Detailed Surface Scanner vs. Navigation

[Coyote]

Something that's annoying me is that the detailed surface scanner needs a lock on the "target", and that the lock overrides any navigational settings. So you can't just plot a route and hop along, scanning everything on your way simply by roughly flying past any object. Instead you enter a system when following a route, destination-lock the sun, point your ship at it, wait for the detailed scanner to do its work (which takes ages), select the next body from the nav list, lock that up, approach and scan it... and when done, go back into the nav list to find the next system on the route and destination-lock that. In ships with a long range, that system might as well not make it on the list, in which case you have to use the galaxy map to get back on track.

Exploration es extremely tedious and yields little. I think it should be made a little more time-efficient to become viable. Hey, it's the 31st century. I'm actually surprised about how bad some stuff works in the future that's already working better nowadays (trading for instance). My proposals:

• Decouple interstellar and intrastellar navigation locks. There are separate FSD switches for both already.
• Make the detailed surface scanner work automatically without having to actually lock up something. I'm sure it's smart enough to recognize a celestial body if it sees one.
• Extend the range of the detailed surface scanner and accelerate its works so exploring doesn't become quite that tedious. A lot of stuff that it's doing is done from lightyears away nowadays already.
• Introduce scanner classes... E-grade offers 1 body, short range, front only. A-grade allows 5 bodies, long range, omnidirectional. Just passing a cluster of planets and moons suffices.

It'll still be a lot of work to get rich by exploring, but at least it becomes a better alternative to everything else.

 

[cwstad]

I agree its annoying and should bew reviewed

 

[Troa Barton]

Please this all of this shut up and take my credits!

 

[[VR] Frank_G]

That would reduce the fun of exploring and the reward of having discovered as the first to pure money collecting. I like to explore and i like to actually have my attention on the celestial body i explore. With all that unfocused automatic stuff it would simply take the feeling away. Sorry, but in my opinion, these ideas are not a benefit to the game.

 

[Coyote]

So buy a cheap scanner and do as you did before - but don't deny me *my* fun.

 

[QorbeQ]

Someone didn't see part of the OP. Ignore me.

 

[Kalpa]

That would reduce the fun of exploring and the reward of having discovered as the first to pure money collecting. I like to explore and i like to actually have my attention on the celestial body i explore. With all that unfocused automatic stuff it would simply take the feeling away. Sorry, but in my opinion, these ideas are not a benefit to the game.

Omnidirectional scanning would certainly make my exploration more fun, no longer would I have to sit by idly for 10-30 seconds before I can start actually circling around the planet, looking at it from different angles, and so on so forth. Sorry, but in my opinion, these ideas are a great benefit to the game.

EDIT: I can very well live with a mandatory single target lock but the pointing-nose-at-target is what really irritates me.

 

[Flavourless]

Omnidirectional scanning would certainly make my exploration more fun, no longer would I have to sit by idly for 10-30 seconds before I can start actually circling around the planet, looking at it from different angles, and so on so forth. Sorry, but in my opinion, these ideas are a great benefit to the game.

EDIT: I can very well live with a mandatory single target lock but the pointing-nose-at-target is what really irritates me.

Agree. You can fit a Plasma Accelerator on a turret mount but not a surface scanner??

 

[Quineloe]

if you go to the navigation tab, you will see that the next stop on your route is still marked with the "route" icon after you deselected it for surface scan.

 

[Flavourless]

if you go to the navigation tab, you will see that the next stop on your route is still marked with the "route" icon after you deselected it for surface scan.

Not if you get interdicted. The route is still there, but not accessible in any way.

 

[Coyote]

if you go to the navigation tab, you will see that the next stop on your route is still marked with the "route" icon after you deselected it for surface scan.

I still have to go and select it, and the list es limited in size. If it's a long-range jump and there are a lot of other systems around in range, then it will not show up. as I already wrote.

 

[Feldspar]

I still have to go and select it, and the list es limited in size. If it's a long-range jump and there are a lot of other systems around in range, then it will not show up. as I already wrote.

In my experience it does not show up only if I have dropped out of supercruise, my 30-odd LY routes still show up at the bottom of the list even if there enough objects to fill the box as long as I've stayed in SC.

 

[RipperJack]

Something that's annoying me is that the detailed surface scanner needs a lock on the "target", and that the lock overrides any navigational settings. So you can't just plot a route and hop along, scanning everything on your way simply by roughly flying past any object. Instead you enter a system when following a route, destination-lock the sun, point your ship at it, wait for the detailed scanner to do its work (which takes ages), select the next body from the nav list, lock that up, approach and scan it... and when done, go back into the nav list to find the next system on the route and destination-lock that. In ships with a long range, that system might as well not make it on the list, in which case you have to use the galaxy map to get back on track.

