I owe Todd an apology, about Space-Travel.

[WatchDogNelson]

This post is about inter-system space travel. I didn't think it was possible and uninstalled shortly after the tutorial.

Like many others I thought the ship was a cosmetic and dogfighting minigame that required extra loading screens instead of fast travel, which I found extremely disapointing.

This is not the case! If you are someone who cares about manual space travel, please continue to read.

I can confirm along with the other videos dropping today that manual spaceflight to a planet is possible. I can also confirm that the planets do follow an orbit and are in the gameworld map. Granted you cannot land/takeoff manually and still need to use the prompt. The manual travel is tedious due to speed and lack of autopilot functioning.

What this means for manual travel enthusiasts, is that this issue is likely not inherent to the game engine, but a limitation of the travel speed of spacecraft, which could be modded or potentially changed by Bethesda. In addition, if the game engine can support autopilot functions while moving around the interior of the spacecraft, than the space-travel aspect of this game will be suitably fleshed out!

Hopefully Bethesda or the modding community can address this!

[Illtempered]

Originally posted by WatchDogNelson:

This post is about inter-system space travel. I didn't think it was possible and uninstalled shortly after the tutorial.

Like many others I thought the ship was a cosmetic and dogfighting minigame that required extra loading screens instead of fast travel, which I found extremely disapointing.

This is not the case! If you are someone who cares about manual space travel, please continue to read.

I can confirm along with the other videos dropping today that manual spaceflight to a planet is possible. I can also confirm that the planets do follow an orbit and are in the gameworld map. Granted you cannot land/takeoff manually and still need to use the prompt. The manual travel is tedious due to speed and lack of autopilot functioning.

What this means for manual travel enthusiasts, is that this issue is likely not inherent to the game engine, but a limitation of the travel speed of spacecraft, which could be modded or potentially changed by Bethesda. In addition, if the game engine can support autopilot functions while moving around the interior of the spacecraft, than the space-travel aspect of this game will be suitably fleshed out!

Hopefully Bethesda or the modding community can address this!

That's good news for possible mods...

[Dat Boy]

Can you link vid of this pls?

[WatchDogNelson]

Well I don't mod them myself, but I can say confidently that the starting ship travels at a speed that covers 1 kilometer per second, or about 300 mph at base speed, and will boost up to about 1200 mph. You can travel manually to distant bodies, however there may be some unseen limitations. However, travel between Mars and it's moon is possible by example.

[WatchDogNelson]

Originally posted by Dat Boy:

Can you link vid of this pls?

Sorry friend, I saw videos posted by others on the forum and rushed to re-buy the game after I refunded it to see if it were possible.

It is easy enough to test if you have the game, if you are waiting to purchase it and I find a link I will repost it here.

Of course, the amount of time necessary to travel these distances is astronomical.

[UNBREAKABLE]

One example - there's more but this was the easiest to find.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNjdz2q2Jws
You still can't land on the planets obviously, but the solar system absolutely is being simulated around the player. The game is even aware of the planet's surface from space still as you can open the scanner and see the objective markers in the proper places. Planets themselves of course also have rotations, tilts, and orbits that are all simulated if you ever pay attention long enough.

I don't think seamless atmosphere travel would ever happen, but maybe they could have added a speed where it doesn't take literal hours to fly like the above (everspace 2 style), and then just transition onto the tile you're pointed at once you get close instead of clipping through it, or even simpler just open the landing menu automatically once you're close. Fast travel always being an option of course.

The smoke and mirrors effects needed are already there, I just think the devs opted not to put a lot of work into something lots of people will realistically skip very often if not all the time.

[Defective Dopamine Pez Dispenser]

I'm wondering, given the ability to "wait" aboard ships, if the original intention was to let us engage an autopilot locked onto our target, set the engine, then "wait" for arrival, at which point we would be prompted to select the land option. That actually seems like a plausible and feasible system that could be implemented.

[Solace]

I've verified this myself, you can fly to distant planets within the star system you're occupying. Ever since this was brought up I kinda thought it was funny that some people believed it were not possible while negating the sheer size of space relative to astronomical units. This was even an issue during the early days of Elite Dangerous post release.

