surface geological POIs - how to "use" them?

CMDR Zadian Lichtfrost

C
Beside looking nice and usually being in rather beautiful places. What's the point of them?

I can get a few materials, but only one from one of those crystal cluster-needle thingies or the bubble-thingies. The usual "blow up stones" method has a much higher material yield than those surface POIs.

Before 3.3 I never tried to collect materials at surface POIs. After 3.3 I tried it 4 times and never got enough materials that I would consider doing it on a regular basis (or as the main method to get materials).

Since I read that people use those surface POIs to quickly fill up their materials I wonder what I'm doing wrong or what - probably very obvious - thing I'm missing.

Edit: How do others collect materials at surface POIs? What is the advantage of surface POIs in your opinion? How can a "surface geological POI material gather noob"* get the most out of surface geological POIs?


*) that would be me :)
 
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CMDR Zadian Lichtfrost

C
Factabulous said:
You should talk to this guy - form a club or something https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/466229-Geological-biological-signals

Edit: Thought yur obervation about drop rate is v.funny - I did lol :)
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It was a honest question. I want to understand it and know what I'm doing wrong. Maybe it was just the wrong places.

Regarding drop rates:
surface POIs have a few vents with material deposits on it. Each material deposit had exactly one material.
a stone (outcrop, metallic meteorite) has 3-6 materials in it.

To me that looks like one surface POI is like one "stone" - not exactly much in my opinion.

I'm probably missing something and it would be nice if someone could explain it to me.
 

Dagwit

Dagwit
It has crossed my mind that the most efficient way to mine the new Geological POIs might be to put Piceous Cobbles and Crystalline Structures on the Ignore List, and focus on picking up the Needle Crystals with their Grade 4 mats as quickly as possible, then move on to the next POI.

But I haven't tried it yet so I can't say how well it would work, or how efficient it would be in terms of Grade 4 drops/hr.
 
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CMDR Zadian Lichtfrost

C
Dagwit said:
It has crossed my mind that the most efficient way to mine the new Geological POIs might be to put Piceous Cobbles and Crystalline Structures on the Ignore List, and focus on picking up the Needle Crystals with their Grade 4 mats as quickly as possible, then move on to the next POI.

But I haven't tried it yet so I can't say how well it would work, or how efficient it would be in terms of Grade 4 drops/hr.
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Do I understand it correctly that the advantage of surface POIs is that I can have almost always grade 4 drops?
 

CMDR Zadian Lichtfrost

C
pzykozomatik said:
I see the materials at POIs mostly as a nice extra on sightseeing missions; while I'm there anyway, I jump into the SRV and scoop some up without much trouble involved (and sometimes I give the passengers something to watch for their money - you don't see everyday how an SRV rides a spout into low orbit).
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That's a good idea. Using them as an additional material source while being there anyway.
 

Dagwit

Dagwit
CMDR Zadian Lichtfrost said:
It was a honest question. I want to understand it and know what I'm doing wrong. Maybe it was just the wrong places.

Regarding drop rates:
surface POIs have a few vents with material deposits on it. Each material deposit had exactly one material.
a stone (outcrop, metallic meteorite) has 3-6 materials in it.

To me that looks like one surface POI is like one "stone" - not exactly much in my opinion.

I'm probably missing something and it would be nice if someone could explain it to me.
Click to expand...

In each POI there will be a large number of vents whose type is determined by the nature of the POI. Only some of those vents, though, will have collectable materials attached to them. AFAIK, the materials dropped by the various vents will be determined by the planetary composition rather than the type of vent - there is a chance I'm wrong about that, but I don't think so.

Each POI will contain a number of Piceous Cobbles (low grade mats), fewer Crystalline Structures (middle grade mats), and one or two Needle Crystals (with the highest grade mats). Each of these when shot off their vent will turn into one drop of three mats, which you can then scoop.

Edit: Google is telling me it's Crystalline Clusters, not Structures.
 
