Finding Exobiology - Is it just 'Wander and Hope'?

[Jack Schitt]

To spice things up a little you can try scouting for biologicals using an SLF. Low level high-speed flying is always entertaining, and it can be useful when you're hunting that last elusive 3/3 sample and the plants are spread out over a wide distance. When you find what you're looking for, put the SLF on the ground near to the sample then power it down so it doesn't try to fly back into formation. Then switch back to the mothership and use the SLF as a beacon. Alas you will have to switch back to the SLF and redock it before you can land the main ship.

Other than the possibility of avoiding hours of fruitless searching in the SRV, you won't gain much of an overall time advantage doing things this way. Quite the opposite. The mechanics of switching ships and redocking at the end is a lot more time-intensive than just launching an SRV or deploying on foot. But it's fun, and if you were trying to get things done as quickly as possible chances are you wouldn't be truffle hunting thousands of light years from civilization in the first place.

 

[Val Sylvana]

To spice things up a little you can try scouting for biologicals using an SLF. Low level high-speed flying is always entertaining, and it can be useful when you're hunting that last elusive 3/3 sample and the plants are spread out over a wide distance. When you find what you're looking for, put the SLF on the ground near to the sample then power it down so it doesn't try to fly back into formation. Then switch back to the mothership and use the SLF as a beacon. Alas you will have to switch back to the SLF and redock it before you can land the main ship.

Had no idea you could do that with an SLF. I take it you mean power off the thrusters temporarily?

I've got an exploration Anaconda I haven't used very much, with an SLF bay. I'm always afraid the autopilot's going to crash, especially if gravity's high.

 

[Aerendyl]

[OT: 'speaking of Jaques, what a sh*t show getting in for docking was! 'something like 20 Belugas all trying to squeeze through the slot at once... after several detonated I was able to maneouver through the debris and get to my bay, but I'm sure not looking forward to going through that again upon departure... is it always like that!? or have I just been out in the black too long...]

Yeah if you want some "fun times", try getting out with a Corvette and a docking computer...
I spent some time just watching the mass of ships trying to avoid each other - what madness!

 

[Aerendyl]

I'm doing some exploration for a bit as I get back into the game, and I'm curious about exobiology.

I understand the basic process is to map the planet with the DSS, then land in one of the blue areas. But, what then?

Per usual, the scanner in the moon buggy is next to useless. I do see some patterns, but chasing those down seems to reveal absolutely nothing.

Is there some process of which I'm unaware that makes finding the life forms more efficient?

1. Switch to the comp scanner in your ship and your SRV. Every now and then you'll get a blip on that scanner for something you haven't seen with your eyes yet.
2. If there's only one lifeform on a planet, it's typically bacteria. Bacteria is kinda boring and doesn't pay much - a common payout is 1.6m for the scan and 6.7m if it's a first discovery. You can decide whether that's worth it or not, but I typically only land if there are two or more signals.
3. If a bio planet has a "first footfall" name, someone has likely scanned it, so you won't get the first discovery bonus. Best to head in a strange direction until you come to stars that nobody has discovered yet and start scanning from there. Typical routes are often travelled, so you won't get many first discoveries that way.
4. First discovery bonuses can be huge, if you care about that. The Stratum "sausage" plants pay well and are easy to see. First discovery can give 64m.
5. Use a smallish ship with good visibility if you can - my Corvette's nose bumps the ground when plants are still only a few pixels big, and there's no visibility below. A Krait Phantom or an Asp Explorer are good choices.
6. If you fly level and then hit mouse-look, your ship will carry on perfectly level. You can then use up and down thrusters to keep about 50m above ground and travel at a reasonable pace directly ahead, while looking through the bottom glass below your "desk". This is good for visible plants. For well-camouflaged bacteria it's better to angle down and then keep hitting up thrusters so that you "hop", and let the comp scanner help you find things.
7. If you leave the ship and then can't find what you saw, fly up high with the external camera and look around.
8. Driving the SRV is sometimes good, the comp-scanner can pick things up. I have a little program that allows me to make waypoints so if I see one plant while scanning another, I can come back. It's based on this: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...ps-and-race-management-with-vr-support.552051
9. Flat and fully sun-lit areas are the easiest to search - try to go for those if you want to save time.

