Camino de Santiago (On-foot Circumnavigation)

[Alex_Fighter]

I guess that, given the precedents of how players come up with creative ways of using the resources that FDEV bring to the game, nobody will be much surprised of this idea. Although it could raise some eyebrows if someone actually dares to transform the idea in a fact.

Well, that’s me. Turning Odyssey into the ultimate walking simulator. I hadn’t originally intended to post a separate thread about it, rather just a post on The Circumnavigation Club. It certainly doesn’t give too much to play than, say, my Climb to The Crown of Ice. But then I realized that the place I chose for is going to be very accurately the same walking distance than El Camino de Santiago (The Way of St. James) passing from my birth town (through the Via Augusta and the Silver Route or Ruta de la Plata).​

1,160 km of nature and calluses.​

So I thought it could be a bit of relief for the countless walking hours to compare my advances against this historical route.

The planetary body I chose for the circumnavigation has, in comparison, a registered diameter of 187km, which would be an approximate circumference of up to 1,175 km, if it wasn’t for its irregular shape. There are smaller moons out there, but I chose this one because of its mild temperatures (ranging from 220K to 430K). Since I don’t have experience traveling on foot (more on that later), I wanted to make sure that the energy consumption of the suit was the minimum possible. I had to make the most of the batteries to complete the adventure without visiting a station. I loaded a hundred of them in my ship and there I went, landing at 0, 180.

The strategy is simple: get down in my Artemis suit and walk until the batteries are depleted. Spend all my recharges and when I have no more left, recall my ship to get more reloads, and continue walking. I chose to go westwards to get longer sun periods instead of a greater number of them. Not that it makes a great difference: lighting feels screwed in the current version of Odyssey in many ways, and one of them is that you can clearly see at night, with the ground being overly bright as if there ere other light sources (which they aren’t).

Let's see how it went...​

 

[Alex_Fighter]

Diving headfirst into this without much thought, just eager so that no other insane mind do this before than me, this lack of preparation dawned on me just as I was going to complete my first stage and needing a new set of suit batteries: I had no idea of how to recall my ship.

Suddenly I had about two minutes of power left in my suit and I was running around the instruction book of the Artemis (called The Internet) looking for the remote commands. With so much trash talk about the updates, I even considered the possibility that recalling the ship wasn’t even possible and I had wasted more than four hours in a stupid quest. When I finally found my way around the weird-working menu and my ship came, it touched down way far from myself. I could enter it with only 20% of air left.

After a small stop to – literally – catch my breath and saving my recordings and logs, it was time to continue.

With that, you have a taste of how green I was when I started this (oh, the hurry). Another point that I don't even know if it's a bug or it's intended: the planet has 3 geological signals, but they're not shown in your ship systems, so I forgot about them. But to my surprise, I already crossed two while travelling over the equator:​

The planet is easily navigable. It was one of my requirements. If having arrived, it looked bad, I would have tried to look for an alternative. However, it still has some interesting features from time to time, like when I stumbled with a canyon that I thought it was better to avoid.​

After 14h of non-stop running, I reached the beautiful city of Seville, where I enjoyed a much-deserved rest, ate a serranito and drank some rebujitos. The pace is the third, and hope last indication of how unprepared I was: I didn't know if sprinting would spend the suit's energy faster, and it didn't occur to me to check it until way later. So at that time my cruise speed is still running at around 13.5km/h.

Hm... I thought that was more life at Sevilla. On a second thought, it's as hot as I remember.​

The next kilometers were marked by technical irks. One in the sense of acquiring a technique, when I realized I could gain some speed by regularly using sprint.
The other were a couple of technical failures. I could say that the road mesmer made me detach from myself, but the prosaic truth for those who still live in 21st century is that I lost connection to the server. After some time trying to get back, my position had been reset dozens of kms back. Fortunately I'm logging all I do, to prove to you all distrustful creatures what I'm doing, so I could get my last coordinates and fly back to where I was supposed to be.
It was in this check when I saw the other technical failure: my position logger had crashed at some point in the last session and a lot of progress was missing. But I'm not using a single registry measure. Since I'm recording everything to make a video in compressed time, no proof was lost.​

After all these vicissitudes I went past the historical city of Mérida, one of the most important cities of Roman Hispania, and capital of the region of Extremadura, homeland of great explorers and conquerors. I understood their source of inspiration when I stumbled upon this marvelous terrain feature:​

I wonder what Romans thought of this gigantic crater.​

Had I not reacted right on time before falling off the cliff, my adventure could have failed. There's no way one can get out of there on foot. But fortunately I could go around it and traverse the undulating landscape beyond until I reached more pleasant terrains. The center of the route is marked by passing through the Gate of Cáparra, in the old Roman city of the same name.​

If I had found those ruins in my journey I wouldn't have been surprised. I think they fit the place

Salamanca welcomes me with after I watch a nice eclipse. With one of the oldest universities of the Western World, this city is home of enlightenment. And to couple with it, the planet starts rising in the horizon showing which way to go. By following I come across everal notable features like this volcanic field.​

Then came the moment when the Silver Way joined the French Way, which it's the most known route to Santiago. In this planetoid the terrain was dull, not like in the original Astorga. But not much ahead, when you're recovered your grips from the emotional moment of, you pass Ponferrada where there's the second big crater of the way. Another stunning view​

This wasn't so treacherous, so I didn't mind falling inside.​

Then as you leave El Bierzo and enter Galicia, you feel near enough. Look above, and it's like the planets have alligned so that you are able to reach your destination and fulfill your pilgrimage vow.​

The joy of fulfillment floods my whole body as I climb Monte do Gozo and I see the final destination just 4kms ahead. It is there. I'm reaching the end of my pilgrimage.​

What? Can't you see a city right there?​

At 13:28, 27th May 3307, I reach my particular Praza do Obradoiro and I become the first one circumnavigating a planetary body on foot.​

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

​

Full details of the feat in the next post.​

​

 

[Alex_Fighter]

Stuelou OJ-E c26-45 3 c a​

Stuelou OJ-E c26-45 is located in the Inner Scutum - Centaurus Arm. It's home of several gas giants with their many satellites.
​

The one I circumnavigated is the moon of a moon. Its small gravity allows for high and jumps and sustained hovers, and its temperature range means minimal battery consumption for the suit during the day and none during the night.

