Couple wee question

[verminstar]

So I'm a 6 week old new player who didn't plan my expedition out very well, although I have done ok so far. Bout a week out now but turning back at 1.5k ly...I see that as a learning experience and am on my way back in to make some changes to ship loadout and stuff and just wanted to pick thy brains a wee touch. Sorry fer the noobish questions in advance.

First...lotta guys talk about various regions that have names but none of these are marked on my map. Am I missing some part of the map here cos I have no idea where a lotta you guys are talking about at all...this beagle point for example...I couldn't even guess what end the map thats on.

Second...can I fit more than one fuel tank and will it be represented in the same way that cargo stacks up and just become one bigger fuel tank?

Third...since going out, I can't seem to scan from the ship above the 2k altitude level. It just appears to not be working yet when I find large quantities all around the second I switch to rover...is that part of the ship broken or am I doing something wrong? Wasn't like this before.

Fourth...sorry bout this...on my way out I honestly thought I wouldn't see anything "man made" after about a thousand ly, only to find a crashed probe that I could make a data link with at 1.2k ly...how far out have those probes gone anyway?

Lastly...is there anyway of determining what planet has what resources? I been looking for zinc for so long that I now have to find it in the next day or two or go back...forward planning never really my thing so I have started plotting my route back anyway, but haven't actually started yet until I pick yer brains a bit. I'm absolutely loving the solitude out there and will be doing what I have to do quickly before going back out again for a (hopefully) much longer trip out, but really gotta make a few changes...like I said, I'm a 6 week old noob so can be forgiven for fluffing the first trip out, although I'll be chuffed to bits if I can make it back and hand in my data...be nice to see "discovered by verminstar" on my way out again.

Thanks in advance ^^

 

[Bartizan]

First off, don't be discouraged by having to turn back. We all went through the crawl before you can walk or run phase. Shakedown runs are almost essential prior to long explores.
I'll try to answer your questions.
1. There are some nicknames for regions given by players, there is no easy way to help you other than searching the forums or web for names you hear about for more details.
2. When you add tanks, it basically adds them together...your fuel status will be for the aggregate of the tanks.
3. Not sure what you mean on this one to be honest.
4. You will see man made stuff (debris, wrecks, etc) as far as 10k ly....probes even further. I think I found an escape pod about 20k once.
5. We cannot at this time know what a planet specifically has for resources but its been asked for repeatedly for sure.

Fly safe CMDR o7

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

By the way, This is a fantastic thread for explorers.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...The-Galactic-Mapping-Project?highlight=erimus

 

[Engadine]

Hi,

With regards to Beagle Point, search for it in the Gal Map. It was renamed from it's previous system name to Beagle Point a short while back.

Regards

 

[Brother Sabathius]

So I'm a 6 week old new player who didn't plan my expedition out very well, although I have done ok so far. Bout a week out now but turning back at 1.5k ly...I see that as a learning experience and am on my way back in to make some changes to ship loadout and stuff and just wanted to pick thy brains a wee touch. Sorry fer the noobish questions in advance.

First...lotta guys talk about various regions that have names but none of these are marked on my map. Am I missing some part of the map here cos I have no idea where a lotta you guys are talking about at all...this beagle point for example...I couldn't even guess what end the map thats on.

Second...can I fit more than one fuel tank and will it be represented in the same way that cargo stacks up and just become one bigger fuel tank?

Third...since going out, I can't seem to scan from the ship above the 2k altitude level. It just appears to not be working yet when I find large quantities all around the second I switch to rover...is that part of the ship broken or am I doing something wrong? Wasn't like this before.

Fourth...sorry bout this...on my way out I honestly thought I wouldn't see anything "man made" after about a thousand ly, only to find a crashed probe that I could make a data link with at 1.2k ly...how far out have those probes gone anyway?

