Still don't understand Exploration, why do they pay me at all?

[bend_r]

Greetings Commanders,

I just arrived at Kappa-1 Ceti, Kroehl Platform, after wrestling down a wanted Asp in my trusty Hauler (the fight cost me more in ammo than the bounty, but I had to defend my cargo!).

I have the basic discovery scanner, and even though I already knew (or my ship computer) where the station was I activated the scanner and found some unknown objects.

So far so normal, but as this is an inhabited system, why do I get 1998 cr for selling cartographic data that should already be public knowledge? Esp. since I'm selling the data right in the system that I scanned?

Kappa-1 Ceti is a mere 30 ly away from Sol, practically in its back yard.


thanks for any insight,
see you all out there,
Commander Benderson

 

[hjd_uk]

Think of it as science data, relative positional interstellar information, astronomy data and space-weather, the more samples in total and more samples over more time the better.
rather than leave an expensive satellite that will get stolen or scrapped for spares in a week or even more expensive star-port at every single star in the galaxy, it makes sense to crowd-source the regular data gathering with some monetary reward as an incentive. And to stop thousands of pilots sending in data, from the same system, again and again every day, you can only send in data from each system once, which also surreptitiously creates an incentive to scan and send in data from far flung places that rarely get visited or have little traffic through them.

 

[CrazedHatter]

Think of it as science data, relative positional interstellar information, astronomy data and space-weather, the more samples in total and more samples over more time the better.
rather than leave an expensive satellite that will get stolen or scrapped for spares in a week or even more expensive star-port at every single star in the galaxy, it makes sense to crowd-source the regular data gathering with some monetary reward as an incentive. And to stop thousands of pilots sending in data, from the same system, again and again every day, you can only send in data from each system once, which also surreptitiously creates an incentive to scan and send in data from far flung places that rarely get visited or have little traffic through them.

This just made it all make perfect sense - I mean, I didn't really CARE personally, all that matters to me is that they give me credits so I can buy stuff, but this just totally made it clear how this exploration thing works, it also explains diminishing returns if different people scan the same system.

You sir, deserve a thumbs up.

 

[Doomus]

Yeah think of it like a galactic version of Google Maps. Over time the data becomes a bit rancid, like when you look at your house on Google Maps and realise it's an image from 3 years ago. Universal Cartographics is in the business of selling data to commanders. The fresher that data is, the more they can ask for it. If they pay you 7,400cr for a system scan and then sell that data on for 100cr to 50,000 pilots then they're doing good business. You can buy the data yourself. How happy would you be if the system data you bought from UC was out of date?

 

[davelister]

Guys when i dicovert a new Planet or something were do i collect the Money?

 

[FoxTwo]

Guys when i dicovert a new Planet or something were do i collect the Money?

When you dock at a station, look on the menu for "Universal Cartographics". Then you scroll down all the way to the bottom on the right hand side of the screen, and you should see a section where it says "Sell Data" and a list of all data you've scanned.

 

[Vandaahl]

Greetings Commanders,

I just arrived at Kappa-1 Ceti, Kroehl Platform, after wrestling down a wanted Asp in my trusty Hauler (the fight cost me more in ammo than the bounty, but I had to defend my cargo!).

I have the basic discovery scanner, and even though I already knew (or my ship computer) where the station was I activated the scanner and found some unknown objects.

So far so normal, but as this is an inhabited system, why do I get 1998 cr for selling cartographic data that should already be public knowledge? Esp. since I'm selling the data right in the system that I scanned?

Kappa-1 Ceti is a mere 30 ly away from Sol, practically in its back yard.


thanks for any insight,
see you all out there,
Commander Benderson

Think the other way around. Why would you buy data?

Imagine you find a top notch mission to Anderson Escape (or was it Sanderson... ). Reward; 196.000 credits, fine; 58.000 credits, time left; 12 minutes. You click accept and head out, only to find out on arrival at the system that Anderson Escape is 1.600.000 LS away and will take you 25 minutes to get there. Bye reward, hello fine.

Now, if you were able to buy the data of that system up front, you would have been able to know the offset in AE of the planet Anderson Escape orbits, thus it would have prevented you from getting that hideous fine.

It is worth buying, so it has value.

 

[alexios]

So far so normal, but as this is an inhabited system, why do I get 1998 cr for selling cartographic data that should already be public knowledge? Esp. since I'm selling the data right in the system that I scanned?

Same reason the inhabitants of Sol pay billions for exploration data on planets they already know exist.

Solar systems are absolutely immense, abstract information is useful, and no amount of photos or data will ever be ‘enough’.

 

[bend_r]

Imagine you find a top notch mission to Anderson Escape (or was it Sanderson... ). Reward; 196.000 credits, fine; 58.000 credits, time left; 12 minutes. You click accept and head out, only to find out on arrival at the system that Anderson Escape is 1.600.000 LS away and will take you 25 minutes to get there. Bye reward, hello fine.

Now, if you were able to buy the data of that system up front, you would have been able to know the offset in AE of the planet Anderson Escape orbits, thus it would have prevented you from getting that hideous fine.

I think I would ticket that, as the mission system should not generate impossible missions (in SC everyone is as fast as everyone else). You can assume your client would know something about the distances involved.

It is worth buying, so it has value.

I buy exploration data all the time, I understand it has value.
My point that I was visiting a well known system. Imagine visiting downtown London, take a few GPS measurments, make a photo of Westminster Abbey. Who is going to buy that?

Information about core systems should be on wikipedia3000, and any rudimantary scans with a cheap toy (basic discovery scanner, not even identifying the objects) would add no value at all.
Data about known systems should be (nearly) worthless. Data about unknown systems (where to find gold, where are habitable planets) should pay millions.

Ok, I know a game can only be so realistic, but at least it should have some kind of internal consistency, a set of game rules that make at least some kind of sense (lore about exploration if you want).

 

[Alexis]

That make sense, i thought it was just bad-design/forgetting/Stellar forge bug...