Is there anybody out there...?

Skybird · Feb 17, 2015

Commanders, a couple of questions to help a new explorer, sorry but having trawled through threads I can't seem to find definitive answers or in the manual.

1) How do I tell if a system is 'undiscovered' - not by just me, but by anyone?

2) On my right-hand HUD, under Status > Statistics > Exploration, are two headings - Level 2 detailed scans and Level 3 detailed scans - I don't understand what these are for? I have a Advanced Discovery Scanner, and a Detailed Surface scanner, and I use both, but both of those headings are showing zero, despite 845 star systems visited.

3) With 400 billion stars, I am guessing I am unlikely to encounter many people beyond the core systems, but are there places to head that are generally still unexplored? I don't think there is a map anywhere of discovered vs undiscovered systems (apart from the huge data set FD published the other week), so is it just about picking a direction at random? I want my name on some planets! :S

Thanks commanders!

babelfisch · Feb 17, 2015

Cant help you since I am no explorer, but have some rep for the pink floyd reference

Skybird · Feb 17, 2015

babelfisch said:
Cant help you since I am no explorer, but have some rep for the pink floyd reference

I didn't think anyone would notice, what with everyone comfortably numb at the moment *groans*

appreciate it Commander, favour returned!

Nutter · Feb 17, 2015

Skybird said:
Commanders, a couple of questions to help a new explorer, sorry but having trawled through threads I can't seem to find definitive answers or in the manual.

1) How do I tell if a system is 'undiscovered' - not by just me, but by anyone?

2) On my right-hand HUD, under Status > Statistics > Exploration, are two headings - Level 2 detailed scans and Level 3 detailed scans - I don't understand what these are for? I have a Advanced Discovery Scanner, and a Detailed Surface scanner, and I use both, but both of those headings are showing zero, despite 845 star systems visited.

3) With 400 billion stars, I am guessing I am unlikely to encounter many people beyond the core systems, but are there places to head that are generally still unexplored? I don't think there is a map anywhere of discovered vs undiscovered systems (apart from the huge data set FD published the other week), so is it just about picking a direction at random? I want my name on some planets! :S

Thanks commanders!

1) - In the system map - Select any body and a name will be on it if discovered and sold.
2) - Level 2 & 3 Scans have yet to be implemented in the game.
3) - All the close Nebulas have been visted but I've passed some last week and still there were unclaimed systems around them

- Plenty of stars for everyone

Zarus · Feb 17, 2015

1) in the system map you can see if a planet is already explored (the name of the cmdr stands above the planet/star in the map)

2) i dont know either (maybe they arent able to get ATM)

3) just fly 1000 ly in any direction (the most explorers head to O/B or A stars so avoid them wen you only want to scan a system what wasnt discoverd before)

(sry for my terrible english

)

Zarus · Feb 17, 2015

got ninja´d D:

Skybird · Feb 17, 2015

Nutter said:
1) - In the system map - Select any body and a name will be on it if discovered and sold.
2) - Level 2 & 3 Scans have yet to be implemented in the game.
3) - All the close Nebulas have been visted but I've passed some last week and still there were unclaimed systems around them - Plenty of stars for everyone

Thanks Commander, a very helpful summary. Looks like from some of the other posts just popped up, there might be some bugs in exploring, hopefully will get fixed soon. Ok, off into the blind, see you on the dark side of the moon!

Dr Zarkov · Feb 17, 2015

Go to System map, you'll see the name of the discoverer (if any).

jabberwalkie · Feb 17, 2015

Nutter said:
1) - In the system map - Select any body and a name will be on it if discovered and sold.
2) - Level 2 & 3 Scans have yet to be implemented in the game.
3) - All the close Nebulas have been visted but I've passed some last week and still there were unclaimed systems around them - Plenty of stars for everyone

I was in the Taurus Dark Region the other day and there are a LOT of things in that region to explore. When I was going through systems, it was fairly apparent that a good few portions of the systems that had been somewhat explored had only the main star in the system pinged and that no one would travel to the areas (100k ls or more in the system) to fully explore the system. Whether that is because the prior explores only had a basic or intermediate discovery scanner and didn't go out or look to explore, I don't know. Some of the stars and planets (mostly ice planets) I found when I was exploring early on was because I pinged away at the edge of the system to find a couple of extra planets.

Skybird · Feb 17, 2015

jabberwalkie said:
I was in the Taurus Dark Region the other day and there are a LOT of things in that region to explore. When I was going through systems, it was fairly apparent that a good few portions of the systems that had been somewhat explored had only the main star in the system pinged and that no one would travel to the areas (100k ls or more in the system) to fully explore the system. Whether that is because the prior explores only had a basic or intermediate discovery scanner and didn't go out or look to explore, I don't know. Some of the stars and planets (mostly ice planets) I found when I was exploring early on was because I pinged away at the edge of the system to find a couple of extra planets.

Small galaxy! I was in that sector today - I noticed exactly the same thing as you, main bodies near the stars taken, smaller, outlying bodies not claimed. So I went around one huge (50+) system for about an hour, then rushed to a 20ly+ station to be the first - only to discover, that despite them having no names next to them, it didn't list me as the discoverer, and I didn't get any finders fee - that was really what prompted my first question above - how to tell. It seems as if there might be a bug reading some of the other forum posts tonight. I was thinking that there must be a master list with FD anyway (like the one they published already) so it might be possible to retrospectively link names even if there is a bug, in the future. Fingers crossed.

Sim Maker · Feb 17, 2015

"3) With 400 billion stars, I am guessing I am unlikely to encounter many people beyond the core systems, but are there places to head that are generally still unexplored?"
...
The latest news letter says that 895,135 systems have been explored....which ammounts to 0.000223 percent of the total..............

Skybird · Feb 17, 2015

Sim Maker said:
"3) With 400 billion stars, I am guessing I am unlikely to encounter many people beyond the core systems, but are there places to head that are generally still unexplored?"
...
The latest news letter says that 895,135 systems have been explored....which ammounts to 0.000223 percent of the total..............

I suppose that really would be a 'glass half empty' moment!

jabberwalkie · Feb 17, 2015

Skybird said:
Small galaxy! I was in that sector today - I noticed exactly the same thing as you, main bodies near the stars taken, smaller, outlying bodies not claimed. So I went around one huge (50+) system for about an hour, then rushed to a 20ly+ station to be the first - only to discover, that despite them having no names next to them, it didn't list me as the discoverer, and I didn't get any finders fee - that was really what prompted my first question above - how to tell. It seems as if there might be a bug reading some of the other forum posts tonight. I was thinking that there must be a master list with FD anyway (like the one they published already) so it might be possible to retrospectively link names even if there is a bug, in the future. Fingers crossed.

I am inclined to believe that you get credit for discovering it when you turn in the data, which is also when they pay the bonus for discovery. Though what I am not clear on (relatively new to the game as a whole) is what happens when you discover it, but someone else beats you to turning it in. I suppose, and maybe a more experienced explorer can say definitively, that the person who turned it in before you gets the finders credit. I have a friend that is mining right now, so whenever I find a good system with lots of resource extraction locations I send that information on.

Besides exploring unknown systems, I have found myself going into Empire and Alliance space just to explore. I think of it as being an advanced scout as I streak across systems gathering data.