Lastly...is there anyway of determining what planet has what resources? I been looking for zinc for so long that I now have to find it in the next day or two or go back...forward planning never really my thing so I have started plotting my route back anyway, but haven't actually started yet until I pick yer brains a bit. I'm absolutely loving the solitude out there and will be doing what I have to do quickly before going back out again for a (hopefully) much longer trip out, but really gotta make a few changes...like I said, I'm a 6 week old noob so can be forgiven for fluffing the first trip out, although I'll be chuffed to bits if I can make it back and hand in my data...be nice to see "discovered by verminstar" on my way out again.

Thanks in advance ^^

Well done for getting out there. I'll have a go at the questions.

1. Many of these are community names and don't appear in the galaxy map, but others will be the actual sector names. Have a look in the Galactic Mapping Project thread to find out more about the layout of the galaxy. Beagle Point has been re-named by FD and can be searched on the galaxy map (It's waaaaaaay over at the other side )

2. You can fit more than one tank, and they work exactly the same as cargo racks. They are not often needed however, it depends which ship you are using as to whether it will be a benefit. Fit the best fuel scoop you can afford though, always.

3. Not quite sure what you mean here. You should pick up POIs from the ship as blue circles when above 2KM altitude, they will disappear as you go lower and can then be located from the SRV. This hasn't changed and I don't think you can break it unless you have switched the sensors off. Make sure you've zoomed the sensors all the way out too.

4. You'll need to be approaching 10KLY out before that kind of stuff disappears (almost) completely. They get increasingly rare the further out you are.

5. Not without landing and breaking some rocks. Certain planet types will tend to have certain types though. Metal Rich and HMC are the best bets for Zinc, followed by Rocky and Icy. However, you won't find Sulphur or Phosphorus on Metal Rich, ever, so if you need SRV fuel, don't look for it on a MR planet. If you take a Mining Laser, you can also now mine materials from rings and asteroid belts.

No problem to ask for help, plenty of people will assist with ship loadouts and anything else you need to know. When you do return, pick a safe system right on the edge of the bubble, with a station close to the entry point. That's your best bet, I chose Eleu when I returned, and I still have another ship to get back. I may make use of the services of Iridium Wing, who are a player group dedicated to giving fighter escort to returning explorers.

Good luck!

 

[Mengy]

Second...can I fit more than one fuel tank and will it be represented in the same way that cargo stacks up and just become one bigger fuel tank?

Yes, but something I’ve learned (or stubbornly accepted) in the past year is to actually fly with a half sized fuel tank. My Asp has a 16T tank instead of the default 32T tank. Yes this means you can’t make as many consecutive jumps without fuel scooping, but there are some big advantages:

1. You do fill that smaller tank faster when scooping. I now scoop around the star on every jump while the FSD is cooling down, by the time I can jump again (20 seconds) my tank is topped off and ready to go!
2. The smaller tank lowers your ship’s mass, which also increases your max jump range on a full tank, which is what the route plotter uses when plotting courses, and it always uses this full tank range number when plotting courses. The half tank means I can travel faster and jump farther during routes, again saving time.

The caveat to this is when jumping through fields of unscoopables you need to be careful not to strand yourself due to low fuel and zero scoopable stars in range. This is a rare occurrence though and careful flying mostly negates it honestly, coupled with always keeping a few FSD boosts on board for emergencies and it really becomes hard to get yourself stranded like this. Plus economy plotting is always an option if you have to.

 

[verminstar]

Well done for getting out there. I'll have a go at the questions.

1. Many of these are community names and don't appear in the galaxy map, but others will be the actual sector names. Have a look in the Galactic Mapping Project thread to find out more about the layout of the galaxy. Beagle Point has been re-named by FD and can be searched on the galaxy map (It's waaaaaaay over at the other side )

2. You can fit more than one tank, and they work exactly the same as cargo racks. They are not often needed however, it depends which ship you are using as to whether it will be a benefit. Fit the best fuel scoop you can afford though, always.

3. Not quite sure what you mean here. You should pick up POIs from the ship as blue circles when above 2KM altitude, they will disappear as you go lower and can then be located from the SRV. This hasn't changed and I don't think you can break it unless you have switched the sensors off. Make sure you've zoomed the sensors all the way out too.

