Is Exploration Completely Aimless?

Gamatech

G
Hi all o7

I wanted to ask the explorers out there how exactly they find anything of interest out in the black. I'm not talking about Earth-likes and black holes, I'm talking about things like the oddly dubbed "brain trees", barnacles, Thargoid ruins, Guardian bases, and whatever else might be out there.

You don't just choose a star via eeny-meeny-miny-mo and head out there aimlessly, right? There are 400 billion star systems, there has to be SOME way to at least narrow the field? How do you know what areas of space to explore, and how do you know what worlds to cruise to and set down on? I can't comprehend the sheer inefficiency of closing your eyes, spinning around, and heading wherever your finger points.

I'm not expecting the 31st century equivalent of Siri to give me exact coordinates of Mr Trump's homeworld, but surely there's SOMETHING to give you a rough direction towards the more captivating finds??

*EDIT*

To clarify, I'm also not talking about previously discovered points. I'm talking about fresh, new, never before seen sites.
 
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rOmiLaYu

rOmiLaYu
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Vasco Sapien

Vasco Sapien
The planet surface scanner should capture and alert the commander to any anomaly it finds and list the coords for investigation.

That would be fun.
 

5 Puppis

5
You can hear about places from the exploration forums.

Also, checking out "Famous Explorer" missions in the passenger lounge is another way to learn about really cool spots. You can add bookmarks for them even if you don't take the mission.
 

mtt9999 [Parabolus]

mtt9999 [Parabolus]

Gamatech

G
Trickylion said:
mostly look at forums, edsm or canon, someone has found it first
Click to expand...

To clarify, I'm also not talking about previously discovered points. I'm talking about fresh, new, never before seen sites.

mtt9999 said:
I don't search for these thing... they are not why I explore. While some explorers do enjoy searching for these things, there are many that do not. This thread might help explain it: "Why do you explore" : https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/340719-Why-do-you-explore
Click to expand...

I am aware of some players who do it for reasons other than finding "the good stuff" (for lack of a better term), but I was directing this question more at those who do :p I can completely understand other justifications for exploration, but that doesn't bring closure or answers.
 
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Evoflash

Evoflash
The only thing remotely like this I do is sometimes trawl the galaxy map for inhabited systems many ly away from the bubble, but not really for that long. I also use EDSM 3D to find less densely explored regions and then go through a system until I exhaust it.
 

mono

mono
I just pick a point I want to travel to then meander out there, checking the GalMap as I go along to see if there's anything interesting aside from the obvious on the way.
 

Cmdr Shijima

Cmdr Shijima
Bah! Who wants to find stuff like that? I'm currently roaming up the Western edge of the Perseus Arm from the Formidine Rift (CW) and am REVELLING in the number of M-Class Red Dwarfs and Beige rocky planets I'm finding. Occasionally i get super lucky with a gas giant and on ever rarer occasion I find a liquid world!!!

Sarcasm aside, I've only encountered one previously undiscovered white dwarf for my troubles and nothing else really of note. I hope no-one else has already claimed "first discovered" on that one!

:)
 

Ninj

Ninj
FDev drop hints now and then about things. Whether it's in a trailer, stream or galnet post. It then generally takes collaboration to work out where these new things are and several people looking in a narrowed down area.

Or FDev make an slip up and someone notices something odd. Like Jaques being found again - the first explorer found that through an anomaly in the system filter. I expect there is the odd moment of sheer blind luck involved too. Or using crafty means to find out things.

OP you're probably better off heading over to the aliens section of the forum where cmdrs collaborate on the clues, ideas and theories. You will appreciate from the amount of posts there that it's not a close your eyes, spin in a random direction kind of thing! https://forums.frontier.co.uk/forumdisplay.php/217-Aliens
 

marx

marx
Gamatech said:
I wanted to ask the explorers out there how exactly they find anything of interest out in the black. I'm not talking about Earth-likes and black holes, I'm talking about things like the oddly dubbed "brain trees", barnacles, Thargoid ruins, Guardian bases, and whatever else might be out there.
Click to expand...
There are very good methods for narrowing down the search areas for "brain trees" and Guardian bases. Barnacles too, but they don't show up on the surface radar, which makes finding them more difficult - the only instrument you can use are your Mk. I eyeballs. There was a neat in-game way of finding Thargoid structures via the Unknown Links (now dubbed Thargoid Links), but that avenue has been exhausted. All active structures would point towards three other structures, and all such pairs have been found.

