Most probably an unpopular opinion.

Threeofseven

Threeofseven
At first I was really excited about the new exploration mechanics but after going on DW2, I’ve discovered there is very little to actually find. I started from the Formidine Rift so I’ve traveled around 100k ly to Beagle Point and in that time I’ve found zero unexpected POIs.

Only predictable things like pumpkins around O stars and bark in Nebulas. So basically it seems there is little to find and the DDS only helps you get your name on things faster. Sure things should be rare, but not so rare you can travel across the galaxy and never come across anything. It was also lazy to copy paste the same bio life 100k ly apart.

Now I don’t really like the new system, it feels like they have succeeded in turning exploring into a grind by requiring use of the DDS to even see what, otherwise normal, planets are in the system. They should have left the honk the way it was and added the probes and orray map IMO.

I know most people are probably going to disagree with me.
 

Interstellar Overdrive

I
Yeah, I hear you. I made many many jumps in my relatively tiny jump range combat ship to Beagle Point and did not find a lot of interesting POIs outside Inner Orion Spur. They appear to be super rare.
 

Dommarraa

Dommarraa
Distance is irrelevant.
That's about 2500 systems scanned which could be done in about 48 hours.
For most games, 48 hours is a lot, but not for this game. I have exceeded 6 months of game time, and others have WAY more.

What's your expected time between 'unique' experiences? Unless that number is very high, unique would be common.
 

GreyAreaUK

GreyAreaUK
Threeofseven said:
At first I was really excited about the new exploration mechanics but after going on DW2, I’ve discovered there is very little to actually find. I started from the Formidine Rift so I’ve traveled around 100k ly to Beagle Point and in that time I’ve found zero unexpected POIs.

Only predictable things like pumpkins around O stars and bark in Nebulas. So basically it seems there is little to find and the DDS only helps you get your name on things faster. Sure things should be rare, but not so rare you can travel across the galaxy and never come across anything. It was also lazy to copy paste the same bio life 100k ly apart.

Now I don’t really like the new system, it feels like they have succeeded in turning exploring into a grind by requiring use of the DDS to even see what, otherwise normal, planets are in the system. They should have left the honk the way it was and added the probes and orray map IMO.

I know most people are probably going to disagree with me.
Click to expand...
I agree with a lot of that. They've given us a pretty good method of finding stuff. Now we just need more stuff to find.

Edit: to be clear, I mean variety of stuff, not quantity.
 
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Crimson Kaim

Crimson Kaim
Threeofseven said:
At first I was really excited about the new exploration mechanics but after going on DW2, I’ve discovered there is very little to actually find. I started from the Formidine Rift so I’ve traveled around 100k ly to Beagle Point and in that time I’ve found zero unexpected POIs.

Only predictable things like pumpkins around O stars and bark in Nebulas. So basically it seems there is little to find and the DDS only helps you get your name on things faster. Sure things should be rare, but not so rare you can travel across the galaxy and never come across anything. It was also lazy to copy paste the same bio life 100k ly apart.

Now I don’t really like the new system, it feels like they have succeeded in turning exploring into a grind by requiring use of the DDS to even see what, otherwise normal, planets are in the system. They should have left the honk the way it was and added the probes and orray map IMO.

I know most people are probably going to disagree with me.
Click to expand...

You know, I originally started the game to become an explorer and treasure hunter. But for this very reason I didn't and became a PvPer. That hasn't changed until today. Every attempt to do an expedition was aborted after 2-3k LY max. due to the sheer nothingness.
NMS offers a little more content to find, however, that get's repetetive too.
The most lucrative thing you can find are stellar objects and that is only credits which are not worth anything today.
Which comes to the conclusion that exploring is only a screenshot generator. There's nothing more to it.
 

Valorin

Valorin
Threeofseven said:
At first I was really excited about the new exploration mechanics but after going on DW2, I’ve discovered there is very little to actually find. I started from the Formidine Rift so I’ve traveled around 100k ly to Beagle Point and in that time I’ve found zero unexpected POIs.

Only predictable things like pumpkins around O stars and bark in Nebulas. So basically it seems there is little to find and the DDS only helps you get your name on things faster. Sure things should be rare, but not so rare you can travel across the galaxy and never come across anything. It was also lazy to copy paste the same bio life 100k ly apart.

Now I don’t really like the new system, it feels like they have succeeded in turning exploring into a grind by requiring use of the DDS to even see what, otherwise normal, planets are in the system. They should have left the honk the way it was and added the probes and orray map IMO.

I know most people are probably going to disagree with me.
Click to expand...
I think the new system is fine, and the rarity of special stuff, like life forms is also fine. What's completely missing in my opinion is more common natural phenomena like fresh meteorite impact sites, accretion disks and other things that actually are and happen in space and are also scientifically significant. More variety among the things we have would also be great and make an exploration trip more worthwhile.
I mean, those strange life forms and lagrange clouds are fancy, but somehow there is a lot of stuff missing that makes space interesting.

