Guide / Tutorial The FSS - A pictoral guide.

[marx]

However I will say it is off topic, unless it is done with direct reference to the points made in the above, like you did when you said "I read it and I wonder if you will still say the same after 5000 jumps".

That wasn't what I said, and your quotation marks are misleading. I said it's decently detailed, and well done.
Then I wondered if many will do five thousand systems, if one such system can take this long. The guide does illustrate length very well. Now, I don't claim to know the answer - maybe they will, if there's enough stuff out there to hold peoples' interest. But longevity is a concern, is it not?

 

[ThomasWJames]

Have some rep because this is great. Thank you.

 

[drkaii]

That wasn't what I said, and your quotation marks are misleading. I said it's decently detailed, and well done.
Then I wondered if many will do five thousand systems, if one such system can take this long. The guide does illustrate length very well. Now, I don't claim to know the answer - maybe they will, if there's enough stuff out there to hold peoples' interest. But longevity is a concern, is it not?

Oh man, I am so sorry, I read what I wrote and that is NOT what I meant to write. I meant to write that you were NOT off topic and your comment was a perfectly reasonable one. And yes, my short summary of what you said was misleading, I am sorry.

 

[Goobertech]

Love it! Obviously this new system is not for everyone but I share in your love of it. I also feel like I am searching, exploring and discovering a system and am finding it very rewarding. I look forward to many more interesting discoveries this community is going to find now that we can find, navigate to and investigate with precision.

 

[Darkfyre99]

But your not exploring now , you just sit there and play the Nintendo game and say " yay I am exploring " lol , The old system you honked ... looked at map see if anything interesting to visit or just leave for the next system , this is too long to find out you need to move on. each system just got a whole lot longer to do and has become boring , there's no ` feel ` of exploring ,just a ` feel ` of sitting at a desk using a scanner....sad face

I know it may sound bizarre, but when I play games, I like to actually play games. One of the main reasons why I like the FSS is that each system is a mini-mystery to solve, with the goal of finding interesting things with as little information as possible.​ Those little moments of discovery, from spotting an eclipse candidate from a distance, to realizing that the shape of a gas giant's orbit means its part of a binary, is what I've been needing from exploration.

This morning, I had the pleasure of just sitting down and exploring for a while. Before I knew it, not only had nearly four hours passed, but I had traveled nearly 2000 light years and explored 43 systems along the way. Along the way, I checked out two eclipse candidates, probed four water worlds, visited many geological sites to gather samples, and most importantly had fun doing it. Heck, one system I discovered had so many worlds with geological sites, I figured if I'd probed that much of the system already, I might as well go for the 100% completion bonus.

 

[Sysmon]

I know it may sound bizarre, but when I play games, I like to actually play games. One of the main reasons why I like the FSS is that each system is a mini-mystery to solve, with the goal of finding interesting things with as little information as possible.​ Those little moments of discovery, from spotting an eclipse candidate from a distance, to realizing that the shape of a gas giant's orbit means its part of a binary, is what I've been needing from exploration.

This morning, I had the pleasure of just sitting down and exploring for a while. Before I knew it, not only had nearly four hours passed, but I had traveled nearly 2000 light years and explored 43 systems along the way. Along the way, I checked out two eclipse candidates, probed four water worlds, visited many geological sites to gather samples, and most importantly had fun doing it. Heck, one system I discovered had so many worlds with geological sites, I figured if I'd probed that much of the system already, I might as well go for the 100% completion bonus.

I find the new system very engaging as well. The last few days I have been pottering around on Economic route planning mode within the bubble and exploring. Not to tag known systems, don't really care about that. But to see what's there. Which is what exploration is all about!

Think about it: Today we still haven't fully explored the earth. So why would we have explored everything in the solar system neighbourhood in the next 1000 years?

S

 

[disorganise]

How did you figure an icy has rings from the initial waveform?

Fwiw, my method is to roughly follow the orbit lines to the blobs and then "randomly" wiggle the tuner and zoom.

