The galaxy map's search feature is useful when you're looking for a specific system, but not much else. Here are some improvement ideas that I feel are really necessary if we are to find our way in the galaxy.
- The search function should not only allow you to search for star systems, but also for planets, stations, and factions. For example, right now I have two bounty vouchers for a faction called "silver partnership", and I have no idea whatsoever of the system where I got these. And beta 2 only has 500 systems, what will it be when you multiply that by a billion? After many hours of play, I can imagine having bounty vouchers from 10 different factions and not knowing where to redeem them. If I could search a faction's name, then it would be easy to know in which system(s) I can find them.
Also, if I'm looking for a specific planet but don't remember in which system it's located, as things are no I have no way of finding it.
- Searches should possibly give multiple results and tolerate mistakes. For example, it could show the 10 results closest to the search. Right now, when I search "LP98-132" I get no results ; I have to type exatly "LP 98-132" otherwise it won't work. Another example, if you try to find "Canis Majoris", you won't find anything. You need to type "vy canis majoris". It would make our searches much easier if by typing "Canis Majoris", we could get a list of several results that include these words.
- Custom parameters search. This one is less critical, but could also prove useful. While this is sort of possible using filters, it would be nice to have a way to search for the closest system which has specific criteria. For example, I could search for a system with high tech economy, affiliated with the Empire, and that has at least 5 million in population.
Maybe these features I planned, but I haven't found mention of them anywhere... The galaxy will be so big, that the internet won't be able to help you when you're looking for something that no on else has found yet, so we need a reliable and effective search function.
- The search function should not only allow you to search for star systems, but also for planets, stations, and factions. For example, right now I have two bounty vouchers for a faction called "silver partnership", and I have no idea whatsoever of the system where I got these. And beta 2 only has 500 systems, what will it be when you multiply that by a billion? After many hours of play, I can imagine having bounty vouchers from 10 different factions and not knowing where to redeem them. If I could search a faction's name, then it would be easy to know in which system(s) I can find them.
Also, if I'm looking for a specific planet but don't remember in which system it's located, as things are no I have no way of finding it.
- Searches should possibly give multiple results and tolerate mistakes. For example, it could show the 10 results closest to the search. Right now, when I search "LP98-132" I get no results ; I have to type exatly "LP 98-132" otherwise it won't work. Another example, if you try to find "Canis Majoris", you won't find anything. You need to type "vy canis majoris". It would make our searches much easier if by typing "Canis Majoris", we could get a list of several results that include these words.
- Custom parameters search. This one is less critical, but could also prove useful. While this is sort of possible using filters, it would be nice to have a way to search for the closest system which has specific criteria. For example, I could search for a system with high tech economy, affiliated with the Empire, and that has at least 5 million in population.
Maybe these features I planned, but I haven't found mention of them anywhere... The galaxy will be so big, that the internet won't be able to help you when you're looking for something that no on else has found yet, so we need a reliable and effective search function.