so I'm exploring in a 18 light year jump range...

[goofy2feet]

... Python, heading along an arm of the galaxy towards Sag.A and I'm wondering if I'd make it back to the bubble by a more direct route, or whether my limited jump range makes that impossible?

Loving the exploration by the way, best experience in the game so far, for me.

 

[iain666]

Assuming you're heading up the Orion-Cygnus Arm and moving over towards the Sagittarius-Carina arm as you turn more core-ward then an 18ly jump range might struggle to make that crossing between the arms closer to due "north" of Sol but I've done it in a 25ly Cobra so it'd most likely be fine but you might need to stay a bit west of the bubble.

 

[goofy2feet]

OK. Thanks for that advice suggesting I might get across a small gap further round the galaxy from the bubble. I have already moved >2000ly along the Orion-Cygnus arm, so I might try cutting across at some point.

 

[Pirin]

My first long range expedition was in a 20ly ship and i had no problem with the direct route. I headed north-north-east from the Bubble in the direction of east Core region. So probably you will be fine.

 

[KellyR]

Why would you want to explore in a Python? I love the Python but even I can see it's not an explorer. I'm heading to Colonia, but I left my Python in storage. Never even considered doing an exploration jaunt in it. My Orca isn't great at exploring (the maintenance costs when I hit the way points are horrendous), but it does have a 28 light year jump range.

 

[Kuroshio]

Why would you want to explore in a Python? I love the Python but even I can see it's not an explorer. I'm heading to Colonia, but I left my Python in storage. Never even considered doing an exploration jaunt in it. My Orca isn't great at exploring (the maintenance costs when I hit the way points are horrendous), but it does have a 28 light year jump range.

Every ship that you can enjoy spending a lot of time in is an explorer. People have taken vanilla Sidewinders to Beagle Point.

 

[Aura Lorell]

Why would you want to explore in a Python? I love the Python but even I can see it's not an explorer. I'm heading to Colonia, but I left my Python in storage. Never even considered doing an exploration jaunt in it. My Orca isn't great at exploring (the maintenance costs when I hit the way points are horrendous), but it does have a 28 light year jump range.

It's about the personal experience with flying the ships rather than the capabilities when it comes to exploring (and anything). For example, I am mad about long jump range but flying an Anaconda even for almost 70 Ly is out of the question for me. I stuck with the AspX for a long time and DBX with the extended range is delightful. I'll try an Orca at some point but it's bulky and not sure how I feel about it being such a large ship. But all of it is very subjective and flying what you love flying is more important than anything else.

 

[racer1]

I made it to Colonia in an 18 point something sidewinder so I reckon you will be fine. When approaching the gaps just head to z coordinate 0.

 

[Henkka77]

Why would you want to explore in a Python? I love the Python but even I can see it's not an explorer. I'm heading to Colonia, but I left my Python in storage. Never even considered doing an exploration jaunt in it. My Orca isn't great at exploring (the maintenance costs when I hit the way points are horrendous), but it does have a 28 light year jump range.

Whaat? Theres a bunch of cmdrs who love Python in exploring. Myself included. I took Python to Beagle Point and its the best experience in Elite for me so far.
And that was before engineers. Now you can get Python to jump 40ly, so i dont really understand why it wouldnt be an explorer, thats just silly talk.
I have been twice in Beagle Point, first time in Python and second time in Anaconda and if i had to make a third trip there choosing one of those, it would be Python. Annie in SC is just pain.

 

[ManFlex]

I agree, I managed to get 40ly jump range on my Python for a planned exploration. Just created a thread yesterday : https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/351479-Python-explorer
Seems to be a good exploration ship finally with engineers

 

[KellyR]

Whaat? Theres a bunch of cmdrs who love Python in exploring. Myself included. I took Python to Beagle Point and its the best experience in Elite for me so far.
And that was before engineers. Now you can get Python to jump 40ly, so i dont really understand why it wouldnt be an explorer, thats just silly talk.
I have been twice in Beagle Point, first time in Python and second time in Anaconda and if i had to make a third trip there choosing one of those, it would be Python. Annie in SC is just pain.

40 light years out of a Python? Sure, if you don't mind grind, grind, grind looking for materials. And you'll need enough for several, even many rolls. Wouldn't be so bad except that they aren't engineers. I don't care what anyone calls them, engineers don't roll dice. They either are able to modify something or they're not able to. But if you want to grind grind grind for a month, who am I to say you can't?

