Simple but radical redesign of exploration

[Red Anders]

How about NO!
Removing all rewords besides 1st scanned means stonewalling new players as nearest unscaned undiscovered systems are like 2000ly away <_<.

I don't agree with stripping scanning payouts for already-discovered systems completely - I've said in another couple of threads that I think the overall rewards should be about as they are now but with most of the extra credits coming in first discovery bonuses and the basic scan amount just getting a slight buff from where it was before.

That said though, you don't even need to go anything like 2,000 LY out of the bubble to find undiscovered systems, my last trip out I hit one about 500-550LY away from Laksak and I wasn't doing economy jumps checking every system, I was just bouncing out in 50LY hops in an Asp.

 

[h347h]

Add a interdiction style minigame to the hyperdrive loading screen? Interesting idea, it could also be designed so that short jumps were easy and long range jumps made the minigame harder.


On the topic of redesigning exploration, I'll just point to my thread in the suggestion forums with all of my ideas: Exploration Development: a Galaxy of Possibilities

Yeah distance could be the difficulty cause.

 

[Valethar]

Imho, all they need to do is tie First Discovery counts into the ranking (and reset everyone's Elite status for Exploration based on that!!

Oy.. I'd hate to be the guy that answers to the howling mob with their pitchforks and torches over that one.. LOL

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

Yeah distance could be the difficulty cause.

Honestly, this sounds like a terrible idea!

Why would you want to make exploration even less accessible than it already is? Who would want to travel even 1kLY if they had to keep playing a minigame over and over again? And not only playing, but WINNING?

Why not just make it QTE and REALLY make people hate it?

Some people are just plain weird

 

[Spacecat]

I do believe new systems should pay more and previously explored systems should pay less. Also, you should be able to see the info of any previously explored system on the map. There should also be a bonus for a complete system scan and asteroid belts should be worth something, even if it isn't much. Also bonuses for surface stuff like barnacles, etc.

 

[Slopey]

Why would you want to make exploration even less accessible than it already is?

"less accessible than it already is" - You can get Elite in exploration in under a week.

It's already trivial, and completely accessible, but also then worthless.

 

[TheSynopticVision]

I completely agree that payments should scale with the number of discoverers, and that the rank shouldnt be just a function of money earned. But beside this, the rehauling of exploration should not be based on a different approcah to payments, but on the addition of game mechanics (compare multicrew: has the change of the payout percentages reslly made a big difference in terms of how many people use the feature? I doubt it. Money is easy in Elite -- perhaps too easy -- and you can't entice players by promising big payouts, you got to offer new gameplay).

So for example, what if your SRV could be equipped with some kind of scientific instrument which analizes samples of rocks? What if you could use hydrogen from icy bodies to synthetize fuel for your ship? What if you had a "gas scoop" to take samples from the atmosphere of gas giants?

I don't know, these are maybe not too exciting, but my point is: let's not give FDev the impression that all that explorers want is more cash. Frankly I don't do it for the money, I do it for the fun, the awe, and the geeking out with astronomy stuff.

 

[MadDogMurdock]

The OP would be probably be happier if FD had implemented what they suggested in the first place.

Diminishing discovery rewards out to say the 100th discoverer - UC likes confirmation.
After that the Galaxy Map actually updates and marks the body as discovered.

This will result in mixed discovered/undiscovered systems but all that needs is another colour for the map symbol.

After all, Universal Cartographics are supposed to maintain the map. It's about time they did.

But, none of this really matters because 'exploration' is so trivial anyway.
Too late now, but FD should never have opened up the whole galaxy.

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

"less accessible than it already is" - You can get Elite in exploration in under a week.

It's already trivial, and completely accessible, but also then worthless.

I'm not talking about Exploration rank, but about exploration as an activity. You don't fix a 'devalued' ranking mechanism by changing the activity itself.

 

[NeilF]

Still think it would be useful to break planetary surfaces into squares by longitude and latitude. When you detail surface scan, only the ones you're facing are scanned. Only sectors that have been scanned (by anyone) are available to look at on the system map. The rest appear "blank".

Each square has a first scanned by, and an appropriate bonus for doing so.

So you could arrive in a system and find a number of planets have been discovered, and only partially surface scanned, thus meaning you can scan the rest of the surfaces for a bonus.


This then means:-
1) If/when exploration probes are introduced, using them to fully scan planets from orbit becomes useful.
2) If a procedural distribution mechanic can be introduced so materials vary over planet surfaces, then this ties in well. ie: There could be an area of higher amounts of material X (skewing the dice rolls in favour of finding it), but if the sector it exists in has not be scanned, no one will know until it is!

