the FSS, watching paint dry....

[shreddog]

I am sorry, but you still don't really understand how the system works. The FSS replaces BOTH the ADS and DSS. So where in the past you had to honk, then fly to the planet (even if it is 700k LS away); you now get the same result from using only the FSS. Yes, that includes 'first discovered tags'. It is MUCH faster. The probing is optional, and is a whole new layer.

Aye the probe launcher should only be used if there are planet POIs you want to check out( when FSS scanning tells you there are geological features), or you found a terraformable water world and want that sweet extra credit.

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

Not boring, but i find it experience crushing when used for extended periods of time as its outside your ship.

I also feel the rewards you get from doing are too much and ruin the in ship experience.

Prepare for personal attacks and trolling for suggesting the idea because there are 3 or so people who are addicted to discovering planets without doing and work and use personal assaults rather than game mechanics to justify their position.

 

[Lightspeed]

I have to confess I dislike the FSS system. I'm sure it's an improvement for the majority, but I'm finding it an "imposed gameplay" which, to me, is the opposite of immersive. It reminds me that I'm playing a game, rather than flying through a simulated system of planets.

Despite what I have just said, I find the DSS surprisingly fun ... I never know what might be discovered down on the surface. Even though it's a tad gamey, the reward exceeds the effort. So it will slow my pace of exploration enormously. But I wish the scanned planetary image would close once it is completed ... do I have to forever look at planets shaded blue while I fly past them ?

For the present, there is so much new stuff to do (the mining update is a really good one) that I shall likely explore all the goodies and resort to exploration later when it has (hopefully) been tweaked a little further. I don't need the exploration rank or credits and I don't have the obsession to splatter my name across the galaxy before everyone else

But it's great that many find it better, especially the die-hard explorers out there.

 

[Winterwalker]

do I have to forever look at planets shaded blue while I fly past them ?

You're leaving it in Analysis Mode. I'm trying to get into habit of not doing that, keeping combat mode as my default and analysis as a mode I swtich on to use, then switch right off again ... so I don't get caught with my knickers down.

 

[Lobey]

You're leaving it in Analysis Mode. I'm trying to get into habit of not doing that, keeping combat mode as my default and analysis as a mode I swtich on to use, then switch right off again ... so I don't get caught with my knickers down.

Yup for extended time in a system with hostiles this is the way to go - when travelling a few hops do the reverse - leave it in explore while doing your jumps and honk as you go - it's just like 3.2. Then change back to combat once your in the target system.
Only go into full scan mode if your sure it's safe to do so .

 

[Verlaine]

I agree. i think we're in the minority. Seems a shame to me to be flying deep outside the bubble enjoying the glory of the universe to spend in-cockpit time playing what is a 2D mini-game.

This guy gets it.

Solution: Put the FSS in the cockpit UI (and while you're at it, do the same with the surface scanner mini-game).

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

Despite what I have just said, I find the DSS surprisingly fun ... I never know what might be discovered down on the surface. Even though it's a tad gamey, the reward exceeds the effort. So it will slow my pace of exploration enormously. But I wish the scanned planetary image would close once it is completed ... do I have to forever look at planets shaded blue while I fly past them ?

Yeah me too. I love DSSing planets! I always imagined having the system map would be a bit of a spoiler but after longer usage its really not.. the DSS experience is really compelling! Especially with all the fresh systems in the bubble now i caught myself saying over and over 'gotta keep mapping.. gotta keep mapping'.

Combat hud mode is can also be read as "disable analysis overlay". I've taken to exiting the DSS view by using the toggle mode button.. gets out of the dss ui and analysis mode in one button if you choose.

EDIT: I love the DSS how there is a subtle skill to it. You can get really good at it after a while but every scenario actually is subtly different in result (if not outcome). In contrast to the FSS where frontier claimed there was skill involved its incredibly dumb, too easy and provides too many rewards. For a specific audience i guess.

 

[yodajedifishmaster]

You're leaving it in Analysis Mode. I'm trying to get into habit of not doing that, keeping combat mode as my default and analysis as a mode I swtich on to use, then switch right off again ... so I don't get caught with my knickers down.

this would be good practise. especially in inhabited space or systems near where pirates may lurk.

however... when you have an unarmed asp ex as an exploration vessel it makes little sense to be in a useless mode that requires weapons you dont have fitted. all you do is deploy whatever scanner version happens to be on the hardpoints. in my case its a composition scanner which seems to be standard fitted and which is only used in mining or if you find POI on a planet to use it on lol.

i havent yet found any signal sources or even anything on any planet i have scanned. i havent mapped anything other than water worlds and an elw maybe if i map something i can land on i will see points of interest, which i can use compo on
but then... something like that would be easier to scan in my srv.

