Why FSS Mode Must Go

Darkfyre99

Darkfyre99
DrewCarnegie said:
Being able to see, from the Nav Panel, the relative positions of all the bodies in a system unlocked gameplay in supercruise - optimizing my path through a system, avoiding gravity wells, flying curves and doglegs because as well all agree, straight lines are boring.

Not being able to construct that overview without simultaneously obtaining the information on a body removes the gameplay that I enjoyed. I just want to be able to map a system and THEN explore it.
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I guess that is a fundamental difference between us. As far as I'm concerned, if I have a "map" of a system, whether it's target data on the Nav Panel or the orbital hierarchy system map, then it has already been explored. If I'm not the one creating the map, then it pretty much negates the main reason I'm out exploring the galaxy in the first place. Creating that map, at first mentally, and then confirming the details of that mental map using the myriad ways it's possible to resolve planets under the new system, is what makes exploring systems fun for me.

Outside the Bubble, Thargoid, and Guardian space, planetary exploration is pretty much a sideshow, which is why I've only been exploring the really interesting planets and moons. Geological and (to a lesser extent) Biological planetary POIs have only so many variations, which is why I keep an eye out for eclipses, which require some rather unique planetary alignments to happen.

If you haven't already, then I really recommend using the FSS as a way to assist navigating to bodies visually. If you want to plot a course through the entire system, try flying straight up out of the orbital plane and then using the FSS to get a better picture of the relative positions of the system's major gravity wells.

The FSS is an active system, so it only gives you the information you tell it to give you. You can use it as much or as little as you need to in order to maximize your fun. The Nav Panel does not "unlock gameplay in Supercruise," it just makes that game play easier by providing you with a lot ​of high level navigation data. Using less information does require a bit of thinking on your part to optimize your travel path through a system, but that's a good thing, right?
 

Greyza Badger

Greyza Badger
DrewCarnegie said:
Being able to see, from the Nav Panel, the relative positions of all the bodies in a system unlocked gameplay in supercruise - optimizing my path through a system, avoiding gravity wells, flying curves and doglegs because as well all agree, straight lines are boring.

Not being able to construct that overview without simultaneously obtaining the information on a body removes the gameplay that I enjoyed. I just want to be able to map a system and THEN explore it.
Click to expand...

It seems you have a certain set of skills for a very niche method of exploring.
You have to admit that there is no way this can be considered a 'mainstream' way of exploration.
If it isn't how the majority of explorers now explore then you must be in a minority and therefore, unfortunately for you and your activities, are of minor consideration for (I'm going to posit) modern explorers and FD themselves.
Eventually you have to realise that, when you look at the fantastic new Orrery, these planets are not orbiting around you.
Although I think you are on a hiding to nothing, I do admire your tenacity. Fly safe.
 

Rooster Podunk

Rooster Podunk
Obviously the ADS isn't coming back so what is the point of not adapting? Between this and the numerous other threads it seems all the folks who can't abide by the FSS have made and remade their ADS love and FSS hate feelings well known to FD. With this I'll simply ignore the rest of these the FSS-must-die threads as they hold no purpose or useful information.

Fly far, be safe, take lots of pretty pictures.
 

RolloTreadway

RolloTreadway
I prefer the FSS. If I want to look for something, it becomes an active um... activity, rather than just sit and wait and press a button. And if I open up the screen and it says there's only icy bodies or whatever, then if I want, I can leave. How much logging I do is dependent entirely on how much time I want to put into it (or not), which I find preferable.

I'm sorry you don't find that's the case, different strokes for different folks and all that.

Also, surely, exploring is far more than just honking. Exploring is looking and going and experiencing. Not ticking off systems. That hasn't changed. The galaxy is still beautiful.

(I agree with others though that the speed limit is unhelpful.)
 

[Diplomacy] Carnegie

[Diplomacy] Carnegie
Greyza Badger said:
It seems you have a certain set of skills for a very niche method of exploring.
You have to admit that there is no way this can be considered a 'mainstream' way of exploration.
If it isn't how the majority of explorers now explore then you must be in a minority and therefore, unfortunately for you and your activities, are of minor consideration for (I'm going to posit) modern explorers and FD themselves.
Eventually you have to realise that, when you look at the fantastic new Orrery, these planets are not orbiting around you.
Although I think you are on a hiding to nothing, I do admire your tenacity. Fly safe.
Click to expand...

I'm confident that I'm in a minority too - but I suspect that changes when you look at only those explorers with > 10,000 systems visited prior to 3.3.

The ADS didn't provide a gameplay loop for exploration, so anyone who was exploring had to create their own - there were a whole range of different individual loops, but they all involved the System Map as a starting point and then added flying around and body resolution according the personal preference.

