Don't throw away opportunity for added explorer gameplay
.....- V1.1 will also have a significant increase in the maximum distance for the route planner. We’re currently looking at extending this to 1,000 light years!...
Michael
Very awesome! I commend you for your updates and hardwork. You have made an amazing, immersive space sim and I want to make sure you stick with that and don't compromise on the immersion factor. My favorite thing to do in most any game, especially multiplayer games, is explore. I am an explorer at heart, in game, and out of game. I love going to places none have tread and finding things none have found, and E
has been a huge pleasure for that, so far. So, although being able to route 1000Ly will make it easier for a lot of people, there should be none better than an explorer in creating and traveling those routes. Not everyone should be able to auto-plan up to 1000Ly equally. Here's an idea I have that will allow explorers to remain masters of travel as well as provide another avenue for explorers to contribute to the galaxy and make a living, while still allowing anyone to plan and travel up to 1000Ly routes.
Please note that the numbers I come up with aren't necessarily the exact numbers I want, but more like an example. It's more important to understand the structure behind the numbers.
The Galaxy is divided into 10x10x10 sectors full of systems. When auto-planning a route, you will need to go through these sectors to get to your destination. This is where an explorer becomes better at traveling long distances by gathering
sector data.
What is sector data?
Each star in a sector will equal a % of whole sector data for the sector. SD will have several attributes that determine its value. While scanning celestial bodies provide a static amount of credits, sector data will vary based on rank, quality, and class. Sector Data looks at the amount of stars in the sector, and the amount of discovered stars will determine the sector data quality. So a sector with 100 stars will have 1% sector data per system, while a sector with 1 star will have 100% sector data per system. The amount of systems containing these stars isn't relevant.
Example: Sector Z has 100 stars(in 15 systems). 1 star for sector Z = 1% of sector Z quality when discovered.
Example 2: Sector P has 43 stars(from 4 systems). 1 star for sector P = 2.3% of sector P quality when discovered.
Sector Data Rank - Sector Data will be ranked from A - E, much like modules, with A being the best. What determines the rank of sector data is the time that has lapsed from when the last star from the system was discovered. Freshly gathered sector data will be A ranked, while old sector data will be E ranked and minimal/no value when registered. Rank will degrade overtime, increasing the rate of degradation under circumstances explained below under
gathering and registering. The data will degrade slower the lower the rank..so a rank A data will degrade to B much faster than a D will degrade to an E.
Rank A- 0- 1 day
Rank B- 1-3 days
Rank C- 3- 1 week
Rank D- 1 week - 1 month
Rank E- 1 month+
Sector Data Quality - sector data quality will be from 1% - 100% . This is determined by the amount of stars discovered (no need to scan) within the sector. 100 stars in a sector is 1% per star, while 2 stars in a sector will be 50% per star.
Sector Class - sector class is the overall difficulty of obtaining 100% quality of a sector, represented by a range of 1(easiest) to 5(hardest) and determined by the amount of stars in the sector. a Class 1 sector may have only 1-9 stars in the sector, while a Class 5 can have 100+ stars in the system.
Explorers and Gathering and Registering Sector Data
So what part do explorers have with the gathering of sector data? Currently, explorers are able to scan stars/planets, and sell them to stations for credits. It doesn't matter if there's 1 explorer, or 1000 explorers. All benefit from scanning planets/stars equally(except maybe the very first getting a finder bonus, still not sure about that).
Sector data will be another form of income for explorers, but will work a bit differently than system data, taking into account all the other explorers involved. When an explorer has high enough quality for a sector, they will be able to "register" the sector for a "share" of the sector. The quality needed is dynamic, and depends on two factors: the number of explorers registering that sector, and the rank of the sector data they are registering. So 1 explorer registering a sector will only need 10% sector quality of rank D or higher(the minimum needed to register any sector) to gain a "share" of the sector, while the 100th explorer registering a sector may need 80% sector quality of D or higher to gain the same share. The amount of explorers registering the same sector will also increase the rank decay of registered sectors, so the more explorers registering a particular sector at once, the faster all of the data for that sector will decay to lower ranks until they become E rank and worthless.
So what does all this mean? It means that well traveled systems will require more effort(requiring higher sector data quality) in order to register and profit from the data gathered from it. The data gathered will also expire quicker with more explorers, so there's more incentive to gather sector data from really remote places. Now what do you do if your sector data expires?
Updating Sector Data
If your sector data degrades to E rank, then you will no longer earn any credits from it. It has expired and will need to be updated. You can update by discovering the stars in the sector again. This is, of course, made much easier and quicker using the advanced scanner. This is to allow an explorer to sort of choose a "turf" or "territory" to loiter around and upkeep for consistent credits, while occasionally going out to get new sector data from surrounding areas or the occasional deep space expedition.
