News Chapter Four - Exploration Reveal

[WR3ND]

In this case I wonder why you don't prefer the old fashioned parallax method. ...

It's a nice option, but let's not make straw-men of either extremes here. You ever try keeping up with an expedition in a combat loaded Vulture? https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...Continuation?p=6238654&viewfull=1#post6238654

The honk as it is now lets me see where things are and if a system is interesting enough for me to muck around in for a while. The main enjoyment for me is mucking around in cool looking systems. That's why it's a compromise, since I won't be able to do what I want preferable either, but at least it's meeting me and my preferred style of play half way.

 

[Alfred J Kwak]

Distant worlds and galactic rim explorers will be happy to hear that half their work is useless or a waste of time.
Suddenly their trusty scanner is exchanged for the probe shooter that relies on ammo you need to synthesize , perfect for the ones in ships with out mining lasers or spend their last SRV.

you want detailed surface scans for mapping the planet have ships fly in low orbit to map the planet.


They have had a full year to come up with something good and according to the live stream 4 people worked on this so called explorer content.

Makes you wonder what kind of crap they are putting out for mining , trade and other core features.

Squadrons will be crap just like multicrew. delays on fleet carriers ice planets and premium content for the backers and lifetime expansion pass holders. all in favour of content for next season no body gives a crap about yet.

FRONTIER KEEP FOCUSED STOP HYPING STUFF YOU CANT DELIVER , AND KEEP TO YOUR PROMMISES AND DEVELOPMENT PLAN.

And do not act like a child witch is hyperactive and suffers from attention disorder

.Something tells me David Braben stopped giving his vision to the project ever since horizons was released as one crappy update and game design after the other was released.
and we never saw them again interacting with the community after december 2015.

 

[Sysmon]

It's a nice option, but let's not make straw-men of either extremes here. You ever try keeping up with an expedition in a combat loaded Vulture? https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...Continuation?p=6238654&viewfull=1#post6238654

The honk as it is now lets me see where things are and if a system is interesting enough for me to muck around in for a while. The main enjoyment for me is mucking around in cool looking systems. That's why it's a compromise, since I won't be able to do what I want preferable either, but at least it's meeting me and my preferred style of play half way.

Maybe all systems should be made cool and interesting in some fashion then! Be it near-dormant ice worlds around brown dwarves or weirdness in O-class and black hole/neutron star systems. That's what I personally hope the next update will be a small step towards.

S

 

[who?]

I'm also don't get what's so important on a "diegetic in-cockpit gameplay". To me it just sounds like a cosmetic detail that could, if strongly demanded (which I doubt), be added at a later time. I'd rather suggest to focus on the core mechanics for now. I'm pretty sure there's still a lot to test and adjust during the upcoming beta phase.

Well, if it's a fullscreen view, you can't monitor for contacts trying to interdict you. Can't check your transactions to see if any missions are about to timeout. Can't monitor your fuel level. Can you fuel-scoop while scanning - and if so does it appear over the scanner view?

And then there's that dreaded, filthy "I" word: immersion. I'd infinitely prefer a HUD view (or even the current suggestion on a physical screen in the cockpit) than a fullscreen view which somehow takes over your full field-of-vision.

 

[VAN D00M]

Buy existing exploration data for every & any system

Currently: Travel to new system in deep space, you scan (honk) the system to see every system body including the ‘discovered by’ tags in the system map. You know immediately what’s been discovered and move on. I come across this a lot.

Proposal: To avoid spending a lot of time scanning a system that’s already been partially or completely discovered, I would propose the option to buy exploration data for those systems. Which would fill the system map with bodies that have ONLY been discovered previously. Leaving everything else to be found and discovered with the new discovery scanner.


Nutshell:
If no exploration data to buy = system completely undiscovered
If exploration data to buy = at least one body in that system has been discovered and will be displayed in the system map.

 

[aRJay]

Have you (FD) considered allowing pilots once they have fully/partially scanned a system to be able to deploy a NAV beacon for that system? Especially for really interesting systems that had structures etc.

Drat you for having my idea first!

I will continue with the bit of it you haven't posted yet (that I have seen).

The Navigation Beacons should be dispatched to the system when the Scan Data is sold and updated if additional data arrives at a later time.
The question is should this be done retrospectively for systems already scanned and sold to cartographics or just start from when the new system is implemented?

 

[Marc_Hicks]

To clarify my previous position. Though I most certainly like everything I have read about the new mechanics, I would like to again offer a few additional mechanics that I feel could make them even better.

SCIENCE MODULE: The biggest thing, for me, is to have a module that will allow players to use skill to solve various in-game mysteries without the need to leave the game, as well as allowing players to unlock certain types of salvage-like encrypted data, rebel transmissions or military plans-to either obtain valuable Intel or even unlock a mission.

In the context of exploration, however, I would allow players to feed lower order exploration data to obtain a crude form of the next level of data. For example, Emission & Gravity Well data could be fed in to get a crude version of the system map (that shows merely the number & relative size of stellar bodies.....but no details).

Another example is that if a player has gotten info on a planet using Emission/Gravity data, they could feed this info into the science module to get a crude estimate of the surface features on the planet & their locations.

In both cases, though, the data gained would be worth far less-in credits, ranking & first explored/mapped terms-than doing it via the methods described in the OP.

