An easy tweak to make Icy Bodies more exciting

[Dieseltanker]

As an explorer I noticed that many of my fellow players don't bother to completely scan systems full of icy bodies, let alone map them.

Solution: News article about alien structures of unknown origin found on icy bodies. Add a 1/100 chance to each icy body to contain such structures, but the only way to find out is by mapping the planet. Reward of twice the amount of a terraformable HMC world (plus bragging rights).

That's all. No further game tweaks or in-game explanation necessary. Also doesn't require planetary sites or landing on those planets for now, essentially none of the complicated stuff. You may decide to build on this story at a later time, our you don't. The thing that matters is that you created an incentive for explorers to scan an map icy bodies througout the galaxy.

 

[[VR] Dr Gentech]

1/100 is an insanely high ratio. Pretty sure that's as or more common than Thargoids or Guardians. It would need to be much lower and would still encourage people to scan.

 

[metatheurgist]

Maybe that's already the case, and no none has found any because no one scans icy worlds?

 

[Greasetrap42]

With so many ships traveling the galaxy there should be lots of secret human bases scattered around. Hard to find... sure. Like the rebels hanging out on Hoth in Empire Strikes Back. Confirmation of where settlements exist and where they defintely do not exist would be valueble to some organizations.

 

[CMDR X]

I'd be happy if they had randomly scattered crashed ships with collectable mats still on them.
Maybe with some scanable lore or coordinates to something valuable the CMDR found, before
freezing to death. Doesn't have to be much to make it fun and worthwhile. Anything but nothing.
X.

 

[Jmanis]

Give them geological POI with hundreds of LTDs in them. XD

More productively, I was under the impression Nu-exploration was meant to give Icy bodies interesting stuff... when I last mentioned this I got told a bunch of "oh no, of course not, why would any sort of life exist on such a planet? Why would anything exist there"... or the classic "Why does everything have to have a purpose? Why can't boring uninteresting things just exist? Not everything has to be useful!".

I dunno about specific alien ruins, but just something would be great.

 

[Vanquish383]

I'd be happy if they had randomly scattered crashed ships with collectable mats still on them.
Maybe with some scanable lore or coordinates to something valuable the CMDR found, before
freezing to death. Doesn't have to be much to make it fun and worthwhile. Anything but nothing.
X.

Exploration, that should be the diamond tip of this game, actually it the worst aspect.

The chance to find some crashed ship (or whatever) with something "valuable" would be great.

 

[Hopix]

Why not just add hidden structures on all planets (with a very small chance to find on any given one, still)?

 

[Vanquish383]

At this point, anything would be welcome.

But unfortunately from the FC content update (June) to the New Era release (Q1 2021), no new content release is expected. One year of complete nothingness.

 

[Jmanis]

Exploration, that should be the diamond tip of this game, actually it the worst aspect.

The chance to find some crashed ship (or whatever) with something "valuable" would be great.

We actually used to get random POI & blue circles out in the middle of nowhere... they got removed because "isn't this meant to be the great unknown?"... and replaced with... nothing.

The prime counterargument that always happens as well is "Oh, but when I'm out in the black loaded up with exploration data, why would I risk interacting with anything? Why would I gimp my exploration build with cargo space (since most people don't actually mean exploration, they just mean getting somewhere as fast as possible).

Of course, we can take biopsies of some of the alien life in NSPs, but this pays a pittance (I brought back 400 biopsies from alien life and got paid less than 1m credits...)

 

[[VR] Dr Gentech]

We actually used to get random POI & blue circles out in the middle of nowhere... they got removed because "isn't this meant to be the great unknown?"... and replaced with... nothing.

The prime counterargument that always happens as well is "Oh, but when I'm out in the black loaded up with exploration data, why would I risk interacting with anything? Why would I gimp my exploration build with cargo space (since most people don't actually mean exploration, they just mean getting somewhere as fast as possible).

Of course, we can take biopsies of some of the alien life in NSPs, but this pays a pittance (I brought back 400 biopsies from alien life and got paid less than 1m credits...)

How do you do biopsies? I haven't done it before

 

[Jmanis]

How do you do biopsies? I haven't done it before

Grab one of these:

Research Limpet Controller

Controls a limpet that scrapes samples and bio-matter from the surface of an alien vessel. — In-Game Description The Research Limpet Controller is a type of Limpet Controller module that can program limpets to extract tissue samples from Thargoid Interceptors, Thargoid Scouts, and alien organic...

elite-dangerous.fandom.com

Grab some Limpets, go to some space-based biologicals, throw them at them. There's a variety of types of biopsy, which are worth different amounts, but never much more than a couple ten thousand credits at most (ignore the guardian relic in the below shot).

Not everything can be biopsied, for a variety of reasons, for example Gourd molluscs are too small (or bugged, but probably too small), but Reel molluscs are fine.

There are some in the game yet to be discovered, namely Caclite Membrane Samples, and Anomaly Particles: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...know-that-eddb-doesnt-yet.458915/post-7176230

I'm yet to find any instance of Calcite Plates or Anomalies that can be sampled/scooped/whatever.

 

[Greasetrap42]

Exploration, that should be the diamond tip of this game, actually it the worst aspect.

Agreed.

Exploration is easy, relaxing, low risk, repetitive. But...

