Are You a straight line explorer?

[Colonia Jesus]

Or do you meander your way there. On my first trip to Sag A* I pretty much went the direct route as much as was possible. By doing this I probably missed quite a lot of stuff. On my second trip (currently) I have been a bit more selective and a bit more aimless in my approach. I am about 8500Ly out and have probably travelled more like 9500-10000Ly. I am also taking my time scanning etc and looking at what is in a system properly before moving on.

for me there is no rush, I am blogging my trip (not sure if external site links are allowed) and have had a couple of nice finds already. I tried the jump honk scan main star jump and found it way too much of a grind. I am enjoying so much more this less pressure approach. my only target is to meet up with my 3 fellow explorers in Sag A in 5 weeks time. Once we are there we are heading onward to the rim.

So how do you prefer to explore is it about what you find, about how far you can go or even get there as quick as you can?

 

[Krunchie]

I am 38 k ly from Sol and I travelled 84,5 k ly to get there. Hope that answers your question.

 

[kpmop]

I think on my first couple of trips I did that (went slowly, checking everything out) - probably because it was all still new to me. My last trip though (to Sag A*) was a honk and jump run for most of the 20-odd kylies there and back, though I did spend some time in the core looking around. For me exploration has become about getting to places and then looking around rather than investigating every system I pass through - I still check the system map (most of the time anyway) for any interesting looking things, but as per the usual complaint about exploration: it all gets a bit samey after a while...

 

[EddyRockSteady]

Yeah, the only way to stay sane is to set yourself clear objectives, for example the DW expedition. As a seasoned explorer with a +-100 000 LY trip already under my belt a good while ago, you realize after a while that absolutely everything inbetween Objective A and Objective B remains exactly the same, all of the time.

It tends to eat away at specific parts of your brain.

Straight line? Would obviously depend on the placement of one's objectives. Either way, for me personally it's irrelevant whether it's straight or not. I tend to hightail it to said objective and then take the time to stop and smell the roses around said objective for a day or two and then straight-line it to the next objective. Only way I can maintain my sanity and excuse the sameness.

 

[InMemoriamSirocco]

I'm an ADHD explorer

"Must. Keep. Heading. For. Sag*A!.... Oh whazzad? Looks shiny! Hmmm maybe I can deviate just a lil bit from my course to check it out?"

 

[Sapient6]

These days I determine a set of objectives for an expedition before I set out, and one of the objectives is usually a specific location. For example, before my current expedition I zoomed the galaxy map all the way out and selected a "spot" on it, zoomed all the way in on that "spot" and selected a star. So one of the objectives of this expedition is to reach that star. Another objective is to survey minerals on planets as I go to further enhance my mineral data set. And then I have an objective to specifically scan and survey minerals, on various planet types, in T-Tauri systems. So when I get to that destination star later this year I'll be wandering around aimlessly looking for T-Tauri systems. And on the way there? I occasionally just stop along the way and check for patches of T-Tauri systems.

Further, when I land on a planet to survey minerals I'm often there for a couple of days. Longer if that planet has one of the more difficult-to-find FSD minerals. For me, specifically, that's Polonium, Niobium, and Arsenic).

So... what is a straight line?

 

[Motherhood of Bran]

Outward bound with a destination in mind? I'm pretty focused, and can maintain a fairly arrow-straight course to my objective.

Coming back?...not so much. Once I have achieved whatever the target I set myself was, I turn into a dog chasing cars - with the attention span of a kitten on acid. Once I see something shiny in the distance, I'm off...only to see something even shinier over there...and so on.

 

[Jon474]

Yeah, the only way to stay sane is to set yourself clear objectives, for example the DW expedition. As a seasoned explorer with a +-100 000 LY trip already under my belt a good while ago, you realize after a while that absolutely everything in between Objective A and Objective B remains exactly the same, all of the time. It tends to eat away at specific parts of your brain.

For some reason this post strikes a chord with me. I fall into the OCD-Explorer Camp...I just cannot help myself. I love recording details about stars and planets and moons and...stuff. I want so much to be the kind of Explorer that can travel directly to a place and then set up camp and explore around that location. I am struggling with DW because I cannot just Jonk between the WayPoints ignoring all of the systems in between! Right now, I am torn between watching the DW fleet disappearing over the Galactic horizon and the desire to explore everything in every system I pass through.

