the FSS, watching paint dry....

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

Speak for yourself, lad. I find exploration very competitive. Be glad I'm stuck in solo, because if I caught you trespassing in my space, well let's just say some of us actually do care about the "discovered by" tags, though not necessarily for the reasons you many think.

Yeah, but you can't do anything about the parameters of the competition, you can't effect it, its simply luck. During the first day of mapping in 3-4 systems i was beaten to the tags by minutes.. it was clear when i started, did the first 3 bodies and ran off to hand in the data only to find it claimed.

I like tagging too.

Back to the fss.. well at least you are shown if its been previously tagged on discovery.. which is also bugged. Remember recently they turned off the discovered tags for the class of systems in the system map? Whatever discovered tag is still shown in the fss. Nice one.

 

[Rat Catcher]

You don't need guns for shieldless T7.[haha]

I'm not sure the Phantom would win in a nose-bashing contest with a T7...

 

[Old Duck]

I'm not sure the Phantom would win in a nose-bashing contest with a T7...

In Soviet Type-7, planet moves for you!

 

[Good Death]

I'm not sure the Phantom would win in a nose-bashing contest with a T7...

No bashing I occasionally fit my exploration ships with g5 lightweight mines.

 

[Shinji Ikari]

Speak for yourself, lad. I find exploration very competitive. Be glad I'm stuck in solo, because if I caught you trespassing in my space, well let's just say some of us actually do care about the "discovered by" tags, though not necessarily for the reasons you many think.

Personally I'd like to see exploration ships "give up" their data caches on destruction, which could then be turned in for the credits. Have the original explorer get the tags, but whoever hands in the cache gets the cash. This would let explorers retrieve their own hard work if they face-palm a planet, and it would also give Julio some more exciting gameplay to engage in

Your territory? You just gave me a good chuckle.

 

[Anubite]

This thread is still on page one.
notice me fdev

 

[Scytale]

Please tell me you are just kidding. I'm all up for a challenge and there are plenty of challenges in the game. But exploring would be the last place I would seek for a challenge. In the context of this thread you are really defending the old ADS mechanics with the term "challenge"?



That's also totally out of it and can only stem from someone who either wasn't able or just not willing to get his teeth into the FSS. Really can't help here as I can't play the game for you. For starters: You are definitely still more in your ship when you enter the FSS screen compared to entering the local or galactic map. Meanwhile I suspect you disliked the ADS as well but only accepted it cause you think it's quicker. But even that would be wrong if you know what you want and what you are looking for.

And here's another Mr...

 

[Red Anders]

I do wonder how many feel it's clunky because they are playing on PC with a mouse handy. I'm on a console, so "lining things up" via a controller is just how we do things. I've read other posts where people seem to lament that they can't just point-n-click on the planets to zoom in on them. Do you PC folk have to "steer" the focal point (circle) in order to select a planet, even with a mouse? If so, I can see why that would cause frustration.

I'm playing on a PC with a mouse. And a controller which I use to drive the SRV and use the FSS.

 

[shreddog]

Using the FSS is anything but watching paint dry. With one exception, and that is the wait for the surface locations to finish scanning.
All in all the FSS is a huge improvement over the previous fly close and sit and wait for icon to stop spinning, then target next moon and repeat. THAT was watching paint dry.

However on long journeys in the black where interesting things are very rare the FSS can get cumbersome after a while. That's why I wouldn't mind having the ADS module back(with limitations) as a supplement to the FSS.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

Using the FSS is anything but watching paint dry. With one exception, and that is the wait for the surface locations to finish scanning.
All in all the FSS is a huge improvement over the previous fly close and sit and wait for icon to stop spinning, then target next moon and repeat. THAT was watching paint dry.

However on long journeys in the black where interesting things are very rare the FSS can get cumbersome after a while. That's why I wouldn't mind having the ADS module back(with limitations) as a supplement to the FSS.

I would much prefer to have the signal analysis appear after a honk on the analysis HUD. It would also give some meaning to the new HUD too. Then after a honk, you know how many planets there are and roughly the type of planets in a system. That would help with some people who don't want to use the FSS much. It won't cure everyones issue but it will help some.

 

[Riverside]

Using the FSS is anything but watching paint dry. With one exception, and that is the wait for the surface locations to finish scanning.

I did a few planets with geological POIs this morning and some cane up instantly as they do for none and life signs only. I think the delay could be related to server load & now that I've seen some appear immediately it's clear the delay isn't designed in (as it was with the old scanner).

So hopefully the delays will be less likely as the back end is optimised for the new load trends.

 

[Scytale]

All in all the FSS is a huge improvement over the previous fly close and sit and wait for icon to stop spinning,

Sure !
With the FSS you don't even need to wait for the planet textures to load.
You don't even need to fly.
You don't even need to explore.
You just need to point n' click... blobs ?
I hope soon we wont even need to undock.
In a "space exploration" game, flying through space is so booooriing !

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

Sure !
With the FSS you don't even need to wait for the planet textures to load.

Not sure what that means.

You don't even need to fly.

What do you mean you don't have to fly?

You don't even need to explore.

Nobody needs to explore. That is a personal choice you make.

You just need to point n' click... blobs ?

Thats called using a made up tool in a game to find made up planets in a game. Whats the issue with this. This is what all gameplay mechanics are. Point, move and click but with different graphics applied to them.

I hope soon we wont even need to undock.

If thats what you like.

In a space game, flying is so booooriing !

I suggest finding another game then if you don't like space flight.

To be honest, I really don't understand this post. None of it makes any sense. How do I explore planets if I don't fly to them. How do I explore strange orbits and explore amazing looking rings around gas giants without flying to them, how do I see eclipes of planets and moons without flying to them.

