It's designed to cut out unnecessary flying (wasting your time by flying to something that has nothing on it).
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Could Frontier please demonstrate how to use the FSS enjoyably?
- Thread starter CMDR Karrde Sun
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I would also prefer if it was a holographic cockpit display..
Well we wouldn't want anyone to have their game made worse, so just make it optional like the new docking computer or the old modules. Seems like an easily solved problem to me.
Yep, it'd be no different to DCs, SC-assist, etc.
Good thing Frontier aren't Ubisoft of course, or they'd have added the FSS and then would announce all these QoL improvement modules as being only purchasable with Arx.
Good thing Frontier aren't Ubisoft of course, or they'd have added the FSS and then would announce all these QoL improvement modules as being only purchasable with Arx.
I have no problem with this being an optional module, but please don't revert the FSS towards the pre-3.3 exploration. It'll pretty much kill everything I like about the FSS: I have to actively hunt for the information I want. Right away, the "black body" map would reveal the information that makes each system unique: orbital heirarchies.
Providing high level navigation data by holding down a button for a few seconds also obviates being able to find worlds via parallax, and resolving them via flyby. This kind of thing is like a huge glowing, neon sign saying "THERE'S A PLANET HERE! RIGHT HERE!" Which is why I immediately jump out of pre-explored systems: there's nothing left to actually explore, just a credit grind.
Again, I would have no problem with this being an optional module, but this change would obviate another key aspect I like about the FSS: you can learn a lot about a system, its bodies and orbital heirarchies, without resolving a single body. This is because at present, the FSS's indicator arrow (which actually exists) is broad and weak, allowing you to pick up signals in a broad band. This lets me find the interesting parts of the system, so that I can fly to them without having to play the proverbial "minigame."
It would also ruin what makes highly eccentric planets so interesting to find: you need to deduce the angle of their orbit is to the mean orbital plane of the system, based on every other planet's orbit.
Plenty. If these changes are made to the FSS, it'll once again kill any desire I have to explore, after six years of waiting for exploration to have enough meat on its bones to be engaging for me. I'm not planning to return to the Bubble until the new expansion in 2020, and I've been exploring since the 3.3 beta, so two years out in the black, of more or less continuous exploration. (I've got an alt for my Buckyball Racing fix.)
I explore systems via a mix of FSS signal analysis, parallax, and playing the "minigame" to clean up the uninteresting icy bodies in the outer system. It's fun, engaging, requires a wide variety of techniques, and most importantly it doesn't spoil the rest of the system when I obtain information about one of its bodies. Add in the changes to planetary exploration, and I've got enough variety of actions to ensure that I don't suffer from the ennui of pre-3.3 exploration.
Your proposal would make the entire galaxy identical to pre-explored systems: fly through systems, because all the really fun parts of exploration has already been done by someone or something else. All that would be left behind would be a grind for credits and "tags," none of which are appealing enough to grind for, and planetary exploration is better done near the Bubble, where there's a wider variety of things to actually find.
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As I have said many a time, i'm all okay with that as long as its a seperate module. But FDev are not though and don't want it in the game currently. Of course that may change in the future, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
How? That is the most insanely unfathomable concept to be bothered by the ability to target something with no additional information. Mind blown that sounds so petty. All you would be achieving is PREVENTION of flying there.
I keep using this silly thing on a regular basis, and it is so apparent there is no value at all in the concept of presence of a body in a system. There is zero game impact, decision, anything, the presence of a body determines. It doesn't glow, it doesn't bite it doesnt make a sound. All it can possibly do is provide data to make another decision.
If you were making up some sort of dice based pen and paper rpg, you could pretend that its interesting, because its all in your head, but in just the context of the sandbox tools we have, the discovery mechanic is pointless. Just keep doing it. I do, and it really becomes apparent. You don't get get a sense of layout like the orrey because the field of the view of the fss is 360 degrees.. its impossible to appreciate the context without getting lost at the very next group of things.
I try every time. The last thing i tried was the zoomed in detailed view, since everything else is just junk to get to that within the fss. Its so inadequate. There's nothing to anchor onto even there. The detailed view in the system map.... why couldn't it even match that?
The fss is nothing but forced activity in exchange for the rewards you got previously after spaceflight now without spaceflight. Thats the only thing it achieves.
That would satisfy almost everyone.
The ADS as an optional module that by itself shows no planet surfaces, no POI info, and grants no discovery tags on planets. Just show the black planets and orbits. I someone wants to know more, they have to either use the FSS or fly to the planet to scan it. And if someone actually enjoys panning randomly to discover planet locations, they can save a module and use FSS only.
You'd need a different incentive though. Module slots aren't a meaningful currency for explorers considering how few modules you need for exploration. A DSS, a fuel scoop, a SRV hangar, the smallest shield you can fit... If you make the ADS a module that's 5 slots, (6 if you are particularly careless and need an AFMU). In what exploration ship is mounting the ADS going to force you to make a choice?
