Beware long range route plotting - wasting your jump range.

[GunnerBill]

I don't have exact evidence but right from the go I've felt that the long rage route plots (> 2000ly) were not utilising your ships jump range to its best ability.

A couple of days ago I plotted a 7000 ly route of 199 jumps in my 43 ly ranged Dolphin. That was across the abyss from almost directly out of Ishum's so I gave it the benefit of the doubt. That's a 35 ly average per jump.

I got within 1000 ly of my target (well back within decent star density) and I'm still getting jumps of <30 ly!*

I replotted at 600 ly and my next jump at 25 ly was ditched in favour of one at 40 ly. I went from 28 jumps to 18 jumps!

mmmhh.

However during the first half of the journey I did some replots of 1000 ly intervals and didn't get anything really very different but it seems the last stage of the journey was a bit goofey.

So I'm gonna keep my eye on that and suggest that y'all do too!

* And I'm making sure that all stars are checked in the map and apply route is active so that all stars can be considered.

 

[Aura Lorell]

That doesn't surprise me. To achieve speed in plotting you'd have to make concessions. As you plot each jump, selecting the first found star as your next step instead of looking for better options is one way to save time, especially if you are plotting long distances. Sparse areas make it more difficult. I suspect that if you check in a more dense area you'll get jumps close to your max range.

 

[Major Klutz]

I've noticed some strangeness also. The plot is not consistent or predictable like it was
I logged off one night with exactly 100 jumps remaining and when I logged back in and opened the gal map to re-plot, I ended up with 104 jumps.

Since it's re-plotting from a different location, I'd expect it to be slightly different. I think it's very lose with the plotting now in order to speed it up. Not fully optimizing your jumps past a certain point, but just using the first star it sees in the right direction. Opening the galmap sometimes re-plots the route from where you are, but not always.

One plot for example may have you go slightly out of the way to get around a gap or to make sure you hit a scoopable star before you run out of fuel.
When you re-plot the route from a different location, the angle to your destination is different and it plots you through a completely different set of stars.

Also something I noticed is that even if you don't filter by scoopable stars, the plotter will make sure you hit a scoopable before you run out of fuel.

 

[GunnerBill]

That doesn't surprise me. To achieve speed in plotting you'd have to make concessions. As you plot each jump, selecting the first found star as your next step instead of looking for better options is one way to save time, especially if you are plotting long distances. Sparse areas make it more difficult. I suspect that if you check in a more dense area you'll get jumps close to your max range.

Yes, my thoughts too. Although I'd add that I plotted from a sparse area far into a dense area. The plotter did not seem to get better when it it the dense areas. Which I reckon supports other observations on compounded areas to increase speed of plotting.

I've noticed some strangeness also. The plot is not consistent or predictable like it was
I logged off one night with exactly 100 jumps remaining and when I logged back in and opened the gal map to re-plot, I ended up with 104 jumps.

Since it's re-plotting from a different location, I'd expect it to be slightly different. I think it's very lose with the plotting now in order to speed it up. Not fully optimizing your jumps past a certain point, but just using the first star it sees in the right direction. Opening the galmap sometimes re-plots the route from where you are, but not always.

One plot for example may have you go slightly out of the way to get around a gap or to make sure you hit a scoopable star before you run out of fuel.
When you re-plot the route from a different location, the angle to your destination is different and it plots you through a completely different set of stars.

Also something I noticed is that even if you don't filter by scoopable stars, the plotter will make sure you hit a scoopable before you run out of fuel.

Yes to all the above.

It might be an idea to note down these thoughts (here?) so they don't remain subjective and can be pinned down.

 

[Major Klutz]

I actually wouldn't mind it plotting slightly shorter jumps since shorter jumps use less fuel.
I don't start charging while I'm scooping so scooping less fuel means I can jump faster. Been averaging 50 seconds per jump since the patch.
It's not consistent though. I'm getting plenty of max range jumps but sometimes I notice a ~30ly jump which I suspected was just plotting around a filtered star or making sure I hit a scoopable star.

Have you noticed it plotting a course twice? When I plot a long range, it goes through the plotting process, completes and then immediately re-plots the course again.
I assumed it was going back and re-optimizing the plot. It doesn't do this on short plots of <1Kly

 

[BeanpotBeanie]

Yes there seems to be some wonkiness in the plotting. Two things I noticed last night. 1) had a random 8ly jump in the middle of a dense star field, 2) the final jump was calculated to be an 800 ly neutron star boost. Number 2 would have been impressive if my Asp could handle it.

 

[GunnerBill]

Have you noticed it plotting a course twice? When I plot a long range, it goes through the plotting process, completes and then immediately re-plots the course again.
I assumed it was going back and re-optimizing the plot. It doesn't do this on short plots of <1Kly

Yes but I'd refine that by adding that it seems to replot if you just mouse-over the new plotting logo even after it has completed. Odd!

Yes there seems to be some wonkiness in the plotting. Two things I noticed last night. 1) had a random 8ly jump in the middle of a dense star field, 2) the final jump was calculated to be an 800 ly neutron star boost. Number 2 would have been impressive if my Asp could handle it.

Did you have any of the boosted options ticked in the route planner or did it just through the neutron jump in there for a laugh?

