Wall of text incoming because this means a lot to me and my play style!
The goals described in the original post are excellent and I am aligned with those goals. At first I was concerned about the specifics presented, but the live stream was very helpful in answering a lot of questions and made me more confident that this update will be a very positive change! Thank you Adam and Ed!
To give my input some context to you, let me describe the type of player I am. I am primarily an explorer (my only Elite ranking) but you could call me a cherry-picker. As you know, long-range travel in Elite is measured in hours. For me, the destination is as important as the journey. I choose a destination (generally a cool nebula or recently-discovered Guardian or Thargoid site) and explore systems along the way. I don't want to spend too much time scanning bodies of little interest or credit value, since I have somewhere I want to go. It is important to me to be able to quickly identify which bodies in the system are "interesting", scan them to see if I was right, and then move on.
In order to make this an informed and efficient process, I use some community-made tools to reveal information that is not readily available in-game. Ultimately, I would love to see this information presented by the game in-context when needed, instead of relying on community tools, and this update to exploration mechanics seems like a great opportunity to do so.
EDDI
The Speech Responder tab has a number of useful TTS-based outputs based on journal file parsing of in-game events. Two of the most useful for exploration purposes are the Star scanned and Body scanned events. These tell me (via voice output in real time as I just finished scanning an object in-game) the following pieces of important information:
- The star's calculated habitable range (aka the Goldilocks zone): This data isn't available at all in-game, but is very important to help identify which bodies in the system may be terraformable candidates.
- Body type (already displayed in the cockpit): When discovering a Earth-like, Ammonia, or Water World, this is a "jackpot!" moment.
- Terraformable status: This is only visible in the system map (not on the HUD), so you generally never see it unless you go hunting for it. Discovering a terraformable body is a "jackpot!" moment that the game should communicate.
- High concentration of a material type: If a body has an unusually high amount of one particular material, EDDI tells you so. This is much more interesting than showing a long list of materials, each with their own %, and knowing whether 6% is high or low for Molybdenum.
- Estimated credit value: Understanding the value of a body you just scanned is key to advancing in exploration rank and becoming a more efficient explorer (of my play style). The game doesn't communicate this critical value until you sell the exploration data, at which point it's lost in a gigantic list of scanned systems/bodies and you have no connection to the data any more. It should be shown in-game at the point of scanning so players can begin to judge what is worth their time and what isn't. This value is so important I actually helped to implement this feature into EDDI based on MattG's reverse-engineered formulae.
I use the above information in my current exploration game play loop:
1. Honk
2. Target star to begin the passive scanning process
3. Park safely within fuel scoop area
4. Open system map
5. Hear the habitable zone report from EDDI
6. Identify bodies within habitable zone for potential terraformable worlds or existing earth-like / water worlds
7. Scan metal-rich bodies near the star (<50ls)
8. Scan high-metal-content bodies near the star (<200ls)
9. Scan identified potential high-value bodies (potential terraformable, earth-like / water worlds)
10. Jump to next system
I am totally happy for that game play loop to change with the new improvements, so long as it's more engaging, not significantly slower, and the game itself provides me with enough information to make the same informed choices I currently make.
That means the new system scanning process should, before scanning a particular body:
- Readily identify bodies by type, which we can then use our experience to speculate on their credit value. This needs to be more readable than the SRV wave scanner. I know you're working on it, and it's super important!
- Report / show the system's habitable zone, even just for the "primary" star. The min/max scan range on the right side of the screenshots looks purpose-designed for this use case. Maybe this functionality is only available on Advanced discovery scanners and not the Basic?
Once a body has been scanned by the new sensors, it will be important to report the following information:
- Anomaly Detected: Is there something of interest on this body? You mentioned this on the live stream so thumb's up there!
- High concentration of material type: If I need a particular material for engineering, is this a good place to land and do some surface mining?
- Credit value: Was this a "jackpot!" or a dud? Should I search for more bodies like this in the future or skip them if I'm in a hurry?
- Terraformable state: Supplements the "jackpot!" feeling if credits are not shown, but might also be worth a closer look, visually! Not strictly necessary if credit value is displayed.
- Previously discovered by: Am I the first player to scan this body or did someone else beat me to it? Don't make me dig through the system map to see this.
How I want to use my exploration data (either scanned or purchased)
This is a big-picture topic that I think deserves some thought, separate from the actual exploration mechanics themselves. Why am I gathering exploration data in the first place? It should be more useful to me than just credits in the bank.
Exploration data in general should be used to improve all of my in-game activities. Regardless of how I acquired the data (scanned it myself or purchased it on the galaxy map), I should be able to:
- Search for bodies with a "high concentration" of a specific material. This improves my Engineering game play.
- Search for specific "point of interest" types (ex: ancient ruins, brain trees, geysers, etc.). This improves my Exploration and "narrative" gameplay (grind obelisks / blueprints / artifacts).
- Search for stations facility types. This improves all of my game play types, in particular combat (interstellar factors) and "narrative" (tech brokers, material traders).
My vision of Elite's exploration gameplay purpose is to increase my own knowledge of the contents of the galaxy -- ever-expanding my own personal "bubble" in a way that I can access via in-game tools. Ultimately we should be able to have an EDDB-like experience on the galaxy map (or Codex) using our own personally-gathered (or purchased) data set.
The display of these search results should be in clickable text form -- not a visual filter on the galaxy map. The galaxy map's filters are useful if there are lots of results, but finding sparse results (ex: Guardian owned) can be very difficult, visually.
PS. This is also a good time to revisit the credit value of various body types that feels off, such as gas giants with life forms being worth almost nothing. Gas giants in general are not worth scanning right now.
