Newcomer / Intro Exploration - use of surface vehicles?

[Touchwood]

Just been exploring for the first time - decent results, not a long way traveled or too much time spent and about 1.2 M CR for the data.

Question though - the outfitting guides I read prior to going recommended equipping a vehicle hangar and SRVs. So, I did this, and whilst exploring landed on a couple of planets and went out on the surface in a SRV. Quite good fun, although the planets I chose to land on weren't particularly interesting - but unless I'm missing something I can't see how this enhanced the exploration process much? I thought I might be able to pick up some valuable metals, but although there was what looked like lumps of metal on the surface I couldn't seem to target them to pick them up with the SRV cargo scoop. I've seen talk of discarded cargo containers, but a) there shouldn't be any on unexplored planets b) how would you find them? c) for the time it would take surely I'd be better of gathering exploration data?

 

[BigBANGtheory [VR]]

I've not done this myself yet but skimming the surface at under 2km altitude can cause your ships scanner to highlight points of interest, the idea is you then land it that area and go find that interest using the SRV scanner. Thus the exploration is on a micro scale... Now you do seem to get some exploration credit for these activities the other day I passed the Trailblazer rank and really all I was doing was SRV surface mining. Remember that most unexplored planets refer to you not NPCs or other players. Detailed surface scans will yield mineral information and the location of settlements etc.

 

[Winterwalker]

You do get an exploration bonus for using SRV, but as Cmdr BigBANGtheory says, as far as I know that's reflected only in your Elite status, rather than as a cartographics money reward. [This could maybe use a scientific test though as am not 100% sure .. find two near identical ice worlds, scan both but land on only one .. go a few km's on the surface then cash your scans in at cartographics. Would be interesting if different cash awards given].

The good thing about finding cannisters on planets is they don't get tagged as stolen, which they do in space. (Beware, if they're guarded in a restricted area, you'll get a bounty for killing non-wanted skimmers.)

To open SRV cargo scoop default button is I think <home> (but check this under SRV key bindings in game control options) and target cannister/material before you try to pick it up. Default is <right mouse button> to target, or you can do this from left panel, where cannisters/materials in range show as contacts.

Shooting things in SRV generally means using the turret view, where you have control of your guns independent of your wheels and throttle. Default button is <end> to enter and exit turret view (I think, again control options). Mouse is default aiming control, left button to fire, right to target things but look in (SRV) firegroups .. you can also assign a button to a datascanner, in case of find crashed datapoints/satellites to scan .. hold the button while this completes.

To get materials, follow the sweeping wave scanner to home in on either man-made or natural objects. You'll need to shoot natural objects to release the materials inside, again by using turret view/targetting/shooting as above and then targetting the materials found, to get them into your scoop.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

For teh screenshots:

Spoiler

Just 5 of my personal favourites from my own trips.

 

[BigBANGtheory [VR]]

some great photo's there, thanks for sharing

You do get some of the best scenes in ED by doing surface activities I'd put it off for too long. If someone had only said to me it was like STALKER artifact hunting with a Clan Mech I'd have tried it months ago

 

[RevLogos]

Roving the surface of some moon is a good break from the jump/honk/scan routine. Its also good for photo ops.

There are still POIs to be found. I've found a couple of wrecked SRVs, a few canisters and occupied escape pods. One crashed ship was a small fighter, one I think is being introduced in the new patch. Got to wonder how it got out 10,000 LY from the Bubble, and who was fighting who. Also came across two crashed nav beacons and some data scans, one of which appears to have put a bounty on my head. And of course there are mats for jump boost, AFMU restock, SRV repair/refuel, etc.

The new patch has mysterious things and biological entities to be found.

 

[Ashnak]

Surface materials: these are not valuable in the sense of getting money for them (you can't sell them), but you'll need them for synthesis, which will letyou fuel up or repair your SRV or reload your ammo (both ship and SRV) or increase your FSD jump range (for a single jump). And you can't just scoop any arbitrary lumps of stuff from the surface, either.

- Follow the signals on your wavescanner to guide you to more or less valuable rocks
- these rocks will show up as targetable - do so and then shoot them
- they will then explode into several smaller chunks, which also will be targetable
- target one of them, then deploy your scoop and drive over it to pick it up

Other things (like downed ships or probes) will also show up on the scanner. The signal on the scanner will give you a good indication on what to find there.

As for the turret view - I've even forgotten how to use it. I just select the target and let the auto-aiming do the rest.

 

[Para Handy]

J

....................I thought I might be able to pick up some valuable metals, but although there was what looked like lumps of metal on the surface I couldn't seem to target them to pick them up with the SRV cargo scoop.

Just to repeat what Ashnak says:

You have to target the outcrop or meteorite and then shoot it with your SRV's guns, fragments are produced then which you can scoop up - target the fragment you want and drive over it with the cargo hatch open. The contacts panel in your LHS HUD screen shows you what material fragments are there, making it easier for you to pick and choose. The range is only 40m so be aware of that if fragments roll away.

As for enhancing exploration - some materials can be used to synthesise "boosts" for your hyperspace jumps - have a look at posts about "jumponium" elements for details.

Note that there are also data points on crashed satellites etc which you can scan by targeting (selecting) it - then using the SRV's "Datalink Scanner" (usually your other fire button - check your bindings otherwise) you download data which can give you sell-able intel packages and some data points give you data for use with engineers.


[alien]