Seems way too ambitious.

[Zapp Brannigan]

I love what I'm seeing so far but dang! They are saying they are going to completely design entire star-ships "down the every bolt and weld" Do you know how monumental a task that would be for even a single ship? They are also talking about an entire procedural generated galaxy complete with alien races with their own culture and tech that you can integrate into your own ship.

Seriously, this is some Star Citizen level ambition from a handful of people in a fledgling development studio that has never released a single game. I really want this game to be everything they want it to be, but how can this small team achieve all this?

[lefty1117]

Well they have a kickstarter going on now so they can hire more devs. The one thing that strikes me so far is the design approach seems really well done, like I don't know what kind of design documentation they use or what their methodology is, but it seems well constructed in terms of the in-game systems and how it all works together. That's the hardest part, IMO, for these sort of games. But I agree it's a little hard to wrap my head around just one person doing most of the design and development (if that's still the case)and just how long it will take to deliver on what is being suggested. Maybe beyond a handful of them, additional ships might be sold as DLC to help fund their development, given how intricate they are.

[Blueberry Muffins!]

design entire star-ships "down the every bolt and weld" Do you know how monumental a task that would be for even a single ship?

There's already a good start on one available in the demo, check it out.

[claire]

Originally posted by Zapp Brannigan:

I love what I'm seeing so far but dang! They are saying they are going to completely design entire star-ships "down the every bolt and weld" Do you know how monumental a task that would be for even a single ship? They are also talking about an entire procedural generated galaxy complete with alien races with their own culture and tech that you can integrate into your own ship.

Seriously, this is some Star Citizen level ambition from a handful of people in a fledgling development studio that has never released a single game. I really want this game to be everything they want it to be, but how can this small team achieve all this?

Give the demo a try and you'll see that we already have the entire 1:1 milky way in game, and the ship is currently being extended and fleshed out :)

[Zapp Brannigan]

I have about 4 hours in the demo. I love what you have done, but simply creating a bunch of systems through procedural generation is one thing, filling those systems with playable content is another. I want to be supportive, I just can't get my head around the scope.

[claire]

Originally posted by Zapp Brannigan:

I have about 4 hours in the demo. I love what you have done, but simply creating a bunch of systems through procedural generation is one thing, filling those systems with playable content is another. I want to be supportive, I just can't get my head around the scope.

We've established design rules for the structure of the ship(s), and because we're doing this in CAD software there's a lot of copy/paste of identical components. You only need to make one bolt. The rest can be distributed via arrays and scripts. The task isn't as daunting as you might think, and a lot of that work has already been done for our first ship.

Not every ship will be that big, we'll have ships of various shapes and sizes, and furthermore once the core systems are polished, making new ships is literally just modelling work, because those completed systems can just be dragged onto the new vessels.

Filling the galaxy with actual engaging content is of course our biggest challenge, and we'll be building a team that's dedicated to that task. We'll also be engaging with various sci-fi authors (such as Drew Wagar), who will "own" entire sectors of the galaxy.

The gaps will be filled in procedurally, and for that we need massive data and asset pools to ensure ongoing uniqueness. Again, we'll be building a team dedicated to that task.

[ShelLuser]

Originally posted by Zapp Brannigan:

Seriously, this is some Star Citizen level ambition from a handful of people in a fledgling development studio that has never released a single game.

That is indeed also my take on this, I love what I'm seeing and I'm definitely going to be keeping my eyes out but at the same time I can't help it but No Man Sky defnitely pops into my head as well.

Not to mention, I'm a rather vivid Elite Dangerous player which you could consider a bit of a competitor: it also features a 1:1 galaxy which you can explore though it focusses more on realism thus... there isn't all that much to do out there; it's mostly about taking in the amazing sights and earning credits to get better ships.

My point being: that company went through the same process: it started as a kickstarter and eventually did become what was intended but it took 'm almost 10 years and even now they have tons of plans but ... there's only so much they can do.

Just for contexts sake: E.D. doesn't feature ship interiors, doesn't have crew members (not as you see here), and it's mostly focussed on, well, you flying your ship through space in a somewhat realistic'ish way (sometimes getting to places can take up to an hour).

So with all that in mind.... you're completely right that this IS highly ambitious. With all due respect: one demo doesn't make a full game.

Even so, I'm definitely keeping my eye on this. Because as you said yourself, the project looks amazing and very impressive too. No question about it. But history does show us that a little skepticism sometimes isn't a bad idea. Really hoping to be proven wrong here.

