Extremely sad that I am sick of exploring...My thoughts, what about yours?

[[VR] optimal_909]

I am thrilled by what I saw.
I think the new planets look 'tasty', and new lighting system is absolutely needed. Get the foundations right before proceeding to more complex stuff.

And yes, the artwork of that ice world showcase that airless worlds have still plenty of life left in them.

 

[Mengy]

So my take on the info we got from the Expo today: 2018 has a lot of potential for explorers, but we will be waiting a long time yet to see how that potential plays out.

There are four updates for 2018:

• Q1 - fixes the beigefication and might have some planet terrain improvements.
• Q2 - smaller narrative and QoL patch, will probably have some ships
• Q3 - again a smaller narrative and QoL patch
• Q4 - the largest patch of 2018, sounds like most or all of the exploration improvements will be here

I really wanted to see more of an emphasis on exploration, once again it seemed very much like an afterthought. Overall I thought the Expo was very good, better than expected even, except for the lack of details and urgency on exploration improvements which I really thought would be coming right away after 2.4 for Q1. The exploration codex sounds like a neat feature but what we really truly need ASAP are better tools for exploring with, and a codex (while cool) will not accomplish that. And it sounds like a lot of new ships are coming, but so far they all sound like combat ships. I hope there are some non-combat oriented ships coming too.

So I have mixed feelings. I'm very happy to see the beige going away, and 2018 sounds fairly promising, but us explorers will most likely be waiting a whole year yet to get anything meaty while we see lots of multiplayer features instead get the priority.

This does look fantastic though:

 

[Roqinn]

Sorry for being a cynic, but, promises from game developers are like promises from politicians - I will believe it when I see it. I wont hold my breath. I tend to believe in, not the worst case scenarios, but not the good ones either. That way I'm not disappointed when it doesn't happen and pleasantly happy when it does.
In the mean time I will plod along.

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

But this isn't just any promise.
The screenshots shown are fundamental upgrades, but still recognisable of the stuff we are seeing today. Fully realistic tweaks and adjustments.

Mengy, many thanks for adding the screenshots, and all the info.

As usual, it pays off to have realistic expectations.

 

[Mengy]

Sorry for being a cynic, but, promises from game developers are like promises from politicians - I will believe it when I see it.

There's some good reason for this kind of cynicism with Frontier. Look how multicrew turned out. Look how long they've neglected exploration, and even today look at how they didn't talk about it until last and even then didn't have much in the way of details for explorers. We have absolutely no idea how they plan to give us better tools, or when they plan to give them to us in 2018. We've seen them say very promising things before only to deliver a bare minimum of what people expected. They showed a pic of the improved planets so we have evidence of that and they look great, but as far as exploration mechanics go we don't have anything to base any hopes on yet, other than "they plan to do something about it".

I'm hopeful for some actual development this time, but yes, part of me is still very skeptical too. Frontier has never really seemed to grasp what exploration in Elite is truly about, so I'm hoping that this time they take many of the community's suggestions to heart and trust what we've been asking for over the past three years is really what's needed.

That said though, I don't recall anyone ever asking for an Exploration Codex.....

 

[iain666]

That said though, I don't recall anyone ever asking for an Exploration Codex.....

True, but that may be because we've already written the recording bits ourselves. Likewise the improved trading tools.

The question will be whether FDev do these things better than we've already done them ourselves, and what the hints the codex might give us turn out to be...

 

[Allitnil]

But this isn't just any promise.
The screenshots shown are fundamental upgrades, but still recognisable of the stuff we are seeing today. Fully realistic tweaks and adjustments.

Mengy, many thanks for adding the screenshots, and all the info.

As usual, it pays off to have realistic expectations.

My realistic expectations:

- good improvements to planetary textures in about 5 months (nice, but not exploration specific and still no reason to actually get close enough to see 99.9% of planets in any detail)
- maybe some other stuff in 14 months

Too little, too late.

 

[PaulR]

I don't mind not getting space legs ( thought I would one day like to explore the structures we sometimes find on planets and walk inside the corridors). I just want mechanics to incite me to land. I was also hoping that after three years they would have managed to get us to land on Mars like planets. We have enough data to know they would not ask a lot of PG stuff to add. Maybe a true volcano..
Anyway true dust might be far more interesting for Ttauri solar systems, solar formation disks... In a way a very dangerous environment!

