Galaxy chart and Sun /Planet descriptive and value guide required

Madriax

Madriax
iain666 said:
Not the discovery scanner level. You get a 1/6 of the value for the honk (what ever level of discovery scanner). A third of the value (on top of the 1/6 from the honk) for scanning without a Detailed Surface Scanner and the final half if you do the scan with a Detailed Surface Scanner. Then a 50% bonus for first discovery on top of that where applicable.
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I think I get it now.

I'll use the example of a single neutron star in a system worth 36k and try to expand the details of the math. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

You enter a system and use system scan to ping the system and get the "honk".

This will give you 1/6 of the value of the neutron star's 36k ie 6k CR.

Then, you can do a surface scan of the star (or any other planet).

You do not need a Detailed Surface Scanner module in order to do a surface scan - simply pointing at a star/planet and being in range will trigger the surface scan. Having the Detailed Surface Scanner simply increases the CR you get from doing a surface scan.

Without the Detailed Surface Scanner module, the surface scan would yield an extra 2/6 of the value, ie 12k, taking the total you receive up to 18k CR (1/6 system scan + 2/6 surface scan).

With the Detailed Surface Scanner module (and who doesn't?), you get an additional 3/6 of the value, ie 18k CR, when you do a surface scan, taking the total up to 36k (1/6 system scan (6k) + 2/6 surface scan (12k) + 3/6 detailed surface scan(18k)).

This means, in effect, having a Detailed Surface Scanner module installed doubles the credits you receive of any object you surface scan.

First Discovery bonus only applies if you do a surface scan, not just a basic system scan.

Without a Detailed Surface Scanner module, First Discovery would give (1/6 + 2/6) + 50%. So 6k + 12k = 18k + 50% (9k) = 27k CR.

With a Detailed Surface Scanner module, First Discovery would give (1/6 + 2/6 + 3/6) + 50%. So 6k + 12k + 18k = 36k + 50% (18k) = 54k CR.

When you do a system scan, you will always get at least 500 CR for any rock/planet in the system (not asteroids, they have no value)- so rocky worlds around gas giants etc.

If the average value of a Metal Rich planet is 12k, you will get average 2k CR for every one you find with a system scan.

If you see an Ammonia World, for example, and can't be bothered to do a surface scan because it's too far away, you will still get 1/6 of it's value because you found it with the system scan.
 
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Aura Lorell

Aura Lorell
Madriax said:
I think I get it now.

You do not need a Detailed Surface Scanner module in order to do a surface scan - simply pointing at a star/planet and being in range will trigger the surface scan. Having the Detailed Surface Scanner simply increases the CR you get from doing a surface scan.
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Ah, okay I didn't know you could do a surface scan without a Detailed Surface Scanner module (I've always carried one). I understand now and it makes sense. Thank you for the detailed analysis. :)
 

Madriax

Madriax
Rhea Lorell said:
Ah, okay I didn't know you could do a surface scan without a Detailed Surface Scanner module (I've always carried one). I understand now and it makes sense. Thank you for the detailed analysis. :)
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You're welcome CMDR Rhea Lorell, and I hope the OP finds this info useful aswell.

It didn't make sense until CMDR Jackie Silver and CMDR Iain666 added their posts, then it clicked. Thanks guys.

I think this also explains the different scan levels in the Exploration Stats :

Level 1 = system scan
Level 2 = surface scan
Level 3 = detailed surface scan

I only see Level 2 and Level 3 stats, maybe Level 1 stats aren't recorded.

@ CMDR Gaffa

Once you have got used to working out which planets are which and are focussing in on the more valuable ones, I do the following if the world I have just scanned is either Earth-Like or Terraformable Water :

If there is a High Metal Content world within a couple of hundred LS either side of the scanned Earth-Like / Terraformable water world (you will get used to knowing what they look like visually as you progress), scan them also as they have a good chance of being terraformable. There is nothing visually different about water worlds that are terraformable and those that are not, or the high metal content either. You can only tell once they have been scanned.

It does not show up when you hover the mouse over the planet after you have scanned it, it shows up in the 2nd tab in the left hand side.

You will get a line of text underneath the basic description saying "This body is a candidate for terraforming"

Whether a planet is terraformable or not depends on whether it is in the "goldilocks zone" or not. It's all based on distance from stars in system etc, far too complex and time consuming for me to work out each time, so I just scan nearby planets as stated above.

In Galaxy Map, 3rd tab along allows you to select/deselect star types. I deselect L, T & Y as these stars are not scoopable. It means you can pick out the better stars and removes some of the clutter. They will still be selected by the route finder when you plot a route.

When scooping, if the star is red or purple it means it is L, T or Y and cannot be scooped from. These stars also have no valuable planets around them (or extremely rarely), just rocks and the occasional gas giant, so you can move on to the next star.

