The 145 Million Credit Exploration

Freddie Mc

Freddie Mc
Egan said:
I'm about 35 days out, 6000ly from Sol and have scanned just over 500 systems on my current trip so I guess I'm slower. It always utterly amazes me how far people get so quickly. The guy above you: 8000ly in 4 days? How do you guys do this? Are you just jumping? Guessing your not scanning moons 100,000ls out. My biggest day was travelling 600 ly.
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Im of the "if it has clouds scan it" ilk for now. I'm basically taking the quick route for a bit of distance just now till i find a area filled with goodies and take my time. I've managed to bag a fair few EL and terriform worlds by scanning randomly.

Protip: you can find interesting systems by hints in the galaxy map. Look from above and zoom out and slowly zoom back in till you make out small haze marks. Zoom into these on the map and you'll have a system show up. These have been pretty good markers to jump too as all of them have been top money stars, EL, and even main body black holes.
 

Zulu Romeo

Zulu Romeo
Egan said:
It always utterly amazes me how far people get so quickly. The guy above you: 8000ly in 4 days? How do you guys do this? Are you just jumping? Guessing your not scanning moons 100,000ls out. My biggest day was travelling 600 ly.
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I was going to talk about my own experiences about the benefits and drawbacks of cherry-picking and jumping vs full system surveys, but I'd be here all day. ;)

These days, I try and scan everything I see, even if they've had their virtual flag planted by someone else, for three reasons: firstly, for my own knowledge as otherwise I wouldn't be able to know anything about those systems, and buying information on the most distant systems explored by others is pretty much impossible under the current regime (currently you can only buy data on unexplored systems from stations which are in range of those systems); secondly, depending on the orbital positions of the various system bodies, there may be a photo opportunity in it for me, and I'm a sucker for pretty planetary rings and bright stars and planets close together; and thirdly, now that exploration payouts are greater than before and NPCs no longer harrass you inside the Galactic Core and other distant areas thousands of light years beyond civilised space (well, at least for the moment), it's all hassle-free extra cash compared to previously, regardless of first finder's bonus. :D I do compromise by going for a fast route rather than economical route finding, though, except in regions of the Galaxy where an economical route would be more beneficial for my survival.

It's slow going, I have lost my patience a few times, and boldly going where someone else clearly has gone before does dent the pride, but it's a good life and I do see some wonders out there. One day I might try another speedy tour around the Galaxy: not to explore or see things, but just to get out there.

Bottom line: keep going. You're seeing things of great wonder and beauty, stuff you can easily miss out on when you're making your next rare goods trade or killing your next wanted criminal. You don't even need to travel far: many of the great things, even the unexplored places, are closer than you think.
 

GregMalcolm

GregMalcolm
Krunchie said:
Great screenshots.

I seem to be the slowest explorer there is...I've been exploring for 55 days and only visited ~2460 systems, traveled 73k ly, 54k ly away from Sol. And not even half of my journey is over. Still 6-7k ly till the northern edge of Milky Way, then I will turn left, traveling anticlockwise along the outer edge of the galaxy all the way till I reach Z=0 , then head sharp "east" back home. So, still 2-3 months of being alone for me...
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Wow, that sounds epic! Look forward to the seeing the final report :)
 

GregMalcolm

GregMalcolm
Engadine said:
Welcome Back Commander!!!

Some journey, but clearly worth every credit :D

Out of interest, how was the Exploration chart put together by Commander Lei Harper?

Regards
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I took a screen capture of the Galaxy map panned out and cropped it. I initially jotted an overlaying route in MSPaint. It was pretty ugly.

I showed it to Lei who was predictably horrified. Lei then made me a decent overlay in Photoshop. Yay!
 

QziQza

QziQza
Rikk said:
You can also high res screenshot in group mode.

Maybe we need an explorers group. Think I'll set one up when I get back home.
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What a positively wonderful idea.

Exploration is something i have yet to embark on.. Trading has been my main stay since i started playing December with some bounty hunting and conflict zones on the side, and this week should see me make my Trading target of aquiring an Anaconda (way too many hours spent in game) i have hand tremors and get sudden onset spasms, this has produced some interesting situations in game, i have my own 'built in' control systems failures to deal with lol. While it does interrupt play, it has given me the opportunity, and time, to look through many of the images and videos you guys bring back from your journeys.


Regards

*Found some answers to this question in a different post, please ignore

Exploration looks to be a completely different game, with rewards (and screenshots) that easily compensate the risks and challenges involved. I've been looking at a few Type 6 builds that could be promising, although it has been suggested that a cobra may be a better option for an initial 4 or 5 day trial run? If I may ask, I see many of you explore in Asps, I used to trade in one, a great ship for sure, and obviously designed for exploration, but would trying the same thing in a Type 6 put me at too big a disadvantage?
 
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SvennoJ

SvennoJ
Great journey. These kind of threads are the fuel I need to keep going when I hit another long dead stretch.

Krunchie said:
Great screenshots.

I seem to be the slowest explorer there is...I've been exploring for 55 days and only visited ~2460 systems, traveled 73k ly, 54k ly away from Sol. And not even half of my journey is over. Still 6-7k ly till the northern edge of Milky Way, then I will turn left, traveling anticlockwise along the outer edge of the galaxy all the way till I reach Z=0 , then head sharp "east" back home. So, still 2-3 months of being alone for me...
Click to expand...

