What is your exploration strategy?

Hyper Recursive

H
Greetings, commanders!

I am on my first exploration trip and was wondering how rare stars are explored and what is the best strategy to find specific undiscovered star.

For example, I am currently searching for DBZ type white dwarf. The questions that I have are:

1. How do I find a sector of the region of the galaxy where chances to find one are maximal?
2. When in such region, how do I search for the target?

I am sure there is a star of this type in a region I'm in, as the codes says so and some of them are registered in EDSM.

Edit 1: the galaxy is huge, and when filtering by star type, stars are not displayed or targetable when you zoom out.

Additionally, I can filter only by star class, which is white dwarf in this case. There are multiple types of white dwarfs, one of which is DBZ. Each of those filtered systems may contain DB, DA, DC, DAB, etc. If I am searching gal map manually, how do I approach this search efficiently to maximize my chances?

Edit 2: use EDAstro to check distribution - https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/what-is-your-exploration-strategy.554473/post-8698197.

Any tips would be appreciated!
 
Last edited:

S0rkvild

S0rkvild
I usually find white dwarves circa 1200-1800 ly above above the galactic plane, they are often accompanied by neutron stars. Two months ago I returned from a trip to Formidine Rift and I discovered some areas with white dwarves and neutrons between the Rift and Sanguineous Rim. When you're in proper hieghj just use map filters to search for them.
 

Hyper Recursive

H
Have you tried using the star class filters in your galaxy map?
Click to expand...

Yes, of course. But the galaxy is huge, and stars are not displayed or targetable when you zoom out. Are you suggesting zooming in and scrolling layer by layer? Is that even efficient?

Additionally, I can filter only by star class, which is white dwarf in this case. There are multiple types of white dwarfs, one of which is DBZ. Each of those filtered systems may contain DB, DA, DC, DAB, etc. How do I approach this search efficiently to maximize my chances?
 

Shir

Shir
One way is to search a bit on the net on where to find them, possibly region, mainly how high or low on the galaxy plane its optimal to look. Then filter the map on the stars you want, zoom out so you can cover some area but can still see the particular stars, and then start moving the map. I like to do it with keys rather than mouse, its fun searching and you find lots of undescovered stuff if far enough from the bubble.

Another way that works with some star types is to search by name. Certain letters mean certain types of stars, you can find particulars on the net, so by clicking enter, you get results that are the same star type.
 

CMDR DragonHorn

CMDR DragonHorn
When I was trying to fill out Codex, I found some star types assigned incorrectly, so it's pain to search via galaxy filter. Strangely, pretty much all in-game tools are far inferior to their outsourced counterparts. Your best bet is EDSM. Super accurate, easy to find, lots of useful info. The only downside, you'll have to tab in and out or have extra device for it.
 

Maolagin

M
A couple of tips. First, for a project like this you want to check EDAstro to see where the objects of interest are likely to be found. Here's the white dwarf distribution map:
whitedwarfs.png


So you can immediately see that you want to look 1k+ ly above/below the plane, outside the exclusion zones centered on Sol, and for undiscovered stars anywhere outside the direct lines between Colonia and the Bubble or Sag A*.

Knowing that, there's two basic approaches to take. The first is to just start travelling, using your star class route filter to make sure you visit any WD systems on your way. That's the "quantity" strategy - you spend most of your time flying rather than examining the map, so you visit a lot more stars overall.

The opposite approach is to try and find your targets in the galaxy map, and then go visit them directly. For that, yes, you'll be manually panning back and forth in the galaxy map. On the plus side, the galmap info panel tells you the types of all stars in a system, so you might find your target as a secondary star, which you might miss if simply flying through on a filtered route. You might spend some time on EDSM figuring out what kind of systems are likely to contain your target, for instance.
 

Lightspeed

Lightspeed
S0rkvild said:
I usually find white dwarves circa 1200-1800 ly above above the galactic plane, they are often accompanied by neutron stars. Two months ago I returned from a trip to Formidine Rift and I discovered some areas with white dwarves and neutrons between the Rift and Sanguineous Rim. When you're in proper hieghj just use map filters to search for them.
Click to expand...
^ This.

Be prepared to fly much higher above (or lower below) the galactic plane. As you progress beyond the Bubble, the chances are sooner and greater that you will find undiscovered territory.
 

Hyper Recursive

H
S0rkvild said:
A word of precaution. My story of being trapped by a white dwarfm where I flew into a dead end. https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/badly-stuck-no-way-out.459345/
Today they pose no danger, someone with a fleet carrier can evacuate you from any one way alley. Kinda sucks, exploration is no longer dangerous, of couse you have to be careful not to crash, but "navigational threat" is no more with fleet carriers.
Click to expand...

Haha, I am aware of that danger but not checking the WD systems I jump in good enough in order to reliability avoid it. Thanks for the warning!

Maolagin said:
A couple of tips. First, for a project like this you want to check EDAstro to see where the objects of interest are likely to be found. Here's the white dwarf distribution map:
whitedwarfs.png


So you can immediately see that you want to look 1k+ ly above/below the plane, outside the exclusion zones centered on Sol, and for undiscovered stars anywhere outside the direct lines between Colonia and the Bubble or Sag A*.

Knowing that, there's two basic approaches to take. The first is to just start travelling, using your star class route filter to make sure you visit any WD systems on your way. That's the "quantity" strategy - you spend most of your time flying rather than examining the map, so you visit a lot more stars overall.

The opposite approach is to try and find your targets in the galaxy map, and then go visit them directly. For that, yes, you'll be manually panning back and forth in the galaxy map. On the plus side, the galmap info panel tells you the types of all stars in a system, so you might find your target as a secondary star, which you might miss if simply flying through on a filtered route. You might spend some time on EDSM figuring out what kind of systems are likely to contain your target, for instance.
Click to expand...

