36 Ophuichi stupid large

[sqzbox1]

But, lets see, the fact that the missions display LY distance on the front, but not the system Ls distance as well is already one issue (manually opening each and every mission to check for distance isn't "deep" gameplay). IF the Ls distance was right there on the tin, I'd have less problems with the current mechanics

But Mr Shaamaan (and OP and others in this thread) the distance to the destination station IS shown. If you scroll down past the rewards section you will see a label "Destination" and in that line it will tell you the details. For example: "BEREZIN TOWN (ARRIVAL POINT (ESTIMATED): 76.39LS). It is estimated because the mission description can't tell you exactly where in the orbit it is right at this instant. But surely this estimated value is enough for you to determine how far away from your arrival point the destination is. What more do you want?

Also, a quick comment on in-system jumps between stars - what if there is only one star but the station is still a long way away. I haven't been to Hutton for a while so I can't remember - is it orbiting a star? Anyway, my point stands - in-system jumping between stars will not help in all situations. But I guess it would be a handy thing to be able to do - I will agree with that. Just not sure it solves the problem of long disance to stations.

And my armchair is quite comfortable thanks. You can get off my lawn now.

 

[varonica]

That's not "straight", that's skewed. And it is because there is no supply and demand economy, only a bgs script which fills in the gaps in inventory (source: Dav Stott Amazon presentation), destinations are randomised, and currently we have absolutely nothing to do on a 45 minutes trip to Hutton Orbital or wherever else. So you can compare these missions to "traps" from a gameplay perspective, luring player with larger credit payout. Maybe when we get spacelegs gameplay you could do something aboard your ship during that time. Or a remote push/pull ship transfer to plan in the meantime. Anything would be better than "point ship nose at destination and go watch some netflix because there is ABSOLUTELY nothing to do on such trip". Even Scam Citizen started suffering recently from that "timesink" gameplay. Try to watch this in one go:

Yeah I watched that video just for the lol's. I almost lost it when he actually sat in a chair in a train station to wait for the train. That was real quality gameplay right there :x

Fact is you don't have to take missions to distant stations, it's optional, however if you "remove" all distant stations the players who sometimes enjoy just kicking back with a bit of music and watching the LS flow by lose that option altogether. In any game you have various different activites not because everyone has to do them, but because different people enjoy doing different things. In LOTRO you can take up the hobby of fishing and find hidden tarns and lakes where you can catch rare fish, take them to a taxidermist, have them stuffed and mounted and put them on the wall in your house. I never saw the point, I hate fishing in real life so why would I do it in a game, but the point was while to me it was a waste of time, I didn't like, it, I didn't do it, one thing I didn't do was go on to the LOTRO forums and demand it be removed.

They are optional, some people like them, why remove them or destroy that aspect of game play by putting in short cuts for impatient players who don't need to go there anyway.

 

[Factabulous]

They are optional, some people like them, why remove them or destroy that aspect of game play by putting in short cuts for impatient players who don't need to go there anyway.

Agreed - but can't help but think that it's only optional if you spot it before you start Maybe a big red warning triangle on missions with long SC (extra brownie points for making distance configurable, otherwise 10k ls is long enough for me).

The info is on the mission details, but it requires scrolling & reading - and who has time for that

 

[TopCat160]

C'mon everyone - to the pitchforks!

I'm in. Pitchfork sharpened.

 

[VR StarLightPL]

Yeah I watched that video just for the lol's. I almost lost it when he actually sat in a chair in a train station to wait for the train. That was real quality gameplay right there :x
Fact is you don't have to take missions to distant stations, it's optional, however if you "remove" all distant stations the players who sometimes enjoy just kicking back with a bit of music and watching the LS flow by lose that option altogether.
(...)
They are optional, some people like them, why remove them or destroy that aspect of game play by putting in short cuts for impatient players who don't need to go there anyway.

