I'll smoke you a kipper.
Explorer - anything worth discovering?
- Thread starter noodle
- Start date
I don't think "expansion speed" needs to be slowed down by any means, considering the galaxy will contain a few hundred billion star systems. Just to give you an idea, if you could visit one system per second, within a hundred years of non-stop hyperjumping around you would have seen about 3 billion stars. Seen as in, have them appear for only a second on the screen.
Also I did not say that you are completely safe out there and never have to go back. Bad things can happen, anything from pirate attacks to hazardous natural phenomena. And then you'd want to report back any findings, I don't think you'll be able to simply transmit back data from halfway across the galaxy.
Another concern about exploration?
A sizable proportion of players undoubtedly will be "geek explorers". ie: People willing to spend X hours a day hammering away at the frontier.
How fast will this frontier bubble be pushed out each week? Can you imagine the frontier disappearing out so as/when you want to try exploring, not only do you have a sizable journey to even get to "virgin territory", but its disappearing as fast as you can reach it?
A sizable proportion of players undoubtedly will be "geek explorers". ie: People willing to spend X hours a day hammering away at the frontier.
How fast will this frontier bubble be pushed out each week? Can you imagine the frontier disappearing out so as/when you want to try exploring, not only do you have a sizable journey to even get to "virgin territory", but its disappearing as fast as you can reach it?
How about being able to pay for a service to get your ship couriered to a frontier outpost?
it depends also of the rate of colonization, if it's too far behind the rate of exploration, it will slow down exploration and make it harder to find easy to reach & unexplored system before some area become populated and can be used as a base for further exploration. however, even with a fast rate of colonization, we couldnt keep the same rate of let's say 10 more LY in every direction every week, as it would mean exploring more and more systems each week. if we assume the rate of exploration is constant(systems/week), then the speed at which the explored buble gets bigger will decrease. it then depends on how much explorer-player we'll have, and how much system they can "process" in a week. there might also be things to find that havent been found and have been left behind by others.
so even if there might be too much explorers at the start, i think there will be a shortage at some point, now the question is when, it could take some time.
so even if there might be too much explorers at the start, i think there will be a shortage at some point, now the question is when, it could take some time.
I guess the speed of expansion will dramatically slow down as the frontier is pushed out. Using the formula for the surface area of a sphere...
If the frontier is 500 light years from the "center". The frontier will be an area of: 3.142 million square light years.
If the frontier expands to 1000 light years. The frontier will be an area of: 12.567 million square light years.
And should it reach 1500? : 28.278 million square light years.
So the speed at which the frontier spreads out will slow ever increasingly.
Well our galaxy is more of a phat disc or oblate spheroid, but your point about the rate of change of the surface area with respect to the radius still stands.
Well our galaxy is more of a phat disc or oblate spheroid, but your point about the rate of change of the surface area with respect to the radius still stands.
Going to be fascinating to see the rate of "exploration". ie: How many new systems are "explored"/"discovered" each day!
As Vin kicked back in his EzPilot chair, watching the stars drift by, he wondered about the point of watching all of these transmissions from the home systems.
After all, the cobra was looking a little tired, the life support systems had an odd smell to them and he was more than a little bored of the virtual cockpit showing nothing but polygonal asteroids.
The antiquated hyperdrive coughed and spluttered into life and after 29 years of deep space exploration, he was hoping it would hold together for just a few months more before reaching home.
He scratched what once was a smooth chin, straightened a provision and sweat stained flight jacket and turned back to the ancient vid screen.
"I just wish I hadn't fixed the long range u-tube viewer. It's a bit like hot dinners, you're happy with super noodles the entire time until some fool just sticks a Disoan Roast Dinner under your nose and then super noodles just don't cut it any more."
At least with a cargo hold full of rare minerals and a set of deep space maps (complete with Here Be Dragons penned on the sleeve of the data card), he might be able to chop in the old hunk of junk and get something with a proper glass canopy instead of fly by wire screens.
The sad part was, the first thing he was planning on doing, other than buying an in flight coffee machine and a lifetime supply of wine, was to fuel up and get his backside back out hunting for those Slimy Blue Frogs.
After all, the cobra was looking a little tired, the life support systems had an odd smell to them and he was more than a little bored of the virtual cockpit showing nothing but polygonal asteroids.
The antiquated hyperdrive coughed and spluttered into life and after 29 years of deep space exploration, he was hoping it would hold together for just a few months more before reaching home.
He scratched what once was a smooth chin, straightened a provision and sweat stained flight jacket and turned back to the ancient vid screen.
"I just wish I hadn't fixed the long range u-tube viewer. It's a bit like hot dinners, you're happy with super noodles the entire time until some fool just sticks a Disoan Roast Dinner under your nose and then super noodles just don't cut it any more."
At least with a cargo hold full of rare minerals and a set of deep space maps (complete with Here Be Dragons penned on the sleeve of the data card), he might be able to chop in the old hunk of junk and get something with a proper glass canopy instead of fly by wire screens.
The sad part was, the first thing he was planning on doing, other than buying an in flight coffee machine and a lifetime supply of wine, was to fuel up and get his backside back out hunting for those Slimy Blue Frogs.
I imagine there will be a huge mining opportunity if you're an explorer .. Having a huge ship eg panther clipper and first finding a massive gold or precious gem deposit
hopefullyJenner
I wish I was English like my hero Tj.
29 years! Dedicated explorer, there!
You should come by the Thargoid. With RP chops like that you'll fit right in! :smilie:
Well our galaxy is more of a phat disc or oblate spheroid, but your point about the rate of change of the surface area with respect to the radius still stands.
it's still 1000 LY thick
if human space stops even let's say at a sphere of 200LY in radius, there's quite a distance to reach the top/down "borders". that gives 300LY in both direction(though they are stars above the disk). i'm sure there will be people wanting to reach the borders rapidely, though going in a straight line, so not really exploring, maybe never to come back, just to have a sight on the rest of the milky away from as far out as they can get. it seems easy enough.
also there's little chance that exploration goes at the same rate in every directions(parallel, perpendicular to the galactic plane....) it might also vary if people prefer one of the factions, they might push the limits closer to their beloved systems just to get back there more easily.
The point of exploration? BECAUSE IT'S THERE!
But only because in reality you don't know what you'll find and undoubtedly there will be unique interesting and beautiful things...
Fingers crossed this follows through into the ED universe with beautiful vistas and intriguing content. It doesn't need a lot... just enough to make exploration exciting/interesting
My understanding, (unfortunately I can't recall exactly where I saw it) is that even if you aren't the first to visit a system, The Pilots federation will pay you something for your first visit to that system. Something about helping them with their telemetry...
Yes, you're right... But it would be nice if in a few location there was more of a reward than just $$$. Something unique, beautiful or mysterious
Last edited:
I wonder what an 'explorers jackpot' could be like.
Maybe something like the exposed core of a gas giant, made up almost entirely of carbon that cristallized under the enormous pressure and heat inside the planet.
You know what that stuff is commonly called?
Objects like that might possibly be found near the remains of supernovae (neutron stars or black holes), 'cause it needs some force to strip the core from its covering layers.
Of course i'm just speculating here, we really need to fly there to confirm the existence of such exotic celestial bodies.
That is what exploration is all about, isn't it?
Maybe something like the exposed core of a gas giant, made up almost entirely of carbon that cristallized under the enormous pressure and heat inside the planet.
You know what that stuff is commonly called?
Objects like that might possibly be found near the remains of supernovae (neutron stars or black holes), 'cause it needs some force to strip the core from its covering layers.
Of course i'm just speculating here, we really need to fly there to confirm the existence of such exotic celestial bodies.
That is what exploration is all about, isn't it?
Last edited: