Exploring is turning my brain to mush.

[Queze]

You have more patience than I do. My 1 exploration trip lasted less then 3 hours before I was so bored I had to go back to the bubble or quit the game entirely. It's not engaging at all and down right stupid at times. How can they possible leave in finding tea 25kly from the bubble on every planet. It reeks of poor design, no foresight when developing and pure laziness. It's one of the many things that make people say "a mile wide and an inch deep".

And another thing. How can something be unexplored but already have a first discovered by label...

 

[FliesWithEyesClosed]

You've demonstrated in several threads that you don't have a treshold for boredom.
Other people find the exploration mechanic of (press jump, delay, countdown, loadscreen, scoop, honk, point at star hit scan, delay, open system map, select planet, long SC, point at planet, delay, scan complete, repeat) to be a tad repetitive and unengaging.

Yah i also find it boring to arrive-honk-target something-fly towards it if needed-and waiting until it goes from unidentified to identified. Star Trek Online's version of exploration or using a tricorder was to go up to something and hit F on your keyboard. You need to scan a soil sample? walk up to it and hit F. Need to scan a gaseous anomaly in space? fly to it and hit F. Now EVE online on the other hand (who woulda thunk that EVE would get mentioned) has exploration where you can triangulate the position of a wormhole with scanning probes.

It would be nice to have ED exploration have some kind of minigame like that...interdiction has its own minigame after all. Something like instead of simply honking your scanner when you arrive you have to do a scanning minigame that determines how many bodies are discovered. Not a pass or fail minigame, but a score or percentage based one where a higher score = more discoveries until you hit the max score at which point you would discover everything possible in a system. And maybe some of the unique space bodies can have their own minigame too? discovering a black hole for example can have a modified version of the interdiction/escape vector minigame? where if you succeed then you gain data on that black hole. Maybe they can add in more stuff for us to explore? like can we discover comets and wormholes too? or just stars, black holes, planets, moons and asteroids? Anyone remember that Star Trek: Voyager episode where they found a Mars probe with a skeleton pilot in it inside some kind of gravity wave thingie that dips into and out of subspace? a few huge anomalies like that floating around in ED would probably be like finding a rare spawn if you found one in game.

 

[snadge]

Killing NPCs is boring to me, I can destroy elite wings with my DBS, takes a while and to some it would be impossible, or too slow but that is the way I do it because it is a challenge to me but using my Python, FAS or FDL it becomes repetitive nonsense, the AI is pathetic.

Exploring on the other hand is something I can enjoy, it is the main reason I am going to start up a new account, dedicated to exploring, then I have the best of both worlds, an account that can spend years away from the nearest civilisation and another that is able to do the things I want in open.

Elite tag means nothing to me, my main focus is PvP (not seal clubbing or griefing, I enjoy fighting outnumbered and outclassed)

 

[Scoopy Doopy]

It's just forward thinking, there are a large group of players that enjoy exploration in it's current form. But there are a large group of players that don't feel or have no interest in even trying it. Nobody is saying it should be discover the Thargoid bases and set up pew-pew bases, but for some we would like a bit more interaction from the game.

I don't know the changes either, but I would to be able to spend more than half an hour recording a significant system that I have found, really own it. Claim rights to it.

Today I spent nearly four hours picking my way across from the end of the Perseus arm back towards the Sagittarius arm. My jump range is 35.4LY but ONLY IF I hardly have any fuel. Most stars are unreachable out here at my range and it is a real trial of determination not to just self destruct. I stopped caring about what was in the systems, I only cared about finding a route through. Gradually, I slowly ground my way through the void and finally made it back to where I don't get "route unavailable" messages all the time. I felt I accomplished something far greater than when I took out my first Anaconda or survived an attack by a wing of three. So maybe it is simply a question of what challenges you. I guess training and training to be the best fighter you can be is also a challenge but for me, tedious in the extreme. Those exciting videos I see of wings of players fighting other wings of players are some of the most boring videos I've ever seen. I just don't get how people can watch them without falling asleep.

