Crusading to Ishum - Personal Log

[Christian-A-Hill]

Day #6 : Mar 14th, 2020
Uneventful trip so far. Still doing neutrons. It really cut down jumps and time.


Could this be White Dwarf? It was dancing so violently I dared not to boost my FSD. Plotted the course manually to the next Neutron star instead.


Stars are definitely getting less denser out here as I go further away from core.

Total distance covered so far: ~14500 ly

 

[Sapyx]

Could this be White Dwarf? It was dancing so violently I dared not to boost my FSD. Plotted the course manually to the next Neutron star instead.

Nope, that's still a neutron star.

It will tell you, while it is warming up to make the jump, what the primary star is in the target system. That way, you're not surprised; if it says you're about to jump into a "neutron star" or "black hole" or whatever, you can be prepared for it. It will also tell you what the star in front of you is if you target it.

Violently "dancing" neutron stars are no more dangerous than the more placid ones. Same rules for approaching and turbo-boosting apply.

Science trivia: you might have noticed that the neutron stars that are in a close binary configuration, such as the one you've just pictured, are very often the "dancers", rotating much faster than "normal" isolated neutron stars. This matches what we see out there in the real world, where "millisecond pulsars" are caused by a neutron star (pulsar) being in close orbit to a companion star. It is presumed that the swirling mass of gas being sucked off the companion star and infalling onto the surface of the neutron star speeds up its rotation. It's just a pity that the whole "gas sucked off companion star and infalling" thing isn't actually being shown to us in ED at the moment.

 

[Sapyx]

Oh, and it will also tell you what star it is on the system map. There really shouldn't be any confusion...

 

[Christian-A-Hill]

It will tell you, while it is warming up to make the jump, what the primary star is in the target system. That way, you're not surprised; if it says you're about to jump into a "neutron star" or "black hole" or whatever, you can be prepared for it. It will also tell you what the star in front of you is if you target it.

That is a great reminder! I have seen the info before but never paid much attention. Totally makes sense. I have to keep an eye on it to avoid surprises.

 

[Christian-A-Hill]

Day #11: Mar 19th, 2020
Cannot recall the post, but someone said in this forum, "You just don't goto the other side galaxy on a whim, You Commit to it."
Not that I am venturing out to Ishum's because I just felt like it one day. I have prepared for it, Materialistically. 26,100 ly distance crossed so far towards Beagle Point.
I have a feeling challenge of sparse area is going to start soon:


At some points during those Neutron jumps apparently I got accepted into the prestigious EDSM 100,000 LY club!


I have been doing Neutron jumps only so far. I was keeping track of how many neutron I was boosting but lost track long ago. I cannot imagine the commanders went before me on this path with low jump tin buckets. It's my turn now. Must go on.

 

[Max Bothin]

I have been doing Neutron jumps only so far. I was keeping track of how many neutron I was boosting but lost track long ago. I cannot imagine the commanders went before me on this path with low jump tin buckets. It's my turn now. Must go on.

Doing Perseus Reach Right now. My Adder does About 42-45 LJ Jumprange and I do not do Neutrons at all. You have to do something in parallel, like listening to podcasts or something to not to get insane ;-)

 

[Christian-A-Hill]

Doing Perseus Reach Right now. My Adder does About 42-45 LJ Jumprange and I do not do Neutrons at all. You have to do something in parallel, like listening to podcasts or something to not to get insane ;-)

Agree with you there. For last few days I have been grouping my phone calls during the jumps and check on families/friends or just read up on latest updates on the crisis. It is easy to get sucked into the craziness. But with some logic and common sense we can take the right steps.

So far no one in my close and distant circle had been infected. My prayer goes to all habitants of real SOL and all the commanders of ED milkyway.

 

[Christian-A-Hill]

Day #13: Mar 21st, 2020
After several thousands of uneventful routine jumps, things started to get sightly challenging as i found myself crossing the sparse area between Outer arm and Scutum-Centarus galatic arm. A challenge i have never attempted before.

