Neutron Highway Driving Licence

[Bottom Hat]

Hi folks, just a quick couple of questions.



I want to get out and do the 5kLy out and back trip just to access Palin and his dirty materials. I have never, and still don't have any interest in exploring however, so I have no experience of it whatsoever. Please don't think I am starting an argument or similar, as I really can't be bothered with that, I just know that right now I have pretty much zero interest in it!! Others dislike mining, or passenger missions etc., but I do not feel the same - anyway this is just so that people don't mistake this thread for a salty argumentative type of thread - feel free to have silly arguments elsewhere!



Now that is out the way, I can get to the point! So I want to make this trip and do it as soon as I can within reason, so after talking through with a good friend, I have gone to get a new ship with all the modules, then will whizz over and get the FSD etc engineered and that to make the range as high as possible.

I have often heard about the Neutron Highway and understand its concept etc., but I can't remember where the information is. Ergo, can someone please kindly point me to the place it is so I can plot a route that adopts its Neutron stars as well, as it will make this journey as quick as possible.

I presume that I don't just find a neutron star and literally jump from one to the next, until I find a signpost that says I am 5kLy from my starting place, so there has to be more to it than that!?! So, if you know how the website works and how to use the highway, please can you post up an idiot's guide so I can get on with it? I hope in the future that I will come round to the idea of exploring, so that I will then be able to apply this information much more than I want to right now; therefore getting my head around it and how it works etc. will be of a great help

So, thank you in advance for your time and help - I have looked but not found in the forum archives, a simple 'how to' guide to the highway and how to apply it to a short journey. If such a thread already exists, please do not chastise me for not finding it, as I would rather have found it than annoy everyone with a new thread as a repeat of it lol! However if you could link the thread to here that would be awesome

If anyone has any other advice or tips on how to complete the 5k, then again please do share. I just want and need to get this completed so I can access the G5 dirty drives as so many CMDRs have done already. I have all engineers unlocked and so on, and am happy with the game [in essence ofc!!] but this has always been a pain in my my doobery, and always annoys me when BH and that as it is always in the back of my mind, making me wish I could turn just that little quicker, or boost just a little bit more, than I can right now with my Grade 3 drives.

Looking forward to the information, and any other useful nuggets that people feel worth sharing Any help is and will be appreciated of course, and REP will be given where appropriate as well

Cheers everyone, and much obliged,
The Hat



PS: I looked in Alec's helpful thread too but can't see it linked - I hope it's not staring me in the face!! :/

 

[777Driver]

The start of the closest highway is more than 5000LY's out. You are better off picking an interesting Nebula and taking a quick tour.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

I'm not sure the neutron highway even starts before 4k ly.... I could be wrong.

Anyhoo, I just took a delightful trip to the Monkey Head Nebula, which is "south" of sol, by about 6500ly.
Heading to the rim is more fun than heading to the core. The lower star density makes navigation fun, and the view is amazing, and you may even forget you're just in it for the 5k.
And, there are patches of neutron stars dotted about around 750ly above and below the Galactic plane in that direction, so you can actually speed it up slightly.

 

[VR StarLightPL]

Highway - no, but you can speed up your trip with fsd boosting a bit using this planner:

https://www.spansh.co.uk/

BUT. You probably will be on beaten paths using this tool, which means no first discoveries, which means less pay and not having your name etched forever on the galaxy ;-)

Plus, if you fit and g5 engineer an asp, your jump range should be around 50. What this means is you save only ~4-5 minutes max on each boosted jump while risking destruction of your ship. I'd say just endure that jump+honk routine (be sure to take Advanced Scanner with you, also Detailed Surface Scanner just for maxing the payout of this boring trip).

Jump until you see Palin's invitation in inbox. Don't be like the poor guy who jumped 4970Ly or something similar and turned back, only to realise he effed up. And you can check the distance travelled in right hand panel. Just don't confuse it with "distance from SOL" because it has to be 5kLy from your starting location.

