Would you like Exploration to be buffed?
- Thread starter BjpMunro
- Start date
I'd like to see experts chip in, but in my experience, it's been a waste of time. Yeah, nice and all that jazz, but in the end, it's somewhat repetitive and not rewarding.
I don't see a reason why anything over 500 LY of civilization wouldn't add a premium on payout, or why terraforming candidates and "rare objects" (BH, neutron star) wouldn't pay a fortune.
I don't see a reason why anything over 500 LY of civilization wouldn't add a premium on payout, or why terraforming candidates and "rare objects" (BH, neutron star) wouldn't pay a fortune.
I understand that, but I would also love exploration to have whole other features to it. Im tired of cruising around holding left click. Maybe we could see "secrets" that could only be found with scanners, once you reach the secret there could be some sort of loot protected by strong AI
Needs a bit of a redesign, not just a buff. If universal cartographics is so universal why do they care how far you travel to sell the data, as long as it's undiscovered previously? You should be able to sell exploration data to multiple factions like they promised back in the dev diaries. With smaller, local factions being uninterested in distant data they can't use anyway, but the larger factions being more inclined.
Distant discoveries should be increasingly more valuable for gameplay reasons. In fact you could structure it so that factions were interested in data on resources that were within reasonable range, but universal cartographics simply valuing exploration data for its own sake, with discoveries far from settled space being worth more.
Distant discoveries should be increasingly more valuable for gameplay reasons. In fact you could structure it so that factions were interested in data on resources that were within reasonable range, but universal cartographics simply valuing exploration data for its own sake, with discoveries far from settled space being worth more.
Rather than getting any upfront payment for exploration data, I think explorers should get a percentage of every purchase of their data from other players.
It is hard to earn early on. Very hard.
As you progress and fit out the ship, it gets better but it is also vastly faster to get into any other profession decently than exploration and make good income. A hauler can make huge profits for less investment than we do and I won't go into bounty hunters and how much they can make and no, they don't have more risks than we do. I've been jumped while refueling at a sun a couple times and regularly get jumped while scanning.
This may not be such a bad thing being as it will thin out those who want fast income vs those into exploring. Later on you can make good income (still using a BSD here but have the detail scanner. One system I scanned is over 91k cr value).
The detail scanner is 250k - that's a lot of scanned systems without it but you can go back and get the details if you want (and sell that info like you did the first time you scanned it without that scanner).
The BSD has 500 ls range - that is extremely trivial in many systems and it takes a lot of flying around to find anything *THEN* you have to scan the stuff. The intermediate isn't much better at 1k ls range but that system scanner... That's pretty close to over the top for a full system. I've been exploring in systems with over 400k ls ranges to some areas and such.
if I were to "buff" it, I'd change things around:
I'd make grades of the BSD - 5 grades: stock = 500 ls, each grade above that would be +200 ls up to 1,500 ls.
I'd make 5 grades of the intermediate: 1 = 5000 ls each grade above that would add 1,000 ls up to 10,000.
I'd make 5 grades of the advanced: 1= 50,000 ls each grade above that would add 50,000 ls up to 300,000 ls range.
Each grade would fire off a touch faster than the previous one. Each full class upgrade would reset it and start it over slower to faster. *TIME* is a huge consideration for exploration.
I'd make that detail scanner many grades, higher grades = faster scan times.
I'd make the sensors play into it as well. Something like +10% faster scans, +10% farther range on the D-Scanner per grade. (5 grades would get you 450,000 range but only those who actually flew out vast distances would find the most remote parts of a system - incomplete data).
Give explorers more options and things to look at for their crucial equipment. *NO* full system scan but a lot more granularity for how you progress.
As you progress and fit out the ship, it gets better but it is also vastly faster to get into any other profession decently than exploration and make good income. A hauler can make huge profits for less investment than we do and I won't go into bounty hunters and how much they can make and no, they don't have more risks than we do. I've been jumped while refueling at a sun a couple times and regularly get jumped while scanning.
This may not be such a bad thing being as it will thin out those who want fast income vs those into exploring. Later on you can make good income (still using a BSD here but have the detail scanner. One system I scanned is over 91k cr value).
The detail scanner is 250k - that's a lot of scanned systems without it but you can go back and get the details if you want (and sell that info like you did the first time you scanned it without that scanner).
The BSD has 500 ls range - that is extremely trivial in many systems and it takes a lot of flying around to find anything *THEN* you have to scan the stuff. The intermediate isn't much better at 1k ls range but that system scanner... That's pretty close to over the top for a full system. I've been exploring in systems with over 400k ls ranges to some areas and such.
if I were to "buff" it, I'd change things around:
I'd make grades of the BSD - 5 grades: stock = 500 ls, each grade above that would be +200 ls up to 1,500 ls.
I'd make 5 grades of the intermediate: 1 = 5000 ls each grade above that would add 1,000 ls up to 10,000.
I'd make 5 grades of the advanced: 1= 50,000 ls each grade above that would add 50,000 ls up to 300,000 ls range.
Each grade would fire off a touch faster than the previous one. Each full class upgrade would reset it and start it over slower to faster. *TIME* is a huge consideration for exploration.
