Most of this looks really promising. Especially the: F2 factory getting some attention and gaining basic mechanics. The water/lava logic (whatever this means, any improvement is nice here). The sound system (no more weird enemy hums coming from behind 3m thick walls, I hope?). Optimization, it's always nice to hear this word mentioned in a roadmap by the devs. However, two points really bug me. The only announced AI improvement is AI vs AI. Really? I sincerely don't understand how, among all the things wrong with AI, the topmost (and only one) getting attention is AI vs AI? Motorbike -> Hoverbike. In a way similar to the previous point, I don't get the devs' resent for the Wheel. I get not implementing ground vehicles, okay, that may be too radical/demanding. But ditching the already present thing for the sake of "more futurism"?? I just don't get it, I can't. <RANT severity="high" format="text"> In real world, the Wheel was invented thousands of years ago, and we still keep it around, because it is just that good. It is literally the most physically optimal way to transport heavy weight along a surface, because it negates a lot of kinetic friction and gravity of the load. It evolved from a simple piece to one requiring a dozen of different industries to produce it, any of which would benefit from the high-tech advancements we see in Empyrion. What about firearms? They, too, are a little old, like, about a thousand years old. Yet they are good, and the Empyrion universe has them, alongside with the more advanced stuff, like plasma, shields, and lasers.What about concrete? And steel? And wood as a construction material? What about farming crops? Bandages? Are they too not futuristic? Why not replace everything with sci-fi-magic? I hope to be wrong on this, but, the way I see it, the devs are just annoyed with the bike because it is just one thing, one item (and not very much used one either), and they can not get it right. So the easiest solution is to scrap it completely, because, hey, at the end of the day, if they fix it, right, if it works absolutely perfectly, it is still just one item. I think it's a lot more than just one item. If the devs overcome the "Problem of the Wheel" in coding, they would be short of one step to player-built, custom wheeled vehicles. And the wheeled vehicles are not only a free aspect of creative freedom for the players, but they would also have a valid niche. Sure, they are slow, but boy can they haul, be it tons upon tons of ore, thick armor plating, or an arsenal of guns, and all that -- while still being less energy-consuming than the swift and agile hovercraft. So I really think that this is a huge opportunity, and, as such, it would be a mistake to miss it. </RANT> Sorry for the rant, I guess I took it way too personally.
Here, I got a wheeled vessel demonstrator you can try. Driving it is a very instructive experience. Should tell you all you need to know about wheels in Empyrion.
Looking for AI crew members, but I'm itching to come back. Still hope to see more improvements to the combat and balancing, so it doesn't seem so janky when fighting in POIs
There are a few good changes in here, but your main point is mute right off the batch “bring a better experience for the later stages of the game.” What in that list, or on the full post actually addresses that? There are a limited number of people who actually cares about the missions, especially in MP, who ever plays this game for more than a few months already knows them by heart and how buggy they are Adding more POIs is good but ultimately just more of the same, same bugs, same cumbersome combat mechanics in a different setting basically…. New creatures… this one is a joke, what’s the point of having new NPCs if they are still a hot garbage? They still shot from behind walls, from under the terrain from under the water, they still walk over walls, furniture, railings, they still melee from 5 meters away, they are still bullet sponges to the pea shooters we have for weapons instead of heaving a proper AI, they still breath the void of space and need no gravity whatsoever, so, adding new ones to this hot mess is just changing the color of the toilet seat basically…. What about addressing the AI so we can actually have a fun combat experience, with actually good weapons instead of pea shooters? What about changing the flower picking for an actual research functionality and devices? What about changing the long promised virtual factory for an actual functionality and device? What about addressing the Patrol Vessels AI Bug so we can actually keep the ships we capture?
About those playable drone spawners, will we get troop transports also? Nothing fancy, you call in a troop transport, it flies to your last known location, drops off troops and flies back home. Just like how the current AI troop transports work.
Best Christmas Gifts: 1.) Above all else and I use Bungie Halo (1-3, Reach and ODST) as references because they have some of the most intense combat in Science Fiction combat from my experience; please fix the jankiness, give us some weapons that deliver a punch (we need knock-back), more environmental things that go boom, AI pathing that makes sense and that doesn't clip through blocks, AI that responds to fire in a way similar to classic FPS of the early 2000s (not the broken AAA crap nowadays), and an AI that doesn't hit/shoot through walls or 360 no-scope from 500 meters away to one shot me (Turrets anyone?). All current enemies seem weightless and really could use ragdoll physics, but that's just a small complaint on my part. 2.) Better NPC models: get rid of the screamers; they don't really fit in and the models look terrible. I'd like to see a clear art theme; Zirax and Talon models look great! 3.) Player owned NPC Companions/Employees/Crew Members and Player owned NPC fleets. Of course as always you could read my post on the official forums that goes very in depth into this feature, but these NPCs would solve the time sink and money sink issue we have in late game when we have credits and ships out the >>>. 4.) Walking on moving ships whether it's the real thing or just an instance. Valheim has it in the game so it can't be the Unity engine that is the problem.
