Limit Theory Forums

When I last heard, Josh was essentially planning on making colonies procedural and Freelancer-like. No docking rings like Freelancer, but you'd be able to see your ship on the ground, or on a landing platform. I would assume this would mean that colonies could be shown to change over time, based on colony population and other factors.

yes, that's in line with what I was thinking, Nathan.

I was probably the first to mourn the loss of the docking rings so I've come to terms with that disappointment. I'm still unsure if we will get any of that limited flying over terrain to reach the colony. I remember the trees were awful but I liked the idea of arriving in your ship and touching down. Although it's true to say that Josh himself pointed out this was unlikely to form a part of the game.

I'm not sure if he was upset about the comments concerning the trees but I believe he said himself that they weren't very good.

Perhaps Lindsey could help him with that.

Trees are fairly simple to make, even procedurally. I'm sure we could come up with something. It would be really neat to land at a forest retreat or something.

If integrated planetary landings with real terrain aren't a thing when LT comes out I definitely want to mod something like that in. Maybe related to Hyperion's colony mod. I have a feeling this might be quite hard to make it look good with the variety of planet textures and types that will be possible.
Edit: clarity

vector67 wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 06, 2017 11:39 am

If integrated planetary landings with real terrain aren't a thing when LT comes out I definitely want to mod something like that in. Maybe related to Hyperion's colony mod. I have a feeling this might be quite hard to make it look good with the variety of planet textures and types that will be possible.
Edit: clarity

I'm not going to be one of the backers/members who will try to dissuade you from doing just that, vector67. Of course, it will depend on what the LT Team deliver in the released game, we may be pleasantly surprised.

Seamless planetary landing are very hard. (like in the Star Citizen Demo).
That would require a pretty fancy and fast method to show the procedural topography of the planet at different resolutions.

But its relatively simple to just show the ship finally landing at a planetary spaceport. (skipping the approach though the atmosphere, and maybe only show the final flight -a few hundered meters - to the docking area)
Basically just switching scenes from space to the settlement (terrain, water, some foliage, a skybox and the generated structures)

The scene entering the atmosphere could just turn the screen slowly white/grey and display some fire-plasma effect due to the re-entry.
Then a black-out (time for processing the new scene), and then the scene approaching the landing platform.

Yes, that is what I would prefer to see, Damocles.

I've never expected to see seamless planetary landings but it would be good to experience something more extensive than approach the target site of the colony...and you're there, with no transitions.

Damocles wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 06, 2017 3:49 pm

Seamless planetary landing are very hard. (like in the Star Citizen Demo).
That would require a pretty fancy and fast method to show the procedural topography of the planet at different resolutions.

Josh has mentioned quite a bit about asteroids having variable resolution depending on distance (I can't remember the exact phrase, he mentioned it at some point). I'm thinking that at least some of the tools will be there. And yes I do agree it will be very hard, but I think with enough focused time it will be possible especially with the tools that LT will have.

Now that Lindsey's joined the team procedural cities might be a thing...

Procedural cities were always a thing. Josh never intended otherwise. We just aren't going to be walking around in them, that's all.

Damocles wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 06, 2017 3:49 pm

But its relatively simple to just show the ship finally landing at a planetary spaceport. (skipping the approach though the atmosphere, and maybe only show the final flight -a few hundered meters - to the docking area)
Basically just switching scenes from space to the settlement (terrain, water, some foliage, a skybox and the generated structures)

I was thinking the same thing, but refrained from saying so, because I don't know if Josh is actually going to do that or not. I'm actually expecting him not to.

Well always good to have something in the backlog

The advantage of having a planetary landing, or planetary view in general: it allows a change of scenery in the game (and immersion).
And lots of opportunities to use pro-gen terrain (wich is always a nice distraction and have a different kind of topography than a collection of objects in free space).

The player could choose to do menu-laden administrative work like trading, while having a nice planetary scene in the background.

No, this part you mention here - this is definitely in. It's the part where it shows the surrounding landscape as the ship descends/ascends the few hundred meters to/from the docks that I'm expecting he won't do. While that would be very pretty, it also means you need to have your surroundings built up over a much larger area. I'm expecting that he'll probably cheat somewhat here due to time constraints.

Talvieno wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 07, 2017 3:03 pm

...due to time constraints.

Are there time constraints? Does Josh hope to get LT out the door in the next 3-5 years?

I'm just talking about scope and feature creep.