As i traveled further into the expanse I started seeing less and less scoopable stars. After several manually plotted jumps and suggested neutron route by Spansh, i found myself stuck at Gru Pri DX-B d13-0 system. Spansh showed next jump is 256 ly away with 4 jumps:

I had no idea what Spansh meant by 4 jumps when I can only make 180 ly single neutron boosted jump. I would not have made in the short amount of time if it was not for the cmdr @marx who answered my distress call and gave me a tips. Turns out I needed to boost jump furthest i can, then make the consecutive jumps manually either with more neutrons or just stars.
After about 4,000 ly jumps of careful plotting i started to see more scoopable stars and with a sigh or relief i realized i have crossed the expanse.


Stopped to fix up the FSD and some module and noticed this!! What happened to my paint???

Is this because of all the neutron i am jumping? Am i eventually going to lose all the paint?

 

[Sapyx]

Stopped to fix up the FSD and some module and noticed this!! What happened to my paint???

Is this because of all the neutron i am jumping? Am i eventually going to lose all the paint?

You lose paint by flying in Supercruise within a star system, to visit distant planets and remote secondary stars. Paint is lost at a rate of 1% per 100,000 Ls travelled in Supercruise. So if you decide to go and visit that Earth-like planet that's 400,000 Ls away, then bam - you've just lost 4% of your paint. You do not lose paint via neutron jumping, nor regular hyperjumping, nor regular airless planetary landings. If/when we get atmospheric landings, they might make us lose paint then too. We don't know.

You won't lose all the paint, but at zero% paint you will lose about half of it. Some players like the "worn paint" look on their ships, others prefer to patch it up each time.

There's another reason why you want to keep your paint fully repaired every time you do Advanced Maintenance: Integrity. This is different to hull hit points (the "percentage" you see at bottom right of the main cockpit screen, next to your little ship icon). Integrity is intended to represent ship's wear and tear, and it too degrades at 1% per 100,000 Ls travelled. Low integrity is bad, especially if you plan on doing any combat with it as 0% integrity makes your ship's armour function at only 70% of capacity. There's no way to tell what your integrity percentage is until you dock, but worn paint can be a good visual indicator: worn paint = low integrity. Unless you decide to repair your integrity but not your paint the next time you dock.

 

[Christian-A-Hill]

You won't lose all the paint, but at zero% paint you will lose about half of it. Some players like the "worn paint" look on their ships, others prefer to patch it up each time.

I think I am one of those people who likes Worn Paints.
I always thought if my ship aged as I use that it would be great for Immersion! I did see worn paint screenshots from other commanders on Inana gallery and always thought they added some sort of Filters to make them look cool.

There's another reason why you want to keep your paint fully repaired every time you do Advanced Maintenance: Integrity. This is different to hull hit points (the "percentage" you see at bottom right of the main cockpit screen, next to your little ship icon). Integrity is intended to represent ship's wear and tear, and it too degrades at 1% per 100,000 Ls travelled. Low integrity is bad, especially if you plan on doing any combat with it as 0% integrity makes your ship's armour function at only 70% of capacity. There's no way to tell what your integrity percentage is until you dock, but worn paint can be a good visual indicator: worn paint = low integrity. Unless you decide to repair your integrity but not your paint the next time you dock.

I cannot remember exactly what are the option under Advanced Repair, but is it possible to repair integrity and not the paint? From your explanation it seems like they tied together and no way to restore full integrity without full repaint job.

 

[Sapyx]

I cannot remember exactly what are the option under Advanced Repair, but is it possible to repair integrity and not the paint? From your explanation it seems like they tied together and no way to restore full integrity without full repaint job.

They're separate buttons under Advanced Repair; you can do one without the other. It's just that if you repair one withou the other, you''ve got not no visual indicator of how bad your Integrity is.

 

[Christian-A-Hill]

Day #15: Mar 23. 3306
My exploration skills, ship and patience all are about to be tested as I claw my way closer to The Abyss. The name itself sends shiver down the spine and I am about to face it.

Stars has became much sparse again. Having difficulties finding fuel star. Some of the scoopable stars are in the Neutron system but well over 160,000 ls away. At least they are in the same system. Only problem is no way to know if the next neutron system has a scoopable star as EDSM is not showing info for some of the systems.
7,000 ly more to go till beagle Point! Spansh says I need to make 22 jumps till I get to next system. No way to plot as distance is exceeding the max or not enough stars within range. I need to be careful, very careful.

Thankfully found this fuel star in the current system before I start making my way through that 987 ly gap till the next neutron.

