Now before I proceed to explain quite what that overhaul should be, I want to set the stage with an example. Let's say Joe stumbles across a hole in the ground in his backyard that is full of gold that nobody else has discovered... Joe also happens to be a scuba diver and discovered another hole with gold in it... but it's at the bottom of the Ocean. Now, wanting to continue financing his scuba diving hobby, Joe decides to try and sell this priceless information to a mining company in hopes of making some money in exchange for the location of the new-found gold.
This is essentially exploration in E
. You are selling information that is more valuable depending on the value of the planet/stellar body found. The difference is, worth seems to be static regardless of where it is. In Joe's case, he could sell the information regarding the gold deposit in his back yard for many times more than the one at the bottom of the Ocean... Why is that? Because it is *more accessible.* But a HMC content planet is worth the same 40,000 LY away as it is 50 LY away from a station. Seems kind of silly to me.
So here's what I suggest: a formula based on the distance in LY of the object *from the station you sell it to* AND distance from the main star AND size of the planet. What company is going to bother setting up mining operations when the valuable planets are 400,000 ls from the main star? Probably someone, but certainly not the Federation or Empire mega corporations.
The only static constants, in my opinion, should be Black Holes, Earth-Like worlds, Neutron Stars, and White Dwarves. These are rare and valuable not from a exploitation standpoint (except the EL world), but just nice to know to expand our knowledge. I believe the prices of EL worlds should be drastically increased to 1 Million Cr each, with the others staying the same price they are now. EL like worlds are so freaking rare, it's not even funny. Unless you go online to find a specific one to look for, you probably won't stumble across one. 80,000 Cr for one is just a slap in the face.
Now for the actual meat of what needs to be changed... So HMC, Metal-Rich, Water Worlds, and terraformable planets are not necessarily rare, but that doesn't make them not valuable. But the prices are just so comically low, it makes it seem like FD intended exploration to be the last thing players focus on when they have their fully exploration Anaconda kitted out. Instead of just listing prices, I would like to give examples of how this formula I mentioned earlier would play out. I'm going to describe 4 different systems, and give my take on what these systems should be worth at the nearest station:
System 1: 340 LY out, it is similar to SOL. Class G star, Water World with basic life and an Oxygen rich atmosphere, 3 Gas giants with rings, 2 HMC planets, and a metal-rich planet. Each planet is at least half of Earth's size, so these are no small planets. This is an incredibly rare find, and a system that will in the near-future be inhabited by millions of people.
Fully Scanned System worth: Around 1.2 million Cr.
System 2: Similar to the one listed above, but 4,000 LY out. Nice system, and good to know for archiving purposes, but worthless for near expansion/exploitation purposes.
Fully Scanned System worth: Around 200k Cr.
System 3: Run of the mill system, 2 HMC planets, 1 Jovian, lots of moons and rocks. M class star. 152 LY away.
Fully Scanned System worth: 80k Cr.
System 4: Almost identical to SOL... could be a system inhabited by billions of people, and only 100 LY away. Truly an amazing discovery. This is the system explorers everywhere try to find. This is what exploration is about... to find the goldilocks system. It is the system we are scanning the stars for right now in real life.
Fully Scanned System worth: 3 million Cr.
Now... before you see these numbers and scream *OMG that is so OP* remember how rare those systems truly are, and for them to be worth that much, they must be close. Also compare it to other professions. I'm making close to 10mil/hour trading in a Type-9. Even with those figures, it still wouldn't come close to what trading can offer. Combat would trade blows with it. I also think that the ability to scan individual asteroid belts should be removed, and for there to be a system fully scanned bonus for any system, regardless of how valuable it is, because at that point you're being paid to create maps. And that is nothing to scoff at. Which leads me to my next fix.
You may have noticed that so far, this model highly leans in favor of close range exploration... well why in the hell would anyone go to the core if they can stay close to home and make bank? Well close to SOL, it's not hard to find information on the systems. Most of them have been at least pinged with an ADS. So the actual value of it being mapped is really low. People are just interested in whether there's value or not. But the further you go out, the more valuable having a mapped system is. A SOL like system 4,000 LY away (take a look at System 2, as I originally quoted it at 200k Cr) is not very valuable from a exploitation take, but it is valuable in the fact of having a system mapped out that far away. So with it being 4,000 Ly away, information on it is most likely non-existent. Giving it increased value. At that distance, I would say it warrants a 500k find. 4,000 LY is a decent trek, and that's a nice system that took a lot of time to fully scan. But you should only get this nice chunk of change for FULLY SCANNED SYSTEMS. Nobody wants half a map. That's worthless. Now for some examples:
System 5: Run of the mill system, with 6 planets and a M class star. 9,000 LY away. Nothing interesting in terms of planets, nothing of value.
Fully Scanned System worth: 250K Cr
System 6: Same as above system but in the galactic core. Any information from the core would be priceless...
Fully Scanned System Worth: 1 million Cr.
System 7: Just a single star in the core. A class star.
Fully Scanned System Worth: 50K.
Now with all this being said, there should be a catch. If you're going to make exploration this profitable, it needs to not be noobs heading to the nearest EL world to collect their million credits. After something is scanned five times, by 5 different players, the system is labeled as discovered, and can't be scanned again. And other players are able to purchase Cartographic data on those systems.
There should be major and I mean major profit from finding nice valuable systems close to home that have somehow fallen through the cracks, and also charting the Milky Way. The idea of finding that special system, or visiting places nobody else has visited should be something that is rewarded, and rewarded well. Consider this, going to the Galactic Core is over 1000 jumps. Let that sink in. 1000. Jumps. And 1000 back. So why in the hell are players given dirt cheap rates for something so time consuming? I spent 18 hours just going 6,000 LY out. Came back with 4mil in Cartographic Data. That time spent trading is 180mil. It's not balanced. Balance it.
