Yep, you get the "Mapped by" tag, additional credits, and a bonus for mapping 100% of the system. Right now it looks like all planetary bodies (not stellar bodies) are mappable, including the gas giants.
The new exploration system
- Thread starter Anoobvia
- Start date
Yep, you get the "Mapped by" tag, additional credits, and a bonus for mapping 100% of the system. Right now it looks like all planetary bodies (not stellar bodies) are mappable, including the gas giants.
And they removed the sword of damocles... damn...
WHAT! How? Why? They changed the orbits? Why would they do that? That has to be a stellar forge change that might affect a lot of previously discovered systems.
A number of these colliding moons have been discovered
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Speak for yourself - its 1000 times better than the abomination we had for last 3 years.
In your opinion. Sure. I am with Burke. the FSS is truly awful.
Honk + DSS would be a great system though.
It would be 100 times better than it is (for me), if only they simplified it a bit. Make the tuning unnecessary by eliminating it or automating it so we can zoom in on any highlighted area regardless of what signal we're tuned to.
Or at least eliminate the arrows for signals we aren't tuned to so that they don't mask what we''re looking for if we don't want to scan the whole system.
Whether you like it or not depends on your style of play.
For many it ruins things because ....
Normally we use the system map to quickly see if there is anything interesting enough to bother to stop and scan.
Now, you have no idea if the system is worth scanning until AFTER you have already scanned it.
Or at least eliminate the arrows for signals we aren't tuned to so that they don't mask what we''re looking for if we don't want to scan the whole system.
Whether you like it or not depends on your style of play.
For many it ruins things because ....
Normally we use the system map to quickly see if there is anything interesting enough to bother to stop and scan.
Now, you have no idea if the system is worth scanning until AFTER you have already scanned it.
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Now I'm getting the hang of the FSS and am settling on a routine that incorporates it I'm spending about 120-150s in a 7-10 planet system. Since I take 90-120s per system in prod this isn't a massive difference. Bigger systems will take longer, some kind of "there's nothing else to find" indicator in systems with no planets that didn't require opening the FSS would be nice (or at least not hiding the count behind a pointless message for 4 seconds).
Yes, I'll be a bit slower but not by much.
Yes, I'll be a bit slower but not by much.
Well said.
If you mean planet hunt like looking for ELWs and AWs then all you need to do is honk and look at the spectral pattern. The ELW and AWs are spotted within a second or two.
I do not. I hunt for odd-balls; potato moons, super-canyon planets, large mountains, etc... None of those will be spotted without scanning the entire system, whereas with the current system we can see these from the Honk Map.
Exactly this. Why a significant number of people cannot understand this type of exploration is beyond me.
"I like going for long walks and appreciating the shape and colour of trees and rocks"
"I know a great new way of finding ATMs"
"Erm...I'm not too fussed about that tbh"
"But it's really easy to find them"
"I don't care, I just like views"
"But surely you care about money!"
"Really, no, I prefer-"
"ATMs! ATMs! ATMs!"
etc
I guess they could fix it somewhat, make it a bit smoother experience for long voyage travellers (I don't want to stop for exploration mode), fix controls (hotas inverted yaw not working for probe thing mode, mouse issues), decide if planets closer to sun just appear scanned in system map or have to be scanned in the exploration mode thing, now it's a bit strange (it's not an unofficial mod from steam shop). Fdev has to make it the best it can be when it's out.
Other than that I think it's great. It's nice finally having an ingame codex. I was getting a bit tired of the old exploration game after visiting 30000 different systems anyway, might as well learn the spectral analysis thing. New kinds of things out there seem interesting. Being able to locate points of interest on planets is nice. It'll take a while for memory of the old honking system to fade though.
Other than that I think it's great. It's nice finally having an ingame codex. I was getting a bit tired of the old exploration game after visiting 30000 different systems anyway, might as well learn the spectral analysis thing. New kinds of things out there seem interesting. Being able to locate points of interest on planets is nice. It'll take a while for memory of the old honking system to fade though.
Yep, this is how I explore too, I don't really care about earning credits. And yep in 3.3 we will have to full scan a system with the FSS in order to keep exploring like this.
Exploring for scenery chasers like us is going to be much slower, there's just no two ways about it.
I'm genuinely wondering if I should just admit defeat and completely change what I do in-game. I don't mind the new system now I've got used to it (ish) but it's not designed for my style of play. Also still failing to see how it improves upon using your eyes to tell what something might be.
So we'll see. I might become one of these shiny chasers I hear so much about, but I'm not sure if I can take stopping my ship in every system. DW2 was always going to be about having fun at meet-ups for me so it just means getting to each waypoint will be a bit quicker or excruciatingly slower
OK so I've given the new system a chance before making any really detailed comments. Here are my thoughts as a very seasoned explorer, (in fact it's really the only reason I play this game).
