News Chapter Four - Exploration Reveal

[WhoCares]

Some comments:

Sounds really good on first viewing. a few questions.

1) when you have a secondary star system say 300,000 ls + away from the main star, how easy will it be to detect it?, not moaning at all about this, you can argue that there's real skill involved now in find those!
WC: I'd expand on that question and ask if/how we can discern bodies orbiting such secondary stars - will we have to get closer, or can they also be identified from the main star?
2) how will you know that you've found everything in a system? maybe a gravitational mass counter like indicator
WC: This one is implicitely answered - notice the 38% and 51% "system bodies mapped" statistic in the bottom left of the screenshots in post #1. Though one may ask for a distiction between bodies identified (=ADS scan) and mapped (=DSS scan).
3) what does the honk now give you?, if you haven't actually detected anything yet, as need to find them manually withe scanner, what are you actually selling?
WC: There was a "limited" response to this question that you still get some value to sell, but not further detailed. But it was also said that you get the main star scanned (today ~3kcr for your regular star). In the bubble you also get space stations and outposts, as well as USSs, but those have no value in selling system data.
4) hopefully it's relatively easy to synthesise the probes and they can be made from planetary materials only (no data or components please, they're pretty hard to find thousands of light seconds away from the bubble!)


as there's now 90 odd pages maybe a FAQ might be required here!
WC: Qohen Leth already collected the FD responses from last night in one post on page 75.

Keith

 

[5AnaHalfHatsize]

Hey FD, I'd just like to say thanks in advance for delivering exactly what I asked for.

You were good for your word.

Really looking forward to these changes.

 

[Angus]

Wow, this sounds like just the ticket. Please try not to roll back on these crunchy awesome features or lean away from the moody loner experience, but yeah, exciting stuff.

 

[NewBlacksmurf]

I like everything except for the detailed surface scanner...guess I’ll reserve thoughts until seeing it but it seems you are again making something that should be basic, extremely tedious and time consuming due to lack of meaningful content.

 

[Simon Templar]

I like the look of this a lot, all looks really interesting. Only hesitation - and I might have misunderstood this - is the bit where it says something like 'flight time might be speeded up', ie we won't have to fly to planets manually. That sounds as though it could break realism for me, which I'd personally be very much against (like, it would put me off exploration altogether) but I have faith that I must be misunderstanding! Otherwise, though, sounds excellent.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

Yeah, that's the forum for you. FD can't win, ever (though tbh most of the time they shouldn't). Even when they get it right, there will be salt. If they get it very right, there'll be almost as much salt as if they get it very wrong.

tl;dr No good deed goes unpunished.

Welcome to software development, of any kind.

 

[DMC831]

I would love if the game could track notable Exploration-y things such as whether a planet you've mapped has an especially high mountain, or a lot of a resource, or perhaps the system is a unique combo of bodies (blackhole + ELW; I'm sure die-hard explorers can think up plenty of cool but rare combos to find), and even if the game only rewards you for the find with an "Achievement" type dealio, I think it'd just be cool to be notified of it in some official capacity.

If I find an ELW about the same size as Earth with a corresponding moon the same size as ours, that'd be cool to know. Perhaps several terraformables in one system, etc etc etc... ideally finding a "Gold Star" system would get you a bonus, but I'd be happy just knowing that I found something neat (especially if it hasn't traditionally been rewarded by the game itself as of now... something beyond just finding ELW/Ammonia/WW/Terras).

 

[Siobhan]

Welcome to software development, of any kind.

Yeah, I remember... I'm not that old yet. [noob]

 

[zzehirbazz]

Which is a real shame. You can already fly SLF in multicrew but not drive SRV.

I really would like to hear some kind of explanation for this not happening. Anyone at Fdev wanting to shed a little light on this?

As far as I can tell SRV is an instance unlike SLF. SLF uses the same instance as your ship whereas SRV has it's own. That is why you are not allowed to multicrew on wheels yet. They may have to move the ship instance to a more seamless single instance with SRV to achieve that but it alone may put heavy hindrance on the servers and gameplay performance.

That is one of the problems that they are trying to figure out for all these years I reckon while working on space legs. Best course of action would've been to program the game in a seamless universe to begin with like NMS. All they would have to do would be to add props,etc on an already set up seamless universe.

 

[Jex =TE=]

Does anyone know if they're adding anything to find?

