Finding a greater purpose with exploration

[sebbemann]

Hi!

What is your purpose when out and exploring? Is it just to get your name on a star/planet or grind credits? Work on rank? Or do you have a greater purpose; mapping regions, finding relics etc. If so, how do you go about finding it and doing it?
I'm a long time player. I have been playing on-and-off since late 2014 and have gone on several exploration trips. First few trips was purely about credits. Then it became about getting my name on stuff. Then rank. I reached Elite a few years ago. The longest I've ventured out is 16k LY which I did when they introduced the FSS. Since that trip, I've stuggled to find purpose to my exploration trips. The last trip I did was when Odessy was released. I went out about 12k LY before I got bored and logged out. Did not return until last week.
When I logged in again last week, I hurried back to the bubble. Once there, I realized I wanted to head back out again, this time focusing a bit on exo-biology, which is new to me.
ANything else I should be looking for? I want to find interesting systems and planet, but I dont really know what to look for. I also get the feeling that a lot of the systems I find migh have something interesting in it (aside for ELW, star-type, biology etc), but I don't notice it (like shepard moons or really close binarys). How do you discover this stuff without going to every planet you discover? Are there specific things I should look for (green giants are obvious)? And there are so many galactic records, how do I keep track of them all? Do you cross check every system you discover with the galactic records?

Also, are there any ongoing projects that are going on at the moment that my trip could contribute to?
This became a bit of a ramble. Sorry! I guess I'm looking for inputs in how to make my exploration trips more fun and engaging. I really want to discover interesting stuff but don't really know how to look for it or what to look for. I also want to contribute to find stuff that hasn't been found (or found but is rare), but don't know what hasn't been found or how to find it other than by random chance.

 

[marx]

What is your purpose when out and exploring? Is it just to get your name on a star/planet or grind credits? Work on rank? Or do you have a greater purpose; mapping regions, finding relics etc. If so, how do you go about finding it and doing it?
[...]
Also, are there any ongoing projects that are going on at the moment that my trip could contribute to?

You know, just this day I heard something interesting from another Commander (Silarn) on Discord. We were collaborating on estimating the centers of the sinuous tuber areas for a bit of time now, and he seems to have found something that in hindsight should have been obvious: the areas of systems in which the tubers can spawn seem to have a hollow center, a minimum distance under which they don't appear. So it's not a full sphere, but a shell instead. At least, the crowdsourced data certainly seems to reflect this. So the question is whether it really is the case, or if there's a bug in data collection (it has happened with the game before, not once) - and either way, the original question remains: which systems are the exact centers of the various areas?

Now, if anyone finds themselves asking why they should care, some background on the sinuous tubers. They were added when the Horizons bios were added, and they first appeared in the trailer for the 2.2 Guardians update. However, they remained a mystery for two years, as nobody managed to find them before the DSS's pinpointing was added. (Had to eyeball things before that.) Now, most spawn areas of various things (NSPs, some bios, and so on) have relatively obvious centers, with only a few exceptions, but the tuber areas appear to have nothing around their estimated centers that would stand out. Take a look at the various EDAstro maps on the subject, and specifically the tubers here. Now, even if we do find the actual centers, it's likely that there's nothing special to be found in them... however, even that would be of use to explorers, as that would help with predicting these final elusive Horizons bios.

In case you'd like to help out with this, just pick out an area, fly there, look for sinuous tubers, make sure you fly down to comp. scan them, and upload your data. If you do happen to find any bodies that should have tubers but don't, then noting those down might help even more.

This is just my most recent example, of course. There are various initiatives looking for different stuff, some here on the forums (mentioned, at the very least), most on various Discord servers (which is where basically everything is organised these days), usually done by squadrons. There are plenty of other things to search for... or you can always just fly between sights (I'd recommend taking a look through the GEC), and explore systems on your way between your destinations. That has always been the most popular method of exploration, after all.

Speaking of which, this also leads another thing you asked:

ANything else I should be looking for? I want to find interesting systems and planet, but I dont really know what to look for. I also get the feeling that a lot of the systems I find migh have something interesting in it (aside for ELW, star-type, biology etc), but I don't notice it (like shepard moons or really close binarys). How do you discover this stuff without going to every planet you discover? Are there specific things I should look for (green giants are obvious)? And there are so many galactic records, how do I keep track of them all? Do you cross check every system you discover with the galactic records?