• Very poor payout per hour.
• Very little ingame to encourage exploration beyond the elite rank.
• Elite rank acquired from just flying around doing nothing. Zero skill required.
• Vastly biggest loss upon ship destruction. (weeks or months lost).
• No amazing exploration ship to aspire to. Not like trade, mining or combat.
• IMO pics are the coolest element of exploration, but not an ingame activity.

 

[Greasetrap42]

Fun example exploration mission:

Mission:

• Travel to the specified Nebula (located 15,000LY from bubble, roughly 30 systems) and scan systems for rebel settements.
• Settlement(s) are randomly placed per week so a simple google search gives no reliable answer.
• Unknown number of settlements. The cmdr will never be certain if all were found.
• The game records when screenshots are made in close proximity to the settlement.
• Rewards incrementally increased for each settlement found in the nebula.
• For payout per settlement explorer must: (1) scan the planet and (2) take multiple photo evidence of each settlements.
• Mission reward is applied exploration rank.

I'm sure this idea could easily be improved upon.

Variation:
Only the first cmdr in the game that successfully returns with the data per settlement gets the rewards, then the settlement locations get randomized again. There could be 5 nebula locations, so several different galactic locations a cmdr could try to score on.

 

[Dieseltanker]

Thank you all for your replies. It's good to know that people care. (And I just got to hope that at least some of the higher-ups also do.)

1/100 is roughly the chance to find an earth-like planet. So that's the amount of pain an explorer like me would be willing to endure just for the endorphin rush when you finally find one. It's gambling psychology 101 really, so an AAA computer company should know all about that ;>

So for this mechanic to work, I wouldn't go much higher or lower than 1/100.

If that's too high for alien artifacts, then another fluff explanation could also do the trick, like Hoth rebels.^^ But it should be something sufficiently cool. (pun intended?)

My suggestion intentionally doesn't include POI, planetary landing or anything that would require new game elements. I want it to be something a single programmer could add to the game in an afternoon. I'm more like a semi-expert when it comes to programming, but I believe it could be done.

And yes, maybe it's already part of the game, but when I started as an explorer I scanned and mapped all the planets of the first pristine systems I found, like a proud parent. And I believe so did many others in their early days, so at least one of them should have found something by now.

I'm playing ED for about a month now, so I can say that it takes at least that long for the the novelty to wore off. Actually, I'd give it another month. But obviously, for the veterans, that's just not good enough.

The Research Limpets thing sounds interesting and dangerous, so I'll give it a try! (Money isn't really that important in the game. But that's a whole different bag of worms.)

Sampling Calcite Plates or Anomalies would be another really cool and probably rather easy to implement tweak. I would love that.

 

[Dieseltanker]

Fun example exploration mission.

I like it! It's a bit more complicated to put something like that into the program (instead of the screeshot thing its probably easier to have a scannable beacon of something at the target location), but that would make for a nice quasi-CG.

 

[Greasetrap42]

I like it! It's a bit more complicated to put something like that into the program (instead of the screeshot thing its probably easier to have a scannable beacon of something at the target location), but that would make for a nice quasi-CG.

Thanks!

I like the photo aspect because:

1) It is very realistic. Photographic evidence is fantastic for reporting on rebel settlements. And secretive people hiding don't leave beacons with data just lying around. It breaks the premise of the mission. And perhaps part of the mission is to not reveal yourself (otherwise they would obviously relocate).

2) Taking photos is an activity many explorers do anyway. Its fun. And it fits the idea of exploring. I think taking screenshots should somehow be incorprated into gameplay. Whether it is this idea or something else.

Edit:
Plus, with my suggested variation proud cmdrs could post their winning pics!

And I forgot to mention, using the FSS does not reveal the hidden locations. Actual planet DSS must be made. Hence players must actually visit the planets to find the secret settlements.

Added danger, if the explorer accidentaly reveals themselves the settlement might send fighter ships after the explorer. Possibly following them through several jumps. Hows that for excitement?

Added strategy, a big armored exploration anaconda would have more survivabilty, but much less sneaky. A tiny exporation ship is far more sneaky, but possibly easily destroyed.

 

[Lucius Neng]

I think Frontier: Elite 2 included reconnaissance missions which involved taking photos...

 

[varonica]

Maybe that's already the case, and no none has found any because no one scans icy worlds?

Who you talking about...not me!

I must admit I don't surface map all the icy worlds, but that's the entire point of the FSS, to tell is if there is anything there worth surface scanning.

 

[Dieseltanker]

I think taking screenshots should somehow be incorprated into gameplay. Whether it is this idea or something else.

Agreed. And it absolutely needs to be automatic, to make it viable, because I'm pretty sure that Frontier does not have a hundred people sitting around, ready to manually sift through millions of photos per day.

And there actually are games out there with nice picture taking mechanics. Breath of the Wild for example.

Obviously that wouldn't be an "easy tweak", so its a bit OT.^^

I think Frontier: Elite 2 included reconnaissance missions which involved taking photos...

Found it! (starts at about 10:00)

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E99a_6Xwcjo


The player doesn't get to see the pictures themselves (its a 16-bit game after all), so the mechanic is more like scanning a beacon. But I think its absolutely doable in a modern game like ED. That said, an "easy tweak" this is not.^^