There's been a lot of talk about how exploration needs more to do other than jump and scan, and the alien wreck found at the end of the mystery event gave me an idea.
What if you could find wrecks and ruins outside the bubble? For example, when you scan a planet, the scanner could turn up various anomalies (for example, "anomalous energy reading" or "anomalous metal concentration") that work similar to the "terraforming candidate" trait: the anomaly types are influenced by the type and conditions of the planet, they increase the value of the planet depending on what the anomaly is, and they indicate that there is a ruin, wreck, or artifact somewhere on the surface.
Ruins and wrecks could be scanned for additional data that can be sold. Ruins would work like bases instead of PoIs, permanent installations that are marked on the planetary map after you find them. Because they're a permanent part of the planet, they could even have "discovered by" tags. For example, metallic planets might tend to have abandoned mines, ice planets might have abandoned research labs or military outposts. Planets in or near a star's habitable zone might have dome cities. Planets near the star might have solar collection plants.
Wrecks and artifacts would be PoIs generated on anomalous planets, with the type depending on what kind of anomaly it is. Wrecks could be scanned for navigation data, logs, and/or technical data, where as artifacts would be cargo that can be brought back and sold.
This would create more variety and surprises with scanning, since you'd never know when an anomaly might turn up, and it would give more reasons to land on planets outside the bubble other than collecting jumponium and being a cool way to log out. Of course, if the anomaly shows up on a planet with an atmosphere it's just a bit of bonus pay (for now), but it will potentially allow us to find interesting things on airless planets.
What if you could find wrecks and ruins outside the bubble? For example, when you scan a planet, the scanner could turn up various anomalies (for example, "anomalous energy reading" or "anomalous metal concentration") that work similar to the "terraforming candidate" trait: the anomaly types are influenced by the type and conditions of the planet, they increase the value of the planet depending on what the anomaly is, and they indicate that there is a ruin, wreck, or artifact somewhere on the surface.
Ruins and wrecks could be scanned for additional data that can be sold. Ruins would work like bases instead of PoIs, permanent installations that are marked on the planetary map after you find them. Because they're a permanent part of the planet, they could even have "discovered by" tags. For example, metallic planets might tend to have abandoned mines, ice planets might have abandoned research labs or military outposts. Planets in or near a star's habitable zone might have dome cities. Planets near the star might have solar collection plants.
Wrecks and artifacts would be PoIs generated on anomalous planets, with the type depending on what kind of anomaly it is. Wrecks could be scanned for navigation data, logs, and/or technical data, where as artifacts would be cargo that can be brought back and sold.
This would create more variety and surprises with scanning, since you'd never know when an anomaly might turn up, and it would give more reasons to land on planets outside the bubble other than collecting jumponium and being a cool way to log out. Of course, if the anomaly shows up on a planet with an atmosphere it's just a bit of bonus pay (for now), but it will potentially allow us to find interesting things on airless planets.
