This thread was created by Nexolek, Baroness Galaxy, Akira Masakari, LordFedora, Eisen and Myschka. If we forgot somebody or something please contact us and we will adapt it immediately.
Hello prospectors! This thread is a continuation of A Prospectors Guide to the Galaxy, which was started in early December by Erimus. He simply does not have the time to keep the OP updated in that thread, so with his and Dr. Kaii’s blessing here we are! Our intent is for this to become the home for the prospectors of the Distant Worlds fleet and to serve as an information hub for everyone. If you are a well seasoned prospector or someone who just got started, this is the place to be. I'll be keeping this post updated as much as possible and I am always welcome to suggestions.
Our Role in the Expedition
“A Prospector's role will be vital in helping to create a 'galactic highway' along the route as we will be marking resource rich worlds along it on the maps. Please check out CMDR Akira Makasari's Cartographic & Prospecting Public Service thread for more details and how you can help achieve this expedition goal.” -Erimus, taken from the main Distant Worlds thread.
As professional rock shooters, our aim is to pave a Jumponium Highway all the way to Beagle Point. Akira has done an incredible job maintaining the Public Service thread. Whatever your method of prospecting is, if you find a Jumponium rich planet please make sure to post your findings there.
The Basics
The role of the prospector is a simple, albeit time consuming one: find the planets that have the resources to help build Erimus’ grand plan for the highway through the stars. Below is all of the currently available elements with the Jumponium elements underlined.
The elements marked in blue are: Carbon (C), Iron (Fe), Nickel (Ni), Phosphorus (P) and Sulphur (S)
The elements marked in green are: Arsenic (As), Chromium (Cr), Germanium (Ge), Manganese (Mn), Selenium (Se), Vanadium (V), Zinc (Zn) and Zirconium (Zr)
The elements marked in yellow are: Cadmium (Cd), Mercury (Hg), Molybdenum (Mo), Niobium (Nb), Tin (Sn) and Tungsten (W)
The elements marked in red are: Antimony (Sb), Polonium (Po), Ruthenium (Ru), Technetium (Tc), Tellurium (Te) and Yttrium (Y)
They come in four different rarities. We also call them “leaves” (based on the in-game rarity icon) , and often abbreviate them. For example, a 1 leaf or 1L means a Very Common material or VC, while a 4 leaf or 4L means a Very Rare material or VR.
Typical lingo between prospectors becomes then “we need 2 R 1 VR” etc.
At its core, the job sounds simple. Find the 6 (see 3-2-1 rule below) unknown materials on each planet and report it in Akira’s thread if it has the materials that are on our short list of wants. That can, however, be harder than it looks. The task itself isn't challenging, merely time consuming. Depending on the planet, it might take a decent chunk of effort for the planet to expose it's final secret.
The Rock Rats SRV Driving School
Welcome Commander in your brand-new Surface Reconnaissance Vehicle. Have a seat and don’t forget to buckle up. Driving your SRV on the varying planet surfaces to get to the tasty and precious rocks can be tricky in the beginning. The most important thing to know is how to avoid major or even fatal damage to the vessel while at the same time not crawling your way to your destination. This quick-guide is intended to give some advice how to achieve that.
Choice of Terrain
For quick prospecting always choose to land your ship on one of the flattest planes visible to you on final approach. If possible always avoid to land near steep cliffs or rugged hill-/mountain ranges as they will slow you down considerably while not generally being better regarding material-gathering. Results do vary for different terrain types, but not by much. However, if you are not in a hurry, the scientists are interested in data from those terrains, too.
FA ON/OFF
Quick and safe driving is much easier if FA is toggled off, because the vehicle will only gain speed as long as you accelerate and immediately brake if you release throttle. It is much more controllable. FA-on will have you sliding here and there and very much effort has to be put into learning to steer the SRV in a decent way.
