X3 will be pants without landable Planets!!

[muppetts]

I am not bothered by landing and walkin around on planets, the game is what it is and if some don't like it then don't buy it. Saying that I did actually like the FREELANCER cut scenes for landing on planets or stations and it did add to the game, it made it easier to identify certain locations by their landing zones and gave a sense of return. I like the landings on the ocean moons.

As to the original post, I think saying X3 will be..err 'pants' before you have even played it because it does not have an element you want is naive at best. Elite was good and frontier but to even try and compare it to X2, a living system (if you walk away from Frontier everything stops) is not practical. X2 is a 1000 times more complex than Elite and Frontier, I think many these days so WOW'd with the progress of games, the graphics and the technology that they think everything is a button press away. I want Planets and a HL2 mini game when I land and online features and better graphic that can run on the tin of baked beans that makes up my Graphics card/chip set etc. We have become spoiled due to the rapid expansion and our demands will always outstrip the abilities of the designers. You cannot translate imagination straight into a game.

If you do want that kind of perfection, where you can land on a world, where you can explore the universe, then you have already had it for many many years, before computers where ever made.

I suggest H.G.Wells as a good starter for the original poster, The Time Machine or War of the Worlds.

or indeed Jules Verne, 20,000 leagues under the sea or Around the World in Eighty Days.

Even dear old Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.

Then all you need is a comfortable place and YOUR IMAGINATION the most powerful biological computer in existance.

Before X3 comes out I have decided to re-visit some of my old Sci Fi friends starting with E.E.'Doc'.Smith - The Skylark of Space.

Enjoy!

[Duriel_LOP]

I will say one thing, and that is, if you do not want to play or buy X3, then don't post about Elite 2 here. Quite frankly this is a free forum but to be comparing games that are nearly as old as some gamers these days is getting on the ludicrous side. If you liked Elite 2 go play it! don't play X3 if your aren't going to have fun playing it, it's about having fun, so if X3 won't do it for you, no need to try and tell Egosoft that you won't buy their game because a specific feature is not present. I love the Wing Commander series to death, but that does not mean I will compare X2 to Wing Commander 2, because there is nothing to compare!, there is at least 7 years between the 2 games and the only common denominator in both games is some of the mathermatical equations used!

There is also a thing called nostalgia which will make things seem better than they are. But to be honest, that doesn't mean it's better than X3, because more work has gone into X3 and X2 than in all the Elite series combined, however the same amount of passion of writing a great game remains the same in both games.

So PLEASE stop comparing farm fresh apples to 15 year old vintages locked in glass cases

and yes, I'm eagerly awaiting the release of the 2nd part of Pandora's Star novel can't remember the author atm, but apparently a very popular british sci fi novelist!

[Slugworm X]

Me too, written by Peter F. Hamilton.

I have also read his Nights Dawn Trilogy a few times.

Oh, and Planets Schmanets.....Pffffff . Unless done properly they all seem like space stations anyway. Not saying they cant be done right, but if we want to see this game in the next, say, ten years, I'll go with what Ego are working with right now, thank you very much. They haven't messed up so far.

Keep up the good work Egosoft, oh and the mods too.

Slugworm X

[blackR]

And 1 more thing,in X games all industry ar pushed to the space as it maby only option in the future to make more place on the planet,and all the scum like pirets flying freely in space,and we have fun-no point to land on planets,becos only space is left whit freedom

[WarpedcowOwnzU]

downsides :

- Probably a huge loading time (terrain generation from a formula) when the ship enter the atmosphere, and I'm not really sure that a lot of people would love to wait 5 minutes before entering the atmosphere.
- The cost if you (Egosoft) buy an existing terrain generator engine, or the time to make your own.
- The time to design 10-20 city types used on each planet
- Probably the need to use a different flight system for the player' ship

Except that the kind of landings "we" want don't actually have these downsides. We want Privateer1/2/Freelancer-style landings, not MS FlightSim landings. And we want them to vastly increase the "human interaction" aspect of the game. X2 feels like you're flying around with a bunch of robots, landing/living on inanimate stations, again filled with robots and computers. In Freelancer, you can land on a planet and it FEELS LIKE HOME SWEET HOME there.

There should be a rule that people who say "creating planet landings is too hard" must first play Freelancer or one of the Privateer's to really understand what we're asking for.

[esd]

We want Privateer1/2/Freelancer-style landings, not MS FlightSim landings.

Says you. When it's finally implimented I want fully explorable, minable, base-able (is that a word? It is now!) planets created with some form of seed-driven terrain generator, a flawless entry into the atmosphere from space with no load screens, and the ability to hop out in an EVA suit or buggy to move around on the surface.

There's no way Egosoft can do that now.

[Skeeter]

Just if they were to do landing on planets, like your saying esd then id imagine they would probably have to limit the universe to just a few systems like one for each race as thats the only way i think it would work if u want proper land based stuff like what u were suggesting. As having all the secotors and planets wouldnt work if planets where fully 3d and populated. Heck the game might have to be limited to one system where all races confied in for it to be even playable.

So probably not the best way to do planets as it would have to be alot more basic and easier to do.

[cheggs]

Warning space this post is a

Ok this planet debate is getting old FAST. Take a look at this game
www.mankind.net
It does everything you want space/planets/colony/mining EVERYTHING.

And guess what compaired to XBTF it's pants.

Because of the mirco management and the vast array of objects to handle it's not a fun game to play. This is what you want X3 to be, sorry its been done and it is clearly lesser quality to even the first X game.

