Princess and the Pea

Old Duck

Old Duck
I'm starting to get my "VR wheels" finally, so I can drive my SRV and actually enjoy it in VR, but even in 2D I never enjoyed these very lumpy, hilly, uneven terrains that I usually find on planets. I much prefer flat "lake beds" where I can go fast and not get bounced around. I've found a few of these in the past purely by chance, but I wonder if there is a more methodical approach to finding such geography in ED.

My preference is a non-ice world around 1G give or take. I believe at least a couple of these "lake beds" I've encountered in the past might have actually been river beds, because they were at the bottom of large canyons. The last such planet I went to had nothing like this - it was just lumpy no matter where I set down. Is there a planet type (based on description) that's more apt to have these stretches of smooth, flat ground? Or is there a feature I can see in the system map when zoomed in that will serve as a clue to if a planet will have what I'm looking for? Or will I just have to fly over each planet until I find what I'm looking for "the hard way"?

FYI, I'm not just looking to drive around for the fun of it. I need to replenish my raw materials, and since the SRV is the most efficient way to do this, I'd rather do it in an area that is "comfortable" for driving.

Thanks for any advice you give.
 

Syke Jr

Syke Jr
In my experience, you're describing rocky bodies more than HMCs. I'm sure there are more telling things but off the top of my head that's all I have for you.
 

schlowi123

S
The most efficient way to gather raw materials are getting grade 4/5 materials from crystal shards (or what they are called) and than trading them for what you actually need. But that would require jumpring approx. 1500 ly away from the bubble and driving around and shooting at things for 30-60 min at the opposite kind of terrain you were asking for.
 

JetsonRING

JetsonRING
I find snowy bodies tend to be flatter but, there might be a relationship between gravity and surface "bumpiness" since most "flat" terrain planets I have visited seem to have ultra-low gravity. I have, however been on many planets looking for materials where I am able to run at full speed across the landscape on my way to check out a signal on the Wave Scanner. Be aware the SRV has a tendency to go airborne or crash going over a rock the size of a baseball and whenever the SRV spins out it usually ends up pointing roughly 180 degrees from its original course. o7
 

Deleted member 38366

D
The larger the Bodies, the better the chances of running on reasonably smooth Terrain.

It's like the Planet generation "stretches" the Planet's surface with increasing size and is thus streamlining the features relative to its size.

Notable exceptions though are large Canyon Valleys on large Icy Worlds and many Rocky Ice words in general.

But i.e. a 2g or higher HMC or Metal-RIch Planet is often flat like a pancake for huge areas.
High-G Icy Worlds tend to be the same - but any slope larger than ~10deg can become a slippery trap for the SRV, if the terrain becomes uneven.
 
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