Any tips for finding the last one or two bodies?
Unfortunately I don't find the FSS particularly satisfying (hoping it'll grow on me) so I give it maybe 60 secs of diagonal scrolling before exiting and jumping to next system.

 

[Darkfyre99]

How did you figure an icy has rings from the initial waveform?

Look at the arrow display over the waveform tuner. When arrows are close together (^^^) a body doesn't have rings. If the arrows are spread out (^ ^ ^) it means a body has rings. It won't tell you the type of rings until you resolve the body, but it tell you whether there are rings at all.

Cmdr Qohen Leth has created a very nice guide to the arrows that makes analysing what you're seeing on the FSS a lot easier:

Spoiler

Fwiw, my method is to roughly follow the orbit lines to the blobs and then "randomly" wiggle the tuner and zoom.

Any tips for finding the last one or two bodies?
Unfortunately I don't find the FSS particularly satisfying (hoping it'll grow on me) so I give it maybe 60 secs of diagonal scrolling before exiting and jumping to next system.

The orbital plane of the system shows the mean of the orbits of within the system. In a system with little eccentric bodies, the orbit lines of the bodies will pretty much align with the orbital plane. If you start seeing orbit lines that don't align with the orbital plane of a system, then you know that there's at least one eccentric body present. When I go looking for one, I look on the side of the orbital plane opposite of the rest orbit lines. I can find them in VR where the blue blobs are missing (fix this, Frontier!), but if you're playing on a monitor, it should be easier.

 

[SpaceMadness]

Look at the arrow display over the waveform tuner. When arrows are close together (^^^) a body doesn't have rings. If the arrows are spread out (^ ^ ^) it means a body has rings. It won't tell you the type of rings until you resolve the body, but it tell you whether there are rings at all.

Cmdr Qohen Leth has created a very nice guide to the chevrons that makes analysiing what you're seeing on the FSS a lot easier:




The orbital plane of the system shows the mean of the orbits of within the system. In a system with little eccentric bodies, the orbit lines of the bodies will pretty much align with the orbital plane. If you start seeing orbit lines that don't align with the orbital plane of a system, then you know that there's at least one eccentric body present. When I go looking for one, I look on the side of the orbital plane opposite of the rest orbit lines. I can find them in VR where the blue blobs are missing (fix this, Frontier!), but if you're playing on a monitor, it should be easier.

I like how all the top valued planets appear on the diagram above the [AL ] section of the FILTERED SPECTRAL ANALYSIS text on the bar. That might become the new Explorers slogan along with OBAFGKM. Go [AL ] or it's not worth it? That sounds bad [woah]

 

[fieval]

Thanks for this Darkfyre99 !

Another little bit of the confusion cleared up.

And that Qohen Leth link is Gold !!

I am still struggling.... but getting there (slowly !)

 

[SpocksOddSocks]

As I was using the FSS for the first time, I couldn't help but continually thinking to myself that this would be an activity a Cmdr could assign to a crew member, either NPC or human. The requirement to be at minimum accelleration kept slapping me up side the head each time I thought that.

Yeah, if it wasn't for the need to throttle down, I think it'd be a great use for multicrew , as it is, it seems pointless even though it can be done.

 

[disorganise]

Look at the arrow display over the waveform tuner. When arrows are close together (^^^) a body doesn't have rings. If the arrows are spread out (^ ^ ^) it means a body has rings. It won't tell you the type of rings until you resolve the body, but it tell you whether there are rings at all.

Aahh. OK. I thought you were getting it "at a glance" somehow. But you're actually doing a quick "run" through the tuning scale and observing the arrows, correct? (without pointing at a blob yet I mean). Assuming that's what you mean, I'll give it a go instead of first finding a blob and then twiddling.

We need EDD to come to the party and embed a mini version of Qohen's summary as an overlay . (assuming entering and exiting FSS is detectable)

The orbital plane of the system shows the mean of the orbits of within the system. In a system with little eccentric bodies, the orbit lines of the bodies will pretty much align with the orbital plane. If you start seeing orbit lines that don't align with the orbital plane of a system, then you know that there's at least one eccentric body present. When I go looking for one, I look on the side of the orbital plane opposite of the rest orbit lines. I can find them in VR where the blue blobs are missing (fix this, Frontier!), but if you're playing on a monitor, it should be easier.

