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Thread: My last atmospheric flight/landing on planet topic....
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BalkanDain
Sun Mar 06, 2005 2:25 pm
#1
I would say the last atmospheric flight topic but we all know that isn't true...
Okay so here is my idea... You are flying in space and then you fly near a planet (or space station, i don't know which) and a message pops up that says, "Would you like to land automatically or manually?" And you pick. If you say automatically, you will land in a Space Port of your choice. Now if you want to land it manually, a screen pops up similiar to the map. The map is divided into 4 sections, NE, NW, SE, and SW. You click on one of them and it zooms into it. Then it divides that area into 4ths and then again... Now you are shown with a screen similair to when you are setting up houses. You see everything there and you put a "lot" where u want to land. Then you get a loading screen and you are outside your ship with it right there behind you. This is good so you can put it beside your house, and such. To go back up into space you put your reticle on the ship and push launch, then you are put into space.
Later maybe there can be a movie of your ship landing or something. Comments good or bad are acsepted. Post your opinion.
tbither
Sun Mar 06, 2005 3:52 pm
#2
i like, its kind of a no brainer system
of course, the area round most cities should be a no-fly zone
and for player cities, perhaps specific areas could be designaed as "landing zones" by the mayor (or perhaps landing structures)
anyways, as i said, i like
of course, the area round most cities should be a no-fly zone
and for player cities, perhaps specific areas could be designaed as "landing zones" by the mayor (or perhaps landing structures)
anyways, as i said, i like
LeeRydersRevenge
Sun Mar 06, 2005 4:16 pm
#3
tbither wrote:
i like, its kind of a no brainer system
I like it too. Sadly, these are no brainer devs too lol.
Zeon_Zaku
Sun Mar 06, 2005 4:17 pm
#4
Yeah, that would be pretty cool. It would be cool too if the ramp on MP ships was open so you could walk in and out of them when landed. It would sure make decorating a lot easier, and open up some elements for role playing. 
ValiantHalibut
Sun Mar 06, 2005 11:18 pm
#5
That's a REALLY good idea. Anybody have any idea why, technically, this would be problematic?
It would have to be limited to some degree, though. At the moment I do quite like how JTL has revitalized the NPC cities. This would only serve to disperse people again. Maybe they could make a personal landing pad a Player Event Perk? Or there could be a tax on landing outside the cities... I got it!
OK, introduce customs at all starports. This would be an automatic security check every time you load in to a public starport, but it would ONLY check for illegal goods. It wouldn't look at faction. If you're carrying illegal goods and if - say 85% of the time - the check succeeds, you would be greeted by the local city guard who either levy a hefty fine or automatically attack.
Now, in order to get around this you land outside the city using your idea - the catch, though, is that only Master Smugglers have a 100% chance of succesfully doing this. When you arive at a space station you're given the option to bribe the attendent who will then allow you to bybass the official channels and land on the planet. The bribe would be half the cost of having a chassis dealer make the ship. I.E. a YT-1300 would have to pay 50k in bribe money. The logic is that a larger ship is more likely to attract attention. Once you've paid your bribe, you open up the quadrant screen as described above.
When you do this a new skill is checked - let's call it clandestine xp - and if you pass the check you can land wherever you like. If you fail, however, you're intercepted on your way down and land at the starport closest to the spot you would have landed, only this time the local police and/or stormtroopers are waiting. Pilots would get +5 clandestine xp at novice, and it would go up by +1 with each branch of pilot skill, and at master it would be +6. All told, a master pilot with no smuggler ability would have a +15 clandestine xp, giving a 15% chance of landing succesfully. A smuggler, on the other hand, would get a +10 at novice, and then bonuses all the way up the underworld tree. Say, +10, +10, +15, +20 and a final +20 at master. That would give a master smuggler +100 and, thus, the ability to land anywhere on a planet they choose - thereby avoiding customs checks and allowing them to smuggle.
Also, this would encourage actual space travel between the planets because you wouldn't be able to do this with the travel option.
I seriously think that this is the best SWG idea that I have ever had. Ever.
It would have to be limited to some degree, though. At the moment I do quite like how JTL has revitalized the NPC cities. This would only serve to disperse people again. Maybe they could make a personal landing pad a Player Event Perk? Or there could be a tax on landing outside the cities... I got it!
OK, introduce customs at all starports. This would be an automatic security check every time you load in to a public starport, but it would ONLY check for illegal goods. It wouldn't look at faction. If you're carrying illegal goods and if - say 85% of the time - the check succeeds, you would be greeted by the local city guard who either levy a hefty fine or automatically attack.
