I don't know if this has been discussed before, but I wanted to know more about the galaxy's procedural generation and found this video discussing the game's galaxy generation engine, Stellar Forge:


It's a little long, but there are some very interesting parts to it. It seems to be a very robust and accurate model, and rather more complex than I had imagined for a game. I was wondering if it had any similarities to Space Engine, which at least visually looks very similar, but I believe Space Engine has even more complex system dynamics. (For example many, many more moons of all sizes right down to just a few dozen meters in diameter, and often with some crazy orbital setups). I was particularly interested in how nebula and dust clouds are handled.

Also an interesting part about procedural planet surface generation.

Haven't watched it yet, but will. Thanks for the link DM.

There is somewhere a similar video floating around where they explained the stellar forge.
In addition, you can also look up some player research on the subject in the forum: Decoding Universal Cartographics
And then there are some interesting statistics on stars vs (system) mass codes (explained in the OP video) as well as planets vs star types on this page: eddne.io - combined, this information can help "optimizing" your income by visiting the systems with highest probability of high value planets. Basically, stick mostly to F class stars / D code systems.

F class is what I've focused on the past couple of days for this reason. It didn't pay off

But I get the idea, and I usually filter out L and T type. Once I feel I am in a good spot, I begin handpicking F class. And some A, B and K as well. ELWs aren't the only good thing out there anyway. But they do pay the best.

Since my goal right now is to hit Elite and that means money, I've been rather an explorcenary rather than a fastidious gatherer of scientific information. Give me the good stuff!