How do you scan a whole system???

jijik2

jijik2
Hi all,

How do YOU scan a whole system??? i mean the way of scanning, i know you scan with a scanner :)
Just wondering how you scan a whole system efficiently.
Do you fly to the closest body and then the next closest and the next ect....
When i do this, sometimes other bodies get so far away i have to backtrack a lot to scan the body.

How do YOU scan???
 

Madrax573

Madrax573
I don't do a lot of full system scans but

I fly UP! that way I can get an overall look at the system so I can plan a bit of a route to hit as many objects as possible before having to cross the centre of the system to get the other side for the last few bodies. YMMV
 

bobilon

bobilon
system exploration procedure:
arrive to the system
check closest bodies from metal rich planets
estimate habitable zone
check system map for terraformable planets, WWs, ELWs, AWs and curiosities.
i dont waste time on distant objects except those ones who look like ELW
i dont waste time on gas giants, planets outside habitable zone.
i definitely dont land on planets (i have experimented with ship system restart at 3000m altitude during last landing on 3g planet [wacko])
 
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T'Kitr

T'Kitr
jijik2 said:
Hi all,

How do YOU scan a whole system??? i mean the way of scanning, i know you scan with a scanner :)
Just wondering how you scan a whole system efficiently.
Do you fly to the closest body and then the next closest and the next ect....
When i do this, sometimes other bodies get so far away i have to backtrack a lot to scan the body.

How do YOU scan???
Click to expand...
I make do with the implausibly inadequate exploration mechanic that's been dropped into ED in place of any actual exploration gameplay.

But I'd have to agree with Madrax573 said. For me, making do means flying up (or down) relative to the system and trying to get an idea of what bodies are at what point in their orbits, so I can estimate the most direct route across the system. Sometimes if I'm feeling lazy I'll just go purely by the moment-to-moment distance in the navigation panel - but obviously that isn't efficient and, as you point out, it means a lot of backtracking.

Personally, Thargoids be damned: I'd love to see exploration actually given a little depth. Replace the ridiculous infinite-speed honker with some sort of passive, parallax-based observation system (i.e. you have to move around so your sensors can see bodies moving against the background, and they might miss tiny ones - the faster and further you move the more chance of pinning something down), then put in some actual gameplay for the process of analysing each planet you find - maybe different sensor types, a need to cover the planet from many angles, etc.

Just something.

EDIT for afterthought: In the year 33-whatever, is it entirely beyond modern technology to have a shipboard system that automatically plots the most efficient route between the planets, or those we've tagged as being of interest?
 
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Galactic Fork

Galactic Fork
Depends on how thorough I want to be. For HMCW and MR worlds, I'll pick a side with one of the farthest ones, and fly straight towards it. If any other closer planets are in mostly direct view, I'll scan them on my way. After I reach the target, I turn around and then go after the rest, usually in an arc. I will also scan any gas giants close enough to scan without diverting my course too much.

I'll usually head to ringed gas giants with a mooned moon or binary moons in the first orbit, but that's just for sight seeing rather than scanning.
 

ASC

A
If I'm scanning a whole system, then I usually look for the location of the furthest planet. I aim to visit that last so I don't have to do the trip both ways. I then do a rough spiral around the others, just guessing the shortest path locally as I go around.
 

13A

13A
I don't normally scan a full system. I'll take ELW, WW, Ammonia and any HMC, but ignore rocks.

If I do want to scan a full system I aim for the nearest body first, then yaw left or right to the next on the scanner ignoring the distance* and scan then. I'll then keep going in the same direction (left or right) until I've got them all.

*if it's a binary/trinary I'll finish scanning bodies around the first star, then move to the next.

I don't know if this is any more efficient than picking them off the left hand panel, but it seems to avoid having the backtrack for the last one or two.
 

SMcA

SMcA
Madrax573 said:
I don't do a lot of full system scans but

I fly UP! that way I can get an overall look at the system so I can plan a bit of a route to hit as many objects as possible before having to cross the centre of the system to get the other side for the last few bodies. YMMV
Click to expand...

+1
I wish I had thought of that. :)
 

StiTch

StiTch
It's a tricky one because smaller bodies require such a closer proximity to scan.

If there's little to no dinkums planets I'll go straight to the edge of the system, start with the bodies on the outside, and try to scan pretty much everything in a single trajectory without actually getting too close to anything.

Of course if there's lots of little blighters that need scanning you have to actively get close because they won't scan until you're about 10LS in range but same principal then applies on a smaller scale...visit from outside, use orbit lines to make sure I have the location for each one, see if I can scan them all hovering at a single point above them.

Bah, this exploration trip has made me way too involved in exploration...ey...things.
 
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PanTast

PanTast
When I scan the entire system, I open the left hand panel and always target the closest unscanned planet. If I have to fly past the sun from one planet to the next, I scan the sun.

When I fly towards a planet I go full throttle until the timer goes below 10 seconds. I try to bring it to 7 seconds afterwards. When the scanner kicks in, I continue flying until I halved the distance (i.e. 70 ls the scan begins, throttling down at 35 ls)
When I scan twins or a planet with a moon. I first scan the first planet and further reduce the distance if the other object is substantially smaller. During the scan of the second body, I take a look at the results in the system map.

o7
 
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Odengard

Odengard
How i can a whole system ?

