Beginners question about a "strange" Neutron boost experience

[Troopi]

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.

Right on. That nasty damage is by the second. You'll have to wait for the FSD to cooldown. Until it does, you're getting damage in all modules. Then you have to jump away, and you'll add heat damage while doing so (unless you can still use heatsinks, that will probably be destroyed by then XD ) By the time you jump away, your FSD will be under 50%, and certainly start to malfunction. Maybe even drop you down into the cone because of it.
If the FSD is too damaged, you'll have to repair/reboot, but while inside the cone, it's futile. you'll loose that 1% integrity in a snap.

 

[GrandAdmiralThrawn]

Thank you, Orvidius! That's helpful information. I actually thought that the armor would protect the generator against emergency stops too, but I guess I was wrong.

Typically, I'm also switching off several additional systems while in space, like the cargo scoop or the planetary vehicle bay. Both to run cooler and to consume less fuel. But that won't help in a cone then. And shields won't protect against the radiation either...

Scratch doing just "Neutron boost training" when I get back. What I'll do will be to intentionally disable my FSD within Neutron star jet cones and train actually escaping from them. Better to be prepared, so panic won't overwhelm me, should the worst happen out there.

I guess I'll have to buy a second DBX in Colonia and prepare too feed the insurance company quite a bit of money.

Looking forward to it!

Current plan:

• Synthesize an AFMU charge with +100% speed in advance
• Start repairing canopy ASAP after drop
• Power-cycle the FSD (Quicker than to wait for cooldown in case of a forced drop? Not sure...)
• Low-wake out of the cone as soon as the FSD is back up
• Repair/reboot to fix any modules completely broken if necessary, otherwise let the AFMU handle everything

If any of those steps are wrong or not helpful, please let me know.

Also: Can I still low-wake if the FSD is seriously damaged? I know that it may fail to high-wake at <80% integrity, but how about low-wake?

Currently, I am roughly 8kLy from Sagittarius A*, so I may sell my data at Explorer's Anchorage, then proceed to Colonia and go do my training at the next best Neutron star after buying a training ship.

Thanks for all your help!

Edit: My bad, I overlooked your last post, Troopi!

 

[Troopi]

If you have enough oxygen, just deactivate fuel scoop to avoid extreme heat, repair/reboot the fsd ASAP and low wake away. THEN, when at a safe distance, you have to drop down again, because you can't repair in supercruise. Do all your repairs at that point.

 

[GrandAdmiralThrawn]

You mean I don't have to be scared of a breaking canopy? Because I found some people on the forums saying that that's the most dangerous part.

 

[Troopi]

Depends on your life support system. You'll have a few minutes of oxygen. Time enough to reboot the fsd and jump away. The real problem is, while inside the cone, you'll have trouble turning away from the star and low wake. You'll have to turn away from the star before low-waking. Don't want to get into supercruise just to drop down again.

 

[Bigmaec]

If you do it the correct way you don't have to be scared of anything while neutron jumping. Enter the cone outside the exclusion zone with the neutron star behind you, Keep your speed under c-fractionals and you'll be fine. I did the whole tour to Colonia at this weekend again and can comfortably chat, watch netflix or build in coriolis while neutron boosting.

 

[Orvidius]

The problem with a canopy blowout is that if it happens on the far side of the galaxy, you have a really long way to travel on emergency oxygen. A-rated life support will go a long way toward getting you to a station safely, since you'll have 25 minutes of oxygen, instead of the 7.5 you get with D-rated life support.

Just keep in mind that life support synthesis is super slow. You'll always want to synthesize it with at least a full minute left on the clock. I think it takes a full 30 seconds (don't quote me on that), but you'll want some safety margin. So D-rated is really more like a 6-minute supply.

 

[GrandAdmiralThrawn]

Thanks! But I don't think I can make it by synthesizing... Not if I'm really far out, as I am indeed on D-rated life support. I'll have to land on planets to get additional materials (what happens to my ship's life support while I'm in my SRV?!). Flying like that would quickly fatigue me I assume. So a broken canopy probably means the end for me. Unless I'm more resilient than I thought.

@Bigmaec: I know... That's what most people say. And yet, some still manage to die. I absolutely want to prepare for the worst! Piloting errors do happen after all, and if I make one, it's better to know what to do rather than not. Anyway, that's what I think.

This is my first serious exploration trip, so it was/is this trip on which I have made most of my learning experiences so far. Have only done a super-short one before, and a second one that should've been ambitious, but which cost me my life because of a really stupid piloting mistake on a 1.53g world. Since then I'm obsessed with high g landings, and I've just been on that 10.66g planet a few days ago, two months after my leaving the bubble.

Ah, right, now I remember, forgot to mention this in my first post: On the super-short trip I somehow "accidentally" supercharged my FSD. I had never before seen a Neutron star and just flew into the cone for fun, not expecting anything to happen. I thought it's gonna be fine because it's outside of the exclusion zone, just some pretty blue color.

Scared the hell out of me. Can't help it.. So I will definitely train escaping from a cone in normal space. Can't hurt to be prepared, right? All it'll cost me is a few million credits for the training ships and their losses. If I can reach Explorers Anchorage within the next 1-2 weeks, I'd be pretty rich anyway, carrying 1.6 Billions of potential profit around with me already. So I can easily waste a few ships in some neutron star jet cones. As long as I don't make any stupid mistake on my way to that station.

