Surface Prospecting - Am I Doing It Wrong?

[Soulwind]

Can someone give me some tips or tell me what I'm doing wrong (if anything) when trying to find materials via surface prospecting?

Right now, I'm just basically landing [although I try to be somewhere within a POI circle], and just randomly driving around
trying to follow the blips on the wave scanner.

First, I seem to have to drive around for a long time before I actually find anything targetable to prospect.
Second, when I do eventually find something, it's almost always common materials that I don't need (to be expected - that's why they are common).
Third, I'm getting awfully tired of this just trying to find some Technetium or Zirconium or whatever.

But it's not like I can get this stuff through "just play the game", this is a forced grind (if I actually want to use the engineer upgrade)

So, am I doing it wrong? Is there some tricks or tips to follow that will make it easier to find this stuff?

Thanks All.

 

[S~P]

Does the planet you are prospecting actually have those materials? Did you check the planet materials from the system map?

 

[Balalaika]

What you're doing isn't wrong but it seems like you're just aim at anything that appears on your scanner. Here something that can help you

http://www.wavescanner.net/

Try to recognize the bleep of different mine-able stuff, mesosiderite and metallic mesosiderite gives the rarer stuff though it still depend on your luck.

 

[Soulwind]

SP - yes I've scanned the planet first. Sure it's only in the 1.4% range (rare material), but it's there.

Balalaika - thanks, that should help a lot. I've never correlated to the type of rock. Guess I should of, but I'm being dense .

Is there any way to tell where the minable stuff is before I land, or is it just truly random and doesn't really matter where I land?

 

[Codger]

I rather enjoy the experience of driving about on the planet, following the scanner, seeing what I can find, running into various Points of Interest, all that. I suppose if you hate doing it, then getting the materials would be a lot less engaging

Anyway, to the OP, yes, it takes quite a while, especially for the lower-percentage items like Arsenic and etc. There's no real trick to it. Spend the time. And at least try to enjoy it

PS 1.4 % is really low. For rares, I look for 2.5%, if possible, or at least over 2. You're talking a very low chance of any particular rock having it, and since only the 'best' types of rocks (metallic meteors, outcrops, occasionally mesosiderite) have the rares, the chances are actually quite tiny. So look for the best percentage you can find.

 

[Balalaika]

I believe the POI are just location where you find lootable cargo, engi mats and data points where you can scan and obtain data also for engi mods.
People has told me that they find more mesosidorites in POI area, but for me personally I don't feel any difference.
AFAIK the minable rock are just random, you will have to drive around until they appears.

 

[Snooch leBooch]

SP - yes I've scanned the planet first. Sure it's only in the 1.4% range (rare material), but it's there.

Balalaika - thanks, that should help a lot. I've never correlated to the type of rock. Guess I should of, but I'm being dense .

Is there any way to tell where the minable stuff is before I land, or is it just truly random and doesn't really matter where I land?

Try craters and visible (from orbit in darker color) landmarks, also you want metallic meteorites for the rarest stuff. Craters seem to be fastest.

 

[Bran Tse Mallory]

1. POI's have no bearing on the mats found on the rock.
2. Use DISCO to get a list of the mats you'll find.
3. Craters seem to be a good place to park and start.
4. When you see a signal on the scanner, follow it until you have found the source, then turn either left or right and get the next. Keep doing this till the scanner is clear.

This works for me. I am contstantly having to dump stuff I don't use as I find so much stuff using the above method.

 

[Ben_BigBen]

I'll echo the craters thing, you'll often find two or three parts of the same impactor that created the crater in the first place - usually metallic meteorites with the rare element you are after

 

[MadDogMurdock]

Craters and canyons tend to be richest in mats (maybe because geology!?).
Canyons have a bad habit of spawning mats on the cliffs above, so craters for the win!

 

[Karlos Ploryman]

Hello commanders,

I use a LOT of low level materials (nickel, iron, sulphur, phosphorus)... Sometimes for synthesis, but mainly for many repetitions of G1 engineer upgrades - I level them up and then use the rares for the high tier upgrades. During this process I store the modules when the RNG god gives me some specials - mainly to try out what that effect is worth...

Which leads to myself having lots of rare mats, but constantly out of the common ones :-D Although finding the common ones is much easier, even so it takes considerable amount of driving to collect enough of them (enough for me is about 40 pieces of each).

And... SRV driving is quite fun ;-)

o7 Karlos

 

[tomalus]

Can someone give me some tips or tell me what I'm doing wrong (if anything) when trying to find materials via surface prospecting?

Right now, I'm just basically landing [although I try to be somewhere within a POI circle], and just randomly driving around
trying to follow the blips on the wave scanner.

First, I seem to have to drive around for a long time before I actually find anything targetable to prospect.
Second, when I do eventually find something, it's almost always common materials that I don't need (to be expected - that's why they are common).
Third, I'm getting awfully tired of this just trying to find some Technetium or Zirconium or whatever.

But it's not like I can get this stuff through "just play the game", this is a forced grind (if I actually want to use the engineer upgrade)

So, am I doing it wrong? Is there some tricks or tips to follow that will make it easier to find this stuff?

Thanks All.

I assume youre prospecting for rare materials,land on plains,not craters,and search for meteoric nodes they are the ones that will drop the best stuff.Use the srv scanner to navigate to nodes,also listen to the noises that it makes.Also usually meteoric nodes are clustered in 2-3 nearby nodes.

 

[Snooch leBooch]

land on plains,not craters,and search for meteoric nodes they are the ones that will drop the best stuff.

This is mildly confusing, could you elaborate more on why you think plains work best? My reasoning would be this: Craters exist because of meteorite impacts, the chunks are usually inside an area surrounding the impact site. For other materials canyons and the like are deeper and therefore more likely to be close to the planets crust or even breaking it, yielding ore and mats. The barnacles for example are all found in metal rich (darker) areas, and they are known (still not 100% but very likely) to harvest materials from the planet. Personal experience supports craters first and then deep spots.

True you are faster on plains and might find more common stuff in the same time, but if come across a large crater i'd recommend searching that any day.

 

[Balalaika]

Also make sure the planet/moon you landed on actually have the mats you're looking for.

Run a Detailed Surface Scan, then go to the system map, click on the planet then access the 2nd tab on your left panel.
there's a Planet Materials section that tells the mats available on the planet and the % of chances finding them.

 

[Soulwind]

I want to thank everyone for your tips.

It may be pure luck, but using this info I managed to gather all of the Technetium, Zirconium, and Ruthenium that I needed in a little over an hour.

Thanks All !

 

[CMDR Endincite]

One further note:
A friend noted early on that prospecting was better up around a crater rim than actually in the crater (which makes sense - ejecta) and it hasn't failed me.