Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Developpers,
NB : I know this is a huge wall of text. But I'm not sorry ; it took me over 10 hours to gather my thoughts and lay them down here. Read not if you have patience not. I would suggest, however, that it's at least worth a look.
I'll wholeheartedly admit that the following suggestions imply complex mechanics that are all the more difficult to implement in a procedural environment. I've tried to lay them down clearly enough, but clear or not, they represent a lot of work.
However, in my opinion, implementing them would not be harder than developing entirely new aspects to the game. And right now, if I may ever-so-slightly criticize this game's development, Elite does not seem to lack new mechanics as much as it needs the current ones to be made deeper (except for combat, combat rocks).
I've been exploring for a while now, reflecting on the exploration profession along the way, and I've come up with various ideas which I think might make exploration and mining more interersting. Some of those suggestions include possible new SRVs and my take on an "Endgame" explorer vessel, but I urge you to comment on more than just those (I've noted in the past that suggestions about ships tend to accaparate all the attention in a post, even if there are other matters to attend to). A new ship is pointless if you have no new mechanics to play with it. Also, you'll notice I have somewhat made a blend of exploration and mining in a single meta-profession. Some may totally dislike my position (if they hate one or the other), but I sternly believe that mixing them together would be a great way to add depth to both. SO...
POLL : After reading the following 31 suggestions, do you believe they would 1 ) Fix some of the current problems, 2 ) Add more depth to the game and 3 ) would make the game more enjoyable and less grindy.
Summary :
Menu Upgrades :
1 ) Ship menu displays exploration data and payout expected.
2 ) New Galaxy Map Filters : Undiscovered.
3 ) New Galaxy Map Filters : Partially Scanned.
4 ) Ability to select any point on a planetary map and mark it as a destination/bookmark.
5 ) Ability to mark current position of ship in space or SRV on planetary surface as a destination/bookmark.
Procedural Planets Upgrades :
6 ) Planets contain minerals and metals as well as materials.
7 ) Some areas on planetary bodies contain more of a certain material than others.
Detailed Surface Scanner Upgrades :
8 ) The Detailed Surface Scanner has 5 ranks that show an increasing amount of data and provide proportionally better rewards.
SRV Scanner Upgrades :
9 ) All SRV types have the option to filter what the scanner shows them.
Planetary mining :
10 ) Prospection on a planet's surface.
11 ) Extraction - Mechanics, Mining Beacons, Surface Mining Lasers and Condensating Refineries.
12 ) New Surface Mining Vehicle - SMV.
13 ) New Surface Flying Vehicle - Dragonfly SRV.
Asteroid mining :
14 ) Asteroid Composition Map.
15 ) New utility mount - Asteroid Scanner.
16 ) Prospection in an asteroid belt - Prospector Limpet additional use.
17 ) Extraction in an asteroid belt.
New Exploration Mechanics :
18 ) Planetary Composition Sample.
19 ) Ring Composition Analysis Report.
20 ) Mining Beacon Coordinates.
21 ) Full System Scan.
22 ) Regional Scan.
New Exploration and prospection Missions :
23 ) New Exploration Missions.
24 ) New Mining Prospection Missions.
25 ) Upcoming "Guardians" Exploration Missions.
New Exploration Ship :
26 ) The Observer-Class Deep Space Explorer.
Synthesis mechanics :
27 ) Synthesis expanded - Material crafting - new internal : Fabricators.
28 ) Synthesis expanded - Material crafting - new internal : Fusion Forge.
29 ) Synthesis expanded - Limpets.
Requests and favors mechanics :
30 ) Requests and favors system.
31 ) Requests and favors system with Engineers.
The Meat of the Matter :
Menu Upgrades :
1 ) Ship menu displays exploration data and payout expected :
The same type of information available in the Universal Cartographics section of a station's interface (system scan data and payout) should be available either in the F3 bottom menu next to the SRV options (because it is rather barren for the moment) or in the F4 right menu Inventory section (somewhere beneath scan data), where its presence would make more sense but would crowd the interface a bit more if this were to be implemented alone. I have, however, more to propose onto that subject later and I think it would altogether fit better in the bottom F3 menu.
Unless a player truly wishes to spend weeks or months alone in the Deep Black - an understandable compulsion -, it is rather difficult for one to determine what would constitute a proper length for a space trek. Especially now that exploration data can be obtained to rank up with engineers, the potential payout of an exploration bout should be available to pilots even while they are on the road. To some, that would provide an interesting incentive. To others, it would add an additional feeling of progression. Even better, knowing just how much you stand to gain if you get back safely after a long trip might just make that long trip back home much more thrilling.
More importantly - It would also come in handy when in conjunction with some of my other propositions.
2 ) New Galaxy Map Filters : Undiscovered :
A Self-explanatory title to a probably conflictual suggestion.
Not Knowing wether or not a system has been discovered by another player unless one opens its System Map, either from afar by looking at the GalMap or from inside the system as one explores... Adds nothing to the enjoyment of the game. But it turns out that it is actually known. The problem does not lie there. The problem lies in One's unability to efficiently avoid pockets of discovered systems while exploring.
Factually, the ship's computer knows already if someone has discovered this or that system. That's why, as an explorer opens the system view map while in a system, the computer tells him it's already been scanned by one CMDR BinThereDoneThatGoTheTShirt.
Factually, the lack of an "Undiscovered" GalMap filter keeps explorers from defining exploration routes entirely composed of undiscovered systems. Some players will say this makes One's First true discovery more special, a nice little surprise. This seems to me a rather weak argument as anyone who invests themselves ever-so-slightly in the exploration buisness will very - very! - quickly outgrow that feeling of surprise. Eventually, all that remains is the slight annoyance of finding an already discovered system with only the terraformable and metal-rich planets mapped out in the middle of nowhere... Much more interesting is the feeling of discovering an habitable planet, a pulsar or a black hole. Those are the lifeblood and fuel of explorers. And even amongst undiscovered systems, they are remarkably rare.
An "Undiscovered" GalMap filter would alleviate that burden and make exploration itself overall a bit more rewarding and fun. It is also brutally logical that a function like this should be available in a "real" universe occupied by a real spacefaring civilisation. Space-Sim and Game-Wise, I suggest this option would do a lot more good than harm. No-one stands to suffer from this - I think - rather feasible feature.
3 ) New Galaxy Map Filters : Partially Scanned :
This suggestion is made exactly in the same spirit as the previous, however it would only be necessary - or desirable - if another suggestion would be implemented. Basically, in the name of both Science and expansionist practicality, cherry-picking only the interesting planets in a system to do a Detailed Surface Scan leaves the would-be settlers, miners, cartographers or military strategists who buy exploration data in the undesirable position of not knowing much about what usually amounts to a big chunk of their chosen system.
In conjunction with other, yet-to-be-presented mechanics, this option would allow players to voluntarily complete the exploration data of a system by using a Detailed surface scanner on all of its remaining bodies, and go for an additional bonus.
4 ) Ability to select any point on a planetary map and mark it as a destination/bookmark :
Also self-explanatory, this suggestion will also prove to be of greater interest when we'll arrive to actual game mechanics suggestions. I'm just starting with the simplest.
This option would allow the player to select any point on a planet's 3d spherical menu map (the one which shows the settlements' positions) and mark them as a selected/destination/bookmarked position coordinates as one already does with the settlements in question.
It would become handy in a game where the Planet Map gave, in certain circumstances, information on the possible location of certain points of interests that would not necessarily be related to quests (those already generate such surface coordinates - and dynamic ones at that, so I trust the Devs can implement this).
The only problematic part here would be to generate spacial coordinates from the menu to the system rather than the usual opposite, but since they wouldn't be related to anything physical or persistent and would only really exist for the user, without generating any content it shouldn't be too much of a hellspawned problem.
5 ) Ability to mark current position of ship in space or SRV on planetary surface as a destination/bookmark :
This one ties more into the here and now, althought it is essentially tied to the previous one and might serve a similar purpose.
Often, a player finds a Point of interest filled with cargo which would require a lot of back-and-forth time to gather entirely. More often than not, the ship's auto-pilot will choose to land everywhere but in the flat, perfect patch of ground that's just beside the cargo in question. One wishes one could go back to the ship, then fly closer and make the whole process much faster. Sadly, doing this often causes one to lose track of the POI's position if the ship landed far away.
This option would allow a player to mark his own position so as to be ble to come back quickly and easily - since ship scanners can't be bothered, apparently...
Procedural Planets Upgrades :
6 ) Planets now contain minerals and metals as well as materials :
This one ties in with the whole mining aspect of the game. Indeed, some automated extraction farms can be found on the surface and eventually plundered, but little is there for an honest space entrepreneur. Essentially, it calls for nodes of both minerals and metals to be available on the surface of planetary bodies , just as Materials are present, too. Just as it is with materials, each planetary body should have a different set of minerals and metals available, randomly chosen from its composition type.
Essentially, the metals and minerals would only be available as veins, which would require a specialized, slower SRV or a ship with surface mining equipment. Veins of materials would also be present on the surface and mineable, but there would be no metal or mineral nodes, making SRV material farming unhindered by a potential dilution in other, less interesting commodities.
Otherwise, putting all commodities in nodes would annoy the hell out of explorers and synthesis/engineer material seekers.
7 ) Some areas on planetary bodies contain more of a certain material than others :
A form of recognizable shaded surface distribution instead of pure randomness.
Thought how players could get information pertaining to mineral/metal/material surface concentrations will be adressed later, let's start by stating what the criteria of distribution should be :
- Flat areas, canyons, hills, crevices, mountains, volcanic and non-volcanic terrain should offer different types of materials.
- Craters, being, after all, impacts of foreign bodies, could be the sole location where a certain commodity would be available on a certain planet. They would be localized additional sources, but not so widely different as to make us forget that they come from the same asteriod as the planetary body itself when it was formed...
- Volcanic planets should be very hazardous but proportionately more rewarding in bulk of mineable commodities and in the rarity of materials.
Essentially, this distribution should be handled by various layers of RGBA maps wrapped around the planet, one channel for each commodity, with spots of high density, near deserts and all matters of shades in between, with some overlapping and some completely separate. As those would not be visible textures, they would not require to be particularily hi-rez, but that's still additional layers of data being generated for each stellar body, so I know, it's also a very complex demand. But in the end, the procedural system already knows how to make craters and how to place them, it shouldn't have to go through hell to make a similar map of localized materials. Programmers will, but not the system...
And of course, if ever this needs to be stated, the player's position on the planet would alter what materials/minerals/metals he is liable to run into. This would be very interesting as discoverers could share the position of more generous areas, and those in search of a particular commodity would feel less like they are wasting their time.
Detailed Surface Scanner Upgrades :
8 ) The Detailed Surface Scanner has 5 ranks that show an increasing amount of data and provide proportionally better rewards.
This is where all the previous stuff starts to tie in. The DSS now goes from grade D to grade A. The following function are additional towards the superior class (so class A does everything below it). The DSS scanning bonus goes down to only 15% at class E to additional 100% at class A (and with all the other bonuses I'll propose, it still won't even get close to an evening spent killing pirates... or partaking in the commerce of human flesh). The additional data types can all be used by other commanders from the GalMap if the explorer sells his exploration data.
Class E : Same as now, gives additional information about the stellar body's general constitution. (getting a reading of a planet's core constitution from space is still a massive feat, scientifically, but whatever) - 15% more profit.
- However, it also Possesses a low-altitude scanner that can detect the presence of mineral veins while flying close to the surface. This additional function would work like points of interest, but of different colors for each type (mineral, metal and material - say, red, yellow and green).
Class D : Provides information on the available minerals on the surface of the planet. Painite and other ultra-rare minerals (cold state diamonds in ice planets) are still so rare they do not appear in orbit scans. -25% more profit.
- This information shows in the Stellar Body Informations of the system map (second option from the left after selecting a planet, available just below chemical composition of said planet) and lets players know what mineral types could be mined.
Class C : Provides information on the available metals that can be obtained on the stellar body's surface. - 50% more profit.
- Same as the above, but with metals.
Class B : Provides information on the available materials on the surface of the planet. - 70% more profit.
- Same as the above, but with synthesis/Engineers materials.
Class A : Provides a detailed map of how every element is spread on the surface, so that players and mining entrepreneurs alike can choose what mineral they wish to go for and land in an area that is rich with that mineral. - 100% more profit.
- basically, this last - and necessarily costly - tier uncovers the previously mentioned distribution maps of every commodity, visible on the surface of the planet map like so many infrared shade maps. Those maps are transparent so a player can seek more than one type at a time.
- Every map (one for each mineral/metal/material) can be filtered on and off to allow more clarity.
- Class D, C and B DSSs can also scan asteroid belts around stars and provide global information on their content. This scan, however, does not give % composition details, so one cannot know from this method just how much of every commodity there is.
- And now we understand why a player would want to mark a random position on a planet's surface...
SRV Scanner Upgrades :
9 ) All SRV types have the option to filter what the scanner shows them :
Given the appearance of new points of interest etc., the SRV users will probably be flooded with not-necessarily-wanted information.
SRVs should be given the ability to filter in and out : Material nodes, Material veins, mineral veins, metallic veins, wreckage, anomalies (ie. barnacles).
Planetary mining :
10 ) Prospection on a planet's surface :
Material nodes (for synthesis and engineer materials) are found exactly in the same way : scan, find, shoot, scoop. Doable with any Srv. Ships are utterly uninvolved. Basically, drowned that they are in the mass of other options, they're just a fun easter egg instead of being THE Grind Reaper.
Veins of all types, on the other hand, are found in the same way as Points of Interest. They can be found either directly while in low-altitude flight (provided One has a detailed surface scanner) or from scanner echoes in an SRV. However, they can only appear within zones that have some quantity of the material/mineral/metal according to the maps. Within those zones, they randomly appear as the ground is scanned, with increased frequency as the concentration is higher.
