Could Frontier please demonstrate how to use the FSS enjoyably?

[IndigoWyrd]

So you think tunning the radio is a kind of effort?

There’s more to it than tuning the radio and you either know that or you’ve been chugging the Kool-aid and never looked at this yourself. You still have to manually locate the bodies you’re scanning, which can lie on very divergent orbital planes, be obscured by stars, or what have you.

And it’s still 100% more to actually do than there was previously - honk, point your ship in a direction and fly. If you set your throttle and approach vector correctly, you wouldn’t even have to look up at the screen for a DSS to complete, as the planet’s gravity would slow you just enough for the scan, which could take much longer than a tune-in or even surface mapping, to complete.

 

[Shinji Ikari]

But can they detect a USS from 5,000 light seconds away. That's what I want to know. Arf.

Is that a serious question?

 

[Shinji Ikari]

Auto tune is fine if it made any sense. The tuning part is there for you to decide what type of planet you want to search for. It doesn't find the planets for you. So an auto tune would be pointless.

It could auto-tune on approach to a singular body...

 

[Shinji Ikari]

There’s more to it than tuning the radio and you either know that or you’ve been chugging the Kool-aid and never looked at this yourself. You still have to manually locate the bodies you’re scanning, which can lie on very divergent orbital planes, be obscured by stars, or what have you.

I know it's not only that, good thing I didnt claim so...

And it’s still 100% more to actually do than there was previously - honk, point your ship in a direction and fly. If you set your throttle and approach vector correctly, you wouldn’t even have to look up at the screen for a DSS to complete, as the planet’s gravity would slow you just enough for the scan, which could take much longer than a tune-in or even surface mapping, to complete.

And that's a problem, I have to spend more time for the same reward, this wouldn't be bad if the discovery mechanics were good but they aren't*.

*It's redundant to say that this is an opinion.

 

[Shinji Ikari]

Even more modern cars won't require you to drive at all anymore (and the next step will be to prohibit 'self-driving' under threat of strong punishments). How fun is that?

You were the one who brought the realism argument to the table.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

It could auto-tune on approach to a singular body...

And that remove player choice. All it does is speed up the full scan in miniscule way. It's pointless. You still have to use the FSS.

Personally I want to have the option of choosing what I want to look for. Otherwise it's just moving some aiming reticule around with having to make.any decisions.

That would make an okay system and make it worse.

Again, I am not against an optional module that does that for you.

 

[Shinji Ikari]

And that remove player choice. All it does is speed up the full scan in miniscule way. It's pointless. You still have to use the FSS.

Personally I want to have the option of choosing what I want to look for. Otherwise it's just moving some aiming reticule around with having to make.any decisions.

That would make an okay system and make it worse.

Again, I am not against an optional module that does that for you.

Toggle and it speeding up the process is something I'm looking forward to.

 

[Enderby]

I think everyone can agree that the FSS has proved divisive.

 

[Iskariot]

Me personally, I'd rather have one form of FTL only - hyperspace, with the ability to pop out wherever I want in a solar system. I'd also prefer a much higher cap on top "real space" speeds - say 0.5 C, and have thruster size affect acceleration rather than top speed. For the sake of combat, there could be speed restriction zones around stations and other areas where combat might take place (something that works similar to a permit lock but for thrusters).

Supercruise in ED is way more magical than artificial gravity. Even if we could travel faster than light in this fashion, we'd not see anything outside our windows except perhaps a psychedelic light show. Hyperspace (which I consider a space-folding or wormhole-generating technology) feels much more realistic to me. Give me The Expanse with FTL and that would be great.

If we could pop in and out, from point to point, all over the place, with the hyperspace mechanic, then that would really degrade the experience of space travel.
As far as I am concerned that would be a disaster for the game.

I think Supercruise gives you the sensation of space travel. I still think it is awesome and a thrill to swoop around planets, soar past a beautiful star or planet, and I must have done it thousands of times by now.
I love supercruise. It is a magnificent addition to this spacesim.
It is the perfect balance between extremely fast spacetravel and still being awed by the enormity of the universe.
SC also offers possibilities for added gameplay.

I would welcome limited in system mini jumps though. So there would be a minimum distance you can use in system jumps. This would be useful in very large systems.
But there could be other limitations to. Just to make it interesting.

I made a proposal long ago:


I would like changes to supercruise.

CHANGE 1.
I want more player agency. I want to have more influence on flying in supercruise, more piloty things to do.
This could be done via pip management for example.

CHANGE 2.
I also want the HUD to change its layout in supercruise with new HUD elements, just like it changes when you approach a planet.
I am sure FD could make something up to make it look cool and different and appropriate for Supercruise.

CHANGE 3.
I would like to be able to do in-system mini jumps to other stars in the same system.
There could be rules for this to be possible:
1. A second star has to be at least 50.000 ls (just an arbitrary number) removed from the main star for example.
2. You might need to fly 1000 ls away from the main star to be able to do a minijump
3. Minijumps might cause light damage to the FSD
4. Minijumps might consume a lot of fuel, because... reasons.
5. We might have to buy an expensive modification for the FSD to make minijumps possible.
6. Minijumps might not be possible to certain star types.
7. Some far away stations (for example military installations) might have jump inhibitor technology to prevent ships from jumping in via mini jump.