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Andovar

Andovar
1) they look cool :)
2) you can scan them for codex/discovery stuff (well, at least once per type per sector)
3) collect high grade mats *

*: every type has a specific feature that has the high grade mats. In my experience, for geological it's needle things, for biological it's pholem-something. Focus on those and ignore the rest of the deposits (unless you need some lower grade mats too)
 
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Wyaston Hypatia

Wyaston Hypatia
I can fly directly to a site that will have several/many clusters with easy to get mats.
I can miss all that driving around looking for a rock.
It's more interesting than visiting some random place on the surface.

Also it may be I'm looking on pristine planets but I have seen vents with 2 and 3 clusters on them.
So what are the states of the planets others have been visiting, does pristine make a difference?
 

CMDR Zadian Lichtfrost

C
Andovar said:
1) they look cool :)
2) you can scan them for codex/discovery stuff (well, at least once per type per sector)
3) collect high grade mats *
…
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They indeed look cool - as I wrote in my OP.

How do I scan them for the codex?

They don't seem to offer more high grade mats compared to spending the same amount of time driving around in the SRV. Since I've read a lot of comments about using the surface POIs as a fast way to collect mats I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong.
One metal meteorite has more high grade mats than a POI - from my very limited experience with POIs. Even those "one single line on the bottom" stones (mes-something) that spawn often have one or two g4 mats.
 

IndigoWyrd

IndigoWyrd
So here’s the deal...

Geological surface POIs will have a number of materials located in some, but not all of the features. These take the form of Piecious Cobble, Needle Crystals, or Crystal Clusters. Cobble gives low grade materials. Needle are mid, and Clusters high. These are based on planetary composition. Each of these in turn provides a single drop of a material, unlike rocks, which can drop several. They can be faster as there tend to be many such formations at any given geological site, whereas rocks tend to be spread over much larger areas.

To scan geologic formations use the Composition scanner. Both SRVs and ships have these. You cannot lock on to anything, you just need place the reticle on the object. If you pay attention you’ll see the reticle change when you’re “on target”. Press and hold whichever button it’s bound to until done.

You can see the value of coded data in your Transaction tab, and this data is sold separately from your regular Exploration data, to the station Authority contact, much like Intel data.
 
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Winterwalker

Winterwalker
IndigoWyrd said:
Composition scanner. Both SRVs and ships have these.
Click to expand...

I've come to conclusion that deploying the SRV .. is not as clumsy, or as random as scanning from your ship.

If Obi Wan did composition scanning I think he'd find the surface vehicle more elegant, than hanging halfway upside down! lol
 

Ian Skippy

Ian Skippy
CMDR Zadian Lichtfrost said:
Beside looking nice and usually being in rather beautiful places. What's the point of them?

I can get a few materials, but only one from one of those crystal cluster-needle thingies or the bubble-thingies. The usual "blow up stones" method has a much higher material yield than those surface POIs.

Before 3.3 I never tried to collect materials at surface POIs. After 3.3 I tried it 4 times and never got enough materials that I would consider doing it on a regular basis (or as the main method to get materials).

Since I read that people use those surface POIs to quickly fill up their materials I wonder what I'm doing wrong or what - probably very obvious - thing I'm missing.

Edit: How do others collect materials at surface POIs? What is the advantage of surface POIs in your opinion? How can a "surface geological POI material gather noob"* get the most out of surface geological POIs?


*) that would be me :)
Click to expand...

For me the boon is that you get a guaranteed four G5 mats (so 12 in your inventory). The mat is pre-determined, and yoi know which bits give the good stuff. In other words, a guaranteed 12 G5 mats every landing in only a few minutes, and you can go fot specific mats why selecting an apprpriate planet.
 

Ian Skippy

Ian Skippy
Winterwalker said:
I've come to conclusion that deploying the SRV .. is not as clumsy, or as random as scanning from your ship.

If Obi Wan did composition scanning I think he'd find the surface vehicle more elegant, than hanging halfway upside down! lol
Click to expand...

I use SLF if I dont need that mat type. Guardian slf have great canopies.
 
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