2.2 Building the Neutron Highway Grid

[Rudi Raumkraut]

I lost 1% of my FSD each NS jump, so it depends how many AFMU stuff you need to repair 100% / 100 jumps to calculate your refills...

Oh, and I just made 2 jumps, so my exp may not be that representative

 

[outthere2328]

Can you check this system - I can't find it on the map... is it a typo?

EOL PROU IE-W E1-3246

A typo - still had it bookmarked as EOL PROU IW-W E1-3246

 

[Lightspeed]

On my way to the Bubble from Jaques in an unmodded AspX (jump range 32 ly). I have lost count how many neutron star jumps I have made, but I have to say it is a lot more pleasant than the traditional method of star to star. It saves me 4 jumps each time I use it, and I do seem to be making much faster progress than with the regular method.

A lot of the extra speed comes from FOMO. This is the Fear of Missing Out. Each jump I do, I am tempted to scan the system I reach and examine it on the System Map .... and maybe go and look at something interesting ... in case I am missing something important. With four less scanning points each time I jump, I speed the whole process up without feeling guilty !

I lose about 1%, occasionally 2% on a bad jump, each time I jump. Once, I had the FSD Failure announcement. Though the FSD kicked back online, it was down to 75%, so I guess there is an occasional chance of needing serious repair. Good job I carry an Auto Repair Module. So far so good. I am repairing the FSD as soon as it goes below 94% as a precaution (I have no idea if this makes a difference, but I feel better that way).

So you do need to carry a repair module just in case, or rely on going station to station along the way.

Edit - add .... My Auto Repair Unit started with 4000 units, and I am now down to about 2500 after getting past the 5000 ly mark, including that unfortunate FSD failure that swallowed 1000. So I may need materials to charge it before I have finished the journey, maybe not. Touch and go.

 

[Wi1dcard]

Just want to say that I think the calculations for max-jump range from a Neutron Star in this calculator are wrong. And before anyone asks, I am putting in my exact jump range. Whenever I plug distances into the router, it consistently only gives me roughly 120Ly, when my max, boosted jump range is actually around 169Ly.

This results in either costing me an extra, superfluous jump, or manually plotting from a neutron star in the general direction of where I want to go, and then using the router as normal after that first boosted jump.

Any way to get that fixed?

 

[SushiCW]

I learned something interesting today: if you don't have a fuel scoop, you don't get the boost. Took me many minutes of hanging around a couple white dwarf cones before I made the connection.

Obviously not an issue for long-distance travel, but important for anyone thinking of getting a quick boost to their in-bubble travel.

 

[Spansh]

Just want to say that I think the calculations for max-jump range from a Neutron Star in this calculator are wrong. And before anyone asks, I am putting in my exact jump range. Whenever I plug distances into the router, it consistently only gives me roughly 120Ly, when my max, boosted jump range is actually around 169Ly.

This results in either costing me an extra, superfluous jump, or manually plotting from a neutron star in the general direction of where I want to go, and then using the router as normal after that first boosted jump.

Any way to get that fixed?

If you're on about my router it's probably best to post in the specific thread for it. With regards to the calculations, they're right (4x supercharge). That said if there isn't a neutron star (The system knows about) within your max jump range it tries to find a non neutron system to jump to at the best range it can, in poorly mapped areas it sometimes has to resort to worse than you can see on your galaxy map (We are at 0.001880% of the galaxy mapped right now) for every star you can plot in game, we can only see roughly 1 in 50,000. Some areas are pretty well known (The route to Colonia for instance). As more people explore and go Neutron hopping we'll find even more.

Until we have a way of getting the same data you can see in game on the galaxy map we're very limited in what we can do, which is why my system makes "best guesses". it doesn't do too badly but as the data improves it will get better.

 

[tachyondecay]

On my way to the Bubble from Jaques in an unmodded AspX (jump range 32 ly). I have lost count how many neutron star jumps I have made, but I have to say it is a lot more pleasant than the traditional method of star to star. It saves me 4 jumps each time I use it, and I do seem to be making much faster progress than with the regular method.

A lot of the extra speed comes from FOMO. This is the Fear of Missing Out. Each jump I do, I am tempted to scan the system I reach and examine it on the System Map .... and maybe go and look at something interesting ... in case I am missing something important. With four less scanning points each time I jump, I speed the whole process up without feeling guilty !

I lose about 1%, occasionally 2% on a bad jump, each time I jump. Once, I had the FSD Failure announcement. Though the FSD kicked back online, it was down to 75%, so I guess there is an occasional chance of needing serious repair. Good job I carry an Auto Repair Module. So far so good. I am repairing the FSD as soon as it goes below 94% as a precaution (I have no idea if this makes a difference, but I feel better that way).

So you do need to carry a repair module just in case, or rely on going station to station along the way.

Edit - add .... My Auto Repair Unit started with 4000 units, and I am now down to about 2500 after getting past the 5000 ly mark, including that unfortunate FSD failure that swallowed 1000. So I may need materials to charge it before I have finished the journey, maybe not. Touch and go.

