Is Exploration Completely Aimless?

[Jackie Silver]

There have often been hints and clues to varying degrees.

It's hard for FD; they have to come up with clues which can withstand the brute force and brainpower of an awful lot of people (mostly) working together on t'interwebs.

Finding proc-gen stuff is random to an extent but there are methods for (e.g.) finding lots of Earth-like worlds, or finding supergiant stars, or whatever.

Finding unvisited catalogue stars is the sort of thing you can do if you happen to be the sort of clever-clogs who can pull data out of Vizier and spend a little quality time with the Galmap.

 

[Orvidius]

I thought about trying to look for brain trees, pumpkins, etc, and googled about how people do it. I read about the "glide method" and decided that it's not for me. Basically, it involves going into glide over parts of planets that you suspect might have something, with your radar zoomed out, and hope you see a POI blip. When you come out of glide, go back up, and repeat. Needle-in-a-haystack, combined with brute force, and some informed guesswork based on the patterns with which these things have been found already. And during all of this, you don't even know if the planet you picked actually has anything.

That sounds like the very definition of tedium. The "honk/scoop/jump" cycle is a lot more interesting to me than that is.

 

[thundernuns]

If you are willing to travel the ~20,000ly distance, the core regions are interesting. You'll be swimming in undiscovered black holes and neutron stars. Don't expect to find any non-biege planets though. Biege is the galactic constant.

 

[Deluvian]

You don't just choose a star via eeny-meeny-miny-mo and head out there aimlessly, right?

No, we don't
I believe everybody has some kind of a method.. I am now prepping for another expedition, and so far I have not used anything else (to determine where I want to go) but in-game Galaxy map. I scroll and zoom and turn and observe, try to find the place which looks attractive at first.. I have to admit that out of curiosity i checked yesterday on couple of sites if the systems I am about to challenge are known to humanity.. rather than that.. gut feeling, and what looks difficult, fancy and challenging

 

[13A]

You don't just choose a star via eeny-meeny-miny-mo and head out there aimlessly, right?

Well, now that you mention it..........

 

[Cdr Voorheez]

Exploration is not aimless. I'm still scratching my head as to why this thread even exists in this sub forum. it isn't really achieving any debate or conclusion. An aimless thread.
Not that i am disrespecting OPs question. Just an observation.

 

[Deluvian]

Well, now that you mention it..........

[big grin]

 

[marx]

Exploration is not aimless. I'm still scratching my head as to why this thread even exists in this sub forum. it isn't really achieving any debate or conclusion. An aimless thread.
Not that i am disrespecting OPs question. Just an observation.

The thread title is pretty bad, but if you read the first post, it has some valid questions in it.

 

[Sapyx]

My exploration ship doesn't come with a dune buggy, so I'm not interested in discovering surface features.

When I explore, I search for "glowing green giants" and "glowing white giants" - the two rarest gas giants in the game. GGGs are life-bearing gas giants (water-life or ammonia-life) which glow bright green in colour. GWGs are Class V giants that are super-hot, over 9000K. I have only heard reports of four of each existing in the game, with a fifth GGG that the discoverer forgot to record the location of.

Is there any way to "narrow down the search" for either of these? Not really. GGGs could occur anywhere where there are gas giants, so there's nothing really to alter your odds there, other than "avoid brown dwarfs and neutron stars"; maybe G and K type stars are more probable at generating gas giants, I'm not too sure. GWGs occur only in close orbit around super-hot stars, so you can limit your search to only O-class and neutron stars. Looking for both of these, then, as well as ELWs, I'm wanting to search O, F, G, K, neutron stars. Which doesn't really "narrow down" the search much at all.

 

[varonica]

I'd tell you all, but then I would have to hunt you all down and.....no no no, to long in the black!

The geyser and fumarole thread has much of my using about the best places to find stuff. There is at least one form of life we know exists but has never been found, I am researching a few ideas of my own about how to find it, but basically these things are proc gen for the most part, with a few hand placed examples which are the ones you find clues to. The thing is if they are proc gen then there is some sort of key to placement, in other words the stellar forge doesn't place them randomly, fungal cones appear in nebula, brain trees appear near guardian bases and I think guardian bases are location based within a set area of the galaxy, we are still mapping that area. I found some brain trees way out of the bubble the other day and CMDR baton popped over and found the guardian bases.

This new form we haven't found must be keyed to some other sort of feature since it hasn't appeared in the areas we have been searching, or it could be location based, maybe nearer the core. I am currently working on the basis that the key may be stellar based, so it may appear in systems with stars of a particular class such as Neutron, black holes, white dwarfs, so searching landable planets in systems where at least one of these stellar bodies exist. I may be wrong, but it gives me a target.

