An apology to FD - old explorer mechanic IS still there!

[Enderby]

The main problem is that the FSS is really naff and the sooner it gets fixed the more people can enjoy the game again.
If by 'improving exploration' FD meant ruining it by introducing an -numbingly tedious and inane mini-game, well, then they've achieved what they set out to do, I suppose.

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

The main problem is that the FSS is really naff and the sooner it gets fixed the more people can enjoy the game again.
If by 'improving exploration' FD meant ruining it by introducing an ****-numbingly tedious and inane mini-game, well, then they've achieved what they set out to do, I suppose.

To their credit they were pretty honest in the livestream where it was introduced. The first main point they promoted as the key feature is and somewhat dismaying and explains everything. In case you haven’t it’s worth going back and watching it again because much becomes clear after using it.

In hindsight I blame whoever decided to build the game for reddit users and failed to note or care that anyone else exists.

 

[Enderby]

Whatever the reason and the potential pandering to shill city (reddit), the blob hunt is the worst thing I have ever seen introduced to an established game. Why the would anyone, anyone of sane mind, consider the blob-hunt a good thing to introduce and change a years-old mechanic? How can one have any faith in the future of ED when FD continually and repeatedly serve up crud-sandwiches?

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

Whatever the reason and the potential pandering to shill city (reddit), the blob hunt is the worst thing I have ever seen introduced to an established game. Why the **** would anyone, anyone of sane mind, consider the blob-hunt a good thing to introduce and change a years-old mechanic? How can one have any faith in the future of ED when FD continually and repeatedly serve up crud-sandwiches?

You're taking me back to the first stages of grief... but the first issue with the blobs is it takes you out of the cockpit. While the first thought has you understanding where they came from, the second makes it even more stupid because they could have just put the same thing in something like the station ui or the hud radar.. even created some sort of animation from something in the ship to the blue blob screen of bubble popping to help suspend disbelief.. but nope.

Its like the dumb unconsidered first pass is the only thing that could manage in an entire year.

 

[Burke]

Why the **** would anyone, anyone of sane mind, consider the blob-hunt a good thing to introduce and change a years-old mechanic?

Even if they wanted to make something new it doesn explain why the old way had to go. Its really killed it for me, this game still looks nice but its GFX are getting old compared to recent releases and the over saturation near stars does it no favours. Even after all this time i am frankly astounded at what they did to what was basicly the best part of this game.

I can only think that the old way had to go cause it was specifically designed to kill off the old way.

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

The main problem is that the FSS is really naff and the sooner it gets fixed the more people can enjoy the game again.
If by 'improving exploration' FD meant ruining it by introducing an ****-numbingly tedious and inane mini-game, well, then they've achieved what they set out to do, I suppose.

I actually think the probe-golf minigame is worse. The process is totally disjointed and breaks up what used to be a smooth, flowing experience into a constant stop-start irritation.

Getting into position requires dragging deep into the body's gravity well while staring waiting for a label saying 'Out of range' to change to 'Too fast'. There's no countdown or indication of when it's going to change, so you just have to sit and wait.

Then when you've hit stop, and waited for the ship to slow down, you're switched to a totally different environment, with a totally different control scheme. This meant that FDev had to label everything, which I personally find irritating since I feel like I've switched from a hi-tech spaceship to a Fisher-Price activity set.

Now I get to play a childishly simple minigame that, because of the infinite probe issue, is impossible to fail - even when the coverage highlight stops working and you have no idea what's already been scanned. Just keep spamming probes and you'll get there eventually.

Which brings us to the laughably illogical 'Efficiency bonus'. There's absolutely no reason why my scan data should be worth more because I used 5 probes instead of 6, but FDev had to put it in to mitigate making the whole process of scanning a pointless time-sink by making probes infinite.

So now I've played the minigame and I'm sat deep in a gravity well with nothing to do but fly in a straight line away from the planet so I can go off and do the whole exercise again somewhere else.

The worst part about it is that there's no other way to map a planet. At least with the FSS I can ignore it completely, find bodies by parallax and use my invisible old-DSS to resolve them.

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

I actually think the probe-golf minigame is worse. The process is totally disjointed and breaks up what used to be a smooth, flowing experience into a constant stop-start irritation.

Getting into position requires dragging deep into the body's gravity well while staring waiting for a label saying 'Out of range' to change to 'Too fast'. There's no countdown or indication of when it's going to change, so you just have to sit and wait.

Not exactly true, its definitely possible to find one visual configuration that holds for small and large bodies. Don't fly by the gauges and see what you can come up with.

Lately ive been flying at any speed under the speed limit rather than min maxing the approach (like what you did before you knew there was a speed limit) and its been so much better to look at the bodies again.

The only annoying thing is for turbo bodies you have to make sure you get into orbit or its very dumb.

If you're actually motivated by any of the mapping rewards you can get very familiar with what you do to launch them as well so its not a pain trigger from expecting just trial and error. In this mode, if you slow down and think about it your own logic always holds up so its not the mechanic its operator error (i binge found and mapped 27 tagless systems in the bubble on launch.. not like i was going out of the bubble anytime soon.....).

 

[Gut Rumble]

F.S.S is just a stupid Time Sink , all you do is play the silly blob game just to get to the point that a Honk used to get you lol , then you play Missile Command at planets where you fly much closer then the old way and takes ages to escape the gravity lol . Name Tags on anything is pointless as no one looks at them now . shame.

 

[Para Handy]

F.S.S is just a stupid Time Sink , all you do is play the silly blob game just to get to the point that a Honk used to get you lol , ..........

You mean get to the point that honking and also doing DSS of each body in the system used to get you.

Honestly, if you are going to moan about something at least be honest about what is going on, to call something that is actually faster a "time sink" is disingenuous to say the least.


P.S. Shouldn't someone edit the thread title to read "Moaning about the FSS thread Mk XIVC".

 

[Shinji Ikari]

You mean get to the point that honking and also doing DSS of each body in the system used to get you.

Honestly, if you are going to moan about something at least be honest about what is going on, to call something that is actually faster a "time sink" is disingenuous to say the least.


P.S. Shouldn't someone edit the thread title to read "Moaning about the FSS thread Mk XIVC".

That depends.

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

P.S. Shouldn't someone edit the thread title to read "Moaning about the FSS thread Mk XIVC".

Hey! We're moaning about the DSS too!
Try to keep up