I like the new exploration system very much. It seems more involved, more immersive and I feel much more like I'm piloting an actual exploration vessel. The fact that I have DSS in every ship is very much welcome as well. From the mining or bounty hunting point of view it opens the galaxy. I can just grab my mining vessel, go wherever I please and discover new mining location when I want to do mining. Or I can grab my combat vessel and roam around until I find a system suitable for bounty hunting. It allows for some light exploration whilst doing other stuff, which, in my opinion, is great and something I wanted to see for a long time. So, well done Frontier, it's definitely a step into a good direction.
However, I'd like to suggest a few tiny adjustments.
1. The GUI. It doesn't feel like part of the ship. When I get into FSS mode, what am I exactly looking at? Is it a screen of some instrument onboard my ship? Is it projected on the HUD? Is my brain connected to onboard computer? I don't know.
What I'd suggest is making it an additional panel, like the current 3, or part of the Navigation Panel (please keep the hot key though). In terms of its feel and looks, I suggest something similar to the current Codex sub-panel. Not taking the whole screen but showing in front of the pilot, slightly transparent, perhaps similar to the current night vision mode could be another option. And with the pilot being able to see the cockpit interior behind it. It could utilise either the orrery or the system map (my personal preference, but this could be left for each pilot to decide, just like with the current system map) look, so it's kept compact. By which I don't mean the FSS panel showing us the exact look of the planets and objects, they would be the current FSS bluish blob until scanned and then the way they actually look would be revealed.
Currently, when I enter FSS mode, looking around requires me moving the mouse several times across the length and width of my desk. Which suggests that the scale of what I'm seeing is simply too big. And is going to lead to repetitive strain injury sooner or later. Even changing mouse sensitivity is not going to help here.
So, there are several advantages of such a solution:
a.) it makes the UI more streamlined and similar across various in-ship systems, especially if it can be accessed from the navigation panel as well (in the corner where there is Galaxy Map and System Map option it's easy to add FSS as well)
b.) it's more immersive and feels more like using an actual system onboard
c.) allows the pilot to better react to events outside the cockpit (because they can see around a bit)
d.) in system map kind of view no objects in the system get obstructed by a star. d.) prevents wild swiping the mouse across the desk, which would also make it easier for VR headset users.
When we're at this, I believe that the current Galaxy Map and the System Map could get a similar revamp; new windowed mode setting for increased immersion and convenience. Again, please refer to the current Codex window for the general appearance.
2. Probes. They don't make much sense. Firstly, we are already doing a surface scan whilst in FSS mode, discovering POIs etc. I didn't really find the need to use the probes. I understand if I wanted to land and look at geysers I would have to use mapping probes first. But I don't find geysers that fascinating. Or in other words: I've seen all the geysers I have to see in my life, the novelty quickly wears off. Launching the probes isn't also awfully convenient. If I could either rotate the planet in view to launch the probes or move my ship more freely around it (use lateral and vertical thrusters in supercruise), they would make more sense.
But there is one thing I get out of my way to land for: materials, when they are less common ones (or alien ones). So here's my suggestion:
a.) Let's keep mapping to FSS mode (you need surface scanner for that of course), this showing you PoIs and allowing you to select them for landing.
b.) Let's make the probes great again
By which I mean: let's make them actually useful as surface mining probes. They would be launched in exactly the same way they are (in supercruise), but they would be launched to gather materials. You launch a probe, it hits the planet, collects materials from a small area (so the blue "impact" circle would be very small too) depending on the planet's composition, sends you info of what it found (say: Sulphur, Phosphorus, Nickel, Iron, Tin) and its location. When you land, there is a tiny robotic rover waiting for you. If you want the resources it gathered, you land and pick them up with your SRV (or perhaps you can order the rover to deliver the mats and fetch it to be used again) . You don't want these mats, you can launch more probes. If I know there is a decent chance of finding Arsenic or Polonium, I will launch more probes. Then I can quickly go to my Nav Panel -> Contacts and target one of them (based on the list of its contents) and land at its location. They stay there as long as I'm in the system (so high waking or logging out removes them). And the mechanics to determine their contents is already in game (I'm thinking about the Outcrops and Meteorites and such).
c.) Additionally, they could be used for gathering new, currently unknown materials. Say, samples of guardian technology, samples of thargoid technology, samples of other perished (or present) alien life forms. They could also be a new discovery tool to obtain Surface Analysis Data, which could be sold as any other exploration data right now, which would provide a reason to launching probes to Earth-Like Worlds, Water Worlds, HMC Worlds - anything that could be useful in colonisation efforts. That data would be beamed back to the ship.
d.) Currently we have an infinite number of them. What I'd suggest is that we buy them (like ammo) with an ability to manufacture them onboard using some more common materials (say carbon, iron and sulphur type of stuff). Manufactured ones could have several tiers, requiring slightly more rare materials to make them, but also giving you a bigger chance of finding more rare materials in return. I would also add a very lightweight utility module, Discovery Probe Launcher (ammo of about 3-5, similar in operation to Heatsink Launcher - so with a possibility to bind a key to it) as a requirement for launching probes.
