A Froniterben is volt ilyen, meg a nem hivatalos remake-ben is van (Pioneer). Itt sem várok kevesebbet. :)
Elõször készüljön el, mûködjön jól, legyen sikeres, aztán majd foglalkoznak esetleg azzal, hogy legyen felszíni repkedés. Sok karikán kell odáig átugrálni.
In this issue we are going even deeper into some of the features you will see in Alpha 4 and we announce the date of the final stage of the Alpha process.
We explain how Alpha 4 manages to deliver the entire galaxy using Cobra, Frontier’s proprietary 64-bit enabled software technology.
We also look at the night sky as seen in Elite: Dangerous and explain the different and dangerous modes of travelling through our vast Galaxy.
In-coming - Alpha 4 release date announced
The final stage of the Alpha, Alpha 4 will be released on May 15th and will be followed two weeks later by the first stage of the Premium Beta on May 30th.
“The end of Alpha is now in sight and it is amazing looking back to see how far we have come since the start of the Kickstarter campaign. Support from you all has been fantastic, and input especially from the Design Discussion Forum has been a great help – in fact we are about to deliver one of the features we changed very significantly as a result of discussion on the DDF – ‘super-cruise’. Premium Beta backers already have access to the combat test, and we look forward to welcoming them when the Premium Beta itself starts, and seeing many more people actually playing the game. We couldn’t have done this without your support, which is something we really appreciate.
Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore…
Lave. Diso. Leesti. Zaonce. The classic systems in the original Elite game evoke fond memories. Elite was the original ‘open-world’ experience, and one of the very first 3D games. It famously used every byte in the legendary the legendary BBC Micro computer to create 8 ‘galaxies’ using just 22k of program and data memory. Yes, 22 kilobytes – that’s probably smaller than just about any email you’ll get today.
Crucially, though, it used amazing techniques that allowed a generation of gamers to experience something unique as they carved their own path through a dog-eat-dog, go anywhere, do anything galaxy and worked their way to the most iconic rank in gaming history – Elite. Those techniques were further expanded in Frontier a decade later, fitting an even bigger, richer world into 512k.
And of course, as everyone reading this newsletter knows, with Elite: Dangerous we are taking another huge step for today’s hardware. Detail and accuracy has taken another great leap, but, we have a confession to make: Alpha builds 1, 2 and 3 have all used a ‘skydome’ – a static, painted backdrop around a 64 bit play space roughly 1 light year across. Within that all the planets and stars are still modelled, but the galaxy beyond was not. Until now.
Alpha 4 genuinely contains over 400 billion star systems. And they are all moving correctly; spinning, orbiting each other in an incredible astronomical ballet. We are also modelling interstellar molecular clouds, and though some of the detail in these (particularly for nebulae) will come after Alpha 4, wherever you are, the ‘night sky’ is accurate. Beyond our galaxy, perhaps surprisingly we do still have a ‘skydome’ - but it is now a staggering 100,000 light years away, containing all the other galaxies, including the Magellanic Clouds. That’s one heck of a draw distance…
If you go to Earth (not available to travel to in Alpha 4 – but you can see Sol in the galactic map), you’ll see our familiar constellations. In fact over 130,000 objects in the night sky – including all stars visible to the naked eye – are modelled. We can even show those joined-up Solar-centric constellations when viewed from elsewhere – which become stretched and distorted due to parallax. Want to travel to Orion’s belt and see what good old Sol looks like from there? Do it. Or just sit and marvel at the local sunrise (yes all the planets are moving too) over the rings and moons of a gas giant you’ve just found.
To achieve this, we start out with the precise locations all the known stars, exo-planets, celestial bodies and phenomena. Beyond that, procedural techniques are used in conjunction with real, ‘hard’ physics to model the other hundreds of billions of star systems – the star’s location, type, temperature, chemical compositions, what planetary systems there are, etc.
Each individual aspect of the vast galaxy is also represented with unprecedented visual fidelity, making the most of the latest lighting and ‘physically based rendering’ (PBR) pixel-shader techniques along with procedural algorithms that leverage our talented artists’ efforts.
You can seamlessly go from being pressed up close against an asteroid, thermal systems ‘buttoned down’ as you stalk your prey, to super-cruising at super-luminal speeds through a system to travelling through hyperspace across light years of galaxy.
And then there is the networking traffic which communicates the location, velocity and status of your and other players’ ship, bullets, missiles, lasers, heat-sinks, shields, current thermal profile, cargo, and of course all the AIs etc.
The sheer, raw scale of the galaxy means that even being able to accurately represent the position and vast scale of planetary objects, asteroids, ships, missiles and so on is a huge challenge in itself, requiring the use of very high numeric precision. The 32 bit tools and technology of the previous generation of computers and engines is simply not up to the job.
Being able to compute everything we need to, from the motions of those 400 billion star systems worth of stars, planets, moons, rings and asteroid fields, to the lazy whorls in a gas giant’s atmosphere and the precise self-shadowing surface detail of that small asteroid you are currently hiding behind, is a similarly Herculean task. As is fully communicating all the necessary information between players.
Elite: Dangerous has been created using Frontier’s proprietary Cobra software technology (yes, named after the Mk III - check out the snake’s head), which has some unique features that make this all possible. Cobra has been constantly evolved and honed to keep pushing the cutting edge over many game titles and hardware generations. It is fully 64 bit, message based and designed to take full advantage of today’s (and tomorrow’s) multi-core architectures. It has already been used to deliver an extremely wide range of games at Frontier and throughout we have been improving and honing its capabilities – it’s almost as if we have been carefully planning towards Elite: Dangerous for many years... :)
In short, this means that Elite: Dangerous squeezes every last drop of performance out of today’s (and tomorrow’s) cutting edge multi-core CPUs and GPUs from AMD, ARM, Intel and NVidia, all in the service of delivering you an absolutely unique, unforgettable experience.
