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Newcomer / Intro Any advice for a newbie who wants to explore
- Thread starter DeWolf
- Start date
Here is what I did,
Bought a fuel scoop, it took my cargo space but that was ok to me. Fuel scoops will help keep you from running out of gas as long as yo have a scoopable star in your system. Not all do and many of them are empty so no stations either.
Once you have mapped out a system you can get anywhere form about 2k to 8K depending on what's there. You might even get more. A big system took me almost an hour to map.
Once you are ready to sell your data, you have to travel at least 20 LY to be able to sell it.
As soon as you can afford it buy a better power core, and then a better FSD to increase your jump range.
for more info take a look at my Scare of the Day Thread. I did a travel log of my exploration trip. It may be helpful.
Oh the ranges for scanning things vary from object to object with the discovery scanner. A sun will scan as far out as 500LS where a resource/mining are may only scan at about 4-5 ls out.
I hope this was helpful and accurate. I'm still in the noob range myself.
Oh Oh another thing I learned that might be helpful..If you want to jump as far and fast as you can check the seeting on the nav map. They are right under the search window.
Bought a fuel scoop, it took my cargo space but that was ok to me. Fuel scoops will help keep you from running out of gas as long as yo have a scoopable star in your system. Not all do and many of them are empty so no stations either.
Once you have mapped out a system you can get anywhere form about 2k to 8K depending on what's there. You might even get more. A big system took me almost an hour to map.
Once you are ready to sell your data, you have to travel at least 20 LY to be able to sell it.
As soon as you can afford it buy a better power core, and then a better FSD to increase your jump range.
for more info take a look at my Scare of the Day Thread. I did a travel log of my exploration trip. It may be helpful.
Oh the ranges for scanning things vary from object to object with the discovery scanner. A sun will scan as far out as 500LS where a resource/mining are may only scan at about 4-5 ls out.
I hope this was helpful and accurate. I'm still in the noob range myself.
Oh Oh another thing I learned that might be helpful..If you want to jump as far and fast as you can check the seeting on the nav map. They are right under the search window.
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Making cash from exploring:
Map your Basic Discovery Scanner to a firing group ("4" to bring up the system panel on the right, "n" to cycle to the next firing group). Once you got the D. Scanner selected, jump to a system that is partially or totally unexplored and hold down the trigger until you hear an awesome pinging gong sound. This will reveal all of the objects within 500 lightseconds.
More distant objects can be found with an upgraded scanner, or by looking for the bright points of light that move against the fixed background stars and flying towards them. Once you get within 500ls, use your scanner again.
You can also do more detailed scans by targeting an object marked as "unknown" and keeping it in front of your ship until the "Scanning..." finishes and the name of the object displays.
You can sell the data at any station that is at least 20 lightyears from the surveyed system. You get more cash for systems with more stuff, and the most cash for detailed scans of valuable planets, like earthlike or mineral-rich ones.
Finding places to explore:
There are lots of unsurveyed systems all over the place. Some are even inhabited but don't have their data added to the cartographic database. As near as I can tell, what other players are doing doesn't have a huge impact on how much cash you make, but I haven't been that far outside human space so that might change if you're exploring things 1000s of lightyears away.
Surviving Exploring:
I do a lot of exploring along the way on my long-distance trading runs. It's a great source of supplemental income. If you're specifically just exploring, you're going to want a fuel scoop, so you don't risk being stranded. A heatsink launcher is also useful, eventually, in case you accidentally end up too close to a star (some of the larger ones can be dangerous). Eventually, you'll want an auto-repair unit for when you're really far away from inhabited space, but you probably want to wait until you have a bigger ship than a Sidewinder for that.
Also, having a longer jump range helps.
Map your Basic Discovery Scanner to a firing group ("4" to bring up the system panel on the right, "n" to cycle to the next firing group). Once you got the D. Scanner selected, jump to a system that is partially or totally unexplored and hold down the trigger until you hear an awesome pinging gong sound. This will reveal all of the objects within 500 lightseconds.
More distant objects can be found with an upgraded scanner, or by looking for the bright points of light that move against the fixed background stars and flying towards them. Once you get within 500ls, use your scanner again.
You can also do more detailed scans by targeting an object marked as "unknown" and keeping it in front of your ship until the "Scanning..." finishes and the name of the object displays.
You can sell the data at any station that is at least 20 lightyears from the surveyed system. You get more cash for systems with more stuff, and the most cash for detailed scans of valuable planets, like earthlike or mineral-rich ones.
Finding places to explore:
There are lots of unsurveyed systems all over the place. Some are even inhabited but don't have their data added to the cartographic database. As near as I can tell, what other players are doing doesn't have a huge impact on how much cash you make, but I haven't been that far outside human space so that might change if you're exploring things 1000s of lightyears away.
