Wanderlust is building - Min jump range to explore?

[Jackie Silver]

Just feels wrong to have empty internal slots for some reason

If you have empty internal slots, might as well fit them with a cargo bay or a spare AFMU; you can always turn the power off on the AFMU until you need it. Both are zero mass.

You might also consider fitting a very small (1D) hull reinforcement package with a grade 5 lightweight modification on it, which could increase the survivability of the ship in the event of unplanned lithobraking.

 

[+vlas+]

The sidewinder is a great little explorer. Very cozy, and very maneuverable. In addition to the scanners and fuel scoop, my Sidewinder has an AMFU. Jump range is just over 21 LY. Don't worry so much about getting a bigger fuel scoop, as one thing you have out on exploration is time to scoop and look at the scenery. Went about 1300 LY and made about 3 MCr on my last trip, so the Sidewinder is a very capable explorer.

After looking at my options, I am now outfitting a Type 6. On top of what I have in my Sidewinder, it will have shields, a cargo bay, 2 SRVs and a jump range of about 28. Can't really ask for more.

 

[Madrax573]

Thanks for the input guys.

My version of exploring to start with is to pick a direction (hell I might even just roll a dice and go in direction the 1 is facing ) and go sightseeing and grab some nice screenshots on the way. If I'm lucky I'll get a nice little story or two out of it for my blog.

From what has been said I'm happy that my Cobra MK IV will be fine. I might even go and say hello to Farseer and get a few lvl 1-2 mods just cos I can.

Cheers all see you out in the black o7

 

[CMDR Space Lurker]

If your dice points you corewards, there's no real need for engineering... if it points you rimwards, anything less than 30LY will become frustrating pretty soon. If you want to Wander among the Stars, I say go vaugely corewards... there's soooo many more stars to wander among there anyhow.

 

[disorganise]

My first "big" jaunt was in. Mk3 Cobra to Barnards Loop with around 15ly jump

2 weeks on economical scanning every last rock even though they were tagged
2 weeksbon economical scanning anything and everything untagged....even if it was 500k ls away
4 weeks on economical scanning anything untagged less than 100k ls away
4 weeks on fastest route scanning random stuff and *actually moving somewhere "

Great experience. But when I got a T6 with around 24ly I was impressed by how much quicker it was to get to Maia.....and how much slower it was for everything else....like turning.

But.....I was most impressed by heading core wards with DWE. The sheer number of stars in the panarama is totally amazing. Like others have said, jump range is only a factor when you want to *get somewhere else*.

 

[iain666]

if it points you rimwards, anything less than 30LY will become frustrating pretty soon. If you want to Wander among the Stars, I say go vaugely corewards... there's soooo many more stars to wander among there anyhow.

Meh, I've been on the rim for the last year and a bit with 26ly, it's not so bad.

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

Contrary to others, I am always exploring with the best thrusters available for two reasons:
- It makes planetary flight better as this ship is faster and perhaps easier to control
- It does give you a bit of comfort upon returning to inhabited space (in case you are interdicted) + who knows, we have to run from Tharguys as well

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Meh, I've been on the rim for the last year and a bit with 26ly, it's not so bad.

Went to BP in a 23.7 ly Keelback.

 

[James Razor]

I did my SgrA*-Trip with a 19Ly Python. The trick was to fit 96t of Fuel in total to it, so i could do a lot of jumps in a row without stoping if i wanted to make a lot of Ly fast. Prior i did shorter trips (1000 Ly around the bubble) in a 20Ly Cobra. I think that this is the minimum viable distance tbh.
It also depends on where u plan to go. If u go far outside the galactic plane or to the edge of the galaxy, 20Ly will be actually too short.

I currently use a heavy weight Anaconda with mods that does 31.1 Ly for my trip in the direction of Jaques and found that okish in terms of travel time. Again, i do carry a larger fuel tank to be able to do a lot of jumps in quick succession if needed. If you want to put your name all over the place you should try to go to a specific region and than switch to economic jumps. Also, for lots of first discoveries, avoid the nebulas.

 

[Madrax573]

Cheers for the info.

While I'd love to have my name tagged to a system or some such that's not really my goal.

I'm really just interested and seeing whats out there for now. I don't have any specific area in mind just away from the bubble so far. I'm thinking that I'll probably end up getting myself a Python or ASP-E as my go to general all rounder ship anyways eventually so Range shouldn't be as much of an issue then

 

[iain666]

While I'd love to have my name tagged to a system or some such that's not really my goal.

You really don't have to go very far before it's all but guaranteed you'll hit an untagged system. A few hundred light years from the bubble you need to be a bit lucky to hit virgin territory, a few thousand and you'll need to be very unlucky not to.

 

[Madrax573]

You really don't have to go very far before it's all but guaranteed you'll hit an untagged system. A few hundred light years from the bubble you need to be a bit lucky to hit virgin territory, a few thousand and you'll need to be very unlucky not to.

Cool I might get my name on a few after all

 

[AgingGamer]

Cool I might get my name on a few after all

I'm a newbie explorer myself, Madrax, having just one 'significant' trip in my history. I can attest to the 'you'll get discoveries if you go 1000 Ly out' premise.

My trip was 1,800 Ly one way, 4,000 Ly total with some wandering around. I went to a common point of interest- Vy Canis Majoris. By my accounting, I discovered 22 'primaries' i.e.: systems where the primary star was undiscovered until I arrived. I got discovery credit for at least three times that number of stars in total (including a lot of secondary stars within 50k Ls of the primary), and many dozens of planets. I kept rough track of my discoveries on a spreadsheet- one line per system where I discovered something, with columns for what kinds of bodies I'd found.

Of course, you need to get back safely and turn in your data to the cartographers to get 'credit' for the discovery (I.e.: get your name on the objects). And someone can beat you to it by exploring the same system and turning in the data first I suppose. But I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that even at this late date you don't need to invest weeks to get your name out there. The galaxy really is a big place.

Side note: my jump range was almost exactly 30 Ly, and I found that worked out pretty well for the whole trip. I carried enough fuel for 12 jumps (96 tons in my case), and have a nice, high capacity (fast) scoop. I suppose I admire the folks who fly in stripped-down rigs that get 50+ Ly per jump, but for myself... I like having the little luxuries, like shields and guns. As some say, you won't be interdicted/encounter pirates for 99% of your trip... but I was interdicted twice on the way out and three times on the way back. It would really, really suck to go all that way to lose all that exploration data in a puff of sparkly smoke ejected to the void...

 

[Manticore]

you really don't have to. people have been exploring before (and after) engineering.

+1.

@OP: In my opinion anything under 20LY's range is hazardous as there are star-fields loaded with stars you can't scoop (red dwarfs and brown dwarf sub-stellar objects) and also some sectors that now seemed to be closed of by the need for permits.

If you get bottle-necked in any of those and you have too little jump range to back-track you will potentially end up running out of fuel and then it's either self-destruct or waiting for the air supply to run out and it's back to the insurance screen or, in the worst-case scenarios, bankruptcy.

 

[Madrax573]

+1.

@OP: In my opinion anything under 20LY's range is hazardous as there are star-fields loaded with stars you can't scoop (red dwarfs and brown dwarf sub-stellar objects) and also some sectors that now seemed to be closed of by the need for permits.

If you get bottle-necked in any of those and you have too little jump range to back-track you will potentially end up running out of fuel and then it's either self-destruct or waiting for the air supply to run out and it's back to the insurance screen or, in the worst-case scenarios, bankruptcy.

I was thinking of this and that's why I wondered maybe fitting an extra fuel tank for the Cobra MKIV (lets face it there's plenty of internals ) to hopefully reduce the likelihood of this happening.

I also unlocked Farseer last night. Now I just have to upgrade the gear to A rate then hunt down the mats required to give me few goes to get to lvl 3 I think before it gets pretty hard to get them...

 

[Mysturji]

If you run out of fuel, use the Ratsignal.
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...of-Fuel-Explorer-Rescue-Service-The-Fuel-Rats

 

[Major Klutz]

I was thinking of this and that's why I wondered maybe fitting an extra fuel tank for the Cobra MKIV (lets face it there's plenty of internals ) to hopefully reduce the likelihood of this happening.
...

An extra fuel tank won't help your jump range, it will make your ship heavier, reduce your jump range and cause you to use more fuel per jump.
You always have the option of leaving your tanks half empty but the route plotter will plot jumps based on full tanks.
A better fuel scoop is a better option than an extra tank. IMO

 

[AgingGamer]

An extra fuel tank won't help your jump range, it will make your ship heavier, reduce your jump range and cause you to use more fuel per jump.
You always have the option of leaving your tanks half empty but the route plotter will plot jumps based on full tanks.
A better fuel scoop is a better option than an extra tank. IMO

Although I agree that a good scoop is a higher priority... adding an extra fuel tank is useful (IMO) once you've taken care of the scoop. Mostly it is a 'safety net' e.g.: if I get a couple of unscoopables in a row, I check the galaxy map to see where the next scoopable star is. If my total tank capacity is, say, only 4 jumps- I'm already in trouble after two unscoopable stars.

I like having something like ten jumps worth of fuel on board, so half a tank means I still have a healthy number of jumps available. I have more options with a greater fuel capacity, and more options are good. In my ship, the difference between 4 jumps and 12 jumps worth of fuel is a reduction in per-jump range of about a tenth of a Ly. I think that's a fair trade off.

 

[iain666]

if I get a couple of unscoopables in a row, I check the galaxy map to see where the next scoopable star is.

I always check the galaxy map to see what I'm going to before every jump and if it's not scoopable I assess whether the jump is safe to make prior to making it. If you're going to wait until you've jumped blind into your second unscoopable in a row before you check the galmap then having a buffer would be essential, if you get into the habit of checking every time then you should have no problem with not having an extra tank.

(If you're not checking the galmap regularly because you find it takes a long time to open then try leaving it realistic mode rather than map mode, it makes a significant difference)

 

[disorganise]

Although I agree that a good scoop is a higher priority... adding an extra fuel tank is useful (IMO) once you've taken care of the scoop. Mostly it is a 'safety net' e.g.: if I get a couple of unscoopables in a row, I check the galaxy map to see where the next scoopable star is. If my total tank capacity is, say, only 4 jumps- I'm already in trouble after two unscoopable stars.

I like having something like ten jumps worth of fuel on board, so half a tank means I still have a healthy number of jumps available. I have more options with a greater fuel capacity, and more options are good. In my ship, the difference between 4 jumps and 12 jumps worth of fuel is a reduction in per-jump range of about a tenth of a Ly. I think that's a fair trade off.

Little bit depends on whether you plan to be back before 2.2 or not. 2.2 will allow the route to be filtered to scoopables so it should be quite hard to run out.
You also have the option of economic mode which will dramatically increase the number of jumps you make per tank.

Saying that...I run the std tanks in an Asp (not extra but not reduced either) jump blind until fuel hits around a third and then check if there's a scoopable in the next few jumps with a solid line. If yes...no worries. If no, I plot the nearest scoopable by economic and refill.
Exception to that was in the abyss where I deliberately ran at about a quarter tank to increase jump range. Most exciting moment.....making a jump that used all the fuel "main tank drained" and just as "fuel scooping" kicked in, the wee tank refilled itself. A few seconds earlier and I would have been thrusterless and staring at the oxygen countdown. Yee hah.

 

[Madrax573]

Well I'll be probably doing a fair bit of map review and economy jumps as I'm more about looking st stuff than going great distances. But now I'm wondering if I should take my Viper IV rather than my Cobra IV as I've been doing some mission stuffs to see if i can get the mats for the engineers and my fully combat fit viper runs about 20ly laden.....hmmmmm