Just like the original Elite did in its day, in fact.
Peek of the Week
Alpha 4: Boötes Camp
Alpha 4 sets you free in a 200 cubic light year volume of space in the Milky Way galaxy, far from Earth.
In fact, it's centered around the Boötes constellation. Tonight, look up and find Ursa Major / The Great Bear / Big Dipper/ 牧夫座(mù fū zuò) in the night sky. Boötes is just to the ‘left’. In a few weeks you can go there.. No ‘maps’ or ‘levels’ here – in Alpha 4, you’re going into space.
In Elite: Dangerous we use standard stellar classifications, as shown in this Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (reproduced here under a Creative Commons license) which plots absolute magnitude (MV) against spectral type:
Alpha 4 is a fascinating place, and gives a taster of the delights in store in this fantastic galaxy of ours. There are five star systems: Eranin (a K3V main sequence star), Dahan (a K5D star), i Boötis (an amazing quaternary system including a rare contact binary pair and a brown dwarf), Assellus Primus (an F7V star) and LP 98-132 (a diminutive M2V red dwarf). This is just a sample of what’s to come…!
The Need for Speed
Hopefully the details on Alpha 4 and some of the stars in the Boötes constellation have whetted your appetite for exploration. Even if not, you’ll certainly want to trade between the systems to earn credits, as we described in the last newsletter.
But how do you get around, did I hear you say? Glad you asked! There are three modes of travel:
Conventional drives are used to manoeuvre a ship up to around 500 metres per second (just over a thousand miles per hour). Combat, docking and most other activities use this form of propulsion.
Frame Shift Drives (FSD) or ‘super-cruise’ – for which incidentally we owe a big debt of gratitude to our Design Decision Forum contributors – is a drive that warps space-time locally around the ship. Acceleration to superluminal speeds is possible by effectively appearing to shrink space around you. This allows us to have super-high accelerations without turning pilots into a mush on the back wall of the cockpit… We refer to this mode of travel as ’super-cruise’. It allows you to free-form travel the real distances within a star system (and between them if you really want – though it will still take an inordinate time) without taking up your whole evening (or weekend... or month!).
Earn enough credits and you’ll be able to upgrade your FSD with an extra unit that gives it an upgraded warp capability to perform full hyperspace jumps to span the massive distances between different star systems.
Of course, there are tradeoffs. The additional mass and energy demands of the FSD compromise your ultimate level of agility and performance in a dog-fight against someone who is loaded out without one. But you can console yourself that you can explore the system, mine and trade and maybe have bigger and better weapons. The situation, both positive and negative, is further exacerbated if you opt for the additional capability and mass of a hyperspace-capable drive.
As you set your destination, you also need to be aware of mass-locking. This effect is already present in an early form in Alpha 3, whereby you can’t jump to any of the scenarios if you are too close to any large structure.
A hyperspace jump cannot be engaged by a ship that is too close to a massive body, whether space port, moon, planet or star. You’ll need to use your conventional drives to put some distance between you and it to escape the mass-lock effect.
After a significant charge-up period your ship’s hyperspace drive warps space-time and you travel almost instantaneously to the primary star of the destination system, whereupon you are spat out of hyperspace at super-cruise speeds, kicking out an extraordinary amount of heat; this announces your arrival in no uncertain terms to anyone who may be glancing at their scanner.
When already in super-cruise, the drive charges up much faster than for a hyperspace jump.
An FSD can also be targeted and attacked and may malfunction, temporarily preventing its use. You can purchase and fit various different FSD modules, with different fuel consumption, range, speed, control and charge time performance envelopes.
The theoretical speed limit whist super-cruising is two thousand times the speed of light, but in practice journeys will likely not see your ship travelling more than tens of times the speed of light. Top speed varies during a journey, being affected by the proximity to the mass of nearby stellar bodies. This prevents a ship from accelerating past an upper speed threshold, and imposes a temporary localized slowing effect as you can feel the effect of mass-locking starting to kick in, which also helps smooth your arrival.
You can drop out of super-cruise at any time, though your ship will suffer dangerous and debilitating effects if you drop out whilst travelling too fast (temporary loss of control, damage, etc.); such an event is called a crash-drop. Flying too close, too fast to a stellar body or phenomena can also cause a crash- drop. In extreme cases (e.g. flying towards a planet at hundreds of times the speed of light) the ship may suffer catastrophic damage when it emergency-drops out of super-cruise.
Depending on where you are and what you have been and are doing, no two super-cruise journeys will be the same. If fitted with a suitable module, aggressors can interdict you by targeting your FSD and pulling you out of super-cruise. Or you may detect an intriguing signature on your journey yourself that you decide to explore and exploit. Both aggressor and the target are dragged out of super cruise, back to normal space near to each other. Interdiction attacks can also purposefully (or inadvertently) drag nearby vessels into the engagement, creating the potential for tactical formation flying in super-cruise.
As we begin to roll out beta releases, there will be an increasing variety of ‘passive’ events, NPC/phenomena and player-to-player interdiction.
Watch this space for more details… and bon voyage!
