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[PsychoThruster]

Given the fuel and supply cost associated with exploration the rewards seem rather underwhelming. Right now even with several ships outfitted with survey equipment I'm lucky to be getting 50k credits worth of data from an expedition to the rim and exploring several systems. There's a lot of value in the form of blueprints, but these are for later stages of the game and rare enough that selling them is a mistake.

I've been trying to freshen up gameplay this go around by doing anything other than bounties, but it's more or less break even territory. Skilling into industry and exploring should at least be able to compete with pumping combat skills and solo hammerheading bounties.

I'd say somewhere in the ballpark of 3-5x the current values would say least make it a viable early game/new player strategy for earning credits.

[Cyan Leader]

Survey data used to be around 2x the current value when they were introduced and trust me, they were way too valuable. Finding a few Cat Vs in the begging of the game would mean skipping the early frigate game stage entirely and jumping straight into cruisers and capitals. The way I see them now is that they complement other things you find in the fringe. AI cores, colony items, blueprints, commodities, experience, etc. As you do them you start to get a good feel of where you want to plop down your colony.

That said I wish there were more uses for them.

[PsychoThruster]

Well so far in my current run I've found as many cat V's as derelict legions, should those be replaced with something less valuable too? The bulk of data is class one which only nets a few hundred credits profit IF you build in enough hullmods AND you sell at the black market to avoid the 30% tariff, otherwise you lose credits. I don't agree that they should be viewed as a bonus or complimentary when you can build a fleet around surveying and keeping a low profile. I'd love not to have to go combat heavy at the start of every run, but it's just not conducive to a smooth experience. The combat tree seems to be the de facto early game tree that you Respec out of later once you have a stack of officers and a colony.

[2_Wycked]

I also think of survey data as supplemental income. between derelicts, mining/reaearch stations, weapons caches, etc, I haven't had any trouble making money. But I make sure to line up some Galatia Academy or random survey missions first so that I have a primary payout.

[PsychoThruster]

Point being that it's far better to hit bounties that generally spawn far closer to the core and can be done with far less fleet and resource investment. I'll probably just mod it to suit my desire.

[intrinsic_parity]

Point being that it's far better to hit bounties that generally spawn far closer to the core and can be done with far less fleet and resource investment.

Why not both? I go kill bounties and then explore the surrounding systems.

I don't think surveys are intended to be a primary way of making money, more a bit of supplemental income while you explore/bounty hunt/search for a spot to colonize. I think that's the real value of surveying: you need to do it to find good colony locations.

I will say that it would be cool if it was a bit more fleshed out, for instance, if the survey data item was actually connected to the system and you could sell the locations of good systems to factions who would then do something there.

[PsychoThruster]

Maybe I'm just terrible at fleet management during early game. For me in order to make bounties reasonably profitable at the start I must buff my ship with combat skills which precludes taking industry or investing in survey ships. I was attempting a different route from my previous runs where I respec out of combat after making a small fortune. Without survey ships you lose credits for every survey you make.

[intrinsic_parity]

I just put the surveying hullmod on some of my fuel/cargo ships. I can get surveying cost down to 5 supplies for most worlds with no loss of combat power pretty easily, especially now with s-mod bonuses.

[PsychoThruster]

Sure, I can easily see doing a combat run and slapping survey equipment on a few junk destroyers to survey planets cheaply, but it still seems pointless to do so when you actually consider the costs involved. Class one data is a loss every time between the 5 supply cost to survey and the supply cost to travel to the planet. Factor in fuel costs between systems and jumping out, and now the much rarer cat2-5's have to make up for all the cat one's. Or I can just head towards the next closest bounty and put another 200k in the bank of which 170+ will be net profit in the same amount or less real time.

[intrinsic_parity]

I put it on civilian cargo and fuel ships like colossus and phaeton, not random extra ships. I need to have those in my fleet anyway to support the combat fleet and to haul loot, so I am not bringing any extra ships. The only cost is a logistics hullmod slot, but recently, I have been s-modding those to get extra slots.

I am also exploring primarily to search for colony locations (and to loot stations/ruins/other goodies), so the money from surveying data is just the cherry on top. I don't think it needs to be profitable purely to survey planets because you are getting so much other stuff at the same time. Particularly ruins and stations which you will inevitably find while exploring.