I think it's likely you might have found the answer to many of these questions already: Elite Observatory, other third-party apps, and of course reading up on various stuff.

Oh, and as for galactic records, EDAstro's Records page is probably your best bet. But there are many, many galactic records, and most of them are academical anyway, so personally, I don't bother with them.

Well, I hope this was of some use to you, or perhaps someone else too. Good luck out there, and have fun!

 

[Iron Body]

The Glorious HIP project https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/glorious-hips-3306.549030/ reported in Jan '23 that all HIP stars in the galaxy have been visited. However, some of the early explorers did not fully explore the systems they visited. Ensuring that all HIP systems have been fully explored is still ongoing, albeit slowly. This spreadsheet contains a list of HIP systems suspected of not being fully explored. The spreadsheet is divided into clock sectors and some sectors still have many HIP stars to check.
For example, sector 6 is available for exploration. ie, due south of the bubble. To complete a system it must be uploaded to EDSM via a suitable tool, eg EDMC.
Note that although some of the systems are not too far from the bubble, others may be several thousand ly away and require an FC to reach.
Please post on the Glorious HIP thread if you intend to pursue these HIPs.

 

[FlyingPenguin]

Here are some different things I set as goals when I'm out exploring:

• Getting my name in the codex with a First Reported. This is by far the easiest to do in exobiology on a per region basis, as many are still found every week. But there are possibly still some galactic firsts waiting out there.
• Along those lines, I also just like to rack up confirmed codex entries in various regions. That's the completionist in me. I try to get as many of them as First Discoveries as possible, but in many of the outer regions you're probably not going to find an undiscovered Wolf Rayet anymore. I also like to make sure my finds are uploaded to Canonn via their EDMC plugin. That way I can see my contribution pop up visually on their maps, which is especially nice when you get a rare biological, for example. You can also use Codex Companion to track your biological discoveries galaxy-wide as well as per region.
• Finding "rares". For me, that's usually more common things like ELW's and Water Giants, but of course I would love to find a GGG or a terraformable metal-rich world! I use info from these files and spreadsheets and this thread to help me keep track of what's rare. The Elite Observatory application and various plugins are useful for catching some of those kinds of things.
• I like to pick a relatively unexplored sector in a region I'd like to explore in and "make my mark". I use the Sector Viewer on EDAstro to watch my progress. And I use the Boxel Explorer and Boxel Survey tools from Elite Dangerous Journal Processor to do boxel surveys.
• Rank and credits are certainly goals for me, but they tend to accumulate as I go along. I map most worlds above 1M+, and will land to analyse high value biologicals on planets, even if I've already discovered them in the region.
• Badges on Inara and EDSM can be fun to go for. Although other than specific EDSM badges such as visiting the EAFOTS sector, I tend to accumulate progress over time rather than grind for them.
• See the sights! Admittedly, I haven't done much of this other than Sagittarius A*, but I plan to go to Beagle Point and visit a few nebulas and POI's in the near future. It looks like marx has already linked the GEC and there's also the POI's visitor list on EDSM to see your name pop up there.
• I did a little bit of Brown Dwarf surveying on my last trip. I didn't post in the thread though, as I didn't find much interesting.
• There's also this if you'd like to stay in the bubble and look for Raxxla, but it's not something I've participated in yet myself.

 

[Kalizandra]

I'm reminded of a quote from Apocalypse Now:
"The Bubble. . I'm still only in the Bubble. Every time I think I'm gonna wake up back in the Black. When I was home after my first trip, it was worse. I'd wake up and there'd be nothing. I hardly said a word to my wife until I said "yes" to a divorce. When I was here, I wanted to be there. When I was there, all I could think of was getting back into the Black. I'm here a week now, waiting for a mission, getting softer. Every minute I stay in the Bubble, I get weaker. Each time I looked around, the walls moved in a little tighter." (Bear in mind I have taken a bit of artistic license with this quote )

As I play Elite I find I go through phases, Bubble, Explo, Bubble, Explo etc. With the narrative finally unpetrified and moving forwards I can see myself in the Bubble for at least a few more months yet. Helped by the fact that I have taken it upon myself to adopt an unloved PMF. (Unfortunate that another well resourced PMF has finally noticed and is making in roads-The Altruists-such is life in Elite!)
The call of the Black is getting stronger, I'm definitely going to need a trip out again soon.

