An Open Letter to Explorers

[CMDR Poet Starwind]

Heading widdershins down the Perseus Arm, I am finding many, many, unexplored icy bodies. The shame these forgotten worlds must feel; I, the only one to nurture them into the annals of Universal Cartographics. Sure. they're worthless, pitiful, uninspiring moon-faced backwaters; but don't they deserve some love too?

And don't get me started on the Class L brown dwarfs you leave behind, or the Terrible Tauris; more than one water-based lifeform has evolved in the gas giants there, suckled on the pathetic solar output from dying/half-matured stars. Where is your humanity? Where is your humility in the face of the furnaces, nay, the crucibles of the Galaxy?

I'll just keep sopping up the leftovers from your gluttonous binges of worthy worlds, bringing home the discoveries of the discounted dismal dreggs; their countenances frozen over with glacial tears of neglect.

Oh, hey! Earth-like world! Cha-ching!! Heading back to the bubble!

Saving the galaxy from podunkery obscura once again,
CMDR Poet Starwind

 

[kofeyh]

Righto. Enjoy.

Unless one has countless hours, per day, to scratch that "I must scan everything, no ice body shall be left behind.. I SHALL NEVER SURRENDER!" itch, those little ice moons that have less value than the time taken to scan shall remain so.

Or, frontier could add a bonus to scanning an entire system (say 25-30% of total value as a 'fully scanned' bonus) then it might encourage more, err -- thorough -- exploration. Time is something that is required in vast quantities to fully scan a system; the game and the in-game group responsible for all stellar data don't seem to give a crap either.

I would have assumed, much like accountants, they'd crave collecting as much of it as humanely possible.

Note: 'awesome' is denoting another word. Sneaky forum word-replacement-routine - I choose you!

 

[CMDR Argent Steel]

I feel like a necessary evolution of any explorer is to reach that point where they conclude for themselves they have discovered enough icy bodies that they feel the things are no longer worth discovering.

As for myself I only scan the things if I'm in a system like a nebula or something where I just want to put my name on something and that's all that's there to do it with.

 

[Some1else]

I'm guessing you might change your lyrical diatribes if you had to pay for the fuel to get to those I C BALLS!

But Commander, you are welcome to swim in the wake of my glutinous feasting of all that is fatty, delicious, and worthy of the blessed caress by my DSS, nibbling, nay, gnawing on the frozen hearts of sad, forgotten, and unwanted lumps of dirty ice. All while making a pathetic attempt to give warmth to cold, unworthy, balls of want-a-be stars.

Carry on Commander of all that is unworthy!

LLaP

S1E

 

[Archvillain]

The completionist in me used to scan everything in a system, but now I think it's better to have systems which show multiple explorers have visited. My first Earthlike discovery had some rich-looking gas giants also in the system - possibly with life. I left them (and many other worlds) unexplored so that when I looked at my ELW on the map in the future, I would know if anyone else had visited the system.

Today that system is fully explored, and it's only because I didn't scan everything that I know I wasn't the only person to go there

 

[CMDR Poet Starwind]

I'm guessing you might change your lyrical diatribes if you had to pay for the fuel to get to those I C BALLS!

But Commander, you are welcome to swim in the wake of my glutinous feasting of all that is fatty, delicious, and worthy of the blessed caress by my DSS, nibbling, nay, gnawing on the frozen hearts of sad, forgotten, and unwanted lumps of dirty ice. All while making a pathetic attempt to give warmth to cold, unworthy, balls of want-a-be stars.

Carry on Commander of all that is unworthy!

LLaP

S1E

Oh, I will.And when I make it from Pathfinder to Elite ranking in two, maybe three years as a result, then we will see who is laughing!

Ha ha! There's that then!

Fly safe, but not *too* safe, CMDR!

 

[DNA-Decay]

So, is 'awesome' the new awesome?

I'm in.

Maybe we can get one of those browser plugins that does automatic word replacement.

Like 'Drumpf' for 'Trump'

 

[Caointean]

Heading widdershins down the Perseus Arm, I am finding many, many, unexplored icy bodies. The shame these forgotten worlds must feel; I, the only one to nurture them into the annals of Universal Cartographics. Sure. they're worthless, pitiful, uninspiring moon-faced backwaters; but don't they deserve some love too?

