Pandering to explorers

[aws357]

I am not an explorer. But there are many explorers out there mapping the galaxy, I think it would be nice to pay them a tribute.
After all, while :

PvP players whine because other players aren't easy enough to kill.
PvE players whine because other players kill them too easily.
Pirates whine because traders are not like babies you can steal a candy from.
Traders whine about many things because many things are a direct threat to profit.
And psychos laugh at all of them because stuff you all!

Explorers are the silent bunch who play the nicest and most civilized role in this messed up galaxy.

They are...

╚»★★★★★«╝ the unrecognized starfleet ╚»★★★★★«╝

For me, two things would make exploration a lucrative and fun profession instead of just a hobby.

Firstly, give all pilots a good reason to buy system maps before jumping into unexplored systems.

• by making FSD less accurate when jumping into a star system you never went before. Instead of popping in front of the star you should appear in random locations, with the possible risk of popping inside an astronomical body. People like to remind this is called elite : dangerous right? And it makes exploration more suspenseful.
• FSD takes more time to charge when jumping into unexplored systems (fluff would be "because of additional safety computation")

Secondly, give a reason for explorers to explore more by rewarding them with royalties.

• Each system maps bought by other pilots should reward the explorer with a small share of the price
• If a mining station is built on a planet that has been prospected (pristine metal planets) the explorer should receive a small percentage of the benefits

Lastly, after reading the threads about decoding the unknown artefact, would it be at all possible for FD to make exploration community goals where pilots cooperate to solve larger puzzles?

I think these suggestions would give me the drive to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.

Because if we don't lie to ourselves and apply a pink role play filter, this galaxy is mostly empty.

 

[Pete]

Explorers are the silent bunch who play the nicest and most civilized role in this messed up galaxy.

I don't know, sometimes we like to complain:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAECTFU69g4

by making FSD less accurate when jumping into a star system you never went before. Instead of popping in front of the star you should appear in random locations, with the possible risk of popping inside an astronomical body. People like to remind this is called elite : dangerous right? And it makes exploration more suspenseful.

Erm, no thanks, long exploration trips would be impossible if you knew that eventually the odds wouldn't work out in your favour and you'd be vaporised by an unlucky jump!

FSD takes more time to charge when jumping into unexplored systems (fluff would be "because of additional safety computation")

The last thing explorers want is yet another artificially long delay in letting them do what they're trying to do!

Each system maps bought by other pilots should reward the explorer with a small share of the price

Nice idea, but this will reward all the early explorers who mapped the area direcctly around and inbetween known space, and no-one else!

If a mining station is built on a planet that has been prospected (pristine metal planets) the explorer should receive a small percentage of the benefits

See previous comment.

Sorry - but I have to disagree with you on these ideas!


-- Pete.

 

[GrimThara]

• by making FSD less accurate when jumping into a star system you never went before. Instead of popping in front of the star you should appear in random locations, with the possible risk of popping inside an astronomical body. People like to remind this is called elite : dangerous right? And it makes exploration more suspenseful.

Believe me, this already happens more than enough times. The number of explorers who have either warped through or in between multiple stars and either died from it or suffered severe damage is quite plentiful.

I'm on my way back from a short 6000ly trip and I've flown through a fair few, doesn't get any less terrifying knowing it could be my last jump.

 

[CMDR DoubleSkulls]

For me, two things would make exploration a lucrative and fun profession instead of just a hobby.

Firstly, give all pilots a good reason to buy system maps before jumping into unexplored systems.

• by making FSD less accurate when jumping into a star system you never went before. Instead of popping in front of the star you should appear in random locations, with the possible risk of popping inside an astronomical body. People like to remind this is called elite : dangerous right? And it makes exploration more suspenseful.
• FSD takes more time to charge when jumping into unexplored systems (fluff would be "because of additional safety computation")
  

I take it you don't explore? Do you realise this would ruin exploration? Jumping 2000 systems with a chance of dying and no repairs available... and if you do die you lose all the exploration data. That is not fun. Having to wait another 5-10s to jump over 2000 jumps... Thanks for adding another 5.5 hours of tedium to return trip to Sag A.

Each system maps bought by other pilots should reward the explorer with a small share of the price

As far as I can tell currently player explored systems are not available for purchase. Its an FD defined list (Sag A for example wasn't available last time I checked). So that you need to be fixed to get any form of royalty payment out. Actually fixing that, and allowing explorers to avoid already explored systems would be quite helpful.

