How? I can only get my scanner to sample.
Finding bio signals
- Thread starter Queex
- Start date
Secondary action, usually right-click
Deleted member 38366
D
This btw. got changed from Alpha 3 to Alpha 4.
Primary Fire used to be to send out the Pulse - "Secondary Fire" (= Aiming Down Sights) was used to initiate Scanning.
This was switched in Alpha 4 and remains like that for now.
It's aggravating that we can't just cycle through the filters after already DSS'ing the planet without re-entering that mode just long enough to press a key and then backing out. It's one of those things that makes me wonder how much they actually play. I didn't know the auto-land was tied to the auto-docking module, either, so that's another +1 FalconFly. You deserve a medal! My Explorvette may need to be retired and I do this with something more nimble.
Not me. Even though I stutter, sometimes badly, my stuff is set high with max FOV.
I'm running at near ultra everything flying slow over the surface in areas where these objects are supposed to be. On one planet with near blue everywhere for finding Osseum species I found them with little hassle. It was also near full blue for a fungoid type in many of the same areas and I never saw a single one no matter where I looked or landed.
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Found a planet with two bio signals. Heat maps for both look identical. The first one, a kind of space grass, is everywhere. Every 1-2 km. However, I failed to find the second one, a bacteria. Those must be located somehow differently.
Deleted member 38366
D
I have to say, so far I rarely had severe difficulties finding new Bios. Bacteria patches for me turn out the toughest to find sometimes, since they're often not visually easy to spot.
I've found it to be very random.
First planet I looked at there were tussocks and stratum everywhere (although the latter was bugged and could never be scanned). Finding the other 3 bios on the planet proved to take a very, very long time.
A couple of other planets I've flown and driven on and on and on and not found anything, despite being in the blue zone. Either there's some factor that the DSS overlay isn't taking into account or the generation is a bit borked. It's just another reason why we need some sort of directional finder.
If you didn't need to find 3 in a row the same it wouldn't be quite so bad but as it stands I've found it an utter waste of my time.
If every planet with bio signs had some sort of unique ecosystem, so every discovery was novel, it would be satisfying to spend the time finding them. When it's just a 'Species 7A' that can be found on plenty of other planets, that's a problem.
First planet I looked at there were tussocks and stratum everywhere (although the latter was bugged and could never be scanned). Finding the other 3 bios on the planet proved to take a very, very long time.
A couple of other planets I've flown and driven on and on and on and not found anything, despite being in the blue zone. Either there's some factor that the DSS overlay isn't taking into account or the generation is a bit borked. It's just another reason why we need some sort of directional finder.
If you didn't need to find 3 in a row the same it wouldn't be quite so bad but as it stands I've found it an utter waste of my time.
If every planet with bio signs had some sort of unique ecosystem, so every discovery was novel, it would be satisfying to spend the time finding them. When it's just a 'Species 7A' that can be found on plenty of other planets, that's a problem.
This whole process, along with Geological, seems tedious AF. I was already behind on Materials for Engineering in Horizons because I didn't grind mats at the "optimal way", but now it's going to be even more slow and tedious. Who has time for this? If I could at least pay other pilots for their excess mats in some kind of market, that'd be awesome. I'll gladly trade credits (even though I'm sub-100m) to avoid this tedium. I love exploring and discovering things, but also tying grinding crafting materials to this process is ludicrous.
Deleted member 38366
D
Fun fact :
- the ability to sell a personal set stock of Materials, Elements and Data on Carriers owned by CMDRs was suggested during Fleet Carriers Beta already
Alas, there's no personal Material Trader Service for Carriers. Otherwise, it would be up to CMDRs to sell or trade any unneeded excess stock to others.
A real Economy which clearly had a demand.
With the brand new array of on-foot gathered Materials, the need for personal Mat Trading or Sale of opportunity has merely increased.
It adds insult to injury that Bartenders at Concourses do trade a limited amount - but actually can't sell you any and can't even offer you a damn drink... not even a place to sit down.
I personally also don't feel like "Dumpster Diving" for Mats that clearly should be available for purchase everywhere....
Even a benign lump of Iron, one of the most common Elements can't be purchased - but I can load up 600t of Gold with my Type-9 at any Extraction Station.
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@FalconFly, thanks for that. I was confused expecting that there would only be a few small areas on the whole planet like it used to be. I followed your instructions last night and realized that the vegetation is literally anywhere and everywhere in the blue areas. Well not everywhere, there are areas that have nothing but they are spread out all over the planet. I did have a hard time spotting them from above a few hundred meters.
