The Deep-Space Rookie's Log (Part 1) - Finding Life on Other Planets the Easy Way (or, how I learned to stop worrying and love the free-cam)
02 Oct 2022Malle Yeno
Greetings Commanders (or whatever lifeforms are listening on this beacon -- now that I know there is life beyond the Bubble),It has not been terribly long since I set out on Expedition. One last visit to Colonia to make friends with a couple of engineers and to try my luck on my FSD upgrades, and now I am ready to set off for the Galactic Centre. But even on this trip to Bubble 2: Electric Boogaloo, I learned a lot about the Tricks of the Tradetm when it comes to deep space exploration. And I thought "why not? My name attached to some icy rocks isn't all that I want to leave behind while I traverse space. Maybe one day, someone will find this beacon and hear me explaining something I learned."
It had not occurred to me that anyone who would stumble upon this log so far out in the Black would already be somewhat experienced. But who knows, maybe there are people as clueless as me out here. And if you're one of them and you're reading this, remember to buy your repair limpets.
While I was hopping around, I discovered plenty of slime, goop, and discoloured soil that my suit swore up and down to me was actually alive. I didn't believe it until I convinced a mark in Vista Genomics to pay me for information about these things. (What rubes!)
In some ways though, I might be the rube. Because boy, did it take a lot of walking to collect samples on these things. And the worst part was, some of it didn't pay dirt! 50,000 credits doesn't even pay for the repairs I need from my parking job.
That's when I realized that to make this scam even more effective, I needed to industrialize it. And my friendly neighbourhood Free Camera was there to help!
- In your ship's settings, set up a bind to Camera Suite (my ship had it on F4 for the ship's keyboard). Then, set up another one for Free Camera (I used `, which is to the left of 1)
- When you're out exploring for gross-looking moulds, after you walk a bit, use the camera and send it up real high. There's a limit, but it lets you see for hundreds of metres around you. No more having to drive (you better be using an SRV for this!) around having to find your next sample!
I also realized later on that there were optional firmwares you can put onto your Artemis suit. One of them is called "Elite Observatory - Bioinsights Plugin", which I had to download and install from this link.
Once I set my suit up with this, not only did it inform me about which lifeforms were most likely to appear on a scanned planet, it actually pinged me whenever I was far enough from a sample I had taken to take another one! This one was a headache saver, so if you still have a Galnet connection when you scan this beacon, be sure to install this plugin!
Alright, time to get moving. Black holes don't find themselves, ya know! (In fact, that may be the point of them.)
Commander Malle, out.