It's bark mounds, all the way down: Any Tips?

[Jmanis]

So, I (somewhat surprisingly) found a virgin nebula outside the galactic core... all the systems seem untouched so far.

Was also kinda excited at first when I found biological signals on planet surfaces... until I had 4/4 bark mounds.

Now, I know they're common, but when I'm facing larger quantities of biological signals, well, I'm reminded of the times I've tracked down stuff in-isolation, and it's not unusual for one planet with 8 signals to have 7 of them be bark mounds, and one be <something else>. Which isn't surprising, considering the description for bark mound locations are:

Which, let's face it, means they could be literally everywhere.

I figure there's no "smoking barrel" answers here... but if anyone's got tips on minimising the chances of an investigated signal being god. damn. freaking. bark mounds.... I'm all ears

 

[Orvidius]

I have nothing to offer. I just wanted to say, .... uhm, yeah.

 

[Factabulous]

I always just fly away ... if I never see another BM I won't shed a tear

 

[Jmanis]

I have nothing to offer. I just wanted to say, .... uhm, yeah.

Which is nonetheless a useful response

 

[Thatchinho]

Haven’t really bothered much with Bark Mound sites for a long time. At one point there’d be a max of 5 Bark Mound sites, which made it easy to tell if there were other types, but that got fixed IIRC. I’d still personally treat anything with 5 or less in a BM area as just BMs though.

For other things, first thing is whether the planet is eligible for them. Just check the Codex for the criteria. (Guessing you probably already know that though, and obviously it only works for discovered bio types and variants.)

In terms of locations, the only thing I can suggest with any certainty is to look for sites in/around ejects craters. Ones in them will be Roseum Braintrees, and there’s a high chance any in the ejects lines will be.

There’s probably also ties to specific surface locations for other bio types and variants as well, but I’m not aware of any being confirmed yet.

So yeah, not much to offer either, but if any of that’s new info, then hope it helps a bit! o7

 

[Deleted member 38366]

AFAIK it's very unusual to have two different Bio types on one Planet. At least I've never seen nor heard of such a case.
As soon though as i.e. Bark Mounds are found - expect them to be everywhere within upto 150LY of the Nebula.

If you seek anything else, I'd go by metrics that are not home to Bark Mounds, i.e. too cold or too hot... then take it from there or maybe use a specific Star Filter to optimize your chances of getting the environment you need (not primarily suitable for Bark Mounds).

It'd still be one heck of luck and a ton of work to "rule them out" so to speak.
But if there's some A/B/O/Neutron Stars around for example, the chances aren't so bad.

 

[Jmanis]

AFAIK it's very unusual to have two different Bio types on one Planet. At least I've never seen nor heard of such a case.

Up til recently, I've been relying on just the codex to check out already- discovered things... on occasion specific, uhm... space pumpkins/ onions (i forget their name) have cohabited with bark mounds. In those cases have needed to grind out all the sites on a planet to, eventually, find the actual.... onions...

 

[Thatchinho]

AFAIK it's very unusual to have two different Bio types on one Planet. At least I've never seen nor heard of such a case.
As soon though as i.e. Bark Mounds are found - expect them to be everywhere within upto 150LY of the Nebula.

If you seek anything else, I'd go by metrics that are not home to Bark Mounds, i.e. too cold or too hot... then take it from there or maybe use a specific Star Filter to optimize your chances of getting the environment you need (not primarily suitable for Bark Mounds).

It'd still be one heck of luck and a ton of work to "rule them out" so to speak.
But if there's some A/B/O/Neutron Stars around for example, the chances aren't so bad.

There’s plenty of planets around with multiple types. 3 different types on a single planet was the pre-3.3 record.

Off the top of my head IIRC, the systems with the asteroid bases in the Witchhead and the Pencil Nebula have lots of examples of multiple bio types per body.

Basically as a general rule a body will have all the bio types that it meets the criteria for (though there’s some hidden criteria not in the codex).

