Now that would be pretty neat. Or just make it reduce the number of bounces. A-grade letting you skip the first few big scatters and take you almost directly to the site (with 1 or 2 short bounces) while D or E grades have you doing the current thing of starting with a massive search area and having to fly around to narrow it down.
General Get rid of the annoying POI jumping about on planetary scan and recovery missions!
- Thread starter F4fred
- Start date
Yeah, ships you can pitch up fast work best, then 95% will be recoverable without a double SC. The other fun one is when the POI appears underground and you think you're 50 Km away with a long glide but notice at the last moment you're only 2km above the planet
I don't mind this - I find it quite acceptable that precisely pinning-down a target's location improves as I approach it. Let's face it, you are sent in with a brief from intelligence received so it is only natural that the location is not precise until you, yourself can locate it. There are very many more irritating things in the game than this one which you can at least mentally provide an excuse for.
I categorically agree.
I get WHY FDevs created the mission in this way, you are following 'scanner traces' and have to fly while the computer locks in the signal. But as others have said, after the first couple of times, it's NOT a challenge. It's just boring and frustrating.
Add to that the fact that - while others may not see this - in MY game, the co-ordinate shift glitches and the waypoint is placed underground, so you cannot complete the flight and have to fly away and return to try again, AND add the fact that it in no way adds to immersion because after a few repetitions you know where to turn and can see the installation being spawned with the last shift...
The 'Planetary Scan' missions are GREAT and tons of fun. But this mechanic is - while decent - due for improvement.
MY suggestion would be to keep the initial POI, and use it as the locus of a 100Km. radius in which the target installation will be - but you have to FIND it. A CMDR should be able to establish a grid pattern, fly in search and locate the target. A ship flying at the speeds even a Sidey can muster over ground will have NO problems at all locating the target IF the Commander uses their head.
That SHOULD be the focus. Merely turning left and right to follow the POI reticle gets boring FAST.
Cheers!
every part of your suggestion is great. I would just add having a surface scanner should reduce the size of the search zone by a decent margin.
I agree with the OP. Also, like others, I've had issues with the POI ending up underground. So I tend to avoid these missions - I have about 9 of these as chain missions clogging up the mission board for my faction.
Those who say they don't have the issue, from experience it depends on the size of the body you're landing on. Smaller bodies are worst for throwing the target around before exiting glide.
Those who say they don't have the issue, from experience it depends on the size of the body you're landing on. Smaller bodies are worst for throwing the target around before exiting glide.
Firstly, yes it is annoying and should be changed. I can see why there'd be some "fuzziness" about the location but the jumping about seems a bit gamey.
Having said that I've never really seen such large swings (~200km) or if I have never found them to be a difficulty. Maybe it's because like Agony Aunt I come in at the steepest possible angle (iirc 50 degrees) whenever I do planets and this mitigates the random changes???
Having said that I've never really seen such large swings (~200km) or if I have never found them to be a difficulty. Maybe it's because like Agony Aunt I come in at the steepest possible angle (iirc 50 degrees) whenever I do planets and this mitigates the random changes???