New explorer: A few questions

[Tigrus]

Good day, fellow CMDRs o7

I have been playing the game for quite some time now but never got into exploration yet. But now that i have finally finished my AspX exploration build, i think it's the time for me to head into the unknown for the first time. I have, however, a few questions.

1- What am i looking/searching for exactly ? I have seen people post rare and unusual things they have found while exploring, such as planets with X features, or unusual arrangement of celestial bodies. How, as a new explorer, am i supposed to know that something is worth taking a screenshot or post something about it ? My fear is that i could witness something amazing, but just move to another system without even knowing that it was amazing. Does it make sense ?

2- Are there "unknown" stuff to be discovered ? Is it possible to come across "something" that no other CMDRs have seen before, worth posting about it and get known as the famous explorer who discovered it ?

3- Do explorers usually explore the whole system before moving to another ?

4- Does "interresting" things that can be found on a landable planet can be found by mapping it with probes, or do i have to randomly land somewhere in hope that i find something ? So far, i have only mapping a planet with probes once, to try it out when that feature released, and have not much knowledge about it.

5- How far from the bubble, approximately, will i start finding undiscovered system ?

6- Is there anything else i should know about exploration before starting out ?

If you have tutorials or guides to suggest that are up to date, i'd gladly take them.

Thanks

 

[Dr. Nagi]

1: Well, everything that lets your jaw drop is a good candidate You can always take a look at what POI's are already on the EDSM map to get a rough idea, but usually you'll get a better feeling of it after thousands of jumps when you've seen a lot.
2: Yes and no. You can never know.
3: A 1000 People can give you a 1000 different answers to this one.
4: Yes, can be found with mapping.
5: Depends what direction you go. Usually at about 2k ly undiscovered stuff starts appearing when you're not heading in the very popular directions.
6: Depends on how much you already know.

 

[WhoCares]

1: Well, everything that lets your jaw drop is a good candidate You can always take a look at what POI's are already on the EDSM map to get a rough idea, but usually you'll get a better feeling of it after thousands of jumps when you've seen a lot.
2: Yes and no. You can never know.
Oh yes, we know! It even has a name: RAXXLA!
3: A 1000 People can give you a 1000 different answers to this one.

• I guess 99.9% of the explorers "honk" every (new) system (not much of exploration in that though).
• Thanks to the FSS there will now be also more/most people to scan all bodies in the system.
• Mapping is a whole different question. Some do, some don't. Goes along with (1), what they are looking for.

4: Yes, can be found with mapping.
5: Depends what direction you go. Usually at about 2k ly undiscovered stuff starts appearing when you're not heading in the very popular directions.
Helps to go 500ly above/below the plane, and maybe keep "unpolular" star classes (M, L, T, Y) in the route plotting.
6: Depends on how much you already know.

 

[Dr. Nagi]

@WhoCares

Please don't put your answers to my post inside the quotes o.o
Regarding #3: You'll still get as many different answers.

 

[schlowi123]

1.: I don't know what you are looking for. It may be reaching Beagle Point, or it may be the journey itself. But that's the point. You have to find a worthy goal for yourself. There is no mission in exploring beside what you want to do.
But you are looking forward to hundreds and thousands of ever the same sequence of jump into system - honking (optional) - checking the FSS (optional) - scanning (optional) - get around the star - charge FSD … (repeat). You are looking forward to running into stars because your attention slipped for a moment. You are looking forward to finding the occasional earth like world. But that chance is ca. 1 in every 400th system. I think most explorers scan / map at least the Earth like worlds.
And screenshots? I take one whenever I want to . Your first black hole? Screenshot! Your forst ELW? Screenshot! Your first nebula up close? Screenshot!
Or let me say it this way:

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. I've been surfing solar flares and saw Earth like and Ammonia worlds in the same system. I watched rings, glitter in the dark near a neutron star. I took heat damage because I can never resist flying through the narrow gap between two close stars. All those moments … will be lost … in time … … … like … tears … in the rain. … But not for me … because there's so much to see and no time to die.

2.: Even the already known stuff is worth visiting. See for example the pictures in this thread. In there I write about my journey where I deliberately go to known systems and celestial bodies. Most if it is boring, but som of it is astonishing! Many more such threads exist.
That is also the reason for the galactic mapping project. A lot of stuff is worth visiting even though people have been there before. Take for example the Spirograph nebula. It is in the game and not too far away from the Bubble. It has landable planets inside. Go there, land on the night side (!) and watch the sky!
Watch the dance of three close (large) blue-white stars at Sigma Star.
Experience the void itself. I personally feel a bit uncomfortable in the center of the galaxy. Too many stars for my taste, too much light. So I feel more "at home" in the less dense regions. And yes, I know that this is just a game.
And on your journey, after hundreds and thousands of jumps, you will find stuff you yourself will find beautiful and nobody else has seen before
Although I have to say that I have never submitted anything to the GMP myself. Not in farm more than 10,000 visited systems.
Regarding finding unknown great stuff: Heavy Johnson had an interesting find the other day. And he said he never has seen something like it in over 20,000 systems visited and being all over the galaxy.

