If only ~1% of the galaxy is explored....

Like, how come I can be travelling at multiples of c and look behind me?
Albucierre drive? Your ship is actually travelliong sublight in its little bubble of folded spacetime, so you've got some nice photons in there from all directions even if they're a few picoseconds old. They are ones you just travelled to (FTL outside your bubble, but now they're inside).
 
The old VisitedStarsCache Website did an outstanding job offering at least a somewhat reliable Info on this (EDSM Data only), but that got patched out by FDev.

For me, https://edastro.com/ has become the primary tool to plan my Exploration trips into unexplored space.
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(the Saturation Map is a nice start to see the general areas that are still vastly unexplored - in that regard Red is bad here, dark is good)

Afterwards, the Sector Viewer ( https://edastro.com/sector ) offers high resolution imagery of any chosen Sector - allowing to pinpoint the most suitable spots.
That's as good as it gets when it comes to finding unexplored areas.
The only trouble is that roughly aligns with the "thickness" of different parts of the galaxy, and you'd expect the thin areas of the disk to have had a greater percentage of their stars explored since there is so much less to explore. The galactic hub in the centre of the map is thousands of LY thick and incredibly dense in systems too, anyway. Simply in manhours it's not going to have had a proportional amount of explorer resources spent on it, as it will require far more work - by orders of magnitude. So the heatmap doesn't really tell us anything we couldn't have predicted from common sense.
 
The only trouble is that roughly aligns with the "thickness" of different parts of the galaxy, and you'd expect the thin areas of the disk to have had a greater percentage of their stars explored since there is so much less to explore. The galactic hub in the centre of the map is thousands of LY thick and incredibly dense in systems too, anyway. Simply in manhours it's not going to have had a proportional amount of explorer resources spent on it, as it will require far more work - by orders of magnitude. So the heatmap doesn't really tell us anything we couldn't have predicted from common sense.
Sorry, hoss, incorrect premise. The reason for a lot of the stellar scarcity being more thoroughly explored has to do with people going for things that don't occur as frequently in the core.

The core tends to be more "new growth" than the other areas. There is also the fact that things like galactic circumnavigation and pre-carrier extreme exploration end up on the rim and/or at the heights/depths.

The core is, for better or for worse, "easy mode" when it come to exploration.
 
I have 1294 first discovery systems from my bubble-Colonia-sagittarius A-bubble trip. Did that with g5'd explo Python, 55ly jump. Lots of jumps and scans/mapping. Really, a lot of that...
At one point I was contemplating rebuy screen as a valid option, couldn't take it any more...
So exploring in Elite, not easy gameplay and not for everybody's taste.

Btw, what's my share in numbers?

Edit :
Just remembered, recently I went out in the black with my alt cmdr in 74ly jump dbx, went in "NE" general direction from Bubble.
Some 5,5k ly away, around 25-30 gameplay hours, i decided to go back, nice discoveries made, screenshoots taken, all that. Few jumps later, on my way back found nice moon with good selenium. Collecting mats and taking screenshoots, I'm looking on planet which moon is orbiting, blue with red canyons, landable...
Yes, you're right, you guys know what happened😂
I'm like I will be careful, and then shields 50%,hull 37%, rebuy...
Back in my home station, like my supposed to be 11k ly round trip never happened.
So exploring, yeah, good times 😁
it happens to all of us eventually,

I am halfway to Colonia with enough data to finally get my elite rank in exploring, and I am apprehensive I'll screw up somewhere and get myself killed. :whistle::)
 
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Deleted member 38366

D
The only trouble is that roughly aligns with the "thickness" of different parts of the galaxy, and you'd expect the thin areas of the disk to have had a greater percentage of their stars explored since there is so much less to explore. The galactic hub in the centre of the map is thousands of LY thick and incredibly dense in systems too, anyway. Simply in manhours it's not going to have had a proportional amount of explorer resources spent on it, as it will require far more work - by orders of magnitude. So the heatmap doesn't really tell us anything we couldn't have predicted from common sense.

While there's some merit to that thinking (Star Density), the Heatmap replaces estimation and guesswork with hard data.
And combined with the 2.5LY Resolution Sector Heatmap (allowing to view slices of that thickness), it definitely is a superb tool.

Additionally, it permits to selectively avoid corridors, common routes, previous intensely traveled Expedition routes, Boxels (or even specific star classes) sampled intensively by previous Explorers or seek truly undeveloped spots (which do exist) with unmatched accuracy. All provided in a comprehensive view and useful analytic filters on top.
To me, that's all things that guesswork or common sense cannot provide reliably - even if the chances of being in pristine space ~500 to 10000LY from the core are indeed naturally very high.
 
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At some point I went put to the eastern fringe of the galaxy but could only bring myself to about 10000ly or a bit more.

Got my name on a few earthlike worlds, found mistly geological anomalies and some bark mounds but that was that. Made about 100 million from data. To me it's not about finding a nice view but to find any kind of pois.

