A Bit of Exploring

Badger

Badger
Afternoon all.

I thought I might explore for a bit and no surprises that this means it’s time to pick the forums brains again. :)

Couple of things.....

1/ Stripping a ship down to increase the jump range, I’ve found that the empty cargo racks don’t seem to have the “store” option the way that other items have. Am I missing something?

2/ And on the subject of probably missing the obvious.. while using the Full Spectrum Scanner to discover what’s out there. Does the amount I am potentially earning pop up somewhere on screen? Because if so I’m missing it and only when I land and check with the cartography people, can I actually see what I am eventually earning.

Thanks folks
Badger
 

Nepeta Uchiha

Nepeta Uchiha
Cargo Racks don't have any weight so you can just leave them in your ship and no you can not see the credit worth of things you scan until you dock to sell the data.

Also don't forget a Fuel Scoop or you'll be sorry.
 

Dillon Fallon

Dillon Fallon
Most things you can scan will be trash, but that doesn't mean they're not always worth a closer look sometimes for driving about or messing about flying down canyons. Valuable bodies are: Earth like worlds, water worlds, ammonia worlds and terraformable high metal content worlds. Find plenty of them and you'll be in for a big payout.

You can sometimes guess that a high metal world may be terraformable by the size, star type and distance from the star.

Make sure you bring a DSS as probing will more or less double your money. There's also the sightseeing potential as well since this highlights any points of interest (brain trees, etc.).
 

Badger

Badger
Thanks all

So DeeJayeff145. You Honk, then you use FSS. But then there is still more money to be had if you fly to the planet and use the DSS (am I right that fires a probe?) on it?
 
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Rustnsawdust

R
Badger said:
You Honk, then you use FSS. But then there is still more money to be had if you fly to the planet and use the DSS
Click to expand...
Yes. And the extra payments for mapping high-value worlds (earthlikes, waterworlds, ammonia worlds, terraformable HMCs) boost the payouts significantly. Then you get extra bonuses for scanning everything in the system, and more bonuses for mapping everything in the system. And another bonus if you map a body using fewer than the standard number of probes.

For me, an 'average' page of exploration data might be worth 15-20m credits, but bonuses can add another 5-10m to that. I also returned to the game in June after some six months out, and my credit balance was about 200m. After three jaunts totalling around 30,000ly I hit 1.2bn credits. It doesn't come close to the vopal mining meta, but exploration is surely the easiest way to make money these days.
 

Herdygerdy

Herdygerdy
Sign up for an account on edsm. Link it to your frontier account. Run it when you play and you will see your estimated scan value since last docked.

If you map a system with the FSS it will also show any terraformables, water worlds and earth likes and their potential mapping values. Though it takes a minute or 2 to update with the information.

www.edsm.net

EDSM - Elite Dangerous Star Map

The Galactic Positioning System of Elite: Dangerous at your service.
www.edsm.net www.edsm.net

You can now link your PSN account to EDSM.net to log your journeys!

This is pretty big folks, massive shout out to both EDSM and Frontier who seem to have put the console authentication in place. Hopefully this will allow us to use more third party apps in the future. [up] https://www.edsm.net Create an account and select the "console updater" in the profile...
forums.frontier.co.uk forums.frontier.co.uk
 

Badger

Badger
Thanks again for the advice folks. In the beginning I was really only thinking in terms of raising a stake to set up a mining op. I’m definitely stil doing that, but the more I read about exploring and the more videos I see, the more I am starting to feel like I want to immerse myself in its ethos for a while.

Badger
 

Nepeta Uchiha

Nepeta Uchiha
Deejayeff145 said:
Most things you can scan will be trash, but that doesn't mean they're not always worth a closer look sometimes for driving about or messing about flying down canyons. Valuable bodies are: Earth like worlds, water worlds, ammonia worlds and terraformable high metal content worlds. Find plenty of them and you'll be in for a big payout.

You can sometimes guess that a high metal world may be terraformable by the size, star type and distance from the star.

Make sure you bring a DSS as probing will more or less double your money. There's also the sightseeing potential as well since this highlights any points of interest (brain trees, etc.).
Click to expand...

Eh still good to scan everything. I already got over 10 million for a single system many times by detail surface scanning all bodies.
 

Racetrack

Racetrack
Next important question. What ship will you be exploring in?

Also make sure you bring an SRV so you can have some fun zooming around planets and gathering raw materials from the geological sites you will find when probing. Also to scan geysers or lava spouts with its composition scanner.

If your ship has space, bring an auto field mantenance unit.
 

Badger

Badger
Hey Racetrack. I’ve started out in my Hauler “Erasmus” and the plan is to potter along through the space lanes until I have enough in the coffers for something sexy, with more bells and whistles.

I have an SRV installed (although it brought my range down) and I’m looking forward to having an excuse to use it. So far my detailed planet scans haven’t returned anything to investigate. But I’m only on my second system and while they were unexplored for “me”, they’re well trodden by everyone else. I expect I’ll see more as I get further out.

I did start out on the “Road to Riches”. But after the first system (Which after doing everything, netted me 500,000) I felt like I wasn’t really going to be exploring if I followed someone else’s step by step route. So I’ll make my own way. Actually the amount I got wasn’t close to the amount the guide predicted, so I’m guessing things have changed since it was made. That said, my first self chosen system only got me 50,000 for a fair bit of graft. So at that rate Erasmus will be looking after me for a while yet.

Not a problem though. If I wanted “get rich quick” I’d have stayed on the riches road right? :)

“Auto field maintenance unit” you say? Sounds like ongoing automated repairs without having to dock? I actually think Erasmus is stuffed to the rivets. Is it worth figuring out something else to ditch?

Badger
 

Dillon Fallon

Dillon Fallon
An AFMU is a must have if you're planning on doing plenty of neutron jumps since each time you scoop from the jet cone you take about 1% damage to your FSD. Below 80% integrity you'll start to get malfunctions which will be an annoyance. Otherwise it's still useful if you have an 'oops' moment when jumping into a system and hitting the star's exclusion zone.

Usually I'll run with an A rated one and have it shut down to conserve power when I'm not using it.
 

Dillon Fallon

Dillon Fallon
For just doing jumps it is a case of not crashing too often. I think it's more for peace of mind when you're going on a particularly long excursion. Some of the planets close to stars can come with a toasty supercruise transition when you're taking off from them.

You'll want to avoid situations where modules get damaged anyway since you'll be damaging your powerplant and you can't repair that in the field. That's the only thing that I'm aware of that can't be mitigated. Avoid that and you could stay out there for years.
 

Racetrack

Racetrack
The AFMU can repair modules in space. Caution! It shuts down the module while repairing, so don’t repair your FSD in supercruise as you will emergency drop and take damage.

Hull repair limpets fix hull. But that’s yet another module, plus a cargo rack.
 

Soron Silin

Soron Silin
Right at the start of one of my expeditions I mishandled a jump and ended up in the sun, whereupon a pirate landed on me and tried to beat me up. Having an AFMU was the difference between shrugging it off and jumping back to the bubble.

The list I work to is based on a minimum value of 100k credits for a first discovery and first mapping. On that basis it is worth mapping:
  • Ammonia World
  • Earth-like World
  • High Metal Content World IF terraformable
  • Metal-Rich Body
  • Rocky Body IF terraformable
A gas-giant Class II gets an honourable mention since it's worth 89k, but it takes a whole lot of probes and it's usually a fair distance to SC.

Non-terraformable High Metal Content planets are worth 44k and a Gas Giant Class I is worth 12k. All the rest are under 10k.

But everything is worth much more mapped than unmapped.
 
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