Newcomer / Intro Still cant understand this exporing ?

[Tum]

So ive watched several videos now on exploring, and it all looks easy.
But when I try, it just doesn't seem to work.
Am in the basic ship, ive set my basic scanner onto the firepoint, and then headed out to a system that had no information.
The system has 4 stars.
I scanned the first star, I see the bar go across scanning, but nothing is found.
How am I suppose to find the other stars in the system ?
Why does it not find anything around this first star I scanned ?
In every video ive watch, they basically scanned the star, and it found the planets, then they headed out and scanned the planets, or unexplored things that showed up in the system map.
But nothing is showing up in the system map.

 

[Farso Latido]

Hold the key down so that the bar fills up and you hear a 'fog horn' type sound.
select left UI and there will be a list of unexplored things. Select the first in the list and lock onto it. Then fly within 100 ls for planets, and I think it's 5 ls for asteroid belts. Try that.

 

[Panzerbeard]

Also bear in mind that the discovery scanner (the space horn) only has a 500ls range, and other stars in a system are often further away from that, so you need to spot them and fly closer before you can detect them. The easiest way to find them is to fly around in supercruise at high speed, and look for anything that appears to be moving. Anything that seems to move in local space is going to be closer, due to the parallax effect (like when you're in a car looking out the window. Things on the side of the road look really fast and things on the horizon barely seem to move)

 

[Tum]

I do the scan properly, the bar goes to the end every time, and the star has nothing around it !
Another thing, Does the scanner work without even scanning ?
As sometimes I goto a star, it says new astronomical object found, which is the star.
I then scan the star with the scanner, letting the bar goto the end.
Nothing, just the name of the star, that's it.

Surely not all these stars am trying have nothing there !

Ah, also, when am in a station, I see that I do actually have loads of data to sell, but that's from when ive not even done or attempted any exploring! (How is that possible when I haven't scanned anything)

 

[Vampyre111]

I'll try to help you out here. I put my scanner in Fire Group 3. To change fire groups us the N key(that the defalt setting)

When I enter a new system, I stop shortly after clearing the first star. turn to face it stop my ship and deply the scanner. fire it. Wait until you hear the loud gong like noise. go back into the cruise mode and target the sun. if you are with in 500light seconds(ls) it should start scanning. You should see a whirling indicator and the word SCANNING. Once it is done the star should have a name.

Chexck your nav screen or system nav map to be sure.

The discovery scanner only has a range of 500ls. When you do your initisal scan, it will show everything with in that range as unexplore on the system ist. I've had up to 27 items pop up with ust one blast.

I just go to the list and star picking of the closest targets and work my way down the list until I run out.

Different objects have different ranges before the scanner will scan them asteroid fields need you to be with in about 4 ls p to 500 ls for suns.

If you don't dee anything to scan, go as fast as you can and look off top your port and starboard windows to see if you see anything moving against th back ground. If you do go check it out.

Be sure to stop every so often to use the Discover scanner again.

After you have collected al the data you can, you have to go at least 20 light years from the area to sell the data. You can get any where from 200CR for 1 sun to overr 8k for a full system

Once you have aq list of 'unexplored' you have to be in scruis mode and in range to scan. Scanning is automatic.

I hope this makes sense. I'm not a good' 'spainer.

 

[BillD]

The standard scanner scans about the same distance as the earth to the sun I think it is. So those other suns could be 10sands of times further out.
Some systems especially with multiple suns may not have planets around the primary sun.

As Farso Latido said, hold it down until you get the Fog Horn sound. If No new astronomical objects are found then, you have to do it the old fashioned way:
Often you mat see other NPC ships on your radar. Follow them. they will be heading to other systems. If not:
- Start flying away from the sun. As you get further away and speed starts to climb to 50c etc look out the windows left and right for stars that are slowly changing position relative to the majority of stars. Local suns or planets are closer so you will get parallax aas long as you are not moving directly towards them and you will see those stars slowly changing position relative to the main star background. once you spot one head for it. Some are a long way so in real time it can take 10 to 15 minutes to get to them. As you get close use your scanner or look for dots that are moving, they will be other suns or planets in the system.
Once you "discover them with the Disco Scanner" lock onto it and fly towards it in super cruise. at about 50ls depending on the size, the standard scanner will show a spinning cursor and eventually the unidentified will become identified. Woohoo.them you will be able to look for more.

Sometimes when you first fly away from the sun, you might be going in the wrong direction. When you first come into a system and the un is undiscovered, lock onto it while in SC but zero throttle so you don't burn up. Wait for your scanner to standard scanner to identify it and display the name. Where there are multiples suns head away from it and look back at it for orbital lines. The plane of orbit will identify the plane orbit the other sun will be located.

