Effective plotting techniques in sparse areas?

[Redfox]

When trying to get to a shiny a few 100ly out where the stars are thinning out and only jump-on-fumes and/or jumponium allow you to proceed: How do you seasoned CMDRs effectively plot out there?

At times I get a little frustrated with the GalMap when it doesn't reveal how far two systems ahead are apart, or with synthesis which won't tell me how far I'll be able to jump with a boost (and current fuel levels). The latter is only a slight inconvenience (grey matter, or xls when the decimals matter), but how do you choose the path most likely to get you there? I usually end up eyeballing and brute-forcing, costing lots of jumponium, time and nerves.

 

[Archvillain]

I haven't done much of this, but like you I just spent a lot of time in gal-map, eyeballing, trying routes etc.

It would be good if we could find the distance between two stars, but I wouldn't want more changes/assistance than that - I like that there are still a few areas with real navigational challenges and no automated solution. I like that there is an element of simply having to know your boat extremely well from lots of experience to know how much extra you can wring out of her by dumping fuel, etc.

Ooh, maybe that's another feature that would help without making things too easy - being able to dump fuel. I once got stuck where I needed to shed fuel but the only other system in reach (until I shedded enough fuel) was so close that I had to jump back and fourth for hour(s?). I disabled my fuel scoop so I didn't accidentally undo 15 minutes work in two seconds while I was jumping around the stars!

 

[Qohen Leth]

Well by showing the routes, you can theoretically see all reachable stars around you. Now it's not 100% reliable, so you can also use the grid on the GalMap to estimate distances, and if needed, Pythagoras. The plotter is also just as weak in sparse areas as it used to be in dense areas, so below a given density, you just can't plot; or you may, but it will refuse to plot more than 3 or 4 jumps, when you could actually do 15. So in a word, there's no magick to it, train your eyeball...

 

[iain666]

Mk I Eyeball. And the orange hats.

 

[WR3ND]

Mk I Eyeball. And the orange hats.

Yeah, my presumably rather ineffective technique is to probe along where I can reach, looking for new branches and points of entry to where I'm trying to go. It can take a while, but feels like real exploration to me, so I get some joy from it.

Sometimes I get good results. See top link in my signature.

 

[Scoopy Doopy]

As indicated by iain666 above, you can get assistance from the little orange halos that appear above stars when you mouse hover over one of them in the galmap. These halos indicate stars you could reach from the star you are pointing at and crucially with your CURRENT jump range. So what I do is jump about a bit until I have very little fuel left and then point at nearby stars on the galmap. If any of the stars in the direction I want to go have a little halo over them then I point at that one and repeat until I get to somewhere I want to go. Although you still can´t plot to the star you finished with, you do know that you can get there with individual jumps.

Need to be careful you don't run out of fuel along the way of course and you don't arrive anywhere with more fuel than you did when you worked out your route.

 

[Redfox]

Thanks for your insights, CMDRs! Much appreciated.

Well by showing the routes, you can theoretically see all reachable stars around you.

Yes, that's what I had done in the beginning, and it worked quite well, until the stars start to thin out. Then you really start feeling the effect of the plotter using your full-tank jump-range (in my case 33.36ly) and is missing/omitting all the jumps you could take with an only partially filled tank (up to 35.99ly).

...eyeball...

Yes, and that's what got me slightly frustrated at times, especially when the distance in question can/cannot be jumped due to decimals, e.g.:

Spoiler

These halos indicate stars you could reach from the star you are pointing at and crucially with your CURRENT jump range

I had done some short experimenting with those indicators waayyy back (were they already in the beta?), but couldn't really make sense of them - mainly because I was unaware of the two facts you mentioned (highlighted). So this effectively means that I can apply a 100% jumponium boost and then check a possible route/branch one-system-at-a-time on the GalMap? And even better, I could trace from my target back towards my position, right? I'll need to verify this next time I run into such a situation, because this would be great! Thanks Scoopy for pointing out those specific aspects!

 

[iain666]

So this effectively means that I can apply a 100% jumponium boost and then check a possible route/branch one-system-at-a-time on the GalMap?

You don't even have to apply a boost, just select 'FSD Boost' as the plotting mode in the 2nd tab and the hats appear and disappear as you move the slider between the three levels of boost.

 

[Redfox]

You don't even have to apply a boost, just select 'FSD Boost' as the plotting mode in the 2nd tab and the hats appear and disappear as you move the slider between the three levels of boost.

What? When did they add th... uhm, yeah, sure, I always use that

(virtual +1, as I got no more left for you)