 

[Crank Larson]

Scarab works for me. Usually I can find the three variations within a couple of minutes of finding the first. I don't often bother with bacteria, unless I've got all the other plants and was going for a flyve anyway. Just don't go to fast as things don't seem to appear when you do that (which stopped me using my Courier for searching ).

 

[CMDR Kapitikarl]

This is what I do - it seems like a lot but you get into the groove in no time:

1. Get EDDiscovery and install. Make no changes to the display. Your focus on EDDiscovery for now is the Scan page (bottom left) that shows the bodies you scan in each system
2. 2Set a waypoint in the game and jump towards it - I will advise you to you try to venture away from the bubble
3. Honk every system you go through
4. FSS said system, focusing on High Metal Content bodies
5. Check ED Discovery for any HMC that have exo/geo on it - marked with a ~
6. Check the gravity of each HMC - if it has less than 0.9G then chances it will have exo on it
7. Check each planet on your left panel in game for atmosphere - if no atmosphere then no exo, it will be all geo instead
8. Go to planet and surface scan - focus on Stratum Tetronicus and nothing else - will bring in CR19Mill (x5 for first footfall) each time.
9. Land, don't use SRV, use your ship instead.
10. Once you have scanned your first sample, travel forward for 4-5 seconds find the next nearest sample, land and scan, and then do it again for the third and final time.
11. Let the animation finish before you board your ship.
12. Rinse and repeat.
13. You will make Elite in no time.

I did 60 jumps tonight - found five like this - bagged CR500Mil

 

[The Lawful]

This would not not be complete without mentioning the EliteObservatory app (with Botanist) plus MattGs BioInsights plugin for it. It can tell you which plants to expect where from an FSS scan and has proven quite useful during the Paul Vernon Memorial tour we did last year (therefore the values are still the old ones). If you're not after the plants so much, but more into the money, try Spansh's Exobiology router.

You still have to find the plants on your own, but practice makes perfect

Additional tip: make sure the environment is safe when going on-foot, otherwise, the SRV it is. The latter can safely withstand even the most extreme temperatures where otherwise you might freeze to death or get cooked rather fast. Plus, it can cover a lot more range.

O7,

 

[Jack Schitt]

Had no idea you could do that with an SLF. I take it you mean power off the thrusters temporarily?

Yes. It'll just sit there until you power them back up.

I've got an exploration Anaconda I haven't used very much, with an SLF bay. I'm always afraid the autopilot's going to crash, especially if gravity's high.

You have got to keep an eye on it sometimes. I've got a key bound to "hold position" that I trigger as soon as I've launched, otherwise it defaults to "follow me" and sometimes the last thing you want is the mothership following you into the canyons.

The biggest annoyance with this method is the inability to land or otherwise deploy in an SRV or suit without first getting the SLF back into the hangar. Aside from being denied the ability to walk up to and inspect your own "landed" SLF, sometimes the mothership drifts sufficiently during the return flight and docking that you can lose the exact position of the organic on the ground. But it's normally not too difficult to find it again, knowing you're in the right area.

It would be nice if we could drop arbitrary beacons as temporary surface waypoints. I guess cargo canisters might work, but you can't drop them from SLFs. Some SLFs have heat sink launchers, but I don't know if a heat sink would last long enough to be useful as a beacon.

 

[Monk]

Yes it's just like real life...
Haplessly wondering around in hope for many things to discover. Only to realise it's not the wondrous variety you hoped for, but just a very limited number of species to find. .. all over the Galaxy.

Flimley

This is a big part that keeps me from even trying it.

As in space exploration, I was only really interested in ticking off every type of star and body, at first...beyond that its about seeing interesting things and configurations of systems.

It seems Exobiology satisfies the first part, seeing every variety the game has to offer...but there is no real "beyond that" that I can see to appreciate.

 

[Evoflash]

Combine ExoB with some Codex filling. It’s a mammoth task.