But you can use the honk exactly the same. Just make sure it's bound to a fire button and as long as you're in analysis mode, you can still jump-scoop-honk.
You cant see the planets till you spy them thru the tune and zoom. Its just enough of an obsticale to change a long range exploration trip into screw it i cba
I neither love it nor hate it. Looks OK and it will take some getting used to, that's for sure. Disclaimer: I have just done a few jumps since updating the game, so I didn't really have the opportunity to check the new exploration system fully. Overall looks like a step in the right direction. Mapping planets is a bit painful because we don't have the same controls in supercruise that we have in normal space and because you have to be pretty close to the planet. It tends to take most of the screen, so I would appreciate if I could send the probes from further away. Since I can't stop the ship completely or use vertical / lateral trusters in supercruise, going around the planets to map them is a bit of a pain in the backside. Also, don't know how it's going to affect gathering materials for the engineers (for example from USS).
But the new system definitely has some potential and is an improvement comparing to the old one.
You cant see the planets till you spy them thru the tune and zoom. Its just enough of an obsticale to change a long range exploration trip into screw it i cba
I think you're mistaken. I haven't tested it extensively so I might be wrong, but this is the view of a random system that I'd never visited before after a single honk, no FSS or anything.
I think you're mistaken. I haven't tested it extensively so I might be wrong, but this is the view of a random system that I'd never visited before after a single honk, no FSS or anything.
I'm having my first proper go at the new patch today and it's just marvellous! The exploration mechanics make the game feel alive and full of things to discover. I was in a Pleiades system and I got a sense of dread when I saw how many Thargoid signal sources there were, and especially because a lot were clustered near a space station.
I no longer feel like I'm just rolling a dice to see what random selection of planets the computer has invented, instead I feel like I'm actually exploring a real star system.
I'm something of a noob at this game, I'm only 220 hours or so in, but for the first time I don't feel like I'm just playing it as nostalgia fuel, I'm playing it because it's giving me a sense of wonder and excitement.
The developers get a lot of abuse from people who don't appreciate the work and passion that goes into a project like this, and I hope that Frontier see this message and realise just how appreciated they are for having the audacity to make a game on this scale, and actually pulling it off. Ladies and gentlemen of Frontier, you have all my bravos.
Glad some people are enjoying this. I turned on the game. Got bored out my skull after 15 minutes and then logged out again. Went back to ESO. Sorry, there's just nothing to apart from flying around looking at small variations of the same thing..the new mechanics are just convoluted but still uninteresting. You guys enjoy though. I'll wait another 6 months to see if the game isn't a snoozefest yet.
The new exploration mechanics are a big win in my books. I am already on a new expedition out into the black and I am having much more fun this time than my last big trip to Colonia and Sag A*. Frontier got this feature totally right in my books.
Yep, the new patch has invigorated me. It's already my favourite VR game, which I play on the regular, but with the latest patch comes a whole bunch of changes that I dig - exploration is it's own minigame now and I enjoy feeling like I'm at the science console
I'm having my first proper go at the new patch today and it's just marvellous! The exploration mechanics make the game feel alive and full of things to discover. I was in a Pleiades system and I got a sense of dread when I saw how many Thargoid signal sources there were, and especially because a lot were clustered near a space station.
I no longer feel like I'm just rolling a dice to see what random selection of planets the computer has invented, instead I feel like I'm actually exploring a real star system.
I'm something of a noob at this game, I'm only 220 hours or so in, but for the first time I don't feel like I'm just playing it as nostalgia fuel, I'm playing it because it's giving me a sense of wonder and excitement.
The developers get a lot of abuse from people who don't appreciate the work and passion that goes into a project like this, and I hope that Frontier see this message and realise just how appreciated they are for having the audacity to make a game on this scale, and actually pulling it off. Ladies and gentlemen of Frontier, you have all my bravos.