As for the unknown, mysterious things out there... That would be by following hints found in or near the bubble. Messages found on listening posts, wreckages and such. A few things have been stumbled upon through blind luck, before the hints themselves were actually found.

So, how could you find new stuff? Look for clues in or near the bubble. Alternatively, look for brain trees - see here about narrowing down your search area - and if you find one, you can search that area for Guardian ruins. Those do show up on the contacts list if you're within 1000 ls.
 

Battlestrike

B
Well I just flew in the direction of the 'Dark Area' and just found several Battle Cruisers destroyed. Further flying around I bumped into my first Thargoid which made a horrible groan and I left quick in my ASP. My Cutter has the experimental guns but sadly not my little ASP.
So heart racing, found a Alien base, got some resin and now I'm out of here. I will check my photos later.
Exploration can be exciting, trading can be good but what ever path you choose ED is brilliant.
Does anyone know any groups that go Thargoid hunting?
 

IndigoWyrd

IndigoWyrd
It's pretty much guesswork.

Maybe in 3.x when we get an update to Exploration they'll give us some new tools to help find a specific needle in the needle-stack of our galaxy.
And if not 3.x, then 4.x, or maybe 5.x
 

WRXPete

W
marx said:
There are very good methods for narrowing down the search areas for "brain trees" and Guardian bases. Barnacles too, but they don't show up on the surface radar, which makes finding them more difficult - the only instrument you can use are your Mk. I eyeballs. There was a neat in-game way of finding Thargoid structures via the Unknown Links (now dubbed Thargoid Links), but that avenue has been exhausted. All active structures would point towards three other structures, and all such pairs have been found.

As for the unknown, mysterious things out there... That would be by following hints found in or near the bubble. Messages found on listening posts, wreckages and such. A few things have been stumbled upon through blind luck, before the hints themselves were actually found.

So, how could you find new stuff? Look for clues in or near the bubble. Alternatively, look for brain trees - see here about narrowing down your search area - and if you find one, you can search that area for Guardian ruins. Those do show up on the contacts list if you're within 1000 ls.
Click to expand...

Wish I'd known this before....I went on a long wander and chanced upon the trees with Cordyceps, Phloem etc. Didn't know it meant there might be a Guardian site there. Do they grow elsewhere or is there always a Guardian site? Fortunately, I kept a log of my travels, hopefully I wrote this down!

EDIT - I did write it down. They were by Mic Turner base in the California Nebula
 
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duckofdeath

duckofdeath
...and some times CMDRs have found things simply by doing the dirty old reverse lookup. Checking the file system after each update to see if there are any hints.
Though, it does seem like FDev have gotten a bit better at not revealing things that way. :D
 

marx

marx
WRXPete said:
Wish I'd known this before....I went on a long wander and chanced upon the trees with Cordyceps, Phloem etc. Didn't know it meant there might be a Guardian site there. Do they grow elsewhere or is there always a Guardian site? Fortunately, I kept a log of my travels, hopefully I wrote this down!

EDIT - I did write it down. They were by Mic Turner base in the California Nebula
Click to expand...
From what I heard, if there are Guardian trees near a nebula, then there might be Guardian sites in the same area. Might not necessarily be in the same system though. It's how some far-flung ruins around proc. gen. nebulae were found. No idea if this applies to the California nebula as well, or if maybe that site was hand-placed.
However, it appears that the Canonn list of Brain Tree sites doesn't have that site listed. If you're sure they were trees, and not bark mounds - there is one such site known there already - then I definitely recommend submitting the site to them.
 
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