This happened to me yesterday, went exploring 10-15 systems before the 1.0 launch, made a stupid mistake and blew up my hauler - the information for the systems I discovered are still in my ships computer (because I can read the names of the planetary bodies), but there is no data to sell.
I don't think this is a bug really - when you discover something I assume it's automatically uploaded to a galaxywide database somewhere, and in selling the information to cartographics you're just redeeming a voucher for doing so, or something like that.
I could be wrong but some clarification from FD would be good.
Honestly, it's a silly system. I can literally buy system data from anywhere, why can't I sell it from anywhere? I can kill a wanted NPC literally thousands of light years away from the nearest inhabited planet, and that data is instantly sent and my rewards credited. Or if I commit a crime on the far side of the galaxy, everyone in existence knows instantly.
I understand that there needs to be a penalty for death when doing deep space exploration; but this system is inconsistent with the game's own simulation. The fact is, if I die thousands of light years from where I've been exploring, getting pulled back to civilization and having to trek back out there *is* the punishment.
It's a flawed system. The penalty for ship destruction is essentially a loss of in-game bragging rights, earned credits and Explorer ranking recognition and progression, as the Explorer rank is related to the value of your data that you acquire in terms of credits, not systems visited. As for not being able to rescan all you have scanned before your destruction, perhaps the data are damaged in the escape, so that it does not recognise the identity of the explorer, but has enough to learn of the pilot's whereabouts and visits to fill out their own map - but due to a legal loophole they cannot formally credit you with the discovery without formal confirmation.
I don't know, it seems like a glib backpedally explanation, but maybe that's what they are thinking. It does make one wonder, though: if Amundsen perished on the return journey and Scott returned home, would Scott be credited with reaching the South Pole first despite having been beaten to it?
As for the legality and reward of killing wanted and clean NPCs away from civilisation... There is no local government, so by rights the enemy has no local bounty, unless you can make a claim with your kill warrant scanner. This makes sense to me. However, the enemy may have reputation with other factions, who will know what happened and who was involved when one of theirs comes back home in an escape capsule, and their attitude to you will shift. This also makes sense to me.
