I've always gathered that the bread and butter of explorers will be what I call 'survey' work: 1. Scan for points of interest. 2. Travel to points of interest. 3. Investigate points of interest for detail. 4. Manage data about points of interest. 5. Sell or otherwise distribute data about points of interest. You can also exploit points of interest yourself of course, but the point here is that the primary activity of the exploration gameplay loop will probably be 'surveying' which abstracts to 'data generation', 'data' being the commodity explorers most often bring to market. And THAT scales better than 'system discovery'. A new star system is a point of interest, but so too is a new ore outcrop on a familiar moon in a familiar star system -- and there are far more of those to go around.

What a phenomenal video you've put together. Insane production, we're spoiled. Can't wait for proper scanning mechanics!

My understanding of stars citizen's exploration is that it is the backbone of the mission system. The explorers find the salvage wreaks and minerals then sell it the contract menu making it show up for everyone else. Exploration also can find the best areas to setup homesteads for that gameloop. Exploration is at the beginning of all the contracts

I would add having a good mapping system. I tried hunting for the Pico cave and found it difficult to return to where I left off. Having a system like to keep track of where you have been would help greatly. I imagine something like what you have in Civilization when starting out you can only see where you are. Sending a unit off to explore only gives you live data about what is near it (think probes or even scanning at a distance with less details). Once the unit (or scan) moves on you are left with the old data but cannot see new information that you missed or moves into the area.

I am mostly interested in more of the "scouting" side of exploration - observing without being observed or easily found/intercepted. I am looking forward to the scanner loops being fleshed out, and how good passive scans will be, or how one might mask active scans, or confuse attempts to trace the souce of them. Particularly for "pathfinding" - ways to move about with ease and safety.

Some of the finest, most professionally produced content on KZfaq. You and Mrs T put together an awesome production.

Comets would be a really cool feature. Scanning for comets that are far away and gathering tracking data trying to predict when they will be in range to intercept, and gathering spectrographic data to figure out what kind of resources they might have. And the longer you track them the more the data builds up accuracy, and you can either wait until it is in range and quantum travel there yourself, or sell the data to a mining organization.

i think they could also periodically move jump points, so explorers have to rediscover where they went.

i want something like the elite dangerous community event distant worlds expedition. picking a endpoint and then spending 2 weeks traveling there with friends

That new quatum is exactly what i was looking for. The instability is great

I hope there'll also be explorative areas revolving around information. E.g. discovering an underground base of a certain group hiding from the law. That information could be very valuable.

I think we need two types of exploration: 1 is commercial routine exploration. Which could be repeated many times. Using scanning. Could be exploration for resource deposits. Some bacteria (to sell data about) etc … 2 Indiana Jones style quests. Leading to different planets. Running away from pirates for antiquity. Talking to some bedouins, solving puzzles, running into caves with waterfalls … etc 3 (optional) New type of cargo hauling, and kinda exploration. Is to have transport ships, and bring NPC for a sight seing tour in system.

Very nicely put, SpaceTomato. I think that you nailed it! Keep up the good work!

I was hoping we can discover things like unknown materials or rare materials, finding caves that are actually tombs or signs of old civilisations. Finding a way to get to the destination as a challenge it could be a puzzle (overall goal find X and during is manual plotting courses between jump points like we do for the Aaron halo ring. Exploring the planet surface to find something that pings on a vehicle This is my dream vision with a huge know it won't be this

All I need for exploration to be enjoyable is for it to be similar to how it works in Eve Online. 1. When you are in a system you can see certain cosmic anomalies. 2. Scan said anomolies to see if you can determine what the anomaly is. 3. Scan further till you get a warp in to the point. 4. do said activity at anomaly. You can get wormholes. Relic or data hacking sites. Combat anomlies, mining anoms etc. Its very simple in eve but in SC it could be really nice if they make it similar to this but more in debth. Having random RNG anoomalies in every system that will despawn a little bit after a player completes the anom etc. find a treasure, a relic, a resource, derelict ships that can carry specific loot that can be sold and used for crafting. Would love this form of exploration and make sure its included on planets as well.