Also, stock up on jumponium http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Synthesis#FSD_Injection - you never know when it will be needed. SRV + mining laser also can potentially save your behind. Oh, and the obvious fuel scoop - get as high as you can afford. Low emissions powerplant, ditch weapons etc. etc. just to make ship lighter and less power hungry - it will allow you to scoop very because almost no overheating.

 

[EValve]

THIS will allow you to optimize your jumps. It just searches for all neutron stars along your destination. I use 50% efficiency.

 

[Bottom Hat]

What wonderful help, thank you all, and for the time it took to post the map 777. I hadn't realised that the highway didn't begin until quite a distance out, but with hindsight it makes sense d'oh!!

The spansh link is excellent, its help is always better than a kick in the nuts, and the same goes for the information given by EV as the link is the same. The advice on 'efficiency' setting is interesting and helpful too, else I would have not understood its purpose and point lol!! I can be pretty dumb at times!

Cheers folks, I really appreciate this. I also agree with the sentiment that Cosmic posted, inferring that I may become more interested in what I am doing than just its underlying purpose - I really hope that this is the case, else I fear I may have slightly 'wasted' part of the game for myself...? I can always go back of course, but it would be nice to get distracted from just completing the 5k, simply to break up the monotony if nothing more!

Thanks folks, I appreciate the advice and help. Much obliged,
The Hat



PS: I would have gone nuts Starlight if that guy was me - imagine getting that far out to turn home, only to realise on return that you missed by a normal two jump distance - man, I would have gone nuts in a proper rage-quit style hahaha!!!



PPS: Hey 777, are those all of the nebulae that are in the galaxy below 9kLy away from Sol, or is that the totality of them? I imagine not, but would be interested to know. Also, do you have any favourites, or suggestions, on which you find the most visually attractive of the nebulae, or which are of the most significance for humanity etc. I hope that question makes sense, else I will drop you a PM. Love the chart still btw

 

[EValve]

What wonderful help,

Spoiler

thank you all, and for the time it took to post the map 777. I hadn't realised that the highway didn't begin until quite a distance out, but with hindsight it makes sense d'oh!!

The spansh link is excellent, its help is always better than a kick in the nuts, and the same goes for the information given by EV as the link is the same. The advice on 'efficiency' setting is interesting and helpful too, else I would have not understood its purpose and point lol!! I can be pretty dumb at times!

Cheers folks, I really appreciate this. I also agree with the sentiment that Cosmic posted, inferring that I may become more interested in what I am doing than just its underlying purpose - I really hope that this is the case, else I fear I may have slightly 'wasted' part of the game for myself...? I can always go back of course, but it would be nice to get distracted from just completing the 5k, simply to break up the monotony if nothing more!

Thanks folks, I appreciate the advice and help. Much obliged,
The Hat

PS: I would have gone nuts Starlight if that guy was me - imagine getting that far out to turn home, only to realise on return that you missed by a normal two jump distance - man, I would have gone nuts in a proper rage-quit style hahaha!!!



PPS: Hey 777, are those all of the nebulae that are in the galaxy below 9kLy away from Sol, or is that the totality of them? I imagine not, but would be interested to know. Also, do you have any favourites, or suggestions, on which you find the most visually attractive of the nebulae, or which are of the most significance for humanity etc. I hope that question makes sense, else I will drop you a PM. Love the chart still btw

Glad to help, even if I was beaten by a marginal few seconds

The 5kly really was an obstacle for me too. I did the first part myself without neutrons... Real tough time.
Once I found out the "trip" organizer it reduced my jumps by a huge margin (less loading screens),
Having to play around supercharging your FSD actually made it engaging,
Double supercharging your FSD became the new challenge.

Charge your FSD on a first pass, then pass through it again during the 5 second FSD countdown to charge your next jump as-well.
Allowed me to fill in the gaps where there were no Neutron stars!

