I think frontier may have missed the point with Q4 exploration..

[Rat Catcher]

Exploration for me is pointing off in a random direction and heading out a few KLy to see what is there, no 'destination' in particular. The upcoming changes promise more involvement in what I'll get just doing that, sounds fine to me. It's not about the $$/time for me (what use are credits once you can rebuy many times?) but exploration - I'll do the same IRL driving, just head out with no 'destination' just for the pleasure of being somewhere new.

As it stands in the game exploration and new systems is more likely to reveal yet more snowballs than 'pretty' systems but that makes sene, if every system was chock full of 'valuable' bodies it would soon get boring and samey... Although I do agree that it would be nice to turn up 'other' spacefaring races in the future.

 

[dubsdj]

I think the only way they can logically achieve unique things to find in the vast galaxy is by creating a ton of new ruins etc and then executing a script to randomly distribute them across the galaxy. I guess they will put a few hand crafted ones but they would be so few and far between that it would be unlikely that anyone will find them unless hints were dropped. But even the ton of new ruins would start repeating themselves as it is impossible to put so much interesting content in exploration without some kind of script due to the size of the galaxy. This is what bothers me because how will they achieve putting interesting things in such an enormous space? Also they would have to consider hard drive space for consoles and pc's so without repeating themselves it does not seem technically possible... But I will take my hat off to them if they manage to pull it off.

And not only that, for anything unique, they would have to put some kind of story behind it. So Chances of adding so much unique content with any sort of purpose in a galaxy is "Impossible".

I'm not a mathematician but just looking at the numbers tells you everything.

 

[TheGrimCorsair]

Complaining that a game doesn't cut mustard after 9000 hours of gameplay?

It makes perfect sense as the game is designed to be incredibly addictive at just about every level and interaction.

 

[Cpt Shadow Wolfe]

As an avid explorer, I go to tag undiscovereds, no matter what they are. It isn't about creds or the time it takes to do it. I had 35k first discoveries on my first account before I brought a second account on line last November. Now the second account with minimal assets stays in the black while the main account with all the assets stays in the bubble to handle faction stuff. Since November, the second account has amassed over 30k more first discoveries and netted over 1.5 bil in exploration turned in.

Q4 will change how I do things, and may be more time consuming, but once I get the hang of it, shouldn't be all that bad. What I wouldn't mind seeing is an Exploration Leader board or something, so I could see how far behind in first discoveries I am. It would also give players something to shoot for, to get on the leader board and have their names posted on Gal Net or something.

Would also be nice to implement a search function ability that will list all the objects that have been discovered by you, or at least the Systems where your name is posted as a first discoverer. (That would help me locate the 200 or so objects that I lost track of when my database crashed and I've yet to relocate).

Another idea that would make exploration more exciting is if FDEV would place rare mats or something out in the black that when located can give the ship a one time super boost for each one located. Hide them on planets and in signal sources. As it stands now, the few signal sources popping up now aren't worth the time to drop into them, they either have pods or data caches, which, unless you are headed back to the bubble ain't worth the extra weight to pick up. Now if there was a chance of finding mats in them, then they may be worth a look-see. The same goes with POIs on the planets in the black, nothing there worth your time other than cargo which you won't pick up anyhow for the weight. Now, if there were tech blueprints that could make your ship or any ship more unique provided you have the mats required to build it, then exploring in the black would become an even bigger draw. Things that can enhance scanner range even better then engineered ones, or exclusive paint jobs. Just a suggestion......

 

[Iron Body]

My worry is that FD might not have thought about any of these points. Who knows?

Which I guess is the point of the OP.

But I'm looking forward to the beta test.

 

[Shinji Ikari]

9000 hours spent, and now you're looking for a better community experience?

I enjoyed reading your post, but mainly for describing the contradiction inherent to Elite: Dangerous.

Complaining that a game doesn't cut mustard after 9000 hours of gameplay? Well, that doesn't really make any sense, does it?

I do agree completely however, that Frontier is VERY lucky to have such a dedicated community, that is willing to supply all the tools/narrative/content that Elite: Dangerous is so sorely lacking in-game.

