Why can we only Land on Barren Planets after almost 5 years?

[Viajero]

And I get piles of money from ELWs in the bubble, that I can filter in the galaxy map by default and can visit dozens of 'em per hour. You can go from nothing to Elite in one day, while never leaving the bubble, landing on a planet or even knowing how to fuel scoop. That is absurd, Juniper is correct and any 'but in other regions you can make more money' is both irrelevant and, maybe barring BH/NS fields, arguably incorrect.

That is the personal part I also mentioned above. In my personal case, and probably not the only one, I can not dream of having the time in game to grind like you or Juniper, so where I go or what I find is quite key for my Exploration rank or money rewards. The fact is rarer things offer me more money than common things so the link is direct and they are important in my plans. That you or others may have more time to explore than me is something of a personal and individual situation. Not my case though and I presume the average joe commander is not far from that.

 

[CMDR-ss47ply]

The point I was trying to make is that ELW by their very nature will look like Earth (and I think CMDR-ss47ply was also making that point). Terraformed worlds would also resemble Earth.

I’d hope to see human-habitable worlds in the game of a more exotic and alien nature, but then they couldn’t be really described as Earth-like anymore.

yes that is close to what I ment, the thing that must keep Elites art director up at night is what are my players going to belive, I for one would feel a bit let down if I flew 10,000 lys landed on a planet and saw a pine tree, roses and deer running around. but also what would I belive a plant or life form would look like I have no idea. If I keep finding Earth though I will feel whats the point of space travel. Only to find earth

 

[Juniper]

Then you would have been technically correct, albeit devoid of significance.

It is quite simple really.

Oh dear, are you just looking for a (pointless) argument? I'm not. I assumed that on an E: D forum, in a thread that is 40 pages and counting, that those participating or looking on would have some inkling of knowledge about which worlds to scan to make money, if exploration is their "thing".

You do not have to "discover" them. You simply have to "scan" them. It doesn't matter if thousands have been there before you - the game literally doesn't care.

I'm pointing out what a shame that is, and indicative of how E: D's updates do not look at the whole game and instead just bolt on additions every time... totally in contrast to how NMS and HG do their updates. I don't want E: D to turn into NMS... NMS does it's thing and that's fine, but I do want FD to take a similarly holistic approach to updating their game.

Frontier have added a lot to the galaxy over the last 5 years - but none of it has an impact on exploration from a game perspective. There is so much more they could do, without even adding anything else.

 

[Viajero]

Oh dear, are you just looking for a (pointless) argument? I'm not.

Me neither. Just be mindful not everyone plays like you do.

 

[fu9ar]

If that's referring to me, I can only say it's not following any kind of "guide" - it's just knowing the game and what pays. It's not hard to write down or even remember. The exploration in Elite doesn't reward actual discoveries or even require you to go out and discover new things.

Sure the galaxy is out there, and you can go explore the wilds if you like, but it doesn't gain you anything extra in game terms. And that's a shame, and a missed opportunity. It also sadly shows how limited in scope E: D's updates are... because Beyond 3.3 was a "biggie".

Getting first discoveries gives you a bonus on top of the normal payouts...

 

[Ian Skippy]

That is the personal part I also mentioned above. In my personal case, and probably not the only one, I can not dream of having the time in game to grind like you or Juniper, so where I go or what I find is quite key for my Exploration rank.

Wait, what? This has nothing to do with what you can dream of or not, or how much anyone grinds (since when did I grind a lot?). That is just a bizarre pivot you are making. Again: Juniper points out that the Exploration ranking in Elite is absurd because you can get there easily, ultra-fast (arguably the fastest) by staying in the bubble and without learning any of the skills needed to go on a long journey. That is absurd. That has nothing to do with what you do in this game, how often you do it, why you do it or anything else like that.

Elite Dangerous has absolutely stupid 'ranks'. Again, Juniper is correct and your weird personal remarks do not distract from that in the least.

 

[Viajero]

Wait, what? This has nothing to do with what you can dream of or not, or how much anyone grinds (since when did I grind a lot?). That is just a bizarre pivot you are making. Again: Juniper points out that the Exploration ranking in Elite is absurd because you can get there easily, ultra-fast (arguably the fastest) by staying in the bubble and without learning any of the skills needed to go on a long journey. That is absurd. That has nothing to do with what you do in this game, how often you do it, why you do it or anything else like that.

Elite Dangerous has absolutely stupid 'ranks'. Again, Juniper is correct and your weird personal remarks do not distract from that in the least.

As far as I remember the conversation started with money, not rank. Explo money keeps growing after you reach Elite. And I can assure you in my personal case I can not just go as ultra-fast as you suggest. Therefore I need to chose my explo targets carefully based on rarity.

 

[60mm]

The only ED rank that has a shred of credibility is Combat. Exploration and Trading is a joke, and I doubt FDev will ever fix it, lest they face the wrath of all the Elite Explorers who drew a map of the parking lot and the Elite Traders who made a few trips to the rock store.

 

[Juniper]

Getting first discoveries gives you a bonus on top of the normal payouts...

Very true - but you're talking 10,000 or 25,000 extra credits - on a planet that nets you 1,000,000 credits for scanning. It's a token amount.

Anyway, I didn't want this to turn into an exploration thread - I was simply using it as example of the lack of joined-up thinking.

 

[Ian Skippy]

As far as I remember the conversation started with money, not rank. Explo money keeps growing after you reach Elite. And I can assure you in my personal case I can not just go as ultra-fast as you suggest. Therefore I need to chose my explo targets carefully based on rarity.

