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IMHO we can utilise a heap of systems already in the game to improve exploration. Not only would it help with dev time, but it just makes sense. 1. More exobio options that have risk. Keep scanning mushrooms as a safe option, but what if there were caves that had risk to them? Would give us a reason to need various exploration suits which ties into an already existing system. Hell, caves are just a more complicated "crash site" / Thargoid Surface Site. 2. With the way the Thargoid invasion system worked + colonisation, etc maybe we encounter "other" minor factions out there (a new species maybe?) and maybe they can expand their "bubble" too. Maybe we can ally with them or maybe they're just hostile from the get go. Again, makes exploration more interesting and maybe a need to have some hardpoints on hand out in the black. 3. Something crazy new like a new class of ship that's in-between your standard ones and the fleet carrier. Maybe you need to employee other players or NPCs to run the ship proper. Maybe it has interiors. Maybe there's things to do on the ship that ties into all of the above. I totally get some people are happy with exploration just being a "oooh, look at the pretty thing" kind of experience, but at the end of the day Elite is a video game and I can see so much end game potential in exploration it's painful.

Not sure about the ship biology scan thing - from a lore perspective, it sounds like magic. Maybe it's ok to identify the probably genus, but that's about it and with a minimal payout. Unless one adds special limpets into the mix that do actual sampling - but then why not sit a few hundred metres in the air and 'sample everything' with a click? I think that would have made sense in Horizons, but goes against the existence of Odyssey. If time is the issue, then I think the missing ingredient is an SRV/Scorpion module to detect biology signals. I'm sure all 'cheat' with the external camera to find bacteria, but it sucks. I want a module that provides a scanner to narrow the search - can be like the mineral scanner in the SRV, but tune to only biology with the various forms of biology showing up as different wave types. Jumping out to collect the actual sample isn't too bad imho, the issue is the single genus sampling. Surely I can carry more than one canister in my SRV? So each time I get back in (or simply 'transfer') I deposit the sample so I can take a sample of anything else. This allows parallel scanning of multiple lifeforms, which when coupled with the SRV scanner to locate the life in the first place, will save a heap of time without breaking the whole Odyssey reason to exist.

Rather than adding Bioanalysis scanner to the ships, what we need is something closer to a pulse-wave scanner so we can scan say a 1-2km radius of a ship for bio-signals as we fly, the sites get highlighted in the green/blue/purple of on-foot scanning colors so we have a easier time finding stuff like Bacteria and tiny little one-off plants to get out an then collect on foot as normal. Something similar for the SRV would also be welcome. It would also be great is the made more planet varieties. And maybe have various random events occur like exploding plants or limited movement versions that twitch as you get close and release clouds of spores and other stuff to at least break the monotony... still don't know why they didn't go full proc-gen with this.

Can we join your org?

I don't know about scanning from a ship, but having either an always active or pulse bio scanner, like the alternate fire of the sampler scans things. That'd make finding bacteria easier and let you know if the thing you're looking at is far enough away from the last sample.

Not to be a downer, but my first instinct as a player with 600 or so hours and stopped at the release of Odyssey... you say these ideas like Fdev will actually do anything. Still cool tho

Loved your list! Bring it all on.

Love your take on all of this, especially pointing out how boring and flat the Odyssey landscapes are compared to Horizons. One of my favorite things to do out in the black was hunt for tall mountains, huge canyons, etc. When Ody launched, half my bookmarks from all over the galaxy were invalidated as the unique planetary feature they indicated was replaced by some smooth marble of a world. Started playing other games afterwards and am back now due to FDev's quality of life improvements over the last year. Unique terrain was a huge draw for me and I'd celebrate its return. Only point I'd disagree with is the ship exobiology. I think a combination of being able to collect samples for more than one type of bio sample at a time and giving the mineral scanner in the SRV a bio scan option that works the same way would fit the bill.

With the ship-based exobio scanner, I assume that wouldn't grant the first footfall bonus? So the idea is you'd have to get out of the ship at least once to get the first footfall bonus and scan a sample on the ground, but then could do the remaining 2 from your ship?

I like your ideas, but I need some improvements. 1) Personal Beacons could be sold via Arx and not allowed to be placed in systems that already have NAV beacons. It is a way to limit players from overcrowding and goes along with the new upcoming game mode, also a way for them to generate income. 2) No to the on-ship exobiology scanner; however, the ability to pulse scan from the ship would be a huge yes. It is a method to tie the on-foot gameplay to the ship gameplay. 3) Agree with your idea, but they need SRV mining. The gameplay would be like the movie Armageddon, drilling the hole and encountering problems a player would need to work through. 4) Exobiology does need to be a dangerous or an additional minigame element to compare your samples at the cellular level. Since the launch of Odyssey, Exobiology feels like the first pass of gameplay development and has never been finished. 5) I'd rather they spent the development time to unlock more worlds: lava planets, water worlds, gas giants.. and coveted earth earth-likes, which would have to come with a massive update to exobiology to support.

