Between the Cracks: Unconventional Realization for New Explorers

[Atebits]

I hear a lot of people say that 'everything has already been discovered'. There is some truth to the notion that we are starting to fill in the Bubble's explored areas. However, I came to a realization today by sheer accident. I believe any new explorer to even an advanced explorer probably would have just not come to realize this if you hadn't stopped to try it.

I was flying a Type-9 with a 7A Fuel Scoop back to where I keep my ships after helping some friends haul last evening. As I was making my way hope I decided to throw a discovery scanner on my ship. What the heck? Why not?


The Type-9 has an abysmal jump range. I was pretty uncertain about taking very far at all. What I came to realize, however, was this worked out in my favor. As it would turn out the difference between a Type-9 and a ship actually 'meant' for exploration is the difference between walking down a ski-slope and being on a snowboard. Here in the Type-9, just heading home, I popped into a few dozen systems without a single name to be seen on any of it. This... made me realize ...every explorer out there using 30Ly ships or better is leaving this huge gap in between them. Effective, this means the Bubble and ALL of space is more like cheese. There are little areas we've connected up (but only within the ranges of CONVENTIONAL machines.


This gave me the idea a whole range of exploration could be done using some rather unconventional machines. If you're really looking for those missed and untouched locations find a nice dense area of stars. Next, make a ship with a BIG fuel scoop, and positively junk jump-range. The stars are a lot more dense than we may realize just because we're zipping to head to somewhere that's actually no more exciting than right around the bubble.

Just some weird thoughts on a very odd trip.

 

[Zeeman]

Or... You can just select "Economic route".

Z...

 

[Kzasch]

Yeah, when I have jumped to my designated area, i start using economy jumps since I dont need to jump far anymore. It's still only a straight line in a 3-d space, so 5 ly next to me its unexplored.

 

[Jackie Silver]

To an extent. It's true that jumping in long range ships leaves gaps, but because people don't always start from the same point that doesn't have as big an effect as it might if everyone started at the same place; but when heading to a definite location (say a bright catalogue star that stands out on the map) then it definitely does take effect and you get a little pocket of stars around the destination that are unvisited.

 

[Aura Lorell]

I hear a lot of people say that 'everything has already been discovered'. There is some truth to the notion that we are starting to fill in the Bubble's explored areas. However, I came to a realization today by sheer accident. I believe any new explorer to even an advanced explorer probably would have just not come to realize this if you hadn't stopped to try it.

I was flying a Type-9 with a 7A Fuel Scoop back to where I keep my ships after helping some friends haul last evening. As I was making my way hope I decided to throw a discovery scanner on my ship. What the heck? Why not?


The Type-9 has an abysmal jump range. I was pretty uncertain about taking very far at all. What I came to realize, however, was this worked out in my favor. As it would turn out the difference between a Type-9 and a ship actually 'meant' for exploration is the difference between walking down a ski-slope and being on a snowboard. Here in the Type-9, just heading home, I popped into a few dozen systems without a single name to be seen on any of it. This... made me realize ...every explorer out there using 30Ly ships or better is leaving this huge gap in between them. Effective, this means the Bubble and ALL of space is more like cheese. There are little areas we've connected up (but only within the ranges of CONVENTIONAL machines.


This gave me the idea a whole range of exploration could be done using some rather unconventional machines. If you're really looking for those missed and untouched locations find a nice dense area of stars. Next, make a ship with a BIG fuel scoop, and positively junk jump-range. The stars are a lot more dense than we may realize just because we're zipping to head to somewhere that's actually no more exciting than right around the bubble.

Just some weird thoughts on a very odd trip.

The thing is, it depends on what are you are looking at. If you are talking about the bubble then yes most--if not all--of it is already discovered (i.e. tagged by players). Same with an area around 800 LY around the bubble, albeit there are still missed star systems. But if you take into account the entire galaxy with 400 billion systems, then what has been discovered is infinitesimal (less than 0.1% I think if I recall correctly). Yes, the "tourist" areas are already tagged but still billions of systems out there. I am around 8K Ly away from the bubble and I rarely see tags.

My preference as an explorer is to have available options. If I want to stay in an area and explore the systems in depth, I either switch to economical route or do one at a time. But having the necessary range is also good because if you want to go places faster, economical routes can be maddening. The other thing is that even with fastest routes, all you need to do to get out of the well-trodden path is to simply change your direction and/or keep changing it randomly during the journey.

 

[CDR Michael Darkmoor]

For me... it was heading out about 1 Kly... finding a nice scoopable star to use as a base... and then jumping to and scanning EVERYTHING on the Navigation Page.
Kept me busy for a few days and even made for several very nice little 40 Ly bubbles around those central base systems... all with my "tag" scratched into the dirt.
.
Takes some serious documentation to keep it all straight and make sure you "Get Them All", but a great way to get started.

 

[Jackie Silver]

Kept me busy for a few days and even made for several very nice little 40 Ly bubbles around those central base systems... all with my "tag" scratched into the dirt.

You wouldn't happen to have kept detailed logs, would you? I was doing that during the outbound leg of Distant Worlds, and it would be interesting to compare the bubbles.

 

[Mengy]

The area around the bubble is mostly explored and tagged, along with the popular hotspots out in deep space, but there is still literally billions of systems out there that have never been visited yet. On my way home from the DWE I detoured out along the Abyssal Plains and to the end of the Scutum Arm, and there was a period of weeks where I flew over 60,000 lys where I did not see a single tag on a system. I'm talking not one commanders name on anything.

There is still a lot to explore out there. And yeah sometimes short jump ranges (or economy routing) can get you into places that others have missed.

 

[Jackie Silver]

I went on a short trip (about 2 kylies away from the Bubble and round) a few days ago and ran into several untagged catalogue stars en route. I was quite surprised (and almost felt guilty) that there's still unclaimed handplaced stars around...