I just don't get it - baffled and on the verge of uninstall - Yes I said it!

[Unbreakable]

The vast majority of your customers play Elite to enjoy the Milky way (FACT)

Let Us just stop you here, a poll on these Toxic Forums with less the 500 votes, when the Mobius playergroups alone have over 40,000 members, does not mean you have the opinions of a Vast Majority of players. You have the vocal minority, the 1%ers. the other 99% are in the game, playing it right now, and loving it.

Not sure if you missed it or are having a hard time keeping up with FDev updates, 3.0 is going to focus on core mechanics and add a lot to exploration, they ALREADY talked about this. Google is your friend brosef.

 

[Nutter]

Yep we could, and there where serious performance issues with the Galaxy map, it used to take ages to open up, now it is virtually instant. So there are improvements in some places but the improvements have taken away from elsewhere. It's unfortunate, but to be honest not the end of the world. It's such a minor issue that I can't be fussed by it. And saying it is virtually unusable is just not true (FACT). Seems more like an optimization more then a nerf with an easy work around, basically zoom in a bit closer, or does that make it unusable for you.

Also nice of you to miss out the brackets where I did point out there where issues with it for some others.

I have spent more time on the galaxy map than flying my ship - The galaxy map is vital to the way I explore.. so like I say and will repeat one last time... the galaxy map had been degraded to the point where I cannot enjoy exploring. There is no work around, the enjoyment has been sucked out of exploring. I'm happy for you in the fact you are not affected. I never had issues with loading times and was happy to wait for a functioning map to appear as opposed to an instant unusable map.

 

[sutex]

Exploration is one of the three 'elite-able' professions....

That always makes me laugh.

AH ! yes but trying to find information, and knowing you have found information that's useful AND then know where to use that information is an art-form , worth exploring ( FACT) !

Courses in Googling help .... exploring the WWW the new frontier !!

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

I have spent more time on the galaxy map than flying my ship - The galaxy map is vital to the way I explore.. so like I say and will repeat one last time... the galaxy map had been degraded to the point where I cannot enjoy exploring.

Sorry Nutter, but I am an explorer and the only thing that bothers me is the beigefication. If the galaxy map bothers you that much, then I feel for you, but I really cannot understand why zooming in a bit more then what you had to before is so bad and destroying your exploration experience.

There is no work around, the enjoyment has been sucked out of exploring. I'm happy for you in the fact you are not affected. I never had issues with loading times and was happy to wait for a functioning map to appear as opposed to an instant unusable map.

There is a work around, its called zoom in a little bit furether. Also a lot of other people did have issues loading the galaxy map (it did take time for me but could live with it) and there where numerous posts about it. As you said in your previous post to me, its not just about us/me that we have to think about, but about the wider community. If the galaxy map is now better for the majority, then you will have to adapt.

 

[Nutter]

add a lot to exploration

Was this after they fix what we have?

As for talking in % i'm lost for words really and think it would be rude for me to explain how percentages work.

 

[Mengy]

I would suggest that may be FD should open an Explorers statistic board next to the Galnet news, using the info from our advanced discovery scanner that record our discoveries and those commanders that discover record finds in the Galaxy are listed, with their finds, giving full details of the commander's discovery.
Every time a commander discovers a new record find he is mentioned on Galnet news and the statistic board is updated. Something like elitegalaxyonline.com does but adopt it into the game. Then we have new goals to aim for besides Elite ranks, Engineer levels, and Fed or Empire ranks, we could aim to have our commander name listed as the one who discovered a record, for all to see and it would remain until beaten.

It would give something for the Explorers to do.

Are you suggesting something like an Explorer's leaderboard, with say the top 100 or 1000 explorer new discoveries per week?

I honestly like that idea a whole lot. The game needs more features to engage and facilitate community in-game, and something like that could be very fun IMHO.

 

[Nutter]

I really cannot understand why zooming in a bit more then what you had to before is so bad and destroying your exploration experience.

