Planetary Approach Suite is a waste of a module slot

[Rhaazerus Orzhov]

Planetary Approach Suite

A series of thruster modifications, sensor calibrations and avionics that allow a ship to fly effectively while close to a planetary body. Required to land on planets without atmospheres. — In-Game Description The Planetary Approach Suite is a specialised module that complements Thrusters and...

elite-dangerous.fandom.com

Introduced back in Horizons, and listed in the "optional" modules.
Even though it's required for planetary landings, and the only thing that goes in that module slot is the planetary approach suite.
Comes equip with all ships by default, it's entirely automatic and passive, doesn't use fuel, doesn't use power, and only serves the function of giving you the option to land on planets.
Sure you may like the option to not have it, but removing it doesn't seem to affect your ships stats, and you can't replace it with anything else in that module slot. There's little reason to go without it.
The only difference between the Planetary Approach Suite and the Advanced Planetary Approach Suite is that the advanced allows for zero atmosphere landing and tenuous atmosphere landing.
So again, little reason to without it, and why not just go with the Advanced?

With Horizons now being part of the base game, planetary landing is something that everyone has access to and now with Odyssey, planetary landing is a much more frequent part of the game.
The planetary approach module just feels a little superfluous.
It ought to just be removed entirely, or at the least it should be moved over to "core" modules.

 

[Robert Maynard]

The slot for the Planetary Landing Suite (that nothing else can be installed into) was added to all ships in Horizons when Horizons launched.

 

[Riverside]

The 'slot' for the PLA was added to all ships when Horizons launched, it is no more a waste of a slot than hull armour (or military slots, which suggestions like this more commonly target).
The Advanced version is for Beyond.

A case could be made for adding even more optional slots to ships but I don't think there would be much if any gameplay attached to the dilemma of choosing whether to sacrifice the ability to land on planets for more cargo space or hitpoints.

 

[Morbad]

If you remove it you can gravity break more aggressively with landable planets as the actual exclusion zone is usually much closer than the orbital cruise limit. Other than that, the option doesn't have much utility and they could simply have omitted the modules and the slot.

 

[Factabulous]

Planetary Approach Suite

A series of thruster modifications, sensor calibrations and avionics that allow a ship to fly effectively while close to a planetary body. Required to land on planets without atmospheres. — In-Game Description The Planetary Approach Suite is a specialised module that complements Thrusters and...

elite-dangerous.fandom.com

Introduced back in Horizons, and listed in the "optional" modules.
Even though it's required for planetary landings, and the only thing that goes in that module slot is the planetary approach suite.
Comes equip with all ships by default, it's entirely automatic and passive, doesn't use fuel, doesn't use power, and only serves the function of giving you the option to land on planets.
Sure you may like the option to not have it, but removing it doesn't seem to affect your ships stats, and you can't replace it with anything else in that module slot. There's little reason to go without it.
The only difference between the Planetary Approach Suite and the Advanced Planetary Approach Suite is that the advanced allows for zero atmosphere landing and tenuous atmosphere landing.
So again, little reason to without it, and why not just go with the Advanced?

With Horizons now being part of the base game, planetary landing is something that everyone has access to and now with Odyssey, planetary landing is a much more frequent part of the game.
The planetary approach module just feels a little superfluous.
It ought to just be removed entirely, or at the least it should be moved over to "core" modules.

Pointless thing to update. Unless you think the rest of the game is perfect ...

 

[Rhaazerus Orzhov]

If you remove it you can gravity break more aggressively with landable planets as the actual exclusion zone is usually much closer than the orbital cruise limit. Other than that, the option doesn't have much utility and they could simply have omitted the modules and the slot.

That's pretty cool, I did not know about that kind of maneuverability being capable without it.

Pointless thing to update. Unless you think the rest of the game is perfect ...

There are plenty of little things in the game that people would like to see changes to, there's no need for the entirety of the game to be perfect before addressing various minor things and making suggestions on them. And I'm certainly not saying it's a priority, I'm just nit-picking.

The PLA isn't a game ruining thing for me, it just seems like an unnecessary additional slot to only add the option of landing on a planet when planetary approach seems like something that ships should be capable of without the addition of a dedicated module slot.

 

[Factabulous]

I'm just nit-picking.

Yes. Please don't, the nice folk at fdev have actual useful stuff that needs doing.

Thankyou for listening to my TED talk.

