Entire Sector Discovery

[Clairelanolli]

Hello CMDRs, I've just thinking somewhat idly when something came to mind - discovery a full sector. That's right, the entire thing, alone. Now, since I doubt this is the first time I thought of this, let alone the be the first person in any sector, has anyone else done this kind of thing? I was planning on doing it during DW2, perhaps inbetween the area of Sol and Sag A*.

I'd love to hear about others experiences regarding this, especially near the middle. I don't know if I could do that in the galactic core.

 

[CMDR CHIGGY VONRICTOFEN]

Hello CMDRs, I've just thinking somewhat idly when something came to mind - discovery a full sector. That's right, the entire thing, alone. Now, since I doubt this is the first time I thought of this, let alone the be the first person in any sector, has anyone else done this kind of thing? I was planning on doing it during DW2, perhaps inbetween the area of Sol and Sag A*.

I'd love to hear about others experiences regarding this, especially near the middle. I don't know if I could do that in the galactic core.

I've done half as dozen "D" masscode cubes in the core..and working on (off an on) an entire "E" masscode cube of "D" cubes...all told gonna wind up being 100,000 D mass systems alone just in a 200ish LY cube...factor in all the other masscodes..you are talking millions if not billions in a galactic core sector...

 

[marx]

Hello CMDRs, I've just thinking somewhat idly when something came to mind - discovery a full sector. That's right, the entire thing, alone. Now, since I doubt this is the first time I thought of this, let alone the be the first person in any sector, has anyone else done this kind of thing?

Many have certainly tried. It depends on your definition though: what's discovering (I'd say it's surveying instead), and what's a full sector? Do you just enter each system and look at the FSS, or do you scan all the bodies?
You could shoot for subsectors like mentioned above, or you could also do a nebula sector. The first one, or one of the firsts anyway, I believe was CMDR Swift Arrow, who surveyed the entire NGC 3199 nebula sector himself: see here. That was 750 systems, and without the FSS, he had to fly to each body. As he put it, "It took 5 and a half weeks. I will never do it again like this. But I'm glad I did. "
Mind you, a nebula sector is just a small part of an entire sector. They are all circular areas where the parent sector's system names get overwritten.

On the other hand, if you pick a nebula outside the core and go survey it, I think that would be quite useful for many. Especially if you upload your data to EDSM.
Depending on nebula placement, whether it's a real or a generated one, and the stellar density in the area, you might only have to do a hundred or so systems, or if you pick one in a dense area (going ever nearer to the core), it would easily be four-five digits.

As for an entire "proper" sector... Well, what can I say. I don't think anyone could realistically do it themselves, there are usually far too many systems - we are talking about a 1280 ly cube, after all. Perhaps you could choose one that's on the extreme edge, with only a few systems accessible. But if so, then Allitnil has probably already done it

 

[Mengy]

I'd like to do something like this someday, but in a low density sector off the beaten path.


What I have done a few times is pick a starting system and then explore every system in a certain light year radius of it. You'd be surprised how many systems can lie within a relatively small radius!!! It can be a fun challenge to do though.

 

[Allitnil]

As for an entire "proper" sector... Well, what can I say. I don't think anyone could realistically do it themselves, there are usually far too many systems - we are talking about a 1280 ly cube, after all. Perhaps you could choose one that's on the extreme edge, with only a few systems accessible. But if so, then Allitnil has probably already done it

There are a few sectors at the edges of the galaxy that could quite easily be entirely explored by a single CMDR. But I don't think any of them have been fully tagged by a single CMDR - if I've done it then it was entirely by accident! (there are a very small number of "sectors" with literally a handful of systems in them)

That said, I did fully tag the NGC 6326 sector (101 systems) way back in May 2015. That was a couple of months after Swift Arrow did his much larger sector although I don't think he got first discovery on every single body as someone visited a system or two around the same time but sold the data before him. However, I do also now have the first mapped tag on every single non-stellar body in NGC 6326 so I'm pretty confident that I'm the only CMDR to have all possible tags in a single sector

 

[Redfox]

has anyone else done this kind of thing?

