Request for ideas from Explorers

Verson Geterix

Verson Geterix
Greeting Cmdrs,

I present myself at your venerable meeting place in search of your good council.

I would like to undertake a exploration trip, but I'm ashamed to say that I appear to be lacking in inspiration as to what the destination could be. I'm the sort who wants to go where no man has gone before, and I've done all my research, my ship build, testing and contingency planning. I learned a great deal from your legendary archive of knowledge, so thanks for that.

I envisage the trip could take weeks, or months - that's Ok. And my goal is to discover new worlds, and what was the other thing?... oh yes... not die. So I've been throwing myself at Neutron stars for example to train myself for such an eventuality and so forth.

I'll be ready to set off soon but to be honest, I look out across the Galaxy and see that it's homogeneous and isotropic. So I'm lacking a destination goal because it all looks the bloomin' same.

Your suggestions would be like Arpoonian Ice Trousers to me - very thrilling.

Geterix
 

tachyondecay

tachyondecay
I took others' advice and broke my teeth on a sight-seeing expedition out to the Horsehead Nebula and Barnard's Loop. These regions are fairly well explored, so you won't discover a lot of "new" things. But they are beautiful, and they aren't so far from the bubble that it's hard to get back if you go space-mad. I know you've said you've done your testing, etc., but there is nothing like being alone and out in the black until you actually go and do it.

If you really want to go off into the great unknown but don't know where to start, why not sign up for an expedition? That will give you a sense of purpose, social exploring can relieve some of the tedium. See the expedition hub post for a list of currently open expeditions. Most have Discord servers or a forum thread where you can get more information if you need it.

Note that every expedition is different in terms of duration and how you participate. If you don't want to rendezvous with other players and want to go it alone, that doesn't necessarily stop you from joining an expedition. Following my shakedown trip, I signed on to the Sagittarius-Carina Expedition, and I didn't have the opportunity to meet up with other players. But it was nice to have waypoints to follow and a dedicated place to discuss my discoveries. I've since put the expedition on hold to make a big detour to Colonia and to try out the 2.1/2.2 content I've so far missed. It was a lot of fun while I was on it, though!
 

StiTch

StiTch
There are two kinds of explorer. You will soon find which you are.

1) You go exploring. Take a ship you like and...go flying, son. That look nice? Yeah, let's go look at that space rock and contemplate it for an hour.

2) Hm....let's go somewhere like...Beagle point. That's a good explorer destination, there's a good bit of distance between it and my fine self. On we journe...OH MY GOD I'VE DONE FIVE JUMPS OUT OF THOUSANDS OF LIGHTYEARS AND MY HEART IS STOPPING FROM BOREDOM. DEAR LORD, SOMEONE BLOW ME UP OR SOMETHING INTERESTING.

This is all you need to know.
 
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Lance 'Spacecat' D.

Lance 'Spacecat' D.
(chuckles@StiTch)

My two cents would be that much of the interesting stuff is actually within ten kylies of sol. (Colonia and Jaques station notwithstanding) So don't hesitate to roll those passenger exploration missions, or go on a giant star chasing trip, or nebula sightseeing...
It's advisable to do a kylie long trip to break your teeth on, then something around 4-6 kylies, see how well you stand the repetition... My first big trip was to the Cat's Paw nebula, because it was calling me by name. ;)

Feel free to peruse the Hitchhiker's guide (link in my signature) for some short-range ideas...
 
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Cherokeedog

C
StiTch said:
There are two kinds of explorer. You will soon find which you are.

1) You go exploring. Take a ship you like and...go flying, son. That look nice? Yeah, let's go look at that space rock and contemplate it for an hour.

2) Hm....let's go somewhere like...Beagle point. That's a good explorer destination, there's a good bit of distance between it and my fine self. On we journe...OH MY GOD I'VE DONE FIVE JUMPS OUT OF THOUSANDS OF LIGHTYEARS AND MY HEART IS STOPPING FROM BOREDOM. DEAR LORD, SOMEONE BLOW ME UP OR SOMETHING INTERESTING.

This is all you need to know.
Click to expand...

This is actually the best input that can be given before you embark on your first exploration trip. I thought I was the first type of explorer. Turns out I needed to undertake yoga courses to restrain myself from hittin' the self destruct button.

My advice: set up a destination not more than 2000 ly away. Maybe go towards one of the stations on the way to Colonia/Jaques. The first 2 are pretty close to the bubble, yet far enough to get you a clear idea of how you feel about exploration. The locations are: Hillary Depot – Blu Thua AI-A c14-10, planet A 4 A and Amundsen Terminal – Lagoon Sector NI-S b4-10, planet 1 (not my work finding them). I haven't actually visited them, but if they have outfitting and repair, they may allow you to make adjustments to your ship, which you might feel opportune after the newly acquired experience.

You can also take a passenger, but that will put you on a timer to go back. If you decide to stay out there, you'll have to abandon the mission.

EDIT: Since I didn't visit those stations, I don't know if the systems require permits or not, so check that before you set course.
 
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Baroness Galaxy

Baroness Galaxy
Verson Geterix said:
Greeting Cmdrs,

I present myself at your venerable meeting place in search of your good council.

I would like to undertake a exploration trip, but I'm ashamed to say that I appear to be lacking in inspiration as to what the destination could be. I'm the sort who wants to go where no man has gone before, and I've done all my research, my ship build, testing and contingency planning. I learned a great deal from your legendary archive of knowledge, so thanks for that.

I envisage the trip could take weeks, or months - that's Ok. And my goal is to discover new worlds, and what was the other thing?... oh yes... not die. So I've been throwing myself at Neutron stars for example to train myself for such an eventuality and so forth.

I'll be ready to set off soon but to be honest, I look out across the Galaxy and see that it's homogeneous and isotropic. So I'm lacking a destination goal because it all looks the bloomin' same.

Your suggestions would be like Arpoonian Ice Trousers to me - very thrilling.

Geterix
Click to expand...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rHUDWjR5gg&list=PL8dPuuaLjXtPAJr1ysd5yGIyiSFuh0mIL
 

Andrew Gaspurr

Andrew Gaspurr
"I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking."

With that in heart and mind, switch to the GalMap, zoom out, close your eyes, put your index finger somewhere on the Milky Way. Then go there. And please let us know what you find. :cool:
 

marx

marx
My advice is that since you said the galaxy is homogenous and isotropic, visit the different regions where it's not. Go to the edge (I recommend the near edge to the South), go visit the core. Take a look at the Galactic Mapping Project, browse around, see whether there's any place, region or whatnot that might interest you, and head there.
You can also check via EDSM where other explorers have gone before (I recommend using EDDiscovery for this), there are entire regions that have barely been touched, or not at all. Why not pick one and head there? Although I'd still recommend the extremes first: the edge, the core, and also the bottom (or top) of the core. Looking at the galaxy from 3000 ly above is quite something.
 

Kenneth McGrew

Kenneth McGrew
just point your ship in one direction and go, although i would recommend exploration in bite sized chunks stopping at way-points along the way, setting yourself a goal of 65kly to beagle right off the bat so to speak is only for a select few folk.

for a bit of a mix up just select a system from your left hand panel and go there, don't look at the galaxy map just keep doing that, you could be going in circles, in a line up, down, who knows...
 

Andrew Gaspurr

Andrew Gaspurr
Ah,one more thing: If you are interested in astronomy, you might want to browse the Astronomy Picture Of The Day (APOD) page and have a look at some of the prominent nebulae pictures. It's unlikely that they are undiscovered or not visited in the game but it gives you a nice reference about how real space things are put into the game.

Make sure those APOD picutres show objects that lie in the Milky Way, though. Saves travel time :D
 
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goemon

goemon
I'm "currently" working down my list of real galaxy hypergiants.

of the ~60 i could draw from various sources (simbad, wikipedia, nasa) AND locate them on the galaxy map i have visited two dozend till now.

and i'm still searching for the pistol star ... http://www.solstation.com/x-objects/pistol.htm ... if you would find it, you would be the first most probably!
 

Verson Geterix

Verson Geterix
I didn't expect such a great range if ideas. From 'roll some dice' to 'join a galactic mapping project'. Thank you for all of these suggestions.
I'm going to start by exploring the links you've provided before I do anything else. These look very interesting.

I should have said that the isolation and repetition will not be a problem for me, and if I had, then Cmdrs wishing to save me from going mad could have rested assured. But I'm grateful for these comments as much as the others because they are very relevant.

One very important thing: I have a tendency to bite off more than I can chew sometimes, and so your advice warning against that are particularly pertinent to me.

Thanks again Cmdrs.
 

CMDR Pugwash

CMDR Pugwash
I, like you, am just trying it out. To test my ship and learn the ropes I'm heading out to Hillary Depot @ Blu Thua AI-A c14-10 which is about 2.2k on the way to Colonia. I'm currently parked on an Ice moon about 3/4 way there.

It's a great feeling.

Edit - Well my ship is there, I'm at work :(
 
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goemon

goemon
Verson Geterix said:
I didn't expect such a great range if ideas. From 'roll some dice' to 'join a galactic mapping project'. Thank you for all of these suggestions.
I'm going to start by exploring the links you've provided before I do anything else. These look very interesting.

I should have said that the isolation and repetition will not be a problem for me, and if I had, then Cmdrs wishing to save me from going mad could have rested assured. But I'm grateful for these comments as much as the others because they are very relevant.

One very important thing: I have a tendency to bite off more than I can chew sometimes, and so your advice warning against that are particularly pertinent to me.

Thanks again Cmdrs.
Click to expand...

a fun little project, which will teach you a lot about everything exploration, is to try to reach the highest point above sol, or below sol. e.g. coordinates 0/+- 1500/0.

needs manual routeplotting, jumping on fumes, maybe some synthesis - and you can do it in 2-3 hours.
 

Satsuma

Satsuma
StiTch's advice is actually fantastic, for a number of reasons:

  • First, of course, you don't really know if you like exploring until you try it.
  • What you think you need to bring and what you actually end up wanting to bring are two different things. Taking a few short (< 5000 light year) trips can help you figure that out. 5000 light years is far enough that you'll get into your own individual exploration routine, but short enough that you can live with your mistakes and get back quickly to correct them.
  • There are a few basic mistakes that most explorers make (lithobraking, faceplanting a star because you get lulled by the routine, fuel emergencies from not paying attention to your route, etc), and we tend to make them early in our exploration careers. If your first big trip is a 250,000 light year expedition extraordinaire, you're very likely to find yourself 5,000 light years out with 40% hull remaining wondering if you can really do this.

I wrote a thread a while back about the history of astronomy, and each post featured some astronomical object with a blurb about why it was significant. Most of them are pretty close (for instance, 61 cygni, the first star to have its parallax and thus its distance measured). It might make for a fun training trip to go visiting some of them.
 

[VR] optimal_909

[VR] optimal_909
I think you should head towards the Colonia.

On one hand you can still find lots of unexplored systems en route, on the other hand you can get your dose of civilization at the outposts and in the Colonia itself.
If you like the taste of it, the Colonia is an excellent hub to head to very interesting places, if not... you can take the sidewinder option that takes you back to the bubble.

For me, the excitement of flying into undiscovered systems is essential, so I never bothered to head to places like Barnard's Loop, where almost everything is discovered.
 

Ashnak

Ashnak
... if you want to avoid faceplanting stars (or at least on reason for it), don't set your computer to unlock on facial recognition.
It's a nice enough gag, but when you turn away from the camera during a jump (e.g. because you want to open the door right next to you to let the cat in or out), the 'puter may decide to lock the screen and wait for your return. While, in a lot of cases, this may not necessarily be a problem, it could turn into one when you hear the sound of frameshift reentry and the computer just tells you "dismiss lock screen". After that, the next thing you see is a close-up of a K type star and the sound of an emergency drop.

Ok, could have been a lot worse, could have been a neutron star or white dwarf, but those are astonishingly rare between Sacaqawea Space Port and Eagle's Landing. Just boring old K, A, M's with next to no even remotely interesting planets (but a few L's, Y's and TTS's thrown in for a change). At the moment, I'm glad if I see an interestingly patterned gas giant :rolleyes:
Just another 3800 ly to go until Eagle's landing. But at least the background is nice.

I'm just glad that the next time I'll be doing this trip, I'll fly something with ~20 jumps per tank, so I won't have to refuel on every star.
 
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