What the heck kind of heat map is this?!

All this "muh, you need to explore", and "L2 plant preferred habitat" is missing the point. The Heat Map lies to you. There are examples of planets where the ENTIRE thing is both covered in blue, for say bacteria, but it also us covered in a rough/spiky terrain. You can 'explore' (read wander aimlessly looking at the same 4 shades of brown) for hours and never see a single colony because of the mismatch. It's unreliable and arguably useless in way too many situations. This post shows the problem in better detail.

Nope, doesn't happen, I have always found bacteria where indicated on the heat map, sure sometimes I can't land because the ground is to rough and I have to fly on to find flatter terrain, but it's always there, there is no mismatch, if it's blue, it's there!
 
That's not what I said, actually. I did say, that I like the general idea of a heatmap though.




Huh? As a matter of fact you are giving the exact reason, why we should have much better and progressive technologies in the game than flying 100 feet above ground and scanning the surroundings with our mere eyes. Or do you think our eyes work better than the science fiction technology then? Plus we should at least be able to use the heatmap properly (i.e. with distinguishable colors) and without having to fly to orbit every time we want to look for something else. That is ridiculous! Also I want to be able to set waypoints, so I can set may own POIs.

Exo may keep its entire rank, but that has nothing to do with DSS being absolutely useless in its actual state. Except if you like to paint your planets blue, of course!

No, that's exactly what you said, that a blue map that covers the entire planet is useless, but if the bio covers the entire planet and the distrubtion doesn't then it isn't an actual map of the bio distribution at all is it?

I find the DSS works fine in its current state, the fact that some people seem unable to use it properly isn't the games problem. If a bio life form covers the entire planet then so should the blue of the distribution map.

If you are meaning to say something else maybe you had better explain exactly what it is you are meaning to say!
 
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If the whole planet is blue, use the filter go lock on types more sparsely distributed. Some types are 'everywhee' but most are not. In Alpha it was a real heatmap, but it was badly bugged. Apparantly the solution was to greatly reduce it to a binary 'heatmap'. Hope they put the original idea back in, wouldnt be surprised if it's related to bugs in plantech.
One of our problems is that FD designed the colouration as a heat map and then discovered the inherent problems in using different colours to show data.
What we have now is a colour map that shows not heat, but the likelihood of something being found in a certain area: it's a map of probabilities.
Given the homogenised nature of the planets we're allowed to land on, it's not surprising that the colour map covers so much of the surface.
 
Not only have I found the heatmap useless, anytime I want to DSS a planet I need to switch to Horizons because the DSS is broken in Odyssey. I thought I'd compare a Guardian site (on a planet with brain trees) between Horizons and Odyssey over the weekend. In Odyssey, the brain trees are now all around the guardian site (which is on a flat plain instead of really rough terrain where it was difficult to find a landing spot). I couldn't work out the heatmap to be able to find the geo sites on the planet, though.

The Horizons guardian site was atmospheric and creepy. The Odyssey version wasn't atmospheric at all (even at night!). The guardian sentinels also don't seem to fire missiles in Odyssey.

Exploring in Odyssey is simply broken. Unless you are only interested in the new foot mechanics.

Every time I play Odyssey I come across so many issues that I am testing it less and less...
 
It's not a heat or distribution map. It just a height map set to a specific altitude. The plants are probably set to spawn on certain terrains at certain alitudes.

No it's not, Concha will spawn in ravines and it doesn't matter if that's a ravine in a desert or among mountains, yes the colour of the blue is affected by the underlying terrain but that's just a side effect of the terrain. If you go to a body with an icy pole you will often find no bio there even though it is the same height as the desert on another part of the planet. All you are doing is either confusing things or trolling, I can't work out which at the moment!
 
One of our problems is that FD designed the colouration as a heat map and then discovered the inherent problems in using different colours to show data.
What we have now is a colour map that shows not heat, but the likelihood of something being found in a certain area: it's a map of probabilities.
Given the homogenised nature of the planets we're allowed to land on, it's not surprising that the colour map covers so much of the surface.