 

[athulin]

What is your purpose when out and exploring?

Some time ago, I encountered a Electricae Radialem near the nebula in Pueliae Sector (the nebula doesn't seem to have a name of its own). It turned out to be outside the 100 ly distance from the nebula center normally expected for this genus -- or the center was not where it was expected. I decided to take a closer look, and am now trying to inventory all Electricae in a 400x400x400ly box 'around' (loosely) the known center of the nebula in the hope of either confirming that the specimen I found is an anomaly, or that the nebula center is not where it is expected to be. This is also an experiment in methods for identifying all star systems in a volume of space while keeping error rates down.

On a backburner (as there don't seem to be any Brain Trees near that nebula), I'm looking at Brain Trees, and possibly other pre-Odyssey genera, as they seem to allow for multiple species on a planet, in distinction to Odyssey genera that don't.

A 'todo' I have noted as possibly interesting is to identify any 'suppressors' for species. That is, there are 'enablers' that allow a species to appear on a planet: these are used to predict what a FSS-detected biological signal could be. (The Elite Observator plugin BioInsights does this, for example.) But are there also 'suppressors', features that disable the appearance of a species on a planet that, as far as we can see now, appear to allow a species to exist, -- and so produce false positives by software such as BioInsight ? It's just a loose idea at present, and may easily turn out to be a dud. So far I don't even know if it is even possible to identify a suppressing system or planet attrribute ...

 

[GrandAdmiralThrawn]

Here are my 2 cents about why I do exploration in Elite.

It's finding things that make my heart jump for a moment. Elating things! It's about satisfying my curiosity. I even go as far as to specifically visit only systems that are usually very boring (for a few years: almost only class L brown dwarfs). The reason being that awesome stuff is way more rare in those systems, and things that are but mundane in systems with a main sequence star for a primary body suddenly become very uncommon and exciting finds. So when you finally do stumble over something cool, it's way better, because it's way more rare.

This can be anything from close binaries, shepherd moons, wide rings, class M secondaries, water worlds and ammonia worlds all the way to the mighty elusive earth-likes, amongst several other things that wouldn't usually even be worthy of mention. Every time I visit a "normal" system I totally get sensory overload, because there is so much stuff I don't usually get to see.

Several years ago I would also go for galactic records on EDSM, and I've held I think two or three for a short while. I don't care about that anymore. Also, exploration made me pretty much filthy rich, so the money also doesn't matter anymore. Tagging stars and planets... yeah, a little bit. That is, if I ever manage to take all that data back home alive, it's been four years in the black now.

I think in the end the reason is just very emotional. It happened to me even in the first Elite from 1984. I skipped Elite II and then played Frontier: First Encounters, where it happened again. I would trade for a while, do some combat, and do some missions, but in the end, something just draws me out into the void, can't help myself.

What you could also do is visit known awesome systems, even if you won't be the first one there. An example would be landing on a 9 or 10 g planet, or something even more exciting such as attempting a landing and successful escape from the [World of Death].

Software-wise, I use the classic [Elite Observatory] instead of the newer Observatory Core to get voice notifications about interesting things. I play in VR, so it has to be voice. For syncing with [EDSM] - which makes the game way more fun by the way - I use [EDDiscovery]. Mind you, there is no real reason for not installing the new Observatory Core, I'm just lazy. ​

 

[cmdr chequers]

Hi!

What is your purpose when out and exploring? Is it just to get your name on a star/planet or grind credits? Work on rank? Or do you have a greater purpose; mapping regions, finding relics etc. If so, how do you go about finding it and doing it?
I'm a long time player. I have been playing on-and-off since late 2014 and have gone on several exploration trips. First few trips was purely about credits. Then it became about getting my name on stuff. Then rank. I reached Elite a few years ago. The longest I've ventured out is 16k LY which I did when they introduced the FSS. Since that trip, I've stuggled to find purpose to my exploration trips. The last trip I did was when Odessy was released. I went out about 12k LY before I got bored and logged out. Did not return until last week.
When I logged in again last week, I hurried back to the bubble. Once there, I realized I wanted to head back out again, this time focusing a bit on exo-biology, which is new to me.
ANything else I should be looking for? I want to find interesting systems and planet, but I dont really know what to look for. I also get the feeling that a lot of the systems I find migh have something interesting in it (aside for ELW, star-type, biology etc), but I don't notice it (like shepard moons or really close binarys). How do you discover this stuff without going to every planet you discover? Are there specific things I should look for (green giants are obvious)? And there are so many galactic records, how do I keep track of them all? Do you cross check every system you discover with the galactic records?

