∞ probes?

[Unknown Zombie]

...Taking just exploration, it's very important the mechanic has legs, as in it doesn't start to pee people off after 2 weeks, I think it's vital in fact....

Funny, that's exactly what the infinite probes are there to prevent. To prevent people from getting annoyed that all they want to do is explore, using fun new mechanics, instead of having to stop every X number of probes to go do some sideshow busy work.

Using a buggy to collect materials is tedious busy work. Flying your ship to a ring and hovering over it for 30 sec is inconsequential busy work. None of it really adds anything to the exploration experience except for a feeling of annoyance.

 

[bitstorm]

Funny, that's exactly what the infinite probes are there to prevent. To prevent people from getting annoyed that all they want to do is explore, using fun new mechanics, instead of having to stop every X number of probes to go do some sideshow busy work.

Using a buggy to collect materials is tedious busy work. Flying your ship to a ring and hovering over it for 30 sec is inconsequential busy work. None of it really adds anything to the exploration experience except for a feeling of annoyance.

Hardly "busy work".

[video=youtube;woizndHFGEk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woizndHFGEk[/video]

It's a fly by fer God's sake.

It's the very best bit of flying around in supercruise, as someone else said it's the only point in supercruise at which you actually feel like you're going fast.

How quick the "restock/refuel" happens can depend on how close you get to the rings, so you're encouraged to fly low.

Different types of rings could offer different "grades" of "probe manufacture", ie metallic.

 

[akaliel]

Hardly "busy work".



It's a fly by fer God's sake.

Ugh, hard pass.

 

[bitstorm]

Ugh, hard pass.

You don't like flying through rings?

Seems like there will be a lot less flying around systems once the patch hits, this is a reason to fly around.

 

[Unknown Zombie]

Hardly "busy work".



It's a fly by fer God's sake.

It's the very best bit of flying around in supercruise, as someone else said it's the only the point at which you actually feel you're going fast.

How quick it happens can depend on how close you get to the rings, so you're encouraged to fly low.

Different types of rings could offer different "grades" of "probe manufacture", ie metallic.

To fly to a ringed planet and fly past it. It's inconsequential .. It adds so little to the game that it's pointless. It's busy work.

You don't like flying through rings?

Seems like there will be a lot less flying around systems once the patch hits, this is a reason to fly around.

The new probing mechanic will require just as much flying around as the current DSS mechanic. You must fly to a planet to probe it.

 

[akaliel]

You don't like flying through rings?

Seems like there will be a lot less flying around systems once the patch hits, this is a reason to fly around.

The only good reason to fly around when exploring should be to go check out something cool. Not to do work.

That was 2 minutes and 15 seconds of no thank you.

 

[bitstorm]

The only good reason to fly around when exploring should be to go check out something cool. Not to do work.

That was 2 minutes and 15 seconds of no thank you.

But it literally is cool!

My god man, there's a huge stellar body with a huge realistically modelled ring, and you get to fly right through it, what are playing this game for if it's not that sort of thing!

You're flying right over billions upon billions of asteroids in a belt, you can even make them out if you look down, it's literally why we play space games, to go see and experience sights like this.

 

[Jenner]

I didn't say that. But when the spam is so high, it's time mods step in, if you look back over the last few pages there's quite a bit of frustration from posters (not me), that they cannot talk about this topic without being constantly insulted.

Humor is fine, whereas deliberately derailing the thread or insulting others is not. It's a fine point sometimes but the mods make the final call on that. A little goofiness in a thread that has been going on for hundreds of pages and everyone who has an opinion has stated it half a dozen times is to be expected.

 

[M00ka]

Hardly "busy work".



It's a fly by fer God's sake.

It's the very best bit of flying around in supercruise, as someone else said it's the only point at which you actually feel you're going fast.

How quick it happens can depend on how close you get to the rings, so you're encouraged to fly low.

Different types of rings could offer different "grades" of "probe manufacture", ie metallic.