Exploration es extremely tedious and yields little. I think it should be made a little more time-efficient to become viable. Hey, it's the 31st century. I'm actually surprised about how bad some stuff works in the future that's already working better nowadays (trading for instance). My proposals:

• Decouple interstellar and intrastellar navigation locks. There are separate FSD switches for both already.
• Make the detailed surface scanner work automatically without having to actually lock up something. I'm sure it's smart enough to recognize a celestial body if it sees one.
• Extend the range of the detailed surface scanner and accelerate its works so exploring doesn't become quite that tedious. A lot of stuff that it's doing is done from lightyears away nowadays already.
• Introduce scanner classes... E-grade offers 1 body, short range, front only. A-grade allows 5 bodies, long range, omnidirectional. Just passing a cluster of planets and moons suffices.

It'll still be a lot of work to get rich by exploring, but at least it becomes a better alternative to everything else.

THE COMMON SENSE IN THIS POST!! IT MAKES ME WANT IT INGAME NOW +1 rep, i'd buy you a beer if i could.

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And that whole "unlock destination, scan...then cant carry on following your route thing" drives me bloody nuts. Its the one main factor thats aggrevating me on exploration. I like to choose somewhere totally random and just follow it, scanning on the way but some systems for me to reselect each time... Its not game breaking, it just takes out the "zoom out, pick random location, whoa 900ly, guess thats my target" self goals i set.

 

[bsnaylor]

Not if you get interdicted. The route is still there, but not accessible in any way.

This is a known bug, reported by many.
Hopefully fixed in 1.2
It is intermittent too, which is why it's taken longer to fix i guess.
Particularly irritating when you have a long route plotted, you have to make a note of the name of the final destination on paper.

 

[Jerakeen]

It only seems to be a problem when you have a very long jump capability. In my Clipper with it's 14-18ly range I never have the problem but in my Asp which could reach almost 30ly the number of possible jumps in the navigation panel is much higher which, if your next jump is long, will push it off the end of the maximum displayed list.

Hopefully they will make it so that any pre plotted jump will automatically be at the bottom of the list even if it would currently have gone.

I hope they do fix it soon. It really puts me off going exploring at the moment because I know that if I stop and properly map a system i'm going to have to plot my entire route again just so I can make the next jump.

 

[Coyote]

Having said that, it's interesting that the 31st century doesn't yet have a computer that could, for instance auto-plot a discovery route through a given system, or at least its known parts:
* scan the system with the discovery scanner. Know where all the stuff is.
* have the computer plot the fastest "milk delivery" route past all unexplored objects, auto-targetting them if people insist (makes no sense to me).
* don't interrupt the interstellar route while doing that.

 

[Entilzar]

I still have to go and select it, and the list es limited in size. If it's a long-range jump and there are a lot of other systems around in range, then it will not show up. as I already wrote.

this is not entirely true the only time in all my exploring I have lost the lock in the route is falling into a sun or being interdicted, the main nav panel displays upto around 20 ly systems and my jump range can be 30, as a result my next hop route is at the bottom of the list and if its a shorter jump when im being methodical in an area its a few after the system im in, also if you do bug out or fall into a star opening the galaxy map reveals the orange plot marker you can just re target the next jump point and itll pick the route again.


That having been said, there is a point I agree with, I still think you need to lock the target, but just getting in range and not having to face it all the time, the rest im ok with, they just need to fix the plot route stuff so once the routes plotted it appears on the hud (lose the info panel send the info stuff to the comms panel instead) , and use that space for a plot route panel instead to make it easier to redirect or get info on how far to final target, how many jumps, what your fuel ranges is and if there are scoopable stars before you run out, this would be far better then we have

Enty

 

[Quineloe]

I still have to go and select it, and the list es limited in size. If it's a long-range jump and there are a lot of other systems around in range, then it will not show up. as I already wrote.

That is incorrect. You're doing it wrong. My 25 LY next stop shows up at the last spot, while the one before that is 15 LY away. It filters out everything else to show you your next stop.

 

[Witzo]

I generally support the time consuming things of exploration: the duration of a scan, the long flight times to get to stuff 30,000 or 300,000 light seconds out. I think exploration ought to be for the patient and perseverant.

But what bugs me a little is that getting up close to a planet makes it take a long time to speed up to go to the next planet. Elite: Dangerous has beautiful planets, but I often avoid getting up close to admire them to save some time in getting to the next planet. Which I regret since I want to look at the pretty spheres.

 

[Rhonda]

I'm not a big fan of a multi-target scanner, but I would love a scanner that is able to scan while I'm doing a scenic fly-by. The mother of all exploration spaceships (NCC-1701) never ever was seen pointing directly at a planet she was about to scan and analyze but always was seen properly orbiting it. I'd like to do the same.