Has Exobiology been nerfed?

[HaemoGobliN]

I just reinstalled after a 6 year break, caught up on what was new and saw a lot of recommendations to do exobiology. I hardly touched exploration the first time around so it seemed like the perfect time to do something new. I spent nearly 10 hours exploring systems, during which I found 1 undiscovered system and 2 biological signals. After wasting 2 hours looking for those 2 biological signals and finding nothing I have given up on the idea of both exploration and exobiology completely disheartened.

Is there something I'm missing? Other than biological signals?

[Stelar Seven]

If you wander blind you will make meh money. If you want to optimize for cash use a tool like the exobio road to mastery

https://spansh.co.uk/exobiology

This will tell you exactly what planet to go to and what plant to scan. It's not exciting, but 3 scans generally yields 19 million or more so it pays well, especially with powerplay bonuses.

Most of the ways to crank money are less fun than playing how you want to so balance your greed with your entertainment.

[Jeebs]

Every time I see that website address, I can't help but think "Ow! My splanch!" (IYKYK)

My advice would be to look for worlds that have at least 4 bio signals on them. If it only has 1-2, it's likely not worth the time (and they're likely on the low-value end of the scale). You also need to map the planet in order for the "heat map" to show up so you know where to land to find them.

It's not like it used to be in Horizons where you map the planet and you'll get POIs that tell you where to land. Generally, you want to aim for the bluish-green colour, if you can. It is very lucrative, but it also takes a bit of time before you get the hang of it and can find the plants quickly and efficiently.

[funkynutz]

Have you used the surface scanner to map the planet before landing?

Originally posted by Jeebs:

My advice would be to look for worlds that have at least 4 bio signals on them. If it only has 1-2, it's likely not worth the time (and they're likely on the low-value end of the scale).

Unless it's a high metal content planet, with sulphur dioxide in the atmosphere (any %). Then there's a good chance that one of the signals is Stratum Tectonicas (100 mil with first discovery bonus), especially around B and O class stars if memory serves... The other signal is usually cerberus baterium which is essentially worthless.

[Sighman]

Originally posted by HaemoGobliN:

I just reinstalled after a 6 year break, caught up on what was new and saw a lot of recommendations to do exobiology. I hardly touched exploration the first time around so it seemed like the perfect time to do something new. I spent nearly 10 hours exploring systems, during which I found 1 undiscovered system and 2 biological signals. After wasting 2 hours looking for those 2 biological signals and finding nothing I have given up on the idea of both exploration and exobiology completely disheartened.

Is there something I'm missing? Other than biological signals?

It's a lucky dip, which is what makes it rewarding.

If you just want to follow someone else's trail and make 1/5 the money scanning stuff other people have found there are lists of systems, but that's about the most boring thing I can think of.

[HaemoGobliN]

I've been doing the full scan of the planet beforehand, and landing on the greener part of the blue. I'm about 5000ly away from the bubble so kind of expected to be going off my own steam rather than the spansh site, if that's the only way to make this activity pay out lucratively i'd rather go back to combat since its infinitely quicker than wandering around in the dark.

The two signals I got were for bacterium and stratum, which is why I wasted so much time looking for the stratum as I was the first to discover the planet it was on. A shame it didn't feel like spawning in either the green blue or the rugged blue areas. I must have searched half the planet, that sort of luck isn't for me.

[Sighman]

Originally posted by HaemoGobliN:

I've been doing the full scan of the planet beforehand, and landing on the greener part of the blue. I'm about 5000ly away from the bubble so kind of expected to be going off my own steam rather than the spansh site, if that's the only way to make this activity pay out lucratively i'd rather go back to combat since its infinitely quicker than wandering around in the dark.

The two signals I got were for bacterium and stratum, which is why I wasted so much time looking for the stratum as I was the first to discover the planet it was on. A shame it didn't feel like spawning in either the green blue or the rugged blue areas. I must have searched half the planet, that sort of luck isn't for me.

If you install Elite Observatory Core and the BioInsights plugin it will tell you which species the planet can support. That way you only have to land on planets which are high enough potential value.

I use this when I'm travelling somewhere, but not when exploring an area. I'd rather be surprised.

[Sighman]

Something you may not know, but every star system (apart from named ones) has a mass code:

Graea Eork QU-N *c*23-28

Mass codes go from a (lowest) to h for nebulae, of F for massive supergiants etc.

But if you're looking at a Sol-like system with an M-type star, depending on whether there are secondary/tertiary/etc stars in the system you will find that d mass systems are likely to have more planets than a or b mass.

e.g. Graea Eork UR-H *d*11-114

But again, check the star class and count. One star with a higher mass code = lots of planets.

Just something to improve your chances from a long-term explorer.