 

[Rat Catcher]

Do you do it on hours at a time?

Actually, yes....

Obviously you are not a radio ham

 

[Enderby]

Niche

 

[BradHann]

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJX4ytfqw6k

 

[lenna]

Seriously though you can't really say you've explored it if you haven't probed a new planet.

I am sorry but space golf is a sad excuse for a mechanic and so is the FSS... anything but an improvement... more a pathetic attempt at introducing mechanics of a kind that would be better suited in a game called something along the lines of "spot learns to fly a space ship"

There were plenty of other potential solutions FD could of adopted without inflicting mini-game-hell on existing users.

 

[Enderby]

Ha the probe thing is so silly
It's kinda fun.
Something that the FSS is entirely not.

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

I am sorry but space golf is a sad excuse for a mechanic and so is the FSS... anything but an improvement... more a pathetic attempt at introducing mechanics of a kind that would be better suited in a game called something along the lines of "spot learns to fly a space ship"

There were plenty of other potential solutions FD could of adopted without inflicting mini-game-hell on existing users.

It's symptomatic of the dumbing-down which has been affecting ED since David and Michael stopped being involved. Remember that the physics of the planets is sufficiently detailed to allow ships to enter an actual orbit, and yet for probe golf we're required to deliberately crash them into the surface.

If FDev were to create the Stellar Forge today, there'd be an ELW in every system, within 100 Ls of the star.

 

[Chaparral]

I don't mind the mechanic. I find the visualization utterly horrible.

My big fat gaming rig is barely working to look at EKG daggers and empty circles.

What an ugly concept. Some designer actually thought - hey the ship computer knows what is at these locations, but we'll conceal it with the lowest possible resolution representation of that item (0 or √V√) instead of an icon, or a minimized image of the item. Lame.

The execution is also pretty buggy with frequent layout squishes and sliding screens as well.

 

[Enderby]

As I said - no one actually likes the FSS.
Some feel obliged to pretend to like it. Maybe out of some weird fanboy view-point. I dunno.
But, no one, in their heart, really, actually like likes it.

 

[myothershipisacobraiv]

The FSS works well, but it is a joyless thing.

I'd like to see three changes to it

1. Revealing number and type of generated poi on planets takes too long.

2. I wish they didn't apply that flat white lighting to anything you're scanning once you finish resolving it. It often ruins the appearance of whatever you're looking at the odd time you find something that manages to look interesting in that tiny viewport.

3. I wish the notification of tabulated discovery data (aka the "discovered" notification) didn't overlap the name of the currently active stellar body.

If I was to change the FSS to make it more interesting to use without trying to rewrite too much, I would make it so the audible aspect of the thing is more important. So, planetary signals don't actually automatically show up on either the tuning bar or around your reticle like they do now. Instead you have to tune to an area and then sweep around and locate them by ear which they present using EQ based on your tuning and proximity. To prevent needless time consumption or being exacting, once you get close enough to be considered as having basically found it, the more opaque the signal indicator on your reticle and bar becomes. Signal indication never actually shows up instantly on the the bar or instead it involves ambiguity greater than we have now.

I am suspicious something along those lines was what they intended, because why make a big deal of contacting the radio telescope engineer to get the real thing otherwise? I think in play testing maybe they found it wasn't working somehow.

 

[InterGalactic]

I'm one of those who find it objectionable. It is not a space piloting kind of theme, which I thought this game was about.
Whenever I need to use it, I try to just go thorough it fast as possible; for me it is just like doing taxes.

Another thing that annoys me about it is that sometimes it is hard to or takes a long time to find the last planet;
you have to search around randomly in the sky until you come close enough for the directional arrows to show up.
So, instead, I usually go out to the System Map, find the Unidentified planet, point my ship to it,
and then go back into FSS.

This can be made easier if the directional arrows appear from any distance.
(If don't want to clutter up the display too much, then can limit the signals to the top 5
strongest remaining signals, for example.)

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

It's symptomatic of the dumbing-down which has been affecting ED since David and Michael stopped being involved. Remember that the physics of the planets is sufficiently detailed to allow ships to enter an actual orbit, and yet for probe golf we're required to deliberately crash them into the surface.

Are you serious. You call the FSS dumbing down and the ADS was not?

Delusional is the word. The ADS was as simple and dumb as it gets.

As to Michael, are you serious. The person in charge of Powerplay the second crappiest mechanic in the game after the ADS and the person that wanted instant transfer with 3D printing. And you think the new guys in charge want to dumb it down. Funniest thing I have heard in a long time.

If FDev were to create the Stellar Forge today, there'd be an ELW in every system, within 100 Ls of the star.

No they wouldn't. Ridiculous thing to say.