Exploration needs more phenomena and challenging features, here some:

[VR SenseiMatty]

The new phenomena introduced by Beyond 3.3 are nice but they are too few and too rare.
I understand if they are too common they are not special anymore but at the moment I simply can't find any, except if I look in the touristic flyer Codex.
The galaxy should be filled with more phenomena, more dangerous/challenging features and not rare!
FDEV should dedicate a small team of devs to develop new features because the introduction of the FSS gave a big boost to the explorers community but it is my opinion that it is an empty tool because there are not a lot of special things that we can find. Sometimes it seems like playing a demo.

Every system, or almost, should feature one special element and this should require some new gameplay to be found (including surface investigation with the ship and the SRV). So you can always choose to spend some time in it to find it or just skip it if you are already doing something else. I'm not talking about eye-balling or flying randomly. There should clearly be some signal to be investigated and this would require some basic scientific knowledge, game experience and personal skills.

Here a list of things that should be added and that should not be very rare (at least outside the bubble):

• colliding planets/moons
• merging stars
• earthquakes and volcanic eruptions on planets.
• big wandering asteroids with new rare materials that can be mined from the ship or with the SRV by landing on them
• ancient civilizations structures on planets and in orbit
• more and bigger dangerous magnetic thunderstorms, some of them also at the entry of a star system to make multiple jumps less repetitive and boring.
• dangerous black holes, including very small ones not fully revealed by the initial FSS scan.
• gravitational anomalies that interfere with the FSD in Supercruise that makes harder to control the ship but boosts the speed too (just an example).
• unknown interferences during hyperspace that pulls you out from witchspace to places with some strange energetic/magnetic anomaly with biological structures (you have to find them if you want, or you just jump again if you want to continue your trip)
• exotic planets with weird biological/geological actvity, strange and caotic mountains/canyon shapes: you may think they are bugs at first glance but then thanks to the ship/srv scanners you would find some interesting scientific evidence (magnetic/chemical activity, reactive ground composition, influence of gravity anomalies from nearby moons).
• human wrecked ships on planets: exploration ships like DBX, ASP-X. Scanning these ships should provide clues to find more of these new features in the nearby systems
• explorers in need: they would need some material from you to synthesize the reparations and continue with the journey. They would also give you some random mission if you want (they lost some cargo in the nearby system, locate its signal and take it back or if you don't have cargo space go back to him and report the location.
• scientific expeditions in need: find human signals on planets leading to a small camp where some scientific expedition is building an outpost and you could support them by selling specific cartography or providing materials.

and more...

So when we have many of these features they don't need to be extremely rare like the few we have now.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

The new phenomena introduced by Beyond 3.3 are nice but they are too few and too rare.
I understand if they are too common they are not special anymore but at the moment I simply can't find any, except if I look in the touristic flyer Codex.
The galaxy should be filled with more phenomena, more dangerous/challenging features and not rare!
FDEV should dedicate a small team of devs to develop new features because the introduction of the FSS gave a big boost to the explorers community but it is my opinion that it is an empty tool because there are not a lot of special things that we can find. Sometimes it seems like playing a demo.

Every system, or almost, should feature one special element and this should require some new gameplay to be found (including surface investigation with the ship and the SRV). So you can always choose to spend some time in it to find it or just skip it if you are already doing something else. I'm not talking about eye-balling or flying randomly. There should clearly be some signal to be investigated and this would require some basic scientific knowledge, game experience and personal skills.

Here a list of things that should be added and that should not be very rare (at least outside the bubble):

• colliding planets/moons
• merging stars
• earthquakes and volcanic eruptions on planets.
• big wandering asteroids with new rare materials that can be mined from the ship or with the SRV by landing on them
• ancient civilizations structures on planets and in orbit
• more and bigger dangerous magnetic thunderstorms, some of them also at the entry of a star system to make multiple jumps less repetitive and boring.
• dangerous black holes, including very small ones not fully revealed by the initial FSS scan.
• gravitational anomalies that interfere with the FSD in Supercruise that makes harder to control the ship but boosts the speed too (just an example).
• unknown interferences during hyperspace that pulls you out from witchspace to places with some strange energetic/magnetic anomaly with biological structures (you have to find them if you want, or you just jump again if you want to continue your trip)
• exotic planets with weird biological/geological actvity, strange and caotic mountains/canyon shapes: you may think they are bugs at first glance but then thanks to the ship/srv scanners you would find some interesting scientific evidence (magnetic/chemical activity, reactive ground composition, influence of gravity anomalies from nearby moons).
• human wrecked ships on planets: exploration ships like DBX, ASP-X. Scanning these ships should provide clues to find more of these new features in the nearby systems
• explorers in need: they would need some material from you to synthesize the reparations and continue with the journey. They would also give you some random mission if you want (they lost some cargo in the nearby system, locate its signal and take it back or if you don't have cargo space go back to him and report the location.
• scientific expeditions in need: find human signals on planets leading to an small camp where some scientific expedition is building an outpost and you could support them by selling them specific cartography or providing materials.

and more...

