Finding planets within a system or galaxies in the map

[Ghaladh]

Good day, I started the game a few days ago and I'm trying to figure out how to point your ship tpward a specific planet inside a galaxy. By the Discoveries tab I can see how many planet a system has but I have to look for them from the window of my ship, which becomes quite tedious. I would like to know if there is a way to point the ship directly to the planet I see on the galaxy map.

Same goes for specific galaxies: rather than browsing through the galaxy map, isn't there a way to immediately visualize the position of the system in which the quest objective resides? Thank you in advance for your eventual answers.

[Jaggid Edje]

Radar is very useful in locating planets as well, just do a full rotation seeing as radar is best the forward direction. In the discovery panel you can see the appearance and size of a planet, so using the radar (where you can pick out size relatively well) you can quickly know which direction to look for visual at which point you will find your desired planet quickly.

That said, I wish there was a way to waypoint the planets from the discovery panel, so you would just get a hud marker pointing at the one you want. But, as to your question...,.no, there's no way to have your ship just automatically point at the desired planet.

For galaxies, you can set waypoints to a specific galaxy from "discoveries" if you know ahead of time which galaxy you want marked. For missions, just use the arrows keys to have the galaxy map filtered by "current mission" and it points you right to the right galaxy.

[japp_02]

For inside-system navigation as said, there is the radar that displays planets, turn your ship around, there's nothing more to it.
The solar systems you see in the sky background don't corrispond to real systems that you can visit, they are decor only. The galaxy map is the only screen that allows you to make navigation decisions to other systems (apart from teleporters). Also finding a planet that you have already visited is cumbersome because all infos in the discoveries page or in the teleporters lack the distance info to a solar system, you have no idea if it's nearby or not and where it is; you can set a custom waypoint with middle mouse button that you will see in the galactic map if you filter for it, but if the destination is too far this waypoint line will just stop, not giving you any destination point, the waypoint is only useful for nearby star systems (within 5000 LY or so, not further). Once you have used black holes that take you in a entire new region of the galaxy, then it's really cumbersome to retrieve your old systems in the disco page or in the map, you need to remember, lol...

Navigation in NMS is absent outside of the galactic map and useful waypoint features for it are lacking.

[Krash Megiddo]

It would be nice to manually set a marker on a planet in the discovery page. Even if it only worked for the current system, nice QoL feature. The way it is now I spin around like an idiot looking for the target planet and if its behind another planet then its guesswork.

note: galaxy != star system

[wkitty42]

note, too, that when people say to use the radar, they're talking about switching your flying view to 1st person mode... 3rd person hides too many things when flying...

[Galadhlinn]

HG did make it so from your freighter using the new Scanner Room base building part, you can easily scan each planet.

Nice Steam name btw ; )

[NZ.Zero]

Hints for the galaxy map:
Right click for free look and WASD to zoom around.

Hints for the ship;
Stop moving to use radar. Spin around to see everything. Often it helps to warp a couple of seconds to a position with a better view.

[Mr. Bufferlow]

Except by noting the system the planet is in, there is no way to use the G map to specify a specific planet in a system. I use the teleporter to get to the system, and then you have to fly out and look for the planet.

Helps to put down a save beacon (colored as you like) to get to a specific spot on a planet. As noted, sometimes planets are hidden behind other planets so you have to boost a bit to get a backside view. The radar should tell you if you have a planet you can't see yet.

If it is somewhere I think I might return to, I put down a base computer. You don't need a teleporter unless you like that convenience. You can teleport to any base computer.

[japp_02]

Originally posted by wkitty42:

note, too, that when people say to use the radar, they're talking about switching your flying view to 1st person mode... 3rd person hides too many things when flying...

Yes, exactly, that's a must to make use of the radar.
There are also other indicators that can be seen in the cockpit mode like the pirate incomming warning system, the remaining pulse drive fuel, and a coordinate viewer for your current position that allows you to return planetside to an exact position. It's best to make a shortcut to swtich between 1st and 3rd person mode.

[Jaggid Edje]

@japp_02, wait. . .what? Please tell me what this "pirate incoming warning system" is and what it looks like!

[japp_02]

Originally posted by Jaggid Edje:

@japp_02, wait. . .what? Please tell me what this "pirate incoming warning system" is and what it looks like!

There is a circular progress bar somewhere in your cockpit (where it is, it depends on the cockpit model). As the progress bar will fill, the circle will fill, once filled the pirates will appear with contacting you (hit F > message to respond). This warning system gives you approx. 1 minute to escape incomming pirates assumed that you notice it, there is no accoustic signal for it. To escape, you can for example make a planet descent, go into a space station or in the Anomaly (or land in your freighter), 1 minute is only a small time frame but it works to escape - if you notice it in time...
I hope my description helps :)

[Jaggid Edje]

Originally posted by japp_02:

I hope my description helps :)

It helped a lot; I found it right away in my current, main ship. I had absolutely no idea that was an actual functional instrument on the ships' panel. Thank you so much for answering!

[Ghaladh]

Thanks a lot for the answers. By using the radar I have an easier navigation. Too bad there isn't a "snap on" funtion from the discovery page. I remember Frontier ELite II had something similar, iirc. Man, No Man's Sky is practically what I was waiting for since the Amiga 500 times. I wanted to get into EVE online, but it was way too expensive for my pockets back then.