Did I waste my time by scanning planets (not surface scanner)? I got about 15-20k per system... but now I'm confused as to whether or not I could've just jumped into the system hit d-scan and jumped out for the same credits or not.
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Guide / Tutorial Nutter’s explorers guide to the Galaxy
- Thread starter Nutter
- Start date
No you did not, not all data is in yet.. but, lets keep this simple for now.
A Discovery scan finds a star - Payment 200 Credits, You do a basic scan of Star - Payment 400 Credits or Detail Surface scan the Star and double you basic scan payment @ 800 Credits - ROUGHLY !
k, cool. because i was adding up all the metal planets i found in a these systems (tons, like 5-7 each) and i thought wow! i'd make 100k, 150k no problem from each system (looking at the first page's prices). even a water world in there. much to my surprise i made far less. NOT that i had a surface scanner. so i thought oh man i just wasted time with the basic scan of all those planets.
at least now i know where to go back with a surface scanner... but i just wanted to make sure i wasn't wasting time until i had said surface scanner.
at least now i know where to go back with a surface scanner... but i just wanted to make sure i wasn't wasting time until i had said surface scanner.
I don't know if you can detail scan after a basic scan though! I need to test that out!
You need a basic OR intermediate OR advanced discovery scanner.
Also having a detailed surface scanner is beneficial, but it is useless without one of the above.
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When i get back, I'll have about 15000+ LY data to sell, so +111
(~3000 LY to go!)
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Congrats! Should have at least 5 mill there! More like 10 mil.
Selling will take some time, but imagine a sell all feature that got a transaction error! OMG
I think those figures are off. They should be 200/600/1200.
These aren't my images, but see for example: http://imgur.com/a/xyq70
Really? I was thinking maybe 3.5 - 5 mil. I've been "racing" most of the way (jump scan, jump scan, jump scan, refuel set course, jump scan...) first, to get to my destination (HDE 226868) before the wipe (which didn't happen
) and now to get back so I can start playing for real.I've had to go a fair bit out of my way, though, as I've encountered a few "impenetrable walls of empty space", so who knows how far I've really traveled?
It took me about a full week, i set sail.. or set thrusters to full? idk, anyway i used an ASP with a 21Ly jump-range. I earned about 5 Million (including 570k integrity costs) and i only scanned stuff that looked interesting on the system map. although on the way back (the last 1000Ly) i mostly didn't scan anything cause i was kind of done with it haha. If i had gone out of my way to scan every single interesting looking thing it would probably be far more proffitable
I am headed out to the North American Nebula right now to map it, dont know if i will come straight back or just go somewhere else , this post has helped me a LOT , in a upgraded asp 23LY jump range with advanced and detailed scanners, see you all in a week or 2 i guess ,,, back in civilized space that is.
The funny thing is there was a 'sell all' button but it didn't work. Wonder why they just removed it instead of fixing it? I agree, though, it would be nice.
Tried it and yes you can do that. Can even find new bodies in a system whose data you already sold and sell the new data.
BTW, one suggestion: How about putting an image in the first post that shows how the various planet types look like on the system map? That way new explorers could just take a look at the system map and decide if its worth scanning all the planets or if the should skip some.
No idea if any of this has been mentioned, only read the OP:
Rank progression depends on the amount of cash you get for your scans, so if you die you get no money and no ranks. DON'T DIE. For trailblaizer you need 1.3kk cash, and for surveyor you need 250k. The title updates when you leave the station or something like that, so don't be put off if you don't rank-up instantly. Haven't confirmed any other titles myself, but I've heard from multiple sources that ranger is 9kk.
As for values (taken with best scanner and deep thingie):
Unexplored belt is 0, explored belt is 200 per scan, type and condition irrelevant. Unexplored star is 200, explored 1.2k, type and size irrelevant as well. Earth like planets,including water worlds are ~35k, terraformable worlds are ~10k, if a world is both earth-like and terraformable I think the price is still 35k. I have limited experience with high valued stuffs and such, but from what I've gathered these numbers don't scale, somebody correct me if I'm wrong.
