"Wire frame" when scanning planets

[Arubeto]

The first time I scanned a planet in ED I was a little disappointed due to the lack of any visual clues of the actual scanning process. I was expecting something like the "wire frame" overlay one can see when scanning planets in the Mass Effect games.

By slowly letting such a wire frame grow of the whole planet from top to bottom - from your current perspective, that is - it could also be a nice indicator of how much time the scan will need to complete.

It doesn't need to be very fancy, just something like this would already add some nice exploration vibe to it, IMHO:

View attachment 17848

And for the sake of completeness, here is the respective visual from ME:

 

[MC Sticky]

Excellent idea

 

[Riandor]

I do think the HuD is underutilised when it comes to scanning mechanics so this gets a +1 from me.

 

[Ancipital]

Hmm, how would the depth cues work in 3D (VR etc.) if the planet is large, and far away, and the HUD overlay is small and near?

 

[Magic Man]

Could show something as a hud overlay and possibly make use of the screen between your legs for a more detailed view.

 

[Arubeto]

Hmm, how would the depth cues work in 3D (VR etc.) if the planet is large, and far away, and the HUD overlay is small and near?

Perhaps the effect could also be added to the holographic representation of the planet, so that even in case the planet itself is too far away it would still be visible to the pilot.

 

[InMemoriamSirocco]

Perhaps the effect could also be added to the holographic representation of the planet, so that even in case the planet itself is to far away it would still be visible to the pilot.

Eccelent idea! +1 from me

 

[Time Streamer]

Me likes +1Rep sir

 

[Hyper flip]

Another nice idea that adds further immersion to the game. +1

 

[Arubeto]

Once detailed scans level 2 & 3 and planetary landings are implemented, the wire frame could be extended to highlight points of interest on the planets surface as glowing spots (again inspired by Mass Effect, I guess ).

 

[wstephenson]

I'm more into effects that drive gameplay. So if the first scan highlights points of interest, you then have to SC directly over those to perform a more detailed scan.

If it just draws a pretty grid and some mumbo-jumbo graphs, it's nice the first time but you won't notice it after a hundred times.

Case in point: fuel scooping. Those magnetic field loops and coronal mass ejections should be things to avoid, heating up your ship or damaging/scrambling components. Refuelling would feel much more like a rollercoaster on hell if you had to pilot around all the projections from the star's surface.

 

[Rieve]

Nice idea. One of many areas where a little more depth and polish (dare I say immersion ) could be applied as befitting a next-gen title.

 

[withnail]

I flew through a massive flare yesterday without any change in hull temperature at all!

 

[Arubeto]

I'm more into effects that drive gameplay. So if the first scan highlights points of interest, you then have to SC directly over those to perform a more detailed scan.

If it just draws a pretty grid and some mumbo-jumbo graphs, it's nice the first time but you won't notice it after a hundred times.

Case in point: fuel scooping. Those magnetic field loops and coronal mass ejections should be things to avoid, heating up your ship or damaging/scrambling components. Refuelling would feel much more like a rollercoaster on hell if you had to pilot around all the projections from the star's surface.

I like the idea of the first scan marking points of interest which have to be approached to perform more detailed scans of those specific areas. +1 for that!

But I do think even the grid / wire frame alone might have some small game play relevance (apart from looking nice ), since it indicates the progress of the level 1 scan. Right now we have an audio signal with a slowly increasing frequency for that, accompanied by the ED "hourglass" symbol that shows the scan is still in progress.

Instead of this hourglass, which does not have any specific meaning for scanning planets or stars and instead is used for any time consuming computation in the game, the wire frame slowly engulfing the planet could add some "personality" to the exploration mechanic and might even help people who don't think the audio signal is clear enough to indicate the scanning progress. It wouldn't have to last longer than the scan does anyway, so it wouldn't add tediousness and just enrich the current experience.

 

[Arubeto]

And here is the Mass Effect planet scanning as an animated gif:



Well, it's a pretty low resolution, so I am not even sure the animation is visible But you get the idea.

Given all the other virtual instruments our HUD is composed of, it wouldn't be very far fetched to imagine such an animated planet overlay on our main screen, would it?

 

[Hydrino]

The first time I scanned a planet in ED I was a little disappointed due to the lack of any visual clues of the actual scanning process. I was expecting something like the "wire frame" overlay one can see when scanning planets in the Mass Effect games.

By slowly letting such a wire frame grow of the whole planet from top to bottom - from your current perspective, that is - it could also be a nice indicator of how much time the scan will need to complete.

It doesn't need to be very fancy, just something like this would already add some nice exploration vibe to it, IMHO:

View attachment 17848

And for the sake of completeness, here is the respective visual from ME:

View attachment 17851

I'm sure FD have something like this on the to-do list already since what we have is already admittedly bare-bones by the devs.

But I support your idea none-the-less!

 

[Arubeto]

I'm sure FD have something like this on the to-do list already since what we have is already admittedly bare-bones by the devs.

That would be great!

I just re-read the "exploration" thread in the DDA (https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6561) but even though it shows how little of the original plans for exploration have been indeed found their way into the game (no Dark Systems, no selling exploration data to other characters, no exploration probes etc.) I couldn't find anything about adding visual clues for exploration to the HUD.

If you find some corresponding quotes or statements, could you post them here?

I do believe it would be a nice and easy way to add some exploration feeling to the scanning process, though.

Sadly, I don't think the devs often look at this subforum, even though many of the best ideas can be found here.

 

[Ekar]

Both fuel scooping and planet scanning were very over the top audio wise, I guess to divert focus from the fact that nothing is really going on while those activities are happening. I'd love for the scanning routine to be jazzed up somehow visually and made a bit more engaging- not just being some sci-fi gobbledegook sound. Especially when using a detailed surface scanner, for eg.

 

[Arubeto]

The holographic nature of the HUD is perfect for this kind of features. This or the idea for a mining addon for the HUD (https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=120420) are perfect examples how FD could add some flavor to the individual professions by enriching the HUD a little bit for each individually.

 

[ECHO 12]

I like it!

!!!BUMP!!!