When exploring, what are those things that you hope to find?

[CMDR ANCALAGON]

I'm interested in what others are looking to find out there. Do you set specific objectives for each expedition? Are you less formal, but have things that you generally seek out or focus on (such as ELWs, nebulea, and so on)? Do you mainly focus on picking a target region and exploring everything once you get there? Are you mostly just wandering the galaxy, seeing what there to be seen?

When you drop into a system and scan then system map for the first time, what makes you think "there it is" ?

My first deep space outing was quite random. I literally upgraded my FSD on my new AspX at Farseer's and went for a test drive, and ended up going out 15kly.

These days I find that I've developed my own profile or style of exploration. What I mean is, I may be trying to reach a specific destination or just wandering about, but I'm always looking for exceptionally high peaks, deep canyons, planetary nebulae, large rings, moons close to rings, and I've recently gotten into searching for geysers (hooked after finding a site for the first time five minutes into my first focused effort to find some!)

 

[khaos526]

I never had much of a plan, I'd just go and end up somewhere just for the hell of it. Now I'm doing the 4 corners (2 completed), but once I get back into the Bubble, I need to do quite a bit of grinding and new engineering for my fleet of ships first.

I still kind of wing it and often I change my mind mid way through and change destinations because I see something interesting on the map, or I just feel like it, etc. I use EDiscovery, so with that I can see when I'm way out in the middle of nowhere the pockets of black that haven't been recorded by any ships, so I always try and intersect those areas if they are in the region I'm in.

Lately I've had the goal of hitting every single region there is and currently I'm only missing 2 I haven't passed through because I wasn't planning on hitting them when I went near them (Masefield's Ocean and Hyponia). So when I go back out to hit the most Westerly and Northerly systems I'll go through those.

I'll do the rare landings to see if I can find any gysers or such, or to see how a nebula looks and take photos and such, but I've found once you see a bunch of nebula's around the galaxy, they all kind of seem the same after awhile, so I no longer bother with them, plus it means most the systems have already been discovered which I don't want to visit in that case.

So that's how I've been doing it anyways...

 

[baqar79]

Usually a lot of my exploration adventures (even the one that took me out to beagle point), were just rather spare of the moment and pretty informal.

I do have a few things I generally always look for when out exploring:
-Planetary nebula (I've only come across a couple of these and they were already previously explored).
-Ringed star (outside of brown dwarfs or protostars).
-Stars/Planets/Moons with close orbits (planets like Skardee 1 would be awesome, but I have yet to see anything close to this).
-Degenerate systems with planets close enough to enjoy the view.
-ELW's ringed (never found any of these yet).
-ELW's with landable moons that are fairly close.
-ELW's around a gas giant (haven't found any of these yet).
-Gas giants with big ringed systems.
-Real world stars (eg HIP catalogued stars), preferably ones that might actually be visible to the naked eye (very hard to find now (well for me at least!), although you should be able to tag a real star that isn't eye visible with a little perseverance).
-Giant/supergiant stars, preferably with a planetary system as well.

 

[PiggyPiggyPig]

Was obsessed with finding Wolf stars last year. Before that I was hoping to find another super heated gas giant but only ever found the one. The Holy Grail of my expeditions was a 3 year mission to search every planetary Nebula in the hope of finding an un-tagged one. I once embarked on an 80,000 ly round trip for a single Nebula hanging off the edge of the galaxy, only to discover someone had beaten me to it.

New Years Day 2018 and I had a surprise in my inbox. Another CMDR had contacted me to say that he had discovered a rare twin system nebula with my name on it. He had discovered the second system. Its called "The Toccata and Fugue Nebula" and its a little east of Colonia, so too is the super heated gas giant. Check'em both out if you're ever in the area. The gas giant creates a weird whiteout effect on your ship. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f4dTUvEe8U

When exploring I'm looking for anything unusual, although rarely reach a planets surface, because aren't they all the same?
I mean, anyone remember that guy with the SRV and the giant chasm. They fixed that bug right? Such a shame, because it would have motivated me to go out and search for similar, strange and interesting anomalies.

I wish the procedural programming of ED allowed for freakish landscapes such as Mars' Olympus Mons and Valles Marineris. It seems nature is infinitely more varied but I guess there is only so much a game can give you.

Still, Elite Dangerous Horizons boggles the mind when you think how much has gone into creating it. For a measly some of money, I have had years of enjoyment.

 

[CMDR ANCALAGON]

Was obsessed with finding Wolf stars last year. Before that I was hoping to find another super heated gas giant but only ever found the one. The Holy Grail of my expeditions was a 3 year mission to search every planetary Nebula in the hope of finding an un-tagged one. I once embarked on an 80,000 ly round trip for a single Nebula hanging off the edge of the galaxy, only to discover someone had beaten me to it.

New Years Day 2018 and I had a surprise in my inbox. Another CMDR had contacted me to say that he had discovered a rare twin system nebula with my name on it. He had discovered the second system. Its called "The Toccata and Fugue Nebula" and its a little east of Colonia, so too is the super heated gas giant. Check'em both out if you're ever in the area. The gas giant creates a weird whiteout effect on your ship. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f4dTUvEe8U

When exploring I'm looking for anything unusual, although rarely reach a planets surface, because aren't they all the same?
I mean, anyone remember that guy with the SRV and the giant chasm. They fixed that bug right? Such a shame, because it would have motivated me to go out and search for similar, strange and interesting anomalies.

I wish the procedural programming of ED allowed for freakish landscapes such as Mars' Olympus Mons and Valles Marineris. It seems nature is infinitely more varied but I guess there is only so much a game can give you.

Still, Elite Dangerous Horizons boggles the mind when you think how much has gone into creating it. For a measly some of money, I have had years of enjoyment.

Surfaces are hardly the same, and there are plenty of extreem features out there, and yes, it is still possible to fall into a chasam that cannot be escaped.

I based jumped off a peak once that was so high that I reached speeds in excess of 200 in the SRV.

Keep searching for the nebulae! I have found two that were undiscovered in the past month, and both between the bubble and SagA.

 

[Shinji Ikari]

Bright stars, nebulae and ringed moons orbiting ringed gas giants orbiting ringed stars.

At least I already claimed a real life planetary nebula some months ago. I did leave some untagged stars in it but it is still pristine

 

[Jastebro]

I mainly go out with great expeditions to find good company.
Rare discoveries and pretty sights are cool too, but the social aspect of basecamps and sharing your findings is what makes it worthwhile.

 

[varonica]

Still looking for the largest landable planet, until then anything the devs have hidden out there, there are supposed to be mysterious things somewhere, and I'm going to find them!

 

[Manticore]

Was obsessed with finding Wolf stars last year.

Those are dangerous little beggars.

@OP: If you feel like checking out my sig the first post in Cmdr Pingmonster's Travelogue says it all about how I explore and what I look for and/or scan and map.

Generally I (as others have said) don't look for stuff as such but I set myself a mission to go somewhere and see what I see along the way. It's not so much the objective but the journey...........

I'm right now about 20k LY's away from Beagle Point, an objective I always wanted to attain (having done some of the other "signature" trips such as Sagittarius A* in the past).

I decided to pick a route to Beagle that takes me well above the plane of the galactic and the star density out here is pretty low.

See you at Beagle....... or out in the black.

Have fun.

o7!

 

[Orvidius]

I had a sort of "bucket list" at one point, but mostly ran out of new things to find. Right now my "holy grail" is to find an undiscovered glowing green gas giant. They're incredibly rare. I've visited a few of the known ones, but have yet to discover my own.

 

[Mengy]

My style of exploring changes a lot. Sometimes I’ll head out with a particular destination or objective in mind, other times I’ll just pick a direction and wander. I check the sysmap on every jump, things I’m looking for which will always get my attention are:

• ELW, AW, or WW, especially with rings
• Stars with rings
• Oddly colored gas giants
• Planets with interesting surface colors or features, especially landables
• Planets with interesting orbits
• Nebulas of any kind
• Supergiant stars
• Geysers, though they are so frustrating to find

I spend a lot of time in the SRV just sightseeing, joyriding canyon floors, or climbing mountains. I also spend a lot of time seeking out scenic locations and taking screenshots. I’ll often fly into the rings of a pretty planet just to tango with floating rocks. Not very profitable, but then I’m not exploring to make credits.

