Hello Frontier!
My feedback on what I've seen in the first 20 hours of play (loving the Dolphin!)
Exploration:
This is, to me, the best thing about the game. I LOVE jumping into systems and finding planets and scanning them, etc. However I think that overall the process ...the experience ... of exploration has been implemented in a way where it has very little 'replay' value and is so simplified that it requires nothing out of the player other than pressing a button and flying close to something to 'explore it'.
For example, starting the game and being a poor peasant I was stuck with the basic discovery scanner. To find stuff I had to fly patterns around the system, ever increasing distances from the main star, to detect planets and other locations.
That required pilot interaction in the exploration process. This is good.
But then I purchased the unlimited range scanner and things went down the toilet. The exploration experience vanished. Entering an unknown system only required me to use the scanner once and voila! everything detected...all I had to do was fly close to them and the automated scanners would discover the planet or object. THIS IS VERY BAD.
Exploration becomes then, a zero pilot involvement process. A grind for all purposes. Repetitive task. The only thing you have left to look forward to in exploration in this fashion is to stumble into a system with something visually cool and that's it. There's zero sense of achievement given there is zero effort required.
Then there's the 'unknown' contact listing of stuff picked up by the system scanner... if you target the location the holographic HUD will actually show you what it is (asteroid or planet or star) which instantly removes any doubt as to what it is you're going to find upon arrival.
The same goes for scanning/discovering planets. Its all automated. Pilot does nothing other than fly close to them. Where's the involvement in that? Where's the exploration?
Finally, exploration as it is now is basically a player rushing through systems using system scanner once to discover all objects, then flying to these objects so the passive scanners picks up what it is and saves it and then rushes to the next system, repeat. All this because the money you get for exploration per system is rather low and you have to put a significant number of systems in your bag in order to return and sell it...otherwise exploration as a paying job is not competitive compared to running trade or combat.
Suggestions:
Re-design the payout/rewards for exploration and the scanning process/gameplay for exploration so that it involves the player in the entire process.
System Scanning- Should be changed to scanning methods that involves the player. There should be 2 devices the player can use, either by themselves or together, to detect objects in the star system: System Scanners and Discovery Sats/Probes.
System Scanners would not be omnidirectional like the current ones are. Instead, system scanners would have a narrow 25 degree horizontal, 180 degree vertical scanning area of limited range. When the player sends a scanning pulse (honk) it will only pick up stellar objects in that range of view/distance. Also, it would be best to remove 'basic->advanced' grades of scanners and instead, simply make the scanners have different capabilities so that instead of players just getting the 'best' one (aka current unlimited range one) they would pick the scanner whose capabilities best matches their ship setup/needs. System scanners are always 'active' scanners (honk required). Ship can only equip one scanner type. Different size scanners will increase range however. Different grades of scanners (A-F) would change things like honk charge time and weight/power requirements.
For example, a size 1A system scanner:
Low Frequency Scanner: Long range (500LS), long 'honk charge' time (15 secs), detects only large stellar objects (planets,stars).
High Frequency Scanner: Short range (250LS), avg 'honk charge' time (8 secs), detects all types of stellar objects (planets,moons,stars,asteroids,artificial constructs)
Discovery Sats/Probes: These are deployable sensors that collect data passively or actively and transmit it to the player's ship. Omni-directional. Sats have the longest detection range and take the longest to collect data but they are recoverable and re-usable. Probes are essentially a sensor package with a small frame-shift drive capable of limited supercruise flight (aka its supercruiss is slow compared to your ship)... they have short detection range, collect data quickly and are able to fly long distances before running out of power. Probes are not recoverable but you can synthesize them if you carry the resources. The biggest difference between sats and probes is that probes do both detect stellar objects ('unknowns') and if they happen to fly close to them, will also gather detailed information on it ('discovering' it) so you don't have to fly to the object to do it.
Sats and Probes come in different sizes (so you can fit them in different sized slots in your ship) and each 'size' gives you more devices you can launch and have data-links to at a time. For simplicity, the 'size' system could literally mirror the cargo modules..the amount of tons per size would equal the amount of sats/probes carried per size. Aka an 8 capacity one would give the player 8 sats/probes. A ship can load multiple types of sats and probes to deploy if they have the number of module slots available. The different grades (A-F) of sat/probe types would change things like cost to synth replacements/detection times/range/flight range (probes).
Sats: All sats have long sensor gathering times (2 mins minimum) and very long range (~2000LS) . However they are specific into what they can detect. Omnidirectional. Sats are deployed and stay in place where deployed. Can be recovered and re-used.
Low Spectrum Sat: This satellite passively gathers heat-source data. Best used for detecting stars, gas giants and heat-emitting planets... but will not detect icy planets, asteroids,black holesetc.
Mid Spectrum Sat: This satellite passively gathers optical-source data. This satellite type detects everything that emits or reflects visible spectrum light within its LOS but it takes the long time to do so.
High Spectrum Sat: This satellite passively gathers high energy-source data. This satellite type is best used to detect distant companion stars and unusual objects like black holes.
Probes: Probes use active, high-powered short range sensors and travel in a straight line at relatively slow supercruise speeds until they run out of power and shut down+self destruct. Probes detect everything the current system scanners do.
Short Range Probe: Short flight range (1000LS), fastest flight (equal speed to player's supercruise at max), short range sensors (500LS).
Mid Range Probe: Medium flight range (2000LS), slow flight time (half the max speed of player supercruise), short range sensors (500LS).
Long Range Probe: Long flight range (4000LS), very slow flight time (25% of max speed of player supercruise), medium range sensors (1000LS)
Once the player has used the system scanners/probes/sats to detect objects, he would then need to gather detailed data on them to truly discover what they are. This is where the planetary scanners, sats and probes come into play.
The planetary scanners carried by your ship should take the longest to gain knowledge from the planet..after all its just one source of data gathering and it has to crunch it all. Satellites on the other hand, are deployed by the player around the planet and the more satellites you deploy gathering information the faster the planetary data comes in. Whereas a ship planetary scanner would take several minutes, a few sats would take much less. Planetary Probes on the other hand, can be fired at a planet from a distance and they will collect the data for the player.
In short:
Ship Planetary Scanner: Takes longest time to acquire data. ~4 mins minimum.
Planetary Satellites: Each satellite deployed reduces scan time. No sat can be deployed within X distance of another sat (devs determine this). Deploying four should cut down the scan time to ~20 seconds. Can be recovered.
Planetary Probes: Can be fired at planets from long distances (1000LS max) and take as longer than a ship planetary scanner to gather data (10 mins?). Cannot be recovered.
Finally, the exploration rewards would need to be changed. Given each system would now take some time to fully explore and discover the payout per system should be increased to be competitive with combat/trade missions...on a per system discovered basis. The game should have a means of telling the player if ALL objects in the system were discovered or not... by being able to use 'Contacts' menu on the right side HoloMFD list 'Universal Cartographics' so you can 'contact' them and register the system as discovered by you... but you wont get the money until you return with the data. If you have not discovered the entirety of the system then that contact option will not come up. Note: this option will appear after you have detected all celestial bodies... it does not require you to do detailed scans before that. As always, the data you return with is what is valuable so just detecting the celestial bodies (aka, leaving them 'unknown') doesn't pay much.
How this all works together:
The player would enter a system and either manually (aka use his ship only) fly around the system in patterns using his ship scanner to detect celestial bodies and then gather detailed data on them...or he can use the sats/probes to do that for him... or he can combine all six (3 forms of celestial body detection, 3 forms of detailed data gathering of said detected celestial bodies).... if he has enough ship slots to equip it all. Depending on the player's ship and play style, there could be different combinations of options that best suits the player's needs. With the increased payout and definitely increased involvement of the pilot in the exploration game, we could have players exploring less systems per hour but being more involved/getting more enjoyment out of it rather than the current rush-rush-rush-zero involvement honking and fly-by'ing that exploration is at the moment.