Comms Chatter
– Forum user Gwenydd has been making a metal 1:44 scale model of a Cobra, complete with LED lighting and a tiny cockpit! Follow this thread, where there are loads of pictures charting his progress: Gwenydd’s Cobra MKIII metal scale model
Bakker! Bocsi a repostért!
Hiányzik a levél 75%-a!!! Mindjárt megpróbálom bepakolni sorban.
(Ez kiba' nagy videó! Nézzétek meg mindenképpen!!!! :D )
Mostly Harmless Questions
In the Private Backers forum we have a thread where you can pose questions for the development team. Here are a couple of selected questions with answers from Executive Producer Michael Brookes.
-SzaryWilk: How many commodities will be in Elite Dangerous ??
We’re still refining the design, at the moment we’re testing with around 100 different core commodities, with other specialised ones based off them. Such spaecialist or ‘rares’ are a separate type of tradable item (‘Lavian Brandy’ for example). We’ve seen the recent plea for tea and it looks like we might be adding that to the list.
-Brodie: Apart from freight and possibly ammo will ship components such as rare weapons or engines drop or be salvageable from destroyed NPC ships?
Currently the design is that you can salvage raw materials and data from derelict ships. An idea we’re considering is that enhancement technology from specific weapons and modules can provide temporary augmentations for your equipment.
-Jant: How much freedom will there be to customise our ships from a purely aesthetic standpoint (like different cockpits, paint jobs, etc)?
The intention is to support as wide a range of customisation as possible, we’re still working out some of the details but support for skins and decals is certain, ways to customise your cockpit are also something we’re interested in. This can be expanded further when we expand the game to allow walking around ships and stations, not only with the ship but the player’s avatar as well. In other words – yes, leather upholstery is on the cards!
(A levél maradéka kulcstartó reklám és álláshirdetés)
(Ez kiba' nagy videó! Nézzétek meg mindenképpen!!!! :D )
Mostly Harmless Questions
In the Private Backers forum we have a thread where you can pose questions for the development team. Here are a couple of selected questions with answers from Executive Producer Michael Brookes.
-SzaryWilk: How many commodities will be in Elite Dangerous ??
We’re still refining the design, at the moment we’re testing with around 100 different core commodities, with other specialised ones based off them. Such spaecialist or ‘rares’ are a separate type of tradable item (‘Lavian Brandy’ for example). We’ve seen the recent plea for tea and it looks like we might be adding that to the list.
-Brodie: Apart from freight and possibly ammo will ship components such as rare weapons or engines drop or be salvageable from destroyed NPC ships?
Currently the design is that you can salvage raw materials and data from derelict ships. An idea we’re considering is that enhancement technology from specific weapons and modules can provide temporary augmentations for your equipment.
-Jant: How much freedom will there be to customise our ships from a purely aesthetic standpoint (like different cockpits, paint jobs, etc)?
The intention is to support as wide a range of customisation as possible, we’re still working out some of the details but support for skins and decals is certain, ways to customise your cockpit are also something we’re interested in. This can be expanded further when we expand the game to allow walking around ships and stations, not only with the ship but the player’s avatar as well. In other words – yes, leather upholstery is on the cards!
(A levél maradéka kulcstartó reklám és álláshirdetés)
Megértem.. :) Nekem is sikerült 120$ körül elkölteni SC-re. ED-re nem szeretnék már ennyit. No majd akkor nyáron meglátjuk.
Inkább dobtam volna rá a pénzt backerként ED-re, persze utólag már okos az ember...Bár talán még nem késõ, kicsit még rugózom egy premium beta vételen (ha még elérhetõ egyáltalán), mert nagyon izgat a game, ugyanakkor még egy pofáraesést sem szeretnék.
Igen, én is így hallottam. Nekem viszont fontosabb az SP rész, mivel nem szeretem az MMO-t...Ezért várom már nagyon az ED-t, illetve ezért vártam a fos Rebirth-öt is, de arról jobb nem is beszélni...
en is beinvesztaltam, de eddig csalodas a folymatos csusztatas es a latottak. (persze ki kell majd probalni)
ugyerzem majus vegen lesz DFM es akkor meglatjuk vegre-
remelem a sok pepecsmunka es kurvanagyreszletesseg es damagemodellek keszitese kozben nem feledkeznek meg arrol, hogy maga a JATEK jo es elvezetes legyen ne egy lelektelen-erdektelen shooter.
én premiumos vagyok, szerintem a standard beta 1-2honappal jon a premium utan (majus 30) és akkor már nagyon jó formában lesz a játék tele featurevel.
alapvetoen a premiumosoknak megkapott alpha 1 single missiok is (teljesen letisztult én hibát eddig nem tapasztaltam) nagyon élvezetesek, hotassal iszonyat jol iranyithato. hang, grafika es a repcsi modell nagyon ottvan
SCnek magasra tettek a lecet, mert a PAXon es logitech boothon latottak alapjan - SZERINTEM - egyelore nagyon fos az egesz (es most nem a gyonyoruszep bolygohatterkeprol beszelek)
korabban nem igy gondoltam, de lehet, h a ED - SZAMOMRA - elvezetesebb lesz mint az SC oO
Ez a prémium , de nem erre gondoltam .
Elite: Dangerous - Standard Beta erre vagyok kíváncsi.
Igen, már elég játszható. Viszont ha jól tudom még mindig hiányzik a fele a játéknak nem? Nincsenek scenariók, a kezelõfelületen nem változtattak. Mintha bolygófoglalást is ígértek volna. Nekem az volt a nagy csalódás, hogy a beígért funkciók helyett inkább kidobták a kieget. Ami persze hangulatos, de én jobban örültem volna egy combat ui átdolgozásnak, egy flottakezelés átgondolásának, további optimalizációnak.
