No one uses synthesis boosting for fast travel,
That's false, even during my hiatus I've heard of players who make use of it while riding the colonia neutron highway.
and crashing into stars is unavoidable if you jump into a close binary system, which is going to happen if you explore enough. I've lost many module points to heat damage during dangerous jump ins.
That's your personal problem, because as I've previously stated, I've had no issues avoiding crashing into stars during my two trips to Colonia and back, and on my first exploration voyage (to Sag. A, took my time over the span of 2-3 months as I recall) I crashed into stars a grand total of 3 times. Crashing *inside* stars is no longer an issue, and Fdev's made changes regarding close binary systems, so those exceptions are out too.
Sorry V'larr, but you do not understand how many explorers play the game. You might think you do but your statements say otherwise.
Funny statement to make after demonstrating how you yourself don't fully understand how others play the game....
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Nope, otherwise I wouldn't have spent 10 minutes writing my reply, either way, I really want to know your experience because you really talk as if you have not done much exploration beyond going to Colonia.
Well, aside from my aforementioned journeys to Sag. A and Colonia (keeping in mind even in trips to Colonia I made a point of stopping in each of the systems I passed through), I've embarked on several shorter exploration trips within around 10,000 ly of Sol to various locations that for whatever reasons while playing Elite, I became curious about and jotted down in my notes to go visit. I also made a project out of revisiting my discovered earthlikes and visiting each of the systems that are visible from the navigation panel, to create a sort of known-space-bubble as though preparing for future habitation, if you will. That's how I managed to reach my Elite exploration rank.
So no, I'm not just some "I took a trip to Colonia and I'm the game's best explorer" idiot, thanks very much.
1st thing: Only because you know of a single fringe explorer doesn't mean its the only one. DWE, DSE and DECE are expeditions which were made to go to the fringes of the galaxy, do you dare to say that's a minuscule part of the exploration community?
I'm certain there are others besides Mengy. There's been other expeditions that didn't focus on the fringes of the galaxy. And even that still doesn't make a large portion of the community or a majority of explorers in the face of the fact that at *least* 99% of the unexplored galaxy will not involve fringe-jumping.
And as I've repeated now,
the fringe existed long before there were any changes to maximum possible jump range. The only thing that has changed is where the fringe exists.
2nd thing: As technology avances, so do achievements. The highest and lowest systems ever visited have been constantly changing as new features began appearing, guess which ones are the most challenging to reach? You guessed right, the newest records OFC and those are the ones that matter.
And who's to say that's necessarily a good thing? What would have been wrong with the original highest/lowest systems visited retaining their records? All the challenge of those old systems is now gone, and for what? Because impatient people asked for more jump range and greedy fringe explorers wanted to set some more records for themselves?
The additions of synthesis, Engineers, and neutron boosts is expansion of space magic as much as it is 'advancement of technology'.
Sure, I didn't say it was a necesity but don't act as if explorers didn't care about that ship characteristic, after all, the vast majority of time of an explorer is spent in SC.
Yes, it is mostly spent in SC - but not *turning* in SC, merely pointing yourself at your destination and then continuing to point at it once in range of a scan. Issues which I directly discuss in the time thread in my signature. Nowhere did I say people don't care about that convenience, either.
Well, I'm just pointing out the fact that we don't need anything but a ship to explore which has been a concurrent argument of yours. In short, when we say need it just means that it is a very nice convinience.
*sigh* No, that's *not* been my concurrent argument. You're being silly and going from one extreme to the other.
Don't be absurd, then?
Hahaha. Not really, if you don't have a very good jump range it is very possible to misjudge a jump and remain stuck in a T-Tauri system, I mean, why do you think we have the Fuel Rats for us?
Number of times I've gotten stuck in a T-tauri system and required assistance:
0
If you took any time at all to plan or simply look at where you are going before you went, you could avoid those situations each and every time you go jumping around.
Now, it's easier than ever before with the current navigation map & filters that we have to ensure that you don't miss fuel stars, so I'm afraid that I fail to see how it's a *necessity* to have that SRV-landing capability in anything but fringe exploring.
Back in 2.2 beta when NS stopped being sterile and useless, some explorers noticed the 300% jump boost provided by neutron stars. It turns out it was a bug and FD definetly were planning to patch it but it wasn't thanks to the efford of Dr. Kaii & Erimus which proved how the neutron stars could allow you to reach new systems and thus the bug remained to this day. Actually, they had another bug which allows two supercharges which was in fact used to discover the lowest systems ever but since 2.4 it seems to have been patched
And much louder than the efforts of Dr. Kaii & Erimus at the time were the voices of everyone wanting faster travel to Colonia and other reaches of the galaxy. I would know, I was there for all of it and experienced firsthand just how many members of the Elite community place value on being able to skip as much of the galaxy as possible.
That's literally wrong. The binary bug that gets you inside a star is virtually unavoidable, the only way you can prevent it is just to check out if your next system has more than one star which is incredibly tedious and limits the systems you can visit.
Wrong? You're are completely off your rocker, mate. Fdev has patched it out and fixed it, partly in thanks to bug reports of my own. Go and browse the patch note history if you don't believe me.
Your claim could have been correct over 2 years ago. It's since been addressed in multiple fashions. And even over 2 years ago, it was astronomically unlikely (pun intended) so whatever chance might exist of it now is exponentially even lower.
In no way is it an actual hazard to the point of requiring AFMUs/heatsinks/etc. (And anybody with a lick of common sense would instantly close down the game if it happened, like I did, which causes the game to then place you at a safe distance away from said star upon re-entry to the game - so again, in no way is it an actual hazard.)
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The clipping is due to the subsequent addition of the fighter bay, not because of the hard point placement which has been there since day 1.
Really? Then explain to me why it is that the huge hardpoint still clips through the rear large hardpoint door?
Fact is that the Anaconda's layout hasn't changed since introduction. Part of the reason why Fdev went with making new SLFs was to avoid having to rework the model on it to fit Sidewinders inside.
I don't see the problem with having a 'quick' ship (it's quick if you strip it to the bone). After tens of thousands of systems 'skipping' the ones in between jumps is not an issue for me. The odds of finding something I haven't seen before in open, featureless space are small. I want to be able to reach an Actual Area of Interest quickly so that I can start exploring that. People that want to scan every last rock can noodle around near the bubble.
Okay, but how much of that would be fixed if supercruise over long distances went faster? Or if scanning took less time? Or if there was simply more to do with the things you can find (e.g. atmospherics, base building, and so on)?
Is it *actually* a problem of insufficient jump range?
I'm on my way to the Zurara at the moment. It's taken 4 days of leisure time so far (I will reach it tonight) and all I've done is jump in a 60LY conda. I'm not sure how much longer you think it should take but that's plenty as far as I'm concerned. I went to Sag A in 37 LY conda. The trip there was interesting, being the first time, but the trip back to turn in my data...urgh.
Yup, even if you used a 37ly ship, it used to be quite the journey, didn't it...? It's as though our Milky Way galaxy is a big, vast sea full of innumerable things, rather than an easily traversable road network like what Mass Effect might lead you to believe.