Around the Galaxy

[The Golden Knight]

"God, this is taking FOREVER!" Commander Golden-Knight had gone for about a hundred or two lightyears out of "The Bubble" before the first day was done, as far as the trip around the galaxy was going. The pilot lost count of how many worthless ice balls had to be scanned with a fine-tooth comb, as other jokers with various handles had marked "Discovered" but decided to not bring along the Detailed System Scanner. Their loss, at least it gives a way for Golden-Knight stake a name in this massive galaxy.

And of course, the journal would start with these exact words: "The Galaxy is a Lonely Place."

Just glancing at the Galactic Map had a North America Nebula, a Heart Nebula, and a Soul Nebula...why were they named such? Did they have any significance? Did someone already visit those spots 5 years ago and that first pilot had been the one to choose such funny names?

The human race may never know.

Never mind the rest of the lore, going to scan those dustballs that are 300kls from the main star, all while in supercruise with no hyperspace had been a daunting matter. Once or twice, no problem. But when that counted well over a dozen separate occasions? That's when it started to get much. And naturally, to just go around the galaxy would be much quicker if we focused entirely on nothing more than fuel-scooping and hyperspace jumping. But Golden-Knight was thorough...to a fault. Still, all those wide-eyed wannabe explorers that get curious about what all is out there, well...first impression says "It's at least 90% ice and rock...assuming you ignore all the actual nothingness in between planets."

The end goal? To have a star named after me, or maybe a space station...OR to be honored by way of dashboard decoration ("Golden Knight Plushie" definitely sounds amazing)...basically, I want to get CANONIZED! Sure it's egotistical, but at least I'm upfront about it.

A very specific waltz had been playing on loop for over 250 times, and counting. It took an actual day for this kind of progress, and with no signs of letting up.

Elite - Blue Danube Waltz

Discover music, check out the latest trending videos, and 24/7 curated content! Try ListenOnRepeat today.

listenonrepeat.com

 

[The Golden Knight]

Day 1 Report:
If only you knew how many "Icy Body" and "Rocky Ice" planets I had to come across...
(I'm sure the OTHER Elites know and appreciate that struggle, so don't kill the mood.)

But, here is Day 1 of the travel, and yes, I did carve my way back to Sol to deliver my maps, so I can keep working on the Explorer rank. Assuming I get to Elite, I won't have to worry so much about that.
The picture shows a string of bookmarked stars. Those are the places I did my Detailed Surface Scan, and ideally, you SHOULD be able to find my name among those systems, if you look hard enough for it.

My M.O is simple: first, when in the fully-charted "Bubble", just quick scan of the Nav Beacon is good enough; if it says "First Discovered By" but no "First Mapped By", then I will map AT LEAST ONE planet there, just as a way of saying "I was here". If all systems have been discovered AND mapped, just a quick "honk" and I'll be on my way. In the absurdly unlikely situation where I am the "First Discovered By", I should "discover" every planet there, PLUS map AT LEAST ONE.
But the most important example to set here is: NO REDUNDANT WORK! There's plenty of stars and planets to go round, plus with a few specific "legends" people are looking for, let's not waste any manpower on spots that were already picked clean (I mean, if you want to look at every geographical blip, more power to you, because I'm not sure most people are THAT thorough).


In short, you see all those bookmark icons with the arrows, heading camera-left? THAT is the trail that I have been blazing, or "The Golden Path".

 

[The Golden Knight]

Day 2 Report:
A lot more of the same, plenty of systems out there that were discovered, but not mapped. And this was just on the fringes of "The Bubble", about 30 jumps away from Sol (averaging 20ly per jump, that's 600ly one-way). The twist for today, however, is that I took a different direction and carved straight down. The handful of life-bearing planets I found were already discovered and mapped, so...that's to be expected. More importantly, I was clearly not the first person to think of diving straight down relative to Sol, especially as far as the Galactic Map goes. I remember talking about planets that were upwards of 6 digits in lightseconds away...if there's one good thing about the one or two times I pursued those courses, it's that it gave me the chance to write this, AND to listen to more of the galaxy's LORE, while still staying on course for "something productive". I could've used the auto-pilot "Supercruise Assist", but let's face it, that thing is ridiculously slower than manual control, even with overshooting taken into account. And I don't have much patience for unnecessary slowdowns, especially since it is already mathematically impossible for a single mortal to see every single star system of the galaxy.

Is there any way to accelerate faster in Supercruise? I keep feeling like the ship accelerates slowly when far from my target, and decelerates slowly when near it. To me, that should be flipped, for when near the goal, that's when you need deceleration the most, and when far away, you need all the speed you can get to minimize wait time. I wonder if this is a constraint of physics, or an intentional design of "the engine".

