Dangerous Dogs and Hot Discoveries

[Luna Valenwood]

Don't mind the title I was just hungry at the time. To give a little bit more clarity to this post I have been wandering around the galaxy on the Great Infernal Galactic Circumnavigation Expedition. This has given me some thinking time about exploration, and how the current mechanics could be improved. The thing I find lacking the most in exploration is a sense of danger. Kind of funny considering the games title but I genuinely feel like a lot of the time when jumping and scanning systems the lack of any real danger is the biggest killer of having some fun. I find neutrons a step in the right direction because there is some risk/reward involved. It's hard to watch that movie series on your other screen when the threat of being literally crushed alive is on the table. So here are a few examples of what I mean:

1. Random ship failures - Serious failures to the ship systems that need repairing every now and then. The frequency being every few days/weeks in real time so as to not make them frequent enough that they get boring, and I don't just mean ship modules shutting down either I mean real faults, one main drive failing while the other continues firing throwing you into a spin. Life Support failures causing you to black out every now and then rather than outright killing you. Failures should be scary and fun!​
2. Black Holes - This has been suggested quite a few times I believe but come on. They should be terrifying! We should have to escape their gravitational pull even in SC. Get too close and you can't escape, then it's spaghettification for you.​
3. Random events - I think one of the most undervalued parts of gaming is a random event that catches you off guard. For example jumping into a system and your hyperdrive fails mid jump throwing you into a nearby black hole which you need to escape.​
4. Stowaways / Infestations - All I'm saying here is Trumbles...​
5. Fuel scooping - Scooping without a shield should damage the hull. You could even add a few additional fun mechanics in here such as scooping over a coronal mass ejection raises ship heat to silly levels but increase scoop speed.​
6. Supercruise - Push the FSD to go faster in short bursts a bit like boost in normal space, but pushing the FSD past it's limits cause increased chance of an FSD failure and reduce the FSD health as long as you are pushing the FSD past it's limit. Maybe flying past gravity wells causes additional wear and tear?​

So what do you think, and do you have any ideas or opinions you would like to add?

 

[Rat Catcher]

So what do you think, and do you have any ideas or opinions you would like to add?

Exploration ships should self-destruct if the player has not visited a station for running repairs - say after 37 days?

 

[CMDR Yates]

Yeah, been saying this for years.

More dangerous things, rare encounters, and cool discoveries during exploration, and incentive to put yourself in tricky situations.

Metal-eating void life in rings that we can get genomic payouts for sampling or capturing, but will strip your hull if you're not careful.

Hostile Von Neumann probes built by those AIs humanity had a war with centuries back. They drop super-rare, valuable cargo and high-grade, but they're also armed and can duff you up.

Tremors-type subsurface carnivores on some Odyssey worlds. Gotta jump from rock-to-rock to avoid them while exploring their biomes on foot.

Lava lakes we can scoop rare materials from, or fire seismic probes down into for geological data, but spit lava and rocks at your ship.

An option to have deep-space missions sent to you by the Pilots' Federation while exploring in the black (scan this, investigate this...)

The chances of any of that happening in the near future are quite slim though, I reckon.

 

[Spacerschoice-00]

* 1, already in game. Get fsd integrity low enough it fails at times.
1a. Really not needed. Not dangerous. just bad game mechanic.

--- leave as is.

2, no comment.

3, go find thargoid area they'll pull you from mid jump. Bonus points if carrying guardian relic. And thargoid sensor.

--- sounds more annoying than fun...

*** Horizon had random events/locations could find. Some more interesting were in the "bubble"
**** Don't have Odyssey, so unknown what it's like.


4, Looks like a ship interior suggestion. "no plans" Last I heard.



5, thinking there may be history with this.
5a, Just put bigger fuel scoop that's A rated. If having long time scooping.
´´ Some ships will never overheat depending on builds, others heat up real quickly.


--- Better dev time spent on other things. Not a needed change. Would be annoying.

