Colonia Trail - Neutron Highway or No?

ITZC0ATL · Mar 9, 2017

Hi all,

So I've started out towards Colonia and my plan was to use the Neutron Highway to speed thingsup a bit (and of course to enjoy the mechanic). However, after doing about 1000Ly, I did the math that it actually seemed slower then just travelling normally. I've also heard mixed results about whether or not to bother stopping at any of the surface ports on the way, as some of these are quite far out of the way.

Any seasoned explorers know the best way to get out there? I'm just looking for speed at the moment, and I'll take my time to explore around the core then.

Obligatory Annie shot in the spoiler above of the first neutron that I came to!

Thanks CMDRS,
HAL- 9000

Jackie Silver · Mar 9, 2017

I've still only made a handful of neutron-boosted jumps; when travelling to and from Colonia I do tend to stop in at the waypoint stations just for the variety. For convenience of jumping you just wanna plot a thousand light years, make 20-ish jumps, plot another thousand... you may (I'm not sure) get slightly better results if you replot another thousand light years before the last jump of each set, because the plotter tends to include a shorter jump as the last one of the set, so you get e.g. 22 jumps at 45 light years then one of 10 light years. Whatever.

mpfj · Mar 9, 2017

NS boosting works well for me ... see my post here

ThomasWJames · Mar 9, 2017

I'm on my way to Colonia too. Just left Secaqewea Station. My Asp Explorer only gets 35/38 LY range. 1,000 LY is abour 30 jumps for me. I try to do at least 1,000-2,000 a day. I do like stoping at the stations, gives you a little break. I also go onto the surface from these stations to gather and find materials where I can and then head off to the next station.

I have yet to use any Neutron Star, need to watch a video to see how it's done first.

duckofdeath · Mar 10, 2017

The neutron highway is mostly useful for the last 10 kylies towards Jaques. The shorter your base jump range is, the less time you save on the first half, at a point you will lose time by zig zagging across the place to get to the next neutron.

Robbieboy43 · Mar 11, 2017

I was just out that way and i wanted to try it but was worried i would loose my ship... And all the Exploration Data.

But i think it would be a good thing to learn.

Saltyseadog · Mar 11, 2017

I am in the process of planning to emigrate to Colonia namely to Pedersens Legacy to join Mobius. I have three engineered ships but will be doing the trip in my 33ly Anaconda. Can I still import my other ships once I arrive and find a base of operations and does anyone know what the distance is from HIP 118213 to Colonia and how much it would cost to transfer the other two ships I have?. Any other advice welcomed.

marx · Mar 11, 2017

Saltyseadog said:
I am in the process of planning to emigrate to Colonia namely to Pedersens Legacy to join Mobius. I have three engineered ships but will be doing the trip in my 33ly Anaconda. Can I still import my other ships once I arrive and find a base of operations and does anyone know what the distance is from HIP 118213 to Colonia and how much it would cost to transfer the other two ships I have?. Any other advice welcomed.

Sure, the distance will be around 22,500 ly. As for the transfer cost, since those depend on not just the distance, but also the total mass and value of your ship (incl. equipment!), no idea. I'd recommend bringing any expensive hardware with yourself on your Anaconda, to save on the transfer cost.
Bear in mind that larger ships will cost a lot to move: my combat-explorer Clipper would cost 66 million Cr to move, my mission-geared Python would be 155 million Cr.
As such, it might be much cheaper to just store modules from your ships, outfit them for travel, then once you're back in Colonia with your ship(s), transfer the modules. Of course, this would take three trips for you. Well, you either save plenty of time, or you save plenty of credits.

Saltyseadog · Mar 11, 2017

marx said:
Sure, the distance will be around 22,500 ly. As for the transfer cost, since those depend on not just the distance, but also the total mass and value of your ship (incl. equipment!), no idea. I'd recommend bringing any expensive hardware with yourself on your Anaconda, to save on the transfer cost.
Bear in mind that larger ships will cost a lot to move: my combat-explorer Clipper would cost 66 million Cr to move, my mission-geared Python would be 155 million Cr.
As such, it might be much cheaper to just store modules from your ships, outfit them for travel, then once you're back in Colonia with your ship(s), transfer the modules. Of course, this would take three trips for you. Well, you either save plenty of time, or you save plenty of credits.

Thanks for the reply, any idea what a 95mcr valued FDL would cost to transfer?.

marx · Mar 11, 2017

Saltyseadog said:
Thanks for the reply, any idea what a 95mcr valued FDL would cost to transfer?.

I looked into this a bit, it appears I might have been wrong about mass, and the transfer cost is based on the ship's cost (and distance) only. A rough estimate to Colonia would be 1.5x the ship's value (and 1.33x for modules), so your FdL's transfer cost would be around 142 millions. Assuming that number is true, of course.

ITZC0ATL · Mar 13, 2017

Just pulled into Colonia, it took me about a week to fly out using normal jump techniques at a rate of around 2000Ly per hour.

Good journey! Now, to meander towards Sag A* and maybe hit The Great Annihilator on the way back.