How to look for geysers - beginners guide

(Important note - there is a major change in mechanics, coming at the end of 2018, that will allow surveying surface with probes. It will make the process much simpler and hopefully more rewarding, so you may as well wait till then)


Search for volcanism - this guide is meant for pilots who never had any luck with that and need some simple answers, not for experts :)

Brutal truths
1: Nobody can give you a method that will guarantee you finding something quickly. Sometimes you find them during first glide, sometimes you may spend over a day with no luck.

2: Nobody is a knowing all expert. There are other pilots with experience bigger than mine and they may have different ideas. Try them, you may like them better

3: Nobody (apart from FD) knows how many volcanic sites exist on the body, few people run surveys and I think that the number may be at least 10, but this was never proven. Even if one has 0 then the next one can have 100. Galaxy is a big big place.

4: Nobody (apart from FD) knows for sure what Major, Normal and Minor volcanism means. Maybe number of sites but maybe just the intensity of colors on the surface.


The method I describe here should help you find something in few hours.

Pick up the right body - between 400km and 500km radius. They give you fairly even long glides so you can search most effectively and you do not need months to scan it. Just in case major volcanism means more geysers, make sure you pick up such body. You can check it on EDSM ( https://www.edsm.net/en/system/bodi.../details/idB/2123725/nameB/HIP+41908+AB+1+c+a )
Glide along the latitude, enter the orbital flight, fly up till the mass lock goes off, aim at the ground, enter the glide as steep as possible, get to the tick altitude, glide as shallow as possible down to 6km when the glide ends. Aim the ship up and back (to compensate for the forward movement before hitting the tick again), enter orbital cruise, aim and glide, and so on until you find what you are looking for.

Start at coordinates 0° // 0° , turn your ship to 90°, aim up and start the procedure shown above. When you get back to longitude 0° then move north or south by 3° (2° will guarantee you will not miss anything, but 3° is almost as good :) ).
After that you should be at 3° // 0° and you can start again.

Here is a video showing Glide Method in flesh, but I would read the rest of the post first to understand what The Tick is :

[video=youtube_share;ONPxq-D28Z4]https://youtu.be/ONPxq-D28Z4[/video]

And excellent illustration of what I am trying to explain by Pilot Pirx:

poi-sucheflugkurve.png


Sensors:

Class of your sensors does not matter - class D shows POI from same distance (about 8km) as class A. Setup your sensors on maximum range and linear mode (https://i.imgur.com/fndWE8W.png). When flying or gliding above the ground the area covered is more or less a vertical cylinder with radius of 8km, so it does not matter how high your are as long as you are below the Tick.
Example of POI behaviour when you tilt your ship https://youtu.be/6Euvl_LNHHQ


The Tick:

When approaching the surface of the planet at some point (typically between 30km and 15km) your altimeter will jump suddenly and it may show slightly different altitude. This is the moment your sensors will start showing POI’s on the ground. On your first glide check at what altitude you are getting the Tick and use it from now on to know when you can start gliding as shallow as possible to cover greater area. The Tick altitude is different on each planet.

The POI:

Geysers and Fumaroles have one and unique POI that looks like a dot from the first moment you see it ( https://i.imgur.com/UCKYGIS.png ). Nothing else looks like that, so if you see it then for sure you have found volcanism.

Why fly along latitudes and not canyons?

Nobody really showed me convincing facts that geysers exist mostly in canyons. I found well over 100 sites, and lots of them are nowhere near any canyon.
So, if you want to spend maybe 20 minutes, then by all means check any place you like, flying along the canyons is fun, but if you want to find something, and you have 3 hours or more, than just fly straight line, this way you do not check by mistake the places you have seen already, and are not biased by the terrain you see.