One of the nice things about life is that people are different and as long as we don't get in each others way, everything is cool.

 

[Bomba Luigi]

Exploration is my favorite Part of ED

Don't get me wrong, it sure has room from improvment and I hope it well get some, but I already love it. But I can understand when People not like it, I know I'm weird.

 

[Scoopy Doopy]

Yah i also find it boring to arrive-honk-target something-fly towards it if needed-and waiting until it goes from unidentified to identified. Star Trek Online's version of exploration or using a tricorder was to go up to something and hit F on your keyboard. You need to scan a soil sample? walk up to it and hit F. Need to scan a gaseous anomaly in space? fly to it and hit F. Now EVE online on the other hand (who woulda thunk that EVE would get mentioned) has exploration where you can triangulate the position of a wormhole with scanning probes. It would be nice to have ED exploration have some kind of minigame like that...interdiction has its own minigame after all. Something like instead of simply honking your scanner when you arrive you have to do a scanning minigame that determines how many bodies are discovered. Not a pass or fail minigame, but a score or percentage based one where a higher score = more discoveries until you hit the max score at which point you would discover everything possible in a system. And maybe some of the unique space bodies can have their own minigame too? discovering a black hole for example can have a modified version of the interdiction/escape vector minigame? where if you succeed then you gain data on that black hole. Maybe they can add in more stuff for us to explore? like can we discover comets and wormholes too? or just stars, black holes, planets, moons and asteroids? Anyone remember that Star Trek: Voyager episode where they found a Mars probe with a skeleton pilot in it inside some kind of gravity wave thingie that dips into and out of subspace? a few huge anomalies like that floating around in ED would probably be like finding a rare spawn if you found one in game.

This demonstrates you have never been far from the bubble. I am pretty sure that ANY mechanic of this nature, once you have done it five thousand times, is going to be unbelievably frustrating. I am grateful that it's just the honk to see the systems. What you do with those systems afterwards is what makes it exploration.

 

[Noob]

How ever did they imagine this was an engaging pastime?
TBH I've had more pleasurable hours in visits to the dentist.
Mind-numbingly repetitive (far worse that trading), less financially rewarding, and oh so deadly dull.
The fixed minimum-wait time for scans is brutal. Worst of all, there is no gauge of progress until you return all the way back to civilisation to turn your data in, surely there could/should be an indicator to say "If you turn in all your current data successfully your progress will be "X"?
I am only 2,500 LY from "Home" and already I am sick to death of it.
The Galaxy map is an "acquired taste" I think. Getting progress towards the core seems to be an art all in its self.
Oh well, only 5 more levels till that elusive 3rd Elite.

I am sooo with you on this one.

 

[ShimEnki]

Today I spent nearly four hours picking my way across from the end of the Perseus arm back towards the Sagittarius arm. My jump range is 35.4LY but ONLY IF I hardly have any fuel. Most stars are unreachable out here at my range and it is a real trial of determination not to just self destruct. I stopped caring about what was in the systems, I only cared about finding a route through. Gradually, I slowly ground my way through the void and finally made it back to where I don't get "route unavailable" messages all the time. I felt I accomplished something far greater than when I took out my first Anaconda or survived an attack by a wing of three. So maybe it is simply a question of what challenges you. I guess training and training to be the best fighter you can be is also a challenge but for me, tedious in the extreme. Those exciting videos I see of wings of players fighting other wings of players are some of the most boring videos I've ever seen. I just don't get how people can watch them without falling asleep.

One of the nice things about life is that people are different and as long as we don't get in each others way, everything is cool.

Kinda like ---

I wish you all the best in your choices and its best that your interests do not conflict with mine

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

If you don't enjoy it, don't do it. Same as everything else in the game...

This is alway the worst argument of all.
Don't you get that some of us would like exploration to be an activity that is engaging and enjoyable?

