Less USS more time and location.

[Fia]

The USS system definitely adds to the game but it seems that the game is far to over reliant on the player just flying around to every USS until they find the one appropriate to their mission/activity. One of the better features of Frontier and Close Encounters was getting a time and place for intercepts, assassinations etc. It added so much more to the immersion and realism to have to travel somewhere and wait until the target took off or arrived at the appointed time and location. It would be great to see this back for certain types of missions. Obviously USS is more appropriate for some but should not just be used for everything as it makes missions pretty tedious and really seems like a crutch.

 

[Morlock5K]

I didn't play the originals but I agree this is a great idea, not for all missions but some mission types this would be excellent. It could even form part of a multistring mission. Start by collecting rebel transmissions which then goes onto a mission something like "After decoding the rebel transmissions we have discovered that they will be meeting up around Mars in the Sol system at approx 09:15 galactic time. We need a commander to go to this area for this time and distrupt this meeting"

Alternatives could be to stay out of scanning range and follow said rebels to their base etc etc etc

 

[Iskariot]

The USS system definitely adds to the game but it seems that the game is far to over reliant on the player just flying around to every USS until they find the one appropriate to their mission/activity. One of the better features of Frontier and Close Encounters was getting a time and place for intercepts, assassinations etc. It added so much more to the immersion and realism to have to travel somewhere and wait until the target took off or arrived at the appointed time and location. It would be great to see this back for certain types of missions. Obviously USS is more appropriate for some but should not just be used for everything as it makes missions pretty tedious and really seems like a crutch.

Agreed.
I like the USS, although they feel a bit contrived sometimes. I take a black box assignment and... hey what do you know, I stumble upon the appropriate USS with the black box in it. I hope to see a bit more sophisticated mission systems in the near future.

 

[MrVibrating]

+1

I can't even interact with the USS's - i target and fly towards them, then disengage supercruise only to find there's no sight of them...

Someone told me how to get it to work once but i forget whatever the trick is... But could it BE more clunky and unintuitive? If it needs explaining and re-explaining it's probably not a great gaming mechanic IMHO.. FE2 and classic Elite were much more immediate and player-freindly...