Exploration strategies

[meusmc]

I’m curious what other Commander’s strategies are in picking destinations? I’m way out in the black right now, generally making my way towards Sag A, but I rarely last more than an hour before I get sidetracked. I’ll go fishing for black holes or neutron stars. Maybe I’ll see a possible Earth-like world and by the time I’m done checking it out I’ll get distracted by a nearby nebula. Whatevs.

Do you guys go out there with a purpose, or do you just cruise the black In Search Of?

Also, am I the only one who thinks that white dwarfs look evil? A baleful eye is the phrase that comes to mind every time I find one.

 

[Deluvian]

I use: https://www.edsm.net/en/galactic-mapping#2/40/0/24960 to determine where I want to go

 

[iain666]

I'm currently on a planned group expedition (Dead Ends Circumnavigation), before that I nipped out for a few hundred systems to get rep for Alioth access and ended up doing a 90kly run out through Sgr A* because I got carried away, before that I did a Mk III circumnavigation just to say I'd done it.

I've usually got an idea in mind, but I don't necessarily stick to it when I get out th... ooh shiny!

 

[meusmc]

And there are SO MANY shinies!

 

[Puerility]

I've finally left the bubble myself and decided on a route that I know will take me a couple months to complete. If I start doing what you're doing, meusmc, I'd go nuts. I'm going to some nebula on the eastern side of the galaxy, then through Sagittarius A, Refuling and repairing at Colonia then taking the Neutron Highway back to the bubble.

 

[meusmc]

I’m seriously considering continuing on Beagle’s Point after Sag A, then head back via Colonia. But yeah, I have no idea how many months that will take.

 

[ThomasWJames]

I’m seriously considering continuing on Beagle’s Point after Sag A, then head back via Colonia. But yeah, I have no idea how many months that will take.

Be sure to tape down the glass to the self-destruct glass button...that journey is very long and space madness sets in quickly...16K away from Beagle Point and I've eyed that button several times just thinking of the return trip...

 

[Ashnak]

Be sure to tape down the glass to the self-destruct glass button...that journey is very long and space madness sets in quickly...16K away from Beagle Point and I've eyed that button several times just thinking of the return trip...

Wait for the Black Friday or Christmas sale, get yourself a second CMDR, park your exploration ship on a planet with a nice view of a ringed gas giant (or ELW, if you can find one), then spend a couple of months in the insanity that is the Bubble.

After that, you'll gladly return to the quiet solitude of the outer rim.

 

[13A]

One of the things I've done in the past is roll a dice.

It works like this....
1= North (towards BP)
2= East
3= South
4= West
5= Up
6= Down

Roll the dice and head out of the bubble in that direction for about 3k (ignore up/down for this bit).

Once you get out there, roll again, and head in the new direction for 500ly, detouring to look at shinies on the way

Rinse and repeat.

 

[Kolato]

Back in my old days i'd usually find a neat bit of space and go in that general direction. (Often the place in question would be a cool system far away like Sag A* or Beagle Point) On my way i'd usually set temporary destinations, just panning around the galaxy for planetary nebulae or other cool stuff.

 

[Traveller_GG]

There are various methods that I employ during my exploration jaunts, which can be summarised thusly:

Ooh! Shiny!
That looks shiny
Is that something shiny?
I wonder if there is something shiny over there?
I'm bored, let's go find something shiny


there may be other factors involved, how gleaming or lustrous something is, or perhaps how it sparkles... maybe its level of polish or brightness... but really they are secondary.

 

[Orvidius]

I usually have a destination in mind, and then just see what I stumble across along the way. So I'm usually going in pretty straight lines, or bouncing from one nebula to another. They make great waypoints.

 

[Sapyx]

Yep, for me, exploration is mostly "pick a destination and go there". I don't usually get side-tracked by the shinies, unless I'm not entirely sure where my next destination should be.

Like right now. On Sunday I had reached my goal, the Glowing White Giant of Fleasi. That's all four GWG targets crossed off my list for this trip and I don't plan on flying any further North, so what to do now? I haven't found an ELW in over a week, so I'm aimlessly flying about in Fleasi sector looking for one. I noticed a "string" of red giants and decided to follow them, flying economically between each one to maximize the number of target stars scanned. I'm planning on continuing this until I find an ELW out here, before heading back to the Bubble.

