News Chapter Four - Exploration Reveal

[kofeyh]

With respect? I will review in beta.

What is desired: more reasons to go off the beaten path, such as curious formations, wrecks, derelicts and stellar phenomena that can be directly interacted with and offers genuine experiences.

What is offered: exploration - the minigame; that will surely be engaging the first 10 times and will potentially become a trudge, because exploration has become an excenctric with binoculars standing in the middle of the Sahara dispationatly sending slaves off to map the new world.

In beta, it will become apparent if this is mad improvements. Or improvements gone mad. And whether all the IN MY DAY stupidness is anything more than hot air from people who haven't gone exploring in years nor have any intent to and would just prefer to talk at people for hours.

Frontier, you clearly have put a lot of thought into the minigame. But I dont explore for the minigame. I want to go rock hopping and scrambling and being encourage to engage directly.

We shall see what technological terror you have constructed. Bring on the beta.

 

[Da Real Lazy]

It's got nothing to do with credits.
It's about the value of the gameplay and how changing it affects our enjoyment of the game.

Can you imagine the salt if combat pilots had to play a minigame to decode a ship's IFF transponder to determine if it was wanted?

That's how it feels to some of us.

What he said!!!!

 

[Mako The Grey]

They could boost the payout for scanning the arrival star, to help offset this change?

That's an idea. I also wonder if the new system might just get some folks to work EDDB to avoid the grind/time needed?

 

[Sierra_Hotel]

That's how it feels to some of us.

For a new mechanic you haven't even used yet....

 

[Cliché]

When you first enter a system, all the visual information about the planets is there to see, just delayed by how far away they are, or unless they are hidden behind a sun. I would propose that basic, intermediate, and advanced scanners would just render lower to higher quality images in the system map. Planets that are hidden can be inferred by gravatic anomalies, so they can appear on the map, but just as plain white spheres. If you see this, you can fly away from the local sun/suns and honk again until everything is revealed.

Concentrating on a star/planet and scanning again could reveal more detailed information, again dependent on the quality of the scanner. Maybe better scanners could do it faster.

As for the detailed surface scanner and launching probes, this sounds good, but I do hope you still need to get reasonably close to do this. If you can do this while still parked around the local star, at least for the more distant planets, than that sounds about as stupid as telepresence.

Am I inferring that POIs will now be persistent (if they aren't already - I haven't played in a while)?

It's clear from the comments that people that think exploration is a grind won't like these changes as things can take longer. I like the idea of being on my white science vessel and needing to actually scan things and launch probes to get even more detail. I don't really care how long it takes. I'm exploring for science - not trying to make credits as fast as I can.

 

[Dutchman141]

In the current system you need to fly up to a certain distance from the body until the dss kicks in.
Do I understand that with the new system you don't actually have to fly to each body to get a dss result?
You can do that from entry point by interrogating each body after the honk in the new minigame?

 

[Cosmo]

@Frontier, that sounds good. Will there be more procedurally generated content to discover? Because players consume the available handcrafted content at a faster rate than what's being added to the galaxy.

 

[Sylveria]

In the current system you need to fly up to a certain distance from the body until the dss kicks in.
Do I understand that with the new system you don't actually have to fly to each body to get a dss result?
You can do that from entry point by interrogating each body after the honk in the new minigame?

That's my understanding so far- and that the "probe" system would provide further information to actually determine whether travel to that planetary body would be warranted for further investigation.

 

[who?]

I think you could fix many objections with a couple of small tweaks:

- boost the credit payout for the arrival star 'honk'. If you're a honk 'n' jumper, you don't lose anything in the new system.
- give some hint after the initial 'honk' ("water particles detected" = Water World(s), "oxygen / silicon traces detected" = Earth-like etc.) If you're a "honk / System Map / investigate maybe" explorer you still know if there's something tasty in the system, you might just have to use your sensors instead of just looking at the (magic) System Map to tell you which is which. The time you lose in the sensors you may gain back somewhat by using the probes.

 

[Rardain]

Looks fantastic - the scanner reminds me of the Nostromo's system scanners in the original Alien.

Apologies if this has already been asked ( I am late to the party here on page 59 lol) but in the interests of exploration on the galaxy map, will we be able to plot a route manually to avoid brown-star deserts or do we still have to allow the navi-comp to auto-plot a route to a system up to a 1000Ly away?

 

[Marc_Hicks]

It will give you the exact location of persistent POIs. The more transient, smaller POIs such as a collection of skimmers will not be located by the surface scan.

So quick question: will we get proper "search zones" for more transient PoI's, especially those connected to missions? I really don't like the current system of just letting that target circle move around until the mission target magically pops into view. We really should have to *work* a fair bit to find our mission targets-by either eyeballing or using wave scanners within a relatively narrow search area-say a 5km-25km radius.

 

[Aikanar]

Hiya Will.

4. Power/Heat management in exploration. Something I have long wanted to see is the ability to shift power from one module to another, to improve that module temporarily, & scanners would be a great place to start.....though there should be an issue with heat effects on that module if you divert power for too long. Either way, heat build-up could be one of the aforementioned "dowsides" to too frequent full scans.

