Your exploration ship utility wishlist

[Goobertech]

What would I WANT in a larger exploration ship? Right now I don't really feel like having a massive ship is that much of an advantage. This is just what I think would be fun. If I were going to fly a much larger ship, what would I want to make the expense, size and loss of agility worth it for me? Here's what I came up with, would love to hear your thoughts and what things you would love to have in your large scale exploration ship.

A better scanning suite. Something that could scan for geysers, wreckage/escape pods, ruins...etc. Make it a higher class scanner if need be. Could even make it power hungry if that would help with balancing issues.

An SRV bay, class 6 maybe?, that could construct SRV's. It works on fighter bays, why not SRV's?

Probes. I think it'd be amazing to have probes. We get into those systems where it has a star 100k+ ly's off in the distance. Are those planets WORTH scanning? If they ever do introduce a more complex planetary scanning system, it'd be cool to be able to launch a probe that has a full system range that could do that. Maybe limit it to only scanning 1-2 planets, or it's range...Not sure exactly but I think the potential for that type of mechanic would be awesome for a larger ship. So while we're scanning the immediate set of bodies, the probe would send us info on the further reaches of that system to know if it's worth going out. Or even just scanning for materials. It'll scan a 1,000 light second range and send back every material it found? Something along those lines. Make it like the controller limpets so it requires a fair sized slot and cargo room.

A shuttle bay. I know I'm not alone on this one! It would be awesome to have a little sidewinder sized ship to take down to planets. I don't care if they strip it of weapons even. Make it good for nothing other than planetary exploration. Part of this, for me, is just the immersion of it. If you've got a ship that big, you wouldn't want to take it planet side. Being able to take down a landable shuttle would just be fun. I don't care if it's practical or not. It'd be fun and would seriously increase the immersion for me.



It's all about options. You have all that space, and other than stuffing in more cargo racks and AFMU's, there isn't a whole lot we can do with it. These are some things I would LOVE to put in those spaces. How about you?

 

[Watchdog]

I would love to see a shuttle, able to carry an SRV, so that I won't have to risk my main ship every time I want to take a ride.

I would love to be able to place markers on the planetary surface map, to mark interesting spots. These should be limited to one planet at a time only, but still allowing me to return to civilized space and then come back to continue exploring.

 

[Eric Hunt]

A Large Exploration Ship ?

It makes sense - looking at the real world - we have big exploration ships to research the worlds oceans, these big ships contain probes(unmanned submarines), small ships (boats to go ashore, or to go take a look at something the big ship cannot get to due to landscape etc), People - plenty of people, they include scientists, doctors, engineers, crew etc - the list goes on

So Big Exploration Ship will need

1: Crew - that could be Real CMDRS or AI like we already have
2: Hangers to hold SRVs, small Ships (SRV Capable) and Probes (unmanned Submarines for Space)
3: Research Department - you will need to employ AI Scientists (these, dependant on how much you pay them, could work on any and all data you get from Exploration - including on planet scans, space scans, noises etc). They can then advise you as Captain where to go, what they have found, locations they THINK may have other information - you can see where I am gong with this.
4: I am sure there are other things needed but for now thats it.

My main goal for a Big Exploration Ship would be the ability to either employ a crew of AI or Real People and then go off and find stuff with a greater level of detail and with possible outstanding results that would forward my own story within E.D

Fly Safe
Eric

 

[Evoflash]

- Long range surface scanner.
- Delete necessity to be "looking" at a planet to scan it (ridiculous premise).
- Power plant repair (maybe I can do this with reboot/repair actually...hmm).
- Accurate record of all previous scans (and how much they will earn me!).
- Ability to manufacture heat sink ammo (haven't searched hard for this so may be possible?).
- Ability to back up scan data so not lost upon death.
- Ability to restock emergency O2. I could mine water, then do some electrolysis.
- Remanufacturable SRV's.
- SRV traction control.
- Route mapping via way points in the system map.

 

[goemon]

funny, as a small ship lover i feel quite the opposite of "I don't really feel like having a massive ship is that much of an advantage".

i often intend doing a tour in my DBE (or right now DBS), and end up in my python or Conda, because i need those internals.

currently thinking about either building a python dedicated to exploration, or a clipper - for short-range trips ~4000-5000 ly, because the courier doesn't have the space, the cobra does not have the utilities, and the conda takes foever to land.

here is a number of internals i like to have:

necessary for me:
- ADS
- DSS
- Fuelscoop
- Planetary Vehicle Hangar
= 4

better bring
- Shield
- Cargo
=6

good to have
- AFMU
- anti-corrosion rack
= 8

if possible
- fighter bay
=9

really nice
- collector limpet controller
=10

additionally
- fuel limpet controller
= 11

and in case i like to run a passenger mission, passenger cabins on top.
=12+

utilities:
- heatsink
- manifest scanner, in case i find a npc out there and want to know what it is transporting... deep space convoys....
- frameshift scanner
=3

hardpoints
- mining laser for gathering materials
- plasma slug weapon to get rid of fuel for long jumps
= 2 .... more if i want to bring all damage kind.

