Some understanding of exploration?

[listerinfiji]

So I've been gearing up for exploration and just started today.

Something I'm finding that I don't quite understand - untagged planetary bodies.

I'll start by saying that I found a whole system with nobody having tagged any planets, so for me I'm really happy about that.

What I don't understand is I'm finding so many partially tagged, as in bodies have been 'skipped'. So I'd understand if say the first 3 or 4 had been tagged and nobody has bothered to go further. But I'm finding, for example, planet 1 & 2 and all moons tagged, planet 3 tagged but moons unatagged, planet 4 and 5 and moons untagged, planet 6 and moons tagged, planet 7 and 8 tagged but moons untagged, etc.

The inconsistency just doesn't make sense to me.. Anybody care to elaborate on the logic of the explorers before me?

 

[CMDR CHIGGY VONRICTOFEN]

There is no logic. *grins* Some insist on tagging everything...some leave some for others...some just cherry pick...some just honk and run...The only thing I stop for now are Earth-likes...

 

[CMDR Murf]

It's a time thing. It takes so long to scan every planet/moon/star that people just get very bored doing it. It's very tedious after a while
They prefer to scan stuff they want to scan and move on.

Also, if you are trying to earn money for exploration rank, there is a balance between scanning too much, and not enough.
Scanning too much - visit a lot less systems per hour, make very little money per hour
Scanning not enough - obviously doesn't make much money per hour.
You have to find a balance. Scan valuable items that don't take too much of your time, including items you can scan from your system entry point.

 

[Zenith]

I'm guilty of cherry-picking.
If a planet is an Earth-like World (ELW) or Terrestrial Ammonia World (TAW), then I'll go travel to tag them no matter what. I usually claim the whole system when I find one of those.
Water worlds, if they're in the likely "Goldilocks Zone" of the star, I'll go check it out because they might be "terraform candidate" which increases their Cr value.
If it just "looks" interesting, I'll go have a look.

 

[iain666]

Scanning distances also play into it.

If I want to scan a rocky body then I'll have to get close enough that I'm pretty much close enough to scan the moons so I often do. If I scan a gas giant I can do that from 800-1000ls unless it's particularly small, so I've still got a noticeable time investment to get close enough to scan the moons as well.

What you can scan without moving from where you jumped in also plays into it.

If I jump into a system and the star is tagged I'll tag one other body and no more (maybe two if they're beside each other).

Sometimes I scan everything just because.

Sometimes I think I'll scan everything and change my mind halfway through - depending on the arrangement of the system at the time I'm as likely to do 1,2,3,4 as 1,3,6,7 depending on what was the next closest after each scan.

You won't find a pattern, however hard you look.

 

[metatheurgist]

It's human RNG.

 

[listerinfiji]

Thanks for the replies all.

Last comment gave me a chuckle

I might be posting on here again - I might have bitten off more than I can chew, I'm not sure yet. I've had to do a few jumps that have required synthesis because stars seem few and far between, and now I'm getting a bit concerned that with my inexperience I won't be able to find my way back. However I'll be seeing if I can quite soon and I still have plenty of materials so I'm not at the point of being worried (yet).

 

[CMDR Murf]

I might be posting on here again - I might have bitten off more than I can chew, I'm not sure yet. I've had to do a few jumps that have required synthesis because stars seem few and far between, and now I'm getting a bit concerned that with my inexperience I won't be able to find my way back. However I'll be seeing if I can quite soon and I still have plenty of materials so I'm not at the point of being worried (yet).

Where did you go? lol

Just remember, it's always the way back that matters. Make sure you have supplies for more jumps than you think you need. Try make smaller jumps when possible.
Lowering your fuel can make slightly bigger jumps possible (without routing), but make sure you are jumping to a scoopable star or you may need a fuel rat to come save you.

 

[listerinfiji]

Where did you go? lol

Just remember, it's always the way back that matters. Make sure you have supplies for more jumps than you think you need. Try make smaller jumps when possible.
Lowering your fuel can make slightly bigger jumps possible (without routing), but make sure you are jumping to a scoopable star or you may need a fuel rat to come save you.