 

[CMDR ANCALAGON]

My style of exploring changes a lot. Sometimes I’ll head out with a particular destination or objective in mind, other times I’ll just pick a direction and wander. I check the sysmap on every jump, things I’m looking for which will always get my attention are:

• ELW, AW, or WW, especially with rings
• Stars with rings
• Oddly colored gas giants
• Planets with interesting surface colors or features, especially landables
• Planets with interesting orbits
• Nebulas of any kind
• Supergiant stars
• Geysers, though they are so frustrating to find

I spend a lot of time in the SRV just sightseeing, joyriding canyon floors, or climbing mountains. I also spend a lot of time seeking out scenic locations and taking screenshots. I’ll often fly into the rings of a pretty planet just to tango with floating rocks. Not very profitable, but then I’m not exploring to make credits.

That's about my M.O. as well; especially exploring surfaces in the SRV. Just last night I was within 50m or so from the summit of this massive peak and had been working up a 65 to 75 degree incline for the past 100m when my daughter walked in and I looked away thinking that I set the hardbrake. I looked back to see me falling, with the spedometer clocking a speed of -90, 500m from the ground. I'll have to resume the climb tonight!

I never thought much of the beige issue (started playing in Janurary of last year just after it happened) and it did not deter me from surface exploration, but I will admit now that it is a much different experience. So much of the texture was burned out and not visible that it hid much more than I thought.

Just last night I found a spot on that rocky world that looked just like sunset out west, with cloud shadows covering the valley and fading sunlight hitting the hills. Never would have seen that before.

Guess I should post the pic now...

 

[Whitmann]

I always like to come across ELWs, though I don't go out of my way to find them particularly. Only once found a landable moon orbiting an ELW close enough to get something like a proper "Earthrise" picture.
Ringed lava worlds are great, as are gas giants close to the star. Binary planets close to the star are good, too, because occasionally you can experience an eclipse from the surface of a planet.
But nebulae are my favourite thing, really. I've contributed 28 names for nebulae to EDSM and might soon have to head out and name some more.

 

[CMDR Eryn Liamson]

I'm hoping to find an earthlike world.... with lights on the dark side.

 

[CMDR ANCALAGON]

To me, the darker rock in the back ground looks just like a shadow of clouds over the valley.

 

[opal2501]

The main highlights for me are the nebulae, but I tend to wonder quite a bit when travelling to them. I like taking my time when travelling between POI, because I'm of the mindset that if you jump between POI as fast as possible, then you're going to miss out on a lot of sights and cool things. I tend not to focus on things that will earn me a tonne of credits, but whatever looks cool (sometimes they go together, like ELW, WW, AW, Black Holes and Neutron Stars). I'm quite a fan of blue stars (A, B and O class), which aren't worth much, but I like how they look.

 

[ozzyneil]

I desperately hope to find a minihud somewhere cos the current one is a cluttered mess

 

[RolloTreadway]

I'm fairly informal. I picked three waypoints for my current exploration (SagA* and the end of the Perseus arm, then back to the bubble), but between those, I set routes of no more than a couple of thousand light years at a time. For each route, I see if anything on the map looks like it might be interesting - although now I'm out in the Tenebris, it's just 'find a star you can actually get to' - and go there.

In systems themselves, I'm now landing on a lot more planets, since the graphic update. I go anywhere that looks like it might have a nice view. Plus the odd hunt for geological activity.

And, fuel scooping aside, I tend to just skip past all those systems with nowt but red dwarfs and icy planets.

But the exploration is, for me, an end in itself. I want to go out into the black, because, as with Mallory and Everest, it's there.

 

[Qohen Leth]

... the answer to life, the universe and everything.

 

[CMDR ANCALAGON]

I'm fairly informal. I picked three waypoints for my current exploration (SagA* and the end of the Perseus arm, then back to the bubble), but between those, I set routes of no more than a couple of thousand light years at a time. For each route, I see if anything on the map looks like it might be interesting - although now I'm out in the Tenebris, it's just 'find a star you can actually get to' - and go there.

In systems themselves, I'm now landing on a lot more planets, since the graphic update. I go anywhere that looks like it might have a nice view. Plus the odd hunt for geological activity.

And, fuel scooping aside, I tend to just skip past all those systems with nowt but red dwarfs and icy planets.

But the exploration is, for me, an end in itself. I want to go out into the black, because, as with Mallory and Everest, it's there.

The new graphics for rocky and metal content worlds is wonderful, and small moons with low gravity often have huge peaks, but if you want truly epic scales you should be landing on low gravity ice and rocky ice worlds.