As for me getting back to this, the past couple of days I took a break because for one whole day, I was busy writing...and the other day after that, was busy running a role-playing game. So, it was amazing fun, but kept me from my goals of mapping the galaxy. That is why this entry is the ACTUAL Day 2.

The "Main Sequence" stars are so ridiculously abundant, I feel like I stocked up excessively on fuel tanks, especially since the 4A Fuel Scoop has been extremely faithful the whole way through. And no need for the land rover, as I can scan geological anomalies from the comfort of my hovering ship. That said, entering atmospheric flight is always a pain, what with having to glide on down.

If there's any good news, at least I carved another notch on the galaxy, and those bookmarks (specifically the ones with the downward arrow) are the ones where my name should appear. Like I've been saying, I'm starting to carve my name into the stars. That's what the pictures are for: proof of achievement. There are more than plenty of screenshots involving breathtaking vistas, but that's not my claim-to-fame, or at least not the one I am aiming for.

No signs of RAXXLA, not even a hint. That's OK, I'm not very concerned with that. I've got a ways to go before "Elite" level, and doubly before I can nominate myself as a "Community Legend", but at least I'm working on it. And, flexing my natural writing powers, I should be able to keep a very detailed journal of my personal adventures.

 

[Sapyx]

Just glancing at the Galactic Map had a North America Nebula, a Heart Nebula, and a Soul Nebula...why were they named such? Did they have any significance? Did someone already visit those spots 5 years ago and that first pilot had been the one to choose such funny names?

Any nebulae in ED that have any name other than a procedurally-generated name are "real-world nebulae" - in other words, from ED's point of view, they were named by astronomers on pre-spaceflight Earth over a thousand years ago, and no-one has ever re-named them.

Wikipedia articles:
North American Nebula
Heart and Soul Nebulae

 

[The Golden Knight]

Day 3 Report:
I started going back out on my course to the North American Nebula, which is Checkpoint 1. Only this time, most likely because I lightened the load, the star map gave me a new string of stars to visit. This had the effect of thickening my line, even if not lengthening it. Also, the reason I have not been so extended so far is because I kept going back to Sol at the end of the past couple excursions. There's a conscious (or subconscious) focus on raising my Explorer rank, as it's fairly middle-of-the-road right now. But, assuming that weren't a problem, I should be far enough from "The Bubble" to feel like I can safely pause whenever the day is done, without having to always end my day "back home". I mean none of the great explorers of ancient history kept turning around and heading back.

Or maybe I was "just testing the waters".

Is it possible that there are "REAL WORLD jobs" which I could apply to, citing this as "Experience"? I know, that sounds absurd, even while ignoring the whole "Senior or Bust" quandary. It's just, rumor has it that being a "Drone Pilot" is mostly just watching a screen, from an air-conditioned room, while holding onto a joystick, so if the Elite experience could somehow translate to that, I wish I could apply for that. Maybe I'm too easily distracted for that, anyway.

As for RAXXLA, the search for that reminds me of my own quest for a girlfriend. (Ah, laughing on the outside, crying on the inside.)

My excursion had been interrupted by an "update", and it's a couple days early for the weekly maintenance. Still, best not get too busy, and come back to this after the changes are in effect. I still took a screenshot, just in case. But, a few rock planets, a few ice planets, one or two gas giants...nothing exciting, other than putting my name in more star systems.

And for any clarification, each new, updated screenshot of the galactic map shows the GRAND TOTAL star systems I left my mark in. It's NOT necessarily incremental, and is meant to visualize my path - as well as just how much I've contributed.


And, while on downtime from the server (which prompted some time for "basic needs" as well as raging over the locals' "no respect for quarantine"), I stumbled upon a sobering reality. I'm not the first one to loop the galaxy.

https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/hhz511

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/hhz511/safely_back_from_the_black_my_trip_around_the/


Great depression ensues.

But, we don't get to become in the annals of history by moping over the absurdly unlikely fantasy of being "the first" or "the best". Just "being awesome" should be "good enough".

Back on track, I found a couple geysers (or those other vents, whatever they're called), and that's about as far as the coolness goes. So far, every single system I've been in has already been completely "discovered". It's frustrating, but to be expected. Remind me HOW the galaxy is less than a percent visited! At least there's still a lot of mapping to do, but it's nowhere near as satisfying. THAT SAID, if I were going for any one award, at this rate it actually might be "Most 'First Mapped By' tags". And the more my ring completes, the more of those tags will be under the name of Golden-Knight!


