Exo-biology: Groping in the dark

[Diwrnach]

DSS (Detailed Surface Scanner) needs to be bought and fitted which fires probes (unlimited) to map the surface to build a heatmap. This is shown in the video in your following comment.

If you have the mats, go for the Detailed Surface Scanner (Engineered V1), it will make the process much less painful and time-consuming.

 

[Ozric]

Doesn't work with bacterial colonies. Problem there is that visually bacteria (the most common type found) appears only as a slightly different textured patch of ground which, even with sufficient light is pretty difficult to spot, which essentially means that if the body is one of the ones further out from the main star, you're not going to be able to see anything even if you land day-side and night vision doesn't really help due to the fact that the texture difference between the bacterial colony and normal terrain is lost.

Get in a SRV > Go into the Camera Suite > Raise it as high as it can go and look around. You can drive with the camera suite out if you want, but most of the time you will spot at least one bacteria from where you're sat, if not just drive a few hundred M and then use the camera suite again.

 

[[VR] James Constantine]

I found it very useful when started the career as an exobiologist, still it may provide no very useful hints for searching bacteria in the darkness

'Fraid not. Well it did confirm one suspicion in that it advised not to bother with bacteria at all as it pays so badly:

"generally payouts for bacteria are low enough that it's not worth the trouble to locate them, unless you're being a completionist or are looking for specific Codex tags. If you aren't looking for either of those, then for the sake of your mental health, I'd generally recommend not bothering with bacteria."

From what I can ascertain, exobiology only makes sense if for life which is more advanced than bacterial colonies. Otherwise the return on your time would be better spent just scanning other planets in the system. The only time where bacterial colonies are worth perusing is if you're already landing for some other reason.

Bacteria is really difficult to spot when on-foot but can be seen from about 400m (ymmv depending on video card - idk) above the planet surface from your ship. Just go to the light side of the planet and search flat desert type areas.

There is no light side of the planet - that's kind of the point of my question. It's too far out.

If you have the mats, go for the Detailed Surface Scanner (Engineered V1), it will make the process much less painful and time-consuming.

I've a DSS upgraded to grade 5, so all most bodies need is two or three probes at most.

Get in a SRV > Go into the Camera Suite > Raise it as high as it can go and look around. You can drive with the camera suite out if you want, but most of the time you will spot at least one bacteria from where you're sat, if not just drive a few hundred M and then use the camera suite again.

Again, as I already said, if you're on a body too far out from the star this doesn't help as there is insufficient light to really make anything out. I even tried flying upside down with night vision, but the grainy effect of that makes spotting differences in the texture pointless. Honestly, it just appears to be a use case that the devs didn't think of when developing this game play.

 

[Diwrnach]

There is no light side of the planet - that's kind of the point of my question. It's too far out.

I've never seen a planet that didn't have a light side no matter how far away from the star. I have found a few that were eclipsed by other planets that effectively had no day side.

 

[Walter2]

I have noticed the same issue - but have nothing constructive to add, sadly, as I'll just go elsewhere if there is insufficient light even on the equator to light the surface.

Otherwise, I'll use the SRV 'flyving' to look for the darker patches from the air, which you probably do also.

The remote camera is really useful. Checking the one you've found from above helps identify other samples. If you don't see any others, drive/fly to another area of similar terrain and try again.
Edit: Ninjad by Ozric - again; great minds thinking alike. If only I had two minds like him.

 

[Ozric]

Again, as I already said, if you're on a body too far out from the star this doesn't help as there is insufficient light to really make anything out. I even tried flying upside down with night vision, but the grainy effect of that makes spotting differences in the texture pointless. Honestly, it just appears to be a use case that the devs didn't think of when developing this game play.

Your SRV has lights. Much brighter lights in Odyssey too since they upgraded to Halogen bulbs, which on a side note I hate. Also no light side of a planet is as dark as the dark side of a planet, so it's not pitch black.

I've searched loads of planets that are more than 2,500Ls away from the main star because there are certain types of life that only grow that far out. I've been to ones over 5,000Ls from the main star and it's not as dark as the dark side of the planet. To suggest it's something they didn't consider when making some things require these conditions is just silly.

If you really can't see anything on the side of a planet that is facing the main star, at 2-3,000Ls, then I'd suggest looking at your Gamma settings.

 

[[VR] James Constantine]

I've never seen a planet that didn't have a light side no matter how far away from the star. I have found a few that were eclipsed by other planets that effectively had no day side.

Of course it has a 'light' side, but if far out enough the level of light is so low that you really can't see much, certainly not the level of detail to be able to detect the difference between normal terrain and a bacterial colony pool.

Your SRV has lights. Much brighter lights in Odyssey too since they upgraded to Halogen bulbs, which on a side note I hate. Also no light side of a planet is as dark as the dark side of a planet, so it's not pitch black.

Have you ever tried finding bacterial colonies from only your SRV cockpit view, even with plenty of daylight? So have long do you reckon you would have to drive around aimlessly to stumble upon three genetically significant samples?

I've searched loads of planets that are more than 2,500Ls away from the main star because there are certain types of life that only grow that far out. I've been to ones over 5,000Ls from the main star and it's not as dark as the dark side of the planet. To suggest it's something they didn't consider when making some things require these conditions is just silly.

Yes, it would be silly to suggest that FDev would ever push out a half baked game out the door.

If you really can't see anything on the side of a planet that is facing the main star, at 2-3,000Ls, then I'd suggest looking at your Gamma settings.

They're presently set to normal, which is generally fine, but given the problems we've had with the gamma settings, it could be worth trying out.

Nonetheless, given the return that bacterial colonies offer, it's kind of a moot point.

 

[Northpin]

Short answer:
1 get an Artemis suit
2 find a planet with Bio signals
3 land in blue area
4 run around until you find a plant
5 run around until you find two more of the same at appropriate distance
Distance varies between 150 to 800 meters per species
6 if there are more then one bio signal in this spot, repeat steps 4 and 5
7 if there are more but in other places, go to orbit of planet.
8 select other area
9 repeat steps 3 to 8

Sounds pretty accurate.
But step 6 is a major annoyance generator for me because the lack of extra canisters...

 

[Commander Mick]

DSS (Detailed Surface Scanner) needs to be bought and fitted which fires probes (unlimited) to map the surface to build a heatmap. This is shown in the video in your following comment.

I realise that now, and thanks....

 

[[VR] James Constantine]

But step 6 is a major annoyance generator for me because the lack of extra canisters...

True. Malicious intent on the part of the devs, as naturally the idea that they didn't think the game play through and realize this would be silly...

 

[Ozric]

Have you ever tried finding bacterial colonies from only your SRV cockpit view, even with plenty of daylight? So have long do you reckon you would have to drive around aimlessly to stumble upon three genetically significant samples?

Yes I have and it's quite hard, which is why I said to use the Camera Suite. I'm not sure why you're talking about just being in the cockpit.

Nonetheless, given the return that bacterial colonies offer, it's kind of a moot point.

But that is what the thread is about. Unless you are suggesting that the whole thread is just a moot point and you weren't actually looking for suggestions on improving your ability to find bacterial colonies, and were in fact just making a thread to have a moan

 

[[VR] James Constantine]

Yes I have and it's quite hard, which is why I said to use the Camera Suite. I'm not sure why you're talking about just being in the cockpit.

And that will allow you to see how far forward..? At best it's a level of needle in haystack grind that would suck any enjoyment out of it.

But that is what the thread is about. Unless you are suggesting that the whole thread is just a moot point and you weren't actually looking for suggestions on improving your ability to find bacterial colonies, and were in fact just making a thread to have a moan

True. At least when I started this thread. In the course of the thread, and having read some of the links posted, I've come to the conclusion that bacterial colonies, in general, are not worth the effort, unless you're already down on a planet surface. Just as many people recommend not bothering to scan certain planet types to maximize exploration income, instead concentrating on Earth-like, water and ammonia worlds, it's perfectly valid to similarly recommend not bothering to scan bacterial colonies for the same reasons.

That's hardly moaning, unless you're particularly thin skinned.

 

[CMDR Sheehy]

So I'm in the black merrily honking along the way and occasionally sticking around in a system to scan the various planets and occasionally landing to see if I can find anything moist...

Thing is that in many cases, particularly bacteria, it's hard enough to spot it when the lighting conditions are good, but if on a body a few thousand ls away from it's closest star, it's pretty much a case of groping around in the dark in the hope that you find the wet spot. But enough about my love life.

Any suggestions on how to better find exo-biology samples, where lighting conditions are so poor?

I have a guide that might be of some help: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/odyssey-biological-and-geological-guide.582693/

 

[Ozric]

And that will allow you to see how far forward..? At best it's a level of needle in haystack grind that would suck any enjoyment out of it.

It depends on the terrain, but on a well lit planet you can see easily 2Km away. On a dimly lit planet you could probably easily see 800m-1Km away, more than enough for the colony range.

A second tip if you were interested is that you can put on the Composition Scanner in the SRV. You won't be using it to scan the Bacteria (after the first time you do for the Codex voucher), but as you drive the SRV and you're bouncing up and down it will flash if anything passes in front of it so you can be aware of things long before you can see them.

True. At least when I started this thread. In the course of the thread, and having read some of the links posted, I've come to the conclusion that bacterial colonies, in general, are not worth the effort, unless you're already down on a planet surface. Just as many people recommend not bothering to scan certain planet types to maximize exploration income, instead concentrating on Earth-like, water and ammonia worlds, it's perfectly valid to similarly recommend not bothering to scan bacterial colonies for the same reasons.

That's hardly moaning, unless you're particularly thin skinned.

The moaning was more about all your responses after the first

Oh you may also be interested to know that while one type of Bacterium only sells for 50,000Cr there are types that sell for hundreds of thousands, topping out at 426,200Cr per sample. I find it funny that people see it has the lowest sell price and so just dismiss Bacteria as not worth it because they assume the rest are going to be rubbish too. Actually from my last trip the majority of my Bacteria were over 100k each.

 

[Ian Phillips]

True. Malicious intent on the part of the devs, as naturally the idea that they didn't think the game play through and realize this would be silly...

Talking about silly.... saying the devs 'didn't think something through' and accusing them of 'malicious intent' because of that.
It really looks like you want to take any opportuntity to take a pop at the devs, even at the extent of contradicting yourself in the same sentence.

Some advice. Tread very carefully, and stop doing it.

Thank you.

 

[Diwrnach]

Of course it has a 'light' side, but if far out enough the level of light is so low that you really can't see much, certainly not the level of detail to be able to detect the difference between normal terrain and a bacterial colony pool.

Again, this is not my experience and I've done a fair bit of Exobiology, one rank below Elite. My advice is to go to a different, better lit planet and don't waste time on collecting bacteria in poor light conditions.

 

[[VR] James Constantine]

It depends on the terrain, but on a well lit planet you can see easily 2Km away. On a dimly lit planet you could probably easily see 800m-1Km away, more than enough for the colony range.

On a poorly lit planet, you won't see enough detail to differentiate bacteria further than 50m or so, I've found. Of course, someone suggested this may be related to my gamma settings, so I'll have to check that.

A second tip if you were interested is that you can put on the Composition Scanner in the SRV. You won't be using it to scan the Bacteria (after the first time you do for the Codex voucher), but as you drive the SRV and you're bouncing up and down it will flash if anything passes in front of it so you can be aware of things long before you can see them.

That's worth some investigation, thanks.

Oh you may also be interested to know that while one type of Bacterium only sells for 50,000Cr there are types that sell for hundreds of thousands, topping out at 426,200Cr per sample. I find it funny that people see it has the lowest sell price and so just dismiss Bacteria as not worth it because they assume the rest are going to be rubbish too. Actually from my last trip the majority of my Bacteria were over 100k each.

I don't deny they do pay, I'm just doing a cost-benefit analysis on them. I've generally found them, with discovery bonuses, to come in at around 100 - 200k. More evolved life quickly goes into the millions. That means the return on the latter, which is easier to spot on the ground, with a single landing, is the same as five to ten landings for bacteria.

Talking about silly.... saying the devs 'didn't think something through' and accusing them of 'malicious intent' because of that.

Oh, look someone who doesn't understand sarcasm.

 

[Ian Phillips]

Oh, look someone who doesn't understand sarcasm.

Sarcasm, according to someone who knew, is the highest form of wit.
It requires someone with wit to execute it.

Now, that's enough.

 

[Ozric]

I don't deny they do pay, I'm just doing a cost-benefit analysis on them. I've generally found them, with discovery bonuses, to come in at around 100 - 200k. More evolved life quickly goes into the millions. That means the return on the latter, which is easier to spot on the ground, with a single landing, is the same as five to ten landings for bacteria.

If you have a planet with multiple biological signals, and they appear on flat ground, then it's cost-effective to collect the Bacteria at the same time as they are scattered amongst most of the different types of life. Osseus are far worse to waste your time collecting because they colony range is so large

 

[[VR] James Constantine]

If you have a planet with multiple biological signals, and they appear on flat ground, then it's cost-effective to collect the Bacteria at the same time as they are scattered amongst most of the different types of life.

No disagreement there. As I suggested above, bacterial colonies, in general, are not worth the effort, unless you're already down on a planet surface. As such if you're already down because of multiple biological signals, then you might as well collect the bacterial samples while you're at it.

Osseus are far worse to waste your time collecting because they colony range is so large

Good to know.