Since the announcement of the new exploration mechanics I've been lurking in the background watching a lot of seasoned explorers fizzing about it. Both good and bad. On Reddit, on the forums, on various Discord servers.
A significant number of explorers with a particular interest in discoveries of a xeno nature, and many others have been hugely put off by these changes,
including a couple I know personally who are either on the cusp of, or have decided to stop playing Elite.
Now rather than spit doom and gloom, I've been thinking of a bit of a compromise to suggest, and I hope it can spark some discussion.
The primary issue (as I've been able to glean from reading and discussing):
Many explorers are incensed by the loss of the ability to instantly see the general system layout.
The specific pain points are:
a. Inability to quickly discern by eye if there may be landables in the star's goldilocks zone for biological stuff. This affects barnacle hunting as well as Guardian hunting, as Brain Trees appear in certain temperate zones.
b. inability to see body distances from star immediately, which further exacerbates the above.
b1. inability to notice via system map and body distances potentially interesting close-orbiting bodies, extremely close-orbiting gas giant moons etc.
c. Potential for many unique looking discoveries to go un-noticed (i.e. the incredibly rare bright green glowing gas giants) which may otherwise been spottable even by a jonker.
All of these also fall under the general consensus that goal-oriented exploration as a whole has been slowed/hampered/mired by these changes.
An Idea:
So to suggest a compromise that returns some functionality to goal-oriented explorers while still hopefully maintaining the spirit of the FSS:
What if the honk would reveal the bodies and distances in the system map BUT: only as icons. Say for instance a circle of the correct relative size, with an abbreviation of the body type in the middle:
(HMC)---(ICE)---(R-ICE)---(GG I)---(GG IV)
|
(ICE)
No further information on the bodies would be available besides this.
If an explorer deems the system worthy of a stop, then they can chill by the star and begin the FSS process of revealing bodies and their detailed attributes, or venturing into the system to fling probes about.
This would not significantly alter the process of scoping bodies using the FSS, as you still can only see what they look like and get their mass, size, etc. after scoping them, but would restore the boiled-down basics of functionality who's absence is causing consternation.
I'll leave my own opinion out of this, but does an idea like this sound palatable to likers of both the old and new ways? Do you think FD ought to consider it if asked or should we leave well enough alone?
A significant number of explorers with a particular interest in discoveries of a xeno nature, and many others have been hugely put off by these changes,
including a couple I know personally who are either on the cusp of, or have decided to stop playing Elite.
Now rather than spit doom and gloom, I've been thinking of a bit of a compromise to suggest, and I hope it can spark some discussion.
The primary issue (as I've been able to glean from reading and discussing):
Many explorers are incensed by the loss of the ability to instantly see the general system layout.
The specific pain points are:
a. Inability to quickly discern by eye if there may be landables in the star's goldilocks zone for biological stuff. This affects barnacle hunting as well as Guardian hunting, as Brain Trees appear in certain temperate zones.
b. inability to see body distances from star immediately, which further exacerbates the above.
b1. inability to notice via system map and body distances potentially interesting close-orbiting bodies, extremely close-orbiting gas giant moons etc.
c. Potential for many unique looking discoveries to go un-noticed (i.e. the incredibly rare bright green glowing gas giants) which may otherwise been spottable even by a jonker.
All of these also fall under the general consensus that goal-oriented exploration as a whole has been slowed/hampered/mired by these changes.
An Idea:
So to suggest a compromise that returns some functionality to goal-oriented explorers while still hopefully maintaining the spirit of the FSS:
What if the honk would reveal the bodies and distances in the system map BUT: only as icons. Say for instance a circle of the correct relative size, with an abbreviation of the body type in the middle:
(HMC)---(ICE)---(R-ICE)---(GG I)---(GG IV)
|
(ICE)
No further information on the bodies would be available besides this.
If an explorer deems the system worthy of a stop, then they can chill by the star and begin the FSS process of revealing bodies and their detailed attributes, or venturing into the system to fling probes about.
This would not significantly alter the process of scoping bodies using the FSS, as you still can only see what they look like and get their mass, size, etc. after scoping them, but would restore the boiled-down basics of functionality who's absence is causing consternation.
I'll leave my own opinion out of this, but does an idea like this sound palatable to likers of both the old and new ways? Do you think FD ought to consider it if asked or should we leave well enough alone?
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