I used to zoom to a level of around 20,000ly and pick out interesting systems with mouseover, this was still time consuming but worth it. It's now impossible for me to locate systems using this method. I hope that explains it. I have no beef with anyone. Just want what we had before thats all.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

I used to zoom to a level of around 20,000ly and pick out interesting systems with mouseover, this was still time consuming but worth it. It's now impossible for me to locate systems using this method. I hope that explains it. I have no beef with anyone. Just want what we had before thats all.

Unfortunatly I think its all to do with the optimization, so I think we will be stuck with it. As stated, we will just have to adapt to any changes, apart from the beigefication.

 

[Mengy]

I do agree about the beigeification and the complete lack of tools for exploration. Nerfed terrain - I haven't really noticed much. Skymap looks great to me.

Then my fellow CMDR Max, allow me to show you how the terrain has been normalized and reduced with evidence of it:

Here is a planet which I loved dearly back before 2.2, QIEDEAU WP-W D2-17, planet C4A, a high metal world:

It was an awesome red planet with many varying shades of reds and light browns. There were immense and great looking mountain ranges, amazing valleys and canyons, and huge craters. It was a very detailed and colorful world that reminded me so much of real world Mars but more colorful. I have it bookmarked and I regularly flew out here just to run around it's surface exploring.

Note my location, direction, and altitude in the above pic. Now see how it looks today since update 2.2:

The colors are gone due to the beigeficition of course, but notice how different the terrain is. This shot is from EXACTLY the same spot as the above picture, right down to the altitude, location, and orientation. Notice the lack of terrain detailing and the normalization of the height maps. This occured on all HMC and MR planets post 2.2, they've been normalized in both colors and terrain. Everywhere in the galaxy.

That's the difference in terrain post 2.2.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

Then my fellow CMDR Max, allow me to show you how the terrain has been normalized and reduced with evidence of it:

Here is a planet which I loved dearly back before 2.2, QIEDEAU WP-W D2-17, planet C4A, a high metal world:

http://i.imgur.com/KVAKhvj.jpg

It was an awesome red planet with many varying shades of reds and light browns. There were immense and great looking mountain ranges, amazing valleys and canyons, and huge craters. It was a very detailed and colorful world that reminded me so much of real world Mars but more colorful. I have it bookmarked and I regularly flew out here just to run around it's surface exploring.

Note my location, direction, and altitude in the above pic. Now see how it looks today since update 2.2:

http://i.imgur.com/YLbnfXF.jpg

The colors are gone due to the beigeficition of course, but notice how different the terrain is. This shot is from EXACTLY the same spot as the above picture, right down to the altitude, location, and orientation. Notice the lack of terrain detailing and the normalization of the height maps. This occured on all HMC and MR planets post 2.2, they've been normalized in both colors and terrain. Everywhere in the galaxy.

That's the difference in terrain post 2.2.

Difficult for me to see as the newer image is very dark. I have still seen massive mountain ranges and big gorges on HMC and MR planets, so why that one got hit so badly, I don't know.
I don't find the terrain normalised that much. When I get home tonight, I will post some screenshots of some of my escapades out in the black. To me it looks like a completely different planet. I know its not.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

I agree with OP.

I would suggest that may be FD should open an Explorers statistic board next to the Galnet news, using the info from our advanced discovery scanner that record our discoveries and those commanders that discover record finds in the Galaxy are listed, with their finds, giving full details of the commander's discovery.
Every time a commander discovers a new record find he is mentioned on Galnet news and the statistic board is updated. Something like elitegalaxyonline.com does but adopt it into the game. Then we have new goals to aim for besides Elite ranks, Engineer levels, and Fed or Empire ranks, we could aim to have our commander name listed as the one who discovered a record, for all to see and it would remain until beaten.

It would give something for the Explorers to do.

Citizens are not cleared for that, citizen! (2 years of requesting my First Discovered's from Support).

 

[Deareim]

Some people are so eager to blindly defend FD they are ridiculous.

OP is totally right. Just one FACT. Look how amazing the game was in Gamma versus now.

Not only explorers are missing love. Traders, smugglers, and so on...

