Beginners question about a "strange" Neutron boost experience

[GrandAdmiralThrawn]

Hello,

First post here, please be gentle!

I've been exploring with my DBX for a while now, currently in the Sagittarius-Carina arm, but so far I've always avoided Neutron boosts. So today I thought I'd try it, just to overcome my fears of entering that jet...

Maybe I did something wrong, I'm not sure. I don't really know how to do it "right" anyway, because I don't read too much about those things beforehand. Let me just explain exactly what I did and what happened:

1. I approached the star, then turned outwards to enter the jet at a steep angle pointing away from the star. Felt safer that way.
2. I flew towards the jet slooowly until I got gripped by it and hurled outwards. Scary.
3. Immediately reduced FSD thrust to 0 while still within the jet, just before the "supercharged" message.
4. Got the "supercharged" message. Flight seemed stable after the hurling around, thrust still 0. Speed 30km/s. Neutron star pretty much to my rear.
5. Suddenly get another "unsafe conditions" message from the FSD. Flight seemed stable, unsure what was going on at first.
6. Looked at the speed: FSD had started dropping below 30km/s, to 29.9, then 29.8...
7. Applied some thrust, and flight became stable again. Applied more, and suddenly I was hurled around a bit again with another "unsafe conditions" message. Couldn't visually confirm whether I was still in the jet though, and my field of vision is quite large, because VR.
8. Reduced thrust from ~0.10c to much less and flight became stable once more. Went on like this at I believe (not exactly sure) ~1Mm/s for 1-2 minutes. Then I could accelerate safely.
9. Experimented with acceleration and thrust to 0 after getting away from the Neutron star. Couldn't make my FSD go below 30km/s again, no matter how often I tried.
10. Really didn't have the nerves to re-try the boost after that. Just happily jumped out of the system.
11. (The thrill was awesome though)

I asked another commander with more experience then me, and he said this had never occurred to him even after traveling the Neutron highway all the way up to Colonia. He also said, that he didn't ever try to zero out his FSD thrust within a Neutron jet.

My question: Did I do something wrong here? Something pretty horribly wrong even, maybe? Everybody told me this was 100% safe, but I feel a bit shaken now, and reluctant to try this again with 1+ billion of data in my shieldless DBX. Should I maybe not have reduced FSD thrust to 0 within the jet?

I am more scared of Neutron stars now than of high g landings, including 9g+...

The star in question sits in Pyraea Eurl AC-B d14-0 and can be reached with one FSD injection (~80Ly) for a base FSD range of 59Ly.

My apologies if this is a stupid and/or already answered question. I googled for it, but couldn't find anything. All info I found was that the FSD can never drop below 30km/s. But mine definitely did just that, even if only marginally... Made me super-scared of dropping out of FSD while close to or maybe even still in the Neutron star's jet.

Let me know what you think, and thanks!

 

[Red_Beard_98]

I have done a decent amount of neutron boosting so I tell you how I do it, it may be different than others but it works for me.
1. I approach the jet cone nearer the far end at a fairly shallow angle
2. I try too keep my speed around 10Mm/s, give or take
3. When I enter the cone I fight to keep my ship pointed at a a slight angle, I don't like to let it straighten out
4. I never set my throttle to 0, I always keep it the same as what I entered with
5. As soon as I get the supercharged message I throttle up and head out of the cone.
If you entered a the right angle and speed you should pretty much be coming out of the cone as soon as you get the supercharged message. This takes some trial and error but I have never had an unfortunate mishap while neutron boosting. I have had to re-enter the cone because I failed to stay in long enough, better than getting caught in it though!

You will also find the crazy neutron stars where the cone are spinning extremely fast. While intimidating I actually find these almost more easy to get a supercharge from. With these ones I use and even more shallow angle of approach and can pretty much just skim the edge of the cone without ever entering into it. I am definitely not an expert so i'm not sure what the majority of people do, this is just what works for me. It seems pretty efficient in my opinion, I hope it made sense.

 

[GrandAdmiralThrawn]

That's about what the CMDR I mentioned above also said about boosting. I'll stick to that in the future, thank you!

Also, I've heard about the fast ones, but haven't seen one yet. Just a perfectly "still" one, with its jets aligned with the rotational axis.

Anyway, while scary, this event piqued my interest... Maybe I'll play around with some Neutron stars after reaching civilization again. To see whether I can reproduce this strange "getting pulled below 30km/s" thing somehow.

 

[Orvidius]

I think what happened is that you got ejected from the cone, just barely, but were facing slightly into the portion of it that's not very visible. The effect can extent slightly beyond the blue wisps, particularly if it's moving slowly enough to look like it's hardly moving. The "gaps" may look clear, but the effect is applied in a cone.. Once your 30 km/s movement started to edge you back into it, the "push" effect of the cone probably counteracted a little bit of the speed. My guess is that it's not easily reproducible, but rather the conditions lined up just right.