So close, yet seems so far. I just hope my existence does not get lost in the bottom of The Abyss. #1 Priority must keep finding fuel stars.

 

[iain666]

Only problem is no way to know if the next neutron system has a scoopable star as EDSM is not showing info for some of the systems.

The galaxy map will tell you with better than 90% accuracy. It won't list stars that are in a planetary position (in the line out to the right of the main stars in the system map) but all stars in the left hand column of main stars are visible in the galaxy map before you arrive.

 

[Christian-A-Hill]

The galaxy map will tell you with better than 90% accuracy. It won't list stars that are in a planetary position (in the line out to the right of the main stars in the system map) but all stars in the left hand column of main stars are visible in the galaxy map before you arrive.

Never noticed this before. That is indeed a great tip to find out available scoopable stars in a system before getting stuck.
I feel like I have learned on this trip as much as I have in 6 months of game play before the trip!

Day #17: Mar 25th, 3306
No amount of book reading really does not prepare someone what is out there is real world (ED Glaxy). I am now going through The Abyss. A region fully lives up to it's name.

Just 4,300 ly from Beagle Point. Compare how many LY I already traveled so far since I left home in Volkhabe, the remaining distance seems insignificant but it's no walk in the park. Neutron stars are very sparse here. So in between neutron I am doing lots of manual plotting from stars to stars. One thing causing slight worry at this moment, i am down to 23 jumponium from 49 when I arrived this part of the region. I do not know if that is going to be enough to get me to Ishum and back to region where I wont need jumponium any more.
To really stretch the jumponium materials I am spending lots of time to really find a system to jump without jumponium boost. But it has been difficult. Progress had been slow.

Does this mean I am the first one to find this systems which now have my name attached to it forever? Assuming I make it back in one piece to sell the data at a station.

 

[BaldEagle]

If the system map doesn't show a commander's name then yes - you can be the first on EDSM but someone else could have tagged it in game.
I just left your destination on the Perseus Reach expedition. I am in a 42 Ly jump Courier, so I needed 10 full boosts each way I think (on reflection some were not full, just level2). You have a similar range, so plan on 20 boosts and keeping your tank low to get there - some jumps are over 85Ly. Have fun

 

[Sapyx]

Does this mean I am the first one to find this systems which now have my name attached to it forever? Assuming I make it back in one piece to sell the data at a station.

EDSM's database and the in-game First Discovered Tags can be mismatched, for several reasons:

• EDSM can only see things contributed by EDSM users. So if a player isn't using EDSM, or has it switched off automatic data transfer to EDSM, then you won't see their name there in EDSM, but they might have sold the data, so you'll see a Tag in-game.
• EDSM adds the discoverer's name to the EDSM database straight away, but you don't get an in-game Tag until you sell the data. So if a player discovers the star in EDSM, but hasn't sold the data, you won't see an in-game Tag.
• If a player is using EDSM but they blow up, or reset their save, or give up playing and never come back to play the game, then you will see the system as Explored in EDSM, but no Tag will ever appear - the Tag is forever lost.

Unfortunately, if you find a system pre-explored in EDSM but not yet Tagged, there's no easy way to find out whether the player in question died, is no longer playing, or has simply been taking their time in returning to base. You might be given a clue in EDSM, which (sometimes) records when the systm was added to EDSM. If it's been several months and the EDSM-finder still hasn't sold their data to claim their Tags, then squatter's rights apply and you can steal their Tag with a clean conscience. Avoiding selling a particular star system in your mess of data is really tricky and hard to do, and no-one will blame you if you accidentally "steal" someone's Tag.

It's also entirely possible that someone has explored that system before you did - or they might even come along and explore that system after you did - and then they dash back and sell the data before you do. In which case, they will "steal" your Tag. They can't steal your EDSM-label, though. EDSM will report whoever was the first EDSM-user to find that system, but the in-game tag belongs to the first seller-of-data.

But if you're just randomly flying through a little-explored region of space, then it's highly likely that an unknown-to-EDSM system is also a never-before-visited-by-anyone system in-game.