 

[Jockey79]

Some people are so eager to blindly defend FD they are ridiculous.

Some are so eager to blindly insult them, they pretend to have FACTS they don't have and look ridiculous.

Fortunately, some level head folks have provided screen shots of some of the issues so those of us who are not full-time explorers can actually see what the problems are.
Mengys pictures do show that there is indeed a problem that needs fixing.

Thank goodness someone on the forums knows what FACTS and evidence actually are, so now we all know the problems explorers are having.

 

[Kestril]

I'm not digging up all the polls - a simple search will help those who have not followed the game and or forums since day one.

Don't matter. Burden of proof is still on you as the OP. You must provide the supporting evidence to those claims. You're the one making the argument for Fdev to change something.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

Some people are so eager to blindly defend FD they are ridiculous.

OP is totally right. Just one FACT. Look how amazing the game was in Gamma versus now.

Not only explorers are missing love. Traders, smugglers, and so on...

What, I played in gamma and the beta before that, what changed that was that drastic?

 

[ShimEnki]

I think the bulk of the angst comes from the botched expansion (2.3) that promised much and delivered little in terms of actual gameplay improvements. Not to mention the networking problems we've all been experiencing the last couple of weeks since 2.3 dropped. All I've done with my elite time is fiddle about with Graphics settings as the game doesn't run as smoothly as it used to even though the graphical assets haven't been altered.

I'm sure that I am not the only one that is suffering with the effects of nerf to income, nerfs to gameplay, a game that reward you for doing what the developers want as opposed to 'blaze your own way,' (passenger missions anyone), nerf to the networking (particularly bad today with it taking ages to load systems in witch space etc) and of course beige worlds, that are fundamentally the same with nothing interesting to look at on them. No wonder the OP is annoyed and I feel his pain, I'm sure many of us do.

All of the above adds to the general feeling that ED was a better quality game in it's past and that the focus of the 100 strong developer team at FD isn't ED anymore, it's actually localising the game for other platforms and expanding the marketing base for the vanity store. We know it's a matter of record that FD were disappointed with sales of Horizons and something changed at FD between 2.0 and 2.1 the games direction fundamentally changed from bold new features and massive amounts of development time to bare bones features and minimal amounts of dev time.

That's what the OP is annoyed about and to a mild degree so am I. As far as I am concerned 2.4 had better be extraordinary we have been promised much and given little. If 2.4 doesn't bring about an improvement in the core game as promised, if existing features aren't expanded (multi-crew for explorers, engineer positions in ships etc) then FD is doomed.

Very well said CMDR

 

[Mengy]

The old image looks sharp and crispy, no doubt. But that's the horizon.
Now give me some close-up examples, I mean: really close. If you only could bother you would be in for a surprise.
Of course it's quite possible that you never was (and still not are?) much interested in close-up views (nothing wrong with that, all a matter of taste and personal preferences) in which case you'll probably never know.

Certainly. I've showed these to you before, but here you go again.

Pre 2.2:

After 2.2:

Same location, same planet. Now go on and tell me that the 2.2 planet is more detailed and colorful!

 

[ShimEnki]

Pretty sure there will be improvements in 2.4 as well, like the salvage stuff that was shown at lavecon.

I have not aware of the info offered at lavecom but if finally, FINALLY found cargo is no longer illegal...THAT to me will a wonderful change.

 

[babelfisch]

Certainly. I've showed these to you before, but here you go again.

Pre 2.2:

http://i.imgur.com/4oaeR14.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/BIr3pMK.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Y8dQQAL.jpg


After 2.2:

http://i.imgur.com/jjm9d8x.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/WHxmBZK.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/n1Fn1WQ.jpg



Same location, same planet. Now go on and tell me that the 2.2 planet is more detailed and colorful!

I'd say the textures post 2.2 look better.

 

[ShimEnki]

Your opinion is always valid and NEVER let anyone tell you different!



Um... Harsh

Agreed and to add that when invalids (those that attempt to invalidate another's opinion) attempt invalidation they only end up nourishing and validating the opinion that unraveled them.