Almost 9 months worth of exploration data lost

[VAN LORD]

+1 for the "black box".

Also it would be nice to add after death, in the window of re-purchase of the ship, to specify the system name in which occurred the death of the ship, as following to the prearranged reference point, the day by day routine of scan objects, anonymizes the names of systems and it is difficult to remember the exact name of the last one.
Just make from finding your "black box", another adventure.
Or ask your friend, remaining in the same sector, to pick it up (your scanned data) for you, him or some other lucky pilot, who accidentally find some "lost black box".
For this should be given the opportunity to crack the "black boxes" and copy their contents.

 

[Hansel_Lothar]

+1 for the "black box".

Also it would be nice to add after death, in the window of re-purchase of the ship, to specify the system name in which occurred the death of the ship, as following to the prearranged reference point, the day by day routine of scan objects, anonymizes the names of systems and it is difficult to remember the exact name of the last one.
Just make from finding your "black box", another adventure.
Or ask your friend, remaining in the same sector, to pick it up (your scanned data) for you, him or some other lucky pilot, who accidentally find some "lost black box".
For this should be given the opportunity to crack the "black boxes" and copy their contents.

This could be ok way to do it.
What you could have is a unique tracker signal so you can go and retrieve your black box.

This way you keep your data if you get blow to bits because you can go and recover them AND you are not being tempted to commit suicide 65 Kly to get your data home faster.

 

[Noogillim]

This would easily be work around by allowing explorers to hide copies of data caches on planet surfaces, obviously you'd have to use spots that are innocuous and none obvious make a note of the lat long locally etc and out of the way and not get spotted doing it, at least you'd get a chance of recovering most of your data should the worst happen, as an explorer you could also discover these caches if you were dedicated or lucky enough to.

Never likely to happen though.

 

[btlpilot]

Another sob story. NPC's must be more deadly since the last time I played. Just lost 1.3 million in 2 quick deaths in my Asp. I don't log in often because I'm waiting for more content, but I was actually enjoying myself. After the latest buyback, I don't have enough money for another one. It's not worth it to login and risk losing what has taken me 2 years to get. I don't have much time to play so I have grinded (ground?) my way to the Asp slowly over the past couple years. I fear that if I lose the Asp now, I won't have the heart to play the game again for a very long time (Season 3). I know these dollar amounts are miniscule compared to some, but it's still the culmination of my efforts. I suppose I could take a Sidewinder and earn some that way... /rant

 

[Lestat]

Ok the black box sounds good in theory. But when you have people self destructing to get home or they are damage and don't want to deal with it trying to get home in a damaged ship. They can retrieve it in month time. It going to cause system lag and delays. Everything from system map, entering leaving station entering planet orbit delays.

I think people need to look at it this way. Time + effort = Is it worth the chance.

We also don't know how badly damage his Hauler was. Note user error is the major part of exploration damage.

 

[CMDR-AD]

The mechanic is entirely negotiable, IMO, but there should be something, gameplay-purity be damned. With most suggested save systems, there's a risk of loss involved. That's good enough for me.

I think the only reason exploration data is lost with the ship is due to the point you quoted, using suicide as an instant shortcut home plus keep all that money for the trip.

Something that might allow this to remain blocked, yet still open the door for players who suffer some problem on the way back home:

If your ship is destroyed, a Personal Data Beacon containing the exploration data is left among wreckage in the system where you died. After the player respawns, they could be offered a "Exploration Survey Salvage" mission that only appears for themselves, which would tell them the system where to find the Beacon. Then, as they supercruise around that system, the "Mission Critical" USS would appear for them to drop in, and recover their data. Now the new ship regains all the exploration data, and they can cash it in.

This prevents still easy use of suicide as an exploit, since traveling that entire same distance again to recover the Personal Data Beacon is the same as flying home.

Explorers who suffer some failure or accident could make that long trip again and recover their Beacon (if they wanted to), continuing on their exploration journey.

And those homeward bound who suffer a loss in the final few jumps could recover the Beacon without much burden. Just a jump or two.