Reklámozzák nagyon. Csak azt a részt nem szoktam bemásolni a hírlevélbõl.
Premium Beta Access The first Premium Beta build is released on May 30th - and you can immediately download and play a Single Player Combat build today so you can practice your Sidewinder skills!
You can upgrade from your current purchase to Premium Beta - just checkout with Premium Beta in your shopping cart and the correct discount is automatically applied.
What you get As a Premium Beta customer you get: Immediate access to download a Single Player Combat build to develop your Sidewinder skills before the first Premium Beta build is released Automatic access all the Beta development stages Automatic access to all major downloadable expansion packs as they are released A download copy of the released game
The full Premium Beta will be available from 30th May, with access to the Single Player Combat build OUT NOW.
Ez így van, de az egy játék, az SQ42 a single kampány, az SC pedig "MMO" ami komplexitásban valószínûleg köröket ver majd az E : D-re, feltéve, ha valamikor is elkészül :D Persze mindkettõ must have szerintem. Amúgy is úgy néz ki, hogy E : D-vel elõbb fogunk játszani. :)
SotS 2 csúnyán rajtolt, de az EC edition már elég jó lett, nagyon sok hiba javítva lett. Már egész játszható, most is pont azzal tolom.
Én bízom benne, hogy tartani fogják amit ígértek, mert az egész hozzáállásuk egészen más mint SC-nél. Nincs önsztárolás meg eszetlen hype, csak dolgoznak szépen csendben. Remélem végre kapunk egy igazi sandbox szimet, mert gyakorlatilag az X3-mon kívül nincsen semmi (ami bár elég jó, de már régi és tele van betegséggel).
Állítólag komplex gazdaság csak az online részben lesz, a Squadron akárhányban (ami a kvázi Single Player rész) inkább lineáris lesz a játékmenet. Ha nem így van akkor én tudom rosszul, de valahol így olvastam.
És anno a swords of the stars II-vel égettem meg magam nagyon. Azóta full játékot, csak kipróbálás után veszek meg. Van 1-2 projekt amiket támogattam kickstarteren. Ezek közül egyiket sem bántam meg. Max annyi, hogy mégsem köt le és nem játszom vele.
Ha megy az angol, akkor javaslom nézd meg a #134 hsz-ben a videót. Ott beszélnek a korábbi bemutató videóról, hogy mire volt képes engine, mit rendereltek hozzá a videóban és utána milyen lett, mikor az engine már tudta kezelni a pilótafülkét. Ha minden ígéretüket így teljesítik, akkor nagyon nem bántam meg azt a 25 fontot. :)
Mert te mehetsz erre, más meg mehet arra, ízlés szerint. Fõleg a multi ágban azért kell a hely, hogy ne legyen túlzsúfolt a világ.
Annyira meg biztos rugalmas lesz a rendszer, hogy ne úgy mûködjön, mint az FFE-ben a kézzel kódolt küldetéseknél a Thargoid sztori kezdete (ezen a napon ebben a rendszerben ezen az állomáson csinálj olyasmit, amit amúgy nem szoktál, és ezzel elkezdõdik a küldetéssor)
A sima Elite ezerkilencszáznyolcvankevésben 32 ezer "galaxist" tudott volna kezelni (7 bitbõl dolgozott a procedurális tervezõ), ezt korlátozták le nyolcra, hogy ne riasszák el a játékosokat. Mindezt 32 kilobájtnyi memóriában. A Frontier és a First Encounters sok száz lakott rendszerrel létezett, és azon túl volt a "végtelen határ", ahova lehetett utazgatni, bár igazából minek (és a Frontier 1 800 kilobyteos floppyn jelent meg Amigára).
Itt se lesz gond akkora világot elõállítani, amekkorát nem szégyellnek, ahogy írták inkább az utóbbi megközelítést fogják elõnyben részesíteni: van egy lakott zóna - hol sûrûbben, hol gyérebben (igazgatási központtól a bányakolóniákig), azon túl meg az õserdõ :)
a 2 jatek gazdasaga sztem naogyn hasonlo lesz persze 100millio rendszer vs 100 rendszer szimulalasa mas, de alapvetoen sztem nem fog elterni.
az elittel kapcsolatban ez az egy fura erzesem, hogy kicsit tul nagy lesz a jatekter, de egyben vonzo is, hogy na akkor irany a nagy semmi vegtelen :D nagoyn varom mar a hiperurutazo es rendszerben utazos alpha4 videokat, mert ha olyan lesz, amilyen az intro videoban akkor VÁÓ
hajokat, fegyvereket es kulonbozo rendszereket lehet venni (mar az aplhaban is), keress ra valami outfitting videora es akkor meglatod. sztem scannerek, meg mindenfele kiegeszito cucc lesz heatsink, netan automata docking rendszer az lesz..
szoval a hajok fejleszthetoek, es termeszetesen tobbfajta hajo lesz.
SC egy ideje vicc -.- foleg a fel eves DFM csuszas, de alapvetoen a videokbol nekem nem tetszik (nem a grafika, mert az szep, hanem a flight modell es a gameplay). nagyon kivancsi leszek es remelem azert a flight modellen csiszolnak, mert az elite repulese nekem jobban tetszik.
