I would wish they combined EVE onlines scanning mechanics with the possibilities that Star Citizen has to offer and created real immersive, spontaneous and unique exploration opportunities. Exploration is my big gameplay hope and I am so looking forward to it.
They've already said long long ago that there will be random unstable wormholes that will be open for short periods that would lead to random systems as temporary shortcuts. CR talked about it in a 10 for chairman once long ago.
They could also add lost wormholes that dont lead to new systems but exoplanets or lost space stations. You could add cool lore, loot, enemies to it. Maybe even a lil bit horror. Like a dungeon from an mmorpg. So you can find them but they disapear or w/e. A lil bit of a mystery faction could help this game alot ngl. Elite did a great job with that and their alien race.
This is a well-thought-out piece about exploration but Star Citizen is so far from being able to enable this concept that we might not see it, ever. The idea that there will be star systems that you can discover seems so far out as a concept that I can't see it ever being real. Having said that, the picture painted is idyllic and one of the reasons I'm still playing. Ad astra!
I have been playing X4 and man so much of that game makes so much sense. The exploration in X4 makes total sense and the surprise finds are a good fun. Problem with X4 is that it is heavily a map game. You just spend so much time in the map menu as you progress. SC needs to bring 40% of the game play from X4 into exploration (minus the map). Scout ships to explore regions that you have not seen, but also means adding more surprise stuff in the verse for you to find and to actually make it profitable/special gear etc. This will only make sense once more systems get added.
I'm ok with however they choose to do exploration in the future. Whether it's just scouting resources or super in depth. I just hope they take the time to make it right regardless of the path they choose. Hope they don't give in and rush out a sub par product just because the public is demanding a release date.
I'm a bit of a dreamer when it comes to what I'd like to see within SC lol... But...I feel eventually, we'll have the power to make it so. I want procedurally generated planets with the detail and size of a bespoke planet. We're so down the hatch of A.I right now, that I can almost taste it.... And I'd much rather have it served on a SC plate. Imagine, planets numbering that of NMS, with the detail of SC. Npc's that walk and talk to you as if they were a player in discord. Animals and npc's that befriend and remember you. A world that will never truly be FULLY explored by any human. Between AGI and quantum computing, I genuinely believe this is within our reach. A world within a world. A true simulation. This is end game with the only action able to trump it being something similar to the games in Black Mirror. Or RP-1. Again, I'm a dreamer lol... 😅
I agree we are definitely on the cusp of technology that will make games in the future be so interactive and deep that we will never be able to discover it all. Star Citizen can be this game with proper implementation which is going to be a long and drawn out process unfortunately we are talking another 30-40 years IMO. 😢
@ONEMINUTEGROWER it'll only take that long if humans attempt it. AGI though? No.... With the right resources, it could digitally snap trillions of detailed planets into existence with a simple human prompt. It may take a few weeks to complete but, it'll get done alot faster than the painstaking human method you're measuring off of.
Huge dreamer, that kind of game wouldn’t even be made within four lifetime. The tech doesn’t exist for it and the manpower and money it takes to create your dream is lacking. Tho gta 6 is rumored to be dealing with procedurally generated interiors. To do that means they would have devs develop a vast amount of interior kits to work with. No man sky could be far more detailed but it’s limited by a select amount of data the procedural generation takes from. The Star citizen devs said large ships consume a large amount of the games memory hence why they make ship interiors modular with many reused assets. We are limited by money, people and technology. Look at the unreal engine tech demos. They look amazing and have looked amazing for years but no one has actually made a single game to the extent that the tech demos showcase. Unreal engine showcases what can be done, but it doesn’t mean it will be done. The gaming industry has so many variables as to why things can’t be the way we want them to be.
The dreamer part of me is very hyped for exploration, the idea that I could go out and find some lucrative resource location and sell that data is very appealing. I can also see org base locations becoming important data to sell or protect. The realist in me doesn't see exploration ever becoming a viable career. Even if we have generated content with the Internet being this massive gathering of information and people I don't see myself being capable of "selling" information to anyone since they could just look up the lucrative resources on some online map and I'd be stuck unable to do anything with the data I took several hours to gather
There will be no unknown systems. CIG already said, there won't be 100 Star Systems. The star map is from a time when Star Citizen was supposed to be like Starfield. But there is enough space between the systems. Space in which points of interest can spawn procedurally, a shipwreck, an asteroid with artifacts and more. Wormholes will spawn that lead to other systems that would otherwise only be accessible via detours. Even if it is temporary, this information can be sold. There will also be systems that do not have a space station on every corner and therefore long-range ships are needed there. There you will explore asteroid belts, planets and also moons. Stanton's planets are incredibly empty, you could fly around a planet there alone for weeks and scan for artifacts, wrecks or hidden ruins. Nobody is doing that right now because we know there is nothing there. But there will be something there at some point, but for that we need proper scanning and a system that spawns scannable things. But to think that millions of new systems are generated procedurally every year is naive. Which server should host this database? Otherwise the systems would always be the same, see No Man Sky.