...Uh, guys? I think I ran out of bookmarks. NOW how am I supposed to prove my trail?! Right, the old-fashioned way, with a dump of screenshots (one for each system).

Anyway, some safety tips:
1) Never fly directly to a planet...unless you're like 1k lightseconds away.
2) Kill all throttle when you're in hyperspace, so you don't accidentally plummet into the star.
3) If you get distracted in the middle of transit, either activate your Auto-pilot "Supercruise Assist" or kill all throttle.
4) SLEEP, DAMN IT! Out this deep in space, the only real threat is your own "human error", and that risk is intensified if you feel yourself drooping.

Speaking of which, I think I'll be wrapping up for the day (or night). See you in Day 4.

 

[The Golden Knight]

Day 4 Report:
Back home, it sounds like the fuse is lit. I'm a little worried for Earth, what with the humans turning into animals there, and aggression over stupidity spreading like a virus. I'm no pacifist sap, but even I think it's starting to get ridiculous. And so long as The Alliance protects my Freedom of Speech, I should have every right to be critical of the entire human body. Of course, from my DRACONIAN background in Maryland, my "life experiences" tell me there's a VERY GOOD likeliness that "Freedom is a LIE." Only Question, is it going to be WWIII, or WWIV? Whenever we get to WWV, it'll be proven that conflict is just hardwired into human nature.

OK, enough politics; I want a private message saying "Good job", and NOT "Rules infraction" (The antonym to "Freedom").
I was delayed in picking up on my travels today as I had to do some prep-work for a Friday RPG (maps today, character tokens tomorrow). Catching up on the forums here didn't help that delay, and I still have my "basic needs" just like every living human.

Also, I'm a little worried about "stalkers", not the scary hurtful kind, but more like the "I took your prize in the stars first" kind, who'd go 30 jumps out and back, before I'm even a quarter of the way around the galaxy, and cash in those "First Mapped By" tags within the next day or so. Well, goes to show how big and fragile my ego is (and even if that WERE the case, there are goodness knows how many OTHER "unmapped planets" are floating well off my designated path). But, on the other hand, most people don't have the same kind of time that I have! To put that into perspective, I've almost clocked in this galaxy as much as a normal person would with an ACTUAL FULL-TIME JOB! And that's part of why and how I can get away with mapping a huge swath of solar systems that were left only "discovered" but not "mapped"; that's part of why and how I can get away with being measurably more thorough (yet my patience is not infinite). If this were just a quick honking sight-seeing venture, my whole lap would take only a couple of days, and I wouldn't even NEED to keep a journal!

Maybe those fears are muted. WHY? Because if the vocal minority is any indicator, all the complaints are focusing on MINING, or "Turn the Wheel" (which makes me want to go back to Sol...REALLY FAST). But, just in case, screenshots will be withheld for an extra day, just to make it A LITTLE harder to follow my tracks, while still proving my achievement.

I found 1 Amonia planet, but it was already thoroughly mapped. Nothing else exciting, everything also discovered.

I almost forgot to mention: your speed does not matter for fuel scooping; your proximity to the star is what matters.

My goal for today was to reach Checkpoint 1: THE North America Nebula. And boy did I make to THAT. If the first 2 days were mere dry-runs, then it took me 2 days of actual work to get here.

But so far, I still haven't "discovered" any new planets that someone else had been to. On the other hand, when I get back, it's very likely that at that point, I could hold the record for "most 'First Mapped By' tags".

And then, the absurdly unlikely happened. I think I found a system not yet explored! I actually had to use the Apostrophe key, to bring up the "Full Spectrum Scanner". That was a first, since all the others had all the planets already revealed...and yet, the D-Scanner showed 12 bodies, yet all I saw was the star. "That's strange," I thought at first, since up until now, all I saw were systems that had been fully explored (even if not mapped). I won't yet reveal which system(s) specifically I found like this, because I want MY name as "First Discovered By", if there's any chance of that. And, maybe I'll NEVER tell you which ones I got "First Discovered By"...make it into a sort of "New Raxxla".

I found 3 gas giants with water-based life, 1 with ammonia based life, all in the same system, fully undiscovered until I came along! There's no way I'm not mapping those gas giants, even if they are a pain to map.

And to end today's note, my first impression has been so far unbreakably consistent: The Galaxy is a Lonely Place!

 

[The Golden Knight]

Uh, actually, I think these next few days are going to be a break, as I get back in touch with reality (specifically including the American holiday, July 4), and attempt to host my other "make my own fun" projects. I should be back to my spacefaring norm next week.

