News Chapter Four - Exploration Reveal

[VR] Deggial

[VR] Deggial
Muetdhiver said:
Rofl. Genar is very much an explorer. An experienced one with that.

His concern is valid : it is going to be very time consuming and repetitive. Scanning for ice planets around M stars will get old fast IMO.

A fast overview of the system mass distribution could be a compromise.

Don't assume that all explorers are into compulsive scanning.

I still think the changes are positive, but getting a quick mapping of the system with a bunch of cues to help decide : worth investigating Y/N would be nice.
Click to expand...

If I understood this correctly, the "planet issue" will be covered by the different signatures each planet type creates. An experienced explorer will be able to learn, which signature represents for example ice planets and be able to avoid those "boring" systems just as well as before.
(Really, they just replace a "white ball" with a certain curve. Visually different, but fundamentally the same!)

What I suggested some pages above, though, was a "post-honk notification" whether or not an interesting anomaly is present somewhere in the system. Only with such a notification, an educated guess is possible, whether or not to start a complete system survey (if not just for the planet's themselves, of course).
 
Last edited:

Dbrn47

Dbrn47
WR3ND said:
Why is that? I was thinking something along these lines might do well enough, assuming I can ever manage the Engineer meta grind, which is doubtful. https://coriolis.io/outfit/vulture?...Rf6930DqkuIKVcCAAA=&bn=The Ronin 03D-DW Prime

Looks like I might be able to free up some extra space by getting rid of my DSS now though, since it won't be doing me much good without ammo. :)
Click to expand...

My mistake, you went beam laser. I mean, if they decide to go with readily available materials, it shouldn't be an issue for people that land on planets... for you, I guess it's an issue. Not sure how you're going to deal with that without changing. [where is it] I made the additional mistake of assuming you had an SRV. Definitely a unique explorer.
 

Sylveria

Sylveria
CMDR Dahak said:
On a side note... please, please please please, could we have the opportunity to control this new UI, and the galaxy map, with Touch controls in VR? Maybe as a long-term goal?
Click to expand...

VR control is something else I'm quite interested in, too- navigating the Galaxy map with HOTAS is horrid ATM, IMO.

Thank the Goddess I have WMR and can flip up the visor so I can use the k/m in the interim but I certainly feel pity for those who cannot do this with a standard HMD.
 

c00ky1970

c00ky1970
This sounds great!

I thin the reliance on ADS, looking at ships display of planet and or the planet song is a silly way to determine what the planet is. Having based around a scanning technique adds a level of skill that all players can develops over time.

The complaints about repetitiveness is just silly, currently you jump honk and then spend minutes crawling towards a destination awaiting the scanner to kick in, then rinse and repeat for the ELW, WWW or all planets in the systems depending on your level of completeness. Using something like scan output is a great way to make it feel more like Spock staring down a periscope filled with blue light @ndbeing able to utter those words “I’ m picking something up captain”.

Some explorers have been conditioned with the very basic exploration tools for so long that when something new and exciting comes along they just complain about it’s not as good as the old days.

Piffle to you good sirs, short shrift has been given!

Looking forward to sneak peaks and Beta(s) soon(Tm)
 

Muetdhiver

Muetdhiver
Sylveria said:
I'm under the impression that the initial scan results give this... you get basic info.

Of course then, you never know what you'll find until you have a closer look, after all.

That's sort of the point here with the scanning changes, IMO.
Click to expand...

My question is : does the initial honk allow to differentiate between a system filled with icy planets and one having a possible earth like ?

At the moment I don't think so.
 

Jaguar

Jaguar
Exploration sounds promising. I do feel that I’m not really going to be able to feedback on this properly without giving it a go though. Much appreciated that we don’t need to pop back 17k ly to refit new modules. Are there any particular advantages to using an explorer class ship that you are planning?

USS Spawning changes are much appreciated. Anything that prevents the slow supercruise waiting for RNG. Would new USSs spawn while you are in the system, or only each time you enter? I wonder if we’ll clear a system and end up system flipping to generate new USSs...
 

Sylveria

Sylveria
Muetdhiver said:
My question is : does the initial honk allow to differentiate between a system filled with icy planets and one having a possible earth like ?

At the moment I don't think so.
Click to expand...

As in, currently it gives you a visual representation of each planetary body (a picture) so then you can determine whether or not you want to just skip over Icy bodies to get credits for scanning only ELW and so forth, and you're worried now that you'll actually have to visit each one to determine viability?
 

Allitnil

Allitnil
To be frank, I would be amazed if anyone who matters actually reads this - if you want informed feedback then a 50+ page thread is the absolute wrong approach...