100% agree on all counts. I'm in a similar ship, and currently super-charging my way from Colonia towards Sag A* for the first time. As you say, it's a much more pleasant method of covering long distances. In addition to counteracting FOMO, I find the mechanic more fun than simply jonking. And fun is usually the goal of a game.

I also like that this feature makes AFMUs more relevant for me as an explorer. I brought an AFMU with me on my first long-distance trip, but I didn't really need it because I was so careful. Now, with this risk/reward mechanic built into travelling itself, I have this choice I can make. As long as my AFMU is working and I have the materials required to synthesize ammo, I'm good.

 

[Tentacle Love]

While heading out to Colonia the manual way, I stumbled across two neutron stars that might end up being useful. Both are between Polo Harbour and Colonia.

This one was particularly beautiful when warping in, it spins very rapidly and has a nice sized cone.

This one seemed more like a tiny baby neutron star, I was worried it wasn't going to be as interesting, but it ended up much more so!
This one is on the same horizontal plane as Colonia, and might end up being extremely useful, because it has an M class star you can fuel scoop off of, and not only that, but ALL of the materials needed for FSD injections are found on those landable planets!
(I call it the gas station)

 

[SpaceMonkeyz]

Yeah but how do I know how much is enough? Why I wanted to know how long you can get on one or how many you need for a certain number of NS Ofc of I take mats for 20 refills Im gonna have little problem but might only need 3 then the extra refills are not necessary to spend time on atm

I came back from Beagle Point and ended up on a super highway, 25,000 lightyears of nothing but neutron stars and breaks to scoop or explore a sector, I only refilled my AFMU 4 times. And my AFMU was at 71% when I got back to the bubble.

 

[Fomalhaut]

Just one question, does the tool know all neutron stars in the galaxy? Cause i've found lots of neutron stars who aren't apparently in the "spansh" tool ? Coming back from Colonia over Sagittarius A* back to Sol.

Like: Byua ain on-a d1-657

 

[Mengy]

So over the past few weeks while both on my way out to Colonia and now returning to the bubble for the Distant Stars trip, I've done many one hour timed runs while neutron hopping just to see how much faster it is for me. And I have to say that it's consistently faster to neutron hop than it is to simply jonk, as long as you are flying through sufficiently dense fields of course. I've done all of my testing at just a bit below -1000 on the galactic plane where there seem to be plenty of neutrons to use. Even when not using a planned route, even when not pressing my nose right to the grindstone, utilizing neutron boosts increases my travel time enough to make it warranted.

I've averaged my runs together, and these are the travel times I've recorded with my 53ly range Asp Explorer while traveling with discipline (no exploring), times include both repairing and fueling along the way:

Standard Jonking ~ 3350 lys / hr
Neutron field jumping (not using a pre-planned route or plotter, manually picking waypoints along the way) ~ 3850 lys / hr
Neutron field jumping (using the neutron route finder tool) ~ 4100 lys / hr

I've gotten pretty good at manually picking neutron routes along the way, without a pre-planned route or a plotter to pick waypoints for me, but I still can't match the efficiency for using the neutron plotter tool. I can get close, but not match it, time spent hunting and picking in the galaxy map is the difference. The really big plus for me though is that I just find it so much more fun to travel via neutron jumps. I think this is my favorite new mechanic to the game since 1.0 other than planetary landings.

I absolutely love the neutron plotter tool. I've noticed it's become much better at calculating as more neutrons get logged into EDSM. I think after the Distant Stars and Silly Ships expeditions I'm going to head out in search of undiscoverd neutrons in low traffic areas simply to help the tool be more useful outside of the well traveled routes.

 

[Fire Dragon]

Love your tool, what would be a nice feature is if I could put current location in and it find the closest Nutron to me, or say list all within a given distance.

 

[Spansh]

Just one question, does the tool know all neutron stars in the galaxy? Cause i've found lots of neutron stars who aren't apparently in the "spansh" tool ? Coming back from Colonia over Sagittarius A* back to Sol.

Like: Byua ain on-a d1-657

It only knows the ones which have been discovered and submitted to the Elite Dangerous Data Network (If you're running ED Market Connector or Ed Discovery and have configured them to submit to the websites then they will show up within ~24 hours).

In order to register a new neutron star you have discovered you'll have to Honk (stellar body scan) and then target the neutron star and surface scan it to register the star type. This doesn't have to be completely altruistic as neutron stars are worth quite a lot in exploration data.

Love your tool, what would be a nice feature is if I could put current location in and it find the closest Nutron to me, or say list all within a given distance.

I can add this relatively easily.

 

[Mengy]

what would be a nice feature is if I could put current location in and it find the closest Nutron to me, or say list all within a given distance.

I can add this relatively easily.

Actually, that would indeed be an incredibly useful feature. Good idea Fire Dragon. Spansh, this plotter of yours is quickly becoming my most used Elite utility!

I truly wish the in game route plotter worked like this.

