Elite Dangerous: multicrew and the future of virtual tourism
While the introduction of the Brookes Galactic Tours in Elite: Dangerous Odyssey is a good sign, Frontier still has a lot to do to make multicrew a good experience for virtual tours, as virtual tourism appears to be the next big thing.
Update 16, recently released, introduces the Brookes Galactic Tours, in honor of the late Michael Brookes, and players will find their adverts in most markets and their new megaship, The Legacy, which can be found in Artemis near Freeholm.
The introduction of this new organization, Brookes Galactic Tours, happens as new passenger evacuation missions have been added to the space simulation. According to Frontier, wealthy passengers will now be requesting expedited evacuation from locations affected by the presence of the Thargoids for additional credits (if you can appease their requirements and demands). Yes, it’s the Thargoids again, as if nothing else matters in this game…
Still, the introduction of the Brookes Galactic Tours gives us some hope that Elite: Dangerous Odyssey may be on a path to offer more than a war. With so many worlds still to be explored, and so many other interesting things waiting to be built inside the game, this Thargoid fixation should be a case for study.
Anyways, the Brookes Galactic Tours has also established a new mini-series of tourist beacons to a handful of fantastic locations, the first of this series begins at the beacon at Freeholm. Did you note the “first of this series” mention? Well, maybe Frontier has something more to share. As they write on the information shared, “We hope you enjoy exploring and will take a moment to pause and enjoy the wonder that Mike helped bring to the universe of Elite.”
Yes, I want to do that, but I want to go beyond the option to take paying passengers offered by the simulation, and want to take real people to some of the places I’ve visited, maybe some of those suggested for the Brookes Galactic Tours. I’ve recently acquired a third Elite: Dangerous account, to create a character that can share the same cockpit with one of my other Commanders, so as to take friends and other people interested into a journey through the universe of Elite.
While I can let them try the introductory flights included in the game, I’ve found that, for most people, the complexity of commands is a barrier to really get the most from Elite: Dangerous Odyssey (EDO). I’ve tried to take people just as passengers, for a short tour of some planets, sharing the views and the landing at planets, space and ground stations or Fleet Carriers, and, from my experience, they take much more pleasure from that flight than trying to grasp how to control the spaceship, the SRV or walking.
So, I decided to build a whole VR set on a second — old — computer to allow them to fly with me. I’ve equipped it with a complete HOTAS system (bar rudder pedals, which work on the joystick) and a Pico 4 VR headset exactly like the one I use now. Although I am running this on a less powerful computer — an i7–4770 with a RTX 2070 — I’ve found out it still works for a decent experience, visually speaking, of EDO. I can even allow them to explore the introductory flights if they want to, but as I wrote earlier, people seem to appreciate more being able to just sit and enjoy the scenery. Especially in VR, it’s like a trip out of this world.
As virtual tourism is now seen as something of a trend that will change the way people discover faraway places, and some specialists believe it’s going to be a market in the near future, I imagined doing exactly that in EDO. One of my commanders recently ended a 10-month journey through the galaxy, from the Bubble to Ishum’s Reach, while my other commander returned from seven weeks jumping from nebula to nebula. Both have collected hundreds of photographs with impressive sceneries, which I am sharing through eBooks, some of which look like comic books but are at heart a diary of each expedition. In fact, through my Yellow Cat Comics, I am sharing a series of comic-style eBooks all created with assets from the game.
Now, I’ve a problem, and it’s Frontiers fault: I’ve yet to find a way to get my third commander to be able to join the cockpit of one of my other alts. What I get is a generic “Holo-me“ figure, even when both commanders are at the same station when the invitation is made. Frontier always “sells” the idea that players can share the same cockpit (even suggesting it in images), but either the system is bugged — some say it has always been — or I am doing something wrong.
Although I understand that the “telepresence” thing can be the only option when players are at different points in the galaxy, once they are departing from the same place, I believe you should get the graphic representation of each player and not the generic “Holo-me”. Despite me asking, Frontier never really clarified the subject, and just closed my request as “solved”. It’s not solved…
I’ve managed to get into other players’ spaceships and even fly with them if we’re both on the surface of a planet and I am invited to join. Then it works. But if I want to depart from a space station, I can not, apparently, get the other commander to join me, besides the “telepresence”. Anyone knows a trick to make it happen?
Having the “real” image of the player on my ship would mean, I suppose, it would be possible for both of us to leave the ship anywhere we landed, something that is not viable with “telepresence”. In fact, if I leave the ship and move a certain distance away from it, there‘s a moment when the spaceship goes into orbit… and the commander in “telepresence” is kicked out of the session! This should not happen and, when flying multicrew, I assumed we could be together and both should be able to leave the spaceship.
This “be together” is important for me to take people on a tour in the universe of EDO. I’ve setup the controls so they can easily pick the basics of leaving the ship and walk around, which would/should be part of the experience of discovering the game and its landscapes. Nothing better than to invite someone to watch some of that scenery from outside a spaceship.
Being able to do that in multicrew should really be part of the EDO experience. Yes, it’s possible for different players to be together, if they fly their ships to a destination, but what Frontier has always suggested is that you can take your friends with you… and “telepresence” is a poor substitute for that promise.
With virtual tourism becoming a thing, the idea of going to outer space is really appealing, and EDO is in a key position to offer that, meaning more people would use the game as a way to reach for the stars. No other game out there offers such a gigantic reproduction of our galaxy to explore but, apparently, Frontier is more interested into “thargoids” then to create the tools and the opportunities for EDO to be our portal to the universe, opening for a new flux of virtual tourists.
As it is, and I talk from experience, the introductory flights are too difficult and limited for newcomers, and only a tour of this universe with someone already familiar with it will bring more people to the game. Then yes, they will be willing to go through the learning steps, because they’ve seen the wonders waiting for them.
