Exobiology Frustration

[Birdovous]

Personally, I find the entire exobiology part of Odyssey as a "very poorly executed good idea".

The heatmaps that have no official explanation are just the tip of the iceberg - still a rather significant one though.

I really find it odd, that by launching 6 probes from the orbit of a planet I can get beck an information not only that there is in fact some sort of life present, but also exactly how many distinct categories of plant life and a heatmap that shows where each of those categories can be roughly found.

What is a little harder to swallow is that although this initial scan tells me exactly what types of plant life there are to be found on that particular planet, it apparently also accounts for variations inside of those groups themselves as I regularly come across planets that report to have a said number of plant types - let's say 3 (tussock, osseus and bacteria) but the Organics tab in the System map immediately shows that there are 4 (or more) Organic Discoveries to be uncovered.

So... If the high level scan data gained from the probes alone can be this specific, how is it possible that the ship's sensors are unable to guide us to the areas where each of those organic signals have been detected during the high level probe scan?

Why isn't there a standalone, exobiology themed ship scanner module that could take the specific organic discovery candidate and scan for its rough presence when flying over the planet's surface with the ability to switch "targets" for this scanner without having to fly up to supercruise above the drop altitude, go to surface scan, switch the heatmap indicator to different type and then drop back to the surface?

Why, if there are probes that can scan for the organic signatures, there is no organic signature scanning sub-mode for the SRV?

So... Yeah... The basic idea of having exobiology in Odyssey is good... The way it has been delivered so far is extremely disappointing and when one thinks about it from the angles mentioned above, it makes little to no sense...

 

[torloisk]

Yes, there are a lot of missed opportunities ... I wonder how many devs are left at FDev that have a real passion for this game and the players.

 

[varonica]

My personal gripe is having the same biology galaxy wide, that just annoyed me, I will do the exobiology until I have the elite rank and then probably rarely sample from then on, there's little point after that.

 

[dipperside]

For the impression is that humanity in the game has degraded in the simplest things (spectral analysis for example) to the level of steam engines. And FDevs in LORE didn't mention it and it turns out that also consider players as degraded persons... It's all very, very sad...

 

[Birdovous]

I think it is basically a missed opportunity that has a potential to cater to certain types of players. I think it could coexist as a valid profession for player to make for living in the universe.

There could be scanner modules to be fitted to internal compartments accompanied by sensor arrays that could fit into hardpoints that could enable turning a ship into a science vessel and allow augmented reality scan and search for biological signatures while flying over the planet's surface.

There could be a science focused SRV with exobiology scanner suite.

The above mentioned scanner modules could consume fuel or coolant made out of synthesis materials for their operation...

There are so many possibilities that could make the exobiology inside of Odyssey so much better comapred to the RNG, toss of a coin, luck based, half-baked husk we have now...

 

[DWorth]

I think we're stuck with the current biology until Frontier develop some kind of procedural life algorithm. Hand crafting trillions of life forms by hand isn't practical.

 

[varonica]

I think we're stuck with the current biology until Frontier develop some kind of procedural life algorithm. Hand crafting trillions of life forms by hand isn't practical.

Yes indeed, that's the only way to do it, hand crafting isn't going to work, although I am not against some handcrafting the majority of plant life should have been procedural.

As for a simplistic profession, you only have to look at the hue and cry raised by anything even slightly demanding in exploration to understand why they did it this way. Sure it can take an enormous amount of engineering, months of practice to master FA off flying and twitch shooter level skills to master combat, but put anything into exploration that takes the slightest amount of thought or effort and it's all "it's to hard make it easier" cries all over the place. There are quite a lot of people demanding the old POI system back or to leave Horizons the way it is because the new one is to hard and doesn't have arrows pointing towards the location they need to collect their fill of Antimony.

They removed proper heat maps because some players found them confusing so I can only say that a simplistic exobiology profession is what the majority of players demanded, even though many of them are only casual explorers.

