Any tips for Exploration CXP?

caliban149

I am now T3 in all departments except Exploration which languishes on T2.
I'm pushing up to T4 in Diplo, but would like to get everything else up to T3 before focusing on them one at a time. . . Engineering has already got T4 without me even really trying and Trade isn't far behind!

I am finding exploration much harder to Doff up than all the others however.
It only seems to have one decent reward mission the "Explore Ruins in Sector X" 20hr one.
All the others hardly seem worth the effort for the time.

Also ALL exploration missions seem to require at least one Research Lab Scientist to begin. . . at the mo I only have three (although I will focus on acquiring more) so progress is limited. I don't recall running into such as single specialty brick wall in any of the other departments. . .

mikewendell

We had a walkthrough covering this but we can't find it anymore.....

edit: I never had any issues with Exploration. You do know that those are listed under Department Head -> Science Officer -> Assignments button, right? I'm currently showing 4 just sitting here on ESD.

Oh and you can buy more doffs off of the exchange. I don;t recall the Research Lab one were that expensive.

My problem area was Recruitment.

cusashorn

My only advice is to keep lots of inventory space for the mass amounts of tradeskill materials the good majority of all exploration assignments give.

levi3

mikewendell wrote: »

We had a walkthrough covering this but we can't find it anymore.....

edit: I never had any issues with Exploration. You do know that those are listed under Department Head -> Science Officer -> Assignments button, right? I'm currently showing 4 just sitting here on ESD.

Oh and you can buy more doffs off of the exchange. I don;t recall the Research Lab one were that expensive.

My problem area was Recruitment.

The Forum poster that told me about that tab was a lifesaver - or time saver!!

Recruitment before say 6 weeks ago was a nightmare to get - I think it's still the hardest?

mikewendell

Was for me.

Oh and don't use inventory space for the commodities. Use bank space. It;s cheaper and you can still access it when you need it. Save inventory space for the stuff that you actually use.

caliban149

Yeah I know about the DH's, the day I learnt about them and stopped running round my ship was an in-game eureka moment (and fortunately occurred before I started serious Doffing!)

Its just that all the Exploration mission except the one I mentioned seemed to be along the lines of 6-8hrs for 60-80 CXP. Not a good pay off for the time. I like 20hrs for 300+

I don't anticipate recruitment being a problem, Asylums give a good amount, Officer exchanges give some I think (do lots of these anyway) and there are several varieties of "ditch 5 colonists" missions that give 400 Odd recruitment CXP for 20hrs.

tenkari

freuent the exploration clusters? I think they have more of the exploration/colonial/development missions than other areas.

diogene0

the 30 to 45 minutes scanning assignments from your department head while you're playing, and the 20h ennemy recover artifact (from omega leonis if you're fed and sirius if you're kdf) for the time you don't play. A crit on the last one gives you 5k exploration cxp.

mirai222

Folks, I don't think you're getting the OP's message. We have short duration mission for low CXP, or longer missions that all require research lab scientists. We need a bit more variety for the longer missions here.

On the bright side, I've seen much better variety with the Science missions. My captains are all lagging on Exploration progress though.

caliban149

mirai222 wrote: »

Folks, I don't think you're getting the OP's message. We have short duration mission for low CXP, or longer missions that all require research lab scientists. We need a bit more variety for the longer missions here.

Indeed, and its not just the one decent longer one that need the Research Lab Scientists, even the crappy low reward ones do too from what I can see.

For all the other departments I have found at least 3 or 4 missions that give a good CXP:input ratio. For exploration there appears to be only one.

thepantsparty

Buy research lab scientists from ferra/the exchange, and only send 1 per assignment along with 2 other good-traited doffs. There are a couple of support doffs (hromi and zenas) you can stock up on that are in the right category and have the traits for the assignments, which will allow you to stretch your available research lab scientists further to get more assignments going at the same time.

One of the data sample analysis assignments (I forget if it was tech, energy, or phsyical) gives explo cxp and doesn't need research lab scientists.

skurf

On the Fed side it's not too bad since the "ruins/artifacts" missions are plentiful and give decent XP. It's actually one of the first categories I maxed to 150k because I'm trying to farm the strange artifacts, which btw is not going so well.

On the KDF side it's an entirely different matter. Those 20 hour "ruins/artifacts" missions are practically non-existent and most of the times show up under Marauding instead of Exploration. I'm still tier 1 on my KDF character because I just don't want to waste a slot on an assignment that has little-to-no rewards and very little XP.

bluegeek

I'll agree here, the Exploration assignments are wanting.

There are no "Gold" assignments with higher rewards like there are in some of the other categories. The 6-8 hr research assignments have ridiculously high failure rates for less-than-average CXP returns. The data sample assignments are their own reward, true, but CXP gains are dismally low. There are no Exploration assignment chains that I know of.

None of my alts have reached Tier 3 in Exploration, three of them are barely into Tier 2. I may never see T-4 at this rate.

We can't all do "Tour The Galaxy" events. I hear that's the best way to gain Exploration CXP, but I feel like I have better things to do in-game.

blackjackwidow

bluegeek wrote: »

<snipped>...
We can't all do "Tour The Galaxy" events. I hear that's the best way to gain Exploration CXP, but I feel like I have better things to do in-game.

This was going to be my suggestion - even if you only do one run-through, the Tour the Universe is a great way to get EC, Trade XP, and Exploration XP (50 Exploration XP for every sector block plus another 50 for finishing the tour). If you don't want to do a full hour and try to get 3-4 runs in, 15-20 minutes doing it one time will give you 400 XP, which is a better return than any of the 30 minute missions.

I am tier 4 in everything but exploration; I find it difficult due to the 30 minute grinds for little XP, or tying up the doffs for 20 hours. I quickly run out of Research Scientists as well.

<edit>There is a common mission in GQ space, "Procure Shapeshifting Lockets for Experimental Study" which takes 9 SS Lockets, 1 Dev Lab/Research Lab Sci, 2 Any Officer, runs 6 hours and gives 209 Exploration XP, with no other rewards.

Good one to start right before you log out, your choice is whether it is worth it to you to use 9 shapeshifting lockets to get the 209 Exploration XP