MANUAL PROBING: If players run out of probes-& cannot synthesise more-or just want to do the detailed scsn "by the seat of their pants", then they should be able to replicate the mechanics of probe scanning using their ship (minus the crashing part). This scanning approach should be fairly dangerous, & require skill, & wouldn't give the same amount of resolution of surface features (larger potential area that the surface features could be within) but at least provides alternatives to the probe only approach.

SURFACE FEATURE LOCATION: Even with probes, I *really* don't want the precise location of surface features to be revealed. Though eyeballing an entire planet for geysers is no tun, knowing precisely where they are & being able to fly straight to them, first time, is equally no fun. Just give us a 5km, 10km or 20km circle, for.example, within which the features are most likely to be......that way we still get the enjoyment of using our eyeballs and/or Wave Scanners to narrow down the precise location. This circle would be visible on the HUD & on the holographic pic of the planet, but would become a plottable point once fully discovered.

 

[WR3ND]

Maybe all systems should be made cool and interesting in some fashion then! Be it near-dormant ice worlds around brown dwarves or weirdness in O-class and black hole/neutron star systems. That's what I personally hope the next update will be a small step towards.

S

Maybe... Not really much variety in brown dwarf ice world systems though...

Spoiler

 

[aRJay]

I'm wondering if anyone at FDEV have dropped into a Nav Beacon with cargo?..

I have and apart from at CNBs occaisionaly have almost never had anything that was a serious threat complete a scan before I was charging the FSD to jump back into cruise, however I will point out that I rarely do missions so have not tried it with a huge target beacon on.

 

[Flimley]

I’m not sure about the ship cruising blindly in SC while spending an amount of time in a separate (galaxy style) screen?
...And all that while being in VR. Seems disjointed. Unless that screen is what we will see from the cockpit as an opaque overlay or augmented view? ...maybe ?

Flimley

 

[Old Duck]

You ever try keeping up with an expedition in a combat loaded Vulture?

Spoiler

... except when it comes to fixing my crappy shadows on PS4

 

[aRJay]

For systems with a nav beacon, the ADS should pull in the system information on the honk. I think that would satisfy everyone worried about bubble travel.

I umpteenth this suggestion, at least the basic information should be available that way.

 

[knausis]

I can see that 90+ pages into the thread, some people still seem to be having difficulty processing this fact but that is what they have said very clearly - the honk shows you nothing but the star on the system map.

Some? Almost every "Yay" sayer doesnt realize this fact. They only see shiny new screenshot and think it will be amazing. I already said - i kinda want to see this new change, because i want to see those fools being mad after few days that they always have to scan each new system and search for planets even in bubble, or in best case - drop out and scan nav beacon.

This game already has huge problems with information within game, now they want to make it even harder to access.

 

[aRJay]

A bit of a shame that explorers will have to return to populated space in order to benefit from that.

Hopefully the morph of the DSS will adjust ammo capacity based on current engineering level, possibly dropping a grade in the same way reworking legacy mods works.

 

[Ephergie]

My humble wish is that one day we'll be able to choose to assign Multi Crew exploration roles - such as NAVIGATION, COMMS (for Docking Requests/replies to IG Chat etc), MODULE ACTIVATION, SRV PILOTING etc... this would really bring the game to life and make co-operative crewing of a Ship a real prospect.

You don't see Hikaru Sulu or Hoban Washburne doing all the work while the rest of the crew sit and twiddle their thumbs til their little moment arrives. Naturally, I'd still want to be able to wrestle control back if necessary... some folks just can't be trusted to get the job done

 

[stooger]

I like the changes. Finally something really meaningfull going on. Finally something making ED worth reinstalling and tryin again.

 

[aRJay]

- All those lovely undiscovered Neutron stars I've scanned this will be 'first tagged' by riff-raff.
- Still no Imperial Explorer

+ Everything else.
+ First tagged reset will encourage exploration.
+ Still hope for Imperial Explorer.
+ Currently 3810 users browsing this thread.

What first tagged reset? I have seen nothing about such a thing and no sign of the salt mountain such a suggestion would cause.

 

[aRJay]

There are currently over 4000 people reading this thread. If that's above normal for a new Beyond topic, then IMO, FD should take that as an indication that many players are interested in future improvements in the mechanics of exploration.

It is unusual for a thread that is so polite.

 

[Daish]

Having the INFO: on the top right of the screen , can this show not puzzles or hints but real information of finds, please don't tease, saying it might be cargo finds then get there and its just tea again. IF we are taking the time to scan and become pros at it,the reward should be knowing what we have located, I.e WRECK ships, Cargo, Buildings, Beacons damaged, alien finds, everything, I have a feeling that you will still be using the POI system which has never really worked since it was launched, please provide scan locations that we can zoom in on the new HUDs and we can select / target and fly there, so ending the horrible coordinates flaff. this is hopefully another reduced flight time element.

 

[WR3ND]

... except when it comes to fixing my crappy shadows on PS4

Anything inside that spoiler? Not showing up for me, I'm afraid. Mentioning my Vulture was just one of the points of showing an "extreme" style of play, at least as is most likely viewed from the community in general.

It handles fantastically in supercruise and above world surfaces, and is also very efficient in systems explored per time, at least currently, though just not in jump range for keeping up with a pack during expeditions or the like.