The Trailer

[DevisDevine]

So I wanted to start a thread to discuss information gained from the trailer. I know it is a pre-alpha video, and they probably staged a few things in game just to show, but I still have questions from it as it is supposed to be in game video.  I will link the video again just so its here, besides I dont think you can link it eneough.   

       

 

 

Here are things I noticed right off and want more info on. 

 

1st: Fighter flight. 

When he gets in it immediately lifts off. This could be due to controls being active immediately when interacting with the cockpit, but the animation took longer. But how did it lift off? We know there is anti gravity, so that must be it since it only has rear thrusters. The 4 thrusters would allow you to bank and turn in an atmosphere, but not lift vertically like that. Also he turns in space with no thrusters to counter it and has slow speed banking in the atmosphere. 

 

I was under the impression we would need thrusters in all directions and they would also act about the center of mass of the ship. 

 

2nd: Hovering ships

The answer to the 1st may answer this one, but it is a bit different mechanic it seems to bring up. The large ships seem to hover there, some stationary some moving forward. I cant distinguish any downward thrusters or jets on them. We know we have anti grav technology, will we be able to use this to essentially make our craft float. I would think if thrusters were used it would be noticeable. Unless they are hidden with no thruster damage on. 

 

3rd: Exiting the planet. 

When he leaves the planet, turning upwards he enters space rapidly. There were no FF symbols as when he entered the second planet, but is that what happened? The video does seem to lurch forward indicating that is what happened. I assumed that the atmosphere would be at least a few KM thick, and you would have to climb in altitude before entering space. 

 

4th: Speed

While parts seem to be sped up, the ship in the beginning is moving pretty fast. Which leads me to wonder, will there be a max speed limit? Most games implement them for the sake of lag on servers, but will DU. If they do will it be sufficiently high enough so things like acceleration of craft play a more crucial role? In most voxel space games the limit is so low acceleration wasnt very crucial, since there wasnt much of a different, you take 10 or 20 seconds to get to max speed. But if it took 10 or 20 min, that would matter. 

 

5th: Building

When he places the blocks and cockpit, it instantly appears. No slow construction as the nanoformer assembles the pieces. Will all building be this fast? Is it just because it was small that it seemed to build instantaneously, and larger builds will have a delay? Or maybe there is only a build time when doing it from a blueprint or snapshot. 

[Zen001]

Nice thread. I just have to say it looks very promising. But one of the main reasons the trailer looks great is because there is some uniformity in ship design and assets...imagine someone building ships in the shape of genitalia or buildings looking like pez dispensers - this trailer would have flopped. So yes, great video....but what is going to happen when we have absolute freedom to build whatever we want decked out in the most horrible coloring schemes ever imagined?

[vylqun]

yes, i'm a little bit worried about seeing no thrusters too, concerning the speeds i'd account that to it being a pre alpha build to test things, nobody wants to waste time while testing stuff

[KlatuSatori]

+1 for this thread

 

All good questions.  I'd especially like to know about the hovering tech for the shuttle and for the massive hanging ships/stations.  We need a devblog on the flight model!

 

On speed, I would seriously love for the max speed to be the speed of light for "normal" flight (though in pratice you'd never actually get anywhere near it).

[Dreamstar]

1.) I believe they edited two clips together before rendering the video. You can see an avatar placing blocks and the cockpit. but then in the video there are no black blocks below the cockpit of the flying ship. Don't try and read to far into the mechanics of the flight right now. This video was likely just a fast presentation they threw together, by the time any of us are able to touch a single block in game everything about that ship in this video could be different.

 

2.) Probably not far enough along in development to have all of the various engine's, rockets, and propulsion systems. We saw the all familiar space station but it was all gray still, they chose not to show it long to make it look like a under construction facility. It's possible those were the gravity engines, and that you can negate the gravity of the planet and sit in 0 Gravity inside the atmosphere.

 

3.) they fast forwarded, two > > show up on screen, they are opaque though maybe you couldn't see them. No I didn't see any representation of atmosphere being an issue of re-entry, but then again were in the alpha of the alpha still. Everything is in the works, or subject to change.

 

4.) its my guess they haven't set acceleration points, its just 0- GO right now.

 

5.) Developer / Creative mode, pre alpha builder tools. no gui. blocks probably dont have 0-25%-50%-75% indicators yet 

[DevisDevine]

Nice thread. I just have to say it looks very promising. But one of the main reasons the trailer looks great is because there is some uniformity in ship design and assets...imagine someone building ships in the shape of genitalia or buildings looking like pez dispensers - this trailer would have flopped. So yes, great video....but what is going to happen when we have absolute freedom to build whatever we want decked out in the most horrible coloring schemes ever imagined?