And don't get me started on the Class L brown dwarfs you leave behind, or the Terrible Tauris; more than one water-based lifeform has evolved in the gas giants there, suckled on the pathetic solar output from dying/half-matured stars. Where is your humanity? Where is your humility in the face of the furnaces, nay, the crucibles of the Galaxy?

I'll just keep sopping up the leftovers from your gluttonous binges of worthy worlds, bringing home the discoveries of the discounted dismal dreggs; their countenances frozen over with glacial tears of neglect.

I feel you ! Do it for science, not credits !

I have two exploring policies :
- Actual exploring : jump in the system and scan everything ! ("> What do you mean 'everything' ? > EVERYTHING !")
- Getting to a specific place in no time : Jump'n'Honk till tank nearly empty, then scoop up and scan the star you're scooping fuel from.

Also, I scan the lonely stars, so they don't feel unwanted and cry.

 

[Jack Schitt]

I used to be an "all or nothing" scanner but as time has gone on I must admit I have started to cherry pick the occasional ELW or neutron star while leaving everything else. I try not to do it, but when I'm on my way to a specific destination and I stumble upon an easily scannable paycheck it's hard to say no.

(The answer to this is to never check the system map when doing a scoop-and-honk sprint, but that takes far more self control than I possess. I'd live forever in fear that I'd done something like flying straight through the Thargoid home system and not noticing).

Just to annoy fellow explorers even more, you might find one or two systems towards the core where the only thing I've tagged is a single dull icy moon, because it orbits somewhere picturesque and I've accidentally scanned it while landing. I try to avoid doing this -- I don't even scan the primary star if all I'm after is a screenshot -- but sometimes I forget to deselect the moon on orbital approach and I get a scan by default.

Today that system is fully explored, and it's only because I didn't scan everything that I know I wasn't the only person to go there

That's a great idea. I'm wondering if there couldn't be some sort of scavenger hunt type game to be made out of this. Tag a single nondescript moon somewhere then give a starting location within say 30 light years, depending on star density. First pilot to find the right system and tag an adjacent moon wins. Of course the requirement to fly back to civilisation and sell the data, both for the originator and the competitors, means this would be impractical too far from home. But there are still loads of untagged worlds just beyond the bubble.

FD might even want to get in on this. They could manually tweak the database with the tag of an NPC explorer, then run a Galnet article about how his dying words suggested a great treasure to be found on a world he scanned out near the {whatever} nebula...

(Of course if they did this, it would effectively confirm that we're never going to get a searchable database of tagged worlds. So maybe I'll be happier if they don't jump on this idea).

 

[Crazy Jedi]

I try and scan everything within a system but usually once I am approaching which ever interesting looking target that I may have set I see my patience start to flitter away and I scan less and less of the multitude of snow balls out there in my eagerness to reach my goal.....

 

[Insomnia]

It's useless to travel thousands of light seconds to scan tiny moons that looks like everything else in the game.
It simply doesn't feel meaningful to scan it, and I'm not just talking about how little it pays.

 

[roryclague]

When, on the DWE and I am trying to keep up with the fleet, I typically scan water worlds only, if I see them. If I find an earth-like, a black hole, or a planetary nebula, I scan the whole system. Other systems are honked and ignored. When I'm not in a hurry, I scan metal planets and ammonia worlds and water based life containing gas giants. I don't explore for money, but for tags, prospecting, and camp sites.

 

[SirAdelaide]

Sure. they're worthless, pitiful, uninspiring moon-faced backwaters; but don't they deserve some love too?

No. They don't deserve anything. But blaze your own trail etc.

 

[askavir]

There are 2 schools of thought about this.

1 - It's a huge galaxy, the more you linger on a single system, the less systems you will ever travel to and bask in its many wonders.
2 - The galaxy is full of wonders. If you rush too much, you might go by an extraordinary find without even noticing it.

Both are right. Choose one. Or alternate between them.

