Planet Xploration?

[Cooper5567]

Could there be any possibility of planet activity? Ie. flying into atmosphere and mining materials exclusive to that planet? or ground stations?

Functionality on planet surfaces. The ability to make ships and rovers that can only fly around on the planet for mining/fighting in atmosphere only? or would that be too much?

Maybe planets could have unique or rare resources only minable if you have above said text set up?

Just ideas to further enrich this game im looking forward to.

[Falcrack]

No

[Alan Phipps]

From the Q&A:

Q: Can you land on planets?.
A. No.

Q: Do the new planets have any function (besides from looking pretty)? Do planets have an impact on the workforce?
A: The planets themselves are not directly influencing the workforce. But we are using the system of workforce, so if we have a system which is predominantly populated by Paranids, then the workforce that is going to be on stations will be typically Paranids, too, because they are living there. Of course, also the stations will have habitation modules. You can even build some for multiple races and depending on what the living quarters are for people that's the people working on that station.

Q: Will planets have any influence over economy/universe. Are they only there just to look good?
A: At the moment they have no influence.

[Skeeter]

Shame as in elite they have unpopulated planetoid bodies like a moon or large asteroid I'd imagine where you can land and play about with buggies and probably as not played in ages set up mining stations. It would be nice if egosoft at least did that instead of proper planet landings with their own ecosystem for wares etc. Ud think they would do by now in 2017. If xrebirth did so well as Bernd said they surely could expand the team by now to do more new stuff and also get fresh ideas.

[Cabrelbeuk]

Nah, let's wait for a good X opus this time, let's hope for new stuff like this when the core will be settled.

[Riccardoman]

Nah, let's wait for a good X opus this time, let's hope for new stuff like this when the core will be settled.

^^^^^^

Core game>>>>>>>new features

[lyubarskiy]

Shame as in elite they have unpopulated planetoid bodies like a moon or large asteroid I'd imagine where you can land and play about with buggies and probably as not played in ages set up mining stations. It would be nice if egosoft at least did that instead of proper planet landings with their own ecosystem for wares etc. Ud think they would do by now in 2017. If xrebirth did so well as Bernd said they surely could expand the team by now to do more new stuff and also get fresh ideas.

And that was as boring and tacked on just like the rest of that game. I much rather have substance and content that a feature tick box.
Get me better AI, Better building, Better fleet management, better core gameplay.

[Nanook]

Shame as in elite they have unpopulated planetoid bodies like a moon or large asteroid I'd imagine where you can land and play about with buggies and probably as not played in ages set up mining stations. It would be nice if egosoft at least did that instead of proper planet landings with their own ecosystem for wares etc. Ud think they would do by now in 2017. If xrebirth did so well as Bernd said they surely could expand the team by now to do more new stuff and also get fresh ideas.

Elite D. has landing on planets. X games have building massive empires of stations and fleets. Pick your poison.

[ezra-r]

We can only wish.

I wish we could do stuff like in EVE Online to get ingredients from moons and/or planets. Even if managing them remotely from space.

I know this isn't happening, but one can dream.

[Skeeter]

Shame as in elite they have unpopulated planetoid bodies like a moon or large asteroid I'd imagine where you can land and play about with buggies and probably as not played in ages set up mining stations. It would be nice if egosoft at least did that instead of proper planet landings with their own ecosystem for wares etc. Ud think they would do by now in 2017. If xrebirth did so well as Bernd said they surely could expand the team by now to do more new stuff and also get fresh ideas.

Elite D. has landing on planets. X games have building massive empires of stations and fleets. Pick your poison.

I dont play x games for empires or fleets just the story manily and any cool scripted well made missions. I once did stations stuff but after 1000s of hours ive had enough of that side of the game. Im not a fan of focus on empire and fleets in x games, it wasnt how it was advertized when xbtf came out and it seems just because a few people do it on the forums that ego seem to expand that or well put more resources in it which I find a shame. Xbtf was billed as a adventure in space and while u could build stations and own other ships it was mainly imo to help you get enough income to get u kitted out and finish the plot.

If you wana build empires theres other games like rome tw, civ4 etc, gal civ2. If it was my way id keep x games mainly for their mysterious atmosphere and struggling to survive in a new universe cut off from home and build a life, not a empire just a normal space job doing this and that for people.

I think barren landable bodies which u can interact would be cool, manual mining with tools, not lazers or prebuilt fabs, discovering resources, getting them refining them all urself without stations would be good in x as u could be a prospector as a job. Then trying to flog ur wares to guilds or something, not just go to a station press a button and u sold it, but finding a buyer and negotiating the price and setting up things like transport costs, insurance of goods etc.

