Whenever flying in sector space, or in a planetary system, or on the ground for that matter I always felt boxed in and constrained. It was nothing like X3 where space seemed huge. I didn't think think it was possible for an MMO to have such a scale until I encountered Infinity from Inovae studios. They just released a tech demo of their procedurally generated galaxy, where each dot on the map is an explorable star, and each planet can be landed on. You can see part one here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7eREddMjt4&feature=player_embedded&fmt=22
and part 2 here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3muhlQYFgLE&feature=related
This engine was pretty much programmed by 1-8 devs, and its being designed for a MMO as well. If there's any way to license the engine or incorporate some of its design principals into your own, I'd ask you to consider it. At the very least exploration sectors should be handled this way. The seamless transition from space to ground was shockingly good.
Anyway I know its a longshot but I wanted to get this out there that space and ground can be seamlessly joined without too much undue instancing, and yes I do realize in the tech demo there's only one person in the game :cool:.
Page with the videos if the above links don't work
http://www.infinity-universe.com/Infinity/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=114&Itemid=47
Comments
The first link works for me, but the second one does not.
Egosoft's 'X' games on the other hand are the best space game /simulations ever made. Head and shoulders above anything else. Too many times I have heard rumours that they will turn it into an MMO only to have my hopes dashed. I would be on that like stink on a TRIBBLE if it ever came to pass.
I use Firefox as well
The second one is working for me now. I just re-clicked the link and it went through. No error message.
Weird...
they are just youtube links. Both worked just fine for me, in Firefox.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7eREddMjt4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3muhlQYFgLE
It reminds me a bit of an old Studebaker.
http://www.infinity-universe.com/Infinity/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=114&Itemid=47
YouTube seemed to be having some problems a little while ago.
I love the idea of being able to take a shuttle down to the surface instead of the using the molecule scrambler... but I just don't see this happening with Cryptic's engine. Even if there were a load screen between space and the planet's atmo, I just don't see the engine being able to handle more planetary surface than the 500sq meters they dole out to us on exploration missions.
I had expected that a "genesis" engine [especially when tied to the Star Trek reference of 'genesis'] could actually produce an entire planetary surface.
I'm quickly learning to scale back my expectations with all things related to Cryptic.
Now what are they going to put in all that?
It's sounding like Spore meets Battlecruiser 3000.
That's not intended as a compliment.
i was like "he will crash into the planet" every 0.5 seconds again.... but he kept going and going down...
WOAH!
...i dont care what the rest of the game will be like I WANT THAT TECH!
EDIT: Never mind. Players cannot land and get out of their ships. No ground play at all. The spaceflight tech does look good, but it's an incomplete development package in my estimation.
In any case, this looks great but I doubt we will ever see it for STO. They would need to revamp the game engine just so we can be inside our ships and scroll out for a 3rd person view.
Being able to land with shuttles in STO won't be that great I believe. They are still in the mode of doing things quick and cheap. So shuttles in STO at best means you can pilot a shuttle in 3rd person down to the atmosphere's edge at which time our current loading screen will be displayed. Or worst case, a simple animation of a shuttle leaving your ship before the loading screen displays and wham you are on the ground map.
Currently there's not really a planet to land on. Its just a 3D Object with a proximity trigger to move you to a square ground map.
Flying down through the atmosphere in a seamless transition to a full planet with all the details will be a major major undertaking. Very doubtful that Cryptic will spend the resources to design something similar and also doubtful they will purchase this space flight engine.
Sorry for bubble busting but it would take some dev comments from high up (Jack Emmert or above) for me to believe Cryptic is even considering space flight and full planetary exploration at this level of simulation.
I know, that's why I said it was a long shot
Yes, this is what I expected the first time I flew down toward a planet. Instead I met the white-screen-of-disappointment.
TRUE three dimensional motion (ala Descent) is also what I expected in SPACE. Space does not have an up and a down:
"He is intelligent, but not experienced. His pattern indicates two-dimensional thinking." --Spock, Star Strek: The Wrath of Khan
Talon
Star Trek has a lot of non realistic qualities about it and not just movement, for instance, why does no one think of torpedo tubes that face the sides, top, and bottom of the ships?
I was really taken aback when I saw the little stones in the ring of the planet, only to realize those are giant asteroids!
Immersion when going into the atmosphere of the planet was just WHOA!
All that being said, I'm gonna pull the old too-good-to-be-true. It's just that, for now.
Oh... and I think that game could be a killer single player game
I love STO, of course I have some complaints, nothing serious. But I sure will keep my fingers crossed that Infinity turns out to be what everyone wants.
Until then, Cryptic will turn STO into something almost equally fantastic. I hope :P
Hopefully someday the STO devs will upgrade the Planets so we don't see the giant pixels and more depth to planetary rings.
Another game does that but not as pretty is Spore. Some good ideas in Spore as well.
There are some problems though I had with Spore that would probably translate over. And that is after awhile all the planets and objects feel the same even though they are totally different.
Either way though I love the transition from space to planet.
Yeah it LOOKS pretty, but it does nothing, and it would get old fast.
I wouldn't be difficult to fix that however since this game is instanced. I agree this is what space should loook like , scale wise and from a gameplay persective.I loved it and this should be the direction STO took , while I understand the present layout , it's cheesy to put it kindly comparatively speaking. Failing to look at this and implement some aspects of this will just put STO further in the hole. This is the type of WOW ! factor that STO lacks.