Prospector drones can be deployed onto a vein to determine its content or increase its yield just like with asteroid mining. This would be the only way to obtain a vein's content from the cockpit of a ship without mining it outright.
Like all POIs, veins are not persistent. Logging in and out makes any known veins disappear. HOWEVER, a player who finds a motherlode of a rare commodity (Say, a vein of polonium) and desires to come back to it can deploy a Mining Beacon. Those make the vein persistent, but will also attract unwanted attention from rival miners or pirates. Anyone finding a vein of platinum should want to come back with friends, because it should turn into one bloody party... IF the vein becomes depleted, the beacon dies on it own and the instance cesases to be persistent. It also does die out after 1 week of activity since the region where the material can be found will remain to be prospected forever anyway - and to avoid server bloat.
A new type of SRV, the Surface Mining Vehicle (SMV) comes with a built-in Surface Mining laser that the player can use to mine small quantities of ore. Its scanner is also more efficient than that of the SRV.
All SRVs can deploy Mining beacons, provided they bring limpets in their cargo hold.
Discovering - and leaving in pristine condition - a vein before leaving a mining beacon allows the player to sell its position at a station for other miners to use. Selling option should be in stellar cartography. The price would vary depending on its rarity and size.
Just like with planetary rings resources, a planet's resources can go from Pristine to Depleted as they are exploited. However, this would take much, much more time and depletion rate would only apply to each commodity separately.
11 ) Extraction - Mechanics, Mining Beacons, Surface Mining Lasers and Condensating Refineries.
Mining on a planet is trickier than in space, since material weight will play an important part. However, any vein found on the surface will be much richer than what can be found in an asteroid and provide overall more tons of a material.
To make up for gravity, most planetary miners use a variant of the mining laser : The Surface Mining laser. It basically works by vaporizing matter and magnetically attracting the ionized particles into a ship-borne refinery.
- This method is globally slower that asteroid mining, in the sense that the "Canisters per minute" produced will be fewer. However, veins contain on average much more material than an asteroid, so finding a deposit of X rare commodity will yield a more satisfying quantity. This is to make up for the whole atmospheric flight - planet scanning - looking for deposits - etc. aspect, while asteroid mining is quicker and requires overall less effort.
- In order to harvest the vaporized matter, the planetary miner must employ a specialized refinery, the Condensating Refinery, a fuel-scoop like apparatus that gathers the stream of particles, takes advantage of its vaporized state to separate its components, and cool them down back into canisters or materials. For a spacefaring civilisation that uses 1.5 ton hydrogen fusion reactors fueled by hydrogen harvested at the surface of stars... for even its lowliest of ships... this is an expectable feat.
- Those lasers perform faster if they are used in a high-pressure environment (as the vaporized matter fights less to expand against the electromagnetic field), but they still work (more slowly) on non-atmospheric bodies. This will give some advantage to mining on a huge, high-gravity world with a dense atmosphere.
- The Planetary Mining Lasers are not fixed but turreted, which allows bigger ships to use them in conjunction with mining beacons. Firing the lasers with the beacon selected will converge the lasers upon the vein (without harming said beacon) and accelerate the extraction rate from the multiple beams.
* Alternatively, surface mining lasers could be programmed to converge towards the reticle's direct target. That would be a design decision for you to make.
There are two types of available mining beacons : Standard mining beacons and Stealth beacons.
- Standard Mining Beacons are used by prospectors and surveyors who wish to mark an emplacement for later. It makes the vein persistent and allows ll who get near the planet to see the vein as a point of interest on the map.
* This is exactly the kind of mechanic that pirates would like to exploit.
- Stealth beacons, on the other hand, do not give a particular signal. They can be targeted by a ship to converge mining lasers, but without attracting any attention. They also do not make a vein persistent.
* Alternatively, this function could entirely be filled by prospector limpets programmed to remain stuck on the ground.
Mining on a planet could also be done in a more traditional way :
- traditional Mining lasers would work very well on a planetary body's surface, but they would still carve chunks of rock that could slip off and fall down a cliff or worse - get destroyed by the mining beam itself, as they cover an inreasingly bigger portion of the surface vein.
- Scooping could be done with collector limpets or with an SRV - provided the commodities haven't disappeared yet... or in a TEAM with other players. Finding a Motherlode should encourage multiple players to converge towards it and exploit it as quickly as possible before the pirates arrive. A trio of miners : one ship with standard mining lasers, one with an SMV who does back-and-forth trips to his cargo ship and one really important heavy escort would completely outmatch the extraction speed of a single player with planetary mining equipment. Surface Mining lasers are there because they are convenient and logical, but they are not superior to traditional chunk-and-scoop, they would be a new choice.
- Wether it be from traditional or planetary mining, the vein is represented by a ground texture whose contrast represents its concentration. Its depletion state is showed by the progressive disappearance of the texture on the ground. Also, the material availability of the vein is directly related to the texture's channel. Server-side, the black-and-white alpha channel of the vein texture is painted upon by the mining equipment so that it disappears where it is mined upon. the whiter the portion of the channel aimed at is, the faster materials are extracted. Bigger PMLs produce bigger beams that mine a wider area and, incidentally, paint the channel in bigger strokes.
* I don't even know if Elite's engine would even support this shader or texture-based mechanic with player-side "painting". But I think it would just be the very best way to achieve more depth for mining. Also, the molten rock effect given by mining lasers on an asteroid's surface tends to prove that is it at least possible... I hope.
12 ) New Surface Mining Vehicle - SMV :
This new surface vehicle would be a shorter-range, slower, better armored version of the SRV, capable of carrying much more cargo and equipped with a single heavy AA plasma canon (slower than the SRV repeater but also beefier, only 250 rounds) and a slow yet steady surface mining laser.
- The vehicle would come directly fitted with a condensating refinery and a mining beacon launcher for efficient prospecting.
- making it threaded instead of wheeled would make it interesting and better in rough/slippery terrain.
- Its thrusters would be very limited and barely able to stop its fall.
- Only SRV that can harvest mining beacons back to be used again.
- 5 to 10 tons of cargo. This is a close-deployment vehicle with a max speed of 20m/s.
- It should be heavily armored and shielded - Goliath style - but remain a sitting duck in a fight.
13 ) New Surface Flying Vehicle - Dragonfly SRV :
The Dragonfly is essentially a manned, foldable skimmer with a volume in between the Sentry and the Goliath. Still able to fit in a ship's SRV hold, it holds slightly better armament than a skimmer and has a much better manoeuvrability and speed than the SRV. It cannot fly more than 3-4 km above the ground, however, which means it cannot easily evade settlement defenses.
Its main use would be as a fast scouting unit for very difficult terrain. It would be an incredible asset to prospectors working on volcanic planets, since other SRVs cannot evade lava easily. Also, its speed would make it very efficient for outflanking planetary defenses, guerilla and hit-and-run tactics.
- Being lighter, the Dragonfly can only carry 1 ton of cargo, but it has scanners of a quality equal to that of the SRV. Also, it can spot POI circles on the map if it flies mor than 2km above the surface.
- As it is a flying device, it can drop and re-enter the SRV hold wile in-flight, but only if the ship droping it is within 3-4km of the surface.
- Provided it has a limpet in its cargo hold, the Dragonfly can "lay" a mining beacon without touching the ground. It can also scoop things that are less than 2 meters below it.
Like other SRVs, its armament would be turret-mounted, but the Dragonfly's turret would be the only weapon in-game that needs to be stowed to allow scooping cargo. Also, its turret, being at the bottom, would make it rather incapable against vehicles that are directly above it (Since its downwards-orientated propellers can't do a 180 without propelling the ship towards the ground...).
- with "Flight assist ON" mode, when in turreted vision, the ship's autopilot maintains a constant altitude regadless of the player's movements.
- Much like the skimmer, its speed would be the same in its front-back and left-right vectors, making it amazing at evading incoming fire.
- In compensation, its hull and shields should be significantly lower than those of the standard SRV.
Asteroid mining :
14 ) Asteroid composition map :
Asteroid surfaces are no longer homogenous. Like planet surfaces, they are wrapped in an additional server-side texture whose intensity determines the material concentration - and speed of extraction - of commodities on their surface.
Clarification : Unlike planetary surfaces, the available commodities at the surface of an asteroid come in the same proportions wherever something can be extracted. For an example, an asteroid with 25% iron, 50% palladium and 25% indite will provide chunks of that very distribution from all its sections. The shades of concentration on the asteroid simply show where on the surfacethis amalgam of materials can be found in the greatest density.
- Therefore, Firing a mining laser blindly at an asteroid might yield either nothing, much slower or much faster results.
- In the same way as for mining surface veins, the mining lasers "paint away" the available resource's channel on the texture, making it a very organic process.
- Same as for current asteroid material composition, an asteroid's state is random and resets when players leave its vicinity long enough or simply leave the instance.
15 ) New utility mount - Asteroid Scanner :
This new utility mount, of much lower efficiency than a DSS, allows a prospector to scan asteroids in front of a ship in a 250/500/750/1000/1500 m radius. Once the player has scanned the asteroid, the asteroid becomes targetable. Only a maximum of 1/2/3/4/5 asteroid thusly scanned can be made targetable for a player at any one time, starting from the closest.
- Selectable asteroids show, in the left "selected object" part of the UI, their mineral composition and the % of each mineral/material/metal available on their surface. There is no longer need to mine "just one" before sending a prospector limpet.
- Like with the new class 5 Detailed Surface Scanner, every grade of asteroid scanner will unveil the material concentration map on its surface, which will appear as an overlapping holographic infrared-like texture directly upon the asteroid, which the player will be able to mine while aiming at the most concentrated portions. Asteroid rotation will make it more challenging, and will give an advantage to smaller ships.
- Selectable asteroids will appear in the ship's radar scanner (the one circle straight in the middle of the cockpit) with a white outline. However,
- This scanner will provide the option to seek - or filter - out different materials, minerals and metals. Only asteroids that contain the desired materials will be outlined in the radar scanner. This will make prospecting more dynamic.
16 ) Prospection in an asteroid belt - Prospector Limpet additional use :
Prospector limpets already provide a deep resonance scan that shows the interior distribution of an asteroid's minerals, doubling the yield of mining.
- They also allow eventual Surface Mining Lasers being used in space to converge towards an asteroid's surface at a certain point.
- When targeted at an asteroid, those limpets will path directly towards the spot on the asteroid pointed by the reticle. Guiding them may require some skills.
17 ) Extraction in an asteroid belt :
Current mining is remarkably uninvolved and, let's be honest, rather boring. A bit less than scanning for Iridium - if you catch my drift - but still lacking in anything related to skill - and also lacking in mechanics that give it a smoother feeling.
I propose, considering the three above suggestions, to make asteroid mining first a matter of proper aiming.
- Standard Mining equipment, even without any prospector limpets or fancy scanners, will give the player the % concentration of minerals at the point the mining laser is being fired. If multiple lasers are used, the computer gives an average. This makes "blind" mining feasible, if difficult.
- Using asteroid scanners will become an integral part of mining. They will allow the player to know exactly what resources are in an asteroid in a less clanky way.
- Mining chunks and scooping / limpet-ing commodities will remain the fastest way to proceed with zero-gravity mining, but Surface Mining Lasers will still work in space (and therefore in asteroid rings) just as they work on the surface of atmosphere-deprived stellar bodies, however they will perform slower when in lower or no-pressure environments. Like students. This will provide miners with at least an interesting choice of mechanics.
New Exploration Mechanics :
18 ) Planetary Composition Sample.
It is very easy to scan a planet's surface and say roughly what types of minerals are available to mine. More difficult, however, is figuring out just how pure and "worth the trouble" a planet's resources are. Surface mining entrepreneurs will require more than a scan since surface mining operations are much more risky and costly that asteroid mining, what with the surface settlement building and all - thus the demand for physical samples.
To this effect, when a player is on a planet whose material/mineral/metallic resources are entirely known (at least from a type B DSS scan) and has any of the two refineries, the F3 (bottom) menu will display a new option : Build Planetary Composition Sample.
- When activated, this option will shear a small percentage of mined or acquired surface minerals until it fills a portion of a 1-ton canister similar to the ptoportion the mineral occupies in the crust versus all the other minerals. i.e. if a planet's resources are composed of 20% iron and 1% platinum (among others), it will shear off the first 200 kg grams of iron and 10 kg of platinum from the normal mining procedure and cram them in the same container, until every available surface mineral has been sampled in proper measure.
- This feature will accaparate one of the refinery bins, which will get marked with the planet's full "address" as seen in the map.
- Once the PCS has been completed, it is stamped with the celestial body it comes from and can reach a very hefty price on the markets of extraction economy worlds. The rarer the components, the higher its value.
- More importantly, many extraction factions will create prospection quests to end players sample minerals on one or many planets in a system to determine where to establish a settlement.
- multiple Samples can be worked on at the same time (if the player needs to leave the system or is redirected by a quest and wants to go back to finish the job and sell the sample anyway), but they each take one refinery space.
- Once completed, a PCS becomes a commodity stored in the ship's hold.
Essentially, a player that goes around scanning a planet for resources should fill the PCS with relative ease.
19 ) Ring Composition Analysis Report:
There are much fewer risks involved with asteroid mining. Even in the case of a pirate attack, even a huge a flying refinery can buckle up quickly. And even if a resource just becomes depleted, it's easy to move away. Therefore, mining companies require less zeal in ring prospection. As long as a Detailed Surface Scanner has given, roughly, what are the contents of the ring or belt, A good old proximity scan is all that remains to be done - just to be sure. Sadly, even the best DSS cannot properly evaluate a bunch of small, flying rocks with enough precision to guess their overall material distribution - simply because it is meant to scan large bodies. That is where the last function of the Asteroid Scanner comes into play.