Suddenly your effective range doubles

Just make sure to watch your fuel and use the tick box feature! It helps !

 

[yodajedifishmaster]

ok i recommend the FSD range engineering but ALSO do not take anything unnecessary. you wont need weapons out there. since you just want to go there and back, fit the biggest fuel scoop. you may need to swap slots so you can fit a class 5 fuel scoop on an asp i dont remember from when i outfitted mine, but massive fuel scoop means much less time stuck refueling. also, turn off on the galmap ALL the non scoopables except non main sequence (to get the neutron stars, you will also get black holes and white dwarfs showing up, and my tip is, try to visit one of the white dwarf systems about 2k out you may be lucky enough to get first discovered. but remember you cant scoop them). class m is what you will be seeing mostly - they outnumber the more interesting stuff but you arent going to look for elw you just want out an back to unlock. turning off non scoopables will hopefully prevent you running out of fuel because the nav plotter tried to kill you by plotting through the brown dwarf belt.

i found neutron stars several thousand ly out and down about 2000 ly or so. if you want to look, you can try turning off all star types on the map except the one that shows neutrons. zoom out until the stars are tiny dots in a spherical small cloud and move along until you are out and down a few thousand ly first, then turn off all other types and you should see a scattering of dots.

remember to fit at least one AFMU, if you do plan to use jets. you probably already know but i forgot to take one my first trip out and had to turn back after an incident to fix damage after only 1100 ly

 

[Witcher 7]

Exploration is not my thing too but I recently bite the bullet and traveled just over 5k to the Jellyfish nebula to unlock Palin. My starting system was LHS 3447 and I didn't use any Neutron star b/c they were all out of way - i.e., required more jumps.

I did it in my Asp with a 37 ly jump range and put my name in around 30 planets as First Discovered

Edit: Few tips - don't carry any weapons but carry at least one AFMU and get a good fuel scoop - e.g., 6C.

 

[Tarman]

ok i recommend the FSD range engineering but ALSO do not take anything unnecessary. "Your weapons; you will not need them". since you just want to go there and back, fit the biggest fuel scoop. you may need to swap slots so you can fit a class 5 fuel scoop on an asp i dont remember from when i outfitted mine, but massive fuel scoop means much less time stuck refueling. also, turn off on the galmap ALL the non scoopables except non main sequence (to get the neutron stars, you will also get black holes and white dwarfs showing up, and my tip is, try to visit one of the white dwarf systems about 2k out you may be lucky enough to get first discovered. but remember you cant scoop them). class m is what you will be seeing mostly - they outnumber the more interesting stuff but you arent going to look for elw you just want out an back to unlock. turning off non scoopables will hopefully prevent you running out of fuel because the nav plotter tried to kill you by plotting through the brown dwarf belt.

i found neutron stars several thousand ly out and down about 2000 ly or so. if you want to look, you can try turning off all star types on the map except the one that shows neutrons. zoom out until the stars are tiny dots in a spherical small cloud and move along until you are out and down a few thousand ly first, then turn off all other types and you should see a scattering of dots.

remember to fit at least one AFMU, if you do plan to use jets. you probably already know but i forgot to take one my first trip out and had to turn back after an incident to fix damage after only 1100 ly

ftfy >___>

 

[VR StarLightPL]

I also went to jellyfish on my 5kLy pilgrimage, there is one or two asteroid bases on the way, one's in Barnard's Loop if something would happen, the other you can find using population slider on the galactic map.

There is a very interesting small nebula along the way, called spirograph nebula IIRC. It's small but beautiful.

I found it a nice change of pace, with SRV and jumponium prospecting to alleviate boredom I stocked on jumponium and even found some very rares like polonium and yttrium. IDK if you took your SRV with you, if yes then do remember that it doesn't refuel with fuel scooping, you have to synthesise fuel from rocks gathered. Check out synthesis menu for that as there is no station to "resupply / restock".

fair solar winds, cmdr.

