A strange new world.

[Viscera]

After much running around trading goods and data, I have decided it is time to have a break and take a trip into the great expanse. My goal will be to fly out and explore until I find an undiscovered planet, or even system. Nothing too grand, a simple goal compared to some, but a good experience to take for my introduction into the world of exploration.

Earlier today I returned from a short haul trip of about 250ly in my Python, the Stheno http://coriolis.io/outfit/python/06...5B2392b2f2iv6.Iw18eQ==.IwBjvYutZD5A?bn=STHENO to test the waters and learn a few things about this adventuring path.

This little trip gave me a few insights into what I wanted, and needed from my journey, and so I set forth to the shipyards to see what was available to fit my needs.

Much pouring over coriolis and then actually buying, fitting, and testing of a few various ships eventually led me to one corner of Rays workshop where sat an ex naval assault vessel, a Viper MK4. On purchasing this little gem, close inspection of the log revealed the ships number as V4L14NT, and so she got her name.

I present the "valiant". A very tough little ship that should prove hard to take down. Not set up as a stripped down sleek vessel, but a ship with teeth, durability and yet a great range.

http://coriolis.io/outfit/viper_mk_...2f2i.AwRj4zTI.CwBj5BGbLSCYDMsRA===?bn=V4L14NT

I also believe she will take some good photos too.



She is now all set and ready to launch out on my voyage of discovery tomorrow.

CMDR JOHN FRY.

 

[Jackie Silver]

All the best - if you get the taste for it you'll look back on this moment with a smile, I promise.

 

[Zieman]

All the best - if you get the taste for it you'll look back on this moment with a smile, I promise.

Well said.

 

[Whiterose]

It seems you have already been infected with the virus....

 

[Nutter]

As soon as you find your very own planet and or system to tag, you may well get the bug, for me it's about visiting the strange, hard to reach places. If I tag it too, it's a bonus!

Enjoy Commander!

 

[Witzo]

May beautiful sights lighten your travels, Sir!

 

[Scoopy Doopy]

Good stuff and a nice ship!

Which direction are you headed? If you head towards Barnards Loop, the chances of tagging a system are low (I found just one) until you have passed through it and you certainly won't find one actually in any of the nebulae around there. The sights are good though.

If you head towards the core I think I found my first untagged system only a few hundred LY out.

 

[Viscera]

Thank you all for your well wishes.

I left my start location this morning (146.82ly from Sol) and headed in a general direction of downwards on my star map. Not very precise at all, but all roads must start somewhere. A bit more investigation shows that i basically headed past/between the Aries Dark Region and the Pleides Nebula, in a rough direction of the California nebula. I would plot and Jump a route of about 80ly each time, scooping and scanning where appropriate in between, ie:I did not have to travel an overly extended distance in supercruise for the scan, unless I felt it was really worth it.

I took a couple of shots after a while, of things that grabbed my eye, which I will show now. The Valient (Viper Mk4) is certainly a photogenic beast and certainly pleasing on the eye -





Nothing special, just planets with some colours that really appealed to me.

I then proceeded to suffer two minor issues, completely my fault, but valuable wake up calls none the less.

Firstly was my Icarus moment, when I scooped too close to a star and fell out of supercruise. Between 1% to 2% damage to every module and the hull except for my detailed surface scanner. Icarus indeed, my wings had been truly scorched.

Secondly was a lax moment on my part when the planet I was heading towards to scan was actually suddenly in my face. I certainly came to a rather shocking and sudden stop..... another 1% off the hull and another valuable wake up call.

Stop faffing about if the ship is moving, lesson 101 learnt, I press on.

I came across a weak signal reading about 400ly from sol. I decide to stop and check it out out of interest to see what is out here. Shields on max, engine to 2 pips, I drop in to find....