Also, are there any ongoing projects that are going on at the moment that my trip could contribute to?
This became a bit of a ramble. Sorry! I guess I'm looking for inputs in how to make my exploration trips more fun and engaging. I really want to discover interesting stuff but don't really know how to look for it or what to look for. I also want to contribute to find stuff that hasn't been found (or found but is rare), but don't know what hasn't been found or how to find it other than by random chance.

Making Billions from Exobiology
Have a look here > https://www.edsm.net/en_GB/expeditions

 

[Dragsham]

I've just returned from the black after a few mths out there. Boosting the missus back in the bubble.
Already l miss it.
For me it's the solitude. The eerie sounds in my headset. Mapping and cataloging bios.
Yes tagging in undiscovered areas is cool. But l do have a purpose. I dss scan all ringed planets n moons. In the hope of finding a double or triple hotspot of my own. Which indeed I have found on several occasions.
Mining deep cores on these occasions is satisfying. Learning which work (hotspots) and which dont.
Exobiology pays for the trip that's for sure.
Yes it can be tedious.. as the galaxy in elite doesn't have burnt out hulks floating in space, or rogue planets or strange phenomena like magnatars or dangerous black holes.
Neutron stars (pulsars) are dangerous so why can't black holes be?
Do think fdev need to flesh out the galaxial content a bit.
Strange lagrange clouds, asteroid belts with weird stuff In em.
So on..
Have a goal.. get to a given point. Saturation map a region.
Focused mapping of certain types to increase elw or ww mapping. Or just follow your nose.
Also play in open...cos you'll never know what's out there!

 

[Jumpin' Jack Flash]

Hi All

Hi!

What is your purpose when out and exploring? Is it just to get your name on a star/planet or grind credits? Work on rank? Or do you have a greater purpose; mapping regions, finding relics etc. If

Hi

... In order of importance.
Getting my Cmdr's name on an unexplored system. Systems that are large and have numerous suns and planets in that System (the largest undiscovered System to date I've discovered so far is one with approx.. 96 bodies I think).
Finding systems that players have passed through, discovered the main star but haven't discovered any other suns, planets etc. that remain in that System.
Discovering good mining spots in ringed gas giants, especially within a couple of Carrier jumps out from the bubble.
Unusual systems.
Bio discovery's, especially in undiscovered systems.
Accumulation of credits is always in the list!
One of the other main purposes of all this is to gather all recourses, credits, mats. etc for when the new ships arrive, like the Panther Clipper, Python Mk2 and any other stuff we don't know about yet!

Jack

 

[LifesAJourney]

My goal is perfect because it's amazing and most likely impossible to achieve at the same time. I want to put my name on a green glowing gas giant.

I'll be pursuing it for the rest of my life.

 

[Anticon]

To me, the fundamental purpose of exploration is to seek satisfaction. Satisfying curiosity mostly : "what if the next system has X in it?" etc., let alone mapping anything that might be interesting in my current system. My alt is currently approaching Beagle Point, and tonight for the first time since leaving the Colonia bubble (many months ago), I mapped a planet with a "Non Human Signal". I damn near shrieked with excitement and spilled my beer - who knew what it might be? Well, yes, it was only some crash scrap, but still, it COULD have been Thargoid or Guardian or anything. It's the possibility of finding something new that's the lure. The pay is irrelevant.

 

[Galactic Fork]

For me, my purpose is interesting sights. One goal in particular is short eccentric orbits. I have only seen videos of these around neutron stars. I want to find one on my own. The other is a moon with a very close inclined orbit around a ringed gas giant. I'm on one now with only .38 degrees of inclination and a .8 day orbit. Even .38 degrees makes a huge difference and it's gorgeous watching from the surface as it passes the ring's plane. And it's so close, the rings take on a sandy appearance at the edge. I really want to find an atmospheric one, too.

