Exploration lets be honest, there's still not much to do

[Rat Catcher]

I agree with the principle of the OP, there is little to find outside of the obvious POI's - but we have 400 billion systems and don't know what else the Dev's have placed for us to find (as we've not found them yet), it would soon get 'old' if we were finding something 'new' every few systems.

A look at the Codex already shows many more things discovered than in the previous version, it's just that we aren't tripping over everything everywhere we go, finding the stuff is part of the fun in my opinion

 

[sollisb]

Yes, truly amazing! In the old system you could spend an indefinite amount of time flying upside down over a body looking for something and never find it, such a time-sink! At least now you can fly those 400KLs and at least know that there is something there and that you will find it. As you said, amazing

Yes, and that was 'exploring'..

Now it's just a kiddie show me everything button affair.

 

[Old Duck]

FWIW, I found exploration in No Man's Sky to get boring after awhile, and it has way more diversity than ED. In other words, I don't think "more stuff" is the answer.

Disclaimer - I'm still very much enjoying the new exploration tools (keeping me plenty busy), so I don't yet share OP's sentiment, but I do think OP makes some valid points.

 

[777Driver]

Only downside to this update is that we still have the rubbish terrain normalization that they reverted to a year ago (Terrain resolution looks good for the Playstation 2)

It would be nice if FD gave us the option to actually set Ultra. Looks rubbish compared to the res at Horizons launch.

I can remember flying an approach at 400km altitude, surveying peaks and valleys in crisp detail, all gone because of optimization (and cmdrs driving SRV's where they shouldn't)

 

[Brrokk]

I wouldn't be a game designer. Thousands of man-hours of work can be consumed in a few tens of hours by serious gamers, who then start complaining that there's nothing left to do. For the pounds I've paid for this game the experience has been amazing. The new exploration is vastly better than the previous "press one button in every system" placeholder.

 

[B1rdy]

Yes, and that was 'exploring'..

Now it's just a kiddie show me everything button affair.

You can always revert back to your eyeball mk. I, but I doubt it is more fun.

 

[Old Duck]

Only downside to this update is that we still have the rubbish terrain normalization that they reverted to a year ago (Terrain resolution looks good for the Playstation 2)

On ED PS4, everything looks like PS2! (read in Russian accent)

 

[Mengy]

Only downside to this update is that we still have the rubbish terrain normalization that they reverted to a year ago (Terrain resolution looks good for the Playstation 2)

It would be nice if FD gave us the option to actually set Ultra. Looks rubbish compared to the res at Horizons launch.

I can remember flying an approach at 400km altitude, surveying peaks and valleys in crisp detail, all gone because of optimization (and cmdrs driving SRV's where they shouldn't)

Yeah I miss the old terrain generation too. Can you imagine if we had 2.0 terrain meshes with the current 3.3 planet colors? It would be spectacular.

Regarding the new exploration mechanics, I love them. There is new stuff to find, it’s just rare and not in your face so you have to search for them. I like that, and I’m sure there is a lot we haven’t even discovered yet. The best part though is that we finally have a great framework of mechanics for Frontier to build on, so when they someday add new planet types to land on with new surface POI’s we will already be in a fantastic position to take advantage of them.

 

[DeletedUser191218]

FWIW, I found exploration in No Man's Sky to get boring after awhile, and it has way more diversity than ED. In other words, I don't think "more stuff" is the answer.

Disclaimer - I'm still very much enjoying the new exploration tools (keeping me plenty busy), so I don't yet share OP's sentiment, but I do think OP makes some valid points.

The bit that killed no man's sky for me was shooting things to create fuel ALL THE TIME. Of course anything gets boring eventually. But the diversity of planets, building bases, shooting in a ship and on foot, flying between planets and stations while interacting with intelligent and non-intelligent life...none of that got boring for me.

Someone will get it right eventually. For now, we have the choice of alternatives that both have major drawbacks but both fail in opposing ways.

 

[Rat Catcher]

Yes, and that was 'exploring'..

Now it's just a kiddie show me everything button affair.

Well, you do have the option to not probe a body and find things the 'old' way, the only difference is that at least you'd not be doing it in vain.

 

[Shiro Akai]

I was really looking forward to the new exploration mechanics.
(...)
I'm disappointed to find that there's pretty much sod all out here to do. I've scanned,
(...)
All the planets are boringly featureless,
(...) or maybe Im being impatient?

Impatient - I wouldn't call it that. Misinformed/misguided? More likely.

If you think about it, exploring systems quickly become repetitive. After just few jumps you can tell you've seen 90% of content. But this is not the case in exploration and changes we got recently. You see, previous system was mych more boring and uninteresting. Jump into system, honk to find stellar bodies and... tedious and time wasting "activity" followed. Dull flying for hours just to get within scanner range, observe scanning icon spin and done. Moon scanned. Now let's fly 6k Ls for there's our next target. Truly engaging and interesting gameplay.

Now, current system. Jump in, honk to discover star and orbit lines. Power up scanner and ACTIVELY search for stellar objects. Within few moments whole system is scanned. THIS is the clou of the change.