EDIT - Bah, missed page 2 before replying. And this idea is already there!

 

[Trinity Star]

Why was he attacked in the first place, if he wasn't carrying any cargo? Interdictions are stupid, like I get stopped in a fully modded battle corvette for 4 tonnes worth 270cr!

 

[Lestat]

Why was he attacked in the first place, if he wasn't carrying any cargo? Interdictions are stupid, like I get stopped in a fully modded battle corvette for 4 tonnes worth 270cr!

Well I think one thing Frontier might add is. Exploration data could be use as Cargo. You would have to use the Elite Dangerous DDF Archives. It was not added for players yet.


I think players need to ask your self this.

1 When is it time to come home?

2 How much damage to my ship is too much of a risk?

3 How much of a risk are you willing to take?

4 Are you targeting a safe system or a system in a war or anarchy. Is that risk worth it.

 

[DARGAN]

(I am French, I use a translator, I hope the translation is good.)

in the current state, and my experience (I am a pioneer in exploration).

I would recommend three things for the return:

1- Have a good shield (parfois l'IA is dangerous).

I once heard someone defend the fact to trade without shield for added cargo space , no shield to wear over break, and although it is a very bad idea.

2- The computer decking, certainly it is doing, but after three months we lost the reflexes to the docking.

3- solo play online and not in multiplayer, it is not safe to cross a nervous player.

normally with all that taken into account, although it should pass it. I empathized although I have personally lost no data, although once or I was scared.

(there is also the trick ALT F4 in case of problems , but shhh)

 

[Trinity Star]

Pick a high security system near the edge, one I used to come back from the centre the station was 13l from the star.

 

[Lestat]

Pick a high security system near the edge, one I used to come back from the centre the station was 13l from the star.

Ya and it going to get easier. Because the next the 2.2 feature They are adding a new navigation Feature. Which help plot around war zones.

 

[CapitanAceRimmer]

There are groups that will give you an escort, I have heard of Irridium and SEPP doing this, contact them

 

[JesusRocks1988]

Why was he attacked in the first place, if he wasn't carrying any cargo? Interdictions are stupid, like I get stopped in a fully modded battle corvette for 4 tonnes worth 270cr!

The other possible reason for the interdiction could be PowerPlay. If he was aligned with a power, then NPC ships are more likely to interdict on this premise as well. Mind you, I've been interdicted plenty by NPCs who thought I had some cargo, but had none. In those cases, they scan me and leave me alone. The problem is that you can pick up cargo out on an exploration trip - salvaged from planets or signal sources, and make yourself a target on the way back. OP doesn't specify if he was carrying cargo or not.

 

[Leper Messiah]

At the very least a black box should be persistently left by your destroyed ship in that system (let it spawn randomly as a point of interest when you're in the system) and you should be able to go get it and turn it in.

That way people can't just travel 10+k Ly and then destroy themselves just to get back home instantly with their data. They would have to travel back that distance and go find that black box with all the exploration data. A bit of work, but not as much work as re-doing everything.

+1 for the "black box".

Also it would be nice to add after death, in the window of re-purchase of the ship, to specify the system name in which occurred the death of the ship, as following to the prearranged reference point, the day by day routine of scan objects, anonymizes the names of systems and it is difficult to remember the exact name of the last one.
Just make from finding your "black box", another adventure.
Or ask your friend, remaining in the same sector, to pick it up (your scanned data) for you, him or some other lucky pilot, who accidentally find some "lost black box".
For this should be given the opportunity to crack the "black boxes" and copy their contents.

This could be ok way to do it.
What you could have is a unique tracker signal so you can go and retrieve your black box.

This way you keep your data if you get blow to bits because you can go and recover them AND you are not being tempted to commit suicide 65 Kly to get your data home faster.

all repped for using common sense, there is NO reason why a black box system can NOT be used that is both fair and not a cheat. The lack of said feature and the ridiculously high cost of a mistake if comnig back from a long trip has all but killed the game for me (along with lack of things to actually "do" when exploring, and the stupidly long scan times).