Fuel consumption: Shields / Power-Distributor / Datalink-Scanner / Weapons / Cargo Hold
Sadly your shields won’t help against blunt damage resulting from collisions or impacts to the ground. So in most cases you simply won’t need them and can shut them off to save precious fuel. The same applies for the Power-Distributor and the Datalink-Scanner (unless you come across a Nav Beacon 10000ly from civilization but this really needs to be fixed). Set 4 pips to ENG and 2 to WEP, also turn off your repeater gun and cargo hold while driving and watch your fuel consumption go down to 38%!
General Advisories
The faster you drive, the less control you will have over your SRV. Be advised about this fact, that has been known since the early 20th century. So if you want to go fast make sure, that there are no obstacles in your way. And if they are, the earlier you brake or steer around, the better. We are mostly driving on surfaces that no man has ever set foot on. There will be obstacles. Use your SRV’s boost-thrusters only to slow down an inevitable fall, as the vehicle is not or only barely steerable while in flight.
Driving Advisories for Different Terrains
One can roughly divide three different terrains: flat or slightly hilly terrain, hilly terrain and mountains/canyons/ravines. Driving on icy worlds adds slipperiness to these terrains.
Flat or slightly hilly terrain: Look for a nearby signal and then put your foot down to get to it as fast as you can. Avoid hitting the bigger rocks on your way at all costs, as they will damage your SRV heavily. Be warned that even some of the smaller rocks can toss you up in the air rendering you unable to slow down your fall with the thrusters due to a wrong orientation of the vehicle. Steer around the smaller meteorite impact craters, as your SRV will otherwise jump over the edge and crash into the other wall. Skilled drivers in a hurry can use their thrusters to “jump” over such small craters.
Hilly terrain: Even while racing on a flat plain you will eventually encounter hilly regions. It is strongly advised to reduce your speed when entering those hills. What you absolutely want to avoid is speeding up the hill just to be jolted off the summit into the air, eventually crashing into ground. Remember, while in flight your vessel is barely steerable and almost all you can do is slow the fall when correctly orientated with the thrusters. This especially applies on low-gravity planets! Drive through the vales preferably. If you need to go up a hill, accelerate only moderately and release throttle before reaching the summit. Done that way the SRV will stop on the summit leaving you in control on how you drive down the slope on the other side. When driving down a slope, always be ready to brake and never let your speed get up too fast. This is even more important, the higher the gravity of the world you are on is. Be extra careful on icy worlds.
Mountains / Canyons / Ravines: Although the spiked wheels of the SRV are quite sticky, you should only drive into those terrains, if ultimately necessary. E.g. for scientific reasons or if the only metallic meteorite within the next 100 kilometres sits on that rough mountain in front of you. Mountains are climbable and slopes descendible up to certain angles, but this is a dangerous thing to do. Eventually you may lose grip and start tumbling down. If this happens, be quick with your synthesis and repair the SRV between your thumps into the hillside. Should it happen to you to fall off a 90 degree cliff several hundred meters down, say your prayers and hope for a quick end. Drive at the slowest speeds in this terrains and always be aware of your angle of attack. An exemption are the flat surfaces of the broader canyons, that can be as easy to drive on, as flat terrain.
Repair Mats
Always have some mats for basic repairs with you for emergencies. You may need them! In all other cases use your ship to repair the SRV.
Refuel Mats
If prospecting out in the void, hundreds or thousands of light years away from a station, refuel mats are the only way to keep your SRV running. That means always keep a bit of Sulphur and Phosphorus in stock (since Metal Rich planets do not have these elements). Also know that you should prefer premium refuel mats to let your vehicle drive longer. Even the standard refuel makes a big difference so keep always a bit of Mercury, Technetium, etc around as well, you’ll really notice the difference. Also important to note is that it seems the refuelling bonus is not easily lost, for example, after you go back in your ship the bonus stays when deploying somewhere else.
Always remember, the Fuel Rats can’t save you ;)
Ammo Refill Mats
We are not sure yet if it’s worth collecting Ammo-Refill-Mats. Premium seems to save you a single shot out of 5 shots which is not a big deal but still more experimentation is needed to confirm this. In any case, if you don’t waste ammo, every refill will last for a long time.
That sums it up, Commander! Drive safely and get the most out of prospecting.