There is nothing more fun than discovering a new body just by scanning the heavens with your eyes and seeing the little white dot slowly change position I gotcha.. . I love that...

 

[BigBadB]

I am also a newbie - I think I am (slowly) getting to grips with basic exploring, but bear in mind I could be wrong about some of this stuff.

Another thing, Does the scanner work without even scanning ?

Yes. It works in two ways.

1. The 'active scan' that makes the foghorn sound discovers unexplored objects within 500 LS of your ship (for the basic version - I believe there are better grades that have longer ranges). This adds them to your navigation list in the left-hand panel as 'unexplored'.

2. To actually 'explore' a discovered ('unexplored') object and gather data on it, you need to target it, point your ship towards it and be within a certain distance (the distance depends on the size of the object). Once you target an 'unexplored' object, point towards it and get within range, your ship will automatically scan it (you'll see it saying 'scanning' on the target info panel, and there'll be a swirling cursor thing to the left of the compass. When that scan completes (it can take a while), you 'explore' the targeted object and gain data on it.

As sometimes I goto a star, it says new astronomical object found, which is the star.

Yes, I think just getting close enough to an object (like a star) will 'discover' it automatically. The 'active scan' just discovers things within a larger radius around you.

I then scan the star with the scanner, letting the bar goto the end.
Nothing, just the name of the star, that's it.

The 'active scan' isn't targeted. If you do one and don't get a message in the upper right about detecting new objects, it means there's nothing within range (500 LS for the basic version).

Surely not all these stars am trying have nothing there !

It seems to vary, but not all stars have planets, and even if they do, they may not be within 500 LS of where you jump into the system, close to the star.

Ah, also, when am in a station, I see that I do actually have loads of data to sell, but that's from when ive not even done or attempted any exploring! (How is that possible when I haven't scanned anything)

As explained above, you don't need to use the 'active scan' to gather data - just being close enough can discover things, and targeting unexplored objects, pointing at them and getting close enough will 'explore' them.

Also, it seems just travelling to a system that you have no data on will gather minimal amounts of info (about 200 Cr value), even if you don't explore it, you seem to get the location of the nav beacon just by jumping to it.

Hope this helps.

 

[Tum]

Ok thanks for the info guys, I'll have another go after my dinner.
I think the thing is, that the 3 stars I went to, I did what you said, scanned the sun that's there when I drop out of hyperspace. But all it was giving me was the name of the sun, and no unidentified things where showing up in the system map.
Therefore I didn't know where to head to.

 

[CMNDRMK]

I do the scan properly, the bar goes to the end every time, and the star has nothing around it !
Another thing, Does the scanner work without even scanning ?
As sometimes I goto a star, it says new astronomical object found, which is the star.
I then scan the star with the scanner, letting the bar goto the end.
Nothing, just the name of the star, that's it.

Surely not all these stars am trying have nothing there !

Ah, also, when am in a station, I see that I do actually have loads of data to sell, but that's from when ive not even done or attempted any exploring! (How is that possible when I haven't scanned anything)

The scanner finds bodies that are within range, if nothing is coming up nothing in that particular system is within range. You then have to target the unknown body with the ships normal scanners and scan the object. You will see the normal targeting display show "scanning" for several seconds and then it will come up with the astronomical data, job done.

Its a bit fiddely when you jump into a system you have to go to navigation and set the star as lock, point towards it and you will start the scan with the ship scanners (not the discovery scanner).

This is the differance between the scanners.

Discovery scanner: Tells you something is there, just that.
Ship scanner: Tells you what the thing actually is, have to use this to get the monies.

So find the thing (you can do this just using an eyeball) but discovery scanner is easiest, then scan with ship scanner.

 

[BillD]

Firstly I have come across systems that are just stars with nothing else there.

Also the system map is your friend As you discover the bodies and their names are revealed, the number at the end of the names lets you know if its the closest orbiting body (1) or further out, (2,3,4) etc. Also the bigger ones may have moons. If after all of your discovery, you look at the system map and see a gap in the number sequence, you will need to go back and find the object you missed in between the orbiting bodies around it.
If you want to make more CR exploring, also fit a Detailed Surface scanner. This does not have to be triggered, it kicks in automatically during the final scan stage and gives additional details about the object and its make up. This adds additional credits to each discovery.
To identify moons you need to be close sometimes, for solar asteroid fields you need to be very VERY close.