[Suggestion] Help players understand what isn't reachable

[censor]

I do not like the idea.

Sometimes, I risk my ship jumping far away and I do not know if I could back soon enough to avoid the rebels. It is funny. Anyway, there is an augmentation that let you jump back to an explored location.

The game must be hard. If you want scavenge more, you have to take risks.

[NomadWanderer]

I do not like the idea.

Sometimes, I risk my ship jumping far away and I do not know if I could back soon enough to avoid the rebels. It is funny. Anyway, there is an augmentation that let you jump back to an explored location.

The game must be hard. If you want scavenge more, you have to take risks.

Adding a Grid to the map wouldn't change that right? But it would help people understand what the limits of their jump drive is more quickly.

[angelocire]

Don't clutter my beautiful sector map with a grid! Or at very least, make it a toggleable option.
I don't know about others, but it only took me 3 or 4 games before I got the range down pat.

[NomadWanderer]

Don't clutter my beautiful sector map with a grid! Or at very least, make it a toggleable option.
I don't know about others, but it only took me 3 or 4 games before I got the range down pat.

I guess I'm dumb or I don't think about it until the end. I have 100's of FLT games under my belt, and still occasionally get burned by a pathway that turned out to be 'just a tiny bit too far'...

[Dohon]

Isn't that the idea of the game? Afteral, you don't know if you'll survive your next random encounter. Not knowing if you can make it back to the exit in time just adds to the suspense.

[NomadWanderer]

Isn't that the idea of the game? Afteral, you don't know if you'll survive your next random encounter. Not knowing if you can make it back to the exit in time just adds to the suspense.

That crosses the 'fun' line. If I can just buy me self some string, and call it my "Jump range calculator", it's not about not knowing anymore, it's about whether or not I have my 'jump range calculator' handy.

[Khrowe]

I dont think they should change anything. In rogue you had no idea where the exit to the next level was. At least in FTL you can see the location of the system you are trying to reach. That is significant help right off the bat. If anything, maybe you can purchase maps of FTL lanes or download them from enemies ships.

[TwoEdge]

I think the fair point here is: What is the intent behind the design? If it's functionality, adding an overlay or radius (optional as it may be) is very elegant, as I will not have to keep a ruler, compass, a string tied to a rubber tip, or a colored plastic mask circle around, for instance, and can rely on the game alone; if it's exploration, then I'd say go all out obfuscation and give us fog of war.

The issue seems unclear to me, so that's where my suggestions come from. Maybe both can be in the game, with some sort compromise or in different difficulties. It's only that, as it stands now, it confuses me.

[General Chaos]

Perhaps the advanced FTL navigation part could provide a range gauge.

[ughblugh]

The thing I like about this game is that everything seems quite logical.
Except for this.

If my ship computer is capable of showing me a star map for a given sector, surely it can also calculate the distances between those stars, and let me know if I can make a jump there, even if I'm not there. It's not like stars move relative to each other.
So not being able to work out if I could jump from one place to another seems totally counter intuitive.

Which is why a fog of war makes a lot more sense. A rough indication of where the exit is located would be great, so you know where to head to, but the exact stars? Make them more or less entirely obfuscated.

Then, a long range scanner can reveal the map in a larger radius. And the mercenary 'scout the area' (and other map reveal events) suddenly become much more valuable.