Recognizing Resource Types on Your Wave Scanner
Not all resource types are equal. Here’s a quick and useful diagram of how their lines show up on the wave scanner, courtesy of Zieman.
Metallic Meteorite: Best chance to drop VR or R. They often (but not always) come in groups of 3 in a 100m radius. Even if they give the best chance of VR or R it's not guaranteed.
Metallic Outcrop (Variant 2): Second best chance to find VR, third best chance for R.
Mesosiderite: Second best chance to find R, third best chance for VR (but it's not frequent).
Bronzite Chondrite & Common Outcrop (Variant 1): In the vast majority of cases they give only Very Common or maybe a Common. Though it might happen they pop a VR, it's VERY infrequent, and reported only few times. Of course, if you want to contribute to the scientific side, nothing should be skipped ever and everything should be inspected and reported.
Here are the actual numbers (as of January 29th, 2016):
There is also wavescanner.net, courtesy of CMDR Shellstrom. It’s a fantastic website with in game screenshots and audio to help determine what’s on your wave scanner.
Bronzite Chondrites and Outcrop 1s can be aurally identified by a clicking geiger counter sound. Mesosiderites, Metallic Meteorites and Outcrop 2s can be aurally identified by a metallic scraping sound.
Resource nodes are instanced, meaning that they will “respawn” if you leave the game or change game modes. To our knowledge switching game modes (like when trying to get good missions from the Bulletin Board, or trying to get good spawns at a RES) does not have an effect on drop rates of higher rarity materials.
The 3-2-1 Rule
Each world will spawn exactly 3 different types of Common, 2 Rare and 1 Very Rare. All world types except Metal Rich will spawn all 5 Very Commons. This “loot table” rule has consistently been confirmed by prospectors since the 2.0 beta.
There is one small deviation: some planets don’t follow the rules.
We have discovered three Metal Rich worlds that are a little odd: Mercury, Eranin 2 and Taygeta 7. Mercury and Eranin 2 are composed of 40% rock and 60% metal while Taygeta 7 is composed of 66.90% rock and 33.10% metal. They have ALL of the Very Common materials.
In every other case Metal Rich worlds do not have Carbon, Phosphorus or Sulphur (that means no SRV fuel, ALWAYS keep that in mind).
Also, Mercury has mercury. Go figure.
The Two Types of Prospectors
The Rock Rats
Usually found in groups, they have been successfully prospecting entire systems at breakneck speeds. Their approach to data is simple: does this planet have Jumponium or not. They have produced incredible results and have found numerous “green” systems, “blue” or “red” planets, or “J2” or “J3” planets.
They do this by looking for 3 Common, 2 Rare and 2 Very Rare Jumponium elements: Arsenic, Germanium, Vanadium, Cadmium, Niobium, Polonium and Yttrium. A system is green when it contains every Jumponium Material and a planet is called a J1, J2 or J3 planet when it has the elements for the Basic, Standard or Premium injection.
For the Jumponium Highway we are particularly interested in planets that contain at least 4 jump boost mats, including a Very Rare. These quadruple boost planets are called Yttrium+3, and Polonium+3, depending on the Very Rare they yield. On very rare occasions we have found Yttrium or Polonium + 4!
The Scientists
The Scientists document everything. They want to know why materials are where they are. With the help of math and “The Monster Sheet”, The Scientists take a slower and more methodical approach to prospecting. The more data the better. Everything is counted and entered into The Monster, which is where the number crunching begins.
Similar Goals
It is important to realize that although prospecting approaches may differ, we all have 2 goals in common during the Distant Worlds expedition:
Build the Jumponium Highway using Akira’s Public Service forum thread
Add findings to the monster sheet
Logging Your Findings
Trello
The Trello tool was harnessed by Jhyrryl (CMDR Jak) and is very important because it helps us coordinate our efforts. It’s not meant as a data log, but as a way to tell someone, “I’ve got this planet,” or “I need some help! This system has 17 landable planets!”
