How to find new planetary encounters?

[WildLynx]

1. What do they look like?
2. How do you find one?
3. Do they appear on old saves?

[Pembroke]

They pop up as GPS signals, either neutral white or hostile red. Though, do note that even the neutrals can have defenses set up to "no trespassing". There are four types of planetary encounters:
- Derelict vehicles (crashed shipwrecks, damaged rovers etc.)
- Non-military bases
- Military bases
- Space Pirate bases

The derelict vehicles are the least dangerous. Most are just wrecks with no defense. Some may have a couple automatic turrets still functioning. Basically, these are "passive" grids meant to be salvaged for parts. The other three classes are active and functioning, with increasing danger giving better loot.

Particularly the non-military bases are good for turning them into a base of yours as they already contain useful devices (refineries etc.)

As for old saves... Well, have been hearing both "yes" and "no". I started new game and had no trouble in getting these. Maybe wiser to just start a new game? Especially, because the planetary encounters are mainly intended for early-game.

[WildLynx]

So they create a GPS marker ... I can only see Factorium contacts in space, each time about 6000-10000 km away, and the old ones of a container with magical button. So, for at least my old saves, looks like it's no. May be there is a setting in the save config that enables those?

[Dasch_Modding]

i started a new game world and no content spawns on planet, havent been to space here yet. I do have gps pop up for the factorum, and they show in the entity list. however, i get no pirates or any other factions spawning.. its just EMPTY.. what gives..

[Pembroke]

Planetary encounters only spawn on planets and moons. I have noticed the following behavior:

- The spawns seem to need at least some minimum area of flat terrain, or at least not too uneven. Deserts, plains, even hills seem to get spawns while rougher terrain like mountains, gorges, badlands seem to get none.

- There seems to be a minimum distance to other grids required. Something like at least 4-5 km.

- The spawns seem to be tied to you exploring. Either it keeps track of how much you have travelled and covering some amount triggers a chance to get an encounter, or could be that you exploring will simply reveal more locations that are possible spawns. The MES system used the "distance travelled" trigger, and it seems a logical choice so that would be my guess.

- Travelling in Spectator mode does NOT trigger any spawns. You need to go there with your character.

Edit: Oh, and note that a couple of the spawns have those "blinking signals" similar to the MAYDAY signal in space. It only flashes for a short period of time and then disappears. It keeps flashing, though, and the grid is there. *Most* of the spawn have a more normal continuous signal but there were a couple of these. I guess they simulate a distress signal from an antenna that is barely working.

[Dragonsinsanity]

Publicado originalmente por Dasch_Modding:

i started a new game world and no content spawns on planet, havent been to space here yet. I do have gps pop up for the factorum, and they show in the entity list. however, i get no pirates or any other factions spawning.. its just EMPTY.. what gives..

A few things you could check.

1) Are planetary encounters turned on?
2) what kind of encounters are you looking for? If it's the on earth encounters involving prototech then good luck with that.
3) Wonder around in a large area more apt to spawn encounters that way. Staying in one area without looking around will not spawn anything.

Note that all encounters involving the prototech stuff have all been in space and you need a jump drive to get to them. I have never seen one spawn on a planet. Just near one. But still needs a jump drive to get to them.

[Dragonsinsanity]

Publicado originalmente por Pembroke:

Planetary encounters only spawn on planets and moons. I have noticed the following behavior:

- The spawns seem to need at least some minimum area of flat terrain, or at least not too uneven. Deserts, plains, even hills seem to get spawns while rougher terrain like mountains, gorges, badlands seem to get none.

- There seems to be a minimum distance to other grids required. Something like at least 4-5 km.

- The spawns seem to be tied to you exploring. Either it keeps track of how much you have travelled and covering some amount triggers a chance to get an encounter, or could be that you exploring will simply reveal more locations that are possible spawns. The MES system used the "distance travelled" trigger, and it seems a logical choice so that would be my guess.

- Travelling in Spectator mode does NOT trigger any spawns. You need to go there with your character.

Edit: Oh, and note that a couple of the spawns have those "blinking signals" similar to the MAYDAY signal in space. It only flashes for a short period of time and then disappears. It keeps flashing, though, and the grid is there. *Most* of the spawn have a more normal continuous signal but there were a couple of these. I guess they simulate a distress signal from an antenna that is barely working.

