Its took me three tries to explore. The first try, I went 10k, got board came back. Next tried, I was bit more determined. I went half to the SagA, came back. This last time, I went all the way to SagA. Took me about 10 days. I only stopped for high value worlds/stars. It became a job. I didn't have fun and disliked the whole thing. Didn't even make much money, but at least I can say I did it.
Well, I gave it a good go...Honest!
- Thread starter DanTheMan
- Start date
Yeah I agree. I discovered an undiscovered ELW just under 2k LY out. Range doesn't mean much for me. Seeing new things and discovering undiscovered things mean everything.
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Agree here too.
Now it might be completely irrelevant in the year 3302, but think about how exploration was done in the old days, if you died on the sea while carrying important discoveries, then the discoveries would be undiscovered until the next explorer carried it home to tell about it.
I very much like it to nurse the exploration data. It brings some sort of 'danger' to the whole thing. Can't explain it better in english.
Here's some stats I gathered to help me work out how much I needed:
| Explorer | Explorer Cr requirement |
| Aimless | 0 |
| Mostly Aimless | 20,000 |
| Scout | 170,000 |
| Surveyor | 570,000 |
| Trailblazer | 2,070,000 |
| Pathfinder | 5,070,000 |
| Ranger | 18,070,000 |
| Pioneer | 58,070,000 |
| Elite | 158,070,000 |
This won't be exact because the requirements changed at some point (so did the payout) so some of your early progress will be at a different rate.
Take your current rank & %, and work out how much you need to get to the next level (just pro-rata your current rank requirement). Do a test run based on whatever metric you track (I used time because I had a deadline, but you could use system jumps if that's what you are tracking) to work out an average cr/hr based on your typical activity (honk & jump, or honk, scan the star, jump etc). I tracked mine in a spreadsheet based purely on averages & gave it a bit of a margin to make sure I would be over target (you won't need to do this, you can just go out again).
Pick an interesting destination as many have suggested, Barnards loop is a good one. I visited most of the nebulae I'd heard of prior to my final run. Each trip I tried to visit as many 'blue' systems (A,B & O) as possible, and stopped to scan only the main star & nearby bodies at anything better than an M-class.
Doing long distance missions helped quite a bit too, just honking each jump with an ADS gets 100-200k Cr of exploration data (pick a slightly different route each time). Eventually you'll get a feel for how much progress you can make, and take it in bite sized chunks so you don't get too frustrated.
Eventually you'll reach a point where your desire to reach the target will exceed your boredom threshold & you will find motivation.
As you know I set a deadline, I found it helped. Maybe it would for you too, as long as you believe it's achieveable.
Live for combat, nicely put.
You sir, just ruined my life... Lol
Just kidding, I don't really care about the badges.
I've been stuck at Dangerous 87% for about 2 months. lol
I'm currently at pathfinder 15%, but I've been honking all the way to Sag A, at 23ly a jump.
With the occasional stop for detailed scans.
I won't even go in to my trade rank..... Just no.
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And that my friend is really the way I enjoy exploring... I did my first out of bubble exploration foray - was a 3 week run... to the veil nebula - 2.5 K Ly or so... Then I did not explore much for many months...
I recently did the DW Expedition to beagle point, 3 months of almost non stop jump scoop honk and scan only interesting bits... it was a pretty hectic timeframe in some aspects, needing to jump 1K per night average...
BUT now I am on the way back, and I would be lucky if I am 500 LY from beagle point 6 days after I landed there...
Taking the time to lose myself some and explore the surfaces of some nice worlds and so on... also on the way out I did 1 small diversion to a nebula that is not listed on the galactic map, it was about 1K off my course between waypoints, and was sooo worth it, a neutron star inside a nebula and the only star inside that nebula... Also you get a new appreciation for size when you drop into a system with a gigantic star, that fills your screen and it is still 640 light seconds away...
I'm not a huge fan of exploration - I'll do it as part of, or coincidental to, CG's or missions, but never for its own reward, and always slightly grudgingly for my ODC-need to 'get them all'. Alas, overall, I do find it a bit tedious (sorry).
What would improve it for me:
1. Instant on-screen (or better yet spoken) feedback on the analysis of the scan
2. Easter-eggs on (landable) planets reported by the detail scanner - e.g. crashed ships, lost alien tech, or large deposits of rares - with their rough location(s) shown from pre orbital cruise
3. The ability to sell information I have (had to) buy - just seems logical, given it's the same data I would have got had I scanned, rather than paid for, and either way it's info the buying station doesn't have - appreciate I'm flogging a dead-horse with this one...
4. An automatic percantage recorded (on the system map? togglable?) showing systems I have passed through but completed less than a full scan - e.g. when running a mission I often don't have the time survey the systems I pass through, I may do a boom to see what's there whilst fuel scooping, but not delay to scan each body
4.1 ...or the ability in the navigation map to plot a 'reverse route' - yes bookmarks may help, but I'd rather it was auto-magical
5. A much more free-roaming camera, for much improved 'selfies' - perhaps even an auto-cam giving fly-bys...
6. BB missions specifically requiring exploration data for their completion
7. 'Select optimal survey route' in a system, where the nav computer works out the shortest overall route to visit all of the bodies - heading to the next-nearest body may not be the most efficient
Sorry, I rambled on more than I expected...
What would improve it for me:
1. Instant on-screen (or better yet spoken) feedback on the analysis of the scan
2. Easter-eggs on (landable) planets reported by the detail scanner - e.g. crashed ships, lost alien tech, or large deposits of rares - with their rough location(s) shown from pre orbital cruise
3. The ability to sell information I have (had to) buy - just seems logical, given it's the same data I would have got had I scanned, rather than paid for, and either way it's info the buying station doesn't have - appreciate I'm flogging a dead-horse with this one...
