Today we just did a micropatch containing quite a few changes to the newly added Prospecting!

Firstly, the way the Power stat on Prospecting Beams has been reworked. In the previous implementation, the power stat determined if you could extract from a node or not. If the node had a signature that was too high for your beam, you could prospect it forever and never get anything. This led to a fair bit of confusion since it was possible to scan something with a Power 20 scanner but not be able to prospect it due to only having a Power 10 or Power 15 beam. This is no longer the case. Any prospecting beam can extract from any node now. The Power stat now determines how quickly you can prospect relative to the signature of the node.

The new formula for this is Extraction Speed = Prospector Speed * Node Signature / Extraction Power (the old forumla for this was Extraction Speed = Prospector Speed).

Second. Some nodes can get a LOT of resources (I am looking at you, Copper!). This led to a lot of frankly boring waiting around at 10s a commodity until the entire node was empty. I have made some changes here as well. Prospecting Beams now speed up extraction based on how long you have been extracting a node. This speed up is also controlled by the Extraction Power stat on your prospecting beam.

Third. Prospecting Nodes previously had a hard cap on how many commodities they could store. This is now a soft cap and the longer a prospecting node sits, the more resources it will accumulate. The rate of accumulation however is relative to how full the node is using the soft cap. Fuller nodes will fill more slowly. What this means for players though is that nodes tucked away in hard to find locations will be extremely rewarding.

These are some significant changes and they all should make prospecting more enjoyable and rewarding! Feel free to discuss here!

Calypso

So i spent quite a bit of time getting Tractoring 20 for nothing, now anyone can extract the resources I was getting.

Meh, I don't play SS anymore anyways, but seeing the only real benefit of Tractoring 20 being taken away seems like a horrible decision.

1/10 for trying

I dont see what you mean Plasmite. if someone can only get for example 1 Commod A every 5 minutes and you get one every 10 seconds due to your higher tech prospecting beam how is that "for nothing"

And now you can use T20 tractors, what the hell man, I'm so jelly!

Duh!