I still hate the new style of exploration even after adjusting to it.

[space voyager]

This how I felt about the FSS vs ADS at first too. However, after doing the FSS so many fracking times I've changed my tune. At least with the ADS there was an active part in exploring, we had to fly the ship in order to investigate a system. With the FSS we just sit still and do a zoom & pan blue blob minigame until the system is revealed. I now prefer the active aspect of flying the ship more than the sit and zoom minigame.

I only flew to profitable planets with ADS. Which was sad, really, but I had to "make a living". Otherwise I only flew to several moons promising activity, hoping to find geysers. Those I found like five times before FSS came along.

What I'm trying to say is that unless a body was profitable, many never flew anywhere before, either. Money and tags (same goes for mapping) and nice pics. No exploration as there was even less to be found than there is now.

 

[Skip Rockbounder]

I only flew to profitable planets with ADS. Which was sad, really, but I had to "make a living". Otherwise I only flew to several moons promising activity, hoping to find geysers. Those I found like five times before FSS came along.

What I'm trying to say is that unless a body was profitable, many never flew anywhere before, either. Money and tags (same goes for mapping) and nice pics. No exploration as there was even less to be found than there is now.

The first time I went exploring I filled up the tanks (yup 2) of my Asp Explorer (it was the only Asp then) and jumped minimum distance to the nearest syetem and the next and so on out into the black, I was on my own out there, until I got scared I'd run out of fuel, I turned back and just made it to a System with a station... fumes in the tank, my mate then told me about a fuel skimmer module... but I got a long way (though I can't remember how far) and WOW really, and I only had the IDS fitted so I missed some stuff but I did enjoy it, later with the confort of an extra tank* and ADS I had a ball, gone for months.

*and the Fuel skimming module

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

What I'm trying to say is that unless a body was profitable, many never flew anywhere before, either. Money and tags (same goes for mapping) and nice pics. No exploration as there was even less to be found than there is now.

It's odd that the exploration forums were very busy with explorers talking about their explorations while there was no exploration as you say.

Once planets and moons became land-able, these were much more often the targets of explorers than profitable bodies. And although many are in exploration for money, the vast majority wasn't. Probably because the tools you need for exploration aren't that expensive, and the value of the ship doesn't determine whether it's a good explorer.

I am thinking you're extrapolating your own motivators to other explorers. And since we are a varied bunch, that's often a mistake. You have to keep in mind that a lot of explorers were looking for oddities in the Stellar Forge, and these have been in the game from day 1. Once found, it would often mean spending quite some time in system. Especially when the oddity included land-able planets. And now that is locked behind a mini game.

So I either can suck it up and FSS every. single. system. every. single. time. to see if I want to FSS a system. Which is bonkers.
Or I can forgo the FSS for the most part, just check the spectrometer for valuable planets, scan those, ignore the rest. Which is boring. And leaves me with the nagging sensation I might miss some incredible configuration like this one:

Because a look at the spectrometer tells you: water world, and some various planets of little interest. So yeah, the new system is a lose-lose for me.

 

[EUS]

Satisfactory game

Never heard of this before today.
Funny reviews.
Might have to check this out.

 

[Mengy]

So I either can suck it up and FSS every. single. system. every. single. time. to see if I want to FSS a system. Which is bonkers. Or I can forgo the FSS for the most part, just check the spectrometer for valuable planets, scan those, ignore the rest. Which is boring. ...Because a look at the spectrometer tells you: water world, and some various planets of little interest. So yeah, the new system is a lose-lose for me.

Well said and perfectly described Ziggy.

 

[[VR] Merkir]

Meanwhille, I have just cashed in 20 billion credits worth of exploration data and discovered 10,000 new systems. Thanks for giving up on exploration everyone. No need to start again. It's just as bad as ever. I'll get the rest on my next trip. Enjoy not exploring.

I didn't realise my enjoyment of exploration gameplay should be measured by the number of credits I receive. Thanks for enlightening me.

 

[Gut Rumble]

There's nothing in the bubble that interests me , so i wander around in the black looking for that one thing that will blow every ones mind and hasn't been found yet . it could be my next jump , or at the end of the next course plot , but the fun for me is the search =-)

 

[Chrystoph]

Meanwhille, I have just cashed in 20 billion credits worth of exploration data and discovered 10,000 new systems. Thanks for giving up on exploration everyone. No need to start again. It's just as bad as ever. I'll get the rest on my next trip. Enjoy not exploring.