My feedback on what I've seen in the first 20 hours of play (loving the Dolphin!)
Exploration:
This is, to me, the best thing about the game. I LOVE jumping into systems and finding planets and scanning them, etc. However I think that overall the process ...the experience ... of exploration has been implemented in a way where it has very little 'replay' value and is so simplified that it requires nothing out of the player other than pressing a button and flying close to something to 'explore it'.
For example, starting the game and being a poor peasant I was stuck with the basic discovery scanner. To find stuff I had to fly patterns around the system, ever increasing distances from the main star, to detect planets and other locations.
That required pilot interaction in the exploration process. This is good.
But then I purchased the unlimited range scanner and things went down the toilet. The exploration experience vanished. Entering an unknown system only required me to use the scanner once and voila! everything detected...all I had to do was fly close to them and the automated scanners would discover the planet or object. THIS IS VERY BAD.
Exploration becomes then, a zero pilot involvement process. A grind for all purposes. Repetitive task. The only thing you have left to look forward to in exploration in this fashion is to stumble into a system with something visually cool and that's it. There's zero sense of achievement given there is zero effort required.
Then there's the 'unknown' contact listing of stuff picked up by the system scanner... if you target the location the holographic HUD will actually show you what it is (asteroid or planet or star) which instantly removes any doubt as to what it is you're going to find upon arrival.
The same goes for scanning/discovering planets. Its all automated. Pilot does nothing other than fly close to them. Where's the involvement in that? Where's the exploration?
Finally, exploration as it is now is basically a player rushing through systems using system scanner once to discover all objects, then flying to these objects so the passive scanners picks up what it is and saves it and then rushes to the next system, repeat. All this because the money you get for exploration per system is rather low and you have to put a significant number of systems in your bag in order to return and sell it...otherwise exploration as a paying job is not competitive compared to running trade or combat.
Suggestions:
Re-design the payout/rewards for exploration and the scanning process/gameplay for exploration so that it involves the player in the entire process.
System Scanning- Should be changed to scanning methods that involves the player. There should be 2 devices the player can use, either by themselves or together, to detect objects in the star system: System Scanners and Discovery Sats/Probes.
System Scanners would not be omnidirectional like the current ones are. Instead, system scanners would have a narrow 25 degree horizontal, 180 degree vertical scanning area of limited range. When the player sends a scanning pulse (honk) it will only pick up stellar objects in that range of view/distance. Also, it would be best to remove 'basic->advanced' grades of scanners and instead, simply make the scanners have different capabilities so that instead of players just getting the 'best' one (aka current unlimited range one) they would pick the scanner whose capabilities best matches their ship setup/needs. System scanners are always 'active' scanners (honk required). Ship can only equip one scanner type. Different size scanners will increase range however. Different grades of scanners (A-F) would change things like honk charge time and weight/power requirements.
For example, a size 1A system scanner:
Low Frequency Scanner: Long range (500LS), long 'honk charge' time (15 secs), detects only large stellar objects (planets,stars).
High Frequency Scanner: Short range (250LS), avg 'honk charge' time (8 secs), detects all types of stellar objects (planets,moons,stars,asteroids,artificial constructs)
Discovery Sats/Probes: These are deployable sensors that collect data passively or actively and transmit it to the player's ship. Omni-directional. Sats have the longest detection range and take the longest to collect data but they are recoverable and re-usable. Probes are essentially a sensor package with a small frame-shift drive capable of limited supercruise flight (aka its supercruiss is slow compared to your ship)... they have short detection range, collect data quickly and are able to fly long distances before running out of power. Probes are not recoverable but you can synthesize them if you carry the resources. The biggest difference between sats and probes is that probes do both detect stellar objects ('unknowns') and if they happen to fly close to them, will also gather detailed information on it ('discovering' it) so you don't have to fly to the object to do it.
