Exobiology: why do people say the Heatmap reflects height and not lifeform density?

Deleted member 182079

D
Wait a minute, so one of the few positive UI changes (heat map) is no longer a heat map now? 🤦‍♂️
 
Wait a minute, so one of the few positive UI changes (heat map) is no longer a heat map now? 🤦‍♂️
You can call it "fortune roulette" ... It may be here, it may be not ... Ah the 3300 where technology go backward, where before you got secure POI and now it is all based on random, very nice breakthrough in exploration.
 
These are two pictures I took as quickly as I could and only did a straight resize to get their proportions as similar as I could.
View attachment 242895
heatmap-png.242896


It should be obvious here that the blue shading is not affected by height, nor is it bleed through of the light/shading from the texture underneath.
At best there is strong correlation with the terrain type (represented on the left by the varying shades of brown) but even here there are discrepancies (to me the section between 6 and 8 O'clock outside the giant crater has some mismatches as do the 2 overlapping smaller crater's interiors).

Unless a CM can pipe in with clarification or someone can cite a Dev regarding what the Heatmap is actually displaying, I think this is strong evidence that the shading on the heatmap is actually showing seed probability (which is itself distinct from, but strongly correlated with, terrain type).
I look at those pictures and they show the exact opposite of what you are claiming. All the shade variations match exactly terrain variations below.
 

Deleted member 182079

D
You can call it "fortune roulette" ... It may be here, it may be not ... Ah the 3300 where technology go backward, where before you got secure POI and now it is all based on random, very nice breakthrough in exploration.
I actually prefer the EDO version of exploration (though not sure how to find Horizons bio signals now? Do they show up in the DSS?) but it's now basically a variant of "here/not here" which isn't quite what I hoped for (story of my life with EDO). Oh well, again.
 
I actually prefer the EDO version of exploration (though not sure how to find Horizons bio signals now? Do they show up in the DSS?) but it's now basically a variant of "here/not here" which isn't quite what I hoped for (story of my life with EDO). Oh well, again.
You cannot find the Horizon Bio signal, you have to use the "fortune roulette" and them the filters ... Now is basically random, not "here / not here", i like the concept of the heat map, but it should show different colors and different shades, different location (not a whole planet witch is useless) and when i go there i should find something, not random.
Otherwise i prefere Horizon mechanics with the number to distinguish location and when i go there there is something.
 

Deleted member 182079

D
You cannot find the Horizon Bio signal, you have to use the "fortune roulette" and them the filters ... Now is basically random, not "here / not here", i like the concept of the heat map, but it should show different colors and different shades, different location (not a whole planet witch is useless) and when i go there i should find something, not random.
Otherwise i prefere Horizon mechanics with the number to distinguish location and when i go there there is something.
Even though I didn't know the answer to my question, I feared it would be that.

So it's basically like NMS 'exploration' then, you land somewhere (presumably the areas in the DSS overlay that are not blue would still be "don't bother at all" sections I imagine?) and eventually you'll find stuff, just a much less 'busy' or condensed version in terms of objects spawn.
 
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Even though I didn't know the answer to my question, I feared it would be that.

So it's basically like NMS 'exploration' then, you land somewhere (presumably the areas in the DSS overlay that are not blue would still be "don't bother at all" sections I imagine?) and eventually you'll find stuff, just a much less 'busy' or condensed version in terms of objects spawn.
Yes, where is not blue, you will find nothing and when it's blue Maybe you will find something ... A "fortune roulette" ...
 
Really?
I’ve tried looking for Bacteria but have more often than not given up.
Nowadays I don’t even bother with planets with only 1 biological signal. I go for the ones with more than 1 so that if I don’t find bacteria at least I would have found some thing else.
Also how difficult is it in the 34th century for a scanner to pick up life signs on a barren planet?