I agree that past that it's same boring stuff - fly there and see repetitive scenery. But the case is HOW you learned about those bodies. New scanning mechanic is plain awesome. It requires effort, it's active feature that relies on your skill. You learn using spectrum, you can pinpoint valuable targets by just identifying icons on your scanner screen. This change alone made whole exploration more fun and interesting.

No more dull flying just to scan thing. No more "meh" for seeing rocky bodies only. Well, it's still meh but you can get exploration data just for taking a photo. Meh system but will provide some nice credits. And you can make your dull flying just to probe target you really like.

So I believe you have bit mixed expectations. Current changes affect how we identify things, not how those things looks like or what they offer.

 

[Old Duck]

The bit that killed no man's sky for me was shooting things to create fuel ALL THE TIME. Of course anything gets boring eventually. But the diversity of planets, building bases, shooting in a ship and on foot, flying between planets and stations while interacting with intelligent and non-intelligent life...none of that got boring for me.

You make a good point. I never made it to the "Bubble" in NMS because of the refuel issue. I think I could have explored other people's bases for quite some time and not gotten bored, because humans are clever, and from what I've seen in my Twitter feed, there are some amazing bases out there!

Perhaps that's what ED needs - the ability to build our own bases, outside of the Bubble of course. Not just for people who like base-building, but also for explorers who like finding something new!

I actually once proposed that Frontier release a separate game, similar to their Jurassic World game, where players can build and manage cities on planets that exist in ED's galaxy, and these city bases would be visitable in Elite Dangerous just like Frontier's own hand-crafted bases. I do worry that if Frontier were to try to squeeze base-building into ED itself, it would become just too much UI nightmare.

 

[Komemiute]

And your post unfortunately adds nothing to this discussion, you could as well skip that remark.

@OP: The process has been changed, but the ultimate outcome hasn't been change. We can just find the same stuff more reliably now. It is an improvement, but, as someone else said, it is rather mapping that actual exploration.

Duly noted, but a post that states "Let's be honest" - well i took it at face value.
I've been honest.

 

[GunnerBill]

Only downside to this update is that we still have the rubbish terrain normalization that they reverted to a year ago (Terrain resolution looks good for the Playstation 2)

It would be nice if FD gave us the option to actually set Ultra. Looks rubbish compared to the res at Horizons launch.

I can remember flying an approach at 400km altitude, surveying peaks and valleys in crisp detail, all gone because of optimization (and cmdrs driving SRV's where they shouldn't)

Yeah and the way mountains seem to grow as you get closer to them. Meh.

 

[Old Duck]

Yeah and the way mountains seem to grow as you get closer to them. Meh.

Y'all are starting to make me real glad I didn't spend big buckaroos on a gaming PC for ED

 

[nanite2000]

I know it's amazing, but.. You could do all that with the old system!! I know, amazing isn't it!

You couldn't locate surface POI's with the old system.

Yes, and that was 'exploring'..

Now it's just a kiddie show me everything button affair.

Oh come on sollisb! You can't tell me you're not a big kiddie, with your homemade toy cockpit.

 

[Trollymctrollerson]

I still haven't been able to figure out why exploration missions dont exist besides passengers. Why can't I grab I a mission that says "Hip 2345 green clan are looking for resources in the outer Orion spur. Find and map 2 earth likes, 5 high metal worlds, 3 gas giants and 4 geological formations. Payment is 30 million and you have 2 weeks."

 

[Sterling MH]

I still haven't been able to figure out why exploration missions dont exist besides passengers. Why can't I grab I a mission that says "Hip 2345 green clan are looking for resources in the outer Orion spur. Find and map 2 earth likes, 5 high metal worlds, 3 gas giants and 4 geological formations. Payment is 30 million and you have 2 weeks."

Decent idea, strip the example mission brief and put it in the correct thread or mail directly as a suggestion to FDev. Let them work out what they can do (e.g. is it feasible to spend the needed time to go to Orion, hunt for those things on the multiple systems you'll need to search, all for 30mil credits, even if you can also add exploration payouts on that, because if that works out to 1Mcr/hr, nobody would want it and demand it go at least to 200million credits). But it MAY be worth doing if you're a noob. You can explore in a sidey and 30million gets you into the early mid game. So it may have limited utility other than a "free extra for those who short hop explore", but it is an alternative to winging up to bigger established players for beginners too. And that had dev effort put in it.

 

[DukeIronHand]

I still haven't been able to figure out why exploration missions dont exist besides passengers. Why can't I grab I a mission that says "Hip 2345 green clan are looking for resources in the outer Orion spur. Find and map 2 earth likes, 5 high metal worlds, 3 gas giants and 4 geological formations. Payment is 30 million and you have 2 weeks."

Great idea! And long overdue.

 

[Brrokk]

I still haven't been able to figure out why exploration missions dont exist besides passengers. Why can't I grab I a mission that says "Hip 2345 green clan are looking for resources in the outer Orion spur. Find and map 2 earth likes, 5 high metal worlds, 3 gas giants and 4 geological formations. Payment is 30 million and you have 2 weeks."

Yes, this!