I posted before about Exobiology in my previous thread, How much should Exobiology be worth?
Now, however, I have significantly more experience, having done it over roughly 40000ly and accumulated a significant amount of data and experience with it. My previous estimates, while not overtly incorrect, were somewhat inaccurate.
The biggest flaw in my approach was assuming that players would exobio scan every biological they encountered. I soon realized this was a bad approach, and that much like DSSing, you can immediately ignore the vast majority of planets after a cursory look. The vast majority of 1 bio planets can be safely ignored, as well as most rocky bodies, as well as many CO2 and Ammonia atmospheres.
With these eliminated, you're left with a much higher average. Stratum Tectonicus is relatively common, and is worth 800k each. The good varieties of Tubus and Frutexa are worth in the realm of 500k each. Most Bacterium is worth less, but can also be located very rapidly, give sufficient experience.
This was my second miscalculation. I had been pursuing Fungoida, which had significantly raised my estimates for collection times. Fungoida is rare, and only spawns on challenging mountainous terrain. Once I ignored it entirely, my average collection rate jumped significantly. Far from my initial estimates of ~15 minutes per species, some species can be collected in as little as 2 minutes!
Of course, that's only in ideal conditions, so the average will still be substantially below that, but nonetheless, this is a massive improvement over my initial estimates.
And lastly, of course, are the First Discovery bonuses. Giving double income rather than the Exploration 50% bonus, this too plays a substantial part.
Overall, when doing exobiology efficiently, I would now estimate that players can generally manage to average 400k/species, with an average collection time per species of 5 minutes, which is then doubled to 800k. This gives an income rate of about 160k/minute, or ~10m/hour.
For comparison, I stated in my previous post that an explorer can expect to make about 500k/minute. In retrospect, this is slightly optimisitic; in reality, the true rate is closer to 450k.
So on the whole, Exobiology can, at peak performance, see roughly 1/3rd the income of standard exploration.
Of course, there is an important caveat to this. ANY player doing standard exploration for income WILL be using the Li-Yong Rui Powerplay bonus. This increases the income from 450k to 1.35m/minute, and the comparison from 1/3rd to 1/9th. Even with the revised higher estimates, it's still hard to justify exobiology with this much of a discrepancy.
Tldr: Exobiology makes about 160k/minute. Exploration makes about 1.35m/minute.
General Proposals
On a general level, I think that exobiology for previously-discovered species is actually reasonably balanced. For a new player, being able to fly down and make ~1m from scanning a few plants seems quite decent to me, since it can be done with a relatively cheap suit and no module investment. The big issues comes from more dedicated, long-term exploration. It's there, where the LYR bonus comes into play, the Exobiology truly falls behind.
I don't think exobiology should be the new gold rush. It shouldn't beat out exploration in general. However, at peak performance, and with the right plants, it should absolutely rival exploration for income levels.
With this in mind, I'd like to see the new discovery bonus increased from 100% to 500%. This will bring the new peak income on par with exploration - but again, only if the player is at peak performance. In order to match standard honk&scan exploration, the player would need to be able to scan three samples of a valuable plant in approximately 2 minutes, which is a difficult challenge to say the least!
Fungoida
The one specific change I'd like to see is an increase to the payouts on Fungoida. These are definitely the most difficult species to locate and scan, and while they're not terribly rare, their low payouts make them virtually never worth scanning.
They average about 250k each at the moment; I'd like to see them upgraded to between 450k and 650k, depending on rarity.
Do this, as well as the excellent suggestions made over at https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/exobiology-improvements.601477/ , and Exobiology will actually be in a pretty good place!
Now, however, I have significantly more experience, having done it over roughly 40000ly and accumulated a significant amount of data and experience with it. My previous estimates, while not overtly incorrect, were somewhat inaccurate.
The biggest flaw in my approach was assuming that players would exobio scan every biological they encountered. I soon realized this was a bad approach, and that much like DSSing, you can immediately ignore the vast majority of planets after a cursory look. The vast majority of 1 bio planets can be safely ignored, as well as most rocky bodies, as well as many CO2 and Ammonia atmospheres.
With these eliminated, you're left with a much higher average. Stratum Tectonicus is relatively common, and is worth 800k each. The good varieties of Tubus and Frutexa are worth in the realm of 500k each. Most Bacterium is worth less, but can also be located very rapidly, give sufficient experience.
This was my second miscalculation. I had been pursuing Fungoida, which had significantly raised my estimates for collection times. Fungoida is rare, and only spawns on challenging mountainous terrain. Once I ignored it entirely, my average collection rate jumped significantly. Far from my initial estimates of ~15 minutes per species, some species can be collected in as little as 2 minutes!
Of course, that's only in ideal conditions, so the average will still be substantially below that, but nonetheless, this is a massive improvement over my initial estimates.
And lastly, of course, are the First Discovery bonuses. Giving double income rather than the Exploration 50% bonus, this too plays a substantial part.
Overall, when doing exobiology efficiently, I would now estimate that players can generally manage to average 400k/species, with an average collection time per species of 5 minutes, which is then doubled to 800k. This gives an income rate of about 160k/minute, or ~10m/hour.
For comparison, I stated in my previous post that an explorer can expect to make about 500k/minute. In retrospect, this is slightly optimisitic; in reality, the true rate is closer to 450k.
So on the whole, Exobiology can, at peak performance, see roughly 1/3rd the income of standard exploration.
Of course, there is an important caveat to this. ANY player doing standard exploration for income WILL be using the Li-Yong Rui Powerplay bonus. This increases the income from 450k to 1.35m/minute, and the comparison from 1/3rd to 1/9th. Even with the revised higher estimates, it's still hard to justify exobiology with this much of a discrepancy.
Tldr: Exobiology makes about 160k/minute. Exploration makes about 1.35m/minute.
General Proposals
On a general level, I think that exobiology for previously-discovered species is actually reasonably balanced. For a new player, being able to fly down and make ~1m from scanning a few plants seems quite decent to me, since it can be done with a relatively cheap suit and no module investment. The big issues comes from more dedicated, long-term exploration. It's there, where the LYR bonus comes into play, the Exobiology truly falls behind.
I don't think exobiology should be the new gold rush. It shouldn't beat out exploration in general. However, at peak performance, and with the right plants, it should absolutely rival exploration for income levels.
With this in mind, I'd like to see the new discovery bonus increased from 100% to 500%. This will bring the new peak income on par with exploration - but again, only if the player is at peak performance. In order to match standard honk&scan exploration, the player would need to be able to scan three samples of a valuable plant in approximately 2 minutes, which is a difficult challenge to say the least!
Fungoida
The one specific change I'd like to see is an increase to the payouts on Fungoida. These are definitely the most difficult species to locate and scan, and while they're not terribly rare, their low payouts make them virtually never worth scanning.
They average about 250k each at the moment; I'd like to see them upgraded to between 450k and 650k, depending on rarity.
Do this, as well as the excellent suggestions made over at https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/exobiology-improvements.601477/ , and Exobiology will actually be in a pretty good place!
