New Found Respect for You Explorers

[Nerdicus]

So I went out this week to finally do some serious exploring (I had been Mostly Aimless for too long), so I bought myself a kitted out DBX and went shooting to the stars. After four days, I just had to turn around, as HOLY COW does exploring take some patience to work well. Don't get me wrong, I did see some very cool stuff (stars with rings, and a neat ammonia world), but mostly it was jumping and scanning, and more jumping and scanning. Two things I got out of my first exploring ordeal.

1. Huge credit to those explorers who scan EVERY planet in the system (I will call them the grinders). A lot of cherry picking players out there that just hit the expensive looking planets and leave the rest of the system untouched. Here's to the Grinders out there that explore the right way, and explore the entire system.

2. Have another laptop or second screen up and running, as from time to time you'll need the distraction. I actually got work done a few of those days, so exploring is great for us home office types to have running in the background.

Anyway, I have great respect for the Commanders who adopt and love this profession, because it truly takes a rare breed to make it work.

Hats Off...

 

[Jericho Josh]

I just go for the selfies.

Spoiler

But yes, OCD is serious problem... I try to fight the compulsion to scan absolutely everything. I mostly lose that fight.

 

[Dr Black]

Its more fun than trading in mobious

 

[thehairymob]

Nothing wrong with us cherry pickers, honest.

 

[PanicButton]

Cherry picking ftw!

 

[mossfoot]

Nothing wrong with us cherry pickers, honest.

A rock is a rock... at least until Horizons comes out. Then watch more of those dead moons get scanned!

 

[CMDR AKIRA MASAKARI]

So I went out this week to finally do some serious exploring (I had been Mostly Aimless for too long), so I bought myself a kitted out DBX and went shooting to the stars. After four days, I just had to turn around, as HOLY COW does exploring take some patience to work well. Don't get me wrong, I did see some very cool stuff (stars with rings, and a neat ammonia world), but mostly it was jumping and scanning, and more jumping and scanning. Two things I got out of my first exploring ordeal.

1. Huge credit to those explorers who scan EVERY planet in the system (I will call them the grinders). A lot of cherry picking players out there that just hit the expensive looking planets and leave the rest of the system untouched. Here's to the Grinders out there that explore the right way, and explore the entire system.

2. Have another laptop or second screen up and running, as from time to time you'll need the distraction. I actually got work done a few of those days, so exploring is great for us home office types to have running in the background.

Anyway, I have great respect for the Commanders who adopt and love this profession, because it truly takes a rare breed to make it work.

Hats Off...

I admire who can explore and do a second activity in the same time...
I really cannot detatch from screen while exploring, and as a cherry picker i don't supercruise much, but i have to hit that 7seconds -> 75% speed -> stop dead when surface scanner start -> lock new object -> repeat, to optimize stuff when i decide to clear a system.
Long gone are the times where i have to get close to planets and black holes to make pics...

BTW, every one is entitled to play as they like, but it has been stated several times that if you want to go far, cherry picking is the only way. Initially i was shocked by half scanned systems, now I VERY SELDOM scan an entire system, and it still get several weeks to cover significant distances.

 

[Cdr Voorheez]

Glad you are hooked Cdr

 

[Kancro Vantas]

So I went out this week to finally do some serious exploring (I had been Mostly Aimless for too long), so I bought myself a kitted out DBX and went shooting to the stars. After four days, I just had to turn around, as HOLY COW does exploring take some patience to work well. Don't get me wrong, I did see some very cool stuff (stars with rings, and a neat ammonia world), but mostly it was jumping and scanning, and more jumping and scanning. Two things I got out of my first exploring ordeal.

1. Huge credit to those explorers who scan EVERY planet in the system (I will call them the grinders). A lot of cherry picking players out there that just hit the expensive looking planets and leave the rest of the system untouched. Here's to the Grinders out there that explore the right way, and explore the entire system.

2. Have another laptop or second screen up and running, as from time to time you'll need the distraction. I actually got work done a few of those days, so exploring is great for us home office types to have running in the background.

Anyway, I have great respect for the Commanders who adopt and love this profession, because it truly takes a rare breed to make it work.

Hats Off...

Hats off back at you CMDR!

It also takes courage to quit the army ranks of space combat to venture into the depth of the Galaxy. Good thing you came to explore!

As in every professions, first impressions are not always all that is to it...and things might not quite seem what they are indeed.

As mentioned by a colleague, the only way we have to cover vast distances is by cherry picking, much to the sadness and aches of our often OCD's minds.

Safe travels and I don't know why, I got the feeling you'll come back for more...much more...

We'll be waiting! ;-)

 

[Cmdr. Numa]

Cherry pickers miss a lot. Just the other day in the core. Sure the ELW was tagged. The three terraformables worth even more together weren't
Though I'm still a cherry picker too. Ice and rocks get skipped, and a planet has to look very blue before I fly over to a secondary sun 200-400kly away.

 

[Nerdicus]

Nothing against Cherry Pickers, as I definitely understand just hitting the hot spots and moving on if you're trying to cover a lot of ground. I just didn't realize how time consuming scanning all the rocks can be, as I literally thought I'd scan every planet in every system I hit on the way to Sag A, SO NOT HAPPENING? The Milky Way is WAY bigger than I imagined.

