Fractal Softworks Forum

Starsector => General Discussion => Topic started by: Cheru on January 25, 2019, 02:25:43 AM

Title: Planatery system exploration?
Post by: Cheru on January 25, 2019, 02:25:43 AM
The planetary systems themselves occupy very little space of the map itself - is it worth to explore the entire map for some derelicts or other interesting stuff?  In experience I failed to find anything of use there but maybe its just my luck?
Title: Re: Planatery system exploration?
Post by: TJJ on January 25, 2019, 03:49:22 AM
That's what the neutrino detector is for.
Title: Re: Planatery system exploration?
Post by: Cheru on January 25, 2019, 04:14:37 AM
That's what the neutrino detector is for.

Yes? I know that. Still, I failed to find anything - only lost a lot of volatiles. I only need to know if it is worth searching or there is only empty map and wasted time that awaits me?
Title: Re: Planatery system exploration?
Post by: Tempest on January 25, 2019, 04:52:00 AM
Sometimes there is quite a lot of stuff. It's best to accept analyze missions from core worlds, they send you to systems that are usually not empty.
Title: Re: Planatery system exploration?
Post by: MajorTheRed on January 25, 2019, 05:29:59 AM
Well, with time you can suspect presence of stuff in a system. Here is a couple of hints:
-If you find probes, there will probably not be anything else than probe and survey ship most of the time, and you can estimate where they will be (ring, planet, sun, and asteroid cluster)
-Kind of obvious, but if you find ship (whose discovery grant you xp), there will probably be other stuffs like stations and abandonned planet. A quick way to know that is the presence of gates and arrays
-Know your colors: yellow, white and blue system seems to have better chances to get abandonned stations and the like. Red small stars are mostly barren or with probes but sometimes get a few interesting loot. Nebula are rarely interesting but do get the rare research station. Black hole (alone) and neutron star are dangerous but have great loot most of the time.
-Still, as it is random, you can always miss something, or found nothing in supposed to be great systems.

As a way to go, I explore systems next to the core without missions. I use analyse mission to get to interesting place, and plan ahead to have fuel and space to visit everything on my way. Try stellar system with a name, I think they have a better chance to yield something interesting.

Please note that it is still exploration, and all that stuff is only a rule of thumbs
Title: Re: Planatery system exploration?
Post by: Megas on January 25, 2019, 06:59:50 AM
Well, with time you can suspect presence of stuff in a system.
Adding on to this, Sensor Burst near places where you suspect stuff will reveal most of the hidden stuff, removing the need for Neutrino Detector.
Title: Re: Planatery system exploration?
Post by: Plantissue on January 25, 2019, 07:22:21 AM
In general you will only find interesting stuff, near the star, near planets, near jump-points, near asteroid fields and near asteroid rings/dust. Active Sensor burst round those areas. The main annoyance being asteroid ring/dust that can envelope the entire system.

Best way is to use Neutrino Detector. You turn it on, take a note of the flickering pointed directions that isn't obviously pointed to the star/planets, move at an angle, say about a screens width or two and turn it on again and see if those directions have changed bearing. If they haven't changed bearing, they are false negatives, and if they have, those are interesting places you can head towards.

This way saves your precious time and volatiles and be certain that you have missed nothing, assuming that neutrino detector always detects all the interesting stuff.