Need Tips for Exploration

TheArchitect

T
Hello Commanders,

I just earned enough to buy my very own ASP Explorer and after a little bit of planing I told myself to head out to the first nebula on the Galaxymap I found. Now, I watched a lot of videos about exploration in Elite and visited a lot of forums. After all that reading and watching I still don't know what to do out there.
Where do I look for water worlds? Where and what are Neutron stars? What should I look out for on the system map after I scanned the whole system?

Don't get me wrong, I want to explore the galaxy and I am training for a very long trip. A circle around the galaxy. But to get the skills I need I would like to ask for help. Maybe there is a thread that already has some or all the answers, if so, I wasn't able to find it.

Please help me getting started with my journey.

Have a good time out there. See you in the next system.

TheArchitect
 

Agony_Aunt

Agony_Aunt
Its not that hard, you just need to understand the basics of outfitting a ship for exploration (fuel scoop, cool running ideally, heat sinks and AMFU for emergencies) and then basically going where you want and not running out of fuel or crashing into things.

As for what to do, its up to you. Be warned, exploration is often a lonely business, and many of us go insane after some time out there furble gwak bibble.

Until FD add more things to find out in the black, the only real thing you go out for is to find interesting planets/systems and see the sights.

Where do I look for water worlds?
Click to expand...

Theoretically you can find them around just about any star, although F types seem to be pretty good for them. Having said that, i've found water worlds and even once an earthlike around brown dwarfs.

Where and what are Neutron stars?
Click to expand...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_star

You can find then all around the galaxy, although they are quite rare. Still, there are some in and around the bubble. Go visit Jackson's Lighthouse, just 174LY from Sol. They look pretty similar to white dwarfs, although you get a much bigger FSD boost from flying through their jets (note: Don't fly through their jets until you know why you might want to do this and how to do it right, its dangerous).

What should I look out for on the system map after I scanned the whole system?
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Whatever you want. Interesting sights mainly.

If you are looking for credits, its useful to learn about goldilocks zones so you can try and spot potential terraformable worlds.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumstellar_habitable_zone

Terraformable worlds give a decent payout boost to their base type, and a terraformable water world can even pay a bit more than finding an earthlike (which is a little strange, but hey, no complaints, they are a lot easier to find).

Of course, finding an earthlike (or outdoor world as they are sometimes known) is a major thing. Always nice to find one of those.

Ammonia worlds look nice, and pay decently.

Rarer still are finding things like water world and earthlike moons, or water worlds/earthlikes with rings.

Got a pic at home (i think) of a gas giant with 3 moons, 2 of them water worlds and the third a terraformable rocky or high metal. That one was an awesome find.

Last night i found a system with 3 water worlds, which was nice.

If you have further questions, ask away.
 
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Aura Lorell

Aura Lorell
TheArchitect said:
Hello Commanders,

I just earned enough to buy my very own ASP Explorer and after a little bit of planing I told myself to head out to the first nebula on the Galaxymap I found. Now, I watched a lot of videos about exploration in Elite and visited a lot of forums. After all that reading and watching I still don't know what to do out there.
Where do I look for water worlds? Where and what are Neutron stars? What should I look out for on the system map after I scanned the whole system?

Don't get me wrong, I want to explore the galaxy and I am training for a very long trip. A circle around the galaxy. But to get the skills I need I would like to ask for help. Maybe there is a thread that already has some or all the answers, if so, I wasn't able to find it.

Please help me getting started with my journey.

Have a good time out there. See you in the next system.

TheArchitect
Click to expand...

What Agony Aunt said above. Make a small trip initially to get the hang of it and allow yourself to make mistakes and learn from them. Try to buy the best fuel scoop you can afford. Learning how to scoop efficiently without crashing into the star's exclusion zone is critical. Also take an SRV and practice landing your ship and looking for materials (jumponium, AFMU refill). Don't forget to equip an Advanced Discovery Scanner and a Detailed Surface Scanner. Also, if you are on PC I highly recommend you open a free account on EDSM and run EDDiscovery on the side to record your travels.

I hope you have lots of fun out there.

Edit: Regarding ship equipment, D rated modules are the lightest, although this rule should not be applied to power plant and FSD both of which should be A. The power plant can be lower than your maximum allowed.
 
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Major Klutz

Major Klutz
Jump into a system, use the Advanced Discovery Scanner, after the ADS has finished its "Honk", check the system map.

You can tell a likely Earth like or water world by looking at the system map. Sometimes HMC worlds look similar but you can confirm by listening for the sounds they make on the system map.
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...ds-and-how-to-know-everything-from-System-Map

If you see anything in the system map that is interesting or unusual, you can supercruise in range of the Detailed Surface Scanner and get a scan of the planet.
Once you've scanned everything you want to scan, jump to the next system.

repeat. ( https://youtu.be/hiDPlNnlRVA )
 

phelbore

phelbore
You don't *need* an Asp to go exploring (altho it is a great ship for it). Anything with a 30+ly jump range, good scoop (a rated, 5+ is my preference) and SRV will do nicely. A top of the line exploration Asp can cost 60m+, but a similar Viper can run 12m. If you can't afford to get the Asp to do what you want, try other ships (preferably in Coriolis to save credits).

Don't go for a circumnav as your first trip, you'll likely have to turn back, try a shorter trip first. Witch head and Eta Carinae are both nice for a first trip.