4. You'll need to be approaching 10KLY out before that kind of stuff disappears (almost) completely. They get increasingly rare the further out you are.

5. Not without landing and breaking some rocks. Certain planet types will tend to have certain types though. Metal Rich and HMC are the best bets for Zinc, followed by Rocky and Icy. However, you won't find Sulphur or Phosphorus on Metal Rich, ever, so if you need SRV fuel, don't look for it on a MR planet. If you take a Mining Laser, you can also now mine materials from rings and asteroid belts.

No problem to ask for help, plenty of people will assist with ship loadouts and anything else you need to know. When you do return, pick a safe system right on the edge of the bubble, with a station close to the entry point. That's your best bet, I chose Eleu when I returned, and I still have another ship to get back. I may make use of the services of Iridium Wing, who are a player group dedicated to giving fighter escort to returning explorers.

Good luck!

Ah ye thanks for the replies guys. Ok yeah, I get the whole map region thing now, was having a wee browse through this section of the forum and found a few pictures that I borrowed a little copy from. That should do the trick until I can burn it onto my memory.

And that's me happy now I know about fitting multiple fuel tanks...I found a particularly large area of red suns that are largely unexplored, but it was nerve racking going through it because that's all that's there plus a plethora of planets which I have bookmarked for "later on" sorta thing. Memorable because I went into this area on a full tank, but had to search out fuel suns twice while in the area and almost ran outta fuel before I seemingly cleared the area...memorable too because not a single one of the systems I went through had been discovered...mine all mine I tell you! I don't want to string several together, just add another tank to take the pressure off refuelling.

As far as refuelling goes, that's one the changes I need to make. I got a 3A scoop which I thought I could just be patient with, but in practice, its a pain in the left bollock with the right one starting to throb. Also fairly sure I can ditch the guns which will extend my range a little I think. I'm using an asp explorer as i picked up from various sources that it was simply the best ship for the job...in practice, I love it way more than the vulture and the cobra mk3 I had, although I miss the speed of the mk3. I like to think I did ok getting as far as I have while using nothing more than some research on these forums, some guesswork and some simple common sense which allows for human error, but I really do need to turn back and make some changes. I'll pat myself on the back after I hand in my scans because this only started as i was literally escaping that horrid ai of the bubble. What I cursed at FD for at the time has now turned into a new found passion for me...it's the idea of having a holy grail mission to find earth like planets and places nobody else has so much as seen...to me that's just way too tempting to pass up on and i've just had my first taste...I want more ^^

Fitting a couple mining cannons...would that not mean fitting a refinery too? I dunno, I know absolutely zero about mining and come from a game in which mining was very boring, so have steered well clear until those memories have been cleared out of my brain.

Yes the scanning in the ship above 2k...I never had an issue with this before, but since the last update, it hasn't worked at all for me. I'm really not doing anything different from what I was doing before when I was practicing it in the bubble and the only difference I can see is that I now have an advanced surface scanner. The blue highlights simply do not show anymore...it's really not working at all unless I'm missing something really obvious.

Is there a way of grading the high metal content planets on their colour? Surely there must be some sorta scaling on them because they don't all look the same.

Oh, and considering FD is a British company, why then does spellchecker still correct me with UK grammar?

 

[verminstar]

Yes, but something I’ve learned (or stubbornly accepted) in the past year is to actually fly with a half sized fuel tank. My Asp has a 16T tank instead of the default 32T tank. Yes this means you can’t make as many consecutive jumps without fuel scooping, but there are some big advantages:

1. You do fill that smaller tank faster when scooping. I now scoop around the star on every jump while the FSD is cooling down, by the time I can jump again (20 seconds) my tank is topped off and ready to go!
2. The smaller tank lowers your ship’s mass, which also increases your max jump range on a full tank, which is what the route plotter uses when plotting courses, and it always uses this full tank range number when plotting courses. The half tank means I can travel faster and jump farther during routes, again saving time.

The caveat to this is when jumping through fields of unscoopables you need to be careful not to strand yourself due to low fuel and zero scoopable stars in range. This is a rare occurrence though and careful flying mostly negates it honestly, coupled with always keeping a few FSD boosts on board for emergencies and it really becomes hard to get yourself stranded like this. Plus economy plotting is always an option if you have to.