There is nothing petty about it. I like to find things myself. I don't want them already found, just for me to find it again. It would destroy the whole mechanic for me and others.
So you tell me, what is petty about that.
That is your subjective opinion.
That is your subjective opinion.
You get the layout after using the FSS. You discover the layout yourself instead of having it handed to you on a plate. While using the FSS i get to see interesting orbits as I go about using it. I find that far more rewarding then pressing a button for 5 seconds. But each to their own.
That is your subjective opinion.
The things people say beggars belief at times. What rewards are you talking about? How do I get rewarded by exploring amazing planetary areas without space flight. How do I get the Mapped by Tag (which replaces the old discovered by tag) without space flight.
As an explorer I don't see cash and tags as rewards. I go exploring to discover things. The FSS allows me to discover things myself. The old honk discovered things for me.
You seem to have issues with people having a different opinion and different likes to yourself. I suggest you get over the fact that people are different.
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For the fss to be able to draw blobs, it already has the same information as an underdiscovered marker in your nav panel. If the fss didn't know the heading, it would draw the entire screen as a blob, but it doesn't, it draws the location as a blob. If the fss didn't know the distance to the blob, it wouldn't write those values as numbers within its user interface before you hit the zoom button. You gotta have a word with frontier there for getting your fantasy wrong.
No i just keep using it. My forum name account is out of the bubble exploring at the moment. I really have always wanted to do something that would work, right from the beginning. But not even expecting what i used to any more, purely focused on the fss itself proves itself daft with every new system.
You must have explored than one system with stuff you weren't interested in? You just move onto the next forgetting it ever existed? If that makes you happy.... Also in this scenario would you consider the spectrum as the full extent of your exploration?
EDIT: Actually.. i appreciate the fact that you're different. I want to learn. So within the fss? Do you stripmine? Do you cherry pick? Do you only bother turning it on if you want something (this is the high ground i think). Do you just look at the blobs and not zoom on anything?
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That's a completely different problem, and unrelated to an optional ADS-light module. It's also why I was one of the few voices that objected to the FSS being built into all ships. We need more exploration modules, not less.
Presently, we only have one dedicated exploration module, the DSS. Since material discovery has now shifted to the FSS, and before that the pre-3.3 DSS, the SRV is nothing but a material gathering device... and something to bring along because its fun to drive around on the surface of alien worlds, but it isn't what I'd consider to be exploration gear any more. Shields are only necessary if you intend to land on bodies to deploy the SRV, and you could technically get away with not installing a fuel scoop if you've got a friend with fuel limpet installed who's willing to travel with you. Toss in the additional size one slots added when the additional autopilot modules were added, and the core problem of too few exploration modules has gotten worse, not better.
While most players have no issues with core FSS functionality, and has gotten explorers like me out into the black after years of waiting, its undeniably true that it has turned off a handful of others. Even Frontier admitted they knew this would be the case during their introductory livestream. I think that's a pity, which is why I have no issue with adding additional optional modules that would expand functionality. More optional modules is always good, because right now you can build a Hauler with everything you listed above, and still have room for an AMFU... and that just ain't right.
Irrelavant. But as it goes I would prefer it to not show distance until you had zoomed in on it or at least put you reticule over where it is within the gravity distortion. I would also prefer the signatures to be more basic and I see it as too precise.
I use it everytime I play as I am out in the black exploring and have been for the last 8 months.
Sure I have, but I can usually tell from the just glancing at the signatures without having to use the FSS. But sometimes I get it wrong. Its not full proof and that is how it should be in my view. I don't want a full proof system.
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Why does there need to be a choice? It's exploration not combat
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Why does there need to be a choice? It's exploration not combat
Depth.
But in the current state of the game it is a relevant issue, all more so in that making it a module is proposed as a disincentive.
Why does there need to be a choice? It's exploration not combat
It remains a game, and at the core of every game is a series of meaningful choices you have to correctly make to bring you closer to your goal. Ship outfitting is meant to be a relevant aspect of this decision making.
But removing the old modules & replacing them with a convoluted minigame (rather than adding to what was already there) didn't. What massive advantage needs to be balanced by occupying loads of slots, when players have been given extra slots in other areas & are asking for things like limpet controllers to be combined?
I think it would be much easier to simply put the old modules back in, the only people that lose out are those that want to frustrate others. I'm okay with denying that type of person their schadenfreude.
There's always something that ruins exploration for others...
Auto discover, yup, that ruined exploration for me... and others
FSS ruined Exploration for others.
Yup, never denied it.
Slot bloat and the removal of the ADS are two separate issues. Constantly adding new slots reduces the complexity of the game by making it ever easier to have a single ship which does everything - which obviously is popular with a portion of the playerbase. Having to actually think about outfitting a ship based on what you want to do with it adds a layer of complexity to the game.
This is also why I'm opposed to Fleet Carriers being able to carry multiple ships (per commander). Being able to take everything you want everywhere you go defeats the purpose of having multiple ships in the first place.
YMMV
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