Hello explorers,
I've been playing the game around 2 years now. My first real profession was exploring, back in 1.2. I loved the vast scale of the galaxy and the freedom of it all. My first ship after the Sidey was an Adder, and once upgraded I slapped a fuel scoop on it and headed towards a nebula and a black hole near the bubble (about 500Ly away IIRC, can't remember the name). I had a 17Ly ish jump range, I thought I was ballin! I mean, 17Ly is enough to get out of the bubble, right? I did some L3 scans, honked my horn, had a good time.
A little later I had an upgraded Cobra 3 and learned about the Buckyball Sag A* race. I figured I'd give it a shot, thinking I could do it in about 14 in-game hours or so. I tried it in one sitting but it ended up taking me three, netting me a time of 29 hours. I ran into CMDR Metta in his Anaconda at Sag A*. I took my time on the way back and made quite a bit of cash and rank. I found a few untagged ELWs and even an untagged planetary nebula. My Cobra 3 classic record didn't stand, but I learned a lot and had a great time. Soon after that I made another attempt at a class record in the FDL (which stood for some time). Those two runs, and the return trips through the neutron fields, got me to Elite explorer! I wanted access to Founder's as a quality of life improvement, exploration was the first skill I made Elite rank.
After that I didn't do much exploring. In 2.0 Robigo smuggling was all the rage, and I did my fair share of smuggling and dodging chain interdictions. In 2.1 Engineers came out, and I was all about the combat. I had money and I wanted to blow ships up, and also fellow CMDRs in combat capable vessels. Of course all my engineer requirements regarding exploring had already been met, so I was doing other stuff such as mining and rares trading. From then on up until yesterday, my exploration journeys were few and far between. I made a lone trip to Jaques soon after it was discovered (I don't think it was called Colonia yet), and later a buckyball run in a heavily engineered Clipper. I also made one 15Kly round trip expedition in the gap between the Orion Spur and the Perseus arm, but I didn't find much that was noteworthy. However, I did find a 3.8G planet with relatively smooth craters which allowed me to get my SRV up to 122 M/S (On the ground, none of this low grav flying cheese!).
As a sidenote, I am in complete agreement with the players who miss the colors of early Horizons! I enjoyed this planet not only for the speed run but also the green tint....I haven't been back since but I'm guessing nowadays it's BEIGE. Aaaaaanyway, back to the topic at hand.
I did make one interesting discovery in the bubble, during my earlier combat days. A scoopable White Dwarf!
Yesterday I got the exploring itch again and decided to cook up an optimal (for me) DBX. I was excited about the improvements to the DBX, as I outright dislike the Asp. The Anaconda's supercruise maneuverability is suboptimal, to say the least. After spending the better part of Sunday flying around to engineer all the relevant modules, not just the FSD but the DSS, shields, thrusters, distributor and powerplant, I was really excited to get out and do some exploring again.
Today I set off in a random direction, somewhat towards the core but not along the relatively well-traveled direct path to Colonia. This time my concern isn't money, or time, or a given destination (although I may wind up at BP at some point). I just want to roam and find some odd undiscovered finds. Of course I like to find ELWs and WWs, and I am also challenging myself to accurately spot terraformables in the system map.
I still have yet to actually try a mega-jump using a neutron or WD, most of my ships are pure combat steeds and lack a fuel scoop. Once I find a neutron star I will be excited to try this out. I'm also looking forward to reaching places I was never able to reach, or simply getting high above the galactic plane for some epic screenshots.
Currently I am still within 1500Ly of the bubble, as I am taking my time and scanning planets in most systems I come across. All the systems so far I've been through which have ELWs or WWs have been tagged already, for the exception of one where I ended the day's journey. I found a rather cold looking, ringed WW that was untagged (other planets in system were tagged), so I decided to try out the improved camera suite for the first time and take a couple of pictures.
I am enjoying getting back into exploration again. No grind, no worry. If anything exciting happens in the bubble I should be able to return in a relatively short period of time. See you in the black, CMDRs!
