Detailed Surface Scanner Question/Help

[The Happy Merchant]

So when using the DSS on a landable celestial body, why do some of them give me helpful info like geological/biological sites for harvesting mats, yet other planets don't give me the little circle waypoint, are some planets just barren even when it says it's "metal rich"?

[Altius]

I think so, because when i scan inhabited planets i get notifications of every settlement and geological feature of interest (like geisers) there.

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

Originally posted by The Happy Merchant:

are some planets just barren even when it says it's "metal rich"?

Yes, why not? Some planets have bio/geo sites, some others - don't.

[The Happy Merchant]

Good to know, I thought I was doing something wrong, thanks for the info

[AJ24]

You can still get raw materials from the ones that don't, but it's harder work (IMHO). You have to follow the SRV scanner and find rocks that you can shoot - they then spawn the mats

[The Happy Merchant]

Originally posted by AJ24:

You can still get raw materials from the ones that don't, but it's harder work (IMHO). You have to follow the SRV scanner and find rocks that you can shoot - they then spawn the mats

Yea, that sounds super labour intensive, I'd rather just scan for the good ones if that's an option..

Are there mats that are only found randomly with the SRV scanner?

Also I haven't tried ship mining yet, is it worth it and same question

[AJ24]

Originally posted by The Happy Merchant:

Originally posted by AJ24:

You can still get raw materials from the ones that don't, but it's harder work (IMHO). You have to follow the SRV scanner and find rocks that you can shoot - they then spawn the mats

Yea, that sounds super labour intensive, I'd rather just scan for the good ones if that's an option..

Are there mats that are only found randomly with the SRV scanner?

Also I haven't tried ship mining yet, is it worth it and same question

I think the mats are the same regardless of how you get them, just different ones depending what you shoot (e.g. at geo sites needle crystals give you rare stuff and piceous cobble gives you common stuff). No idea about ship mining though, sorry!

[Brew]

Planetary surface materials go into a special inventory, and are used for things like engineering and synthesis. They're associated with you, not any of your ships, and you can't sell them, only use them for their various purposes and convert between them at materials traders. The ores and minerals and things you get from asteroid belts and planetary rings are refined into ordinary cargo which you can sell for profit. There are also mining missions which require them. So surface and space mining are not two different ways of getting the same thing. They're different activities which yield different results. (I think you can get a little of the surface material in space; it does show up in the contacts list sometimes, but that wouldn't be the primary way of acquiring it.)

[The Happy Merchant]

Originally posted by Brew:

(I think you can get a little of the surface material in space; it does show up in the contacts list sometimes, but that wouldn't be the primary way of acquiring it.)

So would gathering things like germanium still be more efficient planet side? Like if I wanted to make a bit of money mining and get those mats, would It even be worth it to do it that way?

[AJ24]

Originally posted by The Happy Merchant:

Originally posted by Brew:

(I think you can get a little of the surface material in space; it does show up in the contacts list sometimes, but that wouldn't be the primary way of acquiring it.)

So would gathering things like germanium still be more efficient planet side? Like if I wanted to make a bit of money mining and get those mats, would It even be worth it to do it that way?

If they were there while mining then may as well pick them up, but it is way more practical planet-side

[quiescentCeez]

Hmm.. I always thought it was linked to volcanism.
When I wanted to look for geo sites i'd check of bodies search on eddb and add volcanism and choose sites that had some sort of volcanism. I never really tested if it mattered or geo can be found on bodies with no volcanism.

[Brew]

If it's a raw material (i.e. planetary), best way is from planets, afaik. You can check planetary composition from details pane in the system map. It tells you what you can find on the surface (ordered from most common to rarest). So it's easy to check before you visit the planet. Probably have to FSS the system first.

Looks like germanium is tier 2, so at geo sites on a planet with germanium, look for "crystalline fragments" IIRC. There's something analogous for bio sites too... but I can't recall the names.