News Chapter Four - Exploration Reveal

[E-L-Y-S-I-U-M]

This sounds like a lot of thought has gone into it and I look forward to trying this out. There are so many great improvements being made. I am wondering though...

Who is going to change their name to GOOGLE and Map Earth first?

Seriously though...

Can we scan / see moons on the other side of gas giants?

My main point of concern is...

I can see trying to scan a system in order to locate the station you are looking for >1000ls being quite annoying if an NPC has targeted you for interdiction because of a mission or cargo you are carrying. Having to then try and drop into the nav beacon, again a pain and likely involves avoiding interdiction and being thrown into the star, but does this then rob you of any financial reward that you would have otherwise gotten if not having to rely on the nav beacon? Has any thought gone into how this could affect things because it is a simple honk and your done at the moment?

 

[Rochester]

Bravo FD, jolly good work. This looks to make exploration far more engaging. Couple of questions; firstly is this all undertaken within super cruise or when static? Does your ship emit additional heat when doing this form of scanning, and are you still open to attack? E.g. could we employ stealth mechanisms to reduce likely hood of attack whilst scanning / benefits / disadvantages?

Also are there to be some interesting graphical overlays / gravitational, distortion etc.

But otherwise a great job, this is very close to how I first imagined exploration.

 

[Dizzy B High]

In the 2nd screenshot only 4 materials are listed. I've not seen a landable with so few mats. Will the mats on landables be changing such that all my bookmarks for them need to be updated/deleted?

Second screenshot is a gas giant.... good luck landing on that

 

[shreddog]

In the 2nd screenshot only 4 materials are listed. I've not seen a landable with so few mats. Will the mats on landables be changing such that all my bookmarks for them need to be updated/deleted?

That's not a landable, but a gas giant.
I think the scan shows materials in the rings though, maybe..

 

[Jack Schitt]

I've got to say, after a fair bit of negativity especially in the wake of The Gnosis, I'm excited by almost all of this. There's a distinct feeling of tightness in the groinal area of my flight suit, that's how excited I am.

The good thing about the ADS honk is that it gives you a display of system bodies immediately. From that you could decide which bodies to go and do things with - surface scan them, fly down to their surface, etc. Body discovery is currently quick. This new system is going to make it very slow.

That is a concern, and hopefully one that FD will take on board given how many have mentioned it in this thread. I'm sure they can come up with a middle ground solution if they try.

To be honest, I'd rather have the 'honk' add all astronomical bodies to the system map, but only as featureless ones, placed like they currently are. Then, after 'discovering them' they'd get their distinctive representations and on further study the known characteristics.

I was thinking of something similar as I browsed the thread. Maybe a few hints could be thrown in, such as approximate size and maybe a representation of the star's CHZ (I know you can work that out from the data, but I want to play a game not do an astrophysics PhD). So you could glance at the map and see that there may be an Earth-like or ammonia world in the Goldilocks zone, or that the large body several AUs out with lots of things orbiting it is probably a gas giant.

It'd still slow things down a bit for the honk-and-go ELW hunters, but the sense of accomplishment when you found one using the new system (or making an educated guess from the sparse system map and flying there manually) would be great.

How about this as another compromise: when you ADS honk a system, any bodies already First Discovered by another CMDR are automatically populated. Quick money for ELW taggers who can fly straight to the pre-tagged planet, no time wasted scanning for a rare world only to find someone's already bagged it, and the opportunity remains to use the new scanners on any bodies skipped by earlier explorers for those who like to "fill in the blanks."

(And yes, I know it's arguably very silly that the ship's computer full of Universal Cartographics data only knows about First Discoveries after you've honked, but that's how the current system works too).

We will be maintaining an Engineering option on the DSS, the new upgrade will provide it with a larger probe capacity.

So explorers have to head back to the bubble (or maybe Colonia if a suitable Engineer is there) if they want to maximise the utility of their scanners? A little disappointed by that to be honest, but I guess those of us already out in the black can't be handed everything on a plate.

The probes work by impacting on the surface of the planet, you are not attempting to get them into an orbit.

Hang on... if all bodies including those in the bubble are up for First Mapped grabs, doesn't this mean we're going to be firing these things at populated planets?

 

[TheSisko]

Its been a long, dark night for Explorers. No light. No hope. Just pew-pew.

But now, finally, a new dawn is rising.

As soon as I get back to bubble-land, I'm getting an Explorer-Krait and heading back into the Frontier (pun intended) and boldly re-tagging and re-scanning, what.....perhaps was tagged and scanned before The Big Wipe.

I will honk.

I will scan. Really, really scan this time.

I will fire probes. I will survey planetary surfaces. I will land. I will find stuff.

And I will feel, like an Explorer.

All we need now is an Imperial Explorer, and were all set!

 

[Cgsharp]

These changes sound promising. For exploration it would be nice to be able to find unique items that can provide some advantage as a way to reward the players that take the time to do exploration. Seeing new sights is good and all, but finding a special item would be kind of fun.

 

[Adam Bourke-Waite]

Will this be stored in the cargo hold or in the DSS's internal storage?

The DSS has internal storage for the probes, like ammunition.

 

[Leptir1]

I knew you guys still cared for this game's future. I admit I had my doubts over the past year, what with the lackluster updates and whatnot. But if this launches as planned, it'll all have been worth it. I think it's great that instead of putting the new content behind a grind wall, you decided to upgrade existing assets to allow for a more interactive exploration experience, as opposed to the boring passive slog we've had since launch. Good on you guys, keep up the good work, and i'll see you in the black. 07 CMDRs

 

[TiberiusMaximus]

Cool concepts. Thanks for keeping us in the loop.

 

[Jermanicus]

Are the probes going to be reusable or a single use?

 

[Ariel_Nova]

I hope we won't have to grind for materials for ages for the probes

You will be able to synthesise micro-probes for the detailed surface scanner, but the better aim you are, the less probes you will need to get complete coverage.

The new exploration looks great on paper, but I'm concerned about the new probes we'll have to synthesise. If the materials are hard to come by or take long or are boring to secure, you'll effectively have created a grind-wall for exploration that does not exist today. The same applies if it takes far too many materials to synthesise a probe batch.

In the current version of the game, I can get on my ship and go explore anywhere literally on a whim, without having to grind for any materials at all beforehand. As an explorer, I don't want that to change.

If I have to do a quick shopping before every so many trips, that's fine. However, I shouldn't be put off by the thought of grinding for ages just to go explore.

A related question that comes to mind for me is whether the current cap on whatever materials are needed for probes will be enough for long trips. I don't want to realise I've run out of probes and materials half-way through Colonia. Needless to say, it would be quite infuriating.

Thank you for reading and bearing in these concerns in mind. Neither Frontier nor the player community want another backlash over the implementation of a change that was the properly thought through.

 

[KillerSpud]

This does look really cool. Would it be possible to post a discovery scan of a system we are familiar with like Sol? I am a bit concerned how we would do an initial assessment of a system. I expect most people wouldn't want to have to interpenetrate blippy things similar to the wave scanner on an SRV.

 

[Drazkul]

The DSS has internal storage for the probes, like ammunition.

Nice to know its not needed to have cargo bays

My only question is roughly how long would it take to completely scan a system under the proposed system?

 

[DoctorDanny]

Thanks for the update. This looks very promising.

My biggest wish is for more things to find out in the galaxy.
I really hope you don't forget to add interesting stuff to discover with these new mechanics

 

[Maolagin]

Adam,

More of a hope and a question about modules. My hope for exploration is that a Cobra Mk III could be outfitted to interact with anything we might find out there (even if the interaction is sub-optimal). By my count, here's what's currently needed:
(1) Discovery Scanner, (2) Detailed Surface Scanner, (3) SRV, (4) Cargo bay (Gaurdians stuff), (5) Shield (landing, running from Guardians/Thargoids), (6) Fuel Scoop, (7) Limpet controller (?).

Recently, a whole bunch of new limpets have been introduced to interact with mega-ships (at least) that we might find. I had high hopes that both scanners and limpets would allow racking so that all of that would fit in the 6 slots of the Cobra. Is there any hope left for a solution that would allow a multi-purose Cobra that wouldn't make me curse my choices 1000's of light-years from home?\

If limpets do allow racking in the future, I guess I could consider the danger of a shield-less Cobra, but I do like shields.

Well it sounds like you would have the option to leave out the DSS and find ruins and such the old fashioned way.

But yes, I'm also dearly hoping for some kind of racking option!

 

[VR SenseiMatty]

Question on the naming.

The computer provides automatic names to the planets right? How does the computer know that this is the THIRD planet in the system if it's the only one discovered? How the computer knows that there are other 2 if these are undiscovered? This is potentially immersion breaking

I'm picking up this picture as an example because I guess this will happen everywhere.

 

[rp198419]

The initial 'honk' will just reveal the entry star. As you use the to explore, more stellar bodies will be revealed as you find them, which will then populate the system map.

Which will presumably take for ever.

I love the idea but, given that every new mechanic produces added grind, was also trying to figure out where such added grind was in this new mechanic.

Unfortunately, now I know.

We'll probably need more racks for hardware as well. Right now, the ASPx is pushed to its limits in terms of module space. Any chance of a few more slots?

 

[Zulu Romeo]

About the USS change: will USSs persist or will new non mission ones reset and appear when you load up a game / reenter a system?

Also, I like the discovery scanner change, effectively becoming an actual telescope, but will the detailed surface scanner still affect what info we get from the new discovery scanner method (and therefore affect payout)? Also, how will this scale with the basic and intermediate scanners?

Just to confirm, will it just be planets that can be mapped? Both landable and currently unlandable?

Finally, how will the payouts scale up from honking, scoping, detailed scoping, partial mapping, and full mapping?

 

[sedilbur]

The discovery scanner will be mandatory for finding USS mission (for example assassination) or the way we do know will still be "valid" ?

I mean scan the nav beacon->get coord->fly near the body->find the USS mission (let assume the decay was not reached 0 seconds yet)
or
Find the target in Supercruise->intercept him

Because it will be very disappointing to be forced to equip Interceptor + discovery scanner. I either equip one or none. But still can finish the mission ATM.