Of course, all current ways of gathering materials would stay in place, but we would add another one, thus making a small step towards the planetary surface mining some day in the future (who says we can't have mining oriented SRVs someday) and at the same time making probes more useful, better balanced (module and ammo requirement) and a more diverse tool (possibility to use synthesis to make more specialised devices). The exploration of star systems stays roughly the same (with suggestion no.1 hopefully implemented) though scanners are all that's needed to map a planet (which also makes more likely for people to actually land and see those geysers and whatnots) with its PoIs.
However, I'd like to suggest a few tiny adjustments.
1. The GUI. It doesn't feel like part of the ship. When I get into FSS mode, what am I exactly looking at? Is it a screen of some instrument onboard my ship? Is it projected on the HUD? Is my brain connected to onboard computer? I don't know.
What I'd suggest is making it an additional panel, like the current 3, or part of the Navigation Panel (please keep the hot key though). In terms of its feel and looks, I suggest something similar to the current Codex sub-panel. Not taking the whole screen but showing in front of the pilot, slightly transparent, perhaps similar to the current night vision mode could be another option. And with the pilot being able to see the cockpit interior behind it. It could utilise either the orrery or the system map (my personal preference, but this could be left for each pilot to decide, just like with the current system map) look, so it's kept compact. By which I don't mean the FSS panel showing us the exact look of the planets and objects, they would be the current FSS bluish blob until scanned and then the way they actually look would be revealed.
Currently, when I enter FSS mode, looking around requires me moving the mouse several times across the length and width of my desk. Which suggests that the scale of what I'm seeing is simply too big. And is going to lead to repetitive strain injury sooner or later. Even changing mouse sensitivity is not going to help here.
So, there are several advantages of such a solution:
a.) it makes the UI more streamlined and similar across various in-ship systems, especially if it can be accessed from the navigation panel as well (in the corner where there is Galaxy Map and System Map option it's easy to add FSS as well)
b.) it's more immersive and feels more like using an actual system onboard
c.) allows the pilot to better react to events outside the cockpit (because they can see around a bit)
d.) in system map kind of view no objects in the system get obstructed by a star. d.) prevents wild swiping the mouse across the desk, which would also make it easier for VR headset users.
When we're at this, I believe that the current Galaxy Map and the System Map could get a similar revamp; new windowed mode setting for increased immersion and convenience. Again, please refer to the current Codex window for the general appearance.
2. Probes. They don't make much sense. Firstly, we are already doing a surface scan whilst in FSS mode, discovering POIs etc. I didn't really find the need to use the probes. I understand if I wanted to land and look at geysers I would have to use mapping probes first. But I don't find geysers that fascinating. Or in other words: I've seen all the geysers I have to see in my life, the novelty quickly wears off. Launching the probes isn't also awfully convenient. If I could either rotate the planet in view to launch the probes or move my ship more freely around it (use lateral and vertical thrusters in supercruise), they would make more sense.
But there is one thing I get out of my way to land for: materials, when they are less common ones (or alien ones). So here's my suggestion:
a.) Let's keep mapping to FSS mode (you need surface scanner for that of course), this showing you PoIs and allowing you to select them for landing.
b.) Let's make the probes great again
By which I mean: let's make them actually useful as surface mining probes. They would be launched in exactly the same way they are (in supercruise), but they would be launched to gather materials. You launch a probe, it hits the planet, collects materials from a small area (so the blue "impact" circle would be very small too) depending on the planet's composition, sends you info of what it found (say: Sulphur, Phosphorus, Nickel, Iron, Tin) and its location. When you land, there is a tiny robotic rover waiting for you. If you want the resources it gathered, you land and pick them up with your SRV (or perhaps you can order the rover to deliver the mats and fetch it to be used again) . You don't want these mats, you can launch more probes. If I know there is a decent chance of finding Arsenic or Polonium, I will launch more probes. Then I can quickly go to my Nav Panel -> Contacts and target one of them (based on the list of its contents) and land at its location. They stay there as long as I'm in the system (so high waking or logging out removes them). And the mechanics to determine their contents is already in game (I'm thinking about the Outcrops and Meteorites and such). c.) Additionally, they could be used for gathering new, currently unknown materials. Say, samples of guardian technology, samples of thargoid technology, samples of other perished (or present) alien life forms. They could also be a new discovery tool to obtain Surface Analysis Data, which could be sold as any other exploration data right now, which would provide a reason to launching probes to Earth-Like Worlds, Water Worlds, HMC Worlds - anything that could be useful in colonisation efforts. That data would be beamed back to the ship.
d.) Currently we have an infinite number of them. What I'd suggest is that we buy them (like ammo) with an ability to manufacture them onboard using some more common materials (say carbon, iron and sulphur type of stuff). Manufactured ones could have several tiers, requiring slightly more rare materials to make them, but also giving you a bigger chance of finding more rare materials in return. I would also add a very lightweight utility module, Discovery Probe Launcher (ammo of about 3-5, similar in operation to Heatsink Launcher - so with a possibility to bind a key to it) as a requirement for launching probes.
Of course, all current ways of gathering materials would stay in place, but we would add another one, thus making a small step towards the planetary surface mining some day in the future (who says we can't have mining oriented SRVs someday) and at the same time making probes more useful, better balanced (module and ammo requirement) and a more diverse tool (possibility to use synthesis to make more specialised devices). The exploration of star systems stays roughly the same (with suggestion no.1 hopefully implemented) though scanners are all that's needed to map a planet (which also makes more likely for people to actually land and see those geysers and whatnots) with its PoIs.
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