Whatever changes you come up with should not have a negative impact on those who currently enjoy the game despite - or even because of! - the existing place holder mechanics. Anyone who has already been to several thousands of systems has very little expectation that the next one is of any real interest. We want to be able to see, as quickly as possible, whether it has something different. If you force us to play a pointless mini-game to get this info then we'll most likely not bother. And if we play ED to explore then the net result is that we'll simply stop playing.

I've been to over 166,000 systems and travelled over 7 million LY. If you value someone who has only been to a few hundred systems over me then by all means, do so. That's your right. But don't pretend that the latter will still be exploring for long whatever you do. We either have the call of the wild or we do not. If you want to appeal to those of us who do, then engage with us to enhance the mechanics. OTOH if you just want quick wins for those who don't care about the long term then just plough ahead. Sure you may make exploring more attractive for a while but no one who currently is put off by the current jump+honk mechanics will be there for long with a jump+mini-game alternative.
 

Dbrn47

Dbrn47
Muetdhiver said:
My question is : does the initial honk allow to differentiate between a system filled with icy planets and one having a possible earth like ?

At the moment I don't think so.
Click to expand...

It seems that the initial 'honk' puts you into electromagnetic field scanning mode and then you find the planets by interpreting the signals. Essentially you get nothing until you interpret a signal and spot the source. Of course, as you interpret the signals you can catalogue their characteristics which then allow you to know these things going forward.
 

CMDR BOSLEY

C
With the new change to USS does this mean a discovery scanner and detailed surface scanner will be required for missions like assassinations, planetary scan jobs, salvage missions and other mission that required finding signal sources? Wondering how this will effecy my ship builds.
 

Dbrn47

Dbrn47
CMDR BOSLEY said:
With the new change to USS does this mean a discovery scanner and detailed surface scanner will be required for missions like assassinations, planetary scan jobs, salvage missions and other mission that required finding signal sources? Wondering how this will effecy my ship builds.
Click to expand...

No. Nav beacons will be for that, as they are now.
 

Enderby

E
Also, please can you add an option to show on the 'wind-screen', as targetable elements (like bodies within the system but maybe with a different colour outline/icon), other systems that lay within our jump range?

So that we can target and jump like that.
 

Flimley

Flimley
Thinking more about this. I can’t help feeling that the augmented view (aggregated display) may feel a bit disembodied? Particularly in VR

flimley.
 

Ninjahat

Ninjahat
Genar-Hofoen said:
Okay you've actually made body discovery and exploration much worse - this is exactly what I tried to tell everyone in a few previous threads...

What you've done here looks great and probably is great.

Until you have to do this 10's, 100's, 1000's of times.

The good thing about the ADS honk is that it gives you a display of system bodies immediately. From that you could decide which bodies to go and do things with - surface scan them, fly down to their surface, etc.

Body discovery is currently quick. This new system is going to make it very slow.

This might make a few explorer-types happy. It does not make me happy, and for the reason I stated above - once the novelty value of that 'cool stuff' above has been done a few times, the time it takes to merely discover all bodies in a system is going to start grating. Again, please, picture doing this 10's, 100's 1000's of times - this is very quickly going to end up not being a fun activity.
Click to expand...

THIS!

Us HARDCORE explorers travel immensely vast distances to get to exciting stars and systems.
DURING this travel we DO investigate EVERY system to see if any water world, Earth-like, ammonia world, galactic records etc. are hiding in the system.
Investigating this in every system on a 130.000 Ly leg - even if you have an Anaconda capable of jumping 70+ Ly - is hard work and A LOT OF TIME is used on it as the game is already with the one ADS honk.

By implementing what you are suggesting - that you have to discover each celestial object in a system individually and not let them be revealed by the initial ADS honk - will TEAR US hardcore explorers APART.
It would take AGES to finish our enormous trips through the entire galaxy when we want to see what is in every system we jump through.

PLEASE - find a solution that will ALSO see to it that us hardcore explorers can do it just as fast as it is now in the game.
 
Last edited:

[VR] Deggial

[VR] Deggial
Dbrn47 said:
... Essentially you get nothing until you interpret a signal ...
Click to expand...

Which isn't fundamentally different to what we do now.
A "white ball" representing a icy body is actually nothing else but a certain kind of "signal", too.

Admittedly, a curve is harder to read than a simple icon. But the pure information content is basically the same.
 

Muetdhiver

Muetdhiver
Sylveria said:
As in, currently it gives you a visual representation of each planetary body (a picture) so then you can determine whether or not you want to just skip over Icy bodies to get credits for scanning only ELW and so forth, and you're worried now that you'll actually have to visit each one to determine viability?
Click to expand...

At the moment you can determine the planet type by sound on the system map ^^

Re-Reading Adam post in details : things look indeed reasonable and good in the sense that skill will be involved into reading the honk provided signatures.

I look forward to test this in Beta ^^

Very much so.

Hands on experience is the only way to be sure about this kind of stuff.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom