I have watched a couple videos on YouTube about using a neutron star to supercharge the fsd drives for long range travel. I am confused about why the in-game star map plotter, using the quickest route with jet cone enabled, adds at least 20 jumps compared to spansh galaxy and neutron star plotter. Even the spansh galaxy plotter has a different number of jumps compared to the spansh neutron plotter. I'm seriously confused after having watched some good YouTube videos that are helpful, but I don't know which one to follow, or what to base the jumps on. I don't want to waste time doing 71 jumps out to the jellyfish sector if I need to do 51 and nor do I want to miscalculate. I bought the prebuilt asp explorer for making the long-range trip in case I die, and I can recall the ship without any issue. Last night I even replotted using the in-game map plotter out to the Jellyfish sector and it changed from 71 to 77. I know one of the YouTube videos was showing that the spansh calculations based on the edsy build I entered for my ship, were different from my in game current jump ranges, which is even more confusing. The prebuilt asp explorer has a current jump range of like 69.something and the edsy tool when configuring the ship showed it with only like 64.something. That will add up to a lot of time when traveling very far, so it makes no sense why these numbers would be different. If anyone could help clarify this for me I would greatly appreciate it, because I want to get my 5,000 LY in for professor Palin. I am hesitant to set off on my journey without fully understanding the route planning for using these nuetron stars, thanks.
Confused over using Neutron stars
- Thread starter MajorEssex
- Start date
The Spansh neutron plotter is only estimating the jumps between neutrons.
The Spansh galaxy plotter is not estimating, but it does not know about all stars in the galaxy.
The ingame plotter uses a different algorithm than Spansh. Plotting the best route is a hard computer science problem at the scale of the Elite galaxy, and players would be upset if plotting the route took too long, where "too long" is as low as 10 seconds, but the PERFECT route could take minutes or hours. The game is making different tradeoffs than Spansh, and Spansh has totally different compute requirements of its own.
The Spansh galaxy plotter is not estimating, but it does not know about all stars in the galaxy.
The ingame plotter uses a different algorithm than Spansh. Plotting the best route is a hard computer science problem at the scale of the Elite galaxy, and players would be upset if plotting the route took too long, where "too long" is as low as 10 seconds, but the PERFECT route could take minutes or hours. The game is making different tradeoffs than Spansh, and Spansh has totally different compute requirements of its own.
A couple of factors.
Spanish calculates each jump based on what fuel you’ll actually have in your tank at every star. The GalMap assumes you have a full tank.
Spanish will also plan for you to jump into a fuel star from a neutron jump. Which over a long enough distance this minor improvement in efficiency can make a massive difference.
So what you need to do is copy the next jump from Spanish and Target the next system (don’t plot the route).
On my trip from Amundsen Star to Beagle Point I got a nice routine where I copied the system while jumping and pasted/targeted the next system while in the neutron star, coming out of the GalMap just in time to hit jump and align with the target.
Good luck CMDR!
Spanish calculates each jump based on what fuel you’ll actually have in your tank at every star. The GalMap assumes you have a full tank.
Spanish will also plan for you to jump into a fuel star from a neutron jump. Which over a long enough distance this minor improvement in efficiency can make a massive difference.
So what you need to do is copy the next jump from Spanish and Target the next system (don’t plot the route).
On my trip from Amundsen Star to Beagle Point I got a nice routine where I copied the system while jumping and pasted/targeted the next system while in the neutron star, coming out of the GalMap just in time to hit jump and align with the target.
Good luck CMDR!
The out of game plotters are irrelevant to the in game map route, and to use a quicker route on paper from an out of game resource will likely result in more time being spent overall as you will have to pick your next start after every jump and no out of game calculation is working with a comprehensive map.
The map plotter in game will not give you matching results from point A to point B should you plot the same course multiple times with the same ship. I don’t know all of the considerations that go into it, but it has to be a traveling salesman type math challenge that is eventually limited in function to prevent all of Frontier’s computing power working endlessly on a solution for the best route. Routes are also not saved when you log out, rather recalculated when you log back in, and likely not being the same as when you logged out. My advice would be stop trying to plan it and just engage that FSD.
The map plotter in game will not give you matching results from point A to point B should you plot the same course multiple times with the same ship. I don’t know all of the considerations that go into it, but it has to be a traveling salesman type math challenge that is eventually limited in function to prevent all of Frontier’s computing power working endlessly on a solution for the best route. Routes are also not saved when you log out, rather recalculated when you log back in, and likely not being the same as when you logged out. My advice would be stop trying to plan it and just engage that FSD.
Thanks for the explanation and help. So it would be okay for me to use the neutron plotter on spansh and just copy in every jump, one at a time, into the map plotter for the next subsequent jump until i arrive at the destination?
Thanks to everyone for the help, it has just been abit confusing trying to figure it all out when I see information that differs without understanding all of the nuances behind the differences.