It’s not showing the likelihood. It’s showing areas where the life form might be.

The heat map of the Alpha was a probability map. Not everywhere it was “hot” would have life, but more times than not it would.

The new system just highlights the environments where it’s possible to find that life form. When it’s bacteria it’s almost planet wide, much as you’d expect.

Homogenised planets? There’s far more variation than Horizons.
 
A (somehow related) question:
Are those features actually displayed when flying in a ship?
Because the last time I flew over a planet I’ve already scanned the plants on (so I knew it existed and that “grass” was everywhere), I couldn’t see any from my cockpit. And I flew really, really low ... I mean, sparks from the undercarriage low.

Is this a general effect so you have to disembark to find anything?
Was the grass just too small to be displayed and larger plants are actually rendered?
Or was I merely unlucky and simply didn’t fly over the right spots?

There is a "chance" you would have seen them had you turned around - the procgen tend to take so long to spawn scatter objects, that smaller ones don't start drawing until after you've already flown past them. :p
 
You can filter the heatmap. After scanning the planet the default display is 'All'. Whilst in DSS view you can then cycle through the various types of things found which changes the map accordingly. If you land in a blue bit you'll usually find what you're looking for without too much trouble.
 

Deleted member 38366

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The DSS Filters can be quite frustrating and deceptive indeed.
I sure wish we could get an actual Heatmap, so the Filter doesn't send you down to places where it can be easily next to impossible to find the set Filter Bio.

On top, we IMHO need Sensor Fusion and logical steps going from Space (DSS) -> Ship Scanner (above Ground) -> SRV (Wave Scanner) -> on-foot (hand-held Scanner).

1) why can't the Ship Scanner give out something at all? It was used previously and I think it could be put to good use, currently it's literally playing dead and useless over a Planet.
  • when in Combat Mode, only shows normal contacts and classic POIs, basically similar to how it works in Horizons
  • but when in Analysis Mode, switches to a localized Heatmap or maybe use a modified way to indicate presence of Biological/Geological Signals

2) what about the SRV Wave Scanner? In rough terrain or vs. some Biologicals (i.e. Bacteria), its visually almost impossible to detect anything; currently the Wave Scanner doesn't give even a beep vs. the new Bio/Geo Signals
  • when in Combat Mode, have its Wave Scanner focus on classic POIs/anything man-made, Meteorites or artificial (structures)
  • but when in Analysis Mode, have its Wave Scanner give strobes towards Bio/Geo Signals instead (with a useful range to reflect its potent Sensor Package)

3) the hand-held Pulse Scanner.... Pinging it has only minimal Range and is hardly of any use. Even Auto-Landing the Ship commonly has the CMDR placed outside of the Pulse distance to a visually picked up Biological one is landing nearby
  • when sending out a normal Pulse (short click), it can remain as it is
  • but when pressing & holding the Pulse, it charges and sends out a correspondingly long-range Pulse (draws a bit suit energy)
  • the left top Mini-Map is then populated with locations (detected within Pulse Range) or directions (weaker/stronger signals outside Pulse Range, strobes like the SRV Wave Scanner)
  • Controls setting Ship Scanner Range should be usable to setup MiniMap Display Range for better overview

Once those basics are in, I think the whole process would become a whole lot smoother and far more intuitive.
 
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I expect "warmer" areas of a heat map to give me a better chance of finding 'life', as oppose to being a 'promise' I'll find it.

"The SRV radar ought to then be used to ping a location, logically but I don’t engage with this game method so can’t confirm if it works as intended."

I agree changing the SRV radar thingy to help us find life/plants as well as rocks would seem a logical extension.

I wonder if they have plants that only come out at day/night.
 