 

[Riverside]

Yes. Please don't, the nice folk at fdev have actual useful stuff that needs doing.

Thankyou for listening to my TED talk.

Your objection appears to be to the fundamental idea of posting suggestions in the suggestions section of the forum, a place dedicated to suggestions rather than this specific suggestion.

 

[V'larr]

Yeah, this along with other basic functionality suites like docking computers and discovery scanners should just be built-in to ships by default. At least we've got 1 of the 3 built-in now....

 

[Northpin]

Planetary Approach Suite

A series of thruster modifications, sensor calibrations and avionics that allow a ship to fly effectively while close to a planetary body. Required to land on planets without atmospheres. — In-Game Description The Planetary Approach Suite is a specialised module that complements Thrusters and...

elite-dangerous.fandom.com

Introduced back in Horizons, and listed in the "optional" modules.
Even though it's required for planetary landings, and the only thing that goes in that module slot is the planetary approach suite.
Comes equip with all ships by default, it's entirely automatic and passive, doesn't use fuel, doesn't use power, and only serves the function of giving you the option to land on planets.
Sure you may like the option to not have it, but removing it doesn't seem to affect your ships stats, and you can't replace it with anything else in that module slot. There's little reason to go without it.
The only difference between the Planetary Approach Suite and the Advanced Planetary Approach Suite is that the advanced allows for zero atmosphere landing and tenuous atmosphere landing.
So again, little reason to without it, and why not just go with the Advanced?

With Horizons now being part of the base game, planetary landing is something that everyone has access to and now with Odyssey, planetary landing is a much more frequent part of the game.
The planetary approach module just feels a little superfluous.
It ought to just be removed entirely, or at the least it should be moved over to "core" modules.

Base game, no planetary landing module
Horizons, Planetary Approach Suite
Odyssey, Advanced Planetary Approach Suite

Makes sense to me.

And Horizons being part of the base game doesnt mean you cannot load the base game.


Other then that, why fixit if it's not broken? and nothing IS broken in this regard

 

[V'larr]

Base game, no planetary landing module
Horizons, Planetary Approach Suite
Odyssey, Advanced Planetary Approach Suite

Makes sense to me.

And Horizons being part of the base game doesnt mean you cannot load the base game.


Other then that, why fixit if it's not broken? and nothing IS broken in this regard

Built-in functionality makes much better sense. Keep the game simple for your players. Unnecessary and/or tedious hurdles that are also often trivial in nature create an experience that swiftly builds up dissatisfaction.

You & Fdev should have learned that lesson from the deployment of Engineering.

 

[Demonlord79]

I believe that was when Horizons split so you could now land on planets as those that only had Elite could not, correct me if I'm wrong.
But it just added a spot on every ship nothing more than a little touch I suppose.
No, they aren't needed anymore but why waste the time digging through lines of code just to remove them.

 

[metatheurgist]

Built-in functionality makes much better sense. Keep the game simple for your players. Unnecessary and/or tedious hurdles that are also often trivial in nature create an experience that swiftly builds up dissatisfaction.

You & Fdev should have learned that lesson from the deployment of Engineering.

There are no hurdles here. That module slot is not intended for players to use, it's just a key to limit access to game areas depending on which game you start. The only thing FD are guilty of is not making it less visible.

 

[Northpin]

There are no hurdles here. That module slot is not intended for players to use, it's just a key to limit access to game areas depending on which game you start. The only thing FD are guilty of is not making it less visible.

This

Built-in functionality makes much better sense. Keep the game simple for your players. Unnecessary and/or tedious hurdles that are also often trivial in nature create an experience that swiftly builds up dissatisfaction.

There is no player functionality attached to it (except the extremely edge case of removing it to increase planetary exclusion zone to help with planetary breaking braking)
You cannot put anything else in it.

It never bothered me
And i dont think FDev will do anything about it since it's part of the ship outfitting design and functionality
Not at last, if they're be hiding it, surely they would make a number of players unhappy that will claim FDev destroyed their game by hiding that module...


edit: minor typo

 

[Morbad]

Yeah, this along with other basic functionality suites like docking computers and discovery scanners should just be built-in to ships by default. At least we've got 1 of the 3 built-in now....

The other functionality suites take up module space that can be used for other equipment, and have minor mass/power/targeting considerations, which makes the decision to use them a trade-off. Because of this integrating them has inflationary effect on balance, unless the optional module slots that were added to accommodate them are also removed.

