Exploring the Universe

I've been exploring a bit (Rank Trailblazer) mostly spend my time Bounty Hunting.
Whilst on my adventures, I've noticed there are three basic types of Explorer.

The Tourist: Scans the Jump Star then leaves.

The Traveler: Scans jump Star, a few close Jovians and Stars, and the occasional interesting looking planet.

The Cartographer: Someone who scans everything.

I'm definitely in the Traveler category. Although I have no problem occasionally flying 180,000 LS to claim a left over star.
In fact the first Earth like planet I got my name on was only about 200 LY from colonised space, and the Jump Star had already been claimed.

I take my hat off to the Cartographers.. there is something impressive and thorough about arriving in a system that has been completely scanned by one person.

[EDIT} I'm aware that most Tourist scans are people passing through, but that's what I call it. ;)
 
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I take my hat off to the Cartographers.. there is something impressive and thorough about arriving in a system that has been completely scanned by one person.

Not to mention the dedication it must take .. 3 times now I have set off on an "explorer" adventure and 3 times turned back - just can't seem to find fun in it.

Each to their own, so I tip my hat to them :)
 
I was a Tourist when running the Buckyball A*, but a Traveler now on my way back to populated space :) which is still some 24,000 Ly away :(
 
I've been a wanderer (no set destination), a sightseer (visiting specific things like nebulae), and a surveyor.

On my current journey i've picked a point 6000LY out at my first waypoint. Now i'm scanning interesting systems around here. Once done that for a bit, will decide whether its time to return home, or travel again to another point and survey another region.
 
Basically, I've been a mix between Tourist and Traveler. In most cases, I'll bother with the main star and whatever stars are in immediate scan range or "close enough" (usually under 10k Ls). If there are potential earth-likes, or black holes, or water-worlds, I'll scan those (unless like 180k Ls away). Metallic worlds.. maaaaaaybe, if they are within 1k Ls from the main star. Scanning the entire system - very, very rarely. Only if it's A: Previously unclaimed, and B: Not spread out for more than 2k Ls or so.
 
I'm enjoying my trips into deep space, im currently heading for the core though i find that im easily distracted & will explore areas of interest.
However i keep away from the 'tourist sites' & re-plot my waypoints if i find more than 2 systems on the bounce have been tagged already.

Ive been in an area of Neutron stars & White dwarfs for at least a week & im slowly plotting my way out of the area.

I'll always scan all the suns in any system, but i then look at the system map to decide what else to scan. Iv stopped scanning Ice Worlds now & dont touch the Asteroid belts but everything else will be scanned.

As for the Tourist Explorers, i found a system which was a Neutron Star (tagged), the other 7 bodies 'Unexplored' - these included 2 Earthlikes & 1 Waterworld. It always pays to view the system map b4 moving on
 
I was operating as Cartographer by your reckoning but that was before I relised what types of objects generated cash. Traveling to every found object just naturally seemed the thing to do.

I do still travel to every unexplored planet in a system if I can but I recently found out random encounters and an attempt or two at bounty hunting are not always wise after scanning 15+ systems before making your way 20 Ly distant to sell them. Once the cost of cashing in insurance and losing everything stored was felt (a much more deeply felt pain than any actual buy back), not even the twinge you get seeing Unexplored on the objects list was enough to balance the time/risk/reward equation!
 
I've been exploring a bit (Rank Trailblazer) mostly spend my time Bounty Hunting.
Whilst on my adventures, I've noticed there are three basic types of Explorer.

The Tourist: Scans the Jump Star then leaves.

The Traveler: Scans jump Star, a few close Jovians and Stars, and the occasional interesting looking planet.

The Cartographer: Someone who scans everything.

I'm definitely in the Traveler category. Although I have no problem occasionally flying 180,000 LS to claim a left over star.
In fact the first Earth like planet I got my name on was only about 200 LY from colonised space, and the Jump Star had already been claimed.

I take my hat off to the Cartographers.. there is something impressive and thorough about arriving in a system that has been completely scanned by one person.

[EDIT} I'm aware that most Tourist scans are people passing through, but that's what I call it. ;)

These are actually good descriptions that could be added to the game. A sort of sub-rank that defines what kind of exploration a player has mostly undertaken based on their scan data. I actually thought the level 2 and 3 scans on our details panels were placeholders for something along those lines. Sadly they turned out to be just numbers linked to what kind of scanner we've used (intermediate or advanced), i.e. basically meaningless stats.

