The Trouble with Associating Jump Range with Exploration Gameplay

But it doesn't reduce a core profession in the game to nothing.

You can have a jump range of 1000LY - there are still 400,000,000,000 star systems to actually be in and to explore. A ship with a 1000LY jump range can still only be in one of those star systems at any one time.

And as stated elsewhere - currently, exploration in this game consists of being in a star system, surveying it, then... nothing much else, really. So given all that, I'm puzzled as to why jump range is a thing which is being focused on and a thread created for it.

Surely it would be better to focus on What Is There To Do whilst your ship is in one of these 400,000,000,000 star systems? Because for me anyway, merely just surveying and perhaps driving on the surface of the odd planet or moon has worn a bit thin.

Let me ask you, Why do you think Beagle Point is special? It doesn't have exotic stars, planets, it isn't particularly big or small yet it is still a POI and very known in the exploration community.
 
Ye because ever in the whole of human technological evolution we designed something to make doing something slower and more time consuming on purpose.

Which one of the countless counter-examples do you want?

Let's just start off with fuel efficiency as a deliberate reason to slow something down.
 
Then you missed the point about path finding. Your point is solely about discovery, which is only half of what exploration should be in my opinion.

When peak jump range was around 35LY, actually getting out to the edge was an effort because of the sparseness between the arms.
You couldn't just plow through in more or less a straight line like you can now.

Absolutely agree that we need more mechanics once we get somewhere though.

Nah, I definetly did take many detours to get to Amundsens Star.
 
Jump range gives you the maximum amount of flexibility while thousands of LY away. An exploration vessel may not need it every jump, but it's always best to have it.
 
Choosing something out on the edge just highlights that this is now solely a 'fringe' activity.

True but it goes to show that actually travelling to the edge still has its perks, besides, Allitnil definetly should have spent some time on the galmap to spot it.

Anyway, technology helped the great explorers of the RL, even today going to the South Pole is no joke.
 
Jump range gives you the maximum amount of flexibility while thousands of LY away. An exploration vessel may not need it every jump, but it's always best to have it.

I mention similar in the OP. I'm trying to make the distinction between jump range and exploration gameplay, because for some reason many seem to not really be able to tell the difference, even Frontier at times. I'm hoping for more actual exploration gameplay.

I think the DbE is an example of where things started to go goofy, at least after the game's release. I have a DbE to reach hard to reach places just for the sake of it as well, but I wouldn't bother going exploring in general in that ship.
 
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Choosing something out on the edge just highlights that this is now solely a 'fringe' activity.

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It's not just about exploring the fringe though, making your way across sparse regions of space like in between the spiral arms becomes much nicer with the range to cross them. Stating that range is only useful in 0.01% of the galaxy is incorrect.

Of course more range is useful, but it's only necessary in extreme cases.

I've crossed the gaps in galactic arms with a 14ly jump FDL...sure every 1000ly plot was taking ~200 jumps, but I made it, and I found a lot stuff on the way.

I do feel like the doubled FSD ranges have really relegated that to being pretty effortless (nicer isn't really the word I'd use), and now it pretty much is only about the extreme outer fringes.

My sentiments as well.

I'd fast prefer it if there was a possibility of getting lost, stuck, or destroyed while exploring, but what little risks there were have been continually eroded...challenge and sense of accomplishment have gone with it.
 
The thesis of this this thread is unfortunately flawed and cannot be settled either way because it rests on the false premise that Exploration Gameplay actually exists.

Perhaps it will once Beyond: Chapter Four goes live, and then we'll be able to discuss the pros and cons of jump range. But currently, there is no such measuring stick as "gameplay" when it comes to exploration. Just a placeholder that at best deserves an asterisk, and certainly not its own Pilot's Federation rank. Piracy and PVP are both hollow shells of mechanics, but they each have infinitely more Gameplay than "Exploration" if any such activity can even be said to exist in Elite. Right now I have Elite rank in Combat, Trading, and Pointing-my-ship-at-Spaceballs.

Either way, I think it still is an important conversation to have and I do hope for more "meat on the bones" for exploration gameplay. Just boosting up the jump range and adding other accessibility or quality-of-life type travel mechanics doesn't really do that other than perhaps in certain niche scenarios.

I added a TL;DR to the OP now as well for the sake of clarity.
 
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There are a wide variety of exploration play styles, and IMO only two of them have a real need for long jump ranges: the sight seer, and the Gentleman Adventurer! In the case of the sight seer, they generally don't care about the distance between whatever interesting sights they're going to, and so want to move past the "boring" journey as fast as possible. In the case of the [FONT="]Gentleman Adventurer![/FONT], their play style is all about reaching the unreachable star.

Personally, my exploration style is a combination of 4X
(eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) and survivalist. My general purpose for exploring is finding new Earthlike worlds for the Empire, upon which could be placed another beacon of the light of freedom, civilization, and prosperity. Don't really need a long jump range for that, because there are still plenty of Earthlikes, many of them undiscovered, within 500 LY of Sol. Unfortunately, despite material gathering, exploration in Elite: Dangerous doesn't really scratch my survivalist itch.

Funny you should mention that. I play the game as a survivalist as well, and in that respect, it could be argued that I already won the game back in 3301. It kind of reminds me of Minecraft in a way where you can sort of win once you get a bed and can just sleep through the nights, basically only losing if you make a mistake somewhere. It's kind of like that in Elite: Dangerous once you get a decently kitted out Cobra Mk. III, the PVP meta not withstanding. After that, Minecraft has the grind to get maxed out enchanted diamond gear and Elite: Dangerous has ship meta builds and top tier Engineer mods.

