Is Exploration Completely Aimless?

[jasonbarron]

Ha just noticed the same thing!



Always enjoy your posts and glad to see you on the Exploration forums!

I am going to try to "divine" what he meant and guess that he is using a combo of the Galmap info, which tells what kind of star and how many stars there are, and galactic radius. The class and subclass of a star tells you the color temp and and a guesstimate on the size, which can give an idea of how massive or young the star is in question. When taken in combo with the location in the galaxy, these can give you a read on the statistically available material for planet formation and also a likelihood of what types of planets you are likely to find. For instance, the huge planets this guy is talking about are typically found around young high mass stars (OBAFs). The position in the galaxy might also impact how much material (eg solid material vs gas) is available for planet forming. Galactic radius definitely seems to impact the likelihood of finding ELWs (so why not planet size/density?), but the way the game works anything is possible anywhere.

All of this info is pre-generated on the galmap and visible from Earth even for permit locked systems. No idea whether the seeds are pre-generated or created when you enter a system, but in either case the seeds would have to pass through the filter of star type and location.

Good to see you, too, Ziljan. Thank you for explaining that. I still believe that exploration is woefully under-realized, despite this method. Seriously hoping Fdev gives the science roll some love in Beyond

 

[Ziljan]

Good to see you, too, Ziljan. Thank you for explaining that. I still believe that exploration is woefully under-realized, despite this method. Seriously hoping Fdev gives the science roll some love in Beyond

Oh don't get the wrong idea. The ED galaxy itself might be an amazingly deep astrophysical sim accomplishment, but I agree with you 100%, the way we interact with galaxy via "Exploration" is such a thin mechanic it disappears if it turns sideways.

• There is no Integrated propose to discovery, it's an isolated and insignificant activity where deciding to go left right up down makes no functional difference other than name tags
• There isn't anything to discover and interaction/choices concerning planets are virtually non-existent. No soil anaylsis, no gas sampling, no spectral analysis clues to what can be found.
• There is no colonization mechanic.
• There is currently no mining/prospecting synergy or benefit
• There are no star-trekkian obstacles or hazards (unless you count supercharging)
• There are only two buttons required for Exploration: jump & honk. That wouldn't even be sufficient for a free to play phone app.

 

[duckofdeath]

There is a lot of things lacking, and this two year extension to Horizons have never helped. I've been brutally honest towards Frontier regarding that since six months into Horizons, when it got too apparent they had run into a brick wall, tinkering with pointless things like DPS on beams vs pulse. Something they kept doing for over a year, and the end result was a year spent on nothing.
That said, there are plenty of things to look for in the galaxy, if you make the interest. Be it the few planets we are allowed to land on, the sights or simply to prepare a magnificent route for the time we get to land on more complex planets. Also, like others has already said here, the randomness is a part of it. Just like in real world exploration. You go to a place you're hoping to find what you're looking for and then it's all up to real world RNG if or when you do find it.

 

[Jon474]

I follow a modified Random Walk approach to exploration. I tend to have a starting direction and an ultimate End Point to aim towards but how I get to that EP is up for grabs. No timetable, no schedule, no daily limit or distance to travel targets. With a jump range of just 27LY things can take a while. I left the Bubble in Jan 2016 and am still 20K LY from my Home System. Spent a few weeks on Centralis at the beginning of the Summer...too crowded for me.

My aim in exploration is to seek out planets with an axial tilt of 0 or 90 Degrees. Oh, and ringed Ice Worlds...I love them.

Flying happily
Jon
Type-6E

PS: I have taken a screen shot of the system map for every system I have ever visited...am I alone in this? Why am I doing this and to what use will I ever put these screen shots?

 

[Rudi Raumkraut]

I am an aimless explorer.
Works like a charm for me since 2+ years