Anyone posted the changes for Exploration in 2.3?

[avow555]

If it's not apparent, yeah I'm feeling a bit jaded lately about Elite Dangerous...

I feel your sentiment!

 

[Allitnil]

Maybe this is more aligned with casual players? Yes there's a list ELW on the forums and such but what about the player that's not on the forums and can only play a few hours at a time and doesn't know everything there is to exploring I.e. the casual player. How long does it take to get to Elite with combat if you knew exactly what to do? All in all it should equal to the amount of time and effort according to the other classes, Combat, Trader, IMO.

IIRC, when ED was launched it was indeed supposed to be roughly equal time to get to Elite in each category. Something like 250 hours in each. It was in that ballpark in exploration until the neutron fields were discovered which brought it down to well below 100. I've no idea what it is now in combat and trading but I can't believe it could be as little as 24 hours.

You might not be aware, but when ED launched in December 2014 there was a £10,000 competition to see who could be the first to get to triple Elite playing only in open. CMDR Onepercent won, see http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...ous-first-triple-elite-player-just-won-10-000. From that article:

He played for a whopping 1029 hours from 18th December 2014 to 24th February 2015

CMDR Onepercent visited 10,342 unique star systems and travelled 180,688 light years as part of the exploration discipline, scored 9032 kills as part of the combat discipline, and traded 835,410 tonnes of goods for the trading discipline (2000 tonnes were traded on the black market, but we won't hold that against him).

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

It would appear not. I deleted my beta save earlier this evening and started exploring from scratch. After about 4 hours effort I've got nearly 7 million credits just from exploring, have a fully equipped explora-sidey (and I've only been purchasing new modules when I've had enough credits to do so with non-beta prices) and am Pathfinder with 14% towards Ranger. By targeting previously discovered ELWs I suspect it may well be possible to go from here to "Elite" explorer within 24 hours. I know it's not their intention, but if FDev were to set out to deliberately devalue exploration they would find it hard to do so more efficiently than they repeatedly achieve by accident....

Is this talked about in the Beta forums at all?

I mean, great if more credits will lure more CMDRs into the deep, but there are some ifs and butts like the rank progression which now is totally out of whack. Also you wonder whether the CMDR who measures fun by CR/H will have a good time exploring, but that's up to the individual CMDR to find out.

 

[Jackie Silver]

You might not be aware, but when ED launched in December 2014 there was a £10,000 competition to see who could be the first to get to triple Elite playing only in open. CMDR Onepercent won

...and set the pattern for grind and powergaming nonsense rather than doing anything interesting or playing for enjoyment's sake.

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

As for exploration changes in 2.3? I think we now know that most of the best changes are simply fixing things they broke before, and adding some scanner blueprints to the engineers that should really be quality of life improvements. Combat players get weapons with all manner of special effects and perks, explorers get QoL changes we need to grind for. No new mechanics, nothing that changes how we explore, just QoL changes. But then it's really hard to add creative and game changing secondary effects for explorers when our game mechanics are so incredibly shallow, there just isn't much to work with. It's why Ram Tah simply flipped a switch and BAM we now passively detect alien ruins while we fly about. How else were Frontier going to do that without actually developing some interactive mechanics for us? It was far easier to just passively flip a switch than actually put any dev time into exploration mechanics. That pretty much sums up how Frontier feels about exploration.

It was mentioned multiple times, that the community missed signs about how to explore these sites. To be honest, with such sharp people at Cannon trying to solve mysteries, it must be really hard to develop a storyline that progresses according to plan. This switch-flip at Ram Tah was probably a decision taken to advance the soryline before 2.3 hits with more alien presence.

As for planets – I think after about 7-800 hours I invested in exploration, the current setup is certainly getting a bit old, not because of 2.2 changes, but because planet variety wasn’t that huge to begin with. For me 2.2 was an improvement even with known issues. Being actually at the surface is much-much better for me. So I agree, that planets need to be improved, but I don’t think pre 2.2 was any better (again, even with known issues).

Yes, 2.3 is appears a bit shallow, but as we are closing in to Season 3, I think Fdev is keeping the best for that. For the moment, I’m having loads of fun in the bubble.
At the end, what we are doing (exploration) is such a niche that practically no other game offers a similar experience – hence I’m glad that E : D exists at all.

