Ground missions and unexplored planet

[LionRed]

Hi Cmdrs,

Was accepting a mission to deliver some goods to a planetary station, I check the galaxy map and found no available data for the destination system. Not a problem, as you certainly know outposts and stations are always displayed in system map once in system. I do the jump and I don't see anything in system map except the central star and an outpost, but I need to find a planetary station. I don't have any discovery scanner on board (I am a trader, not an explorer), I dock at the outpost to buy one, do a scan an finally found my planetary station, I can finish my mission.

Before horizon, I never used discovery scanner to do trading as I can always find stations and outposts no matter the system was explored or not. But now I am afraid that I must always have a discovery scanner on board and loose some cargo space. Is there another way to find planetary station on unexplored planet ? Why cannot we always buy cartographic data for destination system ?

Another question : why there is still systems with no available data (and no option to buy data) in middle of "well know" system ? What is the criteria to determine a "well know" system that cannot be explored anymore by any commanders ?

[Xebeth]

I believe that the systems that you can buy data for were all pre-loaded at the beginning when the game launched. I think there are three classifications. 1) Data you have when you got your first ship, 2) Data you can buy, 3) No data until you 'discover' it.

As far as I know, this doesn't change, so any systems that were in class 3) when the game launched stay that way. Players selling data doesn't add to the data that is available to sell, if it did then new players would have less and less to discover as the game goes on.

[LionRed]

As far as I know, this doesn't change, so any systems that were in class 3) when the game launched stay that way. Players selling data doesn't add to the data that is available to sell, if it did then new players would have less and less to discover as the game goes on.

You're certainly right. Good for new player perspective but not very realistic.

At least, when you accept a mission to an 'unexplored' planetary station, you should be able to buy data for that system. The faction who give you a contract to delivers stuff to a ground station should at least know where is this station. And that not very logical that you can always see orbital station event if planet is not 'explored' but not ground station. I understand the gameplay point of view to let player 'explore' planet but still not logical.

[TorTorden]

I think you should be able to buy other peoples data, but keep in mind, space isn't stationary, so maps might as well be printed on toilet paper, if it's more than a couple of days old, forget about it.