I knew this game was big, but never actually realised it. Yes there are 600 Billion star systems. Yes you can travel 100's of LY but you do it through jumps. Yes it can take time in SC to get to that station or planet but with a few exceptions, that journey is over in minutes not hours. But last night I suddenly realised the enormity of this game. Decided I needed some mats so a quick check on EDDB, found a planet in my current system and headed out. Coming into it, selected a decent sized crater and decided that is where I will start my search. Landed near the centre spike, jumped in the SRV and off I went. 2 hours later after finding enough of the required mats to make the trip worthwhile, plus so many abandoned canisters I had to ditch some I had already collected to take the more valuable ones, I jumped in the ship and took off.
That is when the realisation hit me, I had just spent a couple of hours tootling around a planet and I had probably covered less that 0.1% of it's surface. And I found things that were interesting. Heck if I wanted I could spend a couple of days (game wise) just driving around one planet. Now I know that most would consider it boring, no pewpew except for the skimmers I encountered, no credits except for the containers I found, the few scans of crashed ships and the bounties (all up about 200K lol), no recognition, no glory. But dammit it was fun and that 2 hours went way quicker than I thought.
Could the experience be improved - HELL YES (of course). Sticking with what we currently have (airless worlds), just the introduction of random things like crashed ships would be good. They don't have to have any containers or things of value around, it could be something as simple as a memorial that you scan like "Here lies the body of Commander Stupid marking the position of his first attempt at landing on a high G planet". Remember, not everything in this game has to give you massive profits, some can just be for the awe and humour involved. Imagine cruising around on an Icy world and coming across an igloo or a McDonalds sign!
It has even changed my thoughts on atmospheric landings, there could be ruins to find and explore, different temperate regions on the one planet, islands, deserts, beaches the list is pretty endless.
So before anyone says it, the 'tl-dr' version is there is a lot of things to see in this game, if you are prepared to do it.
That is when the realisation hit me, I had just spent a couple of hours tootling around a planet and I had probably covered less that 0.1% of it's surface. And I found things that were interesting. Heck if I wanted I could spend a couple of days (game wise) just driving around one planet. Now I know that most would consider it boring, no pewpew except for the skimmers I encountered, no credits except for the containers I found, the few scans of crashed ships and the bounties (all up about 200K lol), no recognition, no glory. But dammit it was fun and that 2 hours went way quicker than I thought.
Could the experience be improved - HELL YES (of course). Sticking with what we currently have (airless worlds), just the introduction of random things like crashed ships would be good. They don't have to have any containers or things of value around, it could be something as simple as a memorial that you scan like "Here lies the body of Commander Stupid marking the position of his first attempt at landing on a high G planet". Remember, not everything in this game has to give you massive profits, some can just be for the awe and humour involved. Imagine cruising around on an Icy world and coming across an igloo or a McDonalds sign!
It has even changed my thoughts on atmospheric landings, there could be ruins to find and explore, different temperate regions on the one planet, islands, deserts, beaches the list is pretty endless.
So before anyone says it, the 'tl-dr' version is there is a lot of things to see in this game, if you are prepared to do it.