Has the Galaxy shrunk for you?

[M00ka]

I remember when I first starting my career as a timid lone Commander, heading out of the station for his first time. I had checked GalMap and frankly it scared me, it was so big! Just having to travel over 20lys to sell any exploration data was a chore.

Then I got a little more experienced and got some better ships. Now that 20ly limit wasn't that much of a concern but I still remember the planning I put into place for my first 100ly trip, agonising over refuelling stops (didn't have a scoop then, there were enough stations around for refuelling).

Once engineering stuck it's ugly nose into the fray, things got better. Suddenly a 250ly trip wasn't so daunting, just lots of jumps and lots of honking along the way. Then that little piece of alien technology was found, the Guardian FSD Booster. I remember pouring over 'how to' guides, staring are the GalMap plot to see if I could make the nearly 1,000ly journey. Tweaking the DBX to get the longest range I could whilst still giving me some piece of mind regarding self preservation (I always fly with weapons, the galaxy is a dangerous place after all). Planning an entire day for the journey, and another for the trip back.

Now playing the Beta, even without the ultra long range jump machines so many seem to favour (my Orca does around 50lys, my DBX about 60), distance just isn't an issue anymore. Last night, I decided to drop into a nebula, initial plot gave me a range of around 1,600 ly. Flew there, took some pics, scanned some systems, even landed on a few planets to check out the biological and geographical POI. Then decided to go 'sideways' 750ly on a whim, did the same aimless scanning etc once there then headed back home, a 'short jaunt of about 1,500lys. The distances I am travelling now far exceed what I would even contemplate doing even a few months ago.

TL;DR synopsis: Are you finding that your personal concept of distance has dramatically changed over time, is what you consider a short trip now different to what it was a year ago?

 

[Sylveria]

While the "bubble" may seem small once you've spread your wings a bit... the galaxy itself in no way seems to have shrunk for me.

I was actually pondering the whole galaxy size element the other day, in terms of what's "populated" and what isn't. It seems the vast majority of the game is pretty well devoid of anything besides planetary objects- in the "deep black". (pretty much everything outside the "bubble", or 97.2% of the galaxy...)

Would be nice if we occasionally stumbled onto some sort "colonies" or established bases and stations elsewhere and that the "bubble" really didn't exist as a virtual fence line... as well as encountering other forms of life outside of just Human or Thargoid.

 

[Demascus]

The galaxy was never really that big for me when I realized that it was a lot of the same, spread over a large area. Been to one CZ, RES site, dust ball with low gravity been to them all in my experience. The sky box and color palette may change,

 

[Borko]

For me, yes. Once you've been to Sag A and back, everything feels closer. 200 jumps? Don't blink!

 

[Vasious]

Nope

Now there are 42 regions to explore that must be their own regions for a reason.....

And now with the FSS and the Probes, I have a better chance of finding something from the few Volcanics I have managed so far

 

[CMDR Zadian Lichtfrost]

…
TL;DR synopsis: Are you finding that your personal concept of distance has dramatically changed over time, is what you consider a short trip now different to what it was a year ago?

Yes and no.

No, ship jump-range didn't change my perception of distances that much.

Yes, the perception of distance changes after jumping a few thousand times while exploring the galaxy. 10-100 jumps are now "right around the corner".

 

[Bob Lighthouse]

Yes and no.
I took an extra 1Kly detour on my alt account on a whim, so it's smaller in that sense.
But I'm hoping for more density with the probes/POIs and better QoL for USS etc.
That should allow me more enjoyment of what's there.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

Nope, 15+ jumps still feels like 15+ jumps, which still feels fairly tedious. At least with the beta Exploration, there's something to do while I fuel scoop, and if I feel ambitious, I can play Planet Golf. Not sure yet how I'm going to feel doing it 31,291 times, but we'll burn that bridge when we jump off of it.

 

[Riverside]

I remember starting out in LHS3447, looking for Sol and thinking it was really far away, one day I would go there.

I remember finally being able to afford an AspX and taking it to SagA* and the Great Annihilator, a fortnight's round trip. Around about the same time CMDR 'Erimus' Kamzel had just returned from what is now called Beagle Point and I could barely imagine the journey being one I could do.

A year or two later I started out on the trip myself, in a 19ly jump range ship but with the benefit of jumponium enough jump range to theoretically reach Beagle Point. It took me 7 months, travelling up the Carina arm (anticlockwise around the outer rim), picking my way through a maze of dead ends with such a low jump range ship. I claim the dubious honour of most paranoid player ever to visit BP (I've never tried to verify this claim), I did it in a fully armed & armoured Corvette, in Open for all the difference that made

So I now have what I would describe as a very accurate idea of just how big the galaxy is

I later returned to BP in a 64ly Conda and the thing that made it feel like an easy trip was the 20,000ly route plotter in combination with a higher jump range ship. A great addition that I'm happy to have, but that did remove quite a lot of the challenge and risk of travelling such a long way. I got there in a week, spent around three weeks meandering back via many of the proc gen nebulae beyond the core.