 

[CyclicOcean6125]

Two additional thoughts to those I posted earlier: 1) for the ship launched explorer; could bring in a npc pilot, so now you could skill your pilot up to elite in both combat and exploration, later adding interaction options with npc on long voyage, the higher rank npc could explorer faster, further, and more efficient; 2) for those special discoveries, maybe a need to take a wake scanner to follow an npc explorer to see where they take you.

 

[scbfromnc]

I really like these changes. This sounds like it'll actually make discovery an interesting activity. And I especially like this being tied to mining -- and hopefully discovery missions. Couple of questions:
1) What different info will the different Discovery Scanners provide?
2) Since discovery process will be important to mining, it may now be important for mining ships to have both a Discovery scanner and Surface scanner. This could be a problem for some ships, especially beginning players that can only afford smaller ships. Can we move the Surface scanner to a utility slot rather than occupying an internal compartment slot? Or perhaps make the Surface scanner an upgrade to the Discovery scanner so that it only occupies one internal compartment?

 

[Ralph Vargr]

Aren't you supposed to be the white knight and I the cynic? What is this, Freaky Friday? [haha]

I'd let you both into my Traveller group...

 

[Quester91]

Does anyone know if they're adding anything to find?

From reddit:

Updated Dev responses from that thread. I'll continue to update this as more are added:

• NEW content for signal sources. This is a biggie that they slipped in there!

Updated Dev responses from that thread. I'll continue to update this as more are added:

• How many probes and what will be needed to synthesize them? A 'few hundred' probes in stock, no synthesis recipe yet, larger planets will require more probes
• Honking now reveals the star only on the in-system map. In order to populate the full system map, you will have to use the ADS game or scan a Nav beacon.
• ADS discovers CZs/Rez sites from ANY distance, but you have to actually find them. You will still see them 'pop up' in SC when you fly towards them.
• NEW content for signal sources. This is a biggie that they slipped in there!

 

[Talon180]

These changes look great! The only thing that concerns me is the detailed surface scanner. The comment that micro probes can be synthesized tells me that it will have ammo. Considering how many planets I scan while out in the black I worry that much of my time will be consumed mining mats for these probes. I guess we won’t know until we see it but I don’t feel adding an additional “grind” aspect to exploration is a good thing.

 

[zzehirbazz]

Hello Commanders!



The Discovery Scanner

Because explorers ply their trade far from civilized space, we’ve decided to not add new module requirements. Instead, we’re improving the discovery scanner and detailed surface scanner so Commanders can jump right in as soon as the update is released, without having to spend time traveling back to a port to purchase new gear.

When you activate the discovery scanner you will now be taken to an all-new scanning interface and view. In this augmented camera view you are able to interrogate the system using new functionality of the scanner.


The process still starts with the “honk” (system scan), though its usage is now the start of a more engaging process (if all you did before was scan for some credits, don't worry, the scan still awards credits.)

The system scan now returns an aggregated display of how energetic the electromagnetic emissions are in the system. Signals are sorted on a low to high scale by their apparent energy. For example, emissions from rocky clusters will appear at the lower end of the scale, hot gas giants at the upper range. This information requires some interpretation as signals can overlap.

You are able to tune the focus of your sensors to a particular point on the scale, making emissions from objects at this range much clearer, at the cost of filtering out signals returned from bodies not emitting at this range.

As you move the view around, you are aiming your discovery scanner sensors. To aid you, the discovery scanner view also features a repeating sweep of gravitational disturbance detected in the system. You can use this sweep to narrow your search for stellar bodies, as well as start your search around the star's orbital plane, which is revealed by the initial system scan.

Emissions that come close enough to your view’s focus are represented by signature patterns around a central reticule. If you are tuned to the correct point on the energy scale the signal will show as a symmetrical pattern clearly showing the direction towards the origin of the signal, allowing you to locate it. The further away your energy tuning, the more distorted and asymmetrical the pattern becomes, hiding the precise direction and location.

Once you have a candidate origin, you can use the scanner to reconstruct a massively zoomed in view. If you aimed precisely enough, you will discover the stellar body. If there are a number of stellar bodies in relative close proximity to your focus, you may need to repeat the process to isolate individual signals.


As you locate and identify stellar bodies their emissions are filtered out, instead becoming markers on the energy range, making it easier to find the remaining bodies. It's at this point in that you will gain the “first discovered” tag, rather than having to physically visit the planet (you still need to sell the data at a port to gain the tag). All current first discovered tags will remain.