Okay, whatever. Game design is all about how much time you personally have and what you do, not about what makes sense in general or how it works. I guess all is perfect then, carry on.

 

[Juniper]

Me neither. Just be mindful not everyone plays like you do.

Irrelevant. I think Ian Skippy has answered this at least as well as I could, probably better.

 

[Viajero]

Okay, whatever. Game design is all about how much time you personally have and what you do, not about what makes sense in general or how it works. I guess all is perfect then, carry on.

No worries. Different game designs have different audiences, and I never said all is perfect either though . I would be quite supportive of any explo changes that make players that have reached that explo cap motivated to explore again. Just be mindful that some of us are quite far from that or need the money and still see that rarity as important and useful, not everyone has finished it off yet!

 

[fu9ar]

Very true - but you're talking 10,000 or 25,000 extra credits - on a planet that nets you 1,000,000 credits for scanning. It's a token amount.

Anyway, I didn't want this to turn into an exploration thread - I was simply using it as example of the lack of joined-up thinking.

I think you are making the common mistake of thinking about Elite like it is a finished game. They are building different pieces and different systems that will be more integrated when the development plan is finished. We're halfway, only halfway.

 

[Juniper]

I think you are making the common mistake of thinking about Elite like it is a finished game. They are building different pieces and different systems that will be more integrated when the development plan is finished. We're halfway, only halfway.

No, I'm really not.

To think that everything will be integrated in the end is wishful thinking at best. They've looked at all aspects of the game, but with every improvement, they've left other things static... even when the logical end point is that static placeholder. They had a great chance in Beyond 3.3 to not only revamp the exploration mechanics, but to make the accompanying exploration rank meaningful & varied to suit their new mechanics. But they stopped short - because it wasn't in the scope of the update. So what we actually have is a couple of mini-games tacked on to the same old placeholder system.

That's why it fails. It's not holistic in the slightest. There's no indication that there is an overall master-plan to bring all these disparate parts together. So you can repeat "It's only half way through the Ten Year Plan" like I'm some kind of green newb, but it's not credible at all. Sorry.

 

[fu9ar]

You are nitpicking about irrelevant nonsense that should be the lowest item on the priority list. Seriously, you are complaining about the rank systems, all of which are absolutely meaningless except for access to the Founder's World. They should be the absolute last thing that FDev polishes up, after everything else is a good game.

 

[60mm]

You are nitpicking about irrelevant nonsense that should be the lowest item on the priority list.

If you believed the method ranks are determined by is irrelevant nonsense, you wouldn't rush to defend it's current implementation, much less spend your time positing that it is irrelevant. Unless of course you are just whiteknighting, then it wouldn't matter whether it was nonsense or not. Honor is at at stake!

 

[Ian Skippy]

That's why it fails. It's not holistic in the slightest. There's no indication that there is an overall master-plan to bring all these disparate parts together. So you can repeat "It's only half way through the Ten Year Plan" like I'm some kind of green newb, but it's not credible at all. Sorry.

There isnt even a 'ten year plan' to begin with, that has been debunked ages ago. The idea that certain aspects are terrible because its part of a super secret master plan that will make everything awesome eventually is pretty much baseless religion.

 

[Juniper]

You are nitpicking about irrelevant nonsense that should be the lowest item on the priority list. Seriously, you are complaining about the rank systems, all of which are absolutely meaningless except for access to the Founder's World. They should be the absolute last thing that FDev polishes up, after everything else is a good game.

No, I'm "complaining" that there is no joined-up thinking in E: D's updates, and you can cheerfully ignore them if you want because the core game hasn't altered in the slightest. You can't do the same in NMS or most other games... if there is a major update, you know about it because it impacts every aspect of the game. Whether you like it or not, ranks are a big part of Elite (clue is in the name), and Founder's World access is also significant in the context of the game itself.

It fills me with zero hope that there's a chance all of this will make sense one day. Maybe "New Era" will fix it, but who knows... people are just expecting more shiny things, rather than a revamp and dispassionate review of what Elite currently is.

 

[VR jefranklin18]

Talking for myself of course. Since 2.0 I've always been disappointed by each update (except partially Beyond 3.3) because I've always been waiting for more planets to explore, more planetary gameplay and atmospheric planets. I've never found interesting BGS power play c&p engineer guardians and thargoids... I'm here only for the planetary stuff

I was pretty much the same: multicrew held no interest for me, the first iteration of the Engineers I pretty much avoided and don't get me started on the Guardians and Thargoids.... However, I was confident that Frontier were building towards an interesting future and expected big things from FX17 when all we got was Beyond and the two things they touted the most were pulled with one due this year (but no indication about what they're like) and the other with no timescale.

Coupled with Frontier's poor communications approach, my time in ED (which is a hell of a lot less than it used to be despite playing FE2/FFE right up until the release of ED) is despite Frontier not because of them.

 

[fu9ar]

I don't know about NMS's latest update. I do know that the mining and exploration update was great, and some of the little "shiny things" they released this year make some of the "core gameplay" more pleasant for me. I like what Elite is for the most part. I think your problem is your vision of what you want it to be doesn't align with what the developers want it to be. If you like NMS so much, nobody is forcing you to play Elite instead.

There isnt even a 'ten year plan' to begin with, that has been debunked ages ago. The idea that certain aspects are terrible because its part of a super secret master plan that will make everything awesome eventually is pretty much baseless religion.

So you are denying that Elite was released as a minimum viable product with a plan to continually develop and refine it over a period of years ( let's say about ten )?