Are mag boots ever going to be a thing for EVA?
TL;DRTraditional mag boots won't happen, but a planned Align to Surface system will let players attach to and move on any solid surface in EVA, giving similar but more versatile gameplay.
No. So, yeah, there's your one-word answer. So, no, but also yes. Mag boots as they were were not really versatile enough for what we wanted to do. So, obviously, mag boots require a surface that you could magnetize yourself to, and you'd expect you would get near enough to a metal surface, you would connect and you would plod along very, very slowly. Whereas this new system we've got is called Align to Surface, and this would allow you to align yourself to any solid surface. And as you lower yourself, your EVA thruster pack would know that you want to lower yourself to the surface and attach to it. It would then keep you pushed down on that surface and you would get, within reason, your standard FPS behaviors of running around, being able to mantle and all sorts of things like that. So it's a lot more versatile. You'd be able to do this on asteroids. You'd be able to do this in all sorts of places rather than being limited to gantries, walkways, sides of spaceships and stuff like that.
Okay, so we are going to get the type of gameplay that's associated with mag boots. It just won't have that cool sound effect that I know the audio guys could really make, because it's going to allow us to have this gameplay on all kinds of surfaces, not just magnetic ones.
Yeah, it essentially makes mag boots far more versatile, and it's going to work for us and for everyone else a lot better, we think.
What's the system called again?
Align to Surface, is what we're calling it internally. So essentially, it does what it says on the tin. You hover above your chosen surface, as long as you're within reason, within a little cone of variation. If you lower yourself to that surface, your thruster pack will know what's below you, and it will allow you to land perfectly, stably on that surface and stay that way, providing your EVA pack is working. If your EVA pack is not working, then why are you in zero G anyway?
It kind of sounds like an IFCS for FPS.
Yeah, that's a good way of thinking about it. It's going to figure out your orientation and do a little to keep you all right.