Is a bonus for scanning all the bodies in a system still a thing?
- Thread starter rootsrat
- Start date
No, it never was a thing, at least not since 1.3 when I started playing, and I doubt that'd be something they'd take away. The only "exploration bonus" that has ever existed is the first discoverer bonus.
Lots of people have talked about how great it'd be to get a bonus for fully exploring a system, or maybe an "exploration mission" to fully survey a certain system, but no, nothing implemented yet.
Lots of people have talked about how great it'd be to get a bonus for fully exploring a system, or maybe an "exploration mission" to fully survey a certain system, but no, nothing implemented yet.
verminstar
Banned
Its never been removed because it was never in the game as far as I can remember...how far back we talking here?
I think it was talked about a lot as something that should be there, mostly due to the very low payouts back in the day. But I don't recall it being an actual thing either.
Been in since the Beta days, and it has never been a thing.
I brought this sort of thing up back in April of this year (about 6 months into playing the game) as a means of incentivizing the cherry picking I often saw outside the 500 LY mark.
The devs answered that a couple of months later with better Wear & Tear repair costs and Increased amounts on planets... Particularly on ELWs.
Since then the cherry picking continues.
So no, it was a thing a long time ago, but never reinstated since.
The devs answered that a couple of months later with better Wear & Tear repair costs and Increased amounts on planets... Particularly on ELWs.
Since then the cherry picking continues.
So no, it was a thing a long time ago, but never reinstated since.
The "cherry picking" is the natural way it should work. That's why it's been tweaked to favour it. You're getting paid by companies to explore. Find good value planets for them. They don't want ice cubes and useless gas giants moons. 
I've been playing since the early beta and I've never seen it. I've seen people asking for it though.
The "cherry picking" is the natural way it should work. That's why it's been tweaked to favour it. You're getting paid by companies to explore. Find good value planets for them. They don't want ice cubes and useless gas giants moons.
The way I see exploring actually happening in a universe like the ED universe, there would be two motivations to explore: commercial interests, and scientific interests.
Commercial interests would pay the most for "interesting" planets. "Interesting" being "immediately exploitable for profit". They'd pay well for cherrypicking, but their pay rate would vary depending on distance from Sol. They'd likely pay more for an ice moon 500 LY from Sol, than a terraformable 50,000 LY from Sol, because the data on the ice moon is potentially useful in the immediate future, while no-one is going to be starting a terraforming project 50,000 LYs away any time soon.
Scientific interests would not have a varying pay scale with distance, and probably would not pay as much per planet, but would pay more for "completeness", because a complete set of data would allow them to test their theories better. So, bigger bonuses for a "full scan" of a planet, a bonus for scanning every object in a system, a bonus for scanning every star of a certain type in a certain subsector, that sort of thing. They would also pay bigger bonuses for biological and mineral sample return.
It's a little late to implement it now, but I'd have liked to see several competing companies vying for your data, paying different rates depending on your exploration style, rather than a single monolithic exploration corporation covering both commercial and scientific exploration.
I agree that they're not doing anything to create content in the part of the galaxy outside the bubble. It's a pity, but I guess that's much because the planet variations are still "a bit" limited. I don't think "scan everything in the name of science" would make sense, though. Maybe they could set up reoccurring CG-style events arranged by colonising factions. We do after all still have a little bit of data to work with. Quality of materials on planets, metallicity of systems, total mass of something-something (to get a scan everything objective)...
The "cherry picking" is the natural way it should work. That's why it's been tweaked to favour it. You're getting paid by companies to explore. Find good value planets for them. They don't want ice cubes and useless gas giants moons.
Yeah its just natural
and if anyone is "scanning in the name of science" there really wont be a financial incentive to do it, its for the love of data & science because there's no commercial value in it.
The "cherry picking" is the natural way it should work. That's why it's been tweaked to favour it. You're getting paid by companies to explore. Find good value planets for them. They don't want ice cubes and useless gas giants moons.
Natural? In the real world, yes, I can see this as a plausible. Most explorers were doing it for the commercial value of a "short cut" to the riches at the destination.
Gamers though? No... The motivations for gamers are most commonly the quick buck (or in this case credits) -- especially given the credit grind that is currently going on within this game -- with the secondary case of completing the Elite Badge for exploration. They're not into the commercialism, the natural of exploration or getting paid by some company in the minor faction. There's currently no interaction within the game that motivates the player to being an explorer... other than money...