Yes Bacteria is commonly described as the hardest to find. I had a planet last night where one life type (a fungoid) was only on a couple of tiny blue dots, almost missed the blue completely and when I went there I still couldn't find any examples (made harder by being on the night side). Sometimes you just don't succeed :)

When exploring I don't map every planet, just the usual high value ones & anything interesting. If a planet has only one life type & that's not something interesting that's fine, plenty more planets in plenty more systems to search.
 
You can see that the light blue pattern on crater is slightly shifted to the left compairing to the light purple pattern.

I therefore deduce that the heatmap is a blue filter on the ground texture before tesselation and shading.
 
You can see that the light blue pattern on crater is slightly shifted to the left compairing to the light purple pattern.

I therefore deduce that the heatmap is a blue filter on the ground texture before tesselation and shading.
The "fortune roulette map" is not placed on the planet, but is another sphere encapsulating the planet, like the DSS when you first map a planet and you got the percentage and zone you have mapped, so i assume that the shift is due to the different altitude and viewing angle ^^
 
The "fortune roulette map" is not placed on the planet, but is another sphere encapsulating the planet, like the DSS when you first map a planet and you got the percentage and zone you have mapped, so i assume that the shift is due to the different altitude and viewing angle ^^
Not sure because of the tesselation. The DSS does not need to fit exactly at ground level. So i don't think they can use the exact same solution for heatmap.
 
If we've only had some sort of knowledge base where this information could be put... A book or maybe a codex of some sort...

;)

If it's there I missed it ;) Got a screenshot?

A key usually appears on the same page as the chart or image, I suppose it could be toggle-able to hide it if it is felt to add clutter.
 
I've only visited a couple of dozen Bio (more than a single type) life bodies out near Colonia, since Odyssey dropped. The heatmap is quite useful in finding likely sites where multiple varieties may be, or at least it is in that limited sample.

Having to 'find' the POI contents by actually doing something, rather than having a 'blob' to land at and a guarantee of 'discovery' I think is a positive thing. I'm not too enthusiastic about having the 'power of 3' scanning, but maybe that is just a bleat because of a couple of elusive 3rd sample searches! ;)

All I'd really like now is to not have the instant FPS drop when going anywhere on foot - that would be nice.
 
Yes, where is not blue, you will find nothing and when it's blue Maybe you will find something ... A "fortune roulette" ...
But that only applies if there is only one type of bio. If there are more than one type what you state is wrong. What is not blue for one type may be blue for another. Also there are no blue shades, only one. Darker areas only indicate rougher surface areas. Some folks have said that the planet surfaces are too "flat" now, well try heading to a darker blue area. I have personally found that any area that is not blue for any of the species is very high and mountainous but can give some great views. Wherever you land though it is worth driving around for a while. I am out at NGC 7822 at the moment and one planet had 4 bios and I picked up all of them from one landing point in just a few moments. There is a handy asteroid port out there too so you can sell the data pdq.
 
If we've only had some sort of knowledge base where this information could be put... A book or maybe a codex of some sort...

;)
Except that the information provided in the Codex is vague bordering on non-descriptive. Overlay that indicates presence of life. Doesn't say how, or explains the shading, and that it occasionally flat out lies.

So because people still aren't seeing what I'm trying to show, I took the blue overlay image, magic-wanded to select the blue shade in the molar like shape within the large crater and then used that selection as a mask on the actual terrain image.

This is the result:
Masked.png

As you can see, the underlying terrain definitely has mismatches that do not line up with the shading of the blue overlay. FTR I'm not talking about small pixel differences as they are expected due to the imprecision of this approach. I'm referring to the areas of significantly different quality terrain being all grouped in the same shade of blue overlay. It is an inconsistency that breeds confusion and frustration.
 
Really?
I’ve tried looking for Bacteria but have more often than not given up.
Nowadays I don’t even bother with planets with only 1 biological signal. I go for the ones with more than 1 so that if I don’t find bacteria at least I would have found some thing else.
Also how difficult is it in the 34th century for a scanner to pick up life signs on a barren planet?
Difficult.

And as I found out recently, if you get just 1 biological signal, it may not be Bacteria. Some people have found Stratum as the single signal...
 
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