The Codex, FSS and Surface Scanner3.3 really opened me up to exploration gameplay. By contrast previously trying to follow planet co-ordinates on YouTube videos was a killer for me. However I am struggling with the game mechanic of the link between the Surface and Composition Scan.
The thrill of uncovering planets with Geological and Biological locations on the inital FSS scan and following it up with a Surface Scan to locate them is solid gameplay and feels fit for purpose considering the enormity of the game universe, despite still being limited to only a few planet types for landing. The FSS scan geology data provides enough information to hint at the usefulness of a Surface Scan for a Codex discovery without being too prescriptive and simplistic.
The Composition Scan however lets it down. Often planets will uncover tens of locations while many geological and biological forms in the Codex can co-exist in similar planet geology types. So there is no real way of determing whether a planet landing to multiple locations is required or not. Finding the same thing over and over quickly becomes disheartening especially as travelling to each location is time consuming and increasingly tedious (even more so if performed in number order to help keep track) due to needing to lift off into orbital cruise and back down again each time. The thrill is finding interesting things in the billions of Systems out there, this surface scan game mechanic is not up to the task for all that is undiscovered in the galaxy.
The Surface Scan should contain additional information about the geological or biological location, perhaps based on the wave scan mechanic as used in the FSS and SRV surface scanner. It could follow the idea of calibration, once you have discovered a geological or biological form its fingerprint can be remembered and the Surface Scan updated to label the other locations containing the same specimen. These would then show up on subsequent scans of other planets. The idea of callibration of such high fidelity instruments could explain why each commander would have to perform it on their ship (per ship?). If this seems too simplisitic you could include a probability metric and the more specimens of the same type that you scan with the composition scanner, the more accurate it becomes to give reward for the effort of scanning. However considering the sheer size of the galaxy this gameplay drag mechanic might not be needed.
Other ideas could be that you could perform a remote basic composition scan of each location uncovered by the Surface Scan from orbit with a dedicated Biological or Geological scanner to see if it is something undiscovered by yourself, but I don't think this extra scan would add anything to immersion or lore. Finding an unknown geological or biological location from the initial Surface Scan should be exciting enough to prompt a positive desire for a planet landing.
Some ideas, Surface scan probes analyse energy of geological forms to check energy signature to calculate the type and if has been discovered before.
Surface scan probes analyse a spectrograph to determine biological forms based on chemical compostition/energy sythnesis and movement to determine a fingerprint.
You could take this further and say that once something has been discovered by any player on the Codex then its fingerprint is available to everyone else and will show up as a named specimen on Surface scans.
The thrill of uncovering planets with Geological and Biological locations on the inital FSS scan and following it up with a Surface Scan to locate them is solid gameplay and feels fit for purpose considering the enormity of the game universe, despite still being limited to only a few planet types for landing. The FSS scan geology data provides enough information to hint at the usefulness of a Surface Scan for a Codex discovery without being too prescriptive and simplistic.
The Composition Scan however lets it down. Often planets will uncover tens of locations while many geological and biological forms in the Codex can co-exist in similar planet geology types. So there is no real way of determing whether a planet landing to multiple locations is required or not. Finding the same thing over and over quickly becomes disheartening especially as travelling to each location is time consuming and increasingly tedious (even more so if performed in number order to help keep track) due to needing to lift off into orbital cruise and back down again each time. The thrill is finding interesting things in the billions of Systems out there, this surface scan game mechanic is not up to the task for all that is undiscovered in the galaxy.
The Surface Scan should contain additional information about the geological or biological location, perhaps based on the wave scan mechanic as used in the FSS and SRV surface scanner. It could follow the idea of calibration, once you have discovered a geological or biological form its fingerprint can be remembered and the Surface Scan updated to label the other locations containing the same specimen. These would then show up on subsequent scans of other planets. The idea of callibration of such high fidelity instruments could explain why each commander would have to perform it on their ship (per ship?). If this seems too simplisitic you could include a probability metric and the more specimens of the same type that you scan with the composition scanner, the more accurate it becomes to give reward for the effort of scanning. However considering the sheer size of the galaxy this gameplay drag mechanic might not be needed.
Other ideas could be that you could perform a remote basic composition scan of each location uncovered by the Surface Scan from orbit with a dedicated Biological or Geological scanner to see if it is something undiscovered by yourself, but I don't think this extra scan would add anything to immersion or lore. Finding an unknown geological or biological location from the initial Surface Scan should be exciting enough to prompt a positive desire for a planet landing.
Some ideas, Surface scan probes analyse energy of geological forms to check energy signature to calculate the type and if has been discovered before.
Surface scan probes analyse a spectrograph to determine biological forms based on chemical compostition/energy sythnesis and movement to determine a fingerprint.
You could take this further and say that once something has been discovered by any player on the Codex then its fingerprint is available to everyone else and will show up as a named specimen on Surface scans.
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