Explorational blue overlay question
- Thread starter Staarlord
- Start date
Oh wow I wondered. I’ve never found bacteria. Only fungal or floral. The blue is a bit weird because it’s almost always all blue, so I started aiming for the areas that weren’t
It makes sense - bacteria are all over the planet surface. The blue filter feels better when you run into something that isn’t everywhere.
I’ve never spotted bacteria. (Somebody posted screenshots of cases where they had a colour contrast.) It might be possible that they show up on the SRV scanner, but I never looked into how that scanner works.
1. The blue is an overlay, just so you know. I didn't see any differences when switching between filters.
2. Bacteria are a pain, sometimes they are covered by terrain. Use your bio scanner to scan the area when you suspect any (for me its the right mouse click, and listen for pings and then glowing green areas. Similar to the way you search for other bio stuff when trying to go far enough to complete sampling).
I have used the SRV with its composition scanner to an extent as it will also light up when its on target over them.
Hopefully my attachment work.
This is your typical bacteria patch, very hard to spot, there's some contrast here at least, but when the bacteria is the same colour as the ground it gets exceptionally difficult to find;
Nice pic! There was one I actually ran over with the SRV and only found it after sending out a ping from the genetic sampler and noticing a green highlighted patch behind it. Thanks for your help earlier, I am now consistently finding things.This is your typical bacteria patch, very hard to spot, there's some contrast here at least, but when the bacteria is the same colour as the ground it gets exceptionally difficult to find;
If you're lucky that is what you get.
Below is how it highlights with the scanner, when you send out a ping:
SRV composition scanner will detect and flash blue, I now make sure this is going as it has detected them for me as it flashes when encountering them. This is on the steady blue, hence ready to scan:
Yeah the light ones on a dark ground are nice to find, have found a few of those, then spent around an hour finding enough on a different planet to get the 3 samples.
you guys seem to have way more experience on the subject. I've been reading the threads. It seems that indeed, filters aren't something in DSS anymore. Now, Here is a screenshot of a planter I've found which should have a bio signal. If I understand correctly, Pale blue should be the area in which there is the most chances to find some form of live. Afters hours of trying. I haven't find anything. Can you guys guide me through it?
Attachments
I've explained several times, if it's 1 signal it's bacteria, they are REALLY hard to find on some bodies because they are the same colour as the ground and are ground level. For instance there are several patches of bacteria in this screenshot!
Have a good look first, follows is an edited picture where I circled them.
These have some contrast so you can spot them against the ground, some are almost exactly the same colour so you can't spot them against the ground. The bacteria will cover the entire planet, but you can be running around between them and not spot a single one because they are so far apart and hard to spot.
Is there a way to see it it from the DSSI've explained several times, if it's 1 signal it's bacteria, they are REALLY hard to find on some bodies because they are the same colour as the ground and are ground level. For instance there are several patches of bacteria in this screenshot!
Have a good look first, follows is an edited picture where I circled them.
These have some contrast so you can spot them against the ground, some are almost exactly the same colour so you can't spot them against the ground. The bacteria will cover the entire planet, but you can be running around between them and not spot a single one because they are so far apart and hard to spot.
DSS heat map tells you where to look.
No
The way I find bacteria is by flying with my nose slightly pointed down and using the good old Mk1 Eyeball.
I need to be very low like under 100m, preferably around 30 - 50m so full power to shields. But it doesnt normally take very long usually a couple of minutes to get all 3. Though sometimes the last one seems to take forever.
I fly over decent size patches of sand, gravel areas, not rocky areas.
The comp scanner does work with bacteria but I find its range so low to be useless.
As with a lot of things practice helps.
There is no such filter; you can look at my screenshot.
So... whatever they advertised, clearly doesn't work or was remove or wasn't implemented... What a waste of time
Aside from one occasion when I accidentally landed right next to a patch of it, all of my bacteria discoveries have been made by listening for the characteristic echo of the hand scanner ping. One or two were near a local ridge and so I was able to see the edge of the green afterglow, but the rest were out of line-of-sight and have required a bit of movement and continuous pinging to locate. I feel sorry for anyone with hearing difficulties trying to play this aspect of Odyssey. The sound of the echo is absolutely critical.