Negatives:
My first thoughts were, "If I'm finding this so difficult to work out as someone who's played the game for years then how on earth are new players going to react"? Beware you don't kill this part of the game for newbies.
Key bindings are absolutely horrific. Now I'm getting used to the new system I'll find a better way/set of keys, but blimey, I'm needing to note down what keys do what, which says to me something's wrong.
Positives:
So my current style is honk, check out the map for anything worthwhile and move on. I've always felt a little bit guilty at "cherry picking" out in deep space. This new setup means checking out the whole system is quick and efficient, less guilt and more credits. I can buy into that, (not that being a billionaire means much with credits now).
Mapping planets. Well this is the holy grail for me as I'm not patient enough to fly around a planet for ages looking for something that might be there. Now that I can fly to a planet, fire off a few probes and be informed instantly if there's something worth viewing then this is a game changer. Just last night I visited some interesting signals and found a fantastic set of geysers and then something called a "water spot" in the rings of a gas giant, (what the heck was that)?
So despite the rubbish new key bindings I can totally buy into this. My exploration trips are now going to be much longer in duration, not due to mapping systems but due to finding lots of lovely wonders to visit and screenshot. If the new ships/slots also materialise then I see no need to ever go back to the bubble again. See you out there.
Negatives:
My first thoughts were, "If I'm finding this so difficult to work out as someone who's played the game for years then how on earth are new players going to react"? Beware you don't kill this part of the game for newbies.
Key bindings are absolutely horrific. Now I'm getting used to the new system I'll find a better way/set of keys, but blimey, I'm needing to note down what keys do what, which says to me something's wrong.
Positives:
So my current style is honk, check out the map for anything worthwhile and move on. I've always felt a little bit guilty at "cherry picking" out in deep space. This new setup means checking out the whole system is quick and efficient, less guilt and more credits. I can buy into that, (not that being a billionaire means much with credits now).
Mapping planets. Well this is the holy grail for me as I'm not patient enough to fly around a planet for ages looking for something that might be there. Now that I can fly to a planet, fire off a few probes and be informed instantly if there's something worth viewing then this is a game changer. Just last night I visited some interesting signals and found a fantastic set of geysers and then something called a "water spot" in the rings of a gas giant, (what the heck was that)?
So despite the rubbish new key bindings I can totally buy into this. My exploration trips are now going to be much longer in duration, not due to mapping systems but due to finding lots of lovely wonders to visit and screenshot. If the new ships/slots also materialise then I see no need to ever go back to the bubble again. See you out there.
What's this talk about defeat? You should just do what you find fun to do. If it's not stopping in every system and just picking up whatever, then do that. If it's no longer exploration, then don't do that, the game has plenty of other activities to try. And if you find that you don't have fun with any of them, well, don't do them.
As for scenery chasing: finding POIs to make for some good screenshots is going to be easier, no doubt about it. I wonder how long that'll last though - when it comes to handcrafted stuff, it's not like there's nearly as much variety as there is with generated. Like you said with potato moons, super-canyon moons and large mountains: those are all the rare cases of the Stellar Forge, not of something the developers created directly. (And I can't help but wonder if the new obfuscation is meant to hide the extreme cases of the Stellar Forge from players.)
Then again, I wonder how long the whole "scan everything" is going to last for the enthusiastic new players. Doubt it'll even be for 10,000 systems.
The whole system might be designed to tide people over until atmospheric flight comes, but who knows when that'll be. Frontier have a history of first designing stuff to be too lengthy for most players, leading to complaints about grinding, so if they want this to last for a year or more, they likely did that again. We'll see. A month on from release, we should have a good idea whether Frontier have overseeded the galaxy, or if there are very low chances of running into their hand-placed stuff, or if they've actually done well this time around and found a good balance. Seeing the quality of what they've done with the exploration update so far (and I'm not just talking about the design, but all the bugs), I'm doubtful.
I tend to keep an eye out for these types of things as well. The thing is, while I did appreciate the speed and ease with which they were findable under the old system, it is important to keep perspective on this.
Interesting planetary features such as canyons and mountains were never really visible from a quick glance in the initial honk system map. One would still need to take the time to pan and zoom in, and to really see significant surface features, one needed to fly to the body and DSS it to get the more detailed surface map and then zoom into that.
I have been in enough systems and done enough observation to have a pretty good idea about the types of systems, and and configurations and locations within a system that are likely to contain potato moons and things like that. Taking a step further back and really looking abjectively, the fear of missing something in a system one is currently in is not much different fundamentally than the fear of missing something in the system right next door that we are not in. Yes, there is a chance we could miss something in a system we are actually in, but for me personally, I like the fact that my experience and intuition is being challenged.
There are a few things that could streamline things a bit such as having body count on the main HUD after initial honk, and having body distance displayed in the FSS just by pointing at the blue blob without having to focus and zoom in.