Semper Bellum.

 

[The Golden Knight]

Day 5 Report:
July 4. Happy America Day, everybody. Be wary of terrorists. OK, with that out of the way, here's what I got so far:

The slew of screenshots will be dumped on Monday, to give me even more of a head-start than I already have. But at least I'm within 100 jumps of Checkpoint 2, now. Found 1 ammonia planet; was already discovered, but not mapped till I came along. I was, however, the first to find a couple gas giants harboring life; at least one of water, and at least one of ammonia.

Nothing else extraordinary so far, just an overwhelming number of purple-hued "Brown Dwarfs" and countless "Icy Body" planets.

OOH! Took me all afternoon and evening, but I found a Water World! And it's one that I got the first discovery on! Gonna map this baby, and hopefully keep it close to the chest till I can cash it in! AND an ammonia world right after; it's got my name on it!

What I did NOT expect to do today...was make it to Checkpoint 2. Yet here I am, at the lonely white star, and since it's just past midnight as of this edit, I think this is THE perfect time to sign off for the day. Great progress, got a huge swath of solar systems in my maps (assuming I don't DIE), from over 100 jumps (I think it was at or around 140). Checkpoint 3 will be in 239 jumps.

 

[Sapyx]

If you keep hitting brown dwarfs, you might want to consider filter them out from your navigational targets. It's very very rare that they have anything interesting orbiting them, so you won't be missing much.

You should also be aware of a curious natural phenomenon: the "brown dwarf disc" that spans the entire galactic equator, about 20 LY thick, from -30 to -50 Y (Up/Down) co-ordinate. Explorers of ye olden days, from before the star filters were given unto us, called this place the "brown dwarf desert". If you fly to random stars through or within the disc, just about every star you hit will be a brown dwarf. Stay out of the disc (either above it or below it), and your chances of hitting brown dwarfs fall off dramatically.

 

[The Golden Knight]

Thanks for the tip, I wasn't totally aware of that. And that explains why most of my finds thus far were so mundane. It'd be a pretty sick joke if Raxxla was within that "equator", though. But yeah, all the icy bodies and brown dwarfs had almost been giving me sensory deprivation.
Now the question is, will all the NOT-brown dwarf systems have been charted already?

 

[The Golden Knight]

Day 6 Report:
Almost a week of nonstop travels, not counting all my breaks. With the tip in mind, plotting my route is slower in the galaxy map screen, but if it'll save me some sensory deprivation, that extra time could be worth it. Jump went up from 239 to 276, so that's an extra 37 jumps by strictly avoiding the Brown Dwarfs. At least I don't have to worry about running out of fuel, with just about every jump being a fuel star. Even if RAXXLA was buried in a Brown Dwarf, I've seen enough of those and their Icy Bodies to give me acute sensory deprivation. Now, first impression, I HAVE seen a few stars that were discovered but not so thoroughly charted. THAT is where I come in!

Even those boring Icy Bodies need to get mapped at least a little! But still, to answer the question of "Have these Sequence Stars been mapped," the answer is, "No, there are A LOT where I've been the first to set foot in the system." Wow. Still more icy bodies than you can shake a bowel movement at, but still.

I confirmed a Class V Gas Giant today, and apparent it was among the first of its kind to be fully charted. Gonna map that one, for history's sake, even if gas giants in general are a headache to probe. Just as soon as I got done and was charging my hyperspace jump, there was a "game crash".

This is a bit of a pattern, not 110% sure yet, but the hypothesis goes: Red Dwarfs are about as uninteresting as Brown Dwarfs...only difference is, the former you can refuel. Either way, too much ice, rock, and rocky ice (y'know, the "RICE" planets in Elite jargon). Later, got some gas giants with life on them (about one of each). No Thargoid sightings, so it's safe to assume this is not their homeworld. Though I actually found a Water World at one of those Red Dwarfs. It needs to be within 100 ls of the Red Dwarf for the ice to liquefy. Keep that in mind, future explorers, anything that isn't "seriously close" to the star is gonna be frozen solid.

I admit, this is where my patience really started to wear thin, as I've been slacking on the surface scans some. But, with a few gas giants and other planets, I don't think it'll make much difference. And yeah, a week of this does get mind-numbing. Barely made it to the Orion Spur border before I needed to take a break...though to be fair, that was about 3 hours of commitment. This also illustrates my problem I would have with work in general. Suppose this were literally a paying full-time job...even then, it wouldn't be more than a couple weeks before I'd get sick of this. So tell me how we're supposed to make a living?

