Finally done it...

Yet another one who didn't bother with the month+ long beta that was available to everyone on PC, so to give them time to get used to the new controls..

Post corrected, but yeah, the controls aren't that hard to bind and I say that as a Xbox Commander.
 
Post corrected, but yeah, the controls aren't that hard to bind and I say that as a Xbox Commander.

I use custom bindings for a wireless Xbox style controller on the PC and manage alright, though for this game I use it in Direct (legacy DirectX) mode rather than X (newer DirectX, where the Xbox takes it's name from) mode.

I'm a couch monkey junky for the big screen and hi-fi surround.
 
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Hey S.B.

My experience exploring as of today:

1) Enter a system and wait for close things to appear. SysMap shows stars, asteroid belts, maybe a few close planets, 1-2 is average whether system is discovered or not.
2) Try to honk (Does not work in this mode - select FSS)
3) Enter Scan mode
4) Scan with FSS. 38 bodies detected.
5) Exit FSS
6) Enter SysMap - Still exactly as it was.
7) Dial in the planet. Then orient yourself to face that way.
8) Zoom in and discover the body. Ice world...
Total time 90 seconds.

What I used to do:

1) Enter system, honk.
2) Open SysMap and see at a glance what is there while scooping.
3) Decide to stay and scan things of interest, or carry onto next system.
Total time 15-20 seconds.

They have introduced a mini-game to solve a problem that never existed. They have turned what was a relaxing experience into a grindy mess. My exploration account has been unused (except for today to compile the above) since the beta and will remain unused. It's too much work. Same with mining. Exploration / mining were my go to activities when I just wanted to relax. Not any more.

I've not played Elite, on any account, since day three of the beta. Nor do I feel the need to. I've been racking up time on X4 and Just Cause. Press fire, things blow up. Dirt simple.

The Frontier programmers should be looking at elegant solutions that make our lives easier. Not adding more keys and grind. I see where the OP is coming from. It just isn't fun anymore.

So here is my problem with that: you rely on hyperbole and, I have to say, plain nonsense to make your point, which kinda reduces my sympathy. Your 'try to honk, doesn't work' is nonsense, an explorer is permanently in Analysis mode and you can honk from outside the FSS. The analysis mode also isn't the FSS anyway. It doesn't take 90 seconds to scan one ice body. In 90 seconds you scan a pile of bodies (the average system takes less than that), and you get all data, surface maps, orrery info and everything you need to make an informed decision miles beyond what you previously could. And yes, in a complex system you'll spend a few minutes building a very detailed picture of an entire star system. That is true. Building a comprehensive picture of a complex star system takes a few minutes. Is that really such an incredibly unreasonable proposition?

Yes, I am sure there are some people who do want info beyond the signature bar to make a decision, dont need the advanced info the FSS describes and cant be bothered to invest more than a few seconds into gathering the required info. Noted. But these nonsense accounts combined with willfully ignoring all the advantages of the system plus refusing to spend even a modicum of time with it to gain some skill and understanding really arent helping you make a case. Which means that rather than try and come up with constructive ideas, people look at posts like these and think:

Problem is it's something new to learn and certain people just can't be bothered. So instead they just knock it and cry on the forum that the new system is bad.

And that is shame, but totally understandable.
 
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That's more or less the point they were responding to though. I.E., that having other options would be nice, at least for some of us.

If others are enjoying the extent of the FSS exploration gameplay, more power to them. I'm not aiming to detract from that with my suggestions here.

Yup. But every time I and others try to make other people see the issue, you have these type of posts that make us go:"You know what, enjoy X4." It would be fun if people could just be reasonable. On either side of the argument.
 
On the other hand, to generalize everyone who take some issue with the new mechanics in this way isn't wholly accurate nor productive.

The FSS is already in the game and its core functionality isn't likely going to change, so I'm not sure what these sort of posts are aiming to accomplish here beyond disparaging and sidelining the opinions of others.

The cmdr I quoted used the word 'certain', not 'all' when referring to the player base.

I'd argue my post is as constructive as the OP. i.e not at all.
 
They were told it was bad before it dropped. Now its bad and its in game, not surprising people leaving really is it? By the total lack of any kind of acknowledgement that any problem even exists (afaik) we can pretty much guess that nothing is going to change, or if it does its going to be a looong time. I wish i was exploring now but im not cause i cant stand the FSS, its "not what i signed up for" and tbh i find myself feeling angry about the whole thing. :(
 
The cmdr I quoted used the word 'certain', not 'all' when referring to the player base.

I'd argue my post is as constructive as the OP. i.e not at all.

To clarify, I take some issue with the apparent presumption that new means better and that people are just having an issue adjusting to it through some inherent fault of their own.

The new gameplay might very well be better for some, but it's subjective.

It's perhaps stretched rather thin, but at least the OP does provide some subjective feedback beyond a "this game sucks; I'm out" post.
 
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Deleted member 115407

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They have introduced a mini-game to solve a problem that never existed. They have turned what was a relaxing experience into a grindy mess. My exploration account has been unused (except for today to compile the above) since the beta and will remain unused. It's too much work. Same with mining. Exploration / mining were my go to activities when I just wanted to relax. Not any more.

Well that just makes no sense. You can still mine the same old commodities in the way you did before, and some of them are even more profitable to boot.

I've not played Elite, on any account, since day three of the beta....

Oh, that explains it.
 
Problem is it's something new to learn and certain people just can't be bothered. So instead they just knock it and cry on the forum that the new system is bad.

