It would be nice to have a true exploration Community goal, not just a road to riches Community goal.

[DemiserofD]

We've had a scarce handful of exploration Community goals over the past few years, but they all fall into the same problem; it's almost universally better to take a road to riches approach, scanning planets or whatever else that have already been discovered, and exploring almost universally just inside the bubble!

That's not really exploration. Honestly, it's more like the opposite of exploration.

I understand that if you want people to participate, you do need to make the whole thing accessible, which is why I have an idea for how things could work.

First things first, have the whole thing be hosted from a mega ship, located somewhere near the Galactic core. The community goal should last much longer than normal, something like a month, to give players the proper time to participate. Exploration involves long journeys, and if you have to do it all in a week, you are not going to want to leave the local area.

Next, have a way to get to the community goal, even for players who aren't perhaps normally explorers. I would have a bi-weekly secondary mega ship jumping in and out of the community goal system from the bubble, allowing people to get there or leave if they want to. It would still be a fairly significant commitment, but at least you wouldn't be asking them to travel thousands of light years just to get started.

I feel like that would strike a nice balanced compromise, being actual exploration, but keeping things accessible to the average player.

 

[aRJay]

The trouble is unless you have some way of ensuring road to riches type data not counting people will just do what they do now and then catch the ferry to hand in the data.

Now if they only counted first discovery data that would be real exploration, with the added jeopardy of someone ‘stealing’ your data by handing in early.

 

[DemiserofD]

The trouble is unless you have some way of ensuring road to riches type data not counting people will just do what they do now and then catch the ferry to hand in the data.

Now if they only counted first discovery data that would be real exploration, with the added jeopardy of someone ‘stealing’ your data by handing in early.

That's a good idea. Honestly, I doubt there would even be much frustration of multiple people getting the same things, because the core is so dense, your chances of running across anything that has already been discovered would be fairly low.

 

[CMDR Saigon]

Would love to see a long distance CG combining exploration and vast distance hauling...say build a small outpost somewhere on the far reaches of the Perseus or Outer Arm.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

There used to be CGs where you could hand in exploration data, but the number of CG "units" you scored depended on the numbers of ammonia worlds, Earthlikes etc. you had data on, according to the rules of the individual CG. The ammonia worlds one was Thargoid related back in the early days, and I think the ELWs one was run by Sirius when they were looking to colonise new systems.

The best thing was that first discoveries did not matter, as long as the data you handed in was new to you.

Would love to see a long distance CG combining exploration and vast distance hauling...say build a small outpost somewhere on the far reaches of the Perseus or Outer Arm.

The Colonia Bridge megaship network and Explorers Anchorage projects were all based on CGs if I remember. Mostly hauling stuff for the former, mostly exploration for the latter I think. I remember making obscene amounts of credits on the Colonia Bridge CGs

 

[forbiddenlake]

There used to be CGs where you could hand in exploration data, but the number of CG "units" you scored depended on the numbers of ammonia worlds, Earthlikes etc. you had data on, according to the rules of the individual CG. The ammonia worlds one was Thargoid related back in the early days, and I think the ELWs one was run by Sirius when they were looking to colonise new systems.

The best thing was that first discoveries did not matter, as long as the data you handed in was new to you.

Yes, that's what Demiser doesn't want. Those CGs just turned in to a road to riches fest.

 

[BDelacroix]

I particularly enjoy the NMS expeditions. Varied enough to not be dull. Not sure the infrastructure of ED is set up for anything similar.

 

[Untilting]

Have only been playing a couple of years, don't think I've been on a real exploration CG, just the aforementioned Thargoid one where prediscovered ammonia worlds counted the same.

Yeah, a CG where only the exploration first discovery bonuses counted might be fun. I know these pay peanuts, but the tiers could be set appropriately.

Regarding accessibility, were you envisaging secondary megaships in the Bubble and the CG system instantly swapping places as part of the Thursday tick, similar to how the hospital ships were moved, except with a bazillion ly range (might get some grumbling about lore/fast travel)? Or getting there slowly in 500ly jumps, like some sort of automated FCOC service?

 

[DemiserofD]

Have only been playing a couple of years, don't think I've been on a real exploration CG, just the aforementioned Thargoid one where prediscovered ammonia worlds counted the same.

Yeah, a CG where only the exploration first discovery bonuses counted might be fun. I know these pay peanuts, but the tiers could be set appropriately.

Regarding accessibility, were you envisaging secondary megaships in the Bubble and the CG system instantly swapping places as part of the Thursday tick, similar to how the hospital ships were moved, except with a bazillion ly range (might get some grumbling about lore/fast travel)? Or getting there slowly in 500ly jumps, like some sort of automated FCOC service?

I'm not 100% sure but I'm pretty sure that megaships have a lot longer range than fleet carriers and the like. Jacques was planning on jumping all the way to Beagle Point in one move, after all - though to be fair, that was a station, not a megaship.

Still, I'd buy it happening. Likely frightfully expensive, but every so often and with enough incentive I could see it.

 

[CMDR Saigon]

There used to be CGs where you could hand in exploration data, but the number of CG "units" you scored depended on the numbers of ammonia worlds, Earthlikes etc. you had data on, according to the rules of the individual CG. The ammonia worlds one was Thargoid related back in the early days, and I think the ELWs one was run by Sirius when they were looking to colonise new systems.

The best thing was that first discoveries did not matter, as long as the data you handed in was new to you.



The Colonia Bridge megaship network and Explorers Anchorage projects were all based on CGs if I remember. Mostly hauling stuff for the former, mostly exploration for the latter I think. I remember making obscene amounts of credits on the Colonia Bridge CGs

Indeed CMDR Z, how are you brother? Yeah, we haven't had these types of CGs in a long time.