Making Exploring More Fun

[maudibe]

Reading a recent BBC item regarding the latest Mercury orbiters showed some earlier scans of the surface:

So, a great idea would be that when we close surface scan a planetary body we get an image as well as significant details. The image could be generated from a mini render of the planet being scanned (?), so each one is relevant to the body, and unique. This info could be displayed top left in a small box where the message section is.

Anybody else thinks this would be a sweet idea for more immersive exploration?

 

[Cadfael]

Would be cool it it also would suggest area's of interest on that planet.

Normally you just scan and continue, you really have to spent a lot of time if you want to fly over the whole planet so see if there are interesting canyons or geysers etc.

 

[maudibe]

Yes, exactly... this could be 'special areas' that are part of the game regarding aliens, relics, etc. etc (i.e. hand written). or more general stuff like canyons, craters, mountains that are generated from the procedural data. (just trying to think aloud how this could be actually achieved for all those billions of planets!).

 

[NW3]

Anybody else thinks this would be a sweet idea for more immersive exploration?

Yes, explorers have been asking for scanners to do stuff like this for a long time now.

Would be cool it it also would suggest area's of interest on that planet.

Normally you just scan and continue, you really have to spent a lot of time if you want to fly over the whole planet so see if there are interesting canyons or geysers etc.

Yes, it would be very cool. I'd love to see scanners like this in the game.

Yes, exactly... this could be 'special areas' that are part of the game regarding aliens, relics, etc. etc (i.e. hand written). or more general stuff like canyons, craters, mountains that are generated from the procedural data. (just trying to think aloud how this could be actually achieved for all those billions of planets!).

As a programmers (with game development experience), I'd suggest...

• Having multiple scanner modes, lenses, wavelength filters, etc., which would make certain features more visible.
  • For example, a thermal scanner which creates a heat map, which highlights places where geysers might be found.
  • Another scanner might highlight areas of electromagnetic energy, which might highlight crash sites or alien technology.
  • A scanner to locate radioactivity could locate deposits of uranium or alien structures.
• I'd seed the planetary points-of-interest with an unchanging value (like the planet name) so that POIs are persistently found in the same places. This is similar to real persistence, but much easier for FD, given the current code base.

 

[maudibe]

Played an extended session yesterday - and another thought along the lines of exploration was::::: Probes.

It would be good to have probes that we can fire towards a distant sun (in a binary system for example) that would gather data remotely and forward it to the ship. ~These probes could be bought in packs (expensive perhaps) that fit into the hanger bay and can be launched via the system map. Capable of performing detailed surface scans.

Surely this technology is available?

Also of course, these probes could be destroyed or stolen. Advanced probes could carry warheads for self defence. The possibilities are many!

 

[Horten75]

As a programmers (with game development experience), I'd suggest...

• Having multiple scanner modes, lenses, wavelength filters, etc., which would make certain features more visible.
  • For example, a thermal scanner which creates a heat map, which highlights places where geysers might be found.
  • Another scanner might highlight areas of electromagnetic energy, which might highlight crash sites or alien technology.
  • A scanner to locate radioactivity could locate deposits of uranium or alien structures.
• I'd seed the planetary points-of-interest with an unchanging value (like the planet name) so that POIs are persistently found in the same places. This is similar to real persistence, but much easier for FD, given the current code base.

That would be so cool and useful! Frontier please make this happen, exploration needs some love too...

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

The HUD is capable of drawing basic lines, such as orbit lines.

So in theory, it could also overlay a planetary refrence grid when a planet is targeted. (Disabled via functions tab).

So that'd help speed up planetary navigation by itself.

On top of that, you can also use the DSS, or other new module, to begin scanning when within a certain range.

If anything shows up, that grid(or grids) are highlighted. Fly in closer to change the resolution of the grids over a hit, and then scan again, to narrow down what your ships is detecting.
Rinse and repeat until you've got the area down to a few 1kms.

Or something.

 

[maudibe]

Great ideas guys.

FD - I presume you do read these.... please consider some of this. Some of it I'm sure could be reasonably easy to implement without actually generating new data that doesn't already exist in the background?

Keep it coming folks....

 

[Cadfael]

They already had probes in the Star Trek series

Although that might also influence the gameplay massively. Now people really need to make an effort to tag distant bodies with their name.

 

[Cadfael]

• Having multiple scanner modes, lenses, wavelength filters, etc., which would make certain features more visible.
  • For example, a thermal scanner which creates a heat map, which highlights places where geysers might be found.
  • Another scanner might highlight areas of electromagnetic energy, which might highlight crash sites or alien technology.
  • A scanner to locate radioactivity could locate deposits of uranium or alien structures.
• I'd seed the planetary points-of-interest with an unchanging value (like the planet name) so that POIs are persistently found in the same places. This is similar to real persistence, but much easier for FD, given the current code base.

I think it should be part of the detailed surface scanner. Maybe having those functions added by an engineer? Each mod needing different materials, but it should be stackable then.
This way it would become more expanding the functions of your DSS.

 

[NutWrench]

I'd love to see ship scanners that can scan a locked target that isn't directly in from of you.
Perhaps the scan could take much longer or the scanner could require more power as a trade-off.

 

[Konnivar]

I'd love to see ship scanners that can scan a locked target that isn't directly in from of you.
Perhaps the scan could take much longer or the scanner could require more power as a trade-off.

How about letting a "gunner" go into gunner view while in SC to scan a target in any direction; that way multicrew would be useful for exploration. Pay the multicrew member in a similar way to how I proposed payment for multicrew miners: they receive a portion of a scanned planet's value based on their exploration rank (and maybe their name paired with the helm's when the helm turns in the exploration data).

 

[space voyager]

I sure hope somebody at FDev keeps track of all the explo suggestion threads... Great ideas in this one, too!