One thing I think us explorers need, a hull repair drone.
One thing I think us explorers need, a hull repair drone. To fix broken canopies especially! Would really add another pull factor for exploration as a team!
Jump! Jump! Jump! your Asp
Jump! Jump! Jump! your Asp Across the galaxyyyy! Verily, verily, verily, verily, You'll never feel so free! 30 jumps from the Cat's Paw Nebula, then I'm hanging a right all the way down the spiral arm to Beagle Point, before swinging back to the Bubble via Colonia. If this doesn't make Aemon Roche (10% Pioneer) Explorer Elite, nothing will!
It's an interesting idea, but I'm not sure FD would go for it... Hull damage is part of the risk vs. reward mechanic for explorers. I made a silly mistake fuel scooping last night and knocked 2% off my hull and some of my modules. Nothing to panic about, but with only 1200ly of a 50kly (minimum!) round trip done... that 2% damage per 1200ly on average would have my hull fall apart just as I made it back to Shin...
ReplyDeleteI really have to be more careful: i.e. not fly tired or on the Lavian Brandy.
If one drone could fix 2% ..anyway the extra mass would more than be a sacrifice.
ReplyDeleteIt's canopy smashes I'm thinking of.
The canopy is a worry for me, too. Because even if you sprang for an A-rated life support module, when it happens you're likely to be so far out that you'll never make it home in time.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to be able to transfer data... EG
ReplyDeleteCanopy breaks... I put a call out to local explorers... We arrange a system to meet at, and I can drop a pod for them to collect before going boom...
That would give me the chance to catch up to them, and reclaim the pod, where, upon cashing it in, they would get say 5% of my findings money for the job.
One thing that did get talked about in the G+ group was the possibility to retrieve exploration data from the wrecks of derelict ships. That might be a cool mechanic, if it could be implemented. So if you trashed your ship, you could go back out to retrieve the data.
ReplyDeleteThough that might encourage player-killing of explorers to steal their data if it could be held in some kind of pod or cannister. So maybe that's not such a good idea...
There are already black boxes, there should be a 50/50 chance of a ship popping a black box. They might contain exploration data or even messages from BBS missions? Or possibly power play data or maybe even bounty vouchers?
ReplyDeleteGood idea - it would be nice if FD further developed some of these things. Pop an explorer (NPC or otherwise), take their black box, smuggle it back into a station, sell their data & take the money and the credit.
ReplyDeleteHarsh, but possible. Didn't David Braben even talk about doing something similar when he was talking about the exploration path to Elite?