USS: unbelievably Stupid Sequence

[Avago Earo]

I just don't know what to say, I really don't. I find it difficult to get immersed in 400 billion star systems when the USS Weak/Strong signal appears. It feels like (please say you feel differently and I'm wrong) a little program running on the old IF (RND) ELSE THEN GOTO. It's as if you could go to an RES site to find your mission target and there is a proportionate chance it will happen. Also find the same target at a Nav beacon, or hanging round outside the no fire zone.

I've moaned but not much on these forums but whichever way I've got a strong jaw so say what you want. I can take it. You won't get called a troll or a griefer or any other modern word that's churned up just for speaking your mind. Good for you for still having a mind!

Do you do this on a mission?... Go round in circles waiting for USS to show up. Then like busses there's three of them. Then thinking 'oh I bet that one I didn't target is the one...' Then eventually getting it and going back and claiming 'it'?

Do you? That's what happens to me and that's why I come back to the game and then get annoyed.

Like I said I'm built of tough stuff and can take it on the chin. I just want to know if I'm the only one bothered by this 'random' stuff.

Fly excited and if you can let me know your secret (not 'make your own story' that's like getting a HG Wells book that turns out to be a blank exercise pad and saying 'write it yourself')

 

[Faded Glory]

Well, the good news is that from 1.3 you will often (if not always) be able to find your mission target flying around in SC and you can interdict them. If you don't have a frame shift drive interdictor then they will still be around in a USS.

 

[Faded Glory]

Now that's a nice change! I always thought hunting USS for assassination targets was pretty stupid. I'll feel better immersion wise if I drag them out of sc.

A good change indeed.

 

[ocflyer]

You've got a point there. I found this disturbing from day one; these definitely shouldn't appear beyond inhabited space, and should be extremely rare on the fringes. That said, I think FD has bigger fish to fry for the next several months before they work on figuring a way to bring something this minor in line with the game's intended simulation-ness.

Yes, it bothers me that missions involving USS require going to a place and waiting for the USS to spawn in front of me. If I had a real ship in space, the process of finding something in space would involve sweeping the sector with a scanner that checks the relevant frequency spectrum or (a broadband spectrum scan) using a parabolic dish that is mounted on a computer-controlled rotor and connected to a low noise amplifier. I would keep the ship motionless and record the vectors for signals of interest. Some would be stronger than others. I'd check the signatures against a database of known signatures of ships, beacons, etc. Then I'd travel along those vectors using equipment to narrow the vector. As I got closer, the signal would get stronger so that I could determine if the signal is one or more ship signatures, the signature of an RF beacon from a black box/ejected cargo hold/escape pod, or an astronomical signature (i.e. RF from pulsating star). FD simplified this to an extreme, leaving out the directional signal locator aspect of real-life signal tracking (my ham radio experience finally becomes useful!). It would be more fun if they modeled a greatly simplified signal tracker so that we would have the pleasure of actually tracking down the relevant signal.

 

[Kyudos]

Yes, it bothers me that missions involving USS require going to a place and waiting for the USS to spawn in front of me. If I had a real ship in space, the process of finding something in space would involve sweeping the sector with a scanner that checks the relevant frequency spectrum or (a broadband spectrum scan) using a parabolic dish that is mounted on a computer-controlled rotor and connected to a low noise amplifier. I would keep the ship motionless and record the vectors for signals of interest. Some would be stronger than others. I'd check the signatures against a database of known signatures of ships, beacons, etc. Then I'd travel along those vectors using equipment to narrow the vector. As I got closer, the signal would get stronger so that I could determine if the signal is one or more ship signatures, the signature of an RF beacon from a black box/ejected cargo hold/escape pod, or an astronomical signature (i.e. RF from pulsating star). FD simplified this to an extreme, leaving out the directional signal locator aspect of real-life signal tracking (my ham radio experience finally becomes useful!). It would be more fun if they modeled a greatly simplified signal tracker so that we would have the pleasure of actually tracking down the relevant signal.

^This. Effectively all missions involving 'find something' devolve into you parking and waiting for the target to 'come to you' when the signal source pops up right where you are. IT would be much more interesting if 'find' missions involved some actual, you know, finding.

 

[Moriarte]

How did you end up in Mobius group, mr. Toughstuff? Get out of the rainbows and unicorns land and start hurting people already!!!

They fight back, you know ...