FDEV, Please don't ruin exploration. Changes you are introducing for ADS are a massive downgrade.

[space voyager]

Frontier (imho) made a mistake when they made exploration and travel-honk so easy to begin with. There's no sense of accomplishment whatsoever being an 'explorer'. Truth is really, it's a mostly brain-dead pursuit save for some planned routing before jumponium and engineers. I say this with nearly a million ly 'travelled' myself. I can't stop though, because it's addictive to me. It's like a lottery or a fish pond for kids. What will I see in the next star system?

Now, maybe too late, they're trying to rectify exploration somewhat and somehow, we'll see, and I commend them for doing it. Let's see what they present 'shortly', shall we?

This. THIS.

 

[Chrystoph]

That isn't necessarily what we are getting, again, we don't know how that electromagnetic scanner will work. I do admit, that FDevs comms failed again at properly answering these concerns.

I just want to remind people how the currently proposed gameplay changes were mostly community driven and mostly mentioned in OA's video at the bottom. I'm not saying I agree with the content, far from it, but the general consensus is that OA's opinion reflect that of the community.

The bottom line is, I give the benefit of doubt to the changes, and I think it is unfair to have a 'damned if they do, damned if they don't' approach.

I would argue that you are mistaken in stating that this was community driven given that ALL of the formal discussion was discluded from the development process via the simple mechanic of not having it.

Unfortunately, that seems to be modus operandi when it comes to Frontier and the Exploration community. If they listen to us, it tends to be just enough to usurp our ideas and leave us feeling like we got hit by a lorry. Genuine communication with the whole community, as opposed to elements such as Obsidian Ant's following or Canonn, has been seriously lacking for two years.

 

[Karacetamol]

I don't want to play a minigame every time to find out if a system is worth hanging around. That's all.

 

[Alfred J Kwak]

No let's not! If they made this system at launch, when you had to plot routes of a short distance, from what I gathered a 100ly routes and then had to scan every system which they have presented now, then the devs would have complained about not enough customers buying this game and they would have migrated to the current system we have which is reveal all planets on system scan.
Let's see it, every update they did so far made the game simpler. From what I know, they made the following changes and more (not going to check all of it):

Extended route plotting to 1000ly
Removed NPC's outside the bubble
Increased payout for exploration
Improved graphics from 32bit to 64 bit
Added landing on non-atmospheric planets
Gathering materials specifically to increase jump range
Added engineers to increase jump range
Extended route plotting to 20000ly
Added the ability to plot a route selecting certain stars
Increased payout for exploration (again)

Now where did we find any nerf / downgrade along the way? We didn't! We even didn't get to avoid / fight Thargoids which they were planning to do: "winter is coming". We thought that FD understood what exploration was about. Unfortunately now, that seems not the case, so we need to remember them that this isn't what we want. And for the people who "like the change", yep... they either think it is okay to do an exploration minigame every system they are in.. until they did that for maybe a month at most and likely return to the bubble for some pew pew. Or they think it is okay for explorers to get nerfed and they are allready playing in the bubble and are never coming out of it.

I haven't seen a post from an explorer who said: "Oh cool, they downgraded the ADS.. now I don't get all the planets when I honk the system, I am finally going to stay in this system with 10 icy planets a couple minute longer" because thats exactly what they are getting, and not one's but definately for the majority of their exploration gametime.
Now the devs have been quiet lately though we have proof they do read the forums. Hopefully they are discussing whether or not they go forward with this new system.

I agree most of the features you mentioned they look explorer orientated but actually , they are general upgrades.

If it be from FSD range extending upgrades from engineering , to fuel boost or neutron stars .the non exploration vessels are the ones that gain the main possitive effects T9s now can do decent trade , combat ships have now the chance to jump to areas with conflicts faster.
Planetary landings are a core feature mostly for the bubble story lines and material collection.
Graphics are general upgrade not exploration specific.
Route plotting for 20.000ly nice but not realy exploration minded more a means to make travel to colonia easier ,
Adding the route filters to use stars to travel by not realy exploration minded as its simular to the civilisation , economy , goverment types route filters.
The increased pay out is nice but not realy exploration minded as the pay outs in the early part of the game where ridiculous spending months in space scanning thousends of systems and plantets then returning to the bubble and only find 60 milion in your proffits.

Removing Npc long distances from the bubble was a commen sense update, as it was anoying and made you wonder how an eagle got 3000 ly from the bubble with out a fuel scoop.

There are so many features and examples for exploration updates that have been ignored .

 

[space voyager]

I don't want to play a minigame every time to find out if a system is worth hanging around. That's all.

Me neither. As far as I understood will get some sort of energy signals or.whatever and from those we might be able to.determine what is in the system, just not.get a picture of it.

 

[Traesha]

I agree most of the features you mentioned they look explorer orientated but actually , they are general upgrades.

If it be from FSD range extending upgrades from engineering , to fuel boost or neutron stars .the non exploration vessels are the ones that gain the main possitive effects T9s now can do decent trade , combat ships have now the chance to jump to areas with conflicts faster.
Planetary landings are a core feature mostly for the bubble story lines and material collection.
Graphics are general upgrade not exploration specific.
Route plotting for 20.000ly nice but not realy exploration minded more a means to make travel to colonia easier ,
Adding the route filters to use stars to travel by not realy exploration minded as its simular to the civilisation , economy , goverment types route filters.
The increased pay out is nice but not realy exploration minded as the pay outs in the early part of the game where ridiculous spending months in space scanning thousends of systems and plantets then returning to the bubble and only find 60 milion in your proffits.

Removing Npc long distances from the bubble was a commen sense update, as it was anoying and made you wonder how an eagle got 3000 ly from the bubble with out a fuel scoop.

