What can the devs do to improve exploration?

Ben Ryder

Ben Ryder
What can the devs do to improve exploration

Discovery of a new commodity akin to discovering tobacco or the potato. It doesn't need to be some rare oddities but something useful that everyone can find a. Use for and isn't hard to reproduce like hemp, spuds, pot noodle, recipes, crop rotation that kind of stuff
 
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Galten75

Galten75
Great thread, I would like to put down my thoughts in the matter. Some has already been said but I'll do it anyway.

* Manual waypoints/course that is editable and saved when logged off.
* Log functions. Where have you been, how many objects have your name on it and where etc etc.
* "Diversity" in existing environments. Now all star and planets looks almost the same. Add a few special visual attributes from time to time to spice things up.
* Long SC:s should be looked into. 100000-500000ls objects are a pain to reach. Add a module for Super SC, it will be a little expensive and will of course take a slot and add to Mass. Or maybe a Probe-launcher with ammo so that you have to chose your targets carefully.
* Scoopable Giants for science and/or fuel.
* Alien things. Not any extravagant. Extra super rare ancient ruins, or maybe more advanced lifeforms other than microbes. animals or even a few pre-historic species. It will add a good boost for the rep and maybe a GalNet thing if found and reported.
* Pulsars and other exotic celestrial object.
* Exploration missions. Be the first to find and/or photograph this kinds objects or something like that.
* Danger. High risk navigation to reach exotic and valuable objects.
* Mudules to boost scans and/or add new types of scans.
* Real dedicated exploration ship/s.
* Planetary landings.
* With Power Play in the horizon. How about claiming ELW/Terrafomrable world for a specific Power.

// G
 
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Yomamas Fett

Yomamas Fett
1: Have the DSS take as long as the ADS, right now you have to stop in space to scan anything, half the time of the current DSS would enable us to at least cruise around rather than stop and stare at a dot on the horizon....this plus the double-scan bug makes the DSS a chore and a bore to use.

2: have "Anomalies" and "surface deposits" or "ancient structures" etc found on a small percentage of planets/moons, that we can exploit with the pending planetary landing feature.

3: Have an Exo-Planetary Crawler, that is expensive and comes in sizes class 3-6, each crawler comes with a basic 2 or 3 slot refinery, science probe and cargo space (so maybe up to 32t on a size 6 crawler for example), the crawler would take small but steady damage while traveling on hostile worlds, but could earn the explorer tons of gold from picking up nuggets on a "surface deposits" planet, "alien artifacts" might give us a ton or two of those (but ancient alien booby traps would be present to damage an unwarey crawler and so on. The crwaler would be launched from the cargo bay doors of the ship and have to return to 50m of that point for the pilot to get back into the cockpit; if the crawler is lost the expedition is lost.

4: Anything else that would discourage egotourism for profit, nothing sadder than seeing a Python or Annaconda with a combat rating of Novice IMHO.
 

mossfoot

mossfoot
Titler said:
As for ending up in the wrong place... that's what happened with jumps in the original Elite, remember? But the thing was, you ended up in Witchspace, but most importantly, were allowed to fight back against the Thargoids and leave again.
Click to expand...

In Frontier and First Encounters you could also have a misjump (or force one). Most of the time you wouldn't go too far. But once in a while you'd end up FAR far away and have a hell of a trip coming back.

That was one of the adventures I set up for myself. Got a decent ship with a fuel scoop, ended up 10,000 light years away or so, had to travel back.

I wouldn't mind that again - very rare misjump misadventures - and if you ended up too far from home and didn't have a fuel scoop? Time to organize a rescue mission ;)
 

Fen Harel

Fen Harel
Titler said:
If they increase the danger of exploration, they need to give us some way to lesson the anguish that would come from losing thousands of systems of data all at once. I'd suggest a simple "Return To Civilization Drone", which carries your progress to that date, but has limited charges like a Shield Cell, and also relatively expensive to reload, let's say it's a mini Sidewinder in each charge, that takes a set time to actually travel back depending on the distance you are away... You can set which Faction it heads for, and when it gets there you get credit...
Click to expand...