The Gnosis was a precise example of lost story potential.

 

[Zeeman]

Is there a beta release or live stream I have missed? Last I heard, it was a small group of people on a few YT channels paying tribute to something they could not talk about....

Z...

 

[Ryan Murdoc]

Ok, but interesting things are rare, and rare things take a lot of finding. Currently that means honking maybe 100 systems to find the thing you're looking for.
That takes 100 minutes at least. If it takes 5 minutes to identify whether a system contains anything on your interest list, then finding them will take 5 times longer.

Dont tell me that there will be interesting things to find in every system. That's a contradiction in terms.

The only true rare thing out there is to find meaning in what you do and not feeling the need to defend it or attempting to convince someone else about it.

Exploration wise, the rarest thing out there are (to my knowledge) terraformable Rocky Worlds. Don't pay as much as ELWs, WWs, AWs and so forth. But sometimes the value of something doesn't lie in how much you're getting paid for it.

 

[Ryan Murdoc]

The Gnosis was a precise example of lost story potential.

More like it was a precise example if someone wants to push into regions the Devs have not yet everything done, and despite being kindly asked not to still wanted to do it (or at least that's how the story was told to me). If true, then it is comparable to the attempt of someone trying to do something in a Tabletop RPG where the Gamemaster has other plans, or doesn't want to spoil a certain something just yet. And for that reason puts a diversion or blockade into the path of the people playing so they're forced to take a detour or delay.

Maybe not the most elegant thing to do, but well...

 

[Shinji Ikari]

More like it was a precise example if someone wants to push into regions the Devs have not yet everything done, and despite being kindly asked not to still wanted to do it (or at least that's how the story was told to me). If true, then it is comparable to the attempt of someone trying to do something in a Tabletop RPG where the Gamemaster has other plans, or doesn't want to spoil a certain something just yet. And for that reason puts a diversion or blockade into the path of the people playing so they're forced to take a detour or delay.

Maybe not the most elegant thing to do, but well...

Firstly, no content has ever come out of blocked regions, secondly, the Gnosis could have still jumped to some interesting place instead of just jumping 13 Lys in a system next-by, third, the systems in question were unlocked for jumping until 2 weeks before the event, fourth, the event was billed as an exploration event with hints of a Thargoid attack yet the exploration side of the event never materialized.

 

[Th3 0utKa5t]

I'm just glad we are finally getting the tools we need in game to find things rather than having to use MK I Eyeball, even using a rift its hard to find stuff on a planet/moon, hopefully we wont need to rely on external tools as well but that may take a little longer depending if they try to integrate things like spectrographic analysis for the sounds we get from things like probes and such.

I would rather spend time scanning and finding stuff rather than wasting weeks looking in 1 system and not finding anything only to have someone else find what i was looking for by shear luck, now that can be a punch in the hangy parts.

 

[Colonel Kenney]

Making it more fun and more rewarding has NEVER been their modus operandi. Its about extending gameplay and making you work harder and get rewarded less. They had the opportunity to make some major payouts for passengers for example. That was a complete dud. Not worth any of the trips. Now with the mission board and all the nerfs its going to be impossible to make money.

All they had to do was put in some coin sinks and stop nerfing all the unique rare type gold mine runs and just keep them temporary. Sothis etc ... make it temporary but make them often. Make exploring have the potential to net you 200M in one trip if you find some absolutely rare things.

If you hit that diamond in the sand you should get paid for it. The galaxy should be seeded with these diamonds.

 

[cmdr underhill]

I'm 99% sure that finding ELWs will not take much more time, once we discover the best techniques for the new scanning system. Remember all the travel time is gone, it's just down to a scanning mini-game.

 

[Rat Catcher]

I've just returned from a little jaunt (about 12KLy) out toward Colonia, netted over 100 million in exploration data, over 300 tagged systems and a few ELW's...

