Unidentified Signal Sources (USS) game mechanic

[mr.k]

I've been noticing a lot of odd behaviour with this particular game mechanic.

Like buses, they turn up usually 2 or 3 at a time. But then after 'entering' and 'exiting' the companion USS's inevitably vanish. Shouldn't they still be there? Is there some teleportation going on or are the locations randomised every time you exit one? It would be nice if you could keep another one 'locked' to visit it later, particularly when they are right next to each other.

I'm also wondering about the lucky dip contents. I would be happy with pirates the whole way. However the galaxy is full of wedding parties, funeral ships, toxic waste dumps, NPCs who lurk in corners I may visit just to offer me an alternative mission option. But most of all, due to some sort of quantum entanglement, the galaxy is composed of TWO space trading weirdos who want to buy stuff from me they could get from any station. Why do they do it? How do they do it? And how come murdering them does not make them stop?

 

[Brakespear]

Judging by the way the game behaves, I'm suspecting that frameshift and "normal" flight are basically two separate worlds. I suspect that when you drop out of supercruise to check out a signal, you kinda change servers or something, and so when you "return" to supercruise, you're actually in a different instance?

I dunno. It certainly seems like the game has trouble with genuine world persistence at the moment, when transitioning between these two states.

 

[Ghostlight]

You are catching them at super-cruise, so all 3 could themselves be super-cruising, or about to. Maybe they scarper when they see you arriving. So once you encounter one, the others are long gone? I notice FSD wakes appearing once I'm in a USS, often with nothing obvious that could have left them. Maybe those are those other USS's? But yeah I'm stretching. I think the "2 different game worlds" theory is far more likely, sadly.

 

[Aute]

Judging by the way the game behaves, I'm suspecting that frameshift and "normal" flight are basically two separate worlds. I suspect that when you drop out of supercruise to check out a signal, you kinda change servers or something, and so when you "return" to supercruise, you're actually in a different instance?

I dunno. It certainly seems like the game has trouble with genuine world persistence at the moment, when transitioning between these two states.

yea.. it creates an instance the moment you drop out of it and bad part is its too easy to feel it even if you dont know about it..i.e it breaks immersion you feel its instanced unlike it was in other elite series..no matter what the game mechanic was there, the game world seemed way more seamless than in e:d

they shouldnt make ui elements invisible at least when switching inbetween, that breaks the seamless feeling the most..they should still keep all other contacts from frame shift "world" when in regular instance as well. two things which should trick people enough to think the world is seamless

also i somewho beliewe those uss are client only i.e you dont share them with other players.. everyone should see them synchronized, imagine people being able to share assassination missions for those tough elite anaconda targets..a way to make multiplayer not pointless and bring people together..well we can always hope =p

 

[Max Steele]

also i somewho beliewe those uss are client only i.e you dont share them with other players.. everyone should see them synchronized, imagine people being able to share assassination missions for those tough elite anaconda targets..a way to make multiplayer not pointless and bring people together..well we can always hope =p

If you are flying with another player (or players) in supercruise and you drop out into a USS, the other players can follow you by targeting your low energy wake and flying to it / dropping out of supercruise treating it like going to a station or a USS. That's how you end up in a USS area with the same player(s).

 

[ChaseBears]

IMO uss is a currently a really bad mechanic.

You can tell its a bad mechanics since the best way to get uss is to cruise around at 30km/s in a populated area until one drops 300km away and just insta drop into it.

 

[Jezzah]

Yeah the mechanic was introduced a long time ago now probably alpha 2 or 3. At the time it gave a real sense of being a placeholder system for something much better in the pipeline for in system exexploration

I detest the USS system it still seems placeholder to me. There's no persistence in it no skill in finding them no intelligence associated with using them. Cookie cutter content inside them no matter where you go in the game world. In system exploration should be far more interesting and engaging than this USS system we have this beautiful environment the game presents us but in system exploration is relegated to this mechanic in order to provide outcomes for cookie cutter missions.

Hopefully the mechanic will get dev love along with all the other bare bones features currently at our disposal.

 

[Brakespear]

Ironically, they do seem to be a way for explorers to know when they're getting close to a distant star.

It seems like the spawn rate of signals drops to zero when you're out in the void... but the moment you start dipping into a gravity well again, they start popping up. But maybe that's just me.