I'd make that detail scanner many grades, higher grades = faster scan times.
I'd make the sensors play into it as well. Something like +10% faster scans, +10% farther range on the D-Scanner per grade. (5 grades would get you 450,000 range but only those who actually flew out vast distances would find the most remote parts of a system - incomplete data).
Give explorers more options and things to look at for their crucial equipment. *NO* full system scan but a lot more granularity for how you progress.
Renso
Banned
I totally agree... if specific trade prices aren't available between stations and rightly so due to Elite Lore... Then why should exploration data be universally shared?
It makes sense to be able to speculate with the data one acquires and be able to 'negotiate' with different factions. To side with one or another. To not have this data magically propagated and shared automatically. Or to simply, as you said, just sell it to everyone and cash in at different profit margins based on desirability and multipliers. But perhaps at the expense of losing rep with another faction who would be interested in those discoveries.
I'm not suer why, but at first I thought this explorer's data was going to be a negotiable trades goods ordeal. At least this is what I gathered while listening to Braben talk about it.
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I don't really care about the payout, but I feel like exploration is pointless if you can't actually discover something cool.
Why cruise 1000LY away to look at planets and stars when you can do that without going anywhere? Even then, the beauty of space becomes less appealing after the 30th planetary eclipse.
We need cool stuff to find! Derelict ships, ancient civilizations, aliens, anomalies, sentient planets, 6 dimensional beings!
Why cruise 1000LY away to look at planets and stars when you can do that without going anywhere? Even then, the beauty of space becomes less appealing after the 30th planetary eclipse.
We need cool stuff to find! Derelict ships, ancient civilizations, aliens, anomalies, sentient planets, 6 dimensional beings!
Renso
Banned
My wish is that Frontier populate this immense galaxy with a little bit of all of that cool stuff you mentioned... then exploration would have a meaning other than to see the same stars in just different positions and the occasional cool nebula. Because, although not meager.. exploration isn't really about making credits... there's an App for that..
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I have a thread no ones commented on, on a single Idea that I had. Directional Scanners. Instead of just clicking and scanning, give us a way to change the scope and range. Further away you push your scans the less "Clarity" and object could have until you go there or scan it with a stronger scan.
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=86633 Heres the thread!
I really think they could maybe take a page out of the Eve Online universe for this one... Exploration in EVE is just so much more fun and rewarding in my opinion than it is in this game, despite having neat things to visit like nebulaes and 400 billion stars compared to the 200 or so stars in Eve universe (15% of which are locked off and just for show)
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=86633 Heres the thread!
I really think they could maybe take a page out of the Eve Online universe for this one... Exploration in EVE is just so much more fun and rewarding in my opinion than it is in this game, despite having neat things to visit like nebulaes and 400 billion stars compared to the 200 or so stars in Eve universe (15% of which are locked off and just for show)
Thought I should throw this in here
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6418
It's the design discussion archive for exploration. Reading over it, and seeing what we got, honestly makes me kind of sad =[
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6418
It's the design discussion archive for exploration. Reading over it, and seeing what we got, honestly makes me kind of sad =[
One simple improvement would be to provide missions to explore system x and report back to originating system y. How far away system x is might be determined by your exploration rank.
EVE has about 8000 stars, by the way.
It isn't rewarding enough and with an advanced scanner all the "fun" of exploring is gone. It's becoming boring when you have the advanced scanner simply because you don't need to search (read explore) anything any more. Just a press of the button and the entire system is layed out for you, you just have to visit each unexplored object for a few secs and you're done. It's faster, it will garantee you have found everything in the system but it's no fun at all. You never have that feeling again of "ha gotcha" when you see a light dot move between the other stars.
For the rest, lots of good idea's in here to make it more interesting.
For the rest, lots of good idea's in here to make it more interesting.
Renso
Banned
Duuuude! Now I'm truly depressed!... I've yet to run into "Beauty spots (usually attached to other entities)"... But I'm sure Frontier is working hard towards this... fingers crossed.
Yes, but do they have a 'discovery horn' that goes...... "whaaaaaaaaahonnnmmmmmkkkkkkkssss!"
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Basically everyone is saying exploration is underpaid. You get 100k per hour if you luck out and find some systems with terrraforming potential planet. Compare it to 200-300k per hour doing bounties in goverment controled systems.
I believe exploration should be first thing on Frontier agenda next year when they get back to office. Even rocky ice planet should have at least 5k payout to be enough rewarding.
Now you get like 800 cr for rocky planet, which is totally waste of time. Rocky planet system = move on. So much for an exploration, eh? Imagine if real explorers in 3300 were paid so little, nobody would want to do it.
I believe exploration should be first thing on Frontier agenda next year when they get back to office. Even rocky ice planet should have at least 5k payout to be enough rewarding.
Now you get like 800 cr for rocky planet, which is totally waste of time. Rocky planet system = move on. So much for an exploration, eh? Imagine if real explorers in 3300 were paid so little, nobody would want to do it.
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What is Eve's exploration mechanic? (for those of us who don't play Eve)....