OK, so no "trick". Wish I could turn off the pulsating background which really doesn't help. Once I've done two 360s at about the orbital plane, I tend to give up.

Two things would help (me at least) :
Not having to throttle zero so I can slowly move away from the star. This helps avoid the "blocked" bodies as well as being ready to pump that drive on exiting FSS.... The number of times I've cooked cos I didn't account for my proximity.
Access to system map from within FSS. If I can see the system is starting to look intriguing in some fashion, I might be more willing to find the elusive bodies. As it is now, I exit FSS disheartened and just wanna leave.

I'd also like to tone down (or switch off entirely) the FSS background animation. I get it's there to make it more "where's wally" but it doesn't play nice with my eyes.

 

[ExoForce]

Not having to throttle zero so I can slowly move away from the star. This helps avoid the "blocked" bodies as well as being ready to pump that drive on exiting FSS.... The number of times I've cooked cos I didn't account for my proximity.

In Beta, FSS was working for me at cca 55 m/s. Noticed after cooking myself few times. Havent checked after the upgrade.

 

[Darkfyre99]

Aahh. OK. I thought you were getting it "at a glance" somehow. But you're actually doing a quick "run" through the tuning scale and observing the arrows, correct? (without pointing at a blob yet I mean). Assuming that's what you mean, I'll give it a go instead of first finding a blob and then twiddling.

Correct. First thing I do when entering the FSS is give the Tuner a quick swipe, just to see if there's any ringed variants of bodies in the system. If I see that there's both ringed and not-ringed Class I gas giants here somewhere, for example, I not only know to keep an eye out for a minimum of two of them on my first pass, but I've also increased my mental count for the number of planetary bodies in the system as well.

We need EDD to come to the party and embed a mini version of Qohen's summary as an overlay . (assuming entering and exiting FSS is detectable)

OK, so no "trick". Wish I could turn off the pulsating background which really doesn't help. Once I've done two 360s at about the orbital plane, I tend to give up.

I agree on the pulsating background, especially for those poor souls for whom pulsating lights trigger seizures and migraines.

As for other "tricks" to find highly eccentric bodies, one particularly elusive body I found by exiting the FSS and finding it via parallax. Generally, I've been fairly successful at deducing the orbits of those things based on what I know about the system and its mean orbital plane.

Two things would help (me at least) :
Not having to throttle zero so I can slowly move away from the star. This helps avoid the "blocked" bodies as well as being ready to pump that drive on exiting FSS.... The number of times I've cooked cos I didn't account for my proximity.

Agreed. I've tested resolving bodies in the Beta at multiples of c by taking advantage of the mass lock effect of gas giants, so there's no technical reason to force a slow down that I can see. As for the heat issue, my ships in general, and exploration ships in particular, are engineered to run as cold as possible. When I want to go somewhere fast, I perform "hot jumps" (jumping while still scooping), so my ships can generally stand the heat. I like parking next to a star, because it makes spotting potential eclipses a lot easier.

Access to system map from within FSS. If I can see the system is starting to look intriguing in some fashion, I might be more willing to find the elusive bodies. As it is now, I exit FSS disheartened and just wanna leave.

I also agree that accessing the system map from the FSS would be helpful. Information about terraforming candidates is currently missing from the FSS, so having to check the system map to confirm my suspicions is rather frustrating at the moment.

I'd also like to tone down (or switch off entirely) the FSS background animation. I get it's there to make it more "where's wally" but it doesn't play nice with my eyes.

Agreed. That background animation is one of the reasons why I would classify the VR bugs as a "nuisance" to using the FSS in VR, as opposed "game breaking." It's also why I vacillate between wanting the information that the missing orbit lines and blue blobs in VR provides, which would require playing on a monitor, and the sheer sense of being in a space ship and flying it that VR adds to the game. At present, missing the blue blobs is forcing me to get good at reading the arrows around the selection reticle, so I'm treating this as an "I am not left handed" training exercise.