That and the spawn will disappear after an amount of time in the world has been reached. They need to "claim" the encounter. Note this does not make the encounter theirs it just makes it so it does not vanish and you have more time hacking it.

[Pembroke]

Yes, the Factorum encounters are intended for late-game so they intentionally get spawned very far away. You having a jump drive is usually a sign that you also have the resources to have prepared well for the Factorum encounters. Because they are a bit nastier and larger. If you go there unprepared for a serious combat, you'll get slaughtered.

Planetary encounters can be done with beginning resources. Actually, I'm pretty sure, you could do all of them with just a drill and a grinder, if you planned it properly. Fighting gets you there faster, though.

Also came to mind: If you are really not seeing any encounters even though you have travelled far and between, check your game save settings. I think there was a slider for the max amount of encounters. Ramp it up and see if it helps.

[Dragonsinsanity]

There is one encounter you can get that if it spawns close enough to make it in time you could take it down with little deaths. just make sure your ship is not to close when the drones spawn nearby. Also need to look out for warheads.

[WildLynx]

Started a new game (Star system, Earthlke). Immediately found a ground station, of type that I never seen before. Station is owned by NPC faction, not pirates. It went into "defence mode". I decided to not be a pirate, and also to avoid it's turrets. I wonder if I will ever get a new contact, if first one is left untouched.

So, new planetary content is new game only.

[Pembroke]

Do you remember the name in the antenna signal of that base?

As for new encounters: New encounters will spawn if the maximum number of encounters has not yet been reached. If you don't do anything to the encounter you got, I think it eventually despawns, thus freeing its slot for new encounters to spawn. Don't know how long the despawn timer is. My understanding is that the "max encounters" setting in the game options is the maximum number of simultaneous encounters in your game world.

If I remember right, it was by default set to some very low number, so if you want more to exist at the same time, you may want to increase it.

[Captain Canard]

Right after the update and the official server wipe, I was finding lots of the new planetary encounters. But lately, nothing... Are these planetary encounters like Bitcoin, where you start off with "mining" a lot, but as time goes on they dwindle down to almost nothing?

[WildLynx]

Found the second one - the Military watchtower. Was warned to get away fast or else. Some other faction, not SPRT.

[WildLynx]

And the first one was Processing Plant, also angry and with turrets.

[Pembroke]

There are some non-aggressive planetary encounters. These are crashlanded ships or wrecked rovers. They can be salvaged for parts, turned into an early base, or even repaired to a working condition.

Some wrecks might have a turret or two still functioning, so approach with caution initially, but usually these are undefended. Loot is low to keep it with the danger level. Good source of steel plates, though.

As for relationships with the NPC factions. Well, you don't really have to be friends with *everyone* of them. You could pick one or two NPC factions as your "opponents" and let the reputation towards them drop. Do keep friends with the others, so that you still can trade with the friendly ones and do their missions.

Can be expressed in RPG terms also, if you wish. Just pretend the 1-2 NPC factions you chose as targets are your world's Evil Gigacorps along the line of Alterras and Weyland-Yutanis...

Edit: Oh, the Processing Plant is nice. Good devices there.

[Dasch_Modding]

Publicado originalmente por Pembroke:

There are some non-aggressive planetary encounters. These are crashlanded ships or wrecked rovers. They can be salvaged for parts, turned into an early base, or even repaired to a working condition.

Some wrecks might have a turret or two still functioning, so approach with caution initially, but usually these are undefended. Loot is low to keep it with the danger level. Good source of steel plates, though.

As for relationships with the NPC factions. Well, you don't really have to be friends with *everyone* of them. You could pick one or two NPC factions as your "opponents" and let the reputation towards them drop. Do keep friends with the others, so that you still can trade with the friendly ones and do their missions.

Can be expressed in RPG terms also, if you wish. Just pretend the 1-2 NPC factions you chose as targets are your world's Evil Gigacorps along the line of Alterras and Weyland-Yutanis...

Edit: Oh, the Processing Plant is nice. Good devices there.

so the issue i am having, on a brand new start using the mod world, carcanet star system, I get literally nothing flying around or stations showing up at all. I am playing on survival, have all the encounter boxes checked, and do not have any MES mods running. Literally the only thing in the system are the factorum waypoints.. its really strange.. before this update, there would be multiple faction npc flying ships all over, even more if I used MES, but i wanted to use more of a vanilla game