Mining was made more varied by adding the new tools. It is a lot more interesting now, but maybe not that balanced. And looking for stuff to mine has not been made that much more interesting; we got the DSS probes to find hot spots, but we don't really need them. In fact, it is often just as good or better to mine outside them. Then there is the oddity of core mining giving access to a subset of mostly valuable minerals that cannot be found elsewhere, as if the rocks grew around those deposits rather than being fragments of larger bodies. We still cannot really mine on planets except for a few materials. The mining tools could be made a lot smarter and much more functional. They are just a bundle of game mechanics.
The FSS is not the same. Yes, it mimicks a radio telescope and adds a bit of variability to exploration game play. Combined with the DSS it now gives us the ability to find PoIs that we before had to use methods to find that essentially has existed since before map making was invented. Still a bit clunky and half-baked, a lot more could be done with it even in conjunction with the mining tools (because let's face it, when is exploration not about finding resources?). It doesn't solve the issue that not much is done with the data we gather or how we use or display it.
What the FSS doesn't do that the new mining tools did, is being an addition to existing game mechanics. We did not have an exploration tool before. We had a button to push, and some flying and waiting to do. So we can't really compare the FSS addition to the addition of mining tools. Since it was an addition to nothing.
At least with the FSS/DSS combo we have the basic exploration tools in place. Now we just need it built upon. We need it fleshed out better. Adding the old ADS functionality back in is not the answer, that adds nothing useful. That would be like giving the mining laser the ability to mine void opals; it would render the new tools redundant.
One could argue that the mining laser should be able to mine void opals. But not as efficiently as the other tools. Similarly if we had an ADS scanner added back in, surely it should not be able to gather the same level of detailed data that the FSS does.
S
The FSS is not the same. Yes, it mimicks a radio telescope and adds a bit of variability to exploration game play. Combined with the DSS it now gives us the ability to find PoIs that we before had to use methods to find that essentially has existed since before map making was invented. Still a bit clunky and half-baked, a lot more could be done with it even in conjunction with the mining tools (because let's face it, when is exploration not about finding resources?). It doesn't solve the issue that not much is done with the data we gather or how we use or display it.
What the FSS doesn't do that the new mining tools did, is being an addition to existing game mechanics. We did not have an exploration tool before. We had a button to push, and some flying and waiting to do. So we can't really compare the FSS addition to the addition of mining tools. Since it was an addition to nothing.
At least with the FSS/DSS combo we have the basic exploration tools in place. Now we just need it built upon. We need it fleshed out better. Adding the old ADS functionality back in is not the answer, that adds nothing useful. That would be like giving the mining laser the ability to mine void opals; it would render the new tools redundant.
One could argue that the mining laser should be able to mine void opals. But not as efficiently as the other tools. Similarly if we had an ADS scanner added back in, surely it should not be able to gather the same level of detailed data that the FSS does.
S