I will admit that I buckeyballed about half of DWE 3302 because I came to Elite barely in time, but 20B for 10k systems... If I remember correctly, I got about 289M for the whole DWE.

Of course, if you wander around out there where you can actually look at the whole Milky Way and think about the fact that you're at least 20 times the distance that light has traveled in the reliably recorded history of humanity, money isn't quite as important... or maybe it never was.

As to discovering new systems, let me know when you get out to the places where Allitnil and Stupid Hippy frustrate you.

Spoiler

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q54lVO7elt0

 

[Sepp]

I agree. The FSS is why I don't play Elite anymore, it killed exploration for me. And I tried to like it, I explored over a thousand systems with it, but eventually the minigame wore me down and I just can't stand it anymore.

I hate saying this, but I miss the ADS.

Me too. I just don't enjoy exploring with the FSS. I gave it a go as it was a fait accompli and I dip my toes back in the game every now and then just in case something has magically changed, but as things stand it has killed exploration and - as that is all I want to do - the game for me.

 

[Cold Tallinn]

For me, the FSS was a huge backwards step for exploration in Elite. It killed the game for me. Over the last two years I have tried a couple of times to regenerate my excitement of the early years of Elite Dangerous but the truth is...the FSS mini-game sucks.

Yes, before you pile on, I know that lots of people like the FSS, and I am pleased you do. I don't. It ruined my game.

Going to take a look at this Satisfactory game...never heard of it before.

Mengy, Ziggy, good to see you are still here. Miss flying with you. I still have this picture by Mr Stardust.

Flying, somewhere

Jon
Type6-E

 

[space voyager]

And leaves me with the nagging sensation I might miss some incredible configuration like this one:

Because a look at the spectrometer tells you: water world, and some various planets of little interest. So yeah, the new system is a lose-lose for me.

Me too. I just don't enjoy exploring with the FSS. I gave it a go as it was a fait accompli and I dip my toes back in the game every now and then just in case something has magically changed, but as things stand it has killed exploration and - as that is all I want to do - the game for me.

But instead of demanding the removal of any time investment into the discovery, why not think of an alternative exploration mechanics? Why don't we come up with a fun way to get the, say unpopulated picture of... gravity wells? Something, an activity that would for instance show everything down to .1EM? Perhaps an activity that would be faster than FSS and skill based so you can get really good at it and thus fast, also I'd love it if such an activity would not be bothered by the star (would sense through it).

Then, if the gravitational image (system map with circles, size dependent on mass, gravitational dependencies shown as they currently are) is good enough to warrant further time investment, we can FSS the hell outta it to get the whole picture. Tags only coming at that point. This way Ziggy would get his interesting gravity connections faster, but not free. EDIT; still, he might miss some interestingly gravitational connected moons with small mass. Tough luck. ;p

But I'd leave the proximity FSS as is, so that I know whether someone's already been there.

Any ideas on such an activity? We could develop a complete idea and suggest it as a combined idea of an exploration community.

 

[Cold Tallinn]

I did not like the infinite range of the ADS but I liked its immediacy.

I did not like the insta-reveal nature of the ADS and would have preferred a "black circles" reveal that would only be resolved into a body when you flew to within a certain range (never defined) and scanned it properly. You still had to fly up to a planet to get the scan credits, though. That was part of the job of being an explorer.

The FSS with its twiddle knobs and track along lines "find-the circle" stupidity is, for me, simply irritating. No, it doesn't take long to complete a whole scan if you set it up right, and after many attempts I did manage a set up that worked, but the way it scans and delivers its results is a bit detached from reality.

Can you imagine the FSS working "in real life" in any way akin to the its "in-game" approach? Why do I need to be in supercruise? Why do I need a separate analysis mode?

No, sorry. It sucked when it was introduced and it still sucks now. I received so much grief for airing my view when it was first released but I haven't seen anything that changes my mind. It still sucks.

