Just started exploring, I think I'm hooked

aRottenKomquat · Aug 7, 2015

Just started exploring, I think I'm hooked (a.k.a. aRottenKomquat's exploration stories)

So I got a little bored of trading, and spec'd out a Hauler for some exploration. I think it cost around 2M credits, 1.5M of which was for the Advanced Discovery Scanner. Due to the hauler's small size and my desire for 8 tons of fuel (in hindsight, I don't think I actually needed two fuel tanks but it's a great peace of mind if I run into a cluster of un-scoopable stars), I had to remove the shield generator. This almost ended in disaster when I got interdicted by pirates on my very first jump away from my home star!!

I forget my exact loadout, but everything is Class D except for my fuel scoop, scanners, and power plant. I think my max jump range is about 25 light-years.

I was pretty safe once I got out of civilized space. (Ironic isn't it, "civilized" space is the most dangerous area of the game.) I headed approximately 500 - 600 light-years Coreward, then a few dozen light-years "up" to avoid the main areas of the galactic plane. I found plenty of systems with dwarf stars that had been discovered, but not scanned. Someone had passed through all these, but not with my Advanced Discovery Scanner, so I actually discovered quite a few planets. This was a surprise to me since in the grand scheme of things I was still quite close to home. I did flybys on some of these planets to let my Surface Scanner do its thing. I even found one gas giant with water-based life!

Since this was my first exploration trip, I didn't want to go out too far or stay away too long since I didn't yet know what the payout for exploration data was. I plotted a journey back home, and didn't bother exploring unless I saw something very interesting. Still, at every star I could, I stopped to fuel scoop, and while scooping I'd charge up my Advanced Discovery Scanner and give the system a good scan just in case.

I made it back to my home starport and sold all the data I'd collected. The total was somewhere around 1M credits, and I discovered 30-some planets. The payout wasn't great since I'm used to trading, but not bad for a roughly 8-hour trip near home space, scanning common dwarf star systems, and it certainly broke up the monotony.

Now I'm at work patiently counting down the hours to go home and set out on another E

exploration trip. This time, I want to go a bit farther, perhaps 1 - 2 kly. First, I need to find a better fuel scoop. Mine isn't bad, but I know there are better ones out there somewhere, and my OCD and fear of running out of gas (and having to call the Fuel Rats out into the abyss to rescue me) means I scoop every chance I get.

Here's the only screenshot I took on this trip, an otherwise empty triple star system. I had popped out of hyperspace, started scooping, started overheating, and pulled back a bit to orbit the star only to nearly crash into another star! Then I backed off a bit for this picture.

Goblin King · Aug 7, 2015

Doing it in a hauler is proper low-tech and very worthy of respect! Plus I think if you venture out quitre a bit further you'll be grateful for the additional fuel!

Rauminen · Aug 7, 2015

Take care matey, after 1klye it gets addictive quite a bit. At least it did for me. And I had only 15ly jump range

Mike W · Aug 7, 2015

Welcome to the wonderous world of galactic exploration Cmdr,, safe travels always

Alex Traut · Aug 7, 2015

Welcome to the addiciton. XD

Once you have the cash for it, you'll want to upgrade your FSD and Fuel Scoop to the best you can afford, and get an A-rated power plant of the smallest class that will power all your stuff. Everything else should be D-rated to be as light as possible. The FSD and lightweight kit will get you the best possible jump range and fuel efficiency, the A-rated power plant will let you stay closer to a star for longer without overheating, and the fuel scoop will minimize the time you need to spend doing so.

Safe flying!

Lupin · Aug 7, 2015

Welcome to the real ranks of Elite. Much to see and more coming it seem from new expansions.

Cdr Voorheez · Aug 7, 2015

Glad to see you hooked Cdr

I Am 4kly out and totally hooked too. Respect for hauler use. To be honest any ship can be specced as an explorer (check Ryan's thread on comparable explorers). I tend to have these set parameters in place when fitting an explorer vessel. Coriolis is also an excellent tool to 'play with' your ship configuration before committing.

1. Best A rated FSD you can afford. It's all about that jump range
2. Light ships=good jump range ships. Get as much D rated kit as you can get for those other modules like life support and sensors
3. Best A rated Fuel scoop you can afford. If you can't afford an A rated go B rated (0 mass)
4. A good AFMU (0 mass) you WILL take module damage on long trips out.
5. A Detailed surface scanner
6. An Advanced discovery scanner
7. Low class/rated shield, a D3 is Good. BUT no shield increases jump range, and it's all about that range. I'm torn on this subject at the minute. My DBE has one and still maintains 33.6LY. Without one I'm up to 33.8LY but I would personally have that warm fuzzy feeling of shield when in the bubble. It's personal preference and it's why coriolis is such a good tool.
8. A light power distributor which will still give you boost. I find D3 works just fine.
When outside the bubble turn off:
Power distributor
Shields
AFMU
Cargo hatch

All Cdrs have different setups but all universally agree on most of the above advice. Take or leave at your will.

From a cash perspective broad brush I'd say 10-16mil credits is a comfortable amount to be playing with basic-intermediate explorer ships with enough in reserve for insurance. It Can be done cheaper but I personally love the DBE for exploration. For 11.7mil you can have a great explorer vessel with a 33.6LY range and insure her for 500k.

Good look Cdr and happy trails.

aRottenKomquat · Aug 8, 2015

Well this is a cool system. Close triple star, orbited by all kinds of gas giants. I found a rather small ringed gas giant, with life, which is actually the moon of a much larger gas giant.

One of them wasn't actually a gas giant, it's a ringed brown dwarf.

Class IV gas giant in really low orbit over a red dwarf

Gut Rumble · Aug 8, 2015

It's nice out here...plenty of room

.
You could add your name to the 'Lonely Explorers Friends List'(top of exploration forum) , add as many as you can and see who else is out there

Grey Steel · Aug 8, 2015

I made 10 million or so credits in my hauler before I could afford to upgrade to the ASP. I went 500ly, then 1k. I wish I had been brave enough to take it to the core! That would have been a good story to tell.

You really need 16 million or so for a good ASP but I started with some lower class equipment (and no insurance, gasp!)

Witzo · Aug 8, 2015

At about 8kly I felt the tether break and then I could just go on and on. May you find many colourful worlds on your path!

newman1702 · Aug 8, 2015

Welcome to the explorer ranks, and yea this activity can be quite addictive

BTW the reason you'll find systems where only the star has the "first discovered by.." tag, and the planets are undiscovered, is usually not because people didn't see those planets, but rather because thy didn't bother scanning them (you only get first discovery if you do a detailed surface scan and then are the first to sell the data). This is particularly true of icy and rocky worlds which are next to worthless at the moment; after you've passed through a few hundreds of those you tend to skip in favor of more interesting targets. Horizons may change that but until then those frozen little balls of white tend to get ignored by most people. Most explorers tend to use the ADS, while some advocate that this is "no challenge", running any extended expedition without one just isn't practical. I think most people that spent more than a few days at a time out in the black will confirm that they do run with ADS.

Cdr Voorheez · Aug 8, 2015

Absolutely. I'm a late convert to AFMU - they get a lot of mixed opinion and debate but when you are 4KLY out and have just been mass locked into a star you had badly scooped because you are tired and that 45th jump needed a definite coffee injection, then you understand the absolute necessity of an AFMU.
Human factors (ie us f&&@ing up) are why we carry AFMUs and for long hauls they are in my opinion essential kit.
Cdr Newmans opinion is very sound however and he's an Alien Isolation fan so listen to his sagely advice

Bam · Aug 8, 2015

An AFMU is a MUST IMO it only takes one careless accident to kill off a few modules, and you really dont want a broken FSD 20,000ly from home.
I wouldn't worry about modules being 10-20% damaged but lower than 70% things start to play up, also I think the repair rate is logarithmic, very damaged modules repair quickly and use less of the AFMU's charges.

newman1702 · Aug 8, 2015

Yup, losing, say, your fuel scoop on an otherwise functional ship 20 kly from home would be less than optimal

It may very well be that you can do most expeditions without one, but as others have said - human factor. Plus it gives you a certain peace of mind since there are no ports you can repair at anywhere remotely near. With an AFMU, the main deal breaker is the canopy; if that cracks I'm going home

aRottenKomquat · Aug 8, 2015

An AFMU sounds worth it but my current ship doesn't have the room, nor have I had any jump mishaps yet. Perhaps after a few more trips I'll have the cash to upgrade to something with room for more internals.

Cdr Voorheez · Aug 8, 2015

Yeah hauler to Cobra (Mk3) as an explorer is cool. Cobras are very respectable as explorers (26LY range) and have good internal customisation options. Giving you more than enough room for AFMU. And they are relatively cheap.
If I didn't have a 33.6LY range on my DBE and the overall endurance of a DBE id still be exploring in a Cobra. No doubt at all.

aRottenKomquat · Aug 8, 2015

Here's another interesting one, a pair of close red dwarfs, each one orbited by a brown dwarf. This whole thing is, of course, orbiting another binary star.

Kancro Vantas · Aug 10, 2015

Welcome to Exploration CMDR!!!

I can tell you have been stung by the Galactic Bee of Exploration and Curiosity!

Go out there, have fun, scan at will, enjoy the view, come back when tired, or when you can't go no more...

If I was doing it all over again, this is all what I would really need for exploration:

-The Scanners -Advanced and Surface.
-The Fuel Scoop
-The Highest rated FSD that I could afford.

Everything else is really optional, and highly argued in the forums. Run economy, even just 100 ly away from Sol, and just by doing urban exploration, you will see things you haven't before.

When running for trading or combat, there is little relevance in that "planet" the station is orbiting around. When you are explorer, there is little relevance in that "station" orbiting that Ammonia World. ;-)

Safe travels CMDR!

/Kancro out

aRottenKomquat · Aug 10, 2015

I finished my second exploration run yesterday. Made it back home and spent way too much time clicking the "Sell Page" button and waiting for the first discovered lists to scroll by. All in all, made about 5M credits, so I traded in my hauler for a Cobra Mk III. My jump range didn't appreciably change (~25 LY), but I now have room for a repair module, shield generator, and heatsink launchers, as well as a fuel scoop that completely re-fuels me in about 20 seconds instead of 2 - 3 minutes which has saved me a TON of time. I have a couple weapons now to help get me out of the bubble.

So now I'm out on my third exploration trip. I headed coreward and I'm jumping through the void over to the adjacent galactic arm which is far more dense than our local one. I'm not really stopping to explore unless I see something really interesting. I stopped in one system that had a blue giant (I think, could be wrong) which was orbited by a pair of neutron stars. What's funny is I didn't realize they were neutron stars at first. I was flying towards the first one and thinking "12 light-seconds away and I can barely see it? Man that guy is tiny!" Then it dawned on me.

I suspect this trip might end in a Sag A* pilgrimage. I really like being away from the bubble, and while exploration is fun its duty cycle is low enough I can catch up on old TV shows or movies while exploring. (I'm currently watching the RoboCop TV series which is hilariously cheesy.)