Thanks for reading.
This is essentially exploration in E
. You are selling information that is more valuable depending on the value of the planet/stellar body found. The difference is, worth seems to be static regardless of where it is. In Joe's case, he could sell the information regarding the gold deposit in his back yard for many times more than the one at the bottom of the Ocean... Why is that? Because it is *more accessible.* But a HMC content planet is worth the same 40,000 LY away as it is 50 LY away from a station. Seems kind of silly to me. So here's what I suggest: a formula based on the distance in LY of the object *from the station you sell it to* AND distance from the main star AND size of the planet. What company is going to bother setting up mining operations when the valuable planets are 400,000 ls from the main star? Probably someone, but certainly not the Federation or Empire mega corporations.
The only static constants, in my opinion, should be Black Holes, Earth-Like worlds, Neutron Stars, and White Dwarves. These are rare and valuable not from a exploitation standpoint (except the EL world), but just nice to know to expand our knowledge. I believe the prices of EL worlds should be drastically increased to 1 Million Cr each, with the others staying the same price they are now. EL like worlds are so freaking rare, it's not even funny. Unless you go online to find a specific one to look for, you probably won't stumble across one. 80,000 Cr for one is just a slap in the face.
Now for the actual meat of what needs to be changed... So HMC, Metal-Rich, Water Worlds, and terraformable planets are not necessarily rare, but that doesn't make them not valuable. But the prices are just so comically low, it makes it seem like FD intended exploration to be the last thing players focus on when they have their fully exploration Anaconda kitted out. Instead of just listing prices, I would like to give examples of how this formula I mentioned earlier would play out. I'm going to describe 4 different systems, and give my take on what these systems should be worth at the nearest station:
System 1: 340 LY out, it is similar to SOL. Class G star, Water World with basic life and an Oxygen rich atmosphere, 3 Gas giants with rings, 2 HMC planets, and a metal-rich planet. Each planet is at least half of Earth's size, so these are no small planets. This is an incredibly rare find, and a system that will in the near-future be inhabited by millions of people.
Fully Scanned System worth: Around 1.2 million Cr.
System 2: Similar to the one listed above, but 4,000 LY out. Nice system, and good to know for archiving purposes, but worthless for near expansion/exploitation purposes.
Fully Scanned System worth: Around 200k Cr.
System 3: Run of the mill system, 2 HMC planets, 1 Jovian, lots of moons and rocks. M class star. 152 LY away.
Fully Scanned System worth: 80k Cr.
System 4: Almost identical to SOL... could be a system inhabited by billions of people, and only 100 LY away. Truly an amazing discovery. This is the system explorers everywhere try to find. This is what exploration is about... to find the goldilocks system. It is the system we are scanning the stars for right now in real life.
Fully Scanned System worth: 3 million Cr.
Now... before you see these numbers and scream *OMG that is so OP* remember how rare those systems truly are, and for them to be worth that much, they must be close. Also compare it to other professions. I'm making close to 10mil/hour trading in a Type-9. Even with those figures, it still wouldn't come close to what trading can offer. Combat would trade blows with it. I also think that the ability to scan individual asteroid belts should be removed, and for there to be a system fully scanned bonus for any system, regardless of how valuable it is, because at that point you're being paid to create maps. And that is nothing to scoff at. Which leads me to my next fix.
You may have noticed that so far, this model highly leans in favor of close range exploration... well why in the hell would anyone go to the core if they can stay close to home and make bank? Well close to SOL, it's not hard to find information on the systems. Most of them have been at least pinged with an ADS. So the actual value of it being mapped is really low. People are just interested in whether there's value or not. But the further you go out, the more valuable having a mapped system is. A SOL like system 4,000 LY away (take a look at System 2, as I originally quoted it at 200k Cr) is not very valuable from a exploitation take, but it is valuable in the fact of having a system mapped out that far away. So with it being 4,000 Ly away, information on it is most likely non-existent. Giving it increased value. At that distance, I would say it warrants a 500k find. 4,000 LY is a decent trek, and that's a nice system that took a lot of time to fully scan. But you should only get this nice chunk of change for FULLY SCANNED SYSTEMS. Nobody wants half a map. That's worthless. Now for some examples:
System 5: Run of the mill system, with 6 planets and a M class star. 9,000 LY away. Nothing interesting in terms of planets, nothing of value.
Fully Scanned System worth: 250K Cr
System 6: Same as above system but in the galactic core. Any information from the core would be priceless...
Fully Scanned System Worth: 1 million Cr.
System 7: Just a single star in the core. A class star.
Fully Scanned System Worth: 50K.
Now with all this being said, there should be a catch. If you're going to make exploration this profitable, it needs to not be noobs heading to the nearest EL world to collect their million credits. After something is scanned five times, by 5 different players, the system is labeled as discovered, and can't be scanned again. And other players are able to purchase Cartographic data on those systems.
There should be major and I mean major profit from finding nice valuable systems close to home that have somehow fallen through the cracks, and also charting the Milky Way. The idea of finding that special system, or visiting places nobody else has visited should be something that is rewarded, and rewarded well. Consider this, going to the Galactic Core is over 1000 jumps. Let that sink in. 1000. Jumps. And 1000 back. So why in the hell are players given dirt cheap rates for something so time consuming? I spent 18 hours just going 6,000 LY out. Came back with 4mil in Cartographic Data. That time spent trading is 180mil. It's not balanced. Balance it.
Thanks for reading.
