Newcomer / Intro DSS

hawknerd · May 5, 2020

Any pointers on how to DSS a planet from a distance? I dont want to have to fly up to it and seem to remember someone saying you can do it from a distance?

Chris Simon · May 5, 2020

If you're okay with just basic scan for fetures, you can do it in FSS, but if you want to fully scan it and earn the bonus, you have to fly close (within a couple of lightseconds) and then scan it with probes.

hawknerd · May 5, 2020

Im sure someone told me that they can do a DSS from a long way away and even do multiple scans from the same place in space.

Para Handy · May 5, 2020

Hawknerd said:
Im sure someone told me that they can do a DSS from a long way away and even do multiple scans from the same place in space.

Well they were wrong.

F4fred · May 5, 2020

Hawknerd said:
Im sure someone told me that they can do a DSS from a long way away and even do multiple scans from the same place in space.

They were talking about the FSS not the DSS. You can scan every planet in the system with that and all the signal sources without moving.To use the DSS you have to get up close, like planet fills the screen close, then you can fire off the probes. There are some good Youtube videos showing how to use the DSS.

d8veh · May 6, 2020

You get basic money for discovering that planets are there by honking the system. You get a lot more money by scanning the individual planets with the FSS, which you can do from one place. You get even more money if you fly to the planet and use the DSS.

Just honking, you get about 1 - 2 mil per hour. using the FSS and using the Road to Riches to pick out the valuable systems and planets, you can get around 15 mil per hour. Using R to R with the DSS, I'm told you can get 30 mil per hour, but I never tested it.

On my first trip to Colonia with 80LY jump, I scanned every system on the way there using the FSS. It got me around 200 mil going to Colonia and about 150 mil coming back, which should be enough for Elite explorer. Don't plot a route directly to Colonia. Instead, go up,, down, left or right a bit first and plot a route to somewhere to the side of Colonia. That way, you'll be the first to discover every system you go through.

hawknerd · May 6, 2020

When you FSS a system which ones are the ones worth doing a DSS on? I know WW and ELW and HMC but are there others such as rocky world?

Para Handy · May 6, 2020

Hawknerd said:
When you FSS a system which ones are the ones worth doing a DSS on? I know WW and ELW and HMC but are there others such as rocky world?

Anything that is "terraformable" gives a good payout as does Ammonia Worlds in addition to your listed types.

F4fred · May 7, 2020

Para Handy said:
Anything that is "terraformable" gives a good payout as does Ammonia Worlds in addition to your listed types.

Working out what is terraformable is the tricky part. Surface temp is important IIRC, something like 250-350K. Also distance to star vs size of star determines the habitable zone. It is 1AU for stars of stellar mass 1 then follows the inverse square law I think. So a stellar mass 2 star it would be square route of 2 or 1.4AU approx. Size of planet too in the range 0.5-1.5 the size of earth. That is if you want to do it the scientific way. Or just scan all ELW’s, WW‘s, HMC’s and Ammonia worlds. We need a proper astronomer to give us the full info though. Stellar Type has an influence on habitability. The hotter stars which give off a lot of UV light break down things like amino acids which makes evolving carbon based life forms difficult. Not sure about ammonia based lifeforms though. Not looked at the biology of what an ammonia based life form would be like.

Para Handy · May 7, 2020

F4fred said:
Working out what is terraformable is the tricky part. .........

I rely upon EDDiscovery which identifies terraformables for me. Of course you can just get the info from the System Map body info panel after you have FSSed but EDDiscovery is just an alt-tab away from a single image giving the info (or even without alt-tabbing if you use its web server with a tablet etc).

Tyres O'Flaherty · May 7, 2020

Hawknerd said:
When you FSS a system which ones are the ones worth doing a DSS on? I know WW and ELW and HMC but are there others such as rocky world?

I scan the whole system - it usually doesn't take too long to do - and get everything. However, when it comes to mapping a body, I'll only do ammonia, ELW amd WW. HMC's are optional in my mind but, if you get loads of them scanned, they can be quite lucrative.

The most I've got for one system is about 4.4mCR.

Back in the day (relatively speaking!), it took a bit longer to scan systems as you had to actually fly near to each body to get the "finding". It's a bit quicker with the FSS system these days.