Marx's guide to finding Earth-like worlds

Hasn't anybody noticed that there are more earth like worlds in game since the 2.3.11 update, or am I just being lucky?
 
Hasn't anybody noticed that there are more earth like worlds in game since the 2.3.11 update, or am I just being lucky?

Highly unlikely I'd have thought, since adjusting the proportion of ELWs would require revising the Stellar Forge to treat systems differently, depending on whether they'd already been visited or not. So unless you are plotting your route with a filter, it is just luck. Or maybe you've got better at spotting them.
 
This tip worked great. I’m finding all kinds now. I found two earth like words orbiting each other and their orbits cross! Will this mean doom for the life in those planets eventually?
 
This tip worked great. I’m finding all kinds now. I found two earth like words orbiting each other and their orbits cross! Will this mean doom for the life in those planets eventually?

I assume you mean they have a binary orbit, like this?

BFu1S4j.png
 
This tip worked great. I’m finding all kinds now. I found two earth like words orbiting each other and their orbits cross! Will this mean doom for the life in those planets eventually?
Glad to hear it helped, and congrats on your find! Their orbits crossing sounds curious. Do you mean their orbit lines? Because normally, both planets would orbit a common barycenter (that's outside both planets), their orbits never touching. They could be sharing (roughly) the same orbit, like this:
Orbit1.gif


Alternatively, there is a case where binary planets have eccentric orbits, where their lines would cross, but they'd never collide. I don't know if these are implemented in Elite though:
Orbit5.gif


Otherwise, planets with different masses will just orbit at different orbits:
Orbit2.gif
 
Last edited:
Im interested in trying EDDiscovery, anyone got any experience with the new 8.4 build ? How long does EDD usually stay in testing ?
 
Im interested in trying EDDiscovery, anyone got any experience with the new 8.4 build ? How long does EDD usually stay in testing ?

It'll depend whether people find issues with it :)

Not that long if we don't find anything broken - feel free to use it (more the merrier for giving it a thorough shake down) or stick with the last 8.3 release. I've been using some of it for weeks and the code that made the pre-release build since it was finalised yesterday and it's seeming stable so far (there's a fix pending for a crash changing audio packs)
 
It'll depend whether people find issues with it :)

Not that long if we don't find anything broken - feel free to use it (more the merrier for giving it a thorough shake down) or stick with the last 8.3 release. I've been using some of it for weeks and the code that made the pre-release build since it was finalised yesterday and it's seeming stable so far (there's a fix pending for a crash changing audio packs)

I am about to head into the black - will i be able to change EDD version during the trip to downgrade/upgrade (if neccesary) or does it not matter?
if theres no issues with that, ill just install 8.4 right now
 
Last edited:
I am about to head into the black - will i be able to change EDD version during the trip to downgrade/upgrade (if neccesary) or does it not matter?
if theres no issues with that, ill just install 8.4 right now

No issues with that. As one of the developers I often change version several times in a single game session for testing purposes :)
 
This is a great guide. I say that because I've recently been crunching numbers from the EDDN myself - though I didn't use as large a dataset as I couldn't find one that was comprehensive. Instead, I just started recording scans since mid December of this month and got up to about half a million scans of unique bodies. One thing showing up in my Data is that three star types have roughly the same chance of finding an earthlike world - right at about 2% each. In order, they are F, G, and A. It was interesting to see that this guide recommends F and A but doesn't mention G at all even though G is just a tad more likely than A to have an earth like. Just wonder marx if it's my dataset to small or if that was an oversight in the guide. How did you connect the earthlike worlds to their star type when you did your analysis?

This is my data on planets by star type:

http://eddne.io/#/planets
 
Last edited:
Oh, not sure how I missed that site you made, that's really quite useful.

Anyway, the star types were from the ELW list. Back when I started analysing Earth-likes, neither EDSM nor the journal were around yet. While it's not as numerous as the EDDN data is by today, there are still ~11,000 ELWs with detailed star classes there. I didn't include class G systems because I wanted to mention the top "earners", and G main star systems have a curious split between mass codes C and D. From the data I've seen so far, it appears that even within class G systems, the latter have somewhat better chances of having Earth-likes than the former. So an AFG filter would include both mass code C and D systems, while AF would stick to code D only. (On the other hand, AFG would likely include more ammonia worlds.) Of course, for maximising chances, F only would be the best.
 
Oh, not sure how I missed that site you made, that's really quite useful.

Anyway, the star types were from the ELW list. Back when I started analysing Earth-likes, neither EDSM nor the journal were around yet. While it's not as numerous as the EDDN data is by today, there are still ~11,000 ELWs with detailed star classes there. I didn't include class G systems because I wanted to mention the top "earners", and G main star systems have a curious split between mass codes C and D. From the data I've seen so far, it appears that even within class G systems, the latter have somewhat better chances of having Earth-likes than the former. So an AFG filter would include both mass code C and D systems, while AF would stick to code D only. (On the other hand, AFG would likely include more ammonia worlds.) Of course, for maximising chances, F only would be the best.

