We're a side show

[Andrew Gaspurr]

Yes, improvements please!

Hi!
Yes, I would love to see some meaningful improvements to exploration as well. Apart from that, I also find the new info popups annoying; at least, where they place themselves on screen. I guess I would have no issues if those popups would appear on the top right of the screen and could be dragged by mouse to wherever you like them. And yes, basically those info windows are pretty meaningless for explorers anyway.

While we're at it, here's a short list of things I'd like to have for us folks:

- 3D System Map in 'Orrery Mode'
- Enabling waypoints
- 2,500 LY route plotting and also 'plot route from waypoints'
- Make rings and belts worth scanning down
- Make it so that samples can be extracted from rings/asteroids, atmospheres, planet surfaces, a sun's corona, whatever
- 'Onboard Laboratory' module (basically like a Refinery) for analyzing said samples
- Exploration-specific kind of USS (like an 'Unidentified Phenomena Source?') with comets, special asteroids, space debris, something
- Make certain classes of Gas Giants skimmable for fuel, but maybe with half efficiency?
- Add graphical effects for accretion disks, especially if the dense stellar body orbits another at a precariously low distance

Now, I mentioned samples and a lab to analyze them. What could be done with those samples?

- First of all, samples are quite small and shouldn't take up much space. Say, 1,000 samples would make a ton of space and different Lab classes san store more and more samples. Okay...
- Samples could be sold just as additional data to StelCart
- Samples could add to your PF's Exploration Rank
- Samples could be 'converted' into a new kind of item/commodity like 'Scientific Data' that can be sold to Scientific Outposts
- Samples of Terraforming candidates should be more valuable in any of the above cases

These are just some ideas I have to make Exploration more immersive and worthwhile.

Thanks for reading. As always, fly safe!

 

[Whiterose]

Let's face it, if you were to set off on an interstellar exploration trip in real life, what you get in Elite Dangerous is exactly what you would get in the real trip.
Call it boring, lacking content, this is simply what space is made of.

Awfully sorry, but I am going to have to disagree with you. In space you have accretion discs, moons with geysers (in our own system no less), system nebulae, super spinning planets, planets in a state of destruction. So no its nowhere near reality.

 

[CraigF]

Let's face it, if you were to set off on an interstellar exploration trip in real life, what you get in Elite Dangerous is exactly what you would get in the real trip.
Call it boring, lacking content, this is simply what space is made of.

In my opinion, the current system is great and is only missing one thing to make it truly epic : Planet Landing.
We will then be able to leave the bubble for years to come without ever feeling the need to came back.

So you think, in a galaxy of 400 billion stars, there's nowt to see other than the same few planets and suns? I would like to think there is LIFE out there somewhere for a start, and I don't mean the simple varieties that we scan at the moment. Whole civilisations spanning multiple systems, ruins, strange artefacts. Perhaps even the odd enigmatic black Monolith!

 

[pippo]

Awfully sorry, but I am going to have to disagree with you. In space you have accretion discs, moons with geysers (in our own system no less), system nebulae, super spinning planets, planets in a state of destruction. So no its nowhere near reality.

I'm no astronomy expert far from it so forgive me if I misunderstood..
But
we do have moon, planets with geysers only the info is on the system map. If you're suggesting that we should see them from orbit, then I'm all for it but then again this will clearly come with planet landing.
we do have system nebulae all over the place unless I don't understand what it is (would love to hear more about that)
we do have super spinning stars at least (like the herbig type) but I never really paid attention on planets…

Don't get me wrong whiterose, I'm not trying to tell you everything is perfect and ED/exploration has it all. I'm simply saying that planetary landing will most likely address all those issues.

- - - Updated - - -

So you think, in a galaxy of 400 billion stars, there's nowt to see other than the same few planets and suns? I would like to think there is LIFE out there somewhere for a start, and I don't mean the simple varieties that we scan at the moment. Whole civilisations spanning multiple systems, ruins, strange artefacts. Perhaps even the odd enigmatic black Monolith!

Life is everywhere and once again, the only thing you can't do is go down on the surface to actually witness it and sample it.

 

[Ripster]

Why even attempt to open up the can of worms that WILL BE planetary landings when there are so many more fundamental things that need addressing first in the little world of exploring?