For everything else there are variables, so far I've only managed to confirm that life presence (duh) and size matters (tee-hee), at least for some types of planets, but I'm suspecting there are more variables (atmosphere presence and its composition? maybe rings?). The least I've gotten from gas giants was ~600, the most I've gotten was around 4k, with life on them the value is higher. I didn't notice that type made any difference..Type I jovian gave me 2k in one system, in next one 3.5k, one after 2.7k...
Ice worlds of earth like proportions (0.3-3 earth sizes or something like that) are 250c unexplored, 400 explored.. didn't bother with smaller ones. They do however have a very, very low chance to be an aquatic world, so it might just be worth it to scan the first ice world on the edge of the Goldilocks zone. Metalic worlds are at least 3000c worth, but I think they scale as well with the percentage of metal in them and maybe size. To be classified as a metal world it needs to have at least ~45% metal in it.
Tips:
-Scan distance depends on the planet mass, so a planetoid of 0.005 earth masses may be on just 20 ls and unscaneable, while a massive giant on 1.2k ls is. Remember to mind the distance in your calculations if scanning a particular planet is worth the time. 80 ls is the range for scanning planets of earth mass, but the distance/mass ratio does not scale linearly (for example 2 earth masses is scannable at ~110 ls, while 330 earth masses is scaneable at ~1.1k)
-Metallic worlds (valuable) are closest to the sun, once they drop to high metal (~33% metal, rest usually rock) they are worth much less. If they have an atmosphere they have a higher chance of being terraformable so keep an eye on those as well even if they are only high metal and not metallic.
-Blue/green worlds that look like earth are jackpot, make sure to scan those even if they are far away, in most cases they are worth it.
-Ice planets, satellites and planetoids are a waste of time in ~99% of the cases, if not more. For that one percent, they might be amonia planets, those usually have a greenish hue, and I have no idea what they are worth but I think they are worth more then measly 400, other possibility is that they might be aquatic world in disguise. A rule of thumb: don't bother with ice planets unless you feel lucky or know exactly what you are doing.
-Giants give okay results (didn't test them enough) but they are usually too far away to be worth it most of the time (mind the size/distance ratio tho).
-Rocky planets.. haven't had much experience with these, but from what I've gathered they are not worth any more then ice ones, please correct me if I'm wrong.
I know I forgot to mention a ton of other stuff, but my head hurts and it's late. Hope this helps someone.
Rank progression depends on the amount of cash you get for your scans, so if you die you get no money and no ranks. DON'T DIE. For trailblaizer you need 1.3kk cash, and for surveyor you need 250k. The title updates when you leave the station or something like that, so don't be put off if you don't rank-up instantly. Haven't confirmed any other titles myself, but I've heard from multiple sources that ranger is 9kk.
As for values (taken with best scanner and deep thingie):
Unexplored belt is 0, explored belt is 200 per scan, type and condition irrelevant. Unexplored star is 200, explored 1.2k, type and size irrelevant as well. Earth like planets,
For everything else there are variables, so far I've only managed to confirm that life presence (duh) and size matters (tee-hee), at least for some types of planets, but I'm suspecting there are more variables (atmosphere presence and its composition? maybe rings?). The least I've gotten from gas giants was ~600, the most I've gotten was around 4k, with life on them the value is higher. I didn't notice that type made any difference..
Ice worlds of earth like proportions (0.3-3 earth sizes or something like that) are 250c unexplored, 400 explored.. didn't bother with smaller ones. They do however have a very, very low chance to be an aquatic world, so it might just be worth it to scan the first ice world on the edge of the Goldilocks zone. Metalic worlds are at least 3000c worth, but I think they scale as well with the percentage of metal in them and maybe size. To be classified as a metal world it needs to have at least ~45% metal in it.
