Need help with exploration

Can someone answer these questions about exploration?

Okay, so I'm flying around in my eagle scanning systems.


If I activate my scanner it marks "unexplored" objects within about 500ls (it seems), but sometimes not?
What is the difference between the basic and advanced scanner equipment? Range of discovery?


Once I've discovered everything I can, including flying way out and using parallax to spot more distant objects, how can I know if I'm done in this system? Is there a way to know when you've fully discovered a system? Is there some notification or reward?


How can I tell if a system has been previously scanned? On my galaxy map, I see some where the system information is unavailable, but as cartographics sells the info, I can't say if that's an unexplored system, or just an unpurchased one.


What about getting systems named for you? Wasn't that a thing?



**for some reason, I just sold my cartography for 3 systems, and then i was suddenly at 0cr from like 50,000. bug I guess.
 
I believe the advanced scanner does the whole system where as the basic is limited (as you have noted). As far as I can tell the basic scanner identifies things at a distance but they are still Unexplored, if you fly around and target them until they are named you will get more money.

One way you can check if you have everything it to look at the system map, planets tend to be names numerically, so if you have a number 6 but no 5 there is one to find.

Not sure if you can tell if a system has been scanned before but even if it has you may still get some money for it.
 
I've been using the numerical sequence to search for planets, as well as the A and B indicating a binary system.
If an advanced scanner shows the entire system, that's pretty rad. I was on the hunt for one, but this credits vanishing kind of sets me back ha, expecially as I am now out of gas!

Anyone know about these other questions?
 
I normally I set up my scanner as a second weapon type and when I arrive in a system I'll target the systems sun and then activate my scanner.It will then highlight other hidden planets. I then go and scan them all before handing them in as you'll get far more money if you have scanned all the planets in a system.
The mid range scanner has a longer range and by adding a surface scanner with it you'll then discover the make up of a planet eg metal rich.Having a mid scanner and surface scanner increases your income by alot.I've not bought the advanced scanner yet so unable to tell you anything about it.
 
As far as i know there isn't any way to tell if the system has already been scanned. Some have claimed that you get more money if you are the first but, well, there really isn't anyway to tell. As a rule of thumb Anywhere that is waaaaay the heck away from anywhere has probably been scanned less than somewhere closer to the 'core' systems. One thing I started doing in the last build was checking the traffic report in station when i got to a new area. For example, when I started in my system today it had aready seen somewhere north of 10 0000 ships pass through it. Last week in Beta 3 I was visiting systems that had less than 5 visitors in the previous 24 hours. Based on that, you can easily work out that unexplored systems near the stations with low traffic are much likely to be unexplored. But, you know, you still get money for exploring a system YOU haven't been in so don't worry too much about being first.

As for naming a virgin system. not in the game yet. Hopefully in the future. I've got a list of names all ready for use and only a few of them are dirty..:D

losing your money after selling data is an old bug going back to beta 2. I thought it had been fixed. Logging out and in again used to fix it so maybe try that.

And yes, if you are serious about exploring then and Advanced discovery scanner and a detailed surface scanner are pretty much essential. The ADS allows you to find objects hundreds of thousands of LS out.
 
That's great guys, thanks for the answers.

I did relog and my creds were back :)

I'm not pulling down tons of money on my exploration and it doesn't seem to matter how thorough I am with the system. That is to say, it seems like scanning 3 items in 10 systems might be just as good as scanning 30 objects in 1 system. Not sure about this yet, as there's no way to tell the value of what I'm scanning.

I can't wait to bloop up to the better gear!
 
I've noticed that you can detect shipping traffic at ridiculous ranges in ED. If you cycle through all targets and see ships 8,000 LS out, you can bet they're on their way to or from a distant planet or stellar companion. Lock on and fly toward them, coming in above or below so you can use parallax shift to see the systems. (If you approach head on they don't appear to move, of course. :)
 
That's great guys, thanks for the answers.

I did relog and my creds were back :)

I'm not pulling down tons of money on my exploration and it doesn't seem to matter how thorough I am with the system. That is to say, it seems like scanning 3 items in 10 systems might be just as good as scanning 30 objects in 1 system. Not sure about this yet, as there's no way to tell the value of what I'm scanning.

I can't wait to bloop up to the better gear!


There are a large number of variables which seem to influence how much money you earn from exploring a system. I've earned as little as a few hundred cress and as much as 100 000 from individual systems. There was one lad who claimed to have got over half a mil from exploring one so there is a lot there. Towards the end of beta 3 I would go off for an evening and head through a bunch of systems, say 5 or six. I was getting 20-30g of individual systems on a very, very regular basis. It soon adds up.

I've written one or two posts on what factors seem to influence the payouts elsewhere. Do a search for my name or check my posting history and I'm sure they'll turn up. Suffice to say, when you start thinking along the line of how much economic worth information on a newly explored system might be to other people the whole mechanic makes a lot more sense (which is not to say it couldn't be improved in a lot of ways.)
 
Wow if I made 30k on a system I'd be pretty excited. I'm quite a ways away from my starting system now, I'll try for another full system explore and see what I dig up. I think the surface scanner or med exp scanner will be a good next step.
 
I did a run about 75ly out from my staring position, exploring some systems as i went, didn't map all of them properly although i did do 4 or 5 thoroughly and made about 80k i think, took about 3 hours with plenty of messing about fuel scooping and stuff, you would make good money with a surface scanner, jump out as far as half your fuel will take you then start scanning systems on your way back in, distance seems to make a lot of difference to your payment.

i thought we were going to be credited by name on the system info once we did the first full scan, but can't see it anywhere.
 
So I've gotten like 5k for my biggest system. I was the only person to visit in 24 hours and the system was very complex with 320,000ls between the two stars in the binary. I was very diappointed. But here's my question.

I'm exploring systems and then just selling to the nearest cartography office, sometimes in the very system i've explored. Does it matter where you SELL the data? or are they all the same?
 
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