 

[fennster]

Today I spent nearly four hours picking my way across from the end of the Perseus arm back towards the Sagittarius arm. My jump range is 35.4LY but ONLY IF I hardly have any fuel. Most stars are unreachable out here at my range and it is a real trial of determination not to just self destruct. I stopped caring about what was in the systems, I only cared about finding a route through. Gradually, I slowly ground my way through the void and finally made it back to where I don't get "route unavailable" messages all the time. I felt I accomplished something far greater than when I took out my first Anaconda or survived an attack by a wing of three. So maybe it is simply a question of what challenges you. I guess training and training to be the best fighter you can be is also a challenge but for me, tedious in the extreme. Those exciting videos I see of wings of players fighting other wings of players are some of the most boring videos I've ever seen. I just don't get how people can watch them without falling asleep.

One of the nice things about life is that people are different and as long as we don't get in each others way, everything is cool.

Ok, I salute you for that, I honestly do. Those that found their niche in the game early on are more likely to get satisfaction from this game long after most have left. They will still be there in the void doing their screenshots, and scans and charting systems 60,000 Ly from Sol long after anyone else.

But please don't excluded us from the game, the general consensus is that it's boring. You can't hide from that fact. I get the feeling people feel offended by people saying it's boring, that's fine, carry on doing what you are doing. We are just asking as a player base for improvements to be made. Don't deny us that.

 

[Leo Sagan]

Oh well, only 5 more levels till that elusive 3rd Elite.

Hello Dan,

The two last levels will be quite long I'm afraid
Since you want this rank, it seems to me you should try to boost your interest for it any way you can. Then when you reach elite, just forget about it.
Here are a few ideas you could try :

1) Watch DrKaii's vids, maybe you'll learn a few tricks to make your journey a little bit faster / less tedious / more involving.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDpr_S1P6uI&list=PLmZswJzvjc8c7X6G3CtJLAGd6-XYem5gf

2) Read the exploration sub-forum, you'll find a lot of ideas, challenges or potential friends there.
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=117

3) Maybe you could try to watch astronomy documentaries as well, some on YouTube are pretty good and they might set you in the mood.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=documentary+astronomy

Good luck in your travels.

 

[AJW]

This is alway the worst argument of all.
Don't you get that some of us would like exploration to be an activity that is engaging and enjoyable?

So you expect FD to design a game where everyone enjoys every possible thing that can be done in it?

 

[Ddraig]

I have short patience. So I cant do long trips like the one to the center of the galaxy. But I do not find exploration boring, it´s just that when you are at it, you cant do anything else until you come back. My patience threshold is about 5k ly, after that I am either going back or get severely bored. However I have to acknowledge that something boring has to do with the person itself a lot more than with the object in question.

 

[DanTheMan]

It's not a religious dogma, it's what the nuns would tell me when I said I was bored as they whacked my knuckles with a ruler, one of many such quotes about boredom that they dispensed while doing that, I got bored a lot in Catholic school, no tolerance for , and well, religion is rather full of that...yeah, got my knuckles whacked a hell of a lot.

You aren't out exploring for yourself, just to see what's out there, you are after that Elite rank, that's it, you said that yourself, so you aren't enjoying it because it's a task you've set yourself and you are trying to get through it quickly. Exploration is probably the shortest track to Elite, 168m is all that's required, not much at all. You want to fast track that, neutron fields, that's the place to do it, Pioneer to Elite is only 1000 neutron stars, that's 100m give or take btw. I'll pass by a few of those neutron fields on my way to Beagle Point, so I'll wander through them on my way there and probably hit them again on my way back home. I'd suggest you head for them directly, around 10k LY out from Sol, 1k 'up', there's a guide to them in the Exploration section of the forums, it will help you get your Elite quickest in Exploration.

Very kind of you to offer a pointer to a rapid ascension to explorer Elite. I'm a bit off the beaten track to take that path I think, but I thank you all the same.