It would be really neat to see exploration go hand in hand with investigation/critical thinking skills. A game mechanic for the thinking player if you will.

Fantastic Space tomato! I think you’re spot on. CIG have eluded to the fact that a lot of ships will be able to explore and a lot of exploration loops start in stations and bases. I think that once CIG start to introduce the more specialist scanning capabilities of some ships then the concept of exploration will become a lot clearer.

Great video! Thanks for sharing your take on exploration

In my dreams, exploration is finding New stuff on planets, finding anbadon ships, valubles, rare loot, stuff to sell.

Amazing video ST!

Amazing as always. Keep it up!

Great video, I had not considered Exploration is this light. I think we all expect Star Trek style "Exploring strange new planets and new creatures and to boldly go, yada, yada, yada". This take on exploration does seem to fit the SC style. That being said, there has to be some sort of Cinematic Experience or CR and a good portion of those who back this game on the hope of Exploration will not be satisfied. Side Note: I was able to go on one of those tours to see the eclipse, it is simply amazing. If you have a chance to go, do it. I it will give you a new appreciation as too the design and complexity of the SC universe.

what a cool video! very well made and so interesting

your videos are always top notch keep it up tomato

My hope is that after the release of Pyro that systems to follow like Nyx are not so long in development meaning exploration local or distant has a purpose and that ships such as Odyessey are released as a consequence.

Absolutely amazing bro. Thank you for your hard work. I’ve been in SC for a long time and I really appreciate anything that will help people understand the scope of what is being build for us.

Also, no one wants to quantum for an hour to a distant system only for 30k to bump you right back to where you started and waste your time like on some of the longer cargo runs

where do you get your footage, its amazing

Great video

This is the best SC vid, period, I've seen... o7 Spacetomato

I never knew that we used to have free-fly quantum jumps, so mad that they took that out.

Totally hope for Pathfinder mission to go to an asteroid belt location to scan for mining items that then will be open to the verse after you locate them. So the scanning mission will link to the mining missions of creating new areas for other players. Same can apply to salvage where you go to investigate a possible ship wreckage that later is put on salvage mission board for another to go to. My idea for the Terrpin anyways.

I just hope exploration won't be 100% linked to missions, and I hope pure organic discoveries will happen.

Accept Mission > fly to location > scan area/object with exploration beam > pocket aUec payment. There i summarized it for you.

What software are you using to edit your videos?

The only exploration mechanic SC will have is CIG "exploring" their way through an ever-expanding development to-do list.

MY kind of exploration is finding nebulas, stuff in asteroids, caves on planets or simply a cool place witha nice view on a planet or a moon. Plus, as someone pinned say, scanning, selling data, infos to pois ( like mineable asteroids ) and so on. Maybe even finding, scanning and mining asteroids to add a bonus income. I`m fine with that. I already expected that a "Star Trek" Style exploration loop wont ever be a happen in a game.

I think we need missions that can be found like Rocks and Salavge. On planets there would be a chance to find a camp with a log that activates a quest In space we could find those 890j missions or Black Kite missions. And this should be the only way to play these type of missions.

So we need a coordinate system, navigation system, scanning gameplay, and a faster local travel capability? Exploration coming in patch 3.61 in 2033!

Adecent mapping system would be huge. A way to capture located resouces and trafer that info to miners. Knowing your location setting way points, bread crumbs. If we got even some this could start the ball rolling for exploration. I'm guessing it would start to evolve on it's own, kind like the piracy thing has.

whats the name of that song? i mean at the beginning of your video?

Exploration should be radiant missions that randomly spawn all over the verse. Maybe a ghost ship that you scan down with a sensors. A hidden artifact onboard. A piece of alien tech found in some secluded cave that must be scanned down. A wormhole that leads across the universe or to a pocket dimension with a lucrative mission inside. They need to be radiant, meaning they are randomly generated and they must be scanned down using special equipment. That way there is endless content.