- - - Updated - - -

Hats off back at you CMDR!

It also takes courage to quit the army ranks of space combat to venture into the depth of the Galaxy. Good thing you came to explore!

As in every professions, first impressions are not always all that is to it...and things might not quite seem what they are indeed.

As mentioned by a colleague, the only way we have to cover vast distances is by cherry picking, much to the sadness and aches of our often OCD's minds.

Safe travels and I don't know why, I got the feeling you'll come back for more...much more...

We'll be waiting! ;-)

Oh, I'll be back out again, I just need to pew-pew for awhile to get my sanity back in check. I really want to see Sag A, and I wouldn't mind that Ranger tag either. At least I'm a Trailblazer now...

 

[tafkabb]

It's too late for you. You may not realise it but you've been taken by the black. You can never again ignore its call.

You'll be back out there. We always are.

 

[Cliff Dobbs]

Oh, I'll be back out again, I just need to pew-pew for awhile to get my sanity back in check. I really want to see Sag A, and I wouldn't mind that Ranger tag either. At least I'm a Trailblazer now...

Right on CMDR, and congrats on the rank o7

BTW, we tend to call our OCD comrades Surveyors or Cartographers. It's kinder than Grinders.

.... A self confessed Cherry Picker, here.

 

[Cdr Voorheez]

I'm a selective cherry picker. Let me explain.
Depending on my mood and how much time I have on my hands I will either:
1. Skim the planets of highest value and leave all the gas giants ice planets rockys etc, like most explorers here.
2. Scan the entire system if it is ENTIRELY unexplored and un-tagged, and I have found a few of those.
If I find a nebula with NS/BH they all get scanned regardless.

With me I'm a mood dependant cherry picker. I swing either way

 

[Neokortex]

There are also people that read any day the newspaper from top-left side down to the right.

If you have fun on asteroids scanning, why not. I tried it and didn’t got catched...

PS: If you explore for credits, than you do something wrong

 

[Genar-Hofoen]

If I'm on a Sprint, I'll jump into a system, sound the Space Horn whilst fuel scooping by screaming around the main star, and once scooping is complete I'll align with the next system and start the jump sequence the second I see my ship temperature begin to fall. My average time from jump to jump is around 45-65 seconds (Cobra Mk.III, 4A fuel scoop, not the fastest refill rate I've ever seen).

Whilst the jump drive is charging I'll have a peek at the system map - if I see something interesting (like an ELW) I'll cancel the jump and head on over. If it is an ELW, I'll stay and perform a full survey on the system before moving on.

Sometimes what looked like an ELW was just a HMC - I'm on a Sprint so I'll just head off into the black. Which is why you might come across the odd system where a HMC has been scanned by me but nothing else. In my case I'm not really cherry-picking, in that my policy is to stop and do a full survey of a system with an ELW. (In my first jaunt to Sag. A* in an Asp, I did cherry-pick - now I'm a little more patient).

If there's nothing interesting on the System Map, I'll then quickly bring up the Galaxy map to have a look at the system I'm about to jump into - best to know what I'm heading in for before it happens.

Assigning hotkeys for the system map and galaxy map (TAB and `) really helps in that respect.

 

[AsukaZ]

I don't think there is a 'right' way to explore, I think if you're outside the bubble deep into the black you are an explorer, no matter how you do it.

I started off scanning everything, but I found after a while for pragmatic reasons I now cherry pick my way way around. Often if I'm on my way to somewhere in particular I'll just scan the main star and move on without even looking at the system map. Sure I may miss a lot of things, but I look at it as leaving things behind for other explorers to claim.

 

[Ravvin]

I have a quick question about this. And I'd like to say up front, I am not trolling or trying to stir up trouble.
I'm fairly new to the game and also Exploring. I keep hearing about this method of scanning a few and leaving the rest for other explorers to put their names on. How does this work? I've just taken a Sidewinder with Advanced Scanner and a Detailed Surface Scanner from Yun Hsie to WW Centauri Australis (I think) in order to sell off a ship I had stashed. On the way, I chose Economical and scanned every Undiscovered item at each hop except for those asteroid things. When I sold it all, I made over 500k, so there were a LOT of icy, rocky and metal planets. After I cleared a system, I always checked the System Map to see if I had missed anything. Every single star and planet in every system had a First Discovered By tag on it, even though I had just scanned them all. Often 2 or 3 different Commanders. So if they First Discovered them and got their names on them, why did they all show as Unexplored to me until I scanned them?

 

[AsukaZ]

... why did they all show as Unexplored to me until I scanned them?

'Unexplored' means that you personally haven't explored them, not that no-one else else.
The only way to tell if someone else has been there first is to jump into the system and look in the system map.

 

[Ravvin]

Are you sure about that? I can jump into any system I've never been to before, and many of the planets show Explored By and are already in my nav list with a proper name and description. My scanner doesn't react at all. Then I fly further out and see others with "Unexplored" on them and after I scan them it shows the planet name and First Discovered By..