Exobiology question

[Ｍｏｎａｄｎｏｃｋ]

Here's the problem I have, and maybe the answer is obvious, but I'm just missing it, or too dumb to know it.

I'm out in the black after picking up Odyssey performing Exobiology operations. It's going well, but I'm still sort of close to the bubble - within about 3k LY. Sometimes I come across planets that have already been discovered and mapped, but no landfall. Those are easy, as clearly no one has mapped any biology on them yet, because duh, no landfall.

But, what about those planets that have been discovered, mapped, AND someone has already made landfall? How can I tell if any Exobiology has been scanned? Do I just assume it has (because landfall) and move on, or is there an actual way to tell?

[GeorgeKaplan]

There's no way to tell, but it doesn't diminish the reward you receive.

Personally, even when I get 1st footfall I don't normally scan all the bio.

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

I know that you can look at the exobiology icon for a planet on a local star system map. It's on a right side of screen, one of top icons. It will show already discovered bio signals and how many are still unknown.

But I don't know if it's related to your own discoveries, or to the planet, itself (if somebody else discovered those there).

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

Originally posted by GeorgeKaplan:

There's no way to tell, but it doesn't diminish the reward you receive.

It diminishes the reward 5 times, if you discover a bio signal already discovered by somebody else. ;)

[Ｍｏｎａｄｎｏｃｋ]

Originally posted by GeorgeKaplan:

There's no way to tell, but it doesn't diminish the reward you receive.

Personally, even when I get 1st footfall I don't normally scan all the bio.

Wait, it doesn't? I thought that you got bonuses for being the first to discover exobiology on a planet? I guess if that's not the case, then it doesn't matter at all.

Originally posted by Dolphin Bottlenose:

Originally posted by GeorgeKaplan:

There's no way to tell, but it doesn't diminish the reward you receive.

It diminishes the reward 5 times, if you discover a bio signal already discovered by somebody else. ;)

I thought that this was the case.

Originally posted by Dolphin Bottlenose:

I know that you can look at the exobiology icon for a planet on a local star system map. It's on a right side of screen, one of top icons. It will show already discovered bio signals and how many are still unknown.

But I don't know if it's related to your own discoveries, or to the planet, itself (if somebody else discovered those there).

I've looked at that, but I yet to run across a planet that already has that filled in, unless I personally was the one to discover it and scan. This includes planets where there is a marked landfall, but nothing showing in those boxes - which is what brought the question to my head.

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

Originally posted by Monadnock:

I've looked at that, but I yet to run across a planet that already has that filled in, unless I personally was the one to discover it and scan. This includes planets where there is a marked landfall, but nothing showing in those boxes - which is what brought the question to my head.

It's probably related to your own discoveries, yes. After all, a local map is also hidden on that panel until you visit the system, even if somebody else already been there and sold that data.

[Ｍｏｎａｄｎｏｃｋ]

Originally posted by Dolphin Bottlenose:

Originally posted by Monadnock:

I've looked at that, but I yet to run across a planet that already has that filled in, unless I personally was the one to discover it and scan. This includes planets where there is a marked landfall, but nothing showing in those boxes - which is what brought the question to my head.

It's probably related to your own discoveries, yes. After all, a local map is also hidden on that panel until you visit the system, even if somebody else already been there and sold that data.

It would be so much cooler if that data was persistent and carried over everytime you hit the interstellar cartography person.

I guess I'm just going to skip over planets that are already marked as having Landfall and move on. If the bonus is lost, then they're largely a waste of time in terms of credits / time.

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

Originally posted by Monadnock:

I guess I'm just going to skip over planets that are already marked as having Landfall and move on. If the bonus is lost, then they're largely a waste of time in terms of credits / time.

Yes, there are enough of pristine planets out there to be the first one. And yes, those bonuses are the main payout for such discoveries. It's too high to be ignored.

[1Nf@MOu$( Mr.Thorp )]

I assume if it has bio signs and a first footfall, it has been scanned. I may be skipping over stuff, but as mentioned, there are literally millions of planets undiscovered.
Stratum for some reason pays the most( i think its the easiest to find) so even if you think it has been scanned, the base price of stratum is like 15-20M if youre the first to scan x5 that. getting.
Some of the coolest looking plants dont get you as much as lumpy slime. I saw Electricae the other day, they were very cool, only worth slightly more than bacteria on the scan. yes, I was first to discover /scan in that system.

[Walrus-Sama]

It's not really possible to tell if the system has already been visited by another commander. You can kind of guess, if the planet in question hasn't been scanned and/or doesn't have a first footfall then you can assume it's biological stuff is undiscovered, though it's not always the case.

The simplest way in my opinion is to go far out into the black (5000+ LY, avoid high traffic routes) and find completely fresh undiscovered system. You can generally tell a system is undiscovered as you jump in, as the drop-in star and all other bodies will not be displayed on the radar. You can also check to see if the drop-in star has a commanders name listed as the discoverer in the System Map.

[Kitet]

First footfall has a special trait that it is awarded as soon as someone stomps on the planet for the first time (except inhabited systems, wchich don't have first footfall) as opposed to all scanned data, which must be brought home and sold to permanently register. What this translates to is that someone could get out of their ship, painstakingly scan all the flora, which could take them even few hours, then get killed before selling the data, returning all the plants to non-discovered state.

On a somewhat unrelated note, thinking logically, it should be possible to find an undiscovered system, where after doing FSS we could find someone made a footfall already, if the first discoverer died before handing in their astrological data for that system. I don't know what happens in that case, i.e. if servers record who was the first, despite system returning to being undiscovered for that hapless explorer.

As for how to tell if a plant was previously discovered: you need to scan it using composition scanner, the thing that gets all the bio and geo discoveries in your codex. Then look at the system map under above mentioned tab with DNA icon. If there's a name - you're out of luck.

[TheJebblue]

I find systems and get first footfall 400-500 years from Sol. When I enter the system, I check if there are any first footfall's and if so, I leave.

[Ｍｏｎａｄｎｏｃｋ]

Originally posted by jebblue:

I find systems and get first footfall 400-500 years from Sol. When I enter the system, I check if there are any first footfall's and if so, I leave.

This is basically what I'm doing at this point.

I'm 3k LY away from the bubble, so the vast majority of systems that I visit, I'm the first for footfall. I just found a planet with seven biologics and I was the first for all.

[ZombieHunter]

if the Codex were a proper Codex then you wouldn't have such issues. But b/c of the way it works it really is hard to tell what others have done. As most things in ED they had to over complicate the Codex and make it almost useless instead of a simple historical record of what has taken place.

[Sighman]

In the system map, click the planet (after you've located and scanned your first plant *once*) and select the fourth(?) icon from the top on the right hand side.

It will show a blank spot for each of the bio signals on the planet, with one filled in (the one you scanned once). If there's a commander name on it and it's not you, someone else has been there first and scanned that species.

[Ｍｏｎａｄｎｏｃｋ]

Originally posted by Sighman:

In the system map, click the planet (after you've located and scanned your first plant *once*) and select the fourth(?) icon from the top on the right hand side.

It will show a blank spot for each of the bio signals on the planet, with one filled in (the one you scanned once). If there's a commander name on it and it's not you, someone else has been there first and scanned that species.

Ouch. So there's no relatively easy way without landing on the planet and tracking down the plant. At that point you may as well just continue and get all three scans, sans first scan bonus.