Exploring the Universe.

[Doomkoft]

When going way way out (like 400 ly or more it seems that there are no space stations, no moon settlements , no nothing out there so why have a Universe so large that not even 1% of it has been explored. Why travel out for hours in a line away from Sol and all these planets and stations and moon stations and activities if you go out 800 ly and no stations , no other ships. Anyone ? is there activities out away from Sol and Jameson Station and this region ? Maybe i just picked the wrong direction to try going out on? I just bought the Asp prebuild which gives me jumps up to 68ly per hop so its not possible to really check outwards. But when i get way out there i dont see anything ?!!!

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

there is colonia and its smaller bubble. There are random carriers along the way.
While out exploring with a buddy, we would randomly find a populated system, but extremely rare.

The activities are really just exploring " the black " its a whole lot of nothing. Exo-biology is a great money maker and the further out you go, the less likely you will find planets that have already been scanned, or even discovered for that matter. you can get your name on a lot of stuff.

If you travel to points of interest, nebulas, blue-white clusters( sometimes youll find giant regions of hot stars and every system has a black hole, or 4) you will find these often discovered and sometimes mapped already, but theyre still fun to check out.

The short answer is basically explore. since there are no bases, you just explore. dont mess up your ship or equip it with some AMFU.

[Un1k0rn]

You've answered the question asked of me when I say I find exploration to be incredibly dull.

I don't understand the mindset of explorers and likely never will. Almost all of them, bar a very small handful, have never found anything of real note. At least as far as having any real impact on the game is concerned.

A green planet somewhere? Meaningless so long as it's just scenery.

A pretty nebula with an ELW? Ditto

And your understanding is correct: An unpopulatd system is just that: Unpopulated, along with fat wad of nothing it comes with.

I don't strictly begrudge people for doing the activity, but that doesn't mean I don't see it as a waste of time myself. Some would say the same about the things I enjoy, after all.

[Agony_Aunt]

Exploration isn't interesting for many, but for those of us who enjoy it, it really is something special.

[Sighman]

I love exploration, but I'm an astronomy buff. There's something about landing on a planet nobody has ever seen, and nobody will ever see again. Taking in the sunrise, snapping some screenshots, then lifting off and leaving my footprints behind.

Never gets old for me.

[frumple]

The galaxy is mostly unexplored, and almost entirely uninhabited. But it's so huge, and it's a realistic (as possible) model. Pushing outwards in a straight line can be it's own fun.

But there is no reward. No carrot, no stick.

Frontier was way worse. There was much less to do as an explorer, and it was more tedious.
ED galaxy is very nice, but if it doesn't interest you then you won't have much fun exploring.

The bubble itself is pretty huge. Lots of gameplay and activity there.
Sometimes it's nice to be away from the noise though.

[funkynutz]

Check the galaxy map: https://edastro.com/galmap

Use the filters (top right) to see where various different things can be found.

[spam]

Some people just want to see what's over the next hill, even if it's just another hill. It's something that's driven exploration since humans were human.

[ShelLuser]

Originally posted by Doomkoft:

Why travel out for hours in a line away from Sol and all these planets and stations and moon stations and activities if you go out 800 ly and no stations , no other ships. Anyone ?

This isn't fully true, if you get closer to some of the major nebulea then you'll also find small pockets of humans going about. And each of those settlements will have their own activities to undertake.

But yah, there aren't many of those.

Also keep in mind that you can use the galaxy map to filter on its population (human, thargoid & guardians).

Which is another reason to go out there.. old guardian ruins.

[Nobody]

For all we know there could be something amazing that we just haven't found yet such as other alien races, non-guardian ruins, etc etc just around the bend. We've explored so little of the galaxy thus far and the unexplored wilds equals untapped potential.

[Un1k0rn]

Originally posted by Nobody:

For all we know there could be something amazing that we just haven't found yet such as other alien races, non-guardian ruins, etc etc just around the bend. We've explored so little of the galaxy thus far and the unexplored wilds equals untapped potential.

There could be. Even I won't dispute that.

There could also not be.

There could be a system filled with giant off-brand My Little Pony characters in place of planets. You won't know until everything is explored, which is a task that will take many lifetimes.

That "could be" is a rather convenient thing for Frontier. After all, they merely have to say we haven't found "it" yet. They might not be able to prove that they aren't lying, but we can't prove that they are either. And that lack of proof either way only favours Frontier, as they can get away with a lot thanks to that card.

See: Raxxla

[loandreu]

IMHO, we will never find any other alien species outside of what's already been found, simply because it does not make sense to design, code, implement, maintain and update content in the off chance some pilot will stumble upon it at some point in the future. However, of course, this does not mean exploration is not fun in itself. Something I'd like to see is the possibility of re-naming newly discovered star systems, planets, and the like. Realistically, tho, this will never happen either ;)

[anaris]

it does not make sense to design, code, implement, maintain and update content in the off chance some pilot will stumble upon it at some point in the future.

isn't that exactly what they did with the thargoids and guardians?

[funkynutz]

Originally posted by anaris:

it does not make sense to design, code, implement, maintain and update content in the off chance some pilot will stumble upon it at some point in the future.

isn't that exactly what they did with the thargoids and guardians?

They did give us a few clues.

[Sighman]

But that's what special about Elite - we don't know.

Every other game gets youtubed to death. When this one gets updated everyone is on the same 'wonder what they slipped in this time?' page.

[loandreu]

Originally posted by Sighman:

But that's what special about Elite - we don't know.

Every other game gets youtubed to death. When this one gets updated everyone is on the same 'wonder what they slipped in this time?' page.

I find this line of reasoning a bit disingenuous, frankly. First, nobody purchases a game for the "undiscovered" features. Secondly, this game does also benefit from YouTube support. Were it not for some YouTube channels, I wouldn't have been able to figure out certain aspects of the game. On the other hand, other games don't have you running to the equivalent of an Inara in order to play the game more or less immersively. My 2¢