One thing that may be obvious to a lot of players but caught me out for a while; the scanner ping is omnidirectional. The green wave radiating out gives the impression -- at least on my 21:9 monitor -- that it's radiating in a fan-shaped pattern in the direction the scanner is pointing, but that's just a visual artefact. If you have head-tracking or free-look you can confirm this by looking to the side when you ping, and you'll see the same pattern radiating in all directions. For a long time I was wasting time standing in place and pinging all four cardinal directions to cover all of the area, but it's not necessary. If you're hearing an echo but can't seem to zone in on it, it's probably behind you.
The SRV scanner will highlight patches of bacteria, among other things, by strobing the reticle as it passes over them. Because SRV scanners appear to have a wider arc at longer distances, and work through the ground, it's possible to detect patches this way by driving at reasonable speed over undulating terrain and looking for strobing as the nose of the SRV dips. If you want to combine bacteria hunting with general surface exploration this can be an efficient way of doing it. On smoother ground an alternative is to start the SRV moving slowly, then switch to the turret and manually sweep the scanner around the local area looking for strobing. Depending on how your controls are set up you may still have limited control over the SRV itself while doing this; with mine I can control the throttle and thrusters but not steering, so I can hop over problematic rocks or bring the SRV to a stop if it approaches dangerous terrain.
Finding that elusive third sample on a bacteria-only world can be quite rewarding but it's a slow, zen-like process. If you're in a hurry to get somewhere else, and are not a completionist, it may not be worth the frustration. If you're not enjoying the ride, the destination probably isn't worth it.
I'm hoping at some point that FD introduce missions geared around biological scanning. If I was told to fly to a specific planet and bring back data on all of its organics, it would feel more important to me even if the credit rewards weren't fantastic. Maybe some of the new Engineers unlock in this way? It's not something I've looked into yet.
One thing that may be obvious to a lot of players but caught me out for a while; the scanner ping is omnidirectional. The green wave radiating out gives the impression -- at least on my 21:9 monitor -- that it's radiating in a fan-shaped pattern in the direction the scanner is pointing, but that's just a visual artefact. If you have head-tracking or free-look you can confirm this by looking to the side when you ping, and you'll see the same pattern radiating in all directions. For a long time I was wasting time standing in place and pinging all four cardinal directions to cover all of the area, but it's not necessary. If you're hearing an echo but can't seem to zone in on it, it's probably behind you.
The SRV scanner will highlight patches of bacteria, among other things, by strobing the reticle as it passes over them. Because SRV scanners appear to have a wider arc at longer distances, and work through the ground, it's possible to detect patches this way by driving at reasonable speed over undulating terrain and looking for strobing as the nose of the SRV dips. If you want to combine bacteria hunting with general surface exploration this can be an efficient way of doing it. On smoother ground an alternative is to start the SRV moving slowly, then switch to the turret and manually sweep the scanner around the local area looking for strobing. Depending on how your controls are set up you may still have limited control over the SRV itself while doing this; with mine I can control the throttle and thrusters but not steering, so I can hop over problematic rocks or bring the SRV to a stop if it approaches dangerous terrain.
Finding that elusive third sample on a bacteria-only world can be quite rewarding but it's a slow, zen-like process. If you're in a hurry to get somewhere else, and are not a completionist, it may not be worth the frustration. If you're not enjoying the ride, the destination probably isn't worth it.
I'm hoping at some point that FD introduce missions geared around biological scanning. If I was told to fly to a specific planet and bring back data on all of its organics, it would feel more important to me even if the credit rewards weren't fantastic. Maybe some of the new Engineers unlock in this way? It's not something I've looked into yet.
The heat map worked fine for bio in the Alpha, but apparantly it confused a lot of people so it was removed for live release and replaced with a flat blue to indicate areas where a particular bio can be found. I do agree a waste of time, I had no problem with the original heat map and I do hope they put it back.