Explorer's Quandary, seeking advice

[Jakester13]

Definitely some great tips and food for though. +Reps!

I'm not new to exploring, merely to long distance exploring, as I've hit Pathfinder from near-inhabited-space trips in the interdiction badlands back in 1.1

And yes, while there is some wish to advance in rank and bank both, I have always wanted to see Sag A* and the other unusual and pretty things in the core region.

So I'll try some experiments with quick travel, but equally take my time and visit some tourist hot spots, too.

Had (only my second ever) incident with a sun and throttle quite early on, but most things are over 95%, only a couple of modules are in the 80% range.

But your replies have definitely given me a nice boost to my morale, so see you out there!

PS CMDR Metta - is he a good guy? Unsure if there was irony in your remark, Raiko!

 

[Raiko]

No irony at all, CMDR Metta retired to Sag A* in an Anaconda to protect arriving explorers, like Elite's own Knight Hospitaller. Send him a friend request before you get there.

 

[Ziljan]

No irony at all, CMDR Metta retired to Sag A* in an Anaconda to protect arriving explorers, like Elite's own Knight Hospitaller. Send him a friend request before you get there.

Thanks for the heads up! I'm almost there myself

 

[Raiko]

There's an interview with him at about 5m30s of this video, and some or all of the yellow Asps in the Selfies are me, so I can personally vouch for his honour.

[video=youtube;BGjjCU3phZg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGjjCU3phZg[/video]

 

[Jakester13]

Also, I just want to say, this is my first venture into the Explorer's sub-forum, and what a pleasant bunch you all are!

o7

(The Dangerous one can get a bit prickly at times )

 

[Mike W]

with a 27Ly range, he should be able to travel 1000ly in ~29 minutes.

Yup,, on seeing the faster times set on the Buckyball A* run,, i was thinking ,, wow,, that must involve some seriously intense attention to time saving in every way,, i base my slightly more leisurely time on me ,, jumping into my 34ly range Conda,, and jump, honkscoop, for 15hrs straight,, and covering around 21,000ly,, now i wasnt hanging around,, but on such a long trip in one hit,,neither was i obcessing on the time,, and on average,, with,, a few short,, away from the seat breaks,, it was taking me around 40 mins or so ,, plus the breaks for 1000ly,, but as you say,, it can be covered considerably quicker ;-)

 

[Alex Traut]

1) jump
2) start honking and scooping at the same time
3) hit the jump button as soon as the FSD cooldown is up, even if you are still in the corona
4) exit corona, aim slightly away from next target system, reduce throttle to 50%
5) check system map for high value targets
6) if it's low value system, realign to next jump immediately, otherwise, cancel jump and being scanning

I'm with others who note that following #3 is taking an unnecessary risk of heat damage--depending of course on player skill, star type, ship heat level, proximity, and power plant rating. Is it possible to do it that way? Sure--if you're not scooping, or if you're experienced and well-equipped. But this is unsafe advice for most players of the sort who would be in need of the advice in the first place.

For reference, I'm in an Asp with an A-rated power plant and 6C scoop, and I turn off nonessential modules like the AFM and Sensors--so my baseline heat level is very cool. This is my jump-honk-scoop process, with variations depending on fuel level, route, and pace:

1. Arrive in-system.
2. Immediately pull the trigger to begin scanning.
3. While doing so, throttle up to max and begin reorienting towards the next system, aiming myself across the surface of the star as closely as safely possible.
4. Just before heat drops below 60% and my scoop disengages, flip to left UI panel and start charging FSD. By the time the charge heats up the ship, I'm already supercruising away quickly enough to counteract it.
5. The moment FSD starts charging, look at the System page to see if the honk found anything worthy of investigation. You can always exit the System page and cancel the jump if you need to.
6. Throttle back to zero as soon as the countdown starts.

Now, the above is for covering space quickly with jump-honk-scoop. It does not include a Detailed Scan. If you're going to Detail Scan every star, you don't need this advice--the scan requires you to spend long enough pointed at the center of the star that advice about quick system turnover is kind of beside the point. That said, a few details:

• Bind your Discovery Scanner to a key/button that you can hold down without interfering with your ability to maneuver freely. I use a Saitek X52, so I set my ADS to the primary trigger.
• It is helpful to roll during this entire maneuver so that your dorsal surface faces the star. Most ships have far better visibility above than below, and you can safely line up the top of your HUD's curved hardpoint brackets with the yellow line and know that you will safely max out your scoop rate without hitting the star.
• If you need more scoop time to refuel but also need to pull a 180 in order to reorient towards your next jump, consider initiating your scoop and then turning your ship side-on to the sun so that you can pitch without changing "altitude". See also the upthread description of "3D" scooping.
• Alternatively, once you get yourself to max scoop rate and are oriented towards the next jump, you can also choose to throttle back long enough to maintain scoop rate until you're close to full, then go back to full to break away.
• If you hear "Fuel Scooping Complete" and you are not already on your way out with your scoop rate and heat dropping, you are spending unnecessary time inside the corona.
• Therefore, get a feel for how long it takes your scoop to fill a portion of your tank at its max rate. This will allow you to initiate your breakaway maneuver and FSD charge at the optimal time -before- the scoop disengages, shaving off seconds without comrpomising safety.
• There is plenty of time to check the System page during the FSD charge, so don't waste time doing it beforehand unless your tank is low and you need scoop time to fill it. Learn the keyboard shortcuts that get you there quickly, and you'll have all the time you need to exit and cancel the jump if you need to.
• Remember that if you don't need to cancel the jump, you don't have to rush to get back to your cockpit view--the FSD will kick you out of the System screen as soon as the countdown starts.
• Take advantage of long refuels to get in a Detailed Scan on the star. You're stuck there for long enough anyway, so you might as well.

