Chapter 1: Exploration
Before Horizons launched I had promised myself to refrain from pre-purchasing or buying it without waiting for some reviews. I enjoyed season 1, but there were a number of things, which I had personally hoped for and which had not been implemented into the game and I did not want to throw my hard earned money at a game with few certainties.
Obviously I failed… the day Horizons came out I bought it, and I must say that my first impressions were great! I outfitted my python with a vehicle bay and headed for the first landable planet I found. Orbital cruise, then glide, then a brief flight skimming the surface, finally touching down. WOW!
I quickly sold my python and outfitted an exploration Asp Explorer, heading out into the unknown. Over a few weeks I made three exploration trips, 800LY, 1500LY and 5000+LY, earning quite a decent reward, landing on planets and taking some great screenshots, but every time, as my voyage continued, I started to find less and less excitement. The worlds I encountered were varied enough (barring the endless expanses of ice ball systems), and the thrill of discovering something new and interesting kept me going. But what really dampened my enthusiasm was the feeling that I was not really going to find anything unexpected or unique. The PoIs on planets felt far too random, making the fact that they are in fact randomly generated, painfully obvious. Knowing that any wrecks I found were randomly generated killed any interest together with the fact that all the cargo I encountered would never be worth the reduced jump range that comes with carrying it. I would think that finding a crashed probe 5000LY from sol would be something really special, but the data I got out of it was worth very little, contained no background (it would be great to get some info on when, why and from where that probe had been launched and what should have been its course). Furthermore the frequency with which I found these as well as salvageable wrecks was so high that I simply started ignoring them. The biggest highlight of my exploring days was an encounter with a CMDR at Thor’s Eye. Unaware that I was on a similar path as the distant worlds expedition, after days of loneliness I saw a blip on my radar, an Anaconda, armed to the teeth. For the first time since I had left the bubble I felt helpless and the sheer distance between the closest station and myself suddenly had meaning. Fortunately the CMDR, who I would like to thank dearly, was escorting the DW expedition and on the lookout for CMDRs who had been harassing the exploration vessels.
Unfortunately, after that and after a few more hours of exploration, I abandoned my plan to get to the core and headed back. Throughout all my exploration missions, with the exception of the above situation, I never really felt in danger, I lacked the feeling of “adventure”. Mine was not a daring journey into the unknown, alone and out of reach; it was a grind; a grind with some fantastic sights, some fun low altitude flight, some cool drives on planet surfaces, but unfortunately nothing more.
Having said all this (I realize I am long winded and that most of what I wrote will never be read) concerning Exploration I really feel that something that feeds into our sense of adventure is necessary. More dangers, more risks. Overheating from jumping into multi star systems, unmapped asteroid fields or debris disrupting super-cruise, extremely rare salvage containing valuable information (both in terms of monetary rewards and of actual data, such as the coordinates of interesting/valuable planets, persistent mineral deposits, ancient shipwrecks etc.) and maybe even stranded pilots or ships which give long range missions. Simply the idea of finding a large persistent deposit of rare minerals which I could mine for a profit, sell the information making it public through a dedicated network or keep secret for myself and my mates, would give the vast galaxy a lot more depth. This may be just my personal opinion, but randomly generated spawning PoIs feel “fake”. Procedurally generated but persistent items, generated based on their rarity and on a number of other factors, which are visible without having to fly under 2 km but rather with the DSS, would give the game a lot more immersion. My last point concerning exploration is about planets. Rather than simply having the various categories (icy body, high metal content, rocky body, etc.) it would be great if each planet’s composition had relevance. By this I mean that the reward for finding a planet or ring composed of a high percentage of a very rare metal or mineral should result in a much higher reward than those made up of a more common element, greatly widening the “price range”. This would also make deep space mining an interesting new aspect in the game.
I hope to receive some feedback by fellow CMDRs on my thoughts, which in any case I felt like sharing and would like to end by thanking FD for the great job they are doing with Elite. Hopefully some of the points I mentioned and other players also share some of my ideas.
When I find the time I plan to write some more on the aspects of Bounty Hunting, Piracy, Trading and more.