Really interesting thoughts and ideas. Exploration definitely needs a re-brand/ update. I hope that with trailblazers update that somewhere down line (not this upcoming update- there’s a lot coming with colonisation) but somewhere down the line there is a re-roll and more things to find on planets….. and in space. Comets?

My Wishes for exploration: - To have a landable fighter or something like that size for exploration. (Imagine you are exploring the new World in your small manouverable ship while your anaconda is hovering a few hundreds of meters above you. - More athmosphere maybe with fluids= more Lifeforms = more fun.

Geology. It would be great to have the ability to gather geological data, like, maybe collecting mineral samples to sell, or mapping planets for areas with valuable resources etc

Love Casey's music, great ideas too! ED definitely could use some tweaks to improve solo play.

Improving gameplay? QOL changes? You're a heretic. Just go and grind like the rest of us peasants.

This does it. I'm subscribed.

All the disagreement with the ship based exobiology, haha... I think I'd actually like a middle ground there. We also have staggered payouts for space exploration. FSS and DSS. Make the ship based scans the equivalent of FSS, while on-foot is similar to DSS. So you could decide to get out for the well-paying stuff but don't bother with the 1-million-credit Bacterium while still unlocking it for the system map. What I'd also like would be (exploration) CGs that actually encompass more styles of exploration. Some degree of the further away the system was, the better the payout or First Discovery being actually worth it over having basically a guided tourist trip to systems near you. The colours of geysers lost with Odyssey also apply to so many of the NSP stuff. Like Silicate Crystals being all the same grey, so many Molluscs you have to look at in specific light or angle to distinguish them if you can at all... Which is more or less my main wish as sad as it is. There's a whole list of small things that got bugged, got lost (looking at you, skybox after the Powerplay Update...) or are interfering in some way with exploration that add up to being sometimes really annoying and I really really hope, they get fixed at one point.

Wait, Odyssey atmospheres were added to Horizons planets for the Odyssey alpha? Are you sure about that? (I can’t say I’d heard that before). I would of course love that above all else but the time for FD to do it was during that Alpha when another complete re-roll of the galaxy would have been far less damaging. We pleaded and pleaded with them, some perhaps a tad too strongly, but alas it was not to be. Now, especially with colonisation about to launch (where some will choose their target systems specifically for the surface features of planets in those systems) I feel it really is too late. Great list of suggestions tho! 👍

Good ideas, specially the one about planet's generation system. Personal beacons could be integrated with the bookmarks system. I'd switch the ship Exobio scanner for an SRV one, that highlights all the bio in a wide area. Allow us to scan several types of bio at the same time, having to wait to collect the 3 samples of one type is annoying. Show in contacts the locations of the samples we already scanned, that would help us a lot navigating and achieving the required distances for the next sample better.

Not to be a downer but i honestly feel odyssey was a net downgrade for explorers. Atmospheres are pretty but the geology of the planets is so much less interesting than before. Since odyssey i have no desire to just land on a moon just to look around or find some canyons or mountains. It not being completely random anymore just absolutely kills it for me. That and the new lighting and shadows, the shadows barely work and keep flickering on and off or make the dark side of a planet bright ect ect and the lack of any coloured lighting as soon as you move just a bit away from the star is insane. I miss those parts of horizons desperately. And while yes i would love to have new features i want those core elements back more than anything. I'm not under any illusion that they would actually go back and give us the old planet tech and lighting but thats what killed exploration for me. Sorry to rant but its true, no amount of new features can make up for that

Being able to perform the pulse waves, scan four white forms from inside the ship or s.R v would be great. I still like having to get out and actually collect the sample.Because it does make it more realistic. However, I think again we should have benign, neutral and aggressive animals. And the plant life needs to become far more abundant to the degree of where you actually are walking through tusst grass, rather than having sparse Tufts of it, but when it comes to Neutral and aggressive animals that you have May have to collect samples from that. Would definitely give a better reason. 4, having weapons loadouts on your suit, it would make caring primary and secondary. Weapons an exploration, more of a necessity rather than a novelty. Maybe also having an additional type of biological scanner, specifically for animals. Would be great. But you could have everything from scorpions and spiders all the way up to large megafauna, such as Alien T. Rex.

