Exploration is a waste of time
- Thread starter Czechman
- Start date
I've been exploring since gamma and have been very happy. I have seen all manner of nebula and other such sights.
I see a lot of people who complain about exploration merely talking about planets etc. My guess is that they haven't ventured very far.
So yes, as you say - why worry about the money...
Exploration for explorations sake is great.
Yes. But also, yes.
As a general rule of thumb, if you see a star or planet while you're exploring, fly towards it and ping your scanner. In the case of stars, even the basic scanner should pick up nearby planets. In the case of planets, you should pick up all their moons.
Also, you probably know this already, but click and hold to fire the scanner. Took me a while to figure out that one -_-
To lessen the grind that this game is becoming
Fire the scanner (a bar will fill up). When it's done, it reveals all objects within a radius of 500ls.
I see 6 months from now.... NOBODY exploring. Much of all the nearby stars will have been explored... and anything interesting will have been reached by someone by then. People will get bored with it.
I wouldn't say its a waste of time, I set myself a goal to get to empire space and scanned every system passed through( I could have done more detailed scans, thruth be told) but it gave me alot of creds whilst sat naving to where I wanted to get to.
For me, the thrill of exploration is reward enough in and of itself, the monetary reward is merely a bonus. Trading and bounty hunting was only a means to afford a better FSD and an Advanced Discovery Scanner. The game is a "grind" only if you force it to be.
Now, exploration has its own set of issues though. For example, when I find a pristine water world in a previously unexplored system, I feel like I have hit the jackpot. Those should be extremely valuable to the major factions. So why is that not reflected in the payout?
Now, exploration has its own set of issues though. For example, when I find a pristine water world in a previously unexplored system, I feel like I have hit the jackpot. Those should be extremely valuable to the major factions. So why is that not reflected in the payout?
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Just wondering, is there a way to see how much you planet/star/whatever scan is worth before you sell it? I've just started exploring, got a Adv.Discovery Scanner and a Detailed Surface Scanner. This is what I have been wanting to do in Elite since I joined Beta So I can wait till I get back to find out the creds, as they are just a means to an end, but would be cool to see if I find something awsome out here
So I can wait till I get back to find out the creds, as they are just a means to an end, but would be cool to see if I find something awsome out here 
I'm seriously considering going off into the wilds, forever, with a minimum ship, drop the cargo bay, add a fuel scoop and just do that eternally in the game. See how far I can get in the game's lifetime
nats
Banned
How do you know? Rates may go through the roof for new exploration data by then, making it very lucrative. As it is its easy to make Cr20k or more after a few hours of nice quiet exploration which is not bad profit for an evenings gaming whilst you are travelling between systems doing missions/trading etc. And actually I quite enjoy exploration, finding planets and stars etc is quite absorbing. Will be even better when we can visit planets and hunt for alien species to bring back. So dont be so negative.
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Supposedly, the only FTL communication is very expensive, very large and very restricted (no empire wide tweets!).
This creates a setting similar to when the Pony Express was about, or when the Cutty Sark was plying the tea trade routes.
So when we update the Cartographic data, I did not expect to see data from other players available to buy.
Perhaps this is one of the important things that is sent by FTL comms. Or maybe it is only available locally within a certain distance.
Regardless of how it is available, it does save us from re-discovering stuff already discovered.
Note to other posters on the maps. I believe it goes....
completely unexplored system - star only in the system map
Player a visits and scans all. Nothing has changed to anyone else until that player a sells the data (for loads of money as it's a first - not sure of the multiplier).
Player b won't see anything in the system map but now they can buy said data and see the updated system map. If they do, it's all explored, scanner from player b detects nothing new. No money to be earnt.
Player c visits same system, does not buy data, scans and sees all as unexplored. Selling this data will get less money than the first scan (not sure how much less or what person 10 gets).
The questions are is it better to buy player exploration data so you don't waste time on an explored system or just go explore anyway...
Also you don't know if the first player was using the advanced scanner or whether they missed something...
I tend to buy as it's quite cheap and I don't want to waste my time (I have young kids!).
I also check my stats which shows how many systems I've explored...
Oh and at the moment, I have the Basic Discovery Scanner, and a newly purchased Detailed Surface Scanner.
I'm not sure I will upgrade to Advanced Discovery Scanner. From what other posters are saying, being able to discover all "Unexplored" stellar/planetary bodies in a system has removed the "detective work" previously done with Stellar Parallax (where in system objects move against the distant star background).
I agree with the other posters that this bit of observation is quite fun. Whilst I'd like to have the creds in game and get better kit, not at the expense of losing the fun!
if you could buy the ultimate one shot weapon that kills everything, from Anaconda, to Capital Ship to Star(!) I think it would quickly pale and get very boring. (Even my kids know in computer Lego games, invulnerability is not fun!)
This creates a setting similar to when the Pony Express was about, or when the Cutty Sark was plying the tea trade routes.
So when we update the Cartographic data, I did not expect to see data from other players available to buy.
Perhaps this is one of the important things that is sent by FTL comms. Or maybe it is only available locally within a certain distance.
Regardless of how it is available, it does save us from re-discovering stuff already discovered.
Note to other posters on the maps. I believe it goes....
completely unexplored system - star only in the system map
Player a visits and scans all. Nothing has changed to anyone else until that player a sells the data (for loads of money as it's a first - not sure of the multiplier).
Player b won't see anything in the system map but now they can buy said data and see the updated system map. If they do, it's all explored, scanner from player b detects nothing new. No money to be earnt.
Player c visits same system, does not buy data, scans and sees all as unexplored. Selling this data will get less money than the first scan (not sure how much less or what person 10 gets).
The questions are is it better to buy player exploration data so you don't waste time on an explored system or just go explore anyway...
Also you don't know if the first player was using the advanced scanner or whether they missed something...
I tend to buy as it's quite cheap and I don't want to waste my time (I have young kids!).
I also check my stats which shows how many systems I've explored...
Oh and at the moment, I have the Basic Discovery Scanner, and a newly purchased Detailed Surface Scanner.
I'm not sure I will upgrade to Advanced Discovery Scanner. From what other posters are saying, being able to discover all "Unexplored" stellar/planetary bodies in a system has removed the "detective work" previously done with Stellar Parallax (where in system objects move against the distant star background).
I agree with the other posters that this bit of observation is quite fun. Whilst I'd like to have the creds in game and get better kit, not at the expense of losing the fun!
if you could buy the ultimate one shot weapon that kills everything, from Anaconda, to Capital Ship to Star(!) I think it would quickly pale and get very boring. (Even my kids know in computer Lego games, invulnerability is not fun!)
Loving exploration so far par with bounty hunting. Trading is a bit boring. Maybe I will try piracy today. Vs NPC ofc.
Devastat I been exploring for 6+ hours yesterday. And im eager to get home and explore another 6 or more. Its not for everybody. Maybe its on my genes being portuguese and all. Exploration is awesome.
Devastat I been exploring for 6+ hours yesterday. And im eager to get home and explore another 6 or more. Its not for everybody. Maybe its on my genes being portuguese and all. Exploration is awesome.
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I'm seriously considering going off into the wilds, forever, with a minimum ship, drop the cargo bay, add a fuel scoop and just do that eternally in the game. See how far I can get in the game's lifetime
your ship will fail after so long due to wear and tear and no stations to fix this in a near by system.
I got 34 thousand credits for this system I scanned.
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You will die and run out of fuel because apparently brown dwarfs, L and T class stars are not fuel scoop worthy.
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You will die and run out of fuel because apparently brown dwarfs, L and T class stars are not fuel scoop worthy.