They're in the feature completion phase still, crazily enough, so exploration will likely emerge when there are 5 times the different types of resources as there are now and they implement sensors to find each as you cruise around a system.

Find resources - materials, water, food, place for base/settlement etc. for your corp/org especially in non empire space where there are no space stations or npc driven hubs. It may take a while to find a good spot considering how big even the smallest moon can be. I am confident that it will take at least a year or more to fully explore the universe. We still dont know all the variable inputs.

Really wish cig would give us more detail on end game exploration content. Great video!

Damn that eclipse, beautiful!

Really great vid. I really like all these ideas. We will likely get systems like this or at least close to this, and I wouldn't mind the gameplay at all, but it's also not Exploration. Scouting, scanning and surveying are not the same thing as pathfinding and noveldiscovery, which is what we have been sold, quite literally in the case of "pathfinder" ships. CR himself has said multiple times that players will be discovering new planets and systems, mapping jump points, etc. which is what most would consider Exploration. I'm normally Mr. "they PROMISED!!!" as a joke, but if they can't deliver this thing that they explicitly sold to players then a huge portion of the playerbase is going to be beyond upset, and serious questions will be asked, possibly legal ones, since this is far and away the most desired gameplay among SC backers. I hope we do get these loops and systems you suggest, as they seem like they would provide engaging gameplay that ties the verse together, but again they are not what was sold as Exploration specifically. At the start you say, "The joy of Exploration is not about finding something new or rare, or going someplace no one's been, or making a grand discovery," but I think most backers might beg to differ. I know I do.

Only have expoler ships (circa 60mtr) as they tend to have most amenities on board and good size for solo and small crews for general daily use

Still better than Starfield

Exploration never ends at "Where?" That's the easiest question to answer.

I mean at the end of the day the future is a lot brighter for SC if CIG can start landing on content. I was ultimately let down by StarField. Fun game. But it highlights just how challenging what CIG is trying to do

First of all: good job on this video, couldn't have been easy gathering all that info :) but Imo what you have described in the first half of your video is not exploration but investigation. Sure it's similar, but not the same. Looking for a derelict ship based on info you received (via quest givers or whatever) like you described is definitely investigation. Exploration to me is really going out there and looking for stuff on your own and seeing what you'll find. If you're a miner and stumble upon a bigass quantanium rock in an asteroid field I'd call that exploration too, even tho it's much less fancy than surveying a flesh eating alien plant or so.

My Tomato dude has a voice for radio, and narration! I'd hire you to read my audiobooks, if I were an author. haha 👍

Had a feeling it would be similar to this, so I'm not really "disappointed"... I'll play Starfield at some point, but it'll be on the backburner. As far as space games go, I think I'm more in the sim crown (E:D). Thanks for the video.

I quite like what you hypothesize exploration gameplay to be, but unless I've missed a good chunk of info CIG had made available on exploration, I'd have to say that much of this must be speculation, right? Would you be able to steer us to where most of this information is from CIG? Only bits I recall hearing on exploration from CIG, involved vagaries on long range probes, an updated scanning mechanic, potential undiscovered jump points finding and I guess, data running, resourse locating and passenger transport. If some of these should even be could considered "exploration" gameplay remains to be seen on how they're implemented.

Good video!

So basically instead of just going somewhere mostly blind then mark/claim a thing, SC's exploration is more like problem solving, which I totally dig. I really enjoyed figure out how to make my delivery successful in Death Stranding, and I hope I can get a similar experience in SC's exploration gameplay.

nothing bout the telescopic array?

I wouldn’t put too much stock in blind qt boost it only has a 50k max range.

how are there comments that are 9 months old but the video just came out.

I was thinking that starfield was made for exploration but when i found out that there is a bound limit to explore a planet it feal it so pointless and diasapointed, so it seems like star citizen is my only choise to fullfeeling that part. Starfield is a good game as an rpg but for sim

I like the EVE online mechanic. just scan a system and nail down POI's. Put that into the Star Citizen universe including the planets and moons and it would be brilliant I reckon.