Anyhow i ramble on so ill just say, ideas arnt ever fixed to one game or another, they can be used by anyone its not like egosoft are unique in that many things.

[surferx]

Just....No!

[Fedora01]

I think barren landable bodies which u can interact would be cool, manual mining with tools, not lazers or prebuilt fabs, discovering resources, getting them refining them all urself without stations would be good in x as u could be a prospector as a job. Then trying to flog ur wares to guilds or something, not just go to a station press a button and u sold it, but finding a buyer and negotiating the price and setting up things like transport costs, insurance of goods etc.

Sounds suspiciously like Space Engineers

Although back on topic, I'd like them to take baby steps towards something like this. (IE get that giant *ss rock in Aldrin mine able! the FE Corporation must expand!). Most games just jump on top of planets wind up with completely lifeless and barren that aren't worth it to actually take time and look around.

[ZaphodBeeblebrox]

It should really be planetary exploitation, rather than exploration.

Gas giants tend to be most Hydrogen and Helium, rocky moons for ores and minerals as well as ice.

Populated planets don't really need anything from space and moving stuff up through the gravity well is expensive.

[BigBANGtheory]

I dont play x games for empires or fleets just the story manily and any cool scripted well made missions.

You play X games for the story I can't relate to that at all I'm afraid, the last thing I think about in an X game is settling into the campaign and following a story.

Have you seen the early access game Empyrion, that is a survival game in space with planet landing and mining. I like the concept and own the game (not played it yet) I could well see some cross over into X but honestly imho X's greatest strength over all other space sims is the ability to empire build. Now with X4 it finally looks as if we will see that gameplay properly supported with some strategy too... very happy about that.

Elite as we all know has planet landing (which I love btw), but what a lot of people don't tell you is it gets pretty boring after a while because just like Egosoft did with XR station interiors Frontier haven't properly integrated planets into the gameplay as yet. For me personally I'd rather see Egosoft uplift the station gameplay experience a hundred fold before even considering planet landing..... and that comes from a player who really likes planet landing I just wouldn't want it to be another baseless feature expansion.

[Skeeter]

I play all games for story, getting harder to find with MP only titles or cheap and short campaigns like SW bf2 which is said to be 6 hours long

I wish X games had a story like freespace 2 or starlancer. Xbtf had a interesting story to follow and x2 to a degree. Couldn't play x3 games as no cockpits and couldn't stand the way u flew ships in that and they used docking arms instead of a docking like xbtf or x2

Getting off topic now tho.

[Sorkvild]

Planets? And what do you expects to find on them? A procedurally generated landscape and tedious grind for some resources, yet another No Man's Sky. Meh...
Keep in mind Egosoft is a small studio and doing this planetary stuff is like making an another game inside a game - technology got more complex and this ain't no living world with planets that could squeeze on a single diskette like Dave Braben did with Elite II Better to focus on a single aspect and have well designed and developed orbit oriented game.

Nevertheless I'd agree on planets in case where you could dock your ship onto a shuttle that can take to planetary port (with descent animation showing the surface) and while there you can trade, hire people, find new opportunities, walk, etc all on limited space - port area only but with visible planet features like atmosphere, port surroundings and landscape.
For example during X2 plot player had to travel to the Boron homeland in search of answers. All was taking place in an animation but was pretty cool with unique views of underwater infrastructure.

[spankahontis]

Shame as in elite they have unpopulated planetoid bodies like a moon or large asteroid I'd imagine where you can land and play about with buggies and probably as not played in ages set up mining stations. It would be nice if egosoft at least did that instead of proper planet landings with their own ecosystem for wares etc. Ud think they would do by now in 2017. If xrebirth did so well as Bernd said they surely could expand the team by now to do more new stuff and also get fresh ideas.

They used the reason that, "Procedurally Generated Planets are boring.".
Planets as background pictures, window dressing, to me is boring, personally.

I understand that creating a Planet from scratch is more aesthetically pleasing to the Eyes than something that is cookie cut "Looks familiar to the last lake, tree, mountain I saw" type of generated World, don't argue that.

But if a useless company like Hello Games can make a Planet and with a smaller team? Then why is it soo hard for Egosoft to bring a few Planets into the X Universe to Land on, to build mining stations on?

Hell, even a huge Asteroid like the Badlands to build a mining colony on with asteroids that size scattered across the Universe would be an improvement??

Planets? And what do you expects to find on them? A procedurally generated landscape and tedious grind for some resources, yet another No Man's Sky. Meh...

