Should "firsts" not be worth more than they are?

[NoobyMcNoobFace]

Just docked in the Jellyfish nebula, having made the relatively short journey across from the Rosette nebula. It's about 20 to 30 jumps. Almost all systems I stopped at and scanned as first discovery. When I come to cash in, it's worth 2.7million credits. The first bonuses come in at about a thousand credits each.

That's just peanuts for the time. And rank-wise, it's a total pittance towards reaching my next exploration rank.

A first should definitely bring a higher bonus in my mind to encourage real exploration, rather than mooching across the bubble on the road to riches automation? There's nothing I can do to influence whether a water world pops up outside mapped space, so why is rank tied to RNG?

 

[rOmiLaYu]

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

20-30 jumps is nothing - which is why you earned hardly any credits.

I've earned over 5.5MCr from a single system, of which 1.8MCr came from 1st Discovery bonuses.

Either you don't have a DSS fitted, or you spent your time scanning stars and icy bodies.
You need terraformables, water worlds and earthlikes if you're only caring about money.

 

[c00ky1970]

This is from 2.3 analysis and assumes high exploration rank (as that factors into payout) but you can see that ADS+DSS (advanced discovery scanner and detailed surface scanner) scans of High Metal Content (HMC) worlds, as well as water worlds and ammonia worlds really give you a cash benefit. If these worlds are terraformable - ie. they lie in the Goldilocks zone for that star, then its even more.

When looking at the planetary body in your HUD the image displayed tells you if it is a HMC or not...

Hope this helps!!

 

[Schmack]

20-30 jumps is nothing - which is why you earned hardly any credits.

I've earned over 5.5MCr from a single system, of which 1.8MCr came from 1st Discovery bonuses.

Either you don't have a DSS fitted, or you spent your time scanning stars and icy bodies.
You need terraformables, water worlds and earthlikes if you're only caring about money.

Seeing how many systems who's stars weren't even discovered but an ELW 17K Ls away was, 15KLY away from Sol, that's a given that "explorers" are often money shopping.

If these things were worth that much more, you wouldn't have as many people to grief and gank in the bubble since people would disperse. Also, you already have to go about 1500 or so LY out to find virgin systems (or ones that were just ignored). If the payout was greater, sure there are 400 billion systems or stars or whatever, but you'd have to do a lot more work to find anything worthwhile.

Still, exploration payouts have been basically (I think) at starter levels since inception while the economy in the bubble has seen huge increases in payouts. I could run one mission in the bubble in just a few minutes and make more than the exploration I could pick up on a trip to Colonia. It's really lopsided.

 

[Garris]

No I don't think so. Exploring you do cos it's there, It's not about cash it's because you see something no one else has. And the tag, you go into elite's history forever!
Plenty of cash in the bubble to be made. Actually can make millions scanning planets there.

 

[Schmack]

No I don't think so. Exploring you do cos it's there, It's not about cash it's because you see something no one else has. And the tag, you go into elite's history forever!
Plenty of cash in the bubble to be made. Actually can make millions scanning planets there.

You can only speak for yourself. People explore for different reasons.

You can make money on exploration in the bubble, which from a BGS perspective (meaning we all share the galaxy) it makes no sense since these systems have been scanned and sold hundreds if not thousands of times, so the supply vs demand aspect is off bubble just a bit (pun intended).

 

[Garris]

You can only speak for yourself. People explore for different reasons.

You can make money on exploration in the bubble, which from a BGS perspective (meaning we all share the galaxy) it makes no sense since these systems have been scanned and sold hundreds if not thousands of times, so the supply vs demand aspect is off bubble just a bit (pun intended).

Agree with the last bit, as for the first bit I was.

 

[Spacecat]

Yes, first scans should be worth more and rescans should be worth much less. The galaxy should also be persistent and I should also be able to see the data in the map for any discovered system , even those scanned by other Cmdrs, but due to laziness or technical reasons it doesn't work this way. I'm hoping the upcoming discovery revamp will address some of these issues as well as discovery content.

 

[Shiro Akai]

Yes, first scans should be worth more and rescans should be worth much less.

On the contrary.

First scan should be just a bonus for being first there. It's not a great feat to visit some place for the first time. Rescans, OTOH, should pay more due to containing more valuable data.

Finding new Pharaoh tomb would make you famous explorer. But expeditions to uncover treasures bring more data about that discovery.

Pong. Your turn.

 

[acg515]

Since last September I have made 4292 jumps across 183,700 LY of space with 12,200 scans and when I cashed it in at an outpost on the Colonia Highway on June 5 it was worth about a billion. I feel it was well earned because I hadn't docked at a station since September 28 and during that entire time I spent in one ship I went across the galaxy. I'm only 3500 LY or so from the bubble now.

