Howdy,
First of all I am loving the game and I have been doing a heap of exploration and I wanted to give some feedback.
Good
- the mechanics of exploration are pretty good and I find it challenging enough to keep me interested
- I love the concept of selling your data
- epic feeling of getting lost out there are there are no boundaries
improvements I can see
- reward is too low. E.g. I spent 1 hour mapping out this huge system this morning. I received a total of 11k using a detailed surface scanner. In comparison I earnt 40k in 20 min bounty hunting at the next systems Nav point. If anything with exploration I think the reward should be higher as the work involved is so much more.
- after a while exploration can become a bit samey. I feel there needs to be a small/tiny percentage to find something epic. Otherwise it's really just visit system, scan and sell data with no chance of anything else happening. Even a 1-3% chance makes you want to continue.
* e.g. Adding a bit of mystery about an extinct alien race so you may see a Nav point near a planet which rewards a broken piece of tech which could contribute to a faction ultimately gaining a new weapon. Progress could be shown somewhere on how many parts a faction has. Reward should be in the 100-500k range and large rep bonus. Epic reward
* e.g. Come across a large battlefield with wreckage. It's scannable and you get reward for finding a lost battleship with faction rep boost.
* e.g. When scanning a planet you get a mayday call from near the planet. If you decide to super cruise to it you will see a hauler being attacked. You can decide to save a hauler from pirates. Reward will be like a bounty and rep increase or help pirates and you steal cargo.
- there should be exploration missions given at stations or a generic one stating that you must sell xx amount
- scanner takes a little too long. Especially if you do multiple exploration trips
- chance of finding wreckage or derelict stations with pirate npc's. If you destroy you may find ship module or rare goods
- map should show where you have been so you feel like you are achieving something. (I loved this in eve)
- if you are the first to map a system then in the map screen under the system information it should have 'discovered by xxxx' players name. (Almost all online games has a players name on a made weapon or first time crafted/discovered item etc)
- comms in game. Space games need this more than anything due to long sessions mining or scanning systems. I am finding myself chatting to people on the iPad whilst exploring as space is too quiet right now.
future concepts
- tiny chance of finding station as above and if you manage to clear out you can capture the rights to if. You can sell the rights on the market, gift it to a faction for mass reputation and it becomes an outpost which then becomes operational. Maybe a note on the station will state 'founded by xxxx' players name. Maybe players can own these but they need to be found.
Exploration is huge in this game but without fleshing it out and making it rewarding enough it will become pretty vanilla quickly. I love exploration in any game and it keeps me going a long time but I am already finding myself hanging at Nav pts bounty hunting as the reward or chance of reward is just not there for exploration. With a game this size exploration should be a huge piece of the gameplay and with the mechanics working really well I hope you can flesh it out further.
thanks for reading
First of all I am loving the game and I have been doing a heap of exploration and I wanted to give some feedback.
Good
- the mechanics of exploration are pretty good and I find it challenging enough to keep me interested
- I love the concept of selling your data
- epic feeling of getting lost out there are there are no boundaries
improvements I can see
- reward is too low. E.g. I spent 1 hour mapping out this huge system this morning. I received a total of 11k using a detailed surface scanner. In comparison I earnt 40k in 20 min bounty hunting at the next systems Nav point. If anything with exploration I think the reward should be higher as the work involved is so much more.
- after a while exploration can become a bit samey. I feel there needs to be a small/tiny percentage to find something epic. Otherwise it's really just visit system, scan and sell data with no chance of anything else happening. Even a 1-3% chance makes you want to continue.
* e.g. Adding a bit of mystery about an extinct alien race so you may see a Nav point near a planet which rewards a broken piece of tech which could contribute to a faction ultimately gaining a new weapon. Progress could be shown somewhere on how many parts a faction has. Reward should be in the 100-500k range and large rep bonus. Epic reward
* e.g. Come across a large battlefield with wreckage. It's scannable and you get reward for finding a lost battleship with faction rep boost.
* e.g. When scanning a planet you get a mayday call from near the planet. If you decide to super cruise to it you will see a hauler being attacked. You can decide to save a hauler from pirates. Reward will be like a bounty and rep increase or help pirates and you steal cargo.
- there should be exploration missions given at stations or a generic one stating that you must sell xx amount
- scanner takes a little too long. Especially if you do multiple exploration trips
- chance of finding wreckage or derelict stations with pirate npc's. If you destroy you may find ship module or rare goods
- map should show where you have been so you feel like you are achieving something. (I loved this in eve)
- if you are the first to map a system then in the map screen under the system information it should have 'discovered by xxxx' players name. (Almost all online games has a players name on a made weapon or first time crafted/discovered item etc)
- comms in game. Space games need this more than anything due to long sessions mining or scanning systems. I am finding myself chatting to people on the iPad whilst exploring as space is too quiet right now.
future concepts
- tiny chance of finding station as above and if you manage to clear out you can capture the rights to if. You can sell the rights on the market, gift it to a faction for mass reputation and it becomes an outpost which then becomes operational. Maybe a note on the station will state 'founded by xxxx' players name. Maybe players can own these but they need to be found.
Exploration is huge in this game but without fleshing it out and making it rewarding enough it will become pretty vanilla quickly. I love exploration in any game and it keeps me going a long time but I am already finding myself hanging at Nav pts bounty hunting as the reward or chance of reward is just not there for exploration. With a game this size exploration should be a huge piece of the gameplay and with the mechanics working really well I hope you can flesh it out further.
thanks for reading
will be fleshed out over the course of time).