-CMDR Silversheen
The goals described in the original post are excellent and I am aligned with those goals. At first I was concerned about the specifics presented, but the live stream was very helpful in answering a lot of questions and made me more confident that this update will be a very positive change! Thank you Adam and Ed!
To give my input some context to you, let me describe the type of player I am. I am primarily an explorer (my only Elite ranking) but you could call me a cherry-picker. As you know, long-range travel in Elite is measured in hours. For me, the destination is as important as the journey. I choose a destination (generally a cool nebula or recently-discovered Guardian or Thargoid site) and explore systems along the way. I don't want to spend too much time scanning bodies of little interest or credit value, since I have somewhere I want to go. It is important to me to be able to quickly identify which bodies in the system are "interesting", scan them to see if I was right, and then move on.
In order to make this an informed and efficient process, I use some community-made tools to reveal information that is not readily available in-game. Ultimately, I would love to see this information presented by the game in-context when needed, instead of relying on community tools, and this update to exploration mechanics seems like a great opportunity to do so.
EDDI
The Speech Responder tab has a number of useful TTS-based outputs based on journal file parsing of in-game events. Two of the most useful for exploration purposes are the Star scanned and Body scanned events. These tell me (via voice output in real time as I just finished scanning an object in-game) the following pieces of important information:
- The star's calculated habitable range (aka the Goldilocks zone): This data isn't available at all in-game, but is very important to help identify which bodies in the system may be terraformable candidates.
- Body type (already displayed in the cockpit): When discovering a Earth-like, Ammonia, or Water World, this is a "jackpot!" moment.
- Terraformable status: This is only visible in the system map (not on the HUD), so you generally never see it unless you go hunting for it. Discovering a terraformable body is a "jackpot!" moment that the game should communicate.
- High concentration of a material type: If a body has an unusually high amount of one particular material, EDDI tells you so. This is much more interesting than showing a long list of materials, each with their own %, and knowing whether 6% is high or low for Molybdenum.
- Estimated credit value: Understanding the value of a body you just scanned is key to advancing in exploration rank and becoming a more efficient explorer (of my play style). The game doesn't communicate this critical value until you sell the exploration data, at which point it's lost in a gigantic list of scanned systems/bodies and you have no connection to the data any more. It should be shown in-game at the point of scanning so players can begin to judge what is worth their time and what isn't. This value is so important I actually helped to implement this feature into EDDI based on MattG's reverse-engineered formulae.
I use the above information in my current exploration game play loop:
1. Honk
2. Target star to begin the passive scanning process
3. Park safely within fuel scoop area
4. Open system map
5. Hear the habitable zone report from EDDI
6. Identify bodies within habitable zone for potential terraformable worlds or existing earth-like / water worlds
7. Scan metal-rich bodies near the star (<50ls)
8. Scan high-metal-content bodies near the star (<200ls)
9. Scan identified potential high-value bodies (potential terraformable, earth-like / water worlds)
10. Jump to next system
I am totally happy for that game play loop to change with the new improvements, so long as it's more engaging, not significantly slower, and the game itself provides me with enough information to make the same informed choices I currently make.
That means the new system scanning process should, before scanning a particular body:
- Readily identify bodies by type, which we can then use our experience to speculate on their credit value. This needs to be more readable than the SRV wave scanner. I know you're working on it, and it's super important!
- Report / show the system's habitable zone, even just for the "primary" star. The min/max scan range on the right side of the screenshots looks purpose-designed for this use case. Maybe this functionality is only available on Advanced discovery scanners and not the Basic?
Once a body has been scanned by the new sensors, it will be important to report the following information:
- Anomaly Detected: Is there something of interest on this body? You mentioned this on the live stream so thumb's up there!
- High concentration of material type: If I need a particular material for engineering, is this a good place to land and do some surface mining?
- Credit value: Was this a "jackpot!" or a dud? Should I search for more bodies like this in the future or skip them if I'm in a hurry?
- Terraformable state: Supplements the "jackpot!" feeling if credits are not shown, but might also be worth a closer look, visually! Not strictly necessary if credit value is displayed.
- Previously discovered by: Am I the first player to scan this body or did someone else beat me to it? Don't make me dig through the system map to see this.
How I want to use my exploration data (either scanned or purchased)
This is a big-picture topic that I think deserves some thought, separate from the actual exploration mechanics themselves. Why am I gathering exploration data in the first place? It should be more useful to me than just credits in the bank.
Exploration data in general should be used to improve all of my in-game activities. Regardless of how I acquired the data (scanned it myself or purchased it on the galaxy map), I should be able to:
- Search for bodies with a "high concentration" of a specific material. This improves my Engineering game play.
- Search for specific "point of interest" types (ex: ancient ruins, brain trees, geysers, etc.). This improves my Exploration and "narrative" gameplay (grind obelisks / blueprints / artifacts).
- Search for stations facility types. This improves all of my game play types, in particular combat (interstellar factors) and "narrative" (tech brokers, material traders).
My vision of Elite's exploration gameplay purpose is to increase my own knowledge of the contents of the galaxy -- ever-expanding my own personal "bubble" in a way that I can access via in-game tools. Ultimately we should be able to have an EDDB-like experience on the galaxy map (or Codex) using our own personally-gathered (or purchased) data set.
The display of these search results should be in clickable text form -- not a visual filter on the galaxy map. The galaxy map's filters are useful if there are lots of results, but finding sparse results (ex: Guardian owned) can be very difficult, visually.
PS. This is also a good time to revisit the credit value of various body types that feels off, such as gas giants with life forms being worth almost nothing. Gas giants in general are not worth scanning right now.
-CMDR Silversheen
