Since Community Manager @Bruce G asked someone else for their issues with exobiology (see the post here), I thought I'd write up mine too. So, here's my list of issues with exobiology, the problems in detail, and my proposed solutions to them.
1. Exobiology has no interaction with the rest of the game
You do exobio for a small amount of credits (lower even than exploration) and personal rank progression, and that's all. There's no BGS impact, no missions, no Engineering materials, nothing. Once you've seen most of what Odyssey life has to offer, and once you've unlocked all the cosmetics (which was a nice idea, by the way), there's little reason to keep doing exobio. I feel that the career path overstays its welcome, and most everyone seems to be of the opinion that you'll feel like you have seen it all well before you'd hit Elite.
Solution: tie the selling of samples in with the BGS, offer exobiology-related missions (long ranged missions could go quite nicely here: "go to this distant system and get us samples from there"), add the ability to trade data samples for materials instead of credits, and so on. Really, just have the activity do something, anything. Even Mercenary rank's on-foot Conflict Zones do more than exobiology does.
2. The blue map issue
This is pretty much the number one question I keep hearing from new players. "Where should I land, what do the different blue colours mean?" I don't know how many people were confused by the heatmap in the alpha (it certainly had its issues), but there's often confusion with this version too.
Solution: if a different, more intuitive map isn't on the table, then in-game explanation would help. The FSS already has a pop-up tutorial, the DSS could have a single page too.
3. Can only hold one sample at a time, even though it's clearly in a swappable canister
There's plenty of demand for being able to hold more than one sample at a time, since two (or more) species are often grouped together, and players would like to be able to gather them at the same time. Especially since they see that said samples are stored in canisters that can be taken out of thejuicer sampler.
Solution: add a suit upgrade that allows people to hold more than one in-progress sample. Even just two would be a big step forward. Although personally, I'd like to see two canisters by default, upgradable to three.
4. Hidden information could be displayed and used for gameplay
There are features of the terrain which are taken into account, like wind strength, rock type(s) and so on, but players are kept unaware of these. There's potential here that goes unused.
Solution: display more information, or even better, include a new mechanic where players take surface samples. The Artemis suit could include a new tool, like a shovel
I think some players might like to play exogeologist too, and displaying geological information could actually be educational as well. (Similar to how star types and such teach players some astronomy too.)
5. Why doesn't researching spaceborne life in Notable Stellar Phenomena count as exobiology?
We have some variety of life out in space, and they are significantly more interactive than the flora down on planets. We can sample some of them, we can find out some traits for them - and yet this does nothing. (See problem #1 above.) The content, the mechanics are already in place: all they would need would be some rewards.
Solution: tie in NSPs with the exobiology career, have retrieving samples with the Research Limpet (again, this is existing functionality) reward the players more, tie them in to the BGS maybe. Also, the current credit rewards (both for samples and for Codex vouchers) are laughable, so those could use some adjustment too.
That's all that comes to my mind now. Thanks for reading, and feel free to add your thoughts on the subject!
1. Exobiology has no interaction with the rest of the game
You do exobio for a small amount of credits (lower even than exploration) and personal rank progression, and that's all. There's no BGS impact, no missions, no Engineering materials, nothing. Once you've seen most of what Odyssey life has to offer, and once you've unlocked all the cosmetics (which was a nice idea, by the way), there's little reason to keep doing exobio. I feel that the career path overstays its welcome, and most everyone seems to be of the opinion that you'll feel like you have seen it all well before you'd hit Elite.
Solution: tie the selling of samples in with the BGS, offer exobiology-related missions (long ranged missions could go quite nicely here: "go to this distant system and get us samples from there"), add the ability to trade data samples for materials instead of credits, and so on. Really, just have the activity do something, anything. Even Mercenary rank's on-foot Conflict Zones do more than exobiology does.
2. The blue map issue
This is pretty much the number one question I keep hearing from new players. "Where should I land, what do the different blue colours mean?" I don't know how many people were confused by the heatmap in the alpha (it certainly had its issues), but there's often confusion with this version too.
Solution: if a different, more intuitive map isn't on the table, then in-game explanation would help. The FSS already has a pop-up tutorial, the DSS could have a single page too.
3. Can only hold one sample at a time, even though it's clearly in a swappable canister
There's plenty of demand for being able to hold more than one sample at a time, since two (or more) species are often grouped together, and players would like to be able to gather them at the same time. Especially since they see that said samples are stored in canisters that can be taken out of the
Solution: add a suit upgrade that allows people to hold more than one in-progress sample. Even just two would be a big step forward. Although personally, I'd like to see two canisters by default, upgradable to three.
4. Hidden information could be displayed and used for gameplay
There are features of the terrain which are taken into account, like wind strength, rock type(s) and so on, but players are kept unaware of these. There's potential here that goes unused.
Solution: display more information, or even better, include a new mechanic where players take surface samples. The Artemis suit could include a new tool, like a shovel
I think some players might like to play exogeologist too, and displaying geological information could actually be educational as well. (Similar to how star types and such teach players some astronomy too.)5. Why doesn't researching spaceborne life in Notable Stellar Phenomena count as exobiology?
We have some variety of life out in space, and they are significantly more interactive than the flora down on planets. We can sample some of them, we can find out some traits for them - and yet this does nothing. (See problem #1 above.) The content, the mechanics are already in place: all they would need would be some rewards.
Solution: tie in NSPs with the exobiology career, have retrieving samples with the Research Limpet (again, this is existing functionality) reward the players more, tie them in to the BGS maybe. Also, the current credit rewards (both for samples and for Codex vouchers) are laughable, so those could use some adjustment too.
That's all that comes to my mind now. Thanks for reading, and feel free to add your thoughts on the subject!
