Between spiral arms

[Chainguns]

Just wondering if there were any known 'bridges'/fast routes between spiral arms? I mean, I can't imagine Buckeyballers getting 8hrs by sticking to the sparkly tracks.

At the moment the situation seems like mountains surrounded by a flat footpath. You can either take the longer, easier and more certain route on the footpath or try to climb the mountains, but then end up zig zagging and with sometimes one target to jump to, the chance of fuel starvation goes up.

Speaking of which, have any of you ever encountered a 'dead end' at any point before Saggy A? I mean, where you do say >10 jumps and then find there is either nothing in range or not enough scoopables so you have to backtrack the same 10 jumps and go up/down a few dozen Lys to get a better route? Reason I ask is I'm jumping around the 'rafters' of the galaxy at the moment at about 1,600 or so up, and often get only one star to go to (damned, damned SRV), so worried that at some point there will be 4 brown dwarves or something!

 

[Cmdr Frawd Digger]

For the most part the density of stars between spiral arms is sufficient for untroubled route plotting. However, the further from the core you are the sparser the gaps between arms becomes. So where I am now crossing between scutum Centaurus and carina Sagittarius things are getting thin and may require back tracking if I am unlucky...also see the thread "IO to BP" for some back tracking action

You should not have to do any back tracking when travelling from bubble to sag a, unless you are way above or below the galactic plane (although there are regions with increased concentrations of unscoopables)

Frawf

 

[BaldEagle]

"... Frawf ..."
...
Cabin Fever set in now

 

[Cmdr Frawd Digger]

"... Frawf ..."
...
Cabin Fever set in now

Drunk

Frawfffffffff

 

[Andrew Gaspurr]

Long story short:
Space between spiral arms is not empty. You just find the older, dimmer stars there and relatively few gas masses and/or nebulae. This is what makes them seemingly empty on the GalMap. The gas has long been used up because of star formation. The spiral arms are the regions richest in gas and star formation there still takes place, hence brighter, younger stars, many nebulae and/or dust clouds.

 

[Sixxor]

I haven't had any issues travelling between arms so far on my trip towards Sag A*.
I half expected to have problems crossing the Norma Expanse (between the Norma and Near 3KPC arms) but although it looks sparse on the gal map, it's actually pretty densely populated with stars so it hasn't been a problem.

Drunk

Frawfffffffff

Careful flying drunk Frawf! The last time I did so, I tried to land on a 3.5g planet with my sheilds turned off. It took my hull down to 74%. I'm amazed I survived that moment of stupidity really!

 

[Cmdr Frawd Digger]

Careful flying drunk Frawf! The last time I did so, I tried to land on a 3.5g planet with my sheilds turned off. It took my hull down to 74%. I'm amazed I survived that moment of stupidity really!

Lol...never done it personally. It's hard enough flying while tired.

in all honesty I'm only on my first glass of wine for Friday night

Frawffffffzzzzzz

 

[aRottenKomquat]

I've never had trouble finding routes going to the Core. You just need to watch your route and adjust accordingly because there's a good chance it'll give you a ton of unscoopables. Scoopable stars do exist though.

Going Rimward is a bit different. I'm currently at the southern edge of the galaxy. I didn't have any trouble crossing the gap to the first arm outside of our own. Getting to the second arm was a chore though.

 

[Andrew Gaspurr]

I made the Far Orion Spur Traverse from the Carina Arm well beyond NGC 3199 and headed to the Perseus Arm. With a 28+ LY ship you don't run into any serious trouble finding your way, even that far out. So yes, there should be enough 'stuff' between any two spiral arms. Just take care of the omnipresent brown dwarf badlands (usually at z -50) and you will be fine.

 

[Chainguns]

Thanks everyone! Maybe some bug or something but I couldn't get the onboard tomtom to plot to points that were 50 Lys away in between the first two arms.

The financial side is puzzling though - (roughly) if each jump is 26 Lys and you make 1,000 of them to reach Sgr A, you need to scan something worth 25,000 Cr each and every jump if you want to go from zero to ranger on the trip.
This will take most people around 80 hrs roundtrip and will yield enough to buy a Fer de Lance with an A grade FSD. A smuggler at Robigo will get more in 2 hrs. Seems very wrong to me (maybe a reason a lot of people are missing out).

 

[Allitnil]

Your plotting difficulties are because you are so far above the galactic plane where stars are much further apart. Drop down 1,000 LY and you won't have any issues.

Exploration has always been about the experience rather than the credits, probably always will be.

 

[Chainguns]

The trouble with depressing in-game rewards for a certain playstyle is that a lot of people who would normally enjoy that playstyle decide to do their next favourite thing instead. It's almost a neon sign that exploration really isn't a feature of the game the devs want you to see or use much. And not such a prestigious rank because "it makes no sense" in game language (Cr). Reinforced by the missions that require Elite exploration to courier data for 2,000 Cr.

I made Elite combat first, but was always bored after 2-3 hrs. Now with exploration I lose track of an entire night and I fear my cat will die of starvation one weekend.

 

[bkrownd]

Exploration has always been about the experience rather than the credits, probably always will be.

ADS+DSS == CREDITS++

I'm making about 1.5 million a day exploring now. I know there are larger payouts for pew pew and smuggling, but I can make and eat dinner while earning my credits, and enjoy some eye candy when I get sick of cruising to the next planet. Given that the best exploration ships are not the most expensive ships, how many credits do you really need?

 

[Chainguns]

ADS+DSS == CREDITS++

I'm making about 1.5 million a day exploring now. I know there are larger payouts for pew pew and smuggling, but I can make and eat dinner while earning my credits, and enjoy some eye candy when I get sick of cruising to the next planet. Given that the best exploration ships are not the most expensive ships, how many credits do you really need?

I personally don't need credits. My only point is that loads of people are missing out on a fun aspect because the game rewards point (shove?) them towards other activities. In an ALD system with basic powerplay (2) I can get 5m Cr/hr. In a Cutter I can get 2m Cr per jump/dock, ie per 6 minutes and that is THE dullest gameplay ED has. If I first discovery neutron stars non-stop for 1 hour I have 0.5m. Ordinary honk and zoom about 0.5m per 5hrs. This is wrong and needless. If there was 1m for each ELW everyone owning the game would have an AspE in their hangar.