Elite IV wishlist

[LotusExcelle]

Okay so before we hijack a thread i thought I'd start an Elite IV wishlist. List all the neat things you would like to be included - even if you know its already there (newtonian physics):

MMO - I think changing this to MMO would knock everything else out of the water.

Real physics - short of light speed limitations (witch-space for long distance travel)

Fast jump-point-to-dock speed - I'm of the mind that it should take less 2 hours but no less than, say, 30 mins to get from your jump-in point to your choice of dock. I know that would do away with light speed and kind of ruin some of the physics but let's face it - in order to be functionally MMO you have to go faster than light in the game. During this time there are several things that can be done on the ship that will make this any even more detailed game. AI interactions (talk to your ship!), communications (with possible witch-drive postal service for messages... you can't get messages from someone from a different system unless a postal-carrying ship jumps into the one you are in) and so forth.

Broad economy/jobs - Here I'm talking about things like mining planets/asteroids (imagine the learning curve of trying to chase an asteroid down with very little AI help!) and non-pirate activities. The pirating of course would be a whole other subject and could finally involve a complex PVP system (factions, etc).

Large ship selection, upgrade selection - the older Elite games had a very limited number of additions. Short of using a cheat you peaked your ships capabilites pretty early on and it was pretty dull after that. Just as MMORPG characters are massively different each ship could be customized as well. Scoop size, shape, and just a bevy of other factors would go into it.

[Lianachan]

#1 That the damn thing must actually exist. I've been following it's non-development, through it's regular non-releases of information, for 10 years.

[LotusExcelle]

Duke Nukem may just be released BEFORE Elite IV

[Lianachan]

It doesn't even seem to be on Frontier Development's website anymore - although I've seen quotes and snippets saying it'll be done afterThe Outsider, that it should appear on the current generation of games consoles, etc, etc...

[Jason]

Fast jump-point-to-dock speed - I'm of the mind that it should take less 2 hours but no less than, say, 30 mins to get from your jump-in point to your choice of dock. I know that would do away with light speed and kind of ruin some of the physics but let's face it - in order to be functionally MMO you have to go faster than light in the game. During this time there are several things that can be done on the ship that will make this any even more detailed game. AI interactions (talk to your ship!), communications (with possible witch-drive postal service for messages... you can't get messages from someone from a different system unless a postal-carrying ship jumps into the one you are in) and so forth.I don't see how it could work. Having to wait around for a half hour to get to dock doesn't sound feasible. I don't think you can put together enough things to do on the ship during that time to make it interesting without having fights every five minutes.

[LotusExcelle]

Downtime worked in EQ - and we're talking massive downtime while you do other things.

[Doodler]

Okay so before we hijack a thread i thought I'd start an Elite IV wishlist. List all the neat things you would like to be included - even if you know its already there (newtonian physics):

MMO - I think changing this to MMO would knock everything else out of the water.

Real physics - short of light speed limitations (witch-space for long distance travel)

Fast jump-point-to-dock speed - I'm of the mind that it should take less 2 hours but no less than, say, 30 mins to get from your jump-in point to your choice of dock. I know that would do away with light speed and kind of ruin some of the physics but let's face it - in order to be functionally MMO you have to go faster than light in the game. During this time there are several things that can be done on the ship that will make this any even more detailed game. AI interactions (talk to your ship!), communications (with possible witch-drive postal service for messages... you can't get messages from someone from a different system unless a postal-carrying ship jumps into the one you are in) and so forth.

Broad economy/jobs - Here I'm talking about things like mining planets/asteroids (imagine the learning curve of trying to chase an asteroid down with very little AI help!) and non-pirate activities. The pirating of course would be a whole other subject and could finally involve a complex PVP system (factions, etc).

Large ship selection, upgrade selection - the older Elite games had a very limited number of additions. Short of using a cheat you peaked your ships capabilites pretty early on and it was pretty dull after that. Just as MMORPG characters are massively different each ship could be customized as well. Scoop size, shape, and just a bevy of other factors would go into it.

www.eve-online.com (http://www.eve-online.com)

Already done. ;)

[chrissy]

www.eve-online.com (http://www.eve-online.com)

Already done. ;)

And your hard work to talk to when you're busy fighting battles. :D

[LotusExcelle]

Ah I've heard of Eve Online. I'm not sure I want to get into it. When EQ came out I used to play it a lot (that was a loonnnggg time ago in computer years). I lost my taste for computer games because of it and rarely if ever play even my favorite computer games now. I'll do some more reading on Eve.

[Neverfly]

My housemate was a fan of dotHack.
When she started playing another certain Online Game, I began teasing her about the characters from the T.V. show.

[Lianachan]

Being assidiously disinterested in the MMO aspects of space games (and gaming in general), I really liked X3: Reunion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X%C2%B3:_Reunion). Having said that, I've not fired it up for a year or so now.

[tofu]

My biggest complaint about Elite was the constant, monotonous combat. I'm not suggesting there should be no pirates at all, I'm simply pointing out that every jump was the same. You get to a star system, you pick a destination, you hit the time compression button, and you're instantly attacked. The pirates are instantly on top of you and already firing, so you're guaranteed to be hit at least once. It's just always the same thing. In any system without police protection, there is a 100% chance that you'll be attacked, and it gets boring.

If the game would at least turn off the time compression earlier, right when the pirates come into radar range, then you could study the situation and work some strategy. But alas, no.

And even if your ship is capable of outrunning the pirates (for example, my ship can do 12g's and the pirate's ship can do only 9) and you've passed them and are still accelerating, as soon as you hit the time compression button, they instantly catch up.

[Neverfly]

See? You shoulda been a pirate.

[LotusExcelle]

Tofu - that's a valid point and one that led me to use a trainer on Frontier. I'd imagine those issues will be dealt with in the (some day) Elite IV version. I'm assuming it was a simple AI issue. Back then game NPCs were pretty dumb.

What bothered me the most about combat in Frontier was that your ship was prett much always under thrust - and in combat that wreaked HAVOC on what you were doing. You'd have to shut your engines down, aim your laser, speed back up, etc.