"Protocol GRI" for finding ELWs

Grinnygog

Grinnygog
Here is my "formula" for finding Earth Like Worlds (ELWs). I call it "Protocol GRI" (GRI standing for "Golf Romeo India").
I don't suggest for one minute that it will guarantee that you'll find ELWs, but it will give you as good a chance as any. Make sure that you have a Detailed Surface Scanner (DSS) and an Advanced Discovery Scanner (ADS) fitted. You may wish to have extra heat-sinks fitted and an Auto Field-Maintenance Unit too, just in case you get into trouble. A good Fuel Scoop and large capacity fuel tank will make your life of discovery much easier if you're going off on a long journey!
  • The first step is to frame-shift at least 2,000 LY from Sol. At this range almost every star you jump to will be undiscovered.
  • The second step is to set your star search to classes A, F and G in your star map.
  • Once you're ≈2,000 LY from Sol, find any G class star and make it your initial base star. Bookmark it! It will be your base system until you've exhausted your searches in that region of space.
  • In your galaxy map start by selecting the A, F, and G star classes. I prefer to start with class A and do all those, then F and then G.
  • Find the stars that are within the jump range of your frame-shift drive range, then frame-shift to each star in turn, but stay within one jump of your base star.
  • Use your Advanced Discover Scanner (ADS) on entering a new system and at the same time target (usually key T) the primary star. This is important because it will allow you to identify which stars you've visited in that region, because the solar system icon will be white with a grey background, instead of a red background.
  • Travel to any promising planets within that system and get to within range of your Detailed Surface Scanner (DSS).
  • Once you've explored all the Class A stars, switch to Class F and then Class G, but stay within one jump of your base star as best as possible.
  • Once you've discovered all the class A, F and G stars within one jump range of your base star then you need to find a new Class G star as your next base star and it needs to be at least twice the jump range of your ship from your previous base star.
  • Repeat the process in this new region of space.
  • The next option is down to personal preference. Either you can return to your first base star and then find another G class star twice the jump range of your ship, or you can find a new G class star from your current base star that is twice the jump range distant of your ship.
  • You will eventually find ELWs, or at least many planets that are candidates for terraforming, or which have carbon water-based life.

That's "Protocol GRI".
 
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CMDR CHIGGY VONRICTOFEN

CMDR CHIGGY VONRICTOFEN
You are making it alot harder than it need be. Go to the galactic core...find a d mass code cube..preferably one with over 10,000 D mass code stars..start at sectorname XX-X Dx-0 and go through the sequence numerically from -0 until - whatever highest number is.
If you really wanna cherry pick...only jump to A7-9's and F0-F4's and skip everything else..I wouldn't jump to a G or K system unless I had no other choice while navigating. Doing this..."cherry picking" you can get a 1 in 30ish hit rate. Barring that..just set filter for F class only, and set a course in eco mode and take off.

**EDIT**

29ZhXPS.jpg
 
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marx

marx
Welcome! That's a decent read, but it includes more steps than need be. It's also good to know just what the reasons are behind some methods: otherwise, it could just be superstition, down to confirmation bias, and so on. I'd recommend reading my guide to finding Earth-like worlds, that includes detailed information.

Mind you, the charts that Chiggy Vonrictofen posted above are slightly misleading, as mass code D systems are overrepresented in his sample. Update: several days later, on Feb. 16, he edited his post, removing the six charts he used that came from me, replacing it with a single one of his own. His sample still remains the same. This is due to him farming specific mass code D subsectors. On a more even sample, the drop between F and G isn't quite as large. If you take a look at the current status of the list of Earth-like worlds, here's how the original chart (which he copied and applied to his finds) looks:

ymMSLkc.png


No need to travel to the galactic core either. There's speculation that chances might be slightly better there, based on what we know about the Stellar Forge, but as of yet, there's no proof, one way or the other. The best proven way to improve your chances is to filter on star class, and visit as many systems as you can. So if you can cut down on the time you spend navigating, then that should improve on how many Earth-likes you'll find during a given amount of time. (For example, if you play for an hour, it does matter whether you'll visit 20 systems or 40.)
 
