Heading West, but there's Nothing Out There

[Devias]

I'm heading "west", ie towards the negative numbers on the galaxy map. I'm currently at -300, 0, 0 - and there's nothing populated out here. There are plenty of systems, but within 100LY, no stations and no economy and no government (not even Anarchy, just "None").

So I figure maybe I'm just in a 100LY bubble of nothingness, so I'll check around me and see where population starts. When I scroll "west" into further negative numbers, I simply see nothing out there. The map just seems to stop generating systems at about -400, 0, 0. No system names, no blue lines, nothing.

I know my "bubble" only extends 100LY around my ship, but if I go back "east", towards 0,0,0, I can see much further away than 100LY.

What am I missing? I'm obviously hesitant to continue further "west" if there's truly nothing out there or a single system with a population and a dock, but without the map drawing any systems for me, how can I tell? I know the response may be "go west and find out", but that doesn't make sense because I didn't go very far east, yet the game is gladly drawing all those systems I've never visited.

 

[-SOVEREIGN-]

You are missing nothing. Humanity spread out around the core systems and does not inhabit the whole galaxy, just a little part of it. You are not supposed to find stations everywhere.

 

[Hellhawk666]

There is a sphere of human populated systems - thousands of them - and you most likeLy started somewhere on the "western" ( or "spinward" ) side. You should see at least system names and jump routes, and also countless star systems to the west of you, but they won't have economies or starports etc.

 

[Devias]

Your explanation makes sense, but I'm only at -300, 0, 0. That's like a tiny corner of the galaxy, maybe 90 minutes worth of jumping "west". If you go to -300, 0, 0 and zoom out you'll see that you're like in .05% of the total galaxy, probably less. You're saying that continuing on, there's nothing out here except for more systems with no population? Therefore no stations anywhere but within that 300LY bubble of the core systems?

 

[talshiarr]

Very few stars visible from earth with your naked eye are beyond 300 ly. The complete abandonment of the exploration mechanics described in the original design docs is part of the problem. It SHOULD be harder to jump beyond known, inhabited space. But people were already at the galactic core within a few days of the galaxy being opened up. Take this as a huge grain of speculation, but at one point I thought I remembered reading that as people explore the galaxy and turn in data to Universal Cartographics the bubble of inhabited space would slowly expand, a new station might be built in some of those procedurally named systems if resources or earth-like planets were found, etc. How much of that "got left on the cutting room floor™" remains to be seen.

 

[Tenshi]

Humanity has not spread out that far yet in the game. As time continues and players find resources for the background simulation to use and Earth like worlds then we will see the various factions start to spread out as they lay claim to those resources. So if three players all find the same system and sell the data to one of the major faction you may see a three way war going on latter within that system as they fight for control.

At first you will see outposts or an Ocellus Startport jump into the system, then trade routes and a generated story mission and galnet news feeds about the move.

I doubt this will not happen for quite some time as there are a few systems in colonised space that are still being terraformed where stations have a high demands of nearly 90% of the commodities.

There are also some places we can not get to as the devs have sectioned them off from players for future content.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

-- Deleted --

 

[Krait_79]

I'm heading "west", ie towards the negative numbers on the galaxy map. I'm currently at -300, 0, 0 - and there's nothing populated out here. There are plenty of systems, but within 100LY, no stations and no economy and no government (not even Anarchy, just "None").

So I figure maybe I'm just in a 100LY bubble of nothingness, so I'll check around me and see where population starts. When I scroll "west" into further negative numbers, I simply see nothing out there. The map just seems to stop generating systems at about -400, 0, 0. No system names, no blue lines, nothing.

I know my "bubble" only extends 100LY around my ship, but if I go back "east", towards 0,0,0, I can see much further away than 100LY.

What am I missing? I'm obviously hesitant to continue further "west" if there's truly nothing out there or a single system with a population and a dock, but without the map drawing any systems for me, how can I tell? I know the response may be "go west and find out", but that doesn't make sense because I didn't go very far east, yet the game is gladly drawing all those systems I've never visited.

This is why we need Alien races in game. The Thargoids are coming but we need others to be discovered. Kind of pointless having all that space if there is nothing but scenery to look at!

 

[ollobrains]

the game will be evolutionary, FD are still working on expansion, currently we can reach the edge of known space ( its small ) there we get terraforming planets ( my guess is the rate at which they reach terraformed and settled will depend on human players and trade) as well as missions pushing to economic boom and maybe pop growth and economic expansion ( all of this as a group we can influence) my guess is if we can turn anarchy system into settlements of political calm that factions will begin to expand. So find a border system just on the edge of the "west" setup a base of ops, start a thread here encouraging others to join u in various activities. Support a democratic or business orientated faction. Trade to those terraforming planets boosting their economies, shoot pirates and do missions whihc push boom rather than bust. Keep the thread going and lets see if we can see or not if FD have an expansion mechanism in place, bookmark the earth like and mineral rich planets and systems nearby and keep an eye out for galnet news or expansion missions ( if they are ingame yet ......), it would seem the faction expansion influence mechankic works though no one has attempted to work on solar system - civilisation expansion

 

[WalterHWhite]

Have a look here
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=84190

It looks like players actions will spread the population outwards over time. Who and where depends on what we do in-game.

 

[ollobrains]

yeah im following and going to assist with that project, but that is within settled space into surrounding settled systems, we need a border region or system and start something from stratch, tho if we can push the dukes outwards towards the rim and see if they settle new space that could work

 

[Devias]

I am actually a bit disappointed then. Now, I always thought it was goofy story-wise to assume that in a mere 1300 years Humanity has spread to 400 billion systems, or even 10 billion systems, but I figured I could go at least 1000LY in any direction and still find outposts, or maybe a lucrative trade run.

But now from what I'm reading there's basically a 300LY bubble of inhabited space, comprising of probably a few thousand stations. Seeing as I'm at -300, 0, 0 there's probably another thousand or so empty systems in my general area, which gives me plenty to explore or mine. But there's really no reason to go any further, because all I'll be doing is getting further away from anywhere to sell my exploration data or my minerals.

It's discouraging because if you move your cursor over to -300, 0, 0 (search for Zombo and go "west" - incidentally the PA announcer at Zombo's station sounds just like the guy at zombo.com!), you'll quickly see where civilization ends... and then zoom out and realize just what a tiny tiny piece of the galactic spiral this "playable" area comprises of.

With this information in mind I'll stop my westward exploration and stick within a few jumps of the fringe outposts. Thanks for the clarification - since Beta I was under the impression that this 400 billion systems would maybe be at least .01% populated.

 

[Conestoga]

It would be cool to have an "island" population of perhaps a few dozen systems out in the middle of nowhere. Maybe some explorers in the past found a system with vast resources and either elected to stay or couldn't return for some reason. Who knows what differences they would have developed even in only a few hundred years? Of course, making the journey between Sol space and the colony zone would be difficult and fraught with danger, but lucrative for those with the guts to do it.

 

[ollobrains]

supposedly there are islands of pop in the middle of nowhere, and i found my first station in a system with just 2 suns ( it was a refinery) which is interesting and a good sign.