News Chapter Four - Exploration Reveal

[Siobhan]

Ringed landables are great for shots. If they themselves orbit a ringed gg then even more special.

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

Watched the stream and iam disgusted, over 94000 detailed scans are now for nothing as we couldn have mapped them. and are now up for grabs .
another level of grinding and not the repetative grinding but grinding things you already scanned before.
All for nothing .

I've got over 500,000 L3 scans

 

[[VR] Deggial]

Since it's going to involve scanning around a 3D map to point your scanner at signal sources, I don't see how they can make it so you can fly at the same time.

But our ship does already exist in exatly the 3D “map” we are scanning, doesn’t it?
There shouldn’t be a difference between moving in a virtual map and rolling/tilting our ship - we are doing it currently when scanning, after all.

 

[PublicWifi]

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.

Would this by chance include multi-crew SRV support?

 

[Alfred J Kwak]

I've got over 500,000 L3 scans

so you know what the problem is . every thing that gave us a sense of accomplisment is now void as the honk will give the same results now
.

 

[Siobhan]

Would this by chance include multi-crew SRV support?

Not yet

 

[Brian of Ardagh]

Extension to my proposal: Player groups/squads should have the option to secure their nav beacons with a password only the group/squad knows.

You had my vote with your first suggestion but on the secure nav beacon data idea.

That said, the ability to drop a nav beacon with discovery data would be interesting in a first to discover/first to publish kind of situation. Imagine for a moment you are the first to discover, have uploaded your data to the nav beacon but haven't delivered your findings to UC. Now what? If you get destroyed and therefore your data is lost, you then make a return trip and can pickup the data from the nav beacon and then deliver it to UC. But what about another CMDR finding your data in the nav beacon or scanning the system themselves? Can they then deliver it to UC to get paid even though you are the first to discover?

 

[John Stoutbeard]

This announcement made me reinstall Elite and make waffles for my better half.

 

[akaliel]

@FDEV boiz, this update looks great but it's missing one thing.

I would give real $$$, cold hard cash, to be able to select a star to jump through via pointing at a star in my ship and selecting it instead of jumping into the gal map.

You do know that other than a few close exceptions, the star background isn't actual stars in the game right?

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

But our ship does already exist in exatly the 3D “map” we are scanning, doesn’t it?
There shouldn’t be a difference between moving in a virtual map and rolling/tilting our ship - we are doing it currently when scanning, after all.

It would be like trying to navigate around the GalMap while simultaneously steering the ship. I've only got one mouse, so how can it move the cursor and the ship at the same time?

 

[Ray "Stingray" Robertson]

Just watched the live stream. There was a question about synthesis of the probes for non-Horizon players. A possible solution might be to have raw materials drifting about inside of planetary rings, not in abundance that it would entirely replace getting materials with a mining laser from asteroids, but enough so that those non-Horizon players far away from humanity can at least, with a bit of looking around inside a planetary ring, can find enough for synthesis of probes.

This would add a bit more realism to planetary rings too, as they probably don't consist of "big" rocks alone.

 

[Siobhan]

Hm … of course no … you can negotiate/pay the player group/squad for access their nav beacons!

So just blow it up then ..

 

[[VR] Deggial]

Still a lot of people not understanding the difference between "valuable" and "interesting". Not being able to tell quickly whether a moon is a good candidate for having deep fissures in its surface or is close enough to give great views of the gas giant it's orbiting would be terrible, in my opinion.
...
And if I'd had to have scanned every body in the system before I knew it even had the POTENTIAL for a view like this - and believe me, a view like this is already like finding a piece of hay in a stack of needles - then I'd have likely never come across it.
...

Honestly, I don’t understand your concerns.

Honking alone currently doesn’t reveal surface details either.
You have to scan the planet itself.
For doing so, you have to fly close enough for your scanner to “snap in”.
This costs time - likely more time than using the new mechanic and scan the bodies from the distance!

Probes are not necessary (if I understood correctly) to learn about interesting surface details.
If this is true, you should be happy, not worried ...