And we all explore in a different manner, but isn't part of exploring paying attention to planets sort of a base requirement?

 

[antonygoldrick]

Hi!
Yes, I would love to see some meaningful improvements to exploration as well. Apart from that, I also find the new info popups annoying; at least, where they place themselves on screen. I guess I would have no issues if those popups would appear on the top right of the screen and could be dragged by mouse to wherever you like them. And yes, basically those info windows are pretty meaningless for explorers anyway.

While we're at it, here's a short list of things I'd like to have for us folks:

- 3D System Map in 'Orrery Mode'
- Enabling waypoints
- 2,500 LY route plotting and also 'plot route from waypoints'
- Make rings and belts worth scanning down
- Make it so that samples can be extracted from rings/asteroids, atmospheres, planet surfaces, a sun's corona, whatever
- 'Onboard Laboratory' module (basically like a Refinery) for analyzing said samples
- Exploration-specific kind of USS (like an 'Unidentified Phenomena Source?') with comets, special asteroids, space debris, something
- Make certain classes of Gas Giants skimmable for fuel, but maybe with half efficiency?
- Add graphical effects for accretion disks, especially if the dense stellar body orbits another at a precariously low distance

Now, I mentioned samples and a lab to analyze them. What could be done with those samples?

- First of all, samples are quite small and shouldn't take up much space. Say, 1,000 samples would make a ton of space and different Lab classes san store more and more samples. Okay...
- Samples could be sold just as additional data to StelCart
- Samples could add to your PF's Exploration Rank
- Samples could be 'converted' into a new kind of item/commodity like 'Scientific Data' that can be sold to Scientific Outposts
- Samples of Terraforming candidates should be more valuable in any of the above cases

These are just some ideas I have to make Exploration more immersive and worthwhile.

Thanks for reading. As always, fly safe!

If these came out in a payable expansion I really would spend my hard earn cash on it.

I love exploring but it can be a little stale considering the wonders what is actually out there.

If we had a fraction of these it would vastly improve the experience for us explorers.

I would like a more living universe

FD pleeeeeeeessssse implement some of these idea

 

[pippo]

Why even attempt to open up the can of worms that WILL BE planetary landings when there are so many more fundamental things that need addressing first in the little world of exploring?

And we all explore in a different manner, but isn't part of exploring paying attention to planets sort of a base requirement?

Fair enough,
although I only meant paying attention to how fast they were spinning..

 

[Traveller_GG]

Playing Devil's advocate here:

If there are 'points of interest' lying around the Galaxy like: abandoned space stations / ships / technology etc; they are going to be incredibly rare and how are you going to spot them? A lot of people are running with their scanners off to save heat generation and if they are abandoned they'll not broadcast a signal? (I know: a flipping huge station is going to broadcast *something*). They will still be very, very rare though.

Planetary landings? Pfft. It's only another way to gather data and look at pretty scenery - get the scenery and data gathering in space sorted first. Stop asking for NEW stuff when the existing stuff needs sorting first. Me? I'd like probes and a controller for the same - force you to make some strategic / tactical decisions about data gathering - not to mention being able to stock 'em up and sell 'em on!

Look, let's not start throwing a huge bucket list of "I want, I want" - look at the requirements to make Exploring more *rewarding*, not just in money (which is nice and basically required) but in experience. Make those requirements simple and they are more likely to be developed.

 

[Raiko]

The thing is that we really should be able to view geyser (and volcano) emissions/eruptions from orbit right now, especially those on moons within our own solar system and the other hand crafted systems.

I also have never understood why we got the lovely lensing effect on Black Holes immediately, but accretion disks have never been added. On the subject of Black Holes, I'd love to be able to revisit HIP 63538 or a similar system and see the Black Hole consuming it's companion (or even just see the lensing effect bend light from the companion, not just the background stars!), but I suspect that I'll be waiting a long long time.

Regarding the forum move, I was kind of frustrated at first that my favourite forum topics (exploration and the Buckyball Runs) were moved out of the main forum - Buckyball got moved to "community events" with all the pub crawls and cons! - but I kind of prefer it now, because I can keep track of all the explorer threads without reading the constant pvp vs open vs solo vs griefing threads!

