First Time Exploring

Sithilis

Sithilis
After doing most things in ED I thought I would buy and build a passenger craft to take some passengers or at least one on a lengthy jaunt.

I've seen that many of the missions give the chauffeur an opportunity to see some amazing astrological sights.

My first passenger task is to take them to see a black hole. I've had a Beluga which I've kitted out and I enjoy flying it so thought I'd take that.

I've set a waypoint to an independent controlled system where I can repair etc. It wasn't until I completed about 100 jumps when i realised i was barely outside of any civilisation!! After checking the jump range of some other ships they make my Beluga look pathetic!

I've cured the overheating issues successfully but the FSD should be a 7a rated module instead of the one i have on there, which i thought would be adequate.

The FSD i have has been engineered to level 4. Jump range i have currently is (please don't laugh!) 11LY.

I've deactivated my small hard points, shields and anything else I don't need and its improved slightly.

It's too late to turn back. If there is an outfitting point at this station about halfway then I'll see if I can store some bits or upgrade. I was going to go to Colonia but that is totally out of the question right now!

I didn't want other noobs like me to make the same mistake but it is very much a learning curve. I'm just going to enjoy the journey and hope I can make the journey there and back in 3 weeks to get the reward!

(I like to land the Beluga each time I do a days travelling. I've sent a screenshot below)

IMG_b3477d40-7117-4df5-b482-485620ebc745.png
 

CMDR Deano The Imperial

CMDR Deano The Imperial
Sithilis said:
After doing most things in ED I thought I would buy and build a passenger craft to take some passengers or at least one on a lengthy jaunt.

I've seen that many of the missions give the chauffeur an opportunity to see some amazing astrological sights.

My first passenger task is to take them to see a black hole. I've had a Beluga which I've kitted out and I enjoy flying it so thought I'd take that.

I've set a waypoint to an independent controlled system where I can repair etc. It wasn't until I completed about 100 jumps when i realised i was barely outside of any civilisation!! After checking the jump range of some other ships they make my Beluga look pathetic!

I've cured the overheating issues successfully but the FSD should be a 7a rated module instead of the one i have on there, which i thought would be adequate.

The FSD i have has been engineered to level 4. Jump range i have currently is (please don't laugh!) 11LY.

I've deactivated my small hard points, shields and anything else I don't need and its improved slightly.

It's too late to turn back. If there is an outfitting point at this station about halfway then I'll see if I can store some bits or upgrade. I was going to go to Colonia but that is totally out of the question right now!

I didn't want other noobs like me to make the same mistake but it is very much a learning curve. I'm just going to enjoy the journey and hope I can make the journey there and back in 3 weeks to get the reward!

(I like to land the Beluga each time I do a days travelling. I've sent a screenshot below)

View attachment 174234
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Why would anyone laugh at 11ly jump range?
You yourself said that you are enjoying the journey so what's wrong with 11ly. The only problem I see here is if 11ly jump range doesn't allow you to get to your destination. Besides if you honk every system on your way and back then you'll be very rich in cartography data when you cash it in and your exploration rank will shoot up.
IMO, you are in a very unique position to enjoy what Elite actually is about.
By the way, Your choice of ship is in my opinion, awesome. I have a beluga just for exploring with a 45ly jump range (more than enough for my needs). And I enjoy every moment in it.
Oh and great pic. I also drop in on a far away moon or planet at the end of a long day exploring and wondering about.
 

Sithilis

Sithilis
Qohen Leth said:
Judging from what I read it seems like you engineered an E-grade FSD. Which is basically a compelte waste of your time and resources... Go back, buy an A-grade FSD, engineer that one and watch your jump range improve drastically.

Edit: and your heat management.
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Yeah hindsight is a wonderful thing! Initially the heat distribution was so bad I concentrated on thermal load reduction. The FSD was slightly boosted but I do believe its largely the stock item.

I'm going to complete the journey then sort it out when I get back.
 

Sithilis

Sithilis
CMD Deano The Imperial said:
Why would anyone laugh at 11ly jump range?
You yourself said that you are enjoying the journey so what's wrong with 11ly. The only problem I see here is if 11ly jump range doesn't allow you to get to your destination. Besides if you honk every system on your way and back then you'll be very rich in cartography data when you cash it in and your exploration rank will shoot up.
IMO, you are in a very unique position to enjoy what Elite actually is about.
By the way, Your choice of ship is in my opinion, awesome. I have a beluga just for exploring with a 45ly jump range (more than enough for my needs). And I enjoy every moment in it.
Oh and great pic. I also drop in on a far away moon or planet at the end of a long day exploring and wondering about.
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I'm glad you agree! I realise my mistake but I've honked every system I've been through so far and occasionally fired a few probes. Hopefully I can cash in when I get back in time for Christmas!!
 

iain666

iain666
I've never owned a Beluga, but you can make a respectable explorer out of any ship. 11ly range would make getting to Colonia tricky - not impossible, but tricky. You'd potentially end up having to follow one arm around the spiral into the core and then back out to avoid the inter-arm gaps but you'd get there.

https://edastro.com/exploration/ has a handy decent-exploration-loadout example to look at for all ship types, there're no wrong answers though (unless the question is a build to reach a relative handful of systems out on the fringes where 1-200ly jumps are actually essential).
 
