Anything actually out there - why explore? (New Player)

[MrFailfactory]

In my opinion, Exploration, more than any other activity in this game, reflects the old saying that you get out of something what you put into it.

If your chosen method is to jump, scan, scoop, and use a set of parameters for whether or not you jump again right away, then I think you will find Exploration to be quite lacking indeed.

At this point, it's very similar to the lottery - there is a small chance that you will hit the jackpot, a somewhat larger chance that you will move a mystery forward, etc. In the same light though, the only certain thing is that you can't win if you don't play.

My own personal Exploration enjoyment comes from actively searching for something specific - most recently, the Ruins. I did not end up being the first to find one, and while that was disappointing, it didn't take away from the experience itself. I go out with a purpose, or Mission, if you will, but I don't do it randomly. I do some deduction, set up a plan (and an appropriate ship), and go.

Riôt

 

[Shackram]

Strictly speaking, this is correct. The actual game mechanics of exploring in Elite only really support jumping, honking, and scanning stellar bodies to tag them.

Now, if you are a more freeform kind of game player, the kind of person who can make up your own goals and objectives, who can even simply drive an SRV around a moon orbiting a ringed gas giant purely for the fun of it and the scenery, well then exploration can provide something much more than what the game mechanics support. It is of my opinion though that you really do need a good imagination to enjoy exploration in Elite, because the gameplay just doesn’t exist (yet?).

Scenery is one of Elite high points and what primarily draws me to it, even if you discount some lackluster, beige planets.

Yeah like I found a landable planet the size of a star yesterday is was orbiting a f class and it's an icy body but the same size as the f class star, its Massive!!! is it unique or have people seen this before? If it's unique I'll post pic of its stats and jot it down as a tourist locacation if not I'll just move along

That's not usual for sure. Largest reported on the forum is 24,400 km in radius https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/327917-Really-large-landable-planets-the-list-(MK-II)

 

[CMDR Vakross]

Nope. Mr. Wagar confirmed that this was one chapter, not the whole mystery that has been solved.

Also, based on the logs on the Zurara, we now know that there are at least two other unique megaships out there, most likely with more voice-acted audio logs on them. However, with next to no clues to go on, finding them would be extremely difficult. Even for this one, Mr. Wagar had to literally spell out (in a riddle) the system name, although I'd wager that the Zurara was only not found before 2.3 (when it would have been much less impressive) because he misled people with the Eafots "clues".
He does have a tendency to overhype things, so personally, I'd set my expectations accordingly. But hey, more stuff to look for out there is always good.

This is very interesting. I was unaware that there is so much to this story, (I'm currently only 1/3 through the book now), but very excited to know there is more. I've just recently managed to acquire enough credits to finally purchase my first DiamondBack Explorer and get it fitted. I went on my first 1kly trek just the other day and manged to Tag 6 planets and a Red Dwarf Star. :-D

FD Have stated last year that there are many things out there yet to be discovered in the Galaxy and hopefully they will not start pointing big arrows to them just because no one has found them yet. This is the thrill of exploration to just stumble on some major discovery, even if it does takes years.

Those that want arrows pointing to every thing should stay in the bubble.

As big as the galaxy is, I must say I have to agree with this. Part of the fun of exploration is not knowing what you'll find (as long as you know that there is something out there in the first place, assuming FD really have put things out there). I could understand "big arrows" to things if they where jumping off points to story arcs and key transitions to road-map type game play and haven't been found within a certain time frame, but for the most part let us explore.

I really don't believe that. There is no way that since the launch just now ppl are getting interdicted 5 times in a roll. No way at all.
All I can think about all of this is they are trying to keep us playing for the late plans that didn't happened yet.

I truly hope that FD are not just stringing us along, but one can never really know for sure I suppose.

Either way, I'm starting to fully realize why exploration can be so additive. (Well, at least for a little whiles anyway lol).

 

[CMDR Vakross]

FD Have stated last year that there are many things out there yet to be discovered in the Galaxy

Just curious. Does anyone have a link or any other information on when/where they've stated this? I'd like to read up on this a bit more. It kinda goes hand-n-hand with this whole thread. I was trying to look up something on it myself, but haven't found anyplace they say something like this yet.
Thanks

 

[KellyR]

There are things out there to find. Now having said that, you won't like the rest. It's a BIG galaxy. FD has put things to find. But you may not find them because of just how big the galaxy is. It's pure chance when you happen upon something. It may never be found. There are 400 billion stars. Explorers know they are searching for a needle in a hay stack. But they still do it because even if they don't find anything, they have seen some great views and saw some awesome sights.