3.: Do what you want to do. I check if ELWs, WWs or NH4-world are in the system. If yes, I scan / map those, if no, i move on. Sometimes however (i would say approx. every 30 systems) all the jumping and honking gets boring and I scan a whole system. I usually also scan the system in which I stay for the night.
Others fly around the galaxy and scan everything, even before the FSS. Yet others scan every system in a subsector.
I'm telling this to show you that it is personally preference. I usually have a goal and want to reach that. Scanning everything would take too much time for me. Others don't feel that way.

4.: i don't know but it has been answered.

4.: In general it is said sth. like this: go some hundred lightyears up or down (in y direction) and then to your goal. After approx. 1,000 - 2,000 lightyears you should start to come across non-scanned bodies. A bit further out and you will start to jump into non-discovered systems.

6.: Yes, you should: it is very repetitive and probably boring for most people. Not that space madness really exist but there is a reason that it is mentioned among explorers so often.
Don't be tired when jumping. I've made close contact with stars, because I fell asleep.
Bring an AFMU. Bring an SRV.
You ever heard of KGB FOAM?
EDSM and edastro are your friends

Regardin tutorials: Check the Down to Earth Astronomy channel on youtube. And of course ObsidianAnt. And CMDR Exigeous channel. I also like The Yamiks. And there are others.
And of course, ask specific questions here.

May I give a suggestion? Well, I just do. Let your first journey be to the Crab Pulsar. It is not too far away but far enough to feel like an explorer. With my ASP Explorer it was 137 jumps. But that was before the Guardian booster. It has an asteroid station nearby, so you can repair there which will take away a lot of worries which probably everybody has when being in the void for the first time. The above mentioned Spirograph nebula is not too far away from the direct line to the Crab Pulsar. And between the spiral arms you will even experience some "real" blackness because of a much lower star density (no worries, your ASP Explorer will still make it through there).

I hope that helps, and I wish save travels.

 

[Shnyrik]

1- What am i looking/searching for exactly?

Different people are looking for very different things. From galactic records to trojans or unusual planets in brown dwarf systems. So, I guess, you'll have to invent the list of "shinies" yourself

To see what objects might be slightly more rare than the others, you might look at calculations made by cmdr. Orvidius.

You might also look at EDSM's POIs to see what other people considered interesting and worth mentioning.

If you are more interested in the process, than in the result , you may look through the threads devoted to some known expeditions like the Monoceros mission and try to find some inspiration there. For instance, finding way through the Monoceros passage is still quite a challenge even with modern FSD boosters

My fear is that i could witness something amazing, but just move to another system without even knowing that it was amazing. Does it make sense?

There is such a danger always. We just can't do anything about it except for being curious and learning new stuff

2- Are there "unknown" stuff to be discovered?

According to the statistics, we've visited less than 1% of the Galaxy. So the answer is definitely "yes"

3- Do explorers usually explore the whole system before moving to another?

That depends strongly on the explorer. Though now with the new FSS system you just have to scan everything in the new system. Just try to pay some time to examining the system map after the scan

4- Does "interesting" things that can be found on a landable planet can be found by mapping it with probes, or do i have to randomly land somewhere in hope that i find something?

Nope. The times of manual searches for geysers are now gone. Still can't decide if it's good But you still can look for interesting landscapes.

5- How far from the bubble, approximately, will i start finding undiscovered system?

About 1-2 kLys. However the Bubble is big and contains a lot of interesting things. Yeah, someone might have scanned them already, but that doesn't mean that you and everybody else know about them

Like, I've been to the Hind mine many times, and then suddenly understood that one of the GGs in that very system had shepherd moons

 

[Sapyx]

1. What you look for depends in part on your nature and personality. Are you a keen real-life-space-scientist or amateur astronomer? Then "real-life-spacey" things, like planets in Trojan orbits or visiting real-world-derived stars and nebulae, will probably be something you're after. Are you more of an artistic type? Then spectacular scenery is your holy grail. Do the mathematics of probability, statistics, clusters and outliers fascinate you? Then hunting down the "improbable" things like Helium-Rich Giants, Green Giants and such like will motivate you. As for "What if I miss something really important/interesting?", well, that's what this Exploration forum is for. Post it, whether you think it's amazing or not, and we'll let you know how amazing (or perhaps how ordinary and mundane) we think it really is.

