Colonia trip and how not to just self distruct from bordom

[foxwalker]

OK, took a mission to go to Colonia and moved toward it for about 3 days. I was finally able to get a plot to the point and it says 688 Jumps to get there. Considering it takes a few minutes per just that is a ridiculous amount of time. Am I missing something? Why would anyone spend that much time on a single mission?

I am dumbfounded.

 

[fitzsteve]

The Colonia missions are supposed to be a bonus if you're going anyway.

It's indeed a lot of jumps but with scans and various gems you find on the way the trip is what you make of it. I took a full stack of 20 data missions and stopped at various asteroid bases /nebulae along the way.

There was a thread recently on what to do in Colonia, have a search for that if you want some tips for later

 

[grnbrg]

Sounds like you have around a 30 ly jump range. That is admittedly somewhat low for a Colonia attempt, but not impossible. With practice and build equipped for fast travel, you can maintain a jump every 60 seconds quite easily, making it a ~10 hour trip. Audio books, podcasts and/or Netflix can help.

There are 5 stations between the bubble and Colonia that you an stop at for repairs -- See https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/298533-The-Colonia-Connection-Route-Map.

If you have an AFMU to repair the FSD damage, and are willing to risk it, there is the neutron highway. Drop down (up?) into one of the neutron fields, and you can cut your jumps probably half or less by neutron boosting. However, be aware that neutrons are nasty, and will flip you to the rebuy screen if you screw up.

But exploration and long distance travel is not for everyone. I've recently set out with the
The Dead End's Circumnavigation Expedition -- a player expedition that will cover around 350,000 ly, spread over the next full year. Should be fun.



CMDR grnbrg.

 

[Major Klutz]

What's your jump range? If your range is short it will take longer of course.
My first trip was in a 34ly DBE and it took weeks but I was exploring along the way and not in a hurry.
My most recent trip was in a 60ly 'conda which only took ~365 jumps or ~6 hours of flying

You should be able to easily jump once per minute without rushing or buckyballing. 60 seconds per jump is a pretty leisurely rate if you're practiced and have a decent fuel scoop.
I can usually average about 50 seconds per jump if I'm not stopping to scan things along the way. Exploring systems along the way breaks up the monotony but also takes time, It's up to you.

If you have a short jump range and a small fuel scoop, I don't know what to say except it's gonna take you a while to get there.
Try to break up the trip into smaller trips by stopping at the outposts along the way. There are a lot of small planetary bases and couple of asteroid bases along the way.
There's a map of them here ... https://www.edsm.net/en/galactic-mapping#4/-3840/0/13520|deepSpaceOutpost

I would never take a passenger mission or haulage mission to Colonia. The payout (IMO) is not worth the time required. Especially if you have to return to the bubble to get paid.
If you make the trip out here, you'll probably want to stay for at least a few days. There are some interesting sights to see in the area if you have any interest in that sort of thing.
If you have any interest in visiting Sagittarius A*, Colonia is already most of the way there, so you can continue on to Sag A* if you're inclined to exploration.

 

[foxwalker]

Thanks for the information. Lesson learned. My longest jump ship is just over 40 yr. That would reduce the number by a great deal, but not enough for me. It is good the game has so many different ways to play. That is way too much time commitment for me. Thanks again.

 

[Heavy Johnson]

> OK, took a mission to go to Colonia and moved toward it for about 3 days.

Plan for a week, and look for interesting things. Use the Point of Interest Map to find waypoints to check out.

 

[varonica]

I've done it there and back with 17ly jump range, boring is a very personal state, I didn't get bored. There are a number of interesting spots along the way, try planning visits to those rather than plan for Colonia, then one day you will end up just a couple of jumps from Colonia.

 

[duckofdeath]

You don't really have to plan much. I rarely plan much on my expeditions and I've travelled well over 2 million light years. You just need an interest in the (limited) data we have these days. There are records to be found, random oddities to be seen. The best way to learn how to find the good stuff is to learn by exploring all the things. Start out by not filtering anything away on the route plotter, once you've decided to look for something in particular (I guess most tends to look for earth-likes) just plot to the systems where you find those to be more common. Personally I've been on a hunt for the 10G landable planet for a few years. I know it's out there. It's just not easy to find. \o/
If you just buckyball it (jump, scoop, map, repeat) you can make the round-trip in 6-10 hours, depending on your jump range. Though, that takes a bit of space madness to do. I've done that 20-30 times to Colonia.

 

[varonica]

Start out by not filtering anything away on the route plotter,

I've yet to think of a good reason to filter out anything on the route plotter, surely finding new and unusual stuff is what we are there for, and filtering out say un-scoopable stars may just mean you miss something important, or just really, really pretty! I just hit everything in the path and only worry about deviating when I get low on fuel, and with the new "last available fuel star" function it's really easy.

