Is there even a reason for belt clusters to exist?

Never did it myself, but ISTR that in the days before deep core mining and multiple hotspots, the most dedicated miners would map asteroid clusters so they could go straight to the most productive rocks. I expect 3.3 made that style of mining obsolete.

If would be nice if Frontier found another use for the clusters; sadly I don't see that making its way to the top of their priority list, but you never know.
 
I personally find that a game which spoon-feeds you all the info or is automatic almost is bad game design. I much prefer the treat you like an adult, have consequences and hidden features that may take years to uncover or never be found, that's what makes it interesting. I am a bit bored of the finish in a week type games and theres plenty of those.

In your version we should have expected a 'Listen to me' sign attached to the UAs in the first place or similar.
So, funny you mention that since:

Didn't stick at first, if you read on people had "already ruled out" morse, so with the help of a few others I eventually got more solid proof, but I digress. As a result of that one tip-off which has never been presented in the game, you now have a host of people listening closely to literally everything in the game still.

I think it's pretty extreme to try and infer anything beyond a scenario resulting in no discoveries at a particular thing as "spoon feeding" all the info straight-up. A basic game design flow is:
  • Teach your players the basic mechanics
  • Introduce structured scenarios which allow you to use those mechanics in increasingly complex ways
  • Introduce the concept of unstructured activity, using those mechanics, and perhaps others from a different pathway you may not have encountered, pushing you to start fresh with a new set of mechanics.

Running contrary to those established mechanics is outright bad design, and this is where FD screwed the pooch hard on pre-FSS exploration. The mechanic to find interesting things on the surface feature before then was to go into low orbit, look for blue circles, land, follow the SRV signals and then pinpoint them.

How did you discover Guardian Ruins or Thargoid Structures/Barnacles? Ignore that and just eyeball random locations hoping for the best. That's trash-bin mechanics. Which leads neatly to.

Not saying there is, not saying there isn't. Saying I don't know and I don't believe you can either.
If there's something in clusters, then FD need to put serious reconsideration into their game mechanics. But I trust FD to be a mature and robust development company who for the most part develop sane mechanics, and that's what I put my trust in to suggest there won't be anything in asteroid clusters anywhere.

Like you said, you much prefer to be treated like an adult. That includes not being treated like some monkey with infinite time to pore over every inch of 400 billion star systems because the game doesn't follow it's own rules, in my books.
 
A lot of players have asked for comets for a long time, even if there is no current game play associated with them, no doubt if they were in game you would also be wanting them removed because they are "useless".

If comets got put in with no mechanics or gameplay elements associated with them, I'd consider that a total waste of developer time that could be better spent elsewhere, just like the current state of many things in the game.

In the game. No gameplay elements associated.
Pareco system
No visible element either. :confused:
Just saying. :)
 
Never did it myself, but ISTR that in the days before deep core mining and multiple hotspots, the most dedicated miners would map asteroid clusters so they could go straight to the most productive rocks. I expect 3.3 made that style of mining obsolete.
Mapped mining can still be exceptionally profitable. And an asteroid cluster is a good place to practice making and using a map for beginners because there's only 6 or 12 asteroids to start with so you can't go too far wrong.

There's a cluster in the Kinesi system which has a large asteroid base inside it. I think there's a couple of other examples of that.

Raxxla is in an asteroid cluster somewhere, I'm pretty sure, to make sure no-one finds it.
 
I just went back to one to test if they had an increased chance for some uncommon asteroids with surface, fissures or even more chance to have more expensive resources. And my research told me they are just like a normal ring if you picked some 7 asteroids and flung them out to space. They don't have resources, they don't have incredible vistas, they don't have anything for players to go there and engage in gameplat of any kind. Why are they even in the game?

You talk about in game purpose for ed players.
Sadly FDev have not taken the trouble to make them useful in the game for us players.
I also think they are neglected as far as their design is concerned and and seriously underutilized by FDev in general. FDev could and should do a lot more with them, make them much more interesting.
 
Some asteroid belts have things hidden in them, a dark wheel affiliated outpost for example in lft 926. A better question would be, how many have you cared to thoroughly examine?
 
I just remembered too- I actually unlocked Selene by mining these.
CZs in asteroid belts would be so awesome. Ive never experienced that. It would make it a lot more interesting having to avoid the roids and still fighting full force

I asked Dav this in a livestream, and its a bug sadly. Over the years I've had CZs get mixed up with refugee convoys, distribution centres as well as being close to stations. FD are really missing a trick here.
 
I just remembered too- I actually unlocked Selene by mining these.


I asked Dav this in a livestream, and its a bug sadly. Over the years I've had CZs get mixed up with refugee convoys, distribution centres as well as being close to stations. FD are really missing a trick here.
Thats too bad. Its funny that the game tried to implement this on its own though. I approve of self improving games
 
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