I would expect to find a World where it is rich in mineral deposits, build a huge colony, preferably one like the metal refinery station in space with ships landing on and off it like you would in space.
Areas where there is agriculture, build a farm there.

It's a game that exploits resources in a Free Market Capitalist Universe and you're telling me that corporations are afraid of Planets???
Goes completely against immersion.

The resource grinding, animal documenting, that's all No Man's Sky.
Why can't we have the trade mechanics of the X Universe on a Planet?
What you do on No Man's Sky is a completely different thing to an X Game that nobody is asking for here.

[lyubarskiy]

Shame as in elite they have unpopulated planetoid bodies like a moon or large asteroid I'd imagine where you can land and play about with buggies and probably as not played in ages set up mining stations. It would be nice if egosoft at least did that instead of proper planet landings with their own ecosystem for wares etc. Ud think they would do by now in 2017. If xrebirth did so well as Bernd said they surely could expand the team by now to do more new stuff and also get fresh ideas.

They used the reason that, "Procedurally Generated Planets are boring.".
Planets as background pictures, window dressing, to me is boring, personally.

I understand that creating a Planet from scratch is more aesthetically pleasing to the Eyes than something that is cookie cut "Looks familiar to the last lake, tree, mountain I saw" type of generated World, don't argue that.

But if a useless company like Hello Games can make a Planet and with a smaller team? Then why is it soo hard for Egosoft to bring a few Planets into the X Universe to Land on, to build mining stations on?

Hell, even a huge Asteroid like the Badlands to build a mining colony on with asteroids that size scattered across the Universe would be an improvement??

Planets? And what do you expects to find on them? A procedurally generated landscape and tedious grind for some resources, yet another No Man's Sky. Meh...

I would expect to find a World where it is rich in mineral deposits, build a huge colony, preferably one like the metal refinery station in space with ships landing on and off it like you would in space.
Areas where there is agriculture, build a farm there.

It's a game that exploits resources in a Free Market Capitalist Universe and you're telling me that corporations are afraid of Planets???
Goes completely against immersion.

The resource grinding, animal documenting, that's all No Man's Sky.
Why can't we have the trade mechanics of the X Universe on a Planet?
What you do on No Man's Sky is a completely different thing to an X Game that nobody is asking for here.

What you are asking for takes a lot of resources to make. I would rather they spend these resources on improving the core game play. No Mans sky spent years to make what is essentially a system that generates planets and some life form on it. 'It took them YEARS'. You don't really thing that planetary landings are simple to implement?

Additionally, Just like No mans Sky and Elite dangerous, there is NOTHING to do once you land. It's just boooring!!! The only game that may solve this is StarCitizen. But even then it doesn't look like there will be that much to do on the planets, and these guys have devolved tech to populate full scale planets with 100% buildings that you can actually enter.

So no. Please don't waste time on something that is useless. If anything, I would rather we didn't have any First Person walking rather then getting the pointless mechanic in XR.

[Skeeter]

I don't think barran planets are that resource intensive I never asked for class m planets with billions of people on walking around and massive cities all over it. Just do something like freelancer where u can dock at class m maybe which u can switch to hanger/bar/shop areas. But mainly I'd like to see is barran moons which you can either land, scan for mineral deposits, mine them by either manually collect them or use auto drones like from frontier elite 2 where u leave em for a bit come back and see how much is mined etc. Maybe you can develope moons etc for a base maybe, some factories on like processing plants to collect air to sell or water things that are valuable to space play.

Just do something with planetoids instead of just pretty backgrounds since alot of games use them but egosoft don't seem to want to.

Game development has come along way and doing planets or moons etc isn't that hard and they don't really take up much resources especially if it's generated procedurally initially. The only labour intended part would be populating them with cities but no one has said that is a must if they do them have they. Besides arnt X games sandbox, so what's the harm of having a moon with low gravity and messing about on a moon buggy just zipping about doing wheelies off cliffs and floating along due to gravity. Could be fun when ur bored doing other stuff.

[Morkonan]

Elite D. has landing on planets. X games have building massive empires of stations and fleets. Pick your poison.

^--- This.

There's no point to having direct interactions with a planet or its surface in an X game. It's just not that sort of scale the game is built on.

And, if it was... That'd be cool, but then the game would probably lose its "focus" and half the players would be upset all of the time. I'd rather all the players be upset half the time than half of them being upset all of the time.

Note: An entirely separate game in a sort of FPS/RPG genre based on the X Universe might be interesting coupled with a tight focus on such an experience. ("The Pit" built on the "Sword of the Stars" IP with some success. I don't see why a really successful release of "X4" couldn't lead to a successful, more intimate, RPG'ish game in the X universe.)