Anyway, just kind of a funny observation. I still enjoy both games for both similar and different reasons.

...

As for being a "gentleman adventurer," it could be argued that I definitely do that as well, visiting or trying to visit all the known real nebulae in the game that I can reach in my Vulture.

While nice in it's own way, it is fairly anticlimactic. Take a pic, check out a few things, then on to the next. You have to kind of enjoy the treasure hunt of sorts in between for unique or interesting looking systems. I've come across more ELWs than I've bothered keeping track of, other than some, but it's still nice spotting them now and then.

I started out by making some comparisons between the real nebulae in the galaxy and those in the game, but found their implementation somewhat disheartening and superficial. I don't dwell on it much though and prefer to enjoy the game for what it does have to offer. And to be fair, it looks like some of the visuals for some of the nebulae have been updated a bit over time.

As weird as it may sound to some, I enjoy traveling the galaxy, limited as it may be regarding the game's reproduction of the real thing and various points of interest. I still find it rather compelling. Racing across the galaxy or shortening the trip does take away something from the experience. Trust me, racing across the galaxy in a Vulture isn't something I'd generally recommend doing. It's kind of nice to do once or twice though just for the experience.
 
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But it doesn't reduce a core profession in the game to nothing.

You can have a jump range of 1000LY - there are still 400,000,000,000 star systems to actually be in and to explore. A ship with a 1000LY jump range can still only be in one of those star systems at any one time.

And as stated elsewhere - currently, exploration in this game consists of being in a star system, surveying it, then... nothing much else, really. So given all that, I'm puzzled as to why jump range is a thing which is being focused on and a thread created for it.

Surely it would be better to focus on What Is There To Do whilst your ship is in one of these 400,000,000,000 star systems? Because for me anyway, merely just surveying and perhaps driving on the surface of the odd planet or moon has worn a bit thin.

Yup, and that answers your question - that's why jump range is so important, because since there's nothing to do along the way, it better be as short as possible.
 
i've thought I've seen all the complaints in the game but this one is exceedingly rank.

nothing prevents you as a player from making a ship with a limited jump range. nothing prevents me from maxing out jump range. nothing keeps either of us from exploring.

I ran across an ELW while jonking to a certain area. I stopped and actually explored the area for more ELW's and found 2 more.

this whole discussion and others about the subject is just OP trying to impose their opinion on others.
 
i've thought I've seen all the complaints in the game but this one is exceedingly rank.

nothing prevents you as a player from making a ship with a limited jump range. nothing prevents me from maxing out jump range. nothing keeps either of us from exploring.

I ran across an ELW while jonking to a certain area. I stopped and actually explored the area for more ELW's and found 2 more.

this whole discussion and others about the subject is just OP trying to impose their opinion on others.

Ha ha. OK. Not sure you read the OP, but if you say so... :D

Maybe I should have put the TL;DR at the beginning of the post instead of at the end for some of you. Oh well.
 
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The most fun I had exploring was pre-Engineers, when I took a Clipper out to check out some nebulae on the fringes of the galactic arms.

Having to try to chart a path to get where I wanted was awesome. The last nebula I wanted to visit, I ended up being unable to find a way to get there. I ended up having to turn around and head home just 100ly away from my ultimate goal.

This is obviously some strange usage of the word "awesome" that I wasn’t previously aware of.
 
I haven't read this whole thread so forgive me if I'm treading old ground.

I get the sentiment of the OP, but a small jump range is somewhat of a hindrance to travelling to the place you want to explore. Obviously it most benefits those who are trying to get somewhere a long way out, be at a nebula, Sag A, Beagle Point, Colonia or whatever...a small jump range is going to drive you nuts getting there...but that's travelling not exploring.

For exploring, even if you're travelling 1,500Ly outside the Bubble to find some undiscovered turf, a stock FSD is going to take you a lot of jumps to get there...with an Asp rocking 50Ly you can get there in half an hour or so...then, if you want to explore a tight-knit region, it's easy enough to put your route finder in economical mode and take your time.

For exploring there's no benefit to a large jump range. For travelling there obviously is.
 
In the real world, sure.
In the game world, power creep is frequently a detriment.

In this case, we had a galaxy with a defined structure of spiral arms with sparser gaps in between that had a real impact on navigation and generated fair amount of discussion and interest - path finding and such.

Now, we effectively have an amorphous blob that thins out at the edge.
The game setting is a little poorer for it.

Bigger isn't always better.

nail on head.
:(
 
This is obviously some strange usage of the word "awesome" that I wasn’t previously aware of.

I tend to agree with their use of the word here. YMMV though, of course.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/271103-Navigating-the-Crab-Nebula-Labyrinth

In these sort of scenarios, jump range is more relevant, but this sort of gameplay is more limited and shrinking away from the game as a whole as the game and we as players progress within it, unfortunately. That wouldn't really be so much of an issue if there were more to exploration in the game. That's understandably somewhat a point of contention.
 
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Some people have a goal of reaching all three elite titles in a Sidewinder. Imagine if they forced the game developers to only allow players to use Sidewinders until the got all three elite titles.

If you like limits, set them for yourself. Don't force it on others.
 
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