So when we have many of these features they don't need to be extremely rare like the few we have now are.

While I would like some more stuff I think some of it will be very rare. Merging suns and colliding planets will be rare. But would be epic to see though.

Nice list though. Some of it I would prefer to wait until we get atmospheric planets.

 

[Marco Santos]

this game has a huge potential but it is limited also by the fact they went for the aproach to have our own galaxy in the game, so as is some things need to be rare to perserve some sense of "realism" to the game.

But u are right in on regard, game needs more content so its not so boring out there if u are exploring.

Even doe, i gotta say, ive gone a good distance so far and found alot to keep me entertained, u are just having bad luck, or not commiting enough.

 

[Jenner]

Yes please.

 

[VR SenseiMatty]

this game has a huge potential but it is limited also by the fact they went for the aproach to have our own galaxy in the game, so as is some things need to be rare to perserve some sense of "realism" to the game.

But u are right in on regard, game needs more content so its not so boring out there if u are exploring.

Even doe, i gotta say, ive gone a good distance so far and found alot to keep me entertained, u are just having bad luck, or not commiting enough.

Some phenomena could be more frequent than we think. We know the stars around us, but the research on what we may find on planets surface is still far from any good detail imho. So realism should not limit the game. Reality can be more weird than fantasy!

I'm on DW2 expedition now. The only interesting things I've found were already highlighted on the travel map and some others I've found through the Codex, so after thousands of jumps and thousands of LY I still haven't discovered any of these new features by myself. That's REALLY bad luck!

 

[Flimley]

Agreed, we need at least 50 times more interesting things to find. What’s been introduced is so far is very nice but not nearly enough for serendipitous exploration.

Flimley

 

[Han Zulu]

While I would like some more stuff I think some of it will be very rare. Merging suns and colliding planets will be rare. But would be epic to see though.

It would.

They wouldn't be extremely rare though, I've seen quite a lot of binary stars close enough to be within the Roche lobe, and I've seen at least a handful of binary planets with crossing pathways, so they're fairly rare. And what would be awesome is to have accretion discs for black holes with nearby stars. I've been to one where the star is only 4 light-seconds from a black hole. First, there would be a huge mass transfer, and secondly the star would orbit extremely fast around the black hole.

 

[Marco Santos]

Some phenomena could be more frequent than we think. We know the stars around us, but the research on what we may find on planets surface is still far from any good detail imho. So realism should not limit the game. Reality can be more weird than fantasy!

I'm on DW2 expedition now. The only interesting things I've found were already highlighted on the travel map and some others I've found through the Codex, so after thousands of jumps and thousands of LY I still haven't discovered any of these new features by myself. That's REALLY bad luck!

Wow!

yup that is some real bad luck!

I have found from biological in planets, to phenomena in space in numbers, i have had interaction with thargoids, even when i didnt want to, i have found so many wrecked ships in space even in remote areas, that make me wonder how so many ships could had been lost there, ive camed across weird stuff, like planets that almost collide in their orbits, planets with nice weird geological stuff, canyons, mountains, deep holes...
And i am playing this game since late january this year alone.

So... Yup, weird u didnt!

Probrably because u are in a beaten path?!
I have gone and tried to go always to less atractive places and to deep unknow space, and has worked for me.

 

[VR SenseiMatty]

It would.

They wouldn't be extremely rare though, I've seen quite a lot of binary stars close enough to be within the Roche lobe, and I've seen at least a handful of binary planets with crossing pathways, so they're fairly rare. And what would be awesome is to have accretion discs for black holes with nearby stars. I've been to one where the star is only 4 light-seconds from a black hole. First, there would be a huge mass transfer, and secondly the star would orbit extremely fast around the black hole.

Like this one I found near Barbard's Loop [HD 37397]

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

It would.

