I bought Elite Dangerous because I wanted to bravely explore a simulation of the real Milky Way, yet the "galactic wilderness" has turned out to be a disturbingly tame and an uneventful place and there simply isn't enough to do while exploring besides snap the odd breathtaking picture. The current exploration "gameplay" revolves around 3 bare-bones, low-risk, low-reward elements:
I) Fiddling with the map for scoopable/interesting stars. There is no real danger of getting lost or stranded in a patch of unscoopable stars. Or jumping to a star that you know nothing about. All of the main sequence types (and those off the main squence as well) are clearly shown on the Galactic Map. You can filter your route in advance for scoopable stars and avoid any risk at all. This destroys the mystery of visiting any system except to get an idea of the Planets. At the very least, solar weather in a system should be a surprise factor which increases the danger of scooping a main sequence star (see part III below).
II) Scanning. Right now, scanning is more boring than mining. More boring than mining... let that sink in for a bit. At least mining has the twin "nail-biters": 1) the sampling lottery, and 2) the rock scooping mini game. There needs to be both a discovery-scanning, and a detailed surface scanning mini-game. Ideally the surface scan would show useful scientific & commercial data that would require active interpretation and look quite badass in the process, like an onboard telescope that displayed multiple spectrums and was capable of frequency analysis (sidenote: this could also serve double duty to collect military intel when used in scout ships). And most of all, it needs to be an engaging skill based mini-game that doesn't guarantee success. Right now, the only active exploring button is the D scanner that shows you a picture in the system map that makes the detail surface scan a formality. The surface scan can be done passively while the object is still a mysterious blip on the sensor panel, and gives the same payout regardless of how far away you are. At the very least, the useful monetary value of any surface scan should decay as the square of the distance from that object with a big payoff for a truly upclose 360* orbital sweep. That is basic physics of angular resolution limitations over distance.
III) Refueling. Flying into a corona should be extremely dangerous. The corona is actually much hotter than the "surface" of the star itself! Yet parking in this raging inferno is actually the safer than trying to park in a space station. At least a space station offers the possibly of a catastrophic crash. It would be far more interesting and realistic if the galaxy itself were at least as dangerous as a vengeful wing of pirates, and if refueling at a star was a bit more dangerous than landing in a hanger, but right now the wilderness is such a safe place that people don't even slot shields or supplies of any kind beyond scanners and life support. I have never had to use a heat sink while playing Elite. I don't even need shields to fly into a sun. Wth? If the hull can withstand the incinerating thermal damage a star has to offer, why do we need shields vs thermal weapons?
TLDR: There is no real risk/reward during the mostly passive act of exploring. The only thing that will be killed on an Exploration outing is "time". It's so safe that the only challenge on a 13+ hour journey to Sag A*, orbiting a supermassive black hole, is to come back with 100% hull integrity and at least 50% of your mental integrity. There should be far more risk/reward and far more active player involvement in the discovery, the scanning, and the route planning processes.
Or as Niel DeGrasse Tyson put it: The universe itself is an extremely deadly place and is actually trying really hard to kill you...
EDIT: Below are my proposed solutions to make exploration more interesting and rewarding, and yes a tiny bit riskier. Not risky enough to kill you outright per se, but enough to cause sizable attrition damage and thus make a trip to Sag A* a truly meaningful accomplishment of planning, cunning, physical endurance, and skill.
STEP 1) Add space weather and unpredictable solar events to non-main sequence stars to make blind jumps into systems based only on the Galactic map information more risky. This could be alleviated by doing scans of less stable star types immediately before you jump to that system. Scans would have limited range say 10-40 LY based on equipment class.
STEP 2) Make scanning of planetary systems more active with a mini-game where the pilot uses on board telescopes to do a spectral analysis of a planet to search for the strongest signal peak. This will involve lining up the target, filtering out noise, and searching for the peak frequencies. The more chemically complex a planet is, the more peaks, and thus more time it will take. The further away the planet is the more difficult it will be to target it and the more noise there will be. All of these factors will lead the accuracy score of the collected data, and the accuracy will determine the cartographic CR reward. The quality of the equipment will also impact the accuracy, so a sidewinder with class 1A scanners will have to be extremely close to a planet to get even a 50% accuracy rating due excess signal noise, etc. Better ships, higher class scanners = more exploration rewards.