Most improvements and more features are welcome. Drone block is in the game already, just for POIs only so far. Drone AI also there, so just to make other models and tweak the AI. Waterfalls and rivers are one of the missing pieces to really create more vivid landscapes, just not easy to code while FPS is acceptable. Moving of water is also a missing feature. Hover bike is suggested for many years ago, ought to be easy to do (change looks and movement more like a green hover). Missing automation of farms, gardening drone could be nice as a mid game tech, along possible to have seeds for all types of pick-able resources. More variations in plants to farm would be nice too, ought to be easy to add later on though.
Hey Eleon peoples, I covered this great news in a video today, you can see here But what's really interesting is the comments, lots of people excited and lots of people sceptical about the future of EGS still. There are some great suggestions in there too, might be worth casting an eye over there, maybe some points you can cover in future update notes etc and an opportunity to allay some fears and doubt. Just where your thick skin before you head on in there though
I normally don't participate in these discussions anymore but I think this deservers a like. I will however remain cautiously optimistic. After all, the road to disappointment is paved in roadmaps and hype. Or something like that... The roadmap is a good start but as some others have already stated there are still a LOT of areas of the game that need attention like: Walking around on moving ships. Yes I know its technically challenging but its no more impossible then adding occlusion culling to a voxel game. You CAN do it. The factory system is in desperate need of an overhaul. What exactly that looks like I don't know but what we have now just doesn't cut it for a game that isn't in early access. The tech tree is a really un-immersive way of learning how to make things. Some sort of fleet mechanic. It could be as in-depth a Avorion or as simplistic as No Mans Sky but it needs something. And some things that I didn't see mentioned: In multiplayer, if you are sitting in a ship and someone moves your ship you end up floating in space when you log back in. Theoretically this should be an easy fix. All your doing is saving the structure ID and relative position of the player and restoring it on log in. Easy right? Additional ways to generate power for all structures. Geothermal? Wind? Hydroelectric? Antimatter? Maybe work the kinks out of solar so it works on movable structures? Rechargeable energy cells to transfer all that renewable power over to an SV? Something else entirely? The more options, the better! One of the very few things No Mans Sky does really, really, really well is its sense of scale and distance. Generally speaking, if the moon is only 10km away from your planet, that means your about to die. I would love to see Empryion at a more believable scale but I do recognize that it would likely require an almost complete redesigned of the game. Get rid of the custom column in the control panel and roll its functionality into signals. It would allow you to clean up the UI a bit and you wouldn't have two separate systems that basically do the same thing. More devices to send/receive signals. For example: send a signal when a player is using a cockpit, furniture, turret! More devices that can be turned off/on! If it uses power, you should be able to turn it off. Inventory management and automation. I want to be able to tell my constructors to build more flux coils automatically if my stock pile falls below a threshold! Finer control of turret targeting. That means more targetable block types and the ability to set up some basic logic. For example: Set missiles to only fire on a target that doesn't have an active shield. The ability to manually define what order to target blocks in. Do you want to prioritize attacking thrusters, generators or weapons? Basically some way of weighting the how to prioritize targets. True flight stick support and better/refined flight controles. What we have now still feels very clunky. I could probable think of some more but I'll just leave it at that.
What many of you seem to forget (or deliberately ignore) is that THE FOUNDER's of EGS decide what gets developed/implemented into EGS and not the Devs on their own. So every time the Devs deliver a Road map for whats planned next there comes first the "Oh Nice"-Phase followed immediatedly by the "Why Not"-Phase. That throws up the Question why to publish a Road Map in the First Place. There are other 'Vanilla'-Games which have Moded Versions which seem to be "better" - i.E., 7D2D. But aside of those "better" feeling Mods they all need a Foundation to be build upon - a Vanilla Version. And that is what the Founders seem to have in mind - providing a Vanilla Version which THEY have in mind.
I don't think anyone here (besides the early investors) believe that they have any sort of final say in what does or does not get implemented. I would however point out that games that do not take into account what their players want are destined to die. Take the feedback as a sign that people are still interested and see the games potential, not as a personal slight.