Yes, e.g. this expedition by a group of capable and veteran CMDRs, though a with somewhat humbler goal (but still nuts): https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/263827-Expedition-Borderlands-Venture. Just to give you a feeling of the scale of sth like this. Except if the sector is *really* out on the fringes, but then again, you likely won't be able to reach all systems, and those barely reachable will have the usual suspects' tags

Oh, and knowing what "all systems" is/are is a little challenge itself.

 

[Mordu]

The one thing stopping me from attempting to discover a whole sector, is spending however many weeks at the station just turning in all the data.
Knowing my luck, I would probably just get hung up on the station birdcage and die losing all said data.

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

Not a sector, but I was working through cataloged stars - HIP, HD, HR and 'Latin' systems. I got through 11 of 88 constellations on my first pass - I figured it would take another 4 years or so

 

[Jackie Silver]

Not a sector, but I was working through cataloged stars - HIP, HD, HR and 'Latin' systems. I got through 11 of 88 constellations on my first pass - I figured it would take another 4 years or so

That is going to take a *long* time. I've done some trawls of the HIP/HD stars that are at longer distances from Sol, but only over a few degrees and confined to those close to the plane - you've got some long voyages ahead and a hell of a traveling salesman problem!

If it would be useful, PM me and I can share (once I dig them up) the Python stuff I wrote to pull those catalogue stars which fall within certain areas of the galaxy (by real direction from the catalogues.). I have a cross-referencer somewhere too that will check off ones that are known to edsm. Anyhoo, lemme know if it would help.

@OP. Good luck. Maybe start on a mass-code D or E sub-sector first somewhere near Sol and see how you get on with it?

 

[Valije]

I did (or I am still doing) something like that.

After a long individual expedition around the galaxy I became somewhat addicted to navigating in the very sparse areas. While I was waiting for the DW2 expedition I started to visit all the systems in a stripe of the very bottom of the galaxy, starting near near the bubble and heading Sag A*. Systems in that zone are around 70 ly appart on average (IIRC) and the strip is around 1 kly wide and 500 ly deep (until there are no more systems, but on average should be this number). After around 800 visited systems I managed to move 400 ly towards the core.

Maybe if you choose one of the bottom or the top sectors you may be able to map it in full, but it will take you quite a bit of time and a ship with the biggest jump range you can get. If you try it on the core, no way.

 

[CMDR Beni Stingray]

I guess its possible but as other have stated the timeframe needed for such a project would just be crazy.

Atm im mapping all the accessible systems that are directly in the barnards loop nebula and i would guess i have around 80% so far in around 70-80 hours and thats nothing compared to a complete sector.
There is a reason we have less that 0.1% (i know its even less) of all systems discovered.

 

[Clairelanolli]

I suppose I should clarify that I mean subsectors, huh? Not entire regions, like Izanami or whatever! I mean places like Wregoe, Oevasy, Ceeckia, things like that.

 

[Orvidius]

I suppose I should clarify that I mean subsectors, huh? Not entire regions, like Izanami or whatever! I mean places like Wregoe, Oevasy, Ceeckia, things like that.

Usually "sector" means a 1280 ly cube, with a specific name (Wregoe, Oevasy, Ceeckia, etc, as you stated). "Sub-sector" would be something smaller within that.

 

[Clairelanolli]

Usually "sector" means a 1280 ly cube, with a specific name (Wregoe, Oevasy, Ceeckia, etc, as you stated). "Sub-sector" would be something smaller within that.

Oh. Well, ignore what I said then! I want to do that sort of thing. I thought it was based on star count, though, and not neccesarily size... so, maybe I'll avoid doing that in the core. That'll be a looot.

 

[Redfox]

Oh. Well, ignore what I said then! I want to do that sort of thing. I thought it was based on star count, though, and not neccesarily size... so, maybe I'll avoid doing that in the core. That'll be a looot.

The term "Sector" is unambiguous, sized and named as per Orvidius' post. The smaller boxes contained within are often referred to as "Boxel" (though a "Sector" can also be considered a "Boxel" ).

Personally, I love the following visualisation of the sectors and the systems discovered in each (stack) of them: https://cim.sotl.org.uk/elite-dangerous/

 

[CMDR CHIGGY VONRICTOFEN]

Oh. Well, ignore what I said then! I want to do that sort of thing. I thought it was based on star count, though, and not neccesarily size... so, maybe I'll avoid doing that in the core. That'll be a looot.

It looks cool as hell though!