And my trance was shocked when I found my very first Earth-Like planet! It's a few thousand lightyears away from home, so it probably won't do us much good, unless we wanted to colonize it as a social experiment involving isolation. Either way, I probed it good, just to be safe.

Between that in my digital cargo hold, and the sensory deprivation getting to me, I think I've mapped plenty of planets as-is...and now, I'll just focus on "Discovering" those not yet discovered. That'll speed up the trip by quite a lot, from not having to fly out, and all that. OR just probe if there's something interesting like an Earth-Like planet.

"Notable Stellar Phenomenon." That's another first...got me a tad excited, again. First time I had to exit out of Supercruise among rings, and then I saw "The Spiky Things". I was actually scared at first, until I scanned it: Metallic Crystals, confirmed.

Just at about midnight, I crossed the border into Elysian Shore. And with hardly any bodies "confirmed" (many "reported"), it feels like even the common and mundane stuff is actually exciting and new, since I'd bet that about 99% of players don't even make it this far, like, at all. But, bad news is that this is the part where my brain is halfway to vegetized, so I'm going to tuck in for the night before the severity of processing failure becomes a potential in-game hazard.

 

[The Golden Knight]

Day 7 Report:
I've been making all kinds of records today, and just at the start of the day! Seriously, it isn't even Noon, and I've got anywhere from 6 to 12 different life-bearing worlds found. And with one geological site confirmed, it wouldn't be so exciting except sectors like this one have been glossed over...most likely because anybody that actually makes it this far just doesn't have the patience to be as thorough with the scans.

Once in a while, I see the pilot name "VALIDATING" crop up in one or two systems. It was probably another explorer going along The Golden Path, just with making some serious leaps between systems...which means I got the more fine-tooth comb.

And later, I found a system with TWO water worlds.

But, here's a conspiracy theory for you: maximum pips in SYS is how to get the best acceleration in Supercruise. I'd like to confirm or deny that, one way or another, which is why I called it a "conspiracy theory".

Either way, this definitely feels like the age-of-sail ships going round the world. And just as I wrote that, a second Earth-like planet came into my sights. And, 5:40PM, made it to Checkpoint 3. I'm in the middle of Elysian Shore, now. And, with all the obsessive time spent so far, the galactic image really puts into perspective how much journey is still ahead. This isn't even a quarter of the way, nor is it the distance from Sol to Sag'A. I could probably make Elite explorer if I turned around now.

Checkpoint 4 is just shy of 12,000 lightyears away, which translates to 642 jumps. Yeah, I definitely need a break.

After having slept on it, I think I want to cash in what I already have...because man, that's a massive load of screenshots I took as "proof of achievements", and do NOT want that going to waste. Either way, Sol, here I come, BABY! I miss you, sweet HOME! And that is 9,000 lightyears away from Checkpoint 3, or 563 jumps. So, Checkpoint 3 is about a hundred jumps shy of being half as far as Checkpoint 4. Even with the back track, that's still another 500 or so whole star systems for me to map, making this trip alone about 1,000 systems now charted.

So yeah, sorry to disappoint, but I decided to turn back around for home. At least that helped my morale some, maybe to stomach the sensory deprivation long enough to actually finish with what load of data I have, instead of get about a quarter around, and get so sick of the whole thing that I never touch the game ever again (which, in that timeline, is as good as nada as far as some of the Frontier internals would go).

It's
Bad news, reading about the stories about 65k lightyears absolutely humbles MY 9k lightyears. On the flip side, it has given me a renewed enthusiasm. On top of that, remember what I said: I am "thorough to a fault". It's slow-going when I'm not just honking and jumping. Like, I feel like I've been actually carving my name in these entire solar systems...and only if I make it back home alright, will that mark become permanent.
When I get back home, maybe...maybe I'll start on the OTHER direction to "The Golden Path", which will lengthen the total, and make me not need to go as far from home.

Though right now, it's 3AM, and I just want to go to bed, yet at the same time, I want to hurry back to Sol, to cash in, and start the etch on The Golden Path.

Even if I don't literally circumnavigate the galaxy, I can still make a name for myself in one word: thorough.

 

[Sapyx]

Once in a while, I see the pilot name "VALIDATING"...

Hate to break it to you, but "CMDR Validating" is a glitch. "Validating" isn't their actual name. It happens when, for whatever reason, the game decides it can't retrieve the CMDR's actual name. It used to happen for cross-platform reasons (eg. you're on PC, the tag-owner was on XBox), but it seems to be happening more or less at random now. So, those systems have been discovered and explored before, just likely not by the same people.