Well, who knows what they will end up doing in the long term, but I hope they never change the basic mechanic where we have to get back in one piece to sell the data. It may be a very bashed up piece, but still, we have to return.
 

Iron Orchid

Iron Orchid
Two things that bug me at the moment -
1. the tedious nature of scanning a object - it doesn't seem worth the time scanning all the objects in a system - it doesn't even do the scanning in an interesting manner (even worse when you get the double scan bug). If I did this in every system I'd still be just be outside Watford gap services instead of 13000ly away.
2. The lack of phenomena we could do with some interstellar "stuff" - comets, asteroids or something (debris?) .
 

Blairvoyach

Blairvoyach
Biggest improvement for me would be to not keep getting interdicted by NPC pirates who demand "All you have is all I want", I don't even have any damn cargo racks let alone cargo.
 

Archvillain

Archvillain
Jon474 said:
I would like some sort of ability for an in-game Log system that:

• automatically recorded where I have been and what I have scanned (some of it is already there in verbose logging);
• gave me the Galactic Co-ordinates of the main stars of the systems I visit – it matters to me;
• captured some of the more valuable information held about scanned stars/planets as found on the System Map screens ;
• that let me take and caption/add notes to a picture;
• that actually let me take a decent picture without having to exit SC, slow down, take a picture (in-High-Res), restart the FSD and re-enter SC (I know, this one is selfish!);
• that let me write some text – a journal of where I have been; and
• that gave me statistics of my journey – LY travelled, systems visited, stars/planets scanned, categories of star/planet explored, time since last docking, etc (there are many more).

This might have to be a separate purchase – a Game Extra purchased through the Store– the sale price of which could fund its development? Right now, I would pay.
Click to expand...

You should also be able to press a button and pay real $$$ to purchase your logbook (pictures and all) as a physical book manufactured and mailed to you via print-on-demand technology, with a nice fat cut of the profit going to FDev.

These books would not just be for explorers. Traders, pirates, etc. everyone has adventures and tales to tell, pictures, etc.

I am already doing much of your list via a physical Pilot's Log book that I fill in as I explore, I love getting a book at the end of it, but turning a screengrab into a physical photo is a pain. A lot of stats info isn't available to me, etc.
 
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dognosh

dognosh
Varrag said:
What we miss:


  • Massive protoplanetary discs stretching hundreds of AUs across the newborn solar systems, with protoplanets/planetesimals enveloped in gas and dust;
  • Accretion discs;
  • Interacting contact binaries;
  • Cataclysmic variable stars (refs: contact binaries, acc. disc);
  • Very short time variable stars like for example Delta Scuti, SX Phoenicis, and roAp types;
  • Feeding black holes (ref: accretion disc);
  • Pulsars;
  • Fast spinning stars flattened by centrifugal force into an oblate shape, with plasma released along the equatorial line;
  • Quark stars, MECOs (magnetospheric eternally collapsing objects) - hypothetical types of exotic stars; they are theoretically possible, so... why not?
  • Comets;
  • Rogue planets;

What should be good to get:


Click to expand...

I repped your exploration ship thread and asked it to be moved here so it doesn't get lost, if it is ok with you ?
 

iain666

iain666
Fuel dumping would be nice.

When I need to shed some mass to get the jump range to go forwards a button to vent my fuel tank into space would be easier than flying around or jumping back to go forwards and not an implausible or unrealistic feature.
 

mossfoot

mossfoot
Archvillain said:
You should also be able to press a button and pay real $$$ to purchase your logbook (pictures and all) as a physical book manufactured and mailed to you via print-on-demand technology, with a nice fat cut of the profit going to FDev.

These books would not just be for explorers. Traders, pirates, etc. everyone has adventures and tales to tell, pictures, etc.

I am already doing much of your list via a physical Pilot's Log book that I fill in as I explore, I love getting a book at the end of it, but turning a screengrab into a physical photo is a pain. A lot of stats info isn't available to me, etc.
Click to expand...

Wow... I rather like this idea :D I doubt it'll ever happen, but I'd love it if it did.
 

Nilt

N
iain666 said:
Fuel dumping would be nice.

When I need to shed some mass to get the jump range to go forwards a button to vent my fuel tank into space would be easier than flying around or jumping back to go forwards and not an implausible or unrealistic feature.
Click to expand...
I agree. It seems a little odd we can refuel but not dump fuel. MInor thing, I suppose, but it would be nice to have the option.
 

Killerhurtz

K
Balance the scanners
Current situation of

Total Useless scanner
Useless scanner
Uber ultra elite perfecto wonder scanner of win
is kinda stupid.

Also scanners should find stuff based on its size
Unrealistic that a basic scanner would find a roid at 499 Ls and miss a blue hypergiant at 501 Ls

Make scanning a system more iterative for those that want a complete system map.
Adjust prices acordingly and allow exploreres to make informed decisions about where to scan for best chances of pay dirt.

I would go with
Basic scanner Base range of 1,000 ls
Intermediate scanner Base 3,000 ls
Advanced scanner 5,000 ls

Thats for an Earth sized world.

Secondary Stars and Gas giants would get modifiiers based on there output / size and be much easier to scan and find at range leading to cruise out and rescan to find orbiting planets / moons.
 

Surly_Badger

Surly_Badger
I think it would be cool to expand the exploration mini-game to somehow involve photography. I guess our scanners are amazingly great and basically deep-tissue cameras, but it'd be neat if there was some way that we'd occasionally get quests to "go shoot a few pictures of what's going on in QUADRINIUS 4A's 2nd planet."

Oh, that's an idea:

HOW ABOUT SOME EXPLORATION QUESTS?
You know: 300,000cr bring back data of SKAUDE A-AA H722 within 48hr
Surface scan such-and-such a planet
Check for if there is life on so-and-so gas giant
 
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Galten75

Galten75
More exploration community goals like find systems suitable for colonization by the upcoming powers in Power Play. Now it is mostly pewpew or collect materials to a system.

// G
 

Fen Harel

Fen Harel
Surly_Badger said:
I think it would be cool to expand the exploration mini-game to somehow involve photography. I guess our scanners are amazingly great and basically deep-tissue cameras, but it'd be neat if there was some way that we'd occasionally get quests to "go shoot a few pictures of what's going on in QUADRINIUS 4A's 2nd planet."

Oh, that's an idea:

HOW ABOUT SOME EXPLORATION QUESTS?You know: 300,000cr bring back data of SKAUDE A-AA H722 within 48hr
Surface scan such-and-such a planet
Check for if there is life on so-and-so gas giant
Click to expand...

I like the basic idea of this sort of mission. Personally I'd remove the short time range and give us special bonuses for finding planets of a particular type in a certain sector. Say, "Scientists in the University at Mavis' Bingo Palace are studying Ammonia Worlds. Find 10 that are at least 10 kly out. You have three weeks." The problem with this, though, is the current UC system is not set up to easily sell specific data to one place. You can do it, but you'd need lots of patience and good note.

I do like mission, but I think it would be even better to have new modules with limited ammo for close pass atmospheric and surface scanning. To do a sampling you'd have to say, pass within 2x or 3x that SC-crash limit. There might be 100 atmospheric probes and, say, 10 surface probes.
 

janmb

J
My wish list, in order of priority:
1. Star type filter affecting the route plotter
2. In-system jumps between stars (apparently planned anyway)
3. More levels of surface scanners (faster and better range variants)
4. Exploration log (letting you browse all systems you have explored, one for all time and one for outstanding incomes)
5. Better sell functionality
 
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