 

[correia156]

I like how FSS works, what I do not like is that I have no clue of what’s happening around me when using it.
Visible radar info would be nice.

 

[Iskariot]

But your not exploring now , you just sit there and play the Nintendo game and say " yay I am exploring " lol , The old system you honked ... looked at map see if anything interesting to visit or just leave for the next system , this is too long to find out you need to move on. each system just got a whole lot longer to do and has become boring , there's no ` feel ` of exploring ,just a ` feel ` of sitting at a desk using a scanner....sad face

Yes we are exploring, in game.
Astronomers feel like explorers, even though they do not travel to the stars, ever. They sit at desks, use telescopes, radio telescopes and other tools and instruments.
It is that same feeling that FDev has succeeded in bringing to the game.
I love it.

And the bonus is that in the game I get to travel to the stars too. If I want to go to a planet I have discovered from behind my desk, I can, and I even can land on the ones without atmospheres. What's not to like. We finally have some good, really good, space exploration gameplay.
It is infinitely better than the boring trucker's honk mechanic.

 

[pasty1969]

hi

This method is pretty better then the previuos one (honk), more simulative. IMHO, The people who complain are these FORCED to explore for grinding credit (repetitive task "honk & go")

The opinion on the game's mechanics is strongly influenced by the need for grinding credit. In other words I think that the game should be less competitive in terms of reward with credit and more focused on giving players the chance to do what they like, not what they have to do to make money.

 

[Darkfyre99]

hi

This method is pretty better then the previuos one (honk), more simulative. IMHO, The people who complain are these FORCED to explore for grinding credit (repetitive task "honk & go")

The opinion on the game's mechanics is strongly influenced by the need for grinding credit. In other words I think that the game should be less competitive in terms of reward with credit and more focused on giving players the chance to do what they like, not what they have to do to make money.

I’m pretty sure it’s the exact opposite. From a pure credits/hour perspective, the FSS has the old ADS beat hands down.

The biggest pushback about the FSS has been, at least from what I’ve seen, from some of the cosmic oddity hunters. Not all of them, since some of the biggest names in exploration have changed their opinion after giving it a fair shakedown, but those who cannot seem to set aside the old “I need to see the whole system map before I can decide if a system is ‘interesting’” mindset.

 

[Burke]

Yes we are exploring, in game.
Astronomers feel like explorers,

Astronomers are not explorers. Scientists i could probably accept but explorers... no.

Not all of them, since some of the biggest names in exploration have changed their opinion after giving it a fair shakedown, but those who cannot seem to set aside the old “I need to see the whole system map before I can decide if a system is ‘interesting’” mindset.

Well i dunno about that. I have been very pleased to see some of what you might call leaders in exploration think pretty much the same as i do. Just about anybody is going to find that system utterly tedious given enough time. I can already see you getting ready to argue that the old way is tedious aswell but its preferable to being stuck sitting still playing astronomer

 

[marx]

I’m pretty sure it’s the exact opposite. From a pure credits/hour perspective, the FSS has the old ADS beat hands down.

Indeed. With the increased payouts, especially from probing, you can get from Aimless to Elite in eight hours or so. Assuming they haven't changed rank requirements from the last beta to release.

The biggest pushback about the FSS has been, at least from what I’ve seen, from some of the cosmic oddity hunters. Not all of them, since some of the biggest names in exploration have changed their opinion after giving it a fair shakedown, but those who cannot seem to set aside the old “I need to see the whole system map before I can decide if a system is ‘interesting’” mindset.

Some of them, while others don't. Of course, "the biggest names in exploration" is entirely subjective.
However, it doesn't change that the new system needs plenty of improvement. For better or for worse, its core will remain, but the rather poor interface and specific mechanics can be modified later. Hopefully it won't take as long as Engineering 2.0 did.