Mint X3-nál. Hajók, fegyverek, új rendszerek stb., illetve ott legjobban a mod "szoftvereket" szerettem, mert rengeteg problémára jelentettek megoldást, illetve, számos funkcióval bõvítették a játékot. (de X3-ban lehetett venni a hajókra szoftvereket és ezekkel bõvíteni a hajó képességeit) Mondjuk itt ez valószínûleg nem így lesz.
sztem "zart" jatek lesz, nem tudom milyen modokra gondolsz pontosan
Akkor ez egy újabb jó hír, nem olvastam végig a szöveget. :-) Jól tetted, hogy nem vetted meg a Rebirth-öt, nekem 45ojróm bánta...Persze én voltam a hülye, mert pre-ordereltem. Elite-nél megvárom az elsõ véleményeket. :-) Bár hogy õszinte legyek, Braben-t olyannak ismertem meg, akinek a minõség még mindig fontosabb bárminél. Sokkal szimpatikusabb, mint amit Robika mûvel, bár kétségtelen, hogy ezzel a hype dáridóval lényegesen több pénzt kalapozott össze, ezzel együtt, zuhanni is nagyobbat lehet majd. Nem kívánom persze, de az Elite közelebb áll hozzám, mert egyben gazdasági szimulátor is.
Neeem, korábban már volt arról szó, hogy lesz több hajó is. Sztem linkeltem is olyan videót amiben be is mutatnak párat. A mostani alján is van egy olyan kérdés, hogy elérhetõ lesz e mindkét Imperial hajó (Courier, Trader) az elején. Írták a válaszban, hogy csak az egyik. A Cobra MKII(I) tuti benne lesz. Már mutattak is róla képet. Lesz még hajófoglalás is, meg mászkálás a fedélzeten.
Valahogy megértem, h a Rebirth után fenntartásaid vannak. Örülök, hogy nem vettem meg. :)
Ez nagyon durva!!! Az aszteroida gyûrû beszarás. Nem tudni megjelenési dátumot még?
Egyébként klasszikus hajó alatt az eredeti Elite hajót értem (ami a videókban is van). Rebirth után megfordult a fejemben, hogy talán ebben is csak egy hajó lesz vezethetõ. Remélem nem lesz igazam, bár még ezzel is kibékülnék, ha a játék többi része hozza azt, amit várok. Döbbenet amit eddig láttam, nekem nagyon bíztató. Ugyanakkor katasztrófa Rebirth után óvatosan örülök, a videókon még ott is bíztatónak tûnt a dolog.
Haha! De jót mosolyogtam... Egy kicsit megváltozott a játék mióta utoljára toltam az Enterprise 128K-mon... Nagyon tetszik a dokkolási procedúra, de a 100-diknál lehet egy kicsit uncsi lesz....:)
hát ööööööö sztem kurva jók a hangok én imádom a kis sidewinderemet ahogy nyekereg:ddd bigriszpekt az audio teamnek!
Azt valahol elejtették, hogy nem kell félni, a Kék Dunát meg lehet majd találni a játékban (talán twitteren vagy ilyesmin) :)
A hangeffektekrõl meg nekem eléggé süt, hogy placeholderek, majd ha meglesz, hogy hány darab meg milyen kell (kis lézer, közepes géppuska, nagy plazma, stb...), akkor rázavarják a hangokkal foglalkozó stábot.
Ohh, de igazad van sorry. Ket valamire valo urhajos jatek keszul, maris keverem oket :)
Szoval ott a botrany (Star Citizen), itt meg bizom benne, a hangokat kicsit atfaragjak. Amugy a latottak nem rosszak, szerintem epikus lenne, ha a kek duna keringot valahol elsutnek a jatekban az "oregek" kedveert :)
Ezek a hangok nem valami jok, foleg a star wars ep1-bol lopottak. Ott vesztettem el a hitem amikor par hete kozonseg elott mutattak be valami rendezvenyen, es mint egy felnotas ugy beszelt, illetve aki iranyitotta, mintha eleteben nem jatszott volna, soha semmivel annyira szerencsetlen volt.
Hangulatos jaja. :) Kíváncsi vagyok, h mennyire esélyes majd így használni a hajókat.
So far we have talked about and shown glimpses of the Elite: Dangerous Milky Way galaxy and we know for sure that our Alpha backers are enjoying blowing each other to bits in combat. But there is a hugely important part Elite: Dangerous that we haven’t given much attention to yet. Trading!
The rules are, of course, simple and universal - buy goods cheaply, where they are made and there is plentiful supply, and then sell them where prices are high, in a location that has a high demand for your cargo. Of course that may be easier said than done because of people who have honed their combat skills and are not averse to a little piracy as they spot you travelling from A to B - but let’s not worry about that for now…!
In Elite: Dangerous there are thousands of star systems with commodities markets – and some with multiple markets. Each of these markets exist in a starport – generally an orbital station or stations far above the planet surface.
Each star system has a different basic type of economy – for example Agricultural, Industrial, Hi-tech, Extraction, Refining or Service, and some have a mix of these basics – such as extraction and refining are often (but not always) in the same system. From a commodities perspective all but a service economy produce items for consumption. This creates an active trade network.
The core economies also have further variety, as there are more specialized sub-economies - for example an Aquatic Agricultural economy is focused on marine activities and will not produce Grain or Meat – though the locals may still consume it, so there will be demand for those goods. Most markets will only produce a few of the many different possible types of core commodities – and in some places exotic variants of them – so of course you need to explore this fabulous galaxy and discover your own favourite trade runs!
The makeup of each market is governed by several factors: Its galactic location typically indicates which of the main factions the system belongs to; whether Federal, Imperial, Alliance or Independent.