- As scanning data does not accaparate - or even require - anything more than a scanner, the RCAR scan for each and every ring begins the first time an asteroid is scanned in that ring by the player. An very large number of those can be kept at any one time, even thought they should be sold when completed
- The RCAR for a ring fills as asteroids of different composition are scanned until every commodity discovered by the Detailed Surface Scanner has also been identified by the Asteroid Scanner. The more asteroids are scanned, the better the RCAR's estimate on the ring's resources and % of composition becomes, until it declares the RCAR is completed, in which case it migrates towards the Universal Cartographics page (announced at point 1) as a separate, sellable bundle of data.
All those mechanics work in the same way in asteroid belts and rings.
Simple standard asteroid mining will produce RCARs naturally without much effort, making asteroid prospection, once again, the fastest option - and the best for beginner players.
20 ) Mining Beacon Coordinates :
This piece of data can only be obtained as a Universal Cartographics "commodity" if the player has left a mining beacon on a mineral vein on a planet.
After the player has placed a beacon upon a mineral, metallic or material vein, the beacon automatically determines the quantity of mineable material and how much remains to be exploited, both in "state" (from pristine to exhausted) and in estimated tons with an approximate distance indicator (to tell how far it is from the user). For an example, a huge Beauxite deposit would come across as :
BEAUXITE, PRISTINE, 33-35 metric tons, 48 Ly.
- This information would be available to everyone who targets and scans the beacon (remember it might attract unwanted attention), but also to the player who placed the beacon. Upon opening the F3 bottom menu and selecting the "Mining Beacons" option, the player would get a list of all the beacons he has placed and their current state (the beacon does communicate with the ship, less for realism than to keep players from abusing the mechanic).
- As long as the player does nothing else (like deleting the data from his computer, depleting the resource or waiting more than one week with the beacon still active), the beacon remains lit up and available for all to see.
However, if the player desires to sell those coordinates to other players or to the Universal Cartographics - or to give them to a mining faction, he can go into the "mining beacons" interface and choose "Bundle Data Coordinates".
From the moment this is chosen, the mining beacon disappears from the surface and the player himself cannot have access to it, nor any other player. The instance disappears, but actually remains in memory.
- IF, however, there was someone else in the instance when the bundling occurred, the beacon and the vein remain and can be exploited, updating and properly reducing the value of the beacon's coordinates.
- The player cannot un-bundle MBCs to prevent hoarding. As long as a vein remains persistent and mineable for the player, other players and pirates should have the chance to wreck his dreams.
- After the bundling is complete, the Coordinates become Universal Cartographic data in their own section, like RCARs or PCSs.
- A player who would buy this gains the option to unpack the bundle, and does not know where the beacon would be situated before unpacking it.
- Unpacking a bundle also makes it a persistent instance again, so the player needs to rush to it to take advantage of it. He can also try to locate it blindly using the distance estimate, patience, and his Jump drive.
- The price of Mining Beacon Coordinates would vary depending on commodity type, overall quality (pristine means more density and therefore faster mining), amount left, and with a small bonus for distance. Closer means easier to reach, so stations closer to the vein might pay better for it than for a deposit situated 400 Lightyears away - even if it's platinum.
21 ) Full System Scan :
From a settler's point of view, nothing is more annoying than sifting through the Universal Cartographics database and finding hundreds of cheaply scanned, cherrypicked systems with most stellar bodies still completely deprived of a detailed surface scan. There's no way of efficiently assessing the resources a system like this might or might not have. From a scientist and an explorer's point of view, leaving a system half-scanned and only taking interest in potential terrestrial worlds is nothing but sloppy work. The long strings of those systems with which explorers often streak the skies just look like a whole shelf of bread loaves with exactly one bite in them in the wake of a senile and picky grandma shopping at the baker's.
Therefore, the Universal Cartographics adminstration has decided to create a new type of bonus for the meticulous explorers who take the time to not only discover entire systems, but also do a detailed surface scan upon each and every single stellar body within.
- This bonus will depend on the relative spacing between the stellar bodies and their numbers. Basically, the longer the full survey takes, the bigger the payout.
- Also, it will make all the fully discovered but not fully scanned systems an interesting source of revenue for all the beginning explorers who can afford a DSS but not the advanced discovery scanner. It also makes sense, universe-wise.
- Given that now Detailed Surface Scanners give different data depending on their quality, the quality of the Full system scans is also dependant on the quality of the DSS scans. Inherently, scanning a whole system with a grade A DSS which tells where everything is and in what quantity produces better information than a grade D scanner. Incidentally, there will be 5 types of Full System Scans, ranging from A to E, and that will depend on the lowest quality scan done on any planetary body in a system whose every corner has been subjected to a DSS scan. So if player X scans discovers the system with an Advanced disc. scanner and uses a A-grade DSS on 75% of the planets within, the system will be marked as "Partially discovered", right up until player Z comes along in his sidewinder trying to have a go at exploration and scans the remaining bodies with his grade D DSS. After this, the system is marked as "Discovered" and its GalMap interface will display "Level D full Survey".
- A system would be considered absolutely and utterly known and discovered only when every planetary body would have recieved a class A DSS Scan.
- Planetary Composition Samples and Ring Composition Analysis Reports would be closer to the corporate/mining side of the game than to exploration itself and would therefore not be necessary for system discovery completion.
22 ) Regional Scan :
Another form of sloppy exploration, once again from a settling mentality or an established scientific research institution, is the one which implies scanning only one system every 30 lightyears while trying to leave the premises of inhabitated space as quickly as possible. Knowing that there's an inhabitable terrestrial world 22 000 lightyears away from any settled region is cool, but neither useful nor practical. Mapping the closest regions of space would be much better for mankind. Also, would-be settlers are indeed anxious to know what possible expansion possibilities there are close to their system. Planning! For settlers, galactic powers, entrepreneurs, it's all about planning and knowing not just where you land, but also what's around 10 lightyears in every direction. How can you defend a system if you don't know what resources would be available to an enemy who controls the neighboring systems?
And thusly the Regional Scanning Initiative was born. In order to incentivise explorers to work by clusters rather than outwards strings, a bonus would be granted to explorers who take the time to explore clusters of stars very close to each other. Basically, for every system within 10-15 Lys of another, the discoverer recieves an additional discovery bonus. The bigger and wider the region becomes, and the bigger the bonus becomes until every star within 15 lys of the center star has been scanned. However, every star is also its own "Center star" which can provide an additional bonus, so working the circumference of the cluster would be very profitable.
- Since every star counts as a bonus for other discovered systems but also takes a bonus from all around it, keeping inside the bubble and chasing the few yet-to-be-scanned systems would be much more profitable than it is now, because a single undiscovered system in a sea of discovered ones would actually come with a massive bonus. However, of the total bonus awarded for a complete 15ly radius "sphere" discovered, the player recieves only a fraction corresponding to the amount of planets he has discovered himself or of which he has completed the discovery versus the amount of planets available in the cluster.
- Regional Scans do not require full system scans, but every body within each implicated system needs to be discovered.
- A volume-type display the likes of the (actually amazing) powerplay influence bubbles would represent the zones discovered by the player, which would make working on one's own growing discovered clusters absolutely amazing fun and graphically satisfying.
New Exploration and prospection Missions :
23 ) New Exploration Missions :
Exploration in game could be an immense trove of exciting missions that FD probably hasen't had the time to implement yet. Here are a few ideas :
handing out system information via quests would still increase explorer rank, but some factions (like the underworld) might want to keep exclusivity of the system data and not apply the "discovered by" label, like in systems that were settled at the beginning of the game.
While handing out quest "data", a window will allow the player to browse which systems he wished to submit to the mission giver (provided that many will probably fit the mission's criteria).
A missions's payout would be in part determined by the value of the data handed out. The better the system, the better the pay.
- Discover X number of systems. This could come from a desire for expansion or military reconnaissance.
- Discover X number of a certain planetary type. Companies looking for metal-rich moons or civilian groups in search of a terrestrial planet to settle would pay a lot for this information.
- Bring X number of Full System Scans. Some missions will require at least, say, C class sscans, while others wil not accept anything under A class, etc.
- Scan or Full System Scan a particular system in the vicinity of a station (It's like a dead angle, really). As every faction wants to know more about its surroundings, it will target the closest systems with unfinished scanning and generate quests for those, and then go outwards until a certain satisfactory distance has been reached.
- Go investigate a very far away and unidentified Point of interest spotted by a long-range observatory research team. Those are very likely to turn up very rare or interesting POIs.
- Make a regional scan with at least X systems.
- Go DSS scan systems belonging to other factions. High-paid dangerous recon work that requires an A-grade DSS given by military factions or galactic powers in preparation for military manoeuvers.
Most of those missions would require the First Discoverer bonus.
IMPORTANT: Distance from the faction hub is of paramount importance. If the player is free to pick what system to explore for the quest, a powerful modifier will be added to the payout depending on wether the faction wants intel on very close, very far or in-between systems.
- For an example, scientific institutions might simply not care about the distance, whereas a lawful faction would want to know as much as possible about its nearest surroundings. Underworld factions would want to nest far from civilisation to avoid being noticed, but not so much as to be cut from it entirely. A mining venture, on the other hand, would want the closest possible sources that aren't close enough that everyone else and their mother will notice their existence and rush towards them...
- In these cases, a suggested "goldilocks" distance will be suggested in the mission board.
24 ) New Mining Prospection Mission :
Same goes with mining and prospecting missions. They could be a lot more interesting than just "Go Fetch 3 painite!" missions if you factor in prospection and the like.
While handing out quest "data", a window will allow the player to browse which systems he wished to submit to the mission giver (provided that many will probably fit the mission's criteria).
A missions's payout would be in part determined by the value of the data or commodities handed out. The better the samples/data, the better the pay.
- Plant X mining beacons on pristine veins of Y mineral within Z ly of faction hub and bring Mining Beacon Coordinates.
- Plant X mining beacons on pristine veins of Y mineral found in planet Z of System A and bring Mining Beacon Coordinates.
- Go mine Mining Beacon from provided Mining Beacon Coordinates Data Bundle.
- Bring X Planetary Composition samples from within Z ly of faction hub.
- Bring a Planetary Composition sample from a designated planet.
- Bring a Planetary Composition sample from every planet within a designated system.
- Bring X Ring Composition Analysys Reports from within Y ly of faction hub.
- Bring a Ring Composition Analysys Report from a designated asteroid ring or belt.
- Bring a Ring Composition Analysys Report from every ring and belt within a designated system.
25 ) Upcoming "Guardians" Exploration Missions :
I can't know for sure what's coming in the next patch, but I can sure give you a piece of my mind!
Assuming that players can now carry other humans - civilians and military alike - around the galaxy, a tremendous options arises for explorers.
- Ferry settlers and their prefabricated base to a precise point on a designated planet, wait until they establish camp, then leave them to their troubles.
- Transport renegades/escaped slaves/criminals to a random place on a random planet which would have designated qualities (i.e. within range of a terrestrial planet, etc.) as far from galactic powers as possible.
- Transport explorers, scientists or military personnel in a designated system and scan stellar bodies until you find the destination they were sent to investigate. Drop them there, pick them up, and come back home.
- Evacuate a colony that can't afford one cryo pod per inhabitant. The more people are saved befire the time limit, the better.
- Might demand to bring the populace to a designated location, or to any close-by facilities that can accomodate refugees.
- Take X passengers on a tour of the galaxy (multiple prerequisites) :
- Go further than X ly from the faction hub.
- Discover X new systems.
- Discover at least X planets of Y nature (many space tourists would pay a lot to be the first to see a new earth-like planet or stare in wonder at a volcanic world's fiery brutality).
- Travel inside of X number of nebulae.
- Get within DSS scanning range of a particularly rare body (a pulsar, a black hole, etc).
- Come back to port before X time has elapsed.
- Come back to port AFTER X time has elapsed (It's a touring vacation, after all).
New Exploration Ship :
26 ) The Observer Deep Space Explorer.
First, let's face it. When it comes down to exploring, nothing in the available array of current ships is a serious step-up from the Asp explorer. Even an anaconda remains redundant and quite literally not worth the effort.
Bear in mind that what I wish to suggest today is not simply "another" middle-ground ship like there are so many in the game. There are quite enough of those already. I'm talking about a "prestige" ship, the kind of boat a captain rides at the end of his career.
Because let's face it, the Corvette is entirely a combat ship and, in good hands, possibly the best combat ship out there. In the same way, the Cutter is simply the best trading ship out there by a long stretch. The anaconda is a little bit of both, but it fulfills every role in a very good way without any specialisation. I do believe that Explorers deserve a state-of-the-art dedicated "endgame" large ship, that costs an arm and a leg and just shows off how far you've got, while doing its job sensibly better than other ships with the same role. In essence I suggest to you that the best exploration ship shouldn't be an all-purpose ship, but rather a vessel that has been tailored through and through to fulfill that role.
Also, it would bring a much needed function to the game : that of flying laboratory. An Asp is great for one person, but you won't fit an entire science team in it, ever.
Here are the perks I believe this ship should have :
1 ) A class 8 FSD. No other ship has one of those beasts, and it would make sense for the ODSE to have one. HOWEVER, this superior FSD would not be there to provide a riddiculously long jump range : Rather, it would allow the ship to maintain an high jump range without having to sacrifice hardpoint quality.
For an example, a weaponless, d-rated Anaconda can reach close to 40 ly for a single jump, but chosing to make it efficient in any other way (a-rated modules, actually bring weapons, etc...) will bring its jump range to a measly 16ly.
This calls for a massive compromise in everything else's efficiency just to accomplish one task : jumping over more systems.
Now what I propose is to make a ship with an overall better jump range (maybe around 35ly), but that does not require that compromise to be made. The size 8 FSD would allow the ship not to jump 85 ly, but simply ignore variations in its own mass.