I think I will do this again when Odyssey hits Xbox.
 
While there's some merit to that thinking (Star Density), the Heatmap replaces estimation and guesswork with hard data.
And combined with the 2.5LY Resolution Sector Heatmap (allowing to view slices of that thickness), it definitely is a superb tool.

Additionally, it permits to selectively avoid corridors, common routes, previous intensely traveled Expedition routes, Boxels (or even specific star classes) sampled intensively by previous Explorers or seek truly undeveloped spots (which do exist) with unmatched accuracy. All provided in a comprehensive view and useful analytic filters on top.
To me, that's all things that guesswork or common sense cannot provide reliably - even if the chances of being in pristine space ~500 to 10000LY from the core are indeed naturally very high.
That might work in 3D. As it is, a volume of space that has had a lot of systems explored over a horizontal plane will look nothing like one that has had the same number explored in a vertical plane. So to those of use who explore high and low, it's practically useless.
 

Deleted member 38366

D
That might work in 3D. As it is, a volume of space that has had a lot of systems explored over a horizontal plane will look nothing like one that has had the same number explored in a vertical plane. So to those of use who explore high and low, it's practically useless.

Uhm.... don't know how to break this to you - but you literally answered your own question and complaint ;)
It indeed does look different in most cases - making it practically very useful.

And when you see the 2D representation has a very low density - or is even blank - already in a candidate location, you'll also realize you can explore those spots both horizontally AND vertically - and find pretty much nothing but pristine space.

Interpreting the data correctly is the Alpha and Omega, that's it.

Anyway, it doesn't work for you apparently but works perfectly fine for me. No harm done.
 
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Uhm.... don't know how to break this to you - but you literally answered your own question and complaint ;)
It indeed does look different in most cases - making it practically very useful.

And when you see the 2D representation has a very low density - or is even blank - already in a candidate location, you'll also realize you can explore those spots both horizontally AND vertically - and find pretty much nothing but pristine space.

Interpreting the data correctly is the Alpha and Omega, that's it.

Anyway, it doesn't work for you apparently but works perfectly fine for me. No harm done.
Au contraire. Very low density = very few stars. Maybe almost none. They might all be explored.
 
By my calculations , we should all be exploring SOOOO much more , after all , we're all going to die of old age before this is galaxy is done anyway =-P
 
I wonder who was the first one to explore a system in ED... Was it David Braben? But I am more interested in knowing who will be the last to explore the last remaining one... ;)
 
I have 1294 first discovery systems from my bubble-Colonia-sagittarius A-bubble trip. Did that with g5'd explo Python, 55ly jump. Lots of jumps and scans/mapping. Really, a lot of that...
At one point I was contemplating rebuy screen as a valid option, couldn't take it any more...
So exploring in Elite, not easy gameplay and not for everybody's taste.

Btw, what's my share in numbers?

Edit :
Just remembered, recently I went out in the black with my alt cmdr in 74ly jump dbx, went in "NE" general direction from Bubble.
Some 5,5k ly away, around 25-30 gameplay hours, i decided to go back, nice discoveries made, screenshoots taken, all that. Few jumps later, on my way back found nice moon with good selenium. Collecting mats and taking screenshoots, I'm looking on planet which moon is orbiting, blue with red canyons, landable...
Yes, you're right, you guys know what happened😂
I'm like I will be careful, and then shields 50%,hull 37%, rebuy...
Back in my home station, like my supposed to be 11k ly round trip never happened.
So exploring, yeah, good times 😁
A 74ly jump range DBX... That's impressive! But it must be paper thin to get that much range out of it! Brave to even consider landing on a planet in that!
 
Au contraire. Very low density = very few stars. Maybe almost none. They might all be explored.
As a tool the galactic heat map is very useful for determining where to travel for visiting less visited systems. As mentioned above its all about effectively interpreting maps. Comparing heat map to actual galactic map is important.

Obvious examples
  • When traveling through areas of heatmap "hots spots" that I know that have a high density of stars its best to move " up" or "down" to avoid already visited systems.
  • When traveling on route to a destination and I can see a big heatmap line to it.... its best to move slightly off that line. Up or down, left or right. That big fat line generally shows a direct path previous explorers followed.
  • In areas of galaxy with very low density stars, the heatmap also shows very little. To be expected. Gotta use heat map with common sense & knowledge in certain areas. Look at the relative amount of heat map vs galactic map, and the possible importance to previous explorers.
 
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Then can we really call ourselves explorers? And if not, what tools can Fdev add to the game to turn us into true explorers?

Historically explorers IRL don't catalog every tree in a forest. They just map out the forest and identify key items of interest. And spread disease to the locals.

IMO turning cmdrs into "true explorers" there needs to be challenges to discovering new things of interest. And exploration should be based on skill, or reasonable theories towards something expected.... not random wandering.
 
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