Using my method I found the following sites on HIP 41908 AB 1 C A in maybe 10 to 12 hours:

pumpkins:
HIP 41908 AB 1 C A 5.8876 -107.4878
HIP 41908 AB 1 C A -16.6021 -78.8721
HIP 41908 AB 1 C A -19.4121 23.8399

brain trees:
HIP 41908 AB 1 C A 2.2886 1.8509
HIP 41908 AB 1 C A -3.0142 52.7901

bark mounds:
HIP 41908 AB 1 C A -1.1483 26.5604
HIP 41908 AB 1 C A 10.5415 123.8627
HIP 41908 AB 1 C A 9.7212 -30.1957

geysers:
HIP 41908 AB 1 C A 3.4231 -148.7106
HIP 41908 AB 1 C A 11.2331 -108.0491
HIP 41908 AB 1 C A 13.6156 -131.5787

two permanent outcrops at:
-1 // 31 and 0 // -16


Example of volcanic and other POI’ s you will see when looking for stuff, also the Tick in slowmo :)

[video=youtube_share;RLGpfOyz9to]https://youtu.be/RLGpfOyz9to[/video]


Some of the places I found around the Galaxy (currently working on english version :) ):

[video=youtube_share;DBT1XCh9nWY]https://youtu.be/DBT1XCh9nWY[/video]
 
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Thanks, Baton, nice piece of knowledge.

Question 1. Are there any particular places/topographical features that provide more chances to find something interesting? My experience is close to nil but all two :)D) geyser sites I've found were located in shallow canyons or valleys colored differently than the majority of the planet (grey-ish versus red-ish).

Question 2. Do geyser sites reflect general mats percentage defined on a planet? My first site contained over 20 units of 1% material, second one not even a single one.
 
Thanks, Baton, nice piece of knowledge.

Question 1. Are there any particular places/topographical features that provide more chances to find something interesting? My experience is close to nil but all two :)D) geyser sites I've found were located in shallow canyons or valleys colored differently than the majority of the planet (grey-ish versus red-ish).

Question 2. Do geyser sites reflect general mats percentage defined on a planet? My first site contained over 20 units of 1% material, second one not even a single one.

A1 - If I do a random search then I typically stick to canyons because it is less boring and I do believe the chance is bigger, but this is based on my faith not facts :)

A2 - They do have only materials that exist on the planet, but I am sure that RNG is applied to the quantity, so you cannot guarantee something on one site only. Pretty sure that if you find 10 sites on the same body, then the percentage will correspond to what you see in descryption. Again, that is what I believe, I did not really run any tests on that.
 
Awesome summary - have some virtual rep and cookies :D

... When you get back to longitude 0° then move north or south by 3° (2° will guarantee you will not miss anything, but 3° is almost as good :) ).
After that you should be at 3° // 0° and you can start again...

For those which want to make sure they cover all ground on any size planet, here is the formula to calculate the increment to be used based on bodies radius

increment° = 16 / (2 x radius x Pi /360 )

this can be modified by factor 0,9 to 0,75 depending how much overlap of the search-stripes you desire...


Examples:
Body radius 400 Km -> 16 / (2 x 400 Km x Pi /360 ) = 2,29°

Body radius 500 Km -> 16 / (2 x 500 Km x Pi /360 ) = 1,83°

Body radius 800 Km -> 16 / (2 x 800 Km x Pi /360 ) = 1,15°

Body radius 2500 Km -> 16 / (2 x 2500 Km x Pi /360 ) = 0,37°
 
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Examples:
Body radius 400 Km -> 16 / (2 x 400 Km x Pi /360 ) = 2,29°

Body radius 500 Km -> 16 / (2 x 500 Km x Pi /360 ) = 1,83°

Body radius 800 Km -> 16 / (2 x 800 Km x Pi /360 ) = 1,15°

Body radius 2500 Km -> 16 / (2 x 2500 Km x Pi /360 ) = 0,37°

Thx for the cookies :)

We need to add some time values to that so pilots can get a perspective. After all this is a beginners guide, I don't see a beginner doing 60 hours (fictional number but probably not far off) to fully scan a 500km body going every 1,83° latitude.

