Better Exploration

[Marcel]

So the probes are launched from the missle racks, making ships with more missle racks more suited for an exploration mission. I like that, but how expensive are these probes, exactly. Would it be cost-effective for them to be expendable? Would there be an incentive to recover them? That could lead to tedium, and how do you explain the isp of those probes if they can come back to you?

[pbar1469]

...No, you pick the best 4 or 5 candidate and fire off some probes to do the boring work for you whilst you personally go and explore the most interesting and rewarding looking planet.

I stand corrected commander! :-)
That is actually a great idea!

[FluffyFreak]

So the probes are launched from the missle racks, making ships with more missle racks more suited for an exploration mission. I like that, but how expensive are these probes, exactly. Would it be cost-effective for them to be expendable? Would there be an incentive to recover them? That could lead to tedium, and how do you explain the isp of those probes if they can come back to you?

It's a tradeoff that you have to make, maybe there could be more expensive ones that you can recover but my initial plan was one-shot probes that head too a destination planet/moon and go into orbit around it whilst probing/scanning/recording. I suppose you could go an pick them up and they could become cargo like "used probe" or something.

What do you mean "explain the isp of those probes"?

[laarmen]

I like it that you have to return to inhabited space and sell the information you have about your discovered system. Perhaps the "travel report" will say how many bodies you (and your probes) visited and how many were not.

EDIT: Oh, I didn't see #3201 ! That should make it fairly straightforward to imagine a long range scanner. Impaktor, do you think this could leverage the future "sensors" interface

Not sure I follow, so I'll just make a general statement: The sensor I need for the re-written scout mission is just to check that the player has been flying close to a planet long enough. Point of that mission is to "motivate" player to see some planetary scenery (doesn't matter if explored or unexplored system). ... so that would be the "Detailed scanner" mentioned above.

I know, but for that I plan to introduce a new interface for sensors of all kind, and I was wondering if the interface would be enough for this application.

[Marcel]

FluffyFreak, I was referring to their specific impulse. You have a craft the size of a missle that can traverse a solar system and go into orbit around a planet in a few days. OK, its 3200 but getting them back to your ship seems excessive. That gave me another thought. A probe is basically a very long range missle. A ship or station could launch probes with warheads attached that follow you across the system. When approaching a hostile target you may have to dodge or destroy them when you are AUs away from your target. For example, incoming missles could let you know that there's a hidden pirate base in the system. Perhaps their probes would attack your probes as well.

[FluffyFreak]

Marcel: Ah, I see what you mean. No I think they're just one-shot simple things with a scanner built in basically. They don't have to even be as fast as your ship they just head off and scan, orbit optional maybe. Perhaps they just shoot past the target planet.

They're not little ships that return to you or do anything advanced, they don't visit multiple worlds, they head off in a direction and scan.

They should also be something of a luxury or a compromise. Perhaps the system you visit doesn't have the facilities for you to fuel scoop, no gas giants for example. So visiting all of the planets, or 60% or whatever the "explored" threshold is set to, isn't going to be possible on a single visit. So you spend extra money on some probes and explore it without making multiple trips back too an inhabited system to refuel etc.

Probes should be another choice of tool at your disposal.

[clausimu]

Not sure if this is still being pursued. It would be a huge addition for game play though. If there is anything I can contribute on the lua side please let me know!

I like fluffyfreak's idea of combined manual/probe based exploration. Further details (landing to gather rocks, life specimen, etc.) could be added later.

Making this search like a hunt for gold (bigger payout if you discover earth-like worlds) would be fantastic. Next to wanting a bigger/better ship and a better "elite" score - this could provide one of the basic incentives for players. Who doesn't want to discover new worlds??? (That's maybe the scientist in me speaking too loudly here... :)

[FluffyFreak]

Not forgotten I just don't think we ever reached a conclusion, then it got buried under other work.

I would still like to make exploration & discovery a much bigger part of the game.

[clausimu]

Understood. Just wanted to reaffirm interest in this extension of pioneer and wanted to offer any help that is needed (from lua side).

[sfence]

And what about missions for making "exploratory well" on planets and moons to do geological research, finding some minerals.... etc....

It can works similar like search&rescue missions. First fly to install the automatic drilling rig , and some time later, days, mounts (I have no idea), fly back for drilling rig and data.

Flying for data can sound crazy, but in the system, where ships travel in hyperspace quickier than fotons, it make sense. It is better to fly for data after mounth instead of wait months, years for receive data....