No it's not, Concha will spawn in ravines and it doesn't matter if that's a ravine in a desert or among mountains, yes the colour of the blue is affected by the underlying terrain but that's just a side effect of the terrain. If you go to a body with an icy pole you will often find no bio there even though it is the same height as the desert on another part of the planet. All you are doing is either confusing things or trolling, I can't work out which at the moment!
Planet pixel is blue if ( altiude < Concha altitude max AND > Concha altitude min);
 
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Many years ago, I was lying in the Sun on a beach at the Mediterranean reading an issue of Wired they had in the local kiosk. There was a very interesting article in the magazine.

Everybody knew back then, that interstellar travel was "impossible", but some people at NASA (AFAIR) were given the task, that assuming they would have an infinite energy source, how would they solve the problem.

One suggestion included creating a worm hole, and then shooting the astronaut through that using a cannon. With the astronaut facing head first and with arms along the body, the amount of energy needed to keep the worm hole open long enough for the astronaut to pass, would equal to the mass of Jupiter converted into pure energy. Not very practical, and I like Jupiter.

It might sound crazy (and it is), but if you calculate the consequence of Moore's Law and energy consumption flipping bits, a few hundred years from now, if current development in IT kept going, we would then need energy equaling the mass of the observable Universe, just to run our IT. As Albert Bartlett said: "The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function."

Ah, but the trick might be that we can find a much less energy-intensive way of flipping bits. Much like Thomas Malthus's notion of when human population became unsustainable has long since been smashed, or that dates of exhausting the world's oil running out have been successively put back by advanced extraction techniques.

I suppose much of science and science fiction is wondering where the hard limits will eventually kick in. But have to say - taking 200 years to travel 30 LY would put quite a crimp in E: D's gameplay. It's not like those pre-FSD colony megaships seem to have come to happy endings.
 
I can live with the blue ball - IF when i enter the atmosphere i can use my ships scanners to detect bio and geo signals - THEN land and use the scanner on my buggy to get me the rest of the way there.

The system exists… just need to implement it a little better. I enjoy mark 1 eyeballing but not if I have to get three samples at different locations…
 
Planet pixel is blue if ( altiude < Concha altitude max AND > Concha altitude min);

No that's not how it works, I will demonstrate with a picture or two, have a look at this picture, you see those little blue dots, they are the only place on this planet a particular life form appears, if you are going to argue it's a heightmap then you would also have to argue that those little blue dots are the only spots on this planet to be at that particular height;

qsfEXpC.jpg


The lifeforms are these, quite common on other planets but very rare on this one, that alone tells us that the life isn't distributed via a heightmap;

EKHXyj8.jpg


This is something your heightmap theory can't explain, and if a theory can't explain the facts then it needs to be discarded!
 
No that's not how it works, I will demonstrate with a picture or two, have a look at this picture, you see those little blue dots, they are the only place on this planet a particular life form appears, if you are going to argue it's a heightmap then you would also have to argue that those little blue dots are the only spots on this planet to be at that particular height;

qsfEXpC.jpg


The lifeforms are these, quite common on other planets but very rare on this one, that alone tells us that the life isn't distributed via a heightmap;

EKHXyj8.jpg


This is something your heightmap theory can't explain, and if a theory can't explain the facts then it needs to be discarded!
Your pictures show me nothing, not all planets will have the same plants at the same altitude levels. I'm betting all plants are produced by a set a variables (upper and lower altitude levels, terrain types they can be found in) together with the planets stats. I don't know how you can't see all the blue pixels are at the same height.
 
No, that's exactly what you said, that a blue map that covers the entire planet is useless, but if the bio covers the entire planet and the distrubtion doesn't then it isn't an actual map of the bio distribution at all is it?

I find the DSS works fine in its current state, the fact that some people seem unable to use it properly isn't the games problem. If a bio life form covers the entire planet then so should the blue of the distribution map.

If you are meaning to say something else maybe you had better explain exactly what it is you are meaning to say!
Ok... I edited this post for a last try: how do you find anything ELSE than biomass if the entire planet is blue? The filter does exactly NOTHING. So I'd like an easy to replicate explanation, please! Maybe we are all missing something here that only you know?

PLUS all the other things I pointed out in DETAIL. Read them or leave it.
 
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