Throttling to zero isn't a bad idea, since it prevents you from flying toward the star if you get spun around far enough. It also makes it easier to ensure you stay in the cone, without getting ejected early. You can always throttle back up when the charging completes.

 

[GrandAdmiralThrawn]

Interesting. Also, maybe I made a mistake there. In that system, there was also a binary a bit farther out. When I first exited the jet cone, I believed the Neutron star to be at my aft and the binary roughly at my port side. But maybe I was wrong (because of all the hurling around) and it was actually the Neutron star at my port side..

If true, I might have been ejected (as you say) and then re-entered the cone sideways at its far end. And when I added thrust, I went in deeper and got thrown out again? Something like that?

Assuming a jet cone that is perfectly aligned with its star's rotational axis and which is thus linear, if I would fly into it heads-on, would it just push me back and thus reduce my FSD speed? I wonder if it would push me back into normal space at some point... I guess not, but I think I'll try it at some point.

 

[Troopi]

From my experience, neutron stars are much safer than white dwarfs. They have long cones. You just have to fly to the tip of one of these cones, and point outside, away from the star. Fly slowly, by throttling up and down to zero, don't let the acceleration increase too much. When you touch the cone and start tumbling around, set your throttle to zero and wait for the fsd to charge. Attention: You need to have a fuel scoop activated. Depending on the star and your position on the cone, the charging can take more or less time. There's no rule there. You will get damage to your FSD anyway. Remember to travel with an AFMU module if you do Neutron jumps, because you must repair the fsd if it reaches bellow 75% (risk of failing the jump)
When the FSD is charged, throttle up to max, only if your ship is heading to the outside of the cone. Throttle to zero if it is tumbling into the star. You don't want to fly there. You will eventually leave the cone and be safe. Don't panic. The danger is in getting too close to the star and dropping out of supercruise INSIDE the cone.

 

[weepop]

The danger is in getting too close to the star and dropping out of supercruise INSIDE the cone.

OK thats what as just happened to me. All systems are off line and oxygen reserve down to a few minutes. Is there any
thing I can do ,besides dying soon???

 

[yianniv]

OK thats what as just happened to me. All systems are off line and oxygen reserve down to a few minutes. Is there any
thing I can do ,besides dying soon???

Just try and try again and again to start fsd. It happened to me once and I managed to escape just barely. Good luck.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

FSD SuperCruise speed can easily drop a tiny tad below 30km/sec. Just make a hard turn in Supercruise at idle throttle in any reasonably maneuverable Ship.

It seems you remained inside the cone for no reason for a very long time. No later after Supercharge is complete, the cone should be left immediately.
That will mean the cone will continue to do small damage to the FSD Module, which naturally triggers repeated warnings.

The DBX is a small Ship, so in essence it'll typically exhibit the following flight characteristics inside a jet cone :

• 30km/sec : very smooth and stable. FSD Supercharging will take several times longer, though, and can take upto ~20sec. Typically no counteraction needed.
• 1 to 3Mm/sec : smooth and reasonably stable. Normal FSD supercharging speed and only mild counteraction needed at best.
• 3-20Mm/sec : moderate uncontrolled wobble, needs normal counteraction and egress from cone.
• 0.1c : considerable uncontrolled wobble, needs full counteraction and quick egress from cone. Increased risk of exceeding >90deg angle and slowly get turned towards the Neutron
• >0.1c : highly unstable and severe uncontrolled wobble, requires maximum and timely counteraction with rapid egress immediately after FSD supercharge complete

PS.
I've done well over a thousand Cone Boosts via Neutrons and plenty via White Dwarfs.
IMHO it's "quite safe" 99% of all times. But still, sometimes - especially small Ships - can exceed the "comfort zone". One has to be prepared for it and keep it cool when it happens.

 

[weepop]

OK I died.
I am trying to follow the Hurt highway in a Cutter but I think I must be missing something!
I tried again to enter the White Dwarf at LTT 16218 and managed to get the message FSD Supercharged but my jump range only increased from 22.8ly to 34.27ly and the first leg of the highway is 595.97ly !!
So I slogged it out the hard way to Nova Aquila No 3 and at this Neutron star I only gained a jump range of 91.37ly but this leg 229.63ly.
My cutter has full A rated FSD with G5 modification for longer range... so what am I doing wrong ?? should I be using a smaller ship like my Asp or my Krait??
Any help will be greatly appreciated. weepop

 

[Troopi]

FSD supercharging from a white dwarf gives a 50% (1.5x multiplier) range bonus, while doing the same with a neutron star provides a 300% (4x multiplier) bonus

That's what you will get from those jumps. More than that, only by synthesizing jumponium.

 

[Orvidius]

I wouldn't bother charging from the White Dwarfs. You only get a +50% boost, and they're more difficult and more dangerous.