I think SC exploration will be about scanning and data collection of know locations that spawn resources, not finding new places. CiG does not have any planetary generative tech. So it will be: 1) Scan 2) Find Rare Fungus 3) Sell Rare Fungus location data.
This makes rhe most sense given how Tony Z described quantum too. You could sell this info to quanta or players giving exploration an actual economic purpose.
I want proper exploration game play sure, but i wish they would make better decisions now about basics. If i go out to the Halo or Yela belt and spend a couple of hours searching, there should be a chance of finding a derelict ship, and it should be subject to the same cargo loot table RNG as bounty targets. Look and ye shall find is the most basic element of exploration, but we get a meta of scraping the same four panels (which i don't think should even exist) that you chain one after the other as its more effective.
Looking forward to player built Spiders. Wonder how meshing will change chat and beacons. Should make it more likely when a player offers a found mining rock to a miner, or pristine ship to a salvager. As it stands right now, it's rare a player offering something on global is worth investigating. Mostly destroyed by the lying pvp aspect.
I would hazard a guess that not one single poster does any form of exploration/discovery in Star Citizen atm, they all suffer from the CIG disease of ''waiting for it to be handed to them on a plate'' syndrome. Not one has mentioned Elite Dangerous, the only true Exploration/Discovery game out there, Star Citizen may touch upon the core gameplay loops, yet will never equal them in the way ED does. Any ship is an explorer, you don't need markers/pointers and a ring through your nose, just curiosity, a will and a sense of adventure.
I remember finding the wall on Delamar. I had heard from people in chat that there was a texture seam that glitched into a wall and basically the tower from LoTR. Flew around until I found it. Ran into another player who was also searching for it. We grouped up and followed the seam as far as we could until it disappeared. This was long before 3.15 when looting and loss of everything upon death was introduced. If I had been walking around by myself now doing the same thing, I would have likely been KoS and I would have respawned naked in hospital to solo try it again. There is a difference between flying around and scanning planets to get XP in Elite and the type of exploration currently in SC. Can you imagine trying to find Benny Henge, if it were in the Aaron Halo, without any anonymous tips from a dev in chat 8 years ago? Would take literal years to do that on your own. Not much compared to how much time it will take to get the rest of our milky way explored in ED. 83mil star systems have been "explored" in ED making up all of .02% of our galaxy. Only another 43k years to go before players have it done. I know that counts as exploration, but it is not like people are just pointing their ships in a direction and flying until they run into something. There is a star that they aim at and fly to it. That is just as good as a POI marker. There is zero marker for Benny Henge. You have to know where it is to find it. If no one said anything there is less than a .02% chance of you finding it, even if you knew what quadrant of the yela ring it was in. It is literally a circle of vending machines on an asteroid in a ring of probably a few hundred thousand asteroids around yela. Do you think it is harder to find a star in ED without help than something like benny henge in SC without help? I have no problem with the ED form of exploration where you travel to a bright light and hit the scan button to explore that star system. I have no issue with people being directed to a cave system via an investigation or bounty mission in SC. I have no issue with someone just randomly flying their ship in a direction and finding a really cool mountain view in SC. I do think it is a bit egotistical to think one is better based on a personal opinion.
Discovering star systems won't be possible (CIG will never work in secret for years on a new system simply to let 1 single player find it). Searching for jump points is very questionable too. It's either a really exciting task for a very small group of players once, or a mechanical routine if they make it available to all. Like doing salvage or mining. Fly to the area, scan, click the mouse, fly back to base. It might be a meditative game loop for some, but it's definitely just mechanical and repetitive for others. And not really exciting.
so long as they keep giving us maps with everything on them, there won't be any exploration. unless you find it rewarding to spend hours just finding a spot to take a screenshot nobody cares about.
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I would wish they combined EVE onlines scanning mechanics with the possibilities that Star Citizen has to offer and created real immersive, spontaneous and unique exploration opportunities. Exploration is my big gameplay hope and I am so looking forward to it.
Living on the dream on exploring in my Odyssey with a couple friends, is reason why im still around...
Searching for new jump points even temporary would be cool
They've already said long long ago that there will be random unstable wormholes that will be open for short periods that would lead to random systems as temporary shortcuts. CR talked about it in a 10 for chairman once long ago.
They said lots of things years ago. They even sold you jpegs years ago. None of it exists or is even any closer.