The planetary landing suites use their own dedicated slot, and have no other attributes. Fully integrating them would not involve meaningful trade-offs (the only thing omitting them does is change the exclusion zone/orbital cruise distance; which could be fixed simply by removing the 300km/s speed limit for orbital cruise entry) and would not free up any slots for other use.

Integrating the planetary landing functionality makes a lot of sense to me, precisely because it wouldn't be inflationary, but it's also not a big deal.

 

[V'larr]

There are no hurdles here. That module slot is not intended for players to use, it's just a key to limit access to game areas depending on which game you start. The only thing FD are guilty of is not making it less visible.

The "hurdle" is bothering to keep the module on your ship. Which is an unnecessary step for the reason you just gave. Whether you look at the solution as 'hiding' the slot or just baking the functionality to land on planets into all ships without any fuss on the part of the player, really makes no difference.

This



There is no player functionality attached to it (except the extremely edge case of removing it to increase planetary exclusion zone to help with planetary breaking braking)
You cannot put anything else in it.

It never bothered me
And i dont think FDev will do anything about it since it's part of the ship outfitting design and functionality
Not at last, if they're be hiding it, surely they would make a number of players unhappy that will claim FDev destroyed their game by hiding that module...


edit: minor typo

Your mental orbital mechanics are dizzyingly erratic.The functionality for the player is the ability to land on planets. It serves no function in terms of ship outfitting design - it is an auto-include for all designs that wish to not cut out a massive chunk of the game's content and focus (which is evident given Fdev's almost exclusive focus upon Odyssey). There is not a single tangible scenario that would give a player a reason to be unhappy if it was simply an included feature for all ships in the game.

The other functionality suites take up module space that can be used for other equipment, and have minor mass/power/targeting considerations, which makes the decision to use them a trade-off. Because of this integrating them has inflationary effect on balance, unless the optional module slots that were added to accommodate them are also removed.

The planetary landing suites use their own dedicated slot, and have no other attributes. Fully integrating them would not involve meaningful trade-offs (the only thing omitting them does is change the exclusion zone/orbital cruise distance; which could be fixed simply by removing the 300km/s speed limit for orbital cruise entry) and would not free up any slots for other use.

Integrating the planetary landing functionality makes a lot of sense to me, precisely because it wouldn't be inflationary, but it's also not a big deal.

The 'considerations' for taking on functionality suites has been highlighted as being an unnecessary limitation (and, perhaps paradoxically, a trivial roadblock) to gameplay for many, many years now, which is why I'm surprised you of all people are championing the effect it has on balance, which is incredibly unimportant especially compared to all other considerations of current ship design concerns. The current result, as it was with discovery scanners, is only that ships with an insufficient number of optional internal slots available get ignored - the net effect is therefore a reduction, not an increase, to the number of "meaningful" options available to the player.

If perhaps ships had an 'electronics suite' that you could customize by picking and choosing what things you wish to include in it, that might be a meaningful alternative.

It is true, at least, that the planetary suite thing is ultimately not a big deal, but in an environment of many things in Elite that don't make the best sense, it would be an easy checkmark to cross off of the list.

 

[Northpin]

...if it was simply an included feature for all ships in the game.

And it isnt?

I'm not really sure what is your complain.

 

[V'larr]

And it isnt?

I'm not really sure what is your complain.

Do I need to spell out "built-in baseline feature"? Really? This facetiousness grows wearisome.

 

[Northpin]

Do I need to spell out "built-in baseline feature"? Really? This facetiousness grows wearisome.

it is a ship built in feature, different for each client

It's not something that a commander should interfere with (except for removing the module for a very edge case) and it's not something that is affecting the general ship outfitting

So again, what are you bothered with? the fact that you can see it? is it a aestethic issue?

The Approach suite being visible in outfitting does not affect any ship functionality.
The Approach suite being hidden or removed will affect the possibility of some commanders to (extremely edge cases) to remove the module and customize the ship behavior in regards to landing

The fact that you are mixing up Discovery scanner (a build it module) with Docking Computers and SCA (which require an outfitting slot - and for which an outfitting slot was added when SCA was introduced) and with the Approach Suite - which was their means (quite elegant i may say) of enabling planetary landing in Horizons... speaks volumes.

(edit, typos and missing a phrase ending)

 

[Factabulous]

This place can really argue about anything