Horizons a silly question about surface prospecting perhaps...

Lngjohnsilver1

Lngjohnsilver1
So, I've been doing a spot of trundling in my SRV, as you do, and I have a question about surface prospecting.

Essentially, it appears that you have a good success rate I finding rarer materials on metallic meteorites, is that correct? Which then got me thinking:

  • Rarer materials tend to be found in craters?
  • There are only a limited amount of prospecting sources: Outcrop, Bronzite chondrite, Metallic meteorite?
  • Does each prospecting source ONLY spawn certain materials and if so has anyone drawn up a list of spawns per source?
 

ChipStar65

ChipStar65
1) Not that I have observed.
2) Also Mesosiderite meteorites
3) Spawns are not strictly designated to certain types of source, though as you mentioned, rarer mats tend to be found more often in Metallics and, in my experience, Mesosiderites, but this is in no way a hard and fast rule.
 

Bob Lighthouse

Banned
Bob Lighthouse
There appears to be no wide consensus aside from what mats potentially drop from what rocks.

The thing that changed everything for me was learning how to fly the srv!
I cover way more(!!!) ground now and even try to shoot the rocks while flying.
That way I'm selecting what I want as soon as I land.
You can even boost and grab free-falling rocks.
As long as you're not too high the scanner still works fine.
You can also bank and boost to turn a little.

More fun + more mats = win/win.
 
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ChipStar65

ChipStar65
If you read the composition list for a planetoid, it will tell you what is or isn't there. It won't tell you whether you will find it in any particular place, or get a certain mat from any particular rock. So, yeah, blast away, but if the list doesn't include, say, Tellurium, it won't be found on that particular planet or moon.
 

Lngjohnsilver1

Lngjohnsilver1
Thnx. Im familiar with EDDB body searches, its just that my anecdotal evidence seems to support the idea that outcrops contain the common(er) materials, bronze chondrite contain the common and standard type mats, mesoderites contain the standard to rare types and metallic contain standard to very rare.

Of course I still shoot at everything - especially now as ALL materials have some value, but I was just pondering...
 

varonica

varonica
Lngjohnsilver1 said:
So, I've been doing a spot of trundling in my SRV, as you do, and I have a question about surface prospecting.

Essentially, it appears that you have a good success rate I finding rarer materials on metallic meteorites, is that correct? Which then got me thinking:

  • Rarer materials tend to be found in craters?
  • There are only a limited amount of prospecting sources: Outcrop, Bronzite chondrite, Metallic meteorite?
  • Does each prospecting source ONLY spawn certain materials and if so has anyone drawn up a list of spawns per source?
Click to expand...

Rarer materials in craters is hard to say, the only thing I can say about craters for certain is that in every splash crater there will be a fixed POI that either represents a mineral bearing rock or bio-organisms.

You missed vulcanism and biological organisms. Both vulcanism and organics concentrate rare mats on the surface.

The three you mentioned usually only contain around three different mat types but I think what you get is random. Vulcanism and biology have large concentrations of nearly all mats, the larger the field the more mats, rare mats run at around ten times planetary number, so .9% of polonium in the material list will usually return around 10% from a bio or volcanic field, they can be hard to find unless you are experienced searching for them though.
 

JetsonRING

JetsonRING
My experience has been that more materials tend to spawn near craters than in craters though there are materials to be found inside craters. I will usually simply pick a direction and as I travel I check out every echo on the scanner that pops up, always returning to my original course after a discovery if the scanner remains clear. Always turn a very slow circle after making a discovery since often a second discovery will pop up near a discovery. Often I find myself crossing my own path moving toward a discovery I should have detected on my first pass through the area.

Bronzite Chondrite, Outcrop, Mesosiderite, Metallic Meteorite, Barnacle "fruit", Fumarole deposit. Also, sometimes you will come across xeno "plants" and "trees" with deposits that, if shot off will be something interesting.
 
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Lightspeed

Lightspeed
Of course, it may be a different experience with 3.0, we don't know yet. The planets in beta weren't spawning what they were supposed to and FD assure us that this will be corrected by the time the game goes live. (Perhaps checking things like this is one reason for the gap between close of beta and the live game announcement.)
 

varonica

varonica
Lngjohnsilver1 said:
How does one find 'Vulcanism' or 'Organics' in the myriad of planets out there?
Click to expand...

Well every planet or moon that has vulcanism tells you exactly that in the info panel of the left. Then you just need to narrow the possibilities down by size and how intense the vulcanism is, while the left panel doesn't tell you that it is in the journal, and examining orbital and rotational periods can give you a good idea of how many sites there are on the body, there's a lot of information on that. Or you could try looking on the list of already discovered sites for a nearby one.

Finding alien life is different because it doesn't tell you in the panel, but we know temperature ranges (examine in the goldilocks zone for a quick check) and the likely places it can be found, nebula seem to be the best location, the last few nebula I checked had biology and one planet I found two different forms of alien life and vulcanism.

Basically there are standard search protocols you can use that greatly enhances your chance finding these things, blindly heading down to landable planets will probably not end in success.
 
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