Instead of wildly swinging between 40 to 16 ly like the anaconda's, the ODSE's jump distance would range maybe between 35 and 40 stripped down.
It would be marginally superior for jumping, but its true "niche" ability would be how it does not need to compromise its other systems to be a great explorer, just like the Cutter does not need to compromise (even on shielding!) to be a good trader etc.
Also note that as far as game balancing goes, a greater FSD range changes little to overall profit. In wild space, if most systems are undiscovered, going for the shorter "economic" routes will net you as many discoveries. Going quickly to deep space is a matter of gameplay preference, not of
2 ) Class 8 Thrusters. Althought of a lesser stature than either the Cutter or Corvette, the ODSE would come with a massive array of thrusters. But unlike most ships whose thrusters' bulk faces backwards to reach the highest accelerations as possible, the ODSE would specialize in upwards thrust. It could essentially accelerate as quickly upwards as it could forward.
This strange feature is essential for a sizeable exploration ship, since it needs to be able to fight massive gravitational influence.
However, since its power is divided equally between two vectors, it could in no way become a speed demon. Peak speeds around those of the Cutter or a bit faster with better but weird manoeuverability should do the trick. In effect, it is not more manoeuverable in space, but easily outclasses any other large ship if it fights in a planet's gravity well. That's something to think about!
this is to emphasize how this ship is meant to bring a science team and land them safely in any and all circumstances, facing the most hazardous environments, even the gravity of giant planet.
3 ) More numerous but smaller internals. To the contrary of combat ships who try to cram as many big internal compartments as possible and sacrifice their available number, the ODSE would have a plethora of smaller internals that would allow it to cram a plethora of useful modules ; AFMs, SRV hangars, refineries, fuel scoop, different limpet controllers, etc.
Suggested : 1 class 7, 2 class 6, 3 class 5, 4 class 4, 2 class 3 and 2 class 1 (which exist expressly for the two scanner modules).
that's 14 internals vs the Anaconda's 11. Slightly better while having actually less cargo space.
4 ) Weak shields and hull, smaller weight. Built for exploring and not fighting, the ODSE's frame is much lighter and fragile. that allows it to be marginally faster, but its thruster placement dosen't make it much more nimble in space. It's just the easiest of the big ships to kill, not a big tank at all like the others. Just much more roomy than an asp.
5 ) Pitiful armament. Thought capable of defending itself somewhat, the ODSE brings little to the table in terms of firepower. 2 size 3 chin-mounted hardpoints, 4 size 2 and 3 size 1. It can fend off small pirate ships correctly, and that's it... Or nuke the hell out of a mining spot!
6 ) Manufacturer : Saud Kruger. This ship, being an explorer, will end up in a lot of screenshots. It needs to be beautifully designed. Also, more importantly, it needs to accomodate humans doing research, not pirates, and that calls for some measure of comfort. Even better, it needs a lot of observation bays. A whitish clinical design is in order... All those criteria scream SK industries!
And that is, I think, an acceptable idea for an exploration endgame ship.
Synthesis mechanics :
Admittedly, the synthesis mechanics could be improved. And they could be used to improve another crippling aspect of the game : The Grind Reaper, the painful trek towards engineer and synthesis materials. Those options should alleviate the problem while adding some matter of agency to the player and making - whatever they pick up and did not need - less discouraging.
27 ) Synthesis expanded - Material crafting - new internal : Fabricator :
Fabricators are a ship's synthesis module big grother. They basically can maufacture components and some commodities on a small scale.
Essentially, they can create basic manufactured materials using mined or manufactured materials of an lesser grade.
For instance, a player with a lot of Iron and carbon might decide to craft a grade 1 manufactured material (like Heat Conducting Wiring), or make a grade 3 manufactured (like a Chemical Distillery) from other grade 2 manufactured.
- Higher level manufactured materials woudl require more complex recipes with manufactured and mineral resources, but always from lower tiers.
- Fabricators range from size 5 to 8. They are not small and practical like synthesis modules, but rather akin to pocket factories.
- The size of a fabricator would determine the speed at which it cranks out manufactured materials. Class 5 would take many minutes for a single material, whereas size 8 could make multiple materials per minute.
- The grade of a material would indeed make it longer to produce.
- The grade of a fabricator would allow it to build more advanced materials. Grade E can only make class 1 (very common) materials, but grade A can build class 5 (very rare) ones.
- Fabricators can be programmed to produce X amount of a material, and keep working until their objective os attained or resources are depleted.
- Of course, the price of a fabricator that can crank up class 5 materials needs to be astronomical, and it needs to have a riddiculous power draw and weight.
This would allow recycling of the masses of materials every player has cluttering their inventory.
28 ) Synthesis expanded - Material crafting - new internal : Fusion Forge :
Fusion Forges are a very advanced cousin of the ships' own power plant that do not normally produce energy but rather fuse elements together.
They use fission and fusion reactions to reorganize atom cores so as to produce other materials.
Once again, a civilisation that can power a ship with a 2-ton fusion reactor working with hydrogen harvested from a star's corona just before travelling 25 lightyears in 15 seconds... Can totally pull this off, I'm sorry skeptics.
- Fusion Forges are only available in size 7 and 8, being massive and all, and happend to be tremendously heavy and expensive.
- The difference between class 7 and 8 is nothing but cooling. a class 8 is twice the size and twice the weight, and ALL that is additional cooling equipment to make the process safer.
- Class E can only produce grade 1 materials from other grade 1 materials, therefore reorganizing nuclear structures into other simple elements, whereas class A can produce even grade 5 materials by recombining either other grade 5s, or lower elements.
- A material of grade X can be made from a single unit of another grade X material, provided that the source material has a greater atomic number. But the other way around requires more than one of the source material.
- For an example, a single unit of Iron (Atomic Number 26) Can be used to make a single unit of Carbon (A.N. 6).
- However, making one unit of Iron will require 5 units of Carbon.
- Higher class Fusion Forges have a greater chance of subdividing bigger into smaller ones and give additional unites (a class e FF will produce only 1 Carbon from 1 Iron, but a class A might produce up to 4 carbon from 1 Iron)
- Producing higher grade elements from lower ones will require exponentially more resources. This is because the process requires powerful cooling that also happens to be extremely wasteful, purposefully venting matter to cool efficiently enough.
- One grade 2 requires 2x grade 1 of an appropriately high atomic number,
- a grade 3 requires 3 grade 2,
- a grade 4 requires 4 grade 3,
- a grade 5 requires 5 grade 4
- Therefore, producing one grade 5 would require 5 * 4 = 20 grade 3, 60 grade 2 or 120 grade 1.
- The more materials are involved and the higher grade the product is, the longer the reaction takes.
- Fusion Forges draw so much power that they visibly deplete the fuel reservoir - su much so that the ship needs to be either actively fuel scooping or equipped with massive backup fuel tanks.
- They do not work with commodities as they are unable to accomodate more than a few kilograms of matter in their bins.
* It would work in this way not to force players to grind over a hundred level 1 units, but rather to allow them to recycle all the "presently" useless materials that they'll keep stumbling upon while prospecting and turn them into useful stuff, so that their time is not wasted.
Danger Mechanic :
- A lot of arithmetics would however be needed to operate this module safely. As long as the fusion/fission reactions would not produce waste protons, the system would not overheat.
- Example : tellurium, grade 4, atomic number 52, vs Iron, grade 1, atomic number 26. Two units of Iron have 52 protons combined, and the grade 4 demands 24 units of a class 1 to make a class 4, so it goes to 48. The pilot does have 48 units of iron sitting uselessly in his hold (don't we all, incidentally?), so he commits them to the Fusion Forge, starts the process to create one unit of Tellurium while skimming fuel from a not-too-hot star and remains there for the duration of the reaction, all this safely and soundly.
- However, the player wishes to use polonium (Atomic number 84) as well, and so decides to commit 10 units of tellurium (after finding a trove of them while looking for Polonium a week later), since one unit is not enough to match the 84 protons in the Polonium atom's core, and since it takes 5 grade 4 materials to make one grade 5. Sadly, two tellurium atoms give 104 protons, and that means 20 more will remain, along with additional energy from the broken nucleic bonds which needs to be vented. In this circumstance, the fusion reaction will become powerfully exothermal and start overheating the ship for its duration, causing system damage.
- In the case of such an emergency, stopping the reaction immediatly vents all the plasma in the forge and causes the loss of all materials.
29 ) Synthesis expanded - Limpets :
Limpets are very small and simple-as-can-be versatile and easily programmable robots. Everything about them screams about on-the-fly futuristic 3D printing.
Turns out, for prospecting explorers, miners of all stripes and the like, they are a necessary commodity that's not entirely foolproof (what with all their suicidal tendancies etc.).
If there's one item in the universe that should be easily synthesisable (you know, besides actual military grade guided torpedoes that scramble a ship's FSD even through its shielding... because that can be synthesized right now)... it's those little limpets.
it would be SO practical for all types of players...
Requests and favors mechanics :
30 ) Requests and favors system :
This one might be my favorite response to the material problem, and it's also the one that makes the galaxy the most lively. Essentially, every faction with which a player can interact has a "Request A Favor" option.
Upon hitting that option, the faction representative would appear like on the mission board (with an appropriate greeting - not the same kind, of course, as the player comes in asking for something), but instead of recieving assignments, the player would be able to request a favor from the chosen faction. Types of favors would include :
- Obtain a loan.
- This is the most basic of all favors and could be obtainable for anyone by any faction. The quantity, interest rates, etc. are howeverdependant on standing, economic state, government type, etc.
- Trade rank would play a big part here, as a tyconn would outright seem more solvable than a nobody.
- Defaulting on return paymnts would decrease faction standing, to the point where a bfaction would grow hostile, or a legal bounty/fine would be issued on the player.
- Obtain any kind of material, mineral, metal or other commodity.
- More often than not, a faction will want to trade commodities for other, more needed ones, or outright demand that the player fulfull a mission for them.
- That would be great to offset the rarity of certain engineering materials and turn The Grind into missions instead.
- Borrow a ship for a limited amount of time.
- The player has to pay insurance costs upon death and also incurs a fee + loss of faction standing for failing to bring the ship back ().
- Upon seeing a really nice cargo quest, for an example, but having a ship too small, the player could try and borrow a big enough cargo ship (and be given toe posibility to customize it a big, while on a budget), do the quest, reap in the benefits and give back the ship. The player could set what time would be necessary
- Actual ship mortguages/financing.
- Buy a ship with the faction's money and repay in monthly/weekly automatic payments. Defaulting increases ineterests and decreases faction standing.
- Trade rank would play a big part here, as a tyconn would outright seem more solvable than a nobody.
- Defaulting on return paymnts would decrease faction standing, to the point where a bfaction would grow hostile, or a legal bounty/fine would be issued on the player.
- Take care of an assignment/mission/request from another faction
- (can't have a faction fixing its own problems now, can't we?). When doing this, the character would still recieve proper payment from the original mission giver, but would have to repay a favor to the faction that actually helped.
- For an example, a character who recieves an assassination mission from a military faction but does not want to get his hands dirty could ask a favor of a pirate faction he has good standing with, for an example, but the pirates would also require a favor.
- Wether a faction is willing to do a particular favor at all will depend on : Government type, Economy type, Economic state (better chance to get a loan in a booming economy...), player standing, importance of the request, wether it is criminal or not, etc.
- Characters in a very high standing might recieve what they demand for free if they aren't asking for the moon.
- Characters with high galactic power standing (Dukes, admirals and the like), deemed more trustworthy and devoted by their power, will have an easier time trying to get favors and might get free favors more frequently, whereas the Alliance
- If the loan/borrowed ship were of little importance, a faction might eventually "drop the ball" and move on, but the larger the sum, the more determined a faction would be to get it back - or get back at the player.
- A player who constantly betrays his word will eventually get a negative modifier with its faction reputation gain, as he is deemed increasingly untrustworthy. No farming up to allied then betraying. This modifier should take months or weeks to progressively disappear.
- Underworld factions would work a bit differently. They would more often be willing to do favors "free of charge", but would eventually ask for drastic favors (thusly imposing a mission upon the player), like between the members of an organized mafia or something. Refusing to do said favor would immediately turn them hostile.
- In any case, asking for a favor would not automatically incur a standing derease. Failing to repay in any way would however cripple relations with the faction. Good buisness is good buisness, and a profitable exchange of favors would elad to an increase in standing.
- Essentially, a player with many, many contacts could ask huge favors and pass the return favors onto other factions that are very competent in the mission's field, thus breaking down what he needs to do. To balance this, statistically, factions would demand return favors slightly bigger than the favor asked of them.
Building rank, obtaining influence, creating a network of resources... this would make it all possible! It would bring the political and economical world of Elite to life! Give the player a reason to work in more than oe system! And it would bring a whole new layer of gameplay : Juggling contacts and favors! Because after all, we all know deep down, success...
It's ALL about having connections!
31 ) Requests and favors system with Engineers :
This favor exchange idea should apply in the same way with the Engineers in their respective field.
- After applying the appropriate special weapon effect, the engineer would demand something in return. Failing to accomplish whatever is demanded would then incur a loss of reputation.
- A modification in and of itself could be made as a favor (without costs). Asking then to tweak the special effects would make the return favor much bigger.
- Engineers, being their own one-man faction, would also be able to do standard favors closely related to their interests.
- This also ties in the neccessity for a mission board in every engineer base that would allow us players to work for them and eventually gain reputation in this way too.
Well, this is the end!
If you really have read through all of this, I thank you very deeply indeed! I hope it's been interesting at least.
I also hope at least one soul from FD will take an interest in this.
If you actually HAVE read all of it, please answer the poll I've attached to this huge wall of text.
Of course, please also give as much constructive feedback as possible!
Farewell, commanders!