In my heart though I know that ERS' line about "absolutely everything in between Objective A and Objective B remains exactly the same, all of the time" is true, and so what difference does it make if I ignore those 200 systems and explore these 200 systems?

Help!

Jon
T-6E pilot

 

[iain666]

I'm picking my way along the far rim in a 27ly Cobra.

I wish a straight line was an option at this point...

 

[Mengy]

I normally meander something fierce. However, if I'm trying to get somewhere in a timely fashion then yeah I am able to put my nose to the grindstone and straight line it quickly. I'm having to do a lot of that for the DWE, if I flew how I normally explore I would never be able to keep up with the fleet.

 

[EddyRockSteady]

In my heart though I know that ERS' line about "absolutely everything in between Objective A and Objective B remains exactly the same, all of the time" is true, and so what difference does it make if I ignore those 200 systems and explore these 200 systems?

Set yourself limits.

Say to yourself that you will only explore systems with probable Earth-like, Water-World and Ammonia systems, ignoring the rest. So honk, analyse data and move on if no planets fit above parameters.

I've been doing this in the DW expedition between waypoints and you cover ground pretty fast, fast enough to get you to the next WP with more than enough time to give into your OCD and properly explore before doing the selective thing between WP's again when the time comes.

That way you have the best of both worlds and the sameness is largely negated. If there is a particular area of interest that you do pass through when hightailing it between waypoints then note the area and return on another expedition. That's the thing with exploring, no matter what you say upon your return (gonna have to shoot me in the head before I do THAT again) we ALWAYS seem to return to the Void.....

 

[Colonia Jesus]

I Learnt the lesson very quickly about setting sub goals and have already achieved a couple so far. visiting certain nebulas etc. I have a couple fo specific systems in mind CL PISMIS 3 has 3 black holes I want to go and see. I have had a bit of a thing looking for ammonia worlds and have found 2 one of them ringed which was excellent and I found that my enthusiasm was refreshed after that. A couple of ELW and more Water Worlds than I can ever remember on my previous trip to Sag A. currently I am heading to PISMIS 3 then onto the Annihilator taking in what ever I can find on the way. I think tbh I am a bit of a tourist. I do jump in honk look at the system map, I have travelled 45000Ls which while not far for some is further than I would normally travel ina system unless it is for something special like AW or ELW in this case the ELW turned out to be a water world lol. for me the serious exploration kicks in on the other side of Sag A with no firm destination in mind except to get as far as I can. So if your sitting in Sag A one day and 4 Condas lumber into view that's most likely me and my colleagues.

happy exploring Comdrs o7

 

[InMemoriamSirocco]

I Learnt the lesson very quickly about setting sub goals and have already achieved a couple so far.

Same here... I just wish there were more achievable sub goals between Shapley 1 and Lagoon Nebula. I rarely get some alone time on our pc because my best friend and I share it and she loves playing Fallout 4... Usually building settlements from break of dawn until midnight on weekends... So all I get to do is browse the forums on my iPad and imagine how cool it would be if we had a second gaming pc...

 

[Hanekura Shizuka]

You ever see one of those questions where you're just really, REALLY tempted to give a flippant answer? For me, this qualifies, because I'm pretty much the textbook definition of straight-line explorer. I almost always have some kind of goal in my exploration. I will, on rare occasions, go, "Hey, what's that nebula-looking thing in the sky near here?" or "Hey, that's a Wolf-Rayet!" - but for the most part, I generally travel with a goal in mind, and rarely deviate from that goal. That goal might be, "Scan 1500 neutron stars", or "Get to Beagle Point As Fast As You Can", but it's a goal.

 

[Colonia Jesus]

You ever see one of those questions where you're just really, REALLY tempted to give a flippant answer? For me, this qualifies, because I'm pretty much the textbook definition of straight-line explorer. I almost always have some kind of goal in my exploration. I will, on rare occasions, go, "Hey, what's that nebula-looking thing in the sky near here?" or "Hey, that's a Wolf-Rayet!" - but for the most part, I generally travel with a goal in mind, and rarely deviate from that goal. That goal might be, "Scan 1500 neutron stars", or "Get to Beagle Point As Fast As You Can", but it's a goal.

it is nice to be focused especially on long range missions. and i like that your did qualify your "flippant" answer lol so cheers it is nice to see that some people are intent on the mission rather than what is goingon around him.

