Finding Biological Sites?

[Rampant]

Just a quick question about biological sites...

Does the FSS still resolve bio as well as geological sites on landable planets?


Reason I ask is that I've done a fair bit of exploration when FSS was new and seem to remember finding quite a few bio sites on previous expeditions, but recently I've got back in the game after a 6 month break, and having gone all the way to Odin's Hold to meet a friend in the black and escort him to SagA*, I've tagged lots and lots of geo sites with the FSS, but not a single bio.

Am I just unlucky, or have the game mechanics changed so that you only find bio sites through mapping?

Cheerz

o9

 

[Factabulous]

Does the FSS still resolve bio as well as geological sites on landable planets?

yes

 

[MattG]

FSS still resolves Biological sites, you're just being unlucky. Big areas of the galaxy are fairly devoid of any life. Others are littered with them (looking at you, Bark Mounds).

You can check the Codex for the region you're in to give a clue to what biologicals you might be able to find, and pointers to what the requirements to find those biologicals are (though they're not always entirely accurate...)

 

[[PS4] Lorenzo Waringos]

I often do these little 10,000ly loops, takes 2-3 days. Land in a system, FSS it, maybe land on a couple of planets for a drive. In the last 5 or so of these, I have not found one biological signal.

As an aside, if there's ever a water shortage, get out to Colonia way, go exploring around there. Millions of planets with water geysers.

 

[Factabulous]

I often do these little 10,000ly loops, takes 2-3 days. Land in a system, FSS it, maybe land on a couple of planets for a drive. In the last 5 or so of these, I have not found one biological signal.

This is an old map based on old data - but it gives an idea of the spread of some of the BIOs (and some space ones - click on the categories to toggle them on and off. You can see how it's possible to travel a very long way and never find anything. Some of the space-based stuff is still only known in a handful of systems.

CanonnED3D - Maps

factabulous.github.io

Some complain and say things should be in more systems, but I dunno - if everything was as common as bark mounds then I'd never look forward to seeing another Bio POI again

 

[[PS4] Lorenzo Waringos]

This is an old map based on old data - but it gives an idea of the spread of some of the BIOs (and some space ones - click on the categories to toggle them on and off. You can see how it's possible to travel a very long way and never find anything. Some of the space-based stuff is still only known in a handful of systems.

CanonnED3D - Maps

factabulous.github.io

Some complain and say things should be in more systems, but I dunno - if everything was as common as bark mounds then I'd never look forward to seeing another Bio POI again

Yes, I wasn't complaining, it is something you learn about the game, helps steer you in a way. This week's mission is to find blah blah.

I would like the chance to find more things, say like crashed ships, way out in the black. Little random curiosities.

 

[Rampant]

Thanks everyone. I wasn't specifically looking for bio over this week - I was simply travelling fast to a rendezvous (with a backer friend on his way to SagA* (from Colonia) for the first time!), so didn't do anything proactive. However, I'd normally find something over a 25,000 Ly route. Hence why I asked if something was different of late?

I filter on F A B O WR Carbon Nonsequence stars (I switch G off in order to quickly find Carbon stars along route, and I don't really care much for them anyway). Many, many WWs tagged and a handful of ELWs too.

The journey to SagA* will be a lot slower due to company with a CMDR who isn't a massively seasoned explorer. He's following a route I drew up for him last year that I split into manageable legs with "interesting waypoints" around 600 to 1,000 Ly apart. Last waypoint he messaged to say that "this one feels special" because it had a good selection of rare-ish objects... which is nice

I'll have time to side explore properly when I'm on on my own, so will do a bit of research as suggested on likely bio habitats in Odin's Hold toward the core.

I also agree that these things really OUGHT to be mega-rare across the galaxy so I don't think they should be common or easy to trip over every few jumps.

Thanks all and Tally Ho.

o9

 

[marx]

Here's a current map of how various surface life is distributed in the galaxy and its regions:

A lot of these follow traffic patterns, of course.
You can also find other related maps on EDAstro's maps and charts page.

If a body meets all the criteria necessary for a given form of surface life to spawn, it will spawn (unless the planet is too small for even a single one to appear). These criteria can be quite restrictive, and not all forms of life are present in all regions either. (Except anemones. There is no region without any form of anemones.) You can see them on the Codex, or compiled here - the Codex has some errors in it too.
So if you're looking in the right places, you'll find plenty of bio signals. If you aren't, then chances are you won't find any, unless you find something that nobody else has so far. That doesn't happen often.