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

Is this talked about in the Beta forums at all?

I mean, great if more credits will lure more CMDRs into the deep, but there are some ifs and butts like the rank progression which now is totally out of whack. Also you wonder whether the CMDR who measures fun by CR/H will have a good time exploring, but that's up to the individual CMDR to find out.

I think it was in the changelog, that exploration rank advancement will be fixed.

 

[Qohen Leth]

I've had a thought haunting me for some time now.

I'm not sure a deeply revamp Exploration gameplay would make me get back in the game. Say it finally feels like proper exploration -challenge, science, etc.-, I'd be thinking 'Well, so much has been discovered already, it's a bit late now, the epic, pioneering and discovering exploration has been done before exploration developped its tools; now it's not so much a matter of what to discover than it is of how many of which to discover'. After which I'd be embracing a sort of tourism, for curiosity, but strongly feeling that it's too late to rekindle to spark of true exploration.

That was my paranoid thought of the day.

*drinks more coffee*

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

I've had a thought haunting me for some time now.

I'm not sure a deeply revamp Exploration gameplay would make me get back in the game.

So, you've joined the folks who don't play the game, just comment on the forums?

 

[Qohen Leth]

So, you've joined the folks who don't play the game, just comment on the forums?

Have to admit.

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

Have to admit.

After spending time in the dangerous forums, I also put ED aside for a week, then I quit reading the forums too - just opening the 2.3 feedback threads made me close the window immediately. Since I quit reading those threads, I started to play again... it appears that these activities are mutually exclusive.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

I think it was in the changelog, that exploration rank advancement will be fixed.

I remember that entry with regard to passenger missions.

Anyone of the explorers in Beta checking out planet surfaces? So far each update they've been tweaked. Curious if 2.3 has again.

I've had a thought haunting me for some time now.

I'm not sure a deeply revamp Exploration gameplay would make me get back in the game. Say it finally feels like proper exploration -challenge, science, etc.-, I'd be thinking 'Well, so much has been discovered already, it's a bit late now, the epic, pioneering and discovering exploration has been done before exploration developed its tools; now it's not so much a matter of what to discover than it is of how many of which to discover'. After which I'd be embracing a sort of tourism, for curiosity, but strongly feeling that it's too late to rekindle to spark of true exploration.

That was my paranoid thought of the day.

*drinks more coffee*

I agree, more coffee is the ticket.

And I'd think that if new game mechanics would be introduced, there'd be new stuff to discover.

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

I remember that entry with regard to passenger missions.

Anyone of the explorers in Beta checking out planet surfaces? So far each update they've been tweaked. Curious if 2.3 has again.

I agree, more coffee is the ticket.

And I'd think that if new game mechanics would be introduced, there'd be new stuff to discover.

Can be that I'm mixing the two - but the passenger missions were the gripe AFAIK.

Icy planet surfaces have been tweaked, here are a couple of shots from Mr Qohen Leth.

 

[Kuroshio]

After spending time in the dangerous forums, I also put ED aside for a week, then I quit reading the forums too - just opening the 2.3 feedback threads made me close the window immediately. Since I quit reading those threads, I started to play again... it appears that these activities are mutually exclusive.

Can confirm. It's not the game, it's the forums.* They drain more enjoyment out of the game than the Empire rank grind. Which isn't so bad, unless you read about how bad it is.

*The present forum excluded, of course. Most of time.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Can be that I'm mixing the two - but the passenger missions were the gripe AFAIK.

Icy planet surfaces have been tweaked, here are a couple of shots from Mr Qohen Leth.

I love the way the tyretracks are irregular as if the surface in some places is harder than others. The far away shot looks good too.

Can confirm. It's not the game, it's the forums.* They drain more enjoyment out of the game than the Empire rank grind. Which isn't so bad, unless you read about how bad it is.

*The present forum excluded, of course. Most of time.

I noticed when I'm playing the game, I'm posting in the Exploration forum, when I'm not I'm posting in the Dangerous discussions.

I get a lot of stress relief out of DD.

