News Chapter Four - Exploration Reveal

[Raith]

Hmm...

I like this.

But, its going to drive my OCD nuts when it comes to scanning every body in a System.

Right now, when we honk/scan a system at the very least we know the upper limit of the number of objects to be found/discovered/scanned. So with that in mind please make sure their is some way for us to know when we have found everything? From the sounds of the initial description this EM Spectrograph (Which is a nice nod to how some Scientific techniques are used to detect planets out of a stars wobble) will have lots of additional noise in it due to USS's and POI's, so having an indicator that you have found all a systems planets will be less frustrating than having to manually reduce all the noise from everything to zero.

Additionally, I'd like you to consider that once a system has been scanned and an objects data sold back at a station, that any further explorers that enter a system should after a simple honk see everything previously explored/tagged. This has 2 advantages, first in the bubble that means less time for people just wanting to travel from A to B. And second when out in the black you aren't doubling up on work already accomplished, instead you are just filling in whatever "blanks" where left from previous explorers. This also makes the idea that ICS is a central unified encyclopaedia of stellar information more obvious.

As for those who are worried about not being able to identify Water Worlds and ELW at a glance like you can with a populated system map. Please make the EM Waveforms we see clearly differentiated so that when a player spots a particular "spike", preferably at a glance they can say with some certainty "Rocky" or "ELW" like how we currently can make a good guesstimate with the SRV scanner and listening to the noise... just more clearly delineated. After all it sounds like the main crux of what this system is about is tracking down the position of an object in space, not in the difficulty of identifying what said object is meant to be.

- Raith

p.s. btw it might be going overboard to have all the moons of a Gas Giant need to be individually scanned, can we make it so if we physically travel to a sub-system object that a close pass by the ship can passively detect its satellites?

 

[Six6VI]

Question:

Will exploration rank be factored in to augment the "skill" of the CMDR? Or, will an Elite explorer receive any (hard earned) benefits to scanning time, energy signature size, focus, clarity or other time saving or ease of use functionality while in the new interface over an Aimless pilot and how would this apply in multicrew?

Will there be a greater margin of error indicated in the HUD if it's able to show a recommended trajectory and indicate an anticipated percentage of cover before firing a probe? So, I might be able to use the optimal "blue zone" (like the throttle) to help me aim a probe at a small moon and fine tune for 100% coverage, while a gas giant might only provide up to 50% with the first probe and the rest with a well aimed follow up?

 

[Gravity Drive]

Yeah I get it game and there will always be some grind and some loop that's the nature of games and even real life, BUT at least make your technology base and the like CONSISTENT, hell if Colonia can talk with the Sphere then exploration pilots should be able to send basic data back and get some immediate reward for the time and effort their sinking into things.. not run the risk of constantly oh great i got blown up there goes 8 months of work.

OR if you are going to continue with the current Explorers aren't able to get a reward with out coming back, and have to sink all this time in add the original game play mechanics that you all put up back in pre-alpha and the like where a destroyed vessel would DROP its black box and any one could then find and salvage that black box and get all the data from it.

right now this is like a step in the right direction but also a step int he wrong one because while adding new exploration mechanics it really seems like it's 'hey heres more grind (and more shoot things most likely? seems that's how we all interact with everything right), and oh yeah if.. IF you manage to get back we will reward you, while eveyr other game play loop in the game basically gets a reward at least every few hours because hey they are near stations'.

Disagree. Exploration needs risk for how relatively safe the activity itself is. It's also a rush when you're going back to sell data.

I don't want hand holdy "can't fail" type gameplay where I have no risk of losing my progress if I screw up, and I would wager a large portion of the community feels the same way.

 

[WR3ND]

So basically I will no longer be able to jump into a system, fly in supercruise to a cool looking planet, then fly to one of its moons and land on it without these new mini-games getting in the way of that?

I mean, what happens if I just look with my eyes and see a planet and fly to it? Will I "know" it's there?

[???]

 

[AdagioKonrinzai]

THIS ISN'T DEPTH! ...This just makes the VERY shallow puddle BIGGER, NOT deeper! More words in the book doen't make it a better book! It just makes it a longer book to read, and THEN realise you've wasted even MORE TIME!

Preach it brother! AMEN. Glory Alleluia!

 

[AdagioKonrinzai]

THIS ISN'T DEPTH! ...This just makes the VERY shallow puddle BIGGER, NOT deeper! More words in the book doen't make it a better book! It just makes it a longer book to read, and THEN realise you've wasted even MORE TIME!