 

[Max Steele]

Yeah the mechanic was introduced a long time ago now probably alpha 2 or 3. At the time it gave a real sense of being a placeholder system for something much better in the pipeline for in system exexploration

I detest the USS system it still seems placeholder to me. There's no persistence in it no skill in finding them no intelligence associated with using them. Cookie cutter content inside them no matter where you go in the game world. In system exploration should be far more interesting and engaging than this USS system we have this beautiful environment the game presents us but in system exploration is relegated to this mechanic in order to provide outcomes for cookie cutter missions.

Hopefully the mechanic will get dev love along with all the other bare bones features currently at our disposal.

With the way the game engine is designed, I'm not sure how else you would like to see content created and interacted with?

We have two areas of game world - local flight and supercruise. local flight puts us flying in a system area where we can stop, thrust around, and interact with objects (asteroids, bases, other ships, etc...) . Supercruise is the way to get around in a system that can be thousands of light seconds in distance. Areas like Nav Beacons and stations have marked areas and we drop out of super cruise to interact with them.

Unidentified Signal Sources are dynamic content within supercruise. They are generated by the game to give unexpected events happening in the system, which you can interact with or not. The same mechanic to visit nav beacons, mining locations, and stations is used with the USS locations; target a USS, fly toward it, drop out of supercruise, and now you're in local flight. You can then find out what event is happening in the USS location and choose to either interact with it or jump back to supercruise and be along your way.

Within the game engine of local flight and supercruise, how else would you like to see content introduced in supercruise?

 

[tsh]

Within the game engine of local flight and supercruise, how else would you like to see content introduced in supercruise?

Context aware cookies would be a start, not the old roll a d6 to pick the type of encounter...

 

[Jezzah]

With the way the game engine is designed, I'm not sure how else you would like to see content created and interacted with?

We have two areas of game world - local flight and supercruise. local flight puts us flying in a system area where we can stop, thrust around, and interact with objects (asteroids, bases, other ships, etc...) . Supercruise is the way to get around in a system that can be thousands of light seconds in distance. Areas like Nav Beacons and stations have marked areas and we drop out of super cruise to interact with them.

Unidentified Signal Sources are dynamic content within supercruise. They are generated by the game to give unexpected events happening in the system, which you can interact with or not. The same mechanic to visit nav beacons, mining locations, and stations is used with the USS locations; target a USS, fly toward it, drop out of supercruise, and now you're in local flight. You can then find out what event is happening in the USS location and choose to either interact with it or jump back to supercruise and be along your way.

Within the game engine of local flight and supercruise, how else would you like to see content introduced in supercruise?

I see and agree largely with what your saying but on the persistence issue actually you bring up a few good examples .. nav beacons, resource extraction points and other permanent drop out sites can be seen and interacted with by multiple Commanders. It's just a shame that USS aren't like this. What you see in game isn't what I see in game. You could see a USS but I won't even though we are travelling in the same instance.

I'm afraid that design of the game is no excuse for the current iteration of the system at least for me having played the game for the last year.

I know people get shot round here for mentioning EVE online but how they handle in system exploration is excellent, its engaging, persistent, intelligent, rewarding commensurate with skill and risk and is very well linked with its game universe. I'm not saying that FD copy their system but what I am saying is that FD are very talented and I sincerely hope that they do the game justice and implement a discovery system worthy of the game universe they have created and get rid of this placeholder rubbish that does them no credit.

 

[Defacto]

I hope that USS's go away once we have the framework to have the kind of things going on in USS happen dynamically, in places where it makes sense to stop by.
An USS should be just that, an unidentified signal, not a random encounter.

If we had distress beacons, for example, that, I think, could do a lot to remove the need for USS.
A distress beacon could be a trader under attack, a wreckage or something a player activated. Could be a trap!

 

[starjump]

I wish finding USS'es was a scanning type mechanic. When flying around and seeing scanner activity as you get close enough and then maybe a soft "ping" sound as it shows on the radar and eventually as a marker like now. Instead of seeing them all over. The ship picks up on them a little too easy and it doesnt feel like undefined signal source. Im thinking like using a radio and tweaking the until you start hearing something, and then finding the station kind of style. Scan deep space around you and get a "piiiing" like sonar under water and then go closer to inspect and see it - drop out of SC into it. It can definately be made nicer. I know FD is checking suggestions and i have no reason to believe they wont upgrade mechanics if they feel it seem like a good and doable idea.