It acts like a cork board to which we can pin index cards in lists. It's a very casual, collaborative tool for managing workflow that I've used both privately and professionally. Cards can be dragged between lists, notes added, and checklists tracked. They can be claimed, pictures clipped to them, and labels attached. And there are a ton of other features that make it awesome for collaborating with team members.
Using Trello
1. Have a look at the video tutorials created by CMDR Jak!
We have rarely seen such good instructive video’s. This is high quality stuff and doesn’t take much of your time. So mandatory training right there.
2. Trello is NOT a data transfer tool
We know. We also thought “Hey lets put in structured data” and “it has JSON support” etc.
The answer is “No” and for a very good reason. You can’t (and shouldn’t) force people to apply a convention that is not even enforced by the tool itself. People will work in diverse ways. Sure, Trello has some structure like cards and checklists, but beyond that the description is a flat text area and same for the checklist items.
You need a real structure enforced to get data and that is being covered in the below sections.
3. Trello good practices
This are good tips we now learned besides the ones explained above:
If you want to start prospecting in a system, first check if someone else is already doing it (again “Prospecting” column), and make a choice if you want to join and help them, get in their wing and assign yourself as a member on that card as well
The “Prospecting” column means currently this system is being prospected so when you are not done with it but go to bed move the card back to “Not prospected”, it allows other people picking up that card and continue the prospecting for you while you are asleep
“Fully Explored” thus means fully prospected as well, and yes you could see cards that eg say 9 out of 14 in there, but this is confusing with the bullet point above, so take initiative if you see that and move it to “Not prospected”
Avoid overwriting each other’s checklist info is an obvious one, but if you don’t stick to the guidelines above, you will get this problem
Your Own Log Sheet
At the moment most prospectors are using spreadsheets to track surveys (see the Prospecting Logs section within Resources below). There is no right way or wrong to log your findings, so take a look at a few examples and find or make something that works best for you!
Please note that The Monster is not designed to be actively used as a log. It is constantly in flux and it’s much easier to log your data separately and add it all at once after. If it were a proper database that would be a different story, but as it stands a multi-user spreadsheet doesn’t handle that very well.
There are better tools coming though! An important mention here is the upcoming prospecting section of EDDiscovery that Finwen and Marlon Blake are developing. Here’s a peek at the work in progress:
It’s currently using a test database, but a link to something permanent is in the works. It would be very exciting indeed to see this database become central for logging prospecting findings. We hope to replace The Monster over time (it’s spreadsheet, not a proper database), which would allow other tools to benefit from up to date and accurate information.
Akira’s Public Service Thread
No matter how you initially log your data, it is imperative that the Jumponium rich systems are posted there. Everything is explained in detail in the thread itself. Please make sure to read his first post.
Here is an example of his format for WP 1:
47.42ly away from Shapley 1
Fine Ring Sector YP-O B6-3
M
1 A
Icy World
0.09G
1890.73ls
Cadmium Vanadium Germanium, no premium boost
Fine Ring Sector YP-O B6-3
M
1 B
Icy World
0.09G
1894.14ls
Cadmium Germanium Arsenic, no premium boost
Fine Ring Sector YP-O B6-3
M
1 C
Icy World
0.09G
1892.88ls
Niobium Cadmium Vanadium
Note: If one is entered into The Monster I will find it and post it if you haven’t already. I check often.
Oh yeah. The Monster...
LordFedora's Guide to "The Monster"
Step 1: Breathe. It's not as hard as it looks. It appears to be a lot of work to enter data, but most of the tabs are just there because we wanted to do some analysis or another and couldn't be bothered to split it into another document.
Step 2: The first real thing we're going to have to do is move onward to the Systems tab
Step 2.5: This is one of the sheets that makes up the guts of the database, We need to claim a row, so take a quick scroll to the bottom of the entered data (selecting the system column and using ctl+down to skip to the end is how i prefer to do it)
Step 2.75: Alright, now that we're here, we need to enter the data... you remembered to scan the star right? If it's a binary system (the planet is orbiting multiple stars) enter the data for the first on in the list (e.g. <System> ABC 2 -> data for star A), otherwise write down the star that the planet orbits.