One thing to note though, a LOT of systems that look to have been fully surveyed actually haven't been. As up to until patch 1.1 or 1.2 there was a bug with the advanced or surface scanner that registered all objects as fully scanned whether you scanned one object or them all. So its really impossible to tell which systems have had legitimate full scans, or are bugged scans from the earlier days of exploration.
 
Traveller would be better than Tourist since that scanning category covers both those who are travelling to see something known (tourists) and those travelling to somewhere no one has been to before (explorers).

Edit: except of course 'traveller' has already been suggested. Doh, sorry. But I still don't like Tourist because it covers a lot of what I do (although more often than not these days I don't even bother to scan the star) and I'm long done with the tourist hotspots.

One thing to note though, a LOT of systems that look to have been fully surveyed actually haven't been. As up to until patch 1.1 or 1.2 there was a bug with the advanced or surface scanner that registered all objects as fully scanned whether you scanned one object or them all. So its really impossible to tell which systems have had legitimate full scans, or are bugged scans from the earlier days of exploration.
I'm pretty sure that bug was only up until mid-late January so a few weeks before the 1.1 update. But, yes, it does cover a lot of systems especially those close to inhabited space and in nebulae.
 
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I let the mood take me system by system. Apart from always scanning the primary star, and honk the horn, I'm not very consistent. I may scan the gas giants, I may go out to secondary star... the one thing I realised is that as soon as I start to set myself demands on what I'll do ("Cartograhper") I get bored quickly. Some systems I'll take a liking to, and I'll scan everything (although I rarely scan ice/rock moons) others I may only do the primary star and move on.
 
While would love to be the cartographer i have to face it...I'm a traveler
If the system has a waterworld/earthlike/ammonia type world the I'll scan every single thing i can in that system, i don't want that colonisation effort to go to waste because i didn't check that the planet's orbit intersected a star in 200years :p
 
Sorry but you need to add the Wanderer to the list. That is how I think of myself in game. Over 16000ly at the moment. I don't scan everything in a system as it really comes down to if it looks shinee enough for me or watery or gassy. Though the gassy ones I leave and cold ones are rarely interesting eough to catch my eye. I ahve no set plan to where I might go. It's more like, OH look is that bright light something nice, or OH is the a cloud of fun over there? How far? And I'm of to check them out. Just creossed between the galatic arms for that very reason and already seen another couple of cloudy bits of space to head for next. Yeah all I know about the stars are what I see when I look up at night. Couldn't tell you more than that :D
 
It changes with you.

Initially you scan everything, and even think that those CMDRs that have left that rocky moon 300000ls away was crazy.
Then you realize than in an entire week you made less than 1000Ly from Sol
Then you reach zones where everything is uncharted.
Then you see places in gal map that you want to reach, but they are far, and if you want to surface scan everything in between, calculator at hand, you'll need 127568 real life years.
So yuo become more picky and more picky, to the point if "it's not blue, it's not ammonia colour, does not sound like water stream, goodbye".

Another solutio would be going on scanning everything, but those kind of explorers, that are important for data acquisition, will never get past the pleiades or coalsack.

So i have a: "i need to travel there" attitude where something REALLY interesting must be seen for me to stop. And a "OCD attitude" when i reach destination and want to scan everything in there.
 
I've been exploring a bit (Rank Trailblazer) mostly spend my time Bounty Hunting.
Whilst on my adventures, I've noticed there are three basic types of Explorer.

The Tourist: Scans the Jump Star then leaves.

The Traveler: Scans jump Star, a few close Jovians and Stars, and the occasional interesting looking planet.

The Cartographer: Someone who scans everything.

I'm definitely in the Traveler category. Although I have no problem occasionally flying 180,000 LS to claim a left over star.
In fact the first Earth like planet I got my name on was only about 200 LY from colonised space, and the Jump Star had already been claimed.

I take my hat off to the Cartographers.. there is something impressive and thorough about arriving in a system that has been completely scanned by one person.

[EDIT} I'm aware that most Tourist scans are people passing through, but that's what I call it. ;)

Check this poll out for answers(well it is only a small sample) :)
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=141674
 
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