Ruffles
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Posted - 2009.03.17 14:36:00 -
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Some additional comments regarding Probing. Please see these as points I've had to deal with and believe can be improved.
01) For ships that get stuck in a system that aren't Covert Ops, the clutter of Cosmic Signatures is a nightmare to get to 25% to identify other wormholes. For instance in one system I was in recently in a HAS, there were 29 cosmic signatures within 8au of the inner planet nearest the star on a single probe.
Are you really sure we shouldn't have a separate type/classification for Wormholes other then just Cosmic Signature, as currently scanning them down if they are mixed in with other things like asteroid belts, gas clouds, and other exploration sites in a cluttered area is really incredibly painful and extremely boring.
I have absolutely no problem being stuck in a system where the wormhole has colapsed and having to scan my way out, in fact I'm enjoying it. I have a problem being bored for many many hours or days on end because there are too many cosmic signatures packed close together that makes it extremely painful to differentiate things like wormholes from the many many asteroid belts, and does not remove ones you've already scanned down when you continue scanning! It generates mis-information, and confusion.
02) Continuing: Once you have found something and scanned it down, if it is a type that is not going to disappear, like an asteroid field or gas cloud spot, can you not just 'Discover' it and allow it to be warp-to-able after first warping to it? It's a pain that you have to bookmark each one, which I imagine then adds a massive additional load on the server storage of characters bookmarks.
Perhaps have all the signatures that aren't likely to disappear in a system have a Link Entity allowing you to associate them with a character, so that once they've found it, they can be remembered and revealed on the map, and excluded from the other cosmic signatures in that system in future scans. Come on, after all, we're smart enough as it stands to be able to have computers ignore blip's we don't want them to pay attention to. Once discovered, ignore when scanning, which the data held in the Link Entity would help greatly with, I'm sure.
CosmicSignature 1 ------ * DiscoveredCosmicSignatures * ---------- 1 Character
If it's discovered, record an entry, if not then include it in the scanner output.
Yes I understand this is database storage as well, but surely it's more efficient then hundreds of thousands of extra bookmarks for characters because of the many systems they are exploring? Currently I have to bookmark everything I've scanned down to try to then determine if something being detected is one I've already discovered, so I can choose to ignore it.
03) I have to agree with another persons comments. There are just too many things that the left click does on the scanner map: Resize probe scanning ranges, move probes, move them in a single direction, rotate the map view, etc. I'm constantly having things resize probe scanning ranges when all I'm trying to do is rotate the map. Please please please, can we have a button to press or hold down if we want to change the probe scanning range interactively!!!
04) Going from just two items listed in scanner with one probe to multiples of them with multiple probes? I'm pretty sure now that these all relate to the same items, just from different probes perspectives.
Surely the direction finding and probability capabilities of computers in the future are more able to say, those are probably the same thing, let's not add a duplicate into the data displayed to the user. Seems rather a waste to me, and potentially confusing. After all diretion finding currently is pretty decent, why is it not better in the future?
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