If you're trying to become more disciplined at staying "on target" for specific destinations, bookmark them. Bookmarks are a precious resource (I, like most explorers, hit the 100 bookmark limit a long time ago) not to be squandered on things I don't immediately need them for; this motivates me to get to the bookmark ASAP. Bookmarks also make route recalculation easier for when you get matchmaker server errors and your route gets deleted.

 

[duckofdeath]

This strategy has served me well over the years:
1. Open the galaxy map
2. Map to the first star I find of a class and size I want to go to
3. Jump
4. Repeat

My routes usually looks something like this:

 

[grimreaper]

I've been out there and the "button" became mesmerizing, told my buddy who was still in the bubble, I'm gonna push it... I'm gonna push it. after getting my wits back I continued on my quest and a few jumps later elw and 2 ww in the same system. I am so glad I didn't s.d. made elite explorer when colonia was first mapped, I was the only ship for days until I got back toward the bubble near the neutron fields. sorry off topic, I mapped a general direction and seen whatever was there. p.s. sag a is probably the most impressive of all the sites (for me)

 

[meusmc]

One of the things I've done in the past is roll a dice.

It works like this....
1= North (towards BP)
2= East
3= South
4= West
5= Up
6= Down

Roll the dice and head out of the bubble in that direction for about 3k (ignore up/down for this bit).

Once you get out there, roll again, and head in the new direction for 500ly, detouring to look at shinies on the way

Rinse and repeat.

I really like that!

One thing I do is let the computer plot a course somewhere and just follow. But if I run into a string of already discovered systems, I turn hard north for 500ly or so and then deploy to my original destination.

I’ve decided to go to Colonia now, so I can sell of my data and make sure I don’t screw the pooch. What I’ve got now will probably push me into elite status, after that I don’t have to care. Plus, I want to change my load out some. How good is the selection for outfitting at the stations in Colonia?

 

[Harley Quinn]

I just pick a random direction (or just vaguely in the direction of final destination if travelling) and set my filter to AFG stars and the rare ones and plot the longest route I can.

My routes will normally be a couple of hundred LY off a destination if traveling but the same distance.

 

[CMDR Pugwash]

I'm in the "pick a destination and wander vaguely in that direction" camp, with a foot also in the "shiney on the starboard bow, ooooooo" camp.

Edit - That's why I don't like the idea of passengers, they'd make you do stuff.

 

[meusmc]

I'm in the "pick a destination and wander vaguely in that direction" camp, with a foot also in the "shiney on the starboard bow, ooooooo" camp.

Edit - That's why I don't like the idea of passengers, they'd make you do stuff.

My dislike of people is what led me to start off as a freighter Captain. That jack munch of a Station Commander in Irkutsk convinced me that I needed to go even further. Hence my current location of Graea Hypa WJ-R E4-142. At least for the next few minutes.

 

[Arthur Spooner]

I'm only home at weekends so my ingame time is quite limited. Thus my strategy used to be to look for something that looks interesting (shiny) not too far off the bubble, go there, check it out, look around a little bit and go back to the bubble. Horsehead nebula and the likes.

Then I started to get involved to engineering a bit more and wanted to do the 5 kLy travel to unlock. This target changed the way I explored quite a bit. In the end I did my first not-so-short roundtrip to the Eagle Nebula, Colonia, the planet of death, a green glowing gas giant, this 9.9 g world (Kyloalks something, landed there of course), the system with 7 black holes, Sag A*, Great Annihilator and now back to the bubble. Not quite there, arrived at Morgan's Rock.

I still pick a target and go there and don't bother too much with the systems I visit underway. I always honk and almost every time scan at least the main star. Other objects only when I find something interesting like ELWs, WWs and strange looking stuff.

Now after looking into different possibilities I think in the future I will take an even different approach. Not go to far but investigate a lot deeper than ever before. Jumping around in small areas and scanning complete systems that somehow look interesting and do some research on the data I find. So I can still find interesting stuff but don't need to jump for several weekends to get back to the bubble in case something interesting happens there. Still I will need to find areas to investigate that have at least some sort of POI (nebulae mostly), just because wandering without any target just isn't my cup of tea.