Finding bacteria is a bit too difficult and suggested improvements.

NSR2

N
Most of the bio signals are sticky uppy things, sometimes easy to spot glowing sticky uppy things, however bacterial aren't, so they they are harder to spot.
This means gameplay wise I'm currently:
  1. Try and scan using the hand held scanner thing
  2. The scan is really close range, so nothing is highlighted
  3. I get into my DBX, point my nose down, and "helicopter" along the surface trying to find a discolouraton*.
  4. See something, park my ship
  5. Do scanner stuff, repeat from 3
*The problem here is that this doesn't always seem to work, I think I can't see white bacteria on snow, or maybe I was unlucky?

Suggested improvement:
  1. Hold down the right mouse button on the scanner sampler tool thing
  2. As you hold it down more and more power drains from your battery
  3. Out goes a "ping" the size of which is related to your battery drain
  4. lifeform markers are then added to the HUD. So you can see there is something 5Km away, in that direction.
  5. get into srv and drive over there.
  6. Sample away!
This also means you can have engineering blueprints for scanner ping size / battery draw / battery size becomes relevant to explorers
 

Ydiss

Ydiss
I've long suggested the ping needs to extend beyond visual range and at least up to 1km away to highlight "greens" on the compass for a short time but I do like the idea of holding to charge over longer distances.
 

CMDR Sheehy

CMDR Sheehy
There's some good tips in here for capturing bacteria colonies: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/odyssey-biological-and-geological-guide.582693/

(Yeah I know - shameless plug!)

Basically, some of the best bacteria hunters use their ship in the "nose down" position.

Me, I use the SRV turret and the Composition Scanner. I even found this invisible patch just this morning using that method!
apcKMgw.png


If you can find invisible stuff, it's surely got to count for something!
 

Falcon_D

Falcon_D
I have pretty much given up on hunting bacteria.

Once in awhile I land on a planet looking for other biologicals and find that the bacteria on the planet are easy to spot. That’s when I actually collect bacteria samples.

I really don’t think flying around helicopter style looking for bacteria (or any biologics) is great gameplay. Basically you are relying on the MKI Eyeball and then verifying with your composition scanner.

Personally, I would like the SRV have a scanner that is akin to the mineral scanner but for biologics. Or have a module for the ship that lets you scan planet surfaces for biologics after leaving orbital cruise.
 

HRDiagram

HRDiagram
I've posted a similar suggestion, about showing the signals of the genetic sampler pulse on the HUD in the Suggestions forum a few days ago, and it went completely silent.
I'm not sure whether it's an outlandish idea, or the Suggestions forum is just the junkmail repository of this forum. 😁
 

Athlon-uk

Athlon-uk
Think the problem is, as its been said, the bacteria is flat to the terrain. The only realistic way to find them is helicopter flying. I normally find them pretty quickly but because of the terrain and the red atmosphere this one took a long time. Adding the pulse to the SRV would make life a lot easier.
 

Lord Rak

L
NSR2 said:
Most of the bio signals are sticky uppy things, sometimes easy to spot glowing sticky uppy things, however bacterial aren't, so they they are harder to spot.
This means gameplay wise I'm currently:
  1. Try and scan using the hand held scanner thing
  2. The scan is really close range, so nothing is highlighted
  3. I get into my DBX, point my nose down, and "helicopter" along the surface trying to find a discolouraton*.
  4. See something, park my ship
  5. Do scanner stuff, repeat from 3
*The problem here is that this doesn't always seem to work, I think I can't see white bacteria on snow, or maybe I was unlucky?

Suggested improvement:
  1. Hold down the right mouse button on the scanner sampler tool thing
  2. As you hold it down more and more power drains from your battery
  3. Out goes a "ping" the size of which is related to your battery drain
  4. lifeform markers are then added to the HUD. So you can see there is something 5Km away, in that direction.
  5. get into srv and drive over there.
  6. Sample away!
This also means you can have engineering blueprints for scanner ping size / battery draw / battery size becomes relevant to explorers
Click to expand...
it sounds like you have a laziness bug. get your a** inside a SRV and go exploring. SRV already have a radar mount that will show you where to go.
 

