Exploring - am I doing it right ?

Tacyon · Apr 7, 2015

So I'm on my very first exploration run. 4 days and I'm ~1400LY from "home base" and I've scanned most systems on the way out. I'm 75% out of my spiral arm. I plan on going to the next spiral arm which should be ~4500ly out. Then return via a different route.

Questions I have are.
1) When I hit a new system, scoop, scan base star and then check system map. If there are no "First discovered by "X" cmdr" then I'm the first to scan this system and provided I get back to populated space and sell my info to friendly faction. Correct ?
2) When the system shows "First discovered by "X" cmdr" I can still sell my info to a friendly faction I Just won't get the "First discovered by notoriety. Correct ?
3) I saw this thread so the answer might be "its a bug", "not yet" or only after you sell stellar cartography, but what are Level 1 and Level 2 scans ?
4) the proper scan sequence is drop in system, do a advanced scan revealing all bodies in the current system, then get within range and do the targeted scan of each body. Rinse and repeat - Correct ?

Mortifa · Apr 7, 2015

!.) Yes. Unless someone else scanned it and sells it before you do.
2.) Yes.
3.) Not sure.
4.) if it works for you then yes.

Borgkube · Apr 7, 2015

1 Yes
2 Yes
3 Not Yet
4 Yes. Don't bother with asteroids as they have zero scan value. Get a Detailed Surface Scanner and increase the payout on scans of individual bodies.

Szyslak22 · Apr 7, 2015

1) Correct. Just keep in mind someone else may have scanned it, but not sold the data yet. First Discovered goes to the first commander to sell.
2) Correct. First discovered gives you a bonus, but you can sell any unexplored data regardless of who found it first.
3) Nothing in game yet
4) Correct, but use some judgement on the bodies worth scanning. It's not worth your time to scan all the ice planets or things too far from the main star.

insanephoton · Apr 7, 2015

Sounds like you're doing ok
To answer the points
1) Yes, pretty much. If there isn't a name, no one has sold the data yet. There is no guarantee that you were the first to scan as someone else may have already scanned it but not sold the data yet. Also not sure about the faction thing as you always sell to Universal Cartographics, however selling data will give you positive reputation with whichever faction owns the station you sell to.
2) Yes. but there is also a financial bonus for 'first discovered'.
3) As far as I know the other levels of scanning aren't included in the game yet.
4 Yes, though you will get something for just using the discovery scanner. Whether you scan every single body in a system is entirely up to you. Most people will ignore the asteroid belts as they pay nothing and many will ignore rocky and icy planets. Some people will only detail scan 'interesting' bodies such as black holes, neutron stars and earthlike planets. The choice is yours.

(-o-) · Apr 7, 2015

Tacyon said:
So I'm on my very first exploration run. 4 days and I'm ~1400LY from "home base" and I've scanned most systems on the way out. I'm 75% out of my spiral arm. I plan on going to the next spiral arm which should be ~4500ly out. Then return via a different route.

Questions I have are.
1) When I hit a new system, scoop, scan base star and then check system map. If there are no "First discovered by "X" cmdr" then I'm the first to scan this system and provided I get back to populated space and sell my info to friendly faction. Correct ?

you only get the discoverer tag on bodies that you have scanned individually! (the base star in your example, but not any other planets..) just a system scan (ping) gives nothing but a smaller amount of credits no matter if discoverd already or not

also, be aware that if it do not say anything about a discoverer, and server lags when opening system map, it might look as if there is no tags!
i usually wait a little with opening system map, or open it a second time if in doubt

Tacyon · Apr 7, 2015

By "base star" I meant the star closest to the warp in nav point. It's the "1 new body found" when you arrive. Then the advance "PING" reveals the other bodies that you then have to decide to scan or not.

I was wondering about the "detailed surface scanner" and if that was a good thing to a duplicated item when equipped with a advanced scanner. I guess I'll have to get one for my next trip out. I've been keeping my eyes open and haven't seen a Home Depot in a fair number of jumps.

(-o-) · Apr 7, 2015

a detailed surface scanner is a very good thing to use, just remember u still *must* have the discovery scanner as well.
DSC aint needed for getting a discovery tag ofc, but it gives a quite nice credit bonus, and more "fun" facts about planets. imo, no excuse to not have one!

Jackie Silver · Apr 7, 2015

Tacyon said:
4) the proper scan sequence is drop in system, do a advanced scan revealing all bodies in the current system, then get within range and do the targeted scan of each body. Rinse and repeat - Correct ?

Only if you're an OCD explorer. Personally I'd rather eat hot gravel than scan three dozen iceballs orbiting the most boring gas giants possible orbiting a red dwarf hundreds of thousands of light seconds from the primary jump-in point, but lots of people have that compulsion...

Richard · Apr 7, 2015

Jackie Silver said:
Only if you're an OCD explorer. Personally I'd rather eat hot gravel than scan three dozen iceballs orbiting the most boring gas giants possible orbiting a red dwarf hundreds of thousands of light seconds from the primary jump-in point, but lots of people have that compulsion...

