Why FSS mode must stay

Sysmon

Sysmon
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.

:D S
 

CODEDS

CODEDS
I love the FSS, so much so, of my 3 accounts, I have one at wp4 for DW2. Another account at Sag A (come home or go to Beagle point?) and the 3rd about to leave on another long trip in the opposite direction.

While I'm flying I can still honk (but not populate the system map) scoop and jump if I like. Or I can choose to enter FSS, check the squiggly lines, sometimes I scan all the system or just the lines that look that they may hold something interesting. Maybe I'd even go map something too.

Appreciate that this may not appeal to everyone but for me, I'd like to say a big thank you to FDev for bringing this in.



The old system drove me away from exploring, the new one adds a nice quality of life
 
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Sysmon

Sysmon
CODEDS said:
While I'm flying I can still honk (but not populate the system map) scoop and jump if I like. Or I can choose to enter FSS, check the squiggly lines, sometimes I scan all the system or just the lines that look that they may hold something interesting. Maybe I'd even go map something too.
Click to expand...

That's probably the biggest QoL improvement with the new FSS. Yes, we don't see as much as we did before after the initial honk, but we don't even have to point at the centre of the main star to scan it anymore. If I'm in a hurry to go somewhere, I honk while entering a nice fuel scoop trajectory (or just move away from the star if I don't need fuel). A quick look at the squigglies will tell me if I should think about a brief pause in my travels. Or I can just move on. The jumping turnaround is much faster now! And if I need to stop and investigate, I can usually get most of the system scanned while scooping.

:D S
 

Rooster Podunk

Rooster Podunk
Agree (with some different thread ideas from the forum)...get the DSS scanner to give an overview on the main cockpit screen and list the POI the FSS has found on the planetary detail sections of the completed system map. Those changes aren't game breakers tho so just if FD says we can do it then I'd welcome them. The FSS has definitely increased my love of exploration.
 
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Marc_Hicks

Marc_Hicks
Several thousand Light Years into my exploration trip, & I absolutely love using the FSS still......for the most part. My only issue is the speed at which I can use it.
 

Sysmon

Sysmon
Marc_Hicks said:
My only issue is the speed at which I can use it.
Click to expand...

My main gripe with it is speed. Mostly the time it takes for a body with volcanic activity to resolve when scanned. It sometimes seem to take minutes. I partly get past that issue by not caring about getting the "Geological [n]" indicator when the body resolved after I have found the first biological indicator. The info will be in the system map anyway, although there will be no indications of biology there which seems a bit odd to me.

Since the surface biology in any given system seem to be monospecific, I only need to visit one site to see it. Volcanism is shown in the system map, so I will resolve any biology locations scanning for those vents. But still, it is a bit annoying to have to sit and wait, and wait, and wait, for a scan to resolve just because of the presence of a few vents.

:D S
 

mtt9999 [Parabolus]

mtt9999 [Parabolus]
Sysmon said:
My main gripe with it is speed. Mostly the time it takes for a body with volcanic activity to resolve when scanned. It sometimes seem to take minutes. I partly get past that issue by not caring about getting the "Geological [n]" indicator when the body resolved after I have found the first biological indicator. The info will be in the system map anyway, although there will be no indications of biology there which seems a bit odd to me.

Since the surface biology in any given system seem to be monospecific, I only need to visit one site to see it. Volcanism is shown in the system map, so I will resolve any biology locations scanning for those vents. But still, it is a bit annoying to have to sit and wait, and wait, and wait, for a scan to resolve just because of the presence of a few vents.

:D S
Click to expand...

Yes they really need to get a biology section in the system map description. And I would love if the Orrery had images of the planets rather than identical circles - I find it hard to use well without toggling back and forth. Both easy fixes.

Other than that it does feel a lot more exploratory.
 

Lngjohnsilver1

Lngjohnsilver1
I like it. I'm not a huge fan of the 'mini-game' style but it certainly got me 'out-there' and it certainly helps with locating POI.