Thank you, this if quite helpful!
 

CMDR Tony

C
Hyper Recursive said:
Greetings, commanders!

I am on my first exploration trip and was wondering how rare stars are explored and what is the best strategy to find specific undiscovered star.

For example, I am currently searching for DBZ type white dwarf. The questions that I have are:

1. How do I find a sector of the region of the galaxy where chances to find one are maximal?
2. When in such region, how do I search for the target?

I am sure there is a star of this type in a region I'm in, as the codes says so and some of them are registered in EDSM.

Edit 1: the galaxy is huge, and when filtering by star type, stars are not displayed or targetable when you zoom out.

Additionally, I can filter only by star class, which is white dwarf in this case. There are multiple types of white dwarfs, one of which is DBZ. Each of those filtered systems may contain DB, DA, DC, DAB, etc. If I am searching gal map manually, how do I approach this search efficiently to maximize my chances?

Edit 2: use EDAstro to check distribution - https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/what-is-your-exploration-strategy.554473/post-8698197.

Any tips would be appreciated!
Click to expand...

In my combat explorer:
1. To crush my enemies,
2. Drive them before me,
3. Hear the lamentation of their women!
 

Hooplah

Hooplah
Exploration can be more serious in ED. Well, it was getting to Colonia then doing the same things I did in the bubble. It is about serious astronomy which the Devs put into the game. Use this ED Astronomy video to start figuring out what all those numbers and letters mean in an ED system. They are pretty accurate.

I once long ago went to college to get an electronics degree. I did pretty well in life working later with Rockwell and Boeing in California. As a college credit I decided for fun added an astronomy course to my semester. On the first day the professor said that this course will take up most of your studies in college. I thanked the professor per his honesty and left the class.

Going into the black in Elite Dangerous has amazing and scientific accuracy as we currently know it. The Devs really nailed the galaxy. As an explorer then maybe take the astronomy course I didn't. As game play from A to B you may be bored not seeing the amazing astronomy you are bypassing.

Regards
 

Drelthar

Drelthar
1: Get excited about an epic journey across the galaxy!
2: Research ship builds
3: Buy new ship
4: Outfit ship
5: Begin jumping to the edge of the bubble
6: Practice some system scanning on the way
7: leave the edges of the bubble! - Into free and open space!
8: scan stuff a bit...
9: Press J
10: Press J some more...
11: Scan... some more stuff, fire probe...
12: Realise how far back I have to jump....
13: Exit game.
 

rrobes

R
Drelthar said:
1: Get excited about an epic journey across the galaxy!
2: Research ship builds
3: Buy new ship
4: Outfit ship
5: Begin jumping to the edge of the bubble
6: Practice some system scanning on the way
7: leave the edges of the bubble! - Into free and open space!
8: scan stuff a bit...
9: Press J
10: Press J some more...
11: Scan... some more stuff, fire probe...
12: Realise how far back I have to jump....
13: Exit game.
Click to expand...

You have mirrored how I felt quite a while ago, when I outfitted an Anaconda for deep space (this was before probes, only honking and scanning).

I got out there, and, you eventually burn out from jumping a thousand times (and that's for a short hop, Milky Way-wise).

After returning, FD snuffed exploration out of me. It was when, after an update, they removed the tags of the solar objects I discovered :mad: and everyone else's as well.

Haven't been exploring since the first de-tagging.
 

Maolagin

M
rrobes said:
You have mirrored how I felt quite a while ago, when I outfitted an Anaconda for deep space (this was before probes, only honking and scanning).

I got out there, and, you eventually burn out from jumping a thousand times (and that's for a short hop, Milky Way-wise).

After returning, FD snuffed exploration out of me. It was when, after an update, they removed the tags of the solar objects I discovered :mad: and everyone else's as well.

Haven't been exploring since the first de-tagging.
Click to expand...
I'm confused. The only mass tag deletion I'm aware of was back in like 2015 when the game officially came out of beta and everything got reset. But surely no reasonable person would still be salty about that all these years later! Indeed, the fact that FDev have been careful to preserve discovery tags the whole time since then illustrates to me that they recognize the significant value players attach to them. So I'm curious, has there been another major snafu with discovery tags since that time that I'm not thinking of?
 

Hyper Recursive

H
Okay, so it seems the only reasonable method to increase my chances of finding a specific star is switching map mode, filtering the star and searching the galaxy map. Additionally it would be wise to check EDAstro for distribution graphs.

Then, there are terrestrial bodies with different properties. For example, water magma or carbon dioxide geysers. They are not searchable with a galaxy map. What is the best strategy to finding those?

And also, there are notable stellar phenomenon. It seems they are quite localized, either by sector or a region. Were they stumbled on randomly? Is there a chance of finding those things outside of already discovered sectors?
 

Hyper Recursive

H
Mrat13 said:
My advice would be to use Colonia as a base of operations. It's easier to explore deep space, when you are already out there ;)
Click to expand...

That sounds reasonable. But I also want to explore Sanguinous Rim and that direction. With current exploration mechanics, the only exploration activity that makes sense for me is either confirmation codex entries, or finding your own.
 

Mrat13

M
Hyper Recursive said:
That sounds reasonable. But I also want to explore Sanguinous Rim and that direction. With current exploration mechanics, the only exploration activity that makes sense for me is either confirmation codex entries, or finding your own.
Click to expand...
I know there are other stations dotted around in deep space, plus the DSSA carriers. So you could also use those as a base of operations, when you need to.
 
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