 

Hey I like flying my phallus shaped ship, aka Thorax. And yeah some people will build stupid things, but I'm not in it because someone can build something nice, or in the hopes that everyone will. I want the game for what I can do with it. If you dont like their constructs then blow them up. 

 

yes, i'm a little bit worried about seeing no thrusters too, concerning the speeds i'd account that to it being a pre alpha build to test things, nobody wants to waste time while testing stuff

 

Yeah, I assumed the speed was a FF thing, but the thrusters got me wondering. I would have assumed if they would impliment flight mechanics that required multi-directional thrusters it would be in place by now. 

 

+1 for this thread

 

All good questions.  I'd especially like to know about the hovering tech for the shuttle and for the massive hanging ships/stations.  We need a devblog on the flight model!

 

On speed, I would seriously love for the max speed to be the speed of light for "normal" flight (though in pratice you'd never actually get anywhere near it).

 

 

1.) I believe they edited two clips together before rendering the video. You can see an avatar placing blocks and the cockpit. but then in the video there are no black blocks below the cockpit of the flying ship. Don't try and read to far into the mechanics of the flight right now. This video was likely just a fast presentation they threw together, by the time any of us are able to touch a single block in game everything about that ship in this video could be different.

 

2.) Probably not far enough along in development to have all of the various engine's, rockets, and propulsion systems. We saw the all familiar space station but it was all gray still, they chose not to show it long to make it look like a under construction facility. It's possible those were the gravity engines, and that you can negate the gravity of the planet and sit in 0 Gravity inside the atmosphere.

 

3.) they fast forwarded, two > > show up on screen, they are opaque though maybe you couldn't see them. No I didn't see any representation of atmosphere being an issue of re-entry, but then again were in the alpha of the alpha still. Everything is in the works, or subject to change.

 

4.) its my guess they haven't set acceleration points, its just 0- GO right now.

 

5.) Developer / Creative mode, pre alpha builder tools. no gui. blocks probably dont have 0-25%-50%-75% indicators yet 

 

1. I didnt notice that. But the flight is still in question. Sure it could all be different, but I would have assumed the basic flight mechanics would have been there. It could have been a creative mode thing. 

 

3. I saw the >> during the reentry, but not takeoff. But it is likely most of the video was sped up. 

 

4. Well, for a small vehicle like that its acceleration would likely be high, it was all thrusters. But was that a max speed it reached. 

 

5. I assumed they had a basic gui but turned it off for the video. 

[Ripper]

I think its way to early to be worrying about flight.  From my understanding, NQ threw this together at the last moment, and we're certainly "Pre-Alpha".

 

From my understanding, JC was going to just attend E3, but managed to get scheduled to present.  That's when the Dev team scrambled to provide the "teaser".

 

There's a TON of development to be performed before release.

[DevisDevine]

I think its way to early to be worrying about flight. From my understanding, NQ threw this together at the last moment, and we're certainly "Pre-Alpha".

 

From my understanding, JC was going to just attend E3, but managed to get scheduled to present. That's when the Dev team scrambled to provide the "teaser".

 

There's a TON of development to be performed before release.

Just not a literal ton, as the software doesn't weigh that much. Unless you mean the game servers.

 

I know it is early and it was a last minute thing. But the video is said to be from in game. So even if it isn't final it lets us look at the current tate for clues and ideas. Hopefully when the trailer comes out in the next few weeks we can get a few answers.

[Ser_Aison -currently gone-]

I just noticed something that could explain the way he turns in space here is a picture:

Im not allowed to post the picture here is a imgur link: http://imgur.com/xWmUI2g

 

The thing i circled looks like a RCS thruster to me, this could posibly be the explaination to the way he turns in space

 

Another Question i have is: In the trailer everything was black and withe, will we be able to colour our ships

[DevisDevine]

I just noticed something that could explain the way he turns in space here is a picture:

Im not allowed to post the picture here is a imgur link: http://imgur.com/xWmUI2g

 

The thing i circled looks like a RCS thruster to me, this could posibly be the explaination to the way he turns in space

 

Another Question i have is: In the trailer everything was black and withe, will we be able to colour our ships

 

That really just look like light glare off the edge of the wing. 

 

As for color, yes we are supposed to be able to. I think it was the voxel dev blog that mentioned wanting 2 types of paint systems, fine, hard edged, and more of an airbrush to do blending. Now I recall mention of this actually replacing the voxels, so the question is will I have to use steel for grey and copper for orange? Or will it actually be paint over whatever material I choose.