 

[Sapyx]

Plain old "getting your name" on random planets way out in the deep dark is kind of futile, because unless you're within 1000 LY of Sol or you've discovered something remarkable, then the chances are good that no-one else is ever going to see or notice those tags.

So for me, a key motive to explore is to find "the unusual things" - something so odd or exotic or wow-worthy that, once it's existence is made known through either the codex or the forums, people would be prepared to deviate thousands of LY from their planned course just to see it.

 

[MaultierColt308]

For me, my goal is also to find interesting and/or unusual things in space. Every system I jump to is like a game of either finding something golden or "just FSS and move on" and when I hit up on something interesting, I tend to spend lots of time in that system.

I mostly aimlessly jump between systems and hope for the "one in a million" things in each one. Or set some waypoints on the GalMap, and scan each system on the way. Or just stop, take in, enjoy the scenery on a planet or a moon, and maybe do some exobiology scans.

Sometimes I go somewhere to fulfill some self-made goals as my purpose. Currently I'm in Trojan Belt to help scouting for interesting systems to put on an expedition route, and combined that with the goal of finding my own Brown Dwarf ELW there.
My other great purpose is, finding an own Glowing Green Giant as well.

 

[Ski'Thor]

That's an easy to answer question: To find Raxxla.
Well, not exactly. I like the peace, I like the quiet space between me and my problems (which I left in the bubble).
I like the look of the darkness in the outer rim sections. I like the super bright and crowded skys near the center of the galaxy, when searching for biological signals.

I'm heading back to colonia right now. My wife and I are going on a trip with the carrier and will search for anything new somewhere out in the dark or near the center. The journey is the goal

 

[Boone Lockley]

Exploration in space games is usually worth at least trying imo. I've been to Ishum's Reach and have mastered exploration ship building. However, exploration is very often one of the weaker roles in games that have exploration along with other roles, though, and Elite is no exception. Combat has been given years of dedicated love and content, and this Thargoid war has been a cash/content cow for combat. Not complaining, just noticing. Mining is fleshed out enough in Elite and trade can only be so interesting. However, evacs count for trade so I think trade is actually further along than exploration right now too.

Hopefully they do add more to find, because right now there really isn't much. Elite is in desperate need of a significant boost to exploration content and lore. The amount of stuff doesn't need to be NMS levels, but it needs to be many multiples of what it is now. Both aliens we know of are conveniently right next to human space in the Bubble, and the rest of the galaxy is weirdly vacant of anything else of note? (yes Guardian sites exist far away, but they're no different than the ones near us so far, so are not noteworthy)
Exploration needs some love.

I currently explore to increase my rank. I filter by AFGK and use the new SCO FSD to get around faster and increase my efficiency even further. I do a bit of Exobio but I really only land for Stratum Tech. Everything else isn't really worth my time.

 

[DjVortex]

It would be so easy for them to surreptitiously add something cool to a so-far-undiscovered system, like some ruins or something, and then put some vague hints about it somewhere. For true explorers it could be somewhere like 30 kLY from the bubble (the hint, while vague, still would need to be enough to point to the right part so it's even theoretically possible to find it.)

 

[Chrystoph]

One solution would be to add a Hydrogen Catcher Field system and revise the SCO by four or five orders of magnitude.

You would then have a method, with some form of system load process, for surfing stellar streams, which could, potentially, give you a route to the Magellanic clouds and the various minor clusters currently beyond Jump range.

The advantage of this is that it would provide a method of injecting locality unrelated to the long term Elite lore without requiring an entirely new game. This would give Frontier a new sandbox within Elite Dangerous.

 

[varonica]

One solution would be to add a Hydrogen Catcher Field system and revise the SCO by four or five orders of magnitude.

You would then have a method, with some form of system load process, for surfing stellar streams, which could, potentially, give you a route to the Magellanic clouds and the various minor clusters currently beyond Jump range.

The advantage of this is that it would provide a method of injecting locality unrelated to the long term Elite lore without requiring an entirely new game. This would give Frontier a new sandbox within Elite Dangerous.

Apart from the fact they don't actually exist in the gameyou mean? They would have to generate them using some sort of Stellar Forge like process first.