3.18 gave us Exploration T0 and nobody noticed.

In my opinion the planed 100 systems that are pratialy of fully eplored + around 100 systems that are not explored mostly proceduraly generated (with what CIG showed us in next 5+ years it will not be that dificult not saying it will be easy). With this there would be a lot of inteesting posibilities and adding something like unstable worm holes (apiering and dissapiering) that you will be able to find looking for undiscovered acces to discovered worm hole. Collecting data about places like Daymar. Things like geological scaning. Exploring caves (hope CIG will make realy bic caves in future and special suits that will allow you to eat and drink). Colecting samples (living or not). Looking for posible hiding places (for cops and bad guys). Looking for good places for racing. Going to places like Vandul teritory or some forbiden places.

Blind QT , yes please !!

This game is seriously super cool. The future of it is going to be incredible from what I've been gathering over the years.

everybody gangsta until 30k.

Majority of true exploration is going to be finding random wormholes to random systems. Those wormholes won't be stable like jump points that have gates to keep them stable. These random wormholes will only stay open for whatever time CIG sets them as. Ability to travel to other systems via shortcuts that aren't the normal Jump Point routes is going to a major part of exploration for both military and industrial operations.

Solar eclipses should be naturally occurring once planets start orbiting the star, and moons orbit the planets, I'm just not sure how well the scale will work, when on a planet, and a moon crosses over the star. When I tried to rejoin an old MMO, years after I left, I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of added content, however, permanent players eat up that content very quickly, and then hunger for more. The same thing happens in SC; I notice how much is added when I take long breaks, and come back. Because content trickles in, if I was to play permanently, day in and day out, I'd eat up every little bit of content the moment it's added, and always be longing for more.

There are, IMHO, 2 styles or modes of Exploration. There is Exploration for the sake of Exploration. Basically, heading out exploring just to see what you can see. With the hope of maybe finding something no one has seen before. Such is generally not all that lucrative. Probably make enough to cover your expenses but not usually all that much profit. Then there is Commercial Exploration. This is where you're looking for something specific. You'll seek out those areas most likely to produce whatever it is you're after. And for the most part ignoring everything else. SC has a number of ships that are either dedicated to exploration, or at the least offer a nod to exploring. SC is sadly lacking in anywhere to explore. I like SC because I see so very much potential. I would like to see something, anything more substantial than still more empty promises of Someday. I know where SC claims to be headed. I would like to see something, some sort of progress that tells me the stated goal is getting closer. Another ship that can't be used or just plain doesn't work at all does not qualify as progress.

Where is server meshing ? Where is Pyro ? They presented it for years. And now not even in next releases plan?

Prob gonna be just like ED

Very cool im sure theyre working on it (theyre not)

its funny, we got almost nothing in game from last years citcon.

After the starfield debacle, all I can say is CIG must continue to make it seamless.

I think eventually everything will be explored. And the need for the Carrack and other deep space exploration ships and pathfinders will be obsolete; they'll turn into military or industrial support ships. I do hope Star Citizen becomes more than PVP though. Exploration can easily be ruined by griefers with enough hardware to one-shot explorers.

So Eve Online exploration? Scan things down, go there and get the loot, or sell the bookmarked location to others.

Check out Eve online exploration...

Well-made video, I do not see all that happening in this game, they can't even keep the servers from crashing every thirty minutes IE 30K. I love this game but I am not going to hold my breath. I just like to see them fix the servers. Stabilize what they have already built,. just imagine boosting all the way to a new system, Oops 30k. respawn naked at Orison and start all over, Joy.

There will be 100 systems comprising populated space. Star Citize will also be on a galactic scale with billions of unexplored systems. Or was that another reddit rumour? I did hear that in like 2015 and never again.

Sounds as if there will be no real exploration of the unknown, the only mysteries are to be found in development of the verse itself. We´ll see.

Maybe the true exploration are the millions of dollars that CIG could gather before shutting the whole thing down for good.

with the star map we have there wont be any exploration

The real question is, after all these years waiting, why are we still having to speculate what exploration is. Shouldn't some elements already be here by now. 11 years and counting.