I have three things I'd love to see to expand exploration, but they're significant enough ideas that it would likely only be introduced in another full paid expansion. I'm not sure the amount of effort could be funded by the ARX shop alone. 1) Full atmospheric landings. Open up all the non-gas giant planets out there for landings. There's a whole batch of worlds that could provide us with more Exo opportunities, more interestingly unique visuals, and a ton more eye candy when out in the black. 2) This is tied directly into #1: Weather effects and water. On those full-atmo planets, create a semi-dynamic weather system with winds, storms, rains, etc. Have our ships buffeted as they try to enter the atmosphere. Maybe even have some ships perform differently in atmo versus others. That wide-winged Mandalay would be great for thick atmosphere worlds, but would get tossed around in heavy weather. So maybe you instead want to take out that more nugget-shaped Asp instead. It doesn't handle as nicely in heavy air, but it's shape means that it doesn't catch as much wind. With water, maybe introduce a third SRV, one that's amphibious. Limited ability to submerge and / or float. 3) And this is the big one (yes, I'm one of these people): ship interiors. Most of the people who don't want it ask the question of "what gameplay would it bring?". Well, how about a small sliver of survival gameplay to exploration? Put the "Dangerous" into Exploration. With #1 and #2 above, we could have worlds where the weather systems work against us to do certain things. Storms generate lightning and winds that can toss around debris. You can choose to venture out onto the surface on foot, but maybe you need to use your ship as a shelter for a few minutes until the storm passes. Or perhaps you have a suite of sensors and probes that can only be deployed when you're landed. Maybe you have to actually collect and bring in full biological specimens to your ship interior for return and study. Instead of doing the triple genetic sample dance, maybe give us the option of literally plucking a full plant stalk from the organism and carry it back to our interior hold. Expand the tools available to on-foot exploration gameplay, and allow them to be placed in specific ship interior slots. For example: an over-suit meant to facilitate submerged (fluid-based) exploration. Instead of forcing us to give up our Artemis, or Maverick, or Dominator, you can have a "suit locker" that would hold some other specific utility over-suit: an armored over-suit with grappling mechanics to help anchor yourself in a storm, a diving over-suit as mentioned above, a cooling over-suit to protect from heat damage, etc. These would just be "quick change" over-suits we can don just before disembarking. Imagine getting out of your ship into a heavy storm and needing to anchor and grapple your way to that unique exobiology scanner blip you thought you saw through the rains, all the while wishing you were back in the comfort of your cozy ship instead.

I think rather than add a exobio scanner to the ship, just allow our suit to categorize multiple samples at once. It would still allow the on foot gameplay but require a lot less trips back and forth to the ship

So, I find a planet with 6 exobiology signals and go down to take a look. I find 5, but I can't remember where or what the 6th one was, so it's back in my ship and back into orbit.... this is 3311, isn't it? Where I can travel many times the speed of light but not the tech to access the planet scan from the surface.😅

All of you hating on my ship-based exobiology idea are WRONG!!! ;) ;) o7!

I was just out doing a round of exobiology while contributing to the CG and had the same thoughts regarding Exobiology. Procedural generation is NEEDED, either the whole galaxy was seeded intelligently a la Prometheus or it just doesn't make sense that every Neon ice planet has the same species of bacterium growing on it(granted with a slightly different color). I was thinking a ship based scanner, similar to the artemis suit right click with a range of 3-4ish KM that paints the ground green like the DSS while in atmosphere, but with a higher degree of precision. Lastly, why oh why can I not carry multiple scanning tools for scanning different life forms. If I was an exobiologist IRL, I would carry 5 of the damn things on a bandolier so I could scan whatever I see when I see it, the fact that I can't make that decision is immersion breaking. I would swap all my weapon slots and tool slots over to scanning tools.

Thicker atmospheres with weather, high pressure, extreme cold, new materials rare and unknown. And maybe you have to have special shield s in order to descend onto these worlds. Another idea would be waterworld with a deployable submersible vehicle. Kind of subnautica type of gameplay.

More plant variety and more atmospheric worlds with thick atmospheres. I want volumetric clouds that i can fly through on a planed damnit. No mans sky has had those for a long while and they look awesome.

I'd love to see the list mentioned except maybe the ship scanner. Weather effects to make landing more interesting and bodies of liquids where appropriate - lakes of liquid methane on ice worlds etc. VR for on-foot play please!

I would like a cave system on some bodies which you could explore, this could also open up potential new ways for "search n rescue" improvements, finding different species of exobiology, mining, bounty hunting. Some could be big for a size S ship to fly in like a side winder or eagle, some being small enough for an SRV, and some only small enough for players walking on foot, depending on the "cave type" and purpose. Imagen mining and finding a rare mineral to mine but only to find your ship is too large to fly into the cave forcing you to use a smaller ship you probably dont use anymore. Colours and terrain you mention I agree to, no idea why they thought it was good to change it. Beacons, I got an idea with those on expanding the idea: Having several types of becons (Sellable, Public, Private, Squadron) - Sellable: Find a location, sell it to a "beacon vendor" or something which prices up the location depending on its environment that the beacon scan picks up determines the price for the location. - Public: Pings a location to anyone in the system, this could be a friendly person to share a location OR an ambush. - Private: Specifically mark a location for yourself and no one else so you can return to the same specific spot. - Squadron, like private but shares to the entire squadron. Owner or who allowed to set it can turn it off and on or delete it. Who knows 2025 might be Elite Dangerous year of progression if it wants to live longer than already anticipated.

