Horizons When will planets finally have meaningful gameplay?

[The Law]

It has been two content updates since Horizons dropped, yet the planetary landings are still in shambles, arguably the main selling feature of Horizons marketing. Yes, the planets look definetely lot better than when they launched, FDev managed to liberate quite a few FPS from the launch 20 FPS-fest, but still, there is no meaning to the planets.

Yes, on planets with outposts you get to trade stuff and occasionally shoot stuff, but beyond that, it is all just drive around if you want, otherwise just do not care about those billions of planets, they are just pretty placeholders. Planetary POIs feel more like Easter Egg hunt then deliberate exploration effort, since we have literally no tools to find anything on planets that is not few KM away from our nose.

And that "mysterious" new stuff added to planets? It will be probably the same with barnacles, FDev flipping the switch on new planets structure here and there when narrative gets there, nothing emergent.

 

[Wylie28]

The planets will always be mostly exploration gameplay. Which is very meaningful to a lot of people btw.

 

[The Law]

The planets will always be mostly exploration gameplay. Which is very meaningful to a lot of people btw.

But what is there to explore? They all look the same expect for colors, few crevices here and there. Everything is the same. If you find POI, it will be probably some destroyed SRV, ship or just something destroyed beyond recognition. Or maybe crashed probe. But there is no meaning to those elements and after seeing first few, you have seen it all. If those discoveries enhanced your long-term gameplay, then yes, they would be meaningful, but right now they serve no purpose and is quite dull.

As it stands now, it is more fun and worthwhile to explore planets in Space Engine than in Elite. And even in the most recent failure, NMS. The planets at least have some flavor, in Elite, it is like ordering chefs special soup at restaurant, and all you get is water and salt.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

But what is there to explore? They all look the same expect for colors, few crevices here and there. Everything is the same. If you find POI, it will be probably some destroyed SRV, ship or just something destroyed beyond recognition. Or maybe crashed probe. But there is no meaning to those elements and after seeing first few, you have seen it all. If those discoveries enhanced your long-term gameplay, then yes, they would be meaningful, but right now they serve no purpose and is quite dull.

As it stands now, it is more fun and worthwhile to explore planets in Space Engine than in Elite. And even in the most recent failure, NMS. The planets at least have some flavor, in Elite, it is like ordering chefs special soup at restaurant, and all you get is water and salt.

I find that most planets are totally unique. I really enjoy driving around them myself.

 

[The Law]

I find that most planets are totally unique. I really enjoy driving around them myself.

I should have known better than to even try bring valid criticism. Whenever you criticize something about the game, the "but I enjoy it, that means everyone else enjoys it too and there is no need for improvement, so your point is invalid" guys come along.

 

[Vladimar Rubicon]

Space Engine is beautiful. But it's not a game, it's a static view of objects like google earth in space. You can certainly complain all you'd like about ED, after all, complaining is free. but don't be upset when others disagree with you. Getting bent out of shape when someone says "I enjoy the game" is an odd reaction.

Nobody stated that "your point is invalid"... so it reads like you are just trying to start an argument.

 

[Cmdr Shijima]

My personal opinion is that evolution of planet mechanics is on a slow burn, to ensure that ED *doesn't* fall foul of the problems games like NMS had. It can't be easy technologically to create procedural planetary landing and although the maths certainly exists, maybe Frontier feel the tech has to catch-up first and are therefore putting their efforts into more immediate improvements, such as "The Guardians".

As someone who got into ED more for exploration than trading and piracy, I do agree with your point that there is a desire for more content and rewarding experiences as far as exploration goes, but I am willing to play the long game and see where they journey takes us (having the lifetime season pass from launch certainly helps in that respect). I agree with many observers that there is a lot more to this latest patch than Frontier are publicly letting on, along the lines of Thargoids/aliens and that may certainly add more to exploration in the short to mid-term, once reports start filtering through. Frontier having been making games for a looong time so I have faith that they know what they are doing, we just have to be patient in the meantime (admittedly, not everyone will share that sentiment).

Then of course, the addition of pulsars to boost FSD is opening up new opportunities, such as Dr. Kai's "Distant Stars" expedition. I only really get to jump on ED in my lunch hours at work (don't have a powerful enough PC at home) so maybe I don't find things getting boring as quickly as others do, but as I said I am confident things will come in time ... maybe sooner than we think (with the exception of those inhabited world planetary landings on a par with the quality of SpaceEngine).

Just my 2 pence...

 

[xondk]

It has been two content updates since Horizons dropped, yet the planetary landings are still in shambles, arguably the main selling feature of Horizons marketing. Yes, the planets look definetely lot better than when they launched, FDev managed to liberate quite a few FPS from the launch 20 FPS-fest, but still, there is no meaning to the planets.

Yes, on planets with outposts you get to trade stuff and occasionally shoot stuff, but beyond that, it is all just drive around if you want, otherwise just do not care about those billions of planets, they are just pretty placeholders. Planetary POIs feel more like Easter Egg hunt then deliberate exploration effort, since we have literally no tools to find anything on planets that is not few KM away from our nose.

