Everyone who has flyed through the big lonely space, knows that the current ED
exploring is very boring.
I have written down some suggestions which could make it more comfortable and exciting.
Im not new in ED but this is my first post on the forums. So please forgive me if there
are duplicate suggestions which previously been made.
1. USV drones (Unmanned Space Vehicle):
I personally find, the only great thing on scanning of planets is, to find a blue one.
At the moment i only target a planet, and wait for the "bing". "next one please"
I would expand the normal scanning by giving the explorers the USV.
This is a small drone, which could be launched to a planet after the normal scan.
The main target of these small guys is to land on the surface, take ground samples and
make pictures.
Process landing: (1-3mins)
-Drone would be fired from a launcher like a rocket.
-After fired, a small monitor shows the distance of the drone and the landing process. (perhaps if possible with live screen)
-now the drone is landing.
Process getting the informations: (2-5 mins)
-the drone is taking ground samples.
-a procedurally generated small surface which is shown in the display would be very nice
(Next step is proposed to be in later implementations)
-if the environment is raff, a manual control will be necessary.
-now the player has to control the drone manually. like a mini game.
The player has to stay in the system while scanning.
The informations should be more expensive for the stations than normal scans.
But if a rocky planet is droned, which consists only of useless rocks, the price compares to the normal scan.
Every explorer ship only can carry X drones (for example 10), or it is handled by the drone launcher, dont know whats the easy way.
So every explorer has to use them wisely.
There are different classes of the drones/launchers.
More capacity, faster drones, better scans.
2. USV crafting.
the problem of only a few drones is that if you are 10k ly away from the next kwiki market station, the only way to get new drones, is to build them on your own.
Like the miners the explorer will need a mining laser, and the second one is a drone factory.
This compares to the refinery, but drones are produced instead of ressources.
The drone should only be build of two or three parts (2x metal 1x mineral)
The explorers should not take hours on mining. This and point 1 should be a variety to the monotonous scanning/jumping/fueling.
3. NAV Satellites
This are satellites which can be placed on a full scanned system. To mark it as explored and to help for navigation.
The system would get kind of color on the galaxy map, or colored via explorer layer in galaxy map (like the trading imports/exports) or something else.
These satellites can be secondly used for the automatic jumping pilot.
This extension is like the auto docking computer, it jumps, when activated, through the NAVed systems to the plotted target.
The computer calculates, in which system he has to stay for fueling.
But this should be done manually. After that the computer can be activated again.
This could bring the exploring in some kind of order and makes it a bit more easy to make some thousand of LY in a shorter time or more comfortable time. (pizza while exploring XD)
If it is possible, a 3rd option next to fastest route and economic route would be the
nav route.
It is not that i don't like the jumping, but the 500x times jumping back home are really one point for me to stop exploring.
4. NAV Satellite crafting/transporting
(the same like the USV crafting/mining)
But it also could not possible to be crafted. So the big transporters have to carry the satellites from inhabited Systems and build the “space highway”. And earn some money for that.
exploring is very boring.
I have written down some suggestions which could make it more comfortable and exciting.
Im not new in ED but this is my first post on the forums. So please forgive me if there
are duplicate suggestions which previously been made.
1. USV drones (Unmanned Space Vehicle):
I personally find, the only great thing on scanning of planets is, to find a blue one.
At the moment i only target a planet, and wait for the "bing". "next one please"
I would expand the normal scanning by giving the explorers the USV.
This is a small drone, which could be launched to a planet after the normal scan.
The main target of these small guys is to land on the surface, take ground samples and
make pictures.
Process landing: (1-3mins)
-Drone would be fired from a launcher like a rocket.
-After fired, a small monitor shows the distance of the drone and the landing process. (perhaps if possible with live screen)
-now the drone is landing.
Process getting the informations: (2-5 mins)
-the drone is taking ground samples.
-a procedurally generated small surface which is shown in the display would be very nice
(Next step is proposed to be in later implementations)
-if the environment is raff, a manual control will be necessary.
-now the player has to control the drone manually. like a mini game.
The player has to stay in the system while scanning.
The informations should be more expensive for the stations than normal scans.
But if a rocky planet is droned, which consists only of useless rocks, the price compares to the normal scan.
Every explorer ship only can carry X drones (for example 10), or it is handled by the drone launcher, dont know whats the easy way.
So every explorer has to use them wisely.
There are different classes of the drones/launchers.
More capacity, faster drones, better scans.
2. USV crafting.
the problem of only a few drones is that if you are 10k ly away from the next kwiki market station, the only way to get new drones, is to build them on your own.
Like the miners the explorer will need a mining laser, and the second one is a drone factory.
This compares to the refinery, but drones are produced instead of ressources.
The drone should only be build of two or three parts (2x metal 1x mineral)
The explorers should not take hours on mining. This and point 1 should be a variety to the monotonous scanning/jumping/fueling.
3. NAV Satellites
This are satellites which can be placed on a full scanned system. To mark it as explored and to help for navigation.
The system would get kind of color on the galaxy map, or colored via explorer layer in galaxy map (like the trading imports/exports) or something else.
These satellites can be secondly used for the automatic jumping pilot.
This extension is like the auto docking computer, it jumps, when activated, through the NAVed systems to the plotted target.
The computer calculates, in which system he has to stay for fueling.
But this should be done manually. After that the computer can be activated again.
This could bring the exploring in some kind of order and makes it a bit more easy to make some thousand of LY in a shorter time or more comfortable time. (pizza while exploring XD)
If it is possible, a 3rd option next to fastest route and economic route would be the
nav route.
It is not that i don't like the jumping, but the 500x times jumping back home are really one point for me to stop exploring.
4. NAV Satellite crafting/transporting
(the same like the USV crafting/mining)
But it also could not possible to be crafted. So the big transporters have to carry the satellites from inhabited Systems and build the “space highway”. And earn some money for that.
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