Guide / Tutorial After Thousands of LY of travel...here is my Exploration Guide [Video]

Obsidian Ant · Jan 19, 2015

Over the past few months, I have travelled many thousands of light years - I have documented some these adventures in video. The following is an exploration guide covering what type of modules to fit, how to put your scanners to use and what sort of areas that might be interesting to explore. It's not the type of tutorial that goes into great depth, and doesn't provided detailed step-by-step instructions as others have done a better job than me for that. What it does do however, is show you exploration put into practice, along with a number of tips and recommendations.

[video=youtube;gIkF7exrNnQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIkF7exrNnQ[/video]

flint read · Jan 19, 2015

Granite said:
Over the past few months, I have travelled many thousands of light years - I have documented some these adventures in video. The following is an exploration guide covering what type of modules to fit, how to put your scanners to use and what sort of areas that might be interesting to explore. It's not the type of tutorial that goes into great depth, and doesn't provided detailed step-by-step instructions as others have done a better job than me for that. What it does do however, is show you exploration put into practice, along with a number of tips and recommendations.

[video=youtube;gIkF7exrNnQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIkF7exrNnQ[/video]

great vid thanks commander

ZappaBappa · Jan 19, 2015

Just in time. I'm 1 Mil away from getting my first ASP, so this is great way to learn the basics. Awesome video!

Obsidian Ant · Jan 19, 2015

ZappaBappa said:
Just in time. I'm 1 Mil away from getting my first ASP, so this is great way to learn the basics. Awesome video!

The Asp is a great ship. Have you been exploring in anything else yet?

EMarkM · Jan 19, 2015

Cracking, inspirational video.

Makes me want to take the Cobra to the outfitters to make a couple of adjustments, as I always declared exploration to be my thing, but she's not optimised at the moment.

Cheers

Nutter · Jan 19, 2015

Can't wait to watch! Currently 'working'

Bacon Sarnie · Jan 19, 2015

Wow, just wow
I knew the universe was big, just didnt realise how big.
I think once Ive made some money that I'm going to go exploring myself, it just seems so worthwhile and better than just flying cargo from a to b to c etc
I cant wait to get out "there"
Inspiring video mate, really mean that

Crunch · Jan 19, 2015

Just watched it as I bought the Asp ultimately to explore once I had sufficiently upgraded it.

Good tips and your narration is easy to listen to!

Thanks for sharing

Obsidian Ant · Jan 19, 2015

Nutter said:
Can't wait to watch! Currently 'working'

I used to have a job like that.

Bacon Sarnie said:
Wow, just wow
I knew the universe was big, just didnt realise how big.
I think once Ive made some money that I'm going to go exploring myself, it just seems so worthwhile and better than just flying cargo from a to b to c etc
I cant wait to get out "there"
Inspiring video mate, really mean that

Yes, it makes a great change to trading. To be honest I only use trading as a means to an end, that allows me to afford to get out there and explore.

Crunch said:
Just watched it as I bought the Asp ultimately to explore once I had sufficiently upgraded it.

Good tips and your narration is easy to listen to!

Thanks for sharing

It's quite surprising that you can in fact get out and explore with a fairly minimal setup.

CATPAIN KIRK · Jan 19, 2015

Great Video - Setting out for a long expedition is one of my long term Goals - I want to do it in an anaconda though, so it will take a while. Considering life support: From my experience the D is always the lightest, the B is always heaviest, C&D typically weigh the same - applies to most modules if not all (I think there was an exception to that rule, but I can't remember what it was atm [edit]: actually scratch that, I think there is none).

Obsidian Ant · Jan 19, 2015

Yes, i really like that A rated modules are not automatically the best in every area. Really makes you think about what to equip and what is best for the task at hand.

CATPAIN KIRK · Jan 19, 2015

Yeah - but there's much room for improvement in terms of complexity. I just use D modules as a "primer", upgrade the modules I deem important to A as long as they have weight (if they don't I use B - I'm cheap), then downsize oversized modules to trim weight.
However I only realised today that B modules appear to be more resilient to damage than A, so I still have much to learn.

