Would you rather...

[Colonel Kenney]

Since exploration is mind numbingly redundant, boring, and unrewarding (by far the lowest paid profession per hr) I think there are some quality of life improvements that could speed up some of the mundane things and help us be more efficient at accomplishing our exploration goals.

A) Would you rather
1) Scan 1 biological sample but play the minigame to complete all 3 (no diversity required)
2) Scan 3 diverse samples but be able to switch cannisters (you can hold up to 5 cans) so you can get different samples along the way
3) Scan 1 time only.

B)Would you rather
1) Life sign pulse scan in your SRV to direct you to the next "diverse" sample
2) Add lifesigns to the wavescanner

C)Would you rather
1) Have SCO accelerate a bit smoother, be a bit more controllable
2) SCO drives SLOW DOWN faster (zero throttle) so you don't overshoot as often.
3) An audible "ping" noise when you are 1 second from overshooting?

D) Would you rather
1) Get paid more for planetary scans
2) Get paid more for setting foot on planets
3) Get 2x more for Biological samples.

E) Would you rather
1) Have more anomalies
2) More biologicals
3) More geology

F) Trading
1) Would you rather there are increased amounts of rares allowed to purchase
2) Increase the amount of rare items around the galaxy?

How about:
1) Adaptive Zoom Failed Repositioned somewhere else? (or made smaller less intrusive)
2) And audible sound when high value objects or surface targets are detected (water worlds, more than 5 bio samples etc)
3) add more planetary types. You have a full galaxy and if anything kepler planets have told us is that the galaxy is far more bizzare than this game.
4) Retune the stellar forge to generate many more types of systems that are unique. Make us want to stop to explore.

 

[aRJay]

A: 2
B: Neither, who uses an SRV for exo nowadays.
C: Too soon we are still finding out what they can already do
D: 1 Maybe; 2 Yes; 3 Expletive NO!
E: Yes
F: 2

1: No
2: No
3 & 4: No I don’t want us to have to start from scratch which is probably what will happen if they rerun the stellar forge.

 

[Colonel Kenney]

So I just returned fom a day of exploration...10 hours today. 120 or so full system scans. 3 pages totaling 14 million. 2000ly from bubble almost all were already discovered.

I sold 10 planets worth of bio samples. 106 Million. Some bonuses totaling 100

So in 10 hours play I made 200 million.

I made 150 million in one AX combat zone in an hour yesterday.

10 hours of mind numbing boredom vs 2 hours of combat. At least REWARD us for our discoveries! Something is off.


Also if they redo the forge it only would impact systems not explored yet.

 

[Mako The Grey]

Since exploration is mind numbingly redundant, boring, and unrewarding (by far the lowest paid profession per hr) I think there are some quality of life improvements that could speed up some of the mundane things and help us be more efficient at accomplishing our exploration goals.

I think of ED as a simulation rather than a game. If we ever get to the point of exploration at the levels depicted in ED...I suspect in real life it will likely be pretty redundant, boring, and unrewarding for the vast majority. So I'd rather not speed things up as you suggest...less simulation vs more game

 

[aRJay]

Yes AX is overpaid.

Bearing in mind how big the galaxy is and how little we have explored I think it likely that all progress could get lost in the noise.

 

[IstvaanDCIV]

Looks at the twenty billion credits amassed from one trip to Beagle Point and back

I dunno, exploration seems to pay a fair bit if you know what you're doing.

 

[Rat Catcher]

Credits in the game are so abundant it doesn't really matter if exploring is poorly rewarded, folk will still do it for whatever reason.
I'm on my way back from Colonia on 1 account, the majority of the systems I'm passing through have never been visited previously.
It'll make a few million when I get back, and probably a billion or so in Bio...

 

[Rat Catcher]

Also if they redo the forge it only would impact systems not explored yet.

Incorrect.
If they run the algorithm again, the whole galaxy will be recreated.
Happy for one of the dev team to correct me if I'm wrong, naturally.

 

[Felix DiCestria]

Also if they redo the forge it only would impact systems not explored yet.

That isn't what happened when the Forge was rerun for Odyssey, and Fdev have stated that they won't be doing it again due to the disruption that caused.

 

[AlSki]

Incorrect.
If they run the algorithm again, the whole galaxy will be recreated.
Happy for one of the dev team to correct me if I'm wrong, naturally.

You are correct. Stellar forge does not create and store to a big database. Stellar forge is real time, creating systems, planets, and terrain as you go, every time it is needed.

I believe the only parts of the universe with "state" right now are the stations under attack and the core asteroids that have been mined recently. Everything else is on-demand.

 

[Fixitman]

Exploration is boring for OP, so it's boring for all? NO

Both of my carriers were financed with exploration (I have three commanders). Each took about 2 months of limited playtime. I enjoyed every minute, and I'm not alone on that opinion.

 

[Dillon Fallon]

I went for a little trip out the bubble a while back and even though I was surrounded by systems others had already scanned first, I still found one undiscovered system that gained me 300 million by itself. Given that it's zero risk gameplay, I'm ok with that.

Also, with regards to retuning the stellar forge- remember when Odyssey first game out and every single planetary surface changed? It does suggest that a significant change will have a significant impact.

 

[Fixitman]

B: Neither, who uses an SRV for exo nowadays.

I do when the situation calls for it. Ship, SRV, and shoelace express all have their uses. The ship is obviously the most useful though.