 

[iain666]

Elite Exploration is like a box of scratch cards. You can aim for a spot, or to complete a journey but finding stuff on the way is largely random chance. If you're after a particular type of star then you can filter the map, if you're after a particular type of planet or surface feature then you can work out (or find out) if there's a particular map filter that will up your chances but it all comes down to how much time you're prepared to spend looking in the end.

 

[khaos526]

There are also weird data beacons with message hints on abandoned ships out there that people have used to find the trail to objects too if I remember...

 

[Gamatech]

A lot of people are mentioning the random data points, and I did actually collect one. It was a hacked coms beacon broadcasting a long-range SOS call. The guy said it was the only way to get his message out there. Apparently he took a cargo job with unknown contents. It paid well so he didn't ask questions, and now some elite shady people were after him.

I was intruigued and was interested in going to the location, but I had just completed my first exploration mission of 6000 light years. When I saw the distress call's source at a distance of 22,000 light years, it went straight in the filing cabinet to gather dust. I had no idea what a mistake it was at the time, since I was unaware that messages were wiped once they hit an age of 30 days.

I wish I had actually written the location down, I didn't know the message would expire. I think I bookmarked the location, so I'll have to double check. My concern is whether or not anything will actually BE there now... The guy was quite adamant that help was needed URGENTLY (how he expected that miracle 22kly from the bubble I don't know), and now that the message has expired I'm worried that nothing will be there if I take the trip out.

Heck, even if it's the best case senario and I DO find where it is and head out there, that distress call sounded dangerous. I'd probably need to be combat ready, which does NOT mix at all with long range travel.

 

[Maymo]

(Currently) Exploration is in the eyes of the beholder. Some love it and others don’t...

The furthest I’ve travelled is Three Way Dance which is 3 earth like worlds in orbit around each other some 2k ly past the centre. I honestly felt weirdly proud of my venture when I eventually returned in one piece, I think many people would have clawed their own eyeballs out though. FD are going to liven things up though....”soon”....

Currently I’m rather enjoying ‘bubble exploration’. I pull up at a random dock and use Universal Cartographics to scout nearby systems in a 20ly radius. If a system is worth 250credits I know it won’t be worth the trip, if it’s worth 20,000 credits to buy the data I know I’ve hit a jackpot, add a bookmark and fly out to make my scans. It’s actually a very profitable approach (terra high metal worlds really add up) and it’s nice to use an in game resource for a change rather than EDDB.

 

[disorganise]

My exploration ship doesn't come with a dune buggy, so I'm not interested in discovering surface features.

When I explore, I search for "glowing green giants" and "glowing white giants" - the two rarest gas giants in the game. GGGs are life-bearing gas giants (water-life or ammonia-life) which glow bright green in colour. GWGs are Class V giants that are super-hot, over 9000K. I have only heard reports of four of each existing in the game, with a fifth GGG that the discoverer forgot to record the location of.

Is there any way to "narrow down the search" for either of these? Not really. GGGs could occur anywhere where there are gas giants, so there's nothing really to alter your odds there, other than "avoid brown dwarfs and neutron stars"; maybe G and K type stars are more probable at generating gas giants, I'm not too sure. GWGs occur only in close orbit around super-hot stars, so you can limit your search to only O-class and neutron stars. Looking for both of these, then, as well as ELWs, I'm wanting to search O, F, G, K, neutron stars. Which doesn't really "narrow down" the search much at all.

Out of curiosity.....do these appear glowing in the system map or only when you fly right up to them?

 

[ThomasWJames]

How to answer this...mmm...oh yeah, I'll just leave this here...

[video=youtube_share;nrizm2gnQBo]https://youtu.be/nrizm2gnQBo[/video]

Question answered. You're all welcome, no further discussion needed. Please lock thread now thanks.

 

[varonica]

.....................

 

[Cdr Voorheez]

The thread title is pretty bad, but if you read the first post, it has some valid questions in it.

I can read and have read OPs post at length. Please don't patronise. My point is still moot.

Exploration is about exploring, taking risks, breaking boundaries, going places uncharted. Yes it may appear to the non explorer as aimless but not to the explorer who is compelled to chart the blank spaces on maps, charts etc.

Its a mindset. You either have it or you don't.

https://youtu.be/nAPDnQ5aZ6E

Yes it's a naff clip but it gets the point across perfectly.

 

[Cmdr Shijima]

I can read and have read OPs post at length. Please don't patronise. My point is still moot.

Exploration is about exploring, taking risks, breaking boundaries, going places uncharted. Yes it may appear to the non explorer as aimless but not to the explorer who is compelled to chart the blank spaces on maps, charts etc.

Its a mindset. You either have it or you don't.

https://youtu.be/nAPDnQ5aZ6E

Yes it's a naff clip but it gets the point across perfectly.

I was thinking more this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbnTZREMEJI

 

[Cdr Voorheez]

Very cool clip Cmdr. Repped.