And that "mysterious" new stuff added to planets? It will be probably the same with barnacles, FDev flipping the switch on new planets structure here and there when narrative gets there, nothing emergent.

I want to try to ask you to do something.
Answer: What would be meaningful gameplay?

Ask the question to others, see if you get same answer, I can almost guarantee, that many people will have many different views on this, and thus the problem.

 

[Murrdox]

I very much agree with The Law, and I don't feel like people are totally ignoring your criticism. Some people enjoy the current planetary exploration mechanics. That's fine, I don't think that's necessarily out of step with your criticism that there is a lack of things to do on planetary surfaces. I think it's a very valid critique.

Right now there is a very finite list of planetary activities. Those activities are centered around 3 things we can do on planets: Shoot things, Scan things, Pick things up.

Planetary Bases:
1) Shoot Skimmers / Turrets / Generators
2) Scan beacons for credit awards / data materials

Points of Interest:
1) Shoot Skimmers
2) Scan Objects such as satellites or crashed ships for credit awards / data materials
3) Pick up items

Foraging:
1) Shoot mineral rocks for engineer materials.

Any gameplay that isn't in one of these groups is emergent gameplay such as racing in canyons, or simply exploring because the planet is beautiful.

However it'd be great if Elite came up with MORE ways to interact with things on planets. For example:

1) Planetary Mining
2) Picking up stranded passengers (passenger mission tie-in)
3) Planetary bounty-hunting (dog-fighting on planetary surfaces)
4) Surface combat missions (Likely would involve a more military style SRV release)
5) Planetary Rare trading (Find rare / unique cargo on planetary surfaces - perhaps tied with persistent POIs)
6) Missions which start on planetary surfaces. Scan a Satellite and return data to owner. Find a McGuffin in a cargo container from a crashed ship and get mission to return to owner.
7) More interesting surface salvage missions, which might involve scanning a planetary object for more clues, or destroying defenders, or fighting off pirates.

 

[Wylie28]

But what is there to explore? They all look the same expect for colors, few crevices here and there. Everything is the same. If you find POI, it will be probably some destroyed SRV, ship or just something destroyed beyond recognition. Or maybe crashed probe. But there is no meaning to those elements and after seeing first few, you have seen it all. If those discoveries enhanced your long-term gameplay, then yes, they would be meaningful, but right now they serve no purpose and is quite dull.

As it stands now, it is more fun and worthwhile to explore planets in Space Engine than in Elite. And even in the most recent failure, NMS. The planets at least have some flavor, in Elite, it is like ordering chefs special soup at restaurant, and all you get is water and salt.

Then that's your fault for being so narrow minded you make everything look the same. The planets most certaintly do not all look the same, not even close. There is gameplay associated with planets you are just choosing not to participate. Many missions have you assault bases, scan things at bases, move cargo to and from bases, rescue escape pods, and then there are lots of engineer mats on planets as well. More is coming when its done, patience video games aren't made in a day, devs cant just snap their fingers and      magically adds itself to the game.

 

[dynamicbob]

Pewrhaps background sim could evolve, colonies spread, planets which have over some time lots of player interaction might see some sort of hidden development / interaction index rise, which would slowly lead to more content, signs of habitation and eventual flora and fauna, you can find a lot of content close to sol, but jaques for example they forgot to modify the space/planet signal source / POI spawning mechancis so it still feels empty despite civilsation being there

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

I should have known better than to even try bring valid criticism. Whenever you criticize something about the game, the "but I enjoy it, that means everyone else enjoys it too and there is no need for improvement, so your point is invalid" guys come along.

I never said it couldn't be improved. Just saying that they are pretty good at the moment. I also believe they are working on new ways to find POI's hopefully with the DSS scanner. So don't give up hope.

 

[Lokus Midgard]

I'm genuinely looking forward to the time when we can fly around atmospheric worlds, but I'm aware that time is not now. That's why I don't bother with an SRV and just fill up with cargo modules, instead.

The SRVs are there as a technological bookmark, little else.

They still have to fix the mission (and ranking) system for stuff to do in space. When they've done that, they'll probably look into diversity on planetary surfaces, too.

 

[rennarda]

A quick win could be low level surface mapping - earn credits for flying below 2km with some sort of active scanner deployed. That's basically all I do at the moment anyway, just because it's FUN.

That's not to say I with there were more things to do. Perhaps a supply drop to a science base. Perhaps investigating why an outpost has gone 'dark'.

 

[babelfisch]

I should have known better than to even try bring valid criticism. Whenever you criticize something about the game, the "but I enjoy it, that means everyone else enjoys it too and there is no need for improvement, so your point is invalid" guys come along.

I think there is room for improvement, I'd start with a better POI system. Introduce ship based scanners to make finding them less random, this would allow them be rarer, more believable and more rewarding. I disagree with everything you said in OP though.

 

[londonx]

Surely people get by now that the whole game is constantly being upgraded with an ambition for this process to cover many years. Not everything can be upgraded at once therefore you might have to wait a few updates or even seasons before your niche gets attention. I think constructive criticism is the only way to handle such a beast. Offering a personal wishlist is going to be more valid than a blanket "'x' doesn't work for me".