 

[Satsuma]

I tend to be a "string of little straight lines" explorer. I'll pick something interesting that I want to head towards, but I'll take pains along the way to hit interesting things - for me, that's usually astronomically significant objects. My course then doesn't look like a beeline, or like a drunken walk. It's something in between.

That said, I'm flying in Distant Worlds now, so I'm doing a lot more straight line flying than I'm used to.

Even when I'm traveling like this, though, I do a certain minimum exploration of every system. I honk, and I open the system map while I'm fueling. I'll scan out water worlds, earthlikes, ammonia worlds, neutron stars, and black holes. I still manage to average about 90 seconds per system, so it's very light exploring. That gets me almost 1500 light years an hour, not including breaks to land and such, in my Asp and that's plenty fast for me.

 

[SvennoJ]

Straight line to get somewhere, then randomly jump about with some sub-goal in mind.

I usually travel while multi-tasking. High speed scoop while pointing the ship, turn on fsd and forget. (Enter camera mode which sets throttle to zero after jumping) I don't scan stars or check the system map along the way. The anaconda turns too slow for star scanning, and the system map can take 30 to 60 seconds to load since last fall.

Currently I'm around WP7, jumping from B star to B star looking for high g planets. Jump, point ship at star, start system map, and do something else at the same time. Too much dead time in this game. Then I use a simple calculation to check the gravity of high mass planets before I decide to head over. Make a note of it if it's a good candidate to get back there later to do some prospecting, the only thing that's actually hands on.

Other sub goals so far: Measure effect of gravity on the ship, Find the smallest moon, bigger chance at outrageous geometry, Find a moon with the shortest orbital period around a ringed gas giant for some nice photo ops, Try to get as high or low as possible with FSD boost, Prospect the same planet for a few days to experience the day night cycle and get a good feel of the distribution between spawns.

I'm more of a whatever I feel like today explorer.
I used to check every system I traveled by, yet that hit on system map loading times really kills that kind of exploration for me. I'll reserve that kind of exploration for the regions where the planner is useless and I have to open the galaxy map anyway. (Which is a lot slower nowadays as well, yet instant after loading the system map first, odd)

 

[InMemoriamSirocco]

I'm off towards Beagle Point with no schedule and no real end goal in mind. Once I arrive at Lagoon Nebula, I wanna hop from Nebula to Nebula, see the Great Annihilator and Sagittarius A, cruise the Neutron fields, maybe reach Beagle point (if I find enough jumponium), maybe journey far enough above or below the galactic plane to make some nice screenshots... Maybe rendezvous with Jackie Silver or other strays from the Distant Worlds Expedition... And definitely take my time returning to the bubble, because in he meantime, the next update will probably hit, which means betatests, a bugged release and long weeks waiting for bug fixes that probably never come.

If I have realistic view on in the galaxy map and see a big shiny giant star somewhere near, I almost always stray from my plotted route

 

[CMDR Thrope]

I normally meander something fierce. However, if I'm trying to get somewhere in a timely fashion then yeah I am able to put my nose to the grindstone and straight line it quickly. I'm having to do a lot of that for the DWE, if I flew how I normally explore I would never be able to keep up with the fleet.

Yeah. the forward-ho pace of DWE can sometimes make it tough to enjoy the full exploring experience. I was running a couple of days behind until I finally caught up today at WP7, but I had to look the other way a couple of times, ignoring systems I would typically explore. I can run the 2000 LY hours if I have to, but I'd rather spend that hour scanning and prospecting good systems.

 

[CMDR CLASH]

I was little bit like you on my first trip and now that i have the ship (asp explorer) and the eperience i am more selective too. Kinda looking for white or blue star near first after i go for red or yellow to have more chance finding earth like or water world. So like you my trips in ly is not exactly true. I'm now in the beginning of a long trip this time going to MUSCA DARK REGION CQ-Y D66 first and heading 5000 ly to that point.

So fly safe everyone i'll post some screens of my trip soon.