So these blue zones that indicate planetary POI, are they just there or does anyone know a good way to use them? Because I'm scavenging a planet (not doing any mission) with my ship 20 km above the surface and thinking: "Sheesh that circle down there must be at least 100 km wide, that's a lot of ground to scout on a SRV".
Planetary Blue Zones: Is there an effective way to use them?
- Thread starter CMDR Correa
- Start date
Fly over it in your ship? FYI this used to be the only way to find geo and bio sources, I have spent many an hour running back and forth searches of large blue circles in my ship.
Deleted member 38366
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Max. POI sizes are approx. 10km - make sure Scanner Range is set to maximum, otherwise the blue will typically fill the entire Scanner display and make it near-impossible to determine its center.
In most cases, the deployed SRV will show at least mild indications when landing inside one near the indicated center, so you know where to go.
Only in rare cases, the actual POI within the circle is at an unfortunate distance to the chosen landing spot, especially if you didn't land in its center.
(keep in mind actual POI position on the Ground can be anywhere within that blue circle)
If the estimated distance to actual POI on the Ground from the observed Wave Scanner Display/Audio is inconvenient (very weak indication), it's perfectly fine to note the approx. Heading, board the Ship again and fly for 2-3km to land again there and re-check.
In most cases, the deployed SRV will show at least mild indications when landing inside one near the indicated center, so you know where to go.
Only in rare cases, the actual POI within the circle is at an unfortunate distance to the chosen landing spot, especially if you didn't land in its center.
(keep in mind actual POI position on the Ground can be anywhere within that blue circle)
If the estimated distance to actual POI on the Ground from the observed Wave Scanner Display/Audio is inconvenient (very weak indication), it's perfectly fine to note the approx. Heading, board the Ship again and fly for 2-3km to land again there and re-check.
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Sorry for a dumb question, but:
are these blue zones something else than Geo and Bio signs you can see during FSS'ing the system and later DSS'ing the body?
Also, if they are, what are the chances of ever finding them out in the void? I mean, I'm close to Beagle Point now, is there any reason to start looking for these on planets here?
are these blue zones something else than Geo and Bio signs you can see during FSS'ing the system and later DSS'ing the body?
Also, if they are, what are the chances of ever finding them out in the void? I mean, I'm close to Beagle Point now, is there any reason to start looking for these on planets here?
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The blue circles used to be the only indication of geo and bio sites, there were no signals, you needed to fly across the body looking for blue circles then track down the sites in the circles. Geo sites were tiny blue dots, the original bio sites like bark cones were large blue circles.
You will still see blue circles for the bio and geo, they didn't change those, some are different sizes now, mid sized dots for anemones, large circles for bark cones and others, but I haven't bothered to check what size circles mark all the others now we have the FSS. Blue circles for other stuff such as procedural bases and etc don't appear much further away than around 5kly from the nearest area of population so you won't see any others apart from bio and geo out near BP, and you have the FSS and DSS for those now.
Blue circles appear for ground mission targets, procedural bases and other stuff such as the mining installations but it's very much a bubble/colonia mechanic.
Does upgrading sensors have any impact on the precision of these (I'm guessing no...)?
On a side note, I tried scouting the area on a SLF (left the mothership with NPC crew), but it is missing that SRV scanner, it's kinda hard to spot things if not on the lit side of the planet. Maybe they could add that, it already has a composition scanner after all
Deleted member 38366
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No, E-Grade Sensors over Planets will perform exactly like Grade 5 Engineered A-Grade Sensors. So no need for anything special on that, other than ensuring the Scanner Display is set to max. Range (10km).
If the POI is a classic RNG (not Geo or Bio) one, it's very well possible that it simply hasn't physically spawned.
Hence it can be exceedingly difficult to locate one directly and visually from a Mothership or SLF for that matter.
Some POIs used to spawn only at a minimum distance - while other POI types even only spawned for a deployed SRV.
So searching one exclusively with the Ship can be either tedious - or even impossible, unless it's a fixed (non-RNG) one like Geo, Bio or other fixed type.
(I haven't specifically tested for spawn behavior in a longer time but I think those mechanics did not change)
Notably, the only POI type that started off (unsure if that's still the case) as a large 10km circle but could shrink to pinpoint size.... were Outcrops in the center of huge Impact Craters.
Using that mechanic, those could be pinpointed from the Ship or SLF - although they were just a high-yield (more fragments) Outcrop and of very little use normally.
Only limitations remaining are the original ones :
- <1.5km Altitude AGL (Above Ground Level), the Scanner will no longer show any POIs as the indication starts fading below ~2km Altitude, so while searching for one the Ship must remain above that Altitude of ~2km for fullly unfaded bkue circles
- above approx. 25km (it can be a tad higher on some Planets), POIs will not be indicated on the Scanner at all, hence it's no good flying beyond that Altitude
- above approx. 35-50km (varies quite a bit depending on Planet size), the POIs won't even spawn and remain entirely undetectable
- any RNG-based POI can also spawn and be detected during Glide Phase, this affords covering terrain at 2500m/sec, regardless of Ship type
- time + RNG alone will typically spawn an RNG POI eventually, regardless of being in a Ship or SRV... the further away from Sol, the less likely they are to spawn per time spent traveling a Planet's surface by any means
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