6, unlikely.

 

[space voyager]

Don't mind the title I was just hungry at the time. To give a little bit more clarity to this post I have been wandering around the galaxy on the Great Infernal Galactic Circumnavigation Expedition. This has given me some thinking time about exploration, and how the current mechanics could be improved. The thing I find lacking the most in exploration is a sense of danger. Kind of funny considering the games title but I genuinely feel like a lot of the time when jumping and scanning systems the lack of any real danger is the biggest killer of having some fun. I find neutrons a step in the right direction because there is some risk/reward involved. It's hard to watch that movie series on your other screen when the threat of being literally crushed alive is on the table. So here are a few examples of what I mean:

1. Random ship failures - Serious failures to the ship systems that need repairing every now and then. The frequency being every few days/weeks in real time so as to not make them frequent enough that they get boring, and I don't just mean ship modules shutting down either I mean real faults, one main drive failing while the other continues firing throwing you into a spin. Life Support failures causing you to black out every now and then rather than outright killing you. Failures should be scary and fun!​
2. Black Holes - This has been suggested quite a few times I believe but come on. They should be terrifying! We should have to escape their gravitational pull even in SC. Get too close and you can't escape, then it's spaghettification for you.​
3. Random events - I think one of the most undervalued parts of gaming is a random event that catches you off guard. For example jumping into a system and your hyperdrive fails mid jump throwing you into a nearby black hole which you need to escape.​
4. Stowaways / Infestations - All I'm saying here is Trumbles...​
5. Fuel scooping - Scooping without a shield should damage the hull. You could even add a few additional fun mechanics in here such as scooping over a coronal mass ejection raises ship heat to silly levels but increase scoop speed.​
6. Supercruise - Push the FSD to go faster in short bursts a bit like boost in normal space, but pushing the FSD past it's limits cause increased chance of an FSD failure and reduce the FSD health as long as you are pushing the FSD past it's limit. Maybe flying past gravity wells causes additional wear and tear?​

So what do you think, and do you have any ideas or opinions you would like to add?

I agree very much. Players have been pushing for some thrill in traversing the vastness of space since I can remember, but interestingly FD never reacts. Space being impotent, non-reactive and care-free is making exploration much more dull than it could be. I definitely want some more excitement there. A quick search through the forum for making space more dangerous reveals calls for dangerous black holes, gravity, stellar phenomena, dangerous and interesting encounters including missions, etc. etc..

With what we have in exploration is mostly the search for a nice looking system. And Raxxla I guess. The only danger being making a mistake at landing on planets.

Having something interesting HAPPEN during exploration would definitely be a great addition to Elite.

Also, danger would give incentive to not go out and explore in an egg-shell of a ship. I've said so many times; a small ship should not even be able to endure the hardship of space travel to say Beagle. Such a journey should demand real planning, a lot of resources and a hardy ship.

 

[Spacerschoice-00]

Also, danger would give incentive to not go out and explore in an egg-shell of a ship. I've said so many times; a small ship should not even be able to endure the hardship of space travel to say Beagle. Such a journey should demand real planning, a lot of resources and a hardy ship.

I disagree. Small ships are fun to use. It's still a game, no tedium simulator 99000.

what kind of planning?
What resources?
What makes a ship "hardy"

 

[space voyager]

I disagree. Small ships are fun to use. It's still a game, no tedium simulator 99000.

what kind of planning?
What resources?
What makes a ship "hardy"

I agree that small ships are fun to use. But you don't cross the ocean in a rowing boat.