2. In the words of the mythical American diplomat Rumsfeld from 1300 years ago, there are "known knowns", "known unknowns", and "unknown unknowns". We cannot, by definition, know how much unknown stuff is out there. But whatever might be out there, is probably hidden so well the chances of anyone accidentally stumbling upon it are 400,000,000,000 to 1. But consider this: all the new, weird, amazing stuff that is in the game, someone had to sit down and create it. It probably took a team of people weeks of writing, programming, testing and debugging to get it into the game. Those people who made that stuff aren't going to be happy if no-one ever, ever visits their creation - they'll have effectively wasted all their time and talent. So, in such cases, FD are likely to drop "hints", by fair means or foul, so that somebody out there will find them.

3. This is another case of "it depends", because how thorough an explorer you are depends on what you're looking for. If you're hunting for Earth-likes and nothing else, then you aren't going to waste even a single second scanning a system that doesn't show the telltale "Earth-like blip" on the FSS. If you're hunting for Green Giants, then you'll want to make sure you scan every single Gas Giant, but you'll probably ignore the small stuff. If you're looking for scenic alignments of planets, then you'll probably be quite thorough in your system scan, but then spend some time scrolling around the Orrery Map. The credit-maximizers will be hunting for the Big Three (Earth-likes, water worlds, Ammonia worlds) plus scanning for Terraformables, ignoring the gas giants and their moons. Right now, I personally am attempting a systematic survey of a sector of space for some statistical analysis of the contents, so I'm wanting to be completely thorough, scanning every single star, planet, moon, remote iceball and asteroid cluster, so my randomly selected star systems are a true and reliable representative statistical sample.

4. Most of the "interesting" things on planet surfaces, in terms of geological formations, lifeforms, crashed ships etc will turn up as permanent POIs once you've finished mapping the planet. Just landing and driving around randomly, you will discover the occasional randomly-generated POI - a crashed SRV, a "secret base", an ancient space probe or wrecked navigational satellite - but they won't be particularly meaningful or significant.

5. That depends on where you're going. Check out one of numerous "heat maps" of the ED galaxy like on EDD, edastro.com or elsewhere, to find out where other people have been traveling; if you want to maximize your chances of finding Unexplored space, go places where other people aren't going. Avoid the "tourist routes", to Colonia, Beagle Point, Sag A, the Formidine Rift and pretty much any highly visible nebula or star cluster. As an example, when I set off on my survey to an utterly unremarkable sector of space, I found my first Unmapped planet on the edge of the Bubble only 217 LY from Sol; the first fully Unexplored system was found 1283 LY from Sol. It wasn't until I reached 10202 LY from Sol that I found my first Unexplored neutron star.

6. Take a fuel scoop. Don't pick up cargo out in deep space unless you want pirates to attack you when you come back home again. Don't post specific location details on the forum about awesomely amazing stuff that you find until after you sell the data. Take lots of reading matter or other entertainment with you. And try not to think too much about exactly how many times the Tiolce Waste2Paste unit aboard your ship is recycling your sewerage.

Fly Smart, Fly Safe, commander. 07

 

[Orvidius]

... And whatever you do, don't listen to your bobbleheads. They nod approvingly when you crash into exclusion zones, after all.

 

[marx]

First off, welcome!

Broadly, there are two kinds of content out there: the generated galaxy, and hand-authored assets.

The galaxy is generated via the Stellar Forge, Frontier's procedural generation engine for the game. While it does have its flaws and bugs, it's still pretty much the most complex galaxy simulation you'll find in a game. Now, there are huge amounts of stars and planets in the galaxy, as in real life, and not all of them are unique and interesting. However, as is generally the case with complex systems, you'll rarely (and I mean rarely) find edge cases that even the developers didn't think of, and didn't know were there. Or just something that's already known but still very rare, that only very few Commanders have discovered.

Take a look at the GMP. You'll notice that the overwhelming majority of finds registered there are generated ones, and not the hand-made locations.

So, moving on to those. Broadly speaking, they are the ones where Frontier have stepped in to make content by hand. These generally tend to be of higher quality (but this is not a given), and often offer unique stuff, like voiced logs. As Sapyx wrote, the developers generally want us to find these, so there would be hints leading to them. However, it appears that these are mostly tapped out, as there are no more hints, with only Raxxla being undiscovered. You might still come across minor new finds, but don't expect much. Also, they'll be close to the bubble, so that's where you'd want to look.
Alternatively, you can find hand-crafted assets placed procedurally, like geyser fields, anemones et cetera. These are nice for a visit, but don't expect them to be different from each other. In a good environment, they might make for some nice screenshots though.


