Powerplay Faction: Li Yong-Rui Exploration bonus hunter asks for suggestion

[WhoCares]

Disclaimer: I have never before troubled myself with any Powerplay, I just read up a little about it in the last days.

I expect to make landfall back in the bubble later next week, with ~3 billion worth of exploration data which I consider to triple.

I basically care little about the implications and impact my actions will have on the powers, but I want to give the real LYR supporters a place to suggest systems and actions to take to support or at least not hurt their LYR efforts. And I don't register on reddit or discord or whatever, so this forum is my only option for this kind of communication - if not in a response post then maybe as private message.

Based on what I read so far about it, I intent to do ranking in a risk-averse and fast way, meaning in solo mode shipping (bought) goods for merits from A to B in my Python or T9.

I understand that I am asking kind of early, as I will definately not make it back before this week's Thursday tick, but maybe before the one next week - I am still in exploration mode ~18kly out...
But it would already help to get some general information about the do's and don'ts, areas of interest, etc. Or for others in the same position as me but closer or already in the bubble.

And yeah, I am (somewhat) aware of 5th column issues and open communication of objectives in the forum etc...

 

[Northpin]

T9, forget about the python
Basically you need Rank 5 - that means 10000 merits, that means about 14 runs in a T9.
And it will cost you 100 millions credits to fast forward it (but you will get 50 millions back as PP salary next week after getting rank 5)

After you ferry those 10000 merits, wait for the next thursday tick to get rank 5 then go to a LYR control system and sell it
You have only one week unless you want to grind another 5000 merits to maintain your rank 5 (assuming you got your initial 10000 in the same PP week)

To ferry merits without affecting the PP, just ferry them from Lembava to Kalak - or if you want to make it count, fortify some systems that need fortification

 

[MPL3D]

Destroy 300 ships of another faction in a control system of that other faction. No costs other than the ammo, gain experience in combat. That T-9 is going to be interdicted by powerplay agents anyway.

 

[WhoCares]

Thanks to both of you!
AI has never been able to successfully interdict me in my engineered T-9. However, this was last tested >2 years ago, before I headed out to Colonia. That's why I considered to start the hauling in my Python, to dust of my evasion skills before switching to the T-9.
And with the Python I could also kill the interdicting enemy agent - would that count and earn me merits, or is that limited to specific (enemy control) systems?

With that said, doing the suggested trip, and choosing stations Lembava: Goldstein Port (218ls) - Kalak: Fisher Vision (8ls), 17.55ly => 1 direct hop, the time window for enemy agents to get behind me before reaching the station is very short, esp. in Kalak.

Killing 300 ships on the other hand, I might also draw the attention of the authorities making things harder. Also considering my experience with "normal" kill missions against some specific enemy local (pirate) factions, that it can get very tedious and take quite a long time for a fraction of the number of kills. The kill grind seems to only be an option if I have more or less a full week.

But time would become a particularly important factor should I arrive in Lembava like by tuesday evening.
How many seconds does it take to buy the next 10 cargo, or how long to fill a T-9/Cutter? I checked in this video by Exigeous, it seems ~5-6secs, that would make it >6-8mins for 750 tons, or ~85-100mins just clicking for the full 10000 tons (shipping not included!). With shipping, I might be done in about 3-4h, give or take...

P.S. For any trader out there, both above mentioned systems seem to be in boom state according to EDDB, and a T-9 can make ~1.5 million profit both ways between the two Not that this will help me when I arrive there next week, as the boom will be over

 

[Northpin]

How many seconds is it to buy the next 10 cargo, or how long does it take to fill a T-9/Cutter? I checked in this video by Exigeous, it seems ~5-6secs, that would make it >6-8mins for 750 tons, or ~85-100mins just clicking for the full 10000 tons (shipping not included!)

you'll get in rhythm with the clicks quite fast - i estimate you'd be able to get 4-5 runs per hour, that would be 3-4 hours tops.

 

[Schielman]

I would advise checking in the the LYR people on their discord.

https://discord.gg/0g95XxxKRcw7ypJZ

Most people don't check the forums, but it you're planning to haul 10,000 powerplay materials, I'm sure the LYR people would love to have your help.

 

[WhoCares]

I would advise checking in the the LYR people on their discord.

https://discord.gg/0g95XxxKRcw7ypJZ

Most people don't check the forums, but it you're planning to haul 10,000 powerplay materials, I'm sure the LYR people would love to have your help.

Well, that's the point of this thread - I want to give the LYR people a chance to make suggestions what I should do, but I don't want to join another social channel alone for that purpose. I currently don't use Discord, and I don't see this as a reason to start with it.
Looking at the weekly update for Aisling D., they seem to have an open channel via Trello to communicate fortification targets, which anyone can check without joining another service...