^^^ This right here would definitely be plausible to work into the game during the future revamp to Exploration. I would suggest throwing it into the suggestions forum to get the devs attention (in case they miss out on it here). I could even see this as plausible to inclusion in regards to "completion bonuses", either for quests/missions for viable ELW and Terraformables for Commercial bonus, or System completion for the scientist.
Thank you for giving me a bit of hope for what I'm going to write.
Hey, don't group all explorers into your personal idea of what an explorer should do. Also, this whole game is designed around the BGS economy, if you haven't noticed. It's trying to make that economy a miniature semi-realistic economy. To make exploration business work within that frame they clearly can't offer a gold star pat on the back to those who scan all the 100 rocky moons in a system. It makes zero sense.
Furthermore, no one is forcing those explorers who refuse to make credits on exploration to scan the valuable planets for credits. Just don't expect we all think like that.
And I already said there is close to no content in the galaxy for Explorers. That's not relevant to making exploration revenue semi-realistic.
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Hey, don't group all explorers into your personal idea of what an explorer should do. Also, this whole game is designed around the BGS economy, if you haven't noticed. It's trying to make that economy a miniature semi-realistic economy. To make exploration business work within that frame they clearly can't offer a gold star pat on the back to those who scan all the 100 rocky moons in a system. It makes zero sense.
Furthermore, no one is forcing those explorers who refuse to make credits on exploration to scan the valuable planets for credits. Just don't expect we all think like that.
And I already said there is close to no content in the galaxy for Explorers. That's not relevant to making exploration revenue semi-realistic.
And there are those systems that everyone gets to put their name on. Where you scan one planet/moon and leave the others for someone else. Until you get a gready bar steward that grabs all the free ones for themself. [mad]
Hehe...
Yeah, those combo-breaker CMDR's should be auto-reset.
Yeah, those combo-breaker CMDR's should be auto-reset.
Most Commonly =/= All. As my mother was fond of saying to me when I took exception to any label thrown out... It the shoe fits, wear it...
Furthermore, no one is forcing those explorers who refuse to make credits on exploration to scan the valuable planets for credits. Just don't expect we all think like that.
Yeah, I only started doing this recently as I was nearing to my Elite Status. If it's unexplored by me, it means it can be gained for credits even if the First Discovered By goes to a "tourist".
I hate saying it, but it's pretty damned accurate in the game... Collect the data, turn it in... Expect that information to grow mold until someone in the Faction or the Big Three uses it. The Star Trek Franchise does sort of cover this during the Original Series on how many "suddenly stories" occurred between when something was first discovered to when the crew of the Enterprise came to it.
It seems to work on the axiom, the greater the bureaucracy, the more likely it would be cataloged, stored and forgotten.
But, we have an upcoming revamp that might give us a kiddie ride of our own to enjoy.
Surprisingly the Privateer's Alliance liked my pitch for explorers and added their own rider to it. They suggested if the explorer surveyed the whole system and turned it in, the First Discovered by should change from the original to the person that first fully scanned the system.
Seemed they liked the "Cutthroat Galaxy" motto enough to modify it accordingly.
Guess how that went in April...
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Your personal impression of what's most common ≠ the necessary reality.
I've explored more than most CMDRs on here, and the most common thing I see when I spot another CMDR's name out in the black is cherry picked stars or high value planets. By a wide margin. Cherry picking makes sense both as an explorer, "scientist" and just plain lore player. By only scanning the potentially valuable things you're paying attention to what you're doing. I do also agree they could deepen the content and what we can look for, but this is what we have to play with today. When I did the trade Elite grind (the old-fashioned trade way) I naturally picked the best profit routes I could find, I did the same with the combat Elite grind. Exploration is a part of the same game, I don't see a problem with them setting up a few "rules" to enhance the progress/profits for those who cherry pick the better things.
I've explored more than most CMDRs on here, and the most common thing I see when I spot another CMDR's name out in the black is cherry picked stars or high value planets. By a wide margin. Cherry picking makes sense both as an explorer, "scientist" and just plain lore player. By only scanning the potentially valuable things you're paying attention to what you're doing. I do also agree they could deepen the content and what we can look for, but this is what we have to play with today. When I did the trade Elite grind (the old-fashioned trade way) I naturally picked the best profit routes I could find, I did the same with the combat Elite grind. Exploration is a part of the same game, I don't see a problem with them setting up a few "rules" to enhance the progress/profits for those who cherry pick the better things.