Now for the fun part...how does an explorer make sweet, sweet credits from sector data?
Profiting from Sector Data
Once an explorer registers sector data and obtains a "share" of that sector, they are eligible to begin receiving payments of two types: Royalty and Commission.
Commission - this is a set payment consistently received every so often(Daily?) from Universal Cartogrophers. It's a passive income stream that takes the sector data rank, multiplied by sector class, and gives you a payout that you can collect from UC while in station. This payout will just accumulate, so if you spend a lot of time in deep space without a station, your credits will just pile up and wait for you. Sector Data ranked E has expired and will not provide a payout, but will still be of some use for some time for the purpose of autoplanning routes.
Example: You want to register Sector K. You are the only person to have registered this sector, so you only need 10% quality to receive a share. Since you discovered a star from the system 12 hours ago, the sector data is rank A. The sector has 57 stars total, which you only needed to discover 5(10%) of them to be able to register. In 1 week, your commission has "matured" and pays out as a B rank for a Class 3 star. Since there are no other explorers that have registered this sector, the data will remain rank B a little longer before degrading to rank C. Even though you may only need a small number of stars for remote sectors in order to get a share, it may be best to err on the side of caution and get the highest quality you can. If other explorers register their sectors before you can get to a station, the quality need will increase.
Royalty - this is a payment every explorer with a sector "share" will get whenever someone purchases sector data for the registered sector. Royalty is dependent on the amount of explorers with shares, as well as the Class of the sector. Higher class sectors provide larger royalties per share. Rank doesn't affect the amount of royalty received, but once data becomes E rank, it no longer provides a royalty. So the less explorers, the more each explorer will get. This will reward explorers who go out of their way to find those remote sectors, and can convince pilots to want to travel to those sectors, while allowing the explorers who like to stay around more traveled places to still make a little bit of credits off of it.
Ways to acquire sector data for Non-explorers
There will be several ways of acquiring sector data, ordered from most complete information to least complete.
1. Discover each star in a system, for each system in the sector. Potentially up to 100% complete sector data. This is meant for those that would like to make a living from exploration and is the only way to obtain "original sector data".
2. Purchase sector data from a player. This will allow an explorer to trade their sector data to a player for a price of their choosing. This is the only way for a non-explorer player to obtain 100% quality sector data without doing the discovering themselves. Selling sector data will cause the explorer's data to drop to the next lower rank. Sector data will not drop below E, but will essentially be to poor quality to sell to Universal Cartographers.
2. Purchase sector data from Universal Cartographers. Price is determined by the class of the sector, and the highest rank data available. This gives the player low-quality sector data that only counts the primary star system for each system in a sector. If there are 100 systems in a sector, and they each have 5 stars(including the primary star), then you will only have 1/5 of the total, or 20% quality. It's much easier getting higher quality, low class sector data this way but isn't very good for high class sectors. Every time a sector is purchased, royalty will be paid out to each explorer shareholder.
So you have sector data...now what?
Now to talk about auto-route planning. Those with original sector data(only achievable by discovering it yourself) will automatically route plan through a sector at 100% efficiency. If the sector has 10 systems and a route can be made with 1 jump to go through, it will be made with 1 jump. If it's 100 systems and the system can get through with 1 jump, it will go through with 1 jump. For purchased sector data, the routing efficiency decreases as rank decreases as follows -
Rank A - 1 system + 10% of total systems
Rank B - 1 system + 25% of total systems
Rank C - 1 system + 50% of total systems
Rank D- 1 system + 66% of total systems
Rank E or no sector data - practically all systems
What efficiency means is that your auto-planner will select that many more systems to move through the sector, even if it is possible to only need 1 jump. So if a sector has 100 systems, and you have rank A sector data, you will be routed through 1 system + 10 systems to jump through the sector. If there are 10 systems, you will route through 1 system + 1 system to jump through. So the best option for a non-explorer, would be to hire an explorer to provide a path for you through the eventual "wings" that will be implemented. Second best option is to check your auto-planner on the galaxy map every so often as you travel to make sure you aren't being routed inefficiently. Then you have the option to manually plot your next couple of jumps, then re-plot the auto-planner. Sounds inconvenient? Yes I know; it's by design.
Of course, you can always avoid any kind of inefficiencies in traveling by manually plotting your route, but that can be tedious when you want to move long distances quickly. Support your friendly explorer and hire them to pathfind, or buy their sector data!
