Black Hole Induced Heart Attack

CMDR Umbrellord

C
My love of exploring the ED "universe" combined with my love of in game currency and want for more and more ships dictated that I take on the 26kly trip to "on top of the galaxy" in exchange for a fairly hefty 48.7 million credit payout (upon returning my passengers safe and sound back to Phracani of course). Deciding to make the most of my journey, I planned to jump down into Sag A* on the way back, eventually heading to Colonia and back through the various outposts towards the bubble.

Around 2kly into my journey from Sag A* to Colonia, I came across a rather excitable neutron star and decided to lovingly embrace its furious jets in exchange for a much needed FSD boost only to find the next system my computer had plotted was a meagre 160ly away. This was simply not enough. The galaxy map was opened and deciding that I had not seen enough non-sequence stars during my trip, I selected my next destination as a conveniently placed black hole just over 180ly away. This would be the first stellar black hole to come across since leaving the bubble and it was not to be missed. The FSD slowly charged and eventually erupted, accelerating my humble asp explorer to mind bending velocities. Through the thick miasma of witch space, no star could be seen at the end of the tunnel and I prepared myself for the inevitable eerie presence of the dark star. Of course I have seen many a black hole before, including the great leviathan of Sagittarius A* itself so I was beyond prepared for such an encounter....

Still deep within witch space, the frame shift drive began to surge, signalling that the drop was incoming. I preemptively throttled back, readying the scanners in the hope that the anomaly was undiscovered not only boosting my financial gain but eternally marking my name upon it. With a crack and a flash, into the system my asp came, distant stars and the galactic plane bending all around me. The visual effect of warped space-time seemed suspiciously strong and before there was time to give it any further thought... "WARNING!..." "Too Close..." "Dropping". What?! WHY?!

fSKm2ct.jpg


And with an abrupt stop there it was. An orb of morphing stars, its heart a twisting ball of blackness consuming the light. What happened? Why did I drop? I only just came out of witch space... This has never happened before... Why can't I scan it? Wait....35km away... surely.. no......

30000 light years of data and discoveries. 47.8 million in passengers tickets. And there I sat, my fate in the palm of the cosmic god. Its echos coursing through through the hull, through my veins. Horror. Panic. Fear. What do I do? Can I escape?

A 180 degree turn could not come any quicker. Full throttle. Boost engaged. Prepare for supercruise. But wait... what if I can't escape the gravitational pull... I must just to another system... Plotted.. 0.68ly... but what about all the heat... It's fine we can repair... Wait... No AFM? We had AFM when we left.... Maybe the singularity has consumed it.....Maybe its just an illusion.... we must jump... we must...... "Frame shift drive charging"...

Into the black...

The warmth of the familiar orange glow was welcomed as mthe ships fuel replenished itself from the K-class star. What had happened? Was it a dream? Am I alive?

No time to think.. the journey must go on... "Frame shift drive charging.."




{But yeah I jumped into a black hole system and was immediately forced out of SC to find myself 35km from the centre of a black hole. Never seen anyone this close to a bh before apart from back in the day when you could easily fly through them. Does anyone know if I'm right in thinking this is a bug and being generally horrified by it or is this a completely normal thing to happen?}
 

CMDR Umbrellord

C
It was only just over four solar masses so not large at all. I was unable to scan it at all it was very strange. As soon as I came into the system I was pulled out of SC and didn't want to risk entering SC again just in case I was somehow bugged within the BH so I jumped into another system never to return. (This was basically a post to ask if anyone knew if this was a bug or normal but after a few lavian brandies to calm my nerves after such an event I started to ramble ;) )
 

CMDR Umbrellord

C
It was only around 4 solar masses so not big at all. I wasn't able to scan it either it was very odd. As soon as I came into the system I was forced straight out of supercruise and was stuck at 35km away. Didn't want to risk going to SC incase I was somehow bugged within the bh so I just jumped to another system never to return!
 

Werewolf13

Werewolf13
A small stellar type black hole. Probably less than 100 solar masses. Don't know how many stellar masses would result in one small enough to get within 35 Km but they most assuredly do exist.
 

CMDR Umbrellord

C
Werewolf13 said:
A small stellar type black hole. Probably less than 100 solar masses. Don't know how many stellar masses would result in one small enough to get within 35 Km but they most assuredly do exist.
Click to expand...

Just over 4 stellar masses so very small. Getting this close in game is perfectly normal then? I just found it really odd how I got forced out of SC as soon as I came into the system and dropped this close..
 

Achibot

A
You will generally only drop a few million metres from the smaller variety Black Holes, in SC you will eat this up in seconds. You need to 0 throttle as you enter or you won't have time to avoid a drop. They don't do massive damage though, even if you are knocked out you can safely fly away from them in SC to minimise heat exertion.

All of this said, I nearly wet myself the first time too.
 

CMDR Umbrellord

C
Achibot said:
You will generally only drop a few million metres from the smaller variety Black Holes, in SC you will eat this up in seconds. You need to 0 throttle as you enter or you won't have time to avoid a drop. They don't do massive damage though, even if you are knocked out you can safely fly away from them in SC to minimise heat exertion.

All of this said, I nearly wet myself the first time too.
Click to expand...

What was strange was I had my throttle set to 0 before I left witch space (I use an x52 so always throttle back beforehand when wanting to scan the main body) but still as soon as I entered the system I was forced out of SC immediately. I've had a few extremely near misses recently (since 2.4 anyway) where the same thing has happened with main sequence stars when jumping in. But yeah still never come across a BH where I've been able to get this close even if I've tried. Must be due to its small size!
 

Demascus

Demascus
You do realize op that black holes in this game cant actually kill you right? Its just an
optical illusion that just serves as eye candy to the selfie brigade.
 

cmdr underhill

C
Nice writeup!

35 km is approximately the Innermost Stable Circular Orbit for a black hole about 4 solar masses. So yes, in this case that does work, though in reality you are orbiting so fast the universe is spinning around you. The event horizon is 12 km in radius or less, depending on the BH's angular momentum.
 

Shackram

Shackram
Werewolf13 said:
A small stellar type black hole. Probably less than 100 solar masses. Don't know how many stellar masses would result in one small enough to get within 35 Km but they most assuredly do exist.
Click to expand...

The one in Maia lets you get even closer, about 24km if i remember right, it's a 2.66 solar masses blackhole.
 

[VR] Mad Mike

[VR] Mad Mike
Demascus said:
You do realize op that black holes in this game cant actually kill you right? Its just an
optical illusion that just serves as eye candy to the selfie brigade.
Click to expand...

Whilst it is true they should be more deadly, much like suns they absolutely can kill you. This was perhaps not always the case
 

Brrokk

Brrokk
Your ship's jump computer estimates safe drop distance from the target by measuring neutron flux and correlating this with spectral type and galactic background radiation. The presence of a black hole where a star was expected can distort the correlation and cause the jump to be incorrectly plotted. FSD manufacturers are aware, but describe it as just a "feature" in a little-known galactic advisory note. Affected FSD modules are due to be recalled, starting with the size 1E units and gradually working up... :)
 

CMDR Umbrellord

C
Thanks for the information Brrokk. Do you know if Lakon are covering this under warranty? I think my aspx is still within the 3 years old/100,000ly cut off point
 
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