tl;dr: There's not much point going exploring when you can just open someone else's list of systems, fly around them, and be an Elite billionaire in a couple of days. How about we make the real rewards go to explorers who actually find new stuff?
OK, so I stuck that at the top to save time for those players who will scream "nerf bat!" who can go straight to ranting about it below. For the rest of you:
My logic is that while data is valuable, when you do the Road to Riches you're only grabbing data that someone else has got, and Universal Cartographics already has it. I'm not suggesting that you get nothing for this, because it's fairly safe to assume that every scan of a body reveals something new and useful, but I believe it should be the initial scan that is the real reward.
Frontier often seem to comment that people are anchored to the bubble and "don't get out much" and I am certain that this is because you can reap the rewards of 'exploring' without stepping out of your comfort zone.
What I would propose is that the values are re-balanced to boost the rewards for genuine discoveries at the expense of the rewards for planets that have been scanned, but not by you. This would admittedly make it harder for brand new players to make money from exploration, but I believe it would make it a much more lucrative career option and give a much greater sense of achievement once you've put together your first ship and got out of the small area that has been properly discovered.
This could bring in a five tier system of values:
As for the actual values, I can't comment. Balancing is a fine art, and I'll leave that to the experts, but I would expect tiers 1 & 2 to be noticeably lower than the current minimums, and 4 & 5 to be somewhat higher to really encourage deep space exploration, and reward the effort involved.
OK, so I stuck that at the top to save time for those players who will scream "nerf bat!" who can go straight to ranting about it below. For the rest of you:
My logic is that while data is valuable, when you do the Road to Riches you're only grabbing data that someone else has got, and Universal Cartographics already has it. I'm not suggesting that you get nothing for this, because it's fairly safe to assume that every scan of a body reveals something new and useful, but I believe it should be the initial scan that is the real reward.
Frontier often seem to comment that people are anchored to the bubble and "don't get out much" and I am certain that this is because you can reap the rewards of 'exploring' without stepping out of your comfort zone.
What I would propose is that the values are re-balanced to boost the rewards for genuine discoveries at the expense of the rewards for planets that have been scanned, but not by you. This would admittedly make it harder for brand new players to make money from exploration, but I believe it would make it a much more lucrative career option and give a much greater sense of achievement once you've put together your first ship and got out of the small area that has been properly discovered.
This could bring in a five tier system of values:
- Discovery Scanner; known bodies: very low payout for bodies that have been scanned, but not by you.
- Detailed Scanner; known bodies: slightly higher payout for bodies that have been scanned, but not by you.
- Discovery Scanner; unknown bodies: High payout for bodies that you are the first to scan.
- Detailed Scanner; discovered bodies: Significantly higher payout for bodies that have not been scanned, but have already been "honked" by someone else.
- Detailed Scanner; unknown bodies: Very High payout for bodies that have not been scanned, and were "honked" by you.
As for the actual values, I can't comment. Balancing is a fine art, and I'll leave that to the experts, but I would expect tiers 1 & 2 to be noticeably lower than the current minimums, and 4 & 5 to be somewhat higher to really encourage deep space exploration, and reward the effort involved.