 

[Faded Glory]

I have to confess I dislike the FSS system. I'm sure it's an improvement for the majority, but I'm finding it an "imposed gameplay" which, to me, is the opposite of immersive. It reminds me that I'm playing a game, rather than flying through a simulated system of planets.

I think this is the thing. It's just very different game-play to anything else in the game.

It's demonstrably quicker, more efficient and likely to 'earn' you more credits if you are exploring. But it's also very much an out of cockpit, separate game, not connected to flying a spaceship. Personally I don't enjoy it, so I won't be exploring any more, but I accept that many people love it, and whether I personally explore any more is not that important to FD, so long as lots of other players do explore.

Happily you don't seem to need it when messing around in inhabited space. I know it's much easier for finding USS, but that was never particularly central to my game-play anyway, and if it is something I need to do, it's very, very quick, so only a minute or so if that in the FSS, (or just drop out and scan the nav beacon), and then back to flying my spaceship.

 

[shreddog]

Despite what I have just said, I find the DSS surprisingly fun ... I never know what might be discovered down on the surface. Even though it's a tad gamey, the reward exceeds the effort. So it will slow my pace of exploration enormously. But I wish the scanned planetary image would close once it is completed ... do I have to forever look at planets shaded blue while I fly past them ?.

Switch to combat mode and the planets will display their regular graphics. It also is a good way to close the DSS view.

 

[JesusRocks1988]

I have only two observations about the FSS that I didn't notice during Beta... It's kinda tricky using the HOTAS stick to move around, so it's kind of irritating that the need for accuracy is so great - that you need the centre cross of the circle reticle to be inside the little ring. I think I'd rather it be less accurate, where you only have to put the centre reticle over the ring for the adaptive zoom to kick in.

And secondly, sometimes the spectral analysis doesn't quite match the sections it's split into... Like it'll be in the "rocky body" section but actually be an icy body, and stuff like that. THAT needs a bit of refinement and accuracy.

 

[Crumly]

To actually complete the exploration content, you still have to go to the body to shoot at it.
And while the DSS waiting game was terrible, I'm not convinced this is any better.
Bizarre, FD gets rid of DSS scanning (yay), adds FSS blind bobbing (boo).

I haven't got a chance to play yet, but I thought you get the old DSS info from the new FSS which you use wherever you want?

Only thing you get by going to each planet is the points of interest on the planet surface, which previously you *COULD* find, if you actually flew over the entire surface searching for things, with your eyes?

I haven't got a chance to play but thats what I gathered from videos. Seems like a giant improvement in everyway possible.

How is this not 100% better? Before, you actually didn't learn much about the planet surfaces. Now, if you do the full exploraion content, (previously nearly impossible to do it), you actuallly get potential cool rewards (find the next Dav's hope maybe).

Unless my interpretation is all wrong

 

[Ian Skippy]

Not boring, but i find it experience crushing when used for extended periods of time as its outside your ship.

I also feel the rewards you get from doing are too much and ruin the in ship experience.

Prepare for personal attacks and trolling for suggesting the idea because there are 3 or so people who are addicted to discovering planets without doing and work and use personal assaults rather than game mechanics to justify their position.

No, we just tell you your blanket ad-hominems are absurd when your 'work' consisted of holding a button for five seconds.

 

[Jukelo]

It's not as Instant as before and including the 1980s 8bit Probes you have to fire at the planet it simply takes longer, I get it, some people like this new mechanic but I just cannot get my head around it,sorry.

It's not as instant as before, that much is true. Then again the old mechanics were placeholder, the fact the ADS instantly gave you everything was not the final goal but rather the stopgap they settled for to release the game faster.

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

No, we just tell you your blanket ad-hominems are absurd when your 'work' consisted of holding a button for five seconds.

Im certain we're not completely thinking about the same thing, but this makes no sense. The honk gets you nothing but what it looks like and a bunch of credits. Both trivial results. I've personally never cared about the honk.. before coming into the beta, the strongest opinion i've had of it was 'its a spoiler'. Im actually one of those people who will not tag the arrival star unless i'm going to scan the entire system....

 

[Ian Skippy]

Solution: Put the FSS in the cockpit UI (and while you're at it, do the same with the surface scanner mini-game).

Cool, remove 80% of my vision so you can feel 'immersed'.

 

[StuartGT]

The FSS, watching paint dry....

So anyone else find this incredibly boring?