NB : I know this is a huge wall of text. But I'm not sorry ; it took me over 10 hours to gather my thoughts and lay them down here. Read not if you have patience not. I would suggest, however, that it's at least worth a look.
I'll wholeheartedly admit that the following suggestions imply complex mechanics that are all the more difficult to implement in a procedural environment. I've tried to lay them down clearly enough, but clear or not, they represent a lot of work.
However, in my opinion, implementing them would not be harder than developing entirely new aspects to the game. And right now, if I may ever-so-slightly criticize this game's development, Elite does not seem to lack new mechanics as much as it needs the current ones to be made deeper (except for combat, combat rocks).
I've been exploring for a while now, reflecting on the exploration profession along the way, and I've come up with various ideas which I think might make exploration and mining more interersting. Some of those suggestions include possible new SRVs and my take on an "Endgame" explorer vessel, but I urge you to comment on more than just those (I've noted in the past that suggestions about ships tend to accaparate all the attention in a post, even if there are other matters to attend to). A new ship is pointless if you have no new mechanics to play with it. Also, you'll notice I have somewhat made a blend of exploration and mining in a single meta-profession. Some may totally dislike my position (if they hate one or the other), but I sternly believe that mixing them together would be a great way to add depth to both. SO...
POLL : After reading the following 31 suggestions, do you believe they would 1 ) Fix some of the current problems, 2 ) Add more depth to the game and 3 ) would make the game more enjoyable and less grindy.
Summary :
Menu Upgrades :
1 ) Ship menu displays exploration data and payout expected.
2 ) New Galaxy Map Filters : Undiscovered.
3 ) New Galaxy Map Filters : Partially Scanned.
4 ) Ability to select any point on a planetary map and mark it as a destination/bookmark.
5 ) Ability to mark current position of ship in space or SRV on planetary surface as a destination/bookmark.
Procedural Planets Upgrades :
6 ) Planets contain minerals and metals as well as materials.
7 ) Some areas on planetary bodies contain more of a certain material than others.
Detailed Surface Scanner Upgrades :
8 ) The Detailed Surface Scanner has 5 ranks that show an increasing amount of data and provide proportionally better rewards.
SRV Scanner Upgrades :
9 ) All SRV types have the option to filter what the scanner shows them.
Planetary mining :
10 ) Prospection on a planet's surface.
11 ) Extraction - Mechanics, Mining Beacons, Surface Mining Lasers and Condensating Refineries.
12 ) New Surface Mining Vehicle - SMV.
13 ) New Surface Flying Vehicle - Dragonfly SRV.
Asteroid mining :
14 ) Asteroid Composition Map.
15 ) New utility mount - Asteroid Scanner.
16 ) Prospection in an asteroid belt - Prospector Limpet additional use.
17 ) Extraction in an asteroid belt.
New Exploration Mechanics :
18 ) Planetary Composition Sample.
19 ) Ring Composition Analysis Report.
20 ) Mining Beacon Coordinates.
21 ) Full System Scan.
22 ) Regional Scan.
New Exploration and prospection Missions :
23 ) New Exploration Missions.
24 ) New Mining Prospection Missions.
25 ) Upcoming "Guardians" Exploration Missions.
New Exploration Ship :
26 ) The Observer-Class Deep Space Explorer.
Synthesis mechanics :
27 ) Synthesis expanded - Material crafting - new internal : Fabricators.
28 ) Synthesis expanded - Material crafting - new internal : Fusion Forge.
29 ) Synthesis expanded - Limpets.
Requests and favors mechanics :
30 ) Requests and favors system.
31 ) Requests and favors system with Engineers.
The Meat of the Matter :
Menu Upgrades :
1 ) Ship menu displays exploration data and payout expected :
The same type of information available in the Universal Cartographics section of a station's interface (system scan data and payout) should be available either in the F3 bottom menu next to the SRV options (because it is rather barren for the moment) or in the F4 right menu Inventory section (somewhere beneath scan data), where its presence would make more sense but would crowd the interface a bit more if this were to be implemented alone. I have, however, more to propose onto that subject later and I think it would altogether fit better in the bottom F3 menu.
Unless a player truly wishes to spend weeks or months alone in the Deep Black - an understandable compulsion -, it is rather difficult for one to determine what would constitute a proper length for a space trek. Especially now that exploration data can be obtained to rank up with engineers, the potential payout of an exploration bout should be available to pilots even while they are on the road. To some, that would provide an interesting incentive. To others, it would add an additional feeling of progression. Even better, knowing just how much you stand to gain if you get back safely after a long trip might just make that long trip back home much more thrilling.
More importantly - It would also come in handy when in conjunction with some of my other propositions.
2 ) New Galaxy Map Filters : Undiscovered :
A Self-explanatory title to a probably conflictual suggestion.
Not Knowing wether or not a system has been discovered by another player unless one opens its System Map, either from afar by looking at the GalMap or from inside the system as one explores... Adds nothing to the enjoyment of the game. But it turns out that it is actually known. The problem does not lie there. The problem lies in One's unability to efficiently avoid pockets of discovered systems while exploring.
Factually, the ship's computer knows already if someone has discovered this or that system. That's why, as an explorer opens the system view map while in a system, the computer tells him it's already been scanned by one CMDR BinThereDoneThatGoTheTShirt.
Factually, the lack of an "Undiscovered" GalMap filter keeps explorers from defining exploration routes entirely composed of undiscovered systems. Some players will say this makes One's First true discovery more special, a nice little surprise. This seems to me a rather weak argument as anyone who invests themselves ever-so-slightly in the exploration buisness will very - very! - quickly outgrow that feeling of surprise. Eventually, all that remains is the slight annoyance of finding an already discovered system with only the terraformable and metal-rich planets mapped out in the middle of nowhere... Much more interesting is the feeling of discovering an habitable planet, a pulsar or a black hole. Those are the lifeblood and fuel of explorers. And even amongst undiscovered systems, they are remarkably rare.
An "Undiscovered" GalMap filter would alleviate that burden and make exploration itself overall a bit more rewarding and fun. It is also brutally logical that a function like this should be available in a "real" universe occupied by a real spacefaring civilisation. Space-Sim and Game-Wise, I suggest this option would do a lot more good than harm. No-one stands to suffer from this - I think - rather feasible feature.
3 ) New Galaxy Map Filters : Partially Scanned :
This suggestion is made exactly in the same spirit as the previous, however it would only be necessary - or desirable - if another suggestion would be implemented. Basically, in the name of both Science and expansionist practicality, cherry-picking only the interesting planets in a system to do a Detailed Surface Scan leaves the would-be settlers, miners, cartographers or military strategists who buy exploration data in the undesirable position of not knowing much about what usually amounts to a big chunk of their chosen system.
In conjunction with other, yet-to-be-presented mechanics, this option would allow players to voluntarily complete the exploration data of a system by using a Detailed surface scanner on all of its remaining bodies, and go for an additional bonus.
4 ) Ability to select any point on a planetary map and mark it as a destination/bookmark :
Also self-explanatory, this suggestion will also prove to be of greater interest when we'll arrive to actual game mechanics suggestions. I'm just starting with the simplest.
This option would allow the player to select any point on a planet's 3d spherical menu map (the one which shows the settlements' positions) and mark them as a selected/destination/bookmarked position coordinates as one already does with the settlements in question.
It would become handy in a game where the Planet Map gave, in certain circumstances, information on the possible location of certain points of interests that would not necessarily be related to quests (those already generate such surface coordinates - and dynamic ones at that, so I trust the Devs can implement this).
The only problematic part here would be to generate spacial coordinates from the menu to the system rather than the usual opposite, but since they wouldn't be related to anything physical or persistent and would only really exist for the user, without generating any content it shouldn't be too much of a hellspawned problem.
5 ) Ability to mark current position of ship in space or SRV on planetary surface as a destination/bookmark :
This one ties more into the here and now, althought it is essentially tied to the previous one and might serve a similar purpose.
Often, a player finds a Point of interest filled with cargo which would require a lot of back-and-forth time to gather entirely. More often than not, the ship's auto-pilot will choose to land everywhere but in the flat, perfect patch of ground that's just beside the cargo in question. One wishes one could go back to the ship, then fly closer and make the whole process much faster. Sadly, doing this often causes one to lose track of the POI's position if the ship landed far away.
This option would allow a player to mark his own position so as to be ble to come back quickly and easily - since ship scanners can't be bothered, apparently...
Procedural Planets Upgrades :
6 ) Planets now contain minerals and metals as well as materials :
This one ties in with the whole mining aspect of the game. Indeed, some automated extraction farms can be found on the surface and eventually plundered, but little is there for an honest space entrepreneur. Essentially, it calls for nodes of both minerals and metals to be available on the surface of planetary bodies , just as Materials are present, too. Just as it is with materials, each planetary body should have a different set of minerals and metals available, randomly chosen from its composition type.
Essentially, the metals and minerals would only be available as veins, which would require a specialized, slower SRV or a ship with surface mining equipment. Veins of materials would also be present on the surface and mineable, but there would be no metal or mineral nodes, making SRV material farming unhindered by a potential dilution in other, less interesting commodities.
Otherwise, putting all commodities in nodes would annoy the hell out of explorers and synthesis/engineer material seekers.
7 ) Some areas on planetary bodies contain more of a certain material than others :
A form of recognizable shaded surface distribution instead of pure randomness.
Thought how players could get information pertaining to mineral/metal/material surface concentrations will be adressed later, let's start by stating what the criteria of distribution should be :
- Flat areas, canyons, hills, crevices, mountains, volcanic and non-volcanic terrain should offer different types of materials.
- Craters, being, after all, impacts of foreign bodies, could be the sole location where a certain commodity would be available on a certain planet. They would be localized additional sources, but not so widely different as to make us forget that they come from the same asteriod as the planetary body itself when it was formed...
- Volcanic planets should be very hazardous but proportionately more rewarding in bulk of mineable commodities and in the rarity of materials.
Essentially, this distribution should be handled by various layers of RGBA maps wrapped around the planet, one channel for each commodity, with spots of high density, near deserts and all matters of shades in between, with some overlapping and some completely separate. As those would not be visible textures, they would not require to be particularily hi-rez, but that's still additional layers of data being generated for each stellar body, so I know, it's also a very complex demand. But in the end, the procedural system already knows how to make craters and how to place them, it shouldn't have to go through hell to make a similar map of localized materials. Programmers will, but not the system...
And of course, if ever this needs to be stated, the player's position on the planet would alter what materials/minerals/metals he is liable to run into. This would be very interesting as discoverers could share the position of more generous areas, and those in search of a particular commodity would feel less like they are wasting their time.
Detailed Surface Scanner Upgrades :
8 ) The Detailed Surface Scanner has 5 ranks that show an increasing amount of data and provide proportionally better rewards.
This is where all the previous stuff starts to tie in. The DSS now goes from grade D to grade A. The following function are additional towards the superior class (so class A does everything below it). The DSS scanning bonus goes down to only 15% at class E to additional 100% at class A (and with all the other bonuses I'll propose, it still won't even get close to an evening spent killing pirates... or partaking in the commerce of human flesh). The additional data types can all be used by other commanders from the GalMap if the explorer sells his exploration data.
Class E : Same as now, gives additional information about the stellar body's general constitution. (getting a reading of a planet's core constitution from space is still a massive feat, scientifically, but whatever) - 15% more profit.
- However, it also Possesses a low-altitude scanner that can detect the presence of mineral veins while flying close to the surface. This additional function would work like points of interest, but of different colors for each type (mineral, metal and material - say, red, yellow and green).
Class D : Provides information on the available minerals on the surface of the planet. Painite and other ultra-rare minerals (cold state diamonds in ice planets) are still so rare they do not appear in orbit scans. -25% more profit.
- This information shows in the Stellar Body Informations of the system map (second option from the left after selecting a planet, available just below chemical composition of said planet) and lets players know what mineral types could be mined.
Class C : Provides information on the available metals that can be obtained on the stellar body's surface. - 50% more profit.
- Same as the above, but with metals.
Class B : Provides information on the available materials on the surface of the planet. - 70% more profit.
- Same as the above, but with synthesis/Engineers materials.
Class A : Provides a detailed map of how every element is spread on the surface, so that players and mining entrepreneurs alike can choose what mineral they wish to go for and land in an area that is rich with that mineral. - 100% more profit.
- basically, this last - and necessarily costly - tier uncovers the previously mentioned distribution maps of every commodity, visible on the surface of the planet map like so many infrared shade maps. Those maps are transparent so a player can seek more than one type at a time.
- Every map (one for each mineral/metal/material) can be filtered on and off to allow more clarity.
- Class D, C and B DSSs can also scan asteroid belts around stars and provide global information on their content. This scan, however, does not give % composition details, so one cannot know from this method just how much of every commodity there is.
- And now we understand why a player would want to mark a random position on a planet's surface...
SRV Scanner Upgrades :
9 ) All SRV types have the option to filter what the scanner shows them :
Given the appearance of new points of interest etc., the SRV users will probably be flooded with not-necessarily-wanted information.
SRVs should be given the ability to filter in and out : Material nodes, Material veins, mineral veins, metallic veins, wreckage, anomalies (ie. barnacles).
Planetary mining :
10 ) Prospection on a planet's surface :
Material nodes (for synthesis and engineer materials) are found exactly in the same way : scan, find, shoot, scoop. Doable with any Srv. Ships are utterly uninvolved. Basically, drowned that they are in the mass of other options, they're just a fun easter egg instead of being THE Grind Reaper.
Veins of all types, on the other hand, are found in the same way as Points of Interest. They can be found either directly while in low-altitude flight (provided One has a detailed surface scanner) or from scanner echoes in an SRV. However, they can only appear within zones that have some quantity of the material/mineral/metal according to the maps. Within those zones, they randomly appear as the ground is scanned, with increased frequency as the concentration is higher.