The type of government in each system helps define the legality of individual goods in that particular market; ranging from anarchies where ‘anything goes’, to theocracies who have their own idiosyncratic strict proscriptions, and many points in between.
The kind of planets, chemical composition, temperature, presence of asteroid fields, and other celestial bodies govern the resources that are prevalent in system, and hence what drives the economy and what goods are produced.
The system population determines the scale of production and consumption and capacity of the market - this can be modified by the type of government, too.
As in today’s world, supply and demand drive prices. Elite: Dangerous’ galactic market uses a server-based background trading simulation as a foundation. Initial supply and demand levels are influenced via trading between local systems. In this way, markets are not isolated but affect their near neighbours; if there is an increase or decrease in the supply of a particular commodity it will have a knock on effect on the pricing in other local systems too, as traders (AI or player) rapidly level the prices a little based on supply and demand.
Of course your actions will also contribute to such market activity. The smaller the market the more you will be able to influence that market through trading. The more valuable a commodity the more rare it will be, and therefore the more susceptible to your influence.
All your individual trades are added to the whole, and even mid-sized economies can be influenced by concerted efforts between groups of like-minded individuals. So you may find your ‘milk run’ dries up for a time, forcing you to look elsewhere for the deal. Or you could engineer a fat profit for yourself by cooperating with your friends…
We’re really looking forward to starting to roll out trading in Alpha 4 – there really is no substitute for enthusiastic testing!
Before then, we have been developing the trading system with the help of ‘MiniElite’ – a stand-alone program that enables us to quickly iterate on and refine the galactic economic market. It uses AIs to test the optimal trade routes at any one time, packing weeks of gameplay into just a few seconds.
‘MiniElite’ draws on data from thousands of populated systems and their economies, and shows us exactly the supply capacity, stock level, buy and sell price for each commodity. Then it unleashes AI traders at the markets, who travel between systems, buying and selling according to certain sets of behaviour profiles, upgrading their ships as they are able.
The resulting logs of what was bought and sold where have been invaluable in tuning trading, in preparation for its forthcoming debut!
In Alpha 4 there are five stellar systems, with five different local markets representing a variety of economies and a wide range of goods to trade. As we’ve described, buying and selling goods in the markets will affect the price of goods at those markets for all other players too.
We can’t wait to see how you compare against those ‘MiniElite’ AIs!
Sneak Peek- Planetary Rings
Here is an early glimpse of one of the first planetary rings to appear in the game!
Here we see different views of a rocky ring system around a small planet. This sort of thing can happen when a rocky body is ripped apart by gravitational forces as it passes close to a planet (technically it passes within the Roche limit) and much of the debris is captured. A few tens of thousands of years later – a blink in cosmic time - the debris will form a beautiful disc as shown here.
Cool Running part 2
Following on from last week’s newsletter piece about the heat-related features on offer in Elite: Dangerous, this fantastic YouTube video by Isinona has come to our attention. It has a nice text-based commentary that really highlights how heat awareness becomes a natural, integral part of your Elite: Dangerous experience.
Nice work Isinona! - but not using Flight Assist is just showing off.. ;)
Comms Chatter
- Forum user Gibbonici is putting together a team of explorers to reach the far reaches of the Milky Way galaxy in Elite: Dangerous. Read about his proposed campaign and sign up to the expedition!
So what I'm proposing here is the First Great Expedition in Elite Dangerous. A group of explorers who are willing to commit one of their commanders to an expedition into the deepest regions of the galaxy. It won't always be fun: we'll need supply runners as well as surveyors, we'll almost certainly need traders to provide funds for equipment and ships, we'll be visiting many dull and similar systems along the way, and will certainly face obstacles that will sap our resolve to continue. We don't even know how lucrative the rewards will be.
But we'll be the first and only people to see some of the places we visit. We will own the galaxy in ways far more profound and permanent than mere contestable, temporary domination.
Join the expedition here
- TwitchTV!
Last week saw our very first official Twitch stream, where Mark Boss and Adam Woods played through single player combat scenarios whilst answering your questions. A huge thanks to all those that submitted their questions to us, we managed to answer a many of them and Adam only crashed once…
Our second stream will be next week, Thursday 1st May, 7:30pm BST, which you can watch here - www.twitch.tv/elitedangerous
So send us your questions on Twitter @EliteDangerous, our Facebook page or leave them on our forum thread
- And finally we want to say thanks to the community for this fantastic t-shirt Executive Producer Michael Brookes received in the post recently, Michael is delighted with it!
Mostly Harmless Questions
In the Private Backers forum we have a thread where you can pose questions for the development team. Here are a couple of selected questions with answers from Executive Producer Michael Brookes.
-JohnStabler: Are we going to see the return of the Imperial Trader and Courier?
The Imperial Courier is planned for initial release, the Imperial Trader isn’t, although may make a later expansion.
-bsivko: I would like to ask a question about support of reality in E: D Universe. As you mentioned, you will include into release all of possible data of real Universe. But what will be after release? For example, if humanity discover thousand planets more, or find new objects like wandering planets between stars. Do you plan to change the E: D Universe according to that kind of events or not?
Yes, we will be changing the galaxy to keep up to date with the latest discoveries and observations - its one of the benefits of the connected world we now live in that we can update the game as needed! But hopefully, we won't need to update things *too* often; we think the physics we have used to predict new exo-planets is pretty good - it'll be fascinating to see how close we are!
Slawkenbergius: Will Elite: Dangerous use a physically-based shading/rendering system?