Still getting used to the information overload...so much to take in and learn but getting there. My issue was related to the sorta place ye do warn about though and it scared me plenty enough that I would get stranded...only for 2 pieces of luck, I would have been enjoying my 30 minutes song to the stars before inevitable death and fast taxi back to base camp for tea and scones.

I can see the logic of using a smaller tank to decrease mass, but I'm still learning my way around the map...course plotting is spent still comparing notes on post it notes and takes me ages cos I double check everything. Old habits and all that. While more range is by no means to be sniffed at, I wouldn't wanna get get out. Ye wouldn't take a road bike to a freeride and downhill mtb track...yeah bad analogy but best I could think of and i got a long way to go sittin here gettin distracted ^^

 

[Deepfriedmal]

The question of 'which size fuel tank to have' depends on what type of explorer you want to be. I have as much fuel tank as I can, this gives me to option to go to several stars that I can't fuel scoop from, do my discovery bit and get out again without worrying about how much fuel I have left. Saying that you will need to plot your course to take account of somewhere to refuel.. so many options so many choices....

Mal

 

[verminstar]

The question of 'which size fuel tank to have' depends on what type of explorer you want to be. I have as much fuel tank as I can, this gives me to option to go to several stars that I can't fuel scoop from, do my discovery bit and get out again without worrying about how much fuel I have left. Saying that you will need to plot your course to take account of somewhere to refuel.. so many options so many choices....

Mal

That pretty much describes why I asked the question. On my first venture out, I did indeed come across a 250ly stretch of systems where a fuel sun can't be found fer love nor money...every system I entered was a red sun, dunno what ye call them just that I can't refuel on them. First time I tried to go through it, I had to turn back and the second time had to go around which meant a fairly drastic change in direction. While little detours are just another part of the exploration, I did realize that I simply needed more fuel capacity so I can go and explore these areas without needing a refuel every half dozen jumps.

Made port last night/this morning and got to hand in the scans I made over the course of a week...hardly groundbreaking stuff but not bad for a first attempt and I did make it back in one piece. Made some fairly major changes to the asp setup and am now on my way back out...did a good 800ly this morning and found a nice unexplored double metal planet system to park up in. And really, apart from a star and an asteroid field, the two hm planets really are the only other two contacts in the whole system so I'll have this one too.

Took the same route back out that I used coming in...was a smile moment seeing bout half a dozen systems "discovered by verminstar". Still not what I consider to be far out, I'm still surprised to find so many unexplored systems and others where maybe just the star has been claimed.

As for what type of explorer I am? I find a system I like and I claim everything in it, even the asteroid belts. Holy grail for me is to find an earth like planet that has never been found before ending with a black hole which I will fly into at full speed while screaming "leeroy lives forever!"

Honestly? I'm still too new here to have that part really figured out...I'll worry bout the details later ^^

 

[Traveller_GG]

When you hit a patch of unscoopables: think 3D. Don't go left or right; go up or down. The unscoopable stars tend to congregate on a particular plane of the Galaxy, so just go above or below it.

You'll find that the majority of unscoopable systems will be undiscovered because, well.... we avoid them. See a brown dwarf and jump straight out after honking.

As to seeing POIs on the worlds... yep: they get much more rare the further out you go, so while you'll see lots of blue circles when you're in the bubble, nowadays (post update) they are far more rare out of it.

 

[iain666]

Still not what I consider to be far out, I'm still surprised to find so many unexplored systems and others where maybe just the star has been claimed.

"Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is."

Even close to the bubble there are so many systems, so many routes out. All ED players combined have discovered a tiny percent of a percent of them all (if it's even that many...). I saw a tag about 1,500 systems ago - it was the first on in about 3,000 systems, even close to civilisation away from the bee-lines to the obvious sights there's plenty. People are still finding undiscovered earth likes within spitting distance of Sol.