 

[duckofdeath]

I use filters for things like fast travels (sticking to M class) or that eternal hunt for the high gravity planet (O, B and a very optimistic WR) or greed (F class only).

 

[ForeverN00b]

If you have an AMFU, I suggest to heading to -1000Ly below the galactic plane and utilizing the neutron stars down there to significantly reduce the number of jumps required to get there.

I flew my Corvette (18Ly range) to Colonia from the bubble in about 12 hours using this method. When you get a few Ly closer to the core neutron stars at that 'altitude' above or below the galactic plane become quite common and are useful for jumping at 4X your maximum jump range. I enjoy jumping 72Ly at a time, especially in a combat corvette.

Just mind that FSD integrity though, don't let it drop below 80% or you're gonna have a bad time.

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

During my last shortish trip, I've found 3 ELWs around M-class stars.

Unscoopables will get more interesting with their unique lighting, especially if ice worlds will a major update.

 

[ModishNouns]

Slow down, enjoy the journey and don't get fixated on the destination.

The problem is not the distance, even with a small jump distance, it's the deadline. These long range missions are the worst thing to happen to the game.

 

[GunnerBill]

Slow down, enjoy the journey and don't get fixated on the destination.

This is the best advice.

 

[emmpeabee]

Slow down, enjoy the journey and don't get fixated on the destination.

The problem is not the distance, even with a small jump distance, it's the deadline. These long range missions are the worst thing to happen to the game.

Well, I sort of disagree.
I started Elite on the BBC Micro, missed the middle bit, & then - in my dotage - stubbed my toe on the KickStarter.
Since then I've been puttering around a small, out of the way, bit of galaxy where seeing a hollow square on the radar was a rare event.
Then I miss-read the decimal point on an a suspiciously valuable data mission, & ended with a Colonia 'hop'.
Well I thought OK I can't do the job in the time in a barefoot Cobra Mk IV as I had never tried Neutron Stars nor FSD Boost and did not know about the string of bases enroute.
Having spent 5 realtime days and with a 900 odd more jumps to go my, Auto Repair was exhausted & bits falling off here and there, so I hit the Forums and found out about the way-points & here I am in Sacagawae having limped the last 45 jumps on a wing and a prayer.
I had been scanning odd systems (very small and just plain small) in the hope of paying off the fines for not doing the original job on-time - Imagine my surprise when I cashed in these odd scans
The First Find Bonuses are amazing !
So this GenOcto has a new lease of life.. & will wander gently onwards to see where the journey takes me.

 

[Malaus K'han]

Sounds like you have around a 30 ly jump range. That is admittedly somewhat low for a Colonia attempt, but not impossible. With practice and build equipped for fast travel, you can maintain a jump every 60 seconds quite easily, making it a ~10 hour trip. Audio books, podcasts and/or Netflix can help.

CMDR grnbrg.

Woah. Finding things to do while tediously doing jumps for 10 hours? That is definitely not fun. At all lol, it is a wonder anyone is out there. There must be a way to just begin the game there, no?

 

[Henkka77]

Woah. Finding things to do while tediously doing jumps for 10 hours? That is definitely not fun. At all lol, it is a wonder anyone is out there. There must be a way to just begin the game there, no?

Exploration and/or long range traveling isnt for everyone, simple as that.

 

[Whiterose]

Slow down, enjoy the journey and don't get fixated on the destination.

The problem is not the distance, even with a small jump distance, it's the deadline. These long range missions are the worst thing to happen to the game.

This. The journey is the fun part, stop, land somewhere and have a picnic.

 

[Mxpower76]

I took a full stack of 20 data missions and stopped at various asteroid bases /nebulae along the way.

This is what I did. I got 2 high paying VIPs and loaded up with data missions. From the missions and star data I got close to 200mil. This was my first long trip. I did Sol-Colonia-Sag A*- Sol all in VR. I'm guessing it took about around 25 game hours to do. Yes it was tough but I feel good about doing it. I would sometimes put on music or youtube to listen to. There was a hockey game on during the trip so I kinda watched/listened to that.

 

[Blaze Stark]

OK, took a mission to go to Colonia and moved toward it for about 3 days. I was finally able to get a plot to the point and it says 688 Jumps to get there. Considering it takes a few minutes per just that is a ridiculous amount of time. Am I missing something? Why would anyone spend that much time on a single mission?

I am dumbfounded.

Two things: First, you probably want a bigger jumprange. >40ly seem fine. It is still a long trip, but not insane. Second, consider using the neutronstar highway. This will speed up your trip considerably.