The FSS provides a gameplay loop through the FSS and the DSS probing and gives rewards for performing that loop in the form of Codex entries. For those whose personal gameplay loop is compatible with the new version (and for all those people who hated exploration because it didn't have a gameplay loop) then everything is peachy. For me, the FSS loop just doesn't work.

@Darkfyre
I appreciate the advice you're providing, and if FDev ever get around to crushing my few tattered hopes of an alternate scanner mechanism being implemented I'll definitely be using some of your ideas as a starting point to trying to find a way to bend the FSS to fit with how I want to explore. In the meantime, I'm just gonna keep on muttering in the forums :D
 

Lightspeed

Lightspeed
It has put me off exploring completely. I may not give it another try until atmospheric and ice planets in (presumably) 4. [knocked out]
 

Greyza Badger

Greyza Badger
gumbie said:
I mainly care about stars, the FSS actually deleted half my gameplay by being even more magical than the ADS.
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Hasn't it just saved you having to put on your sunglasses while you stare at each star, waiting for the spinning wheel to stop spinning?
Or, alternatively, saved you having to travel 10's of thousands of LS to get to a remote star so you can wait for the spinning wheel to stop spinning?

I've got some paint drying that you can no doubt make some use of.:p
 

space voyager

space voyager
gumbie said:
I mainly care about stars, the FSS actually deleted half my gameplay by being even more magical than the ADS.
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HE HE HE, staring at the star was half your gameplay? I presume the second half was going around it and engaging the jump to another star? If this is playing Elite...
 

Rat Catcher

Rat Catcher
space voyager said:
HE HE HE, staring at the star was half your gameplay? I presume the second half was going around it and engaging the jump to another star? If this is playing Elite...
Click to expand...

It is playing Elite the way they wish, you or I play our own game - I certainly wouldn't expect others to play 'my way'. The change from instant view of a system to having to 'build' the view using a tool is fine for most of us, but a thorn in the foot for others.

It is unlikely that anything resembling the ADS will return to the game, buy those who truly do miss it, for their own reasons, should not be criticised :)
 

Old Duck

Old Duck
To the fellow who called the FSS a "Dalek Simulator" (I'm too lazy to track down the exact quote), I tip my hat to you for creative thinking. We are all just Daleks wearing Elephant Butt Leather in a galactic disco party of colored stars and flashing shadows. Groovy, man!

ps - I love the FSS ;)
 

ogrando

ogrando
Before the last update I did not leave for exploration trips because I found the game mechanics stupid (from the point of view of the gameplay, not from the point of view of realism, or technical science fiction) and boring. Now it is sensible, dynamic, "playable", without wasting time doing nothing (before, I had to wait without doing anything to reach near the celestial body and then wait for the automatic scan).
Now "honk" to see the bodies that make up the system, if interesting step to the FSS and discover more information on the celestial bodies, type of POI and I can see them in a sort of astronomical telescope, and if someone is interesting to map I go there and launch the probes (that show where are POI). Now the gameplay is more varied and interesting.
If
 

Rat Catcher

Rat Catcher
I liked the FSS from the moment it appeared in beta, it worked for me and, naturally, I'm a supporter of its inclusion to the game. My first thoughts when a few other players objected was pretty much that 'they can't be bothered to learn new skills', but reading through several 'explanations' it isn't that - it is the 'way they want to play' - I don't want the game to change again, but do actually appreciate that what is all fine and good for me does not mean everyone feels that way.

(It's a bit like PvP - some love it with a passion and think we all should be doing it - I think it is about as much fun as having toenails pulled off by pliers - it doesn't make them wrong, nor me :) )
 
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Iskariot

Iskariot
Completely and utterly disagree with op.

I am so happy that we finally have exploration gameplay that feels like astronomical exploration.
Not saying the FSS is perfect, but I do love it. FDEV did an awesome job afaiac.

The honking-like-a-truckdriver mechanic we had before was the epitome of boring.
 
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SystematicChaos

S
Rooster Podunk said:
Obviously the ADS isn't coming back so what is the point of not adapting?
Click to expand...

I can't adapt because being forced to use a pair of space binoculars while wearing a pair of blinkers is not my idea of fun. Mowing a football pitch with a pair of nail scissors would be more fun.

I've spent months scouring the galaxy looking for the mythical lost Guardian bubble, so the precursors are likely to be barnacles and brain trees.
I was also the first person to report barnacles in the Witch Head nebula: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...6-The-Canonn?p=4095157&viewfull=1#post4095157

If you've never set out for months on end to search for these things then you simply don't appreciate the sheer quantity of junk that has got to be scanned down and discarded with the FSS. With the ADS and practise you could tell at a glance if a system was worth bothering with and don't forget there is 400 billion of them.
 
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