Would like some Exploration tips

[MatuX]

Hey guys -

I've been playing for hours and hours. I literally can't get enough of this beauty of a game.

I just got killed by three pirates. I had a lot of trouble trying to get multiple bogies, my feeling is that as soon as I manage to aim at one of them, the rest are constantly hitting me and I can't seem to shake them off.

Anyways, what happened is that I had collected cartography data for 10 systems already. I was trying to get away to reach the 20 LY necessary to sell those when I got gangbanged by those 3 pirates and lost all my data.

I find it hard to deal with collecting data, seems to be very risky, very time consuming, it takes too long until anything can be sold, I can't make much money. So I feel that, overall, its not worth it. Thing is, I love exploring and I want to keep doing it. How do you Explorers make this into a profitable business? Is it all about avoiding fights? Focusing solely on doing this? What's a good strategy for exploration?

 

[Cmdr Andy B]

here ya go:

http://lavewiki.com/exploration

 

[MatuX]

here ya go:

http://lavewiki.com/exploration

Hi Andy, thanks for the guide! Unfortunately it doesn't really help me as it seems to be a quite basic step by step on how to gather data, and also seems outdated as it doesn't mention the 20 LS distance and how that factors into the whole exploration strategy, maybe there used to be no such constraint to sell data?

 

[hitchhiker54]

There wasn't a 20ly thing previously. Personally I feel it was a bad addition.

 

[Cmdr Andy B]

There wasn't a 20ly thing previously. Personally I feel it was a bad addition.

i'm in two minds about that as in galactic terms 20LY is next door, if you lived next door to somewhere would you buy a map to tell you how to get there? i know i wouldn't!

i've not long started exploring myself (i'm still ranked mostly aimless) but what i do is first make sure i have the right equipment (fuel scoop, discovery scanner and surface scanner) then pick a point out towards the frontier that's about 200LY away. its important to keep a note of this system, you'll see why later.

i line up in real space on the distant target, then go to my nav panel and lock on to each system in turn starting with the furthest away until i find one that's in roughly the right direction, then i check via the galaxy map to see if data is available for that system. if there is i set it as my destination and use the route planner to plot a course to it. if there isn't data available for it i'll jump right too it.

if there is data available to buy via the galaxy map its not worth exploring the system as its already been done, if this is the case you won't get much money for the data.

next, provided data was available to buy, i'll hop back along the route that has been planned for me looking for systems that don't have data available. when i find one i jump there and do a full scan of the system.

then i move on to the next system using my original target as a directional reference and repeat the process jumping as far as i can each time.

once i reach my final destination i'll turn around and start working my way back, this time using my origin point as the final destination and starting with the systems closest to me instead of those furthest away.

this is a very long haul method that can take up one heck of a lot of time, but it will give you a massive return on your time as by the end of it you will have fully scanned 40+ systems.

when you arrive back at the station you started at you'll have a long list of system data that you can sell.

by the sounds of it the other problem your having is interdiction's, the best thing to do there is run away. if you are not confident you can escape the interdiction and will get pulled out of SC anyway my advice is to set your throttle to zero and let it happen. this way you wont get any damage when you are pulled out and your FSD will cool down faster.

as soon as you hit real space throttle up to full, put 4 pips of power to engines and boost a couple of times to get clear. as soon as your FSD is cool enough jump back into SC without setting a destination. this avoids the need to target the destination in real space before the drive will engage.

then either continue scanning the system your in, or if you've finished set a hyperspace destination and move on.

as i said, 200LY is a long haul, you may want to start with 50LY and see how you go.

 

[MatuX]

i'm in two minds about that as in galactic terms 20LY is next door, if you lived next door to somewhere would you buy a map to tell you how to get there? i know i wouldn't!

...

This was very helpful, thank you a lot, Andy! I've given up on exploration momentarily, losing all my data was too frustrating. But I'm going to get back on the exploration ship as I think I got better at understanding what kind of enemies and mob sizes I can get, and how to escape if I'm losing.