D'haren VI is misleading newbies.

Grek

We constantly get people on Newbie trying to land on planets after seeing you do this during the D'haren VI quest. Could the quest please be changed so that you pass through a station - even a one room station that only exists for the quest - just to be consistent with everywhere else in the game?

Cubey

While we're at it - how 'bout changing default wetwiring to prioritize health, or at least making the ingame WW tutorial not so obtuse and useless?

I suggested this a while ago and nothing happened and in the meantime I see newbies die time and time again because their WW is fucked up and nobody told them to change it.

Extra rage points: some factions' noob hunting zones have mobs deal more subsystem damage while others' don't, so some factions' newbies get screwed over more than others.

Vaughn

I believe the WW default has already been changed to AFFLICTIONS, HEALTH, and SYSTEMS.

Cubey

Vaughn said:

I believe the WW default has already been changed to AFFLICTIONS, HEALTH, and SYSTEMS.

Checked, you're right. My bad.

tysandr

Why can't we land on planets tho

Joscelin

tysandr said:

Why can't we land on planets tho

Entering and leaving atmosphere is a right bitch, plus dropping farther into a gravity well than necessary. Splitting station transports and interplanetary craft allows each to be better engineered for their own niche.

bairloch

that's enough of your logic, sir! I want space magic!

gravithicc

But what's the real gameplay reason for making us land on stations instead of planets?

Matlkael

something something, ships made for interstellar travel generally don't do well in atmosphere.

Inversely, shuttles are built to travel through atmosphere but can't handle stellar winds.

Cubey

Matlkael said:

something something, ships made for interstellar travel generally don't do well in atmosphere.

Inversely, shuttles are built to travel through atmosphere but can't handle stellar winds.

That's the fluff reason. The gameplay reason, I suspect, is to standarize the already somewhat confusing and overwhelming piloting experience: stations are for docking so you know that's where you should be heading. There's a lot of planets in the game and only some are actual locations you can explore. You'd need a way to clearly and visibly differentiate those, and stations solve the problem. This also means some locations don't need landable planets, just stations are enough. Finally, it means someone landing at a station has basic utility facilities (cloning, junk, etc) always at hand.

Grek

If the admins want to use "make every planet landable" as the solution instead, that's fine too. The problem is making it so that there is exactly one and only one place where this works and putting it early on enough that it gives players the idea that this is how the game works in general.