As for the only-the-star-tagged thing, most of us start out scanning everything. After spending some greater or lesser time averaging 45 minutes or more per system we all start to get more selective

My first 1,000 systems took me 6 months the last thousand about a week and a half - and I'm quite slow and still scan a lot by the standards of some of the people round here.

 

[verminstar]

"Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is."

Even close to the bubble there are so many systems, so many routes out. All ED players combined have discovered a tiny percent of a percent of them all (if it's even that many...). I saw a tag about 1,500 systems ago - it was the first on in about 3,000 systems, even close to civilisation away from the bee-lines to the obvious sights there's plenty. People are still finding undiscovered earth likes within spitting distance of Sol.

As for the only-the-star-tagged thing, most of us start out scanning everything. After spending some greater or lesser time averaging 45 minutes or more per system we all start to get more selective

My first 1,000 systems took me 6 months the last thousand about a week and a half - and I'm quite slow and still scan a lot by the standards of some of the people round here.

When I think back to checking the distances from where I was playing in the bubble to the 1k ly mark was actually the eye opener. I thought I would be halfway up that arm when the reality being I'm a fraction of a fraction through it...still dunno the names my bad but its the one where all the systems have a dirty smog sorta feel about them and all seem to look more or less the same. I genuinely thought 1.4k ly was fairly good going but now I see it's nothing but a sunday afternoon stroll I was on.

I'm finding myself more drawn to the unscanable systems with the brown dwarf stars...I actually want to explore them which is why I now have double the fuel capacity from before. To my thinking, the best systems would logically be the hardest ones to find, so what better place to look? I'm probably wrong but it will be fun finding that out and if I run outta fuel, ye can all say "told ya" afterwards after I make posts begging the fuel rats to come save my hide.

Even with that prospect, I'm still gonna try...you guys have done the challenging learning curve...I'm still enjoying mine because it's still my first time here more or less ^^

 

[CDR Michael Darkmoor]

The Belts are not worth anything at all.... Even when you scan them they are Zero Credit and no name attached (ever). The only thing you get from scanning them is the type of belt it is.
--
My first time out, I went out about 1000 Ly and found a nice Scoopable star to make my "Base Camp". From there I went to every single system listed on the contacts page (basically all the systems within 20 Ly of the central Base Camp). Scanning everything in that first 40 Ly Sphere was worth nearly 7 Mcr with the trip out and back included! (takes some time, Documentation and motivation though... Be warned )

 

[verminstar]

So it's fair to say that someone could well have passed through a top class system and not been aware of it? Maybe I just haven't been out here long enough to get to the point where I just don't check anymore...done it a few times where I just honk and move on although I try and throw a quick glance at every system map on every jump just to see if any little gems are tucked away in there.

I've heard of others saying that earth like planets are like the big cheese to find, and while I have found one, I couldn't land on it. Are there any where ye can and why are they so special apart from the fact they look gorgeous up close and they rare? Do they have resources or is the scan just worth loads back in the world? As much as they like the holy grail of exploring, I'm not sure I can figure out why ^^

 

[CMDR CHIGGY VONRICTOFEN]

So it's fair to say that someone could well have passed through a top class system and not been aware of it? Maybe I just haven't been out here long enough to get to the point where I just don't check anymore...done it a few times where I just honk and move on although I try and throw a quick glance at every system map on every jump just to see if any little gems are tucked away in there.

I've heard of others saying that earth like planets are like the big cheese to find, and while I have found one, I couldn't land on it. Are there any where ye can and why are they so special apart from the fact they look gorgeous up close and they rare? Do they have resources or is the scan just worth loads back in the world? As much as they like the holy grail of exploring, I'm not sure I can figure out why ^^

Not that it's alot, but they do pay the most (around 90,000 credits with first discovery bonus) not much more than a large teraformable water world, although the ELW is about 15-20 times more rare. The rarest are the ringed ELWs. (although, once again no more valuable than a standard ELW) Out of the 484 ELWs I have found and tagged, only 3 were ringed.

