Dear Fdev,
A couple thoughts about planets and the weirdness we (the players) are experiencing while out on them.
First: Floaters and Sinkers
Could the floating or sunken objects issues be due to the two different "planet maps" used? One for each of the game versions?
All of the things, Items at POI's, settlements as a whole, ships floating 30' up, or sunk so low I can't get under them to get to the 'entrance' circle, geological items floating or sunken into the ground so you can't interact with them all seem related to the game not knowing where the surface of the planet is.
The following is at this point anecdotal, but I’m going to make an effort to gather some proof as well as ask other commanders to try to swap between games when they see issues like this (on planets where landfall is possible in both of course.)
What I’m seeing: Due to the height maps changing between Horizons and Odyssey we are seeing traces of the wrong height map data being used for where items "land". It's almost like in some cases regarding mapped locations Odyssey is using height data from Horizons to place objects. (I play mostly in Odyssey at this point and I expect if there is going to be weirdness like this it would mostly go one way.) In some instances things are so close it's not noticeable but in others (Dav's Hope is one that comes to mind quickly.) the changes in height due to the changes made to Odyssey is what's causing things to sit at the wrong levels. In the Dav's hope scenario examine the height of the POI vs the surroundings and it really does feel like the Odyssey POI is trying to place some things at Horizons levels.
I've seen other places where Horizons had REALLY high peaks and the land has flattened out in Odyssey and there will be a fumarole floating 100' up on what in horizons would have been the side of a hill.
Or I’m out shooting crystal shards off vents and they pop off and come to rest 20' up in the air or sink below the ground so I can't scoop them with the SRV. Those same areas can have items that are visible on the scanner, target-able, but sit 5 feet below me. Can't shoot them when obstructed so they are unattainable. (at least those attached to floating vents can still be shot off the side. These DO NOT fix on reloading an area. You go back and that sunken resource is still below grade.
I have a feeling that if Fdev was to bring both versions of the game into alignment and update the (height references) to all be Odyssey's many of these types of issues would vanish. At the very least a thorough investigation on WHERE the data being used has originated from might yield some helpful data.
I have no idea how Fdev is deciding where items land or get placed but potentially using a gravity effect to PULL items down to rest or UP to the surface with a moderate (based on expected item weights) offset to get rid of 'floaty' ness, might be something to look into.
Second: The 'floaty' ness I mentioned above.
In some ways I feel this is related to the first (whatever fashion Fdev is deciding where the surface is and how items attach to it.)
Anyways movable items, (players, NPC's items popping out of racks, ships, SRV's collectable resources and anything else that can "come to rest" on the surface) are all floaty. They always seem to be FLOATING ever so slightly above the ground.
Now in the case of a very low gravity planet/moon I could see that gravity being less would make things fluffier so that a body might not compress into the surface much, but on higher g planets this is definitely not the case. There would be a small amount of compression.
The simplest thing to do would be to create a "compression effect" that makes everything feel attached to the ground via something like a shadow or even making sure everything has a negative offset to "sink" into the surface by a fraction. But as it sits right now there are many instances where the 'floaty' ness of everything makes it feel like it could all just lift off and float into space at any moment.
Note: I'm using words like simplest, in my notes above and I'm sure the Fdev team are like "you have no F$#%ing clue how NOT simple or easy this is!!!" And I will concede that those are my opinions and not fact, but…Fdev please pretend it's easy and look into this. Pretty please! With mushy peas on top!
But please do look into the differences in heights between the two 'games' as more and more things are looking to be somehow interacting with the wrong version.
Data not updated when swapped to Odyssey or something.
It's odd I know but go out and swap between the games and tell me if I'm wrong.
I am also not a 3D game dev so please ignore any wording above that may use the wrong or technically improper terms for a thing. I hope what I wrote is relatively self explanatory and at least gets my thoughts across.
It's also way to late to tell my English teacher she should have flunked me so take a deep breath and go outside and just pretend I didn't assault you with my post.
Ok, commanders I'm done. Feel free to discuss, tell me I'm wrong and or generally make fun of my assumptions, but if you DO tell me I'm wrong. Please prove it so I can stop trying to get screenshots! 😉
o7