And yeah, after some time out there don't you just start hating bark mounds with a passion?
 

babelfisch

babelfisch
How many POIs are enough?
I guess there are currently 50-100 different POIs (stellar and surface), I don't know the exact number.
If you are handcrafting them the amount of possible POIs is limited by required effort and time. I guess once we have access to atmospheric planets and earth likes that number could go up to 500-1000, but there would still be a lot of copy and paste, creating 1000 different POIs sounds like a lot of effort.
Even with such a high number of POIs it's still very unlikely that you are going to discover anything first, simply because there are so many people exploring.
The alternative would be to generate POIs procedurally. Would that solve the issue though?
You could easily have 10.000-500.000 different POIs but unless you want to make things look silly (NMS) they would all be very similar to each other. You could get some first discovered tags, but ultimately they would be mostly meaningless because you would stop caring after your 20th first discovered tag similar to how people don't care about 400 billion star systems.
 

Bigmaec

Bigmaec
I agree there is not much to explore.
There is lots of stuff to paint your name on, but real new things - nope.
Also I'm a bit sad about making the Codex another thing to paint your name on and not much more.
I disagree on the DS though, I like that you have to do a bit now for finding things. The old honk was terrible because you could
find good stuff via comparison of third party page pictures (look, a water world, look a type 3 gas giant...)
 

Maro-Val

Maro-Val
Me and others were talking about this even before the FSS went live. We needed many new and exciting stuff to discover, that don't get old in a couple of months.
Now after some months what's left, is the extra amount of time you need to fully see a system with that blob find/zoom simulator that kills your soul.
 

Atreyeu

Atreyeu
Threeofseven said:
At first I was really excited about the new exploration mechanics but after going on DW2, I’ve discovered there is very little to actually find. I started from the Formidine Rift so I’ve traveled around 100k ly to Beagle Point and in that time I’ve found zero unexpected POIs.

Only predictable things like pumpkins around O stars and bark in Nebulas. So basically it seems there is little to find and the DDS only helps you get your name on things faster. Sure things should be rare, but not so rare you can travel across the galaxy and never come across anything. It was also lazy to copy paste the same bio life 100k ly apart.

Now I don’t really like the new system, it feels like they have succeeded in turning exploring into a grind by requiring use of the DDS to even see what, otherwise normal, planets are in the system. They should have left the honk the way it was and added the probes and orray map IMO.

I know most people are probably going to disagree with me.
Click to expand...
This isn't so much about the mechanics of exploration as it is about the rarity of actual findings while exploring. Should you have a satisfying amount of POI's and "interesting" things to find along the way would you be happy?

The way I see it, the current amount of interesting items in ED is closer to reality than it is for satisfaction of a player. The human race has managed to find a pretty small amount of POI's and interesting things out in space so far considering the size of it. I can imagine if we could fly around in space, we'd be in a similar situation of finding it fairly "empty" in regards to interesting finds.
 

JesusRocks1988

JesusRocks1988
I disagree about bringing the honk back. Exploration could already be a grind with the previous mechanics, it's just a slightly more involved grind now.

I do, however, agree with you about the discoveries. I have only found about three Lagrange clouds of my own during Distant Worlds 2, all of which were before I reached SagA*, all of which had the same lifeforms in, and all of which were the same colour - both the lifeforms and the clouds themselves - and I found absolutely nothing new between that and beagle point. I've never found my own lifeforms on planetary surfaces either.

I've seen a few bits of the new stuff, but only because I decided to follow someone else's trail from the codex
 

thistle

T
GreyAreaUK said:
I agree with a lot of that. They've given us a pretty good method of finding stuff. Now we just need more stuff to find.

Edit: to be clear, I mean variety of stuff, not quantity.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I think the main problem is variety of things to find, it should really be gradually fed in with more. And use the "rumoured" codex mechanic perhaps to suggest theyve seeded something else in.
 

babelfisch

babelfisch
Maro-Val said:
Me and others were talking about this even before the FSS went live. We needed many new and exciting stuff to discover, that don't get old in a couple of months.
Now after some months what's left, is the extra amount of time you need to fully see a system with that blob find/zoom simulator that kills your soul.
Click to expand...
Never ask for exciting stuff again. :D
 

willisit

willisit
On the one hand, the Galaxy can be sooo pretty; and on the other, in reality, most systems are probably really really empty. I'm about 20k from home, on my way back from Colonia after trip around the Rift and I've found a lot of nothing. A very pretty nothing, and as I say, about what i'd expect... now, if the earth likes were landable, maybe there'd be more? Maybe. Kinda...
 

Guest193293

G
Nah, it's fine as it is, and actually it should even be rarer because the more it's rare the more it's satisfying and unique to find, it really makes you appreciate the moment; and beside it's a simulation of the Milky Way, not a theme park. Concerning the variety, I'm all for it.
 
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