Step 2.875:
Region is the pre-name to the specific system name (e.g. TRAIKAAE IP-I C9-3 -> TRAIKAAE) and the specific system name is either the full System name if it's either a named system, or one from a star catalog (HID, 2MASS, LHS, etc.)
The "System" is the star that your planet orbits (if it’s not the primary star add the star name to the end)
X, Y, Z, come from the "trilateration" of the system, use EDSM or EDDiscovery to do this (EDSM has the least scary interface, meaning that it's a web application, and EDD sends its information there after they do it)
We're part of DWE right? well in that case, put the WP that you are prospecting around, it's mostly so that your data can be forwarded to the correct people on our newly built Highway through the stars
Next we have the juicy Stellar information, Solar Masses, Solar Radius, Surface Temp, and after a few columns of generated information, we have Star age, and Luminosity (only found in the gal map, use the star letter to figure out which one on the info version of the GalMap box is the correct letter.
Step 3: That wasn't so bad was it? Alright next stop, Worlds!
Step 3.5: Again, jump to the bottom of the list and let’s get to work!
Step 3.75: Well, we scanned the world, so let’s get this row finished.
The system name is what we just finished, start typing the beginning of the name, and Google will try to autocomplete it, keep typing until you see the correct one and let it do it's magic. Alternatively you can hit the small arrow in the cell to drop down a menu and select it from there.
Body name is the section of the name that is after the System Name
Next we have some more easy data to enter, World type, Earth Masses, Radius, Gravity, Surface Temperature, and Surface Pressure (0 for now, though we can hope it will change in future versions of ED)
Orbital Period, Rotational period and Semi-Major Axis are also on the info card, though a little out of order
We take a quick break for the Albedo and CHZ calculations, then we get right back into the data entry groove with Volcanism, composition (always in the order of Rock, Metal, and Ice, followed by Reserves (outside of the bubble will always be Pristine or N/A) and Arrival Point (distance from the landing point to the system, shown from the System map on the info card)
Step 4: Next we have Surveys, I shouldn't have to hand hold this time, no picture :p
Step 4.5: Third Verse, same as the last two, run to the bottom and begin filling out the information, the useful information here, is Body name (we just did this), your name (you want credit right? though it also helps when trying to track down somebody cause they forgot to enter data... hey, it's my job...) Current date and terrain are useful, along with terrain colours and the co-ords of the landing zone, they are nice to have, and there are examples of each terrain type in later sheets. Terrain examples (with screenshots) are given in the Terrain Type Examples sheet at the far right.
Step 5: Last stop, Logs! Jump in and get to the bottom, we’ve got data to enter!
Now this step will differ depending on what kind of data you took, if you took "complete" data you can enter the source type, and the counts for each material found in that source.
If, instead you took counts, but didn't care where you got them from (e.g. you note your counts of mats, and subtract them after you find all the unknowns of the planet) mark the source as AGGREGATED and mark down your counts for that planet
Finally, if you took data not caring about the counts, only the presence of the materials, use the source type of BINARY, and write 1s to indicate that world has that material.
Step 6: Breathe again, cause you just did it, you entered a new row into the database. Congratulations, you have helped our analysis and predictions that more accurate with the inclusion of another data point! Also, have a look at some of the Materials, Records, Materials / Terrain and Analysis of worlds VR% sheets and watch your data do some magic!
Step 7: You thought you were done... You do know that there are more planets out there right? And we'll never know what's on them until you go and prospect them... well, "Data is Data", now get back out there, The Black is calling (^_^)
Notes from Nex
See? It’s not that scary. It may seem a bit intimidating at first, but once you get the hang of it it’s a piece of cake. If you have questions about anything, please ask!
Also, I will find and post Jumponium rich systems from The Monster to Akira’s Public Service thread.
Prospecting in a Wing
Experience tells us it is highly advised to not prospect alone but to look for a Wing.
The bigger the wing, the faster a planet will be fully prospected, generally.. sometimes it can still take a lot of time to find a VR, R or even C but it much more often happens that a prospecting wing leaves the planet fully surveyed within 20 minutes. The Rock Rats often did 4-man wings in Distant Worlds so far and this allows to find green systems much more easily since you can handle +20 landable systems in a couple of hours. We also have “a hunch” that it increases VR rate but again, we don’t know that for sure yet.
