Exploration Resources Question

[John Robinson]

Can these types of resources be found during exploration?  If not, I think it's a good idea.

It seems possible that these items could be found in ship crash sites, or hidden stashes. 

I'm not the best explorer but haven't found any of these so far.  They would be far easier to sell
than Terrox Xeno Artifacts which are plentiful.
 
For moral, and difficulty reasons, I don't try to sell Xeno artifacts they stay untouched in planetary caches.
In early game stages finding frozen rations, or metals is ok, but you still make more money running missions.

Very soon the sell value is not worth the risk to ship and crew,  compared to trade goods such as power generators.
Being able to find the goods listed below would mitigate the risk and make exploring more fun.

Type	Legality	Permit
Kaffange Royal Jelly	7	2: Free Trader
Pruvia Blooms	8	2: Free Trader
Cadavost Plating	6	3: Full Trader
Kloxian Medical Bays	7	3: Full Trader
Iridlaentine	10	2: Free Trader

[fallen]

This article lists all resource types, legality and permit requirements:
startraders.gamepedia.com/Resource_Types

Rare Trade Goods article points out that only Terrox Artifacts can be found by Exploring -
startraders.gamepedia.com/Rare%20Trade%20Goods

We've talked about making some of the other Rares available via Exploring, but it would only be the natural ones -- royal jelly, blooms, locusts.

Finding a working trade route for Artifacts is a big part of an explorer's gig. I'd consult with contributor, he was posting sales of $350K+ yesterday of his artifact caches!

[contributor]

I feel like going 100% explorer has to wait until a bit later in the game, especially the Terrox Artifacts bit. Probably the one exception to that is if you can locate a 2 trade law world, preferably Independent. Otherwise you're going to have to spend some time building your networks before you can go hog-wild. Getting a way to get records can be very helpful too. You can pump intel into smuggler contacts and quickly get them up to top-level market access. Smuggler Princes are more challenging because you have to do missions for them to get enough rep to get high enough access. So the things you want to look for are:

Smuggler (Prince) contacts on Lux Pop and HTI planets though I got the same prices on Orbitals too.
Someone who recruits Spys. = Get 2-3 of those, maybe making an officer one.
Someone who recruits Smugglers = Get 2 of those plus make an officer one.
Someone who recruits Exo-Scouts = Get 3 of those plus an officer.
Have some E-Techs too for the Electronics and Finding Contacts.
Eventually you want one of those ship things that increases rewards. I think with those you could even make a go of exploring without artifacts.

Once you've got a lot of those and you've got some Navs with Skip off the void you should be pretty good.
Use your smugglers to help you access Black Markets by switching out access cards.
Get your exo-scouts the skill that upgrades too an Artifact card.
Get spies the Auto-Intel talent.

For strategy, keep moving. When you're building up, spy and patrol at every planet you stop at, unless the odds are unfavorable. Same for exploring. With a good enough stack of cards you should almost never have to fight, or if you do it will just be scavengers, which is kind of fun. If you get double xeno cards, or even pirate cards, move on. If you can find a quad with 4-6 wild zones you should be able to fill up a hold of 80 artifacts in less than a year. Just explore till you need to take a break. Leave the artifacts and take the most valuable loot you found and sell it and move to another zone. When you think you've got pretty good stashes, go collect them all and dump them the Black Market's you've got set up by now.

When trying to access a Black Market, if you get a Confiscate card that you cant get rid of, leave. Go stash your artifacts in the nearest Wild Zone and come back and get past that hand of BM access. You'll probably get the Access card, but you really can't risk it when you're sitting on 80 artifacts. Look at the next hand, if you can get rid of all the Confiscate cards, go back and get your artifacts and try again. Crazy thing is you can make 350k (with Bootleg Profits) without leaving one Quadrant. And if you're careful you can do it without ever fighting any Xeno. I think I sold 5 loads of 80 artifacts without fighting any.

To be honest, I'm not sure all of this is more efficient than just getting some good trade permits and trading regular goods, but it is fun. Once you get it set up, you will rake in massive amounts of cash quickly. You'll want to have multiple BMs to sell into, because demand will take some time to bounce back.

[contributor]

I do like the idea of having some more rare goods able to be found through exploring though. Maybe they should be really rare, even rarer than Xeno Artifacts. Another option would be specialized ship upgrades that would allow you to harvest them, maybe even just one of them. Make it expensive so that the player really has to specialize. It would also make sense if they could only be found in the same quads they can be purchased in.

[fallen]

contributor - yeah, everyone agrees -- future feature for sure

As you point out, they would be limited only to the quadrant where they can be bought.

More specialized equipment will be fun.

[contributor]

For the Kongon Locusts I envision a giant glowing bulb that rises from the top of your ship surrounded by an electrified mesh. The light will draw in the Locusts (how big are they by the way? Small horses?), the mesh will zap them and the crew will load them into the bay.

[fallen]

Watch out, I hear cats also get stuck in this kind of thing. slayernz can confirm, I am sure.

[contributor]

This is the kind of world that can make artifact trading worthwhile in the early game. Look for it in Martyr's Run on the default map, where there are also 6 wilderness zones.

[fallen]

Bazigna! WOW that is the place

Really nice to be able to point it out in a map and quad for other players.

[contributor]

What a name too! The promised land indeed...

[John Robinson]

Nov 3, 2017 14:41:12 GMT -5 contributor said:

This is the kind of world that can make artifact trading worthwhile in the early game. Look for it in Martyr's Run on the default map, where there are also 6 wilderness zones.

Great Example! I've never seen such a rare gem. Thanks