But, here's a conspiracy theory for you: maximum pips in SYS is how to get the best acceleration in Supercruise. I'd like to confirm or deny that, one way or another, which is why I called it a "conspiracy theory".

No, sorry. Supercruise max speed is a property of spacetime, not your ship; every ship in the same location has the same maximum speed, no matter the quality of their hyperdrive or their pips settings.

 

[The Golden Knight]

Day 8 Report:
Was hard sleeping this night / morning, because I was so excited, planning how I am going to "Sprint Through the Bubble" to minimize interdiction. The interdiction ITSELF isn't what's so scary, but I saw a picture of one unfortunate pilot get THRUST INTO THE SUN as a direct result of an interdiction. That I must avoid, as it brings another risk besides my own human error.

I don't have to worry about it for another 400 jumps, though...and also, I had a bit of a delay picking up today, because breakfast and drawing a certain comic venting my bachelor woes.
Either way, enough messing around...there are a couple hundred completely unexplored systems with my name on it, along the way back HOME!
By the end of my career, there should be upwards of AN ACTUAL THOUSAND ENTIRE STAR SYSTEMS with my name on it. It'd be vastly larger, if the entire "Golden Path" were complete...yet even this notch should prove significant. I only wish Frontier would be watching their internal stats register the tick of "First Discovered By: Golden-Knight". If things go dark, I understand: THE "Legendary Liberator" back home on Earth has ordered a mandated extended vacation to ALL humans, the entire global population! Still, though, just please, keep watching.
(When has ANYONE ever watched ME?! Not 10 years ago at the start of Hero Team, not during the debacle of 2014, not during my state convention tour, and definitely not NOW! OK, maybe there's ONE GUY, and that's better than nothing, but still...most times, that's like finding the Earth-Like in the sea of Ice Balls.)

428 jumps to home! I should be there by the end of the week.
A few jumps more, and I'm back in the spur. The sector border is over 400 jumps camera-left (or galactic-west).

I want a constellation in the SWOIRKS sector named after me...call it the SWORDS sector, or something like that. Maybe like "Knight's Sword". But for now, even at the 400 jump radius, I am finding a lot more "discovered" systems, that were NOT tagged by ME! Well, that's what my surface scanner probe thingy is for.

354 left, about 75 jumps and the sun isn't even down.

Found another Ammonia world. Yay. A few more gas giants have life too, but that's not as exciting anymore. I'm surprised, there's still a lot to discover out here.

335 jumps, at 8:27PM. ETA is Thursday, worst-case Friday.
And I found my THIRD Earth-Like world, bagged and tagged. It is 5,789 lightyears away from home. That's quite a journey for a new colony. And this one has a MOON, too! It's almost VERY Earth-Like, more than average. I already mapped both, just to be safe. A couple jumps away, and I found another Ammonia world. And it's nighttime at my home. Good thing I'm kind of a night owl, now.

9:27PM, with 318 jumps. 17 jumps per hour is about right. Man is this tedious!
And one of my pictures shows the kind of "Vetting" we need to do...I'm all for X-Rated goodness, but stupidity must DIE!

At the 300 jump mark, I took a break to eat. Basic needs, and all that...but just before the break, I added a Terraformable planet to the Codex, and found a Water World. The CO2 atmosphere implies some kind of global warming happened on that world. Another system had THREE Water Worlds! All discovered, none mapped (you know what THAT means). So far, that's 128 jumps today...and counting.

Brought that down to 243, with a handful of more Water Worlds along the way, before it was time for weekly maintenance...also known as a perfect time for me to go to bed. ETA to home (and a subsequent, MASSIVE Screenshot dump) is Friday. See you in Day 9.

 

[The Golden Knight]

Hate to break it to you, but "CMDR Validating" is a glitch. "Validating" isn't their actual name. It happens when, for whatever reason, the game decides it can't retrieve the CMDR's actual name. It used to happen for cross-platform reasons (eg. you're on PC, the tag-owner was on XBox), but it seems to be happening more or less at random now. So, those systems have been discovered and explored before, just likely not by the same people.

No, sorry. Supercruise max speed is a property of spacetime, not your ship; every ship in the same location has the same maximum speed, no matter the quality of their hyperdrive or their pips settings.

Well, that's all very enlightening. Thank you.
I honestly wish there WERE a way to upgrade Supercruise speed, that's the one matter that irks me with space flight, especially since I've spent over 99% of my entire time there (and as I ranted about before, it's like you can accelerate and decelerate with pinpoint accuracy in deep space, but once you're within 1 lightsecond of any body, the acceleration/deceleration rate falls dramatically). Or hyperspace, but let's be frank, hyperspace is more than likely just a glorified loading screen.

