So I'm coming back to the game after a two year break. I didn't get too deep into the game before, mostly doing low level combat and trading.
I was wondering what resources people more familiar with the game would suggest I check out for getting into some of the other content like mining, exobiology, and exploration. I'd like to take a shot at the basics of the different gameplay loops/styles before I start trying to get into the deeper content like engineering.
Unfortunately a lot of guides I've found seem to focus on maximum optimization before you even try to get into the content. I don't want to do an engineering grind, or grind to get an FC, before I figure out if I even like the type of gameplay it's going to make easier.
You don't need to min-max to get into any of them except maybe exploration (min-maxing your jump range is kinda important out in the edges of the galaxy where stars are quite far apart). Just jump into it and mess around. Exobiology is the weird one for me in my experience. Guides tend to point you to the things you wanna scan, but I don't know how up to date they are; most of the things I was using last time I was playing a few months ago were very wrong about what systems/planets had what. It's mostly just driving around on planets and scanning for particular things that are extremely far apart, so I found the whole experience to be the most boring thing I've ever done in the game.
Exobio is definitely not thrilling but it does at least make general exploration profitability somewhat on par with casual mining and combat. I kinda gave up on the guides and just tried my best to check out any planets with reported life signs. Even with confirmed existence on a planet, I couldn't always find all types. I give it a go and accept I might cut it short and leave. But I found it pretty consistent that I could always find something. I can't remember which types are worthless and which are rare, so I don't. Just grab whatever.