Importantly, when you uncover a planet using the discovery scanner, as well as being informed of the resources available on it, the presence of unusual locations, such as Guardian sites, will also be revealed. However, their precise location won’t be shown until you have mapped the planet with the detailed surface scanner.

 

[darkdesire]

Seems very good

thank you Frontier

Waiting this for long time now.

 

[zzehirbazz]

Hello Commanders!


The Discovery Scanner

Because explorers ply their trade far from civilized space, we’ve decided to not add new module requirements. Instead, we’re improving the discovery scanner and detailed surface scanner so Commanders can jump right in as soon as the update is released, without having to spend time traveling back to a port to purchase new gear.

When you activate the discovery scanner you will now be taken to an all-new scanning interface and view. In this augmented camera view you are able to interrogate the system using new functionality of the scanner.


The process still starts with the “honk” (system scan), though its usage is now the start of a more engaging process (if all you did before was scan for some credits, don't worry, the scan still awards credits.)

The system scan now returns an aggregated display of how energetic the electromagnetic emissions are in the system. Signals are sorted on a low to high scale by their apparent energy. For example, emissions from rocky clusters will appear at the lower end of the scale, hot gas giants at the upper range. This information requires some interpretation as signals can overlap.

You are able to tune the focus of your sensors to a particular point on the scale, making emissions from objects at this range much clearer, at the cost of filtering out signals returned from bodies not emitting at this range.

As you move the view around, you are aiming your discovery scanner sensors. To aid you, the discovery scanner view also features a repeating sweep of gravitational disturbance detected in the system. You can use this sweep to narrow your search for stellar bodies, as well as start your search around the star's orbital plane, which is revealed by the initial system scan.

Emissions that come close enough to your view’s focus are represented by signature patterns around a central reticule. If you are tuned to the correct point on the energy scale the signal will show as a symmetrical pattern clearly showing the direction towards the origin of the signal, allowing you to locate it. The further away your energy tuning, the more distorted and asymmetrical the pattern becomes, hiding the precise direction and location.

Once you have a candidate origin, you can use the scanner to reconstruct a massively zoomed in view. If you aimed precisely enough, you will discover the stellar body. If there are a number of stellar bodies in relative close proximity to your focus, you may need to repeat the process to isolate individual signals.


As you locate and identify stellar bodies their emissions are filtered out, instead becoming markers on the energy range, making it easier to find the remaining bodies. It's at this point in that you will gain the “first discovered” tag, rather than having to physically visit the planet (you still need to sell the data at a port to gain the tag). All current first discovered tags will remain.

Importantly, when you uncover a planet using the discovery scanner, as well as being informed of the resources available on it, the presence of unusual locations, such as Guardian sites, will also be revealed. However, their precise location won’t be shown until you have mapped the planet with the detailed surface scanner.

Since many people are having problems with this change being overly time consuming I have a proposition:

Discovery scanners used to work based on distance right? For example the basic one can only show a small portion of radius when used. Since not everybody wants to rediscover the planets, why don't you guys just add the Honk-reveals all planets option just for the Advanced Discovery scanner which is the only scanner that can reveal the whole system map anyway?

For example if your ship is outfitted with Advanced Discovery Scanner you could add an option to reveal bodies prior to new scanning screen therefore whoever doesnt wanna engage in the planet reveal minigame can make do with a single button. By doing so they would still need to use the scan mini game if they wish to find more details and get the benefits. Just showing up the imagery of system map bodies wouldnt hurt much if one prefers to do so and does not take anything away because we can still reveal the bodies by scanning the "probe thingy next to sun" anyway?

 

[CMDR Redcrest]

Sounds interesting.
I think doing this new process of scanning over and over is just gona further put me off exploration. (OK it's not for everyone).
Say for instance a new Guardian base has been found on a previously unvisited (by me) system: do I have to twiddle about the knobs and dials to find the planet after another player has been there?
Do we have to tune in and out to find USS or are they just visible?

Is there a new dedicated exploration ship to keep the explorers happy along with a new medium imperial ship?

I look forward to seeing this all in action and will wait for beta before jumping to any conclusions.

 

[Angus]

Uranus is no longer regarded as virgin territory, indeed it is believed to have been excessively strip mined; therefore further probing would be be both undesirable and non-viable.