I did make a QOL suggestion on another thread - quoted below - which i'd love to see happen though...

Lngjohnsilver1 said:
How about either a strap-on module or an engineered enhancement that would reveal if a planet has a Commanders undiscovered CODEX item on the surface - not undiscovered in the galaxy but undiscovered by you. It would save some time not having to descend to every planetary surface and scan the same fumaroles again, and again, and again....

I don't see this as damaging gameplay:

You would still need to honk the system - you might get a message saying 'New Codex entry(ies) located in system' as a teaser following the honk.

You would still need to scan the focus the wave scanner on the planets. When your wave scanner was done it would pop-up 'New Codex entry located on terrestrial planet'.

You would still need to fly up to and scan said planet for the surface map. At which point you would get a POI marker on the planet and a message -"New Codex entry location identified'.

Land, SRV, Scan - Bob's your uncle - keep you guessing until the last minute.

Small but nice QOL item i think - the message could even be voice acted by Verity et al.

Two thumbs up Frontier - Make it happen number One.
Click to expand...
 
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Sysmon

Sysmon
Lngjohnsilver1 said:
I like it. I'm not a huge fan of the 'mini-game' style but it certainly got me 'out-there' and it certainly helps with locating POI.

I did make a QOL suggestion on another thread - quoted below - which i'd love to see happen though...
Click to expand...

That seems a bit gamey, I think. The order of detail at the moment progresses from knowing the type of stars (Galaxy Map level) to knowing the composition of the system (System Map level) to knowing the presence of volcanism/biology, to knowing the types of volcanism/biology (PoI level). Maybe later when actual volcanism is added to the game rather than just geothermal activity, will we be able to discern types in a larger sense.

But having a system that somehow checks against the Codex to figure out if whatever is down there has been found before would logically know what it was already, rendering it pointless to go to the surface just to see it in person, from purely a Codex-entry hunting perspective.

That being said, the current system could be a bit more complex, giving the player an idea of what is there: Gas compositions could be indicated, including amount/concentrations. That could be cross-checked against the Codex to give an indicator of the likelihood of the discovery to be something entirely new. That might still require some player activity: Check indicated gas composition against the Codex and decide whether the observation is worth checking out further...

I would have liked to see a heat map overlay on a planetary body after scan showing these sorts of gas concentrations. So when the Volcanism description says "Methane Magma" I'd expect a blurry image of methane concentrations. Could be that fumaroles show multiple smaller hot spots of gasses while vents show fewer and larger ones, and magma would be single large blobs. That way I'd still have search a bit in the areas of high concentrations to find the actual vents, but I might have a loose idea of what to expect from the gas concentration patterns.

The current system just gives us waypoints to go to, which is nice but is really just stopping the modelling when only the skeleton is in place. That's what I have come to expect from FD though, doing a robust early job but without the final polish.

:D S
 

Greyza Badger

Greyza Badger
I like the FSS, but it does need a couple of tweaks
- the speed at which geological sites resolve is way too long
- the requirement to set throttle to zero before activating the FSS needs to be removed (I can't set a macro to do it as I'm on Xbox.) This is disruptive to the flow of the gameplay. I can enter the sysmap at full throttle and hope I don't crash into anything, why not the FSS?
 

Shinji Ikari

Shinji Ikari
Sysmon said:
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.

:D S
Click to expand...

I find it more odd to look at a frequency band than the actual thing, kind of like the difference between these two:

normal_Philips-C70S62-PAR-M-70-PAR38-HPS-Lamp-3.jpg
1280px-Low-pressure_sodium_lamp_spectrum.svg.png


I rather have both and I have yet to see a compelling reason why it's not possible to do so.
 
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SMcA

SMcA
I really like FSS and think it is a big improvement over what we had previously. It is a bit of a cherry picker's charter, though. :cool:
 
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