Short answer: yes it does. Elite: Dangerous adopted a physically-based rendering (PBR) model right from the start - we want it to look as good as possible under a variety of lighting conditions (and space certainly gives you that!). We expect the visual quality of Elite: Dangerous will continue to improve as we progress through development. It's worth mentioning though that PBR isn't a one-size-fits-all solution as much as it's the start of a discussion that could probably occupy someone for their entire career - kind of like the way "High Dynamic Range" was quickly adopted by everyone years ago but people are still arguing over the fine details!
That’s it for newsletter #20 - thank you again for reading and supporting the development of Elite: Dangerous so far!
As always if there is anything in particular that you’d like to hear more about, or ask a question, then please contact us at [email protected]
The Frontier Team
FRONTIER IS HIRING! Click here to see current vacancies.
A játékban "csak" ez az egy klasszikus hajó lesz repülhetõ?
Van új hírlevél. Van rá igény, h berakjam, vagy a kutyát sem érdekli? :)
Newsletter 19:
Cool Running
Heat generation is a significant issue that has to be managed as you pilot your spacecraft. There is no conduction or convection available in a vacuum, so the heat has to be radiated away to prevent overheating and degradation of system performance. This radiant heat provides a tell-tale signature that is used to provide the information on your scanner about the other ships in your local space. Unfortunately, it means you show up on everyone else’s scanners, too..!
The general rule is: the hotter you are running, the easier it is to ‘see’ you. The operation of every module on your ship contributes to the load on your power-plant and hence your heat signature. A representation of your current signature is shown on your ship’s display, along with a percentage measure of your heat relative to the allowable maximum.
Faster-than-light travel in-system using ‘super-cruise’ of course uses prodigious amounts of power, and the heat signature generated lights you up like a beacon on everyone’s scanners. And even that pales in comparison with the amount needed for long-range hyperspace travel between systems.
Normal propulsion using main engines produces significantly less heat than faster than light travel, and is normally not a limiting factor in general manoeuvring and combat.
Other sources of heat are weapons – some more so than others. For example, kinetic weapons are a good choice to keep your heat signature low, as the heat is generally ejected from your ship with the projectiles. Lasers and other energy weapons and shields, however, do contribute to the heat signature of your ship. In general the energy demand of every system you have contributes to the heat generated by your ship.
The heat vents on your ship operate automatically to attempt to regulate your ships temperature and keep all systems operational.
Additionally heat-sink modules are available as part of your loadout configuration which allow you to jettison heat stored by heating physical blocks to white heat, then ejecting them, having the additional benefit of acting as a decoy to other ships’ scanners and any incoming heat-seeking missiles.
In more extreme situations you can choose to ‘button down’ your ship for a short while, which stops the normal operation of the heat vents. Your shields are inoperative whilst you are in ‘silent running’ like this, and the heat that is still being generated by your ship’s systems builds up. Effectively your ship is ‘holding its breath’ and this is only a temporary measure – your ship will become disabled if you carry on too long.
Switching off your ship’s systems (even flight assist!) and using only gentle nudges of your thrusters to manoeuvre can result in a very stealthy profile, and you can combine this with the right weapons and tactics and achieve a whole new dimension to space combat. But beware - the hunter can easily become the hunted..!
If you are playing the Alpha or have Premium Beta access to the single player missions and haven't already mastered it, start experimenting and see how you can add pro-active thermal management to your repertoire of Elite: Dangerous Pilot Federation 'tricks of the trade'!
Cobra MK III - Design Philosophy
The Cobra Mk III is easily the most iconic ship in the lore of the Elite universe; a robust, multi-role vessel favoured by lone wolf space farers - hard-bitten mercenaries, intrepid explorers and entrepreneurial traders alike. It’s also one of the smaller ships in Elite: Dangerous, which presents an interesting challenge: how to make this favourite shine as always, without making it punch too far above its weight.
For a start, we reason that it should not be able to match smaller craft such as the Eagle or Sidewinder for straight agility. We categorise both of these vessels as “super manoeuvre” ships – they rely on being able to affect direction changes faster than their opponents to get on their target’s six in a dogfight – and we want to ensure that they maintain viability in this role. To compensate, the Cobra has more main drive power, giving it a higher top speed. It’s not the fastest ship, but coupled with very respectable hull strength and shield capacity for its size and cost, the Cobra is usually able to dictate engagement ranges when combating smaller ships; having the speed to break off and recover, as well as run down smaller prey and project superior firepower.
The Cobra isn’t a complete dogfighting slouch either; it’s able to run rings around many of the larger ships, and with four weapon-capable hardpoints it demands respect. The flip side is that it’s at greater risk from larger tracking-weapons that struggle to keep up with smaller fighters.
Elite: Dangerous isn’t all about combat though, as the forthcoming rollout of trading within a 200 cubic light year play space in Alpha 4 will reveal. Possibly the Cobra’s main appeal is that it combines a good degree of “yanking and banking” combat with solid trade and exploration options, representing a sweet spot for pilots wanting to do a little bit of everything on a budget.
Of course it’s not the be all and end all in space flight. For those looking to specialise, there will be vessels that are more effective in narrower fields, and due to its relatively small size, there are limits to the kind of endeavours it can safely engage in.
Alpha and soon Beta testers can look forward to continued ship-based tweaks as we strive to achieve the perfect balance for the Cobra, even as we add new vessels into the mix. But one thing’s for certain – the Mark Three is back with a bang!
Check out this great image of the Cobra that was used recently for an Edge magazine cover; you can also view the animation that was used in their interactive version of the issue here.
