There are a fair few long-time explorers vocally expressing their disappointment of the planned removal of the Advanced Discovery Scanner's blanket instascan, thereby removing their ability to immediately determine whether a system held any personally-interesting formations/sights. Currently they would use this to either further investigate and explore closer, or skip on to the next star system.
After arrival in a new star system, what many of those explorers seek is quick high-level information on the planetary bodies:
Back during Beta 2.2 this was introduced to mostly negative feedback:
I propose this is re-introduced, with the system map populated with a full-layout of black, hollow circles, following a honk of the revamped Discovery Scanner. As this was a feature previously introduced for Beta 2.2, I guess it can be re-introduced without requiring much in the way of development resources (compared to a new feature).
As the Discovery Scanner can pinpoint the location of frequency signals, it is feasible to assume it can determine how many separate signals, their layout, distances between them, and whether they're are ringed or not. And then generate a "low fidelity", visual representation of the detected frequencies.
Further information could be provided in the system map's sidebar, displaying the approximate breakdown of the system's planetary bodies.
Here is my very bad mspaint draft based on the above image:
The percentages of the Estimated Breakdown would be very loosely based on the pre-determined data in the Stellar Forge. The goal being to hint that an interesting, high-value world will exist there. If the makeup of a pre-determined system is 3 ELWs among a total of 8 bodies (including main star), then the Earth-Likes percentage range would be relatively high, e.g. 10-40% (indicating between 1 and 3 ELWs exist in the system).
Selecting an unscanned world (black, hollow circle) on the system map will give only four pieces of information:
One possible future extension of the above mechanics could be for CMDRs who choose not to equip a Discovery Scanner at all: the system map could gradually populate with black, hollow circles, as the CMDR's ship comes within visual range of the respective planetary bodies.
Another future addition could be the highlighting on the system map the area of the habitable zone for each star, once it has been respectively scanned of course. This could further assist explorers in "scientifically" determining whether a star system could support life (via an Earth Like world for example).
After arrival in a new star system, what many of those explorers seek is quick high-level information on the planetary bodies:
- The number and layout of planetary bodies
- Distances between them
- Their types, i.e. rare (ELW, WW, HMC) or common (ice, rocky)
- Whether ringed or not
Back during Beta 2.2 this was introduced to mostly negative feedback:
I propose this is re-introduced, with the system map populated with a full-layout of black, hollow circles, following a honk of the revamped Discovery Scanner. As this was a feature previously introduced for Beta 2.2, I guess it can be re-introduced without requiring much in the way of development resources (compared to a new feature).
As the Discovery Scanner can pinpoint the location of frequency signals, it is feasible to assume it can determine how many separate signals, their layout, distances between them, and whether they're are ringed or not. And then generate a "low fidelity", visual representation of the detected frequencies.
Further information could be provided in the system map's sidebar, displaying the approximate breakdown of the system's planetary bodies.
Here is my very bad mspaint draft based on the above image:
The percentages of the Estimated Breakdown would be very loosely based on the pre-determined data in the Stellar Forge. The goal being to hint that an interesting, high-value world will exist there. If the makeup of a pre-determined system is 3 ELWs among a total of 8 bodies (including main star), then the Earth-Likes percentage range would be relatively high, e.g. 10-40% (indicating between 1 and 3 ELWs exist in the system).
Selecting an unscanned world (black, hollow circle) on the system map will give only four pieces of information:
- Ringed or not
- Distance to parent star
- Distance to parent/partner world where appropriate (a moon, or member of binary system)
- Approximated size and/or mass
One possible future extension of the above mechanics could be for CMDRs who choose not to equip a Discovery Scanner at all: the system map could gradually populate with black, hollow circles, as the CMDR's ship comes within visual range of the respective planetary bodies.
Another future addition could be the highlighting on the system map the area of the habitable zone for each star, once it has been respectively scanned of course. This could further assist explorers in "scientifically" determining whether a star system could support life (via an Earth Like world for example).
Last edited: