Horizons What exactly is there to do in horizons?

[rupok]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif]Cause I can't find nothing after landing on a planet. Ya there are some missions but the payout it so small to a long time player like me. Even if there were fun stuff I would be willing to do it but there doesn't seem to be.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif]I am not trying to criticize the game or hate on it. I genuinely wanna know.[/FONT]

 

[ChaosBlades]

Wait for content while watching the amazing sight of the planet you are landed on rotate around a gas giant with rings while listening to the Mass Effect Soundtrack.

Seriously though I feel your pain. I'm not really all the excited even for the features that have been announced. Except for launchable fighters so maybe the Cutter won't be so useless.

 

[thormadragon]

Look for points of interest, you might find a mining site giving you platin.
Or look for materials for synthesis giving you 30% damage bonus for your weapons and other cool stuff.
It´s not much yet, but will keep me going until the crafting expansion comes out in a few months. Really looking forward to it!

 

[Loskene]

I could list off the supposed features of the update, or I could tell you what I've actually found myself doing since it launched. I think the latter is more realistic, and the answer is absolutely nothing except driving around sightseeing. Once you've seen the 4 or 5 different types of POI, there is positively nothing to do.

 

[Quill]

Well I really, really hope that FD are developing some great, deep and involved missions and game play for Horizons, after all the incredible work put into developing landings on these fabulous PG planets, it would be an awful crime for not developing missions with the same attention and focus

 

[Loskene]

Well I really, really hope that FD are developing some great, deep and involved missions and game play for Horizons, after all the incredible work put into developing landings on these fabulous PG planets, it would be an awful crime for not developing missions with the same attention and focus

You can hope all you want (as I foolishly continue to do) but eventually have to come to the realisation that while frontier have incredible technical capability, as evidenced by the stellar forge milky way and the sheer scales of landable planets, they just don't have a clue when it comes to making enjoyable gameplay. I expect each point release in season 2 to be just like each point release in season 1. Which is to say, heavily prioritising the adding of new features in lieu of fixing and refining what they've already put out.
Delving into speculation a bit, I'd nearly say they have a bit of an ego problem when it comes to admitting certain "placeholder" features are less than perfect and could do with a ground-up review at some point. The random nature of signal sources being a big thorn in my side for one example. I recall an ex-developer of theirs once saying their programming leads would allegedly take great offence to the idea that the codebase wasn't a masterpiece, and I can't imagine design would be much different. If true, not a good attitude when it comes to the health of the project overall. And yet still I hope, possibly in vain, for we are all acutely aware of what this game could be, if some modest attention was put towards the right areas.

 

[FuelX]

Mostly, it is the exploration part that appeal to me in horizons so far. There are some new high reward missions, but I don't think planets is where you'll get much richer. Maybe I missed something, but grinding points of interest earn me about 200k credits / hour. Maybe some kind of personal achievements system would help guide players and give new ideas.

So far, here's some ideas (don't expect any extra reward beside personal pride):
- Land on a planet
- Train your planetary cruise skills.
- Train your glide skills.
- Train some evasive/offensive maneuvers at low altitude.
- Land at a ground station at night
- Fly through a canion.
-- Without crashing.
- Land on a high gravity planet
- Dock on a mountain slope
- Learn to identify materials with your rover's scanner.
- Fill your materials cargo.
- Learn to identify any point of interest within your scanner's range
- Learn to visually identify points of interest from a high altitude.
- Raid points of interest
- Raid points of interest as efficiently as you can
- Raid points of interest at night
- Attack wanted sentries with your rover.
- Attack wanted sentries with your ship.
- Try to loot a large extraction point of interest as fast as you can.
- Try planetary missions (or wait for this ones, there's some bugs)
- Drive as fast as you can on a high gravity planet. Enjoy the physics.
- Drive as fast as you can on a low gravity planet. Enjoy the physics.
-- Try to achieve long jumps without damaging your scarab.
- Find a planet between 0.5g and 1g for the next ones and enough materials for a few repairs:
-- Find bumpy grounds for your SRV. If you destroy your SRV you lose.
-- Get some speed and jump as far as you can. Try to mitigate damage.
-- Try to achieve as many rolls as you can while landing on your wheels. Count them. Beat 4 rolls. Beat 6 rolls. Beat 8 rolls. Repair your SRV.
-- Try to achieve as many flips as you can while landing on your wheels. Beat one, beat two, beat 3. Repair your SRV.
-- Try to achieve as many back flips as you can while landing on your wheels. Beat one, beat two. Repair your SRV.
-- Try to achieve a high jump without damaging your SRV. And maybe repair your SRV again.
- Refill your SRV cargo.
- Find a planet with a ring. Land and take a nice screen shot.
- Find a icy world with a huge mountain. Climb the mountain.
- Find close binary planets, land on one planet and admire the other.
-- Take a good pose and make a selfie including your scarab, your ship and the planet in the sky.
-- Post it in the selfie thread.
- Find the largest crater you can spot, land outside and drive down to the central peak. Try to climb the peak.
- Hunt points of interest in a mountain range. Chase gold canisters rolling down the mountain slopes.
- Find a legal point of interest (sentries not wanted).
-- Steal canisters from under the sentries noses without getting fined.
- Go back in space and find the best deal for all that loot and tea you collected.
- Get yourself a new ship.
- Simulate a crash landing.
- Enjoy your new ship from within a planet's gravity well.
- Redo some of the previous points with this new ship.

...

If by then, you think you're done with planetary landing, try some new 1.5 stuff in space. And if you're done with that too, well I hope you feel like you had enough value from your purchase. I really think I do but I understand the critics. And well, there's likely some more goodies coming in 2016!

 

[Jaeger]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif]Cause I can't find nothing after landing on a planet. Ya there are some missions but the payout it so small to a long time player like me. Even if there were fun stuff I would be willing to do it but there doesn't seem to be.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif]I am not trying to criticize the game or hate on it. I genuinely wanna know.[/FONT]

This is exactly what I came here to ask... except I'm more that willing to criticize.

So far I have been impressed by the brief glide interlude... that was nice, for that nano second... Well done on expanding the tech demo FD... but wheres the game?

In the heel of the hunt ... I can't wait for NMS and SC to be released. This crap from FD (pretty though it is) is heartbreaking.

 

[CMDR-AD]

So far I am mostly going out to search the planet surfaces without missions.

Fly in normal space (not super cruise) above 1.5km, and watch for POI to appear. Then I drop in and search them. Last night I recovered $20k+ at a single POI, and had some of my best play ever, nearly getting into serious trouble on harsh terrain. But I made it.

One ice moon I visited only had tiny outposts and such for POI. Never did find a wreck site there.

I've driven right at 200km in my SRV, but still not encountered a large ship wreck or mining site. I'm looking forward to that.

I also occasionally will do a pilot rescue mission. The pay is like $50k to $90k for these, which is more valuable to me after doing a CMDR reset. But I try to do only 1 or 2 missions per week. Pressure can be higher, since there are time limits and the SRV takes some time, depending on the terrain.

And I'm up to 13 different discovered materials so far, but I have not gone out of my way seeking them. I suppose I will need to check out some different types of planet surfaces to try to find a few of the more rare materials, someday.

 

[Jaeger]

Mostly, it is the exploration part that appeal to me in horizons so far. There are some new high reward missions, but I don't think planets is where you'll get much richer. Maybe I missed something, but grinding points of interest earn me about 200k credits / hour. Maybe some kind of personal achievements system would help guide players and give new ideas.

So far, here's some ideas (don't expect any extra reward beside personal pride):
- Land on a planet
- Train your planetary cruise skills.
- Train your glide skills.
- Train some evasive/offensive maneuvers at low altitude.
- Land at a ground station at night
- Fly through a canion.
-- Without crashing.
- Land on a high gravity planet
- Dock on a mountain slope
- Learn to identify materials with your rover's scanner.
- Fill your materials cargo.
- Learn to identify any point of interest within your scanner's range
- Learn to visually identify points of interest from a high altitude.
- Raid points of interest
- Raid points of interest as efficiently as you can
- Raid points of interest at night
- Attack wanted sentries with your rover.
- Attack wanted sentries with your ship.
- Try to loot a large extraction point of interest as fast as you can.
- Try planetary missions (or wait for this ones, there's some bugs)
- Drive as fast as you can on a high gravity planet. Enjoy the physics.
- Drive as fast as you can on a low gravity planet. Enjoy the physics.
-- Try to achieve long jumps without damaging your scarab.
- Find a planet between 0.5g and 1g for the next ones and enough materials for a few repairs:
-- Find bumpy grounds for your SRV. If you destroy your SRV you lose.
-- Get some speed and jump as far as you can. Try to mitigate damage.
-- Try to achieve as many rolls as you can while landing on your wheels. Count them. Beat 4 rolls. Beat 6 rolls. Beat 8 rolls. Repair your SRV.
-- Try to achieve as many flips as you can while landing on your wheels. Beat one, beat two, beat 3. Repair your SRV.
-- Try to achieve as many back flips as you can while landing on your wheels. Beat one, beat two. Repair your SRV.
-- Try to achieve a high jump without damaging your SRV. And maybe repair your SRV again.
- Refill your SRV cargo.
- Find a planet with a ring. Land and take a nice screen shot.
- Find a icy world with a huge mountain. Climb the mountain.
- Find close binary planets, land on one planet and admire the other.
-- Take a good pose and make a selfie including your scarab, your ship and the planet in the sky.
-- Post it in the selfie thread.
- Find the largest crater you can spot, land outside and drive down to the central peak. Try to climb the peak.
- Hunt points of interest in a mountain range. Chase gold canisters rolling down the mountain slopes.
- Find a legal point of interest (sentries not wanted).
-- Steal canisters from under the sentries noses without getting fined.
- Go back in space and find the best deal for all that loot and tea you collected.
- Get yourself a new ship.
- Simulate a crash landing.
- Enjoy your new ship from within a planet's gravity well.
- Redo some of the previous points with this new ship.

...

If by then, you think you're done with planetary landing, try some new 1.5 stuff in space. And if you're done with that too, well I hope you feel like you had enough value from your purchase. I really think I do but I understand the critics. And well, there's likely some more goodies coming in 2016!

... Learn to identify any point of interest ...

OMG I wish FD would do this, like what was the DDF for ! ? huh ?

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

So far I am mostly going out to search the planet surfaces without missions.

Fly in normal space (not super cruise) above 1.5km, and watch for POI to appear. Then I drop in and search them. Last night I recovered $20k+ at a single POI, and had some of my best play ever, nearly getting into serious trouble on harsh terrain. But I made it.

One ice moon I visited only had tiny outposts and such for POI. Never did find a wreck site there.

I've driven right at 200km in my SRV, but still not encountered a large ship wreck or mining site. I'm looking forward to that.

I also occasionally will do a pilot rescue mission. The pay is like $50k to $90k for these, which is more valuable to me after doing a CMDR reset. But I try to do only 1 or 2 missions per week. Pressure can be higher, since there are time limits and the SRV takes some time, depending on the terrain.

And I'm up to 13 different discovered materials so far, but I have not gone out of my way seeking them. I suppose I will need to check out some different types of planet surfaces to try to find a few of the more rare materials, someday.

You found 13 needles in haystacks.. awesome!... does the tedium make you wish someone invented a magnet ?

 

[InDigital]

Maybe it would be more interesting visiting planets together with maximum amount of friends in Wing.
I would like to find players in Empire (Lavigny) territory on some planets.
Just see em landing and encountering them on some planet's surface in SRV.

 

[Loskene]

Maybe it would be more interesting visiting planets togetjer with maximum amount of friends in Wing or just near.
I would like to find players in Empire (Lavigny) territory on some planets.
Just see em landing and encountering them on some planet's surface in SRV.

Finding people on the surface is pretty much the same as finding people in space. Go where the most people are, and you'll find someone to scoot around with. That means power HQs, popular outfitting systems, the old worlds, Sol, etc.
It wasn't even 20 seconds after I landed in a surface port at Lembava that a CMDR in an SRV jumped on top of my ship.