And yes - what planning, what resources, what ship is... better said, "space ocean worthy"... None of these matter at the moment. But they should. Getting to Beagle point is only testing ONE thing at the moment; your focus on pressing the jump button. I don't think it is the way. (Mando reference)

 

[space voyager]

Don't mind the title I was just hungry at the time. To give a little bit more clarity to this post I have been wandering around the galaxy on the Great Infernal Galactic Circumnavigation Expedition. This has given me some thinking time about exploration, and how the current mechanics could be improved. The thing I find lacking the most in exploration is a sense of danger. Kind of funny considering the games title but I genuinely feel like a lot of the time when jumping and scanning systems the lack of any real danger is the biggest killer of having some fun. I find neutrons a step in the right direction because there is some risk/reward involved. It's hard to watch that movie series on your other screen when the threat of being literally crushed alive is on the table. So here are a few examples of what I mean:

1. Random ship failures - Serious failures to the ship systems that need repairing every now and then. The frequency being every few days/weeks in real time so as to not make them frequent enough that they get boring, and I don't just mean ship modules shutting down either I mean real faults, one main drive failing while the other continues firing throwing you into a spin. Life Support failures causing you to black out every now and then rather than outright killing you. Failures should be scary and fun!​
2. Black Holes - This has been suggested quite a few times I believe but come on. They should be terrifying! We should have to escape their gravitational pull even in SC. Get too close and you can't escape, then it's spaghettification for you.​
3. Random events - I think one of the most undervalued parts of gaming is a random event that catches you off guard. For example jumping into a system and your hyperdrive fails mid jump throwing you into a nearby black hole which you need to escape.​
4. Stowaways / Infestations - All I'm saying here is Trumbles...​
5. Fuel scooping - Scooping without a shield should damage the hull. You could even add a few additional fun mechanics in here such as scooping over a coronal mass ejection raises ship heat to silly levels but increase scoop speed.​
6. Supercruise - Push the FSD to go faster in short bursts a bit like boost in normal space, but pushing the FSD past it's limits cause increased chance of an FSD failure and reduce the FSD health as long as you are pushing the FSD past it's limit. Maybe flying past gravity wells causes additional wear and tear?​

So what do you think, and do you have any ideas or opinions you would like to add?

Oh, just to add - with the addition of danger a system to recover your data would be much appreciated. Explorers are the only ones that risk potentially months worth of gameplay. Actually I'd love to see such a system even because of the danger of landing on planets. If the system was say a black box with the data, getting it back would be a large enough punishment in itself, data loss is IMO a wrong way to go in the first place.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Don't mind the title I was just hungry at the time. To give a little bit more clarity to this post I have been wandering around the galaxy on the Great Infernal Galactic Circumnavigation Expedition. This has given me some thinking time about exploration, and how the current mechanics could be improved. The thing I find lacking the most in exploration is a sense of danger. Kind of funny considering the games title but I genuinely feel like a lot of the time when jumping and scanning systems the lack of any real danger is the biggest killer of having some fun. I find neutrons a step in the right direction because there is some risk/reward involved. It's hard to watch that movie series on your other screen when the threat of being literally crushed alive is on the table. So here are a few examples of what I mean:

1. Random ship failures - Serious failures to the ship systems that need repairing every now and then. The frequency being every few days/weeks in real time so as to not make them frequent enough that they get boring, and I don't just mean ship modules shutting down either I mean real faults, one main drive failing while the other continues firing throwing you into a spin. Life Support failures causing you to black out every now and then rather than outright killing you. Failures should be scary and fun!​
2. Black Holes - This has been suggested quite a few times I believe but come on. They should be terrifying! We should have to escape their gravitational pull even in SC. Get too close and you can't escape, then it's spaghettification for you.​
3. Random events - I think one of the most undervalued parts of gaming is a random event that catches you off guard. For example jumping into a system and your hyperdrive fails mid jump throwing you into a nearby black hole which you need to escape.​
4. Stowaways / Infestations - All I'm saying here is Trumbles...​
5. Fuel scooping - Scooping without a shield should damage the hull. You could even add a few additional fun mechanics in here such as scooping over a coronal mass ejection raises ship heat to silly levels but increase scoop speed.​
6. Supercruise - Push the FSD to go faster in short bursts a bit like boost in normal space, but pushing the FSD past it's limits cause increased chance of an FSD failure and reduce the FSD health as long as you are pushing the FSD past it's limit. Maybe flying past gravity wells causes additional wear and tear?​

So what do you think, and do you have any ideas or opinions you would like to add?

