exploration minigame 6 months later

Riverside

Riverside
Taimaru said:
No, although every region does have one or more codex tick boxes purely because being able to fully scan allowed me to see more detail than before.
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I spent a month on a similar length trip to what you are doing (in January), scanning everything (I fast-tracked the last 20kLy home though) and regularly checked the codex for mini-goals, trying to find examples of each asset listed. Rather than visiting published locations I found my own examples of each. I seemed to be what it was designed to do - to give some personal goals to aim for.
 

CMDR Jowley

C
I thi k the planet types should be more spread apart on the dds mode bottom list scanner thing. Also, they should add the ability to jump directly to a planet if I've been there before. I.e if I'm jumping into sol I should be able to pick out the closest body to the station I want so, Mars and other planets like earth and so on will be selectable while the loading or charging bar is on before you jump.

That would be cool. More may play in open too...
 

CMDR Karrde Sun

CMDR Karrde Sun
marx said:
Existing player retention is obviously not a major concern now though, the focus is on improving new player retention. For that matter, FD might say they are happy with the FSS simply because they believe it showers people with enough credits and tags now, and long term player retention is even less of a concern with exploration as it is with the whole game. They likely believe that the New Era, whatever it will be, will bring back enough lost players anyway.
It's a dangerous gamble, however.
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That doesn’t sound right frontier can’t be that stupid. Imagine if you quit because of an issue you didn’t like (the fss). How much harder is frontier going to have to work on the initial pitch (and spend development on new features) to win you back?

That would be the worst calculation ever.

If anything frontier don’t care or are not sensitive to the magnitude of elites success, with doing what they do oblivious to anything but their own selves being the greatest priority.

Edit: you could argue there’s a fair amount of proof of this already given frontiers knowing decision to release not fully baked features and develop new features while fielding the level of quality that they do. They’re not naive kids who just don’t know the bugs exist.
 
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Spacecat

Spacecat
So, after 14 pages, it looks like opinion is still mixed. And yes, like I said, I've been on a break, so I apologize if this thread seemed like a rehash, I was just wondering what the current state was. I actually liked the old system, just flying all the way to to each planet one by one and surface scanning them was tedious. If I could have simply targeted each body and fired a probe at it to get the surface info after a short wait, that would have been fine with me. In other words, I think adding to the old method would have better than the random insertion of a totally "out-of-game-minigame". Unfortunately, FD has probably painted themselves into another corner and has now decided to live there on this one. I do wish they'd revisit and rethink some of these game mechanics at times, instead of throwing them at us, declaring them "perfect and finished forever", and never touching them again, which is the point of discussing them, not merely to bash or complain.
 
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Nihila Vex

Nihila Vex
I get the impression the thread's done. So for me - one insignificant voice amongst many - I'll just say that while exploration could be a lot better than it is even with the FSS if it was more involved and included an element of actual skill demanding practice to get good at, it's certainly a lot better with FSS than it was without. And yes, sure, I'd agree that more things to actually explore would be great too.

So I don't know what kind of politics that aligns me with or whether it makes me worthy or not to play the game, but it's where I stand.

Either keep FSS, or replace it with something even better.

Just in case Frontier were counting.
 

Skip Rockbounder

Skip Rockbounder
Nihila Vex said:
I get the impression the thread's done. So for me - one insignificant voice amongst many -

Either keep FSS, or replace it with something even better.

Just in case Frontier were counting.
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I was gonna say...c'ya, but truth be told, every view and observation on this topic (no matter which thread) is valid, and the more ED get told about it the better, yes, even those in management can learn from those on the floor, and Devs can learn from the Customers.

I believe that the old ADS should have been developed with care and the future in mind not dumped after four years, at first I raved about it in the beta but changed my mind when the penny dropped half way through, the FSS is really a pretty poor mechanic supported only by loads of credits, time saving tips and free tags, and if we don't like it... FD can just turn up the credit volume.
Many Far better ideas than the FSS for exploration have come from a community that cares about the game*, just as outsides tools have catered for the community because ED don't seem to listen and understand, we've been given the FSS and the Codex... c'mon guys, really... these are 'Poundtime' ideas, unworthy of the game and unworthy of the customer.

So Nihila, put your feet up and sit back because the thread ain't done yet and the topic will be around till my fingers drop from me!


*Mengy
Among others, a fella by the name of Mengy had a great deal to say that could have made Exploration truly exciting for those that Explore because it's their thing (as opposed to those that explore because they're forced to)
 

CMDR Yates

C
This will get buried, but my feeling is there'll always be a large proportion of players who hate any scanning mechanic they introduce, and that's down to the very nature of exploration in this game.

See, unlike the other activities, which typically take place in inhabited space, exploration mostly takes place far from civilisation. Out in the deep black, we're separated from other activities by thousands or tens of thousands of light years, and it takes a significant time investment (hours, days) to get back to the bubble to do something, anything else.

Aside from setting arbitrary goals and "making our own fun" (like children with half a deck of cards in a power cut in 1954), the exploration mechanics are pretty much it when we're out there. If there's even some small niggling thing with the scanner activity that doesn't perfectly jive for you, then sooner or later it will break your flow and rankle. When scanning is all we have to do, it's small imperfections will always loom large. We can't really just take a break from it, or at least the options are very limited, without leaving the game or swapping scanning for endless jumping.

Instead of fixating and bickering endlessly over how scanning should work (an argument that will never ever be resolved), I think we should push for more options for stuff to do while exploring.
 
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