Once exploring, then what?

[Bullwinkle]

I'm thinking of buying the game. If I start off exploring and get, say, 5,000 LY from Earth, will I be able to DO stuff out there other than look at planets or come back and sell my exploration data?

Can I, for example, set up a permanent home for myself, mine and build better ships, maybe attract friends to my system, etc? Or will I need to turn around and go back to "civilization" to "DO" anything? Is there money in the outer reaches?

[inter#2]

all you can do away from civilization is scanning systems, looking at planets/stars and mining.

[FIRE DO CLUBE PINGUIM]

Originally posted by Bullwinkle:

I'm thinking of buying the game. If I start off exploring and get, say, 5,000 LY from Earth, will I be able to DO stuff out there other than look at planets or come back and sell my exploration data?

Can I, for example, set up a permanent home for myself, mine and build better ships, maybe attract friends to my system, etc? Or will I need to turn around and go back to "civilization" to "DO" anything? Is there money in the outer reaches?

this is elite, not minecraft. exploration is actually quite fun, if you get a good place to head to (sagitarius A, for example). if you want to pirate and bounty hunt, then you will have to go to the most habitade areas of space, like Lave or Leesti or Sol.

[Bullwinkle]

what makes one place a "good place" to head to, if the only thing you can do there is scan, look and mine?

[FIRE DO CLUBE PINGUIM]

Originally posted by Bullwinkle:

what makes one place a "good place" to head to, if the only thing you can do there is scan, look and mine?

the looks of the planets and nebulas and such. exploring is not about doing stuff, its about seeing stuff. if you dont like that, then maybe its not the career for you.

[Bullwinkle]

Well, I do own a $3000 telescope irl, so I do like looking at stuff. Care to share a screen shot or two?

[FIRE DO CLUBE PINGUIM]

Originally posted by Bullwinkle:

Well, I do own a $3000 telescope irl, so I do like looking at stuff. Care to share a screen shot or two?

go look at the subreddit of elite dangerous, its full of pretty exploration albums. as for myself, i dont take screenshots, since i have no intent of sharing them.

[Monolyth the Heretic]

There are plenty of systemns with plenty of stations. Sol is not the only hub. Pretty much everywhere you go you'll have stations where you can buy, sell, upgrade, acquire missions. There's tons of NPCs around to kill no matter where you go. So being 5000ly from Earth isnt any real concern. There's not anything special about Sol system that would merit any need to go back to it aside from the fact that it's familiar. Anything you can do in Sol, you can do anywhere else (aside from working on Sol-specific factions). "Civilization" is everywhere in some sense.

[Mickk]

Bullwinkle, if you have a telescope and enjoy astronomy you may like the spiral galaxy they have mapped into the game.
Heres a couple of screenshots

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=418925858
This is the ingame Galaxy map fully zoomed out.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=418875417
This is the galaxy map zoomed in a bit from the previous image, i think thats Barnards Loop on the right side there.

You may enjoy exploring there itteration of, would it be the milky way galaxy.
and look at that i posted piccies nicely :)

[Iain M Norman]

The increase in the number of visible stars as you approach galactic center is mental.

http://www.elitegalaxy.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/water-world-940x500.jpg

[Bullwinkle]

It pleases me that this game is blowing some people's minds with astronomy. I guess as a true afficianado, however, I must be a little hard to impress.


http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/oldest-cluster/#.U8l2dfldXTq

http://www.spacedaily.com/images/galaxy-ngc-1309-hubble-desk-1024.jpg

[FIRE DO CLUBE PINGUIM]

Originally posted by Bullwinkle:

It pleases me that this game is blowing some people's minds with astronomy. I guess as a true afficianado, however, I must be a little hard to impress.


http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/oldest-cluster/#.U8l2dfldXTq

http://www.spacedaily.com/images/galaxy-ngc-1309-hubble-desk-1024.jpg

you might want to give space engine a try. it blows elite stuff out of the water.

[Ghostlight]

Originally posted by TWSfire367:

Originally posted by Bullwinkle:

what makes one place a "good place" to head to, if the only thing you can do there is scan, look and mine?

the looks of the planets and nebulas and such. exploring is not about doing stuff, its about seeing stuff. if you dont like that, then maybe its not the career for you.

Except you soon see all there is to see. Exploring is deathly boring in ED. Enter system, press scan button. Fly in super-cruise (tedious as you have nothing to do but watch a timer) to each body in the system, press deep scan. Move on. The views are pretty at first but it gets old VERY fast. Only mining is more boring.

[FIRE DO CLUBE PINGUIM]

Originally posted by Ghostlight:

Originally posted by TWSfire367:

the looks of the planets and nebulas and such. exploring is not about doing stuff, its about seeing stuff. if you dont like that, then maybe its not the career for you.

Except you soon see all there is to see. Exploring is deathly boring in ED. Enter system, press scan button. Fly in super-cruise (tedious as you have nothing to do but watch a timer) to each body in the system, press deep scan. Move on. The views are pretty at first but it gets old VERY fast. Only mining is more boring.

the planets and such are procedurally generated, so they are awlays different (tough there is a finite number of textures for them).

[Bullwinkle]

I have this fantasy of doing exploration to get started. Explore my way out away from the crowded starting area, and find some little corner of the galaxy to call my own. Then set up shop there. Maybe do some mining, missions, gear up. Then in 6 months or a year as the game fills up, people start wandering into my area, but I'm well-established there and can have a good bit of influence.

I don't understand ED well enough yet to know if that is even possible. Or if it might become possible as the game evolves.

[Tyrel]

Originally posted by Bullwinkle:

I have this fantasy of doing exploration to get started. Explore my way out away from the crowded starting area, and find some little corner of the galaxy to call my own. Then set up shop there. Maybe do some mining, missions, gear up. Then in 6 months or a year as the game fills up, people start wandering into my area, but I'm well-established there and can have a good bit of influence.

I don't understand ED well enough yet to know if that is even possible. Or if it might become possible as the game evolves.

No this is not possible, you can't set up your station or something like this. And i think it will never be possible. If you get out of the abitated area, 200LY around SOL, there is no one, only a little of the galaxy is abitated. Outside is just pure exploration, you maybe get to explore some planets that no one else will ever see. Or you can travel to the center of the galaxy like more others are doing.

Edit: Exploration will affect on how the 3 faction will expand during time around the galaxy moving to the most profitable system that players explored.