Question on scanning
- Thread starter Roqinn
- Start date
Yes, me too.
Been out of the game for about 5 years, I'd started to become aware of this FSS thing.
Tested it out and found it doesn't increase the payout for a system, you still have to fly to the planet/moon to get the UC's on it.
I can drop into a system, give it a honk and fly to anything interesting in the system map.
I'm struggleing to see the point of the FSS. Added to that I get interdicted while trying to use the thing.
Just to add, for WW, ELW and Ammonia, a lot more money! So if you are saving up for a particular thing then it's worth doing. Of course if they are a long way away you have to balance time over money, if I come across a system with just one and it's like 600,000ls away I might just skip it......ok I won't, I'll think about skipping....no, no I don't even do that, people who know me are already laughing in my head dammit!
No, the FSS literally scans the planets for you from long distance without having to fly up to each one. The honk also doesn't fully populate your system map, so without FSS'ing you can't see everything in the system, so you have to either FSS or somehow try to find things by eye. Good luck with that. It's not about earning you more money or not, it's literally how you find things now. The only reason to fly to another planet after FSS'ing them would to then be to DSS them, which gets you the separate map tag. That, of course, will get you more money, but is only really worth doing on ELWs, Ammonia Worlds and terraformables. For everything else, just sit back near the star and FSS, without flying about all over the place for no reason.
Oh and you can get interdicted just as much flying to stuff anyway just as you can using the FSS, so er, yeah, not sure what your point is there, especially since it would take you far, far longer to fly to every planet in a system to scan/map them than it would to quickly FSS them all, so really, FSS'ing them is going to drastically reduce the time spent in-system in which you can be interdicted.
Because you are using it in the bubble, where all planets have already been been discovered, not it won't increase your earning because you can't get any first discovery payouts, and probably no first map payouts as well.
You can see all the planets in a systems you are honking because they have already been discovered by someone else, but as already stated, if you go out of the bubble and honk an unexplored system, it will tell you how many bodies, but you won't see a thing, there won't be anything to fly to until you run the FSS and locate everything, then you will get first discovery tags once you turn the data in.
The FSS will tell you (bottom L of screen) what % of planetary bodies have been discovered. The majority of inner bubble systems (a sphere about 600LY in diameter) will have few if any not yet found, so the the FSS will report 100% discovered. Move on unless there are high payout worlds as mentioned above. Even if previously discovered and mapped, they are a fair return for your time.
You'll have to go a lot farther out to reach regions where undiscovered systems are common, but they pay a whole lot better! There are bonuses for first discovery of a world, first mapping of a world, more for first discovery of an entire system, and yet more for first mapping of an entire system. So far my largest single system payout was around 15Mcr, but I have seen Cmdrs report more. 3000ly to 5000ly out is where virgin territory usually starts, but a lot depends on how many "tourist traps" like well-known nebulae or oddities like planetary nebulae are in your particular area. The star class of a system primary, the star that's in your face when you arrive out of whichspace, also affects its traffic, as those types that are more likely to sport ELWs, AWs, WWs and other high-end mappables generally get visited more often.
You'll have to go a lot farther out to reach regions where undiscovered systems are common, but they pay a whole lot better! There are bonuses for first discovery of a world, first mapping of a world, more for first discovery of an entire system, and yet more for first mapping of an entire system. So far my largest single system payout was around 15Mcr, but I have seen Cmdrs report more. 3000ly to 5000ly out is where virgin territory usually starts, but a lot depends on how many "tourist traps" like well-known nebulae or oddities like planetary nebulae are in your particular area. The star class of a system primary, the star that's in your face when you arrive out of whichspace, also affects its traffic, as those types that are more likely to sport ELWs, AWs, WWs and other high-end mappables generally get visited more often.
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There are several reasons why you might want to probe/map a planet:
- You need the credits. Mapping high-value targets (ELW, terraformables, AW) is always worthwhile, on a credits per hour basis, unless the planet is like 600,000 Ls away. Road to Riches optimies credits, and includes mapping planets.
- You want to plant your flag down in the system, and the system has already been fully FSS scanned but not fully mapped. I'll often scan something - even a worthless iceball - just to put down a "Sapyx was here" Tag.
- You need to land somewhere to gather mats in your SRV. Mapping shows where any good landing sites (geo/bio POIs) are. And let's face it, if you're already flying right up to the planet to prepare for landing, firing probes at it before you land isn't going to take too much extra time. It's that flying-up-to-it time that's the main reason why you wouldn't probe something.
This ^^^
Especially the last point.
One has to map a planet to find the POIs on planet surface.
Be them Geological or Biological features, Crash Sites, Abandoned Setlements, Guardian Ruins, Thargoid structures or anything else of interest located on the planetary surface.
Also the DSS is the only way to reveal hotspots in rings