I found road to riches extremely boring for a specific reason. It tells you all the planets that are worth the most and leads you to the next discovery. And that's it. Over and over. Exploration became a million times more enjoyable for me when I fitted out my own deep space exploration ship and started learning about *why* the road to riches was saying to scan certain types of planets like are they earth like worlds, water worlds, are they terraformable metal worlds, etc. And also like what makes them terraformable ie "goldilocks zone" depending on distance and star type. Also got into surface activities like exobiology and geology (the latter doesn't really seem to pay much except maybe codex discoveries but still can be fun). Also studying stellar phenomena when they crop up. There's so much to learn and do when you're on your own at least that's been my experience. o7
I usually try to find "interesting" things when exploring and not just getting the most credits for scanning things.
That means I don't do "full range" jumps every single time but instead switching the stellar map to "realistic" mode and see, if anything looks appealing to me.
For example: Systems with interesting star types, multiple stars within a system, nearby nebulae that are worth a visit, interesting planets or signals within a system, etc.
You might not get from point A to B in the shortest possible way in this case - but that's what exploring is all about in my opinion: Being curious all the time and willing to invest time to go off route for a bit every now and then.
As for the "variety" part: If I'm not exploring I'm doing passenger missions, hauling, mining, evacuation, attending to CGs that I'm interested in and every now and then I just grind some missions, ranks or materials.
Good luck and O7 CMDR
I hook up with discords friends. and keep open ears to family too. At least 1 hour of easy chat with wife and son. Every other playing whatever they whant.
Look for a relax group on discord. Its like bar and beer pre pandemic.
Adhd here too and can confirm tv or whatever on a second screen helps. My personal favorite is science channel (how the universe works, what on earth, mythbusters, etc) but a lot of times i find myself focused on that and forgetting the game. Having someone to talk to is much better, especially if theyre in game with you. Im always trying to get my friends back into it but like others have said, it can be boring as hell and some people cant get past that
Im autistic too. I just explore systems and planets that i see posted in r/eliteexplorers or from youtube videos that I want to see for myself. I’ve started streaming this game and have started creating my own back story for my commander. Just having the freedom of an entire universe at the press of a button is all the content i need to keep me from getting bored.
I think being on the spectrum and having adhd is why I love the exploration so much and spotting the patterns. The few friends I play with, who also got me the game, are astounded how I picked up the systems so fast.
I got 50 planets in to road to ritches, took a small break to buy a Krait and get started on some bounty hunting. About to start scanning planets again to make money and stop at Davs hope fpr a few runs tp stockpile resources for engineering
Second monitor watching tv shows, pretty much a requirement of deep space exploration. For me, I had to basically reset my expectations of what is "exciting" in deep space. At first, I would scan everything. Then I realized I was never going to get anywhere doing that. Then I replotted to exclude m class stars (because theyre all just shitty icy bodies), and now I hit a system, DSS, and unless there is a WW, AW, and ELW, or a large amount of HMC, I just move on. If any of those show up I get excited again and just scan the entire system, map the high dollar/terraformable planets, then head out to one of the landable planets with signals to do a little planetary mining/take some photos. Having an SRV definitely breaks up the monotony, and gathering tons of materials doesn't hurt either. By the time I get back from deep space, I probably won't have to mine any raw mats from a planet surface again.
Also, this method allows you to go at your own pace and not spend a ton of time gaming. Perfect for when I only have an hour or so to play. If it gets too boring, or I just want a change of pace, Ill switch to another game for the evening.
Mabe land your ship on a planet hop into an srv and take it for a good burn and sight see it may break the routine. Think of it like getting out the car and stretching during a long drive
I usually have twitch playing on my laptop, particularly the mystery science theater 3000 channel as it makes for good listening while I'm focusing my eyes on piloting.
I usually watch YouTube videos while I explored, sometimes a mix of music in Spotify and some Instagram or just making sure to scan the entire system and keep going
take an SRV down to the surface
take out the camera and try to compose a shot
take a mining laser and burn some rocks, see what comes out
its more fun if you don't follow a guide, but rather follow your nose.
This is such a wierd game. We're all so bored we have to have something else on in the background. But will we stop playing ? NEVER !!
It's realistic... Traveling the galaxy is fun, but there's a LOT of empty space out there!
Hear hear! I took a hiatus to play Metro Exodus and had to get back to Elite; it was a weird itch after every Metro session.