You didn't miss that site. I published it about 3 days ago.

You've piqued my interest given the naming conventions. Makes me wonder if the data will show anything interesting if I plotted planets not by their star spectral type, but by the mass code in the system's name. Might be interesting.
 
Thanks! Updated the OP then. No major additions, since nothing related to finding Earth-likes has changed since: just some small edits, additions (GMP, EDAstro.com) and corrections.
 
Last edited:
Disclaimer - I'm a total newcomer to ED, realise I've made a lot of daft mistakes here, but hey learning the hard way is half the fun of this game, it does not hold your hand like so many others.

So, I'm currently out in the expanse on possibly the most poorly prepared expedition ever. As the result of a "sod-it" response to some real-world stress combined with frustration at the repetitive "fetch the black box" missions which were proving to be the best way to make money (early on at least) within the bubble I accepted a 36,500,000CR passenger misssion from HIP21991 to "Neutron World" in DRYOI PRI GG-Y E5156 a distance of 21k+ LY... In an ASP explorer... which I did not kit out for exploration before leaving. My current jump range is just 19ishLY and I'm looking at about 1400 jumps each way. KILL ME... (In a ship that has no way of repairing itself that I already damaged not realising Internal modules damage far worse than hull etc). Currently have 575 jumps left of the journey there.

Anyways, fortunately, I've come to love the exploration side of this and will 100% be doing some sort of grand exploration mission in future (not that this isn't already, but I'm time limited), what brings me here is that I've just begun stumbling across ELWs and will definitely be making that the focus of my next expedition.

That tip about the bird noises is perfect, there have been a number of very convincing looking blue-hued high metal content worlds, some of which I've travelled 490,000ls to scan which is endlessy annoying, but now, problem solved! Keep doing what you do & I'll be back to check it out (when I'm more prepared for an actual expedition anyway).

One question, as you obviously make a habit of this, what ship & loadout do you use for your exploration? I'd adjust to my own preferences anyway, but just curious as to what works for you?
 
Hey, thanks! Always good to have feedback, especially if it has details as well.

As for your question: if your next expedition will be focusing on finding Earth-likes, then when it comes to ships and loadouts, there isn't really anything more specific beyond the general exploration build stuff. Basically, what you feel most comfortable flying.

Personally, I've never much liked the Asp's cockpit and looks, and after a long while, had enough of the Anaconda as well. For a good while now, I've flown a Courier, a Clipper, and currently a Cutter. (Links are builds.) I like the Courier for its small ship feel, its blazing speed (an absolute joy to fly planetside) and its looks, the Clipper for its excellent scooping and supercruise travel, not to mention its great cockpit, and the Cutter for how heavy stuff it can carry and its looks. You'll note that roughly half of the above points are subjective, and jump range isn't included in any of them. Personally, if it hits 40 ly on a full tank, I'm good. But different strokes for different folks. Best to experiment and find out what ships you like the most.
 
One question, as you obviously make a habit of this, what ship & loadout do you use for your exploration? I'd adjust to my own preferences anyway, but just curious as to what works for you?

Just thought I'd add my two cents too, if no one minds. :) Personally, I'm a Lakon guy. I know some people don't like the "work bench" style cockpit, but to me the view from the pilot's seat matters a lot (I'm a VR player). I've used the Anaconda, but between the poor views and undesirable turn rate in supercruise, I just don't really fly it anymore. My AspX is probably my most comfortable ship, but I get tired of flying the same ship that I see in countless other screenshots. ;) :D So I've added some of the Lakon transports to my lineup.

Here are my recent builds: AspX, Type-6, Type-7, Anaconda.


(apologies if I'm derailing the thread, I was forgetting which thread I was in when I started typing this up)
 
Last edited:
Well the proof's in the results, today I found another earth-like world, and using the sounds technique to basically just figure out what was not a high metal content world or anything else common also discovered an ammonia world and increased the rate of water worlds and metal rich bodies i was scanning, turns out I'd been ignoring many before because they looked like fairly plain high metal content worlds. It's made picking my targets much easier and probably dramatically increased the profitability of my trip as I still have about 1700 jumps before I return to the station I picked my passengers up in, so cheers for that [up]

And the info on the ships is good too, I've had my eyes on a cutter since starting the game so I think I;ll maybe aim for that whilst prepping my ASP a bit better in the meantime, do actually have a lakon ship in storage (i forget which one) so might also have a play around with modules on that and see what it can do, thanks to you both!
 
Back
Top Bottom