 

[Jezzah]

I wish finding USS'es was a scanning type mechanic. When flying around and seeing scanner activity as you get close enough and then maybe a soft "ping" sound as it shows on the radar and eventually as a marker like now. Instead of seeing them all over. The ship picks up on them a little too easy and it doesnt feel like undefined signal source. Im thinking like using a radio and tweaking the until you start hearing something, and then finding the station kind of style. Scan deep space around you and get a "piiiing" like sonar under water and then go closer to inspect and see it - drop out of SC into it. It can definately be made nicer. I know FD is checking suggestions and i have no reason to believe they wont upgrade mechanics if they feel it seem like a good and doable idea.

Yes this heading the right direction. Perhaps a separate screen/UI to handle this would be called for. The scanner would ping as you say and give you a general direction to head towards. After getting within a certain distance it would give an indication of what is causing the signal so that if it's something you want to check out you can continue to narrow it down all the time getting more information about it as you get closer to it. If it's not something you wish to check out you can clear your search and look for other signals.

 

[Ebannaw]

I personally enjoy the USS mechanic, it just needs to be fleshed out and tweaked a bit.

 

[starjump]

Yes this heading the right direction. Perhaps a separate screen/UI to handle this would be called for. The scanner would ping as you say and give you a general direction to head towards. After getting within a certain distance it would give an indication of what is causing the signal so that if it's something you want to check out you can continue to narrow it down all the time getting more information about it as you get closer to it. If it's not something you wish to check out you can clear your search and look for other signals.

Watching a vid of X-Rebirth the new one i saw they had a dedicated scanner (modeled with digital square blips LCD style on the front) that kind of runs its blips randomly. Im thinking something like that and when you get closer you start seeing the activity of the scanner go up. Im sure instead of a modeled scanner they could add like a animated waveform in the current UI kind of like the sound waveform we have that shows how much sound you make, and when getting closer to a USS that one goes up in activity and leave a soft sounding continuos ping that shortens the interval between the pings as you get closer/aim towards it. And by changing direction it goes up or down in activity as you home in on it or turn away from it. Wouldnt that be awesome?
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Something like this, but maybe the waveform pillars goes upwards only. So when no activity they are low down and just animate very little, and when getting in the direction and closer to a USS they go up and go more nuts and a soft ping start sounding. The closer you get the faster it pings and the faster and higher the waveform pillars raise up and down. Also, to top it off into total awesomeness there could be static with inaudible chatter. Like activity you pick up on from the USS. That means you are very close. This can be made withing the current UI and even though it takes a little man hours to implement, its not that advanced and definately possible. And it would raise the USS searching to a new height that would really feel like you explore deep space.
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Could be thicker and fewer pillars and not so detailed resolution of the waveform. But you get the idea. And they only go upwards so the bottom pillars arent there. Easier to implement and looks different from the sound waveform we have. Im gonna put this in a suggestion post in the suggestion section actually.

 

[mr.k]

Distress beacons should definitely be detectable as just that. Could be a dead ship, a trap, an ongoing fight...

I'd like tech upgrades that further give the player a way to narrow down what the source of the signal might be. Taking that a step on, perhaps some tech could be purchased (or awarded from doing military missions etc) that would detect 'other things' producing signals that normally are not detectable...

 

[Cmdr Wiley]

I also dislike the USS system.. crusing around for hours trying to find "the right one" to finish a mission just is not very fun.. it also feels very unrealistic and breaks the immersion for me.. a mission should have set coordinates, not simply random signals appearing everywhere.. a scanning mechanic would also make much more sense

 

[Jezzah]

Liking that suggestion there starjump it's definitely an elaboration on what I'm thinking and probably less clicking in and out of separate screens.

 

[starjump]

Posted this in the suggestion section: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=82048
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See what you think. Finding USS'es could be super fun and exploration like. I hope FD takes a liking to it. Would love the quality of it if they made it. Everything from their awesome sound guys to UI guys and the great coders. I can see it in my head already. And it would take a UI addition (thats already there really, would need to copy and change the style of the sound waveform) and then add ping sound (maybe different depending on ship for diversity) as you get closer (shouldnt be too hard to add this) and some inaduble chatter/static sound when real close for that "wow, theres something here! Time to drop out of SC and check it out".