- Jump to the star. Swear to god i've throttle to zero. Promptly esquive the sun.
- In doubt, fuelscoop. T Tauri ! Go out before burning. If the star pretty or in the mood : screenshot of my sunbathing ship.
- Honk.
- Look at the system map. Shiny or in the mood for a full scan => go next step. Tired, have a waypoint to go, "another bunch of ice/rock planetoids" => jump to another star
- Scan the star. The big (or small, in this case : hull damage) thing in front of your ship.
- Honk again, for no reason.
- If Black Hole : screenshots, try to get closer, play with lens effect. Hull damage.
- If NS/WS : screenshots. Weight pro and cons of an supercharged jump (for after scanning the system). Do it anyway. Hull damage.
- Select destination on nav pannel, filtered without asteroids, because i love money and pristine block of metal/rock/ice don't give money. Usually took the nearest. Exception : things very very close to the main star, scannable during fuelscoop.
- Go to destination at 75% speed (100% speed if > 500ls). Miss destination anyway, because alt-tab/chatting with friends. Realign ship/course. Scan. Go near target and screenshot if pretty or ELW/WW/AW.
- If Shiny : bookmark system. Forgot to give a proper and understandable name.
- If lot of moons : try (and fail) to find a "spot" for scanning a maximum of body without moving.
- If target ringed and in the mood : frolic in rings. Screenshots. Hull damage.
- If target landable and pretty and/or in the mood : landing attempt. Speedboost in canyons. Hull damage. Collect useless rock/stuff with SRV. SRV damage. Heavy sigh : grind for SRV fuel, because i've procrastinated about it on the 134th others stops before.
- Go to next unscanned target, usually the nearest in the nav pannel. Don't bother with distance/optimisation.
- Repeat. If the system is big or in the mood : open a (other) beer.
- After the last body was scanned : repairs with AMFU. Note to land on next planet to grind material for AMFU. Don't do it anyway.
- Post results on Gratuitous Selfie Thread. Post an useless, boring and lenghty video of long supercruising, bad piloting skill in brown canyon and alcoolic SRV driving on Youtube.
- Need to replot route if NS/WS supercharge was used. Go to next system. Begin a new cycle.
- Enjoying all of this.
 
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jimbeau1571

J
Madrax573 said:
I don't do a lot of full system scans but

I fly UP! that way I can get an overall look at the system so I can plan a bit of a route to hit as many objects as possible before having to cross the centre of the system to get the other side for the last few bodies. YMMV
Click to expand...

This. You can normally work out a sweeping arc.
It actually works best for me when going to a second star in a system that has orbiting bodies. Once you have scanned the star, go up/down from the orbiting plane and you get a decent look of where to start and finish from anything like 4kls out which is great.
The same principle applies if you want to do all those pesky rocks orbiting gas giants too.
 

varonica

varonica
I scan the system with the ADS, decide which bodies interest me according to a) whether or not they are likely to be volcanic and b) how large they are, scan and explore them if a) and b) are in the correct ranges and ignore the rest. I rarely do full system scans, it just seems very much pointless. You explore to your advantage, anything more becomes boring.
 

BaldEagle

BaldEagle
T'Kitr said:
I make do with the implausibly inadequate exploration mechanic that's been dropped into ED in place of any actual exploration gameplay.

But I'd have to agree with Madrax573 said. For me, making do means flying up (or down) relative to the system and trying to get an idea of what bodies are at what point in their orbits, so I can estimate the most direct route across the system. Sometimes if I'm feeling lazy I'll just go purely by the moment-to-moment distance in the navigation panel - but obviously that isn't efficient and, as you point out, it means a lot of backtracking.

Personally, Thargoids be damned: I'd love to see exploration actually given a little depth. Replace the ridiculous infinite-speed honker with some sort of passive, parallax-based observation system (i.e. you have to move around so your sensors can see bodies moving against the background, and they might miss tiny ones - the faster and further you move the more chance of pinning something down), then put in some actual gameplay for the process of analysing each planet you find - maybe different sensor types, a need to cover the planet from many angles, etc.

Just something.

EDIT for afterthought: In the year 33-whatever, is it entirely beyond modern technology to have a shipboard system that automatically plots the most efficient route between the planets, or those we've tagged as being of interest?
Click to expand...

Agree with all this [yesnod]
I do often scan a whole system, just to be a bit OCD, I suppose.
One advantage of having to SC to 2nd system a great distance away is being able to see the overall shape of the system and so plot an efficient route as you head over there.
 

Major Klutz

Major Klutz
If I decide to do a full scan of all bodies, I use the left nav panel to select the nearest body, point my nose toward it and get just close enough to scan it then zero throttle.
By keeping your distance, you don't get bogged down in the gravity well and you can accelerate to your next body quicker. Sometime I avoid scanning moons for this reason.
When the scan is complete, I select the next closest body and repeat until they have all been scanned.

More often than not this results in a fairly efficient path that circles around the star, though sometimes there is a bit of back and forth.
I think any inefficiency is countered by time saved not having to fly up to get an overview and plan a route.
 
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Darth Krayt

Darth Krayt
Since the system map now opens much faster I've been using that - picking and choosing what I want to scan. Using the nav panel can sometimes lead you into a back and forth movement if you simply select the nearest object every time.
 

JetsonRING

JetsonRING
jijik2 said:
Hi all,

How do YOU scan a whole system??? i mean the way of scanning, i know you scan with a scanner :)
Just wondering how you scan a whole system efficiently.
Do you fly to the closest body and then the next closest and the next ect....
When i do this, sometimes other bodies get so far away i have to backtrack a lot to scan the body.

How do YOU scan???
Click to expand...

It varies depending on the configuration of the bodies in the system. Zoom out the sensors. Often you will find after honking that all the bodies in the system line up for you in a nice, little row! When that happens, scanning is easy. Other times it is like what you described.
 
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