 

[Tikanderoga]

I think we're stuck with the current biology until Frontier develop some kind of procedural life algorithm. Hand crafting trillions of life forms by hand isn't practical.

It's called copy/Paste and it's emergent gameplay! A person sat there and copied it manually (by hand) and pasted it several times onto other tables. That has to count for something, no?

But seriously: Pretty much every planet has some kind of bio on it. So I really don't know why we are sampling the same kind of bio over and over again, just to get to Elite. My mate has been at it for almost 2 weeks and is on the last rank just before Elite, and with the frustratingly low frame rates on planets, he would have uninstalled this game ages ago if it wouldn't be for his love of mindless mining while watching Youtube or streams.

 

[Birdovous]

I'd like to add another topic to the exobiology rant I started in the OP:

Would anyone please explain me why is the discovery mechanic we have with bilogy signals so illogical?

I mean... I jump into a system outside of a bubble that I have listed as unvisited and with no data available for it. I do a discovery scan upon arrival and realize that there are several "UNEXPLORED" planetary bodies in that system. I do a full detailed scan using the FSS (which I love doing by the way) and after looking at the data I get I miraculously realize not only what is the composition of those unexplored worlds however, I somehow also realize that they have been already found before by a specific commander, that some other commander has already mapped them and someone else was also the first commander who already set their feet on the surface of that planet.

So I get all that information immediately when I finish the full spectrum scan... Well... OK... I think that I can live with that.. Of course, if my ship computer already knows all that, why am I forced to do those scans in the first place? Anyway...

I realize that some of the planets can be landed on and there may be a chance for them to support plant life... So I fly to them and do a detailed surface scan using the probes (despite the fact that someone has already done that and my system knows about it) but hey... I'm kind of OK with this step as well, because I like doing it as well.

So... I launch my probes and indeed there are life signs to be found and on top of that the scan also not only tells my what distinct categories of plant/bacterial/fungal life are present on that planet but it also shows me EXACTLY how many distinct species there are. Only now these fields are just gray and empty. So I know that there is life down there but to find more I have to land on the planet and use the luck based and (if you are a perfectionist exobiologist who does not like to leave a planet before all plant signatures are properly discovered and sampled) often also VERY time consuming.

So I land on the planet despite the fact that I already know that I'm not the first person to do that and start literally combing the planet's surface with no more help of any sensors (seriously?! In the year 3300?) except for my own eyes to finally find a plant or a bacterial colony. So.. I approach it in my ship and do a scan, land near by and take a sample on foot only to return back to the ship to find out that this particular plant has already been discovered by a specific commander and reported to the Vista Genetics.

If this is the case, why the hell isn't this information already present after I review the result of the detailed planetary scan I get from the probes?

If a biology signature has been already scanned, found, sampled and data returned by different commander, and the ship's system apparently already knows about it it, this information should be immediately available upon finishing the detailed surface scan.

Maybe, if only ONE commander reported those particular plant samples there should be a note visible in the planet's info in on the system map saying something like "CONFIRMATION REQUIRED" and in that case you would know that you are not the first one to find it. However, you know what exactly you are looking for as your ship's computer already knows anyway and if you then do invest your time to rediscover and re-sample all the plants in order to confirm the other commander's findings, Vista should give you a small bonus for doing this confirmation job.

So.. Yeah... there are so many things wrong with the exobiology in the way it is currently implemented. It is often illogical and frustrating...

Or am I the only one who finds it that way?

 

[VR SenseiMatty]

Exobiology seems to be designed for the casual explorer. It's ok doing it for a short time and it's basic enough to be considered simple for anyone.
For "full-time" explorers it's a missed opportunity to bring some depth into the game and to give some real reason to land on undiscovered planets.
When alpha phase finished the novelty for me was already gone and the "automatic scanner" at release didn't improve the situation of course.

 

[Charles Erika von Hackbeil]

Hey, it works better than Powerplay.