3 pirates in a rag tag assortment of ships - an eagle, a sidewinder and a cobra Mk3. They scan me for cargo, of which I have none, whilst I warily scan them all back. They moan about my lack of cargo and wander away, whilst I silently chuckle at their strange place to meet up. It does reinforce why I took this ship and its armaments though, had they attacked I felt reasonable safe to get away, or even take them on (not the recommended action vs 3 ships, but I was not burdened under with days of scanning data)

I pushed on, and at about roughly 530ly from sol, I found my nirvana. A system where only some of the planets had been claimed. OH MY! 53 objects in system (less some 7 asteroids it turned out) of which about half are unclaimed.

I spend what feels like an age scanning the system, then land on on of the planets for a drive - and find a rare astroid full of unknown (to me) metals.

I then turn to head back to my home base.

In my eagerness I somehow fail to set the scan for home and complete my last jump of my original run. In the system I find another single unclaimed planet. I proceed to take a detailed scan of it, then take a rest ready for my 26 jump run to home later tonight, from out here 535ly from Sol.

 

[Viscera]

Well that went very well. In the course of just one day, I succeeded in my very basic brief, namely to get my name on a planet, and actually managed to exceed it. I returned to my home base and traded my discoverys in, gaining about a 40% raise in my explorer ranking. In total, I discovered:

In MEL 22 SECTOR BC-P C5-2

1 x class 1 dwarf

25 x planetary bodies

In SYNUEFAI MJ-U B35-0

2 X planetary bodies

In HIP 12137

1 X planetary body

I also found some rare materials in a meteorite, which was a nice little bonus -



So a nice short exploration trip. The Valient (Viper MK4) performed brilliantly, and had a great view from its cockpit as well as handling my mishaps with aplomb. I shall certainly keep her, and take her out again in the near future.

What did I learn.

Exploring can be fun, but you need to approach it in the right way for yourself like any other thing in Elite. For me this was to set a goal, and then go out to achieve it. I had no set time limit, or pressure, which allowed me plenty of freedom in how it happened.

Keep your attention on what you are doing. If you want to faff about outside the action, stop and get safe first. There are no second chances out there. This one is very important. It is not till it happens you realise how far from support and repair you actually are. Even 500ly feels a long way when you stack it.

Pictures can be frustrating to take. Getting it just so is not the easiest task. I think I need to play about with this some more as it is quite an enjoyable part of the exploration event for me, and I certainly failed to get a couple that I wanted to take as I could not get the right angles, ship position and what not as I felt it deserved.

You do not need massive jump ranges to achieve your goal. For me, the 20ly jump i had felt like a very good range and more than adequate for the task I wanted to achieve.

There are a lot of wrecks out there. Its tempting to build a scavenger/exploration ship and take it out to the closer uninhabited systems, to add a variation to the exploration theme at some time.

So a good little trip out for me. About 900ly covered in total today, and achieved my goal of getting my name on a planet as discoverer, plus as a bonus I also got a dwarf. Perhaps next I should aim for a whole system, or maybe head to the Witch Head area, that certainly has an intriguing name.

John.

 

[Viscera]

As a small addendum to this trip, It left me on 94% rank explorer level. I thought it would be fun to get the last 6% running through the bubble doing some exploration of the local systems. Noting I had a bounty to collect from the alliance, some 150ly away from my regular haunt, I jumped into the Valiant again, threw an E rated kill warrant scanner on instead of the heat sink, and set off to alliance space. Scanning and working my way across, I got myself there and cashed in the bounty and got myself up to 98%. On the way there and back, I actually got interdicted a few times. Some fun was had fighting the first two interdiction ships down. The third interdiction was a Python. Then his friends also dropped in. eeek. Big shields, and big armour certainly kept me safe as I high waked out of the system. A little later I got interdicted on the way to scan a planet, and got a picture after the event with the planet showing in the distance. It seemed a fitting end to the thread for now as I look for my next exploration inspiration, with the Valiant blasting off towards new adventures.



Cheers, CMDR JOHN FRY.

 

[Scal]

This was a great tale - thanks for sharing

The VIV looks like a great ship, definitely made for great photos!

Fly safe cmdr

o7