 

[FuelX]

... Learn to identify any point of interest ...

OMG I wish FD would do this, like what was the DDF for ! ? huh ?

Sorry, I didn't follow the design decision forums. I suppose you want to detailed surface scanner to identify points of interests or something like that? If so, I agree it would be useful, but I do enjoy using the wave scanner.

...

+1 to InDigital and Loskene for stuff to do on planets in multiplayer.

 

[CMDR-AD]

... Learn to identify any point of interest ...

OMG I wish FD would do this, like what was the DDF for ! ? huh ?

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -



You found 13 needles in haystacks.. awesome!... does the tedium make you wish someone invented a magnet ?

Well, I have actually come to enjoy using the Wave Scanner. It's vastly more interesting gameplay (IMO) than pressing a button to instantly reveal all POI locations and contents, like the Discovery Scanner for exploring. So far I've not felt any tedium in the exploration process, even when my search was a failure. Sometimes, POI present dilemmas, such as dealing with illegal cargo finds, or occupied escape pods, with no way to hand them in for rescue/freedom at the local base or station Security Office.

I have been thinking lately, there is a lack of danger and risk management on the surface. It would be fantastic to someday see added surface activity away from bases. Such as RNG roving groups of patrol skimmers owned/operated by local minor factions, out searching for wanted CMDR or illegal cargo. Then there would be some value in upgrading the SRV sensors, to aid in detecting these threats at longer distance, and using terrain to avoid them (or simply take the fight to them, if properly equipped). Or the tension of having to run away fast in the SRV while firing back at skimmers from the turret.

But there is much time ahead in Season 2. I think the huge hurdle was getting the surface/planet tech laid down in v2.0. Now that it's in place, based on what I've seen in Season 1, I have confidence that foundation will be built upon.

 

[Quill]

You can hope all you want (as I foolishly continue to do) but eventually have to come to the realisation that while frontier have incredible technical capability, as evidenced by the stellar forge milky way and the sheer scales of landable planets, they just don't have a clue when it comes to making enjoyable gameplay. I expect each point release in season 2 to be just like each point release in season 1. Which is to say, heavily prioritising the adding of new features in lieu of fixing and refining what they've already put out.
Delving into speculation a bit, I'd nearly say they have a bit of an ego problem when it comes to admitting certain "placeholder" features are less than perfect and could do with a ground-up review at some point. The random nature of signal sources being a big thorn in my side for one example. I recall an ex-developer of theirs once saying their programming leads would allegedly take great offence to the idea that the codebase wasn't a masterpiece, and I can't imagine design would be much different. If true, not a good attitude when it comes to the health of the project overall. And yet still I hope, possibly in vain, for we are all acutely aware of what this game could be, if some modest attention was put towards the right areas.

I agree with everything you say Loskene, so far gameplay and mission development just take a backseat to features, of course you need the features to enable gameplay but you cant just keep adding new features if there is nothing to do in the game world. My "hope" is that FD's plan is that now we have landings ticked off, they now put real development into gameplay and missions not just endlessly churn out the same stuff and expect the players to accept it. My fear is that they are now throwing everything into avatar designer and other features and completely ignoring the hundreds of threads that concern gameplay and missions; at the end of the day of course, that will lead to players being bored and drift away, if FD want 10 years out of ED they need to really get there act together and put some serious thought and manpower into gameplay.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

Well, I've wandered off into the Black to see for myself...

Spoiler

Tea, Tea, Tea... over hundreds of Light Years...

Couldn't see those Tea stashes anymore... Enough is enough.

Nice scenery, 1000LY marker long behind me. Very remote place.

No idea who hauled a NAV Beacon out here. Data Link scan worthless as usual - nothing here worth my time.

A fellow Explorer died here. I wonder what happened to him.

Ah, couldn't stand the Tea anymore. Clear case of suicide. By now - I understand why.

