Exploring - am I doing it right ?

[Kalpa]

3) I saw this thread so the answer might be "its a bug", "not yet" or only after you sell stellar cartography, but what are Level 1 and Level 2 scans ?

Since people gave confusing answers (well, the situation is confusing), I'll stick in.

To my understanding, currently in game:

Level 1 scan = ponging your scanner and getting an object as 'unexplored'

Level 2 scan = scanning it without a DSS equipped

Level 3 scan = scanning it with a DSS equipped

This is my understanding after the last weeks (or was it the week before?) patch where they enabled the statistics.

 

[Crank Larson]

Yes, that's what was stated. Doesn't seem to stand up to much analysis though, which is what many explorers are reporting (and I agree). I won't be able to confirm my stats for a while.

 

[Kancro Vantas]

So my question about the Level 2 and Level 3 scan's being 0 and comments about it not being implemented in game yet ... recent patch notes would tend to indicate otherwise. - Fix Commander Stats for selling level 2 and level 3 survey scans

So - how do I get Level two/three scans? Detailed Scans ?

OK...right now we Explorers do not go by Level 2 or 3 or 1...not in the dictionary for the common explorer. Why? Because there are changes still happening in the game with each update. Plus the game suggest there are some other scans that will be added (I think I even read someone posting about a penetrative scan. Go figure)

What we DO TALK AND COMMENT ON, is about what IS WORKING IN THE GAME. For that effect, and all you need to know for now regarding scanning and rewards is that you need:

1.-BASIC/INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCE Discovery Scanner - Note that is called the Discovery Scanner, meaning that it discovers or tells you about an astronomical object. Basic Data. The levels relate to how far is their reach.

2-DETAILED SURFACE SCANNER. From atmosphere condition to temperature, to type of planet, body, etc. This tells you much more than just the basics.

With that being said, you need ONE of EACH to make a comprehensive exploration of a body, and also, to get max payout.

From what I gather in this thread you try your first trip only with a Disco Scanner..threading the waters. You made 500k credits in the process.

That's good and dandy until you realize that taking the Detailed Scanner would have given you around 3x more credits (I ran numbers myself comparing the two) and possibly the first discovery Bonus, which is 50%.

So, supposing that your 500cr were potential first discovery, you would have made: 500x3+50%= 2,250,000 Cr. You missed out 1.75MM.

So, dont mind about level 2 or 4 or X...just get advanced disco, detailed surface and go back there to rack some serious millions!

;-)

PS.Apologies if I misunderstood the thread! LOL.

 

[Joe Spivey]

I disagree. Anyone that goes out to the unkown is an explorer. Livingstone didn't discorer everthing or note everything he saw when he went to Africa. Yeah you could claim he wasn't a true explorer as he was a misionery but he still explorered. And Clark and Lewis didn't map the whole of north America when the cross the continent, only some of it. Explorering isn't about being OCD it is about enjoyment and if OCDing is your thing then fine. Mine is more laid back.

Piffle and tosh sir! How are you going to find the ruins of ancient civilisations on long dead planets if you don't go and look! Tourist I say! A mere 'drive-by' explorer!

 

[Tacyon]

An update. I'd equipped my Asp with the detailed scanner and spent the last 6 weeks heading out into the great void. My goal this time was to head to the outer edge of the outermost spiral arm and go until I could no longer jump due to the 34.5ly limit on my Asp or like a dog on a 15' chain, kept bouncing off the limits of routable paths. It was finally the latter that eventually stopped me and lead me to the decision to return home.
I'm not in my cockpit currently but IIRC I used the "fog horn of discovery" some 780 times over an estimated 18,000ly round trip. ~16m cr. payout for the collected data and several gigs worth of "polaroid moments" Some of which I'll share when I'm back in station (aka my den) I did the entire trip with zero damage and and only one refueling maneuver where my temps hit 70%. Once I oops in my excitement and let my tank get to ~20%. The next jump had I not noticed would have emptied my tank.
On the way out I detail scanned everything except the obvious ice, rock, & roids. On the way back .. I only did the Nav point star, and anything that looked interesting. Funny thing, on the whole trip out I only found 1 earth like. On the trip back, I found 2 or 3 within a few systems of each other. And a ton of binary. ternary, and quaternary star systems. Several where the nav point stars were so close they startled me. I know this is a "game" and we've suspended our beliefs to stretch our imaginations but I don't think that a lot of what I saw was either possible or possible for very long. As in the case of binary stars in close proximity to each other. The gravitational forces would have destroyed them soon after creation and if nothing else, there would be giant plums of plasma being exchanged between them until such time as they became one.
What I am wondering about are black holes. Are they that rare that in two trips and over a 1000 systems viewed I've not encountered one of them ?