As others said, EDSM is your friend, and consider posting to the Earthlike Worlds thread if you find any.
 

Cliff Dobbs

Cliff Dobbs
No one is addressing the real issue that Agony Aunt mentioned - the space madness !

I keep sane-ish by listening to Lave Radio, Obsidian Ant and GalNet News Digest (they read the news so you don't have to). I also recommend taking a friend for company. I have David Braben sat on my dashboard.

There's also Mr Flibble, but he's mad, so I try not to talk to him

:D
 

Sixxor

Sixxor
Agony_Aunt said:
Be warned, exploration is often a lonely business, and many of us go insane after some time out there furble gwak bibble.
Click to expand...

I've heard of many a CMDR succumbing to this space madness, but I think it's rediculous.
All you need is a good brimble spleek morflix routine to stave it off.
I have one and as you can see I'm perfectly pineapple.
 

Rustnsawdust

R
Sixxor said:
as you can see I'm perfectly pineapple.
Click to expand...

No-one is perfect, but you are indeed very, very pineapple. [yesnod]

My first long trip out, I went to the Fine Ring nebula (recommended) but hurried back to the bubble. This time I'm about 10,000ly from home and enjoying it. As someone posted in another thread recently, it's like playing a slot machine: jump, honk and hope for a big win. No win? Jump again. And again. Addicted? No, I can quit anytime I like. Really. Any time.
 

Sixxor

Sixxor
Rustnsawdust said:
No-one is perfect, but you are indeed very, very pineapple. [yesnod]
Click to expand...

Thanks very much! :)

On a more serious note, some suggestions.

One thing I often recommend to new explorers is a tour of the real life giant and supergiant stars in game. They're well worth seeing as they are monsters compared to the majority of stars in game. Search for any of the following in the galaxy map and go and have a look: VY Canis Majoris, Belegeuse, Arcturus, Rigel, Antares.
Of those, VY Canis Majoris is by far the biggest. It's not the biggest in real life anymore, I think that's UY Scuti now, but I don't think that one is in game (yet).
There are probably more that I haven't listed but those are a good start!

NGC 7822 should be on your list of places to visit, it's a cluster of super bright O class stars which is visible from hundreds of light years away. Many of the stars in the cluster are paired with black holes, some even have as many as 3 black holes in one system! Well worth visiting.

Also, if you want to make credits by scanning ELWs and WWs, in addition to the tips above, you can also use this brilliant guide to ID the planet types just by listening to the sounds they make in the system map. The only thing it can't tell you is whether a planet is terraformable, but it's great for deciding if that blueish looking planet orbiting the secondary star 300,000 LS out is worth trekking over to scan!
 
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Kzasch

Kzasch
Another thing that helps is: Don't convince yourself that you need to be at a specific point at a certain date. Deviate from your route if you find something interesting, and just go with the flow.
 

Traveller_GG

Traveller_GG
No one goes mad when out exploring.

Some say madness finds them.

Or they stare in to the abyss for too long, and the abyss stares back.

Some say they find God. He is them, they are him and their sight is extended beyond the mortal veil.

Others say they find themselves, but look upon their own visage from the outside.

Still others say the soul of the explorers expands beyond the confines of their physical vessel and wanders amongst the stars when their ship has returned to dock.
.
.
.
.
.

It's all not true of course: They merely leave sanity behind because it weighs too much
 

Straha Yeagar

S
Another thing I have found that really helps is come up with a personal mission, something that sounds fun for you, and don't be afraid to change it when ever you want.

For example, this last trip out, I start by going way out in the eastern edge of the galaxy in between spiral arms attempting to reach the difficult high mass systems...ones that required multiple jumponium injections, manual route plotting over several jumps and manual distance calculations based on GalMap coordinates. Then one day, I was poking around the GalMap, and located what seemed to be a completely undiscovered sector as reported to EDSM, so I went there and continued on trying to get to difficult to reach systems. That morphed into what I am currently doing, and that is to locate a previously untagged and unreported nebula, while at the same time, collecting data on Carbon Stars.

Exploration, more than anything else in Elite is the best when you have the ability and creativity to find your own entertainment without any expectation what so ever of having anything handed to you by the game.
 

grimreaper

grimreaper
what straha20 said, "Exploration, more than anything else in Elite is the best when you have the ability and creativity to find your own entertainment without any expectation what so ever of having anything handed to you by the game." sir, enjoy the trip not the destination, it will be there when you arrive.
 

GunnerBill

GunnerBill
Shipwise I wouldn't overlook the Dolphin. Fully kitted and modded out mine is 12.5MCr and gives me 46 ly (max) with some L5 engineering mods. It's also very agile in SC and that to me was a clincher over my Anaconda which had a greater jump range.

I'm 15 kylies out from Sol now and have no regrets over my choice of ship even though I only bought it a couple of days before I left!

Here is the build but the roll's I specified in Coriolis were the godlike ones!

https://eddp.co/u/xc1kJRNt
 

TheArchitect

T
A huge thank you to all

First of all I want to thank you all for the answers. It is great to see such a great community.

I am really looking forward to get into exploration and I wish I had more time to head out there. I will try to do my best to record everything I come across. But please, keep posting. I think even more new players will have the same questions. It is great to here all the suggestions.

Be safe out there.

TheArchitect
 
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