95-100% = 5 x base CR reward
80-94% = 4 x base CR reward
60-79% = 3 x base CR reward
40-59% = 2 x base CR reward
20-39% = 1 x base CR reward
0-19% = .05 x base CR reward
The base is the current base value for basic scanning of each object.
STEP 3) Make stars and black holes dangerous. The current overheating penalties are OK. On top of this we should suffer 20% hull damage from dipping too close to a star and suffer heat damage while sitting idle in front of a star. Mirrored Surface Composite bulkheads will reduce the heat rate accrual rate and heat damage by 50% each. So crashing into a star with thermal resistant bulkheads would result in only 10% hull damage. Still, you could not stay locked to a star for very long without suffering damage. If you have mirrored surface bulkheads you should be able to escape the gravity lock into super cruise without extra heat damage if you don't linger. If you don't have thermal bulkheads, then you will take an extra 5-10% damage even if you run as quickly as possible. However, any hull damage could be repaired with an auto-field maintenance unit. All of this can be easily avoided with careful piloting, just as it is now. But if you are flying while tired, or attempting to reach Sag A in a marathon run, then scooping would become increasingly dangerous endurance based event. Mistakes would cost you limited resources and time. Preparing for those mistake with supplies and proper exploration outfitting would slightly reduce your jump range, but would also result in a much safer trip.
If for some reason your shields are down (or not equipped) then you will take 2x the heat damage from any "accident" that occurs while refueling.
Black holes... obviously we should be able to fall into them, and suffer hull damage from tidal forces the closer we get, until we are spaghettified well before we hit the event horizon. But right before we die, If we look away from the black hole, the "reward" for falling in should be a very cool light show revealing the end of the universe in a tunnel of light above us, since time will slow down to infinitesimally slow degrees the closer we get. We would still die, but not before everyone else in the universe died too.
I) Fiddling with the map for scoopable/interesting stars. There is no real danger of getting lost or stranded in a patch of unscoopable stars. Or jumping to a star that you know nothing about. All of the main sequence types (and those off the main squence as well) are clearly shown on the Galactic Map. You can filter your route in advance for scoopable stars and avoid any risk at all. This destroys the mystery of visiting any system except to get an idea of the Planets. At the very least, solar weather in a system should be a surprise factor which increases the danger of scooping a main sequence star (see part III below).
II) Scanning. Right now, scanning is more boring than mining. More boring than mining... let that sink in for a bit. At least mining has the twin "nail-biters": 1) the sampling lottery, and 2) the rock scooping mini game. There needs to be both a discovery-scanning, and a detailed surface scanning mini-game. Ideally the surface scan would show useful scientific & commercial data that would require active interpretation and look quite badass in the process, like an onboard telescope that displayed multiple spectrums and was capable of frequency analysis (sidenote: this could also serve double duty to collect military intel when used in scout ships). And most of all, it needs to be an engaging skill based mini-game that doesn't guarantee success. Right now, the only active exploring button is the D scanner that shows you a picture in the system map that makes the detail surface scan a formality. The surface scan can be done passively while the object is still a mysterious blip on the sensor panel, and gives the same payout regardless of how far away you are. At the very least, the useful monetary value of any surface scan should decay as the square of the distance from that object with a big payoff for a truly upclose 360* orbital sweep. That is basic physics of angular resolution limitations over distance.