Prospector drones can be deployed onto a vein to determine its content or increase its yield just like with asteroid mining. This would be the only way to obtain a vein's content from the cockpit of a ship without mining it outright.
Like all POIs, veins are not persistent. Logging in and out makes any known veins disappear. HOWEVER, a player who finds a motherlode of a rare commodity (Say, a vein of polonium) and desires to come back to it can deploy a Mining Beacon. Those make the vein persistent, but will also attract unwanted attention from rival miners or pirates. Anyone finding a vein of platinum should want to come back with friends, because it should turn into one bloody party... IF the vein becomes depleted, the beacon dies on it own and the instance cesases to be persistent. It also does die out after 1 week of activity since the region where the material can be found will remain to be prospected forever anyway - and to avoid server bloat.
A new type of SRV, the Surface Mining Vehicle (SMV) comes with a built-in Surface Mining laser that the player can use to mine small quantities of ore. Its scanner is also more efficient than that of the SRV.
All SRVs can deploy Mining beacons, provided they bring limpets in their cargo hold.
Discovering - and leaving in pristine condition - a vein before leaving a mining beacon allows the player to sell its position at a station for other miners to use. Selling option should be in stellar cartography. The price would vary depending on its rarity and size.
Just like with planetary rings resources, a planet's resources can go from Pristine to Depleted as they are exploited. However, this would take much, much more time and depletion rate would only apply to each commodity separately.
11 ) Extraction - Mechanics, Mining Beacons, Surface Mining Lasers and Condensating Refineries.
Mining on a planet is trickier than in space, since material weight will play an important part. However, any vein found on the surface will be much richer than what can be found in an asteroid and provide overall more tons of a material.
To make up for gravity, most planetary miners use a variant of the mining laser : The Surface Mining laser. It basically works by vaporizing matter and magnetically attracting the ionized particles into a ship-borne refinery.
- This method is globally slower that asteroid mining, in the sense that the "Canisters per minute" produced will be fewer. However, veins contain on average much more material than an asteroid, so finding a deposit of X rare commodity will yield a more satisfying quantity. This is to make up for the whole atmospheric flight - planet scanning - looking for deposits - etc. aspect, while asteroid mining is quicker and requires overall less effort.
- In order to harvest the vaporized matter, the planetary miner must employ a specialized refinery, the Condensating Refinery, a fuel-scoop like apparatus that gathers the stream of particles, takes advantage of its vaporized state to separate its components, and cool them down back into canisters or materials. For a spacefaring civilisation that uses 1.5 ton hydrogen fusion reactors fueled by hydrogen harvested at the surface of stars... for even its lowliest of ships... this is an expectable feat.
- Those lasers perform faster if they are used in a high-pressure environment (as the vaporized matter fights less to expand against the electromagnetic field), but they still work (more slowly) on non-atmospheric bodies. This will give some advantage to mining on a huge, high-gravity world with a dense atmosphere.
- The Planetary Mining Lasers are not fixed but turreted, which allows bigger ships to use them in conjunction with mining beacons. Firing the lasers with the beacon selected will converge the lasers upon the vein (without harming said beacon) and accelerate the extraction rate from the multiple beams.
* Alternatively, surface mining lasers could be programmed to converge towards the reticle's direct target. That would be a design decision for you to make.
There are two types of available mining beacons : Standard mining beacons and Stealth beacons.
- Standard Mining Beacons are used by prospectors and surveyors who wish to mark an emplacement for later. It makes the vein persistent and allows ll who get near the planet to see the vein as a point of interest on the map.
* This is exactly the kind of mechanic that pirates would like to exploit.
- Stealth beacons, on the other hand, do not give a particular signal. They can be targeted by a ship to converge mining lasers, but without attracting any attention. They also do not make a vein persistent.
* Alternatively, this function could entirely be filled by prospector limpets programmed to remain stuck on the ground.
Mining on a planet could also be done in a more traditional way :
- traditional Mining lasers would work very well on a planetary body's surface, but they would still carve chunks of rock that could slip off and fall down a cliff or worse - get destroyed by the mining beam itself, as they cover an inreasingly bigger portion of the surface vein.
- Scooping could be done with collector limpets or with an SRV - provided the commodities haven't disappeared yet... or in a TEAM with other players. Finding a Motherlode should encourage multiple players to converge towards it and exploit it as quickly as possible before the pirates arrive. A trio of miners : one ship with standard mining lasers, one with an SMV who does back-and-forth trips to his cargo ship and one really important heavy escort would completely outmatch the extraction speed of a single player with planetary mining equipment. Surface Mining lasers are there because they are convenient and logical, but they are not superior to traditional chunk-and-scoop, they would be a new choice.
- Wether it be from traditional or planetary mining, the vein is represented by a ground texture whose contrast represents its concentration. Its depletion state is showed by the progressive disappearance of the texture on the ground. Also, the material availability of the vein is directly related to the texture's channel. Server-side, the black-and-white alpha channel of the vein texture is painted upon by the mining equipment so that it disappears where it is mined upon. the whiter the portion of the channel aimed at is, the faster materials are extracted. Bigger PMLs produce bigger beams that mine a wider area and, incidentally, paint the channel in bigger strokes.
* I don't even know if Elite's engine would even support this shader or texture-based mechanic with player-side "painting". But I think it would just be the very best way to achieve more depth for mining. Also, the molten rock effect given by mining lasers on an asteroid's surface tends to prove that is it at least possible... I hope.
12 ) New Surface Mining Vehicle - SMV :
This new surface vehicle would be a shorter-range, slower, better armored version of the SRV, capable of carrying much more cargo and equipped with a single heavy AA plasma canon (slower than the SRV repeater but also beefier, only 250 rounds) and a slow yet steady surface mining laser.
- The vehicle would come directly fitted with a condensating refinery and a mining beacon launcher for efficient prospecting.
- making it threaded instead of wheeled would make it interesting and better in rough/slippery terrain.
- Its thrusters would be very limited and barely able to stop its fall.
- Only SRV that can harvest mining beacons back to be used again.
- 5 to 10 tons of cargo. This is a close-deployment vehicle with a max speed of 20m/s.
- It should be heavily armored and shielded - Goliath style - but remain a sitting duck in a fight.
13 ) New Surface Flying Vehicle - Dragonfly SRV :
The Dragonfly is essentially a manned, foldable skimmer with a volume in between the Sentry and the Goliath. Still able to fit in a ship's SRV hold, it holds slightly better armament than a skimmer and has a much better manoeuvrability and speed than the SRV. It cannot fly more than 3-4 km above the ground, however, which means it cannot easily evade settlement defenses.
Its main use would be as a fast scouting unit for very difficult terrain. It would be an incredible asset to prospectors working on volcanic planets, since other SRVs cannot evade lava easily. Also, its speed would make it very efficient for outflanking planetary defenses, guerilla and hit-and-run tactics.
- Being lighter, the Dragonfly can only carry 1 ton of cargo, but it has scanners of a quality equal to that of the SRV. Also, it can spot POI circles on the map if it flies mor than 2km above the surface.
- As it is a flying device, it can drop and re-enter the SRV hold wile in-flight, but only if the ship droping it is within 3-4km of the surface.
- Provided it has a limpet in its cargo hold, the Dragonfly can "lay" a mining beacon without touching the ground. It can also scoop things that are less than 2 meters below it.
Like other SRVs, its armament would be turret-mounted, but the Dragonfly's turret would be the only weapon in-game that needs to be stowed to allow scooping cargo. Also, its turret, being at the bottom, would make it rather incapable against vehicles that are directly above it (Since its downwards-orientated propellers can't do a 180 without propelling the ship towards the ground...).
- with "Flight assist ON" mode, when in turreted vision, the ship's autopilot maintains a constant altitude regadless of the player's movements.
- Much like the skimmer, its speed would be the same in its front-back and left-right vectors, making it amazing at evading incoming fire.
- In compensation, its hull and shields should be significantly lower than those of the standard SRV.
Asteroid mining :
14 ) Asteroid composition map :
Asteroid surfaces are no longer homogenous. Like planet surfaces, they are wrapped in an additional server-side texture whose intensity determines the material concentration - and speed of extraction - of commodities on their surface.
Clarification : Unlike planetary surfaces, the available commodities at the surface of an asteroid come in the same proportions wherever something can be extracted. For an example, an asteroid with 25% iron, 50% palladium and 25% indite will provide chunks of that very distribution from all its sections. The shades of concentration on the asteroid simply show where on the surfacethis amalgam of materials can be found in the greatest density.
- Therefore, Firing a mining laser blindly at an asteroid might yield either nothing, much slower or much faster results.
- In the same way as for mining surface veins, the mining lasers "paint away" the available resource's channel on the texture, making it a very organic process.
- Same as for current asteroid material composition, an asteroid's state is random and resets when players leave its vicinity long enough or simply leave the instance.
15 ) New utility mount - Asteroid Scanner :
This new utility mount, of much lower efficiency than a DSS, allows a prospector to scan asteroids in front of a ship in a 250/500/750/1000/1500 m radius. Once the player has scanned the asteroid, the asteroid becomes targetable. Only a maximum of 1/2/3/4/5 asteroid thusly scanned can be made targetable for a player at any one time, starting from the closest.
- Selectable asteroids show, in the left "selected object" part of the UI, their mineral composition and the % of each mineral/material/metal available on their surface. There is no longer need to mine "just one" before sending a prospector limpet.
- Like with the new class 5 Detailed Surface Scanner, every grade of asteroid scanner will unveil the material concentration map on its surface, which will appear as an overlapping holographic infrared-like texture directly upon the asteroid, which the player will be able to mine while aiming at the most concentrated portions. Asteroid rotation will make it more challenging, and will give an advantage to smaller ships.
- Selectable asteroids will appear in the ship's radar scanner (the one circle straight in the middle of the cockpit) with a white outline. However,
- This scanner will provide the option to seek - or filter - out different materials, minerals and metals. Only asteroids that contain the desired materials will be outlined in the radar scanner. This will make prospecting more dynamic.
16 ) Prospection in an asteroid belt - Prospector Limpet additional use :
Prospector limpets already provide a deep resonance scan that shows the interior distribution of an asteroid's minerals, doubling the yield of mining.
- They also allow eventual Surface Mining Lasers being used in space to converge towards an asteroid's surface at a certain point.
- When targeted at an asteroid, those limpets will path directly towards the spot on the asteroid pointed by the reticle. Guiding them may require some skills.
17 ) Extraction in an asteroid belt :
Current mining is remarkably uninvolved and, let's be honest, rather boring. A bit less than scanning for Iridium - if you catch my drift - but still lacking in anything related to skill - and also lacking in mechanics that give it a smoother feeling.
I propose, considering the three above suggestions, to make asteroid mining first a matter of proper aiming.
- Standard Mining equipment, even without any prospector limpets or fancy scanners, will give the player the % concentration of minerals at the point the mining laser is being fired. If multiple lasers are used, the computer gives an average. This makes "blind" mining feasible, if difficult.
- Using asteroid scanners will become an integral part of mining. They will allow the player to know exactly what resources are in an asteroid in a less clanky way.
- Mining chunks and scooping / limpet-ing commodities will remain the fastest way to proceed with zero-gravity mining, but Surface Mining Lasers will still work in space (and therefore in asteroid rings) just as they work on the surface of atmosphere-deprived stellar bodies, however they will perform slower when in lower or no-pressure environments. Like students. This will provide miners with at least an interesting choice of mechanics.
New Exploration Mechanics :
18 ) Planetary Composition Sample.
It is very easy to scan a planet's surface and say roughly what types of minerals are available to mine. More difficult, however, is figuring out just how pure and "worth the trouble" a planet's resources are. Surface mining entrepreneurs will require more than a scan since surface mining operations are much more risky and costly that asteroid mining, what with the surface settlement building and all - thus the demand for physical samples.
To this effect, when a player is on a planet whose material/mineral/metallic resources are entirely known (at least from a type B DSS scan) and has any of the two refineries, the F3 (bottom) menu will display a new option : Build Planetary Composition Sample.
- When activated, this option will shear a small percentage of mined or acquired surface minerals until it fills a portion of a 1-ton canister similar to the ptoportion the mineral occupies in the crust versus all the other minerals. i.e. if a planet's resources are composed of 20% iron and 1% platinum (among others), it will shear off the first 200 kg grams of iron and 10 kg of platinum from the normal mining procedure and cram them in the same container, until every available surface mineral has been sampled in proper measure.
- This feature will accaparate one of the refinery bins, which will get marked with the planet's full "address" as seen in the map.
- Once the PCS has been completed, it is stamped with the celestial body it comes from and can reach a very hefty price on the markets of extraction economy worlds. The rarer the components, the higher its value.
- More importantly, many extraction factions will create prospection quests to end players sample minerals on one or many planets in a system to determine where to establish a settlement.
- multiple Samples can be worked on at the same time (if the player needs to leave the system or is redirected by a quest and wants to go back to finish the job and sell the sample anyway), but they each take one refinery space.
- Once completed, a PCS becomes a commodity stored in the ship's hold.
Essentially, a player that goes around scanning a planet for resources should fill the PCS with relative ease.
19 ) Ring Composition Analysis Report:
There are much fewer risks involved with asteroid mining. Even in the case of a pirate attack, even a huge a flying refinery can buckle up quickly. And even if a resource just becomes depleted, it's easy to move away. Therefore, mining companies require less zeal in ring prospection. As long as a Detailed Surface Scanner has given, roughly, what are the contents of the ring or belt, A good old proximity scan is all that remains to be done - just to be sure. Sadly, even the best DSS cannot properly evaluate a bunch of small, flying rocks with enough precision to guess their overall material distribution - simply because it is meant to scan large bodies. That is where the last function of the Asteroid Scanner comes into play.
