I suppose we could work out the theoretical maximum possible visited systems by calculating the number of systems, the number of players and the length of time it takes to jump between systems. Of course not accurate because we don't explore 24 hours a day, we could allow for that, and most explorers don't just jump system to system, but it would give us a maximum number of possible visited systems, I personally doubt even that would reach 1% though.
Please sprinkle a few surprises around the Galaxy in Odyssey (E:D too please if poss!), don’t tell anybody:let us just discover them for ourselves.
- Thread starter FatFreddysCoat
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I suppose we could work out the theoretical maximum possible visited systems by calculating the number of systems, the number of players and the length of time it takes to jump between systems. Of course not accurate because we don't explore 24 hours a day, we could allow for that, and most explorers don't just jump system to system, but it would give us a maximum number of possible visited systems, I personally doubt even that would reach 1% though.
This is a great explanation for the current state of the game, thank-you. However, while a valid case can be made for FD not allowing "armchair exploration" as you describe.. simply being able to filter the routing map by stars that have been visited by those that have not been is no different than knowing what class of star it is before you arrive. Not asking for a system map showing planets and moons - no zoom - just a simple filter on the route plotter to allow a player to plot a course to the unknown.
Universal Cartographics holds a monopoly over exploration data in-game and unfortunately they don't sell it back to us*. I'd gladly pay hefty credits for their data on surrounding systems so I would know what's already explored and direct my exploration more efficiently. At least they let us known if they already have handed-in data for body tags.
That said, we aren't really at a point to need that much information. If you pick a random system a few thousand light years away from obvious hotspots, and start writing down every system in say, a 10x10 grid (for many regions this will actually give you a reasonable amount of systems to work on "100% exploration of a space pixel") to check for existing data on EDSM, you're going to find that most of them are really unexplored.
* - Under very specific conditions a "purchase exploration data" button appears so the solution is already in-game, but if I remember correctly it's something like while docked, for inhabited systems up to like 15 ly away... or it was removed at some point. I'm not sure.
About the myth that all the nebulae are picked clean, which showed up here as well: yeah, nope. As proof, I'd like to submit the IGAU Inverness's nebula survey expedition (EDSM expedition page here), which went from this June to the end of August, and we've discovered literally thousands of new systems, somewhere around ten thousand, the vast majority being mass code D, around various nebulae. This was done with just a dozen active participants, and we didn't stop because we ran out of systems. (We did have a timeframe, a secondary mission to complete, and then a new addition: deploying the carrier after the expedition to the DSSA.)
The key is to pick your targets wisely. Sure, the real nebulae close to Sol have been picked mostly clean, as well as the more distant ones which only have a few hundred systems around them. But in places out of the way where star density is higher, you can still find lots of undiscovered systems around nebulae. Or well, some lesser known (or less popular) ones too: back a year ago, I found plenty of undiscovered systems in NGC 1931, and not just boring dwarf stars, but all of the main sequence up to A too. Got myself a new ELW and a new AW+WW binary pair there as well.
Whether Frontier had hidden stuff in any of those undiscovered systems is a good question. The NSPs they placed around large nebulae tend to be easy to find, so I'm fairly certain there are no new types to be found there, and the distant Guardian ruins are around less populated clouds. But if you'd like your own systems with some gorgeous views, well, there are still plenty of those around - you just have to do some research first. Or, now that I think about it, you could also just follow the waypoints of our expedition.
There are most likely more such nebulae as well; we originally planned to have more waypoints picked out, but ended up going to less due to time and tritium constraints. There ought to be plenty more fresh systems.
The key is to pick your targets wisely. Sure, the real nebulae close to Sol have been picked mostly clean, as well as the more distant ones which only have a few hundred systems around them. But in places out of the way where star density is higher, you can still find lots of undiscovered systems around nebulae. Or well, some lesser known (or less popular) ones too: back a year ago, I found plenty of undiscovered systems in NGC 1931, and not just boring dwarf stars, but all of the main sequence up to A too. Got myself a new ELW and a new AW+WW binary pair there as well.
Whether Frontier had hidden stuff in any of those undiscovered systems is a good question. The NSPs they placed around large nebulae tend to be easy to find, so I'm fairly certain there are no new types to be found there, and the distant Guardian ruins are around less populated clouds. But if you'd like your own systems with some gorgeous views, well, there are still plenty of those around - you just have to do some research first. Or, now that I think about it, you could also just follow the waypoints of our expedition.
There are most likely more such nebulae as well; we originally planned to have more waypoints picked out, but ended up going to less due to time and tritium constraints. There ought to be plenty more fresh systems.
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I like the idea. Problem is, however, that they'd ALL be uncovered within the first 24 real hours of their implementation. Kinda sucks monkey feces for anyone who's NOT among the graybreard no-lifers who crack those puzzles within minutes or hours.
Given how much of the galaxy is currently explored the odds of finding a random thing in the universe is virtually nil.
So is winning the lottery but people still buy tickets. It is the excitement of the possibility that motivates.
Sure, but the fact that one person has already solved a puzzle does not preclude you to slove it too (and having fun doing so).
A good puzzle is it own reward. Journey, not destination.
As for avoiding players bypassing the puzzle altogether, one may use handcrafted* dark systems that only get targetable once the puzzle is solved.
Also, quite a few puzzles can be partially proc-gened. Sure there will be repetitions after a while, but this is a rather good way to keep things fresh.
Sea of Thieves does that rather competently with the riddle maps and the gold hoarders vault*. Translating such things in ED is far from an impossible task.
Let us suppose that FDev creates say 42 or so dark systems that can only be accessed through unstable witchspace anomalies. 42 is not an impossible number and matches the galactic regions. What do you put in it ? Well, one could have different puzzles-dark systems pairs tied to different elite mysteries/lore (guardians, lost ships, thargoids etc...), or just very good looking systems. One could have the rift push you to one of the unreachable systems above the galaxy, or FDev could use them to grand access to new small proc-gened globular clusters in orbit above the galaxy.
As for the puzzles themselves, if you have 42 different themed puzzles, you can spread the difficulty from trivial to devilish. Which is a cool thing in itself. Solve the puzzle, and the game adds the witchspace anomlay and gives its location**. Fly through it, get to the related dark system. The clues can be delivered in a region of space rather than a single system via space based anomalies or ground anomalies. Breadcrumbs and such.
*Though the puzzles are rather trivial in difficulty.
**Think megaship/thargoid style witchspace rift/cloud.
"Devilish" you say? This was actually the basis for the final act in my short story "Elite: Danger Star". Seriously, if they CAN hand-craft such systems (and also make it "dark"), that's something I'd like for my birthday: PLEASE ADD DANGER STAR!