Hehe, i was following a type 6 last night, expecting it to lead me to the secondary star. We flew for about 20 mins at full SC, and then the blighter just jumped out of system, we me still no wiser as to where the secondary was. So just flew straight on until finally saw a dot getting a bit brighter and bigger. Took over 30 mins of flying at max speed though to reach it. Was probably the longest distance i've travelled in SC.
Just a few pointers for the beginner (ie: not in a Cobra like in the linked video - Sidewinder to Hauler level exploration).
1) Get the detailed surface scanner as soon as you can, it really can help net the bigger rewards as until then you can only do a basic scan which isn't worth as much.
2) Don't waste time flying around trying to find more planets or whatever until you have the detailed scanner. Its quicker just to jump/scan/jump/scan - find less per system, but get through a lot more systems a lot quicker.
3) Apparently you get more for scanning systems where nobody else has ever scanned, so jump a bit before starting your exploration. Don't worry though, there are lots of stars. Once you are a few hundred LY out you can be almost sure you will be the only person to have been there unless you get unlucky.
4) Play it safe. You're going to be many LYs distant from the nearest repair. Don't get involved in battles, avoid interdictions like the plague. If you see a yellow dot, you might want to jump out immediately rather than risk an interdiction.
5) Once you have had enough of this, and have got enough money for the Detailed Surface scanner then...
6) It seems like the most valuable scans you can do are of Earthlike worlds and High Metal worlds. There is rumoured to be a bug that makes asteroid belts not worth scanning. Not sure, but they are tedious to do anyway as you need to get close.
7) Earthlike worlds are easy to spot from the system map. Even unscanned they look a bit like earthlike worlds. Always scan these babies.
8) High metal worlds are harder to identify in general because they can appear in different forms on the system view. But they are usually relatively small and closer to the star.
9) This is why it doesn't matter too much that you don't have a better scanner. Sure, you might be missing some gems, but any system with plenty of planets will most likely have the most valuable planets closer to the star. Don't waste your time trying to find remote planets, just grab what you can and move on.
10) Star types and binaries/triples/etc - I've had the best finds around single star systems (and the odd binary with a small distant companion). They are more likely to have planets close to the primary. I've been to many systems with multiple stars where there might be planets but if so, they are around secondaries or far out. Far out planets tends to be Gaseous, Rocky, or Icy... they are not worth as much. Also, if looking for Earthlikes, then you seem to get more with medium-small G type stars. Hmm.. G2V stars are good. G2V... like Sol! Earthlike worlds... like Earth! Could be a connection there
Anyway, those are my pointers, they favour speed over detail, but works for me