I roughly got a 83 minutes to go around a body, but do not recall which one was it, so probably around 500km and close to the equator, as they get significantly shorter the closer to the pole you are. There are some pilots like Maligno, doing full planetary surveys, maybe they can tell us how long does it take, I am curious myself.
There are some tools to help with that (exotool?), feel free to share it here, the more info we have the better.
 
Or: Head towards the east-end of London and look out for blokes in a sharp suit, pork pie hat and saying, 'In-it', all of the time.
 
Don't worry! Just move top fins to sides for extra stability and an additional push of agility. [yesnod]

TBH as this is a beginners guide, it would be a good idea to create similar flight paths (sucheflugkurve - i simply love it :) ) for other ships and maybe one for SRV. SRVs are not great for gliding so I imagine that the path would look more like a heartbeat monitor....

fxMI14A.jpg
 
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Definition of Keys in the options/control menue - I set sensor increase/decrease with page up/down.... Sensor lin/log right side panel, most right column
 
Thx for the cookies :)

We need to add some time values to that so pilots can get a perspective. After all this is a beginners guide, I don't see a beginner doing 60 hours (fictional number but probably not far off) to fully scan a 500km body going every 1,83° latitude.....
Very well Sir, here the estimates are:

Body radius 500Km -> 1,83° spacing -> 1,6 with 5% + 5% overlap at both sides -> 180°/1,6° = 113 circumventions
following the lattitudes
113 * ( 2*pi*500) * cos(45) = 251.000 Km distance (355.00 Km with longitudinal flightpath)
with average Tick -Height of 34 Km and glide-drop at 7 Km you get a coverage of (34 Km -7 Km)/sin(10°) = 155,5 Km per glide which should take 62,2 Seconds (glide-speed 2,5 Km/s). Add another 60 seconds for the ascend and re-entry to glide and it takes You 122,2 sec´s per glide -> total time 122,2 sec * (251.00 Km / 155,5 Km) = 197248 sec or 54 h 47 min 28 sec´s to search the whole planet - splendid estimate by You :D

Body radius 420 Km, average Tick height 18 Km drop 7 Km, (18 Km -7 Km)/sin(10°) = 63,3 Km per glide which should take 25,3 Seconds
spacing 2 ° ->
90 * (2*pi*420)*cos(45)= 167.940 Km / 63,3 Km = 2653 glides * 85,3 sec = 226.307 sec´s = 62h 51m 47s
so in effect it takes you longer to search the smaller body as the usable height per glide is much less, despite the fact that the search-corridor is wider....

Body radius 800 Km, average Tick height 35 Km drop 7 Km, (35 Km -7 Km)/sin(10°) = 161,2 Km per glide which should take 64,5 Seconds
spacing 1,03° -> 180°/ 1,03° = 175 circumventions
175 * (2*pi*800)*cos(45)= 622.000 Km / 161,2 Km =3859 glides * 124,5 sec = 480.445 sec´s = 133h 27m 25s
 
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Very well Sir, here the estimates are:

You are scaring me :)

Just one note, tick height is hard to tell without actually going there, two bodies I am recently scanning, one 494km and the other 468km, they both have the tick on 22km, so would take longer to fully survey for geysers. Luckily for all of us there is no real need for doing that :)

Actually as you know your maths, could you have a look at that- initial size of shrinking POI.
I got two screenshots at the edges - I got the edges https://i.imgur.com/HNS2bk3.png and https://i.imgur.com/vH8kWjj.png and the body radius is 605 km. I roughly estimated it to be 14km radius, but knowing me I can be horribly wrong (just writing this I realized already that I was doing my maths based on the length of the equator, but latitude 48 is much shorter, so I am wrong)

What is on the photos - I am flying along latitude 48 and edges of POI are on 139.5586 and the other one on 142.3708

help please :) (if it helps I can repeat the procedure on site closer to the equator, but that depends on the blink, if POI shrinks to quickly then I am out of luck)
 
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