I played many, many hours of Elite before the switch to the FSS. I've been to many faraway places in this galaxy. I really miss playing. Every now and again I set off on a trip (I'm on my way "west" at the minute) but it's not the same as it was.

Flying, west
Jon
Type 6-E

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

But instead of demanding the removal of any time investment into the discovery, why not think of an alternative exploration mechanics? Why don't we come up with a fun way to get the, say unpopulated picture of... gravity wells? Something, an activity that would for instance show everything down to .1EM? Perhaps an activity that would be faster than FSS and skill based so you can get really good at it and thus fast, also I'd love it if such an activity would not be bothered by the star (would sense through it).

Then, if the gravitational image (system map with circles, size dependent on mass, gravitational dependencies shown as they currently are) is good enough to warrant further time investment, we can FSS the hell outta it to get the whole picture. Tags only coming at that point. This way Ziggy would get his interesting gravity connections faster, but not free. EDIT; still, he might miss some interestingly gravitational connected moons with small mass. Tough luck. ;p

But I'd leave the proximity FSS as is, so that I know whether someone's already been there.

Any ideas on such an activity? We could develop a complete idea and suggest it as a combined idea of an exploration community.

I wanted to be able to fire probes (limited number, synth-able, no magic infinite stock) out to gravity well, using slingshot maneuvers to visit multiple bodies. This could be done during supercruise at speed and would allow multicrew exploration to actually be a thing, since someone else could be managing the probes while you fly.

Also, the loadout of your ship should affect what information you can gather, rather than having a free, weightless scanner that magically does everything.

Not that it matters, because FDev are firmly wedded to the FSS and aren't going to spend any more time or effort on exploration.

 

[Cold Tallinn]

Not that it matters, because FDev are firmly wedded to the FSS and aren't going to spend any more time or effort on exploration.

This. As it was two years ago, it remains this, today.

Oh well

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

But instead of demanding the removal of any time investment into the discovery

No one is demanding, time investment isn't the issue.

As for the rest of the post, for 3 years many alternative methods have been discussed. Thinking of alternatives might be a nice academic pursuit, but Frontier won't be spending any more time on exploration for quite some time.

"You wanted new tools, here's the FSS, but we're taking another tool away, and that's your lot for the foreseeable future." The so-called feedback thread was hilarious. "We listened to your complaints, so we increased honk pay out." They really are absolutely clueless.

No, Frontier made it quite clear they were unconcerned a large group of people were unhappy with the update. As far as they're concerned exploration is done for now.

 

[Rudi Raumkraut]

The reasons of arguing about FSS vs ADS are of course valid, although I think that it won't change anymore in this life (of ED).

As I'm more the traveler kind of explorer (so not a real one, Cheers! ) I'm quite OK with the FSS as I was with the ADS...

often I get the impression that its not just the change from ads to fss, but the hope which especially seasoned explorers put into this explo revamp and the disappointment that we didn't finally got content, but just another tedious minigame.
So it's perfectly understandable - still sometimes I think the FSS was 'just' the straw that broke the camels back...

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

As I'm more the traveler kind of explorer (so not a real one, Cheers! )

Saw your name in the black yesterday - makes you a 'real' explorer in my book

"If your name's not down, you're not coming in"

 

[Mengy]

Mengy, Ziggy, good to see you are still here. Miss flying with you.

Hey Jon, long time no see! So many original explorers don't seem to be around anymore.

I don't play much Elite today but I still stay up to date with the game, which isn't too hard since not much changes. I'm still hopeful Frontier might amend exploration to improve it down the road. It's probably an unrealistic expectation of mine but oh well.

I explore in other games now. Next week the new MFS will likely take over ALL of my game time for the rest of the year.

 

[space voyager]

Thinking of alternatives might be a nice academic pursuit, but Frontier won't be spending any more time on exploration for quite some time.

Why the hell is this thread still alive for then?!

Kidding, I don't mind investing some time to ponder what might have been, especially in Elite.

 

[Cold Tallinn]

Of course, it all started to go wrong for Elite Dangerous when they switched from one unit of a material per pointlessly SRV-blasted rock to three units.

<sucks on pipe>

I once collected the maximum count of materials, one at a time. These days, they have it easy.

Jon
Old Bloke

But...look at these views.