 

[newman1702]

There are several things I'd really love to see:

- Probes: these could make use of the limpet system already in place, except these could be used to gather additional, specific data on certain planet types. For instance, a life form probe could be deployed on a WW, ELW, or even a GG with water/ammonia life, for additional data on life forms present. This could give us something extra to do with ELW's and WW's before we get to land on them, eventually. Other types of probes could be done, as well, perhaps some that could identify planetary POI's within a certain range, or look for USS's, etc.

- Planetary shuttlecraft: so we can go down exploring with the mothership left in orbit, Captain Kirk style. Basically, what they promised when back when they said 'condas could carry Sidewinders. Doesn't have to be anything huge or flashy, just a small shuttle, equipped with a class 1, supercruise-only FSD, and can carry a single SRV as well as the normal array of scanners. This would let explorers actually take advantage of multi-crew, allowing us to send crew to explore other planets, or go check out a surface of one while we're off scanning something elsewhere in the system. Just by introducing this kind of functionality, they would move multi crew from being totally useless to explorers, to being a valuable tool and a source of new gameplay and fun. TBH I think this is a must if they want to keep the community numbers up after multi-crew is released.

- Anomaly scanners: the way I see it working is something akin to the SRV's wave scanner, only on ships, and it can be used to pin down artificial / anomalous signals while flying above the planet.


Last but not least, this is not a utility item, but what I think is a failed direction in which FDev is going when it comes to exploration/aliens, and I wish that would stop. FDev have concentrated way too much on tasks you need the entire community to accomplish, and way too little on what a single commander can do, resulting in some very boring gameplay when it comes to anything related to aliens. The alien ruins are a good example of that; without the thousands of commanders in community working out which combinations of alien items in the hold to scan each of the many obelisks with, a single commander would have to do months and months of guess work before getting even close to getting all the data possible out of those ruins. And let's not even talk about the fact that they give us these systems with loads of planets, each a huge area to search, and the only tool at our disposal is the mark I eyeball. So what's needed to even find the ruins? Loads of commanders being bored to tears under a common cause, just spending days flying over surfaces of planets hoping they'll spot ruins and not fly right over them and not see them because they're tired and ruins can be tough to spot.

Now, this whole idea of creating gameplay for the entire community to work together on is interesting, but so far it's oriented towards that way too much to the point where it comes at a cost of fun each commander can have while doing it; the actual gameplay involved around anything concerning Guardians is extremely boring. They really need to up their game when it comes to exploration mechanics, introduce additional mechanics and gameplay, and then tie that into community mystery hunts, because as it is, it's not good.

 

[Miklos Atreides]

Exploration tools that can ease up my life are about route planning.
While galaxy map plots a basic course across 1000 ly I want to correct this by adusting my waypoints to be implemented in that course.

The Scanning range modules are just too simplistic. A different aproach more akin to other modules would suite the scanning demands better.
Hence class 1 to 5 in range E to A showing differences in scanning range and speed (where A class scanner will have infinite system range).
Linked directly to the sensor fitting of the ship may scan and discover mining resources and maybe radiation resources of artificial source.

A discover drone you can launch to the lower altitude to scan a certain area of a planet for deep detail information scanning the surface by various
ranges of wave lengths (infrared, radar, ....) giving details of planets surface including build structures.

A SRV capable of more than just driving around and collecting some materials. Even some mining capabilities are a nice feature. the 1 fits all SRV
is simply not enough. Then a class 4 bay wil get a sense to fit.

This is I believe enough for now. If FD is taking these ideas into existing game features exploration will never be the same again.

Regards,
Miklos

 

[marx]

I for one would love a lightweight SRV bay. Perhaps ditch the ability to automatically refuel SRV-s in exchange. Even the smallest bay has a 6T weight, which can be quite brutal for light exploration ships.

As for extra stuff for large explorer vessels? In my opinion, nothing special should be needed. Just the added internals and mount points should be enough. I'd rather that a small ship could do the same things as a large ship, if you can manage to outfit it well. Plus I wouldn't really be a fan of adding new automated gameplay mechanics, but rather something that encourages more engaging gameplay. So I'd much rather have, say, active scanners than fire-and-forget exploration drones.

 

[newman1702]

One other thing I'd like to see is more long range ships viable for exploration. DBX doesn't have enough internals to cut it, leaving Anacondas and AspX's as the mainstays of the exploration fleet. I think it'd be smart of FDev to make the incoming Dolphin into a long jumper - if you want a passenger ship that can jump far, you take the Dolphin, if you want to transport a lot of passengers, you take the Beluga, and if you want to go nowhere fast but look nice doing it, the Orca (srsly that range..).

Also, Imperial Explorer. Exploring in that lovely Gutamaya stlye. It has to happen.

 

[yodajedifishmaster]

scientific expedition capability, so would have on board lab, crew, scientists as passengers, also hangar with srv and with shuttle type craft that scientists can take down while you go to say the moon of the world they are now exploring to scan for the next landing target etc etc. greatly increased things to do exploring with greatly increased reward (the expedition could be a mission) after. maybe even supplies to set up a permanent science base someplace.