ANNOUNCEMENT January Update - Beta Announcement

[zimms]

What about the fact that you can't collect you power play salary?

You can, but not by using your mouse. Can confirm it worked yesterday.

 

[Six6VI]

That’s always been only after DSS probing, not after FSS scanning.

Unless it changed in a recent patch, and I missed it? (Will be very pleased if so - have been asking for it to be from FSS scanning since the early days of the 3.3 Beta! )

Ah ok, yeah I think you're right but, I'm liking the sound of the new way and still needing to probe for that.

 

[Rubbernuke]

You can, but not by using your mouse. Can confirm it worked yesterday.

Still, would be nice to have mouse support.

 

[Drelthar]

No mention of fighter lag at all, or instancing or ANY MULTIPLAYER ISSUES... is this for real??
wing beacons crashing the game? blocking being abused on the regular to crash peoples games??
Im glad the AX guys at least got some fixes but this is embarrasing. How long will it take them to realize that not being able to play with friends without something breaking horribly is killing a very dedicated portion of the playerbase?

Edit: how about cheating or the numerous exploits available?

So is your problem that they aren't fixing the specific issues you feel need priority, or that they aren't fixing everything in one patch?

This is just one update, it won't fox everything, the things they mentioned are the things they are fixing this time.

There should be more updates which fix other things in the future.

 

[nik_a777]

Game breaking? I never even noticed. I feel the need for a cryonap.

 

[Thatchinho]

Alternatively, start the FSS and scan one planet to start the generation-process. This process will take time regardless of whether you stay watching that one planet or move on to scan the others, so you can also return to it later, e.g. after all stellar objects in the system have been found, to check the finished scans.

It's a good idea in principle, but for landables the POI scan results bottleneck on the first body with vulcanism, and every other body with vulcanism just extends the bottleneck.

Effectively it means that you have to run through all the landables, wait sufficient time for every result to return, and then run through them all again. (In practicality, I do it in batches, e.g. do all the moons of a GG, wait, then rescan them all to get the POI results. It's very tedious.)

 

[Burke]

FSS: Long delay when scanning planets with geological sites

• As it currently stands, in order for the geological/biological sites to be placed on the surface, the entire stellar body must be fully generated (we then know the topography and can place sites where they will be accessible). This can take tens of seconds.
• As part of the January Update, we aim to address this with an alternative process. We have run tests on thousands of in-game planetary bodies and by using this data, we're able to extrapolate the likelihood of geological/biologic sites being present on similar stellar bodies. We then use this data and indicate if the planet is ‘Unlikely’, ‘Likely’, or ‘Very Likely’ to have a geological/biological sites.
• It is not 100% guaranteed that there will be a geological/biological site on the planetary body, but does give commanders a much faster indication of probability. This will enable commanders to quickly ascertain if the planet's worth a visit.
• As this is an alternative way to display information, we would love to hear your feedback on it to determine whether or not it is better than the current process.
• Please note: this will not affect Thargoid or Guardian sites, which will show up instantaneously.

Still wasting time with this FSS then? When everybody thought a terrible mechanic couldnt get any worse, FD has set out to prove people wrong! Already explorers are posting along the lines of "if they do ill quit" and even more explorers will be driven away from the game. Imagine if the player had been given the choice to use the old modules and systems, FD would have been able to spend their time so much more productivly instead of fiddling with this awful mechanic that is a barrier to the enjoyment of the game.

 

[Ozric]

Thanks for the update, that's great news that there's going to be a Beta so soon. I look forward to getting in a testing, I am hoping it's not going to be the only Beta? As it's only a week long and so far away from release.

That's a nice healthy amount of bugs to be looked into, but I'm sure 11 is not the full list... One issue I've always had with the voting system is that it's mainly about how many people you can get behind you to say they have the same issue. I hope that other issues are not going to be ignored just because they've not been voted on enough. For example the ones in this thread which have been there since last December. There are 2 Exploration fixes in this list (if you count screenshots as part of Exploration) I've just got together 12 myself that are among he most frustrating, they've already been left for this long and I worry that if you're only basing the ones you're going to fix on what's been voted on then they will always be left.

High resolution screenshots create tiling artifacts in bright objects

• We will implement a fix that should prevent tiling artifacts in bright objects when taking a high-resolution screenshot

I will be very grateful if this is fixed, I can't say I'm filled with confidence by your use of the word 'should' though.

FSS: Long delay when scanning planets with geological sites

• As it currently stands, in order for the geological/biological sites to be placed on the surface, the entire stellar body must be fully generated (we then know the topography and can place sites where they will be accessible). This can take tens of seconds.
• As part of the January Update, we aim to address this with an alternative process. We have run tests on thousands of in-game planetary bodies and by using this data, we're able to extrapolate the likelihood of geological/biologic sites being present on similar stellar bodies. We then use this data and indicate if the planet is ‘Unlikely’, ‘Likely’, or ‘Very Likely’ to have a geological/biological sites.
• It is not 100% guaranteed that there will be a geological/biological site on the planetary body, but does give commanders a much faster indication of probability. This will enable commanders to quickly ascertain if the planet's worth a visit.
• As this is an alternative way to display information, we would love to hear your feedback on it to determine whether or not it is better than the current process.
• Please note: this will not affect Thargoid or Guardian sites, which will show up instantaneously.

I'm very glad this is being looked at. Can I suggest that the indication is either Yes or No and you wait the one second for the initial scan to take place before displaying.

When you first scan any body, it says scanning for a second. This must be the point at which it is determining whether the body has any sites on it. If it's No then it displays None, if it's Yes then it goes on to do the generation. I'm sure everyone would be happy to wait for that one second to get a definitive answer.

On a side note very nice picture, quite interesting, doesn't really look like those Scouts have been shot to me...