 

[SuperJogi]

The route plotter also only considers neutron stars that pretty much lie directly in your path. It wont make a small detour for them even if it would mean less jumps in total. For example when I made the ~20k ly journey from Sgr A* back to Amundsen Terminal in my ~60ly jump range DBX, the route plotter wanted me to take about 380 jumps. Using the Neutron Plotter I was able to cut that number more than in half.

Also, I wish there was a way to tell it to ignore white dwarfs, the 50% increase in range isn't worth it considering the time you have to spend supercharging the FSD.

 

[Kenneth McGrew]

I don't have exact evidence but right from the go I've felt that the long rage route plots (> 2000ly) were not utilising your ships jump range to its best ability.

A couple of days ago I plotted a 7000 ly route of 199 jumps in my 43 ly ranged Dolphin. That was across the abyss from almost directly out of Ishum's so I gave it the benefit of the doubt. That's a 35 ly average per jump.

I got within 1000 ly of my target (well back within decent star density) and I'm still getting jumps of <30 ly!*

I replotted at 600 ly and my next jump at 25 ly was ditched in favour of one at 40 ly. I went from 28 jumps to 18 jumps!

mmmhh.

However during the first half of the journey I did some replots of 1000 ly intervals and didn't get anything really very different but it seems the last stage of the journey was a bit goofey.

So I'm gonna keep my eye on that and suggest that y'all do too!

* And I'm making sure that all stars are checked in the map and apply route is active so that all stars can be considered.

interestingly i also plotted a long range course tonight including neutrons and i got a 130 jump route or somthing like that, i scanned a few planets and deviated off course and had to re-plot ( i have only done 3 jumps) and the plotter spat out 80 jumps to the same destination...

something is off

i then used manual 1kly routes and neutrons the old fashioned way and did it in circa 70 jumps... fishy indeed

 

[Allitnil]

Also, I wish there was a way to tell it to ignore white dwarfs, the 50% increase in range isn't worth it considering the time you have to spend supercharging the FSD.

Filter for star class and don't check WDs.

 

[SuperJogi]

Filter for star class and don't check WDs.

Oh, yeah, that would work. Didn't think of the obvious.

 

[emmpeabee]

Please excuse a dumb bunny butting in - this forum seems to contain knowledge I don't have, & have been looking for.
I (foolishly) took at mission of 2k8LYs which the plotter throws out as to far yet you are talking plots way beyond that sort of length.
Could you point me in the correct direction please?
T.I.A.

 

[Major Klutz]

Use "Fastest" routing instead of "Economical" routing. Economical route is still limited to 1Kly.
Going 2800ly on an economical route would take a very very long time.

 

[emmpeabee]

Use "Fastest" routing instead of "Economical" routing. Economical route is still limited to 1Kly.
Going 2800ly on an economical route would take a very very long time.

Thank, but I'm 97.3% sure I did use fastest I'll ck in the am & let you know....
Mijk

 

[SuperJogi]

Going 2800ly on an economical route would take a very very long time.

It would be very very Fuel efficient though.

I could probably make that trip without a fuel scoop, but unfortunately the plotter doesn't go that far and I'm not masochistic enough to actually try out how far my ship could go on a single tank.

 

[varonica]

It would be very very Fuel efficient though.

I could probably make that trip without a fuel scoop, but unfortunately the plotter doesn't go that far and I'm not masochistic enough to actually try out how far my ship could go on a single tank.

My T6 has only a 29. something jump range and I have been getting consistently near that so it may be something that only affects longer jump ranges. You have to consider that in a dense star field it only takes an increase in a couple of light years jump range to double the number of stars the route plotter has to consider, I expect the shorter jumps you are getting are because of this. To achieve a longer jump route the plotter limits the total number of stars in the plotting sphere to a manageable number over the entire route distance to avoid large slowdowns in plotting. I mean we are human, increase the length of time it takes to plot a route by 4 or 5 times and we would all be complaining about it being broken

Need to add, I did work it out once, there's a sliding scale in there of course, as you increase the size of the sphere the numbers change at a different rate, but it adds up pretty quickly once you do the math.

 

[iain666]

I could probably make that trip without a fuel scoop, but unfortunately the plotter doesn't go that far and I'm not masochistic enough to actually try out how far my ship could go on a single tank.

Bubble to Colonia without a scoop has been done... There were extra fuel tanks involved but it's been done.

 

[duckofdeath]

I also think the plotter has been very "streamlined", probably to keep the plotting time down. I'm currently in an unengineered AspX. My jump range isn't terrible, it's just not massive. Around 32-33 LY's. I can't plot pure F class star routes. That was not a problem for ships with shorter range back in the days of yesterweek. I did that in a Type 9 during 2.3.
I'm not entirely sure where it goes wrong. It looks like the plotter is able to make much wider turns than it used to, though it just seems like it gives up on first fail.

 

[emmpeabee]

Use "Fastest" routing instead of "Economical" routing. Economical route is still limited to 1Kly.
Going 2800ly on an economical route would take a very very long time.

Yes I did use 'fastest' - I must be missing something somewhere :S
don't know where my 2K8 came from ??D
I have a jpg of the problem, but can't find a way of displaying it - it demands an URL, but it is on my HD
Mijk

 

[Aura Lorell]

Yes I did use 'fastest' - I must be missing something somewhere :S
don't know where my 2K8 came from ??D
I have a jpg of the problem, but can't find a way of displaying it - it demands an URL, but it is on my HD
Mijk

Upload your picture to Imgur, copy the BBLink (the URL wrapped in

), and post the string here. The post will display your picture automatically.