1400LY worth of Data Link scans :

---

So to answer the original question :
- enjoy the scenery and chill out
- grab a few Materials
- haul thousands of tons of Tea, Consumer Tech, Animal Meat, Gold or Indium back home... 8 tons at a time if you're in an Asp

PS.
I found and ignored a couple of Signal Sources. Small and Large Data Survey Caches and a few Occupied Escape pods. All illegal and nothing worth my time. Not what I'm looking for on Exploration. I consider it all illegal space junk.

Should Aliens one day attack us... Well, no wonder why. We littered the entire Galaxy with trash.
Seems they can't stand being bombarded with Tea as well. Seeing what I saw so far - I'd fully understand.

I've seen enough USS *cough sorry* "Points of interest" by now. They're pointless USS - just on the ground. Same spammy generation, same nonsensical contents (completely location-unaware, just like the Signal Sources used to be and often still are).
I'd even bet it was the same guy that invented the infamous Signal Sources that brought us those dreaded "Points of Uninterest". Didn't work well in space - not surprisingly doesn't work well on the Ground either.
They're all interesting the 1st time you see them. That stops right after the 2nd time.

I guess I'll return home, no point in taking it further out. After all, Tea isn't exactly a rare good that would increase in price from the distance.

 

[BillD]

Yes I much enjoy the wave scanner way of doing things. Often people say we need more depth and in the same breath complain that they cant simply press a button and find all the deep things..... What?
ED need more technical stuff like the wave scanner. I also think that was the point of not being able to see everything from space, peeps would just fly around rather than drive around, press a scan button and find everything.
Give more things where an intelligent person can actually learn how to do something and get better at it. More Probing Surveying and discovery without the single button click please.
Give me clues not answers

 

[Daffan]

Try and find other players on planets, it will take you 20000 years to find 1 person because they don't add scanners or probes to find other players so lonely even in Open.

 

[Tinman]

Why do people seem to always miss mentioning the missions you do around settlements/bases (the ones without standard landing pads)?

Take out a generator or hacking a terminal connected to a specific item is rather fun.

Sure, a lot more can be done here, but compared to many other activities these missions have (depending on the outpost) more involved steps in them to complete.

Flying over a heavily protected outpost will result in heavy ground to air attacks. It's therefore often better to land away from the outpost and approach it in your SRV to take out the big guns first. Other outposts might allow you to "sneak in", do your thing and then make a quick getaway. In some cases you might even need to bring down a shield to get to the terminal your suppose to interact with. This is far to easy to get around currently though since you can often "bypass" these shields by finding another way in by boosting. Or you might even be able to "reach" the terminal with your turret even if it's up on a roof. This would probably work better if hacking systems required a physical connection to the terminal instead of doing it at a distance.

 

[Loskene]

Why do people seem to always miss mentioning the missions you do around settlements/bases (the ones without standard landing pads)?

Probably because you only need to do one of those to realise they're not worth mentioning. I actually forgot about them entirely, since I haven't bothered taking any missions in Horizons since launch day.
This has made me think about probably the biggest problem ED has right now. That problem is variety, specifically when it comes to interaction with the various game elements. For a game boasting the variety of 400 billion star systems, there are pitifully few ways to interact with anything in them.
I have zero reasons to visit a settlement unless a mission sends me there to pester a data lolly or a shoot a generator. Those are the only two reasons for settlements to exist, which seems like a waste of potential.
David Braben often remarks how many times he gets killed any time he goes to a public location with other players in it. Maybe if we had ways to interact with other ships besides shooting at them it wouldn't happen so often. Honestly, what else is anyone supposed to do if they see CMDR Braben passing by? Flash their headlights? Invite him to a wing?
The problem becomes pretty starkly apparent when you look at any of the powerplay junk or community goals. Every single task boils down to one of the same few repetitive actions, either move a macguffin from A to B or shoot at a thing until you get money.
In terms of a wealth of things to see and do, Elite passes the "see" qualification, as any screenshot thread will show you, but fails miserably when it comes to "do."
The powers that be would be most wise to look into rebalancing that equation sooner(tm) rather than later. I mean what are we supposed to do when walkies mode comes in and the only thing to walk to is the end of the landing pad and back?