Great, with your idea if we run out of probes we will all have to fly around trying to find systems with the right ringed planets, then fly BACK to the system we want to map - yeah that is great gameplay

As for your concept of speed, let me tell you a little story: I was lucky enough to have a flight in an F-111, we went ballistic to 30,000ft (the pilot was seeing if I would throw up, I didn't ) and cruised at Mach 2.23 - that didn't feel fast. Then we dived down, and did a simulated bombing run with the TFR set to 100 ft at 450 KIAS - that felt fast. So your little 'oh I feel fast cos I am near something' is just a visual effect, nothing more nothing less.

P.S. Are you going to report this post for not being on topic?

 

[bitstorm]

Great, with your idea if we run out of probes we will all have to fly around trying to find systems with the right ringed planets, then fly BACK to the system we want to map - yeah that is great gameplay

Rings are everywhere, in the post above it was ANY ring. It's not like you'd be carrying 10 probes or something.

As for your concept of speed, let me tell you a little story: I was lucky enough to have a flight in an F-111, we went ballistic to 30,000ft (the pilot was seeing if I would throw up, I didn't ) and cruised at Mach 2.23 - that didn't feel fast. Then we dived down, and did a simulated bombing run with the TFR set to 100 ft at 450 KIAS - that felt fast. So your little 'oh I feel fast cos I am near something' is just a visual effect, nothing more nothing less.

Bit confused as the relevance, "just a visual effect"?

Of course it is, it's perspective, things far away seem to move more slowly, that's how it works.

Besides the whole of ED is just a visual effect, it doesn't make it any less engaging.

VR is just a visual effect, it doesn't mean it's not 100 times more viseral/engaging/immersive/realistic.

I don't really get your point.

 

[akaliel]

But it literally is cool!

My god man, there's a huge stellar body with a huge realistically modelled ring, and you get to fly right through it, what are playing this game for if it's not that sort of thing!

You're flying right over billions upon billions of asteroids in a belt, you can even make them out if you look down, it's literally why we play space games, to go see and experience sights like this.

Cool would be flying close to a ring because there's an ancient abandon alien star base in orbit. Not collecting dust.

 

[askavir]

Funny, that's exactly what the infinite probes are there to prevent. To prevent people from getting annoyed that all they want to do is explore, using fun new mechanics, instead of having to stop every X number of probes to go do some sideshow busy work.

Using a buggy to collect materials is tedious busy work. Flying your ship to a ring and hovering over it for 30 sec is inconsequential busy work. None of it really adds anything to the exploration experience except for a feeling of annoyance.

Well from that perpective lobbing infinite probes at planets is also tedious busy work, might as well scan the planet using the good old DSS and reveal the POIs automatically. Lobbing probes adds nothing to the exploration experience as the outcome will always be the same: all POIs will get revealed - and what I want is explore, not play space golf with unlimited balls.

 

[Unknown Zombie]

Well from that perpective lobbing infinite probes at planets is also tedious busy work, might as well scan the planet using the good old DSS and reveal the POIs automatically. Lobbing probes adds nothing to the exploration experience as the outcome will always be the same: all POIs will get revealed.

PoIs do not get revealed by the DSS. The DSS has never reveealed PoIs.

Revealing PoIs is all new gameplay that we didn't have at all before.

 

[askavir]

PoIs do not get revealed by the DSS. The DSS has never reveealed PoIs.

Revealing PoIs is all new gameplay that we didn't have at all before.

Revealing POIs could be done with the DSS instead of a space golf minigame, which was rendered pointless by having unlimited golf balls. Space golf is just a lame minigame within a game with the sole purpose of "unlocking" the POIs, it's not even part of the game world, note that where exactly you actually hit the golf balls does not even matter one iota, the POIs only get revealed after you map >90% of the surface, even if you had hit one or several POis in the head with your endless golf balls.