Exactly. I agree with all your points, and I made a somewhat similar suggestion here.

 

[Gravity Drive]

As someone who actually took the time to read both the OP and through the entire thread; HOLY CRAP some of you guys are horrible about actually reading what Frontier posted in the OP. If I see one more poster ask a redundant question answered 30 times already my head is going to explode. Please learn to read! Thanks.

@ Frontier

The changes sound super interesting and appropriately "sciency." As someone who actually enjoyed the "jump, honk, scoop, check, jump" gameplay and found it very functional for not missing notable planets while traveling quickly, I'm only concerned these new mechanics do not incentivize potentially missing ELW's and other notable systems when trying to travel from A to B. I know it was said there will be a way to determine or filter for certain planet types initially, but in general a way to retain quickly gathering very basic info about the makeup of bodies in the system is needed, no matter how it functions.

The beauty of the "old way" is that it worked, and one could conceivably travel quickly across the galaxy while not feeling like they're potentially missing out. I have NO issues with a full recon of a given system taking a considerable amount of time when one chooses to dive in depth into an interesting system, but we shouldn't also feel like we're potentially missing ELWs and the like while traveling, either. A properly tuned compromise is needed here, IMHO.

All in all, I'm extremely excited for this. My reservations are minimized by the thought of how immersive and engaging this method of "deep exploration" could be, as one will actually feel like a true space explorer charting unknown systems for the first time. Very, very cool stuff.

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

In the current system you need to fly up to a certain distance from the body until the dss kicks in.
Do I understand that with the new system you don't actually have to fly to each body to get a dss result?
You can do that from entry point by interrogating each body after the honk in the new minigame?

You can call me weird if you like, but I actually ENJOY flying around in space in my flying a spaceship game. Playing a minigame to get the same information doesn't strike me as a benefot.

 

[Mako The Grey]

There's no "greatly increased time" added, if all you're doing is "getting to an event", or traveling from Point A to Point B.

Unless I want the few water/earth-like credits on the way under the proposed system

Works the same as it always has. You get still basic information about systems.

No...the new system will get you star info only without one doing lot more work...if I read that right

You just don't get "free" pay for not actively scanning every system on the way to your destination.

No one is telling you to stop trippin.

The "free" pay is important on a Gnosis like trip. They are telling me to go for less incentive now...in some scenarios. Pros and Cons

 

[Noogillim]

I do wonder about the lack of wonder, in some of these posts, I have spent weeks travelling across a massive crater nursing my buggy along, on the boring ice worlds I have trundled along deep ice canyons having to wait for the light to return to avoid falling down a an unseen chasm, yes I have gotten no where compared to some, I only have three ships one has an X in it.

Hopefully there will be more details revealed about exploration updates.

I for one will be happy to see what this brings to my game play (spiked tyres would be nice)

It's a pity FD are unable to please everyone but that would never be the case, hopefully some other revelations may bring some appreciated features to those who are unhappy with these!

 

[Cmdr Aeries Hunter]

It's got nothing to do with credits.
It's about the value of the gameplay and how changing it affects our enjoyment of the game.

Can you imagine the salt if combat pilots had to play a minigame to decode a ship's IFF transponder to determine if it was wanted?

That's how it feels to some of us.

Unless something has changed over night you do have to scan a ship (IFF transponder or not) to see if its wanted.

 

[Genar-Hofoen]

If the DSS works like the SRV scanner, I have even more reason not to carry one...

No. It's the ADS which is going to behave more like the SRV scanner. Meaning, for some systems with lots of bodies in it, it's going to take a lot longer to decide if it's worth your time to explore it in more depth.

My prediction is eventually this fact will sink in to most player who are not masochists.

 

[rekurzion]

amazing work. just amazing.

some questions

DISCOVER SCANNER
it is mentioned the discovery scanner will activate a new feature for discovery complete with a new screen. how will this screen be presented? that is, when i honk will i be immediately taken to this new screen or will i have to activate it manually? this is an important distinction, especially when exploring in the bubble as there is the ever present threat of aggressive ships whether ai or other commanders.

if, for example, the new screen is automatically presented upon honk, then a commander has reduced ability to navigate their ship or detect threats. i'm assuming a commander will be fairly occupied on this new screen and leaves themselves vulnerable not just to indertiction but in the case they are flying towards the exclusion zone of a body or star.

it would be worth it to be able to conduct this new scan in both supercruise and normal space for safety and/or the ability to honk then activate the new screen manually and maintain focus of your most recent scan so if you need to leave the new screen and reenter it a new probe need not be sent.


SURFACE SCANNER
do the probes require cargo space?

USS'
you mention 'decay' of a USS and also that all USS's will spawn upon system entry. once a USS decays is that it? so in an extreme circumstance, if i were to park in a system for a week would all of the USS' decay leaving none left?

 

[Han Zulu]

My prediction is eventually this fact will sink in to most player who are not masochists.

No masochists playing Elite? I think it's a requirement to be one to play it!