 

[FliesWithEyesClosed]

This demonstrates you have never been far from the bubble. I am pretty sure that ANY mechanic of this nature, once you have done it five thousand times, is going to be unbelievably frustrating. I am grateful that it's just the honk to see the systems. What you do with those systems afterwards is what makes it exploration.

You mean it would cut down on the total number of systems you can discover? instead of having a huge reward or your name tagged on a huge chunk of the galaxy under "first discovered by" you'd have a smaller reward and fewer flags planted on planets.

See i dont give a crap if i go out exploring and discover 1000 systems or 50 systems...as long as i'm having fun doing so. So would i rather explore 1000 systems in a way that i find boring or would i rather explore 50 systems that i find fun and engaging? let me think about that one hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..........ohh i know i'll do the 50 systems one because i play for fun and not the rewards or to one-up my fellow players.

 

[fennster]

So you expect FD to design a game where everyone enjoys every possible thing that can be done in it?

No, I would like to design a game where all things are of an acceptable design level to make a decision on how much it wasn't for me. If I was to decide that an area wasn't for me, dare I say it PP. That area will never be for me, currently Exploration is not for me because it is underdeveloped and boring.

I don't like RTS, but if they put one into the game (that's not a suggestion BTW) and I played it, I could still make a judgement of if that is is a good element of the game.

 

[Scoopy Doopy]

Ok, I salute you for that, I honestly do. Those that found their niche in the game early on are more likely to get satisfaction from this game long after most have left. They will still be there in the void doing their screenshots, and scans and charting systems 60,000 Ly from Sol long after anyone else.

But please don't excluded us from the game, the general consensus is that it's boring. You can't hide from that fact. I get the feeling people feel offended by people saying it's boring, that's fine, carry on doing what you are doing. We are just asking as a player base for improvements to be made. Don't deny us that.

I'm with you on this. I would like to see more people enjoy exploring but it worries me that many people that don't enjoy it would prefer to turn it into exactly the same kind of deal you get by flying around in the bubble doing bubble things. I read a lot of books about Shackleton, Scott, Amundsen and the truly courageous and mostly unknown explorers and mountaineers and to be honest, a lot of real exploration is boring. Mallory said he wanted to climb Everest because it was there. Nothing more. He died attempting to climb something simply because it was there. So, exploration shouldn't be a wild exciting ride with adventure at every turn. Exploration should be about finding things because they are there.

Perhaps we should have exploration as one goal and pioneering as another. After the explorers have been and gone, the pioneers make something of what has been discovered. As long as they don't stop me trucking around doing what many people find unbelievably boring I think everyone will be happy.

 

[Queze]

So you expect FD to design a game where everyone enjoys every possible thing that can be done in it?

When it is one third of the game, yes most people should enjoy doing it. Obviously you will never satisfy 100% of people but as it stands now the people who enjoy exploring are *probably* in the minority by a fair bit. I liken it to the red headed step child class in other games where there is one class that is poorly designed or boring to play that only is played by the fringe minority.

 

[Scoopy Doopy]

You mean it would cut down on the total number of systems you can discover? instead of having a huge reward or your name tagged on a huge chunk of the galaxy under "first discovered by" you'd have a smaller reward and fewer flags planted on planets.

See i dont give a crap if i go out exploring and discover 1000 systems or 50 systems...as long as i'm having fun doing so. So would i rather explore 1000 systems in a way that i find boring or would i rather explore 50 systems that i find fun and engaging? let me think about that one hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..........ohh i know i'll do the 50 systems one because i play for fun and not the rewards or to one-up my fellow players.

Well, that was an interesting, well developed argument. Thank you for a comment plainly based on a firm grip of logic, understanding and profound perception. Delivered with a razor wit as well.

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

So you expect FD to design a game where everyone enjoys every possible thing that can be done in it?

I expect them to design a game that has some engagement, variety and challenge occasionally.