 

[marx]

Just curious. Does anyone have a link or any other information on when/where they've stated this? I'd like to read up on this a bit more. It kinda goes hand-n-hand with this whole thread. I was trying to look up something on it myself, but haven't found anyplace they say something like this yet.

I'm fairly certain they said these during some of their livestreams or videos. Players have written up summaries of (almost) all of them, so you should probably search those.

 

[CMDR Vakross]

There are things out there to find. Now having said that, you won't like the rest. It's a BIG galaxy. FD has put things to find. But you may not find them because of just how big the galaxy is. It's pure chance when you happen upon something. It may never be found. There are 400 billion stars. Explorers know they are searching for a needle in a hay stack. But they still do it because even if they don't find anything, they have seen some great views and saw some awesome sights.

Completely agree with you, and the fact that I might not find anything myself is something that I'm okay with. It's just nice to know that at the end of the day, we can all search that big swirling mass with the dreams that it might be us who stumbles upon that next big find or event.

 

[Rustnsawdust]

Just to add something that wasn't *explicitly* stated in the previous posts... as I understand it, the Elite galaxy is procedurally-generated. Which means that - with the exception of a few dev-planted alien artefacts - there's stuff out there that *no-one* has seen before because the only way to know is to go and look. Earth-like worlds embedded in the rings of gas giants. Tiny planets waltzing between multiple stars. The 'hurtling moons of Barsoom'. To stand on a nearby planet and see Betelgeuse filling the entire sky. To see a planetary nebula from the inside. If you have the slightest curiosity or interest in astronomy, this 'game' is an absolute joy.

Of course, there are those - and some posted earlier in this thread - who will tell you that when you've seen one sunset/mountain/waterfall/eclipse/whatever, you've seen them all. And we should treat them with the respect they deserve.

 

[Galactic Fork]

Considering the size of this game, this is really sad. I mean, if you don't have anything to discover in this game beside the planets and systems itself, what more do you have to do? Kill people and farm credits? No thank you.
I'm sad.

Out of curiousity, what would you like to discover? And how could it realistically be implemented to allow people to find it organically, while not filling the galaxy with it, to the point it's a numbers game?

I mean, look at the geysers and stuff. We can tell if a planet has them, and there are soo many planets that do, but searching for them is barely (read:not even) worth it because planets are so big. Methods I hear about seem to be about exploiting contrast, or using how the system renders geysers to spot them from high up, and well, that just seems cheap and too meta for me. So we would need them to be scattered all over the planet, or have a sensor that points directly to them. And both would cheapen and eliminate the "just stumbled upon it" aspect.

So, how could these things be implemented with the size of the universe, and the fact it's a game? I personally like the idea of random retroactively persistent events. Kinda similar to the normal USS and POI, but bigger and remain after. Like say, have an area of space assigned. If someone travels through systems in that area, there's a chance a they find a massive premade generation ship, or something important... with logs and stuff. After they find it, its location is locked in place after for others to see.

This way there's a real chance of find it. But you don't have to go to one specific place. Just an area.

Anybody else have any methods?

 

[-VR- pipestein]

Out of curiousity, what would you like to discover? And how could it realistically be implemented to allow people to find it organically, while not filling the galaxy with it, to the point it's a numbers game?

I mean, look at the geysers and stuff. We can tell a planet has them, and they are on soo many planets that do, but searching for them is barely (read:not even) worth it because planets are so big. Methods I hear about seem to be about exploiting contrast, or using how the system renders geysers to spot them from high up, and well, that just seems cheap and too meta for me. So we would need them to be scattered all over the planet, or have a sensor that points directly to them. And both would cheapen and eliminate the "just stumbled upon it" aspect.

So, how could these things be implemented with the size of the universe, and the fact it's a game? I personally like the idea of random retroactively persistent events. Kinda similar to the normal USS and POI, but bigger and remain after. Like say, have an area of space assigned. If someone travels through systems in that area, there's a chance a they find a massive premade generation ship, or something important... with logs and stuff. After they find it, its location is locked in place after for others to see.

This way there's a real chance of find it. But you don't have to go to one specific place. Just an area.

Anybody else have any methods?

To be honest the tools to do active discovery are not included in the game. What I would like to find are some sort of alien mega structure. What would that be? A dyson sphere or ring would be a prime example. Stellar phenomenon such as energy fields in space are another. with what we have in game currently discovery is limited to jumping to a system and crossing your fingers as we have no way to actively probe a system before jumping to it to even look for anomolies. As for the OP's question about why explore? It is the biggest sandbox ever designed for a game, it seems to me that it is a shame if a percentage of us do not venture out into that sandbox even if it is only to say that you did it.