 

[verminstar]

Not that it's alot, but they do pay the most (around 90,000 credits with first discovery bonus) not much more than a large teraformable water world, although the ELW is about 15-20 times more rare. The rarest are the ringed ELWs. (although, once again no more valuable than a standard ELW) Out of the 484 ELWs I have found and tagged, only 3 were ringed.

I'm assuming there ringed planets which can be farmed for resources...I've already come across 2 ringed planets sis by side and both of which has the planetary landing icon on them. Anything special about them or are they just hmc planets with rings? I'm guessing that's pretty rare too as I've only seen one instance of this so far.

 

[iain666]

Rings can be mined. I believe they now drop materials for Horizons/Engineers gubbins that you can just scoop up, for metals and minerals that you can sell as cargo you need refining gear on board.

Currently you can only land on rocky/icy/HMC planets with no atmosphere and no active volcanism. Volcanoes and atmospheric flight/landing will be added in later seasons but for now earth like worlds are just for the thrill of a pale blue dot and finding one of the rarest things in the game. Plus credits and bragging rights.

Chiggy's 484 is a very high count - and he hit his 50,000th system the other day with a lot of explicitly travelling around the systems most likely to contain earth like worlds (A, F, G class stars where the system name is sector (sector) XX-X Dn-n) to maximise his chance to find them but you can find them anywhere, even where they really shouldn't be, like orbiting a lone neutron star or black hole...

You can run around the unscoopable systems for ages if you're careful, especially where the star density is high. There will usually be a scoopable a couple of jumps straight up or down if there isn't one in your plane. If you plot a route on the galaxy map it gets marked out with a solid line to the point where your fuel will run out and then goes dotted beyond that so you can look ahead and see if you'll hit a scoopable before that happens. Beware that it doesn't account for your small tank refilling from the big one - I always check that the last two before the line goes dotted are scoopable as I have had an instance where the small tank refilled as the FSD countdown was happening for the jump into the penultimate system and that refill left the next jump no longer achievable without scooping. That is once in nearly 16,000 jumps like so it's not exactly common...

Pairs of ringed HMCs are not that rare - they can make for pretty pictures though

Spoiler

 

[Gaffa]

G'day all,
i too am a beginner Explorer in my 30ly Asp. On my second shakedown cruise about 500ly's out and about to turn back in for a refit and to sell the mapping data I have. Thanks for this article as will read thru it again and digest before I again head out furthur.
Yours Aye
D38

 

[Sniffy75]

As far as working out your best load out, this site is very handy: https://coriolis.io/
A tip is to use D rated modules where practical except for the fuel scoop and FSD since they weigh less and therefore increase your range.

 

[verminstar]

Fitting the asp for mining just ain't what I had in mind...money isn't really an issue and I swapped my cargo hold for another fuel tank anyway. I'll also admit that the last game I came from, mining was a dullard dead end no hope voted most boring activity of all time, so I may have this mental block to even finding out any info on it, let alone refitting a ship to do it. I'm happy nuff just sticking to the actual exploration aspect for now because selling what I get means going back to the bubble and the main reason I came out here earlier than I planned was because of my desire to stay away from the nightmare ai that inhabits the bubble...if I mined, then I would have to go back and that just ain't gonna happen unless I have absolutely no choice whatsoever.

So after some refitting, I am again in the black. Got a shade over 26ly jump range which ain't top of the class but it's enough. Still haven't found beagle point...tried typing it in several times but it simply doesnt exist. At this point in time, I don't even know what end of the map its on but if it's as popular as it sounds, then there will be bucket loads of explorers there so everything in the area would be already discovered anyway. I'll find it one day maybe, who knows.

Had to go back in last time because I simply couldn't find zinc anywhere...bout 1100ly on the way back out, not only found zinc but about 3 other rare materials I haven't come across before including tin, which, to my way of thinking should have been one the most common. The ship scanner that is supposed to scan at 2km height from a planets surface...still not working the way it used to...tried everything but nothing...not a sausage and have no idea why it's not working now when it was working a month ago when i was first learning how to use it.

Haven't seen another player claimed system for over 500ly...it's as though nobody has ever came through this neck of the woods...ever ^^