 

[Cliff Dobbs]

True, but that may be because we've already written the recording bits ourselves. Likewise the improved trading tools.

The question will be whether FDev do these things better than we've already done them ourselves, and what the hints the codex might give us turn out to be...

Personally, I think the Codex will be what many of us have been waiting for.

The very fact of all of the extra-game tools, that good people like iain666 have created, shows the need for an in-game codex (or some such). As to whether FDev can do things better? Well, that will be purely subjective. What isn't is the access any in-game tool has to the BGS, PP & Stella Forge. These are things that third-party coders simply cannot have access to at the same depth as FDev themselves do. We can only hope that access to the codex via an updated API will come with it.

Many have asked for depth & meaning in exploration, perhaps this is the beginning of that.

And don't forget, there will be stuff that FDev didn't tell us ;-)

C

 

[Cliff Dobbs]

I've been thinking about this since listening to and watching the big reveal for ED. Putting on my speculation hat and thinking about what might not have been said, I've put the main items in order of my personal interest.

1. The Codex
- for reasons already explained above.

2. New astronomical features
- Yes, this was vaguely referred to, but to be fair, I think they were going for mysterious. I've said before that I'd like to see some interesting and dangerous things popping up in the galaxy; things like novae & comets.

- Actually, I'd also like to be able to detect pre-space capable civilisations on earth-like and ammonia worlds.

3. Better tools
- Together with 1 & 2 this could make for some interesting game-play. If there is new stuff to be found, we'll need the tools to find and analyse them.

4. Exploration missions
- Again, linked with the codex, this could be interesting. As long as it isn't just more "jump, scan, return" type stuff.

5. More exciting planetary surfaces.
- One thing I do love doing is driving my buggy, at high speed, around low-g ice worlds. That will be a whole load more fun if those ice worlds look like that artist's impression we were shown

6. Mining improvements
- Weirdly, this caught my fancy. I've not engaged in mining in ED (I did a lot in GoF2, but there was good reason to do so). I'd like there to be reason to do so in ED, other than just selling the ore for more credits (which I don't need).

You'll have noticed that I've excluded the beige-world issue. I know a lot of people were annoyed by the dulling down of the galaxy, but it never really bothered me, and this is my personal opinion and comes with all the usual caveats

As to GalNet Audio - We've got CMDR Wotherspoon for that :-D

Lastly, the new ships. Nothing we were shown hinted at a ship that would be a good deep space exploration vessel for the new features hinted at. I love my Asp, but I'd really like a bigger one.

More equipment bays are going to be needed for all of those new toys we're going to be getting. I know many say that any ship can be an exploration ship, and they are right, but I would really like a bigger Asp. I like the Asp, it has really good visibility from the cockpit, it handles pretty well and is a generally well balanced ship. I just want a bigger one - is that too much to ask for?

That's enough from me
C

 

[Mengy]

My realistic expectations:

- good improvements to planetary textures in about 5 months (nice, but not exploration specific and still no reason to actually get close enough to see 99.9% of planets in any detail)
- maybe some other stuff in 14 months

Too little, too late.

This is what perplexes me too. There are four updates in 2018 yet it sounds like the meat (or all) of the exploration stuff won't be until the last Q4 update. Why? Exploration has needed development since 1.0 and it's gone neglected for three years, this should really be a huge priority for Frontier by now. It should be more important than new multiplayer stuff, more important than new ships, it really has been needed for so very long that it should be getting developed right now, post 2.4 it should be the number one priority.

The fact that it doesn't sound like it is makes me question the level of commitment and effort we will see regarding exploration development. It sounds like it's again been pushed behind other stuff. For that reason I'm still skeptical of what we will be getting a year from now.

Personally, I think the Codex will be what many of us have been waiting for.

The Codex isn't what exploration needs to make it better. Sure it sounds kinda neat, but it won't solve the problem of lacking game mechanics and tools that exploration desperately needs. The fact that Frontier talked so much about this Codex yet so little about new exploration mechanics and tools greatly bothers me, and I fear they still don't understand what exploration truly is in their own game. Hopefully I'm wrong though.