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Friedenreich Xante

Friedenreich Xante
iain666 said:
I just fly about with no filters and no plan. They show up or they don't.
Click to expand...

This. This is the complete and detailled guide to find interesting things, including ELW's.

I mean, we don't even know what to do with all those ELW's, and many of them are inhospitable as can be (and, according to Galmap, "not terraformable" ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ) and the others may be home to dangerous species or diseases. They aren't even the best paying discoveries, as a terraformable water world pays almost 700.000 credits, and that without the first discovery Bonus. Disregard that, I am always happy to find one :)
 

marx

marx
Friedenreich Xante said:
This. This is the complete and detailled guide to find interesting things, including ELW's.
Click to expand...
A-yup. If all you wish is the quantity of finds (be they ELWs, or AWs, or anything else), then narrowing down the systems you visit helps... but it also ensures that you'll likely only find stuff that others have found literally thousands of already. At the risk of sounding like a CMDR Obvious: if you want to find rare and interesting stuff, then you'll have to visit a lot of systems to come across just one.
In the end, it all boils down to deciding just why you're exploring. And it's not like that's set in stone and might never change either.

As for ELW types, @ Friedenrich Xante: yeah, the interesting thing is that while all ELWs currently look uniform, and while they are the most restrictive category that the Stellar Forge generates, the generation still ends up creating worlds that should be quite different to each other. In this sense, finding Earth-likes now is sort of an investment into the (far) future. When such worlds would become more detailed, and likely split up into sub-categories, then it will be good to know where your finds might be. After all, unless the systems themselves change, the characteristics of the ELWs are highly unlikely to change. (Unless they are ELMs, that is.) But we don't know yet which properties will be more interesting in the future.
 
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iain666

iain666
Friedenreich Xante said:
They aren't even the best paying discoveries, as a terraformable water world pays almost 700.000 credits
Click to expand...

An ELW and a terraformable waterworld of the same mass will have the same payout (although you're all but guaranteed the full CFT bonus with an ELW and you'll more often get a reduced fraction on the WW). See this thread for more details.
 

Grinnygog

Grinnygog
My aim in creating a "formula" came out of personal experience. All those letters and numbers can get a little tedious to interpret and you can waste a lot of time trying to work it all out. So, I decided to try a simplified search method and that's what I've typed in the OP. Sol is a class G star and is host to Earth, so I decide that that class must be included in the search sequence, then A and F because they also are more likely to host ELWs. I then thought that a methodical search pattern would possibly yield the best results without missing out systems that could quite easily slip through the net. Moving closer to the galaxy's core is also a logical move, due to increased stellar density. Hope that makes sense and explains the method.
 

marx

marx
iain666 said:
An ELW and a terraformable waterworld of the same mass will have the same payout (although you're all but guaranteed the full CFT bonus with an ELW and you'll more often get a reduced fraction on the WW). See this thread for more details.
Click to expand...
Yup. There are two problems: one is that a WW(TC) can be heavier than an ELW can, and thus potentially offer a better payout. The other is that why should UC pay the same amount of credits for a world that needs to be terraformed (literally made Earth-like) as for one that's already that, and just needs to be settled? It's odd, to say the least.

Also, a thought occurred to me. Perhaps the whole oddities about the terraforming bonuses and how terraformed worlds' parameters can end up outside of the ELW parameters is a remnant of the first version of the Forge, before FD made the Earth-like ranges more strict. Maybe they just never adjusted the terraforming stuff. It's a pity that we don't really have data from that initial period, but it would be mostly just a curiosity anyway.
 

iain666

iain666
marx said:
Perhaps the whole oddities about the terraforming bonuses and how terraformed worlds' parameters can end up outside of the ELW parameters is a remnant of the first version of the Forge, before FD made the Earth-like ranges more strict. Maybe they just never adjusted the terraforming stuff
Click to expand...

That could be part of it, certainly the CFTs that are outside the current physical limits for an ELW.
 
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