Newcomer / Intro I can't seem to find geologically active sites anymore.

Esteban · Feb 27, 2023

It has been a while since I have done any planetary prospecting in Horizons.
When I used to scan (DSS) a landable planetary body and it had geological sites that showed up as notable signals in the DSS (water geysers, etc.), I would see these sites on my Nav panel. This allowed me to land and do some surface prospecting for Mats. Now, in Horizons 4, this appears no longer to be the case. I don't see them in my contacts panel either.

How am I supposed to gather Mats this way? If I try this in legacy and collect Mats would they appear in my inventory in Hor4?

metatheurgist · Feb 27, 2023

If I try this in legacy and collect Mats would they appear in my inventory in Hor4?

No, the games are completely separate.

The legacy game had a handful of sites listed in the nav panel. The live game has geo sites all over the planet, as indicated by the DSS filter. You just have to fly around and eyeball them.

c_of_death · Feb 28, 2023

They no longer show as signal sources in the nav panel. Instead they now show as a heatmap in the DSS. You can cycle through each of the different geological sources in the DSS which will show them as blue areas on the planet. And no, legacy and Live are 2 separate servers now.

Esteban · Feb 28, 2023

I noticed the coloration of the planetary body when in analysis mode and presumed this was due to the migration to the Odyssey code base. It seems to me that the blue coloration covers rather large areas of the body. Does this essentially mean that it shows a region, not really THE spot where the geysers (for example) are located?

I don't quite understand how I select one area versus another (or one type versus another) but I'm heading in-game so I'll give this another look...

Val Sylvana · Mar 1, 2023

Esteban said:
I noticed the coloration of the planetary body when in analysis mode and presumed this was due to the migration to the Odyssey code base. It seems to me that the blue coloration covers rather large areas of the body. Does this essentially mean that it shows a region, not really THE spot where the geysers (for example) are located?

I don't quite understand how I select one area versus another (or one type versus another) but I'm heading in-game so I'll give this another look...

My understanding is the blue areas show where they MAY appear, and non-blue areas are where they definitely won't appear.

I tend to have more luck finding geological activity around rougher terrain, like trenches and foothills. And try flying quite low and slow, otherwise they might just not spawn. If you have an SRV, the wave scanner can be useful as well.

varonica · Mar 1, 2023

There are plenty around in the blue areas, the criteria don't seem as sharp as bio where a blue area may have none at all, blue areas for geo always seem to have some and you can spot them from further away than bio. Keep in mind also that geo are an active feature but they won't necessarily be active the moment you arrive, sometimes it takes them anywhere from a few seconds to a minute to actually start showing, like these. When you first arrive you won't see them at all, they are just tiny bumps in the ground, so you may be tempted to just fly off quickly and look elsewhere. Always wait and look around for geo, it's often surprising how many there are around you that you didn't see on first arrival;

aRJay · Mar 1, 2023

Note you can bind keys in the options settings screen for the DSS that let you cycle through the various types of Bio or Geo signal present which can narrow down the search sometimes compared to the All option.

Esteban · Mar 2, 2023

Just reporting my latest experience...
In the past, I did this extensively (talking Horizons 3.8 and prior). Just by coincidence, it has been a while because I haven't needed Mats.
I did some exploring to try this out.

When I approach the body and perform the DSS, it identifies only 3 geological sites on the whole planet - just 3. I'm finding them all over, as @metatheurgist suggested above.
Even as I approach more closely, the whole planet appears blue except for smaller areas scattered over the surface. I didn't discern any differences when cycling through the signals filter selections.

The blue coloration disappears when I get close to the surface, but I intentionally landed at approx five sites that were not colored blue. Those locations didn't change color when the blue coloration disappeared upon close approach. In all cases I found geological activity, although I don't believe they were lava spouts (they sure didn't look that way to me anyway). Mostly I found some fumeroles, steam-emitting spouts, and the like. (None of that matters too much, per se.)

Wolf 751, 2B.

I can work with this. It just seems like a bit of a downgrade in terms of what my ship can do for me when I'm looking for goodies. Previously I was able to more precisely locate the spots I was interested in based upon what I wanted to collect. If they're now all over the planet, despite what the DSS reveals, it's not a big deal. It's just odd because it makes you wonder why you're mapping the planet. (I know that the sites aren't revealed without using the DSS.)

varonica · Mar 2, 2023

Esteban said:
Just reporting my latest experience...
In the past, I did this extensively (talking Horizons 3.8 and prior). Just by coincidence, it has been a while because I haven't needed Mats.
I did some exploring to try this out.

When I approach the body and perform the DSS, it identifies only 3 geological sites on the whole planet - just 3. I'm finding them all over, as @metatheurgist suggested above.
Even as I approach more closely, the whole planet appears blue except for smaller areas scattered over the surface. I didn't discern any differences when cycling through the signals filter selections.

You are msininterpreting the info, in Live the DSS doesn't report 3 geological SITES, it reports 3 geological TYPES, and usually, but not always, there geological types are all found together, so scrolling through the types in Live won't change the blue map for 99% of bodies. In Horizons legacy (3.8) it reports a number of sites, this no longer applies to Live, it reports types not sites and the blue in theory should be the spread of the types across the planet. But as long as you are finding them ok that's what counts, if it works it works!

Sometimes you will get 1 or 2 geo types and I have personally never seen more than 3, but usually they are easier to find than bio.