 

[ManFlex]

40 light years out of a Python? Sure, if you don't mind grind, grind, grind looking for materials. And you'll need enough for several, even many rolls. Wouldn't be so bad except that they aren't engineers. I don't care what anyone calls them, engineers don't roll dice. They either are able to modify something or they're not able to. But if you want to grind grind grind for a month, who am I to say you can't?

Honestly I didn't find difficult grinding for engineers. When I wanted to begin engineer my ships, I was surprised to already have a lot of materials for that.
Of course you always have to find specific items if you want high level modification, but it allows you to make something else in the game.
To get my 40ly Python, the only thing I needed to find again to engineer it was arsenic, which is not really hard to find, and I "only" have 300h in the game.

 

[Henkka77]

40 light years out of a Python? Sure, if you don't mind grind, grind, grind looking for materials. And you'll need enough for several, even many rolls. Wouldn't be so bad except that they aren't engineers. I don't care what anyone calls them, engineers don't roll dice. They either are able to modify something or they're not able to. But if you want to grind grind grind for a month, who am I to say you can't?

Well, "grind" wasnt the case what you said earlier. You said that Python isnt explorer ship and thats just simply not true.
Also, 40Ly out of Python isnt really a big deal. My Python jumps 42Ly atm in exploration outfit and i didnt even break a sweat to get there.

And btw.. if "grind" is such a bad thing, i think that you are at the wrong part of the forums. We are explorers here, complaining about the "grind" is something you do in Dangerous Discussion..

 

[Kuroshio]

40 light years out of a Python? Sure, if you don't mind grind, grind, grind looking for materials. And you'll need enough for several, even many rolls. Wouldn't be so bad except that they aren't engineers. I don't care what anyone calls them, engineers don't roll dice. They either are able to modify something or they're not able to. But if you want to grind grind grind for a month, who am I to say you can't?

And that makes the Python a bad exploration ship? (Which you can get to 27+ ly without engineers and everything you'd ever need, by the way.)

 

[Ashnak]

.... I'll try an Orca at some point but it's bulky and not sure how I feel about it being such a large ship. But all of it is very subjective and flying what you love flying is more important than anything else.

If you like the Orca, try the Dolphin. Small ship, lands on a tea towel (especially if she's on auto pilot and you can't reach that tea towel in your SRV), enough internals for all exploration essentials (SRV, AFMU, scanners, cargo, shields, scoop, mining laser, mine launcher, point defense), easy 40 ly range with a decent FSD roll, cool running (mine runs just below 20% with all non essential modules switched off), fast (300 m/s cruise, 400 m/s boost). Just be careful when flying in a gravity field, her lateral thrusters can easily overheat, so avoid flying side up.

This would be a non-engineered setup - engineer to your heart's content, there's enough power to spare.

 

[Kuroshio]

You forgot to mention the boost screech.

 

[Orvidius]

In a way, I think we tend to put too much emphasis on jump range. Other than crossing gaps, it's mainly a time-saver for traveling large distances. If you enjoy exploring the individual star systems, and/or want to collect a lot of scan data, a shorter range is just fine. It might mean planning the route a bit differently, of course.

But take my comments with a grain of salt, since I've yet to venture more than about 6.2kly out.

 

[Dad Rock]

Good luck, Commander. My first exploration trip to Sag A* was in a Python and after the first week I settled in nicely to the routine and just enjoyed the journey.

 

[Ashnak]

In a way, I think we tend to put too much emphasis on jump range. Other than crossing gaps, it's mainly a time-saver for traveling large distances. If you enjoy exploring the individual star systems, and/or want to collect a lot of scan data, a shorter range is just fine. It might mean planning the route a bit differently, of course.

But take my comments with a grain of salt, since I've yet to venture more than about 6.2kly out.

Depends on where you want to go. Coreward from Sol, yes, 20 ly is sufficient. Going rimward, though, things may become difficult at less than 35 ly range (at least that's around the order of magnitude for which I can find pre-planned routes - guess I'll find out...)

 

[goofy2feet]

Happy with Python for exploring. As someone already said, if the purpose is to explore, short jump range isn't really a problem apart from crossing gaps. Now 6000ly round the galactic arm and scanning lots - 500000ls from arrival is not a chore to me...