There are so many features and examples for exploration updates that have been ignored .

Yes, most of them weren't exploration specific, we did benefit from them however.

 

[Eros]

I think the important part is to wait for more examples and a gameplay demonstration. Right now, people are going on such a small mount of information that the unanswered questions are being made to sound like enormous obstacles.

They already said, honk and jump is going to get you money roughly in the same manner as it does right now. So, fine.

As for the hardcore adventurer who wants to jump 1000s of systems and spend 4 seconds waiting for the system map to load to see if anything is worth investigating... those days are probably over, and probably for the best too. HOWEVER i say that because there needs to be some balance. Id still like to be able to look at the energy signature screen and be like... Hmmm this system is interesting, and be able to fill out the system map in a matter of... 30s to a minute...(depending on system size obviously)

By what they said, it sounds as though the energy signatures will give you enough information to get a hint at types of planets. So those of you who actually don't mind learning game play mechanics and the exploration mechanics will be able to honk scoop glance and go just like you did before. Those of you who want the easy street to continue... *shrugs* get good?

As i say though, minimal information on it is known and id LOVE to see some gameplay.

 

[ruger_shooter]

Such angst! It's a game, that's all it is. Not a matter of life and death, not a matter of anything remotely important, just a game to pass the time, escape from reality for an hour or two. Some people need to keep this in mind, some people don't. If the game developers make changes then live with it. Your life is not changes, you are only exploring a virtual universe so really it does not matter one bit. You are not thousand of light years away from home sitting in a spaceship facing the dangers of a hostile and dangerous universe you are sitting in front of your computer playing pretend. So pretend to be happy.

 

[Henkka77]

Such angst! It's a game, that's all it is. Not a matter of life and death, not a matter of anything remotely important, just a game to pass the time, escape from reality for an hour or two. Some people need to keep this in mind, some people don't. If the game developers make changes then live with it. Your life is not changes, you are only exploring a virtual universe so really it does not matter one bit. You are not thousand of light years away from home sitting in a spaceship facing the dangers of a hostile and dangerous universe you are sitting in front of your computer playing pretend. So pretend to be happy.

Dont burst my bubble.

 

[Chrystoph]

I think the important part is to wait for more examples and a gameplay demonstration. Right now, people are going on such a small mount of information that the unanswered questions are being made to sound like enormous obstacles.

The problem with this is that, by the time you have "a gameplay demonstration", you are WELL past soliciting the user for input. If we wait until Frontier puts forth an Alpha, then they are already committed to that path by having already invested enough development to make a working model.

We should be in steps 1 and 2. That is where customer survey and requirements come in. In the past, this has been a Focused Feedback, yet there were none for this chapter.

Frontier is already in steps 3 and 4, although it could be argued that step 4 is where a Beta would be.

As it is currently laid out, by the time we know more, it will already be a done deal.

 

[Genar-Hofoen]

The problem with this is that, by the time you have "a gameplay demonstration", you are WELL past soliciting the user for input. If we wait until Frontier puts forth an Alpha, then they are already committed to that path by having already invested enough development to make a working model.

We should be in steps 1 and 2. That is where customer survey and requirements come in. In the past, this has been a Focused Feedback, yet there were none for this chapter.

​

Frontier is already in steps 3 and 4, although it could be argued that step 4 is where a Beta would be.

As it is currently laid out, by the time we know more, it will already be a done deal.

Judging by the answers given in the reveal livestream, step 1 "Requirements Analysis" wasn't particularly well done in the first place. If it were, they would have had answers to questions like "Do we have to manually build a system map in order to see if a star system has already been tagged?" - the current answer is "Dunno." And "These are actually very important points" - about all the questions raised, on the whole.

 

[idahosurge]

Current ADS is great as it is.

Please don't ruin exploration.

I agree with the OP. I would like the the current honk and get a detailed system map to stay like it currently is. Then open the new ADS window if you want to scan and get more detailed information. The move on to the new DDS and get even more detailed information if you want.

To me removing the current honk and get a detailed system map is a step backwards.

 

[Roqinn]

My 2cents on this (I know it doesn't mean much, but I'm putting it out there anyways!): If exploration takes much more time than it does now, I doubt if I will continue playing. Explaining my position in this: I don't have a lot of free time (maybe an hour or 2 at night before bed) and all I do is explore. If I can't make any significant advancement in my travels in that time, I feel that it is a waste of my time. If it is a waste of my time, then I will find something else to play. It's as simple as that.

I am willing to wait and see what comes out of this update before I give judgement though. I will give it a fair shake.

 

[Thann]

My 2cents on this (I know it doesn't mean much, but I'm putting it out there anyways!): If exploration takes much more time than it does now, I doubt if I will continue playing. Explaining my position in this: I don't have a lot of free time (maybe an hour or 2 at night before bed) and all I do is explore. If I can't make any significant advancement in my travels in that time, I feel that it is a waste of my time. If it is a waste of my time, then I will find something else to play. It's as simple as that.

I am willing to wait and see what comes out of this update before I give judgement though. I will give it a fair shake.

Proposed nerf to honking really seems like it'd slow down a step that most def. should not be slowed down. - Pour involving gameplay and potential timesinks and such to the stage where explorer already knows whether he considers the system he just jumped into interesting/fun or not.

Notion of a major timesink during a step where I'm finding out if I wanna spend time in the system? Soul crushing.

 

[Eros]

There has been feedback from day 1 as to what people wanted from a new scanning system... to be honest, parts of threads and feedback iv read in regard to how a new scanning system could be imagined is quite close to what they presented... as such claiming they didn't look at or listen to any feedback at all is to also be ignorant of history.