 

[Deleted member 38366]

There’s plenty of planets around with multiple types. 3 different types on a single planet was the pre-3.3 record.

Off the top of my head IIRC, the systems with the asteroid bases in the Witchhead and the Pencil Nebula have lots of examples of multiple bio types per body.

Basically as a general rule a body will have all the bio types that it meets the criteria for (though there’s some hidden criteria not in the codex).

Hm, interesting. Never seen one of these (i.e. Bark Mounds + Crystalline Shards + Anemones).

 

[Jmanis]

Tangentially, I'm not convinced the whole galaxy is seeded correctly, given the sharp discontinuities in distributions of poi as you leave the bubble region, but that's a whole other discussion.

 

[Thatchinho]

Hm, interesting. Never seen one of these (i.e. Bark Mounds + Crystalline Shards + Anemones).

Ones with Crystalline Shards would be pretty rare I’d imagine, as IIRC they’ve got some pretty specific criteria, and not sure how much of a crossover that gives with other types, but there’s probably some chance!

To find multiples, the best way’s to look for systems which are generically eligible for multiple types, and then see if they’ve got any planets which have the right criteria. So for example, B-class stars (if I’m remebering that right as being a criteria for some Anemone types) in a Nebula, or Guardian area, or ideally both.

Can’t get in to game to double check what the various criteria are so might be remembering them slightly wrong, but the principle’s right.

 

[Edelgard von Rhein]

Multiple types of biologicals can appear on the surface of one world as there are some that prefer to live in certain terrain types. I've been investigating life signs around Guardian space and the edge of the Bubble (I wanted to find some examples close to the Canopus cluster and certain other locations) and one specific example might be Synuefe KZ-F b44-6 1a, which has both Roseum and Lividum Brain Trees. Lividum prefer rougher, more mountainous terrain, whereas Roseum prefers craters, ejecta lines and smoother terrain. Temperature also matters to some types.

When I'm looking for different types of life, terrain is the main factor but with Bark Mounds, I tend to just visit the most scenic location and maybe collect some materials. There are enough of them that I don't feel guilty gathering materials from them.

 

[Jmanis]

Ones with Crystalline Shards would be pretty rare I’d imagine, as IIRC they’ve got some pretty specific criteria, and not sure how much of a crossover that gives with other types, but there’s probably some chance!

Yeah, Crystalline Shards need the planet to be >10,000Ls from it's orbiting star, IIRC. That's not from the primary star, it's from the orbiting star (so an orbital radius of >10,000Ls), which is really rare afaik.

 

[Orvidius]

Yeah, the description says something like "from any star", but in practice it seems to be distance from arrival. I think I've seen some that were quite close to their actual parent star. At least, that's what I recall, assuming my recollection is accurate.

 

[marx]

Yup, it's a known bug, listed here as well. I wonder if they'll fix the text (if Frontier ever get around to Codex fixes, that is) or if they'll fix the requirement and change how crystalline shards spawn. After all, that might lead to them becoming very rare.

Anyway, on planet biologicals: as far as I can tell, if a planet meets the criteria of lifeforms that are enabled in the region, then it will try to spawn them on the surface. The highest amount I've seen was three (two types of brain trees, and amphora plants), but I don't see why it couldn't be more... save for there not being that much of an overlap. However, there's also a practical concern that the game has to find good locations to spawn sites, and there appear to be some sorts of exclusion zones, to make sure the sites don't overlap. This means that at least on the smallest of moons, there is a real possibility that a site should have spawned, but it didn't, because it couldn't find a good location - no crater large enough for Roseum brain trees, for example.

@Jmanis: about that discontinuity, see here.

As for bark mounds... well, at least there's one way of ruling them out completely: exploring in a region that doesn't have them enabled. There aren't many such, unfortunately - see here, and the ones that don't have them often don't simply because there are no nebulae in the region.