FDev Please - Explorers need love too !!!

I haven't managed to get much time recently to log on to either the game or forums, and have just managed to read some of the threads and development news posted since the announcements at E3.

Updates for the game are all well and good, but again it looks like the next major update will be targeted at the combat orientated players. Wings was mainly of benefit to pew pew players and to a lesser degree to traders, but not really useful for explorers unless you can log on and play together during every part of the trip which could be thousands of light years. (Let me know if I am wrong with this)

Powerplay was the same in the fact that the combat and trading players can benefit from powers which aid their gain, explorers have very little options on this (I believe one power has a +exploration income, but tbh I havent joined in with powerplay yet).

Now CQC is adding what I see as COD Arena in space, again for the combat players. This I assume would be in separate instants from the main game and have no impact on the background simulation ??

I am sure I am not alone and would guess that there are a lot of players out there who, like me played the original Elite and remember the feeling of being out in unknown space, finding the next system to trade with and trying to survive the harsh galaxy. Would it not be better to introduce a new threat to the galaxy rather than more PVP for combat players?? Maybe Thargoids ???

I enjoy exploring and have visited 4500+ systems including the core. There is a massive amount of additional content that could be added to the galaxy to provide a better reason for going out in the black only to see at the moment planets and stars (and the odd nebula :p). This would encourage players to explore more knowing there are things to find.
- Derelict ships which could have parts salvaged / scooped or black boxes returned for additional reward
- wormholes which could be stable or unstable to send ships to new or unknown locations (adds risk / fun - do you go in or not ??)
- Stella phenomena which can be found, scanned and researched etc.. IE Comets, variable stars, gas clouds, rouge planets etc.
- Aliens ?? Either ships, creatures that can live / travel in space friendly or hostile (see startrek for reference ideas) or derelicts that can have parts salvaged / scooped for reward.
- Distant trade posts / research stations which can be lay-over stops.
- Generation Ships / large human fleets akin Battlestar Galactica which could be docked at / communicated with.

I truly love the game that has been produced. I don't get much play time with work and family commitments but from Beta onwards I have always found myself thinking about the game while not logged on and logging on every chance I had available... however since powerplay was announce I have found myself doing other things when I have spare time and thinking, meeeh maybe tomorrow night.

I do my fair share of other rolls in the game and have combat ranking of Expert, trade ranking of Merchant and explorer ranking of Ranger so I do enjoy a bit of combat and trading as well as I did in the original games, however please FD.... Consider the game you already have and what you could do with it before bolting on more additions.

I do not intend this post to be a dig at FDev and would hope that it can be taken as constructive criticism.

TL/DR - Exploration needs some new content before new bolt-on additions to the game are added.

CMDR Flaxton
 
Yeah, they need love. And the ideas are there and descriped in the DDA. I my self opened similar threads and answered to tons of similar threads since premium beta. Not a word on the topic. Just the usual PR-nonsense.

You are right, Exploration needs a sense of wonder created by things beside beautiful stars and planets. And there need to be much more things out of the order(beside small, big and bigger balls with different colors).

But what is even more important in my opinion is that Exploration should not only be about pushing a button with the advanced discovery scanner and then flying to interesting stellar objects. There should be some kind of active gameplay to it. Some sensor reading to read. Some probes to send out. Triangulation of signal sources. Such things. Not only pushing a button, flying to a planet and directing your ships nose to it when you are close enough.

They had many ideas in the DDA how a good exploration system could be. But either they are too complicated for the engine to make. Or they think their audience has shifted. Not sure why exploration did not get any kind of love since beta. In a game as huge as this with so many spots to possibly explore this should be a core priority.
 
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Explorers tend to be chilled out roamers going about their business with minimal fuss & very little interaction with other players (unless they meet with other like minded players in the black).

I think this reflects on the Devs attitude to our trade.

We get a few tweaks here & there. It's unfortunate that the recent updates that have been aimed towards the 'pewpew brigade' have created serious problems for us Explorers & some issues have yet to be resolved (double scanning is an example).

I would like to hear from the Devs as to their views on how the Exploration part of the game is going to be developed, or is this as good as it gets.

Last thing i would want is the Dev team to unleash a plague of Thargoids on defenceless Explorers 25k LYs from civvy space!
 
Manual route plotting.

Manual route plotting.

Did I mention manual route plotting?

Would be cool to have players wrecked ships stay in location - though I guess most would end up being pulled into a star...

Z...
 
In a game as huge as this with so many spots to possibly explore this should be a core priority.

Totally agree.. This is exactly what I was aiming to say, I just waffled a lot more haha.

I would like to hear from the Devs as to their views on how the Exploration part of the game is going to be developed, or is this as good as it gets.

Last thing i would want is the Dev team to unleash a plague of Thargoids on defenceless Explorers 25k LYs from civvy space!

We have already been told that a roadmap for development will not be released, however an acknowledgement that the career path is being looked at would be nice. As for the Thargoids, what a rush that would be !!! Time to put at least some defenses on our explorer ships :)

Did I mention manual route plotting?

Would be cool to have players wrecked ships stay in location - though I guess most would end up being pulled into a star...

Z...

Manual route plotting would be a really nice addition and hopefully an override so that the routing does not keep getting cancelled if d/c or logging out etc.

As for the wrecks, I think you are right, most exploring mistakes happen while scooping and the stars would take the majority.
 
They had many ideas in the DDA how a good exploration system could be. But either they are too complicated for the engine to make. Or they think their audience has shifted. Not sure why exploration did not get any kind of love since beta. In a game as huge as this with so many spots to possibly explore this should be a core priority.


Agreed 100%. Explorers just haven't been any kind of priority for FDev, and it doesn't sound like they will be for at least the rest of this year. Such wasted potential for such a huge aspect to the game. Hopefully 2016 brings more exploration to Elite.
 
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