What does Horizons offer explorers?

SirAdelaide

SirAdelaide
I'm currently off exploring so don't have the opportunity to get an SRV.

But I'm wondering what the benefits of having one would be when out in the black.

With no outposts to visit, is driving around just a time sink?

Or are there exploration credits to be earned?

Ice worlds currently bore me, is there anything that will change my opinion of them? So far I've heard about jumponiom, which I don't need, and SRV fuel, which I don't need if I don't land, and weapon boosts, which I don't need.
 

dognosh

dognosh
SirAdelaide said:
I'm currently off exploring so don't have the opportunity to get an SRV.

But I'm wondering what the benefits of having one would be when out in the black.

With no outposts to visit, is driving around just a time sink?

Or are there exploration credits to be earned?

Ice worlds currently bore me, is there anything that will change my opinion of them? So far I've heard about jumponiom, which I don't need, and SRV fuel, which I don't need if I don't land, and weapon boosts, which I don't need.
Click to expand...

I love cannons, now that I can re load them with SRV prospecting, I am exploring with teeth.
Ice worlds are a hoot, find slopes and canyons and go rallying :D
Jumponium means I can take 16t tank, instead of 32t . My range, with best pow. dist. , is still over 30 LYs
SRV driving is fun, especially ascenting and descenting a mountain
SRV driving with another Cmdr(and Teamspeak) is 10 times better ;)
Honking, scanning, SC to a distant planet can get really boring. Landing for a bit of SRV fun breaks the monotony.


No, you do not need an SRV, but it helps :)
 

gooddoc

gooddoc
It all depends on how you play & what you enjoy doing ingame. For me, once the novelty of driving around a planet has worn off, then Horizons has as much to offer as Elite Dangerous.

Unless there is some content added to the gameplay for Explorers, then as Dognosh stated, when you're in the black & want to break the monotony of scanning worlds, then drop on a planet & race around.

Still enjoying though after 1 year of gameplay.
 

Cdr Voorheez

Cdr Voorheez
I think we are missing the point that this is literally day 2 week 1 of Horizons.
It will get better
It will grow.
I personally think from what I have seen in the 1 evening of planetary play I have been exposed to that Horizons will probably offer explorers TOO MUCH to do.
I mean flipping heck, you can spend DAYS exploring/prospecting a single planet.
And we will be exploring many.
So yes, it's game changing for explorers. Is it an absolute necessity? Well that's up to each individual Cdr.
 

Whiterose

Whiterose
dognosh said:
I love cannons, now that I can re load them with SRV prospecting, I am exploring with teeth.
Ice worlds are a hoot, find slopes and canyons and go rallying :D
Jumponium means I can take 16t tank, instead of 32t . My range, with best pow. dist. , is still over 30 LYs
SRV driving is fun, especially ascenting and descenting a mountain
SRV driving with another Cmdr(and Teamspeak) is 10 times better ;)
Honking, scanning, SC to a distant planet can get really boring. Landing for a bit of SRV fun breaks the monotony.


No, you do not need an SRV, but it helps :)
Click to expand...

This. The beauty of the SRV is that it behaves differently on different G worlds. Shooting rock is also surprisingly fun, as is shooting down the sentinels. Also watching your ship take off and land is also pretty cool.
 

AnnuverScotinExile

AnnuverScotinExile
Cdr Voorheez said:
I think we are missing the point that this is literally day 2 week 1 of Horizons.
It will get better
It will grow.
I personally think from what I have seen in the 1 evening of planetary play I have been exposed to that Horizons will probably offer explorers TOO MUCH to do.
I mean flipping heck, you can spend DAYS exploring/prospecting a single planet.
And we will be exploring many.
So yes, it's game changing for explorers. Is it an absolute necessity? Well that's up to each individual Cdr.
Click to expand...

I think the point that some are missing is that the white knights have been saying that since before the game was released. And look at where we are: the same rudimentary placeholder of an exploration game (on top of the wonderful infrastructure) that we had a year ago. Those same white knight used to push back our complaints by pointing at horizons and saying: see, exploration stuff is coming. And here we are, wondering where the exploration stuff is, other than the selfies vistas, which will keep us going for a variable length of time. Bottom line is that exploration is near the bottom of their list, and we can only expect a few crumbs now and then. The game they are building is basically "if it moves, shoot it. If it doesn't move, shoot it anyway to see if that will move it".
 

Ziggy Stardust

Ziggy Stardust
Cdr Voorheez said:
I think we are missing the point that this is literally day 2 week 1 of Horizons.
It will get better
It will grow.
I personally think from what I have seen in the 1 evening of planetary play I have been exposed to that Horizons will probably offer explorers TOO MUCH to do.
I mean flipping heck, you can spend DAYS exploring/prospecting a single planet.
And we will be exploring many.
So yes, it's game changing for explorers. Is it an absolute necessity? Well that's up to each individual Cdr.
Click to expand...

AnnuverScotinExile said:
I think the point that some are missing is that the white knights have been saying that since before the game was released. And look at where we are: the same rudimentary placeholder of an exploration game (on top of the wonderful infrastructure) that we had a year ago. Those same white knight used to push back our complaints by pointing at horizons and saying: see, exploration stuff is coming. And here we are, wondering where the exploration stuff is, other than the selfies vistas, which will keep us going for a variable length of time. Bottom line is that exploration is near the bottom of their list, and we can only expect a few crumbs now and then. The game they are building is basically "if it moves, shoot it. If it doesn't move, shoot it anyway to see if that will move it".
Click to expand...
You can indeed explore for days on a planet. Then you get back, and some eager scientists are awaiting your arrival asking: "well??" And you have to answer: "Oh, nothing". Walking away humming.