Tbh, I thought it'd be yet another PvP vs PvE nollocks from the title.

OT: Less murderhobo galaxy, more variety in what happens and how to interact with the world. "Good thing I found you," just doesn't cut it for me anymore.

 

[Banana's_Are_Good_For_You]

All good ideas, except the cute and furry aliens...that's a bit much.

 

[Banana's_Are_Good_For_You]

Exploration ships should self-destruct if the player has not visited a station for running repairs - say after 37 days?

Careful now, we don't want to incite a forum war...

 

[space voyager]

All good ideas, except the cute and furry aliens...that's a bit much.

Oooooohhh, that was the best part...

Careful now, we don't want to incite a forum war...

Isn't that the point of forums?! J/K

 

[FX2K]

The only problem with half of these is, fdev.

First iteration - random failures and all the other stuff will happen simultaneously and every second.
Second iteration - they will be non-existent, but messages in the middle of your screen will show indicating something should have happened.
Third iteration - they will kick in as expected but crash your game within a few seconds.
Fourth iteration - instead of the "thing" happening, you will simply die and respawn at a prison ship.
Fifth iteration - each time you are meant to have a failure, you will receive 100m credits. This will last for a few hours before Fdev disable the exploit.
Sixth iteration - everything added will be disabled temporarily whilst they investigate (aka forever)

 

[space voyager]

The only problem with half of these is, fdev.

First iteration - random failures and all the other stuff will happen simultaneously and every second.
Second iteration - they will be non-existent, but messages in the middle of your screen will show indicating something should have happened.
Third iteration - they will kick in as expected but crash your game within a few seconds.
Fourth iteration - instead of the "thing" happening, you will simply die and respawn at a prison ship.
Fifth iteration - each time you are meant to have a failure, you will receive 100m credits. This will last for a few hours before Fdev disable the exploit.
Sixth iteration - everything added will be disabled temporarily whilst they investigate (aka forever)

HE HE HE, actually laughed.

I'm not particularly fond of just random failures unless we get some real gameplay mechanics with them. Like, say, you need to spend ship parts that you brought along to conduct repairs. That would limit the ships survivability in space, also limiting the ultimate time one can spend in space and give big ships an upper hand in long-range and time consuming travels. If these failures also happen only when your ship is at least moderately worn out (integrity), you would never have problems with it in the bubble, which is ok. I wouldn't want random failures to happen in either PvP or PvE encounters.

I'd love to see some dangerous random events. Why not be attacked by some of the plants we see on the surface? Or even meet some bees or whatever on planets with atmosphere? Be washed in a solar mass ejection? I'd love to see space being hostile enough to demand a ship that can take and dish out some beating. Not a PvP ship but at least some weapons. Want to travel in an egg-shell? Do so at your own peril. Etc. etc.

 

[taniwha-qf]

I agree that small ships are fun to use. But you don't cross the ocean in a rowing boat.

Tell that to the vikings.

 

[GonzTheMalificent]

Plenty of folk have crossed oceans in tiny boats. Polynesia anyone?

I agree with OP, especially on Black Holes. Well disappointed when I finally got to Sag A and, well, meh.

 

[Rat Catcher]

But you don't cross the ocean in a rowing boat.

Are you certain?

A former marine has successfully rowed across the Atlantic Ocean alone and unsupported, in what is believed to be one of the first such journeys. Dave “Dinger” Bell spent 119 days travelling from New York to the UK, crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

 

[space voyager]

Are you certain?

A former marine has successfully rowed across the Atlantic Ocean alone and unsupported, in what is believed to be one of the first such journeys. Dave “Dinger” Bell spent 119 days travelling from New York to the UK, crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

Plenty of folk have crossed oceans in tiny boats. Polynesia anyone?