 

[The Golden Knight]

Day 9 Report:
Still on route for home. Nothing extraordinary at day's start. I'm just excited to be heading back home.

At about 225 jumps to home, and I have the whole day (and night) still ahead of me.
As for RAXXLA, I've seen SO MANY systems that had one name, but not fully explored...so to go on record and saying "Someone was in the system of RAXXLA" does not narrow the search down enough to provide any meaningful help...which is probably exactly why the dev was allowed to slip on giving us that rumored quote.

I accidentally loaded a previous browser page by mistake, and when I came back to this, I was glad to see my journal in progress was saved. PHEW.

OH, 4th Earth-Like found...but I was not the first to discover this one. Oh boo. I can still be the first to map it, though, and at 180,000 lightseconds away, this is gonna take a while. And the system was still jammed with 40 other bodies I could claim for "First Discovered By". Even accelerating to 180c, it'll take a thousand seconds. But hey, that's worth it to put my name on an Earth-Like planet. I hit 500c and up on this particular leg of my voyage...which is just casual compared to having acquired "The Mug" even before the "Day 1 Report" (an achievement I referred to as "a mere warm-up"). It's also a good time to do a few "stretches" in my seat...because "HEALTH".

200 jumps left, and at about 3:15PM. And at exactly that milestone, I found a totally unclaimed Ammonia World. Yay.
4:10PM, and at 173 - new water world, yay! I think we are at about 30 jumps per hour, so far.

150 jumps out, and a lot of "human error" is coming into play...nothing breaking the safety, just me slipping on redundant photos or the like. But I got another 3 Water Worlds, all mine. After mapping those three, that's when I went for my lunch break.

It should be at or about 100 jumps before we have to start worrying about "The Bubble"...maybe 50. At least the North America Nebula should be coming up in sight right about now.

B352 sector got a bit scary. I dropped out of hyperspace sandwiched between two stars, with one of them at about 1.5 lightseconds away from me. I would've cooked if I were distracted...and I was worried that I might've crashed into the star just out of hyperspace. Of all my jumps, that was a first...and thankfully, it was just a "close call", but still.
RIGHT BEFORE I arrived at the North America Nebula...and from my start, everything from that point onto Sol should be pretty much all discovered.

And yep, last 100 jumps, everything's pretty well mapped already. Made it to that milestone at 7:42PM. 4.5 hours?! Just to make 100 jumps!
Definitely jumping a bit more frequently, in these lonely stars that were already fully charted. Some of these systems I feel like I'm already "sprinting", since there's no new exploratory merit.

At about 75 jumps away, that's when the sensory deprivation started to hit back. Good news, is I'm "almost back" into "The Bubble". Should just be a couple hours until I'm home!
I've definitely seen some stupid player names on my adventures, and I have the screenshots to prove it...once I get home.

I'm surprised, I'm 41 jumps from home, yet not yet in "The Bubble". 35 jumps, still safe. Wow. 18 jumps, still anarchy, population 0. Wow, I was expecting some action by now. That said, my heart rate just got slightly faster, as I'm "almost home" now. And it's at 11:51, almost midnight MY time. At least that'd keep in line with ETA of Friday.

23 million credits. I made it home on July 10, at 12:30AM.

These journals will continue once I do another excursion into the deep unknown. But for now, I will be taking a break.

 

[The Golden Knight]

Abraham Lincoln Station, Earth, at time of arrival...

"Welcome aboard, Commander Golden-Knight. Please state the manifest of your cargo."
"No material goods, sir. I only bring data, lots of data."
"You may proceed to landing pad one niner."
"Copy, auto-pilot engaged. It's good to be home. Semper Bellum."

And I let out a puff of air, as the famous waltz started to gracefully play, in all its symphonic beauty and glory. I could finally rest, knowing I've left quite a notch on the galaxy, with goodness knows how many systems now bear my name. Best part is, I no longer had to sweat, for when I was carrying all that data-cargo, it could all go up into nonexistence if I decided to crash into a planet or some idiot wanted to waste me right in Sol. But, my achievement by itself only took me to Ranger rank, NOT Elite?! 2 levels away from Elite, but still, what nonsense...though that just means I'll have to spend another couple of weeks to do it all over again. Long-term goals; I just got back from the hypnotic voyage of blazing my trail.