Mostly Harmless Questions
In the Private Backers forum we have a thread where commanders can pose questions for the development team. In this section of the newsletter we’ll take a look at some of those questions and provide answers from Executive Producer Michael Brookes.
-Perrie67: How will E:D make travelling the insane distances for exploring the galaxy without making it too easy to travel around the populated systems?
There are two modes of super luminal (faster than light) travel. Super cruise (or frame shifting) is used for travel inside systems. It was originally conceived as a sub-luminal drive, but based on the fantastic collaboration we have been having with our Design Decision Forum backers it was re-worked and is now itself a super luminal system to allow relatively rapid travel within systems. Hyperspace drives are used to travel between star systems. Hyperdrives with different ranges, charge up times and fuel consumption parameters are available, and so your particular model of hyperdrive governs your specific ability to move around the galaxy. Both will make their debut in Alpha 4 (not counting the early version of hyperspace in Alpha 3).
-bedroc: Hi, If you explore far out, will there still be stations and an ability to trade?
Most of humanity inhabits a few hundred light year bubble around Sol, Achenar and Alioth. Beyond this are a lower density of isolated systems with small communities on them that can be used by explorers to resupply, with small/basic orbital stations. These are the “Frontier” systems. Beyond this, you will still encounter occasional ships (including other players), but no stations; not to start with at least. There will be ship-ship docking though too, so it will still be possible to resupply. The ships suited for long range exploration will require a greater degree of self-sustainability, for example fuel scoops and repair and maintenance equipment, and we expect players to cooperate to meet the challenge!
-Wreckage: Is the Kepler data for planets being figured into the galaxy map?
We’re striving to make the Elite: Dangerous Milky Way as accurate as possible. As part of this we are using a variety of sources for the celestial bodies data, and that includes confirmed exoplanets from the Kepler data and many other sources.
Dev Diary 11: (a dokkolós rész után is van még)
Gyakorlatilag a Frontiert próbálják meg modernizálni, procedurális tájgenerálással, az nem néz ki rosszul, de nagyon kezdetleges. Az arcgenerálás az tényleg nagyon gáz. :) Szoktam benne repülgetni, de komolyan játszani benne nem tudnék.
Én kipróbáltam, nekem nagyon old school...A galaxis generálása nem rossz, de a bolygófelszín nagyon szegényes, van benne egy 2D face generátor, de bár ne lenne, mert nagyon kiábrándító. Összességében nem rossz, csak ma ez már kevés szerintem...
Sajnos valóban nem, ez a korai Dos-os Elite verzió nekem kimaradt az életembõl. Csak videókon láttam, illetve mivel minden cikk erre hiovatkozott nagy elõdként. Egyébként tonna számra vannak videók a dokkolásról a csövön, nekem továbbra is eszméletlenül tetszik!
Ezekszerint nem jatszottal az elozo reszekkel ? A video keszitojevel meg nem kell foglalkozni, inkabb orulj annak, hogy az alfarol valaki keszitett ilyen videot, amit megtudunk tekinteni, meg ha idegesito is.
A játék kifejezetten tetszik, az állomás, a dokkolás, az atmoszféra -legalább is így a videók alapján-, lenyûgözõ! Az állomáson belül a háttérzaj nagyon hangulatos, a dokkolási procedúra is élethûnek tûnik. Más kérdés, hogy remélem lesz valami ship update, ahol ezt nem kell majd mindig végigjátszani, mert kereskedéskor nagyon lassítja a játékot (X3-ban is feltettem a szükséges szoftvert a hajóra, hogy ne kelljen bedokkolni minden egyes állomásra ha eladni/vásárolni akartam). Viszont a lehetõség a manuális dokkolásra, és hogy ez ilyen szinten hangulatosan meg van csinálva, az nagyon bíztató. Csak a ideót készítõ teszter faszi rettenetes, sosem értettem mit lehet szarakodni percekig azon, hogy rákattintson egy gombra valaki. Dokkolni se tud, az "Enter hangar" menüt sem mutatta be, szóval teljesen amatõr, ráadásul hányinger ahogy szívja a fogát folyamatosan.
Ez így igaz, sõt, nekem a szerény de vérprofi Braben sokkal szimpatikusabb mint a nagyarcú Róbert. Nagyon remélem, hogy bár az Elite körül nincs olyan hisztis hype mint SC-nél, de a játék majd hozza amit várunk a nagy öregtõl, elvégre mindenki más kvázi róla koppintott. Az Elite sandbox gazdasági szimulátoros világa egyébként is közelebb áll hozzám mint Robi lineár lövöldéje. Az eredeti kérdést illetõen viszont csak arra a felvetésedre reagáltam, miszerint a nagy kiadók vs. közösségi finanszírozás meccsen, egyértelmûen ez utóbbi állna "nyerésre"...Én nem látok ilyen egyéretlmû igazságot egyik vagy másik oldalon sem, mindkét üzleti modellnek megvannak a maga elõnyei és hátrányai is. Viszont az X-Rebirt fiaskó óta megtanultam, hogy játékot csak akkor veszek ha: 1. Kipróbáltam 2. Megnéztem ezer gameplay videót és review-t Ha minden pozitív, akkor már lehet tömni a fejlesztõ zsebét. De még egy Rebirth átverést nem hagyok...egyszer lehetett ezt eljátszani...Early Access nálam ez a kategória, hiszen nem látom a készterméket, csak ígéreteket látok és egy jó esetben félkész valamit. Ez nem zárja ki azt, hogy a végén kiváló játék lesz, de a kockáztatást meghagyom másoknak.