Scanning question

[smplguy]

Am I missing an obvious easy way to tell what planets are in a particular star system? Either prior to entering the system or immediately upon entering?

I’m not new to the game, but definitely new to exploring. (I’ve spent my time making credits, engineering my explorer ship and getting synth mats). I am currently making my first trip to Colonia (with plans to continue on to Sag A). I’m taking my time and am actually enjoying mapping each system I arrive in.

I took the suggestion to head up and away before heading in the direction of Colonia so I could find untouched systems. It was surprising how quickly into my trip that happened.

I’m about halfway to Colonia and most systems I jump into now I’m the first to map literally anything in it.

EXCEPT ... that every time I find an earth-like world (sometimes it’s a water world) it’s already been found by another commander. Just identified not planet scanned, so the previous player didn’t fly over to it.

This is confusing to me because I will go 5 - 7 systems without seeing another name anywhere in a system, making me feel that that I’ve finally left the beaten path and am actually alone. Then I’ll randomly show up in a system, fire up the FSS, start working my way through all the bodies and again see that ONLY the earth like or water world has been identified already.

This has happened like 3 times already. In fact if it wasn’t for those times, I’d be completely alone for almost 30 plus systems.

How is this happening? How do they find that single earth-like without putting their name on at least a few other bodies in the system?

 

[Hawk of Battle]

Using the old system players used to be able to jump into a system and without even scanning the main star, could pick out high value worlds like earth likes. Even today, using the FSS, you can sort of do it, but the honk needed to perform the FSS auto tags any stars as well. Not so viable these days, but you'll still find some places that have been cherry picked even with the FSS.

 

[Deleted member 166264]

In addition to what Hawk said, those commanders came from a different route than you, which is why you never saw any of there names along your trip prior to those systems. The only way you would have seen them is if:

1) They had the exact same ship as you

2) They had the exact same loadout as you

3) They had they exact same jump range as you

4) They bothered to tag something if they explored using the old method (new way will auto-tag the main star and very nearby celestial bodies even without the honk).

The amount of cargo also plays a roll in this (obviously a full hold will jump shorter than an empty one), but I'm not sure at what point your range starts decreasing and by how much.

 

[marx]

There's also that you need to go remarkably far away from the Sol-Colonia line to get into lightly explored territory. After all, it is The most travelled route outside the bubble. Tens of thousands of Commanders have trod it before you.
Whether or not you're filtering for specific star types can also change things. If you jump to M star systems, chances are better it'll be undiscovered - because many leave them out and focus on the more lucrative stars instead.

Also, even with the FSS, many people will just tag the ELW and move on. Take a look at the stars in the system, especially the distant ones: if they are all tagged, it was after the FSS, if they aren't, it was before.

 

[smplguy]

Using the old system players used to be able to jump into a system and without even scanning the main star, could pick out high value worlds like earth likes. Even today, using the FSS, you can sort of do it, but the honk needed to perform the FSS auto tags any stars as well. Not so viable these days, but you'll still find some places that have been cherry picked even with the FSS.

Ahh ... this answers my question. I didn’t realize the scanning system before allows for that.
I just couldn’t see how someone was getting that incredibly lucky with the current system.

 

[Mr T]

To discover planets in the old system you had to target each of them individually and fly up to them so you were in a certain proximity before they would scan. Back then there was also no such thing as mapping planets so this will explain why some will be discovered but not mapped. If you see mapped planets you know someone has been there after the scanner changes.

 

[Deleted member 166264]

Ahh ... this answers my question. I didn’t realize the scanning system before allows for that.
I just couldn’t see how someone was getting that incredibly lucky with the current system.

If you know where to look when you're in the FSS mode you can still pick out just the ELWs and WWs without too much trouble. It does get a little tricky when the signals are on the border between planet types though, and (AFAIK) you can't distinguish terraformables apart from non-terraformables.