Newcomer / Intro Newbie Explorer Questions. Please help

[Tesshin]

Hi there. I am quite new to the game. 3 days ago since I ordered from steam and the ability to fly around in the milkyway is completely insane for me to even grasp since I was always interested in the universe even as a little kid.

I want to explore as much as possible. However I have some questions.

1. Most guides tell me that I should have an advanced scanner. However I start with 1000 credits so I find it strange that guides even for newcomers just say basically "just go get it"

2. I am using the Hauler and can jump 17 lightyears at max. I know this is low for exploring. Should I wait untill I get better ship and equipment and do something else first?

3. Ive headed for Rigel which seems to be located against the Orion Nebula and I can check out Betelgeuse on the way or perhaps even Canis Majoris.

Rigel is 700 LY away from my location and is about 140 jumps.

Is this ok for my current kit? I also have the fuel scoop ofc.

9. My main question is actually where I go to find unnamed and undiscovered stuff? Even though there has only been discovered 1% of all the systems in the game I have yet to find anything not named by anyone else?

I would like to visit famous places but even all these places are visited allready by other commanders ao chance of finding anything undiscovered here is pretty low?

8. How far out is the last stations or platforms?

7. How do I see the difference between other player ships and npcs?

13. Is there a way to find parts of the galaxy not visited yet by any players?

 

[Feldspar]

1) The advanced scanner is expensive, but it makes a huge difference. You might want to wait until you can afford it before you do anything serious, but if exploring is what you want to do, go for it (you'll find the limitations of lesser equipment on your own).

2) Lower jump ranges only limit the speed with which you can travel, if you want to go far and which stars you can reach once you get out on the rim, 17 LY is fine for small jaunts and people have gone all the way to the core with less.

3) I'm not sure, but I suspect you'll find out for yourself, that's the explorer's way.

9) Major routes to the known tourist spots are mostly discovered, if you want to find something completely new follow a different course, travel at a parallel to the most obvious route or jump to somewhere there is nothing in particular to see.

8) Open your galaxy map, select map mode and set it on allegiance. Zoom out, where the dots stop, so do the stations.

7) Player icons are hollow on the scanner.

13) Yes, by going there. There is no way to tell until you get there.

 

[Tesshin]

Thanks alot for the answers. Now go protect your furnace

 

[InMemoriamSirocco]

First, let me direct you to my own thread, where I have posted about my own experiences with exploration and accumulated some tips and tricks: CLICK HERE

1. The Advanced Scanner reveals every planet and star inside the current star system, so it is a no-brainer to get it as soon as you can afford it. Your basic discovery scanner has an effective range of 500 ls. However, if you team up with another explorer who has an Advanced Scanner, you just have to follow him through the system to scan every available body and all data rewards are shared between you two.

2. I did my first exploration trip in a Vulture with 16 ly jump range. As long as you stay close to the galactic plane, you will not run into range problems with this.

3. I had 25 ly jump range in my Hauler when I flew roughly the same route as you do... so it didn't take me quite as long. I was still out there for the better part of two weeks though... and thoroughly enjoyed it. You should be fine

4. Wherever you go, I have found that it is almost inevitable to discover unnamed systems along the way, because you never go exactly the same route as the people before you. Especially with your low jump range you will probably visit many systems that others merely passed by. I wouldn't worry about it. I only went to regions that had been charted pretty well already, and still I discovered and tagged whole new systems along the way.

5. HIP 74290 ("Pratchett's Disc Starport") and New Yembo ("Unity" Starport - under construction) are roughly 200 to 300 ly away from the edge of inhabited space. Same goes for "Jaques Station" in HIP 113782.

6. Player ships appear as hollow icons on your scanner. NPCs icons are not hollowed out.

7. Pick a random direction instead of a landmark (such as a nebula, star cluster etc) and just keep going in that general direction.

 

[Tesshin]

Thanks alot Sirocco. I watched your thread. I really like the pictures. How do you take screenshots? And how do you view your ship from outside?

 

[theEmohawk]

Thanks alot Sirocco. I watched your thread. I really like the pictures. How do you take screenshots? And how do you view your ship from outside?

F10 for screen shots.
ALT + CTRL + SPACE for the debug cam (to take shots from outside the ship). Although check your bindings in the options, I think you'll have the default but a few people reported that they had to manually set a key binding.

 

[Fen Harel]

F10 for screen shots.
ALT + CTRL + SPACE for the debug cam (to take shots from outside the ship). Although check your bindings in the options, I think you'll have the default but a few people reported that they had to manually set a key binding.

I think that key binding for the debug cam was only for the beta. I know when I first tried it I wondered why it kept setting off my shield cells (which were bound to space).

Unless I am very mistaken, you need to go into Options and controls and explicitly set it. I have my debug camera set to the Enter key on the keyboard number pad. That way it is very far from anything else I am likely to press.

When you first go into debug you are pointing straight ahead and above your ship. Just use the usual controls to move this quasi-camera drone around. Tilt down, for example and you'll see your ship.

One thing I like to do is drop out of supercruise and set the throttle to max. Then go into DeBug camera and immediately turn to throttle back down (to control it better). This way you can see your ship will boosting, very cool exhaust effects and a very long contrails.