The first iteration of Elite Dangerous’ version of “Fix PUBG” is just around the corner with the announcement of a public beta (PC) running from November 27th to the 2nd of December. Details of what’s to come was posted to the Frontier Forums with an expected release date of the patch for late January 2020. The contents of this update is exclusively geared towards fixing problems with the game as it stands now and will not include any new features.

These issues are all covered in a public issue tracker that Frontier Developments have been using since the original announcement they were putting new features aside in favour of fixing the game. There’s some interesting items that look to be getting attention such as this one related to the Full Spectrum System (FSS) scanner:

FSS: Long delay when scanning planets with geological sites

As it currently stands, in order for the geological/biological sites to be placed on the surface, the entire stellar body must be fully generated (we then know the topography and can place sites where they will be accessible). This can take tens of seconds.

As part of the January Update, we aim to address this with an alternative process. We have run tests on thousands of in-game planetary bodies and by using this data, we’re able to extrapolate the likelihood of geological/biologic sites being present on similar stellar bodies. We then use this data and indicate if the planet is ‘Unlikely’, ‘Likely’, or ‘Very Likely’ to have a geological/biological sites.

It is not 100% guaranteed that there will be a geological/biological site on the planetary body, but does give commanders a much faster indication of probability. This will enable commanders to quickly ascertain if the planet’s worth a visit.

As this is an alternative way to display information, we would love to hear your feedback on it to determine whether or not it is better than the current process.

Please note: this will not affect Thargoid or Guardian sites, which will show up instantaneously.

Though this is a small issue in the grand scheme of things it is part of the game that I’ve tended to ignore because scanning planets takes time… if you’re scanning your way through a populated system you can get bored quickly waiting over and over again for each scan to complete. The solution they’re suggesting isn’t necessarily a complete solution (it’s an estimate) but it will reduce the time waiting for a scan when that could be spent flying down to the planet to check it out.

The full post can be found here and also includes information for players wanting to take part in the beta.