Well said OP, ED is truly a ground breaking spacesim wonder. A lot of its innovations and sheer scope and structure and what they've realistically and gradually in time have been able to pull off within that framework has often been taking quickly for granted in its lifetime so far, even though the improvements and growth of ED then and now are still always there when playing the game. A masterful work often looks like it was simply accomplished or somehow made to look easy, when there's so much done under the surface.
Jumped to say I love the update! Big updates with large changes always make me nervous but so far it’s plain awesome. Thank you Frontier for an entire year of FREE content with a great finale!
I've found tons of cool and interesting sites in a relatively short amount of time, that would have been almost impossible to find with the previous mechanics.
The discovery scanner is really going to come into its own when more of the planets are landable. I agree with some criticism of it at the moment, but when we're not restricted to just rocky/ice planets and scanning a system gives us access to any of them then it opens up so much more of the Galaxy and will make the new scanning system much more satisfying and worthwhile. It's there very much as a nod to the future.
(Spoiler tagged for people who don't want two paragraphs of my [I]Star Trek[/I] musings).
I enjoy watching Discovery because it's doing something very different and is constantly able to surprise me, and it's the first week-to-week Trek in decades so it's good for playing the "did you see... / I wonder if..." game the following day. But at the same time, every criticism I've heard levelled at the show -- some of which I can ignore, many of which I have issues with myself -- is 100% legitimate so I fully grasp why some people actively hate it. I had a broadly similar response to The Last Jedi and the JJ Trek movies for largely similar reasons although I do have a huge problem with Into Darkness' gratuitous and backfiring use of fan service.
I think part of it is age related. I was 30 when Star Trek Enterprise first aired and received a lot of the prototype flak that Discovery would later get. I didn't understand it, because to me Enterprise was an interesting twist that didn't push the envelope too far. But I freely admit that if Enterprise had been as radically different then as Discovery is now, I'd have probably hated it for messing so much with the accepted formula. Discovery gets more of a free pass because I'm now 48 and jaded enough to realise it's not worth losing your beans over a TV show just because a new generation of creators want to do something different with it. My 30 year old self was far more invested in "my" Star Trek and wouldn't have understood that.
There is of course a major difference with the ED situation because while the existence of Burnham, Saru et al. doesn't prevent people from enjoying the exploits of Kirk and Picard, the FSS removes the ADS completely which has got to feel like a kick in the nuts for those who really genuinely can't stand the new system.
It's all still RNG under the covers, but the old way made it painfully clear that was the case - throttle down and wait, and POIs would magically appear out of nowhere. The new way is much better at hiding the wizard behind the curtains.
I was thinking more in general terms about the PG systems, which are not random in the strictest sense even though people do describe them as RNG or copypasta. But you're right about in-system POIs. The FSS is a much better way of locking in those early signal sources, while still allowing for random space-based encounters as you fly around.
There is still a layer of artificiality just below the surface. I cast a particularly squinty side-eye at the Weapons Fire Detected sources which can tell you not only the threat level but for exactly how long the battle will persist in your absence, down to the second. Hmm. But hey, despite its often effective simulator-ish trappings ED is just a game, trying to cram as much varied content into a set of relatively simple templates as possible. And 3.3 is helping a lot with that. The galaxy feels more alive to me than it's done in years.
Like star trek discovery klinginons. They were new and exciting.. a new way! leave behind the old. The fans were outraged and now in series two they are desperately trying to placate and undo the damage. Lessons here
Enterprise is playing again on tv here. Its not terrible but its not right either. Allowing the TNG universe to come to an end was a serious mistake for trek. You know actually i disagree with your spoiler. They have ruined starwars, now they came along and ruin startrek. I wont say on here but i know who i blame The thing with discovery (i heard) is that two or three different partys own the startrek copyrights. So they have to make a "new trek" with their part of the rights and not impinging on anybody elses. Yeah you can see the result. I actually felt sorry for the guy that acted captain cause he could have been good. Discovery ruined it for him too
To me discovery looks like that stargate startrek parody episode but they tryed to make it serious.
The new and improved massacre missions are super funky, every time I enter SC I get an immediate mission marker with at least one mission target in it. They don't like it when you mamba them.