During the time spent exploring systems fully in the nebula I am currently in, I had a small epiphany:
The FSS is one of the best things that has happened to the game in the last few years.
Granted, it can (and most likely will) be improved. Or "improved" if you disagree with the changes to it. But it avoids some of the pitfalls the mining upgrade fell into by leaving in the old tools without much use for them. Yes, there are uses: Material mining and targeting non-core elements for missions, but mining is a whole other discussion. I enjoy the new mining too, by the way. I just feel the upgrades were left half-finished.
However, what adding the FSS really has done is add actually exploration game play through the entire process of exploration. In the past we could run the Discover Scanner and get a populated System Map straight away. After that we were left to our own devices, having to truck around and stare at planets to fill in the last few details, which seems like an odd thing to do today and will be even odder in 1000 years. The information gleaned was not particularly useful either; if we wanted to actually find something we had to eyeball it. So we had a near-omniscient tool for the first part of exploration, then next to nothing for the second part. And nothing for step three.
Now we have two interactive steps, or "mini-games" for exploration, making it a smoother and more engaging process: The FSS with its radio-frequency bands makes us actively populate the System Map with what we are looking for. And the orrery (finally) helps us plan routes if we want to fly efficiently from discovery to discovery. The DSS adds the last bit of info and most importantly let us find vents and life, which we should be able to find from the associated outgassing. And the third step is self-evident now: Go have a look at what was found.
So now we have a smooth game experience from entering the system to exploring the planetary surfaces. It still gets old after a while, but not nearly as quickly as the honk-then-what experience prior to 3.3.
Well done Frontier! I look forward to more exploration excitement in 4.
S
The FSS is one of the best things that has happened to the game in the last few years.
Granted, it can (and most likely will) be improved. Or "improved" if you disagree with the changes to it. But it avoids some of the pitfalls the mining upgrade fell into by leaving in the old tools without much use for them. Yes, there are uses: Material mining and targeting non-core elements for missions, but mining is a whole other discussion. I enjoy the new mining too, by the way. I just feel the upgrades were left half-finished.
However, what adding the FSS really has done is add actually exploration game play through the entire process of exploration. In the past we could run the Discover Scanner and get a populated System Map straight away. After that we were left to our own devices, having to truck around and stare at planets to fill in the last few details, which seems like an odd thing to do today and will be even odder in 1000 years. The information gleaned was not particularly useful either; if we wanted to actually find something we had to eyeball it. So we had a near-omniscient tool for the first part of exploration, then next to nothing for the second part. And nothing for step three.
Now we have two interactive steps, or "mini-games" for exploration, making it a smoother and more engaging process: The FSS with its radio-frequency bands makes us actively populate the System Map with what we are looking for. And the orrery (finally) helps us plan routes if we want to fly efficiently from discovery to discovery. The DSS adds the last bit of info and most importantly let us find vents and life, which we should be able to find from the associated outgassing. And the third step is self-evident now: Go have a look at what was found.
So now we have a smooth game experience from entering the system to exploring the planetary surfaces. It still gets old after a while, but not nearly as quickly as the honk-then-what experience prior to 3.3.
Well done Frontier! I look forward to more exploration excitement in 4.
S