I might see you at some point. I turned 45 degrees left at Sagittarius A, travelling to the furthest point on the outer galactic arm. I'm just about to turn anti-clockwise (made it past the ocean of brown dwarfs into the far arm) to get to the furthest tip, then turn clockwise to explore the far edge from there.
W26410_N48470_U1.jpg
Currently 55.2k ly from earth, 34.7k ly from Sagittarius A. I'm about to pass my furthest distance to the edge. In a previous journey I got to 8.7k from Sol in the opposite direction, which should be about the same distance from Sagittarius A as I am now. That time I got stuck, this time I have a max range of 41.17ly, plus I just made it to the edge of the final arm.
One of my goals is to find the loneliest earth like, 1 planet 1 star on the edge. Not sure if I'll ever find it, yet that keeps one looking.
 

SvennoJ

SvennoJ
Freddie Mc said:
If anyone is currently exploring please add me (cmdr freddie mc) so I can be nosey and see where all the fellow scanning dorks are.
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I sent a request. I'm currently playing in Moebius so I can take hi-res screenshots. I also like the idea of a private explorers group. I haven't seen anyone yet anywhere, not surprising with 400 billion stars.
CMDR Svenno for anyone that wants to keep tabs on where my heavily damaged Anaconda is looking for life. (slash hiding from the CRA)
 

clavain

clavain
Very nice - I am currently in week two of an exploration voyage of unknown duration. Don't want to say where I am off to, have three primary targets which I suspect may not have been visited yet. When I get to the first one I will know for sure. I can only hope my voyage is as epic and successful as yours, I just have to limit my alcohol consumption whilst fuel-scooping/scanning in SC to avoid those unfortunate close-up encounters. It is also posts like this that keep me going through the grind.

Edit: And this sort of thing is why we need an in-game log feature that tracks systems we have visited/routes used FD. Yes, it's fun to root through the XML files 60 days later to try and remember where you have been (if you remembered to turn verbose logging on), or keep track of it all by hand, but it would be great to have this tracked in-game for us.
 
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Doctor Axel

Doctor Axel
Just set sail in a ZP Hauler on my first jaunt into the greater cosmos - largely inspired by stories like this one. =D Well done sir.

Maybe I'll run across a world you DIDN'T explore already. =P
 

Egan

E
Zion Ravescene said:
It's slow going, I have lost my patience a few times, and boldly going where someone else clearly has gone before does dent the pride, but it's a good life and I do see some wonders out there. One day I might try another speedy tour around the Galaxy: not to explore or see things, but just to get out there.

Bottom line: keep going. You're seeing things of great wonder and beauty, stuff you can easily miss out on when you're making your next rare goods trade or killing your next wanted criminal. You don't even need to travel far: many of the great things, even the unexplored places, are closer than you think.
Click to expand...

Yup. That's it. I never bought the game for trading or combat, I bought it to get out there and see stuff. The combat, the trading, the background sim and what have you might well be the meat of the game, but the galaxy is its soul.

Of course, when you plop out of witch space right into the middle of a three star love-in it kinda looks like a twisted, evil soul, but a soul nevertheless..:D

An explorers group maybe sounds like fun.
 

Zulu Romeo

Zulu Romeo
Speaking of people setting up an explorers group, the First Great Expedition is such an explorers group, for those interested. We're a friendly bunch, and we have our own TeamSpeak server for keeping in touch, and our own forum:

http://firstgreatexpedition.org

Anyway, blatant plug over. :D Carry on...
 

velociraptor_Sb

velociraptor_Sb
SvennoJ said:
Great journey. These kind of threads are the fuel I need to keep going when I hit another long dead stretch.



I might see you at some point. I turned 45 degrees left at Sagittarius A, travelling to the furthest point on the outer galactic arm. I'm just about to turn anti-clockwise (made it past the ocean of brown dwarfs into the far arm) to get to the furthest tip, then turn clockwise to explore the far edge from there.
View attachment 22036
Currently 55.2k ly from earth, 34.7k ly from Sagittarius A. I'm about to pass my furthest distance to the edge. In a previous journey I got to 8.7k from Sol in the opposite direction, which should be about the same distance from Sagittarius A as I am now. That time I got stuck, this time I have a max range of 41.17ly, plus I just made it to the edge of the final arm.
One of my goals is to find the loneliest earth like, 1 planet 1 star on the edge. Not sure if I'll ever find it, yet that keeps one looking.
Click to expand...

lol im in the Wrugnaea sector too ^^

P.S. : nvm its another Wrugnaea sector , my bad :/
 
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Krunchie

Krunchie
SvennoJ said:
Great journey. These kind of threads are the fuel I need to keep going when I hit another long dead stretch.



I might see you at some point. I turned 45 degrees left at Sagittarius A, travelling to the furthest point on the outer galactic arm. I'm just about to turn anti-clockwise (made it past the ocean of brown dwarfs into the far arm) to get to the furthest tip, then turn clockwise to explore the far edge from there.
View attachment 22036
Currently 55.2k ly from earth, 34.7k ly from Sagittarius A. I'm about to pass my furthest distance to the edge. In a previous journey I got to 8.7k from Sol in the opposite direction, which should be about the same distance from Sagittarius A as I am now. That time I got stuck, this time I have a max range of 41.17ly, plus I just made it to the edge of the final arm.
One of my goals is to find the loneliest earth like, 1 planet 1 star on the edge. Not sure if I'll ever find it, yet that keeps one looking.
Click to expand...

Happy hunting for that loneliest earth like!

I logged off last night at 55.1k ly from Sol, so almost exactly as far as you, only I am mostly north from Sagittarius A. Just a couple of days more and I'll reach my farthest north point and turn west.

So many interesting places to see. After a long. long time I saw a black hole ( they are very rare this close to the edge), it was bigger then average, 9 Solar masses, and it looked absolutely spectacular from 120 km away! My first since they updated them. Stunning. Trance inducing psychodelic stuff.

Edit: I'm more then 20k ly away. :(
 
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