Should I be excited or sad, Beagle point route plotting 100% of the way?

[GunnerBill]

Well here I am at Smugglers Depot, 3,375 ly to Beagle point and 61,855.00 ly from my start position.

I will have route plotted the entire journey. In some ways this is a relief but in others I feel a little sad that the recent update has allowed me to do this. Especially across the Abyss.

Never mind onwards and upwards, no sorry... onwards and across!

Thoughts please fellow expolorers

 

[Major Klutz]

I'm in the Outer Arm and logged in last night to head back to the bubble. To my surprise, I was able to plot a single course all the way back.
The course plotter didn't even have a problem with the Formidine Rift. Just plotted right through it.

Then I looked at my nav panel and saw >380 jumps to my destination. The high number is a bit more daunting than the old 28-30 jumps

 

[Zieman]

Should I be excited or sad...?

Yes.

Sorry, that's the only answer I have for your question. And it sums my feelings about the topic quite nicely.

 

[GunnerBill]

Yes.

Sorry, that's the only answer I have for your question. And it sums my feelings about the topic quite nicely.

Er thanks, +1 I suppose. That's how I feel but I was really hoping on some 3rd party guidance here to help me out.

I don't like being left sitting on the the fence so to speak.

BTW, decided to watch "Contact" to get me in the mood for coming back... no actually I meant ALIENS!!!!!

 

[Straha Yeagar]

Just plot the 1000ly like you have been doing, and be happy. And sometime when you want to shave some travel time, use upto the whole 20kly, and be happy.

 

[Aura Lorell]

You are reaching your destination. In your place I'd be excited. As straha20 said, you can do 1,000 LY plots or 500 LY plots or 20,000 LY plots, any way you fancy. It's good to have options, I think.

 

[Monk]

Just plot the 1000ly like you have been doing, and be happy. And sometime when you want to shave some travel time, use upto the whole 20kly, and be happy.

Even better...just plot one jump at a time like we had to before the route planner was even implemented.

 

[Gibbonici]

I've been wondering about this too. I remember having to plot every single jump before there was even a route planner, and there was a kind of special skill to it. Sure, it was tedious and error prone but it felt like exploring. I was happy when the 100LY route plotter came out, but the 1000LY route plotter seemed cheap to me at first. Then I got used to it and started measuring trips in plots of 1000LY. When each route was finished, I'd spend a bit of time in the local systems looking around and then take some time to choose my next 1000LY plot, taking in any sights or places of interest along the way as part of that choice. It became part of the exploration cycle.

I'm currently on a slow trip to the Styx region and was about 12000LYs away when the update hit. I tried to plot a course all the way to my destination and, sure enough, the route came through complete with neutron streaks. That felt really cheap. However, after a couple of evenings following this route, I realised I wasn't actually exploring anymore. I was just travelling. So I cut my route, made a shorter one without neutron stars and started following that. Now all is well with the world. Especially the Earth-like one I found in the second system

I think straha20 has basically nailed it - plot long, fast and direct when you want to cover space, plot short, slow and meandering when you want to explore. Where once we'd lock in our 1000LY routes (or I did anyway), now we can be more flexible and change it up in different ways.

From a "lore" perspective, I like how the range of the route planner has grown as explorers have pushed further out. It feels like the technology is catching up with the pioneers. There was a time when the 1200ishLY trip to Barnard's Loop was an epic undertaking, but now Beagle Point is a regular destination and there's practically a gift shop at SagA*, so it feels right that the route planning has extended over time.

I'm not even sure if distance is such a priority for exploration now, not now there are so few distance records left to set. It seems that a lot of the recent expeditions are more about mapping regions (my one man expedition certainly is), at which point the ability to plot longer routes becomes more of a quality of life thing than a cheap shortcut. On the other hand... it does take some of the satisfaction we all used to get when we found a route through the gaps and the rifts.

But that's progress for you. There's no nostalgia without it.

 

[Chrystoph]

I came later to Elite in relation to the Distant Worlds Expedition 3302. As a result, I ran all the way out to Waypoint 17 to catch up to the First Great Expedition wing.

Back then, I felt that I was traveling, and that was on the 1,000 LY route planner. There was a lot of jonking interspersed with periodic diversions to go look at the pretty.