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Sapyx

Sapyx
Christmas? Your passenger isn't going to be happy about your trip taking so long. The mission has an expiry date (is it just a week or two? I forget, haven't done a long-haul passenger mission in ages), and if you take one second longer than that timer to get all the way out to the tourist site and all the way back again (don't forget, the timer covers both legs of the journey!), the passenger will get extremely upset at your failure, cancel the mission and eject themselves, even if they're thousands of LYs away from the nearest starport. They may have said in the mission briefing that they were very tolerant of "delays", but that doesn't mean "delays" in the sense of "being late". That should perhaps better be expressed as "detours" - that is, stopping off at star systems other than the one they wish to visit. A long-range passenger must, by definition, be very tolerant of detours, since 99% of the stars you visit when enroute to a tourist spot 5000 LY away are going to be "detours" in the sense of "hey, that's not the star system I wanted to see!".
 

Sithilis

Sithilis
She needs to be there and back in 3 weeks and 4 days. Its do-able but if she throws herself out I'm going to the destination anyway regardless. I've come too far!

I'm nearly at Lagoon Sector. It's taken about 450 jumps so far and roughly 150 jumps to get there. However that won't be half way to where she wants to go! 😂

So far I've clocked about 20 undiscovered systems and various geological discoveries so it's not all wasted. I just hope I'm "discovering" them properly so I can cash in and get my name on some planets when I get home.
 

Rudi Raumkraut

Rudi Raumkraut
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the timer just for the first leg of the journey and you can take how long it will last for the way back once you scanned the destination beacon!?
 

Sapyx

Sapyx
Rudi Raumkraut said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the timer just for the first leg of the journey and you can take how long it will last for the way back once you scanned the destination beacon!?
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I've never lost a passenger, but I've never taken a super-long-range mission either. It's my understanding from reading posts on the forums that the mission timer covers the entire trip, there and back again. So you might have successfully gone all the way to Sag A with a passenger, ticked off the tourist beacon, and almost made it back to the launching station, but then run out of time, and they'll eject. I think they might give you 30 minutes grace to finish the mission for a reduced payout, but an extra 30 minutes is pretty useless when you're still 5000 LYs away from Sol.

The other thing to watch is being scanned. These "famous explorers" hate being scanned, by anyone for any reason. Which is OK for 99% of the trip since you never see anybody. But there are three places where you are indeed likely to be scanned: at the station just after launch, at the tourist beacon itself (which often have pirates lurking about them), and at the launching station when you finally get back again. You seriously don't want to be that guy who gets their month-long mission cancelled just because they got scanned by the friendly cops at journey's end. So remember: launch quickly, scan the beacon quickly and get out of there, and dock like you've got a cargo of illegal goods when you're done.
 

Sithilis

Sithilis
Oh yes I've been scanned twice and I have one very upset lady! I also glitched out on a landing pad so had to cancel docking and leave, which brought me a fine.

I do have to return within the 3 week period. I've calculated 1,600 jumps to the destination which I'm going to chip away at daily...

It will be over double that to get back. Luckily I haven't told her yet...
 

Sithilis

Sithilis
Anchous said:
You can probably refit a ship in the Colony. Check the availability of the necessary modules on the EDDB.
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Alas I tried but no such luck.

I'm nearly at the Eagle Nebula and there's a station there. Fingers crossed!

Hopefully I won't get scanned on the way in and it won't be a station that looks like a potato.
 

ECLIP5E

ECLIP5E
Safe travels on your journey Sithilis. if you haven’t checked out Coriolis yet, it’s a really useful tool for planning out your ships builds. By changing modules and upgrades, you can see in advance how those various options will affect the end result of what you want to do such as jump range. For example, in some cases you may see that a D rated power plant may be better than an a rated one because you might not require the full output of an a rated pp while a lower massed D plant will afford a longer jump range. Visit at https://coriolis.io/
 

Sithilis

Sithilis
ECLIP5E said:
Safe travels on your journey Sithilis. if you haven’t checked out Coriolis yet, it’s a really useful tool for planning out your ships builds. By changing modules and upgrades, you can see in advance how those various options will affect the end result of what you want to do such as jump range. For example, in some cases you may see that a D rated power plant may be better than an a rated one because you might not require the full output of an a rated pp while a lower massed D plant will afford a longer jump range. Visit at https://coriolis.io/
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That's a great help thank you!

I'll use it to mock up a few exploration vessels for when I get back.

Only 1,200 jumps until I get to the black hole! 😁 Making solid progress!
 

Rudi Raumkraut

Rudi Raumkraut
ECLIP5E said:
Safe travels on your journey Sithilis. if you haven’t checked out Coriolis yet, it’s a really useful tool for planning out your ships builds. By changing modules and upgrades, you can see in advance how those various options will affect the end result of what you want to do such as jump range. For example, in some cases you may see that a D rated power plant may be better than an a rated one because you might not require the full output of an a rated pp while a lower massed D plant will afford a longer jump range. Visit at https://coriolis.io/
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You are right with Coriolis, great tool :)

But your example unfortunately isn't ;)
Better always use an A-rated PowerPlant, cause of the heat generation (value Efficiency, the lower the better)
Still you can downgrade e. g. your 4A PowerPlant to a 3A one, to gain some jump range.

With every other module your are correct.
D rated is lightest and often still doing its job well enough compared to a heavy A rated one :)
 

Sithilis

Sithilis
So a brief update on my progress, I "only" have 500 jumps to my destination.

Never one to back down from a challenge, my passenger is barely intact and I've completed 1,100 jumps in less than a week while completely neglecting my wife and kids (about 2 hrs on average a day) 😆

I had to stop scanning every system so I just honk and carry on. I maybe fully scan once in every 10-15 jumps but I must have neatly 1,000 full scans on the final leg of this journey.

I anticipate my arrival at the black hole sometime tomorrow or next day. Then a long trip home!
 
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