Surviving Exploring:
I do a lot of exploring along the way on my long-distance trading runs. It's a great source of supplemental income. If you're specifically just exploring, you're going to want a fuel scoop, so you don't risk being stranded. A heatsink launcher is also useful, eventually, in case you accidentally end up too close to a star (some of the larger ones can be dangerous). Eventually, you'll want an auto-repair unit for when you're really far away from inhabited space, but you probably want to wait until you have a bigger ship than a Sidewinder for that.
Also, having a longer jump range helps.
OK I am gonna wade in here with some down the line questions.
What is the functional difference between basic/intermediate/advanced scanners?
What can you do with the "sensors" package on the ship? Is it up-gradable as I have not found anywhere that has anything.
With regards to the OP, I started out just scanning anywhere I went that was "unexplored" you can get some modest cash for just doing the system scans but significantly more if you scan each local object seperately (have it as your target and get withing range , range depends on object type)
What is the functional difference between basic/intermediate/advanced scanners?
What can you do with the "sensors" package on the ship? Is it up-gradable as I have not found anywhere that has anything.
With regards to the OP, I started out just scanning anywhere I went that was "unexplored" you can get some modest cash for just doing the system scans but significantly more if you scan each local object seperately (have it as your target and get withing range , range depends on object type)
A little experienced advice from a old hand in Elite, play your own game.
We can only tell you what we would do, but ultimately its all up to you in the space arena.
I personally got used to flying the sidewinder and earning some money. Once I had earned enough I then moved on to the hard things in life, doing missions be them moving things for people or removing people.
I its all about what you feel comfortable with.
BUT REMEMBER Elite isn't just for Christmas, Its for life.
We can only tell you what we would do, but ultimately its all up to you in the space arena.
I personally got used to flying the sidewinder and earning some money. Once I had earned enough I then moved on to the hard things in life, doing missions be them moving things for people or removing people.
I its all about what you feel comfortable with.
BUT REMEMBER Elite isn't just for Christmas, Its for life.
lots of great suggestions above. One thing I would suggest and that was a lot of fun for me was to pick a real place somewhere fairly far out and go there. For me it was Orion's belt I picked one of the closest stars in the belt and set that as my destination and headed there. You will definitely want an auto maintenance field repair unit. After about two hundred light years there will be no more stations to do repairs at.
Its not a good starting profession. The money is bad for the hours you will spend exploring. I recommend trying trading first, before moving on to try other professions, and leave exploration until last. You will spend hours at it and earn very, very little money. And money is something you need starting out.
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The D-scans differ in range. Basic is 500 ls, Intermediate is 1000 ls and the Advanced D-Scan pings the whole system.
Sensors affect things that need lock on like turrets and gimbals, but may have an effect on scan time. I upgrade mine - High Tech and Industrial stations seem to be best.
Pure exploration isn't lucrative on the face of it, but it can be done with minimal investment, it builds rep and is its own track to Elite status.
The Adder is the ship you want to work towards after Sidewinder.
Yeah, to start with your two friends are:
1) Having a decent FSD range (cheap enough to get in a sidewinder)
2) Knowing which targets to spend time scanning. Don't waste time doing close scans of rocky planets. You want metal planets, water words, and earthlikes. The latter two are easy to spot. Metal words come in a variety of textures. But if its while or pale then its most likely a rocky planet or ice planet. You'll get to recognize the good ones after a while.
If you are hunting earthlikes, then you can't go wrong checking out medium/small G type stars, but i have found earthlikes round a varity of stars. Don't usually find them round Giants and the stranger star types though. I think i did find an earthlike near a Brown Dwarf though, that was a surprise.
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Pick a direction, and keep going.
Be warned, i'm currently experiencing disconnections increase the further I go out. I seem to get round it a bit by choosing a different system to head to and i can get a little further. Jumping takes longer as well. There is an issue here that needs looking at. Still, that's at over 1000LY out, you don't need to go more than a few hundred LY for your first trip i would say. From that you should get enough money to get yourself some upgrades and possibly a Detailed Surface Scanner.
1) Having a decent FSD range (cheap enough to get in a sidewinder)
2) Knowing which targets to spend time scanning. Don't waste time doing close scans of rocky planets. You want metal planets, water words, and earthlikes. The latter two are easy to spot. Metal words come in a variety of textures. But if its while or pale then its most likely a rocky planet or ice planet. You'll get to recognize the good ones after a while.
If you are hunting earthlikes, then you can't go wrong checking out medium/small G type stars, but i have found earthlikes round a varity of stars. Don't usually find them round Giants and the stranger star types though. I think i did find an earthlike near a Brown Dwarf though, that was a surprise.
- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -
Pick a direction, and keep going.
Be warned, i'm currently experiencing disconnections increase the further I go out. I seem to get round it a bit by choosing a different system to head to and i can get a little further. Jumping takes longer as well. There is an issue here that needs looking at. Still, that's at over 1000LY out, you don't need to go more than a few hundred LY for your first trip i would say. From that you should get enough money to get yourself some upgrades and possibly a Detailed Surface Scanner.