I need to get rid of some of my partially irrational fears in this game. Black holes are also on that list. Dangerous or not, they just make my skin crawl... and Neutrons are somewhat similar.

 

[Troopi]

I need to get rid of some of my partially irrational fears in this game. Black holes are also on that list. Dangerous or not, they just make my skin crawl... and Neutrons are somewhat similar.

Too bad Black Holes are just strange spheres with warped image effects. Even if you enter its exclusion zone, you'll be safe, able to low wake away without troubles.
In my opinion, they should ditch the realistic part and make them really scary: turbulence, gravity pull, fiery currents flowing around a dark ominous thing, module damage, hull damage, and all of the screen warping like a dive into nightmare.

 

[GrandAdmiralThrawn]

I think gravity pull and the possibility of entering the event horizon would be scary enough.

Anyway, I have another story about my playing around with Neutron stars.. This is a story of idiocy, and it was all my own fault, but it's also quite funny, so I thought I'd share it.

So, today, on my way from the top (made it to +3001Ly) to the bottom of the galactic centre, I decided to use Neutron boosts. I might have been around the 10th or 15th boost, when "it" happened... So I entered the cone as usual, 5-10Mm/s, steep angle, enter the cone outwards, best practices and all. While inside of the cone, I tried to compensate as much as possible like always, to keep my bearings. Right before the completion of the supercharge, I heard a small crack. It was immediately followed by a more distinct sound of something breaking, and next thing I knew, I had ripped my X56 flightstick off its base!! Holy crap!!! (*backstory below)

So there I was, ship spinning like crazy, ripped-off stick in my hand, dumbstruck, and that in VR! After about 2 or 3 seconds I just blindly grabbed the gimbal on the remaining base of the stick directly, and steered my DBX out of the cone like that... while laughing hysterically.

After exiting the cone I noticed, that my Z/twist axis was stuck all the way to the left, so my ship had its "rudder" locked down. I compensated with roll and pitch, got away from the star and dropped back into normal space to avoid yawing back into the cone while still in supercruise.

Took off my VR HMD and inspected the stick. About half of the top-most winding of the screw thread on the base had broken off and was now stuck in the sticks screw nut. I pried that out with a knife, and looked at the sticks base. It was really only the top-most winding that had broken off, so about ¾ of the screw on the base were still there. Decided to screw the stick back onto its base - tightly this time - while still in-game (hey, it's USB in the end, should be hotpluggable. right? Heh). And indeed, the game recognized the re-attached stick and all of its buttons and hats on the fly! And I giggled a bit more, while powering up my hyperdrive...

*Backstory: The X56 makes horrible clicking noises, when you screw the stick onto its base too tightly and then use the twist axis. So I loosened the screw... It appears I had loosened it a bit too much though, and over several weeks of playing, the screw nut had seemingly traveled upwards, until it was sitting on just the final thread winding. With that, the stress put on the cheap plastic was just too much, and it broke off - with me in the middle of a Neutron star jet cone... hell yeah.

Note to all Logitech X56 HOTAS users: Screw that thing on tightly, even if it makes strange noises because of it. Better that way!

 

[SMcA]

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

They are best left off as they generate heat and use fuel. Don't forget to swith them on when landing on high g planets.

 

[GrandAdmiralThrawn]

Hey, I did that 9.77g and the 10.66g world on the same 2-month trip without handing in my data. No shields. Not a single scratch. I feel like high g landings are really easy as long as you follow procedure. For me that's a shallow (-10% to -15%) approach to 200-300 metres of altitude with no more than 50% thrust for the last mile, then a careful landing by tapping the "FA off" button. No roll whatsoever, no excessive pitch, just yaw (pinkie switch on my X56 for me). I even used my analog vertical thrusters all the way down to just below 20km...

Like I said before, Neutron stars scare me a lot more than high g landings. At least with high g worlds, you're always 100% in control. If you die, it's surely a piloting error (I died like that before).

But with Neutron stars, you kinda lose control, and I somehow really can't get accustomed to it even after 20+ boosts... They still stress me out even now.

 

[CMDR_Dawson]

The thin and whispy Neutron Stars I just sit in Supercruse at 0 speed (30 kms) right on top of - perpendicular to the stream. The more active and wavey ones I drift into an end at 25% thrust in a shallow approach (facing outwards) and then zero the speed and steer (fight) to stay central - try to get that good "James Bond" logo effect). Occasionally you get an awkward one that tips you out a couple of times and you have to turn the ship and find the end again to finish off. Often if this happens more than once you will find yourself right above the stream looking right down the Star's throat. I wouldn't recommend trying to approach again from this position. Fly away for a few seconds and re-position yourself between the streams again and cautiously move in to a stream-end from there.
The big wide and fast ones I fly (full throttle) through one of the loops on the ends and deliberatelly aim to break out of the cone sideways once Supercharge reached. I don't slow down for them at all.
The most awkward Neutron Star I've come up against so far is Magellan (Colonia). I lost a Asp XP to it once and have tried to utilise it in a Python, a 'Conder, a Cobra Mk III and a Corvette and have had to abandon on each occasion through getting thrown about for as long as I have dared to remain there but never getting Supercharged.
...and of course I'm sure you've all come across White Dwarfs that are totally unusable because the safety ring is outside the beam-ends!

 

[GrandAdmiralThrawn]

Magellan, you say... Thanks! After exploring the center for a while longer, I'll head to Colonia anyway (I approached Sag A* coming from Beagle Point). So I'll pay Magellan a visit and fool around with that Neutron star.