Found 2 restricted areas on a planet but whats the point?

[Unite]

I was out practicing my SRV skills by searching for arsenic for my engineering when I stumbled across 2 interesting but ultimately pointless things.

The first looked like a broken canister. It was protected by 3 drone things and was in a restricted area denoted by a red box on the scanner. I thought this would be a nice break to the grind so I go into my turret and pew pew'd the drones only to find naff all around the broken canister. I thought there would be at least something to scan or pickup but no. BTW the area did not appear on the navigation list and I don't think so on the contacts list either.

So disappoint in that and in my lack of arsenic I called the small rouge one down again and headed off to another spot on the same planet. Oh and before you ask yes the planet does contain arsenic even if only 2.5%.

I landed beside some mountains this time (last time was at a crater) and low and behold I found my arsenic (3 of them in total so 9 bits and enough for now) but I also discovered another high pitched signal on the scanner so headed off to find a mining operation. Like last time this was in a restricted area denoted by a red box on the scanner and was protected by 2 drones and 2 guns. I thought this one looked a bit more interested so attacked and successfully got myself a few fines and a wanted poster but what bounty did I get. Well a few minerals worth maybe 20k total. In other words a complete waste of time.

OH and I went back to the station but I had no fines to pay in the contacts page? I'll get someone to scan me later to see if I'm wanted but I assume not?

So back to the title of this thread, whats the point? What exactly is the point of these mini games? Yes it is a welcome break to the endless driving and scanning and shooting rocks but surely for those that decide the take on the challange there should be some in game reward be that data to scan or rare materials to collect? I honestly thought the mining operation would of yield a load of materials and not a few items of worthless cargo.

[TorTorden]

Point?
There isn't one, to this game or honestly life itself.
Personally I derive great pleasure from frivillous activities. Particularly the latter.

Most likely the skimmers where wanted so you get a bounty to cash in instead of a wanted mark.
For reasons the game spawns the canister slightly above ground.

So if the ground isn't perfectly level they tend to roll off a bit and the srv has a miniscule range on the contacts list.
You can often find some decent stuff, like gold, taffeite and platinum.
The wave scanner will help in dousing you towards the actual cans.

On my second account I got into the cobra by simply hopping into the srv and scout around the spawn base for poi's for a few hours.
Didn't even leave the planet.

As for arsenic it's not just about the percentage rate of the element itself but also the make up of the planet. If a planet is 90% rocky 10% metallic those 2.5% is of the remaining 10% and not the whole enchilada.

[rxay579]

My immersion tells me that when I come across one of those skimmer sites, it is some other mission that I'm not personally on. It makes sense for them to be out there (randomly) if there are some times when it does matter. I totally agree that the canisters are very rarely economically viable to pick up.

As for the materials, are you dropping into Points of Interest (blue circle on the planet radar seen at ~2-3km altitude)? Points of interest are supposed to be hotspots for more random surface encounters (including materials).
I visited a planet with a Detailed Surface Scanner and had a field day finding a lot (when I landed, three good outcrops were within sensor range of the SRV and plenty more were nearby) of good materials in one of the Geological Features that showed up after probing the planet. The others on the same planet weren't as good as the first, though, so there appears to be some variety in those as well.

As for the bounty, I'd check with an Interstellar Factor as the fine/bounty you gained would have been with the faction that operates the skimmers and if that faction wasn't present in the station you stopped in, it may not show up. With the new-ish C&P mechanics, if it's a bounty, you might have to visit an Interstellar Factor to pay it anyway.