So the “luck factor” remains. But you’ll save yourself a lot of time and speed up the data feed a lot trust us.
How to look for a wing ? Here are a few tips…
Take a look at Trello in the WP you are at, do you see cards in the “Prospecting” column with only 1 or 2 members added to the card ? You might want to check with those commanders before picking up your own card, otherwise everyone will go solo of course ;-)
Check the Discord #prospectors chat channel
Check the Discord Prospectors voice channel
Check the Teamspeak Prospectors channel
Wing Planetfall
So you are winged up, CMDR Akira Masakari made a very good tutorial to explain you how you make sure you land close to your friends.
Now we haven’t confirmed yet if distance between wing members influences prospecting, there is no scientific data to back that up, but the general feel of the rock rats so far is that it is better to stay together and land at the same spot, but go in different directions.
The tutorial doesn’t cover what to do when your wing member already landed (which is perpendicularly pointing your nose to the beacon and aborting your glide) but that will be covered and explained in detail in the future.
Landing on High G worlds is not going to be explained because in DW we are NOT going to do that.
A Scientific Look at our Data - by John Rutherford
CAUTION - THIS MIGHT HURT YOUR BRAIN
I thought I would write a short review of what we know so far about materials. This will be based on what the spreadsheet is showing us thus far. Percentages might vary slightly as more data is added, however I tried only to draw out the facts that seem to be statistically significant so the conclusions should not change.
Sources (Metallic Meteorites: MM, Mesosiderites: Mesos, Bronzite Chondrite: BC, Outcrop type 1: O1, Outcrop type 2: O2)
Sources can be differentiated by the signal as described above.
Outcrops (both types) do not appear on Icy Worlds.
MMs tend to spawn in groups of three.
Overall, each material in an MM has a probability of about 9.5% of being a 4L. For O2, this probability is 1.3% and for Mesos it is 0.8%. Hence it is best to search for 4Ls in MM, second best in O2 and third best in Mesos.
Overall, each material in an MM has a probability of about 14.7% of being a 3L. For Mesos, this probability is 8.7% and for O2s it is 5.8%. Hence it is best to search for 3Ls in MM, second best in Mesos and third best in O2s.
World and Terrain type
Icy worlds have by far a much higher probability of having materials that are non-metals (C, P, S) and the material Se, than any other world type.
MR (metal rich) worlds are similarly best for the metals V, Fe, Ni and Zr.
On HMCs (high metal content planets) the terrain type Mountainous/Hilly have a much higher probability of spawning the materials Se, Y, Nb, Cd and is also best for P, Ge and V, more so than any other terrain type (data still pending on valley and chasm).
VR %
In this category we include 4L and 3L materials. The VR % is the fraction of materials on a planet that are either 3L or 4L materials. Note that this is not necessarily proportional to "spawn rate" but can be assumed to be correlated.
Worlds are not created equal but vary in how likely they are to produce rare elements. The average VR % for planets is 9%. The distribution of VR % for sampled planets in the spreadsheet can look like a Poisson distribution.
The VR % has little or no correlation with the variables star age, distance from arrival point (if not a binary system etc. this is the same as distance from star), and distance from Sol. These variables have the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients -0.14, -0.11 and 0.09 respectively, which are quite low.
Notes from Nex
While we have quite a bit of data, please keep in mind that there is always a margin for error. The more data we collect, the lower that margin will be. You know where I’m going with this, right? ;)
The data in John’s write up was taken on January 23rd, 2016, meaning that it has already changed. It’s nothing of consequence thus far, but always keep that in mind about The Monster. It is always changing as we continue to feed it. It is always hungry.
Hopefully you understood all of that. If you didn’t, just ask! That’s what this thread is for.
The Neural Network
By grace of CMDR LordFedora we have access to a “neural network” based on the monster sheet!
What does that mean?
