Need help with exploration

[Nikratio]

Hi,

How do you guys manage exploration later in the game?

I thought that if I just set a couple of exploration ships to automatic, they'd keep exploring until everything is known. However, that doesn't seem to be the case. After doing a decent chunk of exploring, my automated explorers have stopped getting any missions assigned. Yet when I did a map swap with another empire, I suddenly had another potential colony available. Why wasn't that planet found by my explorers (my map is sufficiently small so that the explorer can reach everything without running out of fuel)?

On the other hand, I don't see how I can possibly manage exploration manually. How do you keep track what you've explored and what not?

[zoommooz11]

ORIGINAL: Nikratio

Hi,

How do you guys manage exploration later in the game?

I thought that if I just set a couple of exploration ships to automatic, they'd keep exploring until everything is known. However, that doesn't seem to be the case. After doing a decent chunk of exploring, my automated explorers have stopped getting any missions assigned. Yet when I did a map swap with another empire, I suddenly had another potential colony available. Why wasn't that planet found by my explorers (my map is sufficiently small so that the explorer can reach everything without running out of fuel)?

On the other hand, I don't see how I can possibly manage exploration manually. How do you keep track what you've explored and what not?

The auto explorers are limited by their range. If, you had one explorer with unlimited petrol, then eventually, it would explore the whole galaxy. As to manual exploration, if the system has a name to it, then this means you have been there before.

[Blackanvil]

Unless you did a redesign to add more fuel they have a 5-6 sector range. Automated ships will not explore beyond the point they can get back to a fuel point, default approx. 3 sectors. Manual orders should ignore this. I usually play on a 8x8 map and redesign my explorers to have a minimum of a 10 sector range which unless I start in the corner gets most of the map done for me. I manually control the early game to ensure all the close systems get explored and once my home sector and all the neighboring ones are done I switch to auto till the entire map is done.

[Jeeves]

A little hint on exploration : go to meet any pirate gang you haven't met. This will get you faster contact with other empires. Buy their galaxy maps after giving them 4100 cash five times per diplomacy session until they reach happy +5 or 6 with you. If the galaxy map is expensive, give until they reach +24 to 48 or so. That way you improved your relations and got their galaxy map. Then you can sell the galaxy map if you desperately need cash to buy tech. Early in the game you might do this, but it is better to wait until you have improved relations to the point where racial tech empires will sell you their tech. Sell your galaxy map to get their racials, and buy other techs you need from allies of the races you bought racials from, otherwise they get it for free the next day anyway...

If there are a lot of empires in your game (my current game has 1 of every race in beyond universe extended) then you should have the galaxy fully explored in the third year with just the explorers given to you at the start of the game - I had 28...

Lonnie Courtney Clay

[Spidey]

Personally, I just build a good number of scout ships and assign each of them to explore a sector once I've manually gone through the closest systems. Life's too short to micro what they do and I'll be damned if I'm giving pirates more money to buy ships that I'll eventually have to kill anyway, so using diplomacy to make them do my exploring for me isn't really an option either. Thus sector-based auto-explore. This also has the advantage over plain auto-mode that since I'm forcing ships into different areas, they won't end up tailing each other. Few things give you an urge to strangle someone as watching three explorers tail each other around because they're using the same damn algorithm for exploration while being entirely oblivious to the other ships being present.

[Jeeves]

The only thing you ever buy from pirates for exploration is empire contact. In case you haven't noticed, if you go into the message log (far upper right button) and click on the message sent by the pirate gang, then select goto, you will have a precise coordinate to go to with an explorer. I doubt that this is intended and it will probably be disabled now that I have mentioned the exploit LOL LOL LOL...


Lonnie Courtney Clay

[ehsumrell1]

ORIGINAL: Jeeves

The only thing you ever buy from pirates for exploration is empire contact. In case you haven't noticed, if you go into the message log (far upper right button) and click on the message sent by the pirate gang, then select goto, you will have a precise coordinate to go to with an explorer. I doubt that this is intended and it will probably be disabled now that I have mentioned the exploit LOL LOL LOL...


Lonnie Courtney Clay

Wow Lonnie! THAT'S how DATA has been finding the coordinates to the scattered Vintage Romulan Ale caches!

[johanwanderer]

ORIGINAL: Jeeves

The only thing you ever buy from pirates for exploration is empire contact. In case you haven't noticed, if you go into the message log (far upper right button) and click on the message sent by the pirate gang, then select goto, you will have a precise coordinate to go to with an explorer. I doubt that this is intended and it will probably be disabled now that I have mentioned the exploit LOL LOL LOL...


Lonnie Courtney Clay

Life as a pirate is really hard, so please don't listen to what Jeeves said, and just spend as much money as you can to buy all the stuff!

All kiddings aside, I rarely ever buy anything from pirates. Instead, I just build 10-15 explorers and set them to automatic. You'll get the whole map explored eventually.