Preach it brother! AMEN. Glory Alleluia!

 

[Faybs]

Wow, this actually looks pretty good. Kudos!

Question: would it be possible to revisit the decision that heatsinks require manufactured materials to synth?

 

[metatheurgist]

Sounds good!

Will CZs finally show which factions are in the conflict or do we still have to drop in and eyeball the ships?

 

[Gravity Drive]

Mentioned on another thread. I was thinking, aside from just having persistent POIs show up in a scan, it would at least be interesting to have natural wonders pointed out in a system scan. For example, highest and lowest elevations on a planet, for those looking to explore extremes. Regions with highest concentration of rare metals/minerals for SRV rock hunters.

FDev, see this post.

We need a way to find information like highest elevation on a planet and other interesting topographical tidbits.

 

[Hydrino]

As the heat mechanics are a big part of ED, will Infrared radiation detection be included in the sensor package? Should it be too difficult to locate a hot magma world or hot gas giant? I would think these would be fairly bright against the ambient background temp. There are many great infrared images of planets and other objects far away in space that are easily found on the internet.

USS changes sound good but I might miss a bit of the RNG aspect. Also, we could still use a coordinate system for rescue missions or at least allow USS rescue beacons that make it super easy to spot these USS- a ship broadcasting for rescue should be one of the easiest (artificial) objects to find in a system.

Detailed surface scanner change sounds OK, but we still should have a couple of abilities in the far future like radar mapping, a universal coordinate system and the ability to spot artificial energy sources quite easily on the surfaces of cold, airless worlds (as long as not shielded. See infra-red sensor comments above).

I guess more generally I could ask the Infra-red question by asking; does the "Energy Distribution" bar across the bottom use this idea as going from far infra-red to ultra-violet? Weather patterns are even imaged in infra-red by satellites over Earth, near-Earth asteroids, etc. Also, once planets with atmospheres and massive amounts of life on them come into the game (assuming FD follows through on repeated comments about future major developments), how will the DSS identify life forms- yes they are rare on airless worlds and so deserve calling out, but on an Earth-like?

DSS sample screen has a "zoom", can we use this more generally in the game as an in-ship camera zoom? That would be cool and we should have that on a 3300's spaceship.

DSS/ System Bodies Discovered is a strange give-away. How is this justified? Is it from some gravitational computations (which would then mean we should be able to plot likely positions of the largest bodies in the system automagically)?

First Mapped by - Great.

Multi-crew - great, glad the feature isn't forgotten.

Scan Range bar on the right of the example WIP screen - what is this? Is it the range at which something is detected or the range of the scanner in some arbitrary unit? Does this relate to the central scanner disk "zoom" in and out function?

 

[Dbrn47]

So basically I will no longer be able to jump into a system, fly in supercruise to a cool looking planet, then fly to one of its moons and land on it without these new mini-games getting in the way of that?

I mean, what happens if I just look with my eyes and see a planet and fly to it? Will I "know" it's there?

[???]

I imagine the closer you are to a body the easier it will be to 'win the minigame' to 'discover' that planet since you won't be facing a bunch of signals as you would be on first entry. Perhaps they could even make it so being within a certain distance to a body automatically discovers it for you to a certain extent and then probing it reveals everything, much like the scanners work now. Idk, there's ways man, that's what the feedback and beta is for.

 

[Hydrino]

So basically I will no longer be able to jump into a system, fly in supercruise to a cool looking planet, then fly to one of its moons and land on it without these new mini-games getting in the way of that?

I mean, what happens if I just look with my eyes and see a planet and fly to it? Will I "know" it's there?

[???]

Obviously.
Why do folks imagine super mega changes in game that FDev have not described at all.
I don't see anything in the OP that says we can't fly down to planets just like we do today?

 

[okfoxtrot]

This sounds like a great improvement. I hope you can integrate the visual functionality of the scanner into the cockpit as much as possible so that we don't feel like we're entering a menu. It would be awesome to really feel as if we are zooming in on a planet or watching the surface from an uploaded stream of data. Thanks! o7

 

[Keanson]

Hello Commanders!

We're going to be shaking the format up slightly for the final main topic of discussion surrounding some of the major features of Chapter Four of Beyond. We're soon going to be revealing more details about the next update, so for this post, we'd like you to share all of your questions and comments in reply to this thread, and we'll try to respond to as many as we can!

In this post we’ll be presenting just some of the improvements coming to exploration in the next update. There's a number of benefits that we are aiming to bring in with this exploration overhaul which we've listed out below, with more detailed explanation underneath.