If the star shows a flat white, it is either a T Tauri, White Dwarf or Herbig AE/BE and they are also not scoopable.

T Tauri stars have 2 graphics - they can look flat white and they can also look orange just like K (scoopable) stars - so be careful with those, almost caught me out on a couple of occasions trying to scop from them by mistake.

As long as you set throttle to zero before you reach a system, you will come to a halt a safe distance from a star, even the most dangerous ones for heat damage if you get too close - neutrons, black holes and white dwarves. You will stop within scanning range so you don't ever need to move any closer to the star. When leaving these systems, I always point my ship 180 degrees away from these after scanning and fly away a bit before moving on to next star to avoid being affected by their gravity and taking heat damage by flying too close.

You'll get the hang of it all once you get your eye in.

Good Luck CMDR.
 
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Jackie Silver

Jackie Silver
Madriax said:
Whether a planet is terraformable or not depends on whether it is in the "goldilocks zone" or not. It's all based on distance from stars in system etc, far too complex and time consuming for me to work out each time, so I just scan nearby planets as stated above.
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There's a link to my calculator program in my sig which can handle (just about) multi-star systems and other complicated cases, but for practical purposes I use a shortcut that works well for single stars.
I have a spreadsheet set up which calculates the star's relative luminosity based on its radius and temperature:

L = POWER(Radius,2) * POWER((Temperature/5778),4)

(edited to add: T/5778 as Sol's colour temperature is 5778K, so this gives T/Tsol)

This gives the star's luminosity in units of L / Lsol.

The expected distance at which you find an Earthlike world is then around:

expected = POWER(L,0.5)

And I look at worlds which are around this distance from the star.

So all I do is type the radius and temperature into the spreadsheet (which I do anyway when I log the system details) and it automatically does the calculation and tells me where to look for habitable worlds. (In practice the terraformable zone extends a little way inwards and considerably further outwards than the ELW position, and the water world zone extends even further outwards.)
 
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Madriax

Madriax
Jackie Silver said:
There's a link to my calculator program in my sig which can handle (just about) multi-star systems and other complicated cases, but for practical purposes I use a shortcut that works well for single stars.
I have a spreadsheet set up which calculates the star's relative luminosity based on its radius and temperature:

L = POWER(Radius,2) * POWER((Temperature/5778),4)

(edited to add: T/5778 as Sol's colour temperature is 5778K, so this gives T/Tsol)

This gives the star's luminosity in units of L / Lsol.

The expected distance at which you find an Earthlike world is then around:

expected = POWER(L,0.5)

And I look at worlds which are around this distance from the star.

So all I do is type the radius and temperature into the spreadsheet (which I do anyway when I log the system details) and it automatically does the calculation and tells me where to look for habitable worlds. (In practice the terraformable zone extends a little way inwards and considerably further outwards than the ELW position, and the water world zone extends even further outwards.)
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Awesome program, Jackie, and thanks for the detailed explanation.

I'm already filling in far too many spreadsheets recording my journey, so I use a quick and dirty method as described above to help focus in on terraformable rapidly without causing too much impact on my exploration.

I find enough to make them worth scanning and I'm not fussed if I miss a few along the way - after all, it's just a boost to the credits for the trip rather than finding/missing something spectacular along the way.

It's more irritating confusing a slightly blue-grey HMC for a slightly bluer-grey ELW now they have removed the sounds! So if I'm not near 100% it's worth scanning, I skip it and move on, knowing if I did miss something valuable I'll at least get 1/6 it's value towards my bank balance when I return.

There's always something tasty waiting to be discovered in the next system, or the next ... you never know what you'll find - the Joy of Exploration.
 

iain666

iain666
Madriax said:
It's more irritating confusing a slightly blue-grey HMC for a slightly bluer-grey ELW now they have removed the sounds!
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The sounds haven't been removed, just moved into a different sound category that you probably have muted.

I don't use them (I prefer the anticipation of flying to something that looks promising and waiting to see) so I can't remember exactly what but they are there if you fiddle with the sound option.
 

Madriax

Madriax
iain666 said:
The sounds haven't been removed, just moved into a different sound category that you probably have muted.

I don't use them (I prefer the anticipation of flying to something that looks promising and waiting to see) so I can't remember exactly what but they are there if you fiddle with the sound option.
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+ Rep

Thanks so much for ponting that out - I must have been suffering from Space Madness not to find it sooner.

It's in the Music Volume section - Stellar Cartography Music (affects Galaxy Map and System Map music & sounds).

It was turned off (not muted) by default (I think) after 2.1 update.

And now it's on the music volume, seperated from sound effects volume - that makes a big difference.

Cheers
 
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