I remember reading (about a year ago) someone complaing that exploration was to easy, and should be more challanging, by letting us fly closer to the planets before we get usefull infos.
Well, considering how Exploration is one of the least rewarding jobs in E
(payout-wise, that is), this change will make it even worse.
However,
I ~kind of like~ the idea that a quick HONK will NOT give you alle the information of the objects within a Star-Sytem (I always felt this system was a bit to... shallow), and you need to look a bit closer to uncover details -
but only if there are a number of thinks to set this off:
1. After the HONK, you get the orbits and position of the Objects in the system, as well as their mass, but no pictures; maybe some speculation what kind of object it could be, according to the mass (if something has 2x the mass of our Sun, it is not likely to be a planet, isn't it?)
2. if you point your ship towards a planet, you will get a spectrum analysis, as well as pictures, so you will get the infos we get as of now (Elite Dangerous 2.1)
3. upon closing in, you get a full scan (unveiling the full map, including the rotatable 3D-Map with full details; although I have no idea how we get immages of the backside of a planet when we only scan one side)
4. the range of our scanners should be enhanced (at least 3x as much, maybe even 5x or more); this is to off-set the time-loss we have to deal with since we now would have to face each planet to see if it is worth scanning in the first place (which we do not have today, as we would see it right after the HONK).
5. increased payouts. If exploration is going to be more difficult, we are going to demand more money, after all.
^ I hink I could live with the above changes, if it all comes as a package and the negatives (no picture of the planets) is cancled out by en equal (or greater) amount of positive changes.
While we are at it, some other changes I'd really like to see.
A: Allow us to get a compact scanner that includes Advanced and Details Surface Scanner (I am currently exploring the Eagle-Nebula in my.. well... Eagle, and I could only bring the Advanced Scanner; but the Diamondback Scout has a similar problem. I don't mind if this think would cost like 10 millions - or if you need to engineer it in some way - as long as it fits in a Class 1 Slot).
B: If we get destroyed with millions worth of exploration data, please allow us to find the wreck of our ship (where ever it may be) and retriev the exploration data from the wreck (I assume our data to be encoded with only us having the right key, so please don't turn this into a new opportunity for pirates to harrass us); wreck should be either in space or on the surface of a planet, depeding on wehre we lost our ship. Retrieving should be donw by approaching and targeting the wreck /beacon/scanner/whatever.
C: Speaking of pirates: wouldn't it be nice of those guys would actually be a lot more interactive, like: not shooting us to bits BEFORE they know what we carry? Or after they have downed our shields the stop firing and start to negotiat with us? Or that the would be a way to negotiat with them in the first place? (multiple-choice texting was already a think back in Wing Commander: Privateer; so why not now?).
That about sums my thought on this matter up.
I assume after the initial Sheet-Storm the whole matter will be cancled, anyway; I think FD should have brought this up before patching it into the beta and discussing it with the community.
And again: if you make something worse on one end (although making something more interestin and challanging is not a bad thing per se), make shure to off-set it with an equal amount of good stuff on the other end in the first place.