Not impossible, but you need a LOT OF LUCK. I wonder how many boats did NOT make it and we know nothing about. Also, perhaps ocean is a very mild case of interstellar space...

Tell that to the vikings.

Viking ships were far more and larger than a tipical rowing boat. You might just say "look at Roman triremes".

But it is interesting that you people do not want anything interesting to happen during your travels. Are you satisfied with current system? You want something different than what the OP is suggesting?

 

[Rat Catcher]

But it is interesting that you people do not want anything interesting to happen during your travels

I'd love to see 'explorers' face terrible danger at every jump, not being fed all of the information about a system's star(s) beforehand, not knowing if they are about to jump into a black hole (which, because DANGER has been installed, would be instantly fatal) or WD system... Having permanent failure of modules if the 'explorer' wasn't carrying multiple backup modules for all core systems, random failures of stuff sound great too...

Of course, 'explorers' fantasy of danger usually involves it happening to some other poor soul...

ETA: It reminds me of the calls for better C&P, then the wails of dismay when 'measures' are applied to all, rather than just a 'target group'

 

[Northpin]

Don't mind the title I was just hungry at the time. To give a little bit more clarity to this post I have been wandering around the galaxy on the Great Infernal Galactic Circumnavigation Expedition. This has given me some thinking time about exploration, and how the current mechanics could be improved. The thing I find lacking the most in exploration is a sense of danger. Kind of funny considering the games title but I genuinely feel like a lot of the time when jumping and scanning systems the lack of any real danger is the biggest killer of having some fun. I find neutrons a step in the right direction because there is some risk/reward involved. It's hard to watch that movie series on your other screen when the threat of being literally crushed alive is on the table. So here are a few examples of what I mean:

1. Random ship failures - Serious failures to the ship systems that need repairing every now and then. The frequency being every few days/weeks in real time so as to not make them frequent enough that they get boring, and I don't just mean ship modules shutting down either I mean real faults, one main drive failing while the other continues firing throwing you into a spin. Life Support failures causing you to black out every now and then rather than outright killing you. Failures should be scary and fun!​
2. Black Holes - This has been suggested quite a few times I believe but come on. They should be terrifying! We should have to escape their gravitational pull even in SC. Get too close and you can't escape, then it's spaghettification for you.​
3. Random events - I think one of the most undervalued parts of gaming is a random event that catches you off guard. For example jumping into a system and your hyperdrive fails mid jump throwing you into a nearby black hole which you need to escape.​
4. Stowaways / Infestations - All I'm saying here is Trumbles...​
5. Fuel scooping - Scooping without a shield should damage the hull. You could even add a few additional fun mechanics in here such as scooping over a coronal mass ejection raises ship heat to silly levels but increase scoop speed.​
6. Supercruise - Push the FSD to go faster in short bursts a bit like boost in normal space, but pushing the FSD past it's limits cause increased chance of an FSD failure and reduce the FSD health as long as you are pushing the FSD past it's limit. Maybe flying past gravity wells causes additional wear and tear?​

So what do you think, and do you have any ideas or opinions you would like to add?

1. and 3. Nope. Seriously, no thank you. Some randomness might seem nice, but not when it may cost your ship and months of discoveries.
2 and 5. Our ships are really special. And our flight computers really know how to keep a safe distance. Hence the exclusion zones around various bodies.
4. Nah. Pretty much it kinda falls into random events mentioned at 1. and 3.
6. That's not how Supercruise (FSD) works.

More about random events:
I may do something stupid... as coming to land on a planet, fail to notice it's 1.5G and boost trying to touch down faster, only to face plant and lose the ship.
Or boosting in a NSP area and collide with one of the smaller and less noticeable inhabitants with the net effect of losing the ship.
I can deal with such events.
But not with a random event that have no other merit than being an annoyance or that it may lead to a hull loss.