I mention this because I think that a lot of what is and is not exploring is going to have to be defined by you. Sure, you could recreate the DWE 3302 route by plotting from one Waypoint to another, but what you do with the trip is much more important.

For myself, I would use the route planner to lay a course, then have a look at the path and see if there is anything it takes me past that is of interest. If there is a neutron hop in there, look at the local topography and see if there is anything else of interest. Try reducing your acceptable star classes to exclude proto stars and Class M.

The important thing is that the tool is just a tool, how you play is still your decision.

 

[iain666]

For myself, I would use the route planner to lay a course, then have a look at the path and see if there is anything it takes me past that is of interest.

Very much this. Whatever route I've plotted I'm still opening the galmap every jump, checking my destination and having a look for interesting looking systems I can detour too.

The ability of the plotter to remember and re-route to my original target after a manually plotted diversion has been my favourite enhancement so far since it makes getting back on track that much easier - especially if the longer plot is to a specific system rather than a general direction.

 

[Hanekura Shizuka]

It's an odd feeling, here. Basically everyone who raced distance (with the exception of those early folks in Beta) raced at 1000 ly intervals. There was a rhythm to racing; make 25-40 jumps depending on your ship range, go into the galmap, type the name of the next star on the list, and repeat. It'll be odd for that to be gone. That said, I really wish I had this for some of the runs I've made.

 

[Zeeman]

It's a step forward, but at the same time, it removes some of the little challenge that exploration holds. Plotting across the abyss, or in sparsely populated (by stars) space was challenging, and made you think.

I still think 20k LY plotting is the answer to a question no one really asked. Manual plotting, to this day, would still be my most desired route plotting feature. Especially if I were able to adjust my ship weight, and limit fuel. Would be awesome if I could set up extra fuel tanks in a ship, which can be turned off to prevent filling for areas where I need to keep my jump range up.

Being in game since Beta 2, I, too, remember jump by jump plotting, and struggling to get to a star just 10 LY away because my jump range was 7LY, and it required a near 100LY diversion - a jump at a time.

As I said though, it's a bit of both. It's a nice feature, but a little sad as more challenge is chipped away.
Z...

 

[NW3]

There was a rhythm to racing; make 25-40 jumps depending on your ship range, go into the galmap, type the name of the next star on the list, and repeat. It'll be odd for that to be gone.

Yes, there was a rhythm to it. I'm an explorer, not a racer, but I'm sure the longer routing distance will change my gaming style. I used to do a 1000 lyr route in 1 session and it really gave me a discrete end point, to pause my journey and take a well-deserved break.

I have mixed feelings about the change. I think it will be an improvement, but I won't know for sure, until my next long expedition.

 

[Manticore]

As an explorer I'm stoked with all the tweaks to the galactic map.

o7!

 

[Roqinn]

Just plot the 1000ly like you have been doing, and be happy. And sometime when you want to shave some travel time, use upto the whole 20kly, and be happy.

I didn't even realize you could plot longer than 1k routes now!

 

[Qohen Leth]

Do you have someone IRL telling you how you *should* feel everytime something happens?

 

[disorganise]

Do you have someone IRL telling you how you *should* feel everytime something happens?

Well....that's why we get married isn't it?

 

[trilathon]

Thing is they put this stuff in for the kids...old school stripped down explorers flying with no repair facility, keeping it real and plotting star to star, anything less is losing the real game and cheating yourself.

 

[Miklos Atreides]

In general its quite a cool thing that you now can plot 20kly paths through the galaxy.
The pain point is that you will not be able to adjust the plot to your likings.
Moving the plot to waypoints is currently not included nor there are disclosed plans
to maintain a waypoint list.

The only workaround is to leave the plot at some point if you feel the time is right.
Blaze your own trail not the trail of a piece of route plotting software.

Regards,
Miklos

 

[GunnerBill]

I've decided I am going to be excited. Last night I had just run 4 kylies and was feeling pretty wacked by it all

Do you have someone IRL telling you how you *should* feel everytime something happens?

Er no, but those voices in my head have been getting louder the longer I spend out here

I may have been hankering after a taste of how it felt to be lost in the way I was on my first trip to the edge, where if it were not for some friendly folk on here pointing me to EDSM I would still be out on the rim (Sol side) stuck in a loop!

That was pretty exciting!