Improve Exploration? Oh, yes please!

For me, I think having a ship-based scanner to better *locate* the exobio would be great. A pulse scanner that would highlight exobios with a 50-100m radius or something. I would still be fine to land and go get the sample on foot.

Totally agree on all points, Brother! I would also pay for DLCs where richer landable planet types too!

Honeslty the biggest improvement they could make to me is expanding the pool of geogrpahy available for planets. I thought one of the biggest benefits from updating the procederaul generation of planetary geography was the fact that they were pulling from a library of tiles instead of a point based map. How a title like No Mans Sky can have mountains and ravines and bodies of liquid water and clouds but we're still stuck with the same dry flat barren worlds is beyond my understanding of what's under the hood but it's still the biggest thing for me tbh. On foot Guardian archeology tombs, pools of liquid water, ravines, canyons, caves, lusher vegetation. That's what I'm craving in exploration. Combine that with the new Trailblazers update and (ideally) the monthly upkeep on carriers lifted and I'd gleefully return.

I would like to dive into the upper atmospheres of gas giants and scoop up tritium and/or other gases, Cloud Tech in general is at the top of my most wanted list

While I disagree with you on ship sample collector (that would make landings obsolete) - I think we should have a way to scan for biological signals while riding SRV. Going up there to the orbital cruise to view the distribution map again sucks

Fix MANY bugs. Class 4 mining lasers Rank locked Alliance big ship

Something they missed the mark on IMO, is the exobiology process. It is strictly only an information processing task. ie "the planet is an HMC, it has argon atmosphere, thin, it has surface temp in the range 200 - 300, and 0.3G gravity, thus I will check this because there is a chance it will have x species on it." The problem is that there is way too much information to process to play a chill game. And you just use EDObservatory with bioinsights plugin and it immediately tells you all the possible life that could be on the planet. And we're now in the situation where efficient play and fun play are at odds. And then introduce the sampling tool (what a joke). You just stand there, it baits you into thinking the sampling tool has a minigame with spinny circles, but IT IS NOT A MINIGAME. (wtf?) Fdev has shown they can make good minigames when they made the FSS scanner, so why so lazy with the genetic sampler? Another thing is that normal exploration just doesn't give enough money. (exobiology pays good). I think they should quadruple the amount of credits given by FSS/DSS. And if that were to upset the early game balance, then tie the credits to distance from sol (capped), or based on first discovery. (I would choose the former). IMO it is up to the game dev to make efficient and fun play coincide. People that enjoy exploring just don't get money, unless they do the somewhat frustrating process of finding 3 samples of life. Another thing about that, this frustrating aspect would be instantly gone if the UI just pointed you to a nearby other sample. You would only have to find the first one, and use your knowledge of geometry/occurrence for that first one. You could even tie the precision of the hint into how well you did the (not currently existing) new minigame that they should make for the sampling tool.

I would love for am actually working surface scanner: It would show areas where the corresponding plants are actually present, not where they might perhaps be. And it shold be available while on the ground, knowing that in this area, I scanned traces of biology A, B and C. These are things not covered by third party applications, at least not yet.

id like to run into ancient ruins the thargoids and guidons cant be the only other races out there. v r done for on foot so when you step out of your srv its like your standing there and not looking at a screen which sometimes causes the game to crash. rework the heat map so you can see where stuff is .also the exo scanner should also work in the srv .so if your on a dangerous temp planet you can scan it in the safety of your srv. i thing exploration has been neglected since 2021 .great vid chap o7

Carnivorous alien plants?? I'm all in!

i agree with everything except the ship exobio scanner. Imho a dedicated exobio SRV is a much better alternative.

All of this + on foot VR + access to more planets (even if incrementally)

I had an idea a while back for a ship launched recon(?) ship which an explorer traversing the galaxy in a large ship like an Anaconda could deploy from low orbit and use to land on the planet to find exo/geo etc. Would mean easier planet landings (maybe at expense of srv?) and would offer a little variety.

I’m about to start my exploration journey so…hello from February 2025. Great pep talk! o7

Hey what is your intro music called?

Returning to ED after 8 years away, this time on PC. Looking for some people to play with -CMDR sag nuts 07

What do you think the odds are that elite dangerous and star citizen merge into one super space game? It would seem to me that would fix both games' major issues. Elites player headcount and star citizens lack of completion of product. Any thoughts?

What is your intro music?

So far it seems to be popular so I’m optimistic that it’ll be going ahead