When was the last time anyone bought exploration data? The mechanisms for buying data only suit traders too - not explorers. Explorers would probably buy all the data for a sector in bulk - they don't want to select individual systems.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

Firstly, give all pilots a good reason to buy system maps before jumping into unexplored systems.

• by making FSD less accurate when jumping into a star system you never went before. Instead of popping in front of the star you should appear in random locations, with the possible risk of popping inside an astronomical body. People like to remind this is called elite : dangerous right? And it makes exploration more suspenseful.
• FSD takes more time to charge when jumping into unexplored systems (fluff would be "because of additional safety computation")

Secondly, give a reason for explorers to explore more by rewarding them with royalties.

• Each system maps bought by other pilots should reward the explorer with a small share of the price
• If a mining station is built on a planet that has been prospected (pristine metal planets) the explorer should receive a small percentage of the benefits

Lastly, after reading the threads about decoding the unknown artefact, would it be at all possible for FD to make exploration community goals where pilots cooperate to solve larger puzzles?

I think these suggestions would give me the drive to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.

Because if we don't lie to ourselves and apply a pink role play filter, this galaxy is mostly empty.

Hi, firstly thanks from the explorers I suppose. I think that group complain less because there are less of them, also because the minimal human/npc interaction gives less to complain about. And currently no one explores for the money since you could make 5 times the profit trading/fighting


Ok your suggestions: Chance of hitting a planet, ok for systems where you can buy maps. Not good when you jump through 5,000 systems on a 5 week trip with no way of remotely selling the data. Loose 5 weeks in one jump would just kill exploration.
Additional charge would again slow down or stop exploring. We've had thousands of explorers out there already, even organised groups and not even mapped 1% of the galaxy, slowing it down is not really a good way to go at the moment.

Increased rewards, yes please. For my trip I averaged 0.5mil/hr whereas in RES sites I can do 3.5mil/hr if I have the perfect storm.

Yes exploration community goals would be greatly appreciated by the explorers out there.

 

[CMDR Brock Samson]

[*]by making FSD less accurate when jumping into a star system you never went before. Instead of popping in front of the star you should appear in random locations, with the possible risk of popping inside an astronomical body. People like to remind this is called elite : dangerous right? And it makes exploration more suspenseful.

Yes please!!!!I can't wait to lose 2 months worth of data because my FSD drops me INSIDE a star!!!
Yey great fun!

 

[Philip Coutts]

Exploring by it's very nature is a career for the patient. You spend a lot of time alone, scanning planets and planning routes. I guess this might explain the fact that we don't as a whole do a lot of complaining. I would like to see more stuff out there to find but I think that might come with the Thargoids and the like. I would love for example to have a scanner that could detect which weapons were used to destroy a ship. If you blundered across a wrecked ship deep in space you could scan it and determine what had happened to it with the potential to sell that information.

 

[Rikk]

I like your sentiments, but there are a couple of problems with your first suggestions, mainly because the punish explorers.

Making a diceroll chance of dropping into a system inside a body will kill exploration stone dead in a heartbeat. There are already a few ways the galaxy is out to kill us, which we can use pilot skill to avoid or escape from. But even if there was a 1/1000 chance of dropping into a body then the long range explorers simple would find another game. Imagine being two months into an expedition and *boom* all gone because the game decided this is your day to die? Yea, that's give up and find another game territory. Now if I screw up and loose my ship, I'll simply dust off and go out again, but the game deciding I die would suck too much.

And FSD already feels like it takes an age when on a long travel leg, adding another time sink to exploration would be a fun inhibitor.

More galactic content - yea that would be awesome. It does feel very empty.
Making thing like Wolf-Rayets and Carbon stars (to name a couple) look more like they should (Rather than just copies of O/M class stars) would be cool.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

--- Deleted ---

 

[Kzak]

Some reasonable sentiments, but the ideas and consequences are not what most explorers would want. Exploring is already dangerous enough as it is, and very few other activities in Elite: Dangerous risk losing weeks of work due to a mishap.

 

[aws357]

I take it you don't explore?

Indeed. I even mention it in my original post

With hindsight, the spawning into a star idea is indeed something idiotic. Especially if you intend to cross all the galaxy.

The emergency exit would probably be enough to leave a stain in the underwear.

To be honest I am looking for reason to go out there, but can't find a good one yet. Apart from the fact I realized I've seen so few of the galaxy so far.