Spoiler: Trip status

That said, I am now just over 10.2kly from Lembava, at the last days rate I might make it by monday, maybe even sunday. Since yesterday I don't follow a well-populated galactic arm, but started crossing a less populated gap. Which means to keep an efficient routing I need to add G and maybe also K stars. And I stopped mapping distant valuables (except the 500kls for an ELW). The last 2-5kly I will most likely race, expecting more and more discovered systems. All these actions together should further accellerate this last leg of my trip.

I already checked, my Python and T-9 are both in Flech, ~82ly from Lembava - can't remote transfer them, but that trip will be short/cheap, so I will be "PP operational" fairly quickly after arrival.

 

[WhoCares]

I made it back on saturday evening, picked my Python up in Flech, travelled to Lembava, transfered the T-9 (26ly jump range fully loaded with guardian booster) and some modules as well.
Did a few runs in the Python to familiarize myself with the interfaces and procedures in the bubble again, but then switched to the T-9. By now I am halfway through the tedious process of picking up fortification cargo, a full 740 tons load 10 at a time - this filling alone takes me about 8mins.
About the target systems, I find me high base CC income systems that are not up to 100% fortification, have a L pad orbital station (no planetaries) at a reasonable cruise distance, and some valuable return trade options. That way, in a few trips I brought a boom system with base income >100CC that earned me 2 million on the return leg from 0 to fully fortified.
I got more daring and even went on a multi-hop trip through enemy space to fortify another system that had some undermining ongoing.
As to the interceptions - they try and they fail.

About the cycling, with direct hops and short SC trips I made it back at 12mins on the cargo respawn timer, so I am closer to 2-3 trips per hour. But that includes sometimes selling some Explo data to get allied with the leading faction of the station, checking the commodity market, scanning ships and/or wakes for data, etc.

 

[Northpin]

Just dont take unnecessary risks and don't die... else everything will be in vain.
You really dont want to change the meaning of explo data from exploration to exploding

 

[WhoCares]

19% - that's what was left of my T-9 hull.
On my way back from the same distant system with some cargo an ordinary pirate interdicted me while the FSD was already charging. Something similar also happened yesterday - when I was just fighting the interdiction the FSD completed charging and the interdiction evasion dragged me to the target vector and the jump aborted the interdiction attempt.
Instead of properly fighting the interdiction this morning I thought I could force the same. Well, nope, didn't work and instead the interdiction succeeded...
But the next trip was uneventful again, getting the same distant system to >100%.

~2300 merit left to be earned now - tendinitis incoming...

 

[Northpin]

19% - that's what was left of my T-9 hull.
On my way back from the same distant system with some cargo an ordinary pirate interdicted me while the FSD was already charging. Something similar also happened yesterday - when I was just fighting the interdiction the FSD completed charging and the interdiction evasion dragged me to the target vector and the jump aborted the interdiction attempt.
Instead of properly fighting the interdiction this morning I thought I could force the same. Well, nope, didn't work and instead the interdiction succeeded...
But the next trip was uneventful again, getting the same distant system to >100%.

~2300 merit left to be earned now - tendinitis incoming...

Get a SLF hangar and an expert slf crew (you will fire the crew after the hauling is done).
Launch the fighter, it may take the heat of you while you highwake

 

[WhoCares]

Get a SLF hangar and an expert slf crew (you will fire the crew after the hauling is done).
Launch the fighter, it may take the heat of you while you highwake

Thanks, but it's done without further incidents - the problem with that critical run was simply that I tried something new and did not focus on preventing the interception. Another option would have been to make the return trips empty, reducing the probability of interdictions by about a half.

Now it's waiting for thursday to sell the exploration data to turn a 3 months ~5.5 billion trip into a ~12 billion trip (sold ~2.3 billion data at ExploAnch and DSSA carriers, as well as now a few 100 million here to ally with some system factions).
Meanwhile I can maybe collect some mats/data and/or work on my empire rank to unlock the cutter...
Or I do something different, like MSFS2020 ✈🛩

As we are here on the PP section, I wonder whether it would help LYR if the supporters went out to promote the LYR bonus some more in the exploration channels.

Edit:
Follow-up question: I work on my Empire rank to unlock the ImpCutter. Being in LYR space, I also checked where I could buy this ship for a 15% LYR discount. The only LYR place selling the ImpCutter is Hiyya Station in Arjung, an expoited LYR system. Does the LYR bonus to ships and modules apply to exploited systems, or only control systems?

EditEdit: Went there myself last night, Hiyya Station sells the ImpCutter, and it sells it at a discounted price. Make sure to defend it well, for the Empire controlling faction and the LYR controlling system Apalok 9ly away!