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Parallax is the way to go then.
Could Frontier please demonstrate how to use the FSS enjoyably?
- Thread starter CMDR Karrde Sun
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Parallax is the way to go then.
SOME work! Not a lifetime!
I did try it out and it is a thrill to find things this way from time to time. Doing it regularely though... I have children to feed, man.SOME work! Not a lifetime!
Ironically (from my perspective) the FSS is actually a useful tool for parallax searching. If you can't spot it visually the blue blob will give you a clue - except when the FSS gets confused and decides that the HMC 26 kLs in front of you is actually 400 Ls behind you
Then the FSS was not the right approach - it is pure grind requiring little or no actual effort.
Fundamentally, I am diametrically opposed to the idea of putting arguably needless process barriers in the way of ANY activity. I get it that some may feel differently but if you (or any one else for that matter) personally feel the FSS fills your/their perception of providing a sense of achievement then good for you/them.
The fundamental problem is that FD have replaced a perfectly fine and decent mechanic (the xDS/DSS) with something far less palatable overall without properly consulting with the people it affects. Myself and others objected to the FSS implementation and proposed improvements, but were seemingly summarily ignored in the main. The removal of the xDS module should never have been on the table in the first place IMO, doing so flied in the face of their own guidelines for evolving the game.
Funny, I thought the Fundamental Problem is that Elite has not ever, is not currently, nor is slated to be a Design-by-Committee game. It’s Frontier’s game, and they said they did not find the xDS/DSS mechanics to be in line with what They wanted, and they acted on this and showed how they felt about it.
There is vastly more interactiveness and skill involved now than the previous Do Nothing system of xDS/DSS and any claim to the contrary is purely delusional.
It is not a grind, well I don't find it to be one.
As to effort this is the meaning of effort: a vigorous or determined attempt.
Sounds about right to me.
They haven't. They have added an activity. Needless processes are generally called gameplay. A bit like flying your ship from station to station.
Thats good.
Matter of opinion. They have fundamentally replaced a god awful passive mechanic (xDS/DSS) with a non passive mechanic (FSS/DSS).
It isn't less palatable. And they don't need to consult anyone as it is their game.
Because they have already decided what they planed to do. They have also ignored all of my suggestions so far too. Don't get hung up about it.
Matter of opinion. I disagree. I am happy to see the god awful non-mechanic go the way of the dodo. I hated it with a passion.
The FSS requires very little if any (additional) skill - to claim it does is laughable.
The xDS/DSS was just part of a longer more time consuming process - it may not have required direct interaction but to claim it was a "Do Nothing" system is purely delusional.
Ultimately, the problem is that FD fundamentally changed the available exploration options that had been available in a LIVE product for a number of years. Replacing it should never have been considered an option by them - too much time had passed for removing existing options to be considered a fair and reasonable change management decision.
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Interactiveness isn't automatically a good thing. The pre-flight checks are interactive, but nobody but the most extreme hardcore players have it enabled - for everyone else, it's just a timesink they opt out of immediately.
The ADS/DSS wasn't a 'do nothing' system - it required you to fly your spaceship (in a flying spaceships game, no less!).
The FSS requires no more skill than the Commodities screen - scroll around until you see the thing you want, press a couple of buttons and bingo, planet 'explored'.
Good point. I consider the system map to be a pain to use on the best of days, so I never bothered paying attention to it.
I’ve been intending to write an updated FSS guide, but between trying to complete DW2 and now some life drama, I haven’t had much spare time to do this properly. Between the need to go 2D for good screen shots, trying to find good examples to use, and reminding myself that I need to create step by step instructions, it’s something currently on something my “to do” list for the journey back.
Once I get a spare moment when not at work.
I mean the entire multi-sensor suite. There’s quite a bit of information you can deduce about a system and it’s bodies without playing the “lockpicking minigame.” It does require a minimal amount of tuning, and a bit of panning, though, so YMMV.
The FSS does provide a lot of information that can make exploration fun, if you're preparedto not use its full capabilities. But it still ultimately fails if you're searching for bodies based on visual characteristics, since it requires playing the minigame to resolve that information.
That's not what you said though...
It depends upon what you mean by "full capabilities." Quite frankly, I consider spamming the "minigame" to be not using the FSS's full capabilities myself.
Actually, the science behind it is pretty solid - it is just the implementation that is severely lacking. Space-golf on the other hand, that lacks any solid scientific basis for it - pure game mechanics for their own sake.
Mass Effect Andromeda (and ME3?) had a probe mechanic that was far more science like than space-golf, still not good mechanics though.
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It depends upon what you mean by "full capabilities." Quite frankly, I consider spamming the "minigame" to be not using the FSS's full capabilities myself.
Yes, but that's just further proof, if it were needed, that girls are indeed 'weird'
I'm sure nobody is contesting that, however, a business cannot drive a tank over its customers.
Fair enough. But not the fun bit.
All the people panning the FSS as "pretend science" have no idea what passive data collection is all about. It's 100% how we have learned about the Universe outside of a few local planets -- point an instrument at a target object and record or read its available spectral outputs, analyze them, get an idea of what the object is composed of. You think FSS is humdrum, try acquiring and analysing actual stellar (or planetary, which are much more limited as they are rarely emissive) spectra. Think about how long it took Penzias and Wilson to isolate and analyze the CBR -- microwaves, for gosh sakes, barely a step up from radio. That much better tools are available a thousand years later isn't stretching anything scientifically, but it won't change the basic procedures. By comparison, "honking" is apparently an active scan that breaks physics to pieces by being instantaneous over huge distances -- no light-bound delay in signal return. That is pretend science.
It depends upon what you mean by "full capabilities." Quite frankly, I consider spamming the "minigame" to be not using the FSS's full capabilities myself.
It is the optimal way to tag stuff & earn cash though. Since 3.3 I have more money than I know what to do with for the first time since I bought the game in January 2015 because pretty well every system I enter I scan everything to get a completed map, but map no more than I scanned pre-3.3.
The net effect for me is that completion scanning the system has become the new honk scoop & jump (ie added delay before I get to see whether the system contains anything interesting to me), then because mapping has become the new scanning I 'have' to fly much closer to the body, come to almost a complete stop & fire the probes, compared to the straightforward fly-by I would do before which would allow me to get a feeling of the scale of the system.
I like the benefits of being able to optionally scan at a distance, and mapping is almost entirely optional so I don't have a problem with that at all, but all it's done for me is slow me down & provide a compensating benefit I I don't consider important.
Tell me again how we can instantaneously determine the composition of, calculate the distribution of elements in rocks on the surface of, and detect the presence of geological and biological activity on the far side of a planet 500,000 Ls away without 'breaking physics to pieces'?
And when you've done that, you can explain how the FSS instantaneously knowing the location of every body in the system is okay, but I have to tune my magic telescope to the right frequency in order to look at it.
The FSS is no more 'real science' than the ADS was.
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