How to locate biological or geological features after surface scanning?

digitus impudicus

digitus impudicus
Returning player here. Have been playing since launch, left for the Odyssey debacle and now returning for all these wonderful updates, finally making this Sag A* and Colonia pilgrimage in my brand-new self-engineered Mandalay. I even bought Odyssey with no intent of playing the FPS, just to hand some money over to FDev for all the love they put into the game lately.

That said, I'm a bit stomped. I've managed to find a detour that takes me where not many other players have gone, so I find lots of stuff for the first time. I honk, then I find all the bodies through that other zoom-based scanner (sorry, I forgot all the different scanner names in the years I've been away). If the scan says there are features (biological or geological), I'll fly up close and map the surface with those probes. Here's why my confusion starts.

When I've successfully scanned 100% of the surface, I have no idea how to find those biological or geological symbols the game so proudly annouces to me in the top right corner. They're not on the navigation panel, not in the contacts, not on the planetary map. I notice that the planets have vast areas of them displayed in blue after the scan, but if I land in these blue areas, there's nothing to be found. I also looked outside the blue zones, but with no success.

I am in VR exclusively and some things might be broken there, or I might just be dumb. Which is it? How do I find those signals?
 

J Michaelson

J Michaelson
Inside the blue areas are different shades of color. You want to aim for the greeniest, teal color you can find within the blue. It's usually smaller and more scattered than the overall blue. It also helps to pick a particular species if there is more than one to narrow down the range somewhat, or you won't know what to expect to find. Some of the plants like Frutexa are usually on hills. Concha is usually down in crevasses or canyons. Stratum, the good stuff sometimes, is almost always out in flat areas with Tubus, Tussock, Bacteria, and Aleoida if they are around. Osseus is on hillsides and elevated areas.

Edit: picture added.
t3.png
 
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Ashnak

Ashnak
That myth is apparently unkillable... no, the shades do not indicate a probability for finding biological (or geological) features. All they do is reflect the underlying topography. That said, it may seem that they indicate the probability for biologicals since those depend on topography - bacteria, for example, prefer sandy flats while fungi usually like mountains.

So, there's no way around it - you'll need to learn which type of topography inside your blue search area is the preferred topography for the type of biological you want to find. Then go down low and slow and keep your eyes open.
 

J Michaelson

J Michaelson
Sorry, but that's just wrong in my experience. That teal color in the screenshot evenly covers quite a range of topography from flat to the mountains. The same teal color gets draped over the slopes for frutexa and the flat ground will be the darker blue or absent instead, opposite of what it shows for something like bacteria where the teal is on the flat surfaces. Regardless of what you think it indicates, aiming for the greener areas will make it easier on yourself.
 
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PilotB

P
Ashnak said:
That myth is apparently unkillable... no, the shades do not indicate a probability for finding biological (or geological) features. All they do is reflect the underlying topography.
Click to expand...
Except it verifiably does not as the underlying topography can be identical between colour zones. You can land where ever you want. That green is consistently the easiest but not the only place you can find the bios.
 
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