 

[Christian-A-Hill]

It's also entirely possible that someone has explored that system before you did - or they might even come along and explore that system after you did - and then they dash back and sell the data before you do. In which case, they will "steal" your Tag. They can't steal your EDSM-label, though. EDSM will report whoever was the first EDSM-user to find that system, but the in-game tag belongs to the first seller-of-data.

But if you're just randomly flying through a little-explored region of space, then it's highly likely that an unknown-to-EDSM system is also a never-before-visited-by-anyone system in-game.

Thank you @Sapyx for the detailed explanation. I understand now how tagging really takes place. Fortunately for me, even if someone following my 'never-visited' route goes back to station and sells, it wont bothered me. Because I am just happy about the trip itself and see a Crusader at Ishum.

Day #11: Mar 28th, 3306
Few jumps after Cho Eurk QL-Y d0 system my route seemed to have improved a lot. Lots of stars to plot route without using any jumponium. As I make this log I am ~1,000 ly away from Beagle Point! In between Neutron stars I am making lots of short jumps without any jumponium.
At this rate, my next Log will be from Beagle Point!

 

[Christian-A-Hill]

Day #20: Mar 28th, 3306
As promised, this log is right here from Beagle Point! Rest of the route was fine except I had to use just one jumponium. Proof that I am here:

According to EDSM, that is me in the only Crusader:

That 5020 number of ships, is it from right when EDSM registered Beagle Point in the database?
Went to see the Zylo tourist beacon:

Cannot believe there are tourists ships all the way here.

Very excited to be here. But this is not my final destination. Next stop is Ishum's Reach. Possibly only very first Crusader about to visit the last reachable system. I tried to find info on if any Crusader ever made it here. But could not find any concrete claim. So unless any one can prove otherwise, ADRI is going to be first to visit Ishum's Reach.

I didn't want to hang out at Beagle too long. Did some quick check up on the inventory available for FSD injection and did some minor repair. Then plotted a manual route as far as I could. Found a suggested route to Ishum but that starts from ~240 ly away from Beagle Point. Thats where I will head first and follow the suggested route. Don't want to use up all the jumponium and get stuck.

 

[Christian-A-Hill]

Day #20: Mar 28th, 3306
Finally! Almost here. Just one jump away sits my final destination of this trip!

It is done! The star of Ishum's Reach. I am finally here!

It's not a huge number but I was even surprised to see this many ships visiting here. Proud to see my Crusader in the list of dedicated Exploration ships This trip was worth it.


I am not sure if Salomé's Reach and Distant Moon are the same thing. But apparently this is the furthest body from Sol and it is at Oevasy SG-Y d0 B 9 f 134,000 ls away! And here it is!

Thats a nice looking Moon! Too bad I did not bring a SRV to drive around and leave my foot print. It only got 0.04G gravity. But not going to risk it by trying to land this shieldless ship. View from the above has to suffice.


I am finding it hard to get over it, how far I am from home. Still cannot believe I am really here.

I really got a sense of how huge the Galaxy really is. There were times I thought I may not make it. I admit, there were few other ships in my list that I was going to really pick for this trip. Ships that were really made for exploration. But at the end, Crusader won the points because how little love it gets. It got me here. Survived all the countless Neutron jumps, battered with space dusts. I have no doubt it will take me home safely.

Time to head home.............

 

[Christian-A-Hill]

Day #24: Apr 1st, 3306
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After couple days of rest, plotted my course back to Colonia via Sag A*. I have to be really careful here when making my way out of this fringe. I am somewhat running low on Jumponiums. I got mining lasers, but not sure if I can mine Premium mats just from astro belts.

Immediately after jumping into a system, I saw this!

3 stars in such close proximity?? My ship cockpit was basking like Gutamaya's

Getting out of the huge parse area was actually lot funner than I thought. I could have probably enjoyed it more if i did not have the worry of low jumponium in the back of my mind. After several thousands LY I begun to see lot more stars. Meaning worse was over and I just may be done using jumponium rest of the way. Stars definitely looks more packed here:


Day #27: Apr 4th, 3306
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Cannot believe how much I traveled in last couple days. I am just about 9,000 ly away from Sag A*, the galactic core! Decided to make a pit stop to fix up few things. I can synthesize 14 more AFMU supply, that just might be enough to Neutron boost all the way to colonia? I hope I remember how to dock at station because I am swinging by Explorer's Anchorage station.