As I cashed in at Universal Cartographic, I had to ask, "Does this win me any kind of prize?"
The character at the counter just stayed mum for a bit, casually acknowledging the literal thousand solar systems I had to traverse, grand total on the round-trip. I personally thought the start of "The Golden Trail" was fairly impressive, though this guy isn't acting like I was some kind of champion. Was the brain-melting feat not as impressive as I would have liked?! Or is the hiding of personal feelings just part of "being professional"?
Then the character spoke. "Oh, were you expecting some kind of fanfare? Oh no, the entire press is all about some Dark Wheel, and a bunch of other Commanders heading that way. Nobody cares about the actions of ONE."

I groaned. Times must have changed a lot from a thousand years ago, back in the days of WWIII. One man, ONE MAN, did more damage than any nuke ever could, and had a statue right where DC used to stand. To try and fill those sabatons is a goal that inspires my own enthusiasm, but imagine if his Battle of DC wasn't so viral...imagine if those episodes had been forgotten. The greatest tragedy is when those worthy of stardom never see the fruits of their labor. Even the posthumous eventually get credit, albeit when it's too late.

"Well," I argued, "I was planning on doing something different, and take a break. I'll get a Challenger fitted, and see what I can do about this COMMUNITY." God, the emphasis, I sounded so SNIDE. Now THAT was a byproduct of my own ego. But hey, charting a literal thousand solar systems shouldn't be anything to dismiss so casually. And I was understandably irked that it seemed as though nobody cared but me.

That said, I took a well-earned break, a long rest at the station I called home. And then, my next adventure calls...

 

[The Golden Knight]

And now here's the photo dump for "Proof of Achievement". This is everything I got so far (mostly the maps of solar systems formerly uncharted...meaning, if you go to any one of those screenshots, you should be able to find my name if you look for it hard enough).

And if this breaks the servers or a moderator yells at me for posting too many attachments, I'll just send a Google Drive link or something. I also apologize for any omitted or redundant images, that is my own "human error" coming into effect.

But, I WILL share a couple directly here, just because I think that'd look cool.

1,111 screenshots, and the forum can only accept 10. So...assuming nobody yells at me, Google Drive it is.

Elite Dangerous – Google Drive

drive.google.com

 

[The Golden Knight]

Abraham Lincoln Station, Earth, 1 day later...

I woke up from my sleep, and I took the batch of money I made to buy a Fer-De-Lance, since I wanted a specifically combat-focused vessel. But, at the other station, I saw I still had more exploration data. Then I muttered, "So THAT'S why the Sol Base was yelling, 'WAIT! COME BACK!'" So I basically had to cash in multiple times before I got the proper value for all my hard work. 24 million with one click of a button, yet I was tickled to find that this one time from last night was actually only A FRACTION of my proper reward! I definitely hit my ARX quota, in only a day or 2.

My jaw began to drop as I made a long sounding "OOOOOOOO", going through page after page of the LITERAL THOUSAND systems I had charted. They pay a thousand bonus credits PER TAG! A thousand credits wouldn't sound like much at face value, but if that were a literal thousand solar systems, even if just lonely stars, then that alone would be ONE MILLION BONUS CREDITS! Now amplify that for how many systems had 6, 12, or sometimes even 48 planets, all first visited by ME!

And THAT is when the money started to FLOW! A Fer-De-Lance, just from ONE PAGE. WOW! And how many pages did I have?!

Payout was about 300 million, grand total. In that time, it's not enough money for a carrier, but it IS enough to fully trick out a Fer-De-Lance. Not enough to make Elite (but "almost"). And now, the devs should be able to see the notch I carved onto the galaxy.

 

[The Golden Knight]

Day 10 Report:
I was NOT happy with being ALMOST Elite. And from my experiences, of every star I visiting being a fuel star, I cut down the fat further and gutted a full-size fuel tank. That fuel scoop is indispensable, plus I love the max maneuverability I can get with this ship.

So, refreshed, refueled, and done my break, I set out to try and finish the job. I wasn't planning on going a full 600 jumps now; I just wanted enough points to finish the Elite handle. But even with sensory deprivation fresh in mind, I was itching to soar back into space and leave a second notch. Armed with only a plethora of metal music, I had everything I could've ever wanted.

I wasn't expecting THAT tonight. I found a solar system, only a couple dozen jumps from Sol, that wasn't thoroughly discovered. The rocks themselves weren't that exciting, but still. It's just right around cursing COALSACK! When I'm done enjoying my break of killing pirates and scum, I'll have to go investigate Coalsack more thoroughly!

First time I saw a "Biological" signal. COOL! And all this was roughly 30 jumps from Sol. Yes, seriously, compared to the 600 that I just came home from, that's like just a drive down the highway.