making explorers physically return to sell data makes zero sense

[Fen Harel]

... unless we can directly influence the 'partner' photon?

Not in any real science today. It makes for good science fiction, of course.

When you measure one of an entangled pair it will randomly assume one state (say up or down if you are measuring spin), and there is no way to control what state it collapses too. What you do know is that the other one in the pair will be the opposite state.

Thats where the spooky action at a distance comes in. Measure "a" and "b" will always assume the opposite state. But, there is no way to control what state "a" collapses to.

 

[CMDR Nightjar]

Black box - cargo 'type'? Load it up as you go, and then deposit it at UC stations ... or lose it to pirates?
Still not sure about RP mechanics for exploring ...

 

[Zplintz]

Making the explorer return to verify data makes perfect game design sense - real or imagined science now or in the future is irrelevant.

 

[Schattenbogen]

The best part of exploration : the fear of losing everything.
It give you the sensation of loneliness while in deep space, it is what you need to take in account while making your decisions.
Remove this and you remove all sensations from exploration.
No risk, no pain, no feeling. Boring.

 

[Gypsy12]

Ladies.

Please calm down. How about being able to buy for a hefty price a "Data Relay Module"?
One could simply deposit said module in the nether regions, and these pesky freeloaders would have to pay a price to use it - depending on your and the persons factional standing. A part of that money would go to the economy, the rest back to you. This would have the added benefit of evolving "Path making" throughout the galaxy. The number of hits recorded on a module would be recorded by frontier, and if proven popular, perhaps a station would be built.
It's a bit of a no brainer really.

 

[smartroad]

In one of the books (the dark wheel continuation book) there was an implication of using hyperspace to transmit through.

 

[Pilot Mark]

It's one of the most exciting aspects of exploration, those last 500ly into civilised space, seeing the first ship on the scanner for weeks/months, selecting your entry point and watching your six to avoid interdiction, knowing that any encounter could cost you hundreds of millions of Cr. It's fine the way it is.

 

[Fen Harel]

Ladies.

Please calm down. How about being able to buy for a hefty price a "Data Relay Module"?
One could simply deposit said module in the nether regions, and these pesky freeloaders would have to pay a price to use it - depending on your and the persons factional standing. A part of that money would go to the economy, the rest back to you. This would have the added benefit of evolving "Path making" throughout the galaxy. The number of hits recorded on a module would be recorded by frontier, and if proven popular, perhaps a station would be built.
It's a bit of a no brainer really.

Please calm down? Really?

As for your last statement I agree with the 'no' part of that.

I have no idea what Frontier will end up doing, obviously, but I don't see any groundswell among explorers for any sort of data transmission or black box. If anything - at least how it seems to be - most are against it.

 

[Apos]

Doesn't make sense - our Ships travel FTL, Information relays travel FTL (criminal acts, Kill-Warrant Scanner Data, in the next Update even global GALnet news viewable in the Ship).
Also you can live chat with Wing members or Friends many LY away.

Technically, it's a game-ism limitation, as there's absolutely nothing in the Gameplay itself restricting any Information not to spread near-instantly across the Galaxy.

Ships travel FTL due to warping. It still stands to test whether this is true in practice. In theory, it still has a possibility to allow it.

Kill-Warrant scanner data comes from the nearest station. So it's not exactly that far away and should be possible.

Gal-net News and kill-warrant for systems with no station do break the immersion though and we can assume that live chat is kinda off canon.

Maybe gal-net news shouldn't refresh unless you are in a system with a station.

 

[JeffRyan]

I'm not an explorer myself..but the current setup is silly. why not have "relay stations" seeded in systems, where explorers can upload and send their data? The "Star Wars" universe has a similar system. It's sort of a galactic internet. why wouldn't there be such a thing in the Elite: Dangerous universe?

/discuss

I am an explorer. And I love the come back to sell mechanism. It adds risk to the whole process.

 

[Haral]

I don't mind the trek back for many reasons noted here. Know what would make it more exciting? -- if I knew how much all that scanned data was worth as I was out exploring. Heck, I might be temped to make more trips back to populated space (and therefore increase the risk) simply to cash in a few million credits worth at a time.

 

[Nick Sticks]

I'm not an explorer myself..but the current setup is silly. why not have "relay stations" seeded in systems, where explorers can upload and send their data? The "Star Wars" universe has a similar system. It's sort of a galactic internet. why wouldn't there be such a thing in the Elite: Dangerous universe?

/discuss

You can return?
-

 

[Zueuk]

Well you would have to do this in RL so it actually does make sense.

What does not make sense however is that not only we cannot backup our discovery data on a tiny usb drive and take it with us when we are "teleported" back home after our ship destruction, but we don't even have any kind of black box to recover later...

 

[MahdDogg]

1. Check universe lore.
2. Realise you're wrong.
3. Discussion Ends.

 

[MaraJ]

I'm not an explorer myself..but the current setup is silly. why not have "relay stations" seeded in systems, where explorers can upload and send their data? The "Star Wars" universe has a similar system. It's sort of a galactic internet. why wouldn't there be such a thing in the Elite: Dangerous universe?

/discuss

There are no words.....

 

[Stelly]

1. Check universe lore.
2. Realise you're wrong.
3. Discussion Ends.

Your just wrong.

Carrier pigeons mate, they are the future!

Stelly

 

[Armour]

Kill-Warrant scanner data comes from the nearest station.

From what I understood, the KWS info comes direct from the scanned ship. Each ship therefore must have some kind of WORM memory bank that acts like a built-in snitch.

- - - Updated - - -

However, I almost agree with the OP, the game is so inconsistent with respect to comms and data transmission (some bits of info can be communicated on an interstellar scale, whilst some require physical docking), so the restrictions currently in place feel pretty arbitrary and game-y.

 

[Hootmon]

Other than video game mechanics: You can't send information faster than light. Even ships are not truly traveling FTL, they're warping space. You can't stick a frame shift drive on a radio signal. Starships warping from place to place carry information from one starport to the next.

This is correct according to game canon.

Only very limited signal packets can be sent via FTL. Anything larger needs to be couriered.

 

[Holven]

So.. you would transmit your top secret data openly by hyper-signal, interceptable and mutable by anyone... and expect to get paid? Yes, we have internet and radios... but really important data, like military data, often get transferred by armed guard and encrypted memory stick.. simply because it can't be listened in to and hacked by anyone with knowledge and an internet connection. Of course we deliver our data personally. Makes complete sense.

 

[Morbad]

Doesn't make sense - our Ships travel FTL, Information relays travel FTL (criminal acts, Kill-Warrant Scanner Data, in the next Update even global GALnet news viewable in the Ship).
Also you can live chat with Wing members or Friends many LY away.

And these are the out-of-place exceptions.

Data courier missions already don't make any sense with FTL communications.