+1 virtual rep. Must spread some more around.
What is funny is that if they looked at tocoso's ideas then it could benefit combat or the gameplay that leads to combat as well as just about every other part of the game.
https://imgur.com/gallery/l1wBF
The orrery could easily be at the core of a cool improved exploration mechanic.
Obsidian Ant talked about this and I have been proposing this for years.
One of my posts:
A NEW AND MUCH MORE INTERESTING EXPLORATION MECHANIC WITH PROBES
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1 - You arrive in a system.
2 - You do the classic honk: The honk is now much more limited. It can only tell you that there are planets in the sytem, with no other information than their location and orbit relations. In the system map you might then only see blank spheres with a question mark.
3 - You then launch exploration probes (these can be manufactured in the ship) towards each stellar body.
TWO SCAN MODES: You can set such a probe to do a quick scan or a detailed scan of the planetary bodies and stars in a system. The detailed scan will take much more time (4x?) to complete than a quick scan. The quick scan will give you the same information about planets as the honk does now: planet types, star types, asteroid rings etc. The detailed scan will be comparable to information you get when you do a detailed surface scan.
You get a cool audio warning when scan information of a probe comes in and in the orrery map you now see the planet displayed in full glory, with all the information.
There might be a limit to the number of probes you can have on board. Perhaps you need a planetary probe hangar (like the planetary vehicle hangar). The size of this hangar influences the number of probes you can have on board and launch at one time. Perhaps 4 probes in a size 2 hangar, 6 probes in a size 3 hangar, 8 probes in a size 4 hangar, and so on.
The hangar not only stores the probes, but can also manufacture and repair them.
I am not sure whether exploration probes should be one-way devices, or perhaps should return to the ship to be reused. I think Perhaps the cmdr should have a choice whether to abandon his probes, or wait for their return. Having to make choices in a game is always good.
It would be advisable to do detailed scanning of some stellar bodies yourself (like you do now) while your probes scan the other bodies. That way you are busy while you wait for the information of your probes to come in.
In general this will save you some time, because you now have drones who do a large part of the scanning, but at the same time it will make the exploration experience feel much beefier, deeper.
It would be very nice if you could program an exploration probe to explore multiple bodies in a system.
ORRERY MAP
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It would be very convenient to have the orrery system map. An orrery map would make it easier to decide which planets you want to send a probe to and which ones you want to visit yourself, because you can easily see the lay-out of the star system in an orrery map.
I think the implementation of the orrery map map should now be a priority, because it could be a central element in several very interesting game mechanics in Elite Dangerous.
I feel the exploration mechanic desperately needs the orrery map to be able to develop into a more mature and more fun feature in the game.
LAUNCHING A PROBE
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One would right click a planet/moon/star in the (orrery) system map and then see 2 options: "launch probe for quick scan", or "launch probe for detailed scan".
PRESENTATION OF EXPLORATION INFORMATION
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This should be done much more attractively. Perhaps you would see the information from your probes come in in stages.
You would see the image of the planet build up more detail. etc.
RELATED MECHANICS
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You can scan planetary surfaces from orbit to reveal stuff on a planet like alien bases, general mineable areas etc. This ties in with a planetary mining mechanic I would like to see added to the game. Sadly there currently is no real planetary mining mechanic at all.
I would like to be able to do an orbital scan for mineable areas on planets. This scan gives an idea of what type of material/ore is to be expected in a certain area. Then I would like to go down to the planet with a specialized mining srv to pinpoint the actual place I need to do the mining and then deploy some sort of mining drill device to extract the ore.
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