 

[Codename]

Lowest pay per hour? My man.. Exobiology is the HIGHEST pay per hour and its not even close.
As a new player of some 4 months now, i can tell you that NOTHING pays as well as Exobiology. Trading, on-foot, pirating, mining... Nothing even paid close to even half of what exobiology did. Its insane how little credits matter once you get some exobiology in.

First day of exobiology i made easy 3 billion and i wasnt even trying.

 

[OutofSpace]

I very much enjoy the exploration/exobiology and don't think it needs changing, imo. Of course, i would like an extra stuff update but for me it is great as is.
I don't really play for credits, i just very much enjoy the beauty and game-play of Elite Odyssey, which has not diminished at all since i started playing Odyssey.
I have been playing a long time and have 4.5 billion and as i'm back in the bubble, i'm just donating it to powers at the mission boards.

 

[SlickPBW]

I would rather that the game be made harder, not easier.

 

[OutofSpace]

B: who uses an SRV for exo nowadays.

I do all the time. It's great to travel over the surface looking for exobio or materials, imo.

 

[oblivionmanman 2476]

i have made milions exploring but you have to explore as the word refers a few hrs outside the bubble wont do it,my last trip was to no wherein paticular but of the beaten track about 70 fc jumps there and back,took a few weeks. lots of first time discoveries footfalls plenty of bio, gave me elite 2 as well,its there if you look.

 

[uncle bulgaria]

I just did my first exobiology trip, came back about a week ago. I went to an area I know isn’t very heavily explored about 2500ly from Sol and I found loads of new systems and first footfalls. I was out for about 10 days in total and made over 2.5bn in exobiology and 100m in exploration data.

 

[Shurimal]

Since exploration is mind numbingly redundant, boring, and unrewarding (by far the lowest paid profession per hr) I think there are some quality of life improvements that could speed up some of the mundane things and help us be more efficient at accomplishing our exploration goals.

A) Would you rather
1) Scan 1 biological sample but play the minigame to complete all 3 (no diversity required)
2) Scan 3 diverse samples but be able to switch cannisters (you can hold up to 5 cans) so you can get different samples along the way
3) Scan 1 time only.

Nr. 2, every day, all day.

B)Would you rather
1) Life sign pulse scan in your SRV to direct you to the next "diverse" sample
2) Add lifesigns to the wavescanner

Nr. 2. And nr 3: utility slot bio pulse scanner for ships. We got one for Thargoid Titans, why not this?

C)Would you rather
1) Have SCO accelerate a bit smoother, be a bit more controllable
2) SCO drives SLOW DOWN faster (zero throttle) so you don't overshoot as often.
3) An audible "ping" noise when you are 1 second from overshooting?

SCO is perfect in that it needs skill to use most efficiently. Overshoots are not a real problem once you've got some practice An exploration-oriented SCO-optimized small exploration ship would be very welcome, though.

D) Would you rather
1) Get paid more for planetary scans
2) Get paid more for setting foot on planets
3) Get 2x more for Biological samples.

Exobio already saw a dramatic payout increase. If anything, Earth-like and terraformable planet payouts could use a bump, including a 5x first discovery bonus (but just for those two planet types). I mean, Thargoid threat, seeking out suitable worlds for exodus when the thargs decide to get actually serious about the "humie problem", yadda-yadda.

E) Would you rather
1) Have more anomalies
2) More biologicals
3) More geology

More of everything! More lifeforms, including ones that are dangerous to poke or get too close (Thargoid sensors already do damage you on-foot if you get too close, it's doable), more interesting stuff in NSP-s, landslides, earthquakes, actual volcanos--bring it on!

F) Trading
1) Would you rather there are increased amounts of rares allowed to purchase
2) Increase the amount of rare items around the galaxy?

Nr. 3: increase the distance value cap of rare goods. Make it worthwhile to take a dozen canisters of Lavian Brandy to Colonia.

How about:
1) Adaptive Zoom Failed Repositioned somewhere else? (or made smaller less intrusive)

Yes, please! Or maybe add some "aim assist" to the FSS scanner so that you don't fail the zoom if you're 0.5 pixels away from the "edge" of the signal.

2) And audible sound when high value objects or surface targets are detected (water worlds, more than 5 bio samples etc)

There's an app for that, but a notice about terraformables and other high value bodies should be built in game. Doesn't need to be an audio cue, a visual telltale would work just as well.

3) add more planetary types. You have a full galaxy and if anything kepler planets have told us is that the galaxy is far more bizzare than this game.

That would probably need a full rework of Stellar Forge--won't be happening anytime soon. But yeah, eyeball worlds, real asteroids and comets, more realistic black holes etc would be nice to have.

4) Retune the stellar forge to generate many more types of systems that are unique. Make us want to stop to explore.

If you think about it, there already are rare and bizarre systems. Earth-likes orbiting neutron stars, colliders, really close binaries, hot Jupiters, systems containing black holes (like Maia), planets with very fast orbits, the "death world" near Colonia, ice worlds with hundreds of atmospheres surface pressure and surface temperatures that can melt aluminium. It's just that it's hard to comprehend what's so bizarre about a system you're in, you can't get a good "bird eye view" and the only way to tell if there's something interesting about a planet is by going over the raw numbers in the system map to figure things out yourself. The orrery system map view is undercooked with not even textures on the bodies, not to mention an ability to fast-forward/rewind the orbital movements of the bodies or see how the system would look like at a specific date. Fix the orrery view, make it sort of a sandbox to play around and have a good view of the star system and the "realistic 1:1 scale depiction of the Galaxy" will become a more prominent feature.