So it is also okay to use the in game map plotter also? In one of videos the guy was saying traveling from the bubble to colonia would not correctly plot 22,000 LY course correctly. That is why I was hesitant to want to use the in game map plotter for the route, as well as adding many more possible jumps if it isn't necessary.
Ok for you is whatever is ok for you. "Blaze your own trail", as FD puts it. For me, using external tools (like Spansh) for travelling has two major drawbacks:
And as for your plan to use neutron boosting to shorten the 5 kly trip for the Prof: you're in for a bit of dissappointment. The neutron rich regions only start ~2 kly (in the best case) corewards from Sol.
- you have, at the very least, to open the GalMap on every jump (you can load the output of the external plotter into a spreadsheet and apparently have a utility program just paste the next entry into Windows' buffer whnever you pasted the previous entrey into the GalMap)
- you will never make a first discovery that way (as all external tools have to draw on stars that have been uploaded by players, i.e. are already discovered)
And as for your plan to use neutron boosting to shorten the 5 kly trip for the Prof: you're in for a bit of dissappointment. The neutron rich regions only start ~2 kly (in the best case) corewards from Sol.
So would you recommend using the in game map plotter for travel, the neutron included?
I was also hearing people talk about self destructing to save the trip all the way back, is that still possible? I also heard someone say in a video or post that Frontier changed this to spawn to the closest carrier or station, so do I have to travel all the way back to my point of origin?
For myself - yes, that's what I use. It's good enough for me to do the job and less hassle. I would wish sometimes that it would put in a few less refuelling stops.
And I forgot this:
If you pay the rebuy it will be the closest whatever (not sure how that works now exactly). If you do not pay the rebuy it will toss you to the system you started in with the starting sidewinder. Not sure about the logistics from that point to get your prebuilt Asp back.
Yes and no. In case of a rebuy (which includes after a self destruct), you get two basic choices:
- pay the insurance and respawn in your ship (including engineering) in the nearest suitable port. That could also be the nearest prison ship, in case you had a bounty on you and were killed by someone who could have claimed that bounty, it could be the nearest port in your current system or the last port you docked at. In case you can't pay the insurance, you can remove some of the ship modules from the list and still get your ship back
- or you can choose to respawn in your starter Sidewinder in your old starter system. That second option will always get you back to the bubble, but you will lose your ship (and all the modules)
Or, if really all you care about is getting the distance for the Prof, you can check in the Fleet Carriers Owner's club discord (there's a link around somewhere here on the forums, a search hengine should be able to find it) for a carrier that's offering the 5 kly trip. You'll have to disembark at the destination, and maybe do one jump or a landing on your own to register your position with the servers.
Yes.
I’ve never used any external program, just skilled at copy and pasting.
It does take a while to become efficient at it, and for 51 neutron jumps I’d probably be quicker doing it the old fashioned way, especially in the Mandalay.
I’ve never associated using the Neutron Highway with first discoveries. It’s just a way to get to where you want to go quickly.
Didn’t notice the Palin bit. It’s almost certainly quicker doing such a short distance the old fashioned way!
You can, you can also use a carrier escape pod to get back to your last station. But I personally wouldn’t advise it. There’s the loss of ship and or data to think about.
Honestly, once you’ve jumped all the way out there you’ll be quite efficient and it’s relatively quick coming back compared to going out.
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I’ve found myself on a FC in the opposite direction from where I wanted to be doing that, thinking it would take me to my last port
Yee I think its the last thing you docked at actually.I’ve found myself on a FC in the opposite direction from where I wanted to be doing that, thinking it would take me to my last port
Which leads to some shenanigans with FCs
Thanks again for all the information guys, I appreciate it!
Isn't it spansh's Galaxy Plotter that takes your current fuel into account (and gives you "fuel stops" along the way)? I have never tried the Neutron Plotter but I assume it doesn't do that. I feel the Galaxy Plotter is generally the better one anyway, because it plans the fuel stops for you as well.
That being said, and to the original poster: Note that spansh's Galaxy Plotter only spends a limited amount of time optimizing the route, and it may well not be absolutely optimal. And, in fact, and particularly with very long routes, you may get different results if you run it several times. (I have also noticed that if you re-run it somewhere along the way, starting from your current system, it may give you a more optimal result for the remaining route.)
I understand that if you create an account and log in, it will use (or allows you to use) more time optimizing than if you use the site without logging in, possibly giving a more optimal result.
Yep, you’re right - It’s been a while since I’ve used it for anything other than FC.
The Galaxy Plotter is where you can import your build and it knows your fuel capacity.
Even without logging in you can choose which Routing Algorithm to use to explore different options. Although, unless you’re looking for a FKT, being on the most efficient route possible probably not that important. The time taken optimising the route could be better used flying it.