I wen't all the way down!

I think I'm already back in a safe spot thankfully

One thing is although there are few stars here the majority are scoopable. So fuel hasn't been a worry. And as I'm inexperienced I took a LOT of materials. Lesson learned though is I should have noted down my route in case I wanted to reverse it.

 

[CMDR Murf]

I wen't all the way down!

I think I'm already back in a safe spot thankfully

One thing is although there are few stars here the majority are scoopable. So fuel hasn't been a worry. And as I'm inexperienced I took a LOT of materials. Lesson learned though is I should have noted down my route in case I wanted to reverse it.

Good to hear. The stars thin out above and below the galaxy. They also thin out between the arms of the galaxy, but usually not as bad. You'll learn your way around eventually. Takes time, which is fun. Always new things to experience.

 

[iain666]

Lesson learned though is I should have noted down my route in case I wanted to reverse it.

A lesson that some of us learned so well we went off and wrote 3rd party apps to do it for us.

I would personally recommend that you get ED Discovery installed but I'm biased because I'm one of the developers.

Alternatives are available, most notably Captain's Log is also very good.

There are others but EDD and CL are the most exploration focused ones.

If you're masochistic then you can manually parse the journals - in C:\Users\%user%\Saved Games\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous by default - to work it out for yourself. If you're enthusiastic you could write a whole new tool that brings something new to the table if you're that way inclined (although EDD is open source so if you want to add to it then jump right in).

 

[osser]

Go out for a year like me or longer like iain666 and then see if you Tag everything.
Short answer is you wont. You wont get anywhere otherwise.
I have protocols for what I scan, and even those rules can be bent depending on my mood.
I do scan probably more than most commanders I'd wager.
I'm hitting a full year as of this Tuesday (missed maybe 4 days due to computer problems RL ect) and I'm right at 13k systems visited. I wanna do 6 more months, and then take a courier out for 6 months on a Nebula tour. (while the ASP gets some much needed re-fit and rest)

 

[Cmdr Frawd Digger]

Depends on what the goal of the explorer is...if they are in a hurry they might scan nothing, or they might scan the main star. If they are in not such a hurry they might scan the main star or they might scan the closest planets, or maybe interesting worlds like ELWs. If they are like many of the explorers in this forum they might just want to screw with your mind and scan the second moon of the seventh planet.

I have been guilty of all of these things...

Frawd

 

[Galactic Fork]

So I've been gearing up for exploration and just started today.

Something I'm finding that I don't quite understand - untagged planetary bodies.

I'll start by saying that I found a whole system with nobody having tagged any planets, so for me I'm really happy about that.

What I don't understand is I'm finding so many partially tagged, as in bodies have been 'skipped'. So I'd understand if say the first 3 or 4 had been tagged and nobody has bothered to go further. But I'm finding, for example, planet 1 & 2 and all moons tagged, planet 3 tagged but moons unatagged, planet 4 and 5 and moons untagged, planet 6 and moons tagged, planet 7 and 8 tagged but moons untagged, etc.

The inconsistency just doesn't make sense to me.. Anybody care to elaborate on the logic of the explorers before me?

Basically it's like this. Terrestrial planets are usually HMCW and closer to the entry point, so it's usually a good cost/time benefit to scan them. Gas Giants can be scanned from farther away, but don't provide a lot of money, but if you're within range, scan away. Moons are usually rocky or icy bodies which provide next to nothing, so you only scan them if you actually go to the host planet for whatever reason.

In the scenario you laid out, if it were me, it'd be because Planet 1 and 2 are probably close and easy to tag with no time. Planet 3, probably a gas giant and I can tag from far way on my way to planet 6 becuase of an interesting moon config ( I like co orbiting moons, or moons with moons), maybe a good ringed planet. 4 and 5 would most likely be on the other side of the star, too much trouble to go to, in addition to 6. Since I'm at 6, I might as well scan all the moons. 7 and 8 are probably also gas giants fairly close to 6, Close enough that it's only a short distance to scan range, but still not worth going so close to scan the moons.

 

[disorganise]

Depends on what the goal of the explorer is...if they are in a hurry they might scan nothing, or they might scan the main star. If they are in not such a hurry they might scan the main star or they might scan the closest planets, or maybe interesting worlds like ELWs. If they are like many of the explorers in this forum they might just want to screw with your mind and scan the second moon of the seventh planet.

I have been guilty of all of these things...

Frawd

^yip
I vary. Sometimes random, often nothing, sometimes the nearest body, sometimes (rarely) every last rock. And quite often I leave the star - mainly cos it's too slow to stop and turn, and since 2.2 it's stupid since we already know the star before we jump.

 

[Ravenov]

I wen't all the way down!

I think I'm already back in a safe spot thankfully

One thing is although there are few stars here the majority are scoopable. So fuel hasn't been a worry. And as I'm inexperienced I took a LOT of materials. Lesson learned though is I should have noted down my route in case I wanted to reverse it.

Switch your map to Map View, then go to filters, show by colour and in the drop down select 'Visited Stars'. If you want to retrace a route, at the bottom of the filters check boxes (in this case visited and not visited) check the 'apply filter to route' option, and unselect unvisited stars.

 

[Flash_Baggins]

Depends what sort of a player has explored it

I personally am a cherry picker- I take ammonia worlds earthlikes water worlds, planets I think are terraformables and metal riches. sometimes Ill take a planet near to the star when refueling. other people jonk, some people take everything. depends on the player (and how much of a rush they are in )

 

[Mechanist]

If you are hardcore explorer you should:

- use economic routes
- scan every planetary body and star [yesnod]
- even asteroid belts [haha]
- land on every landable planet and drive with your SRV around to make the following pattern: "[insert cmdr name] was here!" [big grin]

 

[Kuroshio]

To be perfectly honest, I sometimes scan a single low value object just to make people ask that question.

Else, I follow a simple ELW, AW and 'extremely pretty place' rule when travelling long distances.

 

[Sapyx]

There are many reasons why CMDRs might not choose to scan a system completely.

- Credits/hour. Some CMDRs are just trying their best to maximize exploration profit - usually, it's the CMDRs who decide they want to hit Elite in something to gain access to Founders World, and decide that Elite in Exploration is quicker and easier than Elite in Trade or Combat. So objects that are low-value are ignored. Ice moons are a typical example: you get 500 credits for discovering an ice moon witht he discovery scanner, and a measly 50 or 100 credit bonus for a detailed scan. Even the +50% bonus for first discovery means that the 45 seconds you need to devoyte to pointing and scanning is a very low return on time-investment.

- Travelling rather than hard-core "exploring". Some people are on their way from opne place to another and are simply casually exploring some things while enroute. If the scannable objects are fairly quick and easy, then they get scanned, otherwise they're ignored.

- Altruism and the desire to see other CMDRs share your excitement of discovering a system and planting their flag there. If I find a half-tagged system, I'll usually tag one one other item in it, and leave the rest of the place untagged for later explorers. Personally, when I find a completely untagged Earth-like system, I will tag the star, the Earth-like, the moon if the Earth-like has one, and probably one or two other planets I think might be terraformable - and leave the rest of the system untagged. Later, when I view this system again in the galaxy map, I can then see if anyone else has tagged any of the other planets and therefore give evidence that they'd been there to visit "my" Earth-like.

Personally, I will rarely completely tag an entire system. The only exceptions are if there's only extremely interesting objects in the system and/or for the following scenario: if I fly to a distant companion star over 100,000 Ls away, for whatever reason, I will tag everything at that remote star. That way, a future visitor with OCD won't feel obliged to repeat the long voyage, just to grab a worthless untagged planet they feel they "have to tag". The theory is: I tag everything, so you don't have to.