SOLO or OPEN

JSMosby · Jul 21, 2016

Does open or solo mode play style have an effect of the results of exploration. I'm pretty new and been doing some rares trading using quickest route and have been coming across unexplored systems with outposts and stations in them. If I go back and actually explore them and turn in the info is it recorded in the games main data? Like I said, I'm new and the answer may be common knowledge for everyone but me.

OlinLands · Jul 21, 2016

Hello! Welcome to Elite!

Whether you are playing online in open play or "offline" in solo play, you're still connected to the Frontier servers. This allows them to maintain a persistent world that updates regularly. If you explore a system and make first discoveries, even if you're in solo play, your discoveries will appear in the meta for all to see.

Have fun exploring!

iain666 · Jul 21, 2016

Everything for which you haven't bought cartographic data shows up as unexplored to you until you find it and scan it (fly close enough to a body with it targeted and the scanner will start to whir). You can sell those scans to Universal Cartographics and get credits (more if you install a Detailed Surface Scanner in your ship), if you're the very first person to do that then the bodies will get a 'Discovered by CMDR JSMosby' tag that everyone - solo, open or private group, PC, Mac or XBox - will see. And the bodies will still show to them as unexplored if they've neither bought the data nor scanned them themselves.

There are some systems in the bubble that were pre-discovered and will never get a discovered by tag the rest will generally have a discovered by tag. There could potentially be inhabited systems within the bubble with taggable but still untagged bodies but if there are they'll be rare as hens teeth. UC will tell you if you get a tag when you sell the data. You do need to be first to sell, not first to scan.

Jackie Silver · Jul 21, 2016

Like iain says, anything you haven't personally discovered will show as unexplored (except for high population systems in the Bubble, which will automatically be shown as explored) but it's only an original find if there's no "first discovered by" tag on it.

There's no great difference for exploring in Open, Solo or in a Private Group (except for the obvious!) except that historically, at some times when server load is high, playing in a private group or solo sometimes gets a better connection. Whether that's still true I don't know.

FWIW, there are still plenty of unexplored systems close to the Bubble, and you don't have to go too far out before you can find lots of hand-placed stars that are unexplored.

JSMosby · Jul 22, 2016

Thanks for the replies guys. I picked up a DBX to give exploration a try. I know it isn't the best but it is something I can afford and for what I'll be doing to start out it should work fine. Just some jumping around below the plane and doing some detailed scanning. No planetary landing or prospecting till I get my feet under me. Some of the systems I'm seeing say there is no system map available so I assume that they are unexplored by anyone? Does distance from the explored system to the place where you sell it effect what you are paid for it, like with rares?

Again, thanks for the replies. I wasn't sure how the data was handled by the game.

iain666 · Jul 22, 2016

JSMosby said:
Some of the systems I'm seeing say there is no system map available so I assume that they are unexplored by anyone?

Nope, like the unexplored bodies just not available to you. There is no guarantee that nobody else has been there before once you've found your exploring feet and are happy to get a thousand and more light years from the bubble then (provided you stay off direct lines to popular destinations) systems with Discovered By tags will become steadily rarer to the point of all but vanishing. I've seen two or three in the last two or three thousand systems.

JSMosby said:
Does distance from the explored system to the place where you sell it effect what you are paid for it, like with rares?

No, flat rate. You can't sell to a station within 20ly of the system the data is for though.

Kenneth McGrew · Jul 22, 2016

The DBx is a fine ship

you will have to be roughly 500ly away from any system with population to start and find unexplored systems without a "tag" when you open the system map and hover over a planet it will say "first discovered by CMDR ....." If you are the first to scan that particular system and sell the data that's how your name will appear on the planet "tag"
if you haven't been to a system before it will still show as unexplored yet someone may have scanned it before you, its still worth scanning it for high metal content worlds etc as these still sell for decent credits, but if you are the first to scan it you get a bonus % on top of the selling price

hope that makes a little more sense

Freebird · Jul 22, 2016

I wonder if it's possible to get Elite in exploration without leaving the bubble?

I started a 2nd Cmdr, purely for exploring, and hit Trailblazer after 10 days without going far at all. I'm now wandering out into the void, but there's a huge amount of the bubble that I haven't visited which shows as unknown.

Good luck with the DBX, it's a fine explorer, although a bigger scoop would be good

Ziljan · Jul 22, 2016

The odds of meeting anyone out there are astronomically low. Open vs Solo mostly impacts the quality of screenshots available.

We all share the same galaxy, but not the same instances. So discovery tags are universally true for everyone across all servers.

verminstar · Jul 23, 2016

I would play in open only until I'm a couple hundred ly from the bubble...then it's back to solo play. Better safe than sitting in front of a rebuy screen ^^