Spoiler

I wonder if it's a hint that around Christmas the story is going to turn into AEGIS suggesting use of a mutated strain of the Mycoid virus in retaliation for the Thargoids attacks. Possibly using the recent outbreak as a base for it.

 

[CMDR John Luke Paperbone]

Still wasting time with this FSS then? When everybody thought a terrible mechanic couldnt get any worse, FD has set out to prove people wrong!

For what it's worth, i like the actual FSS. And i remember at least one thread about it, a couple of months ago. There was no consensus. Some wanted the old system. Some liked the new more.

 

[Viajero]

And we get...



Yeah that's real game breaking stuff right there.....

Not sure but I read that as “in addition to”.

 

[CMDR John Luke Paperbone]

FSS: Long delay when scanning planets with geological sites

• As it currently stands, in order for the geological/biological sites to be placed on the surface, the entire stellar body must be fully generated (we then know the topography and can place sites where they will be accessible). This can take tens of seconds.
• As part of the January Update, we aim to address this with an alternative process. We have run tests on thousands of in-game planetary bodies and by using this data, we're able to extrapolate the likelihood of geological/biologic sites being present on similar stellar bodies. We then use this data and indicate if the planet is ‘Unlikely’, ‘Likely’, or ‘Very Likely’ to have a geological/biological sites.
• It is not 100% guaranteed that there will be a geological/biological site on the planetary body, but does give commanders a much faster indication of probability. This will enable commanders to quickly ascertain if the planet's worth a visit.
• As this is an alternative way to display information, we would love to hear your feedback on it to determine whether or not it is better than the current process.
• Please note: this will not affect Thargoid or Guardian sites, which will show up instantaneously.

I'm ok with FDEV idea. If possible, i'd like to have "‘Unlikely’, ‘Likely’, or ‘Very Likely" for geological AND ANOTHER ONE for biological.

And if possible, once the scan is finished, it would be really nice to have in icon placed in the left panel that shows that probability for that body, color coded maybe ? Scales of blues for geological and scales of yellow for bio, maybe.

 

[Allcrowsareblack]

Thanks Guys! That’s quite a list!
Looking forward to the possibility of betas being rolled out to consoles in the (I hope near) future o7

 

[Burke]

There was no consensus. Some wanted the old system. Some liked the new more.

This is the entire point of suggesting they keep everybody happy not one group at the expense of the other. Still im sure FD know what they are doing


Edit: could i suggest somewhat likely and not very likely aswell

 

[rootsrat]

FSS Scanner Change

The proposed solution for the FSS Scanner taking a long time potentially could make a worse user experience if the probabilities give too many false positives for bio sites. Leading to time wasted mapping bodies that have no sites.

I have been working on EDMC plugins that use the FSS journal events and have observed that the journal event is generated with a flag for volcanism almost immediately. This means that prescence of volcanism could be displayed immediately ( but not the count of sites ) Indeed the EDMC canonn plugin displays an Icon to show volcanism as soon as the scan starts and long before the scan has completed.

My proposal is that you simply do away with the count of signals on the FSS scan.

90% of the time only geological signals are present so and we know you could display the presence immediately without a count. This would massively improve scan times even if you continues the full scans for other types.

Bio sites and other sites generally scan quicker so if you simply displayed Biological without the count when the first site is resolved then I think that would be acceptable. The fact that the scan was taking longer would actually indicate that there might be something worth sticking around for and the wait would not be as annoying as it is now

Excellent suggestion!

 

[Rat Catcher]

This is the entire point of suggesting they keep everybody happy not one group at the expense of the other. Still im sure FD know what they are doing


Edit: could i suggest somewhat likely and not very likely aswell

But they couldn't keep everybody happy as it would involve open only with PvE flags or no PvE at all or no open at all, multiple ways of scanning for bodies / full system map/ black blob system map / map built by scanning... You are smart enough to see where I'm going

There is no way for FDev to cater for everyone, we just have to 'put up' with whatever thay throw our way or just go do something else...

I don't wait 'tens of seconds' to resolve Geo POI's - so the proposed change will negatively affect my game, but others do have the issue...

Grin and bear it, all we can do really

 

[Burke]

Grin and bear it, all we can do really

Yeah i guess. Altho i cant help feeling that positive changes would be the better path to take. Im just wondering, do you not wait "tens of seconds" cause your system is fast or cause you simply dont care what is there?

 

[Globusdiablo]

Has anything been done about the instancing issues, soft crashes, lag and disconnects in MultiCrew? Is it still not possible for MultiCrew members to see personal livery in the ships they visit?

 

[LifesAJourney]

As this is an alternative way to display information, we would love to hear your feedback on it to determine whether or not it is better than the current process.

I think there is a solution which might be both better for explorers and easier to implement. Please take the following idea into consideration: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...hanges-in-the-next-update.530539/post-8156169 (and the next post).

Except for scanning times, it would also solve issue of not having info about bio sites available outside the FSS screen.

 

[Rat Catcher]

Yeah i guess. Altho i cant help feeling that positive changes would be the better path to take. Im just wondering, do you not wait "tens of seconds" cause your system is fast or cause you simply dont care what is there?

My PC is a bit quick, framerate on the FSS screen is 300+ (normal screens a little over 100) so takes a sniff over 6 seconds to scan. In VR (80FPS) scan time is nearer 20 seconds. So waiting for completion isn't a chore in pancake - but noticed very much so in VR!

I'm in complete agreement about positive changes, but again we have way too many opinions on what would be positive! (you know I'm not being too facetious - over the last couple of weeks, throughout the forum, there have been a few 'positive' changes suggested in favour of one playstyle or another... )

 

[ebbrell]

I just hope beta window long enough to fix and retest