Sooooo - what would you rather do than visit said iceballs or rock balls up close?

I've got some pretty nice screenshots of ice moons from orbit. Likewise rocky planets. Found one last night - just a random chunk of beige rock in orbit around an average gas giant. But it had ice caps, or what appeared to be ice caps! Checked the system map and sure enough - a 100% carbon dioxide atmosphere. I'm flying over a vast plain of dry ice.

Sometimes it's the little things...

(Yeah - no jokes please.

)

Fen Harel · Apr 7, 2015

Jackie Silver said:
Only if you're an OCD explorer. Personally I'd rather eat hot gravel than scan three dozen iceballs orbiting the most boring gas giants possible orbiting a red dwarf hundreds of thousands of light seconds from the primary jump-in point, but lots of people have that compulsion...

I basically agree. I'll pick up the gas giant themselves. If they are within a few thousand ls the trip is pretty short before the scanner kicks in. But only rarely will I do the satellites. They have to look pretty interesting for me to take a closer look.

Tacyon · Apr 8, 2015

roids are visually obvious on scanner as to what they are. But don't you not know that icy planets are such only after you've scanned them ?

Or are the picture depictions in system map view accurate to the basic type of body ?

Szyslak22 · Apr 8, 2015

Tacyon said:
roids are visually obvious on scanner as to what they are. But don't you not know that icy planets are such only after you've scanned them ?

Or are the picture depictions in system map view accurate to the basic type of body ?

Yes, they are accurate the vast majority of the time. Compare your scan results to the system map and you'll learn the difference pretty quickly. Solid white is an ice planet. White / grey and spotty is usually a rocky planet. Metal planets are all different colors and may or may not have atmospheres that look like clouds. Gas giants are classed based on size. Irregularly patterned gas giants might have ammonia or water based life, and those are a good payout. Water worlds usually look blue / blue-grey / purple and might have ice caps at the poles. Planets that look like earth (blue with green) might be earth-like or water worlds depending on composition and atmosphere.

So as others are saying, the Detailed Surface scanner is a good idea. I usually jump in, target the main star, scoop, discovery scan, and then check the system map. If there's something worth flying to on the system map, I head that way. If not, on to the next star in the route.

Dubardo's visual guide might help: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=81653&p=1424197&viewfull=1#post1424197

That whole thread is great info really.

Tacyon · Apr 9, 2015

Well I hit my first goal - out 1338 LY and back again. 180 systems, a ton load of "firsts" and ~500k in cr.

I have a detailed surface scanner but don't have the basic scanner. I'd think I was going thru the motions and I got tons of info on everything I scanned in the left planet info panel. When I got back to turn in my data, there were two lines for each planetary body. There was "advanced" data but 2nd line was "detailed surface" and it was blank. Does this mean no detailed surface data? Do we know 100% that the detailed surface scanner won't work without a basic scanner present on the loadout ?

Next trip .. back out to the first target system which was on the edge of our spiral arm .. and then from there, another 4500LY over to the next spiral arm.

Crank Larson · Apr 9, 2015

Detailed surface scanner doesn't need a basic scanner, you use it instead of it. Standard explorer kit is the advanced scanner and the detailed surface scanner - you don't need anything else.

Helvellyn · Apr 9, 2015

For "first discovered by" you need to actually scan the body close up-ish (surface scanner or detailed surface scanner).

Zieman · Apr 9, 2015

Tacyon said:
roids are visually obvious on scanner as to what they are. But don't you not know that icy planets are such only after you've scanned them ?

Or are the picture depictions in system map view accurate to the basic type of body ?

Icy Planets have a HUD hologram of their own. Rocky Planets & High Metal Content Planets share same three holograms, and one of them is also used for Rocky Ice Planets, Water Worlds, Earth-like Worlds, Ammonia Worlds, Class I Gas Giants and Helium-rich Gas Giants.

On System Map the Icy Planets are quite obvious, some Rocky Ice Planets do look very much the same though.

Tacyon · Apr 14, 2015

So my question about the Level 2 and Level 3 scan's being 0 and comments about it not being implemented in game yet ... recent patch notes would tend to indicate otherwise. - Fix Commander Stats for selling level 2 and level 3 survey scans

So - how do I get Level two/three scans? Detailed Scans ?

Joe Spivey · Apr 14, 2015

Borgkube said:
1 Yes
2 Yes
3 Not Yet
4 Yes. Don't bother with asteroids as they have zero scan value. Get a Detailed Surface Scanner and increase the payout on scans of individual bodies.

Real explorers scan EVERYTHING. Everyone else is just a tourist

thehairymob · Apr 14, 2015

Joe Spivey said:
Real explorers scan EVERYTHING. Everyone else is just a tourist

I disagree. Anyone that goes out to the unkown is an explorer. Livingstone didn't discorer everthing or note everything he saw when he went to Africa. Yeah you could claim he wasn't a true explorer as he was a misionery but he still explorered. And Clark and Lewis didn't map the whole of north America when the cross the continent, only some of it. Explorering isn't about being OCD it is about enjoyment and if OCDing is your thing then fine. Mine is more laid back.