[claire]

It's never a bad thing to be cautious, and luckily, no one is asking you to pay anything either because the game is free. So just keep an eye on things, and enjoy it when it's finished :)

[Zapp Brannigan]

Originally posted by claire:

It's never a bad thing to be cautious, and luckily, no one is asking you to pay anything either because the game is free. So just keep an eye on things, and enjoy it when it's finished :)

I feel you folks will do your best and I feel you have passion for what you are doing so I just donated to the Kickstarter. Only Captain level, but I hope it helps! I wish you guys success and will watch with anticipation to see how things go.

[claire]

Originally posted by Zapp Brannigan:

Originally posted by claire:

It's never a bad thing to be cautious, and luckily, no one is asking you to pay anything either because the game is free. So just keep an eye on things, and enjoy it when it's finished :)

I feel you folks will do your best and I feel you have passion for what you are doing so I just donated to the Kickstarter. Only Captain level, but I hope it helps! I wish you guys success and will watch with anticipation to see how things go.

Thank you so much for your support :)

[bba525]

I'm 76 years old and hope to live long enough to see it completed. I think it's great! I also have the Orville sim, so I know what you're capable of.

[BoogieMan]

Originally posted by Zapp Brannigan:

I love what I'm seeing so far but dang! They are saying they are going to completely design entire star-ships "down the every bolt and weld" Do you know how monumental a task that would be for even a single ship? They are also talking about an entire procedural generated galaxy complete with alien races with their own culture and tech that you can integrate into your own ship.

Seriously, this is some Star Citizen level ambition from a handful of people in a fledgling development studio that has never released a single game. I really want this game to be everything they want it to be, but how can this small team achieve all this?

Maybe the art asset person has plenty of time to do that level of detail while the rest of the game is being built. I'm sure they've considered the workload.

As for the technical aspect of programming any mechanics related to welds and bolt and what have you, you only need to develop the governing system once and just apply it where you want, right?

Besides, I bet you'd be willing to put wave after wave of your men at their disposal, right?

[BeardifulBill]

I've been burned by kickstarter and early access games in the past. I am remaining cautiously optimistic about this game, but I'm not planning on putting money on it until i'm confident it's making it out of early access. definitely rooting for it and hoping it will be a success.

[Orionox]

Originally posted by Blueberry Muffins!:

design entire star-ships "down the every bolt and weld" Do you know how monumental a task that would be for even a single ship?

There's already a good start on one available in the demo, check it out.

i guess the major difference is the non mmo-aspect, which i expect simplifies things. Additionally, I expect the flight model to be simpler in this game than star citizen so hopefully getting people to be able to move on ships while flying won't be as big a problem (Although it would be cool if people got blasted around for trying to walk around a ship that was trying to accelerate)

[BoogieMan]

Originally posted by Orionox:

Originally posted by Blueberry Muffins!:

There's already a good start on one available in the demo, check it out.

i guess the major difference is the non mmo-aspect, which i expect simplifies things. Additionally, I expect the flight model to be simpler in this game than star citizen so hopefully getting people to be able to move on ships while flying won't be as big a problem (Although it would be cool if people got blasted around for trying to walk around a ship that was trying to accelerate)

Any vessel that can go as fast as these do, especially in system (who knows if a warp bubble would prevent the crew from feeling inertia) especially so quickly, would have to have an inertial dampening system or everyone would get splattered against the walls.

[Fenix]

Originally posted by BoogieMan:

Originally posted by Orionox:

i guess the major difference is the non mmo-aspect, which i expect simplifies things. Additionally, I expect the flight model to be simpler in this game than star citizen so hopefully getting people to be able to move on ships while flying won't be as big a problem (Although it would be cool if people got blasted around for trying to walk around a ship that was trying to accelerate)

Any vessel that can go as fast as these do, especially in system (who knows if a warp bubble would prevent the crew from feeling inertia) especially so quickly, would have to have an inertial dampening system or everyone would get splattered against the walls.

Under current design, the FTL tech being used for the Magellan is based on Alcubierre Drive theories. While engaged, the interior of the Alcubierre bubble does not experience inertial forces. The Artificial Gravity system is a variant of this technology and generates a bubble of gravity, with the field coils for this system being located in the superstructure of the hull along the bottom of the ship. Under sublight propulsion inertial forces will be counteracted by vectoring the field generated by the field coils to an extent. There is a limit to how much the gravity field can be vectored and inertial effects will still occur if they exceed the capability of the system to counter them.