making explorers physically return to sell data makes zero sense

mossfoot · Apr 30, 2015

Ziljan said:
This might have been mentioned already, but light travels quite slowly through the galaxy. It would take 200 years for any data signal transmission from an exploration ship to reach Sol from the edge of inhabited space. It would take 25,000 years for that same information to reach Sol from Sag A*.

Clearly we have FTL communications since we can chat to people and get their data updates via Wings. So that's not a logical in-game reasoning. Not to mention you'd never have anyone ever rescued even one star system out of populated space if you had to rely on light-speed communication.

I think my favorite in-game reasoning has to do with the bureaucracy and confirmation that the data is genuine back at a station. That makes in-game sense.

Fen Harel · Apr 30, 2015

If someone is looking for an in-game - and this canon - explanation of why long-range data transmission is unreliable, there is the case of CMDR Erimus. I'm too lazy to look up the messages, but GalNet posted the announcement of his return after being the first to cross the Galaxy - followed by a second GalNet saying the first had been a hoax.

Clearly, I think, someone at FDev wanted to make a GalNet for the intrepid CMDR Erimus and didn't realize that, at the time, he was still on the other side of the Galaxy. It was a pretty good save, though.

The point: long range data transmission can be faked. Thus we need to do it in person.

vjek · Apr 30, 2015

Idea:

You should be able to purchase a limited supply of exploration drones, which when activated/consumed returns all your data to the station you last docked at. So, all you have to do is dock there, and you can sell all that data.

This would at least allow players to remain longer in the black, without risking everything.

Fen Harel · Apr 30, 2015

vjek said:
This would at least allow players to remain longer in the black, without risking everything.

Not a bad idea, though I still think it is another attempt to solve a problem that doesn't exist.

I'm content with the way exploration is: we go out, we scan stuff, we come back.

Katejina · Apr 30, 2015

I like it the way it is. Adds risk, a higher sense of adventure and really, besides the mechanic of chatting with other players 65k ly apart, there's nothing we can do that far apart. Perhaps FD could make it so you can send data as far as your fuel tank will let you travel, lol.

Dantae Smith · May 17, 2015

bossbrigand said:
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.

You are wrong, Quantum entanglement allows data to be sent instantly. Its being researched today, back in the 21st century.

greenlantern · May 17, 2015

Dantae Smith said:
You are wrong, Quantum entanglement allows data to be sent instantly. Its being researched today, back in the 21st century.

It's getting annoying keeping up with this. bossbrigand is absolutely right.

No you cannot send information faster than c. This includes "entanglement". Why not just read about it? Yes it is being researched....does that add validity to the concept of sending information faster than light...nope.

Note entanglement is a "misnomer" if it's interpreted to mean there is some sort of physical connection between the two particles.

They share origin, in turn a certain "random" property.

PGleesonuk · May 17, 2015

The only Change I want is a "Sell All" button.........

Katejina · May 17, 2015

PGleesonuk said:
The only Change I want is a "Sell All" button.........

I'd take a sell all button. Or like a Sell pages 1 through 5 option or something at least.

Petersen · May 17, 2015

GalNet already propagates instantly to all stations, which span several hundred light years.

I'm not sure why everyone's hung up on the 'realism' of SLT communication when we've obviously somehow managed to overcome that limitation. Getting it in our ships is just a more obvious example of this.

mossfoot · May 18, 2015

Petersen said:
GalNet already propagates instantly to all stations, which span several hundred light years.

I'm not sure why everyone's hung up on the 'realism' of SLT communication when we've obviously somehow managed to overcome that limitation. Getting it in our ships is just a more obvious example of this.

chatting in wings despite being in different systems is just one such example.

Mephane · May 18, 2015

Petersen said:
GalNet already propagates instantly to all stations, which span several hundred light years.

I'm not sure why everyone's hung up on the 'realism' of SLT communication when we've obviously somehow managed to overcome that limitation. Getting it in our ships is just a more obvious example of this.

It's not a matter of STL vs FTL communication. But if you were able to simply send back your data, that would mean you could fly to the other side of the galaxy, send all your data every now and then, and then when you wish to return, self-destruct and respawn at the last station because all your data has already been sent and cashed in etc. It's also the reason why you lose all data upon ship destruction.

mossfoot · May 18, 2015

Mephane said:
It's not a matter of STL vs FTL communication. But if you were able to simply send back your data, that would mean you could fly to the other side of the galaxy, send all your data every now and then, and then when you wish to return, self-destruct and respawn at the last station because all your data has already been sent and cashed in etc. It's also the reason why you lose all data upon ship destruction.

As suggested earlier - the best in-game explanation to justify this necessary in-game mechanic is that Stellar Cartographics is one of those organizations bogged down in procedure - the require the actual ship and computer present to verify that the data collected is original and untampered. It makes good logical sense, in my opinion.

Heck, there's even in-game reasoning for this. A while back GalNet erroneously reported that Erimus had returned from the far side of the galaxy, when in fact he had only just reached it. So they worked that in that someone had intercepted his transmissions and tried to sell Stellar Cartographics a bunch of bogus data using his identity.