- As scanning data does not accaparate - or even require - anything more than a scanner, the RCAR scan for each and every ring begins the first time an asteroid is scanned in that ring by the player. An very large number of those can be kept at any one time, even thought they should be sold when completed
- The RCAR for a ring fills as asteroids of different composition are scanned until every commodity discovered by the Detailed Surface Scanner has also been identified by the Asteroid Scanner. The more asteroids are scanned, the better the RCAR's estimate on the ring's resources and % of composition becomes, until it declares the RCAR is completed, in which case it migrates towards the Universal Cartographics page (announced at point 1) as a separate, sellable bundle of data.
All those mechanics work in the same way in asteroid belts and rings.
Simple standard asteroid mining will produce RCARs naturally without much effort, making asteroid prospection, once again, the fastest option - and the best for beginner players.
20 ) Mining Beacon Coordinates :
This piece of data can only be obtained as a Universal Cartographics "commodity" if the player has left a mining beacon on a mineral vein on a planet.
After the player has placed a beacon upon a mineral, metallic or material vein, the beacon automatically determines the quantity of mineable material and how much remains to be exploited, both in "state" (from pristine to exhausted) and in estimated tons with an approximate distance indicator (to tell how far it is from the user). For an example, a huge Beauxite deposit would come across as :
BEAUXITE, PRISTINE, 33-35 metric tons, 48 Ly.
- This information would be available to everyone who targets and scans the beacon (remember it might attract unwanted attention), but also to the player who placed the beacon. Upon opening the F3 bottom menu and selecting the "Mining Beacons" option, the player would get a list of all the beacons he has placed and their current state (the beacon does communicate with the ship, less for realism than to keep players from abusing the mechanic).
- As long as the player does nothing else (like deleting the data from his computer, depleting the resource or waiting more than one week with the beacon still active), the beacon remains lit up and available for all to see.
However, if the player desires to sell those coordinates to other players or to the Universal Cartographics - or to give them to a mining faction, he can go into the "mining beacons" interface and choose "Bundle Data Coordinates".
From the moment this is chosen, the mining beacon disappears from the surface and the player himself cannot have access to it, nor any other player. The instance disappears, but actually remains in memory.
- IF, however, there was someone else in the instance when the bundling occurred, the beacon and the vein remain and can be exploited, updating and properly reducing the value of the beacon's coordinates.
- The player cannot un-bundle MBCs to prevent hoarding. As long as a vein remains persistent and mineable for the player, other players and pirates should have the chance to wreck his dreams.
- After the bundling is complete, the Coordinates become Universal Cartographic data in their own section, like RCARs or PCSs.
- A player who would buy this gains the option to unpack the bundle, and does not know where the beacon would be situated before unpacking it.
- Unpacking a bundle also makes it a persistent instance again, so the player needs to rush to it to take advantage of it. He can also try to locate it blindly using the distance estimate, patience, and his Jump drive.
- The price of Mining Beacon Coordinates would vary depending on commodity type, overall quality (pristine means more density and therefore faster mining), amount left, and with a small bonus for distance. Closer means easier to reach, so stations closer to the vein might pay better for it than for a deposit situated 400 Lightyears away - even if it's platinum.
21 ) Full System Scan :
From a settler's point of view, nothing is more annoying than sifting through the Universal Cartographics database and finding hundreds of cheaply scanned, cherrypicked systems with most stellar bodies still completely deprived of a detailed surface scan. There's no way of efficiently assessing the resources a system like this might or might not have. From a scientist and an explorer's point of view, leaving a system half-scanned and only taking interest in potential terrestrial worlds is nothing but sloppy work. The long strings of those systems with which explorers often streak the skies just look like a whole shelf of bread loaves with exactly one bite in them in the wake of a senile and picky grandma shopping at the baker's.
Therefore, the Universal Cartographics adminstration has decided to create a new type of bonus for the meticulous explorers who take the time to not only discover entire systems, but also do a detailed surface scan upon each and every single stellar body within.
- This bonus will depend on the relative spacing between the stellar bodies and their numbers. Basically, the longer the full survey takes, the bigger the payout.
- Also, it will make all the fully discovered but not fully scanned systems an interesting source of revenue for all the beginning explorers who can afford a DSS but not the advanced discovery scanner. It also makes sense, universe-wise.
- Given that now Detailed Surface Scanners give different data depending on their quality, the quality of the Full system scans is also dependant on the quality of the DSS scans. Inherently, scanning a whole system with a grade A DSS which tells where everything is and in what quantity produces better information than a grade D scanner. Incidentally, there will be 5 types of Full System Scans, ranging from A to E, and that will depend on the lowest quality scan done on any planetary body in a system whose every corner has been subjected to a DSS scan. So if player X scans discovers the system with an Advanced disc. scanner and uses a A-grade DSS on 75% of the planets within, the system will be marked as "Partially discovered", right up until player Z comes along in his sidewinder trying to have a go at exploration and scans the remaining bodies with his grade D DSS. After this, the system is marked as "Discovered" and its GalMap interface will display "Level D full Survey".
- A system would be considered absolutely and utterly known and discovered only when every planetary body would have recieved a class A DSS Scan.
- Planetary Composition Samples and Ring Composition Analysis Reports would be closer to the corporate/mining side of the game than to exploration itself and would therefore not be necessary for system discovery completion.
22 ) Regional Scan :
Another form of sloppy exploration, once again from a settling mentality or an established scientific research institution, is the one which implies scanning only one system every 30 lightyears while trying to leave the premises of inhabitated space as quickly as possible. Knowing that there's an inhabitable terrestrial world 22 000 lightyears away from any settled region is cool, but neither useful nor practical. Mapping the closest regions of space would be much better for mankind. Also, would-be settlers are indeed anxious to know what possible expansion possibilities there are close to their system. Planning! For settlers, galactic powers, entrepreneurs, it's all about planning and knowing not just where you land, but also what's around 10 lightyears in every direction. How can you defend a system if you don't know what resources would be available to an enemy who controls the neighboring systems?
And thusly the Regional Scanning Initiative was born. In order to incentivise explorers to work by clusters rather than outwards strings, a bonus would be granted to explorers who take the time to explore clusters of stars very close to each other. Basically, for every system within 10-15 Lys of another, the discoverer recieves an additional discovery bonus. The bigger and wider the region becomes, and the bigger the bonus becomes until every star within 15 lys of the center star has been scanned. However, every star is also its own "Center star" which can provide an additional bonus, so working the circumference of the cluster would be very profitable.
- Since every star counts as a bonus for other discovered systems but also takes a bonus from all around it, keeping inside the bubble and chasing the few yet-to-be-scanned systems would be much more profitable than it is now, because a single undiscovered system in a sea of discovered ones would actually come with a massive bonus. However, of the total bonus awarded for a complete 15ly radius "sphere" discovered, the player recieves only a fraction corresponding to the amount of planets he has discovered himself or of which he has completed the discovery versus the amount of planets available in the cluster.
- Regional Scans do not require full system scans, but every body within each implicated system needs to be discovered.
- A volume-type display the likes of the (actually amazing) powerplay influence bubbles would represent the zones discovered by the player, which would make working on one's own growing discovered clusters absolutely amazing fun and graphically satisfying.
New Exploration and prospection Missions :
23 ) New Exploration Missions :
Exploration in game could be an immense trove of exciting missions that FD probably hasen't had the time to implement yet. Here are a few ideas :
handing out system information via quests would still increase explorer rank, but some factions (like the underworld) might want to keep exclusivity of the system data and not apply the "discovered by" label, like in systems that were settled at the beginning of the game.
While handing out quest "data", a window will allow the player to browse which systems he wished to submit to the mission giver (provided that many will probably fit the mission's criteria).
A missions's payout would be in part determined by the value of the data handed out. The better the system, the better the pay.
- Discover X number of systems. This could come from a desire for expansion or military reconnaissance.
- Discover X number of a certain planetary type. Companies looking for metal-rich moons or civilian groups in search of a terrestrial planet to settle would pay a lot for this information.
- Bring X number of Full System Scans. Some missions will require at least, say, C class sscans, while others wil not accept anything under A class, etc.
- Scan or Full System Scan a particular system in the vicinity of a station (It's like a dead angle, really). As every faction wants to know more about its surroundings, it will target the closest systems with unfinished scanning and generate quests for those, and then go outwards until a certain satisfactory distance has been reached.
- Go investigate a very far away and unidentified Point of interest spotted by a long-range observatory research team. Those are very likely to turn up very rare or interesting POIs.
- Make a regional scan with at least X systems.
- Go DSS scan systems belonging to other factions. High-paid dangerous recon work that requires an A-grade DSS given by military factions or galactic powers in preparation for military manoeuvers.
Most of those missions would require the First Discoverer bonus.
IMPORTANT: Distance from the faction hub is of paramount importance. If the player is free to pick what system to explore for the quest, a powerful modifier will be added to the payout depending on wether the faction wants intel on very close, very far or in-between systems.
- For an example, scientific institutions might simply not care about the distance, whereas a lawful faction would want to know as much as possible about its nearest surroundings. Underworld factions would want to nest far from civilisation to avoid being noticed, but not so much as to be cut from it entirely. A mining venture, on the other hand, would want the closest possible sources that aren't close enough that everyone else and their mother will notice their existence and rush towards them...
- In these cases, a suggested "goldilocks" distance will be suggested in the mission board.
24 ) New Mining Prospection Mission :
Same goes with mining and prospecting missions. They could be a lot more interesting than just "Go Fetch 3 painite!" missions if you factor in prospection and the like.
While handing out quest "data", a window will allow the player to browse which systems he wished to submit to the mission giver (provided that many will probably fit the mission's criteria).
A missions's payout would be in part determined by the value of the data or commodities handed out. The better the samples/data, the better the pay.
- Plant X mining beacons on pristine veins of Y mineral within Z ly of faction hub and bring Mining Beacon Coordinates.
- Plant X mining beacons on pristine veins of Y mineral found in planet Z of System A and bring Mining Beacon Coordinates.
- Go mine Mining Beacon from provided Mining Beacon Coordinates Data Bundle.
- Bring X Planetary Composition samples from within Z ly of faction hub.
- Bring a Planetary Composition sample from a designated planet.
- Bring a Planetary Composition sample from every planet within a designated system.
- Bring X Ring Composition Analysys Reports from within Y ly of faction hub.
- Bring a Ring Composition Analysys Report from a designated asteroid ring or belt.
- Bring a Ring Composition Analysys Report from every ring and belt within a designated system.
25 ) Upcoming "Guardians" Exploration Missions :
I can't know for sure what's coming in the next patch, but I can sure give you a piece of my mind!
Assuming that players can now carry other humans - civilians and military alike - around the galaxy, a tremendous options arises for explorers.
- Ferry settlers and their prefabricated base to a precise point on a designated planet, wait until they establish camp, then leave them to their troubles.
- Transport renegades/escaped slaves/criminals to a random place on a random planet which would have designated qualities (i.e. within range of a terrestrial planet, etc.) as far from galactic powers as possible.
- Transport explorers, scientists or military personnel in a designated system and scan stellar bodies until you find the destination they were sent to investigate. Drop them there, pick them up, and come back home.
- Evacuate a colony that can't afford one cryo pod per inhabitant. The more people are saved befire the time limit, the better.
- Might demand to bring the populace to a designated location, or to any close-by facilities that can accomodate refugees.
- Take X passengers on a tour of the galaxy (multiple prerequisites) :
- Go further than X ly from the faction hub.
- Discover X new systems.
- Discover at least X planets of Y nature (many space tourists would pay a lot to be the first to see a new earth-like planet or stare in wonder at a volcanic world's fiery brutality).
- Travel inside of X number of nebulae.
- Get within DSS scanning range of a particularly rare body (a pulsar, a black hole, etc).
- Come back to port before X time has elapsed.
- Come back to port AFTER X time has elapsed (It's a touring vacation, after all).
New Exploration Ship :
26 ) The Observer Deep Space Explorer.
First, let's face it. When it comes down to exploring, nothing in the available array of current ships is a serious step-up from the Asp explorer. Even an anaconda remains redundant and quite literally not worth the effort.
Bear in mind that what I wish to suggest today is not simply "another" middle-ground ship like there are so many in the game. There are quite enough of those already. I'm talking about a "prestige" ship, the kind of boat a captain rides at the end of his career.
Because let's face it, the Corvette is entirely a combat ship and, in good hands, possibly the best combat ship out there. In the same way, the Cutter is simply the best trading ship out there by a long stretch. The anaconda is a little bit of both, but it fulfills every role in a very good way without any specialisation. I do believe that Explorers deserve a state-of-the-art dedicated "endgame" large ship, that costs an arm and a leg and just shows off how far you've got, while doing its job sensibly better than other ships with the same role. In essence I suggest to you that the best exploration ship shouldn't be an all-purpose ship, but rather a vessel that has been tailored through and through to fulfill that role.
Also, it would bring a much needed function to the game : that of flying laboratory. An Asp is great for one person, but you won't fit an entire science team in it, ever.
Here are the perks I believe this ship should have :
1 ) A class 8 FSD. No other ship has one of those beasts, and it would make sense for the ODSE to have one. HOWEVER, this superior FSD would not be there to provide a riddiculously long jump range : Rather, it would allow the ship to maintain an high jump range without having to sacrifice hardpoint quality.
For an example, a weaponless, d-rated Anaconda can reach close to 40 ly for a single jump, but chosing to make it efficient in any other way (a-rated modules, actually bring weapons, etc...) will bring its jump range to a measly 16ly.
This calls for a massive compromise in everything else's efficiency just to accomplish one task : jumping over more systems.
Now what I propose is to make a ship with an overall better jump range (maybe around 35ly), but that does not require that compromise to be made. The size 8 FSD would allow the ship not to jump 85 ly, but simply ignore variations in its own mass.