Sats and Probes come in different sizes (so you can fit them in different sized slots in your ship) and each 'size' gives you more devices you can launch and have data-links to at a time. For simplicity, the 'size' system could literally mirror the cargo modules..the amount of tons per size would equal the amount of sats/probes carried per size. Aka an 8 capacity one would give the player 8 sats/probes. A ship can load multiple types of sats and probes to deploy if they have the number of module slots available. The different grades (A-F) of sat/probe types would change things like cost to synth replacements/detection times/range/flight range (probes).
Sats: All sats have long sensor gathering times (2 mins minimum) and very long range (~2000LS) . However they are specific into what they can detect. Omnidirectional. Sats are deployed and stay in place where deployed. Can be recovered and re-used.
Low Spectrum Sat: This satellite passively gathers heat-source data. Best used for detecting stars, gas giants and heat-emitting planets... but will not detect icy planets, asteroids,black holesetc.
Mid Spectrum Sat: This satellite passively gathers optical-source data. This satellite type detects everything that emits or reflects visible spectrum light within its LOS but it takes the long time to do so.
High Spectrum Sat: This satellite passively gathers high energy-source data. This satellite type is best used to detect distant companion stars and unusual objects like black holes.
Probes: Probes use active, high-powered short range sensors and travel in a straight line at relatively slow supercruise speeds until they run out of power and shut down+self destruct. Probes detect everything the current system scanners do.
Short Range Probe: Short flight range (1000LS), fastest flight (equal speed to player's supercruise at max), short range sensors (500LS).
Mid Range Probe: Medium flight range (2000LS), slow flight time (half the max speed of player supercruise), short range sensors (500LS).
Long Range Probe: Long flight range (4000LS), very slow flight time (25% of max speed of player supercruise), medium range sensors (1000LS)
Once the player has used the system scanners/probes/sats to detect objects, he would then need to gather detailed data on them to truly discover what they are. This is where the planetary scanners, sats and probes come into play.
The planetary scanners carried by your ship should take the longest to gain knowledge from the planet..after all its just one source of data gathering and it has to crunch it all. Satellites on the other hand, are deployed by the player around the planet and the more satellites you deploy gathering information the faster the planetary data comes in. Whereas a ship planetary scanner would take several minutes, a few sats would take much less. Planetary Probes on the other hand, can be fired at a planet from a distance and they will collect the data for the player.
In short:
Ship Planetary Scanner: Takes longest time to acquire data. ~4 mins minimum.
Planetary Satellites: Each satellite deployed reduces scan time. No sat can be deployed within X distance of another sat (devs determine this). Deploying four should cut down the scan time to ~20 seconds. Can be recovered.
Planetary Probes: Can be fired at planets from long distances (1000LS max) and take as longer than a ship planetary scanner to gather data (10 mins?). Cannot be recovered.
Finally, the exploration rewards would need to be changed. Given each system would now take some time to fully explore and discover the payout per system should be increased to be competitive with combat/trade missions...on a per system discovered basis. The game should have a means of telling the player if ALL objects in the system were discovered or not... by being able to use 'Contacts' menu on the right side HoloMFD list 'Universal Cartographics' so you can 'contact' them and register the system as discovered by you... but you wont get the money until you return with the data. If you have not discovered the entirety of the system then that contact option will not come up. Note: this option will appear after you have detected all celestial bodies... it does not require you to do detailed scans before that. As always, the data you return with is what is valuable so just detecting the celestial bodies (aka, leaving them 'unknown') doesn't pay much.
How this all works together:
The player would enter a system and either manually (aka use his ship only) fly around the system in patterns using his ship scanner to detect celestial bodies and then gather detailed data on them...or he can use the sats/probes to do that for him... or he can combine all six (3 forms of celestial body detection, 3 forms of detailed data gathering of said detected celestial bodies).... if he has enough ship slots to equip it all. Depending on the player's ship and play style, there could be different combinations of options that best suits the player's needs. With the increased payout and definitely increased involvement of the pilot in the exploration game, we could have players exploring less systems per hour but being more involved/getting more enjoyment out of it rather than the current rush-rush-rush-zero involvement honking and fly-by'ing that exploration is at the moment.