No apologize necessary, I know you were only trying to help.
But combined with what NecasekO said and others about the "first discovered by", it just wacky!! What are they smoking at ED!!!
This whole subject is messed up. Regardless of whom gets credit for the original discovery and gets they're name tagged to each body for discovery, everyone else who subsequently happens upon those system and had never been there prior should still be able to have their shot at their discovery as they haven't been there and in turn should receive the monetary credits for it!! If I'm in solo play, then I shouldn't know who discovered anything. This is why the whole server bound philosophy is porked!!
Thanks Thatchinho
Anytime mate! o7
I'll try and cover these other points as well if I can. I saw you mention that you'd just got the game shortly before 3.3, so welcome to the game!
I'm not sure whether the following are things that you don't know, or things you're well aware of, but I think there's a few core principles which basically help with any aspect of the game:
- the game universe has a lot of history (as does the game itself - lots of it (Lave, Diso, etc, for example) all go back to the original Elite from 1984)
- at this point in time in the game universe, humanity has been expanding out into the galaxy, and had FTL tech for around 1,150 years
- in ED everyone plays in the same game universe
- the game universe progresses in real time and player actions influence it (but taking into account an individual player is one of tens of thousands to millions of players, and we're all just part of a human population in the trillions or maybe even quadrillions.
- the only difference between the modes is that they control which players you will encounter in the same instance as you (Solo - none. Private Group - just players from the same Private Group. Open - any other player in Open (with a few conditions around the game trying to preferentially match you with Friends for example.))
It sounds from what you said about Solo, that you might have slightly different expectations of how things should be, but well... they are how they are, and if you take all the above into account it'll help you get the most out of the game!
Anyway, just to apply those principles...
No one, whether player or npc is the person who discovers Sol. It's already discovered. The same applies to a huge amount of other systems. You can't be the person who discovers a system that was first discovered 1,100 years ago, and has had a large population and been part of the galactic civilisation that entire time. No one gets any credits for those type of system, because no one is anywhere in the slightest bit close to what could be considered the discoverer of those systems.
(There was a bug in 3.3 which allowed people to get first discoveries for those type of systems, but that's all now been corrected.)
At the point you've joined, the game universe has progressed by 4 years since the game launched. What's happened up until that point is part of the history of the game universe. The game universe doesn't reset when someone new starts they game, they just join in at the UTC time and date they join + 1,285 years. As someone now in 3305, there's no reason why you wouldn't be able to see who discovered something in say 3303.
Similarly, when you start getting First Discoveries, that will still be part of the same game universe, even if you're playing in Solo, and anyone who goes to those systems afterwards will see your mark on the game universe.
If it helps, there's less than 0.001% of systems in the game which have been discovered. It's a big galaxy!
Once you're out there in the black, finding systems that no human in the game universe has ever been to before, then things will seem different!
Anyway, there's quite a lot of text there, but I hope that's all helpful! o7