Heat maps, as they were presented in the Alpha, are completely fine....and what I'd been hoping for. What we actually got at launch was absollute garbage, sadly.
[Discussion] So, Heat Maps still not working as intended?
- Thread starter Marc_Hicks
- Start date
Changing the filter doesn't change the map because they are all mixed in together, so the filter is the same for all types.
I have never had problem finding geo no matter where I land in the blue parts, it's everywhere, however I do agree a proper heatmap would be nice, they did change it because apparantly some people were confused by heatmaps, but I assure you every time I have landed where it's blue I find geo. I have double checked this by landing where it isn't blue, and surprise, no geo.
I don't know what you are doing differently, but it's there, in some places it may be spread out a bit but it is there, and every place I have landed there are lava spouts, gas vents and fumaroles if that's what the screen says, it's always all there, all mixed in together as I would expect from a volcanic site.
The issue with a proper heatmap is when trying to overlay several maps (as we do with the "all" map). It wouldn't require much wizardry to be able to do such overlays of multiple maps (basic GIS functionality, really). We could combine, say, all or some volcanics in one, all or some biology types in one, or perhaps a combined map of everything. The number of overlaps would then be assigned a colour according to a colour map, a popular one being blue and green = few, and yellow and red being many.
Each single-entity heatmap would have to be converted to a PRESENT/NOT PRESENT map like we have (blue = PRESENT, no colour = NOT PRESENT), then added to the stack.
Not complicated, but perhaps put in the too-hard basket with the apparently rather tight deadlines FD set for themselves for this update.
S
Each single-entity heatmap would have to be converted to a PRESENT/NOT PRESENT map like we have (blue = PRESENT, no colour = NOT PRESENT), then added to the stack.
Not complicated, but perhaps put in the too-hard basket with the apparently rather tight deadlines FD set for themselves for this update.
SMy issue with it remains that it is the "Minimal Viable Product", especially compared to what they showed off during the Alpha.....and no I don't buy their line about the Alpha Heat-map being "confusing", as there was literally no mention of "confusion" throughout the various Feedback threads. Still, given how they've treated the rest of on-foot exploration game-play, at least I can say that they've stuck to the theme. Needless to say, I won't be returning to the game until I see they're prepared to make at least as much effort designing Exploration Game-play as they put into the FPS game-play.
Same here. Love how stuff is now much more naturally distributed across the planet, and how geo sites are now properly placed in volcanic regions and mixed together lik they should be.
I did prefer the original alpha version for the heat map (when it worked), but the fact is whenever I drop in the blue zone I always find whatever was indicated by the blue map (bio or geo) in less than 30 seconds just flying low and slow.
It's still not a jaw-dropping spectacular experience, but still a big improvement over the old system of deserted planets with only a handful of randomly placed pockets of stuff indicated by "quest markers".
Don't mistake my disdain for the new overlay with a desire to bring back Quest Markers. If anything, I want artificial PoI's to be moved to a heat-map system as well, so the Nav panel only shows the most permanent, artificial structures on a planetary surface. However, we cannot have that until we get back a proper heat-map.
I preferred the alpha heat map as well, it's a shame it was rolled back. I also agree that It would e nice to have the artificial structures work the same way as bio and geo pois. However, IMHO, even without the alpha version of the heat map, what we have now (regarding planetary exploration) is still a lot better than what we had before, so even though it can certainly be improved, for now I'll take what I can get. There have been improvements for exploration in the past, so there's no reason why there can't be more in the future.
Its just way too binary, plus it tells you nothing about the quality/activity of the Geo Sites (seriously, some of them aren't even worth visiting)......that is where a proper heat map would have been far superior. It should only tell you the chance of finding active Geo sites at a location, not a "blue=they're there" vs "not blue=they're not there"). As I said above, though, their treatment of the Heat Map is in-line with their attitude towards exploration game-play as a whole. So at least they're consistent.
The Alpha heatmap had problems - one of which has to do with disabilities: It excluded people with sight impairment. The new colour, blue, avoids the issue of people not being able to distinguish between red and green and therefore actually use the maps.
So - Alpha received so many complaints about the heat map, including genuine disabilities excluding them from gameplay. FDev listen to that perfectly valid concern and now you want to slate them for changing to to something more people can interact with... I think there needs to be a perspective shift.
Words come to mind, but the mods are watching.
So - Alpha received so many complaints about the heat map, including genuine disabilities excluding them from gameplay. FDev listen to that perfectly valid concern and now you want to slate them for changing to to something more people can interact with... I think there needs to be a perspective shift.
Words come to mind, but the mods are watching.
Then why not simply offer the alternate Overlay as a graphical option for those with the disabilities you're alluding to? Lots of games have accessibility options like that.
Because the other half of the complaints where that the heat map was "too complicated" (in other words, I suspect, it was not Horizon's POI, click and fly!) And the result is as you see it today.
Good work, community. >Golf clap< Good work!
Yea, indeed... the path of progress circles back to Eyeball Mk1
Most efficient scanning device ever!
I still can't understand why people fly solely by autopilot in MSFS, just to watch the world go by? It's like have a computer simulate a computer flying a plane in a flight simulator where you never actually fly the plane...
So yes... no POIs for people to fly directly to. You now have to play the game and search for stuffz! Sorry!
Yet, after scanning pages upon pages worth of feedback threads, from the Alpha, I couldn't find a single one complaining it was "too complicated". Its almost like FDev are just using that as an.....excuse?
Agree on the MSFS thing. I only fly Piper Cubs.
Not sure I agree on the heat maps though. I've been looking for geysers for days with no luck, and finally left the ship on a moon that said it had geysers on it. Next day there were geysers all around me. Turns out they appear and disappear together, probably in cycles, but not all over the moon, and this particular moon was sort of blue all over, after I stubbornly scanned it (in VR which btw. hasn't been fixed as promised).
See, though, this is exactly where a heat map would be most useful. The "hotter the colour", the denser and more active the geological site. Cooler colours would mean at most a handful of largely inactive vents (still great for harvesting mats when they get around to fixing that part of the game), whereas hotter colours means a denser and more active field. Much better than the current "binary" approach IMO.
There was a heat map for POI during Alpha ? I never notice that and the few POI missions i did has a click and fly like Horizon.
Not Mission POI - that's intact.
We are talking Biological and Geological feature POIs.
Yea, sure... we have to use Eyeball Mk1 in 3307... like Magellan did in 1517.
Instrumentation is outdated.
IMO, as i said several times since EDO launched, they should have kept the planetary bio/geo POIs for areas with concentrated features, Yellowstone Park like, and heat maps for features that are spread out over larger areas
This way everyone would be happy.
Can you show me these complaints?
I watched the alpha forums pretty closely and saw... near zero