I also quickly realized that you need the SRV. Walking a kilometer or two to get the second and third sample is slow and tedious. Plus the SRV keeps your suit charged.
I also quickly realized that you need the SRV. Walking a kilometer or two to get the second and third sample is slow and tedious. Plus the SRV keeps your suit charged.
I guess I'm just too spoiled by EvE Online where I can "outsource" the bits I don't want to do to another player through the Market (or direct Contracts). e.g. don't want to mine all that Veldespar? Fine, just buy it, or the refined Tritium, from the Market that is provided by another player who does want to do that (sometimes I do, it's relaxing, sometimes I don't) work. I've only been able to find materials, through just general exploration and missions over the last two months, to fully upgrade three of my modules with engineering. I keep running out of resources. I even did the Jameson Crash Site "loophole" once to see how that goes and it...wasn't enjoyable either, but certainly got me some of the Materials I needed. Now we have to go grind some more, but in hidden locations where the DSS doesn't even help (at least that I could find...it's ALL blue on the planet, that's not "narrowing down"!). I really want to enjoy this game, but the developers seem keen on making progress unenjoyable. Exploration for exploration's sake? Great and fun! Grinding faction standing? Less fun, but it's not obtuse and you don't spend hours trying to figure out how to do that, to then need to spend hours trying to find that one Material (preferably the highest grade so you can trade down, otherwise you're just wasting your time, right?) you need to finish up this one module you're trying to engineer. Then you have to repeat. For each module. For each ship. And then you want to try a new ship? Repeat!
Deleted member 38366
D
I ran trials with flying small Ships (Carrier Scouts) off my Carrier in Deep Space - and I have to say having a small Ship quickly able to hop from one Sampling spot to the next is a massive advantage.
(in comparison, both my Exploration Anaconda and even the reasonably-sized Exploration Krait Phantom occasionally ran into severe issues finding landing spots despite being equipped with Adv. Docking Computer for Flight Testing)
I personally prefer the much faster movement, terrain independence and much better overview from ~150-250m Altitude over the SRV and especially over the slow on-foot locomotion.
Works like a charm for me, so there's me buzzing Planets now in a Sidewinder, an Eagle or a Hauler etc. Sampling things is a breeze now.
So for the time being, I don't even bother with the SRV unless there's a specific reason to. Plus, the Ship is normally far more durable than the SRV.
(of course having a broad choice of Ships is a pure luxury my Carrier offers me - otherwise and in a single larger Ship, the SRV is indeed the next best choice)
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Found an 8-bio-signals planet yesterday. From bacteria colonies to tree-like organisms that were taller than me, almost as tall as my DBX. I bit of low-alt flying, a bit of SRV driving. As a result I've earned almost 4M (it seems that prices are different for different organisms, from 100+k to 700+k in my case) and got promoted to Compiler.
Even though I clearly saw some square terrain "edges" on my SRV's radar, I didn't have any terrain issues while driving. I even found an area that looked a bit like an open-pit mine. Really funny to drive! There were some organism-related issues, though. Some of them were not generated at all (even though the pulse scanner revealed their location on the ground), some of them kept appearing and disappearing while I was getting closer, some of them (grass-likes) were barely visible from the ship but displayed in high quantities once I disembarked.
I even managed to shoot a mesosiderite and scoop the mats without the Black Adder!
And the livery works now! No more driving an ugly black SRV!
Even though I clearly saw some square terrain "edges" on my SRV's radar, I didn't have any terrain issues while driving. I even found an area that looked a bit like an open-pit mine. Really funny to drive! There were some organism-related issues, though. Some of them were not generated at all (even though the pulse scanner revealed their location on the ground), some of them kept appearing and disappearing while I was getting closer, some of them (grass-likes) were barely visible from the ship but displayed in high quantities once I disembarked.
I even managed to shoot a mesosiderite and scoop the mats without the Black Adder!
And the livery works now! No more driving an ugly black SRV!
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Thanks my friend, that swas very helpful. Although the most stuff I figured out my self, the one thing I did not know about was loosing all my data when I die. I just came back from a longer trip and collected 30 unique Biological sampling Data. It was a bit over 13 million cr and my rank jumped from Directionless to Collector.
I guess I am a bit more careful in the future, since there was some climbing involved and I don't wanna fall down a mountain. But a lot of fun for sure.
Fly/land safe.
Cmdr Steyla