Now, in order to get around this you land outside the city using your idea - the catch, though, is that only Master Smugglers have a 100% chance of succesfully doing this. When you arive at a space station you're given the option to bribe the attendent who will then allow you to bybass the official channels and land on the planet. The bribe would be half the cost of having a chassis dealer make the ship. I.E. a YT-1300 would have to pay 50k in bribe money. The logic is that a larger ship is more likely to attract attention. Once you've paid your bribe, you open up the quadrant screen as described above.
When you do this a new skill is checked - let's call it clandestine xp - and if you pass the check you can land wherever you like. If you fail, however, you're intercepted on your way down and land at the starport closest to the spot you would have landed, only this time the local police and/or stormtroopers are waiting. Pilots would get +5 clandestine xp at novice, and it would go up by +1 with each branch of pilot skill, and at master it would be +6. All told, a master pilot with no smuggler ability would have a +15 clandestine xp, giving a 15% chance of landing succesfully. A smuggler, on the other hand, would get a +10 at novice, and then bonuses all the way up the underworld tree. Say, +10, +10, +15, +20 and a final +20 at master. That would give a master smuggler +100 and, thus, the ability to land anywhere on a planet they choose - thereby avoiding customs checks and allowing them to smuggle.
Also, this would encourage actual space travel between the planets because you wouldn't be able to do this with the travel option.
I seriously think that this is the best SWG idea that I have ever had. Ever.
nawchir
Mon Mar 07, 2005 12:27 am
#6
Actually all of this is 100% possible and has been rumored already being done. If you have noticed since the GCW publish. You see IMP/Rebel ships all around as you roam the ground. So being able to land near your house (or a landing pad) which would cost 1-2 lots depending on ship size is completely possible and maybe applied sometime soon 
hase2
Mon Mar 07, 2005 12:46 am
#7
this had been discussed countless times in JTL beta.
atmospheric travel is not possible due ground game engine limitations.
the engine can hardly handle the speeds of swoops (rubberbanding). how should it handle the speed of a landing starship?
ValiantHalibut
Mon Mar 07, 2005 2:45 am
#8
hase2 wrote:this had been discussed countless times in JTL beta.atmospheric travel is not possible due ground game engine limitations.the engine can hardly handle the speeds of swoops (rubberbanding). how should it handle the speed of a landing starship?
Read his post. He doesn't suggest atmospheric flight (though it is mentioned in the topic for some inexplicable reason) he merely suggests being able to choose where to land. Nothing he says uses assets that are not already in the game and it is no more difficult then placing a new shuttleport.
Winterdyne
Wed Mar 09, 2005 11:25 am
#9
I can't see this being a problem, especially if lots are used.
There are a couple of issues with it.
Firstly, it's yet another asset to render with all the other ground stuff. If you don't have the RAM to keep all the textures in memory, or suffer with client-side lag now, this won't help any.
Secondly, it could result in places getting cluttered with ships. This is alleviated by the landing site costing lots, and the ship staying on your datapad. Players simply couldn't place a horrible number of ships. I would suggest that the larger ships cost more lots though.
Just my 2p worth.
Gwizzz
Wed Mar 09, 2005 12:13 pm
#10
Actually the engine could very easily handle landing, taking off and even some atmospheric flight.
The key is rendering. On a swoop you see the ground, the trees, the rocks and the engine has to render all of these objects. The more items and faster your speed the more the system is taxed to keep up. Thats why there are options to limit your view or not render certain objects.
The Desert Combat mod for Battlefield 1942 did a good job of limiting rendered ground objects by incorporating an altitude haze. The higher you went up the less you could see on the ground. This allowed you to you see immediately below and around you but not far off in the distance as that would stain the graphics engine.
A similar approach "could" be applied to SWG attmospheric flight as well.
The key is rendering. On a swoop you see the ground, the trees, the rocks and the engine has to render all of these objects. The more items and faster your speed the more the system is taxed to keep up. Thats why there are options to limit your view or not render certain objects.
The Desert Combat mod for Battlefield 1942 did a good job of limiting rendered ground objects by incorporating an altitude haze. The higher you went up the less you could see on the ground. This allowed you to you see immediately below and around you but not far off in the distance as that would stain the graphics engine.
A similar approach "could" be applied to SWG attmospheric flight as well.
LeeRydersRevenge
Thu Mar 10, 2005 1:59 am
#11
yummm..
A Desert Combat MMORPG twitch based (none of this who hits F12 crap)... man..even SOE couldnt mess that up.
**Pst, SOE.. do NOT take that as a go ahead that we want you to make this. We want our Twitch based games to WORK and not wait 4 years for a complete rebuild to a system that never worked right lol**
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