Till next time!
Before Horizons launched I had promised myself to refrain from pre-purchasing or buying it without waiting for some reviews. I enjoyed season 1, but there were a number of things, which I had personally hoped for and which had not been implemented into the game and I did not want to throw my hard earned money at a game with few certainties.
Obviously I failed… the day Horizons came out I bought it, and I must say that my first impressions were great! I outfitted my python with a vehicle bay and headed for the first landable planet I found. Orbital cruise, then glide, then a brief flight skimming the surface, finally touching down. WOW!
I quickly sold my python and outfitted an exploration Asp Explorer, heading out into the unknown. Over a few weeks I made three exploration trips, 800LY, 1500LY and 5000+LY, earning quite a decent reward, landing on planets and taking some great screenshots, but every time, as my voyage continued, I started to find less and less excitement. The worlds I encountered were varied enough (barring the endless expanses of ice ball systems), and the thrill of discovering something new and interesting kept me going. But what really dampened my enthusiasm was the feeling that I was not really going to find anything unexpected or unique. The PoIs on planets felt far too random, making the fact that they are in fact randomly generated, painfully obvious. Knowing that any wrecks I found were randomly generated killed any interest together with the fact that all the cargo I encountered would never be worth the reduced jump range that comes with carrying it. I would think that finding a crashed probe 5000LY from sol would be something really special, but the data I got out of it was worth very little, contained no background (it would be great to get some info on when, why and from where that probe had been launched and what should have been its course). Furthermore the frequency with which I found these as well as salvageable wrecks was so high that I simply started ignoring them. The biggest highlight of my exploring days was an encounter with a CMDR at Thor’s Eye. Unaware that I was on a similar path as the distant worlds expedition, after days of loneliness I saw a blip on my radar, an Anaconda, armed to the teeth. For the first time since I had left the bubble I felt helpless and the sheer distance between the closest station and myself suddenly had meaning. Fortunately the CMDR, who I would like to thank dearly, was escorting the DW expedition and on the lookout for CMDRs who had been harassing the exploration vessels.
Unfortunately, after that and after a few more hours of exploration, I abandoned my plan to get to the core and headed back. Throughout all my exploration missions, with the exception of the above situation, I never really felt in danger, I lacked the feeling of “adventure”. Mine was not a daring journey into the unknown, alone and out of reach; it was a grind; a grind with some fantastic sights, some fun low altitude flight, some cool drives on planet surfaces, but unfortunately nothing more.
Having said all this (I realize I am long winded and that most of what I wrote will never be read) concerning Exploration I really feel that something that feeds into our sense of adventure is necessary. More dangers, more risks. Overheating from jumping into multi star systems, unmapped asteroid fields or debris disrupting super-cruise, extremely rare salvage containing valuable information (both in terms of monetary rewards and of actual data, such as the coordinates of interesting/valuable planets, persistent mineral deposits, ancient shipwrecks etc.) and maybe even stranded pilots or ships which give long range missions. Simply the idea of finding a large persistent deposit of rare minerals which I could mine for a profit, sell the information making it public through a dedicated network or keep secret for myself and my mates, would give the vast galaxy a lot more depth. This may be just my personal opinion, but randomly generated spawning PoIs feel “fake”. Procedurally generated but persistent items, generated based on their rarity and on a number of other factors, which are visible without having to fly under 2 km but rather with the DSS, would give the game a lot more immersion. My last point concerning exploration is about planets. Rather than simply having the various categories (icy body, high metal content, rocky body, etc.) it would be great if each planet’s composition had relevance. By this I mean that the reward for finding a planet or ring composed of a high percentage of a very rare metal or mineral should result in a much higher reward than those made up of a more common element, greatly widening the “price range”. This would also make deep space mining an interesting new aspect in the game.
I hope to receive some feedback by fellow CMDRs on my thoughts, which in any case I felt like sharing and would like to end by thanking FD for the great job they are doing with Elite. Hopefully some of the points I mentioned and other players also share some of my ideas.
When I find the time I plan to write some more on the aspects of Bounty Hunting, Piracy, Trading and more.
Till next time!