Neutron Stars give you a +300% boost (4x the range) and are much easier.

 

[GrandAdmiralThrawn]

According to my knowledge, boosting with White Dwarfs is less effective, and more dangerous. They give 150% range total I believe? Neutron stars should give you 400% total. (Edit: Ah, too slow).

I've done two more boosts so far, because those were required to reach (and get out of) a pretty interesting system - an oversized class O and a monstrous class B star at 436 R☉ with a Wolf-Rayet in close orbit. Each of the three stars were really close to breaking at least one galactic record (mass & radius), but alas, none of them made it.

Using the Neutrons once more scared me quite a bit again though, sweaty hands and all.

PS.: I could've maybe reached the system using +100% injects as well, but I didn't have enough mats to get there and back out.

For now, I'll use Neutrons only if absolutely necessary. I will really train using them after I've brought my data somewhere safe.

@weepop: I'm sorry to hear about your death. What would you do in his case? Reboot the ship and try to get life support and FSD working, then jump? At first I thought that falling back into normal space inside of a jet cone would mean instant death...

 

[Troopi]

At first I thought that falling back into normal space inside of a jet cone would mean instant death...

It's not instant, but it's almost certain. Between fsd cooldown, damage and a repair/reboot, all other modules will go kebloinks. And when power-plant reaches 0...
So, to be safe, only approach the tip of the tail of a neutron/white dwarf, and at very low speeds. White dwarfs, specially - if the cone is too short, forget it. You will be too close to the star's corona, and risk a drop down inside the cone.

 

[RolloTreadway]

It's not instant, but it's almost certain. Between fsd cooldown, damage and a repair/reboot, all other modules will go kebloinks. And when power-plant reaches 0...
So, to be safe, only approach the tip of the tail of a neutron/white dwarf, and at very low speeds. White dwarfs, specially - if the cone is too short, forget it. You will be too close to the star's corona, and risk a drop down inside the cone.

Depends on your ship. I've hit exclusion zones of neutron stars in my AspX from time to time. It's not fun, but I've not suffered any major permanent damage.

But the AspX does keep very cool. When I've been out exploring a long time, I often get confused by people complaining about heat issues, I forget that other ships overheat rather more easily.

 

[GrandAdmiralThrawn]

I've never had heat problems in my DBX myself. Maybe also because I'm flying shieldless? No idea...

Oh, does the shield even help when you drop back into normal space while inside of a jet cone?

I do have a slightly armored power generator, but only at level 1 (as far as Farseer gets you)... I thought that it would be a good idea to do that since it's the only thing I can't repair on the fly.

So, do shields help in such a case?

 

[Bigmaec]

What @Orvidius said.
I try to keep a speed just in the km/sec range, just before it changes to c-fractional.
Always fly outwards, leaving the star behind you, into the cone.
And don't bother with white dwarfs, those are Murderhobos.

 

[Troopi]

And don't bother with white dwarfs, those are Murderhobos.

Indeed! XD

 

[Orvidius]

I've never had heat problems in my DBX myself. Maybe also because I'm flying shieldless? No idea...

Oh, does the shield even help when you drop back into normal space while inside of a jet cone?

I do have a slightly armored power generator, but only at level 1 (as far as Farseer gets you)... I thought that it would be a good idea to do that since it's the only thing I can't repair on the fly.

So, do shields help in such a case?

Not really. Shields help with incoming weapons fire, and physical collisions. They don't help with emergency stops, heat damage, etc.

Some additional points worth noting:

• DBX is one of the cooler running ships. It's a lot harder to overheat in general. Each ship has a different natural dissipation rate.
• Heat generated in supercruise is a combination of how much power your modules are drawing, multiplied by the power plant's heat coefficient (displayed as "heat efficiency"). Running shieldless helps in the sense that you're using less power, thus generating less heat.
• Armored power plant is a nice engineering mod for explorers since it runs cooler while also able to generate more power. The "main" point of the mod, the additional integrity (armor), is unfortunately not that useful for explorers. So it's those other two traits that make it worthwhile. The armor doesn't help unless you're being shot at. Damage from emergency stops is a percentage (so it's proportional), and the power plant is immune to heat damage.

 

[LifesAJourney]

Depends on your ship. I've hit exclusion zones of neutron stars in my AspX from time to time. It's not fun, but I've not suffered any major permanent damage.

But the AspX does keep very cool. When I've been out exploring a long time, I often get confused by people complaining about heat issues, I forget that other ships overheat rather more easily.

I think it's more about where you've hit the zone. If it's outside the cone, the ship suffers only a minor damage and starts to gain some heat but generally there is a lot of time to catch the escape vector and escape. If you are dropped to normal space in the cone, the ship behaves like a roller-coaster and you die not because of the heat (my Phantom didn't even get to 100%) but because of damage done by the cone. That was my case several weeks ago.