 

[Cmdr Eratosthenes]

Nope. Beagle Point & back is still a hellluva long way, at some point on the way back I still have to fight the urge to just self-destruct & get the quick trip home.

 

[Spacecat]

Yeah. Then again, not sure if I would have ever went to Sag A without engineering.

 

[A D]

Well, when I was a boy I had to fly around in an un-engineered sidewinder that dad gave me. Forget the galaxy, the bubble was huge. Now, have a 65Ly jump engineered guardian boosted Asp Ex and the galaxy is big-ish and the bubble is tiny.

Seriously though, I think the jump ranges are about right. I can make some progress with limited play time. However, I would hate to see another increase in jump ranges and TBH probably be happy to get rid of neutron star boosts and jumponium. Just stick with an engineered FSD.

 

[Jmanis]

Nope.

 

[Micha]

Went to the Pleiades as soon as I got my Cobra MKIII. Just because. This is before jumponium, Engineers, Thargoids, or anything like that. Didn't seem so far, although took me nearly two weeks as I was exploring along the way.

Coming back after DWE, I zipped across to the Pleiades for something or other, can't remember what now, probably Meta-alloys, and it took me 20 jumps or less in my unengineered AspX.

So yeah, my first "epic" (at the time) exploration journey has been relegated to a shopping trip down the road.


I still weep at the missed opportunity FDev had of really making the galaxy feel big and unexplored for years to come. It should never have been possible to get to SagA*, let alone Beagle Point, without *significant* effort of a large part of the community working together. It's a drum I wistfully beat on these forums every now and again; ah well. ..

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

Yup, back in the day, flying my A rated Viper, travel felt slow.
Crossing the bubble was a massive chore, so I switched to a DBS, which helped for a while.

Eventually I settled in a system and didn't move around much, mostly missions and bounty hunting locally.
Then I got a Python, wooooh, I could now comfortably fit a good fuel scoop, so travel was much more manageable, event 19-23.5ly (outfitting depending).
I even took it to Sagittarius A*.

The galaxy felt huge. It took weeks to get there and back, but then the bubble felt tiny.

Then engineering came out, which shrank the bubble even more, and even made my other trips feel less of an epic journey.

And now we have Guardian FSD Boosters, and I've yet to go exploring with one, but now every ship makes the bubble feel small. Even my FDL!

Galaxy is still huge though, even with engineering+FSD booster, I still won't venture too far, incase I want to return home quickly.

 

[gooddoc]

I think it's more accessable now.

I decided after yesterday's Beta update to go to Prai Hypoo to check out the clouds (just to see how they show up in the mechanics).

I had my 55.5 LY jump 'Conda, as it was 10k+ LYs away I decided to buckyball it there, stopping only for a few systems to use the FSS.
I did the trip in around 3-4 hours.

Once I checked it out I decided not to head back to the bubble but drop down to the NS region & go to Jaques Station via NS's.

Then I'll stick around there until Beta shuts down!!

 

[Stigbob]

Crossing the bubble was an entire playing session, and 15,000 was a high bounty in the early game.

Things are much better now.

 

[dayrth]

...TL;DR synopsis: Are you finding that your personal concept of distance has dramatically changed over time, is what you consider a short trip now different to what it was a year ago?

Yes. However, I don't think it has much to do with engineering. Did a bit of exploring in the early days, just poking my toe outside the bubble. Eventually got myself an Asp X and A rated it. Then went off and did my two longest exploration trips so far. Once back in the bubble it seemed a lot smaller. This was all before engineering was a thing.

 

[Genar-Hofoen]

No.

400 billion star systems is still 400 billion star systems.

That's a lot of star systems.

It doesn't matter how far a ship can jump. A jump is a jump. You'd still need to jump 400 billion times in order to investigate every star system in the galaxy - ain't no one got time for that. Literally.

Then on top of that, there's at least 1 star in every one of those star systems - and a strong likelyhood of there being more than one Thing in them. So there's lots to find out and do.

Ergo, the answer to your OP is : a resounding no.

 

[Frank]

No.

400 billion star systems is still 400 billion star systems.

That's a lot of star systems.

It doesn't matter how far a ship can jump. A jump is a jump. You'd still need to jump 400 billion times in order to investigate every star system in the galaxy - ain't no one got time for that. Literally.

Then on top of that, there's at least 1 star in every one of those star systems - and a strong likelyhood of there being more than one Thing in them. So there's lots to find out and do.

Ergo, the answer to your OP is : a resounding no.

After all these years I'm still impressed when I zoom out of the Galactic Map to reveal the familiar swirl of the Milky Way. All those stars, so numerous they appear like sugary milk on black velvet, they are all visit-able.

It's a small galaxy but I wouldn't want to paint it.