As for the Privateer 1+2 aspect great games but same content different backgrounds both on stations and planets.

For me the X series of games has been on the freeform economy and the focus on space it seems to go against everything that the X series is to change it into a planet/space sim.

So please quit this debate on whether to land on planets or not, the X series games are SPACE sim if you want to compramise(sp?) which you'll have to for a game that has what your after go to www.mankind.net
it has everything you want.

[blackR]

Ok i sey it agen,example Google Eath is just planet map,just pictures but to cover all planet u need terabites of HDD not talking about 3D here LOL
Damn planet is more then big to just imagin...we must w8 about 50 years ok

[Duriel_LOP]

Oh yes, or you could play the Universal Combat game, I'm sure Derek Smart would love your cash just as much as Egosoft, only difference here is that ego won't ban you if you say something bad about the game or post just the tiniest mistake in the technical support forum. Well, he will probably falme you first of course. TBH, I don't think I would buy a Universal Combat game, I haven't heard too much good about it anyways, he apparently has a game with dx 9 graphics scheduled for somtime in 2007 I do admire his aspiration for the game, his temper just doesn't make his games marketable.

But yeah, planets? who needs em! Blow them all up!

[esd]

Ok i sey it agen,example Google Eath is just planet map,just pictures but to cover all planet u need terabites of HDD not talking about 3D here LOL
Damn planet is more then big to just imagin...we must w8 about 50 years ok

Actually, not if you use a seed-generated terrain. There's a program out there that does it, but it's a) expensive and b) probably hard to reconsile with the rest of the game engine.

[blackR]

But then it meen,thet i never see the same terain if its not will by save`t...right?

[Duriel_LOP]

Ok i sey it agen,example Google Eath is just planet map,just pictures but to cover all planet u need terabites of HDD not talking about 3D here LOL
Damn planet is more then big to just imagin...we must w8 about 50 years ok

Actually, not if you use a seed-generated terrain. There's a program out there that does it, but it's a) expensive and b) probably hard to reconsile with the rest of the game engine.

I think its best we just leave the planets for now as pretty objects in space that you can fly into if you so wish at some point it would be nice ot have a basic way of navigating planets, just something like privateer, nay it's not realstic, but it'd be nice, but I think I can wait, I want X3 soon!!!!!, I still ahve a social life and I still sleep Insommnia here we come!

[esd]

But then it meen,thet i never see the same terain if its not will by save`t...right?

No, because it's generated from a seed, it'll be the same each time it's generated.

[blackR]

Ok esd,probobly u right here,but we still need lots of time to w8 untill we see somthing like thet in games...

[shasla5]

The point is it added to the immersion. Even though the planets/stations served the same purpose, the different graphics made it feel different, something X2 was distinctly lacking. I'd much rather Freelancer's planet/station landing than X2's docking with M$ Excel.

Exactly, thankyou.

[shasla5]

We want Privateer1/2/Freelancer-style landings, not MS FlightSim landings.

Says you. When it's finally implimented I want fully explorable, minable, base-able (is that a word? It is now!) planets created with some form of seed-driven terrain generator, a flawless entry into the atmosphere from space with no load screens, and the ability to hop out in an EVA suit or buggy to move around on the surface.

There's no way Egosoft can do that now.

Weren't you people just complaining about expecting too much?

[Chips]

The point is it added to the immersion. Even though the planets/stations served the same purpose, the different graphics made it feel different, something X2 was distinctly lacking. I'd much rather Freelancer's planet/station landing than X2's docking with M$ Excel.

Exactly, thankyou.

I agree with them (no smiley for that?).

It would be very nice, but I am not harping after it unless the Egosoft team get to the point where they go "its perfect, so what can we do next?".

Then I would actually push for an online (albeit dumbed down perhaps) version of X first... then planets

[Urashima Keitaro]

In this thread: Planets

someone else suggested the idea to mask sectors as flyable planets with stations masked like dockable buildings, a sky-like background rather than space, ecc...

I'm ignorant about programming but it seems me an easy and nice idea.

Bye

First point, would be x-planets, or x-mapping... plus the fact that you'd be constricted to one sector, as unless you have a cheesy teleport system to take you from one planet to another you'd lose all of the 'universeness' that makes it the x-universe.

As for using a default sky template you would bore all the sci-fi enthusiasts as, apart from the planet positions, all of the sectors would look pretty much the same. It's been stuff like that that has limited sci-fi 'flying' games in the past, and would spoil it for future enthusiasts.

My two cents.

[onewheeldoin200]

The only way that would be even remotely possible is if there were only 2 or 3 planets you could actually land on with things to do, and maybe some moons or something that you could build crap on (but otherwise nothing was there). A randomly generated terrain (a la Starsiege: Tribes) could handle that bit.....and even then you're looking at probably doubling the developement time of the game or more. I mean, if you build an entire planet you need:

-characters, and lots of them or it looks stupid
-ground based vehicles, again, different types like transports and cars and whatnot
-buildings...just imagine the sheer number it would take to make a believable city on a full size planet
-trees/shrubs/roads/walkways/clouds/animals/benches/mailboxes/etc etc
-QUESTS, storylines, and things to do once on the planet

I mean, looking at that list, you could easily make an entire game out of just ONE city, let alone an entire planet or MANY entire planets. Unless ES could triple their dev cost and triple the cost of the game, there's just no way.