[Kobs]

Or you can do here and scrape a few hundred millions per day it beats the hell out of trading that's for sure. Every time I get on it it's above 100 million per sitting. I spent a whole day once and got 300+ millions. it gets boring fast but if you want the credits.
https://cmdrs-toolbox.com/billionaires-boulevard

Here you can see when I started exo in around the end of October. The long soft curve was trading loll
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3366294528

[funkynutz]

Originally posted by Sighman:

Something you may not know, but every star system (apart from named ones) has a mass code:

Graea Eork QU-N *c*23-28

Mass codes go from a (lowest) to h for nebulae, of F for massive supergiants etc.

But if you're looking at a Sol-like system with an M-type star, depending on whether there are secondary/tertiary/etc stars in the system you will find that d mass systems are likely to have more planets than a or b mass.

e.g. Graea Eork UR-H *d*11-114

But again, check the star class and count. One star with a higher mass code = lots of planets.

Just something to improve your chances from a long-term explorer.

Holy smeg... Did not know that... I've been flying blind for a decade lol.

[Jeebs]

Originally posted by funkynutz:

Originally posted by Sighman:

Something you may not know, but every star system (apart from named ones) has a mass code:

Graea Eork QU-N *c*23-28

Mass codes go from a (lowest) to h for nebulae, of F for massive supergiants etc.

But if you're looking at a Sol-like system with an M-type star, depending on whether there are secondary/tertiary/etc stars in the system you will find that d mass systems are likely to have more planets than a or b mass.

e.g. Graea Eork UR-H *d*11-114

But again, check the star class and count. One star with a higher mass code = lots of planets.

Just something to improve your chances from a long-term explorer.

Holy smeg... Did not know that... I've been flying blind for a decade lol.

LMAO, ditto. So let that be a lesson or word of encouragement to the noobies... even us veterans that have been playing the game for a decade are still learning new things. It's okay if you don't know everything, you can still play the game quite successfully as long as you got the basics down.

[Brew]

Exobiology takes some experience. Different biology tends to grow in different places. Don't think you can go into it and find everything on every planet right off the bat. There is also some luck with regards to sparsity, camouflage (sometimes that bacteria is just hard to spot). Your experience is probably par for the course for most people, especially if they didn't just go find cheat sheets on the web. You will get better at it.

I had trouble with it too at first; didn't even know what to look for. I found my first bacteria by accident: I happened to land almost right on top of it. I didn't know about the right click ping... but since I was close, and just happened to right click at that point, I noticed a different sound, and it seemed.... directional. I tried following it... then realized the bio was practically under my feet the whole time.

"Wandering blind" is exploring. If you are not doing that, I would not call it exploring. You're just following the same road as everyone else. Wandering is how you find the undiscovered things, get discovery bonuses, and make more money. "Roads to riches" are antithetical to the idea of exploration.

[Arson Aardvark]

I'm confused, cause I went out on a long ass trip doing ONLY undiscovered bio scans, only came back to 200 million credits. I was CERTAIN it'd be closer to at least a billion. That was like my last effort to get to a carrier. I'm stuck at 3.4 billion and burned out from years of trying. The grind is just too much, and not rewarding enough.

[BatWingSix]

Originally posted by Arson Aardvark:

I'm confused, cause I went out on a long ass trip doing ONLY undiscovered bio scans, only came back to 200 million credits. I was CERTAIN it'd be closer to at least a billion. That was like my last effort to get to a carrier. I'm stuck at 3.4 billion and burned out from years of trying. The grind is just too much, and not rewarding enough.

If you see someone else with first footfall, you arent getting paid as much most likely because you arent the first discovery. Also it is highly reliant on the type and rarity of what you find. I scanned 3 total plants this week and made 245 mil... which is extremely good considering I was less than 1k LY from the bubble and they weren't very quality plants. Just because Exo pays well (honestly it seems broken to pay so much) doesnt mean it is just a scan a plant and buy a fleet carrier. it takes work and patience, just like any other form of income.

[♥ Beepy ♥]

Originally posted by Arson Aardvark:

I'm confused, cause I went out on a long ass trip doing ONLY undiscovered bio scans, only came back to 200 million credits. I was CERTAIN it'd be closer to at least a billion. That was like my last effort to get to a carrier. I'm stuck at 3.4 billion and burned out from years of trying. The grind is just too much, and not rewarding enough.

You can take a long trip out, but if you are unlucky with the bio samples that populate the planets you're scanning, you'll make far less than what you'd expect. On the other hand, you could get very lucky and make 500M off 2 planetary bodies that had rare samples on them.

It comes down to recognizing the rares and skipping the rest if you don't want to take the time to do them.

If it makes you any better, I funded my carrier with Robigo runs when the FC's first came out. I'd rather do Exo-bio.

[♥ Beepy ♥]

Originally posted by BatWingSix:

Just because Exo pays well (honestly it seems broken to pay so much)...

It's not broken. When they first launched ExoBio is wasn't paying hardly anything for the money vs. time spent. And since they balanced out how much your bar progresses, it's in a stable place right now.