It just takes longer and it takes time in the cockpit exploring to get used to it and figured out. Life doesn't hand you everything on a platter, you have to put the time in if that's what you want to do. Good luck.

 

[acg515]

You're lucky you weren't around when this game first came out. It was very difficult to make good money in the game period, exploration payouts were much less than they are now and maintenance costs were higher. Nobody was getting an Anaconda within a month of starting, believe me.

 

[Vorxian]

Since last September I have made 4292 jumps across 183,700 LY of space with 12,200 scans and when I cashed it in at an outpost on the Colonia Highway on June 5 it was worth about a billion. I feel it was well earned

What's the cr/h on that out of curiosity?

 

[kpmop]

I think that distance (from the bubble) should should come into it more: if you head off to say Beagle Point and scan planets you should get paid more than for tootling around the bubble. And (as usually gets mentioned in such threads as this) there should also be a bonus for scanning the complete system. Otherwise I think the first scan rewards are already pretty reasonable... for ED values of reasonable.

 

[NoobyMcNoobFace]

I've been misinterpreted, which is my own fault. Let me further explain.

I'm rich (in game). It was easy to pick up 20million credit mission runs in both empire and federation space. I casually ground Elite trader in about 5-6 weeks doing batches of Sothis mining runs.

This isn't about making money. It's about how explorer rank links directly to cash value. And that cash value is linked to finding earth likes. And how it's easier just to fire up an online guide to high value planets in the bubble rather than be encouraged to venture out and explore for yourself. Finding something new should give you a higher explorer rank score than remapping a discovered planet, but actually the bonuses are fairly poor.

Hopefully that better explains my point.

 

[Watcher]

My view is that if we have space in the database for first discovered tags we have space for a counter..
First discoveries should get a really significant bonus and that nice first discovered by tag.
Subsequent reported scans increment the counter and get reduced rewards down to some minimum.
Once rewards hit a minimum level on all (or some?) of the bodies in a system data on that system becomes available to purchase (though you can still scan for a low(er?) reward if you want).

This increases incentives to report first, rewards long range explorers to distant areas of the galaxy even if they cross paths with another explorer and mitigates against pre-arranged tracks for making money from exploration without really exploring - the route will dry up quickly and become pretty worthless.
This actually acts like a bit of an exploration gold rush mechanic. If the first few (whatever that means) scans get really good rewards then rumour of a new earth like or so on would be a thing pilots might want to rush to...

 

[Deep Thought 42]

My view is that if we have space in the database for first discovered tags we have space for a counter..
First discoveries should get a really significant bonus and that nice first discovered by tag.
Subsequent reported scans increment the counter and get reduced rewards down to some minimum.
Once rewards hit a minimum level on all (or some?) of the bodies in a system data on that system becomes available to purchase (though you can still scan for a low(er?) reward if you want).

This increases incentives to report first, rewards long range explorers too distant areas of the galaxy even if they cross paths with another explorer and mitigates against pre-arranged tracks for making money for exploration - the route will dry up quickly and become pretty worthless.
This actually acts like a bit of an exploration gold rush mechanic. If the first few (whatever that means) scans get really good rewards then rumour of a new earth like or so on would be a thing pilots might want to rush too...

Thats my thoughts exactly the road to riches needs a NURF

I my self last docked at a asteroid station around the 9th november for the most part i have traveled through unexplored space charting BH/NS/HerBig/Wolf class stars

 

[LP Garnell]

This is from 2.3 analysis and assumes high exploration rank (as that factors into payout)

Helpful post, except exploration rank does not come into play wrt payouts. The same regardless of rank.

 

[LP Garnell]

Still, exploration payouts have been basically (I think) at starter levels since inception while the economy in the bubble has seen huge increases in payouts. I could run one mission in the bubble in just a few minutes and make more than the exploration I could pick up on a trip to Colonia. It's really lopsided.

Overall I agree that first discoveries should be more with succesive scanners less so. Disagree that exploration payouts are at the starter level. They were significantly increased with 2.3. You can certainly earn more in the bubble, but my last multi-week journey netted about 5-6M an hour. 250+ hours for 1.45B. You just have to learn how to do it. Plus, and for some like me a big plus, my CDRs name is on a few thousand bodies out there.

 

[NoobyMcNoobFace]

You can certainly earn more in the bubble, but my last multi-week journey netted about 5-6M an hour. 250+ hours for 1.45B. You just have to learn how to do it. Plus, and for some like me a big plus, my CDRs name is on a few thousand bodies out there.

I can see then that I need to be more selective. Ignore landable planets, ignore anything that isn't blue-ish, only scan distant stars if in range. It doesn't sit right with my personality though �� .. leaving all those planets undiscovered simply because the game says exploration rank is really linked to monetary value. I'm doing it for the rank rather than to get name on a body no-one will likely see, so it's a shame in my mind that true pioneering spirit makes less than bubble rescans.