General Exobiology needs some help

[Sola_the_Spirit]

I'll cut to the chase: exobiology sucks to do. The DSS heatmaps are super unreliable. The entire mechanic of "gotta go 500m away to find another sample " sucks. I just spent two hours looking for a third sample, but didn't find it. I come across a different sample, and I see more of it in the distance. Giving up on the previous sample, I discard it in order to get the new one. Ten minutes later and two of three of the new sample, want to know what I find? A sample of the previous lifeform. It would be amazing - simply amazing - if FDev removed the distance limitation OR added a ping on the next nearest viable sample.

 

[varonica]

I'll cut to the chase: exobiology sucks to do. The DSS heatmaps are super unreliable. The entire mechanic of "gotta go 500m away to find another sample " sucks. I just spent two hours looking for a third sample, but didn't find it. I come across a different sample, and I see more of it in the distance. Giving up on the previous sample, I discard it in order to get the new one. Ten minutes later and two of three of the new sample, want to know what I find? A sample of the previous lifeform. It would be amazing - simply amazing - if FDev removed the distance limitation OR added a ping on the next nearest viable sample.

Well first the heat map isn't a heatmap, it's location map, and that's probably not going to change, see previous discussions regarding that issue and how to best find the bio, but I agree the sampling needs to change, the best option is to be able to take multiple different types of samples at the same time, that's also been discussed and asked for, that simple change will fix a lot of the issues people are having.

As far as distance, I would like to see a variable payout depending on distance, you get a basic payout if you take 3 samples from the same patch, it multiplies depending on how far apart you sample, that issue is also something that has been discussed previously.

 

[Brrokk]

I'll cut to the chase: exobiology sucks to do. The DSS heatmaps are super unreliable. The entire mechanic of "gotta go 500m away to find another sample " sucks. I just spent two hours looking for a third sample, but didn't find it. I come across a different sample, and I see more of it in the distance. Giving up on the previous sample, I discard it in order to get the new one. Ten minutes later and two of three of the new sample, want to know what I find? A sample of the previous lifeform. It would be amazing - simply amazing - if FDev removed the distance limitation OR added a ping on the next nearest viable sample.

I disagree. Exobiology is one of the few knowledge-dependent activities in the game. You have to learn "on the job" and the process gets easier with gained background knowledge. As you get to know the terrain types which various plants live in, you'll find it easier to find them. Search strategies and recognising them from a distance with or without night-vision is different for different plants. You'll learn to land in sunlight but maybe near the terminator so that there are decent shadows. The low-flying ship / SRV tradeoff is interesting to get to know.

BTW the rewards are good credit-wise, but make sure you're on an unexplored planet. The first-discovery bonuses are larger than the basic values. It's only worth proceeding if you get "first footfall" when you land.

 

[Miscellaneous]

I only stopped doing it because it came such a trendy cash cow -- cash veggie burger factory.

I did truly enjoy it though, and still enjoy taking a look at one just out of curiousity, when convenient. It is a bit liberating not having to hunt down three, I confess.

But I'll tell you what I - well, my previous CMDR, - tell you a good way to avoid that. Is to keep in mind or write down the coordinates as you go, not accidentally double back so easy.

And you can even parallelize better that way or use the ship to optimize the picking routes!

Happy picking

 

[Lhorndra]

The DSS heatmaps are super unreliable.

No, they are not. And they are not heatmaps. You can rely on the fact that a specific lifeform will only grow in the blue areas, exclusively. But within these areas, different lifeforms prefer different types of terrain. For example, Bacterium prefer flatland, whereas Fungoida prefer rugged terrain at higher altitudes.

It's a little bit like in our real world: for an edelweiss flower (Leontopodium nivale), the DSS would show the Alps, the Pyrenees Mountains, the Italian Apennines and maybe some Asian mountain ranges as blue. But within those areas, you'd have to search at altitudes between 1800 and 3500 metres. Not in deeper valleys nor on higher mountain tops.

The entire mechanic of "gotta go 500m away to find another sample " sucks.

Granted, this can get a bit tedious sometimes, but if you know what you're doing and have a ship built for this purpose, it's not really a show stopper. Get small nimble ship, maybe one with a see-through floor, fly very low and deploy hardpoints with the composition scanner active (it bleeps if it targets something).

I come across a different sample, and I see more of it in the distance. Giving up on the previous sample, I discard it in order to get the new one. Ten minutes later and two of three of the new sample, want to know what I find? A sample of the previous lifeform.

Yup, that's not the game's fault, that was you not being patient.

 

[Shadowsnog]

exobio is very skill and experience based and can be greately influenced by your hardware capabilities.
im at the lowest end of hw (confirmed by fdev support that this brick shouldnt even be able to run ed ) and generating even small area around me takes about half a minute.
meaning i cant just whoosh around and expect bios to pop up for me. instead i have to rely on my knowledge and experience, look out for places where i think the bio might be and sit there for a while. and im rarely wrong. and i dont even do bio that often...
the blue map is a good indicator where to start looking, but on the surface looking for bios seems to me just like foraging for mushrooms. if you just stroll through the forest you probably wont find anything. but if you know what kind of places musrooms prefer, look for those and then take your time to look around, you just might find something...