4. An automatic percantage recorded (on the system map? togglable?) showing systems I have passed through but completed less than a full scan - e.g. when running a mission I often don't have the time survey the systems I pass through, I may do a boom to see what's there whilst fuel scooping, but not delay to scan each body
4.1 ...or the ability in the navigation map to plot a 'reverse route' - yes bookmarks may help, but I'd rather it was auto-magical
5. A much more free-roaming camera, for much improved 'selfies' - perhaps even an auto-cam giving fly-bys...
6. BB missions specifically requiring exploration data for their completion
7. 'Select optimal survey route' in a system, where the nav computer works out the shortest overall route to visit all of the bodies - heading to the next-nearest body may not be the most efficient
Sorry, I rambled on more than I expected...
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InMemoriamSirocco
Banned
I'm not a huge fan of exploration - I'll do it as part of, or coincidental to, CG's or missions, but never for its own reward, and always slightly grudgingly for my ODC-need to 'get them all'. Alas, overall, I do find it a bit tedious (sorry).
What would improve it for me:
1. Instant on-screen (or better yet spoken) feedback on the analysis of the scan
2. Easter-eggs on (landable) planets reported by the detail scanner - e.g. crashed ships, lost alien tech, or large deposits of rares - with their rough location(s) shown from pre orbital cruise
3. The ability to sell information I have (had to) buy - just seems logical, given it's the same data I would have got had I scanned, rather than paid for, and either way it's info the buying station doesn't have - appreciate I'm flogging a dead-horse with this one...
4. An automatic percantage recorded (on the system map? togglable?) showing systems I have passed through but completed less than a full scan - e.g. when running a mission I often don't have the time survey the systems I pass through, I may do a boom to see what's there whilst fuel scooping, but not delay to scan each body
4.1 ...or the ability in the navigation map to plot a 'reverse route' - yes bookmarks may help, but I'd rather it was auto-magical
5. A much more free-roaming camera, for much improved 'selfies' - perhaps even an auto-cam giving fly-bys...
6. BB missions specifically requiring exploration data for their completion
7. 'Select optimal survey route' in a system, where the nav computer works out the shortest overall route to visit all of the bodies - heading to the next-nearest body may not be the most efficient
Sorry, I rambled on more than I expected...
Agreeing with all of those.
Riverside said:
I'm 2% into Pioneer, so I know I need 98M. Hopefully this current trip (4 weeks out) will net most, if not all of that.
My trip to Sag A netted about 45M, but I checked system map for each system on the way out and some of the way back (honked the last 6k LY home).
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Great suggestions and I totally agree with your number 2. Like EDI in Mass Effect 2; "Anomaly detected".
Hey!! Where was that. I found a system with six in and was chuffed to note it equalled the record. You have found seven!
It was one of the Clookie systems (I enjoyed working my way through 'cookie space'). Annoyingly, I didn't take a screenshot of it, as I was mostly disgusted that none of them were ELWs... I've found a few systems with multiple WWs in them, wasn't actually aware there was a record amount.
I'll have a look back through my notes and see if I recorded which system exactly.
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Yes, seeing where you've been would be nice and the camera needs to be a bit faster.
I personally, would like to be able too see mapped systems on the map, and way more range on the surface scanner.
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Well today marks my 5th month out in the black. For the record.. I 100% agree its not for everyone.
For me I'm loving it. I'm 50k ly from sol on my way to beagle point. 87% hull (not bad after 5 months out IMO)
33 undiscovered earth like worlds so far.
for me I HAVE to set goals to keep my sanity. right now it's BP to make my mark for Distant Worlds.
After that.. I don't know.
I have several cartographical records to submit (if they hold up)
Thing is.. I could crash while docking in a year from now and lose it all.
That's ED. and I love it.
For me I'm loving it. I'm 50k ly from sol on my way to beagle point. 87% hull (not bad after 5 months out IMO)
33 undiscovered earth like worlds so far.
for me I HAVE to set goals to keep my sanity. right now it's BP to make my mark for Distant Worlds.
After that.. I don't know.
I have several cartographical records to submit (if they hold up)
Thing is.. I could crash while docking in a year from now and lose it all.
That's ED. and I love it.
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Jenner
I wish I was English like my hero Tj.
Great suggestions and I totally agree with your number 2. Like EDI in Mass Effect 2; "Anomaly detected".
Just not like in MA1 where you find a crashed probe in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of nonsense in it like sniper rifle ammo.
Hmm. Actually we kind of have that already.
Just not like in MA1 where you find a crashed probe in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of nonsense in it like sniper rifle ammo.
Hmm. Actually we kind of have that already.
Yes, but instead of something useful, it's Tea. Lol
Great suggestions and I totally agree with your number 2. Like EDI in Mass Effect 2; "Anomaly detected".
And how many players would fly to SOL just to probe Uranus...
snip...
7. 'Select optimal survey route' in a system, where the nav computer works out the shortest overall route to visit all of the bodies - heading to the next-nearest body may not be the most efficient
Sorry, I rambled on more than I expected...
I agree with all of your suggestions - and if #7 ever happened, I'd die of happiness.
I'd settle for a system map of the system in its current state. I believe FE2 had it, and Pioneer(FE2 clone) definitely had it.
With that, you can easily see the best route, unless all the bodies are just scattered about!
But currently I just spin around until I see a 'line' form in the bodies. Then head out to one end and work my way back. If I can.
Annoying, systems are never in any form of alignment. Very inconsiderate of them!