 

[malenfant]

From the screencaps of the colour fix, it looks like the planets still have the same terrain but now have more colour variation. I suppose that's something but I was hoping for more variety in the surface features too.

If they fix the lighting that would be the #1 thing for me. Did they give out any more details on what they had planned for that?

Either way it seems like I won't be coming back to Elite Dangerous for another couple of years at least.

 

[Mengy]

From the screencaps of the colour fix, it looks like the planets still have the same terrain but now have more colour variation. I suppose that's something but I was hoping for more variety in the surface features too.

They said terrain improvements are coming but not for Q1, instead for the end of the year Q4. So yeah, the colorful previews most likely have the same physical terrain we have today. I'm hoping they at least increase perlin noise ranges on the procedural mesh engine to give us back some of the terrain variety we lost with 2.2, when they nerfed the noise ranges too extremely.

 

[Roqinn]

OK, here are some questions I must have missed the answers to:

1. What are space legs?
and
2. What is codex you are talking about?

 

[iain666]

Space legs is walking around FPS style in your ship (and beyond).

The Codex is a new feature they mentioned in the expo as coming next year to give you more in-game visibility of where you've been, what you found and, tantalisingly, clues about what that might lead you to find next...

 

[Cliff Dobbs]

Space legs is walking around FPS style in your ship (and beyond).

I still prefer “Elite Feet”

 

[Orvidius]

Lastly, the new ships. Nothing we were shown hinted at a ship that would be a good deep space exploration vessel for the new features hinted at. I love my Asp, but I'd really like a bigger one.

More equipment bays are going to be needed for all of those new toys we're going to be getting. I know many say that any ship can be an exploration ship, and they are right, but I would really like a bigger Asp. I like the Asp, it has really good visibility from the cockpit, it handles pretty well and is a generally well balanced ship. I just want a bigger one - is that too much to ask for?

This is actually a fairly big point for me too. Everything that's coming is exciting, for sure, but disappointingly far in the future, except several new ships. It sounds like the three we know about (T10, Krait, and Chieftan) are all in the nearer future, with the T10 coming out before the Q1 update, and the other ships during it? If I understood correctly.

We've had many threads here and on the subreddit that have asked for a mid-range exploration ship, between the AspX and the Anaconda. This is sorely needed, IMHO.

I've started using my exploraconda recently, but as a VR player I would switch back to a Lakon ship in a heartbeat, if I could get a few more internals over what the AspX has, and retain a similar jump range (as I'm one of those explorers that prefers to go somewhere quickly, and then explore over there).

If I remember correctly, one of the devs had said a while back that they wanted to overhaul exploration after 2.4, and one of the things they were considering was to make the individual detailed scans only necessary if you want that detail, and not for tagging. It wasn't clear if this meant that a sinple honk would be all that's needed for tagging, but it certainly would save a lot of time if you're more interested in putting your name on things, rather than getting scan data and money.

Anyway, I meandered a bit there. Just some thoughts.

 

[Rudi Raumkraut]

Thx to FD and their expo...
Looks like we got our Dr. back and with him DW2

 

[Henkka77]

So.... i guess this thread is now obsolete? Eh, Dr. Kaii?

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

This is actually a fairly big point for me too. Everything that's coming is exciting, for sure, but disappointingly far in the future, except several new ships. It sounds like the three we know about (T10, Krait, and Chieftan) are all in the nearer future, with the T10 coming out before the Q1 update, and the other ships during it? If I understood correctly.

We've had many threads here and on the subreddit that have asked for a mid-range exploration ship, between the AspX and the Anaconda. This is sorely needed, IMHO.

I've started using my exploraconda recently, but as a VR player I would switch back to a Lakon ship in a heartbeat, if I could get a few more internals over what the AspX has, and retain a similar jump range (as I'm one of those explorers that prefers to go somewhere quickly, and then explore over there).

If I remember correctly, one of the devs had said a while back that they wanted to overhaul exploration after 2.4, and one of the things they were considering was to make the individual detailed scans only necessary if you want that detail, and not for tagging. It wasn't clear if this meant that a sinple honk would be all that's needed for tagging, but it certainly would save a lot of time if you're more interested in putting your name on things, rather than getting scan data and money.

Anyway, I meandered a bit there. Just some thoughts.

The Krait looks like a superb exploration vessel with ample downward visibility.