PS: like said just jump until you get an inbox invitation from Palin (assuming you unlocked him via Qwent). If not, just do a few jumps more when you reach Jellyfish. It was enough for me and when I arrived in Jellyfish I got an invitation.

 

[furrycat]

Don't be like the poor guy who jumped 4970Ly or something similar and turned back, only to realise he effed up.

That chap covered the distance before engineers existed, only to realise at the end of his journey that he didn't like exploration after all. Before the 2.1 patch was released some people did express a hope that one of the engineers would be impressed by some high exploration-related statistic. Had matey boy known that travelling 5000Ly would be a future requirement he surely would have pressed on with the last few jumps.

 

[Brrokk]

I've just done it, so some random advice:-

See if you can get a passenger to a destination just over 5kly away for a bit extra reward.
If using an Asp, you can fit a 6A fuel scoop. Then refuelling is just a matter of passing a star closely without changing course.
Plan route using the filter for only scoopable stars.
Take advanced discovery scanner and detailed surface scanner. Honk every system on entry while lining up to scoop. While accelerating away from the star after refuelling, look at the system map. Investigate anything that looks like Earth-like or water world. (There's a good identification chart somewhere in google).
Take at least two heat sinks in case of getting too close to stars. Repetitive jumping can make you tired and careless.
Maybe take AFMU, although I only had a few % of module damage and didn't really need it.

In my trip last week, on the way back I became first-discoverer of an Earth-like world only 760ly from the bubble! There's still good stuff to be found out there.

 

[VR StarLightPL]

It was this chap

 

[Jezzah]

Funnily enough OP I just did this for damned Palin also. I went out to the Statue of liberty nebula. It's about 6k out.

Previous to this I found exploring really tedious and never lasted long with it. What chanted it for me was the DiamondBack Explorer and using engineers on the FSD and a few other bits to really bring the weight down. In the end I managed something like 57ly jumps as standard which was a massive morale boost taking this trip on.

As it stands I actually found I really enjoyed exploring in general. I was scanning lots of systems on the way and back and made something like 30 million in data money.

The data money is handy also on the path to palin. For example buying allied rep with Sirius Corp and such. I also used the money to get allied rep with lots of other useful places like quince and large corporations with lots of representation ...eg Earth defence fleet etc.

Choose where you sell the data carefully don't just offload it anywhere. That's my tip.

I wasn't an explorer before now but I'm already fitting out an anaconda for this stuff and looking forward to go8bg out again. Have a good podcast or radio show playing while doing it and the time flies.

 

[Witcher 7]

I also went to jellyfish on my 5kLy pilgrimage, there is one or two asteroid bases on the way, one's in Barnard's Loop if something would happen, the other you can find using population slider on the galactic map.

There is a very interesting small nebula along the way, called spirograph nebula IIRC. It's small but beautiful.

I found it a nice change of pace, with SRV and jumponium prospecting to alleviate boredom I stocked on jumponium and even found some very rares like polonium and yttrium. IDK if you took your SRV with you, if yes then do remember that it doesn't refuel with fuel scooping, you have to synthesise fuel from rocks gathered. Check out synthesis menu for that as there is no station to "resupply / restock".

fair solar winds, cmdr.

PS: like said just jump until you get an inbox invitation from Palin (assuming you unlocked him via Qwent). If not, just do a few jumps more when you reach Jellyfish. It was enough for me and when I arrived in Jellyfish I got an invitation.

I started from HIP 17692 and didn't find any station to stop after 1k ly out. Dropped into the star at least twice along the way but fixed most modules with AFMU until I got to Beta Site.

Wish I had read your post earlier so I could have swung by Spirograph nebula. I plan to buy an Orca and build it to jump further than my Asp and then maybe go for another exploration ...

 

[VR StarLightPL]

I plan to buy an Orca and build it to jump further than my Asp and then maybe go for another exploration ...

Maybe until then we will get something new to do while "exploring" ;-)