III) Refueling. Flying into a corona should be extremely dangerous. The corona is actually much hotter than the "surface" of the star itself! Yet parking in this raging inferno is actually the safer than trying to park in a space station. At least a space station offers the possibly of a catastrophic crash. It would be far more interesting and realistic if the galaxy itself were at least as dangerous as a vengeful wing of pirates, and if refueling at a star was a bit more dangerous than landing in a hanger, but right now the wilderness is such a safe place that people don't even slot shields or supplies of any kind beyond scanners and life support. I have never had to use a heat sink while playing Elite. I don't even need shields to fly into a sun. Wth? If the hull can withstand the incinerating thermal damage a star has to offer, why do we need shields vs thermal weapons?
TLDR: There is no real risk/reward during the mostly passive act of exploring. The only thing that will be killed on an Exploration outing is "time". It's so safe that the only challenge on a 13+ hour journey to Sag A*, orbiting a supermassive black hole, is to come back with 100% hull integrity and at least 50% of your mental integrity. There should be far more risk/reward and far more active player involvement in the discovery, the scanning, and the route planning processes.
Or as Niel DeGrasse Tyson put it: The universe itself is an extremely deadly place and is actually trying really hard to kill you...
EDIT: Below are my proposed solutions to make exploration more interesting and rewarding, and yes a tiny bit riskier. Not risky enough to kill you outright per se, but enough to cause sizable attrition damage and thus make a trip to Sag A* a truly meaningful accomplishment of planning, cunning, physical endurance, and skill.
STEP 1) Add space weather and unpredictable solar events to non-main sequence stars to make blind jumps into systems based only on the Galactic map information more risky. This could be alleviated by doing scans of less stable star types immediately before you jump to that system. Scans would have limited range say 10-40 LY based on equipment class.
STEP 2) Make scanning of planetary systems more active with a mini-game where the pilot uses on board telescopes to do a spectral analysis of a planet to search for the strongest signal peak. This will involve lining up the target, filtering out noise, and searching for the peak frequencies. The more chemically complex a planet is, the more peaks, and thus more time it will take. The further away the planet is the more difficult it will be to target it and the more noise there will be. All of these factors will lead the accuracy score of the collected data, and the accuracy will determine the cartographic CR reward. The quality of the equipment will also impact the accuracy, so a sidewinder with class 1A scanners will have to be extremely close to a planet to get even a 50% accuracy rating due excess signal noise, etc. Better ships, higher class scanners = more exploration rewards.
95-100% = 5 x base CR reward
80-94% = 4 x base CR reward
60-79% = 3 x base CR reward
40-59% = 2 x base CR reward
20-39% = 1 x base CR reward
0-19% = .05 x base CR reward
The base is the current base value for basic scanning of each object.
STEP 3) Make stars and black holes dangerous. The current overheating penalties are OK. On top of this we should suffer 20% hull damage from dipping too close to a star and suffer heat damage while sitting idle in front of a star. Mirrored Surface Composite bulkheads will reduce the heat rate accrual rate and heat damage by 50% each. So crashing into a star with thermal resistant bulkheads would result in only 10% hull damage. Still, you could not stay locked to a star for very long without suffering damage. If you have mirrored surface bulkheads you should be able to escape the gravity lock into super cruise without extra heat damage if you don't linger. If you don't have thermal bulkheads, then you will take an extra 5-10% damage even if you run as quickly as possible. However, any hull damage could be repaired with an auto-field maintenance unit. All of this can be easily avoided with careful piloting, just as it is now. But if you are flying while tired, or attempting to reach Sag A in a marathon run, then scooping would become increasingly dangerous endurance based event. Mistakes would cost you limited resources and time. Preparing for those mistake with supplies and proper exploration outfitting would slightly reduce your jump range, but would also result in a much safer trip.
If for some reason your shields are down (or not equipped) then you will take 2x the heat damage from any "accident" that occurs while refueling.
Black holes... obviously we should be able to fall into them, and suffer hull damage from tidal forces the closer we get, until we are spaghettified well before we hit the event horizon. But right before we die, If we look away from the black hole, the "reward" for falling in should be a very cool light show revealing the end of the universe in a tunnel of light above us, since time will slow down to infinitesimally slow degrees the closer we get. We would still die, but not before everyone else in the universe died too.
Last edited:
