What's going on with surface prospecting?

[Susanna]

So I've recently wanted to top up my selenium levels on my accounts... Except that there are no selenium crystalline shards (one to fix in EDO, yeah right, like that is going to happen!). So I drop on to a couple of planets. I start off at high selenium content planets with Bio/Geo sites... This proves slow and inefficient to gather selenium.

I switch to try surface prospecting... ZERO ROCKS to shoot away from the bio/geo sites! None at all! The only surface prospecting is at the bio/geo sites! I tried on a couple of different planets too.

In the end I traded for selenium and farmed the shards instead... But this looks like surface prospecting is broken if the planet contains Bio or Geo sites!

Can Anyone else confirm this issue please?

 

[metatheurgist]

There appears to be a radius around bio/geo sites where the "normal" outcrops/meteors don't like to appear. But Se is pretty easy to get otherwise.

 

[Susanna]

There appears to be a radius around bio/geo sites where the "normal" outcrops/meteors don't like to appear. But Se is pretty easy to get otherwise.

I dropped quite some distance (many km) from a geo/bio site and I couldn't find a single rock. Even after driving for over 10km, multiple times. I tried on a couple of different planets... All produced the same... Zero rocks!

 

[Deleted member 182079]

Yes, it's been doing this for as long as I can remember (i.e. what @metatheurgist said). Just go into SC and drop a bit further away from the geo site - outcrops etc. will spawn then.

 

[Susanna]

Yes, it's been doing this for as long as I can remember (i.e. what @metatheurgist said). Just go into SC and drop a bit further away from the geo site - outcrops etc. will spawn then.

Oookayy... I'll take another look... But my current hunch is that if there are bio/geo sites on a planet then the surface prospecting is broken.

I'll drop onto a planet well away from a bio/geo site and see if I can find some rocks. If they are there, I'll see what radius the cut-off is.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

Oookayy... I'll take another look... But my current hunch is that if there are bio/geo sites on a planet then the surface prospecting is broken.

I'll drop onto a planet well away from a bio/geo site and see if I can find some rocks.

Edit
It's a radius thing, or maybe rather instancing driven. Or both

 

[K Olley]

Selenium is also found in Icy rings.

 

[Vardaugas]

I would speculate that rock generation is disable when you drop into an instance that contains a geo site. And if you fly away from the geo site without entering supercruise, rock generation stays disabled. So entering supercruise and dropping far enough away from the geo site to be not part of the instance would enable rocks again.

I do know for a fact, though, that presence of geo sites on a planet does not disable rock generation planet wide.

 

[Kenneth McGrew]

So I've recently wanted to top up my selenium levels on my accounts... Except that there are no selenium crystalline shards (one to fix in EDO, yeah right, like that is going to happen!). So I drop on to a couple of planets. I start off at high selenium content planets with Bio/Geo sites... This proves slow and inefficient to gather selenium.

I switch to try surface prospecting... ZERO ROCKS to shoot away from the bio/geo sites! None at all! The only surface prospecting is at the bio/geo sites! I tried on a couple of different planets too.

In the end I traded for selenium and farmed the shards instead... But this looks like surface prospecting is broken if the planet contains Bio or Geo sites!

Can Anyone else confirm this issue please?

do it the old fashioned way, shoot metallic rocks, Selenium in the shed loads, I wouldn't ever start the search near a bio or geo signal since they don't spawn near them very often and is not where metallic rocks hang out in clusters anyway!!

Some Folk have success with volcanism or barnacle sites if you want to try that too, but i can easily outpace both on a decent planet harvesting metallic rocks.

Crsytaline shard harvesting raw mats is just a bi-product of how the system works, its not probably how you're intended to harvest rocks but does lead people into not knowing how to harvest or find rocks in the first place, because they just go for the meta.

there is an art to finding metallic rocks though, and it can be on par with shards if you're good at it and know where to look, plenty of videos / guides on YouTube.

 

[Susanna]

do it the old fashioned way, shoot metallic rocks, Selenium in the shed loads, I wouldn't ever start the search near a bio or geo signal since they don't spawn near them very often and is not where metallic rocks hang out in clusters anyway!!

Some Folk have success with volcanism or barnacle sites if you want to try that too, but i can easily outpace both on a decent planet harvesting metallic rocks.

Crsytaline shard harvesting raw mats is just a bi-product of how the system works, its not probably how you're intended to harvest rocks but does lead people into not knowing how to harvest or find rocks in the first place, because they just go for the meta.

there is an art to finding metallic rocks though, and it can be on par with shards if you're good at it and know where to look, plenty of videos / guides on YouTube.

Yeah - that was my intent - collect Selenium from metallic rocks. I've used barnacles before now but I only bother with that if I'm collecting more than 1 mat.

Thing was I couldn't find any rock! Of any type!

 

[Vetinari]

Selenium is also found in Icy rings.

is it? Never knew that. I just top up as I go along. Visit a geo/bio with Selenium above 4% and never needed to visit the Shards site for any materials ever just to complain about grinding, but rings are even easier. Someone should tell the players to stop grinding and just play the game and theyll find they never run out.

 

[K Olley]

is it? Never knew that. I just top up as I go along. Visit a geo/bio with Selenium above 4% and never needed to visit the Shards site for any materials ever just to complain about grinding, but rings are even easier. Someone should tell the players to stop grinding and just play the game and theyll find they never run out.

I am a carrier based miner, raws are everywhere, its the other mats I have to return to civilisation to find

metals and minerals a handy link, engineering tab on bottom of page is raw mats.

 

[here_it_comes]

Someone should tell the players to stop grinding and just play the game and theyll find they never run out.

Unless said players loathe driving games (raises hand) and want to drive a space buggy about as much as they want to clean toilets. I'm very thankful for the shard sites.

o7