I was only going out that far to see how much wear & tear on the ship, a Krait with about 38Ly jump range. With the promise that I won't need to go 540,000+ Ls to scan that last body in a system (yes, even if it is just a snowball) the upcoming changes could make exploration faster - we'll all just have to wait and see.

Now if FD would release an exploration ship as stupidly biased as the Anaconda (come on, a super large ship with a hull mass of 400 tons? Surely if you sneezed hard in it you'd blow the cockpit out - but no, not as things stand...) but with handling less like a T7, that would make my day (say 10 slots with 4 being size 1...), just mentioning it

 

[maboleth]

How hard would it be for Fdev to implement procedurally generated content outside of a bubble? I'm not thinking just historical findings, but geological ones, mining spots, fallen ships here and there... Did anyone ask them about it?

That being aksed, I'm like super thrilled we will FINALLY get the explo tools. Eyeballing the planets in search for things was beyond ridiculous.

 

[Sybine]

Totally agree with you, Im out of the game from above a year, waiting for some interesting content to come back. The thing is that exploration now will have its mechanics, maybe a good ones, but the problem is itill there, nothing interesting to find... and as u say, I dont pray for alien structures everywhere, or big discoveries... I just need to explore and find some caves, mineral resources, some strange mineral to craft a big module or just to sell for a big big amount of cash. Just that!, random discoveries that are not in the game yet. Bored od landing on a barren planet and collect materials with the SRV. And please, to be honest, planets dont look so nice TODAY. Lets wait for the graphics revamp, maybe we get a surprise.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

What we really need is a live Demo of the new System in action.

Before that happens and we see how it all comes together (and its timing/pacing etc.), I reserve my judgment to a later point where these critical details are known.

PS.
I clearly see the same risk, but I just as well i.e. see the risk of us spending more time to discover things we already know and witness the same old boring System Maps we already have seen tens of thousands of times.
But right now, it's merely a risk and pure speculation.

 

[Hydrino]

I am concerned that exploration will now take longer, not improve $$ and not be much fun outside of known space.

Discovery scanner
There are some obvious wins with this new system, but all in all, it looks to take far longer than honk/system map/decide. Unless pay out is changed to match this longer approach, exploration will lose out in terms of time:$$.

Detailed surface scanner
Obviously, x10 more interesting than current set up. It runs into the time:$$ issue as well. Unless there are some new systems put in place for random interesting surface POI, this will be very very limited and boring for those who travel out into the black, as thargoid and guardian sites seem to be in one clump in the galaxy, chances of finding a structure out in the real black would appear to be a non thing logically.
Mapping resources in rings is cool, other than it stands to no reason. Maybe selling this data to mining outposts/companies would create more income + more immersion.
Finding different style planets rocky/gas/habitable/terraformable etc would work wonders if there was an actual reason also. Maybe science groups in the bubble have missions requesting certain finds for their own/expeditions/research.

All in all, it, from what I can see exploring will now take longer, therefore earning you less. With the added need to farm resources for probes. The idea of replacing flying with gameplay will only replace efficiency with very limited slower gameplay.

Based on the stream today I have to disagree.
You can scan the whole system from the arrival point and then decide if you want to map a specific body in detail.
Also, Orrery view initial implementation.
Based on the demo the scanning may be slow the first time you do it but can be actually faster than the current way. Plus more immersive and logical.
This will easily be the biggest and best update since the initial planetary landings.

 

[Iskariot]

After seeing the livestream this evening I can now say that I am in heaven as far as the changes to the exploration mechanic are concerned (but also the other stuff that was shown).
Finally, finally I will be able to feel like a true space explorer.
What they showed us was simply magnificent.

FDev came through, all the way.

 

[Burke]

I cant see how this will make you feel like a "true" explorer. Its already been established that if you accept the honk mechanics, its perfectly realistic for ships sensors to be able to display an image of any object you have coordinates for, in seconds with only a single lense. A fully kitted out exploration vesslie is likely to be covered in many sensors and its perfectly realistic (honk mechanics accepted) to be able to jump into a system and not only be able to get an image of whats there but to gain significant data on atmospherics and compositions.