 

[DGBaley]

Would it be possible to get some additional game play associated with the scientist passenger missions? As it is now, we fly these scientists hundreds or thousands of light years to "take data". But when we get there we simply scan a beacon for ten seconds and we're done. This is very anti-climactic and somewhat of a let down to be honest. It would be nice if we actually had to perform some non-trivial tasks when we arrive to help the scientist obtain the data they require. Perhaps there could even be bonuses available for performing more difficult tasks.

It would also be nice if the chances of serendipitous discoveries were improved if you have a scientist on board. This would be analogous to the way your chances of being interdicted increase if you are carrying a high-value passenger, or the side missions generated by rich tourists. Perhaps this would take the form of an occasional "mission critical message" asking you to make a quick detour to a nearby system from which the scientist has detected some interesting readings. Upon arriving at the destination system, the scientist could guide you through the use of your newly upgraded sensors to reveal the potentially interesting phenomena. (This tutorial mode can be disabled in the options if you already know how to use the scanners.)

While we're at it, can we please hire an NPC scientist as a crew member? Fighter pilots are pretty useless on long haul exploration missions. Having a scientist on your crew would generate the occasional "Huh, that's interesting." comment, followed by a similar discovery process to the one I outlined above. The NPC crew could also have an experience ranking (from Clueless, Mostly Clueless, to Knowledgeable, and Brilliant) that would affect how good they are at noticing the interesting phenomena and how quickly/effectively they can perform the needed scan and/or probe operations.

Finally, given that I've had more than one scientist passenger abandon ship in an escape pod in the middle of nowhere due to some arbitrary timer going off, perhaps it should be possible to pick up a new NPC crew member from a rescued escape pod. That would also make it possible for CMDR's already out in deep space to be able to pick up a crew member without having to schlep all the way back to the Bubble/Colonia.

 

[Kaltern]

I've got over 500,000 L3 scans

I don't see the issue... All the discovery names will still remain. The difference is that people who take the time to scan the system FAR MORE THOROUGHLY than previous commanders will quite rightly get a new, separate name credit for doing so. No one has taken anything away, it's simply adding a new level of exploration.

This is a good thing - you could go scan all 500,000 again and get double-name credit!

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

so you know what the problem is . every thing that gave us a sense of accomplisment is now void as the honk will give the same results now
.

I wouldn't say they're 'void', but all those bodies I flew 500,000 Ls to scan are going to be a lot more accessible for anyone else

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

I don't see the issue... All the discovery names will still remain. The difference is that people who take the time to scan the system FAR MORE THOROUGHLY than previous commanders will quite rightly get a new, separate name credit for doing so. No one has taken anything away, it's simply adding a new level of exploration.

This is a good thing - you could go scan all 500,000 again and get double-name credit!

Yeah, I don't see it as a big deal.

I'm much more concerned about the loss of instaHonk.

 

[[VR] Deggial]

It would be like trying to navigate around the GalMap while simultaneously steering the ship. I've only got one mouse, so how can it move the cursor and the ship at the same time?

???
The ship IS the cursor, so to speak.
How are you pointing towards planets now in order to scan them? You don’t need a mouse either. But maybe I simply don’t understand your issue with the mechanic.

 

[Ebel]

So I'll need some special super-duper probes now. No doubt there will be synthesis involved. That ought to work out well for smaller exploration ships that don't carry an SRV (not my flavor) or any other means of acquiring the mat's along the way. Frankly I don't really want to be "forced" to have to mine along the way unless I want to either. As others have said, I think the Honk and DSS should still work basically as they do now with new"added" features should one care to employ them. If folks don't want to grind the additional info then let them carry on just as they have been. What is the problem with that?

2 cents

 

[EWanderer]

Questions, that just popped up in my head:

-What about secret deep space location, such as the generation ships. Will they pop up as an Emission to search them?


-Also can we still "eyeball" a planet and gather a surface scan, without having to spend drones?

Would love to get some clarification on that