I'd like to think that I generally understand exploration (outfitting, scanning, etc.) and have done some myself even though I haven't really ventured very far (Exploration ranking: Scout). My question is about maximizing jump distance... how frequently do you find yourself actually jumping near your limit? I've been fairly thorough so far myself, in that I'm jumping into the next closest system to chart my neighborhood rather than making big jumps to get somewhere else, and all of it could have been done with a D module FSD even though I was rigged to jump much farther. Under what circumstances would an explorer really want/need to make a 30+ ly jump? Thanks in advance.
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Newcomer / Intro Exploration question: jump distance
- Thread starter Nounverber
- Start date
The main I suppose is real life time time. If I have a specific object in the galaxy I want to visit, jumping 10 or 15 light years to get to an object 10,000 ly awayis going to take a lot of jumps and if you are flying in a relatively empty area you will have to make more detours.
In my experience, which is not great. To make any kind of money I really want to get past the 400 ly span that I can be interdicted. Broken windscreens and damage to vehicle are a time and credit factor. The profit margins for exploring can be rather thin. . There are times I would explore for hours and result in no profit at all.
In my experience, which is not great. To make any kind of money I really want to get past the 400 ly span that I can be interdicted. Broken windscreens and damage to vehicle are a time and credit factor. The profit margins for exploring can be rather thin. . There are times I would explore for hours and result in no profit at all.
I suppose it depends how you're exploring. If you intend to pick a sector and scan every object around every star in that sector then jump range above 20 LY is overkill. If, however, you pick on a star 90,000 LY away and want to go see it then you'll get there with less hops and therefore much faster with a longer jump range.
If you want to make money with exploring, you make economic (short) jumps and scan all visited systems. You scan at least the main star, and then you check the system map for interesting planets. Interesting are: earth-like, mineral-rich, and all other that are of economic value.
Should you see a black hole, scan that, too. This is worth a lot of money.
You'll need the advanced scanner and the detailed surface scanner, so get the required money first (about 2 million).
When you sell your collected date, try to do it about 100 LY away to maximize profit.
However, do not expect to earn money quicker than with bounty hunting or trade runs.
Should you see a black hole, scan that, too. This is worth a lot of money.
You'll need the advanced scanner and the detailed surface scanner, so get the required money first (about 2 million).
When you sell your collected date, try to do it about 100 LY away to maximize profit.
However, do not expect to earn money quicker than with bounty hunting or trade runs.
I'm under the impression that beyond the >20LY restriction, there is no cash benefit to increasing the distance you travel before selling the data. So mainly I just make sure I'm selling the data in a station controlled by the faction I'd prefer to increase rep with.
When you REALLY go exploring, then there are thin patches where you need big jumps to get across the stepping stores. Sure, you can go round them, but a detour can be a loooong one when you are out there. IIRC someone who made it to the core said they would have been buggered if they couldn't do a 25ly jump at some points of their journey.
Of course if you head outwards rather than to the core, then jump range is a significant factor on how far you can go, there are plenty of stars out there that nobody can get to with current technology.
Of course if you head outwards rather than to the core, then jump range is a significant factor on how far you can go, there are plenty of stars out there that nobody can get to with current technology.
True but the 1.1 Route Planner upgrade will minimise this issue by a fair margin.
Can I just give the devs a massive round of applause for the route planner in v1.1?
It's light night & day, a genuine astronomical change.
Clap clap. Hip hip hooray!
HThe further you go out towards the rim, and the further you venture above or below the galactic plane, the thinner spread the stars become.
With a 20LY FSD you will find it impossible to travel more than 500LY above or below Sol. Travelling further out towards the rim with a shorter range drive can start to involve dead-end trips. Even worse, in some places the densely packed central plane is full of red unscoopable stars or dwarf stars, so large areas can become impassable due to lack of refuelling stops.
Lastly, on a long-haul trip to a distant nebula a 30LY drive will cut the number of jumps and therefore the travelling time by about half in comparison to a 20LY drive, which when you're talking about the difference between 2,000 or 4,000 jumps is significant!
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It minimises the effort and maximises the efficiency of route planning, but does not change the need for massive detours in some cases.
With a 20LY FSD you will find it impossible to travel more than 500LY above or below Sol. Travelling further out towards the rim with a shorter range drive can start to involve dead-end trips. Even worse, in some places the densely packed central plane is full of red unscoopable stars or dwarf stars, so large areas can become impassable due to lack of refuelling stops.
Lastly, on a long-haul trip to a distant nebula a 30LY drive will cut the number of jumps and therefore the travelling time by about half in comparison to a 20LY drive, which when you're talking about the difference between 2,000 or 4,000 jumps is significant!
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It minimises the effort and maximises the efficiency of route planning, but does not change the need for massive detours in some cases.
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If you want to get out to the nebula and some of them are around 10,000 LY away, you really won't want to do this in 5 ly increments.
In addition, as you get further out, in some areas the gaps between the stars can get fairly large. There are areas where even a 35ly jump ability isn't enough to get you to the next star.
In addition, as you get further out, in some areas the gaps between the stars can get fairly large. There are areas where even a 35ly jump ability isn't enough to get you to the next star.
