Exploration in Elite dangerous is and for the most point has always been seriously lacking in content, in the beginning there were excuses and reasons for the emptiness of space but now five years on it should be on the top of the list to do.
I'm not going to talk about the ins and outs and the better and 'wurser' of 3.3 and before, what we have now and what we had is not important, what we should have is important!
Just as there are a number of tools for the 'killer' to choose from, I feel that there should be a great number of tools for the explorer to choose from. with scaling of price, performance, power draw and mass/slot size, and even to a point rank/level.
Upon entering a system the well loved honk could read gravity signals and according to their mass and distance from the ship mark their position on an Orrery map, and for those lucky enough to have the better equipment it should place 'most' in most cases, though the reality should be that you can never really say "I've go everything in the system" because were you to set a really distant orbit around the star you might just find another body or a comet or some other object too small or too distant from your original scanning point.
A second honk would be needed to ascertain their orbital periods and velocities and their interaction with each other.
Once you were satisfied you had the map filled to your liking you could then start to scan individual bodies for their general make up, providing you with information about materials from core to surface,and even it's atmospherics, it's diameter, mass, rotational period, etc, though the distance at which this information would be available to you would again be dependent on the grade of equipment you have access to.
An orbital probe could be sent for topographical data though this would take time and you should be doing something else until the data arrives, this time would vary according to distance from the object and diameter, or you could do the orbits (at least 2) in the ship, this would provide the player with most larger POI's, further passes using different and better sensors could find many more, life signs, heat sources, electro magnetic sources... whatever! (if you want to find someone hiding it could take a while)
If a player then wants they could visit the body and land (FDev permitting) further data retrieval could then be made in the SRV or (FDev permitting) on foot, samples could be taken, not just from the surface but with drilling for samples, mechanical drills, laser/plasma/fusion/disintegration... who knows.
Beacons* could be set and areas marked for mining or anything else.
Beacons* could be set to a specific frequency so as to keep them from inquisitive eyes, though a scan of all frequencies would eventually find them, Rescue beacons should be on a galactic channel and the player should be alerted to any on entry to the system.
More stuff should be found, it doesn't have to make sense, it just has to be!
I'm not going to talk about the ins and outs and the better and 'wurser' of 3.3 and before, what we have now and what we had is not important, what we should have is important!
Just as there are a number of tools for the 'killer' to choose from, I feel that there should be a great number of tools for the explorer to choose from. with scaling of price, performance, power draw and mass/slot size, and even to a point rank/level.
Upon entering a system the well loved honk could read gravity signals and according to their mass and distance from the ship mark their position on an Orrery map, and for those lucky enough to have the better equipment it should place 'most' in most cases, though the reality should be that you can never really say "I've go everything in the system" because were you to set a really distant orbit around the star you might just find another body or a comet or some other object too small or too distant from your original scanning point.
A second honk would be needed to ascertain their orbital periods and velocities and their interaction with each other.
Once you were satisfied you had the map filled to your liking you could then start to scan individual bodies for their general make up, providing you with information about materials from core to surface,and even it's atmospherics, it's diameter, mass, rotational period, etc, though the distance at which this information would be available to you would again be dependent on the grade of equipment you have access to.
An orbital probe could be sent for topographical data though this would take time and you should be doing something else until the data arrives, this time would vary according to distance from the object and diameter, or you could do the orbits (at least 2) in the ship, this would provide the player with most larger POI's, further passes using different and better sensors could find many more, life signs, heat sources, electro magnetic sources... whatever! (if you want to find someone hiding it could take a while)
If a player then wants they could visit the body and land (FDev permitting) further data retrieval could then be made in the SRV or (FDev permitting) on foot, samples could be taken, not just from the surface but with drilling for samples, mechanical drills, laser/plasma/fusion/disintegration... who knows.
Beacons* could be set and areas marked for mining or anything else.
Beacons* could be set to a specific frequency so as to keep them from inquisitive eyes, though a scan of all frequencies would eventually find them, Rescue beacons should be on a galactic channel and the player should be alerted to any on entry to the system.
More stuff should be found, it doesn't have to make sense, it just has to be!