So, there is plenty of reward out of game for exploring a planet, and very little in game reward or even acknowledgement. The honking and scanning had little effect on the Bubble society, planetary exploration has none.

Hopefully this will change before I grow tired of taking in the vistas.
 

excalibus

excalibus
SirAdelaide said:
I'm currently off exploring so don't have the opportunity to get an SRV.

But I'm wondering what the benefits of having one would be when out in the black.

With no outposts to visit, is driving around just a time sink?

Or are there exploration credits to be earned?

Ice worlds currently bore me, is there anything that will change my opinion of them? So far I've heard about jumponiom, which I don't need, and SRV fuel, which I don't need if I don't land, and weapon boosts, which I don't need.
Click to expand...

ARM restocking is quite handy... as is jumponium for those long one off jumps... I can get up to a 62 LY jump in my asp... I am just heading out towards Sag A* with an SRV...

When I feel the need to break up some monotony of space, I land on a planet and go buzzing around in the SRV trying to prospect more materials for more jumponium... I am thinking after I reach Sag A* about heading to the formidine rift and see what is there before heading back to civ space...
 

Mengy

Mengy
AnnuverScotinExile said:
I think the point that some are missing is that the white knights have been saying that since before the game was released. And look at where we are: the same rudimentary placeholder of an exploration game (on top of the wonderful infrastructure) that we had a year ago. Those same white knight used to push back our complaints by pointing at horizons and saying: see, exploration stuff is coming. And here we are, wondering where the exploration stuff is, other than the selfies vistas, which will keep us going for a variable length of time. Bottom line is that exploration is near the bottom of their list, and we can only expect a few crumbs now and then. The game they are building is basically "if it moves, shoot it. If it doesn't move, shoot it anyway to see if that will move it".
Click to expand...


Personally I'm having an absolute blast landing on planets and deploying my SRV to explore and run around. Horizons is the best thing they've added to this game yet for explorers IMHO. But then for myself I don't need missions or targets or objects to make me drive around these planets with awesome vistas, I do it just to explore. I don't care about the credits, I don't care about the loot, heck I don't care about my Ranks honestly. I'm just running around exploring systems and landing on planets and driving around in crater basins or dried up river beds or huge mountains or immense canyons, and I'm having an absolute ball doing it too.

I guess I don't need FDev to add game mechanics to make me want to explore, the act alone is enough for me.
 

Katejina

Katejina
Either you've asked the wrong question or you're getting the wrong answers.

Planetary Landings is bare bones. It offers, as was said, an escape from the monotony of jump/scan/scoop/jump.
Horizons will drop all kinds of new features that is supposed to increase the depth of the mile-wide/inch-deep pond. How deep will differ between people.

We are explorers. I don't think it's fair to say that we are limited to deep space. We should be concerned about anything outside of the bubble down to the grains of sand on a planet beyond Beagle Point, when we eventually get to land there. Exploration to me means learning all there is to know about everything out there, not just that there are planets 65kly away, but what kind and how old and what's on them. I don't care if it's someone's tail-fin left last year from an exploration vessel that had an accident or an ancient ruin of a long-dead intelligent species. It will all be exciting to me. It will all have a story. Planetary Landings is just the beginning and it may not be much now, but it is paving the way for what comes later. How we handle our SRVs, how we handle interactions with geography and prospecting, it will all play a part in the season that gives us atmospheric landings, interactions with indigenous life, and beyond.

That said, please don't feel as if it offers nothing. It is a very important groundwork!
What you gather in materials may make the difference between breaking a record or not, living or not. And one cannot truly appreciate the beauty of some of these systems we visit until you are on the ground looking up at what has given life to it.
 

Ziggy Stardust

Ziggy Stardust
Mengy said:
Personally I'm having an absolute blast landing on planets and deploying my SRV to explore and run around. Horizons is the best thing they've added to this game yet for explorers IMHO. But then for myself I don't need missions or targets or objects to make me drive around these planets with awesome vistas, I do it just to explore. I don't care about the credits, I don't care about the loot, heck I don't care about my Ranks honestly. I'm just running around exploring systems and landing on planets and driving around in crater basins or dried up river beds or huge mountains or immense canyons, and I'm having an absolute ball doing it too.

I guess I don't need FDev to add game mechanics to make me want to explore, the act alone is enough for me.
Click to expand...
Oh I'll be set for at least a month playing with this new toy, but ....

Would you care about a more noble cause, like getting data back to civilisations for scientists to drool over?

The thing with exploring is, what you're actually gathering is knowledge. In Elite this is "Data". You collect the Data, you sell the Data to a faction, and then the Data is never to be heard from again. I'd so like to participate in expanding the bubble and making it part of the expansion of mankind. Have companies move in, so traders and miners are involved. Along with those the pirates and bounty hunters and fortune seekers follow.

For me the critique is beyond Horizons, but more general towards the way Elite handles exploring.
 

Zeeman

Zeeman
Whiterose said:
This. The beauty of the SRV is that it behaves differently on different G worlds. Shooting rock is also surprisingly fun, as is shooting down the sentinels. Also watching your ship take off and land is also pretty cool.
Click to expand...

Nothing like going for a spin on Achenar 3, and then calling your Anaconda to pick you up. That is some amazing flying going on there when it lands!

Z...
 
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