In general, the same variables that influence Metallicity of a system seem to also influence the frequency of rare spawns rates. This makes sense because Metallicity is also a measure of the age of a star. Younger stars tend to be more Metallic for reasons stated below. The highest drop rate I've seen was on a HMCP (not a MR) planet that was only 15 million years old. Tripping over metallic meteorites chalked full of rares were clustered together almost in same screen, etc.
Below is a list of known and suspected factors that influence the spawn rate of rare metals, eg Metallicity and the likelihood of meteorites. So if you are looking for a simple hint just skip to the tldr hint at bottom. I will update this as we learn more, and more of these finding are corroborated and tested by myself and other explorers.
Pertinant metallicity/spawn rate variables:
-Age of Parent Star (a weak correlation for all stars, but for VERY young stars = more Metals and more Meteorites because they are still in the bombardment epoch and generally have much higher metallicity, once they are past a certain age, there will be no correlation because all systems are the same)
-Mass of parent star, but only to the extent that it increases the odds of having planets/meteorites
-More meteorites means more rares because most of heavier elements will have moved beneath the surface when the planet was still molten during early formation
-General resultant Metallicity of the system (this is not a seperate variable, but related to age by previous super novae seeding of the current system). Ergo, not all young systems have planets. But the ones that do should have heavier elements than older systems... yada yada
-spawn rates are consistent across pilots, eg the same set of metals should spawn for all pilots
-distance from human space, means less humans have trawled the surface (of course this is realistically inconsistent with the the previous point, and the points below, but too much realism puts the F U in fun)
-resetting the instance flying away in SC and re-landing seems to reset the spawn rate for rares/metallic meteorites, yes they can dry up in given patch of ground. Which leads to...
-driving around for a VERY LONG TIME (eg >50km) will increase the chance of finding rares, which is just another way of saying that rares exist even on older population I systems, even if they are generally less common (1-2 meteors per landing)
Things that **should** influence spawn rate (needs more testing):
-mass of the planet:
(bigger planets make a bigger collision target and perturb objects more to attract meteors). Fun fact, the "collision cross section" is much bigger than the planet's actual diameter
-presence of an asteroid belt:
(especially for younger stars where the orbits are less stable)
-presence of gas giants:
big objects will deflect more space debris into inner solar system, thus hurling junk at the smaller planets.
-number of (metallic) planets: this not only indicates a high Metallicity but also means that any loose debris will be perturbed towards one of the bodies. This could increase meteor spawn rates on mostly icy systems too. But the meteors should be less interesting.
-surface coloration:
darker or odd colored veined areas seem to have more spawns. White areas seem to have lower spawns.
-terrain type:
this may not be a huge factor since meteorites can land anywhere on a planet, even flat open plains, or the side of a cliff. Oddly craters are not the best place to look because most the roid is vaporized on impact. This is somewhat initially confirmed, since all but 1 of the meteorites that I have found was well outside of a crater. That being said, if a planet is tidally locked, look on the side with the most craters (assuming that's a even a terrain feature).
-volcanism:
older planets with tectonic activity will likely have absorbed the meteorites from the bombardment epoch. However, slightly less rare (non meteorite) metals should have a higher frequency since surface churn will bring heavy metals back up to the surface
-proximity to super novae:
the neutron fields would be a great place to test this theory. In particular by visiting young planets that are *close* to neutron stars.
-galactic location:
in general new star formation is happening in the disk and the arms of the galaxy, and less so in the core. However, the core is much older and more dense (hence the increased presence of neutron stars), so the metallicity should be higher there in general and even older stars should be more metallic than young stars in the outer disk. Any young stars near the core however, should be VERY metallic.
TL;DR HINT: the Ideal location to search for rare materials would be massive T Tauri stars (you can tell the mass right away by the color). But really any star that is only a few million years old should suffice. Not only will they be guaranteed to have high metallicity and meteorites due to their relative youth, if there are any planets, the closest planets will very likely be devoid of atmospheres due the the strong T Tauri solar winds.
Below is a list of known and suspected factors that influence the spawn rate of rare metals, eg Metallicity and the likelihood of meteorites. So if you are looking for a simple hint just skip to the tldr hint at bottom. I will update this as we learn more, and more of these finding are corroborated and tested by myself and other explorers.
Pertinant metallicity/spawn rate variables:
-Age of Parent Star (a weak correlation for all stars, but for VERY young stars = more Metals and more Meteorites because they are still in the bombardment epoch and generally have much higher metallicity, once they are past a certain age, there will be no correlation because all systems are the same)
-Mass of parent star, but only to the extent that it increases the odds of having planets/meteorites
-More meteorites means more rares because most of heavier elements will have moved beneath the surface when the planet was still molten during early formation
-General resultant Metallicity of the system (this is not a seperate variable, but related to age by previous super novae seeding of the current system). Ergo, not all young systems have planets. But the ones that do should have heavier elements than older systems... yada yada
-spawn rates are consistent across pilots, eg the same set of metals should spawn for all pilots
-distance from human space, means less humans have trawled the surface (of course this is realistically inconsistent with the the previous point, and the points below, but too much realism puts the F U in fun)
-resetting the instance flying away in SC and re-landing seems to reset the spawn rate for rares/metallic meteorites, yes they can dry up in given patch of ground. Which leads to...
-driving around for a VERY LONG TIME (eg >50km) will increase the chance of finding rares, which is just another way of saying that rares exist even on older population I systems, even if they are generally less common (1-2 meteors per landing)
Things that **should** influence spawn rate (needs more testing):
-mass of the planet:
(bigger planets make a bigger collision target and perturb objects more to attract meteors). Fun fact, the "collision cross section" is much bigger than the planet's actual diameter
-presence of an asteroid belt:
(especially for younger stars where the orbits are less stable)
-presence of gas giants:
big objects will deflect more space debris into inner solar system, thus hurling junk at the smaller planets.
-number of (metallic) planets: this not only indicates a high Metallicity but also means that any loose debris will be perturbed towards one of the bodies. This could increase meteor spawn rates on mostly icy systems too. But the meteors should be less interesting.
-surface coloration:
darker or odd colored veined areas seem to have more spawns. White areas seem to have lower spawns.
-terrain type:
this may not be a huge factor since meteorites can land anywhere on a planet, even flat open plains, or the side of a cliff. Oddly craters are not the best place to look because most the roid is vaporized on impact. This is somewhat initially confirmed, since all but 1 of the meteorites that I have found was well outside of a crater. That being said, if a planet is tidally locked, look on the side with the most craters (assuming that's a even a terrain feature).
-volcanism:
older planets with tectonic activity will likely have absorbed the meteorites from the bombardment epoch. However, slightly less rare (non meteorite) metals should have a higher frequency since surface churn will bring heavy metals back up to the surface
-proximity to super novae:
the neutron fields would be a great place to test this theory. In particular by visiting young planets that are *close* to neutron stars.
-galactic location:
in general new star formation is happening in the disk and the arms of the galaxy, and less so in the core. However, the core is much older and more dense (hence the increased presence of neutron stars), so the metallicity should be higher there in general and even older stars should be more metallic than young stars in the outer disk. Any young stars near the core however, should be VERY metallic.
TL;DR HINT: the Ideal location to search for rare materials would be massive T Tauri stars (you can tell the mass right away by the color). But really any star that is only a few million years old should suffice. Not only will they be guaranteed to have high metallicity and meteorites due to their relative youth, if there are any planets, the closest planets will very likely be devoid of atmospheres due the the strong T Tauri solar winds.
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