 

[NeilF]

Too late now, but FD should never have opened up the whole galaxy.

Yes... What was there to discover, when it was already all shown?

 

[CMDR Pugwash]

There are indeed POIs out in the black - geysers and magma sites. Have found quite a few but there's a bug preventing them from appearing at the surface when you land at them. Even have a few screenshots from my last exploration run out to Hawking's Gap as I was thinking of putting in a bug report but I gather it's a known bug.

I haven't seen any, how do you find them?

 

[CMDR Pugwash]

"less accessible than it already is" - You can get Elite in exploration in under a week.

It's already trivial, and completely accessible, but also then worthless.

I don't mind people making money but I do mind it counting as exploration. I was looking at my estimated income from scanning over the last wee while and it isn't anything like the "Road to Riches" scheme. I realised that actual exploration involves not knowing the results of scans before you scan, or what is in a system before you jump there.

So they should either remove/reduce the reward for scanning known bodies or remove the financial aspect from the rank.

 

[Leper Messiah]

I agree exp rank shouldn't be based on the monetary rewards. Personally I think it should be based on the lvl 2 and 3 (with level 3 giving a higher rank increase) detailed scans. So then scanning thise rocky and icy planetoids will MEAN something!

Quite like the idea of the interdiction style mini game for travel out in the black too, but not TOO hard

 

[Rakaposhi]

- Zero rewards for scanning already scanned objects. They're revealed to your nav computer, but that's it.

No thanks. Also, I thought there already was a first discovered bonus?

I reckon removing this reward is more "severe" than "radical".

 

[Andovar]

Credits are a poor incentive.
I'd be fine if they removed all exploration credit rewards in exchange for more to explore/discover and deeper more engaging gameplay mechanics behind it.

 

[lenna]

There's lots of space to blaze your own trail in the galaxy

I have heard this kind of argument before... I totally disagree with the perspective.

As for the rest, I disagree with your principle of ZERO rewards for entry-level exploration.

First discovery rewards currently only apply if you actually directly scan an object and I am fine with that, it should not be reduced to body location scans (Honks) giving such rewards which is what is implied by your post. Even if it is not what you meant I still disagree with the overall principle.

Addition of first landed bonus seems reasonable but not so sure about the first material collection bonuses.

I do not agree with the principle of only rewarding "firsts" in an exploration context.

 

[MadDogMurdock]

Yes... What was there to discover, when it was already all shown?

I quite like the idea that while we might know where everything is in space and can see it, that hyperspace is a different medium and we need to learn to plot routes through it.
Initially, there would have been a fairly limited network of hyperspace routes between systems (anchored by nav beacons) in the bubble that would require expanding.

The exploration mechanism would have involved a way to probe and examine hyperspace in an effort to plot new routes alongside a better version of the system mapping that we have now.
This could have been used to plot new, more direct routes in the bubble, and also to expand the frontier into unknown space.

 

[Genar-Hofoen]

1. This isn't about other people - I care about my game, and it is blatantly obvious that there is no merit to me continuing to wander in the black scanning earthlikes etc in a tedious fashion (which I did quite enjoy I might add when I thought it might mean something), when I can follow one of the routes and get it done asap. An "Elite" rank (imho) was never supposed to be something you could do in a week...

2. But does flying around a list of preset systems, freely available, to get Elite in Exploration in under a week seem fair to those who headed out to the black exploring in the first place? Also - 2-3 jumps out of the bubble, and you can start picking up first discoverer - I did several on my way out for this trip.

3. Obviously your tags would remain, but the credit would only be for those scanned by the current commander. The previous commanders who you reset are gone - that's assuming FD tracks it by something other than commander name so knows that the 5th instance of Slopey isn't the same as the 1st for example (i.e. a UID on a db entry).

I hate your idea of resetting my exploration Elite rank. I did my time on that, and it took me a long time back then - 2 years ago in fact. Pre-RNGineering. I refuse to accept this is a good idea.

Reset my rank and I erase the game.

 

[CMDR Pugwash]

I have heard this kind of argument before... I totally disagree with the perspective.

As for the rest, I disagree with your principle of ZERO rewards for entry-level exploration.

First discovery rewards currently only apply if you actually directly scan an object and I am fine with that, it should not be reduced to body location scans (Honks) giving such rewards which is what is implied by your post. Even if it is not what you meant I still disagree with the overall principle.

Addition of first landed bonus seems reasonable but not so sure about the first material collection bonuses.

I do not agree with the principle of only rewarding "firsts" in an exploration context.

The problem isn't the financial reward as such, but it's the association with the exploration rank. If you already know about it, you're not exploring, your a tourist. Perhaps they could add a rank for Tourism?