I've been playing the game around 2 years now. My first real profession was exploring, back in 1.2. I loved the vast scale of the galaxy and the freedom of it all. My first ship after the Sidey was an Adder, and once upgraded I slapped a fuel scoop on it and headed towards a nebula and a black hole near the bubble (about 500Ly away IIRC, can't remember the name). I had a 17Ly ish jump range, I thought I was ballin! I mean, 17Ly is enough to get out of the bubble, right? I did some L3 scans, honked my horn, had a good time.
A little later I had an upgraded Cobra 3 and learned about the Buckyball Sag A* race. I figured I'd give it a shot, thinking I could do it in about 14 in-game hours or so. I tried it in one sitting but it ended up taking me three, netting me a time of 29 hours. I ran into CMDR Metta in his Anaconda at Sag A*. I took my time on the way back and made quite a bit of cash and rank. I found a few untagged ELWs and even an untagged planetary nebula. My Cobra 3 classic record didn't stand, but I learned a lot and had a great time. Soon after that I made another attempt at a class record in the FDL (which stood for some time). Those two runs, and the return trips through the neutron fields, got me to Elite explorer! I wanted access to Founder's as a quality of life improvement, exploration was the first skill I made Elite rank.
After that I didn't do much exploring. In 2.0 Robigo smuggling was all the rage, and I did my fair share of smuggling and dodging chain interdictions. In 2.1 Engineers came out, and I was all about the combat. I had money and I wanted to blow ships up, and also fellow CMDRs in combat capable vessels. Of course all my engineer requirements regarding exploring had already been met, so I was doing other stuff such as mining and rares trading. From then on up until yesterday, my exploration journeys were few and far between. I made a lone trip to Jaques soon after it was discovered (I don't think it was called Colonia yet), and later a buckyball run in a heavily engineered Clipper. I also made one 15Kly round trip expedition in the gap between the Orion Spur and the Perseus arm, but I didn't find much that was noteworthy. However, I did find a 3.8G planet with relatively smooth craters which allowed me to get my SRV up to 122 M/S (On the ground, none of this low grav flying cheese!).
As a sidenote, I am in complete agreement with the players who miss the colors of early Horizons! I enjoyed this planet not only for the speed run but also the green tint....I haven't been back since but I'm guessing nowadays it's BEIGE. Aaaaaanyway, back to the topic at hand.
I did make one interesting discovery in the bubble, during my earlier combat days. A scoopable White Dwarf!
Yesterday I got the exploring itch again and decided to cook up an optimal (for me) DBX. I was excited about the improvements to the DBX, as I outright dislike the Asp. The Anaconda's supercruise maneuverability is suboptimal, to say the least. After spending the better part of Sunday flying around to engineer all the relevant modules, not just the FSD but the DSS, shields, thrusters, distributor and powerplant, I was really excited to get out and do some exploring again.
Today I set off in a random direction, somewhat towards the core but not along the relatively well-traveled direct path to Colonia. This time my concern isn't money, or time, or a given destination (although I may wind up at BP at some point). I just want to roam and find some odd undiscovered finds. Of course I like to find ELWs and WWs, and I am also challenging myself to accurately spot terraformables in the system map.
I still have yet to actually try a mega-jump using a neutron or WD, most of my ships are pure combat steeds and lack a fuel scoop. Once I find a neutron star I will be excited to try this out. I'm also looking forward to reaching places I was never able to reach, or simply getting high above the galactic plane for some epic screenshots.
Currently I am still within 1500Ly of the bubble, as I am taking my time and scanning planets in most systems I come across. All the systems so far I've been through which have ELWs or WWs have been tagged already, for the exception of one where I ended the day's journey. I found a rather cold looking, ringed WW that was untagged (other planets in system were tagged), so I decided to try out the improved camera suite for the first time and take a couple of pictures.
I am enjoying getting back into exploration again. No grind, no worry. If anything exciting happens in the bubble I should be able to return in a relatively short period of time. See you in the black, CMDRs!