Knowing this now increases the modding potential. Now all we need to figure out is if the engine supports some measure of procedural true-to-scale planetary generation. CE2 is not Unreal, but there's no confirmation that it can't be done yet. Either way it's no big deal.

[WatchDogNelson]

Originally posted by Aikido:

I'm wondering, given the ability to "wait" aboard ships, if the original intention was to let us engage an autopilot locked onto our target, set the engine, then "wait" for arrival, at which point we would be prompted to select the land option. That actually seems like a plausible and feasible system that could be implemented.

I tried and there is no autopilot mechanism thus far. I am hoping for this feature as it would allow use of the ship during transit. Whenever you leave the captain's chair, the engines shut off.

[DemonikStolas]

Originally posted by WatchDogNelson:

This post is about inter-system space travel. I didn't think it was possible and uninstalled shortly after the tutorial.

Like many others I thought the ship was a cosmetic and dogfighting minigame that required extra loading screens instead of fast travel, which I found extremely disapointing.

This is not the case! If you are someone who cares about manual space travel, please continue to read.

I can confirm along with the other videos dropping today that manual spaceflight to a planet is possible. I can also confirm that the planets do follow an orbit and are in the gameworld map. Granted you cannot land/takeoff manually and still need to use the prompt. The manual travel is tedious due to speed and lack of autopilot functioning.

What this means for manual travel enthusiasts, is that this issue is likely not inherent to the game engine, but a limitation of the travel speed of spacecraft, which could be modded or potentially changed by Bethesda. In addition, if the game engine can support autopilot functions while moving around the interior of the spacecraft, than the space-travel aspect of this game will be suitably fleshed out!

Hopefully Bethesda or the modding community can address this!

That's alright.
Todd owes us an apology too.

[Iratus Machina]

Originally posted by WatchDogNelson:

Originally posted by Aikido:

I'm wondering, given the ability to "wait" aboard ships, if the original intention was to let us engage an autopilot locked onto our target, set the engine, then "wait" for arrival, at which point we would be prompted to select the land option. That actually seems like a plausible and feasible system that could be implemented.

I tried and there is no autopilot mechanism thus far. I am hoping for this feature as it would allow use of the ship during transit. Whenever you leave the captain's chair, the engines shut off.

Autopilot mod would be a lifesaver, imo. While I do enjoy getting up out of the cockpit and moving around my ship in the middle of space, it would add more that little extra oomph towards immersion if the ship could move while we're not flying. Even better if our crew would still commandeer their stations or even have someone else in the pilot seat while we're off chilling in our captain's lounge or whatever.

[zpc]

@OP Important thread - thanks for the research.

Like many things I too think that this limitation whe currently have here is due to a design decision of the devs (gameplay fun > realism) and less an issue of the used tech. The same goes for "seamless planet exploration" - the engine knows how to load "next cells" for ages. So the limitation in regard to landing spots is artificial as well.

So in order to push those boundaries we'd need only a few adjustments - either made by Bethesda or the modding community:

• Seamless space: travel engine / auto pilot / npc pilot (to allow crafting, inventory management or other side activities during flight)
  
• Seamless planets: vehicles / call in space ship to position XY / loading & populating next cells on reaching boundaries

[_oBSOLEte_]

Originally posted by Dat Boy:

Can you link vid of this pls?

Sure thing :
https://clips.twitch.tv/CoySecretivePastaPeoplesChamp-GoHm_jWVrAppAYzU

OP is lying. You cant fly to a planet manually, you need to fast travel to load it in the instance.

So basically you can seamlessly fly to jpegs, not planets. But shills on copium are adament, this is GOTY.

[Boss]

I think people thought this would be a space sim with RPG elements, when it's a RPG with space sim elements. It's fantastic for what it is, and what I think Mass Effect should've been.

I think most of us approached it from the Elite Dangerous/Star Scam angle.

[_oBSOLEte_]

Originally posted by Illtempered:

That's good news for possible mods...

On the contrary. The game is a clunky patchwork of discontinued instances and the engine truly showing all it's limitations. Mods are not made out of copium.

[Lochar]

If you notice, most of the cockpits have a screen with autopilot on it.

Possibly another 1 of those fun vs realism and they didnt pursue it at this time, who knows.