Mohenjo

Mohenjo
I posted a couple of pictures of a bacteria site in another thread. I stood RIGHT in front of it, but it was entirely invisible. I had stumbled on it by accident, after pinging for something else. There is NO way I would have seen it from my ship.

We need a couple of things. I'd get rid of the ping, it's pretty well useless as it is. Your idea isn't bad, but here's what I'd do.
I'd replace it with a scanner that displays rather like the one in the SRV. You would walk around and it would be continuously scanning, just like the SRV, picking up any ground contacts. Perhaps they could make it so you could calibrate it for specific readings (like bacteria), so it would only register those. The range would be similar to in the SRV, but the arc would be narrower.

I would also make the SRV scanner work the SAME WAY, so you could pick up biological or geological readings, but not specific ones (so you could set the SRV scanner to pick up only bio readings, but not bacteria specifically).

The detailed surface scanner might have a secondary mode that would pick up readings in the same way as the SRV scanner, but from your ship.
 

CMDR Sheehy

CMDR Sheehy
Some bacteria blend well with the ground on which they are placed.
URRsNlq.png

But they are still easy to find if your mind is on finding them. I did recently travel 3 hours across different terrain to discover all biologicals on one planet, which was fun... not least because of all the invisible obstacles, I did learn how to fly the SRV though...

The alt-tool on the genetic sampler is only useful to quickly determine whether to get back in the SRV and travel a little further for a sample.

Dumbing it down to have point and go equipment for finding this stuff would probably make it so boring I'd quit. Please don't make them do it. I really don't want to go back to Horizons style pointy-clicky-meaninglessness!
 

varonica

varonica
First, get a ship with good downward view, I have a Krait Phantom for instance, spend 5 minutes getting bacteria samples, that's it!
 

Vardaugas

Vardaugas
Worst offender is the tape of bacteria growing in a labyrinth like pattern. Its colours are usually close to the surface it grows on, its LOD is a smear, giving it a non-distinct appearance and it sometimes gets covered by the ground partially or wholly.
Edit: Talking about these.
bacteria.jpg
 
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Jack Lyttle

Jack Lyttle
Athlon-uk said:
SRV scanner only displays Geological signals, not Biological, but agree Its no fun if its easy.
Click to expand...
I did have some success last night following the SRV scanner's tall, thin, vertical bar signals. Couldn't tell you for certain that that wasn't chance though.

EDIT: FD (SMM) confirmed the SRV doesn't pick up EDO organics.
 
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DWorth

D
One method I've used when gathering samples is to use a run and then jump, using the suit thrusters to go as high as possible, and then a little jet at the reserves rechard to slow my descent and avoid injury. This allows slightly faster travel between patches of lifeforms visible from a distance (since you continue to fly through the air at the same speed as your run) but also puts you high enough to spot the bacteria patches on the ground.
 

Mohenjo

Mohenjo
DWorth said:
One method I've used when gathering samples is to use a run and then jump, using the suit thrusters to go as high as possible, and then a little jet at the reserves rechard to slow my descent and avoid injury. This allows slightly faster travel between patches of lifeforms visible from a distance (since you continue to fly through the air at the same speed as your run) but also puts you high enough to spot the bacteria patches on the ground.
Click to expand...
Not a reliable solution. Even using my ship, I spent 14 hours flying around a supposed hot spot and saw nothing.

Three Days of Searching...

So, found a planet with one biological signal on it, a Bacterial Colony. I don't know if you've ever tried to locate these things, but allow me to describe the last three days of my gameplay. I was in orbit, and had scanned the planet. The whole thing lit up blue, but there were a few areas...
forums.frontier.co.uk forums.frontier.co.uk
Here's the thread I posted my pics in. SO many planets, this is what you're facing. There might be one bacterial colony in a 1000 square miles, and you have to stumble onto it blind, because they're invisible and undetectable by scanners, and are only pinged at close range.
 
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