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?

[Vex]

A bit strange that the main "reward/incitament" for exobiology is money. I think there should be other "rewards" and goals as well. Just doing it for the money seems a bit boring. Maybe a scientific, societal or political goal/purpose, or something like that, could be added as well?

[jimbalayajones]

I am rather enjoying Exobiology...It is quite the challenge to find things at times...Sometimes you just have to walk along the flat areas and ping with your sampler because the bacteria colonies so closely match the color of the terrain...The only give is the pattern and I even found one species where the pattern was almost invisible...It is rather fun...Frutexa and Fungoida can be quite challenging to get to in the high mountain areas...I am pretty much only hitting the bodies where I can get a first footfall bonus, but they are rather easy to find...I have not run into any new systems yet but I am only 2500 light years out so far...I will find them eventually...I have found that Stratum and Bacterium have always been on the same flats so far for me and the Stratum is easy to see...I just hop with my DBX because I am thoroughly tired of driving my SRV from the days of harder material gathering...I did some of the planets from the 'billionaires boulevard' or whatever about a year ago and I found it rather boring...But the getting out and being the first to find the little buggers is really kind of fun...I even know how to use my FSS now which I really never utilized before...Definitely invest in a DSS with an Expanded Probe Scanning Radius mod...You will hit your efficiency bonus every time...Exobiology is fun...I was wrong...You may now throw the cheese slices at my forehead... :)

[funkynutz]

Vex původně napsal:

A bit strange that the main "reward/incitament" for exobiology is money. I think there should be other "rewards" and goals as well. Just doing it for the money seems a bit boring. Maybe a scientific, societal or political goal/purpose, or something like that, could be added as well?

It's not just Fortune... It's Fame (lol) and Fortune.

You can also get a ton of raw materials while doing it... Usually low grade stuff, but not always... Find a planet with lots of bio and geo signals, with high concentrations of higher grade materials... And you won't need to go looking for raws again for a while.

You also get to plaster your name all over the galaxy (if you care about that sort of thing). I think you get mentioned when your discoveries get added to the Codex as well...

[Senyaak]

HaemoGobliN původně napsal:

I just reinstalled after a 6 year break

Exobiology? RELEASE DATE: 19 May, 2021 => 2024 - 2021 = 3 years :D
dude :D

[Sighman]

Vex původně napsal:

A bit strange that the main "reward/incitament" for exobiology is money. I think there should be other "rewards" and goals as well. Just doing it for the money seems a bit boring. Maybe a scientific, societal or political goal/purpose, or something like that, could be added as well?

As you rank up in Exo you get new cosmetics for the Artemis suit (blue, green, red.) The Elite rank suit is all red.

A small thing, but there's no other way to get those pieces.

[HaemoGobliN]

Senyaak původně napsal:

HaemoGobliN původně napsal:

I just reinstalled after a 6 year break

Exobiology? RELEASE DATE: 19 May, 2021 => 2024 - 2021 = 3 years :D
dude :D

Elite Dangerous? RELEASE DATE: 16 December 2014, Last played: 17 May 2018

Some people.

Thanks for the tips and advice all, I do appreciate it. Personally my motivations are purely to get elite in all ranks but i'd be lying if I said I wasn't going to make use of the customisation stuff haha.

[Dwolite]

Don't give up. You just have to figure out how to actually find the alien critters. Once you find them, you need to scan 3 that are relatively far away (1km or so). Then you turn them in and earn a significant amount of credits. Frankly though, it is my least favorite thing to do as it just kind of boring really.

[stephen dedalus]

I just wish they didn't have the "3 consecutive samples" rule and that there would be at least a way to, say, upgrade your sampler so as to have memory banks for more plant types. Sometimes you land in spots with lots of different species and to have to criss-cross and backtrack just to keep them consecutive is a chore.

[Jeebs]

stephen dedalus původně napsal:

I just wish they didn't have the "3 consecutive samples" rule and that there would be at least a way to, say, upgrade your sampler so as to have memory banks for more plant types. Sometimes you land in spots with lots of different species and to have to criss-cross and backtrack just to keep them consecutive is a chore.

Personally, I think they should rework the suits and tools completely. Make them more like ships, in the sense that some are better suited for a specific role like combat while some are multi-role, but you can still build any of them for whatever purpose you want (even if they're ill-suited for the task). That would allow greater versatility in how you approach ground content.

Divorce the tools from the suits completely (except for the charger) and make them a thing that you can equip to any suit. So for example, you could ditch the profile scanner on your Artemis suit and equip a second bio-sampler which would allow you to collect samples from a second plant type.

Of course, this means you would also have to buy the tools separate from the suits, but that would pretty much be necessary if you ever wanted to be able to engineer/modify them. Still, I'm surprised that they didn't set it up this way to begin with. It would have been more in line with the ship stuff, in terms of outfitting.

They could also add new suits to the mix with different stats to add some variety. A combat suit that only has one primary weapon slot but stronger shields/armour than the Dominator, for example.

[merolodon]

its better to do it in uncharted systems, because it gives 5 times more money. i had almost a billion from 1 system

[stephen dedalus]

Jeebs původně napsal:

Divorce the tools from the suits completely (except for the charger) and make them a thing that you can equip to any suit. So for example, you could ditch the profile scanner on your Artemis suit and equip a second bio-sampler which would allow you to collect samples from a second plant type.

I'd second that.

[Kehre]

Go out into the void, land on planets that nobody has been to. In order to make good money, you have to be willing to go out far and spend time out there. Don't expect to be a billionare after one day scanning, take a whole month just going around in the void scanning everything you can find, then the reward will be worth it.

[Lurch]

I don't bother with anything which doesn't give me the 'First Footfall' bonus. Generally go for Stratum which have a scan value of C19.01 Mill per 3 scans. With FF bonus that gives you scan values of circa C95 Mil. Currently out in the Boondocks somewhere between Colonia and the Bubble getting around 1 Billion per sitting. Always look for the 'cyan' colour and overlaps from the DSS scan where available.

The Mandy with the SCO drive is a godsend when the scanned planets are on the C or D stars!

HTH and enjoy.

[funkynutz]

I found a planet on Sunday, first footfall had already been claimed by someone else. So I wasn't expecting much from the 5 bio samples there anyway... Highest value sample was 4.5mil.

Got the first discovery bonus on every single sample except the bacteria... Easy 50 mil. Paid for a couple of weeks upkeep

[Lurch]

It's often good to remember that 'first footfall' as a discovery doesn't mean that the Bio scans have been handed in. If you are the 'first' to scan then you get the FF bonus even if someone has landed on the planet before you.

Useful if you want to scan around a bit nearer to the bubble.