I would like to have a reasonably lucrative activity that is not "rinse and repeat".

 

[Agarthan]

Most of those ideas, just no.

but.

While we're doing wishlists on exploring. Why the hell do you lose all your exploration data if you die? Why is there no way in the 32nd century to back up your data? Why is there no cloud? This needs to be addressed, it's just silly, it's also an exploit loophole if exploration becomes more lucrative, just die and you can scan systems anywhere to make money. It's also annoying that you have to re-explore everything, how does that work for the people that have been to the edge of the galaxy and back only to have some jerk take all of that system knowledge out of their galaxy map - and while we are on the subject of the galaxy map there needs to be far more versatility with that thing, multiple way points, way points that can be customized with color and text, hand plotting courses, just to name a few 'why isn't this already in here?' ideas.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

Most of those ideas, just no.

but.

While we're doing wishlists on exploring. Why the hell do you lose all your exploration data if you die? Why is there no way in the 32nd century to back up your data? Why is there no cloud? This needs to be addressed, it's just silly, it's also an exploit loophole if exploration becomes more lucrative, just die and you can scan systems anywhere to make money. It's also annoying that you have to re-explore everything, how does that work for the people that have been to the edge of the galaxy and back only to have some jerk take all of that system knowledge out of their galaxy map - and while we are on the subject of the galaxy map there needs to be far more versatility with that thing, multiple way points, way points that can be customized with color and text, hand plotting courses, just to name a few 'why isn't this already in here?' ideas.

Being able to sell/store data after death eliminates all risk for players. I had to cut short an exploration trip because my canopy was about to crack, If I knew the data was safe I'd have ploughed on as far away from Sol as I could before getting the fastest taxi home.

 

[Ulysses_W]

Most of those ideas, just no.

but.

While we're doing wishlists on exploring. Why the hell do you lose all your exploration data if you die? Why is there no way in the 32nd century to back up your data? Why is there no cloud? This needs to be addressed, it's just silly, it's also an exploit loophole if exploration becomes more lucrative, just die and you can scan systems anywhere to make money. It's also annoying that you have to re-explore everything, how does that work for the people that have been to the edge of the galaxy and back only to have some jerk take all of that system knowledge out of their galaxy map - and while we are on the subject of the galaxy map there needs to be far more versatility with that thing, multiple way points, way points that can be customized with color and text, hand plotting courses, just to name a few 'why isn't this already in here?' ideas.

Loosing our data when we die is the risk we take.
We (or at least, I) welcome it with open arms.

 

[Agarthan]

Being able to sell/store data after death eliminates all risk for players. I had to cut short an exploration trip because my canopy was about to crack, If I knew the data was safe I'd have ploughed on as far away from Sol as I could before getting the fastest taxi home.

May be I should clarify, I'm not talking about data you haven't sold I'm talking about data you've already sold, if you die, unless I hallucinated it, the data in your galaxy map is gone.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

May be I should clarify, I'm not talking about data you haven't sold I'm talking about data you've already sold, if you die, unless I hallucinated it, the data in your galaxy map is gone.

Yeah, you are reset to the point you last left a station I think. I sort of get you, you loose all profits but can still see the systems you visited??

 

[Ulysses_W]

May be I should clarify, I'm not talking about data you haven't sold I'm talking about data you've already sold, if you die, unless I hallucinated it, the data in your galaxy map is gone.

This can't be true, can it?
Please tell me that Agarthan has this wrong.

 

[Lupin]

Maybe the reason why explorers are nicer, is that some of them realise that there is more to ED then killing things and making CR.

 

[777Driver]

This can't be true, can it?
Please tell me that Agarthan has this wrong.

Am not sure if it was a bug that was fixed, or it is intended gameplay (Haven't died for a while) You would lose your data if you died (after returning home).. Obviously you kept all profits from your trip. I screenshot all important systems I discover just in case.

@Op - Sorry mate,but those two suggestions are very bad, last thing we need is longer FSD spool times & potential death from misjumps, that would kill exploration.

 

[Ulysses_W]

Am not sure if it was a bug that was fixed, or it is intended gameplay (Haven't died for a while) You would lose your data if you died.. Obviously you kept all profits from your trip.

I understand that we loose our unsold data when we die, and I don't have a problem with that. But what Argarthan is saying is that if Zulu Romeo was to pop his clogs, Sag A* would no longer be attributed to him as his discovery?

Maybe it's just too early in the morning for me, and I'm just not getting it.