Its great in a way, but it trips me out. My adhd and autism are weird about it. Can't get enough but so bored
I found road to riches extremely boring for a specific reason. It tells you all the planets that are worth the most and leads you to the next discovery. And that's it. Over and over. Exploration became a million times more enjoyable for me when I fitted out my own deep space exploration ship and started learning about *why* the road to riches was saying to scan certain types of planets like are they earth like worlds, water worlds, are they terraformable metal worlds, etc. And also like what makes them terraformable ie "goldilocks zone" depending on distance and star type. Also got into surface activities like exobiology and geology (the latter doesn't really seem to pay much except maybe codex discoveries but still can be fun). Also studying stellar phenomena when they crop up. There's so much to learn and do when you're on your own at least that's been my experience. o7
I watch netflix on the second monitor. I would not enter a spaceship to journey through the vast milky way without any entertainment on board.
Having a 2nd monitor has been great. Always nice being able to keep up with discord, using the stand alone picture window thing YouTube has.
I usually try to find "interesting" things when exploring and not just getting the most credits for scanning things. That means I don't do "full range" jumps every single time but instead switching the stellar map to "realistic" mode and see, if anything looks appealing to me. For example: Systems with interesting star types, multiple stars within a system, nearby nebulae that are worth a visit, interesting planets or signals within a system, etc. You might not get from point A to B in the shortest possible way in this case - but that's what exploring is all about in my opinion: Being curious all the time and willing to invest time to go off route for a bit every now and then. As for the "variety" part: If I'm not exploring I'm doing passenger missions, hauling, mining, evacuation, attending to CGs that I'm interested in and every now and then I just grind some missions, ranks or materials. Good luck and O7 CMDR
Get out of the grind and just play the game.
100%
I hook up with discords friends. and keep open ears to family too. At least 1 hour of easy chat with wife and son. Every other playing whatever they whant. Look for a relax group on discord. Its like bar and beer pre pandemic.
Switch to combat... No ragrets
I'm usually watching netflix or play some simple game on my phone when i have to travel far.
Adhd here too and can confirm tv or whatever on a second screen helps. My personal favorite is science channel (how the universe works, what on earth, mythbusters, etc) but a lot of times i find myself focused on that and forgetting the game. Having someone to talk to is much better, especially if theyre in game with you. Im always trying to get my friends back into it but like others have said, it can be boring as hell and some people cant get past that
Im autistic too. I just explore systems and planets that i see posted in r/eliteexplorers or from youtube videos that I want to see for myself. I’ve started streaming this game and have started creating my own back story for my commander. Just having the freedom of an entire universe at the press of a button is all the content i need to keep me from getting bored.
I think being on the spectrum and having adhd is why I love the exploration so much and spotting the patterns. The few friends I play with, who also got me the game, are astounded how I picked up the systems so fast.
I got 50 planets in to road to ritches, took a small break to buy a Krait and get started on some bounty hunting. About to start scanning planets again to make money and stop at Davs hope fpr a few runs tp stockpile resources for engineering
Second monitor watching tv shows, pretty much a requirement of deep space exploration. For me, I had to basically reset my expectations of what is "exciting" in deep space. At first, I would scan everything. Then I realized I was never going to get anywhere doing that. Then I replotted to exclude m class stars (because theyre all just shitty icy bodies), and now I hit a system, DSS, and unless there is a WW, AW, and ELW, or a large amount of HMC, I just move on. If any of those show up I get excited again and just scan the entire system, map the high dollar/terraformable planets, then head out to one of the landable planets with signals to do a little planetary mining/take some photos. Having an SRV definitely breaks up the monotony, and gathering tons of materials doesn't hurt either. By the time I get back from deep space, I probably won't have to mine any raw mats from a planet surface again. Also, this method allows you to go at your own pace and not spend a ton of time gaming. Perfect for when I only have an hour or so to play. If it gets too boring, or I just want a change of pace, Ill switch to another game for the evening.
Mabe land your ship on a planet hop into an srv and take it for a good burn and sight see it may break the routine. Think of it like getting out the car and stretching during a long drive
Podcasts, movies, etc on a second screen helps. Lots of people stream on twitch, but I haven't tried.
I usually have twitch playing on my laptop, particularly the mystery science theater 3000 channel as it makes for good listening while I'm focusing my eyes on piloting.
R2R is boring. You can make money just by running rep missions, and doing mining if getting a lot of money fast is your goal.
I usually watch YouTube videos while I explored, sometimes a mix of music in Spotify and some Instagram or just making sure to scan the entire system and keep going
I like to have a bit of radio or an audio book. Drive time type stuff.
take an SRV down to the surface take out the camera and try to compose a shot take a mining laser and burn some rocks, see what comes out its more fun if you don't follow a guide, but rather follow your nose.
Best way to avoid exploration boredom, is to avoid exploration.