Benefits of Exploration Improvements

• Make exploration more involved: By introducing a process we aim to make exploration feel more meaningful, making the results more satisfying and rewarding.
• Replace flying time with gameplay: We want to reduce the amount of time you have to spend flying to a planet just to discover it. The only time we want you to fly to a planet is because you want to visit it as there’s something there you want to see or do. Ultimately that will make exploring planetary bodies and getting first discoveries in a system quicker and more engaging at the same time.
• Remove Random USS Spawning: You will now be able to use your skill to locate signal sources rather than rely on luck. you will have the ability to identify a USS from anywhere in the system and then explore and discover these locations.
• Reduce the time to find planet surface locations: You will now be able to employ game play to make searching out interesting surface locations/POIs quicker and more interesting rather than flying across the planet in low orbit.
• Improve multiplayer exploration: With both of the module upgrades we are making sure that wings and multi-crew are supported.
• Holistic System:The improvements to exploration mechanics tie together not just new discoveries, but mining, missions and signal source location in one package.
• All new "First mapped": You'll be able to add a first mapped across any planet within the galaxy, including within the bubble. Giving all players that have joined the game since it's launch even more opportunity to make their mark on the galaxy.

Check out the full details below.

The Discovery Scanner

Because explorers ply their trade far from civilized space, we’ve decided to not add new module requirements. Instead, we’re improving the discovery scanner and detailed surface scanner so Commanders can jump right in as soon as the update is released, without having to spend time traveling back to a port to purchase new gear.

When you activate the discovery scanner you will now be taken to an all-new scanning interface and view. In this augmented camera view you are able to interrogate the system using new functionality of the scanner.

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The process still starts with the “honk” (system scan), though its usage is now the start of a more engaging process (if all you did before was scan for some credits, don't worry, the scan still awards credits.)

The system scan now returns an aggregated display of how energetic the electromagnetic emissions are in the system. Signals are sorted on a low to high scale by their apparent energy. For example, emissions from rocky clusters will appear at the lower end of the scale, hot gas giants at the upper range. This information requires some interpretation as signals can overlap.

You are able to tune the focus of your sensors to a particular point on the scale, making emissions from objects at this range much clearer, at the cost of filtering out signals returned from bodies not emitting at this range.

As you move the view around, you are aiming your discovery scanner sensors. To aid you, the discovery scanner view also features a repeating sweep of gravitational disturbance detected in the system. You can use this sweep to narrow your search for stellar bodies, as well as start your search around the star's orbital plane, which is revealed by the initial system scan.

Emissions that come close enough to your view’s focus are represented by signature patterns around a central reticule. If you are tuned to the correct point on the energy scale the signal will show as a symmetrical pattern clearly showing the direction towards the origin of the signal, allowing you to locate it. The further away your energy tuning, the more distorted and asymmetrical the pattern becomes, hiding the precise direction and location.

Once you have a candidate origin, you can use the scanner to reconstruct a massively zoomed in view. If you aimed precisely enough, you will discover the stellar body. If there are a number of stellar bodies in relative close proximity to your focus, you may need to repeat the process to isolate individual signals.

​

As you locate and identify stellar bodies their emissions are filtered out, instead becoming markers on the energy range, making it easier to find the remaining bodies. It's at this point in that you will gain the “first discovered” tag, rather than having to physically visit the planet (you still need to sell the data at a port to gain the tag). All current first discovered tags will remain.

Importantly, when you uncover a planet using the discovery scanner, as well as being informed of the resources available on it, the presence of unusual locations, such as Guardian sites, will also be revealed. However, their precise location won’t be shown until you have mapped the planet with the detailed surface scanner.


Unidentified Signal Sources

Along with the Exploration update, we are improving the way that USSs work. USSs will now spawn throughout the entire system when you first enter it. This enables you to use the new exploration tools to find USSs throughout the system, not just in the area around you. You can still interrogate nav beacons to find the locations.

Whilst USSs do still have a decay time, the timers have been increased to allow you time to find and fly to the ones you are interested in. The decay time is also now displayed when targeted. Signal sources still obey rules determining where they can appear within a system, and mission critical signal sources will still be highlighted to differentiate themselves once located.


The Detailed Surface Scanner

Again, this module will not be replaced. Instead, the detailed surface scanner gains the ability to launch micro sensor probes in supercruise. You will use these probes to “map” a planet’s surface and locate resource hotspots in its rings.