Tips:
-Scan distance depends on the planet mass, so a planetoid of 0.005 earth masses may be on just 20 ls and unscaneable, while a massive giant on 1.2k ls is. Remember to mind the distance in your calculations if scanning a particular planet is worth the time. 80 ls is the range for scanning planets of earth mass, but the distance/mass ratio does not scale linearly (for example 2 earth masses is scannable at ~110 ls, while 330 earth masses is scaneable at ~1.1k)
-Metallic worlds (valuable) are closest to the sun, once they drop to high metal (~33% metal, rest usually rock) they are worth much less. If they have an atmosphere they have a higher chance of being terraformable so keep an eye on those as well even if they are only high metal and not metallic.
-Blue/green worlds that look like earth are jackpot, make sure to scan those even if they are far away, in most cases they are worth it.
-Ice planets, satellites and planetoids are a waste of time in ~99% of the cases, if not more. For that one percent, they might be amonia planets, those usually have a greenish hue, and I have no idea what they are worth but I think they are worth more then measly 400, other possibility is that they might be aquatic world in disguise. A rule of thumb: don't bother with ice planets unless you feel lucky or know exactly what you are doing.
-Giants give okay results (didn't test them enough) but they are usually too far away to be worth it most of the time (mind the size/distance ratio tho).
-Rocky planets.. haven't had much experience with these, but from what I've gathered they are not worth any more then ice ones, please correct me if I'm wrong.
I know I forgot to mention a ton of other stuff, but my head hurts and it's late. Hope this helps someone.
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Interesting. Has this changed? I'm sure they used to stack so you needed both.
The "Explorer" cobra setup has basic AND intermediate. This seems pretty silly.
Should I sell (well it's loaned, so return) the basic scanner and replace it with detailed surface?
Anyone know if they've changed the loadout for the Explorer cobra since release?
Theres some confusion here since these are 2 separate aspects:
1) The Discovery Scanner can be: *basic *intermediate *advanced ... you need this to discover 'unknown' worlds so they show up on your radar.
2) The Detailed Surface Scanner is 'optional'. If you don't have one you will still scan a planet but get less data from it. If you have the detailed surface scanner you can get more data and more value from a scan (and really if you're into exploring 250k is a good investment)
Ok everyone so finally got around to analyzing some of the data from my trip to NGC 7822 (S171 cluster) and back and correlated that with the awesome tables and graphs Jackie Silver has been making and came up with the following observations:
1) Star Value is 1200+18.13*(Star Mass) This applies for stars in I,II,III,IV,V,VI phases of their lives and was tested and correct for Star types: W, S, O, B, A, F, G, K, M, L, T, Y
2) Black Hole Value is 17914+270.48*(Black Hole Mass)
3) Unexplored stars give 1/6 the normal value aka 200 + 3.02*(Star Mass)
4) Stars explored without the detailed scanner give 1/2 the normal value aka 600+9.06*(Star Mass)
Last Observation is more general but:
5) Star class does NOT matter when scooping as far as performance (O,B,A,F,G,K,M) all give the same amount when getting close and scooping at 100% heat (Nutter correct front page where you say best-to-worst for scooping as all are the same ... there's no better star to scoop) .
1) Star Value is 1200+18.13*(Star Mass) This applies for stars in I,II,III,IV,V,VI phases of their lives and was tested and correct for Star types: W, S, O, B, A, F, G, K, M, L, T, Y
2) Black Hole Value is 17914+270.48*(Black Hole Mass)
3) Unexplored stars give 1/6 the normal value aka 200 + 3.02*(Star Mass)
4) Stars explored without the detailed scanner give 1/2 the normal value aka 600+9.06*(Star Mass)
Last Observation is more general but:
5) Star class does NOT matter when scooping as far as performance (O,B,A,F,G,K,M) all give the same amount when getting close and scooping at 100% heat (Nutter correct front page where you say best-to-worst for scooping as all are the same ... there's no better star to scoop) .
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