There is, however, one crucial change that doesn't hinge on mechanical balance: system layouts, body configurations.
Based on what has been said so far, we should be able to tell what types of bodies there are in a system, but not be able to tell the system layout, the configuration of the bodies, without scanning them. Right now, the ADS honk tells us the entire system layout and the specific bodies' types (via visual and audio cues). The new system would tell us the body types present in the system, not the layout - without body scanning, that is. Losing the ability to tell the system layout at a glance means losing quite a lot of information that we used to have. To solve that, I'd suggest that the initial honk would reveal at least gray globes, but I'd really rather it just worked as it does now, and the detailed information and mapping would both come from the new mechanics. But even the empty globes would be better, as you could see the layout of the system, and if something looks interesting, then you can try scanning those.
As I've said a couple of times already, I like this new system and I'm okay with the trade-off of more time spent revealing the system in exchange for potentially much less time cruising around scanning it.
That said, I'm sympathetic to the folks speaking up to say that they don't want to lose the functionality of the current ADS. After all, loss aversion is a real thing - nobody likes to lose something they already have! So I guess the question is, could Frontier make everyone happy here by leaving the ADS as it is, and putting all the new functions (basically the infinite-range, minigame-based surface scan plus probe launcher) into the DSS. Am I correctly hearing that nobody would be sad to lose the current "fly close and point at planet" surface scanning mechanic?
The result would be somewhat less coherent, because it would feel odd to have all the bodies revealed in the system map and targetable in the sky, but have to search them out again in the "electromagnetic emissions" sensor. Odd, but probably not game-breaking. Just because I can see the radio tower doesn't mean I might not have to fiddle with my radio a bit to pick up its signal clearly. Presumably if you didn't want to fiddle with the signals at all, you could have something close to the current gameplay by honking with the ADS, and then flying to an interesting planet to fire mapping probes. If you haven't already done the surface scan, that should surely result in both scanning and mapping the body. If Frontier decided to do that, I would probably recommend that the game not provide clues about the planet type (via the holograms or planet "songs") until after the surface scan, to reinforce that the ADS is just about quickly
locating bodies, not characterizing them.
On the upside, doing things that way would actually make
more ships viable for planetary exploration, because the ADS would become a purely optional luxury. A sidewinder could equip a scoop shield, SRV, and DSS in its four slots, and be able to do all the exploration tasks. It just wouldn't be able to
instantly locate all the bodies. That would neatly address the complaint I've seen here about this change taking up an extra internal slot to fully exploit the exploration mechanics.
![[VR] optimal_909](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/109/109067.jpg?1553781733){kind=avatar}