 

[Unknown Zombie]

Revealing POIs could be done with the DSS. Space golf is just a lame minigame with the sole purpose of "unlocking" the POIs. Unlimited balls only make the space golf even lamer. Note that where exactly you actually hit the golf balls does not even matter one iota, the POIs only get revealed after you map >90% of the surface, even if you had hit one or several POis in the head with your endless golf balls.

PoIs can not be revealed by the DSS.

Please, everyone, if you're going to come to the forums and argue in attempt to influence devs to make changes to gameplay please make sure it's gameplay that you actually participate in.

 

[bitstorm]

PoIs can not be revealed by the DSS.

Please, everyone, if you're going to come to the forums and argue in attempt to influence devs to make changes to gameplay please make sure it's gameplay that you actually participate in.

I think askavir's saying you might as well have the DSS reveal POIs, because the probe mechanic is "busy work" as you put it.

 

[akaliel]

I think askavir's saying you might as well have the DSS reveal POIs, because the probe mechanic is "busy work" as you put it.

That is what he meant but I disagree with it being busy work. That's just gameplay for accomplishing a goal. My argument against finite probes is that it takes away from what people are trying to do, which is explore, by making them spend a few minutes doing something else entirely. If it looks like a grind and feels like a grind. It's a grind.

 

[bitstorm]

That is what he meant but I disagree with it being busy work. That's just gameplay for accomplishing a goal. My argument against finite probes is that it takes away from what people are trying to do, which is explore, by making them spend a few minutes doing something else entirely. If it looks like a grind and feels like a grind. It's a grind.

Not sure I agree something that takes you away is automatically grind. Grind is having to do a repetitive task, material gathering in any number is a grind.

Taking you away from what you're trying to do is breaking your "flow".

Adding material grind to build probes for me yeah is grind and does break the exploration flow but they're not the same thing.

Mechanics are possible that fit in with the flow of exploration, I agree material grind is not it, I know you disagree but for me scooping does.

The exploration mechanic (for full scanning) is currently :

=> Jump => Honk => Fly to body => DSS => Fly to body => DSS => ...

It will be :

=> Jump => Honk => FSS Telescope => Fly to body => Probe => Fly to body => Probe => ...


Scooping rings fits right into that, you do a fly by of a body, that's it it's part and parcel of what you were doing anyway.

It does not require a break from the flow, you do not have to go down to a planet, get out the SRV and muck around for 40 minutes doing a completely different task than what you were doing.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

Shooting the gap between the rings and planet in SC is another good way to feel the speed...

Or break your FSD.

Did you know, if you stop between the rings, they often orbit at different speeds?
And if you fly from one ring to the other in normal space, the ring you fly to goes very wrong? Lol

Fun experiment.

 

[akaliel]

Not sure I agree something that takes you away is automatically grind. Grind is having to do a repetitive task, material gathering in any number is a grind.

Taking you away from what you're trying to do is breaking your "flow".

Adding material grind to build probes for me yeah is grind and does break the exploration flow but they're not the same thing.

Mechanics are possible that fit in with the flow of exploration, I agree material grind is not it, I know you disagree but for me scooping does.

The exploration mechanic (for full scanning) is currently :

=> Jump => Honk => Fly to body => DSS => Fly to body => DSS => ...

It will be :

=> Jump => Honk => FSS Telescope => Fly to body => Probe => Fly to body => Probe => ...


Scooping rings fits right into that, you do a fly by of a body, that's it it's part and parcel of what you were doing anyway.

It does not require a break from the flow, you do not have to go down to a planet, get out the SRV and muck around for 40 minutes doing a completely different task than what you were doing.

I know you love this idea, you've been pitching it for like 50 pages now. I understand the concept you're talking about, I get it. But I don't like it. No matter how many times u explain it.

Also, FD never proposed this option. This is all in your head space, you're not arguing that Adam revert his code back to his earlier system of synthesised probes. You're proposing something that has never existed and pitching it like it was seriously considered by FD.