Yes, apparently a few people do based on the comments on this forum.

The large majority however, based on comments on forums, Reddit, Steam, Discord, Twitch, Youtube, Twitter and Facebook, apparently love it. I'm amongst the vast majority.

These two people love it too:

[video=youtube;_A8HvjEidNA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A8HvjEidNA[/video]
[video=youtube;iXw4Vs_yn5A]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXw4Vs_yn5A[/video]

FDev no doubt appreciate your feedback, please keep it coming

 

[Tarman]

It's not as instant as before, that much is true. Then again the old mechanics were placeholder, the fact the ADS instantly gave you everything was not the final goal but rather the stopgap they settled for to release the game faster.

It's more Pretend Spaceman than before, doing a pseudosciencey spaceship-type-thing to get space-information. That works for me.

Yes, the UI could be more integrated into the pilot HUD; doesn't need to invalidate the current setup tho. I'd take an as-is screenview for any Nav crew aboard, but an additional live-pilot version wouldn't be amiss at all. Cockpit overlay; actually moving the ship instead of just the scanner (be warned button-haters, live-version would need possibly moar available controls since the current mode just uses its button assignments inside that mode).

I do feel pretty nakies when complete-scanning for extended timeframes and would appreciate a hot-controls version. Would I have liked that first? Maybe. But the current iteration is fine till a piloting-based UI could be done.

 

[Jakester13]

I became Elite explorer under the old system... to me it was like playing a one armed bandit: The honk -> System map -> reveals either goodies or not, scoop jump or scoop -> fly to possible WW/ELW/HMCP/etc, and wait for the scan to complete.

Now all this is in the FSS system.

I now arrive in system, get into fuel scooping range, honk (because I'm already in analysis mode) and the number of bodies is revealed. If it's somewhere with more than just stars, I quickly flip on the FSS and I can immediately tell what bodies are in system: Metal rich, HMCP, rocky/icy/rocky-icy/ELW/WW/AW and gas giants in that order on the FSS tuning thingy. This is the equivalent of the old System View after honking. OK, so the "bodies" are squiggles on the tuner, but now I KNOW if it's an ELW.WW.AW etc, because it's in the right place on the tuning thingy. Before it was a visual "Hmmm... looks promising" so you fly to the planet and instead of it being a WW or a bigger score, it was just a darned HMCP...

It's not perfect. I found times I couldn't locate the WW even though I knew it was there. And at times the thing I want to FSS is behind the star... that's annoying!

But it's so quick to completely "scan" a system - in the old days, you'd need to fly to each and every body... now you can just sit near the main star, scooping, and get the whole system done - even those places 500KLs away.

I thought after making elite I'd never feel any desire to explore again, but I am now on a 20KLy return trip, really enjoying it, to the point where I might do some more long trips in future..

Not perfect. But better than before!

o7

 

[HazardousMatt]

I became Elite explorer under the old system... to me it was like playing a one armed bandit: The honk -> System map -> reveals either goodies or not, scoop jump or scoop -> fly to possible WW/ELW/HMCP/etc, and wait for the scan to complete.

Now all this is in the FSS system.

I now arrive in system, get into fuel scooping range, honk (because I'm already in analysis mode) and the number of bodies is revealed. If it's somewhere with more than just stars, I quickly flip on the FSS and I can immediately tell what bodies are in system: Metal rich, HMCP, rocky/icy/rocky-icy/ELW/WW/AW and gas giants in that order on the FSS tuning thingy. This is the equivalent of the old System View after honking. OK, so the "bodies" are squiggles on the tuner, but now I KNOW if it's an ELW.WW.AW etc, because it's in the right place on the tuning thingy. Before it was a visual "Hmmm... looks promising" so you fly to the planet and instead of it being a WW or a bigger score, it was just a darned HMCP...

It's not perfect. I found times I couldn't locate the WW even though I knew it was there. And at times the thing I want to FSS is behind the star... that's annoying!

But it's so quick to completely "scan" a system - in the old days, you'd need to fly to each and every body... now you can just sit near the main star, scooping, and get the whole system done - even those places 500KLs away.

I thought after making elite I'd never feel any desire to explore again, but I am now on a 20KLy return trip, really enjoying it, to the point where I might do some more long trips in future..

Not perfect. But better than before!

o7

This ....so much this. I don't how ya'll could be complaining about the FSS. Seriously. How many hours have you wasted trying to find HGE by flying in circles in "Deep Space" hoping it will pop out of nowhere!? I cannot tell you how much I LOVE the FSS. It actually feels rewarding to explore now.