Instead of wildly swinging between 40 to 16 ly like the anaconda's, the ODSE's jump distance would range maybe between 35 and 40 stripped down.
It would be marginally superior for jumping, but its true "niche" ability would be how it does not need to compromise its other systems to be a great explorer, just like the Cutter does not need to compromise (even on shielding!) to be a good trader etc.
Also note that as far as game balancing goes, a greater FSD range changes little to overall profit. In wild space, if most systems are undiscovered, going for the shorter "economic" routes will net you as many discoveries. Going quickly to deep space is a matter of gameplay preference, not of
2 ) Class 8 Thrusters. Althought of a lesser stature than either the Cutter or Corvette, the ODSE would come with a massive array of thrusters. But unlike most ships whose thrusters' bulk faces backwards to reach the highest accelerations as possible, the ODSE would specialize in upwards thrust. It could essentially accelerate as quickly upwards as it could forward.
This strange feature is essential for a sizeable exploration ship, since it needs to be able to fight massive gravitational influence.
However, since its power is divided equally between two vectors, it could in no way become a speed demon. Peak speeds around those of the Cutter or a bit faster with better but weird manoeuverability should do the trick. In effect, it is not more manoeuverable in space, but easily outclasses any other large ship if it fights in a planet's gravity well. That's something to think about!
this is to emphasize how this ship is meant to bring a science team and land them safely in any and all circumstances, facing the most hazardous environments, even the gravity of giant planet.
3 ) More numerous but smaller internals. To the contrary of combat ships who try to cram as many big internal compartments as possible and sacrifice their available number, the ODSE would have a plethora of smaller internals that would allow it to cram a plethora of useful modules ; AFMs, SRV hangars, refineries, fuel scoop, different limpet controllers, etc.
Suggested : 1 class 7, 2 class 6, 3 class 5, 4 class 4, 2 class 3 and 2 class 1 (which exist expressly for the two scanner modules).
that's 14 internals vs the Anaconda's 11. Slightly better while having actually less cargo space.
4 ) Weak shields and hull, smaller weight. Built for exploring and not fighting, the ODSE's frame is much lighter and fragile. that allows it to be marginally faster, but its thruster placement dosen't make it much more nimble in space. It's just the easiest of the big ships to kill, not a big tank at all like the others. Just much more roomy than an asp.
5 ) Pitiful armament. Thought capable of defending itself somewhat, the ODSE brings little to the table in terms of firepower. 2 size 3 chin-mounted hardpoints, 4 size 2 and 3 size 1. It can fend off small pirate ships correctly, and that's it... Or nuke the hell out of a mining spot!
6 ) Manufacturer : Saud Kruger. This ship, being an explorer, will end up in a lot of screenshots. It needs to be beautifully designed. Also, more importantly, it needs to accomodate humans doing research, not pirates, and that calls for some measure of comfort. Even better, it needs a lot of observation bays. A whitish clinical design is in order... All those criteria scream SK industries!
And that is, I think, an acceptable idea for an exploration endgame ship.
Synthesis mechanics :
Admittedly, the synthesis mechanics could be improved. And they could be used to improve another crippling aspect of the game : The Grind Reaper, the painful trek towards engineer and synthesis materials. Those options should alleviate the problem while adding some matter of agency to the player and making - whatever they pick up and did not need - less discouraging.
27 ) Synthesis expanded - Material crafting - new internal : Fabricator :
Fabricators are a ship's synthesis module big grother. They basically can maufacture components and some commodities on a small scale.
Essentially, they can create basic manufactured materials using mined or manufactured materials of an lesser grade.
For instance, a player with a lot of Iron and carbon might decide to craft a grade 1 manufactured material (like Heat Conducting Wiring), or make a grade 3 manufactured (like a Chemical Distillery) from other grade 2 manufactured.
- Higher level manufactured materials woudl require more complex recipes with manufactured and mineral resources, but always from lower tiers.
- Fabricators range from size 5 to 8. They are not small and practical like synthesis modules, but rather akin to pocket factories.
- The size of a fabricator would determine the speed at which it cranks out manufactured materials. Class 5 would take many minutes for a single material, whereas size 8 could make multiple materials per minute.
- The grade of a material would indeed make it longer to produce.
- The grade of a fabricator would allow it to build more advanced materials. Grade E can only make class 1 (very common) materials, but grade A can build class 5 (very rare) ones.
- Fabricators can be programmed to produce X amount of a material, and keep working until their objective os attained or resources are depleted.
- Of course, the price of a fabricator that can crank up class 5 materials needs to be astronomical, and it needs to have a riddiculous power draw and weight.
This would allow recycling of the masses of materials every player has cluttering their inventory.
28 ) Synthesis expanded - Material crafting - new internal : Fusion Forge :
Fusion Forges are a very advanced cousin of the ships' own power plant that do not normally produce energy but rather fuse elements together.
They use fission and fusion reactions to reorganize atom cores so as to produce other materials.
Once again, a civilisation that can power a ship with a 2-ton fusion reactor working with hydrogen harvested from a star's corona just before travelling 25 lightyears in 15 seconds... Can totally pull this off, I'm sorry skeptics.
- Fusion Forges are only available in size 7 and 8, being massive and all, and happend to be tremendously heavy and expensive.
- The difference between class 7 and 8 is nothing but cooling. a class 8 is twice the size and twice the weight, and ALL that is additional cooling equipment to make the process safer.
- Class E can only produce grade 1 materials from other grade 1 materials, therefore reorganizing nuclear structures into other simple elements, whereas class A can produce even grade 5 materials by recombining either other grade 5s, or lower elements.
- A material of grade X can be made from a single unit of another grade X material, provided that the source material has a greater atomic number. But the other way around requires more than one of the source material.
- For an example, a single unit of Iron (Atomic Number 26) Can be used to make a single unit of Carbon (A.N. 6).
- However, making one unit of Iron will require 5 units of Carbon.
- Higher class Fusion Forges have a greater chance of subdividing bigger into smaller ones and give additional unites (a class e FF will produce only 1 Carbon from 1 Iron, but a class A might produce up to 4 carbon from 1 Iron)
- Producing higher grade elements from lower ones will require exponentially more resources. This is because the process requires powerful cooling that also happens to be extremely wasteful, purposefully venting matter to cool efficiently enough.
- One grade 2 requires 2x grade 1 of an appropriately high atomic number,
- a grade 3 requires 3 grade 2,
- a grade 4 requires 4 grade 3,
- a grade 5 requires 5 grade 4
- Therefore, producing one grade 5 would require 5 * 4 = 20 grade 3, 60 grade 2 or 120 grade 1.
- The more materials are involved and the higher grade the product is, the longer the reaction takes.
- Fusion Forges draw so much power that they visibly deplete the fuel reservoir - su much so that the ship needs to be either actively fuel scooping or equipped with massive backup fuel tanks.
- They do not work with commodities as they are unable to accomodate more than a few kilograms of matter in their bins.
* It would work in this way not to force players to grind over a hundred level 1 units, but rather to allow them to recycle all the "presently" useless materials that they'll keep stumbling upon while prospecting and turn them into useful stuff, so that their time is not wasted.
Danger Mechanic :
- A lot of arithmetics would however be needed to operate this module safely. As long as the fusion/fission reactions would not produce waste protons, the system would not overheat.
- Example : tellurium, grade 4, atomic number 52, vs Iron, grade 1, atomic number 26. Two units of Iron have 52 protons combined, and the grade 4 demands 24 units of a class 1 to make a class 4, so it goes to 48. The pilot does have 48 units of iron sitting uselessly in his hold (don't we all, incidentally?), so he commits them to the Fusion Forge, starts the process to create one unit of Tellurium while skimming fuel from a not-too-hot star and remains there for the duration of the reaction, all this safely and soundly.
- However, the player wishes to use polonium (Atomic number 84) as well, and so decides to commit 10 units of tellurium (after finding a trove of them while looking for Polonium a week later), since one unit is not enough to match the 84 protons in the Polonium atom's core, and since it takes 5 grade 4 materials to make one grade 5. Sadly, two tellurium atoms give 104 protons, and that means 20 more will remain, along with additional energy from the broken nucleic bonds which needs to be vented. In this circumstance, the fusion reaction will become powerfully exothermal and start overheating the ship for its duration, causing system damage.
- In the case of such an emergency, stopping the reaction immediatly vents all the plasma in the forge and causes the loss of all materials.
29 ) Synthesis expanded - Limpets :
Limpets are very small and simple-as-can-be versatile and easily programmable robots. Everything about them screams about on-the-fly futuristic 3D printing.
Turns out, for prospecting explorers, miners of all stripes and the like, they are a necessary commodity that's not entirely foolproof (what with all their suicidal tendancies etc.).
If there's one item in the universe that should be easily synthesisable (you know, besides actual military grade guided torpedoes that scramble a ship's FSD even through its shielding... because that can be synthesized right now)... it's those little limpets.
it would be SO practical for all types of players...
Requests and favors mechanics :
30 ) Requests and favors system :
This one might be my favorite response to the material problem, and it's also the one that makes the galaxy the most lively. Essentially, every faction with which a player can interact has a "Request A Favor" option.
Upon hitting that option, the faction representative would appear like on the mission board (with an appropriate greeting - not the same kind, of course, as the player comes in asking for something), but instead of recieving assignments, the player would be able to request a favor from the chosen faction. Types of favors would include :
- Obtain a loan.
- This is the most basic of all favors and could be obtainable for anyone by any faction. The quantity, interest rates, etc. are howeverdependant on standing, economic state, government type, etc.
- Trade rank would play a big part here, as a tyconn would outright seem more solvable than a nobody.
- Defaulting on return paymnts would decrease faction standing, to the point where a bfaction would grow hostile, or a legal bounty/fine would be issued on the player.
- Obtain any kind of material, mineral, metal or other commodity.
- More often than not, a faction will want to trade commodities for other, more needed ones, or outright demand that the player fulfull a mission for them.
- That would be great to offset the rarity of certain engineering materials and turn The Grind into missions instead.
- Borrow a ship for a limited amount of time.
- The player has to pay insurance costs upon death and also incurs a fee + loss of faction standing for failing to bring the ship back ().
- Upon seeing a really nice cargo quest, for an example, but having a ship too small, the player could try and borrow a big enough cargo ship (and be given toe posibility to customize it a big, while on a budget), do the quest, reap in the benefits and give back the ship. The player could set what time would be necessary
- Actual ship mortguages/financing.
- Buy a ship with the faction's money and repay in monthly/weekly automatic payments. Defaulting increases ineterests and decreases faction standing.
- Trade rank would play a big part here, as a tyconn would outright seem more solvable than a nobody.
- Defaulting on return paymnts would decrease faction standing, to the point where a bfaction would grow hostile, or a legal bounty/fine would be issued on the player.
- Take care of an assignment/mission/request from another faction
- (can't have a faction fixing its own problems now, can't we?). When doing this, the character would still recieve proper payment from the original mission giver, but would have to repay a favor to the faction that actually helped.
- For an example, a character who recieves an assassination mission from a military faction but does not want to get his hands dirty could ask a favor of a pirate faction he has good standing with, for an example, but the pirates would also require a favor.
- Wether a faction is willing to do a particular favor at all will depend on : Government type, Economy type, Economic state (better chance to get a loan in a booming economy...), player standing, importance of the request, wether it is criminal or not, etc.
- Characters in a very high standing might recieve what they demand for free if they aren't asking for the moon.
- Characters with high galactic power standing (Dukes, admirals and the like), deemed more trustworthy and devoted by their power, will have an easier time trying to get favors and might get free favors more frequently, whereas the Alliance
- If the loan/borrowed ship were of little importance, a faction might eventually "drop the ball" and move on, but the larger the sum, the more determined a faction would be to get it back - or get back at the player.
- A player who constantly betrays his word will eventually get a negative modifier with its faction reputation gain, as he is deemed increasingly untrustworthy. No farming up to allied then betraying. This modifier should take months or weeks to progressively disappear.
- Underworld factions would work a bit differently. They would more often be willing to do favors "free of charge", but would eventually ask for drastic favors (thusly imposing a mission upon the player), like between the members of an organized mafia or something. Refusing to do said favor would immediately turn them hostile.
- In any case, asking for a favor would not automatically incur a standing derease. Failing to repay in any way would however cripple relations with the faction. Good buisness is good buisness, and a profitable exchange of favors would elad to an increase in standing.
- Essentially, a player with many, many contacts could ask huge favors and pass the return favors onto other factions that are very competent in the mission's field, thus breaking down what he needs to do. To balance this, statistically, factions would demand return favors slightly bigger than the favor asked of them.
Building rank, obtaining influence, creating a network of resources... this would make it all possible! It would bring the political and economical world of Elite to life! Give the player a reason to work in more than oe system! And it would bring a whole new layer of gameplay : Juggling contacts and favors! Because after all, we all know deep down, success...
It's ALL about having connections!
31 ) Requests and favors system with Engineers :
This favor exchange idea should apply in the same way with the Engineers in their respective field.
- After applying the appropriate special weapon effect, the engineer would demand something in return. Failing to accomplish whatever is demanded would then incur a loss of reputation.
- A modification in and of itself could be made as a favor (without costs). Asking then to tweak the special effects would make the return favor much bigger.
- Engineers, being their own one-man faction, would also be able to do standard favors closely related to their interests.
- This also ties in the neccessity for a mission board in every engineer base that would allow us players to work for them and eventually gain reputation in this way too.
Well, this is the end!
If you really have read through all of this, I thank you very deeply indeed! I hope it's been interesting at least.
I also hope at least one soul from FD will take an interest in this.
If you actually HAVE read all of it, please answer the poll I've attached to this huge wall of text.
Of course, please also give as much constructive feedback as possible!
Farewell, commanders!
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