Bump … any new stories?
"Brown pants" moments!
- Thread starter Orvidius
- Start date
I had one not that long ago, although it didn't involve stars. Rather, Q05-type anomalies. I had my first encounter with them, and saw that there were several clusters of them surprisingly close to each other. Fifteen glowing spheres in total. I quite liked how they looked, so I decided to bring my ship in close to make a bunch of screenshots. I mean, I have decent shields, decent hull: what could possibly go wrong?
Then as I pull up to two anomalies, I suddenly see one of them start to swell up and glow much brighter. Heat warning, and as I look at the heat level, it's skyrocketing. I reflexively hit boost, and thankfully, my Clipper has decent thrusters, so I get away quickly. Then I see the heat peaking around 375% (the boost didn't help with this of course, but it was better than staying and being cooked alive), so I would deploy my heat sink... nothing happens. I look around frantically, going into firing groups to see if I should do it that way, but it's not there.
Of all the times when I brought heat sinks along and didn't end up needing them, I forgot to bring the launcher along when I would have needed it most.
Of course, this was less of a "brown pants" moment and more of a longer "what the fox is going on", but hey, I thought I'd share it here too. I ended up with 26% hull damage and quite a lot of module damage, after all.
Then as I pull up to two anomalies, I suddenly see one of them start to swell up and glow much brighter. Heat warning, and as I look at the heat level, it's skyrocketing. I reflexively hit boost, and thankfully, my Clipper has decent thrusters, so I get away quickly. Then I see the heat peaking around 375% (the boost didn't help with this of course, but it was better than staying and being cooked alive), so I would deploy my heat sink... nothing happens. I look around frantically, going into firing groups to see if I should do it that way, but it's not there.
Of all the times when I brought heat sinks along and didn't end up needing them, I forgot to bring the launcher along when I would have needed it most.
Of course, this was less of a "brown pants" moment and more of a longer "what the fox is going on", but hey, I thought I'd share it here too. I ended up with 26% hull damage and quite a lot of module damage, after all.
By no means it is an unique situation but it was my first so I panicked so much I had to take off my VR and catch my breath for few minutes before going back in.
Couple days ago I started a long distance voyage in a shieldless Crusader. Since my next waypoint was 98 jumps away, I decided to do some work on my 2nd monitor while I jump. I dont usually throttle down after the jump so that I can just skim the star for fuel and hit FSD for next jump. 16 jumps in and landed in the system as well. Panic rushed as I pitched up and nothing happened but the ship started gaining momentum fast to hit the star! Turns out while doing something on the 2nd monitor my ED lost focus and I forgot to click ED again.
I did not hit head on so I came away with only 2% hull dmg and ~1% other module damage. Decided not to use AFMU yet till there are more damage to make it worthwhile. Since this was my first, suffice to say I may be a victim of "Brown Pants".
Couple days ago I started a long distance voyage in a shieldless Crusader. Since my next waypoint was 98 jumps away, I decided to do some work on my 2nd monitor while I jump. I dont usually throttle down after the jump so that I can just skim the star for fuel and hit FSD for next jump. 16 jumps in and landed in the system as well. Panic rushed as I pitched up and nothing happened but the ship started gaining momentum fast to hit the star! Turns out while doing something on the 2nd monitor my ED lost focus and I forgot to click ED again.
I did not hit head on so I came away with only 2% hull dmg and ~1% other module damage. Decided not to use AFMU yet till there are more damage to make it worthwhile. Since this was my first, suffice to say I may be a victim of "Brown Pants".
Well, there was the time I did this to myself;
Photo taken just after I breathed a sigh of relief on realising that yes, this was a scoopable star I had jumped to.
Other than that I've had a couple of close impacts with some 3g worlds, one of which took me down to 50% hull after I just absolutely smashed into the deck straight from glide and then had to just immediately head back for orbit as I didn't dare try and stay near the ground or even attempt to land for fear of ruining myself further.
My scariest moment though wasn't even an exploration one, but I'll share it anyway. I got into combat about a month ago and decided to start doing some Conflict Zones. So I'm in the middle of a CZ with my Vulture dogfighting some ship or other, I can't remember what exactly and it's nearly dead, but taking a bit of time. I glance over at the progress bar for the battle and see we're at like 50% green. No problem, doing well, I continue with my battle. Next thing I get the "Battle Lost" popup. "Whaaa, but we were winning? Whatevs, this dude is at 23% hull, I'll just finish him off", I think to myself, like an idiot, forgetting that upon losing, the ai ships always wake out of there pretty quick, and for the first time, I'm on the losing side.
Next thing I know, all my allies are gone and about 6 ships are all firing on me. My shields pop and suddenly there's missiles. Just now realising my mistake, I run, only to start taking hits and suddenly start losing control as modules explode and thrusters fail. I'm now at 30% hull and spinning through void with no drive. I brace myself for the inevitable finishing blow that is about to follow and.... it doesn't arrive. Confused, I check the sensors, no red blips. The enemy ships have left without finishing me off. I take a few moments, still tumbling through space, and take a few calming breaths (the last few moments were kind of a panicked blur). I tab to modules and check the damage. Everything is effed, but thrusters are the only thing at 0. I remember the reboot button and tab to and use it for the first time ever. My thrusters stabilise and I calmly and quietly low wake away back to a station for repair, drifting into port with my tail between my legs, and glad to be alive.
Photo taken just after I breathed a sigh of relief on realising that yes, this was a scoopable star I had jumped to.
Other than that I've had a couple of close impacts with some 3g worlds, one of which took me down to 50% hull after I just absolutely smashed into the deck straight from glide and then had to just immediately head back for orbit as I didn't dare try and stay near the ground or even attempt to land for fear of ruining myself further.
