4Game

I've been doing some exploration and exobiology for the last couple days, and I can't help but notice just how much of a pain in the backside exobiology can be. For as long as the process is, it's entirely too random.

To illustrate, the standard pattern exobiology follows is

1. Scan a system with the FSS to find a planet with biological signals
2. Fly to and map said planet
3. Set DSS filter and head down to planet
4. Pray you can actually find any of the organisms you should theoretically be able to find
5. Land and collect a sample to start analysis
6. Run around to find two more samples, each of which can potentially need to be at least a kilometer away, in order to finish analysis

The problem is, starting with 4, there's absolutely no guarantee that you'll be able to find anything. It is easy to spend significant amounts of time searching the surface and not finding anything, only to have to return to orbit, and pick another spot, hoping for better luck. Sometimes it's not even that they're not there, but that they're just outside of visual range (whether you can't get a good camera angle to see them clearly or they're actually out of beyond your render distance, the effect is the same).

While this is certainly more involved (and maybe more realistic, IDK) than the old method of finding signals on planets (same basic process for geological sites, if I'm not mistaken), there's a certain random element to it that can make it exceedingly tedious, thus potentially putting people off from trying this part of the game.

My idea would be to add a new scanner as a utility mount (like the wake scanner). This scanner would work in concert with the DSS. The idea is that using it would allow you to re-enter the DSS interface even from the planet's surface (so this would necessarily mean you've already mapped the planet with the DSS, it will not replace the DSS) so that you can look at the "heatmap" filters (I know that it's not actually a heat map anymore, but I don't really know what else to call it) and change the filters without having to go back up to orbit. Then, once you're within 10 (or maybe 20) kilometers of the relevant organism in any direction, you'll get a notification. At this point you'd want to land and the second part of my idea would come into play.

The second half of this idea involves a general upgrade to the functionality of the Scarab SRV. Essentially, it would be a second mode that the wave scanner could be switched over to, and would likewise have access to the DSS interface and signal filter. From there it would act much the same as it already does. The primary difference between this new SRV scanner and its counterpart on the ship is that while the ship scanner is omnidirectional and can only tell you that there is a certain type of biological signal emanating from within a 10km radius of the ship ,the SRV scanner would be a unidirectional 10km-range scanner than would then help you pinpoint the signal source so you could take samples for analysis, much the way the wave scanner on the Scarab currently helps you pinpoint the source of a resource or signal on the ground the closer you get to it.

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As such, the new process should look something like this:

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1. Find a planet with biological signals using the FSS
2. Fly to and map said planet with the DSS
3. Set the DSS filter and head down to the surface
4. Using the new Biological Signal Scanner (BSS?), determine that there is a relevant biological signal within a 10km radius of your ship's current position and land.
5. Using the Scarab's new biological wave scanner, narrow down your search for an organism to collect your first sample
6. Continue using the SRV's biological wave scanner to track down two more colonies to take samples from and finish the analysis.

The idea is that by using these new scanners as described, exobiology becomes more reliable by removing some of the random element: the 10km range of the scanners makes it so that players are not forced to depend on getting lucky and having biological organisms show up within their extremely limited visual range. Exobiology would be improved by making it a bit faster, but it would be faster not by virtue of reducing the amount of effort that is required, but rather by making the process of finding biological organisms more methodical and efficient.

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Any thoughts, feedback? Would this be a welcome change that would actually improve exobiology? Is it something we should try and confince FDEV to look into implementing?