It’s finally here. Exploration Update! We talked a lot about it lately and now we are putting together the last bits of it.
The Exploration Update will be out on Tuesday, June 25. In our previous posts we briefly went over some of the most important changes regarding Scanning and Warp Drive. This time we are going to take a step further and hopefully get both the new colonists and veteran astronauts to be excited for this update.
Junkyards
Let’s start off with junkyards. Instead of a single massive Junkyard orbiting a planet, expect to find many more smaller “sections”. These sections are often on intersecting and sometimes even collision orbits with each other and together they form a “junkyard system”. This is important because junkyards are no longer immediately visible on your NavMap, in fact very few map objects are now visible from the get go. In order to find any of these sections you will need to scan for them. As you go about salvaging these sections for parts, modules and resources odds are that your orbit will get you into close proximity to another junkyard section, giving you another exploration target.
Lone stations
Lone stations are another thing we will be adding with this update. These will often be located away from the “usual debris fields” only getting closer once every few hours (sometimes even days) so they will be quite a bit more difficult to find, but they will also contain loot usually beyond what the zone normally offers.
Asteroids
Asteroids have also been affected and just like junkyards, won’t be “always visible” on your map. Your passive radar will often pick the largest nearby rocks on its own, due to their signature, smaller ones on the other hand won’t be so easy to find and will require you to actively look for them.
All of the above should give you an idea of what we are aiming for with the Exploration Update. As stated previously our goal is to bring some mystery back into the world of Hellion and offer a completely new and unique experience for both veterans of the game and newcomers alike.
Scanning improvements
Aside from the features explained in our previous post, there are several other factors that affect the signature of the station/module when scanning. These are damage, number of online systems and active scan. All of these negatively impact the vessel’s signature making it easier to find. Damage increases signature exponentially as the module takes more and more damage, while each online system increases the module’s signature by a fixed amount unique to that particular system. Usually larger modules with higher “base system” consumption or large active systems such as refinery or fabricator provide a much bigger signature boost compared to smaller modules such as corridors, airlocks and life support modules. So, while deploying your solar panels won’t increase signature by much, a fusion reactor most certainly will. Active radar will also make your ship/station more visible for the duration of the scan.
All of this creates a much more dynamic system where “going dark” becomes a viable strategy if you are trying to sneak up on someone, or find others before they find you. Of course, many of these won’t affect your starting Steropes, as it is generally very power efficient, but they will make a big difference once you get your hands on the Arges, especially should you choose to use the engine or that big loud and rather hot fusion reactor…
Advanced starts
Finally we want to briefly go over the advanced starts that will become available once you reach certain quest milestones. Keep in mind that each one of these new starts is a scenario in its own right and will be considerably harder to survive than the usual “Fresh Start”. Why? Well that is because none of them are shaped as a tutorial, so there will be no hints or clues as to what you are supposed to do to get out of them alive. Second, each one has a specific theme to it and comes with a very specific challenge in mind. Finally each scenario will put players into a situation they normally would never end up in during normal play. After all how often do you find yourself running at a turret without a full suit and only a crowbar as a weapon…
To give you a hint on what to expect, the advanced starts that will be included in this update are: Stranded Miner, Jailbreak and Son of Earth.
That’s all for today folks, expect the full patch notes on Monday.
Until then, fly safe!
Zero Gravity team