There is a reason they don’t have him doing those videos anymore
They could also add lost wormholes that dont lead to new systems but exoplanets or lost space stations. You could add cool lore, loot, enemies to it. Maybe even a lil bit horror. Like a dungeon from an mmorpg. So you can find them but they disapear or w/e. A lil bit of a mystery faction could help this game alot ngl. Elite did a great job with that and their alien race.
This is a well-thought-out piece about exploration but Star Citizen is so far from being able to enable this concept that we might not see it, ever. The idea that there will be star systems that you can discover seems so far out as a concept that I can't see it ever being real. Having said that, the picture painted is idyllic and one of the reasons I'm still playing. Ad astra!
I have been playing X4 and man so much of that game makes so much sense. The exploration in X4 makes total sense and the surprise finds are a good fun. Problem with X4 is that it is heavily a map game. You just spend so much time in the map menu as you progress. SC needs to bring 40% of the game play from X4 into exploration (minus the map). Scout ships to explore regions that you have not seen, but also means adding more surprise stuff in the verse for you to find and to actually make it profitable/special gear etc. This will only make sense once more systems get added.
I've always said we need more full screen modes. Physicalized interaction is very cool but the UX generally takes a hit from it
I'm ok with however they choose to do exploration in the future. Whether it's just scouting resources or super in depth. I just hope they take the time to make it right regardless of the path they choose. Hope they don't give in and rush out a sub par product just because the public is demanding a release date.
I'm a bit of a dreamer when it comes to what I'd like to see within SC lol... But...I feel eventually, we'll have the power to make it so. I want procedurally generated planets with the detail and size of a bespoke planet. We're so down the hatch of A.I right now, that I can almost taste it.... And I'd much rather have it served on a SC plate. Imagine, planets numbering that of NMS, with the detail of SC. Npc's that walk and talk to you as if they were a player in discord. Animals and npc's that befriend and remember you. A world that will never truly be FULLY explored by any human. Between AGI and quantum computing, I genuinely believe this is within our reach. A world within a world. A true simulation. This is end game with the only action able to trump it being something similar to the games in Black Mirror. Or RP-1. Again, I'm a dreamer lol... 😅
I agree we are definitely on the cusp of technology that will make games in the future be so interactive and deep that we will never be able to discover it all. Star Citizen can be this game with proper implementation which is going to be a long and drawn out process unfortunately we are talking another 30-40 years IMO. 😢
@ONEMINUTEGROWER it'll only take that long if humans attempt it. AGI though? No.... With the right resources, it could digitally snap trillions of detailed planets into existence with a simple human prompt. It may take a few weeks to complete but, it'll get done alot faster than the painstaking human method you're measuring off of.
Huge dreamer, that kind of game wouldn’t even be made within four lifetime. The tech doesn’t exist for it and the manpower and money it takes to create your dream is lacking.
Tho gta 6 is rumored to be dealing with procedurally generated interiors. To do that means they would have devs develop a vast amount of interior kits to work with. No man sky could be far more detailed but it’s limited by a select amount of data the procedural generation takes from.
The Star citizen devs said large ships consume a large amount of the games memory hence why they make ship interiors modular with many reused assets.
We are limited by money, people and technology.
Look at the unreal engine tech demos. They look amazing and have looked amazing for years but no one has actually made a single game to the extent that the tech demos showcase.
Unreal engine showcases what can be done, but it doesn’t mean it will be done. The gaming industry has so many variables as to why things can’t be the way we want them to be.
The dreamer part of me is very hyped for exploration, the idea that I could go out and find some lucrative resource location and sell that data is very appealing. I can also see org base locations becoming important data to sell or protect.
The realist in me doesn't see exploration ever becoming a viable career. Even if we have generated content with the Internet being this massive gathering of information and people I don't see myself being capable of "selling" information to anyone since they could just look up the lucrative resources on some online map and I'd be stuck unable to do anything with the data I took several hours to gather
There will be no unknown systems. CIG already said, there won't be 100 Star Systems. The star map is from a time when Star Citizen was supposed to be like Starfield. But there is enough space between the systems. Space in which points of interest can spawn procedurally, a shipwreck, an asteroid with artifacts and more. Wormholes will spawn that lead to other systems that would otherwise only be accessible via detours. Even if it is temporary, this information can be sold.
There will also be systems that do not have a space station on every corner and therefore long-range ships are needed there. There you will explore asteroid belts, planets and also moons.
Stanton's planets are incredibly empty, you could fly around a planet there alone for weeks and scan for artifacts, wrecks or hidden ruins. Nobody is doing that right now because we know there is nothing there. But there will be something there at some point, but for that we need proper scanning and a system that spawns scannable things.
But to think that millions of new systems are generated procedurally every year is naive. Which server should host this database? Otherwise the systems would always be the same, see No Man Sky.
i love this game play im always flying a round looking for new things .