As for scanning whole systems: anecdotes and data both indicate that as they explore more, people tend to scan less and less of the systems. Like I said, there are lots of bodies, and lots of them uninteresting. If you are looking for specific stuff, be they body types (ELWs, AWs, and so on) or surface stuff, maybe NSPs, you can narrow down both the systems and the bodies you want to scan, by quite a lot. There's nothing to feel bad about if you don't scan everything: most of the time, you won't find anything anyway. Exploration in Elite is mostly a matter of persistence and endurance. So spend enough time on it, and you will find rare stuff.
Oh, as a side effect, you'll also be awash with credits, and an easy Elite rank. Both are handy for other careers in the game.

 

[Rooster Podunk]

Well, let me just say that the Grand Canyon isn't just another liquid cut ditch. Welcome to the black, btw, you won't regret your choice.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

Good day, fellow CMDRs o7

I have been playing the game for quite some time now but never got into exploration yet. But now that i have finally finished my AspX exploration build, i think it's the time for me to head into the unknown for the first time. I have, however, a few questions.

1- What am i looking/searching for exactly ? I have seen people post rare and unusual things they have found while exploring, such as planets with X features, or unusual arrangement of celestial bodies. How, as a new explorer, am i supposed to know that something is worth taking a screenshot or post something about it ? My fear is that i could witness something amazing, but just move to another system without even knowing that it was amazing. Does it make sense ?

You need use you own style of exploring. I use the FSS to see if there are any unusal arrangements. Some like to go throught the FSS as fast as possible to use the system map. You need to find your own way.

2- Are there "unknown" stuff to be discovered ? Is it possible to come across "something" that no other CMDRs have seen before, worth posting about it and get known as the famous explorer who discovered it ?

Difficult for any of us to know if unknown stuff is to be discovered as its unknown.

3- Do explorers usually explore the whole system before moving to another ?

Everyone is different. Do what you like to do. Experiment.

4- Does "interresting" things that can be found on a landable planet can be found by mapping it with probes, or do i have to randomly land somewhere in hope that i find something ? So far, i have only mapping a planet with probes once, to try it out when that feature released, and have not much knowledge about it.

Both the FSS and DSS help in finding POIs.

5- How far from the bubble, approximately, will i start finding undiscovered system ?

About 1000ly

6- Is there anything else i should know about exploration before starting out ?

Don't rush, take your time and find a way to enjoy the mechanics.

If you have tutorials or guides to suggest that are up to date, i'd gladly take them.

Possibly on youtube. Never needed them myself.

Also check out the Codex for interesting sights you may want to see and to find areas to find other POIs.

 

[marx]

Oh, another part I forgot.

2- Are there "unknown" stuff to be discovered ? Is it possible to come across "something" that no other CMDRs have seen before, worth posting about it and get known as the famous explorer who discovered it ?

With the generated galaxy, it's entirely possible to come across something that no others have seen before, but the chances of doing so are vanishingly small. That's the reason why we haven't seen them yet, after all. (For example, an Earth-like moon orbiting an Earth-like world.)
As for hand-crafted stuff, your only shot at that would be Raxxla. As far as we know, there's nothing new there to be discovered currently (based on there being no hints), and the chances of anything really new appearing before the next expansion (latter half of 2020) are quite small, as the live game is run by a skeleton crew while the majority of the team is said to work on the expansion.

As for famous explorers: I don't really know how that works, but to be frank, I don't think a single find will make you famous. The sole exception would be finding Raxxla. But otherwise, can you, or anyone here, name who found the first Guardian ruins, the first barnacles, and so on, without looking them up?

 

[Orvidius]

If you have tutorials or guides to suggest that are up to date, i'd gladly take them.

I forgot to mention, I have an exploration tips page. It's not a tutorial, but rather it's more like a list of things I wish I knew early on, plus some detailed descriptions of various concepts.

 

[Tigrus]

Thanks everyone for your help, input, answers, and useful links !

I think i now have a good grasp (in theory) of what exploration is. Now all i'm missing is to experience it for myself.

 

[RolloTreadway]

Lots of good answers here. So I'm just going to add my ha'porth to the first question. Without wishing to get too new age woo, you're searching for yourself. Or rather, whatever you are searching for, you will know it when you find it. There is no right or wrong, no winning or losing. Only finding what it is that makes your heart or your brain skip with excitement.

And with 400 billion stars, there will always be more of those things to find. Always. Just note that, if you take the most direct path between two well-known points (the bubble and SagA*, for example), it will seem like everything has been discovered, because you'll be following in the footsteps of countless commanders before you. But all you need to do is step a short distance from that path, and you'll be in the great unknown, charting it for the first time.

Good luck, cmdr. Glad to have you with us. o7