"The supporting features just need to be finished." I have a feeling this game will die with those words. Scope creep makes it infinitely worse as more and more dependent features become dependent on others in order to work or make sense in the game play loop. I hope I'm wrong and the game reaches feature complete, but I won't hold my breath.

Yeah, and in another ten years when they implement their buggy version of this, there will be other games that do it better and are playable/have a reason to be played

CIG created a mini game called "Into the Unknown: A Carrack & Her Crew" which is what most of us have been waiting for. I love the passion that you put into you're videos but you're just putting lipstick on a pig.

alr stop hoping with CIG development.. happy only spent 60$ in this game

You,re definitely right. People should play other games and leave Star Citizen unless you want deathmatch pvp

we need another system , more systems, smack me now !!! yes i said it, they keep adding tedious stuff to STANTON , STANTON ,STANTON..... ok i am done .

Star citizen is not a game about exploring.... Because star citizen is not a game, its an $800 million tech demo

They have a whole, what, one or two star systems in the game? And all you do is mine? I'd say exploration doesn't even exist, how could you have expectations for this??

Totally disagree: the promise and the expectation has ALWAYS been to EXPLORE and DISCOVER new places, resources, planets, asteroids, etc. Problem is, CIG isn't capable of making GOOD, high quality randomly generated systems

I dare say for a few hundred thousand people the entire game is not what we were expecting when we bought it a decade ago, and not in a good way. 10 yrs of ever widening pretty graphics while being mediocre to piss poor in most other ways. p.s. Nothing is particularly new in terms of exploration, it was done in Freelancer 23 years ago it just looks prettier. Just like the flight combat speed models they eventually went with after years of trial and error despite already having a working model from that time in Freelancer and ending up using that in the end. Tired of seeing the wheel re-invented and sold as if new to younger minds. Also for me, Its not about the puzzle, I know so many solo players who will be pissed beyond belief if the only way you can find things unknown is by having to go around the houses in known systems just to waste more game time in effort to find bread crumbs rather than more interactive methods of exploration and discovery on route to other places as used to be the case in Freelancer. You'd read the news, get inferences of what was going on, go out for a spin to X locations, get into a few fights due to what was going on, and explore the area and find what you find from that. This sounds more like you will have to do XYZ missions to pick up XYZ clues and THEN you can go out exploring based on those and its just lengthening everything that was done before. It's padding to my mind, not gameplay, but doing what was done before and breaking it up then padding out each step with the additional functionality of Star citizen such as FPS/EVA that Freelancer never had for sure, but it's still more time out of your damned ship wandering around vast mostly empty places in order to gather enough "clues" before you can go off truly exploring and it just sounds like more Yawn. p.s. If exploration is not ALSO about finding unknown star systems then this is a betrayal of one of the core promises of the game from the very beginning and the only reason they would change such is because of how incompetently things have been ran to where they KNOW they are in a corner and have not a hope in hell of producing even the original 50 star systems within a human life time due to their implementations and development choices so instead they are moving the goal posts. Wakey wakey.

So you bought an exploration specialized ship for nothing....

None of this matters if they don't fix the game crashes and make server meshing. And no, I don't think exploration is good in SC; play No Man Sky if you want real exploration.

nah.. what your suggesting is a bandaid from what was promised! you're basically making an excuse for SC not delivering to what most of us who wanted exploration supported this game for. then again, any point is moot because this game will never be finish.. CIG is in the business of making money out of promises, it's too lucrative for them to end it by finishing the damn game. what you'll get instead is a neverending feature creep to keep you hook!

Star citizen need to give up and just copy from elite dangerous and starfield. listen, star citizen is a great game but is not stable or fun to play. But if they just make the game stable and concentrate in fixing those npc standing on table and add game loop and economy and add the planets later on.

The game is nothing more than a tech demo and if they don't make real progress, it is dead in the water.

Too bad the actual game is never going to be completed