I think SC exploration will be about scanning and data collection of know locations that spawn resources, not finding new places. CiG does not have any planetary generative tech. So it will be: 1) Scan 2) Find Rare Fungus 3) Sell Rare Fungus location data.
This makes rhe most sense given how Tony Z described quantum too. You could sell this info to quanta or players giving exploration an actual economic purpose.
I want proper exploration game play sure, but i wish they would make better decisions now about basics. If i go out to the Halo or Yela belt and spend a couple of hours searching, there should be a chance of finding a derelict ship, and it should be subject to the same cargo loot table RNG as bounty targets. Look and ye shall find is the most basic element of exploration, but we get a meta of scraping the same four panels (which i don't think should even exist) that you chain one after the other as its more effective.
Derelict ships and stations would greatly increase the exploration gameplay, love that suggestion. Maybe even some random NPC pirate spawns.
Scannign random areas missions would be the easiest and funnest feature to progress! How this isn't in yet is beyond me :/
Looking forward to player built Spiders.
Wonder how meshing will change chat and beacons. Should make it more likely when a player offers a found mining rock to a miner, or pristine ship to a salvager.
As it stands right now, it's rare a player offering something on global is worth investigating. Mostly destroyed by the lying pvp aspect.
Randomly generated derelicts and old dead space stations, NPC pirate patrols. Old broken, repairable ships scattered around. How great would that be ?
No one's found the Pico Cave yet...
I would hazard a guess that not one single poster does any form of exploration/discovery in Star Citizen atm, they all suffer from the CIG disease of ''waiting for it to be handed to them on a plate'' syndrome. Not one has mentioned Elite Dangerous, the only true Exploration/Discovery game out there, Star Citizen may touch upon the core gameplay loops, yet will never equal them in the way ED does.
Any ship is an explorer, you don't need markers/pointers and a ring through your nose, just curiosity, a will and a sense of adventure.
I remember finding the wall on Delamar. I had heard from people in chat that there was a texture seam that glitched into a wall and basically the tower from LoTR. Flew around until I found it. Ran into another player who was also searching for it. We grouped up and followed the seam as far as we could until it disappeared. This was long before 3.15 when looting and loss of everything upon death was introduced. If I had been walking around by myself now doing the same thing, I would have likely been KoS and I would have respawned naked in hospital to solo try it again.
There is a difference between flying around and scanning planets to get XP in Elite and the type of exploration currently in SC. Can you imagine trying to find Benny Henge, if it were in the Aaron Halo, without any anonymous tips from a dev in chat 8 years ago? Would take literal years to do that on your own. Not much compared to how much time it will take to get the rest of our milky way explored in ED. 83mil star systems have been "explored" in ED making up all of .02% of our galaxy. Only another 43k years to go before players have it done. I know that counts as exploration, but it is not like people are just pointing their ships in a direction and flying until they run into something. There is a star that they aim at and fly to it. That is just as good as a POI marker. There is zero marker for Benny Henge. You have to know where it is to find it. If no one said anything there is less than a .02% chance of you finding it, even if you knew what quadrant of the yela ring it was in. It is literally a circle of vending machines on an asteroid in a ring of probably a few hundred thousand asteroids around yela. Do you think it is harder to find a star in ED without help than something like benny henge in SC without help? I have no problem with the ED form of exploration where you travel to a bright light and hit the scan button to explore that star system. I have no issue with people being directed to a cave system via an investigation or bounty mission in SC. I have no issue with someone just randomly flying their ship in a direction and finding a really cool mountain view in SC. I do think it is a bit egotistical to think one is better based on a personal opinion.
I'm struggling to find the source, but I thought they dropped the jump gates to better fit the lore... They're just mapped if stable
Discovering star systems won't be possible (CIG will never work in secret for years on a new system simply to let 1 single player find it). Searching for jump points is very questionable too. It's either a really exciting task for a very small group of players once, or a mechanical routine if they make it available to all.
Like doing salvage or mining. Fly to the area, scan, click the mouse, fly back to base. It might be a meditative game loop for some, but it's definitely just mechanical and repetitive for others. And not really exciting.
We can make map markers?!? HOW!?
We don’t need to discover new star systems. There is enough to explore I. The systems we have. Exploring dangerous known places is good enough
I had so much fun for 12 hours exploring this game. Then I'd seen everything....and I uninstalled it.
It isn't even possible to do a simple delivery mission... I lost hope for the immersive and game filling things... 😢
Star Citizen is so bad that i started to play eve online. And 2 days in that game are proof enough that CIG has no clue about how to make a game
so long as they keep giving us maps with everything on them, there won't be any exploration. unless you find it rewarding to spend hours just finding a spot to take a screenshot nobody cares about.