If it's tags you want, yes you get tags from using the FSS as you should (I never understood why you didn't get discovered by tags in the last version as you had discovered them). You have discovered those planets. But if you want the mapped by tag, you need to fly there to send your probes around the planet. You can't just sit in orbit around the star to map planets.

With the FSS, all that gameplay which you seem to think is now gone is still there with some in a slightly different guise. The only thing different is that there is now some gameplay involved in the actual discovery of planets instead of what we had before which was a five second press of a button and hey presto you had discovered every planet in the system.

 

[Faded Glory]

However on long journeys in the black where interesting things are very rare the FSS can get cumbersome after a while. That's why I wouldn't mind having the ADS module back(with limitations) as a supplement to the FSS.

I think this is the thing that will determine whether the FSS works well in the long term.

Not sure whether you are referring to 'interesting things' in terms of planetary POI or also encompassing interesting / rare planet types or system layouts as well, but in the end, this vast game world of 400 billion systems is remarkably unremarkable.

The FSS is a discovery tool, it lets players find things that would otherwise be almost impossible to locate in a reasonable time frame. I'm sure this is intentional on the part of FD and that they will put more stuff out there to be found for game-play purposes. The problem (IMO obviously) with it, is the mechanics require you to examine or explore something in order to see whether it's interesting, not necessarily because it's interesting.

Yes, as an exploration tool, if the incremental uncovering of a system is fun for a player, the FSS is wonderful, especially if they enjoy the game-play. It does however make the process more important than the result in many ways. Not credits, FD have seen to it that credits will flow from exploration, even without pressing a button, but what you actually find. If what you find is more important to you than how you find it, then yes, I agree, I think that the FSS will eventually become a chore that more times than not throws up something that a player might otherwise have passed by. But they won't know that they could have passed it by until they've played the FSS game to determine that.

 

[shreddog]

Not sure whether you are referring to 'interesting things' in terms of planetary POI or also encompassing interesting / rare planet types or system layouts as well, but in the end, this vast game world of 400 billion systems is remarkably unremarkable.

The FSS is a discovery tool, it lets players find things that would otherwise be almost impossible to locate in a reasonable time frame. I'm sure this is intentional on the part of FD and that they will put more stuff out there to be found for game-play purposes. The problem (IMO obviously) with it, is the mechanics require you to examine or explore something in order to see whether it's interesting, not necessarily because it's interesting.

Absolutely agree.
And yes I was thinking both planetary surface locations and system layout.
With ADS module back at least the latter would be sorted. But I would also like to see a new feature added that automatically alert you if something is present on a planet surface in the system.
Some kind of message with audio like in Mass Effect Andromeda.. 'Anomaly Detected'. Then you know something is in the system, but you don't know where. So you'll have to deploy the FSS to find it.
This way we'll still use and rely on the FSS gameplay, but we don't have to use it constantly(which leads to getting 'burnt out' on the mechanics after a while).

 

[shreddog]

I did a few planets with geological POIs this morning and some cane up instantly as they do for none and life signs only. I think the delay could be related to server load & now that I've seen some appear immediately it's clear the delay isn't designed in (as it was with the old scanner).

So hopefully the delays will be less likely as the back end is optimised for the new load trends.

Yeah I've noticed big variations in scanning time. I figured it was based on the complexity of the procedural generation of each planet that caused it.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

I think this is the thing that will determine whether the FSS works well in the long term.

Yup, It will be interesting to see how it goes long term and if atmospheric planets are the next big download, then the new mechanics will be much better.

Not sure whether you are referring to 'interesting things' in terms of planetary POI or also encompassing interesting / rare planet types or system layouts as well, but in the end, this vast game world of 400 billion systems is remarkably unremarkable.

As we have only looked at unded 0.3% of the available systems, I think it is not possibile to know for sure. Also again, we can only land on non-atmospheric planets. I can imagine that atmospheric planets nad planets with complex life on them would be much more interesting.

The FSS is a discovery tool, it lets players find things that would otherwise be almost impossible to locate in a reasonable time frame. I'm sure this is intentional on the part of FD and that they will put more stuff out there to be found for game-play purposes. The problem (IMO obviously) with it, is the mechanics require you to examine or explore something in order to see whether it's interesting, not necessarily because it's interesting.

Surely the whole idea of exploration is to find out whether there is something interesting there or not. Sometimes it pans out, sometimes it doesn't. At least with the new mechanics we have a better idea whether it will or won't.

Yes, as an exploration tool, if the incremental uncovering of a system is fun for a player, the FSS is wonderful, especially if they enjoy the game-play. It does however make the process more important than the result in many ways.

Surely the process and the results are just as important. Why has the process become more important? I see them as important as each other and if the result is not what I hoped, at least I enjoyed the journey.

Not credits, FD have seen to it that credits will flow from exploration, even without pressing a button, but what you actually find. If what you find is more important to you than how you find it, then yes, I agree, I think that the FSS will eventually become a chore that more times than not throws up something that a player might otherwise have passed by. But they won't know that they could have passed it by until they've played the FSS game to determine that.

Possibly. Credits and tags have never been my passion for exploring, just finding things I have never seen before, whether that is planetary geology or something else. I have seen some amazing sights (in VR though which helps give you the scale of some these places) in this game, even on dead planets with out any POI's.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

In Soviet Type-7, planet moves for you!

Our only contact is Contact Typhoon Seven....

 

[Rat Catcher]

Our only contact is Contact Typhoon Seven....

That's scary! My PC's name is Typhoon and this is the 7th machine I've built with that name.... does it mean anything [where is it]?

 

[Ralph Vargr]

That's scary! My PC's name is Typhoon and this is the 7th machine I've built with that name.... does it mean anything [where is it]?

It means you have your very own Russian SSBN. Ask Old Duck where the joke line came from.