It looks complex but for the normal user it’s relatively simple. You can input data about a system and a planet and as output it will give you it’s prediction of the materials likely to be found. In the future it will also be reversed, you input the materials you would like to find and it will give you as output the type of star class or planet type you should search for.
So this network has awesome potential! However, do realize we need to feed it more data to become reliable, and also be aware this it’s currently work in development by CMDR LordFedora based on the expedition’s findings.
Prospecting Resources
General
Cartographic & Prospecting Public Service - Created by Akira Masakari. The forum thread where all Jumponium Rich worlds are catalogued for the fleet.
Trello - A coordination tool that we use to ensure that we don’t prospect the same system, unless that is the intent. (Forum thread here.) Please use this :)
“The Monster Sheet” - Where The Scientists spend most of their time. Any Jumponium Rich systems found in here will be posted in Akira’s thread by me. I am also the grumpy janitor. I like to keep it tidy. “Don't scare them away Nex, we NEED more data!” - LordFedora
Distant Worlds Material Locations - A simple spreadsheet made by Nexolek that pulls data from The Monster in real time and filters out the Jumponium Rich systems. It’s designed to be easy on the eyes and is sorted by Distant Worlds waypoints.
Planetary Materials Inventory - A website designed by Alex Traut which pulls data from The Monster and is easy to sort through. Formatted for tablets.
EDDiscovery - Created by Finwen. Used for tracking your travels. The prospecting section will be populated by The Monster. Coming Soon™.
Distance Correlation of Material Presence - Created by John Rutherford. Researching the theory that planets forming in the same system might have coalesced from the same dust cloud and thus consist of similar materials. “Hold on everybody. I am unlimiting my query! Google might explode.” - John Rutherford
Distant Worlds Missing Information - A sheet created by LordFedora to find missing information in The Monster. LordFedora is the police.
The Neural Network - Created by LordFedora using data collected from The Monster. The more data we have, the better this will be.
“Btw. @LordFedora I think it’s soo cool you wrote a neural network. Now I feel we have our own AI on our side :D Also if it is able to predict the materials, wouldn't that mean that there are patterns to follow that we have not discovered yet?” - John Rutherford"
There is always a pattern, we just need more data." - LordFedora
Prospecting Logs
Nexolek’s Material Research Log - There’s a template inside. Feel free to make a copy for yourself. For Scientists. Can copy/paste Material counts directly to the Log sheet in The Monster. Please remember to use Paste Values Only when doing so. (CTRL+SHIFT+V)
Baroness Galaxy’s Prospecting Log - For collecting yes/no prospecting data with The Rock Rats. Has Trello, Public Service thread and Monster exports built in.
Care to share your own?
There Will Be Changes
I will do my best to keep this post updated with current information. As we gather more and more data we learn new things and I aim to get that information posted here as quickly as possible.
Frontier has mentioned that there are new materials coming at some point in the future. Can someone find a link please? I can't remember where I saw that for the life of me. When this happens it is entirely possible that everything will change. At least we have some excellent framework and tools to get things figured out quickly.
Please tell me if I need to make corrections to anything in this post! You have no idea how long I've stared at all of these words. I'm sure I've missed plenty of things.
Credit Where Credit Is Due
As mentioned at the top, I did not do this alone. This was a huge collaboration between myself, Baroness Galaxy, LordFedora, Akira Masakari, Eisen and Myschka. I cannot thank you all all enough!
The same goes for Erimus, Dr. Kaii, and everyone else involved with organizing Distant Worlds. The amount of time and energy spent on this expedition is astronomical. You are all heroes!
The Rock Rats
Yeah, I think you all deserve a special mention. The astounding speed that you find incredible systems and worlds allows us Scientists to take our time and collect every last bit of data without rushing. As the expedition launch was approaching I started missing things because I was in such a hurry to find Jumponium rich worlds. Now I feel like I can relax and get everything right. That is huge! Keep up the fantastic work!
Everyone Involved with The Monster
There are so many people that have contributed that this list will never be complete. Here are but a few:
Eoran: For creating the template that we turned into The Monster
Dommaarraa: For hosting the beast, being so incr