My scariest moment though wasn't even an exploration one, but I'll share it anyway. I got into combat about a month ago and decided to start doing some Conflict Zones. So I'm in the middle of a CZ with my Vulture dogfighting some ship or other, I can't remember what exactly and it's nearly dead, but taking a bit of time. I glance over at the progress bar for the battle and see we're at like 50% green. No problem, doing well, I continue with my battle. Next thing I get the "Battle Lost" popup. "Whaaa, but we were winning? Whatevs, this dude is at 23% hull, I'll just finish him off", I think to myself, like an idiot, forgetting that upon losing, the ai ships always wake out of there pretty quick, and for the first time, I'm on the losing side.
Next thing I know, all my allies are gone and about 6 ships are all firing on me. My shields pop and suddenly there's missiles. Just now realising my mistake, I run, only to start taking hits and suddenly start losing control as modules explode and thrusters fail. I'm now at 30% hull and spinning through void with no drive. I brace myself for the inevitable finishing blow that is about to follow and.... it doesn't arrive. Confused, I check the sensors, no red blips. The enemy ships have left without finishing me off. I take a few moments, still tumbling through space, and take a few calming breaths (the last few moments were kind of a panicked blur). I tab to modules and check the damage. Everything is effed, but thrusters are the only thing at 0. I remember the reboot button and tab to and use it for the first time ever. My thrusters stabilise and I calmly and quietly low wake away back to a station for repair, drifting into port with my tail between my legs, and glad to be alive.
It really does mess with you when you jump through a star when coming into a system. Did this a couple weeks ago:
Source: https://www.youtube.com/embed/CbMhdydxPzA
Still can't beat the first time you get a 0% hull. 
Wait, I had over a billion in VOs and got ganked by a Vette. Superb. One of the biggest rushes I've had in this game.
Wait, I had over a billion in VOs and got ganked by a Vette. Superb. One of the biggest rushes I've had in this game.
Last edited:
Well, my first brown pants moment was a result of my own stupidity. I was taking an almost completely stock Cobra to Rohini and did deep flyovers on 3 or 4 planets on the way. One time I did that, I forgot that I was flying through a crater... on the night side... without night mode (didn't know that it existed back in the days - now I use it frequently to land on the dark side of planets). the shock was real when suddenly the wall of that crater came at me...
The other one was entering witchspace like normal, but then getting sidetracked by a phone call that was (of course) coming in right before exiting the tunnel... and flying with only 1 hand on the controller and the other one holding the phone ends normally in an accident, here: talking on the phone while the T star came nearer... and then, of course - emergency stop.... so, never use your phone while jumping
The other one was entering witchspace like normal, but then getting sidetracked by a phone call that was (of course) coming in right before exiting the tunnel... and flying with only 1 hand on the controller and the other one holding the phone ends normally in an accident, here: talking on the phone while the T star came nearer... and then, of course - emergency stop.... so, never use your phone while jumping
Had one that dinged my AspX just last night.
Go to make the jump, see that I'm heading to a white dwarf, no problem, I'll stomp on the brakes, turn 90° and put a little distance in, run the FSS. Just like everytime before.
Last night, dropping in, right into a red dwarf that was right there in my face, somehow, the red dwarf appeared to fold into a triangle (it doesn't make sense, that's what I saw), so now I had a gap to get away. The FSD over heats, it kicks off, no problem.
As soon as the FSD cools, I hit the button to hyper out, dammit, I'm still locked to my next system! Take a breath, flip to the panel, unlock the next system, and now FSD away from this triple tag team.
After that, ran the auto field magical repair unit on all my damaged modules and I'm back in business.
Go to make the jump, see that I'm heading to a white dwarf, no problem, I'll stomp on the brakes, turn 90° and put a little distance in, run the FSS. Just like everytime before.
Last night, dropping in, right into a red dwarf that was right there in my face, somehow, the red dwarf appeared to fold into a triangle (it doesn't make sense, that's what I saw), so now I had a gap to get away. The FSD over heats, it kicks off, no problem.
As soon as the FSD cools, I hit the button to hyper out, dammit, I'm still locked to my next system! Take a breath, flip to the panel, unlock the next system, and now FSD away from this triple tag team.
After that, ran the auto field magical repair unit on all my damaged modules and I'm back in business.
Had a real brown pants moment last night while doing a White Dwarf tour. Instead of entering system and seeing a WD I see a M Star directly in front of me! I remember going through it but then bouncing off the star, knocking me out of supercruise.
After getting over the instant shock I set to supercruise again but the escape vector was almost directly in line of the White Dwarf. These things can cause some serious issues hitting them directly so first chance in supercruise turned 90° away and watched the sparks fly when hitting over 150% temps.
Quite fortunate to only lose 3% to hull and internal modules but was still shaking for the next half dozen jumps.
After getting over the instant shock I set to supercruise again but the escape vector was almost directly in line of the White Dwarf. These things can cause some serious issues hitting them directly so first chance in supercruise turned 90° away and watched the sparks fly when hitting over 150% temps.
Quite fortunate to only lose 3% to hull and internal modules but was still shaking for the next half dozen jumps.
Recently arrived in a Black hole system with Neutron in close proximity. The ship actually passed through a part of the Neutron cone and briefly initiated the boost message before crashing into the exclusion zone of the Black hole as I failed to stop the ship soon enough.
I confess to some swearing; not my finest hour.
I confess to some swearing; not my finest hour.
Worth it for the view though.
I've encountered this kind of launch on many occasions. Lost a Clipper once due to this. I get more paranoid about launching from a pad than jumping into a multi star system (unless it's main is a Neutron/Black Hole.)