 

[Cdr Voorheez]

Such a good thread and one which I can completely relate to. Totally see your point and thanks for sage advice from all who have contributed.
Great explorer community.

 

[Cdr Voorheez]

On the subject of heat management and sub system deactivation which ones do you guys generally disable? I'm in a DBE so heat management is not an issue. I disable:
Shields
AFMU
Cargo hatch
Power distributor

Thinking of disabling sensors. Worth the hit?

 

[Sapient6]

On the subject of heat management and sub system deactivation which ones do you guys generally disable? I'm in a DBE so heat management is not an issue. I disable:
Shields
AFMU
Cargo hatch
Power distributor

Thinking of disabling sensors. Worth the hit?

I disable AFMU, Cargo Hatch, Distributor, and Shield Boosters. I keep the shield itself powered. I wouldn't power down sensors because I wouldn't want to miss it if I ran into another CMDR out here. Heat on my Clipper stays around 25% under normal conditions, which is low enough that I can kick off FSD charging while in a corona, but high enough that once activated I had better be on my way out of the corona immediately.

If I get dropped out of super cruise and need to run colder in order to safely make a jump, that's when shields, sensors, discovery scanner and detailed surface scanner get shut down.

 

[Jakester13]

I continue on my travels, thanks to your encouragement. Put another 1500KLys between me and humanity last night.

I even survived a toasty binary - reinforced the need to check for them in the Gal map en-route.

 

[Kancro Vantas]

Definitely some great tips and food for though. +Reps!

I'm not new to exploring, merely to long distance exploring, as I've hit Pathfinder from near-inhabited-space trips in the interdiction badlands back in 1.1

And yes, while there is some wish to advance in rank and bank both, I have always wanted to see Sag A* and the other unusual and pretty things in the core region.

So I'll try some experiments with quick travel, but equally take my time and visit some tourist hot spots, too.

Duly noted. Apologies if I misinterpreted the OP! So let me try to re-read and re-address what I believe was your OP question.

My "dilemma" is that I really want to find one or more black holes and neutron stars. I guess they're basically near Sag A*?

Yes, indeed. I know I mentioned before but also concede the Fields are very vast and probably a clearer direction will help you better.

Simply put, take the SOL-SAG A* Axis. Go 10,000 ly from SOL and at that point go either left or right, 1,000 ly, and either up or down 1,000 ly more.

You will then be at the very corner of one of the 4 fields, depending what direction you took. From there, work your way slightly farther in left -if you headed left- or right -if you headed right- and do not change vertical altitude more than 100 ly up or down.

Keep going parallel to the SOL-SAG A* for 15,000 ly, farming lots of NS and BH. When reaching 25,000 ly mark from SOL, plot route to SAG A*.

Either going or coming you will pass by the Great Annihilator, which is the second more massive BH in the Galaxy -thought to be the remnants of a Galaxy core that collided with ours.

Between SAG A* and Great Annihilator there are roughly 3k ly of distance. Also they both will rack you nearly 1,000,000 cr combined when you sell the data.

As for NS, some made an estimate of 6,000 needed to reach ELITE.

Hope this helps you!

Godspeed CMDR!

 

[Jakester13]

Have had only erratic flying time these past weeks - summer things, you know - but when I have, I've continued my outward travels. I've had some great finds: my first unexplored ELW, triple WWs in one system and plenty of HMCs/Gas giants, huge (and tiny) systems, and LOTS scanned.

I am now within spitting distance (15 hops) of my very first neutron star in the CLOOKEOU area, and I'll continue my journey corewards. I'm looking forward to the next couple of nights as I discover my first neutrons, BHs and other strange stuff.

I have also learnt (from you friendly explorers) how to minimise time fuel scooping and speed up my journey; reduced heat signature by switching everything not needed off; I have been in a great journey with scoop-ables at nearly every stop for the past 2-3KLys. I guess my A3 scoop is probably a bit underpowered and is slowing me down somewhat.

I was quite shocked to see that, although I am over 10KLs from Sol, I'm STILL over 12KLys from Sag A*. So not even 1/4 of the return trip done since leaving port about 5-6 weeks ago. Eeek!

Space is BIG!

o7