Anyway - do you actually still encounter NPCs far outside inhabitated space? I know that used to be the case at some point and that's one of the issues stopping me from trying an expedition thus far. I'd just hate to reach the opposite side of the galaxy and then encounter an NPC Viper named "Fluffy McFancypants" out there.

Has this been fixed?

Pekka · Jan 19, 2015

CATPAIN KIRK said:
Anyway - do you actually still encounter NPCs far outside inhabitated space? I know that used to be the case at some point and that's one of the issues stopping me from trying an expedition thus far. I'd just hate to reach the opposite side of the galaxy and then encounter an NPC Viper named "Fluffy McFancypants" out there.

Has this been fixed?

It's been fixed. Once you travel a few hundred light years away from the populated regions, it becomes very unlikely to encounter anybody else there.

But sometimes you encounter other explorers in surprisingly distant places.

Obsidian Ant · Jan 19, 2015

CATPAIN KIRK said:
Yeah - but there's much room for improvement in terms of complexity. I just use D modules as a "primer", upgrade the modules I deem important to A as long as they have weight (if they don't I use B - I'm cheap), then downsize oversized modules to trim weight.
However I only realised today that B modules appear to be more resilient to damage than A, so I still have much to learn.

Anyway - do you actually still encounter NPCs far outside inhabitated space? I know that used to be the case at some point and that's one of the issues stopping me from trying an expedition thus far. I'd just hate to reach the opposite side of the galaxy and then encounter an NPC Viper named "Fluffy McFancypants" out there.

Has this been fixed?

I haven't seen any NPC's since the Pleiades Nebula. So if you do head out beyond that, then space is completely devoid of strangely named entities.

CATPAIN KIRK · Jan 20, 2015

Pekka said:
It's been fixed. Once you travel a few hundred light years away from the populated regions, it becomes very unlikely to encounter anybody else there.

But sometimes you encounter other explorers in surprisingly distant places.

Granite said:
I haven't seen any NPC's since the Pleiades Nebula. So if you do head out beyond that, then space is completely devoid of strangely named entities.

Thanks guys. It wasn't so much the name - I just wanted to make sure I feel the vastness and emptiness of unexplored space - spotting an NPC there would have totally ruined that - unless it's a Thargoid of course.

Chevy66 · Jan 20, 2015

Pekka said:
But sometimes you encounter other explorers in surprisingly distant places.

I met someone 2800 LY out, unexpected, but at least greifers aren't likely to get that far out

Obsidian Ant · Jan 24, 2015

Chevy66 said:
I met someone 2800 LY out, unexpected, but at least greifers aren't likely to get that far out

A griefer that gets that far out will earn my respects! A huge effort to get there in order to simply annoy someone...plus potentially month and months of waiting for someone to come by.

Hanson.dani · Feb 25, 2015

I have a question specific to the Asp. I recently made the purchase thinking it would be my next all-around ship, allowing me the luxury of trading rares and commons, shorter number of jumps, and the ability to fight all in one. Frankly though, my experience so far has been losing money on my missions/bounties because of the massive Asp repair costs! Honestly, you take like 15% hull damage and that's 50k in repairs... I made my way to a seemingly promising part of the empire and bought a viper I can use to fight with. Kinda bummed I can't do it all with my Asp like I had planned.

Softan · Mar 7, 2015

Hanson.dani said:
I have a question specific to the Asp. I recently made the purchase thinking it would be my next all-around ship, allowing me the luxury of trading rares and commons, shorter number of jumps, and the ability to fight all in one. Frankly though, my experience so far has been losing money on my missions/bounties because of the massive Asp repair costs! Honestly, you take like 15% hull damage and that's 50k in repairs... I made my way to a seemingly promising part of the empire and bought a viper I can use to fight with. Kinda bummed I can't do it all with my Asp like I had planned.

You can do all that in an asp. I've been doing bounties in my asp for quite a while, racking up millions in bounties without taking any hull damage at all and that includes solo fights against elite anacondas. Outfit a strong shield generator on the asp and shield cells and you're good to go, if you take hull damage after that you're either interdicting or you need some more practice in combat.

STARRAKER · Mar 30, 2015

Great Guide

Well commented - a great guide - well done Obsidian Ant