Except there's nothing to learn.
It's a simplistic point-and-click minigame that you could train a chimp to do.
Hell, you could train a pigeon to do it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pigeon

The only part of the new exploration process which could have required any skill was probe-golf and that was nerfed by the infinite probes.

So you'll have to forgive me if I don't like playing a minigame to find out if I want to fly to a planet to play another minigame and would prefer the OPTION of the old exploration method.
 

To be fair, I have seen a number of posts where people seem to primarily be having difficulty with bindings. It's sort of a chicken and the egg situation, knowing what's what before knowing what to do with it, but then not knowing what's what before it's sorted in the control bindings.

That's not to say that the OP is only having those issues with it though, just a generalization.
 
Four years of "Elite is a mile wide but an inch deep!".

Now, "I cannot just PRESS [USE] TO EXPLORE any more! I quit!"


And lol at the seasoned explorers out there discovering the unknown, far outside populated and scanned space, who apparently have their HUD in Combat Mode... thinking their "honk doesn't work". They apparently never found two unexplored systems in a row? Okay...
 
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I'll admit I haven't touched the FSS until now. Never bother with the beta, and I've just been tramping over old ground since the update with the probe launcher.
Headed off to a quiet section of space I tend to work intermittently that doesn't see much other traffic. Found a few completely untouched systems to test with.

Only objects within short range are initially discovered. 'Firing the horn' only identifies the orbital plane and how many other bodies are in the system remaining to be found. System map remains unpopulated.
You can fly around parallax hunting to find objects without touching the frequency scanner. Anything that is found is effectively First Discovered and Detail Surface Scanned without the need to target it and approach. So a small system could potentially be first disco'd by parallax hunting faster than the old way of target, approach, wait for the spinny thing.

The frequency scanner at first seemed overwhelmingly complex, but very quickly became easy to understand and intuitive to use. Slew controls for both it and the probe launcher are bound to the main flight joystick axis and have decent control and precision, but could probably do with a bit of exponential to soften the response about the neutral points. Tuning and zoom were bound to the lower thumb hat on the stick. Step zoom not needed.
The only additional buttons required so far are one to change HUD modes, and one to enter the FSS. So hardly a need to have multiple controllers and a thousand buttons. Existing buttons can serve multiple functions as it's all contextual.

The frequency band on the screen gives a very good idea what a system consists of and if it's worth bothering with. The rest is a case of aiming at the blue clouds and wind the frequency back and forth a bit until the circle appears and goes solid, then zoom in and out.

Everything that gets looked at gets first disco'd and detail surface scanned. So a system that under the old mechanics would take about half an hour to work now only takes about a minute or two. The flip side is that it also takes that minute or so to build up the system map which was originally provided almost instantly.

The new probe First Mapped mechanic takes much longer than the old detailed scan due to having to get much closer and then playing a round of golf on each planet. So for the completionists who have to do everything I can see that as a downside. But it does reveal things to find on the surface, which would previously require hours of flying around staring at a planets' surface, hoping to spot something with no actual guarantee of success.

It may all get tedious with time. I can't really say just yet.
 
To be fair, I have seen a number of posts where people seem to primarily be having difficulty with bindings. It's sort of a chicken and the egg situation, knowing what's what before knowing what to do with it, but then not knowing what's what before it's sorted in the control bindings.

That's not to say that the OP is only having those issues with it though, just a generalization.

Real explorers know how to set their key bindings ;)
 

Deleted member 115407

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To be fair, I have seen a number of posts where people seem to primarily be having difficulty with bindings. It's sort of a chicken and the egg situation, knowing what's what before knowing what to do with it, but then not knowing what's what before it's sorted in the control bindings.

That's not to say that the OP is only having those issues with it though, just a generalization.

Truthfully WR3ND, I think it's more a matter of not taking a few minutes to familiarize themselves with the new tools/controls, out of obstinate curmudgeonliness.
 
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While ppl stand around complaining on the forums the rest of us are busy gobbling up 1st discoveries like a fat kid let loose in a sweet shop (I may or not not be referring to myself)

To those that like a little more direction to their journeys over picking the 2nd star from the right and straight on 'till morning approach the Codex provides reports that can break up a long journey into several shorter hops/ play sessions
 
Four years of "Elite is a mile wide but an inch deep!".

Now, "I cannot just PRESS [USE] TO EXPLORE any more! I quit!"

The honk was never exploration. Exploration was what we did AFTER the honk. We provided our own depth.

So FDev have replaced a tool that we used to trigger exploration with a tool (read 'minigame') that does the thing we considered to be exploration for us, making the game even shallower than it was before.
 
Real explorers know how to set their key bindings ;)

And only LEP owners are real explores, because they have no choice but to make the best of it. ;)

Not all is lost though! The galaxy sim is sure to bring Frontier back to their senses. There's a whole gosh darn galaxy full of possibilities out there. All in good time by the by and by. [hehe]
 
Truthfully WR3ND, I think it's more a matter of not taking a few minutes to familiarize themselves with the new tools/controls, out of obstinate curmudgeonliness.

Didn't you need it explained to you that in virgin systems the FSS doesn't populate the system map?
I think it's a little rich to be criticizing other people for not familiarizing themselves.
 

Deleted member 115407

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Truthfully WR3ND, I think it's more a matter of not taking a few minutes to familiarize themselves with the new tools/controls, out of obstinate curmudgeonliness.

And honestly, for a group of folks who many among them have considered themselves the smartest cookie to have ever hit the jump key, I find it mind boggling that they can't figure out how to map up/right/left/down/zoom and exit.
 
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