 

[Bran Tse Mallory]

Heading widdershins down the Perseus Arm, I am finding many, many, unexplored icy bodies. The shame these forgotten worlds must feel; I, the only one to nurture them into the annals of Universal Cartographics. Sure. they're worthless, pitiful, uninspiring moon-faced backwaters; but don't they deserve some love too?

And don't get me started on the Class L brown dwarfs you leave behind, or the Terrible Tauris; more than one water-based lifeform has evolved in the gas giants there, suckled on the pathetic solar output from dying/half-matured stars. Where is your humanity? Where is your humility in the face of the furnaces, nay, the crucibles of the Galaxy?

I'll just keep sopping up the leftovers from your gluttonous binges of worthy worlds, bringing home the discoveries of the discounted dismal dreggs; their countenances frozen over with glacial tears of neglect.

Oh, hey! Earth-like world! Cha-ching!! Heading back to the bubble!

Saving the galaxy from podunkery obscura once again,
CMDR Poet Starwind

You are welcome to my sloppy seconds or things I leave behind. When I go exploring I scan the objects that interest me. I can make ice in my freezer therefore ice worlds do not interest me in the slightest.

Have fun and fly safe CMDR! o7

 

[CMDR Argent Steel]

(The answer to this is to never check the system map when doing a scoop-and-honk sprint, but that takes far more self control than I possess. I'd live forever in fear that I'd done something like flying straight through the Thargoid home system and not noticing).

Just today I found an ELW in a system where someone had come through, scanned just the star, and left the rest of the whole system unscanned. Maybe they were a buckyballer or something, but I think it's just as likely they simply dismissed it as something else or overlooked it entirely.

I at least look at the system map after doing a honk. Like you, I suspect that there is that one in a million (perhaps literally that ratio or similar) system out there that has something of game-shattering significance in it.

 

[SMcA]

I feel like a necessary evolution of any explorer is to reach that point where they conclude for themselves they have discovered enough icy bodies that they feel the things are no longer worth discovering.

As for myself I only scan the things if I'm in a system like a nebula or something where I just want to put my name on something and that's all that's there to do it with.

I agree with you except I will leave some bodies for others to put their mark upon. There is no need to be greedy.

 

[Jackie Silver]

(The answer to this is to never check the system map when doing a scoop-and-honk sprint, but that takes far more self control than I possess. I'd live forever in fear that I'd done something like flying straight through the Thargoid home system and not noticing).

I'm working on the principle that if I should happen to jonk into the Thargoid home system there'll be a "my God, it's full of Octagons" moment on the scanner.

WRT to the OP, I scan whatever I'm interested in, which might equally well be iceballs or Earthlikes. Usually I don't scan anything or bother to look at the system map because I'm on my way to whatever it is I'm focusing on.

 

[Jon474]

What am I scanning? I started out scanning the star and everything, then I dropped to always scanning the star and all ELW/WW/AWs, but if none of those were present I scanned a random object in the system. For a long while I always scanned the penultimate object in the system...however far away. That led me on some very long excursions. My longest was a Rocky world 587K LS away! I tend not to bother scanning stars anymore unless they are A, B or O - I love these stars. The exotics do get a scan, obviously.

Recently I have realised why I feel the need to scan as much as possible: this game is so very huge, there are just so many systems in the Galaxy, and my flight plan takes me a long way off the beaten track, that there is a very real possibility that some of the systems I have entered will NEVER EVER be visited again. I could be the only person in the RL history of this Galaxy that will ever enter some of these in-game systems. That is a sobering thought. No-one will ever again come to this system, I could end up being its one and only visitor in the whole of history. I realised that I felt, and still feel, a huge responsibility to do the system "justice". To record its existence. To record its content. To tell the Galaxy of its existence. If I didn't, or don't, do this then no-one else will ever do so. I had to go and have a lie-down at that point in my deliberations.

Flying happy
Jon
T-6E

 

[newman1702]

Not this again. A thread like this happens every so often, and in most cases, it's started by someone new to exploring not yet really comprehending the size and scope of it all. I'll let you ponder why that might be In the mean time, get to the other side of the galaxy and back and you'll start skipping the boring stuff as well after thousands upon thousands of frozen worlds - unless you're happy taking years to reach the more remote regions of the galaxy, skipping is necessary.