Stuelou OJ-E c26-45 3 C a
​

It has an irregular shape, which long but mild inclination changes. It has several big craters but there's one that stands out, measuring 50km in diameter and more than 4km deep, with vertical walls that prevent the adventurer to get out without a vehicle. Since it is located in the equator, I had to deviate from the route to avoid it, adding some distance to the journey. Because of this and other small adjustments in the way I had to take small licenses to tell the fantasy story I used to decorate the telling of this endeavor.

Full adventure (90x):

The total running time was: 76 hours, 35 minutes, 35 seconds.
The approximate distance covered was: 1,206.345km.
Logs of surface tracking here.

 

[CMDR SleepyDelegate]

Subscribed...

 

[Nordmarken]

Cool idea! If there would be any mountains in ED:O I'd go for some climbing.

 

[BaldEagle]

o7

 

[Elferren]

Vaya con Dios amigo!

 

[Alec Turner]

Excellent stuff, you have my utmost respect for this adventure sir!

Quick tip (at ieast, this worked in Alpha) ... if you start sprinting and then jump you continue travelling forwards at sprint velocty (through the air), but without out eating into your sprint timer ... hit jump again the instant you land back on the ground and you can effectively keep bounding indefinitely across the landscape at sprint speed.

Like I say, this worked in alpha (and at low g) but you'll have to do some experimentation to find out if it works for you. Luckily you have plenty of kilometres left to carry out extensive experiments in the field of fast planetary travel!

o7

 

[SushiCW]

Excellent, I wish you safe and just-eventful-enough travels!

 

[Major Klutz]

So how do you recall your ship when you're on foot? I'd better figure that out myself. Thanks for the tip.

 

[Alex_Fighter]

So how do you recall your ship when you're on foot? I'd better figure that out myself. Thanks for the tip.

You need to have bound the controls in On-Foot section. It's Open Insight Hub. So you use that control to get a panel open in the left bottom of the screen. Then you move around with the same controls you use in the other menus.

 

[Alex_Fighter]

Getting there. A couple of more hours of running and it will be completed!

 

[Major Klutz]

You need to have bound the controls in On-Foot section. It's Open Insight Hub. So you use that control to get a panel open in the left bottom of the screen. Then you move around with the same controls you use in the other menus.

I found it last night. I could swear, last night the binding was just labeled "Open Panel" but this morning it does say "Open Insight Hub"

 

[Alex_Fighter]

Yes. Actually, I had written by memory "Show Panel". Then I entered the game to confirm and the name was changed.

 

[Alex_Fighter]

Aaaaaand... It's done! Thank me a lot: I've done it so that you don't have to

I've updated posts 1 to 3 with the story, details and video/text proof.

 

[SushiCW]

76 hours... dang!

Very impressive work, and congrats!

 

[sgurr]

Just for transparency Alex has acknowledged using a throttle mapping for forward movement and that he was afk for portions of the journey.

Kudos to Alex for being open about this and putting up the video.

 

[CMDR SleepyDelegate]

Aaaaaand... It's done! Thank me a lot: I've done it so that you don't have to

I've updated posts 1 to 3 with the story, details and video/text proof.

Thank you, I was worried that I would have to do it... I can sleep well know, knowing that I don't have to...

 

[Major Klutz]

Is it possible to exit or more importantly, to enter a ground base on foot? Not small outposts but the big city sized planetary installations.
I was thinking about walking between two planetary bases. There are some that are fairly close together but I don't know if it would be possible with battery packs only.
I know I could exit in my SRV and then leave the SRV behind, but I don't think it's possible to re-enter the same way on foot, especially if you don't have a ship docked.
Some experimentation will be required. If it's not possible to enter and exit a base on foot, it really should be.

Update: Confirmed that if you arrive at a ground station via Apex shuttle, there doesn't seem to be any way to exit the station to the surface.

Update2: I landed outside a city perimeter and walked in ~8.5KM. I couldn't find any way to enter the city from the outside and had to walk 3.5KM again away from the city to recall my ship.
I wanted to test how far I could walk on a single charge. In the dark with my light on the whole time and occasionally using the jump boost along the way, the answer is ~8.5KM. My battery was at 2% when I reached the ramp into the city. I topped off with a battery pack and explored the city as best as I could in the dark with my light.
I found an SRV bay but on foot the contacts panel doesn't give you the option to request boarding.

They really should add an option to the turbo-lift to go to the surface instead of the concourse and they need to have a lift or a door available on the outside.

 

[Alex_Fighter]

I wanted to test how far I could walk on a single charge

It's gonna depend on the environment. If the temperatures are out of range, your suit will use energy to care for you. If you use the backpack's thrusters, the suit will recharge them with energy. The shield uses energy too. I can do the math (epproximately but reasonably accurate) for you from my experience, as I chose a planet with mild temperatures that allowed maximum efficiency during the night.

In almost 70 minutes you could do 22 to 24km depending on how efficient you are with sprinting (you have to find a sweet spot on its use frequency and duration).