Mind if I explain, Scytale?
If I can just give you a quick run through...
There's a variety of issues at play, and they're all getting tied in together.
Firstly, what you need to know is that bodies only appear after the honk if they've previously been discovered (as in been Level 2 or Level 3 scanned and had the data handed in to UC) by another cmdr.
What that means is that for bodies or systems which have not previously been discovered, the only way to find the bodies is via the FSS.
Unless you just look out your canopy, eyeball yourself a body and fly towards it.
Now, the second point is that the FSS effectively takes you out of the cockpit into another view, and as above that becomes unavoidable.
It does take you to another view, but that view could very well be on a display that drops down in front of you - think periscope, that you look into - we don't know because we don't really need to. Truth be told, it's not unlike switching to Turret mode in an SRV.
So here's the problem(s):
- For some exploration is about flying their ship - they can't explore undiscovered systems that way any more
See above, they can, they just don't get their hands held (aka no Undiscovered body to lock onto, because it hasn't been discovered, thus they know not that it is, let alone where it is.).
- Some people simply really don't like the FSS interface - again they can't avoid it for undiscovered systems (or bodies)
Not liking the interface is a different matter than not liking the FSS. I wouldn't mind a different overlay myself, but I'm not throwing out the baby with the bathwater either.
- For others exploration is primarily about finding unique system configurations (say like 5 level nested orbits), or peculiar/unusual planetary situations (binaries in very close/fast orbits) and things like that - previously these could be identified relatively quickly by looking at the system map after the honk. As per above though, that's not possible for undiscovered systems and people have to scan the system via the FSS before they can see the system map.
I'll give you that. It's not instant any more. It also doesn't take very long at all. Perhaps 1-2 minutes at most. Wah, my instant gratification...
The primary issue here is that because these people are looking for things which are very very rare, they are looking to optimise the search, which means taking the minimum time in what to them are non-interesting systems - having to fully scan the system via FSS before viewing the sysmap can mean they're held back significantly.
It's also not a race. I get it in the case of Commander Borrowed Time, who is actually 3 weeks past the date the doctors gave him. To that guy, every second does matter - shouldn't you be spending it doing something other than playing a video game? But for the rest of us... you can afford a few extra seconds per system, don't be temporally cheap.
And in addition, for some it's a combination of the above.
Anyway, I hope that all makes sense - could you let me know either way?
(Also, for everyone else, if I've missed anything significant, please chip in.)
A few significant things, commentary added. So far there's been exactly one person who's brought something resembling a reasonable position to this discussion -- and it's not really been about the FSS itself, but rather in the avalanche of data it provides - and that I can honestly say I do at least understand. I don't mind it, in fact, I like the whole "combined sensor", "do it right, do it once" methodology, but at least I get where this fellow is coming from - he doesn't
want to be so efficient, in fact, he enjoyed inefficiency, and that's ok too. Some people like to carry bricks one at a time, others like to put them in carts and move them all at once. That's fine.
The other two major holdovers have really yet to present anything to support the noise they make. One misuses words to sound like they know something they can't, the other talks around in circles and somehow doesn't get dizzy.
[haha][haha][haha]