 

[Mengy]

As for planets – I think after about 7-800 hours I invested in exploration, the current setup is certainly getting a bit old, not because of 2.2 changes, but because planet variety wasn’t that huge to begin with. For me 2.2 was an improvement even with known issues. Being actually at the surface is much-much better for me. So I agree, that planets need to be improved, but I don’t think pre 2.2 was any better (again, even with known issues).

I’d agree that 2.2 greatly improved surface textures and LOD, it’s just a shame that they took such drastic steps backwards in planet coloring and terrain features at the same time.

So, you've joined the folks who don't play the game, just comment on the forums?

Have to admit.

I’ve been feeling myself slipping this way too lately: spending more time on the forums than playing the game. I want to play Elite, I still want to explore, but when I contemplate starting the game up I almost feel a weight of sadness at the very prospect of it. I keep hoping that the next patch will add something interesting to exploration, that the next update will improve our game mechanics and make exploring engaging and interactive, but I’ve been disappointed so many times now that I can feel a little bit of resentment down deep which grows with every missed opportunity.

I think multicrew was my breaking point. I really thought they would at least have something there for explorers, anything, and when I found out that we are getting no functionality at all with multicrew, well I simply think it broke my patience.

I feel like I’ll be putting Elite aside soon while I wait for Frontier to add some mechanics to exploration. I might do some trading, or some salvaging or mining now and then, I might even work on my combat rank, but that won’t hold my interest for long. I want to explore the galaxy in Elite, it’s why I bought the game, but until they actually add something to do out there other than honk and jump, something to find other than screenshots, well I feel like I’ve lost the drive to even bother anymore.

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

I love the way the tyretracks are irregular as if the surface in some places is harder than others. The far away shot looks good too.

While common understanding was that ice worlds look much better than before (especially the colors and the almost transparent looking terrains), the textures suffered from excessive tiling. So yes, I'm looking forward to checking out ice worlds in 2.3.

 

[marx]

So there's a new beta update out - see the changelog here - and there's nothing in the logs about exploration rank requirements getting fixed. But then, it might simply be missing, because it also doesn't include the Orca's 580 T -> 290 T base hull mass change. So, could somebody try whether they fixed exploration rank progression or not please?
If they didn't, then I'd say it would be time to post in the 2.3 beta forums. After all, the devs do comment on those far more often than in other forum sections.

Also, to HazardousMatt before: it's not just Earth-likes though, but most valuable worlds (HMCP, AW, WW, ELW) had increases between 5-9.5x. As such, I don't think it would be a stretch to say that if the rank requirements were unchanged, then exploration rank progression would become nearly ten times quicker. You don't need to look up a set circuit or route to speed things up thus, it would happen to anyone.

 

[Kuroshio]

Personally, I'm not sure if I'm against the new payouts and faster progression. (Blasphemy, I know. ) It took me two years out of and roughly four weeks in game of my life to become Elite as a casual, non farming explorer in it for the sights, I wouldn't mind if others could get there faster. I wouldn't mind a doubling of the rank thresholds, either, but, to be honest, I don't really care. It doesn't lessen my sense of achievement in any way, shape or form if others neutron farm/use passenger missions/benefit from higher payouts.

As for the payouts themselves, I think it was about time raising them so high that scanning rather than jonking produced the most credits/hour. It might seem much, but compared to other professions, it feels about right in comparison. 700,000 credits can be made in half an hour in a RES (mediocre pilot in mediocre ship), which still are - unlike Earth-likes - constant sources of income. It's a change that rewards staying in systems, which will make the galaxy feel bigger again. And if I ever start all over again, I'd rather earn the money for my 6A-scoop by exploring than by all the other, better paying activities I don't enjoy as much.

(Yes, I know, more content needed. Easily satisfied as I am, right now I'm content enough with taking that new camera around to places it's never been. )

 

[Mengy]

As for the payouts themselves, I think it was about time raising them so high that scanning rather than jonking produced the most credits/hour.

Agreed, this was always why I wanted higher payouts for planet scans, because buckyball jonking should never have paid more than actual exploration. It was just bad game mechanics favoring tepid gameplay. The payouts for 2.3 look pretty good overall to me, I hope they go live with them.

 

[CMDR CHIGGY VONRICTOFEN]

They ought to leave it the way it is, and just increase the first discovery bonus x2-x3....just my 2 cents...