I was never really for removing them, only for giving us something to do during, as currently I could classify them as "traps" for "normal" gameplay flow. I mean yeah if (figurative) you take that mission deliberately to chill out and catch on Netflix, all the power to you, but for the rest of us? Boring, because there is literally nothing to do. Nothing. Null. Nada. Zilch. And if I'm out of nachos, beer or netflix... blimey! At least in the Scam Citizen vid the guy was inspecting his ship during the travel. Missiles were a nice touch And SC metro wait? Can be used to check mobiglass... but I agree while these are fun concepts the first time around (exploring a new location), if this persists I am sure they will add fast-travel at some point. Though truth be told cRober(ts) was always saying that his vision is an universe simulator, and he is consequently going in that direction.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

The info is on the mission details

For some mission types, not for others.

e.g. a basic surface scan mission could be to any landable body in the system, or an assassination/salvage mission can generate the USS around any planet or moon, and of course there are the various two-stage missions where you "meet a contact" to find out where the second stage is.

 

[Factabulous]

For some mission types, not for others.

e.g. a basic surface scan mission could be to any landable body in the system, or an assassination/salvage mission can generate the USS around any planet or moon, and of course there are the various two-stage missions where you "meet a contact" to find out where the second stage is.

Damn - and I thought I could do without the asterisk for secondary posts, you got me!

All mission details* include LY and LS distance so you can check before taking missions - some people don't realise that the mission details are scrollable. Also, you soon realise which destinations not to take - Hutton Orbital anyone? Anyway - caveat emptor

* well, nearly all, but I bet they were there

 

[VR StarLightPL]

of course there are the various two-stage missions where you "meet a contact" to find out where the second stage is.

- Hey, I'm your contact today, please take this to Hutton Orbital.

Me:

 

[Brian of Ardagh]

Damn - and I thought I could do without the asterisk for secondary posts, you got me!

The mission I took to 36 Ophiuchi was just a basic delivery mission but I could swear it didn't mention the distance to the station, only the distance to the system, which was around 8.5 LY. I know about looking for the mission details with the station distance but I'm thinking it only said to check the galaxy map for the distance to the station, which, since I didn't have a system map, I then knew after buying the exploration data.

Something is weird about 36 Ophiuchi anyway, all the planets were already discovered and mapped, although there was no discoverer listed. I decided to "re-explore" and map them and then when I turned in my data I got a screen saying I had just gotten 1st discovery on all the bodies, but no entries for the stars. The payout showed about 8.5M and about 4.5M bonus but the bonus wasn't included in the final payout.

The other weird thing is neither Ophiuchi A or any of its bodies show up on the orrery view, B and C show up just fine.

I've submitted bug reports for both these things. I wish I had taken a screenshot of the mission before I took it, it's making me think I'm getting senile. After taking the mission, if I looked in the transactions panel, it clearly showed a distance of 4,218,032 ls, I find it hard to believe I would have missed that in the mission giver's panel, especially since I was looking for it.

 

[govny]

36 Ophuichi is exactly as large as it has to be.
I you don't want to waste your time don't do that missions (distance of the station from the star is visible in the mission tab).
Simple.

 

[aRJay]

To which I'd reply that some planets / stations can have very large orbits around their main stars and those are perfectly fine and still let you experience "scale" and vastness of space (note that I only advocate for jumps to STARS, not all objects). What's not fine is the mind-numbing trek between stars, when said stars are hundreds of thousands of Ls apart (or more) which, again, adds nothing unique to the game...

So scale and vastness of space are fine for certain levels of scale and vastness?

Note not everything millions of light seconds away from the jump point is orbiting close by a distant star.

I have to say your last comment comes over as very jaded with its implications that things in the game are only worthwhile if unique.

 

[aRJay]

I doubt children of our children will rember Elite Dangerous.

But some of the threads on the forum will still be going.

 

[XW_Ziggy]

For example the free Conda at Hutton Orbital?

Hang on - there's a beginner's guide on YouTube "Zero to Anaconda in 14 hours". That's less time than it takes to fly to Hutton Orbital

 

[JustJon]

But some of the threads on the forum will still be going.

Yup and it will be full of people complaining about the FSS.

 

[Dillon Fallon]

At least it's not like sightseeing passenger missions which just ask you to go to the 'For the Mug' tourist beacon, without saying where in Alpha Centuri the beacon is (not that I remember anyway).

I thought regular delivery missions always gave you a distance to the station. Since there's times when I can't be bothered with a mere 10,000 ls trip, I always check this.

To the OP: At least you know about this system now! I think we've all done something similar at one point.