They wouldn't be extremely rare though, I've seen quite a lot of binary stars close enough to be within the Roche lobe, and I've seen at least a handful of binary planets with crossing pathways, so they're fairly rare. And what would be awesome is to have accretion discs for black holes with nearby stars. I've been to one where the star is only 4 light-seconds from a black hole. First, there would be a huge mass transfer, and secondly the star would orbit extremely fast around the black hole.

I think the odds of us seeing colliding planets which would be a one off event would be extremely rare. Also sun that are in the roche lobe would have already done what would have happened so again us being there at that precise moment when it happens would be again, extremely rare. These would all be one off events and highly unlikely we would be around to see them.

 

[Han Zulu]

I think the odds of us seeing colliding planets which would be a one off event would be extremely rare.

They probably would be very rare, agree, since even though the ones I've seen that have intersecting paths probably are in a stable situation and not in risk of collisions.

Also sun that are in the roche lobe would have already done what would have happened so again us being there at that precise moment when it happens would be again, extremely rare. These would all be one off events and highly unlikely we would be around to see them.

Well, since I've seen probably hundreds of binaries that are within the roche lobe, and I don't think the mass exchange goes that quickly. I don't have any numbers, but it probably takes long enough for us to find and revisit places where it's happening.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

They probably would be very rare, agree, since even though the ones I've seen that have intersecting paths probably are in a stable situation and not in risk of collisions.


Well, since I've seen probably hundreds of binaries that are within the roche lobe, and I don't think the mass exchange goes that quickly. I don't have any numbers, but it probably takes long enough for us to find and revisit places where it's happening.

True. That would be great to see suns leaching material off each other. I wouldn't want to come out of a hyper jump in the middle of it though.

 

[Han Zulu]

True. That would be great to see suns leaching material off each other. I wouldn't want to come out of a hyper jump in the middle of it though.

Yeah. No. Definitely would want to get in the middle of that. Perhaps it could be a bit like neutron star things. You get in there, even in SC and you start wobble and quickly overheat.

Another cool thing, if I remember my astronomy class right, some of these mass exchanges eventually leads to one of the stars go supernova (type 2?).

 

[Han Zulu]

Like this one I found near Barbard's Loop [HD 37397]

Feels so wrong so see that and there's no effect on the star. Just wrong.

 

[Han Zulu]

True. That would be great to see suns leaching material off each other. I wouldn't want to come out of a hyper jump in the middle of it though.

You know what's funny. I just now found another systems with two planets in a very close orbit of each other, and crossing orbit-lines. Now, they seem to be in some equilibrium though. But something else with these kind'a pairs is that when they're this close to each other, there's a chance tidal waves and gravitational forces would start tearing each other apart.

It's only 3 Mm or less in distance between them two. I'm in the orbit zone of the first one and almost could just drop into the other one. They wouldn't collide while orbiting, but simply attract each other. And this wouldn't be a long event, but a sudden collision and a large field of debris.

Just thought it was funny, while talking about it, there I found one.

 

[Marco Santos]

I have one that is way closer than that one that a saw a few days ago. they are out there.

 

[space voyager]

I strongly support the suggestion. And please make some of the content potentially deadly!

 

[VR SenseiMatty]

Feels so wrong so see that and there's no effect on the star. Just wrong.

I call it "the great pretender" because it pretends to be a black hole!

 

[Han Zulu]

I call it "the great pretender" because it pretends to be a black hole!

The little black hole who thought he could. "I know I can. I know I can."

 

[varonica]

You know what's funny. I just now found another systems with two planets in a very close orbit of each other, and crossing orbit-lines. Now, they seem to be in some equilibrium though. But something else with these kind'a pairs is that when they're this close to each other, there's a chance tidal waves and gravitational forces would start tearing each other apart.

The reason that most close orbiting bodies have vulcanism is the gravitational stress is heating the structure of the planet so much that vulcanism is the result, so close orbiting bodies are indeed affecting each other, but two solid bodies in an orbit will be pretty stable. The reason earths moon has changed orbit over time is the presence of liquid water which creates a gravitational drag on the moon. So most small airless and waterless bodies in binary arrangements should be stable. Also Roche's limit is actually far smaller than most people imagine, for instance the Roche limit for earth moon is 18,740klms, so 3Mm for very small bodies like those isn't really an issue I should imagine, they would need to be nearly touching for anything serious to happen.