I've actually started to post a lot more often in exploration threads on here now, as it's more convenient, in the past I tended to post more on the r/eliteexplorers subreddit, but that became a much less friendly place after the end of the Beta/Gamma. I think that this subforum has the same great community atmosphere that r/eliteexplorers used to have.

 

[Ulysses_W]

I was really exited at the prospect of exploring my way to Sagittaris A*. The thought of being totally alone in the void for a few weeks was very compelling. I made it to Sag A in March and decided that I enjoyed the trip so much that I'd carry on to the other side of the galaxy.

3 months later and I'm in the BLO CHREA Sector 54K LY from SOL. I think I can safely say that I've seen all I'm going to see as far as heavenly bodies go.

This makes me sad. All I've really got to look forward to now it a seriously long haul back home, I reckon it'll take me another 3 months to get there.

I'm not going to discover anything fabulous / scary / amazing / mind boggling. I fear it's going to be a boring 3 months.

Exploration should not be like this.

 

[Raiko]

One thing that struck me during the Kickstarter was just how many of the backers were into astronomy as a result of the original 3 games. It was also clear that DB OBE shared the same enthusiasm for astronomy.

I've only ever had an interest in reading about astronomy rather than staring through a telescope, and most of my interest came via the tabletop RPG Traveller, rather than Elite, but I remember a couple of my school friends who played Elite with me who were avid Astronomers.

Everybody was so enthusiastic to get out amongst the stars and to see all of these astronomical phenomena "first hand". It's a shame that after the initial wow-factor there's such a huge list of unimplemented things that we could be going out to study.

 

[Andrew Gaspurr]

You played Traveller? Gosh! I still have all those books and stuff around and a big Spinward Marches map hangin on my room's wall. One of the best Sci-Fi pen'n'papers ever!
I loved the books from Travellers Digest Group where you could roll/create your own star systems. I created entire Sectors that way, so much did I love this game.

Man, those were the days...

 

[Ripster]

*hand up* Traveller player here

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Wow, thanks for the support guys!

When I posted that thread yesterday, and found it back on page 5 this morning I was thinking it was just me. Turns out, it was just me in the feeding frenzy that is the general discussion forums. Glad to hear my sentiments echoed here!

Do devs frequent this place? Hi Devs! Do you?

 

[Cody]

Though I ain't an explorer as such, what you say is true enough, Ziggy! Devs? Here? You're havin' a laugh!

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

On a practical note Ziggy - I think your two threads may have gained more attention from the explorer community/people interested in exploration if you'd put "explorer" in the title!

This one is a bit cryptic and the other one looked like it was another PP thread.

I realised - just now - that they are in the explorer forum - which is a bit of a clue I suppose - but for people like me that just refresh the recent posts lists it's not too obvious.

Yeah, I'm nothing if not vague. In fact I think it's my best feature.

 

[Philip Coutts]

The problem with the main forum is stuff disappears so quickly because there are a hundred threads on the same thing i.e. powerplay. No-one uses the search function, they just crash on and start new threads. I also fear that the devs are unlikely to show up here (although they may read it, I seem to remember Michael Brookes was keen on exploring, so there is hope).

 

[Traveller_GG]

*hand up* Traveller player here

Worth pointing out that despite the obvious connection, my character name is *not* based on the game. I've used it since I started playing Wing Commander back when it was first released and you needed a call-sign for the game. I used the name of a band I knew from University who I would spend a very very very relaxing time admiring the herb collection with.

THEY got their name from the game

(the GG comes from a similar background when older Wing Commander players formed a IRC group called the Grey Ghosts I still use it to make the name unique.

 

[Ian Phillips]

A couple of points..
@ Ziggy
The devs didn't stuff the explorers away in this forum.
The explorers asked for a forum and the people responsible for maintaining the forums agreed with the idea.
So it's your fault as an explorer!

Secondly - yes the devs do read the forums, including this forum.

 

[Michael Brookes]

Wow, thanks for the support guys!

When I posted that thread yesterday, and found it back on page 5 this morning I was thinking it was just me. Turns out, it was just me in the feeding frenzy that is the general discussion forums. Glad to hear my sentiments echoed here!

Do devs frequent this place? Hi Devs! Do you?

We're everywhere - just because we don't comment doesn't mean that we aren't reading the threads.

Michael