I thought of these two ides after a series of unfortunate events that soured my game play experience. The first is to help explorers that are part of a player group with a minor faction. There are a lot of explorers that spend weeks or months out in the black steadily scanning systems and increasing their potential payout. In a recent trip I had I came back with 450M Cr. The problem comes when these explorers get back to the bubble, they are faced with a difficult decision. They can either sell all of their data and immediately get back to playing the ED but only 50MCr will work towards the BGS (needs source). Or they can slowly sell their data day after day to get maximum BGS impact, but they are then stuck in port for fear of losing their data. I had started to slowly sell my data but events made me sell everything. If I had continued it would have taken me 9 days of not playing ED to sell all of my data. IMO this is a terrible decision to force these CMDRs to make. The simplest solution I would like is for data to be locked in after docking at a station, i.e. once you have docked you cannot lose your data. There is still risk of that initial dock but after that you can then safely & slowly sell it over several BGS ticks. However this may not be enough risk for hanging onto large amounts of data, even if it can only be applied a little at a time. A better, but more complicated system would be to keep the current risk of losing data but to have the game bank any influence beyond the cap and apply the remainder to the next day and the next until it's all used up.
My second suggestion has to do with definition of 'First Discoveries' which also affected me. The game currently assumes whomever sells their data first gets "first discovery tags" even if someone else had been there before but sold their data later. To me this seems wrong and 'First Discovered By' should mean first in time not first to sell. I've read a few stories where CMDRs said they found something unique/rare out among the stars and felt they needed to buckyball several thousand light-years back to inhabited space to sell their data because they feared someone would come along after them and steal the discovery. IMO this also does not add to an Explorer's enjoyment of the game as I assume they would rather be out exploring than rushing back to inhabited space. The system I would prefer to see in the game is to still let the CMDR who sells their data first to get their first-to-sell bonus credits, BUT to allow the CMDR who actually discovered the system first to get their name on the system if & when they safely sell their data. Since most explorers I know of aren't in it for the credits I think this would allow them to keep on exploring without fear of someone else claiming "first discovery". My apologies if I butcher history here, but an analogy I thought of for this system is like Leif Erikson vs. Christopher Columbus as being the first European to discover America; http://www.history.com/news/the-viking-explorer-who-beat-columbus-to-america. Leif had actually visited America first, but he had not proclaimed his discovery to the European world. Columbus, who visited afterward, did proclaim his discovery and got most of the fame and fortune for it. But hundreds of years later, after research and investigation by archaeologists (akin to turning in exploration data second), Leif is now credited as being first.
Also, my apologies for any grammar/spelling mistakes. I am posting just before going to bed, which usually doesn't go well.
My second suggestion has to do with definition of 'First Discoveries' which also affected me. The game currently assumes whomever sells their data first gets "first discovery tags" even if someone else had been there before but sold their data later. To me this seems wrong and 'First Discovered By' should mean first in time not first to sell. I've read a few stories where CMDRs said they found something unique/rare out among the stars and felt they needed to buckyball several thousand light-years back to inhabited space to sell their data because they feared someone would come along after them and steal the discovery. IMO this also does not add to an Explorer's enjoyment of the game as I assume they would rather be out exploring than rushing back to inhabited space. The system I would prefer to see in the game is to still let the CMDR who sells their data first to get their first-to-sell bonus credits, BUT to allow the CMDR who actually discovered the system first to get their name on the system if & when they safely sell their data. Since most explorers I know of aren't in it for the credits I think this would allow them to keep on exploring without fear of someone else claiming "first discovery". My apologies if I butcher history here, but an analogy I thought of for this system is like Leif Erikson vs. Christopher Columbus as being the first European to discover America; http://www.history.com/news/the-viking-explorer-who-beat-columbus-to-america. Leif had actually visited America first, but he had not proclaimed his discovery to the European world. Columbus, who visited afterward, did proclaim his discovery and got most of the fame and fortune for it. But hundreds of years later, after research and investigation by archaeologists (akin to turning in exploration data second), Leif is now credited as being first.
Also, my apologies for any grammar/spelling mistakes. I am posting just before going to bed, which usually doesn't go well.
Last edited:
