Exploring.. For fun (definately not for Profit!) Trifid Nebula and back..

[_Dastardly_]

Hi.

My first major exploration experience, I had set off deciding how far I could get, with the galactic centre as my target. Things didnt quite work out but thats mostly my fault

First stop was Antares (Red Supergiant)



Then heading off over the dark area between the spiral arms to the Lagoon Nebula. Surprisingly things went much quicker in areas with less stars, mostly due to the route planner only having a few routes to choose from so you can open the galaxy map and 3 seconds later choose a route in the right general direction that's even as far as 129 ly.

My First earthlike...



Metal Rich REALLY near the sun..


Permit only systems right out in the middle of nowhere? Bug or for something in the future?



Lagoon Nebula


Trifid Nebula


Then it started to go wrong..

This happened :


(10% hull damage)

and then this happened :


I landed at 125% heat and by the time I had turned around and got out it was well above 240%

Time to head home!

Of course this system needed a mention..


Just a little over 5 days (35+ hours flying) then when I made it back (still at 39% hull damage.. after 5000 light years) it took 2.5 HOURS to submit the 500 systems exploration data for 2.5 mil reward..

The rewards are on the low side.. it really does need something 'extra' to make exploration fun and rewarding (either in credits or experience). But it was a great fun.. Literally the closest your ever going to get to exploring the galaxy

Hints for better exploring :

• Dont explore drunk or tired.. you make mistakes
• Be careful of Black holes and Neutron stars, you can end up instantly in 'too close' and hull damage.
• Binary or more systems can kill you without warning. There's not much you can do.
• Space is REALLY REALLY big. HUGE. It takes a very long time to get anywhere..
• If your in a star dense area go UP.. (or down) to get to the 'edges' of the galaxy where the stars are fewer. Routes will plot a LOT quicker!

Have fun and fly safe..

 

[AMcA]

Well, I'm in the neighborhood myself at the moment and have to say: I haven't had such problems
My route was/is: Lagoon, Trifid, Omega, and who knows what comes after that. (see below)

I keep a safe distance from black holes / neutron stars. Just get close enough to start scanning and then stop. No problems that way.
Jumped into a few systems with close stars myself, but never got caught between them. Lucky me

500 Systems and only 2.5 mil reward is not much. Seems I have to stay away from civilization a little bit longer :/
But it's definitely good to know, that there are others out there searching for the secrets of the galaxy.

Fly safe

 

[_Dastardly_]

I think one of the worst things about exploration is the fact that you cant do anything else. Your locked into exploring, to get anywhere even remotely into the galaxy you have to dedicate days or weeks into just doing the same thing every day, day after day. At least with the other professions you can break it up a bit.. do some trading, go shoot some bounties and then go do some more trading.

Also.. I think it's a shame that so few people will see the far side of the galaxy, there's all that stuff over there that would take weeks to get to, I think even in a year's time the number of people that have been to the opposite side will probably number under 100.

 

[NUMBER SIX]

Also.. I think it's a shame that so few people will see the far side of the galaxy, there's all that stuff over there that would take weeks to get to, I think even in a year's time the number of people that have been to the opposite side will probably number under 100.

But are there any stations or trading outposts on the other side of the galaxy?
Aliens maybe?

New rare items?
Places to buy better weapons and equipment?
Something to make the trip worthwhile, other than sightseeing?
I would gladly risk everything for that .

 

[snotface]

I have been to just over 200 systems. I haven't made much money, but I haven't really tried to do it as something major yet.
I have the top scanner and the detailed scanner, but in the areas I am in at the moment I am not discovering anything new.

Once you are out into deep space just 1 star system could make you 100+ k. Yes you will have lots of 800 credits and less, but if you keep at it for say 500 systems+ you could be looking at a few million easy

 

[Mikalus]

I love the sight seeing. No one forces exploring on anyone and 2.5 million isn't terrible when you're having fun anyway. The game isn't all about cash!

 

[NUMBER SIX]

I love the sight seeing. The game isn't all about cash!

I love it too, so I will embark on a looong journey as soon as my ship is prepared for that.
But if something big is discovered a long way from home systems, I am sure we will see a huge gold rush.
BTW, what is a good ship for such an expedition?

 

[_Dastardly_]

I love it too, so I will embark on a looong journey as soon as my ship is prepared for that.
But if something big is discovered a long way from home systems, I am sure we will see a huge gold rush.
BTW, what is a good ship for such an expedition?

Something different or (very very very) rare a long way away is exactly what exploration needs, unknown stations, wormholes (Interstellar style), crashed explorers ships to salvage, aliens to find... THAT would break up the monotony, though don't get me wrong I love just seeing what's out there.

Ship : Asp Explorer with all Class D mods (for lower weight), A5 FSU, Advanced Survey Scanner, Detailed Surface Scanner, Good fuel scoop, repair units and big fuel tank. I get about 34ly jump range.

 

[entim]

The best thing in exploration for me is the thrill of being out there all alone. Almost like on a real trip when you leave your home, your comfort zone. I need to be very composed and self organized. My ship has 2t fuel capacity, so I need to plan routes carefully to prevent running out of fuel at a T star. Be extra careful with fuel scooping, because injuries can't be healed for a very long time. There's nobody around to get help from. The buzz slowly increasing as arriving back.

 

[Badda Boss]

Cool stuff. I also did a trip out for fun (and got 2.1m on returning data). Went to California, then over to the nebulas at Orion and back to empire space. 1300 ly out and back. Did it in an ASP with Oculus - incredible sights close to the nebulas. Less so in between :-D

You get used to being lonely, and I was veeeeery paranoid when returning and starting to get intercepted by NPCs. But made it back in one piece with 85% hull left. YAY. Its great to have 32-33 ly jump and a 32t fuel tank.

 

[Chrisfs]

Well, I'm in the neighborhood myself at the moment and have to say: I haven't had such problems
My route was/is: Lagoon, Trifid, Omega, and who knows what comes after that. (see below)

I keep a safe distance from black holes / neutron stars. Just get close enough to start scanning and then stop. No problems that way.
Jumped into a few systems with close stars myself, but never got caught between them. Lucky me

500 Systems and only 2.5 mil reward is not much. Seems I have to stay away from civilization a little bit longer :/
But it's definitely good to know, that there are others out there searching for the secrets of the galaxy.

Fly safe

2.5 million is nothing to sneeze at. Is that with a Detail scanner? If not, then that's the first thing you want to buy if you want to continue exploring. I am playing solo, but I am finding unexplored systems within 100 ly of LHS 3447 to scan and then I can do the occasional bb mission as well.

 

[Fen Harel]

I love exploring, one of these days I'll get out that far. Great set of snapshots from your trip CMDR Dastardly!

 

[Badda Boss]

2.5 million is nothing to sneeze at. Is that with a Detail scanner? If not, then that's the first thing you want to buy if you want to continue exploring. I am playing solo, but I am finding unexplored systems within 100 ly of LHS 3447 to scan and then I can do the occasional bb mission as well.

Its a must to have the advanced detail scanner with the surface scanner extra. Anything else and you will miss out on 1) money for the same effort and 2) wont know anything about the stuff that is further out, taking even more precious time to try to scan.

There are _lots_ of additional suns, black holes, neutron stars etc that are located 200-300k away from your initial starting point. Good luck finding those with 500 or 1000 in range in the basic/intermediate versions

 

[Kayweg]

Returned sunday, 10 million cr from ~1.200 systems. The trip lasted 18days.
No, if it's only for the money, stay at home.

 

[System Lord]

I did an expedition to Pleiades with my Cobra and it was exciting and fun! The scenery inside the cloud was really beautiful, and I found my first black hole as well. The effect was amazing and I was so excited (a bit afraid too) about the damn thing. I got data from about 40 systems, and earned about 700 000 cr for the whole trip.

It sure was a long and tedious trip, but I might want to do it again, maybe even to same neighbourhood. For the next trip I think I should get the maintenance kit just to be sure. I can say that exploration is so much more fun when you set a distant and interesting goal and head out for it.

 

[Old Joe]

I'm currently ~2000 LY out from SOL in SADR/North America region, visiting the pretty nebulas there. I don't think exploring brings too few credits. I just have to think of the hectic and stress the traders or hunters have to earn their money- I'm only flying around, watch the pretty scenery and still get a good load of credits when I return...

 

[r4nger0]

I don't explore for the sights or the credits... I do it for the glory! Chicks dig astronauts.

 

[Pete]

I was out exploring last week, but I was punished for "exploiting" the Founders World mechanic (despite the exploit being publicised and brought to my attention after I had already left - I had been using the outfitters a LOT before that though to mess around with all sorts of configurations, so I can easily see how my account was flagged).

Suddenly only having 1,000 credits in my account on a ship with more than 1,000,000 rebuy insurance whilst over 1,000 Ly from home was a good incentive to turn around and get myself back to inhabited space asap...it took me a couple of days, and I turned in around 200-250 systems of data for just over 2.5 Million credits, and was suddenly feeling a lot more comfortable about my financial situation.

I've since rejigged my ship for trading, and I'm giving that a go - it's nice to mess around with other aspects of the game after spending a couple of weeks out in the dark with no other option, but I'm very glad I got out there and saw some of the rest of the universe.

I'm likely to plot another big trip sometime, but I'll probably wait a couple of weeks at least of other types of play to try and keep things fresh.

The last trip was to the Witch Head Nebula, Orion Nebula, Bernard's Loop, and the Spirograph Nebula. I'm not quite sure where I'll go next time, but I did promise myself a trip to the Eagle Nebula, so that's on the cards - I'll need to check out that location to see what else to do around there.

-- Pete.

 

[Chevy66]

I'm currently ~2000 LY out from SOL in SADR/North America region, visiting the pretty nebulas there. I don't think exploring brings too few credits. I just have to think of the hectic and stress the traders or hunters have to earn their money- I'm only flying around, watch the pretty scenery and still get a good load of credits when I return...

Same here, I don't care that I don't get as much money as a trader, I explore to see the sights, the money when I get back is a nice bonus and usually more than enough for repairs and a few upgrades, or even a new ship.

I've just been to North America nebula, I could see a small cluster of bright stars in the distance, they looked like a ringed planet in the same system, but I could see them from multiple systems. Turns out they are very bright and about 1800LY away, on my way there now

 

[Old Joe]

I've just been to North America nebula, I could see a small cluster of bright stars in the distance, they looked like a ringed planet in the same system, but I could see them from multiple systems. Turns out they are very bright and about 1800LY away, on my way there now

Lots of black holes there, it's my next target, too. Perhaps we meet each other somewhere on the way...