I left Jaques on Tuesday evening, heading for the bubble in a 19LY mildly engineered Python. It's going pretty well so far and I think others will want to go this route one way or the other, or both, so I'd like to share my tips to help speed you safely on your way.
It's really quite simple once you get the hang of it, but it does take a bit of practice. I practiced in the 2.2 Beta, when it was both safer and more Dangerous. The good news is that it doesn't seem to matter what ship you're in: I've done this in a Sidey, an Asp, a DBX and now a Python. So get a Sidey, add a fuel scoop, find a Neutron star or White Dwarf and practice. (White dwarfs are more difficult to scoop safely than Neutron stars, so they're good practice, and there are several in the bubble, but they only give a 50% boost, while Neutron stars give a 400% boost.)
Before you begin: Make sure you have an AFMU. Open the galaxy map (Star tab) and DE-select all star types except "Non-Sequence stars". There's no need to tick the "Apply filter to route" button.
Jaques is located below the galactic plane, and so are the bases dotted along the way (There are other threads about that. Fortunately, that's also where one of the huge neutron fields are. You'll want to head down to about 100 - 1000 LY below the galactic plane (The second number in the X,Y,Z coordinates shows this). At the right level? Good.
I'll assume you've just made your first jump to a Neutron star, and your throttle is at zero. Since the 2.2.02 fix, you should emerge about 0.71 LS away from the star, perpendicular to the jets.
1. Keep throttle at zero, honk and scan the star.
2. While the star is being scanned, open the galaxy map. Your jump range is in the bottom left corner of the Navigation tab. Multiply that number by 4 and target a Neutron star within that range.
3. Exit the galaxy map. The scan should have finished now. GENTLY accellerate towards one of the jets. Not too fast, an watch for the "gravity line" and stay outside it, but more importantly (because it won't show up if you're going too slow, which you want to do) watch out for the "IMPACT" warning near the top right of your screen. If you see it, veer away from the star until it goes away.
4. As you get close to the jet, pitch away from the star and slow down. You are now entering the jet diagonally, rather than straight across, meaning you will have more time to slow down once you enter it, and you run less risk of accidentally zooming into the star when you accelerate out of the jet, because you're facing away from the star. (If you go right through it without charging your FSD, you still take 1% damage to your FSD.)
5. As soon as you enter the jet (Your ship wobbles about, makes creaking noises and you get a warning message like "FSD tolerances exceeded" or something) ZERO THROTTLE.
6. As soon as you get a message like "FSD supercharged" or something, FULL THROTTLE and get out of there.
7. CHECK YOUR FUEL! This is very important. You will be making jump after jump, at or near your maximum range, jumping to stars which cannot be scooped.
8. Check your fuel level against how much fuel this jump will use. Still feel safe? OK...
9. Did I mention "Check your fuel"? Do it again.
10. Press "H" (Or whatever button you use to initiate a hyperspace jump) and face your target star.
11. Check your fuel one last time. Last chance (until next jump, which could be too late).
12. When the countdown starts, ZERO THROTTLE.
13. GOTO 1.
I've been managing about 2.5 minutes between jumps. The fastest I can jump is about every 45 seconds, but realistically, with scooping and aligning with the next target, call it a minute per jump. So with Neutron boosts giving a 400% increase to jump range, this saves not quite half the time to cover a certain distance (give or take, and I'm sure I can improve it with more practice). Of course, you need to stop for fuel every so often, but there are plenty of scoopable stars in the Neutron fields. Just re-select some scoopables on the galaxy map and pick one when you need to, then de-select them again after scooping and start again.
Happy boosting Commanders! o7
It's really quite simple once you get the hang of it, but it does take a bit of practice. I practiced in the 2.2 Beta, when it was both safer and more Dangerous. The good news is that it doesn't seem to matter what ship you're in: I've done this in a Sidey, an Asp, a DBX and now a Python. So get a Sidey, add a fuel scoop, find a Neutron star or White Dwarf and practice. (White dwarfs are more difficult to scoop safely than Neutron stars, so they're good practice, and there are several in the bubble, but they only give a 50% boost, while Neutron stars give a 400% boost.)
Before you begin: Make sure you have an AFMU. Open the galaxy map (Star tab) and DE-select all star types except "Non-Sequence stars". There's no need to tick the "Apply filter to route" button.
Jaques is located below the galactic plane, and so are the bases dotted along the way (There are other threads about that. Fortunately, that's also where one of the huge neutron fields are. You'll want to head down to about 100 - 1000 LY below the galactic plane (The second number in the X,Y,Z coordinates shows this). At the right level? Good.
I'll assume you've just made your first jump to a Neutron star, and your throttle is at zero. Since the 2.2.02 fix, you should emerge about 0.71 LS away from the star, perpendicular to the jets.
1. Keep throttle at zero, honk and scan the star.
2. While the star is being scanned, open the galaxy map. Your jump range is in the bottom left corner of the Navigation tab. Multiply that number by 4 and target a Neutron star within that range.
3. Exit the galaxy map. The scan should have finished now. GENTLY accellerate towards one of the jets. Not too fast, an watch for the "gravity line" and stay outside it, but more importantly (because it won't show up if you're going too slow, which you want to do) watch out for the "IMPACT" warning near the top right of your screen. If you see it, veer away from the star until it goes away.
4. As you get close to the jet, pitch away from the star and slow down. You are now entering the jet diagonally, rather than straight across, meaning you will have more time to slow down once you enter it, and you run less risk of accidentally zooming into the star when you accelerate out of the jet, because you're facing away from the star. (If you go right through it without charging your FSD, you still take 1% damage to your FSD.)
5. As soon as you enter the jet (Your ship wobbles about, makes creaking noises and you get a warning message like "FSD tolerances exceeded" or something) ZERO THROTTLE.
6. As soon as you get a message like "FSD supercharged" or something, FULL THROTTLE and get out of there.
7. CHECK YOUR FUEL! This is very important. You will be making jump after jump, at or near your maximum range, jumping to stars which cannot be scooped.
8. Check your fuel level against how much fuel this jump will use. Still feel safe? OK...
9. Did I mention "Check your fuel"? Do it again.
10. Press "H" (Or whatever button you use to initiate a hyperspace jump) and face your target star.
11. Check your fuel one last time. Last chance (until next jump, which could be too late).
12. When the countdown starts, ZERO THROTTLE.
13. GOTO 1.
I've been managing about 2.5 minutes between jumps. The fastest I can jump is about every 45 seconds, but realistically, with scooping and aligning with the next target, call it a minute per jump. So with Neutron boosts giving a 400% increase to jump range, this saves not quite half the time to cover a certain distance (give or take, and I'm sure I can improve it with more practice). Of course, you need to stop for fuel every so often, but there are plenty of scoopable stars in the Neutron fields. Just re-select some scoopables on the galaxy map and pick one when you need to, then de-select them again after scooping and start again.
Happy boosting Commanders! o7
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