Elite Dangerous announced the first large expansion for the game, which will include planetary landings.
Trailer (not in game) :
There is a real drama around the price (60$, first bakers get a 10$ discount but they are a bit mad about it), but the real interesting part is how they describe the planetary interaction, or most particulary, what they don't say :
We're beginning with airless, rocky worlds – places where a great deal of new gameplay can take place. These are planet-sized sandbox environments, with all sorts of things to discover hidden on them. You'll find surface starports, crashed ships, mineral deposits, hidden bases and more.
A common problem in majority of planetary simulators is going with more details than this. If you look at Space engine or Inovae engine, they do a good job an rock patterns generation, but it seems hard to go deeper.
Most importantly, even if they talk about seemless landing, I find the way they present the thing a bit shaddy :
These worlds are gigantic, and - like the open galaxy - you'll be able to go anywhere. You'll be able to fly over the surface in low orbit and choose your spot to land, you'll be able to venture out in your Surface Recon Vehicle and hurtle across the surface at high speed. You'll be able to sneak around or go in all guns blazing. The nimble SRV is tiny compared to your ship, and is virtually invisible on a long range scanner – ship-based weapons will find it very hard to hold a lock on them, but airborne and ground-based players can explore the same worlds together, so watch the skies!
I have the impression that it will not be a full planetary transition, but rather a look for a spot, and auto-transition to landing in an area. Even the pre-rendered trailer don't really show any complete approach.
