More Reasons To Explore

[AridFox]

HELLO!

There needs to be more reasons to explore.

The ability to discover unique materials or items might be an easy thing to implement. These are very unlikely to be found in the human bubble as any that were there have been used generations ago. You might find them in 1/100 star systems for example.

Unique Materials:
Special Alloys/Elements: Bring to engineer and get a boost to your hull or other attributes
Special Crystal/Item: Can be turned into a bobble-head on your dash, or sold for a few million dollars at a station.
Extra-Terrestrial Lifeform: A small lifeform you discover and when you bring it to a faction that factions science level is boosted up or something like that.
Encounter inter-galactic aliens: They are just passing through, but they give you a special skin or decal for your ship to show how good of an explorer you are.
Worm Holes: When you discover a wormhole you are able to travel to a random spot in the galaxy.

These are just a few ideas.

I think this area of the game needs to be expanded upon.

Thanks.

 

[Andovar]

More things to discover is always nice.
Though I'd like some more tools to help discover these things. (hint, see my sig... )

 

[VAN LORD]

+ 1 Let the galaxy will be brighter and more amazing.

 

[Lestat]

All but the wormholes sound great.

 

[anfieldmarauder]

I'm all for anything that makes Exploring more lucrative. At first that would sound a mercenary attitude, but amassing Cr is the only way (via scanning of stellar bodies) of achieving your way up the explorer ranking ladder - I'm currently 49% into the Ranger stage...and now on my way to Beagle Point, which according to some schools of thoughts say it would get me a long way toward my Elite goal. The new 2.3 update allegedly has increased the rewards for exploration data - can anyone tell me if this is indeed true? It would make for a slightly quicker trip to Beagle Point due to having to scan a litttle less - thereby also having to rely on surface (in the SRV) scanning - which would be a tricky area for me - still getting used to my new hotas - any info would be great please Cmdrs o7

 

[CMDR Heisenberg B. Damned]

Actually these are really nice ideas.

Some of the problem FDev face is how do you make something so rare it feels like an achievement finding whilst not making it almost impossible to find in a galaxy of 400 billion star systems.

That said adding some regions where certain relics, finds etc. are found more commonly would be a good way to go.

 

[AridFox]

More things to discover is always nice.
Though I'd like some more tools to help discover these things. (hint, see my sig... )

Those look AMAZING! But I wonder how much work it would be to implement. I think that's the big stumbling block to a lot of great ideas out there.

I'm all for anything that makes Exploring more lucrative. At first that would sound a mercenary attitude, but amassing Cr is the only way (via scanning of stellar bodies) of achieving your way up the explorer ranking ladder - I'm currently 49% into the Ranger stage...and now on my way to Beagle Point, which according to some schools of thoughts say it would get me a long way toward my Elite goal. The new 2.3 update allegedly has increased the rewards for exploration data - can anyone tell me if this is indeed true? It would make for a slightly quicker trip to Beagle Point due to having to scan a litttle less - thereby also having to rely on surface (in the SRV) scanning - which would be a tricky area for me - still getting used to my new hotas - any info would be great please Cmdrs o7

Yes forsure! One of the primary motivations for most people is to collect credits, and the thought of more opportunities for that in exploration has to be there. Absolutely has to. Otherwise this vast universe is just a novelty bound to wear off, and has less of an ability to entice a wider pool of gamers into the game. Sure, it is beautiful though... however, we do have access to Hubble as well over at NASA. And those who truly enjoy the beauty and are willing to play only for the beauty of the game are probably in the minority (although I hope I'm wrong).

Personally I think jumping from star to star and doing mindless scans just to collect ranking is the ad infinitum of mind repulsive boredom. I refuse to do it. So I will be getting my elite rank in combat. I will do exploration only when I can actually be excited about what there is to find, about what there is to see, and as I am still fairly new to this game I am finding more and more of that out. I have mostly been gathering credits to afford a nice array of ships, and so I have had to prioritize money generation (as anyone), and that means that exploration is not high on my list as it just seems like I can generate more money killing skimmers and collecting bounties. Plus those activities are fairly exciting and fun as well. I'm glad with the commanders, but I seriously hope the next update addresses exploration.

This actually brings me to a separate point: The game needs some kind of mandatory introductory cut scene sequence to show off the beauty of the galaxy. It saddens me deeply that they have skipped this. I think its pure laziness. There is so much awesomeness there, it needs to be flaunted. This will also set the tone of the game to pure awe of the size of the universe, as it should be.

Actually these are really nice ideas.

Some of the problem FDev face is how do you make something so rare it feels like an achievement finding whilst not making it almost impossible to find in a galaxy of 400 billion star systems.

That said adding some regions where certain relics, finds etc. are found more commonly would be a good way to go.

Thanks! Exactly. The farther you are away from the bubble the more likely it would be to encounter rare events/items. Also they could only occur on certain planets, or in certain types of systems, for example. I think there is so much possibility with what could be done in deep space. There are no stations out there! If you manage to get there, you have to get back also, to make the discovery count, to show it off to the other players! And then you could make youtube videos of you discovering that super rare thing.