability to access multiple spaceports per planet sound even better. More places to go, more things to do. I don't think that would be terribly hard for the devs to do either. It'd basically be like there are 4-5 stations in the sectors with major planets. (of course not the ability to dock with that many. you'd only dock with the one that transports you to the planet.)
the space elevator sounds cool. ability to access multiple spaceports per planet sound even better. More places to go, more things to do. I don't think that would be terribly hard for the devs to do either. It'd basically be like there are 4-5 stations in the sectors with major planets. (of course not the ability to dock with that many. you'd only dock with the one that transports you to the planet.)