Question from someone who's forgotten how to explore!

[GunnerBill]

It's been a while since I did some serious long term exploration, before all that new fangled DSS stuff for sure!

1. So when I jump into a system a lot of discoveries appear on my HUD... is this the whole system? I.e. is this equivalent to the old disco Scanner Honk?

2. If I'm looking for green systems for jumponium materials can I rely on my old technique of looking at the landables that are probably metal rich and just flying up to them to resolve them?

3. In short I've completely forgotten how to use that new stuff, so can I still land and just wander around in my SRV looking for outcrops or will I have to deploy probes to find geological sites?


Cheers!


P.S fortunately I still have for than 40 premium jumpo's from the last time I was out

 

[Deleted member 38366]

1. Only tagged Bodies will appear on your Scanner and populate the System Map (label "Unexplored"). Not yet tagged Bodies remain invisible at this stage and require the FSS to be scanned. So in semi-explored Systems, doing a full FSS scan is required to get all Bodies, just like in unexplored Systems (honking there will only reveal any Stars/Dwarfs, the Auto-Scan will reveal anything within ~30Ls).

2. Green Systems (EDSM Standard) AFAIK never required specific Planet types, just a bunch of landable Planets; the more the higher the chance of being a "Green System". Since quickly tagging them with the FSS is sufficient, no need to fly close to them (that's only needed for the Mapping process with the DSS bound to a Fire Group in order to fire Probes).

3. Attaining specific or high-grade Elements is normally quicker by visiting Geological Sites. Terrain type will dictate how feasible the Site(s) is/are, however. The most efficient way (for top-grade Elements) are Crystalline Shards (Biologicals), which allow to get huge numbers of a single G4 (G5 by old standards) Element.

4

• after the Jan Update, keep in mind that Geological/Biological Signals on Planets will be displayed as "Features" prominently in the right top HUD in the FSS. "Locations" such as i.e. Human, Thargoid or Guardian now sit in the 1st line of the Planet Details that's listed on the right. Easy to overlook.
• the System Map is now able to display and resolve ("Refining Scan") the exact amount of Geo/Bio signals on any Planet that has them, so that's a good place to have a closer look at the entire System (takes a little patience, the process is slower than it used to be, in favor of silk smooth frame rates)

 

[GunnerBill]

Thanks!

So I (re)figured the FSS scanner and did a honk within that, did that then reveal all the system in it's basic honk scan form?

I remembered how to surface scan planets with the probes, so all good there.

Again many thanks! It seems I really can't fix any of the new exploration updates into any kind of permanent memory, totally weird.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

Well, compared to old times, there's no such thing anymore as "Basic Scan".
Anything you do (FSS or flying close to a Body for Auto-Scan) gives what used to take a close-up visit with the old DSS. Level 3 Detail Scan.

The Honk itself only establishes the Orbital Plane (line across the Horizon in FSS Mode, where most Bodies usually are) and instantly detects all Stars and Dwarfs, helps accelerating the search for most of the FSS Signals/for FSS basic orientation.
Those Stars/Dwarfs are instantly fully scanned (no Mapping those), so there's no reason to zoom into these with the FSS. No more Details can be discovered.
Anything outside of the Auto-Scan Range of 30Ls remains entirely invisible though, only the FSS or a physical fly-by (<30Ls) can scan those.

What the FSS then does after zooming in onto a Body is basically what the DSS used to do in the distant past. You get detailed Data from the FSS.
Close visit of Bodies only needed for the Mapping via DSS Probes (i.e. Geologicals/Biologicals), otherwise not needed.

So in short, only honking often populates the System Map only with all Suns and maybe some nearby A Belt Cluster and (at best) very close Orbit A1 to A3 Planets.
The rest of the System Map requires the FSS Scan to populate with all remaining Bodies and Asteroid Belt Clusters.
(Signal Sources and Concentrated Signal Sources can also be detected and scanned with the FSS, such as Notable Stellar Phenomena)

 

[Anticon]

Here's a useful lead - install Elite Observatory, a magnificent exploration tool that will help you to recognise all sorts of good things that are otherwise easily overlooked. Just check this forum, link is easy to find. Best used when ED is in borderless window.

 

[GunnerBill]

Thanks all for the useful info, I feel up to speed now... well more like up to “slow” considering how much longer it all takes.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

Hm, as you say it's "slow", maybe one more thing (just because I remember I was super slow with the FSS myself when it was released) :

After a few weeks of slow FSS Ops and changing my Control Inputs for its operation several times, I ended up with using my Mouse.

• Mouse motion : panning around
• Mouse wheel : zoom in / zoom out
• Left/Right Mouse Button : tune Frequency left/right (sensitivity of Frequency bar can be adjusted in FSS Controls)

With that, the entire FSS is "in one hand" and works extremely intuitively for me - and it's lightning fast.
After I changed to that, I'd say my Exploration speed really took off, I was multiple times faster than before (and I was very happy).
IMHO getting the "perfect" control setup for the FSS is absolutely critical for it to really shine.

 

[GunnerBill]

Hm, as you say it's "slow", maybe one more thing (just because I remember I was super slow with the FSS myself when it was released) :

After a few weeks of slow FSS Ops and changing my Control Inputs for its operation several times, I ended up with using my Mouse.

• Mouse motion : panning around
• Mouse wheel : zoom in / zoom out
• Left/Right Mouse Button : tune Frequency left/right (sensitivity of Frequency bar can be adjusted in FSS Controls)

With that, the entire FSS is "in one hand" and works extremely intuitively for me - and it's lightning fast.
After I changed to that, I'd say my Exploration speed really took off, I was multiple times faster than before (and I was very happy).
IMHO getting the "perfect" control setup for the FSS is absolutely critical for it to really shine.

I'd not thought of using the mouse. I'm in VR so although I've no problem using the mouse without taking off the HMD I've got it all on the stick/trhottle which seems to work OK, similar to my Gal Map nav. But using the mouse for pan seems a bit less clunky than my up a bit left a bit top hat operations.