 

[jimbeau1571]

I don't know if this is well known, but then I haven't really followed anything about the Neutron Highway but I recently made the trip from the bubble to Beagle, then from Beagle out to the Tosia Sector (NW corner of the galaxy on the map), but then headed direct to Colonia from there. At roughly -27000 on the X axis, I dropped to the -1000 on the Y axis and to my surpirse found sufficient Neutrons to make jumping all the way to Colonia a viable option. I wasn't aware they extended in sufficient numbers this far wide of the core. I am now currently heading West from Colonia, at approx -10000 X axis, -1000 Y axis and Neutron jumping with sufficient numbers to make it worth while, averaging about 190Ly jumps each time.
(I use EDDiscovery so all these finds are going to EDSM).

 

[Spansh]

I don't know if this is well known, but then I haven't really followed anything about the Neutron Highway but I recently made the trip from the bubble to Beagle, then from Beagle out to the Tosia Sector (NW corner of the galaxy on the map), but then headed direct to Colonia from there. At roughly -27000 on the X axis, I dropped to the -1000 on the Y axis and to my surpirse found sufficient Neutrons to make jumping all the way to Colonia a viable option. I wasn't aware they extended in sufficient numbers this far wide of the core. I am now currently heading West from Colonia, at approx -10000 X axis, -1000 Y axis and Neutron jumping with sufficient numbers to make it worth while, averaging about 190Ly jumps each time.
(I use EDDiscovery so all these finds are going to EDSM).

There are neutron "planes" at roughly -1000 and +1000 LY on the z azis across most of the galaxy. I'll always encourage people to go exploring and submitting unsidsovered systems to EDSM but I'll pimp my own tool (now linked in the original post I believe), http://www.spansh.co.uk/ it should make routing somewhat easier for you.

 

[andrak]

So over the past few weeks while both on my way out to Colonia and now returning to the bubble for the Distant Stars trip, I've done many one hour timed runs while neutron hopping just to see how much faster it is for me. And I have to say that it's consistently faster to neutron hop than it is to simply jonk, as long as you are flying through sufficiently dense fields of course. I've done all of my testing at just a bit below -1000 on the galactic plane where there seem to be plenty of neutrons to use. Even when not using a planned route, even when not pressing my nose right to the grindstone, utilizing neutron boosts increases my travel time enough to make it warranted.

I've averaged my runs together, and these are the travel times I've recorded with my 53ly range Asp Explorer while traveling with discipline (no exploring), times include both repairing and fueling along the way:

Standard Jonking ~ 3350 lys / hr
Neutron field jumping (not using a pre-planned route or plotter, manually picking waypoints along the way) ~ 3850 lys / hr
Neutron field jumping (using the neutron route finder tool) ~ 4100 lys / hr

I've gotten pretty good at manually picking neutron routes along the way, without a pre-planned route or a plotter to pick waypoints for me, but I still can't match the efficiency for using the neutron plotter tool. I can get close, but not match it, time spent hunting and picking in the galaxy map is the difference. The really big plus for me though is that I just find it so much more fun to travel via neutron jumps. I think this is my favorite new mechanic to the game since 1.0 other than planetary landings.

I absolutely love the neutron plotter tool. I've noticed it's become much better at calculating as more neutrons get logged into EDSM. I think after the Distant Stars and Silly Ships expeditions I'm going to head out in search of undiscoverd neutrons in low traffic areas simply to help the tool be more useful outside of the well traveled routes.

Interesting. Do you use the largest size fuel tank? Any extra fuel tanks mounted?

 

[Kuretes]

My new favorite tool.

Spansh, just used this to go all the way to the Cat's Eye black hole and I'm on my way back. Cut the time more than in half and was very easy to use. The ability to check off the systems as you go and the convenient copy button you provided make the workflow for using this VERY easy. This was both my first excursion using neutron boosting. It's not as scary as people led me to believe, and with the long haul passenger missions won't be quite so tedious. As an adult player with a full time job and kids... this just made some of the long distance stuff WAY more accessible.

Long story short... thanks!

 

[Hixbot]

Edit. Sorry wrong thread.

 

[Mengy]

So since 2.4 I've done some time comparison tests between the Spansh plotter and the in game neutron plotter. The Spansh plotter is still a better route finder as it pretty consistently calculates routes with less total number of jumps than the in game plotter. It also makes smarter routes, utilizing multiple neutron jumps between fuel stars better. However, using the Spansh plotter means you need to constantly alt tab and copy in system names to the galaxy map to replot your next jump, this takes time. With the in game plotter you just fly and the ship does it all for you. The Spansh plotter still comes out to be faster for me, but not by much overall. The big plus for the in game plotter is that it's easier to use and just more relaxing to fly, to me anyway. That and it also utilizes any and every neutron star along the way while the Spansh plotter only uses neutrons registered with EDDB. Flying with the in game plotter I've come across dozens of never before discovered neutron systems.

If you need the absolute best speed possible I'd recommend sticking with the Spansh plotter.

If you are fine with traveling only slightly slower but having a much more relaxing and far less cumbersome trip with no alt tabbing needed at all, the 2.4 route plotter does a pretty great job IMHO.