These flight-assisted probes are launched via a new aiming interface when activating the detailed surface scanner. The probes will arc towards a planet’s surface and when close enough will “display” sensor coverage over a large area. Once enough of the surface has coverage, the probes will collate and report their findings. To map rings around a planet you need to hit each ring with a single probe.

To allow for skilled play you can aim probes away from the planet, allowing them to arc around it, potentially letting you hit the surface on far side of the planet. If you aim too far away, the probe will fly right past and miss, but by using mass and size information displayed on the HUD you will be able to lob probes and get full coverage without having to fly around the planet.

You will be able to synthesise micro-probes for the detailed surface scanner, but the better aim you are, the less probes you will need to get complete coverage.

When you do achieve this, any unusual locations will be revealed to your ship’s navigation systems. So no more eyeballing an entire planet to find those brain trees!


First Mapped By

We are also adding a new opportunity to get your Commander's name immortalised in the game with the new 'First Mapped By' tag. The first person to successfully map a planet to 100% and sell the resulting data at a port, will be awarded this tag. This also applies for planets that have already got a 'First Discovered' tag as well.


Multi-Crew

As part of the exploration update, we are making sure that multi-crew members can use the discovery scanner and detailed surface scanner at the same time and all discoveries are shared among crew or wing.

This allows wings or commanders in multi-crew to engage in exploration together, each earning credits and exploration rank and making the process more efficient.

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We'll be revealing more details about Beyond - Chapter Four in the coming weeks and we can't wait to show you, but in the meantime, please post your feedback regarding Exploration in this thread and we'll try to respond to as many queries as we can.

This particular thread is not an area for debate between community members – it’s fine to read what others have put, but try to ensure your posts are directed at us rather than your fellow posters.

Are ships designated as "explorers" being considered for additional exploration benefits, differentiating them somewhat from the multi-role and combat focused vessel types?

 

[Six6VI]

Question:

Can the synthesis materials required for probes be found on either planets OR mined from belt clusters and rings using the pre-3.3 mechanics (which should still exist following 3.3 according to the livestreams I've seen), such that an explorer would only need the smallest mining laser in a weapon slot that's more likely to be empty on an exploration ship instead of, or as well as an SRV bay?

Further, can this also be the case for all three different grades of FSD Injection materials and will there be three grades of probe synthesis giving a tangible advantage in performance for greater material rarity above a baseline very common for the standard reload?

Also, are we likely to see an engineering blueprint for lightweight mining lasers or SRV bays to round out the package and improve our FSD ranges?

 

[jonesskill]

I need to be honest, i can't give any opinion on the exploration changes because i really don't like to explore and i never explored, but the system looks much better.

I can, in another way give my opinion about the USS changes, cause i seach for HGE alot and the old(actual) USS system really sucks - This will be a MAJOR improvement, i just think that SENSORS can be used to generate the USS - This can give more purpose to sensors aside combat.
Something like A Sensors have more chances to "see" - spawn - more HGE, for sure, always considering the system status and population.
In theory better sensors can detect more signals because the quality of the materials used, this explain the COST and the WEIGHT - Making sensors something usefull in Exploration, USS hunting and in combat =)

 

[Mako The Grey]

Most

Just drop into a Nav beacon. It doesn't take but 30 seconds or so.

I have entered literally a thousand unexplored systems in the last 2 weeks. Only a very few (less than 20) had a Nav beacon. The new mini game will add a lot of extra time to my game with very little benefit to the type of things I do mostly

 

[Six6VI]

Question:

Will system population or state be considered when generating USS on initial scan, such that we might see very few Combat Aftermath or High Grade Emissions way out in the burbs compared to Christmas at Harrods in a high population war zone, boom or CG?

 

[Gravity Drive]

THIS ISN'T DEPTH! ...This just makes the VERY shallow puddle BIGGER, NOT deeper! More words in the book doen't make it a better book! It just makes it a longer book to read, and THEN realise you've wasted even MORE TIME!

OK THEN, what DO YOU suggest as SOMETHING THAT would add ACTUAL DEPTH?

What you fail to understand is that the framework of the game is not built to support the kind of "deep" gameplay that YOU'RE talking about! You either have to take what you can get, or go play something else. :S

Thanks! Good day, sir!

 

[Gun Star]

All the items sound great and all, but I can see on a trip to Colonia or Sag A getting a little tiresome.

Also will we have the ability to finally manually input Lat/Long Coordinates on planets?

Its the 34th century. My cracker jack Garmin I bought at Walmart has the ability to have these input